Smallholder Taster Weekend

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If you have always wanted to keep a smallholding, but don't know where to start, this two day weekend course is designed for you. Come and look round our smallholding and discuss land requirements, time commitment, skills and knowledge needed. Very similar to our Taster Day, this course gives you the time to discuss things in more depth, spend more time with the animals and look at a wider range of topics.

Unlike many other places offering smallholding courses, we have done it ourselves from scratch, not inherited it and we have 11 acres, not 100, so we can talk with experience about what you need to know.

We will look at all the livestock in turn - hens, ducks, geese, sheep, cattle, pigs and bees. We will guide you through the process of deciding where to start and what to do next.

 

Programme

Day One:
Buying a smallholding – size, location, uses etc. Includes a discussion about land types, stocking density, rotational grazing, organic principles etc
Keeping your livestock in - Hedging, fencing and buildings. The essentials and the luxuries.
Starting small – poultry and waterfowl are a good way to start out producing your own meat and eggs. Options for housing and welfare, meeting our chickens, ducks and geese and looking at their different needs.
Keeping Bees – an interesting and rewarding addition to the smallholding. The equipment, skills and time needed, plus a guided tour of our Apiary
Day Two:

Larger Livestock – Pigs, Sheep, Cattle or all three? Where to buy them and what to get? Healthcare, feeding, handling and breeding. Producing/selling your own meat - abattoirs and butchers.
Tools and Equipment – a look round the holding at what we use. Course divides into a Tractor Handling Session, including a range of implements or a Wildlife Habitat Creation Course, looking at wildflowers, birds and insects and what you can do to help them.
Paperwork – Legal requirements, regulations and insurance. The boring bit!
Renewable energy & sustainable development – a discussion of the options available and a tour of our solar panels, water recycling, composting etc

The lecturer is Jules Moore.