weekend course smallholding taster weekend

location: nr Thornbury, South Gloucestershire

If you have always wanted a smallholding, but don't know where to start, this two-day course is designed for you. Come and look round our smallholding and discuss land requirements, time commitment, skills and knowledge needed. This course gives you the time to discuss things in more depth than a one-day course, spend more time with the animals and look at a wider range of topics.

We will look at all the livestock in turn - hens, ducks, geese, sheep, cattle, pigs and bees. We will guide you through the process of deciding where to start and what to do next.

Programme:

Day One:
Buying a smallholding – size, location, uses etc. Includes a discussion about land types, stocking density, rotational grazing, organic principles etc
Keeping your livestock in - hedging, fencing and buildings. The essentials and the luxuries.
Starting small – poultry and waterfowl are a good way to start out producing your own meat and eggs. Options for housing and welfare, meeting our chickens, ducks and geese and looking at their different needs.
Keeping bees – an interesting and rewarding addition to the smallholding. The equipment, skills and time needed, plus a guided tour of the apiary.

Day Two:
Larger Livestock – pigs, sheep, cattle or all three? Where to buy them and what to get? Healthcare, feeding, handling and breeding. Producing/selling your own meat - abattoirs and butchers.
Tools and equipment – a look round the holding at what we use. Course divides into a tractor handling session, including a range of implements or a wildlife habitat creation session, looking at wildflowers, birds and insects and what you can do to help them.
Paperwork – legal requirements, regulations and insurance. The boring bit!
Renewable energy & sustainable development – a discussion of the options available and a tour of solar panels, water recycling, composting etc.
The tutor is Jules Moore.

You can camp onsite if there is space. Let us know if you are interested when you book.

dates: see 'book online' below

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the venue is a 12-acre smallholding in the Vale of Berkeley, just north of Bristol