Gofarmer Online Rural Market Place - News & Updates

A Chance to Beef Up

2009-06-22T15:52:00.002Z

The National Beef Association is advising farmers that they may be missing out on vital funds, and that millions of pounds are available in grants for the right projects. They state that over £100 million pounds is available for projects linked to livestock, and that cash’s availability will expire in 2013.

At the current rate of distribution, less than the £20 million per annum target, it currently looks likely that monies made available will remain unclaimed, and thus not fully utilised. This is obviously something that the National Beef Association is seeking to avoid, and is determined to remind farmers that the support is ready and waiting for the right projects.

The hefty financial backing includes £56m to improve livestock business competitiveness, £33m for animal health and welfare, and £29m for improving farm nutrient management. Monies are not simply available to aid farmers looking to bring farms up to mandatory industry standards, or to meet legislative requirements. But money is readily available to fund ambitious farmers looking to play a real part in making genuine improvements to the industry.

“This money, which is being siphoned off farmers’ Single Farm Payment (SFP) through modulation, can be recouped by farmers who put together projects which will improve their holding, add value to their end product, help develop infrastructures for water conservation, or assist with diversification,” said NBA chairman, Christopher Thomas Everard.

The money is available through the English Rural Development Programme, and is being distributed via the country’s regional network of Rural Development Agencies. Weighting to the grant availability has been made based on each regions livestock numbers. “Each regional RDA office holds a fund available for livestock projects based on regional stock numbers so, for example, £38.6 million is up for allocation throughout the South West,” said Mr Thomas Everard.

Mr Everard also stressed that the NBA has argued that ordinary sized family farmers should be targeted and given priority, so they can improve their stock care and ongoing viability. And that the association is pleased to know that proposals that aim to improve business cooperation will also be entertained for backing. While the initial uptake of the money available has not met the annual target, and been disappointing, funding has been improved for a range of items, with projects varying from £750,000 to £7 million in cost.

“This money is accessible, there are no queues to claim it, and so a telephone call to the nearest regional RDA office with the right type of idea could be extremely useful,” urged Mr. Thomas Everard.

Egyptian Pig Farmers Suffer From Swine Flu

2009-05-16T15:45:00.000Z

The confusion over the severity, and possible spread, of Swine Flu continues. Depending on what papers or articles you read, which television coverage you watch or what you have seen through the internet, a multitude of conclusions can be drawn. But they all seem to share a common theme, and that is of confusion and doubt. Last week we wrote about the possible effect this predicted pandemic could have on the British pork industry, both good and bad could be drawn.

Good being that with the levels of regulation in this country, and the respect that the British farmers enjoy, people looking for a quality reared meat might opt for insisting on British produce, regardless of cost. A situation that British farmers may be welcome of, regardless of how it came about.

The possible negative could be panic over the consumption of pork, and a knee jerk reaction by some of the population to remove it from their diet, completely. Fears like this have been quelled by both The World Health Organisation, and our own Environment Secretary, Hillary Benn. Reiterating that it is not possible to pass this flu by the consumption of properly cooked pork, and that there are no cases of this disease being present in the EU, and ongoing continual testing ensues that if it does appear, the affected stocks will be removed from the food chain.

There were some warnings issued about cheap illegal imports, and the health of such animals, but this was probably just a good opportunity to hammer home that advice.

But, rather more predictably, in foreign climes the reaction to Swine Flu has not been so consistent and clear. In Egypt the government ordered the slaughter of all its countries’ pigs. Despite no reported or confirm cases of Swine Flu in the country, the decision was taken to get rid of all the nation’s pigs. Understandably this decision was met with a lot of anger, and there were clashes in Cairo between police and protesters, concerned about this apparent overreaction by the government to slaughter an estimated 300,000 pigs.

Initially the decision was announced as a precaution to prevent a spread of Swine Flu, a move condemned by many experts, who confirmed this action would be completely inappropriate and pointless. However the Egyptian government later conceded that they had used this reason as motivation, and a smoke screen, to attack bigger issues.

Agriculture minister, Saber Abdel Aziz Galal told Agence France-Presse, that wholesale changes were required for the future of pig breeding in the country, and that current conditions were unacceptable. “At the moment the pigs live with dogs, cats, rats, poultry and humans, all in the same area with rubbish. Within two years the pigs will return, but we need first to build new farms," he said.

The Benefits of Keeping Chickens

2009-05-12T09:10:00.001Z

As the world creeps closer to its most disastrous food crisis in history, individuals are becoming ever choosier in when they eat, what they eat and why they eat it. With fossil fuels in decline and seemingly an increase in natural disasters it is only right that we start to look for new ways to grow our food, whilst being aware of the sources it has come from. An ideal means to start this change of attitude and something that most can do for small cost in their own backyard, is to keep chickens.

Once a residential standard for the supply of eggs and meat, especially in the United Kingdom during and after World War I and II, people’s lives have become increasingly faster and busier. The simple art of keeping a couple of hens in the garden has died out, and it is only in more recent years, as people look to growing their own and eating healthy, that chicken keeping popularity has started to rise. Whilst many may be put off by recent bird flu scares, by thoughts of vermin, smell and noise, the benefits of owning poultry far outweigh any disadvantages and with the correct care these clucking, chortling, happy little birds can become additional members to your family.

When it comes to chicken keeping the first obvious benefit is that of food, of fresh eggs collected in a basket, of omelettes produced by simply popping down the garden for supplies. The more advanced keeper may even prefer to raise a small number of chickens for the oven and though horrifyingly cheap in the supermarket, fresh, own reared meat can taste like no frozen chicken you’ve had before. What’s even more satisfying is that left over kitchen scraps can simply be gobbled up by your new found friends to make new, fresh food! Life couldn’t get much greener than that.

But there are additional benefits. Chickens love insects, snails, dandelions and other weeds that to the average gardener become the bane of their lives. Let out of their coop on a supervised basis your hens can soon help stamp out those garden pests with ferocity. Gardeners can benefit too from the droppings, making excellent manure with the straw composting down into the perfect mulch for your garden borders.

As with all animals chickens also come with fantastic personalities and having hens in your backyard can soon become an addictive fascination. Friendly, curious and often quite tameable, chickens can quickly become much more than a source of food to the average family. The joys of keeping pets with children is most rewarding so why not teach them about caring for hens and supplying home grown food for your table….you may just find that getting eggs into them is suddenly that much easier!

Coming in a range of shapes, sizes and colours there is a chicken variety for everyone, whether it is the standard Rhode Island Red to the incredibly fluffy and flightless Silkie. With most laying daily you’ll never have to buy eggs again, especially if the not so uncommon occurs and you suddenly find that your happy hens are producing more than one egg a day each. They are cheap to care for, hardy and resilient and very easy to look after. The only thing you’ll have to worry about is your growing addiction causing you to want more and more.

Just How Much of a Swine Will This Flu Be?

2009-05-03T13:28:00.001Z

The nation seems to be awash with Swine Flu this week. Well not literally, as yet, but it certainly seems to be occupying many minds, and be the top topic of conversations amongst the population. In fact the words ‘credit crunch’ seem to have been one of the worst victims of this potential pandemic. Obviously a lot of the concern, awareness and hype is driven by a sensationalist led media, something we seemed to have come accustomed to as a nation. It is very difficult for us ordinary folk, especially when pressed for time already, to read passed the headlines and the short news bulletins that seem to have been dominated the flagship news mediums all this week, and get a proper understanding and accurate grasp of how this may all affect us individually.

This is breeding confusion, and probably some panic and over reaction, as uncertainty and concern combine. And while the current focus seems to be on whether or not this particular strain of flu will actually spread, rather than anything else, there are a few bubbling issues in the background, that are sure to eventually come more to the front. One of the concerns for the pork industry must be the possible impact this is going to have on demand, sales, and price. The right people seem to be moving quickly to stamp on this before it actually becomes an issue.

“The UK and some other members of the European Union undertake routine surveillance to help detect the presence of animal diseases not normally present in the EU and to identify any change in the prevalence of diseases that do occur. Results of our surveillance suggest that this variant of H1N1 does not appear to be present in pigs in the UK or anywhere else in the EU. However we are taking this developing situation very seriously and will maintain our surveillance effort, keeping the public and industry informed of any developments.” Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told the Newspaper Society. He further went on to reassure the public by saying that the EU does not even import any pig products from Mexico.

The World Health Organization itself has also reiterated that it is not possible to pass this type of virus via the consumption of pork, and if the correct steps are taken, and standards adhered to, then any infected pigs would not get that far down the food chain in any case.

By these actions, and statements, the British pork producers may actually benefit from consumers that will, for once, be more focused on quality and source than solely on price. Hence a demand for a quality home assured product that may be slightly more expensive, might actually increase. However there is also the issue that with this flu simply being labeled as ‘Swine Flu’ that as such, the pig may end up carrying the can amongst those confused and knee jerking into a reaction. And that reaction may include removing pork from their diet.

Will the Bee’s Manage to Pull Through?

2009-04-28T11:32:00.000Z

Farmers, agriculturists and scientists around the world are worried. They are worried about falling bee numbers, about a destructive virus sweeping through productive colonies, about losing the biggest resource to every crop grower in the world. Without Bee’s, apart from losing that wonderful droning on a hot summers day, crops would fail to be pollinated, seeds failed to be produced and the worlds worst starvation ever could occur. But it doesn’t only affect the obvious cereal crops, what about you morning coffee or orange juice, tree’s pollinated by bee’s. What about your fresh milk? If a farmer has less, or inadequate dairy feed, milk production will fall dramatically, pushing up the price of milk and leading to less of it on our shelves.

The bee population is falling dramatically, far more than one may think. In 2008 the British Bee Keepers Association published data accounting for a 30% drop in population between 2007 and 2008. In the same period the European Food Safety Authority published results for Italy, a bee keeping nation on an industrial scale, which showed a startling 40 – 50% drop in population. There is however discussion over the accuracy of these figures. Before populations started to fall there was no established structure for the sharing of data between countries, so whilst this data is worrying, it is not the entire picture.

But the actual reason for this population plummet still remains vague. The Varroa mite is thought to be partially responsible, attaching itself to the insects and sucking their blood, in turn lowering their immune system. Additional environmental pressures such as the use of pesticides and nectar low habitats, and the passing of two wet British summers, are also thought to have led to Colony Collapse Disorder.

With the determining factor in population fall still vague, concerned members of the European Parliament are currently calling for research funding to be pushed through as a priority. Thought’s that high nectar arable set aside locations can be created to aide recovery have also been mentioned but funding will take time, all the while as the bees population continues to slide.

Whilst not directly combating the problem of population fall, farmers and citizens can do their part by establishing new colonies or encouraging nectar rich plants to grow in their gardens. Most hives will provide enough honey for a family, whilst going someway towards stopping this essential insect family from becoming extinct. Time does not seem to be on their side, and if they disappear would be the ones to follow?

Busy Bees

2009-04-22T12:04:00.002Z

Defra has announced major new funding into the protection and rejuvenation of the bee population. The joint project will mean that £10 Million will be made available, seemingly for research, and is a initiative between the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Defra, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Wellcome Trust and the Scottish Government. It was announced in January that Defra would be putting £2 Million into research of this type, but now in collaboration with all these organizations, that amount has increased by £8 Million.

Funding will be made available across the UK to researchers, and will be administered through the Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership. This is seen as vital action to increase the understanding of why the numbers of bees has dwindled, and how we are best placed to correct this trend, and thus revive the bee community. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said “Aristotle identified bees as the most hard working of insects, and with one in three mouthfuls coming from insect-pollinated crops, we need to support bees and other pollinators. This funding will give some of Britain’s world-class researchers the chance to identify the causes of the decline we’re seeing in bee numbers, and that will help us to take the right action to help.”

Bees are vital to the pollination of many crops, and the impact of the decline in their UK colonies has been such that many fear a continuation at this rate will bring very serious consequences to the food production and supply within the country. The British Beekeepers’ Association has been working for the last year on raising awareness of this issue, setting up their own ‘Save Our Bees Campaign’ within that process. Tim Lovett, the President of the BBKA has welcomed this latest announcement. “This news is most welcome and represents a victory for the campaign that the British Beekeepers have undertaken during the last 12 months. It is vital that these funds are committed to the work that can make a real difference and meet the challenges facing honey bees.”

Awareness of this issue is expected to get greater as the season for witnessing bees do their work gets going. The BBC will also be highlighting this issue, in a series of programmes that are exploring and explaining how food gets from the fields to our kitchen tables. One of the shows will be highlighting how the changing weather, warmer winters and wetter summers, is affecting bees, and how vital it is that we understand this process and do what we can to adjust it, and where possible make changes that will reverse this action.

Who Killed The Honey Bee? Will be screened on BBC Four Thursday 23rd April, and repeated several times throughout the following week.

Financial Crisis Leads to Increase in Livestock Rustling

2009-04-17T10:17:00.000Z

With the financial crisis hitting all business sectors, the farming industry is reporting an increase in livestock theft. The cost of meat is rising, leading to sheep, cattle and pigs being taken from farms. It is suspected that many of the stolen animals are slaughtered inhumanely and incorporated into the food sector for human consumption, bypassing many of the stringent health and safety and hygiene regulations.

Recently nine rare breed cattle worth thousands of pounds were stolen, while sixty Blackface sheep are thought to have been herded up and stolen from a Scottish island in an organised operation and another fifty sheep taken from a farm near Newton Abbot. In Dorset, two rams worth around four hundred pounds each were stolen from a farm. The rams were pedigree Poll Dorset sheep, used for breeding, but are likely to have ended up in the food chain. A farmer in Herefordshire had 200 sheep worth an estimated ten thousand pounds stolen.

There is great concern for the impact on National parks such as Dartmoor, where local breed sheep are hefted and so naturally stay in a restricted area of the feel. If these sheep are stolen it is very difficult to replace them. Local farmers are also fearful of putting their animals out to graze for fear of rustling and this will likely have a knock on effect on the environment and features of the fells.

Unfortunately it is thought that the thefts are being carried out by people involved in the farming industry or at least with a farming background, as to round up several sheep and transport them away, takes a well trained dog and the knowledge and skill to load a large number of sheep into a lorry, usually under the cover of darkness.

Farmers in remote locations are organising their own watch schemes and anyone seeing sheep trailers or lorries transporting animals during the night, should take a note of the vehicle and registration number and report the matter.

Agricultural Land Resilient to Recession

2009-04-12T13:38:00.002Z

The price of agricultural land has fallen for the third quarter in a row and now stands at just less than £4700 per acre. However, this is still a 1% increase on last years prices.

Despite the value of agricultural land having fallen, farming land has remained fairly resilient to the recession and property crash that has affected residential property, which saw decreases of 20% over 2008.

The very slight increase in land prices over the last year was mainly fuelled by farmers expanding their holdings because of high grain prices and 'life style' investors from the city putting their huge bonuses into farms and land. For well located pastures and arable land prices rose as high as £8,000 per acre.

Forum Cleared Out

2009-04-08T07:23:00.002Z

After the forum was recently hacked, it has now been cleared of all spam posts and also old posts no longer relevant. Please check out the forum and start a discussion.
Forums are a great place to meet others involved in farming or that have a smallholding and to learn new things and ask questions.

You can find the forum at so please stop by and join and participate.

First Bulgarian Member

2008-04-12T15:23:00.002Z

We have our first Bulgarian Seller - Paul, who is selling his small dairy farm in the Yambol region.

This is an ideal opportunity for somebody looking for a ready-made business with accommodation on the premises. The main farm building covers an area of approximately 100sqm and is solidly constructed from concrete and brick with a tiled roof. This comprises of the milk area with sink and milk vat, the cow housing area (separated by a brick wall and double-glazed door for hygiene), and an additional sink and 80 litre electric boiler.

Annexed to the main building are two timber framed rooms with a total area of approximately 50sqm which are currently used for storing hay and housing new calves.

The milk area has been recently refurbished to meet EU requirements to Grade 2 standard and there is a current continuous contract with a dairy company who collect the milk every 24-48 hours. The milk is classed as top grade with a good high fat content. All taxes are up to date and all animals are fully registered.

The farm comes complete with:
13 adult cows (9 of which are in various stages of pregnancy)
4 calves
2 female adult goats
Horse and cart
Milking machine
Milk vat Own water supply complete with outside water troughs

Also included in the sale is a 4 roomed bungalow which sits adjacent to the farm itself and comprises of 60sqm, along with a small outbuilding which currently houses pigs. The house is accessed via some steps to the balcony area which leads to the entrance. It is habitable but the new owners may wish to modernise to include an internal bathroom/toilet and redecorate to their own tastes. At present there is an outside toilet available. The complete size of the land with house and farm together covers 1900sqm, and both the garden and farm areas are fully fenced with easy access from one to the other. The garden includes a well with electric pump and 20m pipe for irrigation etc, an outside sink, apple, apricot and cherry trees, and a grapevine over a trellis to the front.

For just 35,000 Euros this is a bargain!

Visit www.gofarmer.com, to contact Paul about this offer and start your own farm in Bulgaria.

New Improvements to Gofarmer Service

2008-04-01T06:52:00.002Z

The Gofarmer website has recently undergone some behind the scene's changes to improve the way the site works.

One main change is that Buyers now only have to go through a simplified registration process and if viewing a product, they can quickly and easily register in seconds and then immediately view full product description and the Seller's contact details. It was thought that the original, longer Buyer registration, may put some people off from registering and thus mean Seller's could be losing out on potential customers.

Another big change is that Bulgaria has been added to the countries Gofarmer now accepts members from and the website will be marketed to the Expat community living here. So Gofarmer is now operational in the UK, France and Bulgaria.

Behind the scenes in the administration area, I now have the ability to see which email addresses are fake, invalid or no longer working. All members are required to keep their email address updated. Regular checks will be done through the administration area to ensure all members area 'real people' and members with fake or invalid emails will be removed. This will keep the membership database clean and more responsive.

The forum will soon be overhauled and promoted to make more active and other features are planned for 2008.

Rachel

Gofarmer - ownership changes

2007-12-30T14:35:00.000Z

Gofarmer and thus this Blog have been fairly quiet over the last year or so. This is because in the summer 2006, John and I parted and I moved back in with parents temporarily, pending my planned move to Bulgaria, where I had become involved in the property market and had several investment properties, as well as a new house built. Myself and John did not want to see Gofarmer simply shelved as we had both put in so much work and felt that we owed it to our membership base to continue the website. We agreed to continue the business partnership with John fielding telephone enquiries back in the UK and I would oversee the generally running of the website from Bulgaria.

But life is never that simple and my new house was not ready until several months later and so my internet access was restricted. John started working other jobs outside the farm and had little time to devote to Gofarmer and so for the majority of 2007, Gofarmer just plodded on. I managed to keep a general eye on the site, answer email enquiries and in the summer of 2007 had several bugs fixed in the script.

In December 2007, John opted to sign over his share in Gofarmer to me and so I now run Gofarmer and am the sole owner. I am currently milling over various ideas to increase visitors to the site and achieve more popularity and thus more sales for advertisers. I have placed long running adverts in the Smallholder Magazine and The Rare Breeds Survival Trust Magazine - the Ark. I am now happily settled in my new home with 4 rescue dogs and a cat and so in 2008, you can expect Gofarmer to bounce back.

The philosophy behind Gofarmer was always to bring the farming community into closer contact nationally (and internationally) and in turn closer to the ordinary public as they are the usually the final customer, especially if farmers are doing bed and breakfast, holiday cottages, farm shops or even home deliveries. I want to create a portal for farming and rural communities in the UK and possibly elsewhere, somewhere to promote goods and services, meet others, find resources and hopefully benefit from being part of a wider community of users. Watch this space.......

If Financial Solutions

2007-05-29T14:58:00.000Z

If Financial Solutions Sponsor Gofarmer

'IF financial solutions was formed on the back of five years experience within agricultural mortgages. We have helped many farmers source both long and short term financial solutions, dependant on their specific requirements. Alongside this we have also been able to develop our lending criteria to offer finance for the majority of commercial properties at the most competitive rates.

Agricultural Finance is an area that has become increasingly difficult over the past few years to acquire funding for. With decision making in many of the banks being removed from the local business manager to a centralized office, many farmers have been coming up against a brick wall.

Our understanding of the agricultural finance markets and specific legal requirements allow us to source viable alternatives even for clients with limited financial information available. With close links to specialist legal firms and surveyors we can ensure applications are dealt with quickly and effectively, with repayment options that suit your requirements.

The last decade has seen great change within agriculture which has required farmers to move with the times. Through our company we can provide fast and effective solutions allowing farmers to stay ahead.'

For more information visit If Financial Solutions

Recent Press Release About Banner Advertising

2006-10-14T15:06:00.000Z

We have recently had a press release sent out by Pressbox.co.uk and PRWeb about our new banner and button advertising options. This press release is submitted to a number of different news services and we hope this will bring us some further publicity and advertising revenue.

To read the press release click here

Rachel

1/3 of sheep farms culled in F&M didn't have disease

2006-10-04T10:45:00.000Z

Gofarmer News

We are continuing to improve traffic and visitors to our site. July showed over 170,000 hits with around 4680 unique visitors, while August showed a massive increase in hits to 290,000 although actual unique visitors stayed around the same. September brought 251,000 hits and a similar number of unique visitors.

The search and product pages show the most visitors. The forum is starting to get more visitors and also the links page is one of the pages showing lots of visitors. Visitors are then going to the main site from the forum and links page and also landing on the farm focus page. As expected most are leaving from the various product pages.

You will also notice some Google banner ads at the bottom of the main centre of the site. We hope to raise some additional income for advertising through these until we have established independent banner advertising.

Recent Listings

Yesterday's Farm by Valerie Potter - retrospective look at farming life up to 1960, celebrating a quintessential rural existence.

Crumble Cottage - Self catering cottage on a working smallholding 15 miles from Aberystwyth, stunning coastal views and beaches nearby.

Sheep Fleece Floor Rug - hand made floor rug made from raw washed fleece from Coloured Ryeland Sheep with a touch of white from a Border Leicester.

Forum Topics

The BBC reports that more than one third of sheep farms thought to have foot-and-mouth in the 2001 crisis did not have the disease. Over a million animals were slaughtered needlessly. Click Here to read more and discuss issue

Pale and white shelled eggs have caused a problem for one forum member - have you had similar problems. Click Here for forum post.

Business & Farm Focus

Business Focus: Institute of Organic Training and Advice - The Institute of Organic Training and Advice (IOTA) is an important new initiative supporting the work of advisers, trainers and others working in organic farming throughout the UK

Farm Focus: Bayhlam House Rare Breeds Farm - We keep four different breeds of cattle, White Park, Shetland, Old Gloucester and Highland and also seven flocks of rare sheep, Castlemilk Moorit, Norfolk Horn, Greyface Dartmoor, Llanwenog, Balwen, Ouessant and Herdwick. Our pigs include Large Black, Middle White, Berkshire and the exceedingly friendly Maori pigs from New Zealand called Kune Kunes. We also keep some very attractive pygmy goats and a variety of poultry including Buff Sussex, Ixworth, Scots Grey and Scots Dumpy.

2006-08-15T13:32:00.000Z

New Banner Advertising Options

We have just started accepting banner and button advertising on the site. There are 3 options:

Large Vertical Banner

This is the large banner under the categories and as shown on the right here. It is 125 pixels wide and 400 pixels long. This banner option will be displayed permanently on every page in the Gofarmer website for however long you choose to advertise. It is NOT on rotation with any others.

In addition to this, you will receive:

A 468 x 60 banner or a text ad at the top of the monthly newsletter to all Gofarmer members (currently around 700) for each month you buy the vertical banner.
A 468 x 60 banner in the footer of the Forum and a link and short description of your business or product in the Forum under the Sponsors Section
Your vertical banner will also be on this blog and you will be able to provide a full feature on your business or product for publication on the Blog (which will be archived and so remain accessible always)

Button Ads

This a 125 x 125 pixel button ad displayed permanently on the right hand side of all pages of the Gofarmer website. These button adverts are NOT on rotation with any others and there will never be more than 4 button adverts displayed at any one time.

In addition to this, you will receive:

Your button ad in the monthly newsletter to all Gofarmer members (currently around 700) for each month you buy the button ad.
A link and short description of your business or product in the Forum under the Sponsors Section
Your button ad will also be on this blog on the right hand side

Bottom Banner Advertising

A usual 468 x 60 banner displayed at the bottom of every page on the Gofarmer website. This banner is on rotation with just 4 others (Maximum of 5 advertisers in this slot). The banner will show right under the search box for all category selections and at the bottom of search results, adverts and all other pages.

In addition to this, you will receive:

A sponsor link and short description at the bottom of the monthly newsletter to all Gofarmer members (currently around 700) for each month you buy the button ad.
A link and short description of your business or product in the Forum under the Sponsors Section
Sponsor Link on this blog on right hand side

All advertisers will be provided with access to their own advertiser's admin area where they can see how many impressions and click-throughs their banner or button has received.

We have researched the prices other companies are charging for similar banner advertising and have kept our prices very low in comparison. Some companies charge between £25 and £50 a week for the 'bottom' banner position and your banner rotates with unlimited other banners. Often no stats are provided so you can not really judge how effective the advertising is. We have been quoted over £700 a month for banners similar to the large vertical banner for sites with similar traffic.

We wanted to keep prices reasonable and provide extra exposure with the advertising packages and so any banner or button advertising also includes newsletter advertising to all our members and advertising on the Blog and on our Forum under the sponsors section.

On average the Gofarmer site receives over 100,000 hits a month, with around 5,000 to 10,000 unique visitors each month so your banner or button will be seen by a lot of people. For more details please click the advertising link on the right.

Gofarmer.com

2006-01-06T17:35:00.000Z

Gofarmer.com is an online market place for UK farmers and smallholders and rural businesses to trade livestock, farm machinery, animal feed, farm land, rural services and more. Do you have cows for sale, sheep to sell, pigs for sale? Or maybe you are looking for a second hand tractor, a horse trailer or a baler?

Have you always fancied owning a few chickens or a couple of sheep or goats but don't know where to start? Then join Gofarmer and browse through our members area for information on different breeds of cows, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry or maybe even a llama! Take a look at the large range of livestock for sale, agricultural machinery, feedstuffs and animal housing our members are selling.

Looking for fresh meat produce directly from the farm, lamb for your freezer, rare breed pork, home reared organic beef or your nearest farm shop, farm bed and breakfast, or a vegetable box scheme. Take a look at the rural crafts and gifts on offer from original wool products, animal portraits, novelty farm gifts, children's clothing and more.

Each week various livestock, farm machinery, rural crafts, rural services, produce and more will be featured on this site.

Rachel
http://www.gofarmer.com