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[KChally]

This is the Diary of Kchally, restored by Admin after being accidentally deleted...

 

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I joined this forum back in June 2010, but as I am not a book owner and not following the F2F route didnt think I should really start a diary. However it has been suggested that I do, so here goes.

 

We are hopefully quite near to the end of our journey, but will start at the beginning of our story to give an outline of what we have been doing. I will do this over several posts as it all began for us back in 2001.

 

We purchased 6 acres of agricultural land to put our 2 horses on. At the time, we had our horses on a large equestrian yard that was full of "my horse is better than yours " rubbish and felt that we needed to get away from all of this. The land was about 20 miles from where we lived and we did nothing with it for about 12 months. Eventually we decided that we would sell our house and buy another one near to the land we had bought. This took some time, so in the mean time we had it ploughed up and reseeded as it had the residue of a kale crop on it when we bought it. We moved into our new house 12 months later and brought the horses up during the summer months when they could live out. As the grass was growing very fast it was too much for 2 horses to cope with so we took the advice of a farmer friend and purchased 4 six month old calves to help eat off the grass. We bought 2 simmentals, 1 belgium blue and 1 charolais. This was the start of our agricultural activities.

 

Winter was on its way, what were we going to do with our horses as they were not used to living out. We knew the calves would be okay as our ethic even then was it was best for animals to live out as much as possible. So we put up 2 temporary stables without planning permission. We figured that if it caused a problem, winter would be over before we would have to take them down. As it happened there was no problem or complaints. We were happy and our horses were happy.

 

As winter went by we began to think, what else could we do with our 6 acres, so we purchased 50 black rocks (hens) and put up a shed to house them in. It was great, fresh eggs every day (an abundance of eggs, what shall we do with them so we started an egg round. It went very well and we sold all our eggs no problem. We did have a small problem with foxes taking our hens occasionally. We bought an incubator as we became quite interested in breeding our own replacements. We had to do this at home of course as we had no services on our field, in fact we had to bring water up in tubs for the horses. The calves had access to a pond. Hubby also wanted geese, so we purchased a pair of Toulouse and some Embdens which also produced goslings. Some of which were for Christmas dinner.

 

The calves grew up and we then went into beef production but only on a very small scale as of course we only had 6 acres. Our first animal went at 29 months, was hung for 28 days and tasted fantastic. We sold the animal in 8 portions to friends/family/work collegues and was the best beef they had ever had. We bred some of our own calves over the next few years but it was never going to make us a fortune or a business.

 

Eventually we decided we needed some permanent buildings, so put an application in for 5 stables and tack room, with a 100m lane leading down from the gate. It was passed no problem. So now our horses had a palace to live in.

[admin]

Things were going swimmingly. We had our stables and horses, a few cows and hens and some geese. The animals we didnt have were pigs. I was always against having pigs, cos every time I rode my horse past some pigs in a field, she would not be very happy. I think it was the smell actually so I thought horses and pigs wouldnt get on. They also make a terrible mess. Having said that, the cows we had also made a real mess of our field in the winter months, as we are on clay which holds the water.

 

At home I made preserves, chutneys, jams, marmalades and the like and sold them at farmers markets. I also grew a few herbs in pots and sold them at the markets aswell. Well, what about a polytunnel to grow my herbs in, I thought, so we purchased a 32ft x 16ft one and put it up on the field. We didnt bother with planning permission cos it wasnt covering the whole field. Nobody complained, not even the LPA, so my herb growing business flourished (sorry about the pun).

 

Every day when we came to the field we thought how fantastic it would be if we could live there. It was such a lovely quiet spot, but how could we do it. We have always wanted an agricultural lifestyle but could never dream of being able to afford to buy a farm outright. We put it to the back of our minds and got on with the day to day jobs of looking after the animals and doing our paid jobs.

 

Our next building we needed was a barn, somewhere to store our tractor, implements and feed, so we did the drawings and put in the application. Passed no problem. Thinking about it we were actually farming albeit in a very small way. Our experience in handling animals, buying and selling them, producing meat and products was growing all the time. We built good relationships with the local farmers, even the one next door whose cows insisted on coming into our field at every opportunity. May have been the fact that we had grass and he didn't.

 

All the time we were thinking how could we make it happen. I even rang the local planning department to ask questions, trying not to give anything away of course about what we wanted to do. One time I spoke to the officer who dealt with our barn application and we got into quite a deep conversation. He said he was doing a dissitation (i think thats what he called it) about smallholders and could he use us as an example. Of course I said yes. Chatting to him, I think I got a bit carried away about how it would be possible to live on your land (thinking back now, I suppose I put a lot of trust in him on how he would react). The end of our conversation came as a total shock to me. He said sometimes its best if you just move onto your land. I couldnt believe he had just said that. My mind was now working overtime.

[admin]

Things needed to move on and we decided that we were fed up of carting water from home. Especially, as one day when we arrived at the field, we tried to start our JCB digger but it wouldnt. The reason being that somebody had cut the pipe and stolen the fuel out of it and had used our water containers to take it away.

 

Talk about giving them a helping hand. How sad is this aswell, they stole a wheelbarrow that didnt even have a wheel on it. A friend of ours said he would put the water pipe in for us very cheaply. Being quite naive we let him do it, by dragging the alkathene pipe thru the ground (I think they call it mole draining). The length of pipe we had to lay was about 400 metres, which is a fair way for a pipe to be laid. A short time later we found out that what we had done was actually illegal and you have to get permission from the highways to dig up the grass verge. Luckily the actual connection had not been done, so we removed the pipe and employed a proper ground worker to do it, he got all the relevant permissions and the water company connected us and checked our pipe thru inspection holes. This of course cost us more money, but it was definitely worth it, having running water is amazing.

 

All the time in the back of our minds we were thinking about what this planning officer had said. What should we do. Dare we just move on and see what happens or just leave things as they are and dont rock the boat. We had a nice comfy home, our horses on our land, a few agricultural animals, hubby was working full time, I was working part time and doing the jobs on the field, life was good. Always in our thoughts we wanted to live an agricultural life rearing animals, but how could we do it on just 6 acres. What the hell, LETS DO IT. It was a very scary thing, but we sold our house and moved into a rented house so we could take stock of what and how we were going to do it. We decided that we would have to have electric connected before we moved on, as eventually we would have needed it anyway. At the time we were running off a small generator, which was okay for just lights but definitely would not run a fridge and telly etc. The connection for this meant we had to dig a trench of 100 metres, and the electric company charged us a handsome £8000 for this.

 

At this time my small herb growing business was growing and now that we were going to move onto our land meant it was more important then ever. So I left my job to concentrate soley on this. We rented some land from a farmer down the road so that we could increase our small herd of beef cattle. We looked around for a mobile home which would fit inside the barn as we thought it would be better if it was not on full show and the barn would also protect us from bad weather. Eventually we found the right one, purchased it and it was delivered very early one sunny morning. Actually as it was being delivered a neighbour from down the road was driving up, but as the caravan was blocking the road he had to turn around and go another way. We are on a single track road. We had been found out already. Oh my god we have done it. It was a very nerve racking day, but so so exciting. A few weeks passed and I was spending most of my time at the field in the polytunnel, looking after the animals and in the mobile home. After about 6 weeks of the mobile home being in the barn we had a visit. I heard the dog barking and looked out of the window. There was a man with a clipboard walking down our lane. I was there on my own and I suddenly felt sick.

 

I had been expecting this. I knew who this man was even though I had never seen him before. It was the Planning Enforcement Officer. He asked me a few general questions but also ARE YOU LIVING IN THE MOBILE HOME? Of course I said no as we still had the rented house and he went away. Shortly after we gave notice on our rented house, moved most of our belongings into a rented container and moved into the mobile home. We must have been mad!

[admin]

Well, we have finally done it. It was a great feeling, getting up in the morning, drawing the curtains back, looking out of the caravan window and seeing our horses grazing on our land, bliss. Of course at night when the curtains were closed and the lights were on, it was a bit of a giveaway we were there. Lets see what happens. A few weeks later it happened, another visit from the Planning Enforcement Officer. I have to say actually that he didnt really seem threatening, just a bit of a jobsworth having to do his job. This time though he almost insisted that he wanted to see inside the mobile home, so I thought what the heck come in then. He came in whilst writing things down on his clipboard. He told me that the LPA had had 2 telephone calls saying we were living in the caravan. He said it looked like the caravan was being lived in and were we? I skirted around the subject not confirming or denying it. I told him that we were trying to make a business out of our land (which we were) and we would not be giving up at any cost. He suggested that it would be a good idea if we put a planning application in for temporary residence, thanked me and left.

 

We decided that we needed to put this planning application in, so I looked on the internet for someone who could do us a report. A friend did our business plan. What a massive mistake that was. We went to the parish council meeting to listen to what they thought. They all thought it was a commendable thing we were doing and voted in favour, suggesting we have 5 years to do it. Later on I found out what a load of liars they are cos they had actually voted against us. Of course our application was refused. I suppose thinking about it we didnt have enough animals to warrant living there and the application was not professional enough, giving enough information. What a waste of money you only get what you pay for, as the saying goes.

 

Now things needed to get serious. If it all went really wrong we could always go and buy or rent another house. We have had a taste of the good life and were not going to give up easily. Again the question came up.. how are we going to do it. We knew we had a few months to either appeal or put in another application. Hubby reminded me that he had always wanted pigs and maybe now is the time. I had to agree, so we searched and researched and decided to buy an in pig gilt from a reputable breeder. We collected our first pig. Welcome to Rachel an in pig Gloucester Old Spot.

[admin]

How exciting, we have our first pig and totally no experience of them. I like to buy books so always make sure we have some reference point if we get stuck and of course it is always good to ask questions of the person you purchase your animals from. Oh yes I really must purchase Daves book. I know we are not following the F2F route but I am sure it is a very interesting read and could possibly help us. We do seem quite good at throwing ourselves in at the deep end. After many days and weeks of discussions we finally decided that the only way of farming our small amount of land and living on it permanently was with pigs. It takes too long to bring a beef animal to a point where we can make money out of it and on only 6 acres we couldnt produce enough to create a living wage.

 

Rachel our first pig was getting close to farrowing. We had put her in one of the stables and she began making her bed and very fastidious she was too. She picked very carefully at the straw and made sure it was all in the correct place. Eventually in the middle of one afternoon I looked over the door and it looked like she had done a poo in her bed. Very strange I thought and went in to have a look. Oh my god, it was actually a piglet still in the sack but only half formed. Suddenly another one popped out much the same. I rang the vet and he came over. Poor Rachel was giving birth to mummified piglets, it was not a pretty sight. Her final piglet was a fully formed piglet and we struggled to make it breath, but it did. Unfortunately this little piggy only lived for a month and passed away with pneumonia. The vet came over several times and we tried everything to keep the little fellow alive, all to no avail and a vet bill of £1000.

 

Our first experience had not been a good one and we needed to learn very quickly. Over the next few weeks we purchased more gilts so we could start our breeding programme. Initially we borrowed a boar from people we had come to know in the farming community and eventually purchased our own. Our herd was growing and producing and the time had come to start again on our planning application.

 

This time was going to be different, we had to make sure we had the right people on board, professionals who knew exactly what they were doing. I scoured the internet for planning applications to see which planning consultants and agricultural consultants were being used by the applicants and what the outcomes were. Eventually we made our choice and rang them. Our planning consultant came for a chat and was positive about what we wanted to do, but our agricultural consultant was quite the opposite. He said he might not take us on, he needed to speak first with a pig person he knew to see if what we suggested was possible and he would let us know. At this point we felt very deflated. We knew this chap was an expert in his field and if he wouldnt take us on, that could be the end of our dream.

[admin]

A whole week passed by. It was the longest week of our lives. Finally I checked the post box and inside was an envelope from the agricultural consultant. I almost couldn't open it, but I did. Oh yes yes yes it was a goer! He had consulted his pig expert who confirmed it was possible on only 6 acres to make a business out of our pigs. It was all systems go.

 

Our Planning Consultant made a visit and we discussed the position of our mobile home in the barn. She suggested it would be better positioned elsewhere on our land and we agreed. We used a large area of the barn for storage of machinery, feed and bedding and moving the mobile home would give us more space to utilise. The only problem was we would be prone to a lot of the bad weather in the winter months. She did all the plans, outlined in red as required and her report of course included all the relevant pps7 guidelines and planning acts etc it was very comprehensive, all the T&I's crossed and dotted. Our agri consultant did an excellent report, 1000% better than the first one we had had done. This chap is extremely qualified in what he does and it has recently come to my attention that LPA's also use him if they want to challenge other applications. We have found him to be very honest in what he does and says and trust his judgement 100%. All this of course comes at a price and certainly is not cheap, but you only get what you pay for as I have said before.

 

Now, one of the important aspects of all this is can we make the necessary financial figures required. We had to produce our business plan which was to be submitted with our planning application. Over a period of a few days we worked all the figures out. It did seem that we could do this but we would have to add value to our product. Just selling weaners was not going to make us any money. I have infact put some of these figures on a previous post if anyone is interested, but of course this will be out of date due to the ridiculous rising costs of feed and fuel. The business plan was put down on paper and our Planning Consultant submitted our application for a Temporary Residential Mobile Home. Well that was it, it was in. It was a good feeling to know that someone was on our side and dealing with all the paperwork, emails, telephone calls etc. Now all we had to do was wait for the decision.

 

We are very experienced at selling at Farmers Markets and decided that our best outlet would be to sell direct to the public at these and also try to stock a few local outlets, farm shops, delis etc. This we found initially to be rather difficult. There are lots of meat people on farmers markets, so we had to push the fact that we are local, that we are product specific and all the meat is from our own outdoor reared animals, not bought in. Eventually we convinced the necessary organisers and obtained a stall at the relevant markets. The hard work had now begun.

 

Our herd of pigs was growing, we had some of our own litters, the odd gilt was picked out and added to our breeding stock, but we also had to buy in some 8 week old weaners to bring on as we couldnt produce enough of our own to satisfy our meat requirement at markets. Eventually we will be totally self productive. Our business was growing. It is the hardest work that we have ever done. We were breeding, marketing and selling our product. It was not easy, we were working all day 7 days a week and into the evenings and hubby had a fulltime job aswell. We were making money but where was it all. Our feed bill was growing and we were reinvesting in equipment, machinery, pig arcs etc thank goodness one of us had a paid job. Suddenly a bombshell dropped, hubby was to be made redundant

[admin]

Well, what do we do now, neither of us had a paid job which meant no regular money was coming in. Hubbys redundancy money would only last so long. Was this the push we needed to try to make a real success of what we were doing. I suppose having a job actually takes the pressure off money wise and can also make you lazy in your endeavours. Jobs are not easy to get in this day and age so we didnt really have a choice. Our business had to be a success so we threw ourselves into trying to get outlets for our meat products. We discovered that having a stall at farmers markets was by far our best chance of making any real money. In the meantime I thought it may be possible for me to get a part time job and luckily I was successful, although I could never earn the sort of money we had coming in before but at least it was something regular.

 

Time went by and eventually we thought it was time for a decision on our planning application for a temporary mobile home. Of course they never decide in the alloted 8 weeks, but all seemed to be going smoothly. We were so very nervous about what the decision would be when we received the letter from the LPA.

 

Success decision APPROVED!!!! but only for 2 years. This is because of the time we had already been living in the mobile home, legally and illegally. They gave us until December 2011, that was 2 years ago. So now our big problem was making a success of a 3 year business plan in just 2 years.

 

So there you have it. I have condensed it all down somewhat and there have been many highs and lows over the past 4 years since moving into the mobile home. At times even to the extent of giving it all up because of the stress invloved, but we got thur it and carried on because this is what we want to do. I cant stress enough how difficult it has been sometimes, particularly on the financial side. We had decided that we could only invest so much money in our business as we are not millionaires and it would have to support itself. No sooner had we earnt the money from sales, then out it went to pay some bill or other, but eventually it has got better and we are hoping that our accountant comes back with some good figures for our next application which has to be in by December 2011.

 

Will we be applying for a permanent agricultural workers dwelling or maybe an extension for 12 months for our temporary permission in the mobile home. That is the question

[admin]

Well, now I am in real time so to speak and can post what has happened today. Absolutely nothing, no farmers markets, no births, no deaths but I have managed to do some washing and cleaning hooray lol. The biggest problem today is the handle on the washing machine door is broken so is difficult to open. This is the 3rd washing machine I have had in 4 years, the problem being winter when everything freezes up and the machine becomes useless. My god Im obsessed with washing machines, get a grip.

 

Yesterday however was a good day as we attended our best farmers market and our takings were up yet again. This market is our local one, only up the road a short distance. We have many followers here and in 2 years we have increased our takings by 400% wow!!! We had some great comments from our customers: it was the best belly pork we have ever had, are you taking orders for christmas yet, please please tell me when is the black pudding coming back? and do you have a farm shop?

 

The amount of people that ask, do you have a farm shop? is quite amazing. Unfortunately I have to say no but we are working on it. This will of course involve a planning application as we do not have any spare buildings to convert. I suppose I could use a touring caravan, then I wouldnt need permission. Just one more thing to think about.....

[admin]

I have finally purchased THE BOOK. It is yet to arrive, hopefully tomorrow. I am so looking forward to reading it. Also I think it only right to purchase it as I have had such a good time on this forum and felt I needed to give something back.

 

Nothing to report today agriculturally, but sad news is our labrador has cancer. She has a bad sore on her muzzle and there is nothing the vets can do about it Im afraid. She has also picked up some sort of infection and has to have an operation tomorrow to spey her. She's not having a good time at present and we are missing her terribly as she is staying overnight at the vets.

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We are totally devastated. Our beloved 10 year old labrador passed away yesterday during her operation. Apart from the speying, she needed to have her spleen removed as it had growths all over it and unfortunately the vet could not stop the bleeding. We collected her this morning and have laid her to rest in the garden. Forgive me for no agri info as I cannot think of anything else at the moment.

[admin]

We are still missing our beloved lab very badly. When I wake up in the morning it seems so still and there is no wagging body to greet us. I comfort myself by thinking she is only in the garden, I can go and sit on the bench and have a chat with her. Of course as she has been laid to rest on our land there is absolutely no way on this earth that we will ever leave and it has made us even more determined in our endeavours.

 

Talking of endeavours, things have progressed. Last night we had a visit from our accountant. He has done our books and came with the figures. This is the most important set of figures in our lives. Have we made the required amount from 1 year out of the 3 (we were actually only given 2 years to do a 3 year business plan, due to the length of time we had already been living in our mobile home). Last year we did make a small profit and this year, upto last April WE HAVE DONE IT!!!!!! Our gross profit is way above the minimum agricultural wage. Now I dont want to get excited about this as Im sure something will happen to make things more difficult. Although there is an Alpaca farm about 6 miles up the road that has recently got their permission for a Permanent Agricultural Workers Dwelling and they havent made as much money as we have.

 

Our next phone call will be to our Agricultural Consultant to find out if he thinks its a goer. It all really depends on what he says.

[admin]

Dont worry Groundhog Im sure someone will straighten it up. Now down to business.

 

We actually have 6.1 acres on which we run our pig based enterprise. About 1.5 acres is used for our buildings/yard area and a small pond, the rest is down to grass. At the moment about 1/3 of the rest is used for the pigs, the remainder was left to grass, cut and baled as haylage. We made 13 large bales, kept 4 for the horse and sold the rest. We have to manage our land well to make the most out of it and leave some areas that the pigs have been on fallow for some time, so it can recover. The spare land we have at the moment, until our pig herd grows even more could be used for a few sheep rather than be just sitting there doing nothing. We also have a 32ft x 16ft polytunnel which I used to grow herbs in, but which at present is used for storage. Didnt apply for planning permission, just put it up and had no problems from planners or neighbours. I think this would be good for housing the sheep in the winter months.

 

It may seem that we are keeping many pigs on a small amount of land, but the reality is so different as animals are coming and going all the time and paddocks are being moved about too. They are all very happy and this is proved by the excellent meat that is produced. We have a core ethic which is " to ensure our animals have the best most natural life possible.

 

Our sole intention eventually is to breed all of our own pigs and sell the meat direct to the public. This is the life we have chosen, not to just get a house on our land but because this is what we want to do for the rest of our lives. This of course takes time and our business needs mean that we have to occasionally buy in weaners at aged 8 weeks as demand for our meat has outstripped supply. This need to buy in is reducing as our own herd is growing all the time. We only buy occasionally from a breeder that we know, who has the same ideals as ourselves, produces the same quality pedigree animals but doesnt sell for meat and only breeds for showing. We have our own sows, gilts and boars and eventually we will be a closed herd, which will be much better concerning health matters. We do not lend our boars out at all.

 

Our animals live out in areas which are electric fenced, which means it is much easier to move the animals/paddocks about and are kept in groups which are age related. We do not feed adlib, but use a measured quantity which is worked out to the animals requirements. We do this as we have to make sure the fat ratio is correct, which I think should be approx 15mm (but need to check this with hubby). We cannot afford to feed adlib as we use tonnes and tonnes each month. In fact we have been lucky and have just negotiated a new price per tonne from £280 to £240 fixed until December.

 

Our animals live in arks which are made by hubby. He has tried a few variations from wooden frame with metal arc shaped sheets to complete wooden structures. There are no floors at all, but we use plenty of straw. We are on clay and it is no problem having no floors, they do stay dry in the wet we have found. Also all wooden structures seem better heat wise, warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

 

Now, I am going to open up to you a bit more. We are not afraid of competition, but there are only so many farmers markets and many many meat producers. Although I think it good that the general public are being exposed to so much great meat.

 

We do not sell weaners at all, you will not make any money doing this!! you will have to add value to make any money. We do this by selling our meat at farmers markets. You will make the most money from selling sausages, bacon and gammon as this provides added value to pork. At some markets we are able to do a BBQ which really does bring in good money. The public will have a sausage bap, then buy your sausages. 2 hits then from 1 customer, great!You will of course have to produce quality meat so that your customers come back again and the best way to do this is to use a traditional breed of pig. The general public are becoming more educated and are realising what good food should be like, so you need to exploite this (for want of a better word).

 

I will say it is not easy and you have to have plenty of confidence when dealing with customers at a farmers market. You have to SELL your products, TALK to people and TELL them about what you are doing. I think the word is pro-active. Eventually you will build up a customer base and word will get round. We have people who follow us from market to market. You need to start small and build up your product base. Keep it interesting by expanding into different things. We are not situated on a main road, so if we had stayed at home and just put a sign out I doubt many people would know about us.

[admin]

We have had a really busy weekend with markets/events all day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and sold everything we needed to, so today we have had a small rest, although of course all the normal jobs had to be done. One of our girls is due to farrow tomorrow Tuesday and she is HUGE!!! so she is now inside building her nest and getting ready. Hubby is soon to be busy building more Arks for our growing herd, so a trip to the agri merchant for supplies is imminent.

 

I am busy with trying to get our accounts upto date as it is nearly the end of September already and our application has to be in by 11 December. I am going to ask our accountant if he can do a short report stating what our earnings are upto the date of the application, so the LPA can see that our profits have grown quite considerably even though we are not at our year end of April. Upto now (5 months worth of accounts) it looks like we have increased our gross profits on last year by 90% which is great and we have also managed to reduce the cost of our feed by £40 per tonne. We just need to keep the momentum going.....

[admin]

A quick update on where we are up to.

 

One of our ladies, Barbie, farrowed on 23rd September, she was 3 days late as she was due on the 20th. She had a healthy 9 piglets. I have to say for our girls that is a relatively small number as we seem to have between 10 and 12 each time one of them farrows. Anyway, very happy. She is such a good mother, in fact all of our girls seem good mothers, I suppose we are lucky.

 

We have managed to get a second cut although we didnt do it ourselves this time. We let the farmer next door come and do the whole job. He will just pay us for it as we dont actually need the haylage. It has been done into big bales and been wrapped. He only cut about 3 acres but got 10 big bales off it, which we think was really good as he rekonned he would only get 6! We only put pig muck on it last year, which I would highly recommend and looking at it today it is still growing. I said to hubby "maybe we can get another cut off it ha ha ha

 

At the moment I am making notes about anything I can think of, cos our agricultural consultant is coming on Friday for a meeting. We are hoping he will be positive about what we have done so far and will be happy for us to put our permanent application in, so if anyone can think of anything that might help please let me know in the General Comments forum

 

Thats about it for now, please keep your fingers and anything else crossed!

[admin]

Well, we had the visit from our Agricultural Consultant. We were so nervous when we saw him driving down the lane. He is such an honest consultant we were worried he might decide it was not worth carrying on for some reason. When we first met him over 2 years ago he said it was possible he might not take our case on if he didnt think it was viable.

 

Anyway his verdict was yes it is a goer, but we need to get our accountant to do a 6 monthly report from April to now, then we will guesstimate (for want of a better word) the next 6 months. Animal wise we do still need to get our numbers up even higher as we have not quite met the original target on our business plan. He also said it was unreasonable that we were given only 2 years by the LPA to fulfill a 3 years business plan and they may allow us to extend our temporary permission for another 12 months. I have to say personally, I would rather not live another 12 months in our mobile home and would prefer to go for full permission. He said before any application is made he will speak informally to the planning department to see what their thoughts are. Luckilly for us none of our consultants previous applications have gone to committee and he thinks this is because he has actually done reports for the LPA themselves in the past. So as he is known to our LPA I am looking on it as a good omen. (it will all go wrong now Ive said that).

 

We also talked about the new NPPF and discussions about it were due to complete shortly and in his opinion it would become policy by the end of the year. That could be good news for F2Fers as the financial test would become obsolete, hopefully making life a little bit easier.

 

Will be speaking to our Planning Consultant shortly aswell to get the ball rolling with all the paperwork etc and we do also need to sort out an architect. This is the fun bit, actually deciding on what you actually want housewise. Everything takes such a long time to come to fruition, to be honest I am totally worn out. I work away from the farm all day on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we do our deliveries on Thursdays and then markets all day on Saturdays and Sundays and sometimes Fridays its no wonder Im kna.....rd.

 

Cant say we havent worked for it!!!

 

Over the last couple of years our plan was to buy in some older gilts to bring on, but there has been such a lot of pig breeders going out of business, it was hard to find quality stock. Luckilly we have found a lot of what we have bred ourselves is good enough to register and breed from. Doing this though has put our plan a bit behind with regard to stocking levels, as of course it takes a few months extra to bring these gilts to maturity for breeding. Our last litter had 7 females of which it looks like 6 are fit for breeding, amazing, time will tell of course.

 

Busy weekend coming up, food festival all day Saturday and Sunday and a normal farmers market on Sunday. Its a good job we have help.

 

My sheep idea is on the back burner at the moment, there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything and I am rather pre-occupied with the planning aspect. When our application goes in I dont expect to have any decision until next year. Another agonising wait, my nerves cant take much more. Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.......

[admin]

Well, things are beginning to hot up a bit now although the damp is starting to set in again, winter is on its way although sometimes its still quite warm (if you know what i mean). Nothing has happened animal wise that is out of the ordinary, pigs have farrowed and gone back to the boar again. Some of our markets are getting better and some are not. In the new year we think we might drop the ones that are not so good.

 

The best thing for us that has happened recently is that we have won an award. We are now a Food Hero of the Year 2011 - 2012. We went to a glitzy awards ceremony in a large hotel and had a very enjoyable meal.  Hopefully this may bring in some work but we are not holding our breaths. The hard work still goes on...

 

We have had our accounts done for the 6 months from April to October and our accountant has also done a forecast for the next 6 months, as this will be needed for the LPA. Our agricultural consultant was very pleased with the figures and had a long discussion with our planning consultant about whether to put an application in for an extension to our temporary permission or a full application for an agricultural workers dwelling. Our planning consultant thinks it would be a good idea to have a pre-application chat with the LPA to see what their thoughts are. She said this would give a good indication of how they are thinking and what the best course of action should be. We really need to avoid putting an application in "blind" and having it refused. Of course the LPA dont do this for free, it costs us £200. Oh well, we will just add it to the humungous bill from the planning consultant.

 

On a brighter positive note our consultant suggested we contact an architect to organise some drawings. We have had a visit from 1 upto now. We told him what we would like, a 1 and a half storey house with 3 bedrooms and it needs to be under 200 sq mtrs. That seems to be the maximum size which is allowed under an agricultural application He took down lots of notes and I told him we would contact him again after we have had the pre-application meeting with the LPA. We will I think ask a couple of others to quote aswell.

 

So, just waiting for the appointment to come thru, which should be reasonably soon, as our application has to be in by 11 December. Oh dear more waiting......

[admin]

Well we had the meeting all 5 of us, consultants, me, hubby and the planner. His first reaction to what was said was no. So then our consultants got to work, pointing this and that out to him and asking him "would you REALLY be prepared to go to appeal on that. Plenty was said and in the end he was turned around and suggested we put in a full application. So we are now working on the drawings with our architect, to get them ready for submission by 11 Dec.

 

Some of the things that came out of the meeting were:

 

He told us that the council would only accept a dwelling with a maximum of upto 140sq metres but our consultant pointed out to him that it was usual to have a maximum of 140 to 200 sq mtrs and where did he get his figures from as there was nothing in planning guidelines to confirm his figure. He couldnt really answer the question. It seemed like he had just made it up as he went along.

 

The planner also said that from 1st April 2012 the planning application fee would be changing from £335 to any amount they felt like charging and the fee they would charge could be £1000 if they liked. They would see what other local authorities would be charging. He said he was sure that would put plenty of people off from making any applications and laughed when he said it. This had come from the government apparently.

 

The planner tried to make us extend our temporary permission for another 2 years and maybe put in our full application after 12 months. Our consultants pointed out to him that all this extra cost would be better spent invested in our business and they generally ripped him to pieces.

[admin]

We have instructed an architect to produce a drawing to submit to the LPA with our application for an agricultural workers dwelling. He came yesterday and took measurements of where the house is going and all the details of what we wanted.

 

Our planning consultant has confirmed to us that nowhere in any of the guidelines does it say it has to be a maximum of 140sq metres and that we should go ahead with our plan for 150sq metres. Although it is generally accepted there is a maximum of 200sq metres, but even that is not set in stone. Lets face it though, its not a mansion is it. We only want something that is liveable/modest as of course we will have to fund it and heat it.

 

This does feel like a positive step, but I am finding it quite difficult to get excited until the paperwork comes thru with approved stamped all over it. The planning dept are about 5 weeks behind at the moment, so it will be well into next year before we get any decision. This planning thing is all consuming at the moment but we must not take our foot off the pedal regarding the business. This is our busiest time of the year and we have such a lot of events coming up, there probably wont be much time left for anything else......

[admin]

Our Planning Consultant has emailed me a copy of the report from the pre application meeting. After a couple of pages of what we already know, his final statement was " Therefore, I am of the opinion given that the enterprise has been financially sound for 2.5 years and there is a clear prospect of the business remaining so. Therefore, given the information in the meeting the proposal for a permanent agricultural workers dwelling at the site is likely to receive officer support.

 

I am taking this as a positive outcome. Apparently if they now refuse our application we can use this report against them so to speak.

 

We have also finalised our drawing for the house. A modest 149sq mtr 3 bedroomed 1 and a half storey. We have tried to comply with the LPAs wishes and kept it small. The planning/agricultural consultants reports should be ready early next week, then the application can be sent in.

 

We are so busy at the moment with markets and events, there will be 7 pigs going in tomorrow. This is the part I dont like and I dont think I ever will get used to it. I remind myself that we give our pigs a very natural life but it is still hard......

[KChally]

Hi All,

 

After my diary was unfortunately deleted by admin, but then reinstated somewhat as above, I feel I would now like to bring it all upto date.

 

We got our full planning permission for an agricultural dwelling and oak frame garage some time ago, based on our pig rearing business. We haven't started the house yet but we have finished the garage, which we are using as a farm shop. We are still doing some farmers markets selling our sausages, bacon etc. There are far too many farmers markets popping up at the moment and I feel many of them will be doomed. There is only so much money available from the public to be spent, therefore I think only the larger markets with more to offer will survive.

 

Sales through the farm shop are "a good start" and we hope to build on this as word gets out. Of course I expect some negative comments from some of our neighbours/local farmers who seem to be against us to a certain degree. I think this is because we are "townies done good" and they dont like it.

 

We contacted the Camping and Caravanning Club hoping to maybe have a few caravans and tents to bring in a few extra quid over the summer months and would you believe it the farmer next door got a petition going against it. Because of this petition our application will be going to their committee in the spring, so we will have to wait and see what the outcome is....