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maintaining 60 acres - suggestions ?


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We own a house (currently uninhabitable) with approx 60 acres of land which is

currently being farmed by our neighbour through a contract with the

SAFER (to avoid him acquiring rights).  The arrangement comes up

for renewal this year and we are looking for alternative, possibly more

environmentally friendly, options to the current contract  ... but

at a loss as to where to start.  Any suggestions ?  We sadly

don't live in France full time and are unlikely to in the forseeable

future.

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I don't think that this is a stupid question.

I would be interested in hearing answers from those on the forum who know about managing land.  I'm considering a move to another house that has a lot of land and want to know how to manage it.

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Cathy

You misunderstand me - the stupid questions are mine. Sometimes it appears that Brits buy a huge amount of land just because it looks a bargain without a thought as to what to DO with it - but surely this is not always the case is it ?

John

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I think Iceni was calling her own question stupid not the original poster's.

I also wonder why someone would buy a property with such a lot of land without knowing how they're going to manage it/what to do with it especially as they say it is a holiday home and so are not there full time.

EDIT: POSTED AT EXACTLY THE SAME TIME AS ICENI'S 2nd POST!!

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I can easily understand why someone should like the idea of owning land, it is after all rather pleasant to be able to walk round your own bit of the planet, just enjoy it.

From Sept until March there is also the small matter of hunting which can make walking in the countryside an unpleasant experience for some and they may wish to remove it from la chasse, I get many enquires about that.

Some may buy it to hunt!!!  

Some people may well buy it with a view to making it more environmentally friendly.

Chris

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Iceni - I see that I misread your posting.  I did think that you were saying that the original contributor was asking a stupid quesiton.  Oh how language (and actions) can be misinterpreted...

Does anyone know how to answer the original question?  I would love to know people's suggestions.

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It's why I was trying to get some more information Cathy, it's not well just do this or just do that. It will depend on where it is, the type of land, if it is pasture, woodland, agricultural, lakes or whatever. It may be pasture that would lend itself to a particular type of grazing, perhaps a specific breed of cow or sheep and of course what the owner of the land has in mind.

These things really are not a one size fits all and if environmental considerations are to play a part it really is necessary to know the local situation. Here, where I live, we are desperate for a particular type of managed grassland that has effectively disappeared and France is in danger of loosing several bird species as a result..

Chris

 

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The land is in the Gers and predominantly arable - intensively farmed

for wheat, maize etc by our neighbour through a contract with the

SAFER.  This was the case when we bought it, so no, we didn't buy

lots of land without knowing what to do with it - there was a contract

with a farmer.

Now looking for alternative more environmentally friendly

solutions.  Thanks for suggesting the Bio co-operative - will

certainly try that, but not sure if there is one, organic farming seems

to be finding it hard to get a foothold locally - all chemicals, big

machines ... and possibly GM crops (!)

.
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You could try telephoning François 05 45 29 57 18  or his father, Bernard 05 45 31 61 47.

François is or was the President of the Bio farmers asso.in Charente and may well be able to point you in the right direction, he speaks English as well if that's a help.

Chris

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LOL - someone saw an old gardening advert of mine in French News and phoned asking me to come and cut their 20 acres "which hasn't stopped growing since they came over at Easter"!!

I told them I was a gardener and suggested they ask a neighbouring farmer. The guy got cross and asked why I advertised grass cutting services. Oh well, back to the strimmer........
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JT -  60 acres is a lot of land, and given that you're hardly ever

there, how can you "manage" it? We have 4 hectares and that is

enough  work for us and we're here all the time. We have a small

lake , lots of trees, sloping meadow land, the whole lot fenced in. We

are in Gers too. The biggest battles are keeping the brambles and

bracken down, repairing the fences, clearing up and burning dead trees

and branches, keeping the grass short. We've found that sheep are best

for this last. If you just leave it the brambles and bracken take over,

fence posts get knocked down by boar and deer,ragondin destroy the lake

banks, thick weed clogs up the lake, broken branches and dead trees

form a jungle and encourage foxes. Unless you like foxes? etc.Could you

not just keep a small

part of the land back to make a wild flower meadow, plus perhaps a

tree-lined lake, and let the farmer continue to look after the rest for

you? Pat.

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I understand that you have to be careful creating a lake from a borehole.  Unless the water is free flowing, there is a risk of mosquitos in stagnant water.  That was what I was told by an estate agent when I was looking at some land in Aquitaine.  Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to whether this is right.
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But Cathy, a balanced lake or pond shouldn't be stagnant. There will always be mosquitoes just about where ever you are, even by the coast line in France, there's no reason why there should be substantially more by water if it has plenty of life in and around it..

Dead ponds full of farm slurry on the other hand will heave with them and any wooded areas are a favourite haunt for mosquitoes.

Chris

 

 

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There are a few mosquitos near our lake but I think they are kept down

by fish and frogs eating the larvae. If you are in the hilly part of

the Gers it would be simple to create a lake in a dip in the land. This

year the water level has hardly gone down at all as we've had so much

rain. You can buy fish to stock it and the frogs just appear, as do dragonflies, water skaters etc.. Add a few

ducks, willows etc around the edge and it's perfect. Our neighbour

bought some ducks to put on their pond to make it "aesthetique" but

they all flew away. Pat.

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I have a number of acres here in england which i dont want to be farmed as i like to encorage the wild life to live there, but i have an agreement with a farmer who comes and cuts it for hay once a year, which is great as the rest of the year i can walk on it with my dogs watch the wild life use it as i wish and make some money for the hay, if you have any sheep or cow farmers near by why not ask them if they need the hay?
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[quote user="Patf"]There are a few mosquitos near our lake but I think they are kept down by fish and frogs eating the larvae. If you are in the hilly part of the Gers it would be simple to create a lake in a dip in the land. This year the water level has hardly gone down at all as we've had so much rain. You can buy fish to stock it and the frogs just appear, as do dragonflies, water skaters etc.. Add a few ducks, willows etc around the edge and it's perfect. Our neighbour bought some ducks to put on their pond to make it "aesthetique" but they all flew away. Pat.
[/quote]

This does sound wonderful Patf. I apologize to the original poster for hijacking[:$]. We have exactly what you describe, hilly land with a dip that would be perfect for a lake. Mind you we have too many other things on our plates at the moment with renovations of the house but is something I would love to do in the future. I have mentioned it to my husband and he says it would be too expensive and would just create even more work for us to do on the property. My question is; is it difficult and costly to create a lake and once created is there a lot of maintenance and expertise involved?

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The lake was here when we bought the place, So I don't know how much it

cost to create. But after reading some threads on another forum, I

think you may have problems from SAFER about change of use of you land.

I'm not sure how to create a link, but look on Total France,

Smallholders etc forum, a thread called " smallholdings" last posting

on 29.01.2006. Pat.

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  • 1 month later...
I am new to this forum, and I was wondering if someone would tell me what SAFER stands for and how you use it to protect your land. We are buying a small house with 1 1/2 hectares and we are told that there is a farmer who cuts it a few times a year and uses the grass for animal feed. Where can I find this information?
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