Smallholding advice.

[borderterribles]

A small (but relatively heavy Zetor) 75hp tractor with loader (Dirty Mary) lets me grade my road, deal with big bales that are more cost effective in time and money than interminable amounts of small bales, offload deliveries of feed without bothering my neighbours and comes in a tonne tote rather than forty bl00dy bags, allows me to help my neighbours turn their hay and I can turn mine, I can cut my hay with a 9' mower when I want, powers my log splitter, clears snow from my drive, and does a multitude of lifting and carrying jobs every year. I regularly lend it to neighbours with my Wrag post chapper or my tine harrows buying me some grace in the Karma bank. With skids on my mower I top my fields any time I like (no seeding, senile, less nutritious grass on my place) and so do my small scale friends with their fewer acres.
I'd rather sell my Gator than Dirty Mary.
I bought the post chapper when the labour and materials mark up bill for fencing my place when I moved in would pay for me to buy one. So I did the work myself and still have an asset.
I buy reliable, no fuss equipment and look after it. The tractor I bought 6 years ago is still worth what I paid for it, the post chapper is still probably worth 80% of its purchase price and paid for itself anyway, the drill I bought 14 years ago at what seemed like an extortionate price has just given up the ghost after tens of thousands of screws and many post hangings. My expensive Krone mower has done all I need and many acres for friends for ten years with nothing more than a oil changes and some blades.
Going to work for others who have crap or no equipment is an utter 8all ache. Needing something yourself at 3am when disaster strikes and you just get on with it is worth its weight in gold for the contentment it brings and the piece of mind. I've been to farms that had no decent socket set, no angle grinder, no fencing pliers, no air compressor and they are, each and every one of them miserable places to work.
Owning equipment and maintaining it made me better able to fix stuff without relying on mechanics at rates 4 times what I was earning and made me asset to folk I worked for.
Being able and willing to help, contributing to the ease with which my neighbours operate has paid dividends in the quality and number of friends we have amassed in 15 years. Since covid came right along with my cancer diagnosis my wife and I have wanted for nothing, no livestock activity has not been performed exactly when I'd like it, my lambing shed was a hub for friends to come and blether and yes, assist. Being in a position to give aid has been rewarded ten fold.
Could I have saved money having no kit, maybe but it is debatable. Would I be where I'm at today with my utter contentment with my lot, nah, I don't think so.

Top post and good advice. I could've written something similar, except that we have Rita the Zetor .

 

[Still Farming]

Forgot to say in England I would not contemplate buying less than 5 hectares of land as that is the magic number for being a farm rather than a smallholding with lots of planning rules and HMRC rules associated with that cut off non of which are favourable for having a smallholding. Might be different rules elsewhere in the country so you need to check carefully.

Seems to be any acreage with hmrc.
If you make losses they throw that "olde fabal",at you irrespectively.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Dad thought me that. He was a competent competion plough man with horse and tractor. Still got his old Star Match plough here some where.
I just phoned the doctor and told him how to treat me [emoji23]
Gospal Truth

Lol , i don't doubt ,tried to sell him hay , grass seed or something as well I expect

but Seriously get that old plough oiled up and stored away nicely,will help to preserve those vintage memories .

 

[renewablejohn]

Can't be much difference between vet and doc surely, take pigs for instance......arent they fairlysimilar in anatomy To humans ? and possibley better bedside manner than some people

Anyway I see you're a seed and crop expert but no mention of ploughing

At least the vet doesnt have the patient telling them whats wrong with them and how their problem needs to be treated.

 

[Bury the Trash]

At least the vet doesnt have the patient telling them whats wrong with them and how their problem needs to be treated.

no, not how it's to be treated i agree but probably any Vet or Dr even, would agree that accurate diagnosis is more than half the battle .
Also a well said phrase that sticks in my mind from when the the kids were young, before they could talk /communicate properly ....
" trouble is they cant tell you what's wrong with them"

 

[Derrick Hughes]

no, not how it's to be treated i agree but probably any Vet or Dr even, would agree that accurate diagnosis is more than half the battle .
Also a well said phrase that sticks in my mind from when the the kids were young, before they could talk /communicate properly ....
" trouble is they cant tell you what's wrong with them"

A good stock man could pick a sick cow out of 500 in no time . Could a doctor do that if he walked through a crowd of 500 people

 

[Highland Mule]

A good stock man could pick a sick cow out of 500 in no time . Could a doctor do that if he walked through a crowd of 500 people

Please don’t try and equate your life skills with that of a doctor Derrick - it’s embarrassing you.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Dad thought me that. He was a competent competion plough man with horse and tractor. Still got his old Star Match plough here some where.
I just phoned the doctor and told him how to treat me [emoji23]
Gospal Truth

reminds me of this...

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Please don’t try and equate your life skills with that of a doctor Derrick - it’s embarrassing you.

[emoji23]
.just like anyone can walk into a farm and look after stock without any form of training .
Not the op who seems to have done his groundwork

 

[Longlowdog]

I bought 20 acres of grass and 40 of trees. I knew a lot about trees and had no idea which end of a sheep coughed and which end farted. By asking questions here, asking neighbours and vet I got on pretty quickly. There are pinnacles of any trade and there is enough to get by. In livestock farming that means doing no harm. Most new entrants go way beyond anything I've seen from established stock folk when it comes to care and attention to individual animals including treating animals regardless of cost. Yeah you might slag them off for spending more than the value of a sheep on a sheep but you cannot say they are worse shepherds than anyone else.

 

[Bury the Trash]

A good stock man could pick a sick cow out of 500 in no time . Could a doctor do that if he walked through a crowd of 500 people

yes a good stockperson ,could no doubt.
Doc could in a crowd of people as well i expect if there was a lame one.... and i bet he would be easier to catch and no crush would be needed ,

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I bought 20 acres of grass and 40 of trees. I knew a lot about trees and had no idea which end of a sheep coughed and which end farted. By asking questions here, asking neighbours and vet I got on pretty quickly. There are pinnacles of any trade and there is enough to get by. In livestock farming that means doing no harm. Most new entrants go way beyond anything I've seen from established stock folk when it comes to care and attention to individual animals including treating animals regardless of cost. Yeah you might slag them off for spending more than the value of a sheep on a sheep but you cannot say they are worse shepherds than anyone else.

I thought I was a good stockman until I got some sheep . 40 years of cattle farming in no way prepares you for those

 

[Bury the Trash]

I thought I was a good stockman until I got some sheep . 40 years of cattle farming in no way prepares you for those

lightweight

 

[Longlowdog]

Nothing prepares anyone for the responsibility of looking after any livestock however anyone observant of the animals in their care can notice a difference in behaviour and ask an opinion of a vet or someone with experience. It is a learning curve and one that can be progressed upwards rather rapidly. A neighbour of mine went from zero sheep to selling tups for 8k in 3 years.
I prefer uplifting folk to knocking them down. I prefer helping folk to watching them work. I'll never be rich but I wouldn't swap my life for anyone's, (except perhaps David Attenborough).

 

[Agrivator]

Please don’t try and equate your life skills with that of a doctor Derrick - it’s embarrassing you.

It seems that most GPs now only work part time, and treat their patients as a bit of a nuisance. I can't think of any profession which has lost their reputation as quickly as GPs.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

 

[Lazy Sod]

I'll never be rich but I wouldn't swap my life for anyone's, (except perhaps David Attenborough).

Of course you do realise that at 95 he hasn't got many more years left. If you swop with him you won't have long to spend the money.

 

[Old Boar]

It seems that most GPs now only work part time, and treat their patients as a bit of a nuisance. I can't think of any profession which has lost their reputation as quickly as GPs.

The police....

 

[Dry Rot]

It seems that most GPs now only work part time, and treat their patients as a bit of a nuisance. I can't think of any profession which has lost their reputation as quickly as GPs.

Can't fault the NHS in Scotland.

 

[Longlowdog]

Nor can I. Except for the fact my lad who is a community mental health nurse is working 50+hrs a week for 39hrs wage. The powers that be expect him to write up notes on the day they are occasioned but give him a work load that fills his day with patients then threaten him with action if he doesn't complete his write ups in his own time. I would hug every nurse who has treated me and hang all their office bound manipulative superiors who are abusers of the goodwill of their staff.