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?

You want a smallholding, and to give up your car?!

I know a couple who rent a council starter farm. You'll need to speak to councils to find out if they have any and the dates they might cone available.

Of course, moving on isn't easy, but if you can seal one it gets you "farming"

I recommend The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency by John Seymour. It's the self sufficiency Bible.

A worked large garden is hard work. An acre is even harder work. Keeping animals alive is hard work. I've done it.

Try renting from an estate. Lots of those around. Try contacting land agents, home farms, estate managers.

The suggestion above is good, John Seymour really was a guru to all the folks getting into self sufficiency in the sixties and seventies.
Nowadays the new version is small scale regenerative farming see Richard Perkins on YouTube. People do make a small living on 10 to 15 acres doing market gardening plus a few animals or doing pastured poultry but it is extremely hard work and difficult to do well. I suspect quite a few of those who are on YouTube make most of their money from online income generation, running courses, v selling bills and merch, etc. They are muddy influencers!

You will definitely need a car if you are farming. Preferably a big powerful diesel that can tow a livestock trailer,and for fitting sacks of feed, bedding,bales and fencing posts in.

Are you prepared to have no holidays or days out,unless you can find someone reliable,experienced and affordable to look after your animals?

Are you happy to work 7 days a week,no matter how ill you feel or how tired you are?
We have a 200 acre family farm,and out of the 7 family members working on it,only one person is paid to do so. The others are in their 70's and 80's and have pensions,or are in their 50's and have another job or even two to survive. And this is a farm with no mortgage or rent.

I've just had to stop typing and run outside,because the lambs have escaped. This morning,I had a horse hopping lame,a farrier due to see her at 9am whilst I had an urgent hospital appointment 20 minutes earlier in a nearby town. I had to call in a favour to get someone to be there for the farrier, otherwise I'd have had to cancel one or the other.

Animals are unpredictable, expensive and can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing,and they like to injure themselves on weekends and bank holidays when the vets call out fees will be out of hours and ££££. That's if you can find a farm vet,as a lot of practices won't come out to farm animals any more.

Land does not look after itself,you will be forever fencing,hedging,putting new gates on after your old ones were stolen,rolling,harrowing,reseeding, weed killing and ensuring that your land does not become poached,because if it does,DEFRA will come along and fine you for it.

Getting some training at an agricultural college and or working for someone else is your best bet. Then you will have set working hours and time off,without the continual worry. Our local cattle market often has ads for farm workers wanted,so jobs are out there.

Having worked in an affiliated industry the only smallholders who are truly happy and stress free are the ones who made a whole pile of money doing something else first, ideally something that continues to provide revenue and then became a small holder.
Ideal things to make your money in apps or some kind of clever technology. The happiest one I knew invented a little thing called video conferencing.

My dad buys pieces of land for hobby farming. You pay by the acre for agricultural land and it's fairly cheap however if you want to live on the land that's a different story as it immediately has planning potential which let's be honest... is a lot of people's dream! Makes the land cost a lot more.

You could try and get an old barn converted but again will cost ££. Or build a new one and put in for conversion in a few years.

I've no idea about putting a static caravan on land x

Also in terms of the actual farming part. It appears to cost a hell of a lot to set up. Animals, feed, shelter, vet bills, tractor depending on the size of the land. It's a lot of hard work. I do agree it's a nice life if you enjoy it though x

It's also worth thinking about the non-farming expenses of the set up.

Just off the top of my head - storage, canning or jarring for preserves. Cooking ingredients such as vinegar, salt, sugar.

I wouldn't give up on the idea! I'd just focus on the fruit and veg side before anything else - and you don't necessarily need a huge amount of space for that. Much easier to start small and build up than to retract from a bigger undertaking.

@Musicparent23 as somebody who has lived in as an estate manager for nearly all of my twenties, it is not an easy lifestyle 😂

Having worked in an affiliated industry the only smallholders who are truly happy and stress free are the ones who made a whole pile of money doing something else first, ideally something that continues to provide revenue and then became a small holder.

Unfortunately, I think there is something in this op. I am newly retired and looking for a couple of acres to play with more than anything. This would be seperate to the house which I may well down-size from in years to come when dc fly the nest etc. I like the idea of having a piece of land that is mine and that I can go to. I also hope to share it with a family member and invite friends. I think if I was trying to make money from it, I would find it extremely stressful.

I have a keen interest in bee-keeping so it would be very hobbist. I am planning to steer clear of keeping donkies etc. because of vets bills/maintenance. I like the idea of a few goats but I've not looked into this yet (they will require shelter etc) and I will have to keep in mind money as whilst comfortable, I am not in the money is no object bracket. I like the idea of growing things (I already grow stuff in the garden) so not sure how to extend this entirely. I like the idea of owning a vintage tractor!

I think I'm going to pop along to a community agriculture group to see how they work the land etc. in the first instance.

I do understand where you are coming from op and how you've reached this point. I have always worked in an office environment and now enjoy being out of doors more than anything. I do some conservation work which I find enjoyable on many levels but the garden doesn't feel quite enough. I hope you find something that works for you.

https://www.farmerwantsawife.co.uk/ ! A bit cynical but this could well be the quickest way to make your dreams come true (as long as they include a single farmer).

As others have said, farming/ running a smallholding can be a very expensive undertaking. Unless you're loaded and can afford to keep a large fund for emergencies it can get pretty stressful.

Second the advice about checking out https://wwoof.org.uk/en/ for ideas and inspiration, and trying to visit some of those places, to gain first-hand experience of the realities of small-scale agriculture (and pick the brains of your hosts). If you strike it lucky you might meet someone prepared to rent/sell you some of their land.

Similarly https://www.workaway.info/ also features people who have set up land-based projects who are desperate for free help. (They've discovered that the only way they can make their project work is to invite strangers to come and stay with them and do some of the work - how would you feel about doing this?)

I am newly retired and looking for a couple of acres to play with more than anything. This would be seperate to the house which I may well down-size from in years to come when dc fly the nest etc.

My ideal set up would be a house, about an acre of land, plus a small annexe property on the far side of the acre. Rent out the annexe as a holiday let until I couldn't be bothered to look after the house anymore, then swap.

Plus the annexe would sub the costs of the land etc.

I work full time and am a single parent. I have always had the same dream but realistically know it’s not achievable (unless I marry a farmer)
last year I took the plunge and rented a 5 acre plot and set about learning as much as I could about sheep. A few months later I started my flock, in the last year I have done everything from lambing, vaccinating, shearing, fencing… I could go on. I will never make money from my sheep, even though they are pedigree and I can sell them , the input costs are far too high. but it allows me to experience a different way of life which I can do alongside working full time .

Yes - that look fab - I could never go into farming but I spent a lot of my child hood on cattle and sheep farms helping out and I would love to do it again - I'm slightly obsessed with sheep!

I think you should absolutely try and follow your dreams! Possibly renting some land is a good start? We have a beef farm and I wanted to suggest you'd need sheds for over the winter, and also storage for feed too. If you were to do your own silage and barley, you'd possibly find it difficult to get contractors out to do your silage or barley/oats as they'll prioritise the bigger farms first. Buying machinery to do that yourself is a huge cost, and of course needs the maintenance too. Nothing is impossible though! Id also look at places North or more remote, as you'll get more for your money there. Good luck!

There is a reason that pretty much everyone who is a subsistence farmer in Asia/ Africa is trying to stop being a subsistence farmer. Because it sucks.