Registering as an agricultural holding?

01/16/2011 - 10:35

At last we appear to be nearly there with our purchase, but inevitably we have some questions. We would like to keep a couple of goats, some chickens (certainly not 50 or more), and a couple of pigs. There is more than enough land, and they may very well clear parts of it for us, eat up the grubs, and root around in what we hope will end up as a vegetable patch. But do we need to register as an agricultural holding? In England we would have to for the goats and the pigs. If this is done at the time of purchase does it have any effect upon the tax that has to be paid. We will be seeking residency as soon as possible.

Topic

Buying

Location

Tuscany

Comment

If your land is classed as agricultural and results says as semi-inattivo or pascolo there is no reason why you cant have animals without any special permission. If you are going to make your living from them its a different kettle of fish, and if you want grants and incentives you will have to register as a registered farmer. however, if you want to use your agricultural land for agriculture there should be no problem at all - rememeber Italy is still a 'peasant society' and the idea of not being able to have a few chickens and a pig would not be acceptable to most ��s. Here they keep them in town

That is great. Ram. The collection of small cottages that we are hoping to buy come with bosco ceduo, seminativo, pascolo, vignetto, a small area of ulivio, and some incoltro, which we think were the vegetable patches. At present it is just oaks, brambles, etc. and clear signs of wild boar activity. In other words just the sort of place a peasant farmer would have lived in. Whilst we were searching we found one place, too high for us at 900 metres, and too steep for my liking, where the old couple were still keeping sheep, chickens, rabbits, and as we walked passed an outbuilding a pig snorted at us, even though we could not see it. The wife still made their own cheese. What impressed me most was their vegetable patch. There was not a single weed to be seen! I have not seen such care for the land since I was a child. I suspect that places like that are getting quite rare even in Italy. My wife is fascinated by anything horticultural, so we are both looking forward to being peasants. Many thanks.

We have a small farm in Emilia Romagna, on a personal level chickens are no problem as long as less than 200, pigs on the other hand are limited to how many live in your house- we are a family of five and have been restricted to three pigs, if we wanted to keep more we would need to put in a septic tank to take away the waste, have three different fences up and the land would be inspected to make sure you had enough space. If you do keep pigs always best to have two at a time as they get lonely but they are very entertaining and we have had great fun with ours. We also have ducks, geese, 2 donkeys and a goat its a fab life go for it! Read about it here