Make the Most of the Light While It Lasts

Autumn on a smallholding is a race against the light. The days are still long enough to get real work done, the ground is usually firm underfoot, and the flies have finally given up. It is the season when an hour spent now saves you three in January, when you are up to your knees in mud and the water trough has frozen solid.

Treat the next few weeks as a handover period between the busy summer and the quiet, inward months of winter. Walk your land with a notebook, look at everything with fresh eyes, and work through the list below while the weather is still on your side. If you keep horses, ponies, goats, sheep or poultry – or a mix of all of them – this is the moment to get ahead.

Clear Gutters, Drains and Watercourses

Falling leaves are the enemy of every roof, yard and gateway. Blocked gutters send water down walls and into stables, and a silted-up drain turns a small puddle into a swamp once the winter rain sets in.

• Clear gutters and downpipes on stables, barns, feed stores and outbuildings before the leaves finish falling, then check them again in late November.
• Lift drain covers and rod out gullies in the yard. A cheap drain rod set pays for itself the first time it rains for a week.
• Clear ditches and culverts on your boundary, but remember that if you own land beside a watercourse, you have riparian responsibilities – you may need permission before doing certain work.
• Check soakaways and water butts. Empty and clean butts so they do not freeze and split, or lag and insulate the ones you rely on for the animals.
• Make sure rainwater does not run into the field shelter or the hay store. A simple gutter extension or a French drain can redirect a surprising amount of water.

Check and Repair Fencing

Fencing is the job nobody enjoys, but autumn is the kindest time to do it. The ground is soft enough to knock in posts, the nettles have died back, and you can see exactly where the weak spots are.

• Walk every fence line and test the tension on stock netting and electric tape. Look for sagging wire, rotten posts, cracked insulators and damaged energisers.
• Repair gateways first – they take the worst battering over winter and are the hardest place to work once the mud arrives.
• Check the earth stake on your electric fencing and clear grass or leaves away from the bottom wire.
• Trim overhanging branches that could drop onto fences or take a fence line out in a gale. Clear fallen timber while it is still dry and easy to move.
• If you keep poultry, inspect the run and coop for gaps. Foxes and rats become bolder as food gets scarcer.

Store Feed and Forage Properly

Nothing is more disheartening than finding a chewed sack of feed or a mouldy hay bale in February. Sorting storage now protects both your animals and your wallet.

• Stack hay and haylage on pallets, off the floor and away from walls, and leave a gap for air to move through. Never stack against a damp wall.
• Order winter feed early. Prices and availability can shift, and a full feed store is a calm feed store.
• Decant feed into metal or heavy plastic bins with tight lids. Rodents will chew through paper sacks and plastic bags without a thought.
• Set traps and bait stations around the feed store and check them regularly. Keep bait well away from animals and children.
• Label everything with the date you opened it, and use older stock first. Check bagged feed for damp and weevils before you buy more.

Service Tools, Machinery and the Workshop

Autumn maintenance is cheaper than a spring breakdown. A few hours with an oily rag and a spanner will save you a lot of swearing when you need the tractor or the chainsaw in a hurry.

• Service the mower and any other seasonal kit before you put it away. Drain or stabilise fuel, sharpen blades, oil moving parts and charge the battery.
• Sharpen and oil hand tools – loppers, shears, secateurs, hoes, fencing pliers. Clean and grease spades and forks against rust.
• Check the chainsaw: chain tension, bar oil, air filter and spark plug. Get any safety kit – helmet, gloves, chaps, boots – into good order.
• Top up your workshop supplies: fencing staples, nails, baler twine, cable ties, WD40, spare batteries, and headtorch batteries.
• Put a winter kit together in the truck or by the back door – torch, jump leads, spare gloves, a scraper, and a bag of grit or salt for the yard.

Prepare Paddocks, Shelters and Livestock

Mud is the single biggest winter welfare problem for horses and small stock, and it starts at the gateway. Do what you can to limit it now.

• Move gateways and water troughs to fresh ground if you can, or lay down hardcore, woodchip or bark in the worst spots.
• Rest and reseed poached paddocks. Autumn sowing still gives grass a chance to establish before the cold.
• Check field shelters, rugs, and water supplies. Insulate exposed pipes and consider a trough heater if you get hard frosts.
• Book the farrier, vet or worm count ahead of the Christmas rush, and stock up on first aid supplies and fly-free winter bedding.
• Body condition score your animals now, while there is still time to adjust feed before the cold bites. Older horses and ponies benefit from a little extra going into winter.

Work through this list over a few crisp weekends, with a flask of tea in hand, and winter will feel far less like a fight. Your future self – shivering at the gate in January – will thank you.