lavender farming

[southwestfarmer]

surely if you advitised nationaly or even internationally you could sell 100 acres worth and surley the costs cant be that high well not enough to break even on 60 k an acre

 

[Danllan]

Hmm... you are looking at a lot of different options aren't you? I know the farm in Herts, it is accessible for a lot of people within a relatively short time, plus the soil is right there. The horrible truth is that if you are going to try and make it on a small scale you will either be forced into ever more esoteric crops or... poultry, !

One thing you must never, ever do is make lavender 'brandy'; a friend of mine did this and offered me some as a nip from his flask before a hunt in about 2002, ! It was the most revolting drink I have ever had; just thinking about it now I can taste the acetone, enamel removing muck and remember the nostril stripping bouquet... eughhhh.

 

[southwestfarmer]

Hmm... you are looking at a lot of different options aren't you? I know the farm in Herts, it is accessible for a lot of people within a relatively short time, plus the soil is right there. The horrible truth is that if you are going to try and make it on a small scale you will either be forced into ever more esoteric crops or... poultry, !

One thing you must never, ever do is make lavender 'brandy'; a friend of mine did this and offered me some as a nip from his flask before a hunt in about 2002, ! It was the most revolting drink I have ever had; just thinking about it now I can taste the acetone, enamel removing muck and remember the nostril stripping bouquet... eughhhh.

yeah many different options haha no brandy noted

 

[southwestfarmer]

the plant takes 5 years to mature so after this amount of time and say a couple thousand per acre per year for seeds or maintance which I could pay as I have a job aswell you could be looking at a profit in the 10s of thousands of pounds atleast

 

[Princess Pooper]

Ahh if only life were that simple... 'if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.'

 

[Deereone]

Lavender farm near me opens up to the public. You pay £4.50 and get given scissors and an A4 bag and can cut it yourself, in the height of summer they probably have about 200+ people a day.

`They've farmed lavender in Hitchin for hundreds of years.

 

[southwestfarmer]

Ahh if only life were that simple... 'if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.'

that's what I was thinking but cant find any flaws apart for large labour costs and trying to sell the stuff

 

[Princess Pooper]

trying to sell the stuff

There might be a clue there somewhere...

 

[Northdowns Martin]

that's a very well set up farm for 57 acres and do you know the price tag on that one?

695ac guide £6.3m

 

[Princess Pooper]

I have visited Norfolk lavender and a few others over the years. As well as needing it to be the right sort of soil/aspect and the establishment phase highlighted above, one of the main features is the adding of value but the adding of value comes at a fair cost in distilling the oil. And don't forget that lavender does not flower all year round so eve if you are just cutting or getting customers to cut the flowers, it is only for a few months a year and how many visitors will you get on a wet weekday in early July?

 

[southwestfarmer]

I have visited Norfolk lavender and a few others over the years. As well as needing it to be the right sort of soil/aspect and the establishment phase highlighted above, one of the main features is the adding of value but the adding of value comes at a fair cost in distilling the oil. And don't forget that lavender does not flower all year round so eve if you are just cutting or getting customers to cut the flowers, it is only for a few months a year and how many visitors will you get on a wet weekday in early July?

right so adding value so say you could add value and it would work what sort of costs is it per acre?

 

[southwestfarmer]

There might be a clue there somewhere...

what do you mean?

 

[southwestfarmer]

695ac guide £6.3m

better get saving my pennies

 

[Princess Pooper]

right so adding value so say you could add value and it would work what sort of costs is it per acre?

Adding value is not linked to acreage and if you can't see that you are a long way off any sort of commercial reality. I suggest if you are serious about this you do some proper research, starting with the market, what you will actually be selling. and what you need to sell that and how much that will cost. And don't forget about a small thing called VAT that catches an awful lot of people out.

 

[southwestfarmer]

Adding value is not linked to acreage and if you can't see that you are a long way off any sort of commercial reality. I suggest if you are serious about this you do some proper research, starting with the market, what you will actually be selling. and what you need to sell that and how much that will cost. And don't forget about a small thing called VAT that catches an awful lot of people out.

I didn't say that adding value was linked to acreage I just asked rough costs

 

[CrevisbigX]

I wonder if someone is selling lavender plants ?
There is a farm at Heacham in Norfolk and I have seen large fields in the South of France, like all minority crops, the market is very small, so the risk of flooding is extreme.
You must also remember that lavender is seen by the public as something for. Old ladies, so with an ageing population , you may be on to a winner! Me , I think I will stick to growing. It in the garden.

Always call in at Norfolk lavender when we across that way.

 

[Oat]

I once did some work on a lavender farm near Alton, Hampshire. They seemed to do OK out of it

 

[southwestfarmer]

Always call in at Norfolk lavender when we across that way.

I once did some work on a lavender farm near Alton, Hampshire. They seemed to do OK out of it

how much did they farm of it ?

 

[Oat]

how much did they farm of it ?

Sorry don't know. They also had normal arable crops and rented out land for veg growing. You could see some of the lavender fields from the road, and they had quite a large visitor centre/shop/processing plant
http://www.thelavenderfields.co.uk/

 

[solo]

I looked into this about 10 years ago and visited Norfolk lavendar as well as a Provence lavender farm in France. The French method of lavender harvest is to cut and leave to dry on the plants in sheaves and once dry, oil is extracted, providing a pure clear oil suitable for perfumes etc which is very high value. The majority of lavender harvested in the UK is cut with a modified forager and then steamed green to release the lavender oil but this oil isn't as pure due to the green pigment so is suitable for adding as a scent to soaps and house hold products and inherently lower value in comparison. There were many reasons why i didn't go for it.
You had to grow, process and market the crop yourself, as there was no ready made market. Farming 450 acres on my own, meant additional labour and skills would be required to achieve this. Harvest would clash with combining and possibly require additional drying and storage areas. I decided it would be an interesting enterprise, but would consume a lot of management time especially at an already busy time of year. Could I really deal with thousands of public? In France the crop was grown on limestone soils, which i don't have, although it grows well enough in the garden.
The plus sides were roadside fields with south facing slopes which would provide a great advertising board for it. There is a huge potential market from customers in the Birmingham and Black Country areas nearby.
The conclusion was to keep it simple and just keep my eye on the current cropping without being distracted. In hindsight I was correct continuing with what I am doing, but the new lavender enterprise would have potentially created jobs opportunities for the children to grow into.