59 replies to this topic

[Greenbeast]

Hello all,

 

I've been a member since last year when i found out about the book and read it in almost a single session.

My partner and i (the village vet) did initially investigate following the prescribed path exactly.

 

We have since changed things round and a little and will be applying for temporary agricultural planning permission to live there based on our intended business.

 

We're starting a free range traditional breed pig farm in East Sussex.

We are at the tail end of a purchase of 15 acres of pasture and woodland, we should be completing this week.

 

We have already put in our PN for a 464sqm hardstanding at the point of access.

We have also submitted details and requested pre-planning advice (£100!!!) for our temp agri planning.

 

I will try to keep everyone up to date as things progress!

 

 

[Greenbeast]

Contracts and deeds signed, this time next week we hope to be elevated to the lofty position of land-owners

[Greenbeast]

Woohoo, now landowners!

We start work immediately and will be there this weekend preparing ground for the new boundary hedge

[Debs]

Good for you - now the fun starts.  Keep us posted.

[Greenbeast]

Started clearing the access today, and also took down some trees to allow the fencing contractor to get into and through the woodland

 

https://www.facebook...t=video_comment

[Greenbeast]

Water board quoted £900 (inc VAT) for connection and power supplier are saying not less that £2k but we will likely need to pay council for road closure, as they want to go underground, I'm going to query whether we can have a pylon on our land and go over the road instead (we've asked for 45kVA/three phase)

[Greenbeast]

Hedge started going in this weekend, done about 100m so far, another 150m to go

[Greenbeast]

Hedge progressing nicely, should be done by tomorrow lunch time, i'm back at my office job so the g/f is working hard at it

 

In other news, the LPA has advised us our PN is not valid because our proposed hard standing is within 25m of a classified road.

We've countered, however crudely, with: 'well we want our money back then because there is no listing of what is and isn't classified anywhere, so you've just made us pay £eighty to find that out'

[Greenbeast]

Hedge got finished by my lovely g/f, i will sort out pictures later

 

We had a small hardstanding put in so we could access the land and park off the road

We've cleared the tree line down to waist height over a distance of 40-50' with a view to having a container lifted over from the road.

Our tractor is being delivered today, we bought a Zetor 6718 for £1500, it starts and runs, just has no brakes!

So this week i will be getting brake fluid and engine/trans oils to do a partial service at the weekend.

 

We've also bought a post driver to go on the 3 point hitch, there's no hyrdraulics at the rear of this tractor currently, so that is another hurdle.

But once the tractor and post driver are working we will set about putting in a 45x45m starter pen for pigs, it will enable us to get going quickly while we fence the entire boundary (950m!!!) and put in a bigger pig area further from the entrance.

 

THe water trench is in, the digger guy stopped short because he didn't want to pull the bucket through a water main 

So this past weekend i dug an extra metre of trench down to 800mm (still no sign of water main, but i'm getting close to the road)

[Greenbeast]

Brum brum

 

[topper]

cor that brings back memorys I used to drive one of them zetors when they first appeared in this country good tractors that old Russian long stroke engine goes on forever

[Greenbeast]

...good tractors that old Russian long stroke engine goes on forever

 

 

i hope so

[Greenbeast]

Have paid for our water connection (£979 inc vat) and just awaiting a trench inspection and then hopefully a connection will follow shortly after.

 

Fencing had to stop for a while as the tractor had a hydraulic leak, ordered a new part from a supplier up north (amazing for a 40 year old Czech tractor!), but all fixed and will be getting opn with the fencing soon

 

We have had trouble getting a container onsite (dodgy ebayer and haulage issues) so we bought a cheap metal shed, absolute pain in the bum to assemble!

 

We've scavenged a decent sized polytunnel from my parents so we will be erecting that soon as well as putting up a chicken run 

[Greenbeast]

Trench inspection is booked for tomorrow, then  hope to do the installation within 15 working days, i hope so as the first pigs arrive in the first week of june!

 

Hog roast machine arrives tomorrow!

 

Have got a little more fencing done. Pictures to follow after the weekend

 

Pre-application advice for our temporary planning permission has come back very positive so i'm now doing the application on the planning portal

[Greenbeast]

All posts and struts and strainers are in for our 50x50m pig pen, we've started putting net up and the water trenches need running and the pen sub-dividing with electric fencing.

Going to visit an agri auction at the weekend and see what goodies we can get.

 

We've started digging holes for the polytunnel ground tubes as well as getting a plastic shed for our laying hens and starting to erect a chicken run with heras panels (the building site ones, nice and tall and hard to climb for foxes)

 

I rebuilt the bed of our caravan chassis trailer using 22x150mm treated gravel board to make it more sturdy, need to get some lashing eyes install at some point and fix the handbrake!

 

The hog roast machine is massive, can fit 100kg pig in it!

 

Been making good progress on our planning application, Plans are uploaded, all parrts of form complete, just writing a supporting document. Hope to get this in in the next week.

[Greenbeast]

Planning application is in!

Now the waiting starts...

[Greenbeast]

Mains water was finally connected this week, happy days!

 

First pig also arrived, a prizewinning berkshire, she's in-pig and due to farrow in just over a week

 

 

We've also sorted out a chicken run and have populated it with chooks that lay various colours of egg

 

 

Now selling 3-4 boxes a day without effort

[tonydockers]

We have Berkshire pigs they are awesome, shes not on her own is she? Pigs are social animals. What blood lines is ahe?

[Greenbeast]

She's only got a few days alone, we're getting in two more batches in the next week (Tuesday first batch arrives) To be fair she's not doing a lot of pining for company, she's doing a lot of laying down between eating ha ha

 

I'll have to ask my other half about her lines. It does give us the option of registering some piglets if we use pedigree boar AI

[pigsmitefly]

hi Greenbeast, your land looks good, can i ask where in east sussex you are, as thats where im lookingat the mo, wouldnt mind comeing to visit,