Jump to content
Clur

Smallholdings - query

Recommended Posts

I've seen some people on here have smallholdings and I'm curious to know whether it's something you can ever make a living from? It's something I've wanted to do for years, but I'd want to give up my current (stressful) line of work for it, not work alongside it.

 

People I know who have them work full time as well, so I'm just curious as to how folks here approach it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went back to work 25 hrs a week four yrs ago, and found keeping my allotment , working, and looking after my kids, home,garden, car clean, doing the wages for the OH business, (and the vat) etc etc too much, and we let the allotment go. After 10 yrs of doing it organically, I couldn't face having to spray, so it went. And I miss it;

I think that you'd struggle to pull a living off less than 25 acres, and it would be backbreaking grind thenand it takes 7 yrs to have the soil qualified as organic i think, so until then you cant command organic prices.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, there are bound to be oothers out there far more in the know, or doing it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. That's what I wondered which is why we've never done anything about it. I couldn't work full time and run a place that's for sure - with two littlies too....

 

Was just curious to see if anyone had made a success of it and not had to work alongside as well. Would love a career change but as the main earner I am a bit limited. Less stress would be nice though :roll:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bron's right, if you have a mortgage then it would be difficult to make enough money from a smallholding.

 

We have 8 acres - and a hefty mortgage - and an Agricultural Tie.

 

The Ag. Tie casued us problems before we bought as it requires that agriculture has to provide the main income for us - not possible with the mortgage. Our local council took a very pragmatic approach and were happy for the Ag. Tie to provide a main income for just me. That really comes down to words on paper as we both continued working for our own Company as we were.

 

It has been stressful for Carl as he has to work almost full time and keep on top of things on the farm - I work part-time on other work and part-time on the farm.

 

Without a mortgage we could probably break-even on the farm - but feed prices are a concern as they have almost doubled in the 21 months we've been here :? You would need more than 8 acres - and they would need to be good land - to make any money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...