Ex dairy land

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Mungbeans, Jul 21, 2006.

  1. Mungbeans

    Mungbeans Junior Member

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    Hubby and I are looking out for land around the sunshine coast and recently found one farm (26 acres) which looks lovely. It was a dairy farm. Many of the dairy farmers in the area are no longer dairy farming because of de-regulation and the contracts going to big agribusiness.

    Are there any issues we should bear in mind when looking at ex-dairy farms?

    The amount of land is a bit intimidating. How commercially viable are orchards? There would also be plenty of room for aquaponics/aquaculture which is another plus.
     
  2. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    Being close to Brisbane you would think that you shouldn't have too much trouble getting any fruit to market, or finding a buyer?

    The thing would be to find a niche market maybe? As long as you can survive the wait until it starts to bring in money.

    :)
     
  3. Mungbeans

    Mungbeans Junior Member

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    We will be lucky in that we will have either no or a small mortgage to worry about, so to start with we will just have to cover our living expenses. Of course there will also be expenses involved in getting the farm set up, so hubby intends to get a job at one of the bigger towns in the region to start with.

    Yes, finding the right niche will obviously be crucial to getting a living from the farm itself.
     
  4. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    I'm not 100% sure...but there's bound to be quite a few markets down around th Sunshine coast....visit them and see what people are growing....fresh fruit and vegetables will always have a market. Even herbs?! Seedlings and seeds....

    I'm in the same boat...no mortage, retired....just wanting to earn some pocket money, so to speak.

    If you're thinking of setting up a fair size orchard etc...then have a good look around Brissy.....see where you might fit into.

    Just do things different to how I have.....I planted my orchard and now am in the postion of trying to get rid of the grass that's in there and replace it with living mulch/mulch etc.....best to do all that first, then plant your trees...

    Spend a year just observing...temps, rainfall, wind, wildlife, pest, all the good stuff.

    :)
     
  5. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    One consideration surely is that ex dairy farms are covered in pasture grasses!
    Compacted soils and erosion would be pretty common on ex dairy land too.
    Of course, these are all reasons for buying them up and restoring them to diverse productivity by Permaculture methods!
    How much is that much land on the sunny coast going for these days?
    That really is a beautiful part of the world, even if it is on the road to overdevelopment...
     
  6. Mungbeans

    Mungbeans Junior Member

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    Yes indeed. Very lush pasture grasses. That was one of the reasons I asked. It will take a lot of work to replace the grass with crops.

    A very big hole in $500K. I found that anything under 5 acres would already have a big expensive house on it - so we would be paying for the house rather than the land, which is really what we are interested in.
     
  7. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Yeah, so much money, eh? Still, a bargain compared to land on Maui... :cry: Good for you that you can afford to buy it without a mortgage! Did you rob a bank? 8) :lol:
    I don't know what the work situation in those regional centres is like, but years ago when I lived there, I knew quite a few people who commuted to Brisbane for their day jobs... It is a lot of driving though. The train service isn't that bad I suppose.
     
  8. frosty

    frosty Junior Member

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    I would have the land tested for herbicide residues

    we lived next door to a dairy farm and he sprayed Roundup once a week then let his cattle onto it because they would eat the weeds while the Roundup made them sweet :shock:

    Rounmdup has been found to persist in the soil for 3 years although the pro Roundup idiots still keep saying it is not residual :evil:

    there will also probably be a lot of problems causeed by years of superphosphate and it will require extensive ( and costly ) remineralisation

    frosty
     
  9. Mungbeans

    Mungbeans Junior Member

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    Nah, the gods of real estate smiled on us.

    Yes, I figured compaction and soil structure might be a problem, which is why I asked.

    These are some of the factors we are weighing into our decision. I can't imagine we could hope for even a small income in the first three years or so. Its a pain as it means that during the time when the most work will need to be done on the property, one of us will be travelling to work each day.

    We are currently tossing up the benefits of aquaponics, worm farming, organic vegetables and maybe all three. If we can get a reasonable amount of land then orchards seem the go. We will be reluctant to get any large animals, mainly because we don't know anything about animal husbandry. If a crop suffers and dies from our lack of knowledge it isn't a catastrophe - animals are another thing again.
     
  10. Tezza

    Tezza Junior Member

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    Hiya Mungbeans..How are ya 26 acres yes sounds greatLucky buggers

    If I had Land here Id Probly Use it to grow trees Trees for Mulching,Firewood
    etc......


    My Idea would be to Grow fast growing Trees. Eg Tagasasties......Id Put Chooks under them,to scratch,wead the place as the trees grow older...Id Run The chooks as Open Range and sell and develop the chooks in various markets,chooks,meat,eggs etc Interspersed with fruit trees to satisfy your food supplies,and also for sale..If water is available Id Mix it up with Aquaponics.Then to Add further Income If needed You could put a few camp sites in for weary Permie Travellers...

    Tezza
     
  11. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    g'day mungbean,

    i'd suggest include a contaminated land search in your searches make that along with other searches part of the settlement deal. if the property has/had a cattle dip on it that could be a concern, i've seen issues where this has impacted on what people want to do with their land.

    len
     
  12. Sonya

    Sonya Junior Member

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    Hi Mungbeans,

    The coast has a good set up for certified organic produce. There are community supported agriculture systems, farmers markets and the Mayor of Maroochydore has stated a few times that he is looking to develop the coast as an organic destination.

    Just personally, I know there is a need for organic mulch up here - always in demand.

    There are lots of permaculture groups too, (four on the Coast between Caloundra and Cooroy), PDC's a plenty, there's Crystal Waters, school permaculture gardens, community gardens and I've been approached by a couple of organic produce sellers wanting me to supply them with vegies/salads/herbs.

    People are making a living selling seeds, seedlings, vegies, aquaculture (red claw), courses, landscaping, designing, mulch, materials, and I'm sure lots of other ways I haven't heard of yet.

    Re the land - the soil food web at lismore does soil testing.

    Good luck,
    Sonya.
     
  13. carollillith

    carollillith Junior Member

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    We ended up buying an old dairy too ... and a lot more land than we could ever cultivate (250 acres), so we're caretaking most of it. It's in the upper reaches of the Manning River, in the mountains between Taree and Tamworth, NSW; clay loam soils and kikuyu grasses EVERYWHERE!!!

    This place was last a dairy about 40 yrs ago, it's run beef cattle since ... soil is compacted but has generations of cowshit around dairy and farmhouse. We've planted a food forest in ~5 acres around the buildings, mostly olives, citrus and figs with pears, apples and cherries in the frost pocket near the creek. Vegetables and herbs are growing in a kitchen garden on the north side of the house and strawberries run riot around water tanks.

    Four years later we're starting to get regular harvests from pears, peaches and citrus which we share with friends and family, preserve and (just starting) sell at local markets. There's a great deal of interest in seedlings from my herb garden, comfrey, tansy, pennyroyal ... and I'm starting to make fruit wines with a neighbour's honey. We're only 4 hours from Sydney markets and close to a train line should we decide to explore that option.

    I'm not sure where cash income will come from once savings run out; it's costing less and less to live an ideal lifestyle and that's a great start. The farm was further from town than we'd originally anticipated, which has discouraged us from seeking paid work (I'm a nurse). The orientation of the land is ideal, good drainage, excellent average rainfall, wonderful neighbours ... it's hard to leave, harder still to think of anywhere I'd rather be.

    Find somewhere that fits your dream and the rest will follow ... with a bit of hard work.
     
  14. Mungbeans

    Mungbeans Junior Member

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    Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions. It has given us a lot of help tossing up our options.
     
  15. Loris

    Loris Junior Member

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    Have a little concern if you end up putting cattle onto your block. Family were cattle people and avoided dairy farm country with a vengance because they had had experience of dairy farmers with intensively farmed and bred dairy cattle letting diseases build up in the herd. Some of these diseases are passed on via spores which they believed could lie dormant in the soil and be passed onto other cattle which were then grazed on these pastures. Should you go down the stock route, just watch them carefully for failure to thrive and rotate as much as possible.
     
  16. Mungbeans

    Mungbeans Junior Member

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    Thanks Loris. I can't see us getting cattle, or even a single cow for that matter. (I personally like cows - I lived near a dairy farm once and the cows used to visit regularly because I often forgot to close the gates they liked the grass in my yard. Their antics used to crack me up. Don't yet that docile facade fool you.) We don't know enough about cows to get one.

    It would probably be fair to assume that a lot of the 'estates' for sale now are sub-divided dairy farms, so soil contamination is certainly something we will have to take into account.
     

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