Annual Summer Grazing

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Each spring we hold a sale by auction of land available for grazing during the season. The season normally starts immediately after the auction and ends on 31st October. The 2019 catalogue is available to download opposite.

Licence fees are due at the fall of the hammer or deferred until 1st August by agreement.

The sale begins traditionally with the 'candle and pin auction' of the grazing rights to village hall field at Old Bolingbroke. The seasons grass is sold to the highest bidder before the pin drops from a lighted candle, as decreed in the donors bequest. The proceeds go to village funds.

Lots are let for grazing cattle or sheep, or mowing with some available for horse grazing. A catalogue is produced in early March with the sale taking place at the Black Swan Inn (Horncastle) at 2.30pm on the last Thursday in March.

In 2018, we let nearly 50 acres by auction in the Horncastle area at an average of £92/acre (compared to £90/acre in 2017), with a range from £50 to £100 acre. Last year over 1,000 acres were let privately with an average of £53/acre.

We have an experienced team dealing with the cataloguing, letting agreements, subsidy advice, licence fee demands and accounting.