[UPoneacre]

Hello all,

We are Robin and Suzy, moved in June to a (very) small holding just outside Llanidloes of an acre and a quarter or so on a fairly exposed hillside; very much newbies at smallholding but learning on the job!

First salutory lesson was finding out just how much the previous owners had neglected basics like maintenance, fencing, cutting grass etc - guess what we've been doing, since? The first warning came on move day with the sight of grass in the paddock up to shoulder height, a lot of it tough old cocksfoot among it and signs that it hadn't been touched for some time. Not having anything better to hand, and in desperation to get it down, we acquired a brush cutter and cut the lot down over seven days of hard graft - at least it looked a lot better afterwards. It was only after we'd finished it that we heard from our newly met farmer neighbour that he'd been keeping a quiet eye on us to see how we were getting on - after that he kindly baled it and cleared it for us, bless him! There are some very nice people around here who've made us very welcome.

Next job is to sort out our ideas for next year - so far the shopping list extends to a tractor (fergie?) and topper, cant' think why!

From a quick look through the forums it looks as though there are a few of us around this area so if there's anyone about we'd be glad to hear from you.

Robin and Suzy

[Rosemary]

Hello and welcome from Carnoustie 

A tractor and topper is maybe a bit of an extravagence for an acre and a quarter, unless you have loads of spare dosh. We managed a smallholding of that size with a decent petrol mower and a strimmer.

As you develop the smallholding - if you are plannng to have chooks, pigs, veg garden - you'll have less grass and a tractor and topper will be even less use.

[UPoneacre]

Rosemary,

Hello; good to hear from you, and thanks for the thoughts.

We had looked long and hard at the various petrol/ride on mowers and the like but the advice we had from various machinery dealers was that most of the more 'domestic' ones wouldn't handle the fairly rough ground we have here unless we went to something more ruggedly built like the John Deere models and the cost of those was far greater than the cost of an older small tractor like the Fergie. The other aspect is that it isn't just topper usage we have to consider and motive power won't be confined to paddock/holding use but is likely to include road usage as well so a mower might not be the best answer in our case; that said we're keeping an open mind and looking at any possibilities. We did look briefly at quads, very popular with local farmers, but although they have a lot going for them the cost is a consideration again.

As for stock is concerned, now we've got our holding number sorted we'll be looking at that over the new year but fencing and building repairs need to be done first, together with other works on our water supply etc so that's a little way off yet - meanwhile grass will be growing again :-)

Robin and Suzy

[Thyme]

Welcome Robin and Suzy, I'm in process of buying just outside Machynlleth (Talywern) so will be fairly close to you   I'll be very interested to follow what you decide on for a tractor as I'll be facing a similar decision -- have been reading all I can to try to get my head around the options. 

[UPoneacre]

Hi Thyme,

Good luck with your purchase.

The tractor idea is something we've been mulling over for some time and while there's a lot going for the smaller ride on type lawn tractor/mower type the older small farm tractors seem to be much more versatile in what they can do and what they can be attached to/drive e.g post hole borers, sawbench, trailer, etc. We might well not need all of those but it'd be useful to have the facility if need arises. The other factor that appeals is that the older farm tractors are very chaep to insure, £0 road tax (if earler than 1971 manufacture), and easy to maintain yourself compared to a lot of the modern hydrostatic drive machines which need to go back to a dealer for maintenance/servicing.  Still exploring this, but will let you know when we finally decide.

Let us know how you get on with your purchase!

Robin and Suzy

[Bionic]

Hi and welcome to the forum   
We are in Carmarthenshire and have 2 and a bit acres. OH strims the land because with such a small amount we can't justify a tractor.


It will be interesting to see how you get on if you buy one

[cloddopper]

Hi You TWO,
Welcome to TAS .
 I'm retired & live near AMMANFORD in SA18

Re the tractor
 My pal has a big Suzuki 4x4 quad bike , he has 19 acres on a girt big steep hill side .. better than a tractor as it has a much lower centre of gravity . He pulls a small trailer and has his own topper. Does not cultivate for crops due to the rock a few inches below the turfs
 
He is currently  trying out compressed denatured wood chip pellets as stock bedding because of the absorbency of liquid . He  sieves out the horse cobbles and then after a couple of weeks the bedding is used for the pigs or the sheep then it gets put in the chicken run for the chooks to go thorough it.  Eventually it gets taken out the chooks pen as compostable manure .
 It is very very good , for it breaks down to useable compost very quickly once it gets weathered and sweated under a tarp .  So far it appears to be a much cheaper alternative to straw or hemp & is not so messy as sawdust and shavings( especially when in the sheep pen ) 

[Lesley Silvester]

   and welcome from Shropshire.

[Backinwellies]

  from not far away in Carmarthenshire. Good Luck and enjoy your new venture

[mowhaugh]

hello!

[UPoneacre]

Thanks for the warm welcome one and all - we'll keep you posted on progress.

Robin and Suzy

[Marches Farmer]

Hello, and welcome.  If you have a nice farmer neighbour you have a treasure beyond price!  We have several of 'em and have got away without having to invest in a tractor at all.  Between them they make our hay, spread muck and cut hedges.  Sometimes they charge for diesel for something like haymaking but mostly we pay in kind, whether lamb or pork, elderflower cordial, chutney, hatching eggs, chicks, turkey poults, pallets for emergency sheep pens, gathering stray sheep .....

[UPoneacre]

Thanks for the welcome.

Like you we have several farming neighbours, all of whom  from first meeting have offered to help and while we might take that up from time to time we're conscious that we don't want to take advantage of their generosity too often and become a nuisance - more that we've got to learn to stand on our own two feet, so to speak. Having said that we've offered to help them when and how we can so hopefully that works for everyone.

Robin and Suzy

[sabrina]

We have an old Fergie 1954 I think she is. Not a thing of great beauty but she is used to move the muck heap, big round bales of hay and straw. OH made her a sprayer for doing the weeds in the paddocks. he has rebuilt her loader and done other things like take the engine out, clean and put it back all from a video on yotube. What I will say, get the right tools for fencing. makes the job so much easier and quicker. Fences will look better and last longer.

[UPoneacre]

Hi,
and thanks for the details of your Fergie, sounds just like what we might need.

Strangely enough the previous owners left us some fencing tools, new and unused in the stable! We have already tried them out on a short length of fence beside the downhill side of the house and that was ok, but round the other side we  found that we hit solid rock at about 8-9 inches down (the house is built on a levelled area cut into the bank) bit of a problem that, so might have to resort to stone walling in parts :-). A bit of exploratory work up in the field shows we have greater depth of soil in places/rock in others so we suspect it's going to be challenging. Watch this space.

Robin and suzy