If you want to live a simple life out in the wilderness, there are so many ways you can do that. And if you are keen for this to be as effective as possible, financially as well as otherwise, then one important way to be able to achieve that is by having a smallholding. This is essentially a place where you have land, you live, and you have a few agricultural projects in place at any one time. And it can be a great way to spend your time if you are keen on being in the great outdoors.
But to set up a smallholding, you will first need to know what’s ahead of you and how to be prepared. So let’s take a look at some of the things you’ll need to think about if you want to make the most of this and really enjoy it.
What Counts As A Smallholding?
So first of all, let’s discuss what a smallholding technically is, and how you can know whether or not you have one in place. This is something that you will really need to know about first if you want to make a success of it and enjoy it. As it happens, a smallholding is a relatively simple thing to build up once you know about the fundamentals involved in it.
Essentially, you can consider something a smallholding if it is a piece of land that you use for the rearing of animals or the cultivation of vegetables and fruit plants, or both. It is usually smaller than a farm, and very often you will live on it at the same time.
As you might imagine, there are a lot of ways to approach having your own small holding, and it’s something that you should be able to do in a variety of ways. All in all, it is really wonderful as a way of life, as you are shortly going to discover.
Following The Rules & Regulations
However, you can’t simply set up a smallholding and do whatever you like. Wherever you are in the world, there are usually going to be certain rules and regulations that you need to follow, and this is something that you will need to take seriously unless you want to land yourself in trouble. For this section, we will assume that you are living and operating your smallholding within the UK.
Some of the rules and regulations in the UK are stricter than in many other parts of the world, and you will need to make sure that you are following them to the letter – if you don’t, you may end up in serious trouble and perhaps even losing your land in some rare cases. First of all and perhaps most importantly, you have to obtain a license from your local council if you are going to raise livestock or poultry.
On top of that, there are rules around caring for the animals you have as livestock. For instance, you need to provide them with a safe and secure environment, and you must give them the necessary shelter, food and other such needs. As far as possible, you need to keep them free of any pests.
There are also restrictions on size if you want to have a smallholding and not be liable for a farm. Specifically, you must keep your smallholding to no more than one acre in size, otherwise other agricultural restrictions will start to apply and you may have to start calling it a farm by law.
There are other detailed restrictions and laws too, and you will discover them as you go deeper into your smallholding journey. But for now, just make sure that you are aware of these major ones as you get started.
Setting Up Your Smallholding
Now we come on to the matter of actually setting up your smallholding. There is so much involved in this, and it’s something that you need to make sure you are thinking about if you want to keep your smallholding from either fizzling out or getting too big. There are just so many details that you need to be aware of too.
First of all is the size of the place. As we have said, this must be kept to under one acre, but you also need to think about what is possible for you in your given situation, and that may mean actually going to far less than an acre anyway. Then you will be ready to start planning out the land and figuring out exactly how you are going to use it, which is obviously an important part of all this too.
Once you have done that, you can start on building whatever houses or shacks you might need, but you have to be careful to obtain the proper planning permissions for any freestanding structures. However, as long as you do get those, this is something that you will certainly want to think about in order to make sure that you are getting going with your smallholding.
There are a few such buildings that might be important. For instance, you might have a wooden shed where you keep tools and so on. This is often a vital building that you will certainly want to make sure you are building well. You might want to get some good quality timber and put it up yourself with glazing bars from the clear amber shop at the top. And you’ll need to secure the roof as well as you can too.
Once you have some building in place, you can then get going on starting to stock your smallholding, and this is something that requires its own particular awareness and understanding.
Stocking Up
This will of course depend hugely on a number of factors, not least where you happen to be and what it is that you are trying to stock up on. For anything to do with livestock, you really want to make sure that you are sourcing them from the best possible places, which means a trusted source that you are genuinely going to be able to trust with it.
And for anything to do with fruits and vegetables, it’s of course best if you can keep it as local as possible, so that you know exactly where it has come from. That is going to be a really vital part of stocking up. Bear in mind that it can take time to stock up, and you might want to make sure that you are thinking about this. It’s the kind of thing that is going to be really important for you to consider.
Finances
There are certainly going to be financial issues involved. First of all, you will want to make sure that you have the necessary means to get started, and that will mean you have to have a proper budget so you know what to expect. But you’ll also need to remember that you are able to profit from a smallholding, as you are able to sell the goods that you are growing. So that is something you need to account for as well.
All in all, you need to be financially astute, and to make sure that you are doing all you can to keep your finances in place. That is going to be hugely important here.
Those are the main things to think about if you want to set up your own smallholding. You should find that these factors are all going to be important.