[TigilyC]

Hi there,

I recently bought a small cottage, in beautiful County Tipperary, Ireland. The Cottage sits on 1.5 acres of land. The land is divided into two, with a sturdy barbed wire fence, and the cottage tucked away in one corner. I'm renovating the cottage, and would am wondering what to do with the field, and thought about a grass livery. The land is very overgrown at the moment with rushes and grasses, however, I've shown it to various horsey people who have shown interest in keeping horses there. I've had enquiries from an owner of one single horse, and from a lady with a pony and foal. There is no stable on the field, but it is very sheltered around the edges with trees, and natural hedgerows create a boundary. Once one side of the field had all the grass eaten, I could swap whichever animals to the other side.

I've checked around the area, and have been told that full livery costs around €100- €150 per week. However, I have no idea how much to charge for a grass livery, where the owner would be responsible for everything.

Any ideas what to charge?

Anything I should know?

Is this a good idea??


Advice greatly appreciated


Thanks,

Tig

[doganjo]

I think your land will get poached - depends what you intend doing with it in the future.  I was charging £15 a week up in Aberdeenshire about 8 years ago, cash in hand, and they had the use of a loose box type stable if they needed it and a dry area for feed storage.

[daddymatty82]

any toxic plants?  i pay £30 a month for a field with thistles and stingers everywhere i got a well for water so need to pump my own water and no electric iv paid for my own electric fence and iv used my own brushcutter to cut thistles ect  landlady supplies the hay and straw at £2.75 for hay and £2 for straw  but for about 7 acres of field if i wanted  and a concrete stable i get for £30 oh and a newly built telegraph pole barn  which i will be keeping my pony in the winter its  30 mtrs by 10 mtrs soon to be made bigger when i pull old barn down

[scattybiker1972]

its £10 per week by me  with shelter and stabling in winter if required.

[Frieslandfilly]

I run a diy livery yard and charge £10 per horse per week grass livery only, that includes water, any horses or ponies would need to be native in order to be out all winter but the owner would know that, also does the ground get wet? if so they would need to get on to drier ground if poss during the winter depending on how wet.

[Roxy]

Grass livery between £10-£15 per week here.  1.5 acres will not keep any more than one horse all year round. During the winter, it will get wet and muddy, and there will be no grass, so ideally, one half of your land should be eaten, while the other half is rested.  And on such a small acreage, it is vital that the horse owner poo picks to keep the grass in good order.

One other thing, most horse owners would not want their horse near a barbed wire fence - it can cause serious injury to a horse.  I know it would be costly to replace with stock netting, so maybe the horse owner could use an electric fence to keep their horse away from it.

[piggy]

My 2 horses have been at my neighbours since the first of the month on a 1 acre paddock,it was quite long when they went but i have just had to bring them back home tonight as all the grass is gone and they are starting to make tracks and poach the grass even though we have had very little rain here,from personal experence i once had a livery at ours and to be honest it wasnt worth the hassle they were a pain in the arse.If i was you i would not go down this avenue.

[Roxy]

I had a lady on our land with a coloured youngster.  She insisted he went in with my ponies, two of them elderley.  Feeding time was nightmare, as the youngster was after food.  I ended up feeding him too, to keep him away from the oldies buckets. After the youngster kicked out at feed time, breaking the owners ribs, I asked her to leave.  For £7 per week, I was not risking my life being kicked 

[TigilyC]

Very helpful replies! Thanks a mill! 

The livery route sounds tricky. Would hate to injure ponies with barbed fences, or end up with issues that would be hard to resolve.
Would love to find some way of making a few pennies from the field, to offset against doing the house up - hence the livery thought (even if it is pennies!), but this sounds quite a minefield.


The land doesn't drain well, so I'd be concerned about it getting waterlogged in winter. As far as poo picking, is this just to avoid weeds? Is it actually bad to leave the poo? Isn't it sometimes used as fertiliser?

Also, when people mention £10/£15 per week, is that per horse? What would be good to charge a pony and foal only? €30? or is that too much?

Another thought I had was to ask a pig farmer if they'd like to use the land, as I hear that pigs are really great for turning over soil, and rooting everything up. Any experience anyone?

Thanks again,

Tig

[doganjo]

I agree with Roxy that an acre and a  half isn't enough for more than 1 or 2 ponies/horses.  When I said £15 a week per horse diy they had the run of 15 acres, and they used electric tape to restrict them to an acre at a time so the ground was kept good, it was also free draining, lots of shelter near the fence, no barbed wire as I hate it with a passion - I knew a dog (Large Munsterlander) that died because of a fence breaking loose and wrapping itself round her - she screamed like I have never heard a dog scream before or since.  I really do hate barbed wire! 
Could you maybe buy a couple or three of weaners yourself if you have a friendly farmer nearby - he would be able to help with getting a croft parish number, movement licences, slaughtering.  One pig for your freezer, one sold to cover costs, one to sell for extra. 

Or maybe a few sheep to feed up and sell on.
Or buy a shed from B & Q and some sheep fencing, get some chickens(say 5 or 6 POL for about £50 - sell eggs at gate at £1.50 per half dozen.  You'll get on average 3 dozen eggs a week = £9, food would be minimal if they are free range
Do you have any spare bedrooms?  Maybe B & B or a lodger?
Just a few ideas, but I personally wouldn't go the horses route with so small an area

[TigilyC]

Thanks Dogandjo, good advice.

I do love the pigs idea, but, am very vegetarian, and would really not be able to send any animal of mine off for slaughter. I'd get far too attached to them! I'm going to look into borrowing some sheep or pigs from local farmers. I'll do something about the barbed wire alright. It was put there by the people there before. I might have the ponies on the land for a short while, as yes, I think they'll run out of grass really quickly.

Cottage has two bedrooms (two up two down house!), and at the mo is in need of serious renovation, but possibly down the line I'd rent a room or do B&B.

Chickens definitely a possibility, only thing is, do they have to be attended to morning and night? I am away quite a lot with work for days at a time. Leaving cats with extra food is one thing, but never kept chickens.

Thanks again,

Tig

 

[doganjo]

If your hens are secure and you have large feeders and drinkers they can be left for a day or two at a time.  Mine have shed they go into via popholes at night and we do not have a fox problem - mainly due to the dogs, road and railway line I think
I'm not vegetarian but I AM soft and couldn't send any of my own animals to slaughter either - happy to eat anyone else's though.
A bit late in the year maybe, but could you grow veg and fruit to sell at gate?  There are some crops that can grow through the autumn and winter

[TigilyC]

Thanks! What crops would grow at this time of year? That's an idea! I've just been offered €15 a week for pony and foal for the field, do u think that sounds ok? I was thinking €20. Would love to keep hens too, when I'm there more often. Also, any idea what could be done to make land drain better? Apparently it's the soil type rather than there being nowhere for the water to go. There's a gentle slope from top to bottom of field, back is higher, sloping down towards road. Stream runs along bottom.

Thanks!

[doganjo]

If you ask them to keep the field clean by removing droppings, and you don't offer anything else(stoarge, hay etc) then £15 for two is OK, but I'd tell them it's short term, as 2 ponies will make a mess of the ground in the winter.

You could try trenching the ground down to the stream to drain the water off, but I'm sure the ponies running around will fill them in.

[TigilyC]

Thanks. I could offer them storage in an outhouse, would that merit asking €20? Also, could ask local farmer if he'd supply hay, but maybe best not get involved in that side of things.
Thought about trenches, but apparently it's the clay-type soil that holds the water, and so trenches wouldn't work. I have no idea about this but was told that by someone who came from the County Council, doing try holes for a septic tank application.

Also, is it very bad to leave droppings? Could they all go in a corner of the field? I'm not sure that the pony owners would have anywhere to put the droppings (they live in a city), so I'd be good if I could suggest somewhere.

Thanks a mill!