Do You Have Livestock on 3A or Less?

[savingdogs]

We actually have five acres, but like Freemotion I cannot use all of it, so we have the equivalent of three acres of useable land. We do enjoy having that extra land as a buffer between us and our neighbors.

We chose to go with goats as well, mostly because of our terrain, which is wooded, sloping and mostly brush/forest, with little pasture. We have not been able to put up enough fencing to contain our goats so that they could forage full-time, so we have had to buy hay. However, we would have had to during the winter and also during lactation in any event. In the summer/fall our hay consumption goes way down. With more effort, we could have them forage more.

We also keep chickens, ducks and rabbits. While we buy pelleted feed for all three, I must say the rabbits do not forage (in our current cage arrangement) although I do supplement their diet with things I pick, so they are not very self sustaining. However, we like their meat and hate plucking so we are working towards using them as our meat source and their poo has been very useful. Because we don't have a natural pond, we are moving away from ducks, we haven't been able to deal with the pond-cleaning as often as we needed to. Of these three animals, the chickens are my best foragers and if commercial food were not available, I do feel confident I could feed them scraps, let them forage and collect things for them such as berries and worms, should TSHTF. However, winter would be difficult! I would have to prepare ahead in order to have enough food stored for them.

I think the type of land you have available to use makes a big difference. Cross-fenced pasture with a pond would make it much easier to keep the animals I currently keep. We did choose mini-goats so that the food bill over the winter would not cripple us and because we have a short goat barn. We made an enclosure for the goats, one for the chickens and one for the ducks, with a mutual yard in the middle that all share on a rotating basis. I'd like to have MORE fenced segments but it is all a work in progress. We have been here three years so we are still new at this but learning.....this is a great place to find our things you may need to know.

 

[big brown horse]

I have 5 acres, however, just one acre is for the 3 sheep's, 9 chicken's, a hog, 2 geese and 5 ducks to share, divided up. The sheep just eat grass, only needing alfalfa if they were lactating. I "intensively grazed" the ram in a 10 x 10 pen that got moved every day. He ate up every thing in his pen by the next day. The other free range sheep choose only the grass, leaving behind weed type plants. Got the idea of intensive grazing from Beekissed via Joel Salatin, and even though it was hard to move him every day, it worked.

The hog was in a 1/3 acre pen (part of the one acre) with forest and grass. I fed him scraps from our kitchen and other people's kitchen, he ate the surplass of eggs, I foraged for him (acorns, thanks to Free and other things), fed burnt/charred logs and bought raw pumpkin seeds for internal parasite control. He wasn't expensive to keep fed, and he grew to be 408# dressed! I had a friend donate eggs for him too. In turn I gave them some pork. Lots of places around here are advertising on CL to come pick up thier scraps from cafes etc.

The chickens, ducks and now geese are fine on grass, slugs and insects they find themselves from April to November. Then I feed them chicken scratch etc from December to March or so, but I still expect them to free range all year long...because (as OFG puts it) ITS FREE!!

I do have 23 meat birds right now. Not as cheap as I thought it was going to be, but still worth it to me. They are in a tractor.

I also have an orchard with apples, cherries, plums and future peach trees. Raised beds, a 20 x 25 garden all on the one acre with the rest of the productive animals.

We have a seasonal pond and 4 rain barrels. Plus 5 nine-gallon containers, and 10 one-gallon containers full of water in case the well or power to the well goes out.

The 4 horses, OMG, well I don't count them in my SS adventures...lets just leave it at that. (They are on the other 4 acres.) Although grass hay up here is pretty cheap.

 

[Wannabefree]

I have 1.5 acres, the house and gardens sits on 3/4 acre. The 2 goats, 30 ish chickens, 8 ducks, 6 turkeys, and 5 rabbits share the rest which is 3/4 acres as well. We rotate and stack our stock. They get garden and kitchen scraps, neighbor scraps, and a few extras.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I have 2.91 acres. On it, I have 30+ chickens and 10 ducks who freerange. I have 30 meat birds who are in an electric netting that is rotated for fres grass. They are enclosed, simply for thier protection, but still considere freerange b/c they are moved every other day. A bit less than one acre is dedicated for the house. On the rest of the land, I have two horses, two sheep, a goat, all full size, and a dexter cow. We feed hay pretty much year round. they arelimited to the amount of time they are on pasture. WE also have a small poind in one of the pastures.

Before, when we only had horses, we only fed hay from October to May.

Now, if you were to eliminate the horses altogether, the pasture ares would easily feedthe sheep, goat, and cow, plus chickens and ducks. Of course you woul dhave to feed hay in the winter months, since our winters are too cold and snow covered--you are farther north than me--I am east of Detroit.

I don't feed grain to my big critters, except the goat who is lactating. I will also feed grain when the other animals are pregnant and lactating. The ducks and chickens get scratch , and in the winter, they get layer ration also., but since they freerange, they hardly eat any feed at all.

I used to raise rabbits and quail also, but got out of them as I didn't want them living in cages, and they wer more labour intensive, and more dependent on commercial foods. I plan on getting rabbits agin, one I can have an outdoor run for them, as opposed to cages--then I plan on foraging for them as much as possible.

Now, I don't know about in the states, but..... and this is a big but. Our taxes are outrageous. Our almost three acres are taxed the same and a three cre parcel woudl be taxed in town. and we don;'t have any services. We need to dump our own garbage, have no sewers, sidewalks, streetlights--nothing.

We are currently looking for a farm. We can get 25-50 acreas here and the taxes would be 1/4 of what we are paying now. We do need to make a farm income off that land, but if we sharecrop a portion of the land, --there is our income. (Cdn govt requires a min of $700/year farm income to be eligible for the farm tax credit. so, IDK about there, but taxes are NOT a saving on a smaller property.

I wold definitley look into it. Oh, and we do have a skid steer, but you could get by with not having a tractor, on a small peice of land, but they sure are handy.

 

[DesertChick]

The current issue of Mother Earth News has an article regarding homesteading on 1 acre. Since I'm a newbie I'm not allowed to post a link, but if you go to Mother's website, the article is listed under the Current Issue heading.

I live on 1 acre in the high desert and, due to the alkaline sandy/clay soil, strong winds and extreme temps, I'm not able to raise the crops needed to support livestock. I currently have several raised beds so I can grow black oiled sunflowers for the chickens. Since the sunflowers grow no more than 3 ft tall, they can withstand the winds pretty well. I also have a greenhouse for our veggies. Eventually I would like to raise meat rabbits and keep them in my DH's shop which has a/c and heat, but I haven't found the right moment to tell him of this plan.

 

[pinkfox]

sound slike what im planning.

for me personally i want 1 sow (and will keep 1-2 of her babies for butchering)
a couple of dairy goats or a diary cow
rabbits, quail, ducks, chickens, turkey and some sheep...

id love a horse too...but didnt put that on my list.
i also wanted gardens for me, an orchard and berry patch ect.

when i did all the math 2 1/2 acres probably would be enough to basically support myself, but id definatly need to suplimental feed.

theres ways to make the most of smaller spaces. put berry bushes and edible ornamentals in as your landscaping plants. plant edible hedges by planting elderberries, rose hips and other berry bushes.
house the sheep IN the orchard (protect your trunks and young trees), add the ducks/geese in there too as theyll eat the weeds the sheep dont want. go with a smaller hardy breed like shetlands who arnt as delicate, picky or large but still make good wool and meat.
id always go with goats over even a small cow on small acreage, more milk per lb of feed, though there are benefits of having a diary cow that you dont have in diary goats (jersey butter for example) but its very easy to trade for the odd gallon of raw milk that if i were making the most out of small acrage id go with mini milker lets like a mini mancha or mini nubian, easier to milk than the nigies generally but dont eat as much as full sized dairy girls, and produce milk amounts somewhere in between...
Tractor your chickens to make the most out of grazing
pigs can be pretty thrifty if you go with the right breed, heritidge breeds (rather than breeds made specifically for meat) tend to grow a little slower but eat less and are better at feeding themselves on scraps...
use your pigs too, put them in movable electric pens and put them where you want your garden next year...they will do the plowing and fertilizing for you..next year move the pen to the next garden spot and continue rotation like that... you can also use pigs to help clear land, its not as quick as tree removal but they will root up most smaller trees and have then dead and down in no time!

plant your grape vines up the deck posts, or build a grape arbor over a deck or patio ect...

raise your rabbits in wire floored tractors ect.

its certainly doable...i think for what your looking to do id go with 2 acres min, add an acre if you want some horses. its definatly doable if your willing to put in the extra work rotating, managing your land ect.

 

[Avalon1984]

I have sunflowers, millet, amaranth, and corn growing like gangbusters right now on 2000 sq ft of cultivated land (1/10 acre city lot), so that is reassuring!

Hey fellow Michigander,

We have 14acres but sadly we are not using much of it. We do have the chickens, bees and horses- 6 of them. Depending on what type of horse youd like to get, make sure it is a hardy breed and takes the climate well. We have drafts and they do extremely well in the cold Michigan winters. Just be sure you have lots of hay and storage capacity for said hay. It is our first year with the bees so I dont know yet how well this will go. As far as the chickens go, again, be sure to get weather hardy breeds. Half of ours hate the winter and the summer and wont lay very well. The lay well in between though. Maybe some good dual purpose ones would be a great idea for your situation. Good luck!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

We have 1 acre. Approximately 1/3 ac is fenced for the permanent pasture for the sheep and goats. We also have a smaller pen that's roughly 16X14 or 20X14 (can't remember) for animals during weaning, breeding, etc. Our maximum animal load was probably 2 adult ewes, 1 ram, 1 doe, 1 buck, 50 meat chickens, 30 layers, and 12 turkeys. Our numbers vary though, and can sometimes be 2 adult ewes and 4 lambs, plus a doe and 2 kids. Right now we've got 1 adult ewe, 2 ewe lambs, 1 adult dairy doe, and 2 kids, 30 layers, 5 turkeys, and a rabbit. I am feeding hay year round this year, simply because we're in a terrible drought and I don't want them on the pasture because they'll do permanent damage. In addition to their 1/3 acre pasture, I also use our lawn for grazing when there is grass, by rotating electric netting. The chickens free range and their coop is in the corner of the pasture. The rabbit is in a hutch and doesn't take up any space at all. I will be also getting my buck (who stays at another farm) and a ram lamb for breeding this fall, but they won't be here permanently. I do also feed grain to the animals, because I simply don't have the time right now to grow more feed for them, though I'd love to experiment with things like mangels and squash, etc. If I had time I'd also grow a winter small grain for grazing (in the garden) but I just can't do it all with a full-time job and 2 stepkids.

I would love to add a couple hogs to the mix, but money is short. I'm thinking about keeping a couple in the barn this winter though. Even though it's not ideal and they won't be out on pasture, they'll still be much tastier and healthier than store-bought pork. I'm amazed at all the stuff I can fit on 1 acre. And I still have a lot of room left in the front and side yards, but my husband has decided the kids need some area to play. Heck, the sheep can graze around a swingset. I'd still love to plant fruit trees and such, but I'm pretty tight on money at the moment.

So with some careful management, it's definitely do-able to put livestock on small properties. The main thing is having GOOD management and realizing you're better off feeding hay and sparing your pastures than you are overgrazing and killing the pasture.

 

[FarmerDenise]

We are on .89 acres. house, front yard and driveway take up a lot of the space. We have lots of peach trees, one apple and 2 plum trees.
We have 2 dairy goats, 20 or so laying chickens, 14 meaties, 1 rabbit, one rooster to keep the hens safe an make sure we can get fertilized eggs, so we don't have to buy chicks. We also have 1 dog and 2 cats.

We have been working on supplementing the feed, but we still have to buy a lot of it. The goats are new to us and we are still working on a system. In the winter months, the chickens to have the run of the field an we spend very little money on them. In the summer they are confined in a fenced in area and provide them with weeds and other greens and grains we grew the year before. But we also buy a lot of scratch for them an occasionally laying crumbles.
The meat birds are in the goat pasture and those that keep escaping are in the tractor. Between the goats and the chickens, there is no grass and only a few super hardy weeds in the goat pasture. I have two sections set aside for regrowing better forage for the goats. Once most of our field harvested, we will move the goats to a different area. We have moveble electric netting.We keep movin the goats around the flield during the winter months. We plan on putting our winter garden in the current goat pasture.

I think we could manage to grow all our own feed, if we had 2 more acres. Right now we able to get some stuff from our neighors. we all help each other out.

I also manage to provide at least 1/2 the dog's food from the farm or hunting. The cats do their own hunting, but they still demand their pricey bagged catfood

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

We have one acre. Over 40 chickens at any given time, 2 goats, ducks and turkeys.
Since we have very little grass, we have to do a great deal more grain and hay feeding and finding forage for greens for the chickens. Not much brush for the goats, so we have to haul that in as well.
Goats do/should not eat grass.

The less natural feed (grass/forage/browse) you can grow, the more costly it will be in the end.

As to a cow, you need at an extreme minimum, 3 acres of actual grass for just one.
To be sufficient, you also need the same amount for 100 chickens.

So, we make due, and make what preparations we can to obtain sufficient acreage.