12 Neglected Acres - Horse Grazing ?

[Adamo]

My father died and has left 12Ac of land which was supposedly "managed" by a local farmer

Now it has 10m wide hedges and a thick thatch etc

I've seen that horsey types are renting £1,200/year/Ac. Presumably with a stable, decent fencing etc

I've stuck an ad up to see what interest there is and I'm being offered £1500 for all 12Ac a year

Is that really all it's worth ? Land costs £25k an acre around here so it doesn't make sense to me

Long term it will go for housing but thats probably 25yrs away

Is there any other uses I should look at, I don't want the hassle of dividing it all up to 12 different people etc

If its only worth so little, I'd rather build a Moto X track on it

 

[kiwi pom]

Build a moto x or mountain bike course on it. Far more productive than letting someone else having it for a dobbin.

 

[ollie989898]

Get it topped down and tidied up. Then get the local firewood crew in with chainsaws to tidy it up and collect what firewood they can. Burn the brash in a heap.

I wouldn't rent it out for £1500 if it was mine. I'd want more money than that purely because A horsey folk and B hassle factor.

The value of land when sold has little relevance to the value of it being available for rent. If you have stabling and decent fencing you can rent it out for £25/horse per week easily but 12 acres probably won't support many horses for very long.

 

[kiwi pom]

Get it topped down and tidied up. Then get the local firewood crew in with chainsaws to tidy it up and collect what firewood they can. Burn the brash in a heap.

I wouldn't rent it out for £1500 if it was mine. I'd want more money than that purely because A horsey folk and B hassle factor.

The value of land when sold has little relevance to the value of it being available for rent. If you have stabling and decent fencing you can rent it out for £25/horse per week easily but 12 acres probably won't support many horses for very long.

If I was lucky enough to inherit 12 acres the last thing I’d do with it is let someone else’s horses on it, might as well sell it.

 

[Adamo]

Essentially I'm just looking after it until its sold for housing which will benefit my kids / grandkids

No chance of a commercial track but if its only worth £1500ish its not worth the hassle renting it

 

[Longlowdog]

Damned right it's not.
Horsey folk coming to you would have lost their place somewhere else. Why?
My wife had only good friends share our facilities and that was a good way to say goodbye to long friendships.
'I'm going on holiday, you won't mind mucking out and looking after Dobbin for a fortnight would you?'
' I only borrowed your hay/ suppliments/wormer, I meant to replace it'
'I was thinking of buying one of those saddles/bridles/ girths/bits so I just tried it out, I'd no idea you were going to ride today'
'It's my screaming, intrusive, ill mannered kids birthday this weekend, you'll let me pay rent next week yeah?
'Oh he's wind sucking/cribbing your stables and every fence post...he never did that at the last 5 places I've been'
and a hundred other ways to wind you up.
There's nothing like a shed beside horses for attracting the lowlifes. Then your horsey folk expect you to insure their kit.
Stuff that, unless you act like a real hard ass from the beginning they are tw4ts after the first month.

 

[Highland Mule]

If its only worth so little, I'd rather build a Moto X track on it

Good luck with getting planning permission for that. Presumably it’s zoned/ designated as agricultural land at the moment so anything different will need approval.

Is that really all it's worth ? Land costs £25k an acre around here so it doesn't make sense to me

I pay far less for far more.

 

[Goweresque]

In its current state, yes, what you've been offered is probably all its worth. To get more you will have to spend money on it. Get the hedges cut back, re-fence it, spray it for weeds. All of which will not be cheap if you have to get contractors to do all the work as you have no farming equipment.

Fenced, watered, with reasonable grass, and split into 2-3 acre plots you could probably pull in £100/month per plot to horse owners, just for grazing, maybe more if you're in the Home Counties. So maybe £6-7k/yr, if its the sort of ground that can take animals all winter. But you'd have to spend at least that getting it in order. Just fencing the perimeter and making six 2 acre plots is going to be cost that much, especially if you have to buy special horse friendly netting, and creosoted timber, if you want the fences to last more than 5 years. My guess would be that to get it into a state that could earn decent money would cost the best part of £10k. And of course you'd have to deal with half a dozen bonkers horse women, and get the rent out of them each month.

Suddenly £1500/yr for doing nothing might be sounding better.

 

[Longlowdog]

It's not a motocross track, it's a path to allow high velocity sheep inspections, with friends making sure you didn't miss anything....so long as there's a bottle fed runt lamb in a corner somewhere it is still a grazed field. Isn't it?

 

[Coo man]

I rent 10 acres for 120 an acre per year so 1200 quid .

 

[serf]

DONT let it for horse or what it looks like now will be paradise in comparison........

Graze it down with livestock and perhaps reseed after a break crop and just let someone have it on an summer grazing license.

 

[Flatland guy]

If the long term plan is houses, possibly better to have no income of it and just top once a year or have a motocross track on it, however just be careful with rules for motocross track if you let it out etc or just for self, possibly goes against the agricultural use at the moment in the eyes of the planning department.

 

[AndrewM]

are you in england? was it big enough to claim bps on it ? 5ha (12.35acres) there are sfi options coming later this year that might pay better than the rent you have been offered., im not sure if you will be eliagble. for example leaving grass to go to seed for birds they are proposing to pay £192/acre plus you might be able to get £130 year for not managing your hedges, plus that would also give access to hedge laying grants. schemes lock u in for 3 years, so u would have to plan around development aspirations

 

[br jones]

Get it tidied up ,hedges cut ,get it looking tidy .rent it to a sheep man to keep it grazed, clean and tidy ,

 

[Doing it for the kids]

If your goal is planning then spend the money and tidy it up.

Having a Jungle will be so full of ‘special’ wildlife when you have the surveys done it will fail.

You will need a sinking fund.

I’d get a planning consultant on board now and get some Advice

 

[essexpete]

Much as I hate to say, 6 horses @ £20/wk would be 6k pa. Divide into 4/6 paddocks, money a month ahead always. Might not be practical in winter if wet old land.

 

[betweenthelines]

Tidy it up up a bit and charge dog walkers to use it. As the money comes in you can tidy it a bit more (cut the hedges back)

 

[Highland Mule]

Tidy it up up a bit and charge dog walkers to use it. As the money comes in you can tidy it a bit more (cut the hedges back)

I really would be very careful about advising any change of use if the OP fancies getting planning for development on it later. Wouldn’t want a pittance now to preclude a better payout later.

 

[Old Boar]

You know what I am going to suggest...

Brush cut a yard wide fence round the field, put up electric fence, stuff pigs in there.
In about 3 months you will have a cleared, ploughed, furtilised field.

And a whole load of pork to sell...

 

[Adamo]

Good point about not letting it become a "wildlife haven"

I'll have a look into the Grants but I think it's just under

No way am I buying any animals, had a few sheep in the past and they just constantly try to commit suicide

Thanks all