Pictures: Livestock farm with £5.6m price tag goes on sale

A 538-acre beef fattening unit in East Sussex is being spit up into five lots, with a guide price for the whole of £5.6m.

Great Trodgers farm near Tunbridge Wells is also available in five lots, so will appeal to expanding farmers.

Great-Trodgers

Great Trodgers, East Sussex

At about 538 acres, Great Trodgers, which is seven miles from Tunbridge Wells, has a guide price of £5.6m for the whole, or in five lots.

The beef fattening unit comprises about 218 acres of arable land and 183 acres of pasture, plus 119 acres of woodland which has previously hosted a shoot and is managed semi-commercially.     

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The farmland is subject to a farm business tenancy which expires in March 2018 and the holding’s three houses are let on shorthold tenancies.

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The Grade 3 land includes permanent pasture alongside the arable rotation of winter wheat, winter oats and temporary grass leys for silage.

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Great Trodgers’ buildings are extensive and modern, including seven covered cattle courts and sheds, two grain stores and further storage, all sited at one yard central to the land.  

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“Significant investment has been made in both the farm’s buildings and infrastructure, including a new concrete drive and cattle handling facilities with the aim of making it a labour efficient beef unit,” said Matt Sudlow, partner at selling agent Strutt & Parker.

“It offers the perfect beef fattening unit and the buildings are equipped to handle a larger acreage if required.

“It is rare that a genuinely mixed and equipped farm of over 500 acres becomes available in the south east so we are predicting interest to be strong.”

Great Trodgers in lots

Lot 1 – guide price: £3.7m

About 141 acres of arable land and 133 acres of pasture, all let on an FBT until 2018. Buildings include covered cattle yards, silage clamps with a 2,500t capacity, 1,100t on-floor grain storage, workshop and cattle handling facilities.

Two detached three-bedroom bungalows with agricultural occupancy conditions and 103 acres of mature, broadleaved woodland.

Lot 1a – guide price: £750,000

Detached, four bedroom with one-acre paddock.  

Lot 2 – guide price £420,000

About 50 acres of pasture and eight acres of semi-commercial woodland.

Lot 3 – guide price £85,000

Nine acres of arable land in a single field.

Lot 4 – guide price £230,000

About 25 acres of arable land and nearly an acre of woodland and ponds with amenity and sporting potential.

Lot 5 – guide price £415,000

A total of 49 acres including about 43 acres of arable land and six acres of woodland.