[johnharris]

Hi All, 43 years old, married, 2 kids, one in uni, the other final year at secondary school and we live in North West Ireland.
I have been in business for 25 years, amalgamated money and bought 20 acres of good land, house built on it and paid for. Never did anything with the land at all, let it out to local farmer for hay each year.
Want to live a more relaxed life with less stress. Would love to make a go of living a much more simple life but have not got a clue where to start.
Ideas anyone ?

John

[jameslindsay]

Hi John, weclsome. Get yourself some livestock and you will discover a whole new meaning to life. Good luck with your new venture.

[Daisys Mum]

Hi John
You have already made a good start joining in TAS forum, There are lots of knowledgable and helpful people on here. I agree that you cant do better than getting some livestock. There is nothing like getting out of a warm bed on a cold dark morning to see to your animals, but it is all so worth while when you sit down to your own produced bacon,sausage and egg for breakfast.Good luck anyway hope it all goes well for you.

[doganjo]

Decide what kind of food you like best - pork or lamb or chicken. What kind of vegetables you like - greens, roots, exotic. 

Get yourself along to some local auctions and have a look at prices of animal stock or read the agriculture sections in newspapers. 

Have a look at outbuildings adverts if you don't have any at the moment, bearing in mind what animals you have decided on.

Decide what sort of money you want to put into the project, bearing in mind this will effectively be capital outlay which may or may not be recoverable.

Then go for it, and jolly good luck.  I have a missed opportunity regret to suffer for the rest of my life so don't hang about - just do it.

[supplies for smallholders]

Hi John,

Sounds very similar to us !

If I may make a suggestion, Start with pigs - they are the easiest livestock to start with, just give them food, water, shelter and a good fence (electric) to keep them contained. And in notime your freezer will be full of your own pork :-) then knock together a cold smoker (mine took 20 mins to "build") and start your own bacon.

Sheep are good to keep the grass down, but they have an annoying habit of dropping dead, then there is shearing, dagging, drenching for fly strike, worming, foot trimming etc. etc

Cows are good - but they eat a lot !

Good Look

Gareth
SfS

[Rosemary]

Hi and welcome. I agree that pigs are easier than sheep; hens are easier, tho' not technically livestock.

[Hilarysmum]

Hi why not join a local smallholders association get to see how other folk do it.  With 20 acres you could have quite a variety.  Will you be self sufficient in meat and veggies, or will you plan to sell excess.  Is there a market for anything in particular in your area.  What is your land like.  Read all the postings on here and you should have some idea of what interests you most.

Personally I would have pigs, pigs and more pigs, but then I am fanatical about pigs.  Good luck whatever you decide.  Dan and Rosemary have a lot of info on the main part of this site, its very inspirational.

[Troubled Waters]

Hello.  Such scope and opportunity, how exciting. I'd like pigs, goats and chooks as a strating point. But don't have the land...yet!

My only help would be don't do it all at once as it will be too daunting. Choose one thing and get used to that and happy with everything before moving onto the next.

Most importantly, keep us posted.
Helen.

[johnharris]

Thanks everyone,
To answer a few questions; The land I have is excellent land, well fenced and suitable for anything. I have built one outbuilding , 16 metres by 10 metres and have built a cattle holding pen. The land has a stream along one side of it. The site comprises of 2 large fields 1x 6 acre field and 1x 14 acre field, it has good hedges around it.
I need to establish how to divide it up in order to keep different animals, how to crop it, pollytunnel e.t.c
There is really no market around here for surplus food/veg, everyone uses tesco in the big town and maybe if I start something on a scale that is too big it may be a problem.
I think by using the 6 acre field to begin with would be good as the larger paddock can be used for hay for 3 crops a year. I don't really intend to be organic.
I have arranged a visit to a few smallholdings to have a look to see what they are doing, the problem around here is that most small farmers are only in the game to collect subsidies from Europe and work a second job to keep things going.
Will keep you all informed.

John

[Hilarysmum]

Have you considered livery for horses?  Not my first choice but possibly lucrative.  Also do you have local farmers' markets?  Might be worth looking into.

[johnharris]

Have you considered livery for horses?  Not my first choice but possibly lucrative.  Also do you have local farmers' markets?  Might be worth looking into.

No, have not considered horses, there is stables close to us that already do this.
I really just want to slow down, grow my own, enjoy life more, get tired working on the land !..... making money is not important in this enterprise, a sustainable lifestyle is all we want... There is a local market but no one selling veg/meat/eggs..... I may look into that avenue. I am off to visit a rare breed farmer tomorrow, he is rearing pigs.

Jon

[Snoopy]

Where abouts are you John - what town are you near?

Julie

[garden cottage]

Hi john, if your looking for stress free with that sort of acreage cattle wouldnt be a bad route to go, weve started with dexters and ive no regrets very easy to look after and all the beef you need in the freezer, if you dont want a bull use AI as weve found it much better.  once the fields are divided up youve plenty of space to do your own hay/silage   best of luck.............neil

[johnharris]

Where abouts are you John - what town are you near?

Julie

I am in Donegal, NW Ireland, quite near Letterkenny

[Snoopy]

Where abouts are you John - what town are you near?

Julie

I am in Donegal, NW Ireland, quite near Letterkenny

We are quite close - we bought our Landrover in Letterkenny.

We are in North Roscommon about 20 mins drive from Slogo Town, near a place called Kilronan Castle, we are on Kilronan Mountain overlooking a small lake called Lough Meelagh.

If you can get down to see us - we have a farm shop on the farm, which will be open every Sunday from 11.30 till 3.30 until Christmas.  We sell our pedigree pork from the farm butchery at local markets and to restaurants all over Ireland.  We are "Bord Bia" approved, British Pig Association Pedigree Pig and Pedigree Pork producers, members of The British Saddleback Breeders Club, The Essex Pig Society, and the Irish Kennel Club.

Joe has lived here since he was 10, Irish family, I was born in Yorkshire and moved here 15 years ago, to escape the rat race - and met Joe 13 years ago here.

We breed three types of pedigree pigs, sheep, pygmy goats, miniature donkeys, emu, geese and hens.

Checkout our website:   www.tullywoodfarm.com

I hope you can get to visit us soon, it would be nice to meet you.

Julie