Land Auctions

The term ‘smallholding’ is often surrounded by a bit of confusion. The line between an allotment, a smallholding and a farm is pretty ill defined. Added confusion is caused by some people using hobby farm to describe what we in Britain would usually call a smallholding.

A smallholding is generally anything from a few acres up to 50 or more. The most important factor when deciding if a holding is a farm or smallholding is the land use. My understanding of it is that generally a farm is generated their income solely from the land by one means or another. This is usually through various forms of monoculture. A smallholding on the other hand had a much more diverse us of land. On a smallholding you would find a large number of different animals, crops and land uses. There will always be confusion as to whether some holdings are farms or smallholdings but these are the basic differences.

A smallholding, rather than being geared wholly towards making money, is often more of a lifestyle choice. To grow all of your own food and live with as little reliance on the outside world and its resources is a very desirable position to be in. That said, people do often need to generate some sort of income from to land to pay for the few things that can’t be produced on the land. Recently smallholders in Britain have diversified a lot. Now you will find everything from common poultry and cattle to ostriches and alpacas on UK smallholdings.

The recent awareness of the damage we are doing to our environment has led to a greatly increased interest in the self-sufficient lifestyle that a smallholding facilitates. People, rather than buying their food covered in pesticides and other chemicals from big supermarkets, want to grow their own food and see where it comes from. Equally, they don’t want to buy battery farmed poultry, they would rather eat free range, organic meat that has been treated well.

Buying a smallholding in the UK is usually a very expensive business. For many who are motivated by the simple life a smallholding provides, the price of owning their own smallholding is far too high. There are other options becoming available for those keen on living on the land. There are many communities which are open to new members. These communities share their resources with you, so long as you share yours. The co-operation of these communities offer a realistic option for those determined to lead a less damaging, more sustainable lifestyle.