land preparation for snail farm

Hellotree

Hello,

How do I prepare the field for snail farming in the midlands? Clear it of pests/disease, unnecessary foiliage and native snails?

_Brian

Start with fencing. Three rows of barbed wire (tinsley is best). Single strand of electric fence on inside. All equally spaced no more than six inches to top strand.
Deep ploughing is best, 18 inches or more.

Don't go with a BB bull in the first year.

Don't think it's worth investing in a calving camera.

greysides

Jez Brian, I don't know if it's you or me ........... but one of us hasn't read the OP correctly..........

My glasses aren't working....maybe both sides should be the same strength....... there's red wine in one and beer in the other...................

Mod hat on....okay folks, let's give the man some useful answers...

tomwaterford

I know nothing
But I assume you want to fence with chicken wire etc and stop rabbits from burying under it and work from there? ?



I'll be very interested to see how this pans out and best of luck OP

yosemitesam1

Have a search for that woman in carlow. She runs courses according to her website

Hellotree

thanks greysides, yes I very much agree. I appreciate the input all the same Brian, confusing as it is.

Thank you Tomwaterford, the rabbit situation is a concern. I am told that fine chicken wire is good for not allowing the snails to escape. It should be dug at least 20cm into the ground. Do you think that is deep enough to prevent rabbits?

Yes I have researched her, I will definitely be contacting her and perhaps visiting

tomwaterford

Hellotree wrote: »

thanks greysides, yes I very much agree. I appreciate the input all the same Brian, confusing as it is.

Thank you Tomwaterford, the rabbit situation is a concern. I am told that fine chicken wire is good for not allowing the snails to escape. It should be dug at least 20cm into the ground. Do you think that is deep enough to prevent rabbits?

Yes I have researched her, I will definitely be contacting her and perhaps visiting

We used have a vegetable patch when we small at home...
Theres a way of setting the wire so rabbits won't dig down to it etc. ...the father knows,can't remember it though
To stop escaping....Maybe put an overhang in the way at the top.... so if they do climb (??) It they'll fall off and in at the top??

^^I'm just pure guessing here though!

What scale are you talking here....as I'd imagine it could get expensive enough to do

Hellotree

extremely expensive. I am still trying to figure out the scale

50HX

you need sheeting sunk into the ground to stop rabbits getting in
fence wire with a netting over hang
net covering to keep birds out
sow some sort of crop for them to feed on

go see that lady in carlow before you spend any money

v small outlay v conventional farming

Hellotree

thank you. how deep should it be sunk?

jd06

_Brian wrote: »

Start with fencing. Three rows of barbed wire (tinsley is best). Single strand of electric fence on inside. All equally spaced no more than six inches to top strand.
Deep ploughing is best, 18 inches or more.

Don't go with a BB bull in the first year.

Don't think it's worth investing in a calving camera.

Genius

pedigree 6

Am I the only that thinks the first question should be.
Have you a market?

I know the op was asking about facilities for growing snails but its the most important question.

I don't think there's too many here rearing snails. (Could be wrong).

There is someone down near enniscorthy doing snail farming.

GrasstoMilk

I visited these two lads a few months back. There based the far side of Enniscorthy in co Wexford.
Make contact with them. There very open

www.marphan.com

They grew brassicas to feed them. The like of forage rape mainly and then some soft root crops like beet root.

They had containers for packaging the snail and had a good half acre fenced off to stop rabbits getting in. They had galvanise sunk into the ground about a foot and chicken wire all around and then a bird net over the whole thing.

There's a very big shortage of snails from what they told us but transport is what kills them

Keepgrowing

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

I visited these two lads a few months back. There based the far side of Enniscorthy in co Wexford.
Make contact with them. There very open

www.marphan.com

They grew brassicas to feed them. The like of forage rape mainly and then some soft root crops like beet root.

They had containers for packaging the snail and had a good half acre fenced off to stop rabbits getting in. They had galvanise sunk into the ground about a foot and chicken wire all around and then a bird net over the whole thing.

There's a very big shortage of snails from what they told us but



"transport is what kills them"

Is it most trucks or would cars kill a good many of them?

I'll just be getting my coat:)

mf240

Was going to say you'd put a good few in an ivor Williams, but they'd be a fortnight going up the ramp...

Pkiernan

Need a very patient sheep dog to round them up...

pedigree 6

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Am I the only that thinks the first question should be.
Have you a market?

I know the op was asking about facilities for growing snails but its the most important question.

I don't think there's too many here rearing snails. (Could be wrong).

There is someone down near enniscorthy doing snail farming.

Have done a bit of research myself. There is a huge supply deficit in both Italy and France. They import the vast majority of their escargot

pedigree 6

Deleted User wrote: »

Have done a bit of research myself. There is a huge supply deficit in both Italy and France. They export the vast majority of their escargot

Then the next question has to be, where do France and Italy import the shortfall in their own production from?
Because that's your competition. That's who your competing against.
What advantages will you have over your competitors?
If needs be can you develop a home market for your produce?

pedigree 6

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Then the next question has to be, where do France and Italy import the shortfall in their own production from?
Because that's your competition. That's who your competing against.
What advantages will you have over your competitors?
If needs be can you develop a home market for your produce?

Wherever they can get it. Eva said that there maybe potential to export it as irish produce and also there is several different other markets such as cosmetics, caviar, possibly protein products. There may be also newer markets such as China and the far east.

I personally think that similar to normal dairy farming that this would be better served by its farmers forming a cooperative society rather than competing against each other in order to nail down better prices for food. If you go in with a dog eat dog, survival of the fittest attitude then personally i think you wont survive long term. Eva has snail farming down to a fine art. It would be madness not to avail of that expertise. She also has passion and drive in abundance.

I suppose though the biggest threat at the moment would be italy. Snails are associated with France but there is greater demand in Italy and Snail Farms have supposedly grown 325% there. Still though, i think there is plenty of pie to go around if you jump on it now. Only my opinion, i may be wrong.

Just on the home market. We have probably too small a population and i've spoken to a few people who hate the idea of eating snails so id imagine the national attitude would be closed although its a small sample. Some people i spoke to even hated the idea of raring them. I dont think Ireland is profitable enough anyway. the UK may have been but Brexit has made it more difficult.

pedigree 6

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Wherever they can get it. Eva said that there maybe potential to export it as irish produce and also there is several different other markets such as cosmetics, caviar, possibly protein products. There may be also newer markets such as China and the far east.

I personally think that similar to normal dairy farming that this would be better served by its farmers forming a cooperative society rather than competing against each other in order to nail down better prices for food. If you go in with a dog eat dog, survival of the fittest attitude then personally i think you wont survive long term. Eva has snail farming down to a fine art. It would be madness not to avail of that expertise. She also has passion and drive in abundance.

I suppose though the biggest threat at the moment would be italy. Snails are associated with France but there is greater demand in Italy and Snail Farms have supposedly grown 325% there. Still though, i think there is plenty of pie to go around if you jump on it now. Only my opinion, i may be wrong.

Best of luck with it.

pedigree 6

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Best of luck with it.

Thank you.

Its not something i'm going to dive into wholeheartedly. The beauty of this is you can start lean and i believe in doing so where possible. Aim to produce 1 or 2 tonnes in increase over 5 years if successful. The costs are low especially if you have access to land.

Don't bother with the breeding room, just fatten up the baby snails and sell them at maturity. For that you only need a 100m2 poly-tunnel to rear them from time of hatch to may and a small patch of ground for Harvest from May to September

Baby snails are around 11 euro per 1000.

pedigree 6

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Thank you.

Its not something i'm going to dive into wholeheartedly. The beauty of this is you can start lean and i believe in doing so where possible. Aim to produce 1 or 2 tonnes in increase over 5 years if successful. The costs are low especially if you have access to land.

Don't bother with the breeding room, just fatten up the baby snails and sell them at maturity. For that you only need a 100m2 poly-tunnel to rear them from time of hatch to may and a small patch of ground for Harvest from May to September

Baby snails are around 11 euro per 1000.

I'm not going into it myself but where will you get the baby snails?
From abroad or here?

pedigree 6

pedigree 6 wrote: »

I'm not going into it myself but where will you get the baby snails?
From abroad or here?

Quite a few large snail breeders sell the baby snails. Eva at Gaelic Escargot produces large amounts so would be one such person. Breeders will always produce alot more to allow for mortality in order so they can produce the correct weight for export.

_Brian

The thing I can't understand is if it's financially worth rearing them here and transporting them to France and Italy, why have French farmers not moved to fill the niche??
How many baby snails needed to grow into a ton ??, how much ground and what's the resale value of a ton of live snail (oh god the thoughts of a ton of love snails makes me feel unwell)

I'm sure some of the more "mature" members here will also remember the frog man coming round ??

_Brian

_Brian wrote: »

The thing I can't understand is if it's financially worth rearing them here and transporting them to France and Italy, why have French farmers not moved to fill the niche??
How many baby snails needed to grow into a ton ??, how much ground and what's the resale value of a ton of live snail (oh god the thoughts of a ton of love snails makes me feel unwell)

I'm sure some of the more "mature" members here will also remember the frog man coming round ??

Resale value is estimated around 4500-5000 thousand per tonne.

Its a mystery to me too to be honest why the french are not producing within. Could be due to simply an unwillingness to farm? Perhaps increasing urbanisation? Italy seem to be growing the industry now. i honestly dont know. I suppose you kind of answered your own question there with the sentance ive highlighted. Many are grotesqued by the notion of interacting with snails once let alone daily. While people will consume the final product they may not like to see the farming process. I like beef but i probably would turn my back at a cow being slaughtered.

40000-50000 roughly in a tonne and that is the recommended breed helix asperta muller which is a native snail of this country and thrives in our conditions

uck51js9zml2yt

Knowing nothing about farming..Snails or otherwise...I assume you need something bto stop the birds getting to them.

I had snails in Belgium. They came with garlic butter..If yours do to , you have a buyer;)

Beckham Witty Question

Beckham Witty Question wrote: »

Knowing nothing about farming..Snails or otherwise...I assume you need something bto stop the birds getting to them.

I had snails in Belgium. They came with garlic butter..If yours do to , you have a buyer;)

Yeah the harvesting pen is covered with netting and bordered with corrugated fencing. Ill be selling the snails as they are but the aim is for the Irish producers to pool their resources into a production plant over time. At the moment there is nothing on the irish shelves or restaurants with escargot and if so you would have to look hard. its good to get feedback from people though on what they like. if there was enough like you then im sure the snail producers would be only happy to produce snails with Garlic butter

tomwaterford

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yeah the harvesting pen is covered with netting and bordered with corrugated fencing. Ill be selling the snails as they are but the aim is for the Irish producers to pool their resources into a production plant over time. At the moment there is nothing on the irish shelves or restaurants with escargot and if so you would have to look hard. its good to get feedback from people though on what they like. if there was enough like you then im sure the snail producers would be only happy to produce snails with Garlic butter

I would love to see some pics of this and this is one of the treads I follow with most interest


I'm looking forward to see what challenges/different tasks (dosing??etc) that you come up againest

Great to see someone at least try something different

uck51js9zml2yt

We can jest but it's good to see a new venture starting up.
Maybe if you have them beside a GM field you will get a garlic mutation:)

Will be following your adventure, though I reckon it will be a slow process

Beckham Witty Question

Beckham Witty Question wrote: »

We can jest but it's good to see a new venture starting up.
Maybe if you have them beside a GM field you will get a garlic mutation:)

Will be following your adventure, though I reckon it will be a slow process

Ill let you know how i get on. Believe it or not its complete accident i came about the concept. I actually had came up with a business idea which i am going to test the market with anyway as ive been working on it two years (a very different idea) but i came about this idea when a fellow snail farmer spoke to my postgrad class a couple of weeks ago