Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Linsey Dawn Mckenzie First Shoot Sport

The installation steps (continued)

April-June: the purchase of tunnels

As you have already read, we have already made our first investment, namely the acquisition of five tunnels in cold we divide two, to make it ten. These are brand tunnels Richel 30 9 m wide and nearly 4 m high (above 4 m, we would have needed a building permit). Of the five greenhouses, two of them have side vents with automatic opening and the other three are no openings.
We took advantage of a liquidation of a market gardener in the nearby town in order to acquire this equipment very good and almost new, the price of the occasion. However, history has proved a little preposterous:

In a liquidation, the liquidator must first publish a tender with a deadline. All Interested persons submit an offer and a deposit check. Beforehand, the lot is estimated (by € 20 000) and the liquidator has set a threshold below that reserve price, which remains confidential. If no bids reaches the threshold of reserves, the liquidator recontacted all bidders to drive up bids, and if still not enough, the lot by auction. In the latter case, the liquidator takes a commission on the sale.


The procedure was actually much more curvy! Between the supply is never found in the official newspapers, a sub-division lot for which he was eventually buy all of the supposed bidders who finally did not exist (or how to raise the stakes ...), a mysterious bidder who appeared at the last moment with an offer higher than ours, but for half of the lot (price of new!), a judge had to decide between the two, and which ultimately had only received our offer ... and the secretary with whom one was related to the last moment that no longer works in the office of liquidator! A true story of crazy!

But ultimately, we are owners of greenhouses. Initially we were supposed to have within three weeks to dismantle them, but, on balance, we have no time ... Apart from the start of our business! Fortunately, because there's plenty to do ... end of June: the course 21 hours

These three training days are run by a wine from the Medoc twenty years. Most participants are often wine future (and yes, it is the region!). However, during this assignment, many of us to establish ourselves in gardening.

We toured the situation of each, discussed the various problems we might encounter (neighborhood disputes, family, distribution of tasks, access to land, marketing ,...). We repeated the point about the installation process and the assistance for which we were entitled. Several MSA representatives came to their institution and demonization we explain our rights and duties. We also met with young installed and old alike, about the difficulties encountered during installation, and the differences between what we present to the Chamber of Agriculture and the reality of the installation.

This was especially the opportunity to meet future colleagues and discuss the different situations of each other. Three days quite nice in the end.
July: Young Farmer diagnosis

Before the completion of the installation folder, it is possible to realize a project with diagnosis of ARDA (Association for Agricultural Development and Rural) to go around everything you need to take into account to complete the project.

We have not done a real diagnosis, lack of time, but it allowed us to clarify some points where we could not find an answer, and raise other questions, which we don ' had not necessarily thought of. We discussed among other things: the status of the company to create, the contribution of capital, project financing, the cost of creating the society, issues of land tenure (lease, rent, relevant dates, inventory) and accounting requirements.


July: soil tests

To learn more about the land that we cultivate and reasoning to make fertilizer, it is essential to perform soil analysis (who is for agronomists), because our vegetables grow well in the ground, and not in the rockwool. Cheers Bio!
For reasons of cost (over 100 € analysis!), And despite the heterogeneity of our plots, we conducted two tests. Beforehand, we had made numerous levy on all plots to get an idea of the diversity of our soil, to make a first visual analysis of their condition and decide to analyze priority parcels. We have had confirmation that the soils were very sandy and we could see that some soils were very poor in organic matter (one of the parcels was more like a sandbox as a soil Grassed gardener).

What has been measured in the laboratory analysis?

The pH, organic matter content, lime, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, cation exchange capacity (ability of soil to determine the components nutrients), the rate of trace elements (copper, zinc, manganese, iron), the particle size (percentage of clay, silt and sand).
In conclusion, we suspected, we will have to make very large volumes of manure and other amendments.
continued: Organic certification (with photos of plots), the realization of the Economic Development Plan, the baptism of tillage (with photo), the supply of manure, handling equipment ... and dismantling greenhouses (always open to good will).

0 comments:

Post a Comment