Mastodawn

Got some trouble with the hay baroness, who used to mow our meadow for the price of taking the hay. Now she reneged on the deal and wants money as well as the hay. Not sure how much yet, she's "calculating".

Meanwhile I'm calculating our alternatives:

1. Buy a flail mulcher for the tractor and do it ourselves. Hay is wasted but we're not dependent on someone else. Initial cost, but gain a mulcher.

2. Pay someone to cut, turn and bale the hay, then sell the bales ourselves. Depending on prices, we may make money or lose it and end up with a bunch of tractor eggs sitting around. Risky.

3. Find someone else who will accept the original deal and mow for the hay, preferably someone nice and local. We'll ask around a bit.

Prefer 3 because no work for me.

#Hay #Farm #Farming #Homestead

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wedge May 26

@yngmar

She’s probably reacting to the oil/gas prices hikes.

Maybe another alternative to float her is a return to the original deal when the war is over.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Or… a tree farm.

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Aethon May 26

@wedge @yngmar

4th option. Silviculture with grazing for animals. Plant cover fruit and nut trees, rent the ground for spring grazing. Bad year, you get fruit to sell. Good year you might even get a cut of hay as well if anyone is interested.

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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar May 26

@tempusfelix @wedge We would like to reforest it, but this is not a hobby garden, its an agricultural plot which is subject to a myriad of regulations. One being you can't just plant trees on it.

Want to plant a forest? Make a project, gain a minimum of points from some point system that requires you to plant certain species of tree only and not more than a few of other species (e.g. oaks are very restricted for some reason) and then plant those specific tree species that you must buy in specific quantities from a certified seedling seller for mucho money, then do other stuff in the following 30 years (that part is actually okay, the first is insane).

Fruit trees make an orchard, not a forest. Thats a different project! Welcome to farming!

Animals? Huh, where did they come from? 😆

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Aethon

@yngmar @wedge

Apologies. I run a small holding but with I suspect very different rules. Planting trees is positively encouraged if you can factor it into your land management plan. We laid out the orchard to allow for the compact tractor to fit around them and have local people who want to graze their horses or sheep for a few weeks. The main field we have a contractor from a local vintage tractor association cut and bale.

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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar May 26

@tempusfelix @wedge Yes, I think the UK has actually pretty good rules for small farms. Here there isn't really anything like that, so small farms often get crushed under the weight of rules made for big farms.

There is a financial support programme for young people starting farming, but basically its just to buy big equipment on a loan and become big farmers in a hurry. It has very little uptake, unsurprisingly. 🤷