Living the Good Life

by Sarah Bond

On 3 April 2008 my partner, Peter, and myself purchased his family farm. For family reasons the property went to auction. By current, local farm prices we did not pay over the odds for it, only just outbidding our rival. Personally, the momentary thrill of achieving Peter’s dream to keep the farm in the family was overridden by an amazing sense of relief that this beautiful place and all its abundant wildlife was safe for future generations.

The relief that it was ours was not just one of selfishness. The family had  to be very insistent with the estate agent that this farm should go as one lot. Current legislation and economics have made small farms an endangered species. Sadly, once they are split up and the farmhouse sold off they are gone for ever. Yet we have always maintained that small farms can be viable if you are not up to your neck with borrowing. We also believe that small, mixed farms will become vital food producers and because they are not locked into the supermarket economy they can adapt quickly to changing needs. In other words, small farms are the nation’s food reserve.

Luckily for us the farm is in Powys and the Welsh Assembly has recognised the importance of small farms both culturally and environmentally. They are therefore doing what they can to support small farms. This, however, has all become academic to us as we are a classic case of the masses bearing the brunt of a few greedy traders and have fallen victim to the credit crunch.  With  40% ownership of the equity, we approached mortgage lenders who agreed in principle but as the property was going to auction suggested we come back if we were successful at auction.  We were in a chicken and egg situation of not knowing how much we needed. We always understood that we would have to find the difference between valuation and purchase price. Now we have asked for the mortgage we have had one offer that has had to rescind because of funding difficulties and other sources are paranoid about serviceability, and are extremely reluctant to lend the amount needed despite the security of a regular income. We are now urgently looking for extra, short term funding.

The farm is a 62 acre holding on the edge of a village. It is positioned just off a B road yet set privately within a small valley. The house, which is believed to be a 16 century welsh hall house, and buildings sit in the middle of the land. This place has a special something that makes everyone fall in love with it.

The farm has never been managed intensively and until about 30 years ago it was run as a mixed farm with some arable as well as stock. Since then it has been managed as a livestock farm, rearing cattle and sheep. Over the last twenty years there has been very little input to the upkeep of the land and buildings, however, decades of traditional farming practices give fields full of wildflowers and an abundance of wildlife, including at least six amber listed birds, hare and dormice. Following the death of Peter’s mother five years ago the farm has been run on tick over.

It makes business sense to work within the areas that are being offered support from the Welsh Assembly and luckily these areas coincide with our vision.

We wish to run the land as a mixed farm, and as there has been no chemical input for five years we are looking at organic status.

Another line we wish to pursue is an anaerobic biomass plant. This makes good all round sense. The farm has three small towns within eight miles. If we could recycle at least some of their green or kitchen waste it has to be good. The biomass plant would convert to electricity, the surplus being fed to the grid. Of course, we then have a saleable by product. With the price of chemical fertilisers becoming unrealistic natural soil improvers are bound to increase in popularity.

The third string to our bow is leisure. We have a vision of holiday lodges but with a difference. This is a competitive but growing market. We intend to do something completely different but at the same time we want to use it to enhance the farm’s habitats. This project is to be our fundraiser to pay back much of the capital. We intend to sell some lodges and retain some. We would manage the site.

We are desperate for urgent, short term funding and should welcome offers or ideas. £150k off our mortgage ask would make even high street lenders very happy. £200k upwards means that we can put our plans into action from day one. Any loans would be mutually beneficial and legally tied up. We are investigating making the leisure side a separate company with shareholders and the land leased from the farm. We are open to ideas for diversification and are willing to lease hard standing or buildings for suitable projects.

We should like our ideas to be a model of good practice and we would have truly achieved something in our lives if this farm could be saved as a whole, conserved and made viable for future generations.

Further information from:- powysfarmer@aol.com