How best to use property

[masawyer]

We just moved from WY to Guthrie OK and rent a house on 3 acres. We would like suggestions with how best to maximize what we have and make
it as productive as possible. There is a large house, large shop, two car
garage, and large shed/barn on the property. It is mainly wooded, but is cleared between and around the trees. We have tilled a 45x72 spot for a garden. We bought a dozen chicks and 4 ducks and plan on making some chicken tractors for them. Would this be enough land to raise a beef? a pig?

We have well water with about 6 hydrants around the property to make it
convenient to water. This area has been very dry (we have wildfire warnings for Sunday) so we wondered if it would work to water the grass ahead of
the chicken tractor or would the electricty used to pump the water make it not feasible?

We would like to put in strawberries. Do they need many hours of direct sun?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Marsha now in OK

[Pelenaka]

I gather that your homesteading activities won't be a problem with your landlord.

First I put in a bigger garden or rather have more than one. Ask around if anyone sells pumpkins. If not you might consider growing some of the more unique varieties like white or Cinderella for sale later on. Or growing canning tomatoes.

Strawberries need 6 hours of sunlight. That said I have beds that only receive 4 or less of direct sunlight and two beds that receive no direct sunlight and still get a fair harvest.
Strawberries make great ground cover. Plan them around the base of a tree with a row of marigolds around the edge for bug control.

As to raising a pig you might have a better pool of knowledge over on the pig board.
I would suggest raising an extra to sell.

Have you considered rabbits ?

Another low cost non electric water collection method is rain barrels. If you have that many outbuildings and a house you could have an awesome rain catchment system. Placing the barrels two feet or more off the ground gives a good gravity flow. What's great about rain barrels is that if you have to move they can go with.

That's all I could think of, having that much space is hard for me to wrap my mind around since I'm an urban homesteader.


~~ pelenaka ~~
http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.com/

[calliemoonbeam]

I don't really have any suggestions for you, still trying to figure all that out myself, lol. But I just wanted to say welcome to Oklahoma and to the HT boards!

Hopefully, someone will come along with some more good advice for you!

[CountryWannabe]

A lot depends on how much time and money you want to spend. Planted carefully you could raise quite a lot of this years produce in that area. Try growing as much upwards as you can. Some squash do great trellised, as do cucumbers, melons (need a lot of heat) pole beans, peas, etc., leaving more room for the tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, okra, etc.

Not sure about strawberries - I have never had luck with them, not sure why.

If you like berries - I would plant some blackberry bushes they tend to do real well here in OK.

Goats or hair sheep love to browse so your wooded area would be suitable for them. You may have to supplement a little in summer (depending on what there is to forage on) and will definitely need to do so in winter. Goats require good fences. Sheep are not anywhere near as hard to fence. Pigs will forage for a lot of their feed, too, but do sometimes leave craters.

A couple of acres - if it provides plenty of pasture - will mostly feed a steer, depending on quality of grasses.

Mary

[oregon woodsmok]

Second the suggestion to be certain you have the landlord's permission in writing before you do any farming. If I drove by and tenants had put goats or sheep into my forest without asking me, I would evict them. Seriously. I'm not agreeable to having my trees killed so the tenant can have a couple of goats. Because both sheep and goats will kill all those trees, and the trees don't belong to you.

I've got 2 acres of irrigated pasture that will support two cows. That pasture must be carefully maintained or it will not be enough for 2 cows. 3 acres of woods won't do anything to support cattle, except for give them a place to live while you buy all their feed.

You have plenty of land to raise a couple of pigs. Either keep them in pig pens or get the landlord's written permission to have them in the woods. You can probably raise some of their feed and will have to buy the rest.

If you either have permission to allow the goats to forage or you keep them in pens, you have plenty of space for goats.

It sounds like you have nice facilities that could be used to raise chickens, ducks, and turkeys.

If you are staying for awhile, the landlord would probably be happy to allow you to plant some fruit trees. You've got plenty of room to grow a lot of veggies and small berries.

Strawberries definately like full sun. I think they are an excellent choice. There is no comparison between a store bought strawberry and a fully ripe fresh picked on.

Also, I suspect that you could grow some really decent table grapes. Fig trees can be grown in pots. Maybe you could grow rabbit eye blueberries in pots (I'm not sure what your weather is). Pomegranates will grow in OK, but not so much in pots.

[Pink_Carnation]

I would stop with what you have and see how it goes this summer before adding anything else. Some land can handle more stuff than others and such but there is also how much you can manage as you learn about the land you are on and the microclimates it has.

[TheMartianChick]

As a landlord, I have to agree that you should obtain your landlords permission before installing anything permanent into the property. As someone who used to rent (many years ago) I would be careful about bringing anything onto the prpoperty that might make things difficult if you have to move.

My tenants only get a 1 year lease and are not allowed to have pets. If we chose not to renew the lease, they might have difficulty finding a new place. If there are animals involved, it gets far more complicated.

[masawyer]

Thanks for all the good replies! Much food for thought.

Our landlord is OK with animals and garden because they had them when
they lived here. He also wants us to raise some layers for he and his wife and
will pay for feed and help build pens.

We bought 54 strawberry plants yesterday and will put them in this week. Also, bought tomato, pepper, cukes, oregano and dill. Been thinking about
fruit trees/bushes.

We are thinking of using portable electric fencing to move a beef around the
pasture. Anyone with experience with this?

I posted on the poultry thread asking for recommendations for chicken tractors. There is much lumber we can use already here.

Thanks,

Marsha now in OK

[Tabitha]

We rented a place with three acres once. It had fruit trees on it. I had two big gardens, a dozen chickens, a few turkeys and we kept four sheep to keep the lower part of the property "mowed". I would recommend strawberries. Grapes also bear fairly soon. I would concentrate on things that give a quick return, do not cost too much. We had a house and two acres in Indiana, spent money on planting fruit trees, then moved before we ever got one apple. Later we visited and the folks who bought the place never took care of anything , what a waste of money on the fruit trees. You are renting. I would take good care of the place, keep it tidy to keep the landlord happy, get it in the contract what kind of animals you can keep. My recommendation would be chickens in a chicken tractor so they get as much "free range" as possible, grass and bugs, and I would raise rabbits. We kept rabbits when i was a kid and they ate mostly grass, especially dandelions, vegetable parings, weeds and garden stuff. Possibly a milk goat. I would not get a pig because you have to buy feed. We like lamb and sheep eat grass which grows on any" lawn" and a lamb born in spring can be butchered in fall without great cost.

[countryboy84]

Its your land the best use of it will what ever makes you the happiest.
That is plenty of land for a hog and if they are oak trees you can save on feed but it will root up the ground so think about that. A couple of goats would do ok on what you have talked about also. A beef could make it easy enough if you can afford the hay and some grain since you dont have really good pasture.