Hi there from a bit south of you.
How much land do you need before you make any money? - you won't make any money anyway, but how much you need to, say, feed your family with your own produce depends to a large extent on the quality of the land you buy. There is some good land around you but also some really acid boggy stuff, which is inevitably the most likely to come up for sale. What you can buy will obviously depend on your budget, but buy the best you can and leave a fair wack to get set up. Make sure you see your chosen piece of land in foul weather as well as summer sunshine, have a look at the plants growing - rush/rashes will show the land is wet and acid, for example. Have a dig around in the soil, have a look at any animals there and their state of health, look at surrounding farms and smallholdings and see what they are doing. Don't allow the excitement and romance to blind you to reality.
I fully understand that you don't want to work in IT any more, but is there some way you could use your IT skills to work part time from home, preferably for yourself? That would help to reduce or at least delay the imperative to make some money from the smallholding and should be flexible enough to fit in. When working on the land you adapt to doing what the weather allows. You can't say that on Mon-Wed you will work indoors then for the rest of the week you will work outside, because those are bound to be the days it pours. So if it's a good day you get on with outdoor tasks, and if it's a bad day you try to do as many indoor, or at least under cover jobs, once you've done the animals and any daily outdoor jobs. Also, everything can change in a moment if an animal is ill or gives birth, gets through the fence or is attacked by local dogs.
The question of whether you should have previous experience is often discussed on TAS so have a look back through the archives. Many folk have previously worked a vegetable garden and are confident in that, which provides a starting point to build from. My advice would be to take it easy initially and don't rush out to buy all sorts of livestock just because you think you have the space for it. Give yourself time to learn about each species. Laying hens are a good starting point as they are relatively easy and very popular with children who can help with their care. Once you see how much time and effort they take to care for (not all that much once you're set up) then you could start adding in animals such as sheep for meat and fleece, or pigs for meat. I would suggest that trying to breed for breeding stock to sell is best postponed for several years until you are more experienced, although it is an eventual possibility. Take a year or two to learn about each of your animals and to see where they fit into your smallholding and your capabilities.
When we bought this place 18 or 19 years ago, my OH had no farming experience, although I grew up on a farm, but we had both worked our allotments and grown fruit in our garden for years. This gave us the confidence to take the plunge and initially we intended only to grow crops and keep hens. It didn't take long before the sheep arrived and now they have just about taken over the enterprise. We have kept pigs too which we dearly loved, but we decided that for us what we had with the veg, hens and sheep was plenty to keep us busy.
My final bit of advice is: yes, it would be lovely but smallholding can be hard work, and full of crises and disappointments, heartbreak even, so don't expect it to be all roses and sunshine. Your chosen life is a wonderful one but you need to go into it with your eyes wide open.
Good luck
Topic: Potential New Scottish Smallholder (Read 8327 times)
