New to farming! Need a bit of help!

7 posts
Sun, 03/30/2014 - 02:19 #1

Member for

10 years 8 months
Drew
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 03/30/2014 - 01:54

New to farming! Need a bit of help!

Currently in the process of buying a 10acre property in Lockyer Waters, west of Brisbane, close to Gatton. I have an idea of what I want to do but with very little experience, I was hoping for some input... 

I currently do a few things that I'd like to expand on... 

I have a small (20) chicken laying flock of Aracuanas, wellsummers and Sussex, and would like to increase the flock (50-60) what do I need to do to sell eggs legally in QLD? 

I'd also like to experiment raising meat birds but can't find any info on a processor that will do private kills (I want to supply/sell to my family and freinds) any ideas on where to do that in SEQ? Zabbelles has shut down...

I was also thinking of expanding my tiny (1000l/60 fish) aquaponics system  but was wondering if I need a special license to kill and sell fish? Do I have to register it as an aquaculture property and have it inspected? 

My goals are small, in 5 years I want to make roughly $300/week off if the property, is this a reasonable expectation? 

I would also like to plant the border out with various evergreen fruit trees that would provide some privacy as well as  provide fruit later on. Any ideas ? Thinking citrus as I have had much success with that at my previous property... 

Is there any two stage cover crops you can grow? Could I plant a field with sweet potato and let the chickens range on it ? If so before or after harvest? Thought it might be a good way to clear the brush before digging the tubers... 

just ideas ATM, we'll be in the house before June and I hope to start putting up infrastructure around March 2015... 

Any input would be helpful! 

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Sun, 03/30/2014 - 12:02 #2
barb
Last seen: 09/17/2019 - 18:07
Joined: 11/23/2011 - 09:38

Hi Drew,

And welcome. I can't answer all of your questions, but will do my best to be of help. If you go to the home page of the Farmstyle website, you will find many links to a wealth of info. on it.

Regarding the licences you may need, it would be a good idea to contact DAFF (used to be called Dept of Primary Industries and Fisheries) who will be able to answer your queries. The staff there a very helpful and pleasant to deal with.

Here are their contact details: Phone: 13 25 23 (cost of a local call within Queensland) or +61 7 3404 6999        (07 34046999)
8 am to 5 pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday
9 am to 5 pm Thursday
Email: callweb@daff.qld.gov.au
Fax: +61 7 3404 6900

The area that you are buying in is the fruit and vegetable bowl of Queensland and you can probably grow just about anything you wish there. I would have a talk to a few of the local nuseries about what grows well in the area, but basically just about anything you care to name. If you are going to grow fruit trees or berries such as raspberries, blue berries or grape vines, be aware that the birds and flying foxes love them just as much as we humans do, so your trees will need to be netted.

Regarding sweet potato, all animals and chooks love the leaves as they contain a lot of sugar and other nutrients. If you are going to harvest nice big, well grown sweet potato I would limit the access by the chooks until just before you are ready to harvest them and of course let them have open slather on the leaves and the broken unsaleable ones after you harvest. I remember a friend who grew them commercially and one day her husband accidentally left the paddock gate open. Next morning they could hear happy bleats coming from the paddock and when they checked there were their 200 or more goats in the field having a wonderful time. They even used their hooves to dig up the potatoes! They lost half their crop.

I grow a few in my garden for myself and when I harvest them I give the leaves to the stock who love them. Make sure of course that they haven't been sprayed for pests. Sweet potatoes concentrate any pesticides used in the tubers, so you will need to be careful which pesticides are used on the crop. Fortunately, Sweet potato doesn't have a lot of pests but there can sometimes be a problem with a small black beetle that can damage the tubers.

For a cover crop, you could perhaps try peas and beans. Peas help to put nitrogen into the soil. Sugar snap peas and snow peas should grow very well in your area but need to be trellised. However, ordinary garden peas would be a good nitrogen producing crop.

I hope some of this is useful to you,

Barb

 

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Sun, 03/30/2014 - 19:57 #3
Drew
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 03/30/2014 - 01:54

Thanks Barb! I'll def suss that out! Was

at the Gympie Chicken Auctions today and picked up some bargains!

Any ideas for other crops? I'd like to grow sweet corn, sunflower ect, take what I want then let the girls clean it up for a week or 2...

was thinking swedes? Or rutabaga or something similar... Never tried using the leaves of these as fodder but I know the like young beet root leaf... Might get lucky... 

In the middle of writing up an action plan to satisfy Safe Food Qld regulations re: eggs. Pretty straight forward and do-able...

just hatched out some barnevelders and RIR's, was thinking of selling chicks too. $1 for sexing and $1 for vaccination and 2 of the 3 stores I spoke to will buy/let me sell fm  chicks... 

Will call DAFF in the morning. Any resources for someone who want to buy several hundred fruit trees? Or do I still have to go through the normal nursery channels? 

Also, after electrified poultry netting that's a bit cheaper them what's available on eBay if anyone has any contacts...

thanks

Drew

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Sun, 03/30/2014 - 22:50 #4
barb
Last seen: 09/17/2019 - 18:07
Joined: 11/23/2011 - 09:38

Hi Drew,

To buy a bulk lot of fruit trees you need a commercial nursery. There is one at Torbanlea just North of Maryborough called Golden Grove Nursery but there may be one closer to wherever you are. Might have to check the phone book.  

Yes, all of those things you suggest growing sound good. Winter is the best time for growing swedes, turnips and so on. You could also try some tomatoes and herbs in spring.

It's good that you have found a local rural supply store to sell your chickens to but I would suggest advertising them yourself also for people to pick up on farm. You will probably make a lot more money that way as you are cutting out the middle man. If you have fresh, organically grown fruit and veg. available to sell at the same time you could also sell some to your chicken buyers.  Once you have land and a good water supply the opportunities are boundless.

If you need to put a bore down to water your trees and fruit and vegetables, then you will need to apply for a licence- another thing that you could discuss with Daff who will give you the contact numbers you need.

If you are going to register as a business and not just keep it as a hobby farm then I would suggest going the whole hog and registering for aquaculture, fruit and vegetable growing and poultry breeding and growing etc.  You may not want to do all of those things at the moment but may want to in the future. If you register for everything then you wont have to reapply if you decide you want to do something later. There is no obligation on your part to actually do any of the things you register for.  I have a reasonably large block and when the business was registered, it was registered for everything including forestry practice (the block is a fair size) which is the harvesting and selling of timber commercially. Be aware, that if you are going to keep livestock then in Queensland you must apply for a PIC number- Property Identification Code. This allows the government to trace the origin of livestock should a disease outbreak occurr.

Hope this helps,

Barb  

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Tue, 04/01/2014 - 08:32 #5
rmcpb
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 10/22/2012 - 11:13

Drew,

Just a couple of thoughts. If you are going to have a go at meat birds and they are freerange then look into hybrid vigour. You would have to keep a couple of line bred breeds to cross but all of the F1 offspring would go to market as killers. They will grow out faster and be more robust. As for the fruit trees have a search on the use of swales to capture water and slowly soak it in for the trees. Saves on irrigation and is a good insurance in these times of unpredicible rainfall.

Cheers
Rob.

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Mon, 04/07/2014 - 01:16 #6
Drew
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 03/30/2014 - 01:54

Thanks! Looks like we'll have a few more $$ to spend at the start then we initially thought, other then the bore, what would people suggest as the first bit of improvement I should do? The fruit trees? A greenhouse/aquaponics systems? Internal fencing? I'll hopefully have $10-15,000.... 

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Tue, 04/08/2014 - 10:45 #7
barb
Last seen: 09/17/2019 - 18:07
Joined: 11/23/2011 - 09:38

Hi Drew. Once you have your water supply secure, I personally would start with the fencing. You will need to construct a chook proof one to protect your vegies from the chooks too. After putting up your fences then you will need your chook accomodation and a green house for raising your seedlings as your area experiences quite a lot of frosts in winter. Plant your fruit trees in winter.

Suggested order:

1. fencing- boundary and internal, this is a priority.

2. Chook pens

3. plant fruit trees and build your green house for raising seedlings to plant out in spring etc

A good green/shade house can be built using star pickets, poly pipe and shade cloth.

hope this helps,

Barb

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