Inherited Farm but don't know how to farm

Aren't there Forestry agencies that are looking for farms to plant, grow and maintain trees on your land and give you an annual income from this activity? Might be worth looking up.

I think there's a company called FEL doing this in Ireland and also Coillte?
 
Cant Farm

The Department of Agriculture have a very useful publication called "Schemes and Services for farmers" which they bring out every year. Ring up your local Department office and they will send one out to you.

It also available on their website www.agriculture.gov.ie
 
To rent land, you can go to local auctioneer and let it as conacre (which means 11 months), this is renewed every year. 'Squatters rights' cannot be claimed if someone is actually paying rent for the land.
However, note that the rental market is very uncertain at the moment, e.g. does the land have entitlements? who owns these now?
 
Conacre is about 100 euro/acre for grazing/11 months where I live,so you wont exactly become rich.Be careful about forestry,once you go down that road,you cant come back (tree felling licence?) that easy & land loses its value & flexebility when you plant. I know this from family experience.Undoubately,the biggest value land has is because of its possible building potential.
 
I agree with the post above on Forestry. I think any land that is planted may then be under Forestry Law / Regulations ?? so stays in trees in future. Planting a steep or low lying part of the land away from the house may suit and you could investigate this asap as grants are available for planting and maintenance but this may change. If you decide to keep livestock on the farm and it has not been grazed in recent years, then the farm will probably need a lot of fencing and cleaning up to get it back in shape and animals will also have to be checked daily. Probably best to rent some or all of it out to a local farmer. Get an auctioneer to set the price ( not familiar with Donegal but think rental prices are fairly high ) and agree who is responsible for the fencing, water supply and clean up. Also agree how many months the land will be grazed to prevent the land being damaged during the wet winter months. If you're going to use the house as a holiday home / weekend retreat , then maybe the local farmer will keep an eye on it for you in your absence. As regards machinery etc get a local contractor to do any necessary work. If you decide to take the plunge fulltime , twenty acres sounds an ideal size to keep horses on . Don't know if you've any experience with horses, but have heard of a few farmers converting sheds into stables and taking hunters in for a weekly rate. Hope this helped and good luck
 
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