Rural Business Consultancy Planning Statement

Rural Business Consultancy

2091103

www.ruralbusinessconsultancyitd.com 1st September 2020 Re: Proposed new barn, Ballacallum Red Gate, The Lhen, Andreas, IM7 3EH

Please find enclosed a planning application for a proposed new barn at Ballacallum Red Gates, The Lhen, Andreas. I have the following points to be considered with the application.

• The property owners Redacted purchased the property in August 2020.
• The property includes a range of stone buildings and a steel framed building.
• The land associated with the property extends to 20 acres.
• Redacted wish to farm the land they now own and see a new building as a key part of their farming plans.
• Redacted are in the process of becoming a registered agricultural business with DEFA with the aim of applying for the Agricultural Development Scheme (ADS) in 2021.
• Redacted wish to invest into high value "Valais Blacknose Sheep" which are not common on the Isle of Man or UK and command an exceptionally high price at sales. Breeding ewe prices start at £1500 per animal (http://www.valaisblacknose-sheep.co.uk/sale/ewes-sale) where as a commercial ewe would generally start at approximately £120 per head.
• They are proposing to grow their farming enterprise to 40 breeding ewes plus followers.
• The Labour associated with this operation is approximately 0.19 standard labour units.
• The labour is likely to be far higher than this due to the values involved and scale of operation.
• Currently there is a range of stone buildings on the property which have been converted into dry storage areas. These stone buildings are unsuitable for the housing of livestock and modern agriculture due to the lack of suitable ventilation and restrictive access.
• There is currently a steel framed building on site 13.7m x 9.14m which has been and will continue to be utilised as a garage and storage area for gardening tools. This building has poor access for large agricultural machinery and no ventilation for the housing of livestock making it impractical for modern agriculture.
• The proposed building 22.86m x 9.14m is intended for the housing of the ewe flock through the winter and especially at lambing, the storage of hay and bedding and also some machinery storage.
• The provision of shelter at lambing will aid health and welfare of the ewes and their newborn lambs. This is essential in the inclement weather that can occur during the 6-week lambing period though March and April.
• The space calculations indicate that housing the breeding ewes, associated hay and straw plus a general work area for the storage of tools, equipment (tractor etc) will require approximately 208m².
• The proposed barn will provide 209 m² resulting an excess of 1m².

[email protected]

07624301863

• The proposed building is to be located adjacent to the existing building so as to limit the visibility impact.
• The proposed site will be brought down to the existing yard level to allow for a level work and yard area with the soil removed to be utilised for levelling up areas of the yard and creation of hedge around the building and yard.
• The proposed yard area will allow for good access for machinery and livestock in all weathers.
• There is currently an open dry drainage channel which appears to have been constructed to catch and remove surface water both from the field but primarily from the drive.
• The channel is to be piped with drainage pipe and levelled.
• A new stock proof fence will be erected around the site to ensure the field is stock proof.
• A roller door in each end of the building will allow for good access and also ensure that the building can be access on the windiest of days.
• The exposed banking will be allowed to grass over with natural grasses, plants and bushes, similar to the existing hedges.

The proposed barn will allow the Woods to utilise the available land to its potential and generate a high value livestock enterprise. The building is fully justifiable and should be supported.

Regards

2001103

Chris Kneale

Rural Business Consultancy.

Picture 1 – Existing building {{image:105320}} Picture 2 – Drainage channel and proposed site of new building. {{image:105321}}

Worksheet for calculation of Standard Labour unit requirements

enter number:	Enterprise	Livestock Units		hours/yr	enter acres:	Enterprise	hours/yr
Standard per unit	calculated total	Standard per acre	calculated total
	Dairy Cows	1	0	39	-		Cereals	8.1	-
	Beef Cows	0.75	0	12	-		Potatoes	48.5	-
	Other cattle	0.75	0	9	-		early
	calves	0.34	0	4	-		maincrop	36.4	-
	Sheep		0				Vining peas	10.1	-
40	ewes & lambs - lowland	0.11	4.4	5.2	208.0		Oilseeds	6.1	-
	ewes & lambs - upland		0	4.2	-		Field Beans & peas	4.0	-
38	other sheep - lowland	0.07	2.66	3.3	125.4		Lilseed	6.1	-
	other sheep - upland		0	2.6	-		Grass seeds	8.1	-
	Pigs		0				Grassland	1.6	30.1
	sows	0.44	0	10	-	10.01	Rough grazing	0.6	2.6
	finnish & rearing (pig place)	0.17	0	1.3	-	4.21	fodder crops	2.4	-
	piglets <20kg (pig place)	0.17	0	1	-		fodder roots & Brassicas	40.5	-
	Poultry		0				Fodder maize	8.1	-
	table fowl		0	0.03	-		other cereal silages	8.1	-
	laying hens		0	0.3	-		Fallow	1.6	-
	growing poults		0	0.12	-		Sugar Beet	13.4	-
	other poultry		0	0.045	-		Sat Aside	0.4	-
	Horses		0	160	-		Hops	24.3	-
	Goats		0	20	-		Outdoor veg & salads	40.5	-
	Deer		0	15	-		Vinning peas	10.1	-
	Free range increase factor		0	0.15	-		Other peas & beans	202.4	-
					-		top & soft fruit	182.2	-
	Bee Hives			11	-		Mushrooms	2923.1	-
					-		total farm size

Name: Redacted

Address: Ballacallum Red Gates Date: 01/09/2026 Total livestock 333.4 Total crops 22.7 Overhead assumption 18.3 Assuming 5% overheads allowance Total standard man hours per year 384.4 Total labour units required 0.19 assuming 2000 standard labour units per labour unit

Sheep Accomodation

		m²
No Breeding ewes*	40	1.4	56
ewe lambs	0	0.5	0
Work area	1	100	100

Feed and Bedding storage

Feed and Bedding req		Bales
Housed ewes	40	0.1	4
Winter feed	40	0.3	12
Hay enterprise			0
Feed	1	25	25

• medium sized ewe straw bedded area

Available Area

	No of	Area req per unit m²	area req m²	Height of storage/m	Total area req
Hay Bales	12	1.7	20.4	3.6	6
Straw bales	4	1.7	6.8	3.6	2
Hard Feed tonnes	25	1.7			43
Machinery	0	200			0
		total	206
		10%	2
			208	Total area req m²

Building	Length m	Width m	m²
	1	0	0
	2	0	0
	3	0	0

Proposed

1

22.86

9.14

208.9

Total available

0

m²

Incl proposed

209

m²

difference

1

m²