How many acres is the best amount for a homestead?
 

In your opinion, what is the best amount of acreage for a homestead? Give details, how much timber, pasture, orchard, garden areas, and crop areas. Try to explain details of why you think each amount is needed. Just thought it would be neat to get different ideas. I will add my thoughts later when I have more time.

Best is a rather vague and romantic term.

How about minimum? The minimum acreage would be one that provides what you need sustainably in your climate. I could keep our family in food and fuel on one acre. It would be tight. Four acres would be better. Ten would be plenty.

How about optimal? The optimal acreage would be one that provides everything you want (not need) without too many acres so you don't pay extra taxes. Since I farm I want a minimum of 20 acres and prefer more.

For me the "best" acreage is about 16.4 Trillion acres. I like to have a little elbow room. With enough acreage you no longer have the real estate tax problem because you own the whole dang planet.

As to details like:

Timber: What is your goal? Are you going to do forestry like we do (veneer, lumber, firewood, pulp) or do you just want enough to heat your home? If the latter then how much wood do you need per year? We use about 3/4 cord a year to heat our cottage. How big your house is, how it holds heat, what your climate is like all have a big effect. Building the house right from the start is important to minimizing your heating needs. If just for yourself four acres of woods is probably sufficient, ten acres definitely and then you can probably heat with the dead wood.

Pasture: How many of what types of animals do you want? Just for yourself or to sell? I figure I need about one acre per ten pigs. For 250 pigs about 25 acres. That will vary with your climate, soils, etc. Do learn about managed intensive rotational grazing and do multiple species. I have about 70 acres of pastures right around the home farm area which is more than I currently need but allows for future expansion.

Orchard: Again, just for yourself (1 acre is more than enough) or for selling (you'll need lots of land)? I'm putting in 60 acres of orchard this coming years and later another 400 acres. These are mixed pasture, hay, orchard, berry, nut and veneer plantation. Interplant to optimize.

Garden: For our family we have about half an acre of gardens. We plant more for the livestock.

Crops: We crop out in the fields for the livestock. Are you trying to sell or homestead? Commodity items or specialty? If you're growing something special like organic garlic then half an acre is enough. If you're going to grow commodity wheat then 4,000 acres is a good start.

Best is such a hard question to answer because the answer depends. What are your goals?

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

Can you ever own too much land?:shrug:

Seriously, a lot of good points by Highlands above. Other things to consider might be your climate, soil fertility, and personal energy level.

For me it is 1 acre. Meadows dotted with mature trees for 3 pygora goats for milk, butter, cottage cheese, cheese, yogurt, meat and vegitation trimmers. 2 rabbit does for raising meat and 3-4 hens for eggs to eat and set 1 hen for a little meat. A raised bed garden, very small cabin with front porch, 8'x12' shop with attached 6'x8' leanto greenhouse, 14'x20' garage, a springhouse and a root cellar. 2 apple and 1 pear tree in a tree line near the creek. A small pond for irrigation and fishing and a gravity fed spring to run the microhydro unit. All off grid. It backs up to forest land that I glean and hunt from. You have to be really lazy if you go hungry in Oregon. We can, dehydrate and freeze almost all our food. I am on a very restricted diet. It was the perfect property for my needs, ease of maintanence, close to town but at the end of the road, peacful and relaxing....James

Good response, Highlands! One big thing you left off though is the quality of the ground. Here in Illinois, the ground is rich a fertile. In New Mexico, not so much! Here you plan on cows per acre; in New Mexico you count acres per cow! Big difference.

The original post was for a 'homestead'. I'll assume that you are wanting a piece of land where you can provide just enough for your family. That could mean having a family cow, raising a calf off her, perhaps a couple of pigs, chickens, garden area and enough timber to heat your house. Here in Illinois, if you were also growing your own animal feed, we figure 40 acres would be just about right, although more would give you a bit of room to grow something to sell for a profit. Anyway, 40 acres is what the pioneers got when they came out west and it would support their families.

It will be interesting to hear what others think.
Catherine

Depends on what your goals are. I have just under 10 about 1/2 in woods which to me is a total waste. 10 acres of mostly pasture would be more to my liking. There are too many combinations to give just a standard answer since everyone has different needs and goals.

Our son does very well on one acre.He has fruit trees and a large garden.He also hunts and fishes and they have full freezers and canned goods shelves.We have a farm here so we are not limited.

Along with my what my fellow Vermonter states....location of that acreage plays a part as well. Growing seasons, water sources, timber production varies wildly across the country.

In VT, tax wise you'd be in the best shape having over 27 acres. 2 acres for house, 25 acres for ag/timber. You can have 20% of the 25 acres in ag and the rest in timber with a management plan and be taxed at a lower rate. The state may increase that house acreage to 5 so that would increase the minimum to 30. That would most likely be enough to grow your own veggies, raise some small livestock and sustainably harvest firewood.

We have about 274 acres in northern VT. Growing season is short, wind is a problem sometimes, water is plentiful and have more than enough wood to heat our house, shop and barns with just the dead fall in a year.

15a for house, garden, fields and pastures + 40a woodlot.

What is best for one family may not be best for another. Your post has invited many personal ideas though.

There is a limited amount of space on this earth so you should be limited to the amount of space you can own. If a healthy man can't walk all the way across it by noon, you have too much.

An acre for the house, shed, barn, well, septic, a grove to sheild from winter winds.

An acre or so for garden, orchard.

Two to 10 acres for the 4 legged livestock, bigger the critter(s) the more land you need. Best to have a yard you can pen them up, and several pastures for rotation, so not good to squeeze then too tight on one acre or less - you end up buying a lot of feed then.

Five acres of mature woods to supply heat for the house. Couldn't get by on less if you really want to supply most all heat.

Some of the above can intermigngle, but still the basic need is there.

Where I live you need 2.5 acres just to fit a well & septic legally. You need 5 acres to have bigger livestock. That sounds about right to me.

So, I'd think 2 acres to bother with a garden, and 5-10 acres to do livestock & such. 15-20 acres to do it all, inlcuding heating in a northern climate.

--->Paul

Just double whatever you think you will need... lol

We started with five acres thinking there would be no way we could use all of that land. we have 16 acres now and could use twice that easily.

I think a lot of it depends on your location and what you want to do with it.

I have never had a huge garden to provide me with everything I need. An acre garden seems very large to me. Would it be enough?

I have never had farm animals. I am thinking some chickens. Maybe 1 pig or 1 goat. Probably a pigs until I retire and then a goat so I can milk it daily.

I have never had an orchard to provide tree fruit. I am thinking 4 apple trees, 2 cherry trees, some nut trees, maybe some sugar maples if I live far enough north, maybe kiwi or banana or coconut trees if I live far enough south.

It doesn't take that much land to grow berries (blue and rasp), more than I alone will eat.

I don't want/need a lot of grass to mow.
I assume I will have to buy feed for the animals in winter.
I would like to have bees.
I think I would rather do solar and wind generated electricity vs. trying to heat with wood. Wood takes a lot of work where as electricity is something that can run for days without anyone around.

I think I could do all the above on 4 acres?


The items that take up more property are hunting and having pond(s) for fishing (raising fish more than sport fishing) and general shooting. Ponds require water to run into them from someplace. If it is your property, then you know what is running into them. I believe in most states I would need 50 acres to legally hunt on my property without restrictions. And I have hunted a person's property who only had 50 acres and it wasn't big enough IMHO. The neighbors were right on top of his property and it made it difficult to take a safe shot.

Then again, this is just a guess. I have not actually done it. I can tell you that covenants and home owners associations and such are a big issue and you should read all those documents several times before signing off. that was the lesson from home #1.

I remember a paladin show where a farmer hired Paladin to take care of him from an unscrouplious land dealer. I forget the details, But, the idea was, that the farmer could own all the ground he could plow in a day. That is, plow in a circle. Everything in that circe, could he complete it by sunset was his. He did, barely, but died. The crooks was going to take the land but Paladin knew he had relatives and made the crooks cave in.
Being in here for so long, Ive seen so many types and kinds of (Homesteaders/gardeners/farmers), that I know that, beyond the actual amount of land needed to do things, Its as much a mentality issue, in the mind, of how much land dividual might need, or want.
One person wants to put out hay and some corn, But dont want to lose the land to parking the machinery to do these things. Well, If your going to farm, its going to take machinery to do so, And, its going to take up ground space to keep that machinery close to the barn. If your wanting to raise a large amount of hay, then its going to take a large barn to keep it in. If you want to raise a large amount of grain, then your either going to have to build a seperate grainery shed, or build that onto the barn. If your wanting to raise a large amount of corn, then youll be needing a corn crib, either set up by itself, or built onto the barn. Haveing all these buildings, barn, grainery shed, corn crib, chicken house, brooder house, hog shed, loafing shed, wood shed, smokehouse, outhouse, ect, all eat up a good amount of space on a small acreage, along with the machinery needed to justify their existance, on say 20 acres of excellent ground. Or even so so ground. If one wants a good amount of animals, then they will find it somewhat cheaper to either quit wanting so many animals, or growing as much hay and grain as they can to suppliment the feed bill for these animals.
Way too many people just out of the cities think that (If I get a cow, than thats e cost of milk per year thats in my pocket. WRONG. A milk cow will eat up the money you would have spent in buying the milk you usually bought at a store. There are 2 differences. #1. With a cow, you will drink WAY more milk than you would have bought out of pocket, AND you may still have milk for the cats, ice cream, the chickens, ect. #2 Although yes, the cow will eat up all the money you would have spent for milk from town, Her calf is by and large free money. The less free, the longer one keeps it, But theres money in it none the less, IF IT LIVES. If not, Than its still a kinda break even project in keeping the cow, NOT TO MENTION all the grass she will keep mowed down. And if you raise that calf to butcher, AND IF you do the butchering yourself, Then youve saved around $4/500, and u know where the meat came from, And, thats a real saveings.
Some people think, If I raise a hog Ill save all that money I spent on buying pork meat. NOPE. #1. If you cant raise any or all the corn it takes to raise that hog to butchering age, Then youll pay the amount, OR MORE, in bought grain for the hog, than you would have paid for the meat already packaged in town. If you cant buy shelled corn by the ton, and have a safe place to keep it dry, Then youll pay more for grain than if you could buy it by the ton. Buying a ton by the sackful; costs around $2/300 more than buying a ton in bulk dumped in your pickup or wagon and brought home and scooped into the grain bin. If you cant buy at least 3 pigs to fatten up, youll spend more in grain than if you could. One pig by itself, Dosent get in a hurry to do anything, and that includes eating. It dosent feel the need or urge to eat until it is actually quite hungry. It would rather laze around as much as possible, and only eat when it is really a bit hungry. Consequently, It wears off some of the energy and growth it gained from the last time it ate just in laying around. 2 pigs. Will fight all the time for anything there is to eat. Because it takes energy to fight, They wear off alot of it in fighting for what grain that is givin. Although this may make for a leaner meat, it takes a bit more grain to get each to the ideal butcher weight. 3 pigs at least is ideal, as they know if they fight off one, the other is eating and not being bothered, while the 2 are fighting it out. They soon realize that its better just to eat as fast as possible, and try to get along with the other 2.
One may think that haveing chickens makes all the money they spent on eggs from town a bonus in the pocket. WRONG. The grain it takes to raise and keep chickens will eat up all one spent in buying eggs and more. When they molt, they dont lay. When there young, they dont lay. Its that when they DO lay, they cause one to usually eat/use more eggs then they brought town. Not to mention the manure for the garden. They also dont really gain from eateing the roosters, or old hens. The grain it takes to feed them to butchering size eats up the money one spent in town for chicken. Its just that, usually they get to eat MORE chicken when it comes from their own farm. AND, hopefully, they know that the eggs arent time bombs tainted to explode with desease
Some may like to have rabbits for meat. For once, If that is ALL one might want them for, AND they can raise them colony style, and on grass, Then by and large, that meat is more or less free. If however, they are raiseing them in pens, and feeding them rabbit pellets, Then theyre just breakeing even BUT, There eateing much more rabbit meat than they would have e ver bought.
Im kinda cynical in the above, and know that many will feel the need to disagree with many parts of it. Go head. Thats what its up here for.

I come from a bit different direction. How much can you afford without cripling debt? Make yourself need that much. Learn to use it to its full potential. We can all use 50 acres....but can we afford it?

I can sum it up real easy.... If ya have to buy feed for an animal, your going to lose money and it would be cheaper buying the animal product at the store.

If you can build up a good enough pasture to feed em without buying any feed, or spending much on the pasture, you might come out cheaper..

As for space, I can't see myself at my age dealing with more than 20 acres....

I was going to say something along those lines...as much as you can afford!

We set out looking for 40 acres. With five horses we figured that was the amount we needed. After looking at some 40 acre plots we realized 40 acres didn't give us the privacy we wanted. We ended up buying 96 acres and are hoping to eventually buy the 30 acre plot on our south side and some property behind us as well.

Our family thought we were crazy to buy so much property due to our age (mid 40s at the time) and health issues. However, we've managed it fairly well and are quite content. We planted 33 acres in a wetlands conservation program. All of that acreage was on the other side of a large diversion ditch and is bordered on the other side by a large canal/creek. It tends to flood in heavy rains. Planting it in hardwoods was the perfect solution as it now needs minimal upkeep.

We built a 13 acre pasture for the horses and will complete more pasture in the next couple months. We put the barn on a half acre lot between these two pastures.

I have a half acre garden plot and in the bottom we have about 5-7 acres of woods. We harvest downed trees for firewood and have always had plenty without cutting down a tree.

Across the driveway from the horse pasture is a 14 acre hayfield. This year we bartered with a local farmer who planted it in soybeans in exchange for hay and bush hogging/maintenance.

We have about two acres fenced around the house for our dogs (16). I also have a half acre chicken/duck pen next to my garden.

We have three ponds - one at the lower end of the front yard and one in each horse pasture.

We've never regretted buying such a large acreage and feel we utilize it quite well. I do want to get goats eventually to help cut back some of the kudzu growing on the diversion ditch, plus the wild roses and honeysuckle we have. We also plan to build a shop/garage behind the house in the future.

We set out looking for 2. But we found 7 better acres, better barn, better location for less. Why not? We decided to try cows. We aren't using it to its full potential, but we have only been here a year and a half.

I am also a member of the Location Fan Club. I have been looking at real estate for awhile now and I am still amazed at how many houses and land haven't be laid out properly.

I recently went through this same dilemma. We ended up buying 20 acres and it seems about right. The area that we bought in has some restrictions (can't subdivide any lots into less than 10 acres) so I feel we have a good buffer from neighbors. If that were not the case, I would have looked for 30 to 40 acres. Good luck with your search. Owning land is a great privilege.

2.37!!

When I was in my early 30s I thought this 20 was a postage stamp. Now, at 63 nearly, Its plenty big, and getting bigger every year.
Remember, that in time, when your old, These places will grow on you, in more ways than one.

1 acre.... adjacent to the largest state game lands with public hunting that you can find.

Ive been struggling with this question as well. Another thing to keep in mind us will your homestead be more productive if you have 100acres or 50acres and 50k for tractors, fences, and startup costs?

My intial instinct was to go big on acrege and get it paid off then build later (im only 25). But if im willing to go smaller i could start building buy a tractor etc etc immediately

I am surrounded on 2 sides by the NC gamelands, and a big gully on the third side, so no one will ever be able to build real close to me. My piece is actually an old subdivision, 12 half acre lots, so the very tip end meets the road, I live in the very back. In this 6 acres, you can see my home and a couple of outbuildings. I also have 2 smaller outbuildings hard to see, one is a greenhouse, and another is a gazebo in the orchard. The orchard has 4 grape vines, trellised, 20 thornless blackberry vines, trellised, 30 fruit trees, properly spaced. The garden is the same size as the orchard. I have 40 chickens that live in the orchard and/or garden, at different times of the year. They do most of mt weeding for me, and a lot of fertilizing too!! the garden and orchard are fenced in.I provide fruit, vegetables, and eggs for 2 families, plus give to anybody else that drops by. We freeze and can, and always have more than we can use. As you can see by looking at the picture, I an using less than a forth of the 6 acres.
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...84214958-1.jpg

In this area (georgia - mild climate, reasonably fertile soil, fair amount of rain) I thought 40 acres would be enough. Started looking for 20, but found that to be too small to run cattle at break even (i.e. selling to cover costs) and potentially too small to shoot skeet or set up a tarket range. (I don't hunt, but I'd like to be able to shoot on my own property)

As I looked in the various properties, they were all upwards of a half million dollars (they've come down some now). I found that for the same price I could buy 100 acres... only problem I couldn't afford that either. (what I can afford is generally less than what the bank says I can afford - they don't care if I die in debt, and would probably prefer it)

Finally, I looked a bit further out. Found almost 200 acres at a bit over half what those other properties cost... Asked if the seller would split it. No deal. So I went ahead and decided to buy the whole thing. More than I need, sure. But cheaper than trying to buy what I "needed".

Interestingly, it feels just right now. Not a bit too big.


But th

I always thought the more land the better - along with a small house & needed outbuildings.

The older I get, the less I think that way. Mainly because it's harder to husband the land properly.

I love the privacy, the peace... but working the land becomes harder the older I get. And until the Doc's figure out what's wrong, here I sit watching weeds take over.

I sat down before I bought land, and figured out that I needed a minumum of 11 acres to just provide for me and family. 4 acres for fuel wood, 1 acre for garden, 1 acre for house and yard, and the rest in grass for beef. Here, you can't buy 11 acres unless it's a weird chunk of land that just got lost from it's mother. Out here, there are 1/4 sections, sometimes you'll find 1/4's that are a bit smaller because of a river, or you find 3 acre yuppie lots that 99.9999% of people buy to build a big ol' city house and live the high life.
Ironically, you pay almost as much for 3 acres with services, as you pay for a 1/4 with nothing. I picked the 1/4, since I wanted to be off grid.
It will take about 5-6 years before any of my trees are big enough to harvest for fuel, and I need to plant many, many more yet!
I don't need all of my land, but it's mine now, and I can't subdivide, so, heck with it, might as well do some cattle.

Too many variables.

Personally I'd like 15-20 ac. I think I could easily manage that alone if need be (DH travels allot for work and the kids will grow up and move away some day).

1 ac for garden
2-3 ac for fruit trees
1/4 ac for "yard" - I want grand kids someday so I should have a spot for young ones to play
2-5 ac for any livestock - or wildflower fields if we skip livestock (we want bees - and aren't counting them as livestock)
leaving 10-12 of woods

I could be happy with less....but if we are dreaming, lets dream on the side of ideal.

If one has the money for the purchase price and the taxes it is better to go long on acreage. While the acreage one needs depends on what one wants to do, land quality, and climate, land will usually increase in value .

The main reason I suggest this is (unless one is bordered by government land) issues with neighbors. Neighbors can be the salt of the earth, but they can also be real problems. The more land one has insulating them from those around, the less of a chance there is for some kind clash. If one looks around the forums here on HT, one sees at least half the conflicts are due to neighbors. Either you rooster is keeping them awake, or their rooster is keeping you awake, etc, etc, ad infinitum with dogs and fence rows and manure and encroachment. Most of us could homestead on a few acres of good land, but with a few acres, one has the potential of having 8 or 10 neighbors with plots of the same size within noise, smell, and dog distance.
The more neighbors within this a half mile or so, the more likely one is going to be offended by their neighbors action. Put your house in the middle of 40 or more acres, and the chances of conflict go way down (not to mention there are no witnesses when you shoot their dog after he as killed your chickens for the tenth time)

9 sections with the house in the middle section, like a tic-tac-toe board ;)

There is no such thing as enough land.

If I had to start over, it'd be a place better'n what I have already.

Minimum:
100 acres.

Zero current or future human habitation intrusions into my viewshed (from the house). Far enough away from any potential neighbor that there could be any interaction with their dogs and my livestock or vice versa.
Full time running water. Permanent standing water source (small lake).
Good fertile topsoil at least in the hay meadow. Existing or good irrigated spot for an orchard. Naturally irrigated fertile garden area. Possible field suitable for field grains.
Timber? Only for viewshed purposes. I'd not purchase extra timberland for a woodlot for firewood....... never cut your own firewood trees... cut someone else's... there's always free wood around.
Good southern exposure on possible house sites (for solar heating and photovoltaics)
Wildlife habitat is important.
Good permanent swamp on two sides would be dreamy!:thumb:
A mountain range on the other two sides would be double dreamy! :thumb::thumb:

Texican, other than the mountain range, you just pretty much described our farm!

Interesting question and my answer after talking to a lot of people is that you need 40 acres plus to justify the purchase of equipment, tractor, etc. The use of equipment will make life a whole lot easier in the long run and the acreage enables the production of grains and fodder.

Well, if wishes were fishes, I'd have one... right now I'm settling for a swamp on just one side... Got the rest already... and to willingly move I'd have to have a mountain...:thumb:

That mountain range would be great, until someone comes in and puts up a whole string of houses on top enjoying that 'fantastic view'....

That swamp would be great, until the government comes in and tells you that you have lost the use of 1/3 of the land you paid for as 'wetland protection'....

:)

When I lived in Pender County, NC, I lived in a swamp. There were mosquitos the size of buzzards everywhere.

Ok, I finally have the time to put in my two cents after posting the question, then reading everyones replies. For what I am wanting to do, this is what I hope to find, in my own ideal situation. I would prefer to have 80 acres total with about a 2-8 acre lake. The land would have at least 20 acres of timber, with other timered lines seperating the various fields. I would set aside about 1 acre for garden area. This would be set aside, but gradually used up year by year. I would have about a half acre set aside for home, and yard. Most of the fields would be divided for rotational grazing, of the various live stock. One of the fields would be kept in a larger section for a hay field. I will be trying to do some small scale grain production also.