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Author Topic: General advise on getting started please  (Read 2660 times)

109matt

  • Joined Dec 2016
General advise on getting started please
« on: June 07, 2017, 07:50:45 am »
Morning all

Sorry if this post is in the wrong place, but I’m looking for some general advise on getting started on our small holding,  I should point out that I have zero experience ! we fell in love with the house and the land was a bonus but the more I read this amazing forum and visit shows etc the more I want to do ? 

Back in September we moved to a lovely spot in the Staffordshire moorlands with 7 acers, since then I have been trying to sort out drainage issues, we had very wet fields, fencing issues, we had none… and water supplies to the fields,

All that is now sorted and I have been topping the grass every couple of weeks to keep the weeds down and build the quality of the grass up, ( it had not been touched in 4 years+)

We have filled in all the paper work and I’m just waiting for a CPH number to arrive,

Our initial thoughts were to have some sheep to keep the grass down and in a small way make some money on meat and or wool etc

BUT……Just to add to the chaos we are foster careers as well with 3 kids in long term placement that have not had the best of starts in life and a daughter of our own and they are all under 10, so we would like to be able to give them some experience with animals and perhaps extend this to the wider foster careers community, with this in mind I started thinking of a mix of animals such as a couple sheep, cows, alpaca etc kept more as pets than as an income (we have 12 rescue chickens at the moment),  and this is where I need you guys to assist  ;D am I mad ? I realise that I have a lot to learn and need to start small and move up in the years to come, currently we have no outbuildings at all so I will need to work on that field shelters are no problem for me to build, subject to planning or making them moveable etc.

So sorry for the long post but any of you fantastic people have any ideas ?

Thanks

Matt

bj_cardiff

  • Joined Feb 2017
  • Carmarthenshire
Re: General advise on getting started please
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2017, 07:58:45 am »
Hi Matt, congrats on getting your smallholding!

Its a funny time of year to start building up stock as the grass is growing so fast and you really shouldn't rush into buying stock. Its a job to keep up with growing grass and topping or cutting it seems such a waste! Do any of your neighbours keep sheep? I wonder if you thought about offering them the field to graze off the grass, think about it as a useful contact too, they might be able to advise you on sheep matters and even sell you some.

I'd always advise against cattle, the regulations here in wales are complex and not all cattle are easy to handle, their big beasts too so I'd leave that to the more experienced smallholders.

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: General advise on getting started please
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2017, 09:23:27 am »
Hiya, I'm going to page [member=5725]bloomer[/member] on this one, since his situation is similar.

I'm going to disagree with BJ though, and say don't rent out your land. We did that, and when we then bought sheep of our own, we ended up with a persistent worm problem.

Instead, I'd suggest you get a vet on board *before*  you buy any livestock. They will then be able to advise you on how to keep your currently worm free pasture that way long term. IMHO, not having worms present will be more of an advantage than you would get from renting grazing.
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

bloomer

  • Joined Aug 2010
  • leslie, fife
  • i have chickens, sheep and opinions!!!
Re: General advise on getting started please
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2017, 09:51:51 am »
I can help Re The fostering thing,


Unless you know any of the kids have issues with animals just go for it, you'll have to do a bit more paperwork with your fostering social worker but the kids get a lot of benefits from the animals, our animals ar on land away from the house but all our foster placements have loved them and our biologicals are usually happy to help as well (my biologicals are teenagers so getting them to do anything is hard)


With 7 acres I'd have a small menagerie of whatever animals I felt I could manage around the kids, sheep and goats, hens and maybe a few geese would be my choices but that's because I know I could manage them around my childcare commitments. (I'm a full time carer with a total of 7 kids in the house)


Good luck whatever you choose to do with the land.


laurelrus

  • Joined Apr 2014
  • Quainton,Buckinghamshire
  • Hobby farmer
Re: General advise on getting started please
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2017, 10:17:52 am »
Hi,
What you're planning sounds wonderful.
We have a menagerie of three Ouessant sheep, two pygmy goats, two donkeys, two Shetland ponies and lots of chickens including super-friendly Silkies and Polands, all of which are pets for us and with the intention of doing 'therapy' type visits. We had our first visitors on Sunday, a little boy who is autistic came with his parents, he really loved feeding and petting all the animals and it was wonderful to hear from his parents how happy the visit made him.
It's taken us three years to build up to this point and we both have (non-farmy) jobs, hubby full-time and me part-time - we're a hobby farm not a smallholding. We also have teenagers  ;D
We're also starting to do some visits where we charge in the hope of that covering the costs of the animals and the therapy visits which we don't charge for.
If you want any more information feel free to ask and I hope you're plans go smoothly because it will be a wonderful lifestyle for your daughter and foster children and you!
2 pygmy goats, 3 Ouessant sheep, 19 chickens, 2 donkeys, 2 Shetland ponies and 2 dogs

Lesley Silvester

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Telford
Re: General advise on getting started please
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2017, 11:45:00 pm »
I think having a range of animals would be great for the children, especially the ones who have had a bad start in life. Children can often relate to animals and tell them things that they won't tell adults. I used to have people to goat sit when I lived in Somerset whose younger child had Aspergers and didn't relate well to people at all. His mum told me that when they were in our house, the boy would stand on the back step and bleat to the goat and she would bleat back. He was so happy doing this.


Obviously I would recommend goats, but I may be ever so slightly biased. If you go for a calmer breed such as Saanens, they do make lovely gentle pets as well as producing milk if you want them to. Good for children to learn where food comes from.  Sheep are lovely to.  And you can have the fleeces to do crafts with , such as spinning and felting.


Are you able to grow any vegetables? Again, great for children to have their own plots to grow what they want.

109matt

  • Joined Dec 2016
Re: General advise on getting started please
« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2017, 03:39:20 pm »
Thanks, everyone!

the wife and i have been mulling it all over ! shes loving the idea of goats!  so they are deffo going on the list,

my todo list has had the vet idea added as well so will be tracking that down asap!
everyone around here is cattle farming it seems out lovely people next door have cows so I think cattle might be out for now for us as we can pop over there :)

fantastic to see that we are not the only mad foster carers that are doing this sort of thing :)

Thanks again everyone for your advise, i will update you all with progress :)

pharnorth

  • Joined Nov 2013
  • Cambridgeshire
Re: General advise on getting started please
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2017, 08:05:33 pm »
The very best of luck with your venture.

 

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