07/05/13, 07:56 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 503
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Not a horse person, but horses need about 4 acres of grass for grazing here in the SE. Otherwise you buy hay and feed for them. If a horse is left to overgraze pasture, soon nothing is left but dirt. They eat all the time. Also horses are dangerous. They can hurt you without intending to.
I've dealt with cows all my life. Parents had a small dairy and sold milk and butter. A cow-calf pair needs 2-3 acres, depending on conditions. Presently it is historically wet here and they could get along on 1 acre. An acre, BTW, is 210 feet by 210 feet. A milk cow will need, in addition, some ground feed to increase milk production and to encourage her to stay still while milking. To sell a calf and make money, the calf needs to be sold at weaning, 6-8 months old. Profit from cows comes from them eating grass, not feeding them hay of ground feed. You will need access to a bull for breeding purposes and the means to move the cow to him plus the experience to tell when the cow is in heat. Often this condition is indicated by the cow getting out and looking for a bull. If you are going to have horses and a horse trailer the transportation problem is solved as the horse trailer can haul cows too.
I've never had goats but their feed requirements are not as large as a cow's. They also are a browsing animal and will eat leaves and vines, including poison ivy. Don't know what effect the ivy would have on the milk. Goat's milk is perfectly good and I'm not sure why you would want both a milk cow and milking goats. Goats take a lot less pasturage than cows.
Chickens are good. You have to buy feed for them, but they will also eat table scraps.
I would try to get enough garden space to grow corn to feed chickens. They will eat a lot of corn. Corn also has to be protected from deer and raccoons. I put up an electric fence with one strand chest high to keep the deer out, and 2 more close to the ground to keep coons out.One strand about 3 inches high and another about 8 inches high seems to work.
If you only get and acre or two, forget the livestock except for chickens. Concentrate on growing vegetables. 50 to 100 pounds of 10-10-10 or better 17-17-17 fertilizer, plus 50 pounds of nitrogen, plus whatever compost you can create should do it. If you have leaves to rake, put them on the garden to control grass and weeds. No leaves, buy an old last years round bale of hay from a farmer and put the hay on the garden to keep down grass.If you haven't grown corn before, corn plants need to be about 1 foot apart with 2 feet or more between rows. You don't need mechanical planters, digging a row by hand, dropping seed and fertilizer by hand, covering the the seed with a hoe works fine. Preparing the ground with a garden tiller works fine also.
For other plants, follow the direction on the seed package.
Learn to can and freeze vegetables, or in some cases,dry them. Drying was done before electricity made freezing possible.
COWS
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1Likes
starting a homestead?! help!
but it seems so hard to actually get going on this in a rental even though our landlords are lil homesteaders themselves! Any tips or ideas? Thanks 
