Smallholdings

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Mahatma Gandhi said that “to forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” According to this statement, we have forgotten a good deal since the industrial revolution, now that 80 percent of UK residents live in urban areas according to the 2001 census. For most of us, tending the soil is limited to the occasional spot of gardening, if we’re lucky enough to have a garden in the first place, and our food is a product that comes from shrink-wrapped packages in the local supermarket. At the same time, attitudes are shifting. According to a recent channel 4 survey, six of the ten worst places to live in the UK were cities, but only one of the best places to live (Winchester) was a city.

Some people, fed up with city living, are moving out to the countryside to give farming a go. They are taking on smallholdings in rural locations around the UK – in Wales, the Lincolnshire Fens, the Scottish Highlands and anywhere else where, despite recent sharp price rises, good agricultural land can still be purchased relatively inexpensively. Although precise statistics about the number of people involved are hard to track down, one indication is the recent increase in the number of workers employed in agriculture (from 449,000 in March 2006 to 463,000 in March 2008 according to the office for national statistics) – the first such rise in the UK since the industrial revolution.

This current interest in smallholdings seems to echo the “back to the land” movement, a mostly American socio-cultural phenomenon last seen in the 60s and 70s when members of the counterculture and others fed-up with disconnected urban lifestyles moved out to the country and tried to go it alone. It’s fair to say that most of these people failed and quickly returned to city life, but there are several lessons to be drawn from those who succeeded.  Most of the success stories involved people whose families were equally committed to the cause, who had independent sources of income and who had some knowledge of the techniques and tools of small farming. This article unfortunately can’t help with the income or with building a consensus within your family, but focuses instead on techniques, starting with the most basic – how much land do you need?

Land requirements

Even if you don’t have any land at all, you can still keep vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers in pots on a sunny windowsill or in containers outside.

An allotment-size garden can provide most of the fruit and vegetables needed to feed a family of four if you use the space creatively. Climbing plants such as runner beans take up little space, for example.

If you want to plant an orchard but don’t have much space, then dwarf trees could be the right option. Dwarf apple trees, for example, need to be planted just 12 feet apart, versus 15-18 feet for standard trees. Dwarf trees provide fruit earlier too, after approximately 3-4 years vs 5-7 for standard-size trees.

Chickens require 4-6 square feet of enclosed space per chicken, plus outside space to roam and scratch – say a total of 10 square feet each. Again, an allotment-sized space should be sufficient (but if you’re considering using an actual allotment, check with the local council or allotment manager first).

Bees can also be kept in an allotment-size space, or on an actual allotment with the prior permission of the local council or allotment manager. It is not recommended that inexperienced beekeepers keep bees on an allotment without supervision by an expert, however, for fairly obvious reasons.  

Moving up from there, keeping pigs requires more space. Opinions vary widely on the subject, with some saying 200 square feet is sufficient for a pair of pigs while others arguing that a happy pig couple needs 3000 square feet to root around in.

Cows need about an acre per animal, but since they’re herd animals you need to keep at least two.

About 1 hectare or roughly 2.5 acres of good pasture would enable you to keep a small breeding flock of sheep.

Goats need a bit more space than sheep as they are more voracious grazers than sheep are. The ideal environment for free-range goats would consist of grassland and mixed woodland.

Return on Investment

If you’re hoping to make money from your smallholding but your business plan looks something like this:

1. Get a smallholding
2. ?????
3. Profit!

…then it might be wise to refine things a bit. Some people do manage to survive and even thrive on their smallholding earnings, but many others lose their shirts (and for those that have goats, I mean this quite literally). It’s difficult to put some concrete figures on things at this point as everyone’s plans are different, but here are some examples of smallholdings that have succeeded in coming out ahead.

Steve and Fiona wanted to give up full-time employment and live a simpler life without debt. They bought a 5 hectare smallholding in France, the Bois de Grammont, and moved over from Wales about 4 years ago. They started out with chickens and pigs and now make most of their income from selling pork and sausages made to traditional English recipes. Steve and Fiona gave up their full-time jobs when they moved, but Steve also had a small business turning wood that he continued in order to supplement their smallholding income, opening a gallery and visitor’s centre on their smallholding as well as supplying several galleries in the UK. Both had previous experience raising chickens and pigs and growing their own vegetables in their back garden in Wales. They now have pedigree sheep, geese, rabbits and cows. Both say that although they are working much harder now, they would do it all again and would never want to go back to the 9-5.

Andy and Sophie had only grown a few vegetables in their back garden before they move to the Quinta das Abelhas, a 4-acre smallholding in central Portugal in 2003. But they’ve learned fast and are now growing all kinds of fruits and vegetables, including some I’ve never heard of before, as well as pressing their own olive oil and keeping geese, chickens and horses. They’ve recently started an organic box scheme with their excess produce, which is just one of the steps they’ve taken towards financial sustainability. They also participate in a property cooperative selling property and holidays in Portugal, and they offer camping, horse riding and yurt rental on their farm. And perhaps best of all they welcome WWOOFers – more about all this on their website.

Dan and Sally moved from the city to rural Ireland and a beautiful old farmhouse with a garden, two fields and an oak plantation. They grow organic vegetables and also raise rare breed piglets as well as chickens, bees, rabbits and goats. They sell their extra vegetables along with premium meats and honey locally. Dan also has a carpentry business and they run smallholding courses and workshops. They say they find the financial sustainability of smallholding has been the most challenging aspect and feel the way to get by is to diversify. Another trick up their sleeve is bartering – for example, they lend out their sausage-maker to neighbouring smallholders in exchange for a kilo of the resulting sausage. They have just started accepting WWOOFers, too.

A Few More Tips

If you’re looking for a smallholding in the UK and you’re serious about making your living from it, you may want to think about buying a property with an agricultural tie. This is a property that the council stipulates can only house agricultural workers – i.e. people whose main source of income comes from agriculture. These properties tend to be about 25% cheaper than similar properties without an agricultural tie, according to Rural Scene, a Wiltshire-based firm of smallholding specialists.

If you’re not so sure about this whole smallholding thing and want to “try before you buy,” and if you’re particularly interested in organic agriculture, perhaps WWOOFing is for you. WWOOF stands for World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms and gives people the opportunity to volunteer on organic farms around the world in exchange for food, accommodation and learning opportunities. There are plenty of smallholdings in the UK and Western Europe to choose from, or if you’re after a real adventure there are many wild and wonderful options from a native-tree nursery near a rainforest in Ecuador to a coffee, cotton and cocoa plantation in Cameroon. Find out more at Wwoof.

Finally, have a dig through the Garden & Wildlife section here on Ecoboom for some additional tips.

Article by Tanya Favus

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