26 acres - Nature farming

80sDiesel

So signed on the dotted line for 26 acres . Hill farming area. It's a personal (expensive)hobby to get into a bit of nature farming. Whatever one could call it. Have 12 acres already which I started last year ( 600 trees , hay meadow, wildflowers) so know alot more now.

Will update as I progress along so others thinking the same can learn . ( Possibly from my mistakes)

Say my name

Great news.

Is this owned land or rented land?

80sDiesel

Say my name wrote: »

Great news.

Is this owned land or rented land?

It was bought. It was land that was in a will of a relative so it had some emotional attachment and meant that it was not on the market. The tricky bit of letting the local farmers know is now done. So I will be watched;) like how I was with my tree planting in my other 12 acres project.
https://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2057820221?fuid=0

wildlifeboy

any pictures would be good, can you create a few ponds too?

80sDiesel

wildlifeboy wrote: »

any pictures would be good, can you create a few ponds too?

Yep I can get pics taken when I am there.

Ponds . Probably not. There is a fast running stream on the border so something to think about. It has some lovely native trees already so I have to move slowly so I can enhance rather than destroy what's there already

First thing is to sow some yellow rattle to weaken the grass. Fert ( or manure)would have been applied regularly so I also have to get the fertility down

Muckit

Do you hope to turn a few pound on it?

80sDiesel

Muckit wrote: »

Do you hope to turn a few pound on it?

Yes it has to wash it face. Banking on future glas schemes for hay Meadows, partial rental and wildflower seeds(agreement in progress) . Figure nature farming is the future so I will be at the coldface if that is viable.
If farmers are the caretakers of nature in the future there has to be a business case for it. I intend to test that.

Markcheese

Are you planning any stock on the ground? Or just leaving it stock free,?
A friend is getting land planted with native species in the next few months, through forestry scheme. He found a forestry company that was into the habitat protection side of things...
I'm pretty sure the place will look fairly rough for a year or 2 after planting, but it'll recover, and there'll be 30 odd acres of broadleaf native woodland, (bordering a neighbours existing woodland), financially it'll be the most productive that this ground has ever been...

_Brian

80sDiesel wrote: »

So signed on the dotted line for 26 acres . Hill farming area. It's a personal (expensive)hobby to get into a bit of nature farming. Whatever one could call it. Have 12 acres already which I started last year ( 600 trees , hay meadow, wildflowers) so know alot more now.

Will update as I progress along so others thinking the same can learn . ( Possibly from my mistakes)

Sounds like an amazing project.
Good luck.

If your the type for a YouTube channel I’d imagine that would support your journey too, surely it would provide niche advertising opportunities that would generate revenue.

Prop Joe

Excellent project im in fact doing something similar myself..Gonna mix it up on some swamp lad and marginal ground..

denismc

Great idea for a thread OP, can I ask are you currently involved in farming or are you just starting from scratch?

80sDiesel

So I am guessing for the first year to leave all alone. Plan is to walk the land every weekend to get a good understanding of the place. Found a spring that runs thru one field into the stream. Was built into one of the field walls. Local farmer had an Irish name for it.
Might plant one or two oaks but having planted 600 odd on another farm I am over tree planting/pruning/mulching for the time being.

Guessing I will try to sell sileage/hay come end of summer,let local farmer graze after and then sow some wildflowers. Fertility levels are going to be high so may wait a couple of years to sow. Keeping an eye on future glas grants.

80sDiesel

denismc wrote: »

Great idea for a thread OP, can I ask are you currently involved in farming or are you just starting from scratch?

Not a farmer and would make a bad one at that. See myself as a caretaker I guess.

monseiur

80sDiesel wrote: »

So signed on the dotted line for 26 acres . Hill farming area. It's a personal (expensive)hobby to get into a bit of nature farming. Whatever one could call it. Have 12 acres already which I started last year ( 600 trees , hay meadow, wildflowers) so know alot more now.

Will update as I progress along so others thinking the same can learn . ( Possibly from my mistakes)

Hi, 80's Diesel
Good luck with your project, it's very interesting and certainly futuristic.
Just looking for advice - My O/H aunt has 12 acres, she's a widow and has no one to farm the land so she's considering planting, it's limestone type land and very fertile so suitable for hardwood / broadleaf & native trees.
How does the grants work, she's have to employ a contractor to do all the work including supplying trees etc. (no fencing required)
She contacted Teagasc some time ago but no response as yet.
Thanks.

Prop Joe

80sDiesel wrote: »

So I am guessing for the first year to leave all alone. Plan is to walk the land every weekend to get a good understanding of the place. Found a spring that runs thru one field into the stream. Was built into one of the field walls. Local farmer had an Irish name for it.
Might plant one or two oaks but having planted 600 odd on another farm I am over tree planting/pruning/mulching for the time being.

Guessing I will try to sell sileage/hay come end of summer,let local farmer graze after and then sow some wildflowers. Fertility levels are going to be high so may wait a couple of years to sow. Keeping an eye on future glas grants.

Hoping to start something similar myself with a plot of two acres..Gonna set up bird boxes possibly a bee hive,Want to ensure there is a large worm population,introduce some frogs/toads and plant some wildflower

Water John

Forget Teagasc make contact with one of the private consultants.
http://www.aifc.ie/
Try and get references of jobs done and satisfied clients.

monseiur

Water John wrote: »

Forget Teagasc make contact with one of the private consultants.
http://www.aifc.ie/
Try and get references of jobs done and satisfied clients.

Thanks Water John, that's exactly the information we were looking for.
Greatly appreciated.

80sDiesel

First step taken last week and sprayed the place with forefront. Had too many docks and I didn’t think there was any wildflowers to save. Too many years of slurry/fert ( sileage use)would have taken care of that.

Guessing that it will take 3 to 5 years for the fertility levels to drop sufficiently before I can introduce wildflower seed. Thinking the plan is one cut each year in July/August to remove nutrients. And then after graze and repeat.

denismc

Any updates on this?

80sDiesel

Blast from the past.

Finally paid off the place this year which now feels like mine!

So it's been just one cut a year to a local organic farmer and there has been no fert or animals on the land these last 3 years. Fertility is slowily reducing and I got rid by hand of the docks which just a few to tackle each year.

Have introduced yellow rattle to a trial field and this spring got a beautiful display of cuckoo flowers and plantain now is beginning to take hold.

Plan is to harvest more yellow rattle and spread it out to the other fields and then introduce other wildflowers from my other place.

Requires patience but knowing the long grass over summer is helping diversify is its reward in itself.

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120604913#Comment_120604913

Have you joined the Organic farming scheme?

Danzy

If you could put up photos that would be smashing. I remember your previous threads still,great photos.

80sDiesel

I dont normally do photos in general as it never captures the moment

This is the nearest thing to what I am doing

https://youtu.be/7EjPMl4ban0

Packrat

I get what you're trying to do as in use it organically and diversify the sward, but why are you "waiting" for the fertility to drop as if that was a good thing?

Having a diverse sward and good fertility aren't mutually exclusive.

Most of my pastures are over 50 years old, (since ploughing or reseeding) I have very diverse swards, I'm organic since last year, but rather than trying to reduce fertility, I'm trying to increase it by applying lime, fym and bacteria.

If you're rewilding, then yes but you say you want to "farm" it and that you cut the fields once a year.

Why no animals?

80sDiesel

Hi. The sileage is used by an organic farmer. I am just restoring it. It has had enough fert to last a decade so I am reducing the fertility level to knock back the coarse grass and encourage the finer grasses and wildflowers.

It's not a rewilding exercise. I have an acre set aside for that where I am letting the blacktho4n colonise. It's about restoring it to pre industrial farming purely for biodiversity.

Packrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120620707#Comment_120620707

Well you're on the right track with cutting it and putting nothing back to reduce fertility. That'll bring it right down quite quickly.

Pre industrial farming did include grazing animals and crops as you know and fym was always spread on the meadow fields in spring.

Your organic buddy if he's certified or in conversion should only buy on feed from a certified organic or in conversion farmer according to the rules, - this is just said to inform, not to nitpick.

Best of luck with your plan, it'll be interesting to see the results.

Packrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120605339#Comment_120605339

This is exactly what i experienced as a child, even the photos of the valley look almost identical to where i live.

These meadows have never been ploughed since then. Most of those grass species mentioned I still have despite bag fertiliser and slurry, but - both in moderation and no bag since 2021. The practice of cutting later and allowing the plants to head out which has been a side effect of lambing sheep in them every spring before silage cutting in late July has i think helped to preserve those species more than lack of fert.

I have a photo from last year I think and if I can find it I'll post it here.

Water John

Saw this set of pics today. Guy doing charcoal in a traditional way. Thought I'd put them here as he's another person in tune with his environment.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/may/30/burning-ambition-the-life-of-an-artisanal-charcoal-maker-in-pictures