Advice on converting ag land to grazing

[Deborahm]

Hi All

I need to pick your brains. I currently have my horses on DIY livery at a yard in my village, and commute a hour each way to work. I exploring whether to move closer to work and buy a house where I could keep the horses at home.

I have seen a house for sale that has 1.5 acres, but I have 3 horses so that wouldn't be enough land, particularly as the house doesn't have stables yet so I'd have to use some of that area to put in a yard.

However the farmer who owns the next door land has said he'd be willing to sell me a 3.5 acre and an 8 acre of his agricultural land next to the house. I have no idea about such things, as this would all be a new project for me.

What sort of price would be usual for the south for buying such land? It's currently ploughed after being recently harvested, so would need to be sown back to grass. I'm not sure how good the fencing/hedging is either. What sort of costs per acre should I budget for converting agricultural land over to grazing?

Any budget advice/tips would be much appreciated.

 

[HazellB]

Hi All


However the farmer who owns the next door land has said he'd be willing to sell me a 3.5 acre and an 8 acre .....

If you afford it, grab it with both hands quick. They don't make land any more, as an agent I know is fond of saying!

I bought a field full of potatoes about 12 years ago, unfenced and never out of corn/spud use. In return for getting his crop out after the sale, the farmer knocked over and rolled the land ready for us to seed ourselves. We're hand-on people, so seeded with our own mix (bought over the net, I think) by fiddle (an ancient hand-powered thing that is damned hard work but fun). With so many acres, you'll need to hire somebody to do the job as I think three arces a day by fiddle are about the maximum anybody would do.

I bought hawthorn mail order bare-rooted and planted them myself. I now grow and sell them from the land, but honestly cannot tell you how much young hedge plants will cost you these days as I only sell pot grown more mature ones. I'll guess hedge shrubs at three year olds will be less than a quid each and you need three per metre for a horse hedge that's managable in the future yet fills out within seven years.

My land was almost instantly under the noses of the council as I applied for planning, so it became non-agri on the maps that way. Future land we've bought has stayed as argi as we've not built on it at all, so avoiding higher council tax bills. What I'm saying is, leave the land as separate from your home on paper to avoid higher taxes. It's legal to own the field next door, yet still not have it as part of your dwelling land/garden, and build on it to some extent (with permission of course).

No idea on land costs in your area, but there is a database of prices somewhere on the net. It's five to seven grand an acre here, but smaller plots aimed at horse owners are double or treble the price of land sold as 'farmland'. As usual, anyone selling wants to most they can get, so be aware that horse owners are seen as daft enough to pay anything and haggle all you can!

Hope this helps.

 

[martlin]

Around my area, decent quality arable land in medium size parcels seems to be fetching around £6K ish, getting nearer £8K if deemed suitable for future ''pony grazing'' and in smaller sizes.
Converting to pasture is not particularly difficult or expensive, just time consuming.
Grass seed will cost you in the region of £30-£50 per acre depending on mixture, you will probs need to pay somebody to drill it at around £15 - £30 per acre.
One way or another decent, permanent fencing will cost about £10 per metre, although you can easily spend twice that.
You are to late now in the year to drill grass for permanent pasture, so it would have to be a spring job. If you look after it intensively, constantly cutting and rolling, and if your soil is good, you should be able to graze it by October.

 

[Gluttonforpunishment]

You need to be aware that you although you don't need to apply to the council for change of use if you are ONLY using the land for grazing BUT if you use it for schooling in or do ANYTHING in there other than pure grazing you will have to apply for a change of use.

Some councils enforce this ruling more diligently than others but if you want to put in a field shelter, bring in an external feed source i.e. hay, or even use put in some trotting poles they are quite within the rules to insist you apply for change of use & they can and do refuse permission.

Have an informal chat with a local agricultural surveyor and test the water as to how easy they think it would be in your area.

 

[Deborahm]

Thanks all, your replies are very helpful, as I am a total novice at all this. I think if we do go ahead we may use machinery though! Thanks also for the warnings about needing to wait until next year to graze it and alos about planning permission.