10 Things To Consider Before Buying A Self Sufficient Farm

Making the decision to step out of the city and purchase a piece of land is an exciting one. My husband and I looked for many years while we were in the season of renovations just to get an idea of what was out there, and we saw plenty of properties that weren’t right for us, not just in terms of wish lists but in location, aspect and infrastructure too.

It wasn’t until we were in the final months of renovation before our home was to be listed for auction that I was looking seriously. Not long into that hunt for the perfect property did I find the one we are on now. I knew exactly when I read the description that it ticked all the boxes on our extensive list, but when we went to inspect it for the first time we could see that it also ticked may of the requirements we desired to create a functional permaculture property. Luckily it was still for sale when our home was sold, and we put an offer on it the day after our auction.

Through that first hand experience and then that of completing my permaculture design course (PDC), I believe there are 10 key factors to consider when making the decision of which farm is right for you.

1. Water Access & Storage

Water is the key to life, and if you want to be self sufficient, reliable and constant water is a must, running out of rainwater when that is what you are relying on drinking is a major hassle, and a costly one. Water licenses are good, but they do come with a bit of red tape, I don’t know all the ins and outs to share them here, but if the place you are looking at has a license, do research this thoroughly. In our case we have dams that are fed with a year round spring fed creek, we are able to use these for our stock and personal garden. We pump up from the dam to a header tank which gravity feeds our irrigation systems. We pump weekly in the heat of summer when stock drink more and the garden requires more frequent watering, this eliminate the need to pump water every time the tap is turned on. Of course you need a slope for that, and that can have it’s disadvantages too, but for us it works.

Next think you need to think about is water storage, especially if you are relying on rain water. We have 2 rainwater tanks, I believe with approximately 100,000L storage capacity. This is more than adequate for our needs usually, but during a drought or times of emergency, like bushfires or burst pipes, this capacity comes in handy. One of these tanks is our header tank where we can gravity feed the house, and one is a storage tank, which we like to keep full between rains so if something burst higher up we wouldn’t loose the lot. I personally feel having more than one tank is wise, so that if a tank was to crack or leak you have back up water.

2. Infrastructure

Setting up a homestead or farm is a costly exercise, but it doesn’t need to be if you can find a farm with the infrastructure you desire there already.

Drawing up a basic base map with a sector analysis (I will go through how to do this is another blog post) can help you in your search for a property. I would only do this for properties you are serious about putting an offer on, as it can take a little bit of time. On here you will mark out the summer and winter sun paths, primary and secondary fire risk, potential views you don’t want to miss out on, wind sectors and any potential noise pollution. But having this resource with you will help you determine if the infrastructure you do have is in the right location for your needs.

For example is the orchard in prime position or will it receive intense winds? Do you wish to have cattle, are there cattle yards and is the access to them good? Do you wish to have sheep, are the fences suitable for sheep? Is there shade in the paddocks for stock? Is there a laneway which makes sense (think of this like a house plan, in a home a hallway will efficiently take you to your rooms)? Is the shedding in a position that will work for you and your needs, what are those needs? For us we use our shedding to protect newly lambed mums for a week, to rear 5 day old calves (with a nurse paddock attached) until they can go out into the paddocks full time at 6 months old, for our pigs to pig and raise their babies is a safe and warm environment out of the paddocks, for our poultry to be locked up safely at night, to store our hay, to store our grains and feed and to store our machinery.

While having a blank canvas is very romantic, it takes a great deal of time and money to get it to a place you are dreaming of. My husband and I are on the farm full time, and even though all our infrastructure needs were here except the very large new veggie patch, 2 additional food forests, and a new windbreak, we are still getting the property to where we need it to be for efficiency, after 2.5 year of full time work.

Infrastructure that would be a major bonus and should be considered are:

• cattle yards, are you planning on running livestock, how will they be loaded onto and off your property? Where will you pen them to manage them?

• chicken houses, most self sufficient farmers get chickens first, if there is already a house there this cuts your work load down and you can start collecting eggs straight away.

• shedding, is there enough for your needs, can they be retrofitted to suit your requirements and are they in a position that is convenient for you?

• dams, how will you water your stock or growing spaces if you only have rain water?

• water tanks, is there enough water storage for your needs?

• hot house, this was a pleasant bonus that we received, I had always dreamed on one and we had all the materials here to erect it

• veggie beds, are they there, is the soil alive, are they in a position that works not only for you but in winter sun, are they large enough or do you need to extend, are they protected from rabbits, wombats, kangaroo and deer or any other pests that may be in your area?

• orchards, are they there, are they established and are they in the correct position. Is there trees planted in there that you will actually utilize.

• irrigation, to troughs, green houses and orchards

• fences, are they in order, are the suitable for cattle or sheep? Are the boundary fences ok? They say good fences make good neighbors.

• laneways to paddocks that make sense

established windbreaks that are designed correctly, they should be long enough, stacked and in a position that will protect from prevailing winds.

3. Neighbors Activities

Commercial agriculture will always prevail over a hobby famers desires. Conventional agriculture will always be the norm over organic farming methods. Keep those two points in mind when look at a farm, and make sure you drive around the street and surrounding streets so you can get a clear idea of what and who is around you. I once looked at a farm and fell in love with it, it was insanely cheap, I looked at it 3 times before I brought my husband along with me for a fourth look. He decided to drive up the street and bit and much to our surprise next door was a massive massive intensive chicken farm. The smell in summer would have been revolting and it could have impacted on our ability to keep poultry due to the strict biosecurity laws.

We also went to another farm, this time to purchase some equipment, it was in the area we were looking in and it was a stunning place surrounded by trees. You couldn’t see the near by orchards, but I did happen to hear a loud explosion, not quite a gun shot, it had me puzzled, and then it happened again a few minutes later. The gentleman saw my reaction and explained it was coming from the orchard over the hill, they use cannons to scare the birds away during the growing season. I’m not sure about you but listening to that continually throughout daylight hours was not something I had envisioned.

Are there market gardens around you, and what are they growing? Potatoes and strawberries are notoriously dirty, would you be ok with the chemicals that are used regularly during growing seasons?

Basically you will never escape conventional agriculture in a rural area, being surround by grazing land is probably your best bet if you want to escape the use of chemicals or noise pollution. We have conventional farms around us, but we are in dairy country, and while they do use what I assume to be glyphosate herbicides occasionally, they certainly don’t affect me on a daily basis if at all to be honest (not that these chemicals are something I want to use or agree with, I’m certainly not going to complain about someone else’s rights to use them). If I see that they are spraying the paddocks we just stay inside if there is a breeze, but that has only been once in two and a half years.

4. Soil Quality & Suitability To Growing

This is the issue we have on our property, we have very acidic soil which binds up nutrients (a blog post for another day I think) and can make growing certain crops difficult, but blueberries thrive in these conditions. Would I not have bought the property if I knew this earlier? No, I’d still have chosen this property as the one, because with the right management of the land this can certainly be rectified and improved. But conducting a soil test through a company like SWEP could be beneficial in your situation and will certainly highlight any areas of concern if there are any.

The biggest slice of advice I can give you here which I only learnt through experience would be to be aware of what the land was used for in previous years. We went to look at a property in potato growing country and it was fantastically priced too, it ticked many of the boxes and was a big contender. Only when we went to visit another real estate agent and ask if there were any other properties in the area at that price point he laughed at us and said no, he informed us the only reason why that property was so cheap was because it was laced with dieldrin which was used readily in the 50s, 60s and 70s in potato growing areas. It is a carcinogenic chemical once used in potato growing as an insecticide and can stay in the soil for 30-50 years although some sources say that level haven’t changed since

testing in the late 80s. They say that the levels these properties are at are suitable for everything except cattle (but some places have also mention sheep, ducks and chickens to be affected), which is something we definitely wanted on our farm. You can go through a process to decontaminate the stock by agisting them elsewhere for 6 months, but knowing this we decided that we didn’t want the burden of having a contaminated property. Getting a soil test can help you in issues like these, I would be heart broken if we didn’t find out about this until after we settled on the property.

Lastly is there a certain crop you have your heart set on, do you like stone fruit, well then somewhere with the right amount of chill hours is something you need to look for. Same goes for tropical fruit, while I can give growing them a good crack I’m certainly not going to yield much if at all.

5. Proximity To Services You Use Regularly

We live 15 minutes to our small country town and 30 minutes to a much larger town. We don’t need much in the way of services but I understand that many do. If you need a doctor or specialist regularly, or still need to rely on the supermarket for food, or need the school system then these are all things you need to take into consideration. While 30 minutes doesn’t sound like much it does get taxing and time consuming (and expensive).

Our Monthly Shop

We are lucky that we have a fantastic doctor service in our small town which we unfortunately need regularly due to our active kids and their numerous injuries the local hospital 30 minutes away is also fantastic, but in an emergency we have had to go all the way to the royal children’s nearly 2 hours by car without traffic to contend with.

6. Community Groups

For me fitting into the local community was tough. How on earth do you slip into a tight knit community when you are in your early 30s. My kids are homeschooled so my usual avenues of meeting locals was out, there were homeschooling groups which were great but fizzled out and many of the participants weren’t that local to me. Maybe that’s the suburban me talking, I’m used to things being around the corner. But if church, craft groups, sporting and recreational groups are important to you, then these are all considerations too.

7. Aspect

In suburbia I hated wind, and our first year here the spring winds were….INTENSE. It was blowing 6 out of the 7 days for about 6 weeks (thankfully it hasn’t been that bad again, yet). Some days it was so windy you couldn’t go outside, and this took me by surprise, I’m not sure why I thought that living on a hill wouldn’t be windy. Planting out a wind break will help ease the affects of a wind, but these do take time to establish if they aren’t there already.

Our first house was at the foothills of Melbourne, it was on a steep slope facing west. In winter we wouldn’t get sunlight on our roof until early afternoon and in the intense cold this caused many problems like struggling to heat the house, get natural sunlight inside and molds in winter. In summer we had the harsh summer sun beating down on us and glaring into our windows. These were big first hand lessons in how important aspect was.

Another property we fell in love with and was a big contender as our forever home was this beautiful place, it ticked just about everything on the list. I went and looked at this 5 times and the only thing holding us back was the aspect, it was south facing and our biggest concern was that we would receive any sunlight in winter due to those beautiful gum trees shadowing it. Using our sun tracker app saved us in making a costly decision, but having this mapped out on your base map will help you the same way.

It would have been a haven in summer, but winters would have been long and dark. We were really sad to not proceed to contract stage on that property, but we knew that it was the right decision, if we let our emotions purchase our place we would have become really unhappy over time.

So why do you want a North facing home in the the Southern Hemisphere? This will maximize the amount of sunlight that your property will receive, especially in winter, and an extra bonus if you are harvesting your own solar energy. Some shade on the western side of the home will ensure you are sheltered from the intense summer afternoon sun, which can heat the home. Delving deeper into this is another blog post I think.

The last consideration I would like to touch on for aspect is rain shadows. This is a strategy you can use to help you determine where you would like to purchase in terms of towns due to their location. To find rain shadows in your area you can get a 30 yearly average of rainfall map (from BOM in Australia) which will show you drier areas of the country due to mountainous areas blocking rain. As rain shadows or dry area is located on the leeward side of a mountain, or the side of the mountain that is sheltered from oceanic winds. As the air is pushed and rises from warm moist environments high over the mountains it cools and water vapor condenses creating rain, these same mountains then block this rainfall from occurring on the other side of the mountain - therefore the mountain is casting a shadow over this area causing not as much rain to fall. In some places around the world you can find extreme deserts on these leeward side of the mountains as the sea breezes are blocked and humidity levels drop.

8. Fire Risk

This is a big one for me as my property neighbors forest and pine plantations, when we bought our property we knew that the fire risk was high, but in actual fact once I did my PDC I realized that I was wrong, and that was a lucky mistake. Each property will have it’s own primary and secondary fire sector, a sector analysis is something that is created at the beginning of a design (I will write about this in the future) and each element of fire, sun, wind, views and any other important elements are charted out so you can make informed decisions about the best spot for infrastructure and the like.

When I started delving into creating my sector analysis I realized I was wrong about my primary fire are, my primary fire are is away from the forest with open paddocks (on a slope which makes it still dangerous). The forests are still definitely fire hazards but the direction of the winds that usually occur during bushfires in my area come from the west, where the forests are predominantly on the east. In saying that during the recent fires of 2019/2020 which saw Australia face the biggest bushfire on history, the prevailing winds were coming from the east, so if it had continued further into the season we could have seen it creep closer to those forests. But those winds are not winds that happen often, of course using common sense during an emergency and listening to experts the wisest thing to do.

9. Rainfall

We are so lucky to live in a high rainfall area, and we can expect to receive between 1100mm - 1400mm annually. I couldn’t imagine with farming on less water but many do it. If you can search for regions that receive higher rainfalls, dairy areas are generally in these areas. Looking at a property during winter can leave the wrong impression about what to expect in summer. We are lucky to still be green and lush at the beginning of December but much of the state is different. Recently we were driving through the west and we were very shocked at how dry it was already (in November) and they were cutting hay 2 months before we would expect too.

10. Pest Pressures

This one may be hard to determine before you move on to your property. We knew that we had deer, kangaroos, wallaby’s, wombats and rabbits who all called our farm home. We didn’t know that we would be lucky enough to have all the pressures to stay away from our productive area. Some people aren’t as lucky, I know many struggle with rabbit eating their crops or deer coming in and eating the fruit trees so being prepared to deal with these issues are important if you wish to be self sufficient, there is no point going to all the effort of growing all your own food if you don’t get to harvest any of it.

I hope that this article can help guide you in purchasing the right property for you.

This article (10 things to consider before buying a self sufficient farm) is just the opinion of the writer and not intended to be a comprehensive guide. You should follow due diligence when purchasing your own property employing professionals to help guide you and undertake any relevant checks.