Setting up a smallholding

DeniseandGeoff

Hi all,
As soon as we sell our house in Wales, we are looking to buy a property in the west of Ireland. It has 3 acres and the dream is to free range some hens and sell the eggs at market and breed some rare breed pigs for free range meat as well as selling on the piglets.

I know in the UK we would have to register and get a smallholding number, so I asume this would be the same in Ireland?, is there any bad side in registering your property as a small holding ?

We are complete novices so any help would be great.

Thanks in advance for any replies

kay 9

You will have to register with the department for a Herd number. It's no big deal. Actually not sure if they are still giving out herd numbers, flock numbers only now I think. No bad side to it. You just have to register all pigs born and sold on. Nothing needed for chickens though. Nearly sure they are giving out seperate numbers anymore for different animals whether it be sheep, pigs lamas, al pacas or deers. Correct me if I'm wrong folks.
Thought your name was Dennis and Jeff at first glance:D

DeniseandGeoff

Hi Kay9, thanks for your reply and before I forget its defo Denise she has all the bumps in the right places

Even with a paltry amount of 3 acres is there anything you can claim from the goverment ?

DeniseandGeoff

Another thing, is there a farmers market around Ballinasloe or Galway and how much is it for a stall if anyone knows?
Cheers
Geoff

Delber

There is a Farmers Market every Friday in Ballinasloe together with a Saturday Market. As to cost I'm not sure but if you were to ask some of the traders or the Local town council they would give you a fair idea. Best of Luck with it.

reilig

You'll need a flock number for your chickens too!!

DeniseandGeoff

Thanks for the reply Delber, we will keep our fingers crossed that our enterprise takes off.
Cheers
Geoff and Denise

DeniseandGeoff

On ly just noticed your reply Reilig, so thanks for that, wow I never thought you would need a number for Chickens, so good job we asked. These forums are the best for getting all the info from you experienced peeps:D

Davenjulie

Hi Guys,
You dont need a flock number for hens as such, but you do need to register them with the local Dept of Agriculture vet. you can do this by downloading the form from the dept web site, filling it in and sending it back.We did this for our 4 chooks 6 weeks ago and you dont even get a reply,let a lone a number :cool:

DeniseandGeoff

Thanks for the info DavenJulie, it sounds easy enough to get sorted. I was worried that the choice of breeds would be limited in Ireland, but after looking at a few poultry sites, there is enough choice to keep us satisfied, just got to sell our home now and make the plans reality, dam this recession