Saturday, August 11, 2007
Farms Questions Part 1
I want a farm. I want to be able to raise chickens and cows and grow enough vegetables and fruits to almost sustain us. So my question is what is the right size for a farm to be able to do that? Should it be 10 acres? 20? 30? I have no experience with this sort of thing but I know it is something I want very much. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
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4 comments:
Hey, you're home!! Hope your vacation was very relaxing. Looks like the beach certainly was fun. We, too, wish to be self-sustainable one day. This is how we're planning.
Start by figuring out how much your family eats in one year. That should be fairly easy based on your grocery list.
Based on the type of meat you eat, how many of each animal will you need? How much land does one animal require in your part of the country? Multiply that amount by the number of animals you need. Your local country extension office could help with this.
Figure in your garden space. Will you have a greenhouse? You'll probably need a small tractor which means a barn for shelter and feed storage.
There's a lot to consider, but I am convinced the lifestyle is well worth it. More power to you, girl!!
Living on a farm is a dream of mine. I adore chickens and have even looked into having some in the suburbs but unfortunatly they are illegal where we live. My husband is a city boy but who knows what the future holds, we may end up in the country someday. I always wonder about how many acres is good too. I would like enough that if a huge subdivision, Walmart or mall was put in, I wouldn't see if from my house...LOL
Kelli
We try to raise and grow as much of our own food as we can. We do raise all of our own meats. I believe that we could do all that we do on 5 acres. 10 acres would be better. We do have a larger than needed garden and we raise extra of everything to sell and pay for ours. We live on 29 acres, but 20 acres is a hay field that we really don't use and there are about 4 - 6 acres in woods.
In Florida, we lived on 1.1 acres. We had a garden, and raised goats and chickens. We did have a cow and her calf there for about 9 months before we moved. We fed our cows grain then and we also had to keep hay free choice year round. Here, we only have to hay in winter or like now we are haying some because of drought. We don't feed grain to the cows anymore though, so we need a bit larger pasture than we had in Florida.
I personally think you have lost your mind. You are such a city girl....I don't see you cutting heads off of chickens or raising a cow and then eating it. I prefer my animals to be nameless and faceless!!
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