Amount of acreage for SS living

[rd200]

We finally have our house on the market and can "seriously" look at buying a farm now. (weve been "looking" for about 2 years now-30 properties or so) anyways, We found a great place, but its only 4.2 acres. Now, in our price range and in our location, we have NOT been able to find anything over 5 or 6 acres. There was a 10 acre one but its was like 30K too high and the house was crap. This property the house is very nice, good size, efficient, large kitchen, sunroom, 3 nbedrooms, dining room, storage room, laundry room etc. The outside is what im concerned with really. ITs got alot of evergreen trees on the perimiter of the house, (they look okay, planted too close together though) she has an established garden thats pretty darn big 40x50. (i consider this big right now) there is two small stone outbuildings, and a functionable barn. Useable both up and down. gargage and small "shack" thing. Id say after the buildings and house and sheds are accounted for and some lawn/landscaped area around the house taken out, there is maybe under 3 acres to work with. probably 2.5. I was planning on having....
1 milk cow + keeping her calf around with her
2 pigs per year (for freezer)
10 chickens (for now thats enough) eggs & meat
MAYBE a few turkeys- these would come later though. Want to concentrate on cow and chickens first
a few meat rabbits?
That would be all for the next 3+ years to start with
I would plan to exclusively pasture cow and calf from spring to fall and supplement if necessary
pasture pigs and let chickens free-range(well, to a certain extent)
I would MAYBE need to extend garden-but for now would be big enough.
Im just afraid that as my self-sufficency plans get larger and larger, we will just run out of room and then have to only do so much. Not like i have an over abundance of time to do all of this stuff, and i have BIG plans NOW....but i know things can change in life also so i want to be flexible. We had kinda planned on staying at our new home for at least 15+ years or until the kids are all out(which would be longer than this...)
We always said we could fix the house and buildings, etc but we need more land, the land was most important, but after this long of looking im wondering if i should just be "happy" with the 4.2 acres and buy it!!!!! It is a really nice place.... Even if it came with another 2 acres I would jump on it.
Is what i listed above even in the ball park of enough room to do what i want to do??? Im okay with animals all over and having no lawn too!!! Just need to plant some good pasture then... thanks!!

ETA: I live in Wisconsin

 

[pinkfox]

if your carefull, (rotate pasture and move the pigs around) (let them plow your food plot them move them somwhere else for the growing season then let them back on the food plot once its been cleared out in the fall to fertilize and re-plow/till it for you ect) i though you could aboslutly doe evrythign your looking to d and more on that lan. i have 4.3 acres and even though i live alone, its more than enough land to work with (or it will be as i get it cleared) and i think with the right planning and managment i could easily support a family of 4-5 on this peice of property...
youll probably have to buy in grain and hay for the winters, but the rest of the time you shoudl be fine.

i actually told myself "no more than 5 acres" when i was shopping for a property, because while id LOVE more land..its just me, and im the one that has to tend it...go too big and its REALY easy to get in over your head...

 

[Denim Deb]

If you're not planning on more animals than that, that's probably more than enough. I'd need more but that's only because I have horses.

 

[baymule]

You can grow pumpkins and mangel beets http://rareseeds.com/vegetablesa-c/beetroot.html for winter feed. Look for ways to cut down on feed costs. Good pasture is a must! good luck to you!

 

[Wannabefree]

Sounds like more than enough room to me too for all you want to do and more. Management shouldn't be too difficult, and it will be the key to how successful you are, but it is totally doable IMO.

 

[the funny farm6]

I think you should be ok.

Are you going to buy a couple feeder piglets each year to grow out or keep some breeding stock? We just buy a couple pigglets frm the farmer up the road. Then you only have to feed them for the summer.

 

[pinkfox]

yeah f your just doing them for the growing season and butchering in fall youll have little to worry about for the pigs, pigs can live on practically anything (in the uk pigs live almost completly on acorns apples, leaves, whey and grass/dirt (an what they find in the grass/dirt) there INCREDIBLE foragers and will eat anything...

the cow will be a little more labor intensive but if you choose the right breed...
a hardier small breed like a Dexter or Highland will require less feed and space than a larger comercial breed...and both have amazing milk and meat and more than enough of it for a small family...
these "native" cattle also will make the most out of more browes than commercial breeds do too...

for chickens given you seem to be looking for a good free ranging hardy dual purpose breed id suggest looking into the rocks (barred, white, partrige ect) a nice flock of rocks should give you enough eggs and for eating and enough to put in the incubator...they will be a little smaller than the cornish x rock comercial meaties at butcher age, BUT the excess roosters do have more than enough meat to make them worth it...

for turkey again the right bree will make the ifference, look for a nice hardy heritidge breed that can breed naturally and youll do much better overall than trying to raise the big commercial breeds that have been so focuse on meat production that they loose the ability to breed naturally or forrage...

on your list the rabbits are the aboslute EASIEST overall, as long as their properly introduced rabbits can live on your lawn clippings and weeds if youve got enough...a trio of meat bred rabbits (NZ/Cali ect) will keep you in meat an fur with no issues...an they take up a tiny amount of space... place them in wire bottome hanging cages in or neer the chicken coop and the chickens will then work through the poop keeping the bugs uner control and giving them a free meal. rabbit poop is also GOLD in the garden an can be used fresh and pure wiht no risk to your veggies.
so given what your planning on doing with your land id say you coul easily support even more...
ASSUMING you choose the right brees to o it with

 

[Dawn419]

i actually told myself "no more than 5 acres" when i was shopping for a property, because while id LOVE more land..its just me, and im the one that has to tend it...go too big and its REALY easy to get in over your head...

My bolding...

Pinkfox is right on the money with this one!

When doc and I came to look at our raw land, it was listed as 8 and a half acres and we were interested as we were sure it would be enough for what we wanted to do as far as livestock, garden, orchard and living in general. In truth, 50+ acres is what I really want...just to have!

When we came out to meet the realtor, we walked the place and I fell in love with it and then he let us know that it was actually two, 8 and a half acre tracts joined together. We looked at each other, realizing both tracts had their own benefits and we couldn't make a decision for one over the other and worked it out to buy both at a reasonable price for us.

We're glad we got both tracts but it is a full time job keeping up with the 2 acre clearing we live in (space for a 30 x 50 garden, ever-expanding young orchard, chickens and quinea coops, and a small meat rabbit lean-to) that the rest of the 15 acres is overwhelming, most days.

The Con:

Constant battle keeping the woods from reclaiming the garden and clearing.


The Pros:

Room to expand in the future.
Plenty of deadfall firewood to burn. (Could also be listed as a Con in case of a wildfire, and have already had one across the road from us).
No neighbors right outside our back/front door to deal with.
We're loving every bit of the time and energy we put into this place to make it our home and to make it more self-reliant...it's priceless!

I hope my reply helps with your decision and I wish you the best of luck!

Remember, no matter what you decide, we're here for you!

 

[FarmerChick]

I think it comes down to what you want to achieve.

If you are going to crop farm, you need more land

If you are going to raise alot of pasture animals you need more land.

If you are going to use your own firewood for your own heat you need more forest.



if your SS idea is to just put a hog in the freezer, grow a garden, have a cow and some chickens, not expand past that, then that amt of land is enough.


if you truly have bigger type dreams you must find more land.



So in the end when you have your true dream of how you want to expand your SS lifestyle, then you know how much land you truly should be buying.

 

[tressa27884]

You can grow pumpkins and mangel beets http://rareseeds.com/vegetablesa-c/beetroot.html for winter feed. Look for ways to cut down on feed costs. Good pasture is a must! good luck to you!

to feed what? I know I could feed those to the chickens, but will cows? What about horses?