Qu. for farmers/land owners.

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celia

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Hope this is in the right place. We have some spare grazing that a neighbour is interested in renting for his sheep but have no idea how much to charge him. Could anyone give me an idea of how much we are looking at per acre, each year? Thanks.
 
Depends on the quality and demand locally. £0-£150/acre/year or 30-80p/head/week. If he's a neighbour best just to ask him what he would offer, you might do a deal for some meat for the freezer for instance.
 
Is the fencing in place, who checks the sheep and hays and waters if needed. Is there a water supply to the field/s? Also make sure it is a proper agreement for less than 365 days otherwise you might lose rights to the land.

The quality and aspects above will determine the rent - if you want lamb to eat then a nominal rent plus x sheep killed and jointed can work well, ESP given the gulf between the retail and ex farm lamb prices
 
I have 8 acres I won't need to mow this year so I rang 2 local agents who deal with agriculture/land. They were happy to advise - (£70 - £100 per acre for 6 months) but as above, depends on the quality of the land and the demand in your area. Find local agents to ask (those who run the local cattle/sheep auction for example) as a starting point.
 
Often a good option can be to get a hay crop off it in summer whether to use or sell, and then rent the land out in the winter for sheep. That way the sheep fertilise the land replacing the nutrients.
 
Cross grazing with sheep or cattle is a good way to mop up worms that affect horses, so don't forget to include that in your calculation. Let some other poor sod do the sheep herding!
 
Thanks for the replies. Should probably have included a little more detail in my first post. It will be 40-50 acres and is average quality for the area. Grazing land locally is in fairly high demand - I know of two other guys who would be interested, but neighbour is a helpful chap and we've given him first refusal. Perimeter fencing is good (mostly walls topped with barbed wire) and there is a stream running through the fields. We already cut hay from a couple of other fields and the ones we're thinking of letting out are not best suited to that anyway. We did ask a friendly local farmer and he seemed to think £50 per acre, per year was about right but I wanted to get some more advice/opinions in case this was way too much/little as I really don't have a clue!
 
Only thing I would suggest is getting a proper agreement in place, friend or no friend having learnt from a neighbour's bitter experience when they let to the next neighbour and then he wouldn't get off even when they wanted to sell the field with their bungalow. They've had to almost write that field off and the price on the bungalow was nearly £100,00 cheaper than it would have been with that land.
 
With water and fencing it sounds a little low,but if it's a neighbour you get on with and you know they won't cause you problems (eg they will move the stock on or before the agreed date etc, deal with any escapees etc) then that might be worth more to you than getting a bit more from a flying tack grazier who has scabby sheep in every parish.

I would speak than agric auctioneer/agent - thainstone in Inverurie or similar would know of someone probably, to check what the going rate would be, you might still go with it but best to know if you are conf doing them a good deal, and for them to know you know too....
 
^This.

Another farmer here. There will soon be grass sales, sold by auction through your local auctioneers. (Gosh! I am so logical!:D). The prices are usually announced in the farming columns of your local newspaper -- and probably on line if you look. The recent scandal over horse meat is doing strange things to the livestock markets and rents for grazing could be anyone's guess. 40 - 50 acres is an attractive size.
 
We've got a ten acre field which a local farmer "buys the grass" in. i.e. we own it and he grazes the sheep there.

He pays us £500 per annum. Sheep are not there all year round, they are put in there to graze as and when, like now when we've got ewes & lambs. There is piped mains water plus a rainwater trough collecting water from the stable roof. Good road access as well.

Horses are in a divided-off part of the field (approx 3 acres) and graze alongside the sheep.

Hope this helps.
 
Wow would love to be in UK ....good grazing land here currently making €180-250 per acre and land rent for crops is up on €300
 
MillionDollar said:
I'm a farmer and we have just rented out a field for £100 per acre per year for sheep grazing.
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Crikey. I have 800 acres, and I'm paid to graze it, different land, I realise, but there's no where in East Anglia that I know of, which would command such a price. You must have someone who's desperate!

The simple economics, as you will realise, are that a ewe with two lambs will need an acre, at least, for herself and her growing lambs. If each lamb is to cost the producer £50 for summer grass, without the additional costs of keeping the ewe through the winter, and with the current downward trend in lamb prices, then I'd say you've done very well. I also suspect that your grazier will struggle to earn a living.

Alec.
 
Alec Swan said:
Crikey. I have 800 acres, and I'm paid to graze it, different land, I realise, but there's no where in East Anglia that I know of, which would command such a price. You must have someone who's desperate!

The simple economics, as you will realise, are that a ewe with two lambs will need an acre, at least, for herself and her growing lambs. If each lamb is to cost the producer £50 for summer grass, without the additional costs of keeping the ewe through the winter, and with the current downward trend in lamb prices, then I'd say you've done very well. I also suspect that your grazier will struggle to earn a living.

Alec.
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Nope, not desperate, just what the going rate is around here!
 
Slightly off topic, but I want to graze some land on a similar basis for my 3 ponies. I have my own land but it's not big enough to keep them on in winter as well as supplying enough grass throughout summer. So I like to graze them elsewhere for part of the summer.
How much would you farmers charge me for grazing? Assuming I only have the ponies there april at earliest and off by october. Not wanting livery, facilities etc, just the grass. I have lots electric fencing.
Just want to compare prices if poss please? Shortbread and coffee for anyone who wants it
 
Alec Swan said:
Crikey. I have 800 acres, and I'm paid to graze it, different land, I realise, but there's no where in East Anglia that I know of, which would command such a price. You must have someone who's desperate!

The simple economics, as you will realise, are that a ewe with two lambs will need an acre, at least, for herself and her growing lambs. If each lamb is to cost the producer £50 for summer grass, without the additional costs of keeping the ewe through the winter, and with the current downward trend in lamb prices, then I'd say you've done very well. I also suspect that your grazier will struggle to earn a living.

Alec.
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My land is not particularly good but at the end of one summer I had 250 sheep on 25 acres AND I'd cut 10 acres of hay!

(80 Lleyn ewes at 200% lambing = 240. Sheep were moved between paddocks every few days).
 
I think you should get specialist advice. Consider, would he let you have something cheaper than the going rate? I have one field of 25 acres we pay 44 an acre for. The land agent reckons its worth 80 an acre. No one else wants it, so at the moment, we have it cheap.

If yours is good grass 50/acre is probably too little. If its rushy boggy ground in places, that's probably right.
 
HardySoul1 said:
Slightly off topic, but I want to graze some land on a similar basis for my 3 ponies. I have my own land but it's not big enough to keep them on in winter as well as supplying enough grass throughout summer. So I like to graze them elsewhere for part of the summer.
How much would you farmers charge me for grazing? Assuming I only have the ponies there April at earliest and off by October. Not wanting livery, facilities etc, just the grass. I have lots electric fencing.
Just want to compare prices if poss please? Shortbread and coffee for anyone who wants it
Click to expand...

You could try offering £100 per acre for the horses May to the the end of September.
Can I haver chocolate shortbread and a cappuccino?
 
Sheep keep is around 30p-40p per head here, the price has barely changed in 25 years. Renting land on a £/per acre basis is a more permanent arrangement and the best way to avoid pitalls (such as grazers creating a tenancy by staying there too long) is to do everything through a land agent. The good old fashioned barter system can work very well, with no £ changing hands, eg farmer cuts your weed/hay/hedges and gets grass keep for a few weeks foc.
 
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