Can you do grass-fed on <1 acre?

[gabbyraja]

I know people CAN raise many animals on a small spot, dry lots, etc. But we only believe in grass-fed meat/milk.

I want at least 2 sheep (milk sheep, often throw triplets, lambs would be grass-fed raised through summer until butchering) and chickens. However, there's a probability that we'll want a horse at some point, and I'd really like to do 1 grass-fed cow each year. Is it possible to do more than the 2-8 sheep on <1 acre, when we don't want to feed unnecessary grain/hay?

[KMA1]

It will depend on where you are as to how much you can raise on 1 acre. I am not that familiar, but in all likelyhood, one cow or one horse is all you could expect to feed off grass on an acre, and would almost certainly have to have hay in winter.

[Bearfootfarm]

You can probably do the 2-3 sheep IF your pasture is in excellent shape, and divided so you can rotate them onto different sections.

A horse or cow would trash a single acre in short time.

If you want milk production, and good growth in the lambs, you WILL need to feed some grain or hay, especially when the ewes are gestating and lactating.

[Terri]

Here in Kansas, it takes 2 acres to graze a cow but you can put up to 4 sheep on an acre. How rapidly does your grass grow?

I used to work with a lady who raised 4 steers on 10 acres every year, and in the Fall they supplemented with hay and a little corn they bought from a neighbor. They had those steers butchered in the Fall and they sold most of the meat to neighbors for supermarket prices.

Their 10 acres stayed tidy, and their own meat was free.

If you have 2 ewes with lambs on about an acre you would have to buy hay for the winter, and possibly in the summer if you do not get enough rain. If you wanted to add a horse as well you would need to buy much more feed.

[SilverVista]

In a word, NO. You might want to consult an extension agent in your area about forage yields and stocking rates, and learn about moveable cross-fencing so you can graze a small area and then rest it. I'd suspect that the sheep are all you'd be able to support, and you'll still need hay in winter. Hay, by the way, is dried grass and still considered part of the grass-fed scheme.

A steer on an acre will very soon have no space to get away from his own poop piles, and a horse will turn that acre into a drylot quicker than any other livestock. Not necessarily because of the volume he eats but because horses' teeth are angled so they cut the grass very, very close to the ground. Between being trampled and being cut very low, it doesn't regenerate as fast.

[Le Petit Norman]

It looks like you'll have to be imaginative, you want milk and meat, if possible a steer...

In your situation, I'll drop the ewes and I will just raise a lamb or two for meat, less pressure on the pasture and no hay during the winter, that will cut some of your price down, on top of it you will not have to deal with a ram.

For the milk, what about a small Jersey or Dexter cow ? they will eat less than a larger cow and will provide milk and meat every year, you will more likely still be short on grass but it might be easier to manage for you.

You might want to learn how to use a scythe, my grand father used to cut grass in the ditch around his place twice a day morning and early afternoon to supplement his sheep. He was also doing some hay this way. that might not be possible but still something to think about. As a kid I was also always sent to gather " free food " for our rabbit.

As already said, call your extension agent it will provide some necessary input for your particular situation

[hintonlady]

It all depends on the type of roughage you have growing, moisture and growth rates. It varies from area to area. Consult your local extension office.

I would have to guess that and acre is not near enough ground for either a horse or a steer. Maybe it would support one of them in the greener months but toward the end of summer and through winter you may find yourself having to supplement with hay. When I had a lone horse in an acre his hooves would cause a lot of damage to the growth during the wet/muddy months so that we ended up with bare patches and ruts.

I have an acre fenced. It had been recently planted in red clover and had well established fescue. Was very lush and thick. Had always been a hay field so there was a healthy root system already there. I had a ram, 5 grown ewes and 3 ewe lambs. I did supplement 2 large round bales during winter & they didn't graze the pasture down so bad that they got muddy/worn spots during winter. That left it healthy enough to grow back in spring. They also were fed about a coffee can of grain twice a day total for the group. The grain is overkill for some but my flock was kept in top show condition even in dry/low pasture conditions.

Later on I expanded my flock and my pasture size but that is another story.

[gabbyraja]

I'm sorry, I did not specify. We are in Mid-MI, so generally plenty of rainfall, temperate in 3 seasons, etc. We are dairy allergic (no cow milk for us) but my 5 children do fine on grass-fed sheep milk, which we currently purchase for $8/gallon. The farmer will mentor me, sell me a couple of sheep and set me up for milking my own. We don't even really like lamb, but wouldn't waste the meat just to get the milk...

We also eat Scottish Highland beef (smaller breed) and would prefer to purchase a calf each spring from the farmer from whom we currently get the beef.

I had a big feeling that if we were planning a horse/cow, too, we would have to have more land. We're looking to buy in the next month by USDA Direct loan, and they have strict limitations on the house you can buy. No "farm structures" and not enough land that you could split it off and sell it. We think in most places 2-3 acres would be fine, but it's hard to find, especially with a great house on it... The house we really kind of like is on 1.38 acres, but with an identical empty lot next door. We're trying to find out if it would be possible to buy or rent it at some point in the future. There is also a large cow farm on the other side of that empty lot. We're not sure what exactly they are raising or for what purpose, but entertained the thought that maybe they could pasture a calf for a fee... Otherwise, we're back out to looking for 2-3 acres.

But, regardless, I wanted to get a good idea for exactly how much land we'd need if we got our "dream place", to have 1-2 Highland's, 2-8 sheep/lambs, and a horse. We wouldn't worry about feeding hay to the horse, obviously, since we don't eat it or drink the milk (though mare's milk would be great, I can't imagine what we'd do with the foals and it's acceptable to eat baby sheep), but the cost of hay for a horse, I imagine is prohibitive. I know people who raise beef were crying at the cost of hay this year.

[Maura]

Be careful about giving grain. Modern breeds may be bred to do well on grain, but old breeds may do very poorly. My sheep are obese on grass, I only use oats as a bribe. I have friends with modern breeds and they always supplement the grass/hay with grain.

[Callieslamb]

Welcome to the forum! I know it feels necessay to keep your location quiet until you get to know us better....but how can we help you if we have no idea what area of the country you live in? Wyoming pastures are quite different than Illinois pastures. The number of animals per acre should be expressed as acres per animal in many parts of the country.

.Tthough it all depends on the land, the weather, the grass and how you manage it, t in a word- that many animals on less than an acre?- NO. You will quickly have a dirt lot rather than any grass at all.

That's also a very small area for the manure load. Sheep have trouble with worms - and worms come from their own manure. You need to rotate their grazing to keep them out of the worm as best as you can. You might be able to do 4 sheep well in that amount of space but adding a horse and a cow would most likely be a disaster.

[MO_cows]

I would say stick with just sheep on 1 acre. The stocking rate for your area might be 1 cow per acre, but one cow hammering on that same one acre day after day after day has much more impact than 100 cows on 100 acres that are not grazing and trampling the same spot constantly.

[oregon woodsmok]

You can probably do 2 sheep, plus their lambs, and the chickens, if the pasture is really good and you take good care of the pasture.

I'd split it in half and rotate.

You'll probably have to buy hay for the winter.

I can raise two cows on 2 acres of high quality irrigated pasture, but can not raise one cow on one acre of the same. There is too much trampling with large animals in a small area; too much damage to the soil.

If you live in an area where the neighbors have 1 acre pastures, you might be able to rent a couple of those small pastures for pretty cheap if you take good care of them. Then you could have more animals by rotating them from pasture to pasture so none of it gets eaten down too short.

[Glacialtill]

If you haven't heard of him, you should check out what Joel Salatin's doing on his Polyface Farm. In a nutshell, he does grass feed beef in small pastures. Has them 'mobbed' in there for a day or two. Moves them to the next pasture. Three or four days later a 'chicken tractor' is brought in to pasture #1, just when the fly larvae and getting big in the manure. Chickens scratch up the manure, spreading it around for the pasture, getting free protein and eliminating flies.

Here's a couple links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyface_Farm

http://www.polyfacefarms.com/production/

[lmrose]

Before we had our little farm we rented a house with one acre of swamp land backing up to a lake. The house and small barn sat on the only high spot. The lot sloped gradually down to the north but dropped sharply behind the house to the east continuing down hill and leveling off to the lake.

Bill built terraced gardens on the slope directly behind the house. He hand dug a ditch from the road to the lake and stoned it up to drain the swamp. Then he made another garden north of the house. South was a driveway and another house so no garden there.He fenced the pasture separating it from the gardens.

We grew enough vegetables to feed us and four children. He seeded the pasture drained swamp with timothy and clover. We acquired two goats, a dozen hens and a 700 lb. work pony which was half Shetland and half Ouarter horse. The goats multipled every Spring and we eventually kept three over the winter. We had enough pasture for the goats and horse but had to buy hay for winter. We bought hen feed also. The animals diet was supplemented with mangels, turnips and cabbage we grew.

We had vegetables, meat and milk on less than an acre and that was as efficient as we could be on that amount of ground. Every inch of that lot was utilized.

[FarmboyBill]

If you dont feed grain to a milk animal. The calicum that they give out onto their milk comes out of them and its not being replinteshed by the grass. They take the calcium out of their bones and put it in the milk. Then, Sooner or later, They go down in the back. At/by that time, Theres nothing you can do for them, but butcher them

[Sonshine]

We have 2 acres and raise nigerian dwarf goats. We do have the pasture area divided so we can rotate them, but still have to have hay for them in the winter time.

[rambler]

That acre would make a nice livestock yard for your steer, horse, and 4 sheep. The yard does not grow much feed, as it gets stomped up in winter, muddy periods.

They would need about 5 additional acres to eat comfortably all summer & into the fall. Some summers you could get by with 3 acres, but other dry summers you will be short with 5 acres.

You will need hay over the winter, of course.

As a farmer, I need to have available one acre of land to apply the manure from one large animal. So, you are talking about roughly 3 animal units there, and would need 3 acres to keep them.

My neighbor has 12 horses on 7 acres, about 5 of them pasture. He doesn't come close to feeding them on the pasture, the pastures are very poorly from over grazing, and the manure situation is not pretty......

That minimum 1 acre per 1 one large animal is not a bad idea. Because pastures are better or worse depending on the weather, it is difficult to feed a large animal on one acre in our types of climate 'for sure'. It should work, but you get a 5 week dry spell in late summer, and the pasture stops growing, and you overgraze, and then it's an uphill battle, you got to pull the critters off the pasture and wait for rain & let the grass regrow 3 weeks - and where do you put them, what do you feed them in that time?

You must have 3 acres to attempt to feed your goal, and 5 acres would be much more realistic if you don't want to buy a lot of hay in summer too.

--->Paul

[Alice In TX/MO]

Sorry, but something misleading was stated above, and I must post in response.

What FarmerBoyBill said about milk and grain is wrong. The calcium the dairy animals need is not in the grain. Grain is for protein and has a high phosphorous content, not high calcium. Calcium is provided by alfalfa, either hay or pellets. OR, you can top dress their feed with calcium carbonate powder.

If you are interested in this, there's a great article about avoiding calcium/phosphorous ratio problems at:
http://www.dairygoatinfo.com/index.php?topic=21.0

[ksfarmer]

To be blunt, NO, one acre is simply a dry lot, and I doubt you could even graze 4 sheep on it.

[pancho]

Simply put, no.
You might free range a couple of rabbits and not have to feed them but anything bigger you will have to feed or they won't produce anything.
It is simple. Just not enough can grow on a small area, especially if there is also a house on it.
You may be able to cross fence enough to get them to survive but the cost of the fencing would be more than buying additional land.