Buildings
The buildings available on a smallholding are very important to the owner's enjoyment of life and work there! Traditional buildings, whilst looking beautiful, are often expensive to maintain and labour intensive to use. Frequently they are not good for the healthy housing of livestock.

Modern buildings can be planned to be versatile, pleasant to work in and very good for housed animals. They are relatively expensive to erect, but very cheap to maintain and will last a lifetime or two. The careful design and positioning of a new building is crucial to its' effectiveness and versatility. A well designed, well situated modern building is always a good investment.

Machinery
Machinery ownership runs away with more unnecessary expenditure than almost anything else on the holding. Most machines are fun to own and use, but cost a fortune in depreciation and maintenance.

Selecting the wrong machine for your holding can prove to be a very expensive exercise, when a little planning and guidance can keep machinery costs to a minimum.

Purchasing new machinery is very exciting and it is difficult stay sane and use one's best judgment when faced with a shiny new machine which promises to make life easy and trouble free. It is important to remember that machinery costs money in depreciation, even when it is sitting in a shed, doing nothing. Once you start to use it then it gets really expensive, using fuel and costly wearing parts.

Machinery plays an important part on any smallholding and it is important to select the right equipment for your specific requirements. A little sound advice can make all the difference between an effective, labour saving device and an expensive white elephant.