Maximise the income from my small holding

Rmk

Member
I have recently bought a small holding. I have grazed a few cattle on it too keep the grass down. However I feel I can do a bit better than a few hundred quid profit.
I had thought to get 12 sows and harvest the piglets as weaners. (Putting the husbandry element of the piglets and the current market pressures) would this be a viable opportunity to pursue? Or would multi sucking calves on cows for 3 or 4 months?
I welcome your sensible suggestions?
Thanks all
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
I have recently bought a small holding. I have grazed a few cattle on it too keep the grass down. However I feel I can do a bit better than a few hundred quid profit.
I had thought to get 12 sows and harvest the piglets as weaners. (Putting the husbandry element of the piglets and the current market pressures) would this be a viable opportunity to pursue? Or would multi sucking calves on cows for 3 or 4 months?
I welcome your sensible suggestions?
Thanks all
If you really have made a few hundred quid profit I am genuinely impressed.
 

Rmk

Member
What is profit though?
Who puts in their labour costs at £10 hr?
On the other had if you buy something for a £5 and sell for a tenner that fantastic surly?
Profit to me is having extra in my bank account, I work away during the week. So if I can make what I get working away or close too. That is what I am aiming for. So my labour to an extent is a trade off from working 60hrs and being out til Thursday evening. So if I have to spend 20hrs a week doing this then I'd consider it a success
 

Still Farming

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South Wales UK
Profit to me is having extra in my bank account, I work away during the week. So if I can make what I get working away or close too. That is what I am aiming for. So my labour to an extent is a trade off from working 60hrs and being out til Thursday evening. So if I have to spend 20hrs a week doing this then I'd consider it a success
Hobby farmer then.
HMRC will clobber you ,like they try and clobber bona fida genuine full time farmers that make genuine losses.
Your doing the money off farm ,so don't let the farm penalise you further under this banner.
All the best and join the club as we are all looking constantly to maximize income.
 

pgk

Member
Hobby farmer then.
HMRC will clobber you ,like they try and clobber bona fida genuine full time farmers that make genuine losses.
Your doing the money off farm ,so don't let the farm penalise you further under this banner.
All the best and join the club as we are all looking constantly to maximize income.
Rules on non commercial farming losses are very generous, 5 years of losses can be set off no questions asked, loss is calculated before capital allowances. If running a pedigree breeding enterprise 10 years of losses can be set off against non farming income no questions asked.
 

Still Farming

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South Wales UK
Rules on non commercial farming losses are very generous, 5 years of losses can be set off no questions asked, loss is calculated before capital allowances. If running a pedigree breeding enterprise 10 years of losses can be set off against non farming income no questions asked.
Until hmrc investigate.!
 

Rmk

Member
Hobby farmer then.
HMRC will clobber you ,like they try and clobber bona fida genuine full time farmers that make genuine losses.
Your doing the money off farm ,so don't let the farm penalise you further under this banner.
All the best and join the club as we are all looking constantly to maximize income.
Yeah I've a Ltd company for that job!! Own nothing. Thanks for your input.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Dairy heifer grazing? How big is your smallholding?

You need good pasture management to get the best out of it, but it's literally about as easy as it gets.
It's also about as non-extractive as it gets, because you aren't producing much for what you earn, and the lack of capital investment means profitability is hard NOT to achieve

we charge a flat $2 (NZ) per head per day, as that's the going winter calf rate, leading into the summer yearling rate.
$2/day isn't much but at 4.5/ha it adds up over $3250/ha - £700/ac gross

12 month agreement - monthly payments -
-farmer supplies animal health products, bulls, liquid minerals, pays all cartage
-we manage pasture, the cattle, and their mating prep (we're ex dairy farmers so it's nice to still have that) and we have it written in that any heifers not incalf at PD go home
 

Davey

Member
Location
Derbyshire
You can't have livestock and work away all week, unless you've got somebody capable to look at them and deal with any problems. Livestock must be looked at daily.

I was going to say the same, especially pigs!

As far as the pigs go, rough numbers if you do a rare breed, butchered and sold direct to the local community you will see roughly £1-200 per pig return but that gives you nothing for your time.

Time wise they will need feeding/checking twice daily, possibly more during bad weather / farrowing.

A day to take the pigs to slaughter, and fetch the butchered meat back.

The next bit of marketing & delivering the meat is where you can swallow weeks if you're not careful. Ideally you need to try an organise your marketing to get rid of everything as soon as it is ready, delivery is best but it is a lot of running about. If you offer collection be prepared to have people treat your farm as a free day out for the family!

Selling direct to the public is hard work.


Best return on time is to sell weaners but that is very time of year dependant and hard to scale up to any real size.

For a time I was selling direct to butchers but again it can be wearing as I've had someone who was having 2-3 pigs per week go bust on me and another butcher who only had maybe 1 or 2 pigs a month yet always complained and wanted money off for the most ridiculous of things.



In short, best way to make money is to rent your ground out to some other poor sod, otherwise take satisfaction that you get to do something you love.
 

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