To ask you how to achieve my farming dreams?

[cavecrystal]

All I’ve ever wanted was to start my own small (very small) farm. Enough to grow food to live off of, with a few bits to sell. I’m tired of my job but am currently renting, and was very disappointed to find small holdings cost about £400,000+

Any advice towards buying (obviously apart from saving money) and living on a piece of land?

What do you want to achieve? Do you need to make a living or is it a semi retirement dream?

I come from a long line of small tenant farmers, it is a very very hard life. My dad farms 400 acres of land with aound 2000 sheep. Most years he barely scrapes a living.

What do you want to achieve? Do you need to make a living or is it a semi retirement dream?

I come from a long line of small tenant farmers, it is a very very hard life. My dad farms 400 acres of land with aound 2000 sheep. Most years he barely scrapes a living.

Oops not sure why that posted twice!

@Ginmonkeyagain I definitley havé rose-tinted specs on— I spent many summers on farms various family members had abroad. I’d like to make a living, but only subsistence level. When I say I’m perfectly happy with almost nothing, I’m not exaggerating. I was thinking more of a subsistence farming scenario.

All I want is a couple of acres of land on which to plant/raise different staple crops and animals, plus a little house to live in so I can ditch the car for good. I really like physical work and I just imagine it would be so much more fulfilling than my current job!

How much do you know about smallholding? My parents were smallholders, as were their friends (mostly through the goat club) and its a very hard life as you can't make a living so you need someone earning full time pretty much to pay the feed/vet bills and then you are both working a lot to look after the animals (who mostly want to die in new and inventive ways), plant and tend the fruit/veg, look after the fencing (again, an eternal job) and do all the other things.
After he tool early retirement my dad actually had quite a good little side hustle teaching those who the local vet referred to him and had thought it would be fun to have goats/sheep/llamas or whatever without knowing the practicalities of milking properly, hoof trimming and general animal care

I would suggest that you get a job on a farm or smallholding in the area you want to live in. You'll know within a year if it's for you. If so, you'll have access to local information about what's available to rent. Start there. Farmers Weekly is your friend.

Have you considered going WWOOFing?
https://wwoof.org.uk/en/

Not a permanent solution, but a good way to dip your toes in the water.

You need more than "a couple of acres" if you plan to plant crops + have animals, even for subsistence farming. 400K is on the cheap side to be honest and with current house prices I would be surprised if you will find anything under 600K. I'm NE and that's what a house + 10 acres approx would cost.
How much do you know about livestock husbandry, land management etc?

There are some workers cooperatives in the farming sector - I don't honestly know how many but I'm aware of Coed Organic

What’s the long term plan? Do you want so set yourself up something that is sustainable when you’re 40 and when you’re 80 or do you want to do something that works now and scale it down over time?

Most of my friends grow a lot of their own veg, and many have chickens and bees. That seems sustainable along work - are you in an area where a small job alongside that works so you have time for both.

Have you got any experience with growing crops or keeping livestock?
If you have a job on a farm may suit you, often comes with a cottage to live in.

I would second getting some farm work first to see how you get on. It is tough physically.

If you want land you can always rent rather than buy.

There are a few local authority farms for rent on reasonable rates, but they are highly sought after as young people without family wealth or land struggle to get established in farming

Without wanting to ruin your dreams, it sounds like you want a large garden.

From someone who is on a small farm - 100 acres wont turn a living, unless you specialise and have many connections. Theres no way someone new to the game would make it work and if your bawking at the 400K cost, the running costs of a large property in both time and money are almost full time job, youll need many practical skills and good physical health ( age will play a big part here plus what your definition of hard work actualy is )

I’m afraid your dream is utterly unrealistic nonsense. You need a solid dose of reality.

You won't. A single bad harvest will wipe you out. And forget about raising a few animals, the vet bills will break you.

Sorry OP, I'm very good friends with a couple who are trying to live "The Good Life", and it's anything but.

They have about 10 biggish fields and a small patch of woodland, along with a few goats, a rescue dokey, chickens, geese and peacocks.

The chickens and geese have turned their once lush, green gardens into shit stained muddy bogs, it looks so awful, and the geese are really aggressive.

The donkey has cost a fortune in vet bills and hoof doctor call outs, I never knew a tiny little pebble, the size of a sunflower seed, could cripple an animal and destroy a hoof.

Their last bunch of carrots was taken out by carrot flies, whatever they are, and they lost a whole field of squash to some sort of worm or something, my friend texted me the pictures, they looked fine, but when she squeezed them they just burst with nothing inside. They refuse to use any pesticides because they want to be organic and sustainable.

If it wasn't for her parents constantly subbing them, they'd be using food banks.

To my uneducated eye, it seems that there's a limit to farming, and below a certain level you just can't survive.

@cavecrystal You clearly don’t know anything about farming or the space needed for animals! This is just dreamland. You really won’t sell enough produce to make any money at all. Small holdings are never just a few acres and few remain as lots have been sold off. Just buy a house with a garden!

Have you thought of getting an allotment for starters and seeing if you can live off that?

Some people manage it. I’d like to do that as well. It is disappointing you could find them for that before the pandemic, they’ve definitely shot up in price. I guess this is lots of people’s dream now.

Your best bet is to move to a 3rd world country after saving enough in the UK.

Definitely the dream is achievable that way.

Might not be so pleasant as you think though haha.

Hmmm. Perhaps start with an allotment and see how you get on OP?

Are you a workaholic- always having to be doing something- or do you like to take it easy when not working? The only people I know who have made any kind of success with this lifestyle are the former.

Another thing I notice is that people have an obsession with owning, but then often find they can't manage a smallholding on their own. So there are often people crying out for help/ willing to host someone, often in a caravan or similar.

Have a look at the Diggers and Dreamers website for opportunities both with helping out smallholders or possibly joining intentional communities. These usually have a lower buy in than buying a place on your own, and you get the support and economies of scale of doing it with others.

Living this lifestyle would probably make you MORE dependent on having a vehicle, not less- those rolls of roofing felt and sacks of chicken feed aren't going to transport themselves!

My retired grandparents (long since deceased) had a smallholding with an apple orchard, chickens, a couple of goats and rabbits etc plus my granddad grew a lot of fruit and veg, the surplus of which was sold or given to friends and family /neighbours in the village.

I have lovely memories of growing up and helping my grandad with the chickens and rabbits. My grandad used to wring their necks and we would eat said chickens and rabbits so it's not for the faint hearted. So it is a lovely life but I don't know if you would be able to sustain a living from it. My grandad inherited the land and he and my grandmother lived off their pensions rather than any profit from the small holding.

I would start off by looking for any community supported agriculture type groups in your area, or share farming or co-ops or something like that.

Also investigate care farms and city farms - a different approach to a similar lifestyle?

You could also look into perhaps applying for tenancies on council farms or something? Even the more conventional farm set ups are really competitive but sometimes small units or smallholdings come up, or sometimes councils are looking for new and innovative ideas.

Start to work up a really convincing business plan, looking at what grants and stuff could help you, get some training in horticulture and land management (I'd definitely steer clear of any livestock ideas until you're well established - even poultry is incredibly tricky now because of avian flu) and just get started gradually on the journey!
Even if that s just starting to manage an allotment or two (god knows it's hard enough to even secure one of those at the moment) but anything that gives you experience.

I grew up on a farm and subsidence farming will be harder and more expensive than you think. You’ll need (lots) more than a couple of acres as you need to rest soil so need to rotate growing areas.
Crops get blighted and die.
Different parts of the country will work better growing different things.
Keeping chickens (as an example) is a very expensive way to get eggs. All livestock animals seem to conspire amongst themselves to make sure the vet will have very very nice holidays at your expense.

EVERYONE I still know in the farming community has either given up and up to a big multinational or converted outhouses into holiday lets and that is the only thing keeping farming vaguely financially viable.

If you’re going to keep any animals you’ll need a lot of land and a lot of money. I hope you enjoy buying fencing when the little fuckers break it every 20 minutes…
Again you need to rest grazing so need room to rotate.
2/3 acres just won’t cut it!

Also something to consider is farming isna life not a job. We had a great childhood on a farm - freedom, space etc.. but everything is secondary to the needs of the farm - holidays, school pick ups, days out, birthdays, even Christmas day.