Im moving to Orkney, 1st time small holder - Gimme that knowledge

[Dynamite_Matt]

So time definitely moves differently up here, I can't believe 6 months has gone, I apologise for not replying sooner some great comments and I have over 200 pages of "today at work" to catch up on.
We feel settled in & welcomed, last night was a pint while we wait for our takeaway to take to the beach, they even have thatchers on tap!
Its been manic trying to get as much set up as we can in the first year and getting used to all the logistics, through summer we need to book ferry 2 weeks in advance to get the truck and trailer on combining that with when goods arrive for us is a job in itself but isalnd haulage is available just trying to minimise extra costs. We've only been off island 3 times, 2 supply runs and a lambing course.
Poly tunnel is up and growing, in the end it came down to cost and speed, £7.5k minimum for polycrub and we did the tunnel for about £1k and its wider and fitted the existing base and I have enough to do another 20ft if needed or wanted, admittedly we got the frame 2nd hand so saved a bit, Time will tell but it's very well sheltered all round with 6-8ft trees/bushes surrounding with wind netting as well, it has been through 50mph and didn't flinch.

Materials are on order we will start with the holiday let imminently, but ordered enough sheets to do everywhere, they are coming from doon sooth but pleasently surprised with material prices up here, everything else will be supplied locally.
Latched onto our neighbouring farmer who has rented our fields for the last few years so he is using them this year, we will take over next year, he thought it would be a good idea to have some of his caddies for training this year so have been learning plenty namely how they are wooley barstewards and they will just die! Started with 4 gained another 2 as "reward" for spotting a ewe with mastitis, down to 5 now, little barsteward waited till he'd had £30-40 worth of milk then ate himself to death, all weaned now enjoying grass and a bit of creep. Jeff is booked in to teach us what to do with them when they are grown (it involves a gun and some knives and a chest freezer) might keep the couple of ewes but the farmer is likely to thin out his flock this year so we said we'd take some of his and do our own lambing next year, thinking of starting with 20 or so.

These things appeared out of an incubator yesturday

The real work starts here, barn conversion starts now along with trying to sort a new barn or nissen huts hopefully with the aid of a grant.
Fun at the moment tractor shopping! Currently between a Ford 6610, Ford 5530 or JD 1640, 2650 all 4wd with loader to be fair only had prices and more details on the Fords but have to arrange a trip to go view them, luckily a neighbour is an ex agri engineer so I have someone who knows what they are talking about, my farming mentor has all green tractors so im aware I need to tread carefully here. Found a back actor on the island im viewing next week, was going for a 3cx or something but funds are limited so need to combine equipment where possible.
Its light most of the time now so time to crack on and make the most of it, no star gazing through summer.
Oh and for those who said no trees on the island, look at this im claiming it as the biggest tree on the island till im corrected.

I'll leave you for now with a front and rear shot.

 

[Scots_Knight]

Great to see your making progress, it a bit strange when you first move somewhere completely new, I'd reckon Orkney folks would be a great help, I think island communities are rather good provided your good at listening rather than trying to tell them what to do, but you seem to have listening mastered

Having moved to Aberdeenshire myself in my twenties I understand what your expericeinng but must say I view i Aberdeenshire as the centre of the universe and I couldn't live a nicer place (People & land ) in Scotland or UK

Looking forward to more post and pictures from you

 

[jamesy]

Saw your post on Facebook looking for tractor & back actor and wondered if it was you. The JD 2650 would be a good bet if in decent nick.

 

[Dynamite_Matt]

Saw your post on Facebook looking for tractor & back actor and wondered if it was you. The JD 2650 would be a good bet if in decent nick.

Yup it was me good response actually, back actor on the island as well. Im secretly hoping for a JD its what the neighbour has so should get me some brownie points, the missus is not fussed other than I have to go view them with someone in the know and get what im told is best. Pain in the ass with ferries at the moment though and my engineer neighbour aint a fan of the peedie plane.

 

[Old McDonald]

I cannot speak for Sanday, but my wife and I decided to retire to Orkney when we sold in Portugal just over a year ago. We had intended to move to the Azores for a little while before coming back to die, but houses tend to be on the market for a long time there and we were persuaded to Orkney by our son’s Best Man (an Orcadian who had moved back home), arriving here 53 weeks ago.

It took 5 weeks after first viewing (3 days after we landed, but previously shortlisted via the internet) for our Solicitor, an old fashioned Caithness lady, to complete our purchase. Our son was selling in England at the same time and it took him nearly 6 months. My sister sold in England in October and had completion in April.

Whilst waiting for completion, mainly in the Kirkwall Hotel where they serve excellent meals, we did a bit of touring around Mainland. Extremely impressed with the quality of cattle – especially the bulls of various breeds. We have seen quite a few at very close quarters next to the roadsides. There are some very good AA about. We buy our beef from the Dounby Butcher, an AA breeder. A wee bit more expensive than Tesco, Lidl and the Co-op, but worth it.

Just to put a few folks right e.g. @teslacoils. Orkney is not cold, but it is windy. I went right through last winter in long trousers and a short sleeved shirt, whether in the garden or in town. Night time lows were warmer than Portugal. We had a total of 10 frosts – 7 at minus 1º, 2 at minus 2º and 1 at minus 3º. I did put on a waterproof jacket on two occasions when I was night fishing and there were showers about. It snowed one day when the snow lay for about half an hour. They did have more in 2021.

There are masses of trees on Mainland. No block plantations of conifers. I believe the Orcadians have more sense than to do that, but there are a lot of very big trees in places one would expect to see them as features or a bit of shelter for a house or livestock.

I am retired – as Max Boyce would say “the man is 78” so have no hands on farming knowledge, but can still look over a fence. My impression is that there is a lot of contract work with very modern machinery and folks know what they are doing. All in all an impressive agricultural area. We have not been off the island and do not expect to ever need to except perhaps for a family wedding, bereavement etc.

@Dynamite_Matt My wife and I have spent our married life (50 years) wandering the world whilst farming on large and small acreages in several countries. Nobody can give you advice about a place unless they have farmed there. After a couple of moves I decided it is best to not change anything about the land for at least a year. Certainly attend to anything necessary about the house, buildings, fences and roads and tracks, but learn about the land and the local weather before deciding whether to change anything. Wherever we have been the rural folks have been kind and helpful. You will find the same so long as you do as already advised by other posters and listen rather than talk. You do not have to act on all advice, just thank those offering it. They are not always right, but often are. Trouble is you do not know until later.

 

[dawnandterry]

Good Morning folks,

Long-time lurker, one of those that only posts when they want something! So here I am to try to benefit from the years of knowledge available on these boards, ideas i've not thought of, focus the mind and maybe make some contacts, i figured im going to be using these boards for advice and have been, it only polite I introduce myself.

So in brief me & my partner have been slogging away in the southwest working fulltime jobs and renovating houses on the side always with the aim of ending up at a small holding before 40, well we have made it! just im 39. I grew up on farms and have fair farming knowledge but no real practical expearience (plant expearience, diggers mainly on our sites) my family was always into building so alongside my full-time job at merchants we have always built. My partner's work is not related to building or farming but she is the best labourer I've ever worked with from tiling, carpentry, paving, shifting blocks, driving dumpers, etc. With the exception of electrics, gas & plastering we are capable of most tasks and am always willing to learn.

Covid initially caused us grief mainly due to it making it not profitable for us to renovate anymore and our initial target area for a holding was Wales (in between my family in the south west and hers in Yorkshire) and we've all seen what prices have done there in the last two years, but the silver lining was it forced us to look elsewhere and pushed a "now or never" attitude we fell in love with an island in Orkney and have purchased just over 20 acres surrounding a 3 bed house with a nice selection of stone barns and sheds the land is mostly grass with a reedy/marshy strip but appears productive seeing pictures through the year with cattle, sheep and hay/silage making.
This all happened very quickly in the space of a month it went from booking a viewing trip up to a closing date being set before we could view and after a few video calls our offer was selected and im ecstatic to say it was selected not just with money in mind, We made it clear we are coming to work and want to reinstate the holding so believe we beat some retirees and holiday folk. We've been up once, plan another trip or two before the move.

So now we are in the "sh!t its real stage", We have to sell our bungalow down here (pay back family) finish up our jobs, small extension for mother, organise and go in January (best of the weather) with a pickup, livestock trailer & dog
We will be mortgage free have a couple of years living expenses put to one side which should leave us with 50-100k to make a start with. Our initial plans being to create a cabin/holiday let primarily for family & friends (the house will not be renovated for a while so we want somewhere nice for those that make the effort to see us to stay in but can also provide a little income definitely don't want to many tourists though, reinstate the veg gardens with a couple poly tunnels and just take it easy and integrate for the 1st year, The lands currently rented out (unofficially I believe) but that suits us and expect we'd slowly take the land back field by field when we have a use and until then he can use them hopefully with my help. When we start thinking animals we were initially thinking pigs and dairy goats, pigs might be out need to look into the abattoir abit more and goats well they seem high maintainance to me and what will we do with the males? When we were up there everybody was just saying beef to us which im keen on after some tuition from a local, Orkney cattle look to be tanks compared to our soft southern cattle! We do need to generate income but may well do some work on the island to integrate as much as anything, we aren't greedy we'll only need basic income to survive a d intend to keep it below tax thresholds.

We are realists we know this will be our biggest project to date and our initial main aim is to integrate so we are not going to arrive and start this and that, just ease into it see the lay of the land. Alot will depend on how our bungalow sells down here fingers crossed its good then im allowed to think of a excavator if I'm really lucky a tractor, mower, etc. but I have plenty of other things to think about, what are haulage costs? do I drive a trailer up with our stuff? can my timber suppliers drop up there for me? Should the small holding be registered as a business? Pickups just gone bang need a new one, so so much to do.

I know there's at least a couple of regular posters from Orkney didn't want to take liberties and tag them in.

I would appreciate your comments.

Hello Matt! Just read your post and weirdly and amazingly, as we have never looked at this forum before, we find you have bought West Thrave, which we owned from 2004 until 2011. Ian and Irene at Mill Brae will remember us! We loved the place and I can assure you that it wasn't in the condition that you found it in when you bought it. We moved away and bought a smallholding near Huntly in Aberdeenshire simply because we felt we were missing trees and hills etc. However, we're sure you will find Sanday a wonderful place to realize your dreams. Strange thing is that we are contemplating a move BACK to Orkney and that's why I spotted your post - we were just trying to remind ourselves of some of the reasons we left in the forst place!!
Anyway, good luck with your life there. We always think of West Thrave with great affection and some of our beloved pets are laid to rest in the little garden with the trees next to the area that we used as the poultry paddock.
Kind regards,
Dawn and Terry

 

[Pilatus]

@Dynamite_Matt ,hope you both well, and surviving ok, all the very best.

 

[Wolds Beef]

On Sanday there was a Lincoln Red Breeder but he and his Partner I believe had a car accident on the Island and were killed. I do not know if the herd is being carried on.
WB

 

[jamesy]

It’s been a lovely few days up here this week

 

[Ruston3w]

Please keep posting even when you are famous on the net, I haven't the guts to chuck it in and move but will look forward to hearing about those who have. Very best of luck.
Richard.

 

[Dynamite_Matt]

So I can confirm we are still alive and surviving and dare I say it maybe thriving a little bit.
I apologize for not keeping up with my posts, distractions everywhere! This is my 3rd night of attempting to make this post.
What an amazing time we've been having, we really do feel part of the community.

So much has happened I really dont know where to start but seeing as we are just finishing our first lambing we'll start with sheep.
Our neighbouring farmer/mentor/friend Ian called me round to learn how to drench and bolus, we'd already been talking about purchasing some sheep from him so after they'd all been dosed round they came again and a mixed bag of older ewes (4 crop mostly) were picked out. Bit of a battle on numbers, I had strict instructions "no more than 20" I wanted as many as I could fit in a shed & Ian seemed keen to lose a few more, we met in the middle at 22 which worked out come scanning time.

As I say a mixed bag but the thinking was with older ewes at least they know what to do even if we dont!
A blue texel ram came to stay for 6 weeks and marked them all, unfortunatly cant seem to find a picture of him but the chap below came to make sure the job was done and he got no action.

I spent alot of time just hanging around them, didn't take long for them to get used to us and they already knew what a bucket was luckily, so it was no bother leading them back to Ians for scanning the results were 5 singles, 11 twins, 3 triplets & 2 empty & 1 managed to bolt through and not get scanned, bloody suffolks I have decided they are cursed but i'll get to them later. Shortly after that the 2 empties were collected by island haulage and were our first sheep to mart. The sheep had bed and breakfast at the mart for the sale next day, one didn't even make enough to cover the haulage so lesson learned there.

The next 4-5 months spent anxiously watching and waiting, grass ran out so Ian was round every 10 days or so with a silage bale and we had plenty of snow,

Got some nice new fencing done to, courtesy of the RSPB had to let them dig some "scrapes" which I would call ponds but to be fair they are all in areas we cannot use and I'd hope it may dry out some other areas. Just a solid mass of iris in the dug areas, my bet its just gonna come back.

Theres a drainage ditch in there somewhere!

Lambing has gone very well, I think we've been very lucky and spared the potential horrors. Having not done it before I was starting to get very nervous, luckily we were 2 weeks behind Ian and he'd call me round when he had something that needed a hand. It was just a relief to have someone watching for the first few, patience of a saint and knew when I needed a bit of guidance, it put me much more at ease waiting on mine all though very impatient, sheep watching took over my life.

Im going to post this before I lose it again and will continue in the near future, much more to go on about such as, my discovery of whiskey, lambing, tractor stuff.
Were just coming to the end of lambing, waiting on one last ewe rest are out in the field some 3 weeks old now, currently 33 live lambs.

I'll leave you with little and large, a 2 day old quad and a 12hr old upside down big single