advice sought please

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advice sought please

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K&K

Joined: 03 Jan 2011
Posts: 19
Location: east midlands

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 11 7:11 pm Post subject: advice sought please

We 'stumbled' upon this website earlier today and feel it might be of some help to us, hopefully in the longer term we hope we too will be able to share experiences as well.

I used to think 'googling' would provide us with all the answers we needed directly, but that clearly is not always the case so here is our story and of course we would welcome any constructive comments....our story starts with a wanted ad that we placed a couple of days ago......this is what we posted:

ï¿½Seeking an Empty Farmhouse, Buildings and land -(refurbishment, rebuild, renovate if necessary) - We are hoping to rent/lease with an 'option to buy' a ring fenced Farm/large small holding to accommodate our small young family with a view to rearing Rare Breed Livestock and producing vegetables for own consumption and to supply a Restaurant we hope to be operating from spring/summer 2011.

The Restaurant is in Nottingham, though the Farm can be located almost anywhere within mainland UK. We are seeking a derelict/tired unused or reasonably priced property from which we can upgrade to our own 'Grand Design'. We have a 3 year old son and a new arrival due imminently so it is important that the farm is not too remote since we would like our children to have a social life outside of the farm. Access to good schooling therefore is really important to us. I am the son of livestock dealer and transporter, and although I am not an experienced farmer, I would not describe myself as a 'townie'.

My wife is from Thailand and has been raised on a Thai Smallholding producing fruit and vegetables for market. If you believe you have something that would be of interest to us we would love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected] in the first instance. Photos would be very helpful tooï¿½.

Already we have identified a farm that could suit our purposes BUT the current owners use the farmland to breed donkeys and horses. Our question for now is, is it ok to change the farming system to accommodate our goals to rear Rare breed cattle, sheep and poultry?.

I think my father once told me that you could not mix horses and donkeys with cattle and sheep. Can anyone offer advice/knowledge about this particular question?

giveitago

Joined: 02 Jan 2011
Posts: 151
Location: surrey

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 11 7:24 pm Post subject:

from memory, people dont usually mix cattle with horses but i dont think thats anything to do with the land, more the mixing of species that dont always have the same traits. I've never heard of their being a problem with having both in the field.

Some horsy peeps dont like sheep in their field as they think it'll spread worms and disease but horsy peeps do have goats and horsess together.

I dont see why you cant use the pasture for cattle once the horses have left though.

you might like to walk the pasture to see what it is. depending on the type of horse/donkey it could be very poor grass and you my want to spend some tlc on it to improve the grasses food level.

you could always have a look at the horse and hound forum, they'd be able to offer advice.

best of luck

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8974
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 11 8:54 pm Post subject:
There are ponies and cattle and sheep here, but that is on mountain common land

lara

Joined: 03 Jan 2011
Posts: 1

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 11 10:44 pm Post subject:

hi there, many years ago i had an ex-racehorse which i kept in a local farmers field along with his 20 or so cattle,
when i first put him in with his new friends he got a bit scared as he hadn't lived with cows before and jumped out over the fence, but he soon got used to them and they happily lived together for several years grazing together with no problems. hope this helps & hope you find your new dream home soon. lara

12Bore

Joined: 15 Jun 2008
Posts: 9089
Location: Paddling in the Mersey

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 11 10:45 pm Post subject:
Off topic (again for me) Hi Lara, welcome aboard

Calli

Joined: 13 Mar 2009
Posts: 626
Location: Galway

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 11 11:43 pm Post subject:
Horses mixed with donkeys is not good - donkeys and lungworm. Are you cleaning and rotating the pastures - investigate worming protocol. Cargomaster - interesting career move but not unprecedented lol

K&K

Joined: 03 Jan 2011
Posts: 19
Location: east midlands

Posted: Tue Jan 04, 11 4:54 am Post subject: thank you everybody
just a quick note to say thank you for everbody's reply to our post. ta

VSS

Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 2845
Location: Llyn Peninsula, North Wales

Posted: Wed Jan 05, 11 11:17 am Post subject:
When we came here, the land had had nothing but horses on it for about 15 years. It was tired and had a lot of Ragwort on it. Careful grazing with sheep and cattle and lots of muck spreading have sorted it out.

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