Farming in the UK

J DEERE

Has anybody ever considered leasing/buying land in the UK to set up a farming enterprise? Land seems to be more readily available in larger lots and there doesnt seem to be the same tie to ground as exists in Ireland. Could it be a viable option for someone who is working on a limited landbase or just interested in setting up for themselves? I dont know much about the red tape/paper work involved in agriculture in the UK but Im presuming it cant be too much different from that which exists in Ireland at the moment

yellow50HX

i cant see why not, if its set up as a business then once your set up on the british tax system then i dont see an issue. plenty of irish comapnys with british subsideries. not sure how easy it would be to run it as a family farm busisnes. i'd say you would have to go with it as a company

J DEERE

What red tape exists there for new entrants in comparison to Ireland? Starting to wonder if there are many "turn key" farms available there where you can rent land, stock, machinery and facilities. Rarely if ever see it happen in Ireland

Dickie10

theres a hige amount of land in Britain wned by the monarchy and other such establishments such as aristocratic families. these guys generally don't farm any of there lands but rent it out in 50 year leases and the like.im talking crazy numbers here, maybe 200,000 acres
on average, this would mean if the average guy renting a farm of land probarbly between 400 and 2,000 acres, there could be up to 300 people renting land off the one family. id say it wouldn't be that hard to get a long term lease on about 300 acres in Britain. out of intrest what area would you go for? and what enterprise

Timmaay

Raising the capital to farm say 300acres would be the biggest hurdle in my opinion, if you want to milk say 200cows+ followers off that, you'll be shelling out well over 1/2 a million, going on the greenfield figures.

freedominacup

A couple of us on here worked for a guy in the Wirral Valley just ouside Liverpool back in the day. He grew up in a housing estate just to the north of Liverpool but caught the bug working on a nearby farm. His OH's homeplace. Back then he was renting a 350 acre farm from a much larger estate with facilities for 200 cows and followers having started on a 90 acre (I think) council farm. 2 houses included in the rent. He seemed to have a pretty free rein to run the farm as he wished other than some clause about draining land. There was an openday on the estate gardens and he took his oppurtunity to find out where certain parts of the farm were drained to. His wife was morto having to keep sketch as he went foraging in places he wasn't supposed to be on the edges of the garden trying to identify outlets and reliefs for field drains on the land he was renting. He was obliged to maintain drainage but couldn't do new work so when he had the old drains identified he was able to re-instate them and keep to his tenancy agreement. Totally different to anything you'd hear of here generally.

MFdaveIreland

Interesting post, u Should try starting to farm up north here, land no where, always thought there was more scope down south with far larger men about. England's a different scale altogether, nearly all land is held by aristocratic families, mega acres smallest being 2k acres and rising up to crazy acres. If only ... Haha . I think Irelands problem with land is peoples attachment to it. But probably won't change for a long time, hardly fair to expect older farmers to move over for younger lads,

J DEERE

Timmaay wrote: »

Raising the capital to farm say 300acres would be the biggest hurdle in my opinion, if you want to milk say 200cows+ followers off that, you'll be shelling out well over 1/2 a million, going on the greenfield figures.

I don't think I'd go dairying to be honest, well not to start. Would be hoping to have maybe 60 sucklers and be looking for capital for maybe another 40. Finish all progeny, concentrate on a grass based system and purchase most feeding direct from farmers or develop home grown system. Would maybe look to rearing calves or buying light weanlings in the spring as well.

Just something im pondering as I am looking to start farming in my own right. Father is still young enough to run the home place and renting land for sucklers doesn't seem sustainable to me. I like the idea of farming in the UK as it is relatively close to home and wouldn't be a major culture shock.

jersey101

I was in the uk last year on a trip with the college its a hard place to get used to. All of there farming practices are different than our one. I ended up hating in by the end of the week but that could have been cause i was sick of the beer after 4 heavy nights of it

delaval

Monarchy own most of the land and are very benign landlords. Very hard to get on to one of their farms, long waiting lists and tennants are allowed to pass tennency to your son or daughter
Next are the council farms and there are waiting lists as long as your arm. A problem in recent years is that the councils are strapped for cash and are selling the farms as the agreements end. This has become a big problem in Somerset and Dorset.
Then you have privatly owned estates. These guys operate completely differently to landlords here. Unlike here it's not all about the money. It's about your track record and your business plan. Rocking up to an estate agent with a cheque book won't even get a return phone call. The only hope is to piggy back with another partner who has an established track record.
Remember that you get about a million euro worth of buildings with the land. The landlord needs a tennant that will look after the asset rather than pay the most rent.

mikefoxo

I was reading a Farmers Weekly recently. Had a couple of pages of farms for sale at the back of it. 700-1000 acre farms were described as "good sized holdings"!!! And we all get het up about 120 acres

irish_bhoy09

mikefoxo wrote: »

I was reading a Farmers Weekly recently. Had a couple of pages of farms for sale at the back of it. 700-1000 acre farms were described as "good sized holdings"!!! And we all get het up about 120 acres

Im guessing scotland would be cheaper
poorer land i suppose

sheebadog

irish_bhoy09 wrote: »

Im guessing scotland would be cheaper
poorer land i suppose

Plenty good land in Scotland.

freedominacup

sheebadog wrote: »

Plenty good land in Scotland.

Just N of Edinburgh a huge amount of tillage. Big flat open fields. Late harvest though to the extent that I don't know if they budget on getting 100% harvested in an average year.

micraX

Go all out and do what Bergin from outside of Swords did in the early 2000s go to Poland and start a farm there. He was bring spuds back into Ireland last year when they were scarse.

sheebadog

freedominacup wrote: »

Just N of Edinburgh a huge amount of tillage. Big flat open fields. Late harvest though to the extent that I don't know if they budget on getting 100% harvested in an average year.

Yea, around Lothian there is good land. Top Wheat yields as they have a long day and a long growing season.

irish_bhoy09

freedominacup wrote: »

Just N of Edinburgh a huge amount of tillage. Big flat open fields. Late harvest though to the extent that I don't know if they budget on getting 100% harvested in an average year.

Must be the only few flat fields in scotland:-)

mayota

irish_bhoy09 wrote: »

Must be the only few flat fields in scotland:-)

The finest of land near Falkirk and over around Stirling flat and fertile deep soils.