How do we shape-up our smallholding?

[farmerswifey]

I wasn't sure where to put this but here seems as good as anywhere :)

We live on a 30 odd acre small holding in Wales currently breeding rare breed sheep. So far this year we have made £4.82 from the wool marketing board (with a further £40 or so pound still owing) We're going to making £2000 or so from the sale of some sheep and approximately £6000 from a holiday cottage we rent out.

All in all, my husband and I make about £8000 between us (+child benefit). That has to clothe, feed and pay all of the bills for us both, our 1 year old daughter, 6 dogs and a cat. It a bit of a stretch (massive understatement)

We don't want to work away from the small holding if we can help it (obviously we will if it comes to it) but we could really use some ideas on how we could up our income.

However lame the suggestions sound, it would be great to hear them. We've got outdoor space, a couple of free barns and we are willing to put in lots of hard work, we're just rubbish at ideas.

Can you get a business loan to convert the barn and rent it out as a holiday property?

How about Bunk Barns? here

weddings? office space for other small businesses?

Can you team up with a local crafts person to offer courses in the barns? If it's out of holiday-let season, you could do residential courses.

Selling firewood for log burning stoves.

Turkey's for Xmas (next Xmas now)

Gosh - that sounds really tough.
Can you afford to up your breeding program? Presumably you need a few barns for the sheep if the weather is bad as it would cripple you if they weresmothered in the snow.
Who do you sell your rare sheep to? Are they sold for food? Can you sell them directly to consumers as organic/free range sheep less the cost of butchering them?
We were asked by friends recently if we were interested in sharing the cost of a pig. You pay a % up front and the remainder when the pig has grown and been butchered into the cuts of your choice. Didn't work for us as we don't have a large freezer but it was fantastic value.
Welsh lamb is sold at a premium in this country as far as I know.

What did you do before the smallholding?
6 dogs - is that necessary? I'm not suggesting you rehome them (or worse) but that's a lot of animals if they are not working animals.
Rare breed chickens?
What is the occupancy of the holidaycottage like? Typical guests ? Can you offer a more luxurious experience like food baskets/home-cooked meals on arrival/laundry/babysitting services etc etc. All the stuff that will use faciliities that you have in place already and will be cash in hand.

Carding, spinning and weaving workshops?
Making home made soap (lanolin) and selling it?
Sheep's milk cheese?
A 'buy a lamb' scheme where people pay you to raise, slaughter and butcher a whole sheep for their freezer?
Shepherding courses?
'Open days' for photographers wanting to take pics of a working sheep farm/working dogs?

The vast majority of your income comes from your holiday cottage so convert the other barns at a low cost as possible - market it as a rustic bothy? Sell nights in it on EBay?

Get hookups for gas/electricity and go the Featherdown route with glamping ? Get Winnebagos, gypsy caravans, old caravans and go rustic - you've loads of room to do this

On another note make sure you're claiming the benefits you are entitled to like working tax credit/child tax credit

Fitness breaks?
A boot camp kind of thing with some hill walking and more basic outdoor activities?

A high ropes centre?

Foraging/living off the land courses?

A friend in similar circumstances runs felt making workshops, sells half lambs and pigs for the freezer (uses free advertising and smallholdery forums)
They are currently converting a barn into a bunk house with a basic kitchen for hikers and mountain bikers - they are already booked up next year from spring to September.
They are considering doing some dry stone walling and hedge laying courses, so they can run workshops on those things.
They also part train sheepdogs and sell them at 18 months or so - they are very good at it, and make quite a bit of money doing it.

Paintball?
Zombie apocalypse experience?

Yurts/ featherdown farm things

A basic campsite or as other have suggesting glamping.

Yurts

And alpacas to loan out as picnic carriers

Can you register as a film/TV location?

www.fowlescombe.co.uk/Craft/Felt%20Animal%20Making%20Workshop.shtml

Wedding venue?

Offer a barn, self decoration or work with local companies to provide it all. I am after somewhere like this and they are charging 2k a day hire.

it could tie in with the camping as this is popular for weddings at the moment.

Could you sell the wool as home insulation and make more money?

Can you rent out any of the land areas for grazing etc ?! Or start and 'adopt a sheep' with their own online blog or just a few snaps and a letter bi monthly to the 'parents ' maybe ?! Might go down well as a good gift for children at the holiday lets ?!
Am loving the film set idea ! And the Zombies !!!

Convert your outbuildings into boarding kennels/cattery.

First thing would be to see if you can get more for your wool - sell it raw to spinners for instance. Anythings going to be an improvement on 4.18!

Then promote camping as its low cost to set up, esp if you go for eco and do compost loos. Hire out chickens to them like Featherdown, and sell the campers eggs, milk, rare breed lamb burgers etc. Maybe advertise with folk groups, mountain biking, HE groups or others that look for camping and an indoor space for gatherings.

Are you good enough with animal husbandry to run 'smallholding skills' courses to teach people who want to keep sheep/chickens/goats or whatever how to look after them? My dad used to spend a lot of time going and teaching townies who'd moved to the country, got a goat and then realised they couldn't trim feet or milk properly.

Obviously it depends on how accessible (or not) you are.

Camping for sure in the summer.

If you can get the capital to convert a barn into holiday accommodation, that would be good too but again summers and holidays are the peak times and cottages unless they are well located rely on those weeks.

So all year round income;

Can you get the wool spun and knitted into hats/wristwarmers scarves that you can sell somewhere like Etsy?

What about a wind turbine, which could enable you to sell power back?

Meat box scheme?

Caravan storage?