interesting land use ideas for 80 acres.

[Glass half full]

I have 80 acres of grade two heavy chalk boulder clay currently rented out on a FBT. no buildings on it but private concrete track along the whole length, its flat open land, an old airfield. apart from being used for arable, is there any alternative crops or uses for it that would be interesting and fun? would love to start a vineyard but wrong soil type. I already have on the farm livery, fishing, units, storage, poultry, permission for Glamping site, fireball business, so I'm no stranger to diversification. I just have this plain boring bit of land and keep feeling it could do something interesting but I have no ideas!

 

[teslacoils]

Black currants.

 

[betweenthelines]

Car boot sales

 

[Purli R]

Nudist camp

 

[Danllan]

I have 80 acres of grade two heavy chalk boulder clay currently rented out on a FBT. no buildings on it but private concrete track along the whole length, its flat open land, an old airfield. apart from being used for arable, is there any alternative crops or uses for it that would be interesting and fun? would love to start a vineyard but wrong soil type. I already have on the farm livery, fishing, units, storage, poultry, permission for Glamping site, fireball business, so I'm no stranger to diversification. I just have this plain boring bit of land and keep feeling it could do something interesting but I have no ideas!

What is a 'fireball business', are you an evil spymaster or what?

That aside, a fellow near us at the old place had an old USAF / RAF airfield come back to him, he makes a fortune from a big weekend market. He also hires it out to the county plod for specialist driver training and Special Branch type stuff.

 

[farmerm]

how about an airfield,

 

[C.J]

Drag strip ? ?

 

[farmerm]

Strip club, hotel and casino

 

[An Gof]

Tilapia farm

 

[An Gof]

Tilapia farm

 

[pembsarable]

Cover non concrete area in solar panels, use the runways for car boot sales.....

 

[Agrivator]

What are the current tenants doing with it?

Would it make an ideal wintering site for travelling folk? Do you have any use for dirty banknotes?

 

[Banana Bar]

You haven’t got the wrong soil for a vineyard. You can trench where you intend to plant vines and fill with the correct chalk soil, more expensive but possible. Mind you you know how profitable Tilapia can be!

 

[bovrill]

No such thing as wrong soil for vines, only wrong rootstocks for the soil.

 

[Ali_Maxxum]

Hippy festival, swingers festival, or beet and maize like the rest of the country do?

 

[Macsky]

Sow a mega multi species grazing mixture (grass legumes & forbs) and strip graze it with cattle, easy access to water trough on concrete road, buy some forward steers and sell them niche 100% forage finished. Follow cattle a few days later with a mobile hen house producing organic free range pasture produced eggs.

 

[Longlowdog]

Maize maze. Charge folk entry and sell wellies for the clay ground.
Pet pig rescue centre and hog roast company on the side???

 

[Andrew]

There is a chap near here with the same land / runway bit. He runs a classic car storage thing, and people pay to have the cars driven up and down the runway every so often. The land is covered in solar panels.

 

[Bogweevil]

Walnuts - unique plantation at Orchard Farm, near Boxted on the Suffolk/Essex border, cobnuts and filberts - Essex/Suffolk famed for nutteries in times past. Tap into that nut roast vegan market. Perhaps opportunities for countryside stewardship payments?

Your campers and glampers will enjoy being in a nut forest I expect. You could issue them with air guns to help with squirrel control - just think a fragrant fire of nut wood prunings and a freshly killed squirrel suspended over the embers, mmmm.

 

[D14]

I have 80 acres of grade two heavy chalk boulder clay currently rented out on a FBT. no buildings on it but private concrete track along the whole length, its flat open land, an old airfield. apart from being used for arable, is there any alternative crops or uses for it that would be interesting and fun? would love to start a vineyard but wrong soil type. I already have on the farm livery, fishing, units, storage, poultry, permission for Glamping site, fireball business, so I'm no stranger to diversification. I just have this plain boring bit of land and keep feeling it could do something interesting but I have no ideas!

Solar panels. You'll get 15 MW plus battery storage on that area.