The Irish summer!

Hallo readers! It's been more than 2 weeks now. It's pretty unreal. This is the kind of weather you'd be getting in Italy! A really strange "Irish summer", especially after the super wet and cold summer from last year. We are officially in a drought period now. Not a drop of water for the past 2 weeks and temperatures just below 30 C° in most parts of the country. Hopefully we'll get some rain beginning of next week. My water tank is possibly dry and the grass in the upper fields is very short because the top soil is thin and the lack of water is particularly bad there. At least all this is good for Whizzie's bees, which seem pretty happy and swarming like mad!

I Needed Farming.

As we say in Italian, "laughing and joking" it has been a year since I moved up here. By "laughing and joking" (ridendo e scherzando), we mean that time passed by real quickly, without us noticing.
Here is a slideshow of what happened during this very intense year, although there are a few things missing, like the electrics in the stable, the lane and drains being dug at the moment, the poly-tunnels we bought and the pigs in their real teen age size. Which is pretty huge. Enjoy! If you are reading through one of those silly ipads without flash support go here: Link

Settling in

It's been a while since I last posted and many things have happened and many more are still happening.
I have been trying to get quotes for the sheep barn and at the same time looking for a mobile home.
I have found one but I have spent a good part of the first two weeks making the site accessible and ready for the delivery which as you can imagine can be tricky on a farm. Clearing the overgrown lane  in order to get an 11 feet wide mobile home through was quite a task for the city boy that I am.
After that I had a lot of help from my neighbour Mike who has a big digger, he took down a ditch, placed drain pipes down and covered the whole thing with 40 tonnes of 4 inches stones from a quarry nearby.
I am surprised by the number of quarries in the vicinity...
The quotes for the stable have been coming in pretty slow and apart from two outrageously expensive ones, the others seem to be more in line with our expectations...
Let's say that it seems to be cheaper than what budgeted.
Crowly: 6300 euro without groundwork.
Antony, who speaks with such an accent that I can understand one word every four, 5K without groundwork, 6.5 with groundwork.
Tumi & C: 6.5 with groundwork.
We'll probably go with them because they are the only ones who did not get scared by the groundwork and seem to be intelligent guys who build barns on a regular basis.
I haven't moved on the sheep front yet, but I have called a person or two about Zwartbles and should be able to visit and go a bit more in depth with the breed this week. Zwartbles are 3 attitudes sheep, that means they perform well on lambs, wool and milk but they are definitely good milkers. I have started to consider this breed as a potential alternative to East Frisians as a starter flock because of some practical advantages like having a docile and less delicate breed, the potential of changing direction of selection should things not go as expected, but above all the potential of growing in numbers quickly without worrying too much about the volume of milk. In case the volume will be inadequate we can always buy a Frisian ram.
The van, after much fuss, is going very well and I am happy with it, so much happy that I am sleeping in it :)
Kira has already come to visit and she's coming again tonight. Her cooking will be much appreciated by the farm.
The only bad news, if we can call it bad news, is that the works for the stable won't start until October, so that I'll be here again to supervise the lads. In a sense is bad news because it will delay the electric connection application of a month but it looks like we won't be able to get our first sheep before late spring, so it won't make much of a difference in that sense.
The work to get the lane accessible has been tough and my body healthfully hurts in correspondence of all the muscles I haven't used in the past 5 years.
But I guess what most of you will want to know is if I regret my choice and if I am happy.
I feel good. I feel like for the first time of my life I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. I enjoy every moment of it, the pain, the disappointment, the expectations, the sweat, the chills, the great feeling of reward and achievement in getting a job done, coppicing, clearing the lane, preparing the site for the house and stable, getting prices. I feel real for the first time after a long time.
More soon.

A long Autumn

Back to serious talking... I have been thinking about a post in which I explained what is our time schedule and what are the things needed to be done but after much thinking I came to the conclusion that it is not such a good idea, because it's way too early for that. We still haven't talked with the competent offices yet and although I have been reading the relative legislation in terms of agricultural building permissions and food business, there is still too much prospecting to be done.

The only sure thing is that whatever we'll need to do, we'll have to do it at a specific time. In fact, sheep are seasonal animals and they do not have oestrus cycles all year round.

Sheep start having regularly spaced oestrus cycles (17 - 19 days long) with the decrease of daily light (short day breeders), which means in August at the earliest (in the northern hemisphere). If they are not mated they stop cycling regularly in spring when days get longer once again. This means that in the northern hemisphere the best time to mate ewes is around October-November (it really depends on the climatic region and market needs) so that they are ready for delivery in early spring after a 5 months long pregnancy.

That's when they start producing milk.

Therefore the only two known deadlines are: i) to get a stable (or a simple shed) ready by late summer and ii) a cheese cave ready by early spring.

Everything goes around this two major deadlines and if you miss them you'll lose a whole year of learning and production.

There are also of course a ton of other things to be done like a new and upgraded electric connection, refrigeration units, a well and so on. So you can understand that P. and I have our hands tied for now, and we can't even practice or help around in nearby sheep farms because they are not producing cheese at the moment.

I have planned a trip around Christmas holidays to try and get quotes for materials so that we can get a better figure of the investment needed and I would also like to try and speak with local vet services, small business authority and food business regulators. But that is it.  This was really a bummer because I feel like I'm wasting my time here, so I decided to keep myself busy and at the same time to get some experience under my belt by engaging in some cheese making at home.

The thorn apart thing you see in the picture at the top of the post is the second hand fridge that, after the due modifications, will serve as a home made cheese cave.

More soon :)

It's all about passion.

Life is short. We shouldn’t live it in a rush but we shouldn’t sit on our arses either. It’s all about trying to do with your life something we enjoy. I’m not talking of mere self fulfilment or the pointless search for one’s own happiness. I’m talking about doing something useful for others, leaving something for the next generation, doing something that will make your qualities shine, something you are passionate about.

The ethics and passion involved in such a project to me are essential. I believe a more sustainable approach to life is possible for everyone and passion should be the driving motor of your life. After all, change usually comes from the bottom and, if you want to make a difference, a critical ingredient is passion. If you are not passionate about what you do you won’t get anywhere. 

Not everyone is lucky enough to fulfil his desires and I have to admit that I find myself in this position for the first time in my life. I never thought I would have the chance to give it a shot and I am extremely glad about it.

Here's a video that says "PASSIONATE" all over it.



It's a clip from "Victorian Farm" which you can watch on youtube.

What to do?

Picture from Sheep 101


I have been away for a few days and I sort of lost my posting schedule, I'm one of those people still refusing to get a smartphone. I was in Sarajevo for a weekend to visit a dear friend. I was so excited when I left that I forgot my camera and I couldn't find a disposable one in Sarajevo. Therefore, No pictures but lots of good memories.
It's time to talk about P.'s and my plans and about the way we want to use this land's potential.
Whizzie has of course her own plans and I'll probably write about those too, if she wants, but for now let's talk sheep.
In fact this is what we want to breed: sheep! I love sheep! they are so cute! Ok I'm joking, that's not why we went in that direction :)
Sheep were almost an obligate choice. As you might know, if you want to sustain your animals with the land you have at your disposal throughout the whole year, you have to consider animal density as a crucial factor. Animal density is calculated using the so called Livestock Units (LUs). One hectar of pasture is sufficient to sustain 1.0 LU through the whole year and this corresponds to an adult dairy cow. Now, here's a good page with some comparisons: Grazing Livestock Units equivalents, and another one with pigs too: Eurostat.
So, for an 8 hectare farm, dairy cows, horses or beef would not be a good choice because you'd be able to keep at most 10 of them and even using intelligent market strategies it would be difficult to get a decent amount of money out of such a small number of animals. Plus, these are big animals, need big housing solutions and big milking facilities.
Another possible solution I explored at the beginning was breeding sows/pigs for the production of cured meats. Unfortunately the land at our disposal is not suitable for extensive/outdoor pig rearing and it's actually a bit of a waste. Pigs thrive in woods in marginal steep areas and it is a kind of production that is coming back in Italy where we have lots of those woods with oaks, holm oaks, chestnuts and so on, but putting them on green, lush pasture? No thanks. They do that in the UK but the only difference with pigs reared intensively is that they live in a field, but you still have to provide 95% of the diet. A bit of a waste of space if you ask me.
So we were left really with two options: chickens and sheep. There isn't a rabbit culture in Ireland and like in the UK they are considered either a pest or a pet :)
Regarding the chickens, hens, eggs and so on, there is a lot of competition already, it seems like it has become the new sector of enterprise for every single hippie in West Cork. So we might get a reasonable number of hens but only to optimise pasture gains (more later on this).
Sheep sound good because 1 adult sheep is considered to be between 0.1 and 0.2 LUs. This means that Whizzie's land could sustain at least 40 adult sheep. Now, if we were talking just meat/wool breeds the figure would have been closer to 80 animals but money in meat and wool is very little and we want to go dairy. A better figure for dairy sheep in terms of density is probably closer to 0.2 LUs.
Dairy sheep sound a lot better because although the wool is of lower quality, the meat is pretty much still there and the added value you can get from transforming milk into cheese is among the biggest around (it's up there with cured meats).
So, I'll leave you with that. Start imagining beautiful dairy sheep and lots of cheese, I can tell you, this image has been haunting us in our sleep for quite a while.

Environmentally and economically sustainable

Picture from PapekPhotography - Click it for large version.


Hi readers! Tough times around here but I'll make an effort and drop the usual weekly post.
As you could gather from the last post, the farm is a gorgeous place with lots of potential. Will we make it? Fuck knows! but we'll definitely try.
As many of you might know, there is not much money in conventional farming nowadays for farms of this size. Unless you have huge capitals, you go super intensive and you have at your disposal hundreds of acres, it's better you forget about conventional agriculture, whatever you want to produce, let it be grains, milk, meat or veggies, you won't get rich.
Therefore, for such small farms, with limited capitals and volumes, you necessarily need to find other ways.
The only hope for such enterprises is to concentrate on a produce that has some sort of added value, something the consumer is willing to pay extra for. Needless to say there is a wide array of possible ways to create added value in a product. A classic example is the organic certification, or any sort of labelling, at least it was years ago, now that it has become a worldwide business it has become more expensive for small farmers and the added value has decreased a lot.
Other ways involve targeting local typical productions, niche markets, artisanal produce, rustic local breeds, honey from non-sugar-fed bees and so on. Here the added value is due to the fact that you are offering a product for which it is required a rare set of skills, or that is linked to a specific trerritory, or it is simply produced in a more sustainable way and therefore is less abundant. Hence the higher price.
Examples in this area are possibly infinite.
Another way to get even more money from small farms like this is to adopt what we call in Italy a "Filiera Corta" (short processing chain).
Cutting a long story short, if you are rearing fibre producing animals such as merino sheep, you won't be selling row fibre but instead jumpers, hats, gloves and scarves. This way your product won't go around the market increasing in price at every step of the textile and retail industry, you'll be very competitive in terms of prices you can offer to the consumer (because you bypass several steps of the processing chain) and you have complete control over the quality of the final product. This allows you to add even more extra value through the ways we explored earlier, by customising your products.
There are also downsides in such an approach. You have to work a lot more to get to your final product and therefore acquire several specific skills and extra facilities to transform and process your raw matter into your final product.
If in the case of wool it is easy to imagine that such facilities would be quite expensive and that the knowledge required would be vast, for raw matters such as milk and meat, veggies and other product of the land the task at hand is definitely not impossible.
In conclusion, instead of selling milk you sell cheese, instead of meat you sell salami and prosciutto, smoked and cured meats, instead of fresh vegetables you sell conserved Mediterranean style grilled aubergines and pickled onions, instead of soy beans you sell tofu, instead of wheat you sell bread and cookies and why not, instead of barley you can specialise in malts and drink lots and lots of beer :)
The last thing you need to keep in mind for small size farms, especially if there are several people trying to live off the land, is that diversification is a MUST.
Diversifying production is a must because none of your possible productions is big enough to allow you to overcome difficult moments in the trade.
So, keep all this in mind and wait for the next post :) we have quite a precise plan but, in the meantime, suggestions are welcome!

"The" Land

Now that you know where and who, why and more or less when, it's time to give you some information about the property that Whizzie and Sir Lynex bought, without giving too much info on its location (otherwise you'll just flood to the place). It's important to speak first about the land characteristics because the agricultural-farming potential is clearly related to the layout. As we say in Italy, apple trees do not make pears. At the top of the post is a map of the property. The red line is the outer border of the land, the blue line is the main road to nowhere, the green line is the access road to the farm that brings to the old farm buildings and the turquoise line is a narrow path that cuts the property between the pastures and the bog, leading to the neighbour's property up the hill. The property is approx 21 acres (8.5 hectares), the highest part is the northern bit (200 meters a.s.l.) and the lowest is the southern part, down the main road (160 meters). This means that it is beautifully exposed south, which in Ireland is definitely a plus :). As you can see, approximately 5 hectares of the property are good grazing pastures. They look like this:

The pasture composition in terms of types of plants is good and diverse, there are some weeds and reeds, especially in the two grazing areas north of the green lane, but nothing that can't be improved by sorting out the drainage. The boggy bit on the northern part of the property is beautifully diverse from a biological point of view and, although it has gone a bit wild like the rest of the property and could do with some light grazing, it is fairly stable and has great potential for one or two wind turbines. In fact there are rocks which are high, very exposed to strong, constant winds. Fencing and gates are in place and some of the gates need replacing but the fencing is fairly new. The property lies in a relatively undeveloped area between two small towns of the west Cork area, but has good potential. It is in fact close to popular tourism areas, the sea and the internationally famous food scene of Cork. As you can see from the image, Whizzie has already started some work and apart from setting herself up nice and cosy for the winter, she has been putting down trees for coppicing and an orchard, a polytunnel and a veggie garden. She is now working on setting up raised beds for next year and there are plans to get a swimming pond for Sir Linex, who could get there by driving the 350 cc brake-less quad bike that Whizzie bought in an attempt to murder him :) Get those brakes fixed guys! Ah! and she got hens only a few days ago! What are their names Whizzie?

That's all folks! What should I do with all this goodness? I'll tell you next week.

A little more background: the actors

As promised, more info on the whys and the whens of all this. In fact, even for some of you who already know me, this whole ordeal does come as a big surprise.
I waited to write about it for several reasons. First of all, it looks to me like such a huge project and life changing experience that it still seems very unreal.
But last week I actually went to visit Whizzie in Ireland and all the words, plans and dreams suddenly took shape. It was real, it was there. Grass, pastures, bogs, cabin and all that. It was fucking paradise and it became a lot more real. And scary.
There were also a lot of other reasons why I kept silent about my intentions. The first one is that until a few weeks ago I didn't really know if what I considered to be my life partner for the past 6 years or so would like to go for it. As it turned out, she doesn't considered herself be my life partner any longer. So yes, sure it will be harder but at least I won't have to worry about the weight of responsibility towards her. I'll actually have to worry about getting my mental health back after this major blow. But that is another story altogether and has no place in this blog.
Another important reason to wait and be cautious was that there are other people involved and I really wanted to make sure we were all happy about the plan and liked each other. The first one is Sir Lynex who bought the farm with Whizzie and I never met before. Whizzie's friends are usually awesome but you never know, there is always the odd weirdo in there :). Sir Lynex is from the awesome category of friends and although is not a permanent resident of the farm yet, we will definitely enjoy each other's company. The second is P. (see first post), who I have known for quite some time now. She is supposed to get very involved and until a couple of weeks ago we only discussed options through skype and without having seen the land. It was all up in the air. The visit to the farm has had a big booster effect for her. And last but not least, Tom J., Whizzie's boyfriend, who clearly will be part of the picture and will be a huge asset for the farm with his skills and knowledge. Tom won't need a nickname :)
We all clicked. At least that was the feeling. Still, we have a long way in front of us and we'll have to come up with a detailed business plan to fit necessities and time frames.
So, these are the actors. Next week you'll get to know a lot more about the actual farm, its layout and the land characteristics.

First post

Ok, here we go. First post and all that. Where should I start from? I guess I should explain what are you reading and why.
I am a 38 year old researcher and I always had a great desire to breed and work with farming animals but I never really had the opportunity.
That's also why I graduated as a veterinarian but I soon realised there wasn't much work if you wanted to work with farming animals in Italy.
So, I never had the money I needed to buy land and I never managed to find the right people to team up with. I almost gave up and thought that the most I could achieve was to get a house in the countryside and be happy with a veggie garden and a few chickens.
But never say never.
One of my best friends (Whizzie) has recently bought a 21 acre property in West Cork and because her heart is as big as a Bull's, she wants me and someone else to join her in this crazy adventure.
No one of us comes from farming families apart from her boyfriend and all of us have or will have to renounce to secure and safe (but booooring!) careers elsewhere.
That's it. This blog will be a diary of this whole experience. Slowly slowly you'll get to know more details about what we want to do and how we plan to get there.
I am getting ready and saving money and I won't be able to move up there for good until next summer. Whizzie is already there in her second hand eco-cabin and the other partner which will work closely with me will move up only in summer-autumn 2013 and for now she'll be simply referred to as "The partner" or P.
She is a girl from Luxembourgh and without her I might not be able to dream of my project. Her help is much, much, much appreciated.
Stay tuned.