Starting from scratch

[lupinfarm]

Oh and I totally agree about figuring out which areas are under water and so on. I *know* this year that there are certain areas of my pasture the horses are not going to be allowed on in the spring, and I know my west field floods a bit and freezes in the winter.

Get to know every inch of your pasture, it helps so much especially with our lovely spring weather

 

[kimnkell]

Congratulations on the decision Miss. I think that you and you DH being on the same page must make things so great. I think if I could convince my dh to sell we would be on the same path as you.

I think downsizing is the current trend. People are realizing whats important and whats not.

kimnkell could you pleesssse start a thread about your new cow. Pictures would be great and where your housing it. Then yo will need to fill us in all all the dairy details. You must be so excited.

gina

Yes, we are really excited about our cow. She is supposed to be delivered tomorrow (weather permitting) I can't wait. We don't have a real good place to put her yet. Just a small lot and she can also wonder into the barn as well. When it gets a little warmer ( at least when the ground unfreezes) we are gonna fence her off a big spot roam around on. I am already thinking of all the dairy products we can make and how much money we will be saving on milk, cheese etc.

 

[patandchickens]

That's great, I think it sounds like a most excellent and intelligent idea.

So, if you could start from scratch, with just the house and barn as permament structures, how would you plan your land to maximize land use, as well as regenerating the land. How much of what would you plant. Would you do permanent fencing for rotational grazing or movable fencing. If permanent fencing, how big would you make your paddocks. In what order would you rotate your animals. (horses, cows, pigs, sheep, ducks, chickens) how much would you dedicate to pasture, and how much to crop growth.

I think to a large extent you have to let the land tell you what it wants. Depends how much of the land is really suitable cropland (and what *sort*), how much is really suitable grazing for large animals, how much is only really usable for small animals and hay, what your drainage/floodage is like, etc.

One thing that IMO is really beneficial is to get a property that has at least SOME woodlot or at least bush on it. Partly for firewood but also for other reasons.

A source of water for gardens/animals that at least much of the year doesn't necessarily require a well pump is good too - basically anything where you can have a source or reservoir enough 'uphill' that you can gravity-feed a water trough and/or garden from it.

As far as fencing, I am usually a big fan of doing good strong permanent perimeter fencing (field fencing, high tensile, something like that) and then cross-fencing with electric or something else more flexible like that. Even if the electric wire/tape/whatever is on 3" cedar posts, which is often a good thing, it still really beats having to build and maintain permanent fences where all you're really doing is separating animals and grazing sections.

All of the above is kind of obvious so maybe I shouldn't have bothered posting it; but two things that seem to be less obvious (because I see people apparently ignoring 'em on a regular basis) is to find out about the SOIL TYPE of an area or property you are considering, and to think real hard about how you will be able to deal with the property if (when) you develop physical limitations from age or injury or whatever.

Good luck, have fun, totally envious ,

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

As far as fencing, I am usually a big fan of doing good strong permanent perimeter fencing (field fencing, high tensile, something like that) and then cross-fencing with electric or something else more flexible like that. Even if the electric wire/tape/whatever is on 3" cedar posts, which is often a good thing, it still really beats having to build and maintain permanent fences where all you're really doing is separating animals and grazing sections.

I'm with Pat on this, I have basic fields planned out with 'hard' fencing. My perimeter fencing is wood for the most part, and I have some 'larger' (large for 8.38 acres lol) fenced off with the wood fencing and I split up fields down the middle with T's and poly rope + tape at the top for visibility. I mostly like to use the taller step in posts though because they're easier to remove and move about in the field and are usually white, metal, with plastic insulators built in.