Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It cant be that bad

I not sure if told you guys or not.

Back when I had the backing for the 1ha greenhouse there was one point I started get a bit stressed. I was drinking a couple of glasses of something each night. While that is not a lot I was finding that it was effecting me. Mostly because instead of working til late I'd be relaxed in front of the tv.

At the time I had masses of details to sort out in particular all the technical drawings for the pipe and electrical networks which had to be completed before the earthworks were done.

So I decided no more alcohol until the greenhouse was built. 1 month later the deal fell over and other than the occasional sip to taste someones home brew I haven't had a drink since. When I finally get a property I'll be putting up a little propagation house or something in 5 mins and opening a bottle or two.

Hi Stuart ,
Now I admit I haven't had time to read this whole thread but I've just finished nightshift and had a brain wave, probably not what you trying to do and completely understand if you throw the idea straight away.
Anyway my idea is,
If you have land ect, you could section it off in different areas small plots as such.
Then ask people with the interest but not the property to build there systems on your land and charge them a fee or lease. So like a community garden but aquaponics.
They would then set it up and maintain each section meanwhile you can use the money to slowly build a bigger system for your commercial scale just not so big.
Anyway it was just an idea and I'm sure it's way more involved than that. But I will never be able to achieve things like that so thought I would share and at least throw the idea.

I think your plans are great so keep up the good work and planning it will happen for you I'm sure.
I'll help with the cider when it's running
Cheers

Funnyily enough...

Almost as soon as we started building the Fish Farmers website and I started writing the content to tell our story and introduce what we wanted to do I really started to wonder if we should have led with the Cooperative Farm and not Fish Farmers. I still think that the reasons we led with Fish Farmers were valid but I'm very grateful to EB for saying that we should have a separate website because then Damien volunteered to do it. One of the biggest reasons for not doing both was because of the effort/expense of doing both.

So now that that problem is solved and the second website is underway I'm going to start talking more about the farm and less about the system.

The challenge is that its still difficult to talk about the financial side of things without falling afoul of the Corporations act. So we've decided to make things simple and not really talk about people buying into the farm rather we will just offer long term leases to people.

At the recent Deep Winter Agrarian Gathering https://www.facebook.com/groups/734787059972703/

Access to land was one of the keys issues talked about that stops new farmers from getting started.

I know myself how difficult it has been to find anyone willing to lease land to us on a long term basis. I know of many established farmers that can lease land for stock or cropping season to season but can't get a longer lease. For example I know an organic farmer who is cropping several hundred acres and would love to lease more land but he NEEDs at least a 5 year least, to get the land certified and to get a return on the investment he would make in the soil.

I'd already had a good chat with a number of banks but I had an even better one this week. I've been told that they will be prepared to lend on the strength of our business plan. What hasn't been decided is how much based on the business plan alone and how much extra based on other income we can get from the land. Now it is entirely possible that along with the cash that we have we might get a loan for the full amount which means we can get started as soon as we make a decision on a block of land. What is more likely is that they will want to see evidence of other income.

So when the website is up and running one of the pages will allow people to see who has already expressed their interest, their requirements and what they are prepared to pay.

For example:

Fish Farmers, 2ML of water per annum, 5 acres of land for shed, aquaculture, aquaponics and later a greenhouse @ $170/ac/month for ten years renewable for a further ten.

Fish Farmers, 15 acres of land for irrigating water from Aquaculture system to field grown crops @$50/ac/month for ten years renewable for a further ten.

Fish Farmers, House site ~500m2 @$50/month for ten years renewable for a further ten.

Wild Wines, Power, water, space to build 200m2 shed @$150/month for five years renewable for a further five.

**** Olives, 5ML of water per annum, 20 acres of land for olives and 100m2 shed @ $90/month for ten years renewable for a further ten.

******* Glamping, 10 individual camp sites located in suitable areas about the property or concentrated in one area. Prepared to offer $15-35/week depending on sites renewable 5 year lease.

Abby Smith 2 Acres for 2 ponies, horse box, excellent fences $50/week.


This represents a range of uses and a range of budgets. Fish Farmers can afford to pay more for its intensive operations because they are intensive. Paying extra for particular things that will require planning permissions also make sense because the permission to build a house or run a particular business are limited. Not everyone will be able to have a house so if someone wants a house it makes sense that they pay more. How many dwellings we can have on the property will depend on the property but one block we are looking at could have as many as 4. Broad acre cropping would pay less, particular uses would pay more. I'd rather grow food than horses but if a bunch of horses help us to buy the land well I'd be grateful for their support.

People are probably going to say I'm over complicating things (Again) but I really want to encourage a mix of uses and enterprises that we can then integrate to some degree. Wild Wines and **** Olives are good examples of that because Wild Wines will be one of Fish Farmers customers and **** Olives will be able to use some of our fish water.


Not so keen on that idea. If someone else wanted to do an AP system I'd be open to a discussion but I'd be a bit nervous. Probably more open to someone joining Fish Farmers rather than setting up along side.

Ok I see what you are saying but where the hell are you going to get that much water I know very few licences are being granted for the smaller catchments
All the tobacco farmers on the ovens and king rivers had there licence taken away
The market gardens on the calder hwy near keiler had there licence taken
the dog farm at diggers rest had to make alternative arrangements he now uses recycled water
two winerys in sunbury had to use recycled water [one put in a big dam ]
Even if you put in a bore there is restrictiong of how much you can pump

Its not that much water and you can get it if you are prepared to pay.

I just looked up the water trading market and there is water for sale for at the moment for 25ML @ $214/ML.

That is not permanent water just for a year. Likely the price is set to go up but that is where it is right now.

May bee but you still need your farm where the water is available

All part of the selection process.

Good luck I am shore you will succeed

Is that farm at Echuca out of the question it has a huge water right fish tanks paddock sprinklers are there and the sheds has 3 phrase power theres numerous shedding and 2 houses

No, for a number of reasons.

1. its already sold.

2. when I was focusing on the big project I was prepared to move anywhere. Cowra, Texas, King Island, Maryborough, Colac were all serious options at one point or another. On a small scale we are tied to the Ballarat region because of my sons health and education needs.

I think i must of been sleeping in a cave for the last month to miss your announcement Stuart,i have just read it through,Fantastic Stuart,i am sure this will be a success for you,congrats and i will be following you with interest.Love the website to....

Congratulations Stuart! Both the project and the website are wonderful and I wish you a great success!

I'm on hold on 774 to talk about integrating aquaculture with agriculture.

Wish me luck.

thats is a melbourne radio station