Alternative ways of earning from a farm

markie1980

Has anyone got any bright ideas of ways to earn money from a farm?
My parents have 2 small farms which are joined, they currently have a few cows (more as a hobby than an income!), horses, dogs and chickens.

We are trying to find ways to make use of the land/buildings and would love some more ideas.
So far we have come up with:
Camping,
Caravanning,
Caravan storage,
Holiday let/B&B, Workshop, Office in an outbuilding
Farm Shop
Clay Pigeon,

It's a great location, just off a main road.
There are too many boot sales locally to start another one.
There's not enough land to grow enough of anything to sell.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

PasturesNew

Rent as a film location.

lozza1985

Bit more work, but perhaps as a paint balling location! I went to a farm that had rented out part of their land for this purpose, it was great fun - but the location was terrible! With being off a main road that would appeal to more people as our cars were recked driving to their carpark lol!

spugzbunny

quad biking

Are they claiming from the RPA? land subsidy payments? Make sure you check to make sure that anything you do on the land doesnt effect the payments they receive.

jaynemaria

How about an open farm, I used to work at one and what started off with just a few animals and lots of walks now has around 40000 visitors a year.
They have the sheep and cows n the fields but lots of animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs, chicks and some smaller piglets that people can get up close too.
if you want a link to their e mail address pm me and Ill let you have it, not sure if I can post it here

LizD_2

DIY livery for horses?

savemoney

I seem to recall on tv that some farm buildings/yards haver been used for cars for airports obviously have to be close to one and most probably have to have permission

pink_piggy17

Livery yard (either diy or full depending on how much work you want to do!)
boarding kennels/cattery
free range egg farm (you could rehome ex battery hens)

if you have a nice outbuilding that could easily be converted to a cottage, you could rent if off for holidays.

if the main farmhouse is large enough you could do B&B or combine B&B with horse riding if you have access to trails and are knowledgable enough to lead out treks/source suitable stock.

walking tours if you are in a very nice place.

kim_ley

Don't know if it's been said... didn't read ooops!
You could let off some land as allotments, where I live allotments are in huge demand very hard to come by and always people wanting to pay for it?

jpbeautybabe

What about putting stotage containers and doing self storage.There's a farmer who does it not far from me and is flat out.He has about 75 units each at £100 per month.Not bad money at all!

jpbeautybabe

I meant storage containers,shiping ones.