Alright alright, I'll start small

I have a 6 acre place, right on the Va/NC border. my chicken flock maxes out at around 50 or 60. In the fall, I kill off all the roosters except 2, and then through the winter, kill older hens as needed. If I get around to this time of the year with one rooster and 6-10 hens, I'm good to start all over again. As a result, I have all the eggs I can eat, plus 40 or so chickens a year to eat. My fruit orchard is about 1/8 an acre, the garden spot about the same. I can and freeze a whole lot more than I can eat. I turn the chickens out in the garden after the season is over, they eat up everything, dig up grubs and stray seeds, and fertilize for me. I do a little swapping with some folks that raise different animals or vegetables. For instance, I'm always willing to swap out a dozen eggs for a pack of sausage, or any swap of a similar equal value. My wife was extremely sick for 9 months before she died recently, and during that time I came to realize that I will have to cut down on my production. So, with a quarter of an acre in use, I produced enough for 2 people, and about twice too much for the one person. I have made some arrangements to trade eggs for flour or sugar, with some people who don't grow anything, but go to the grocery store a lot. This summer, I may start taking some of my produce to a farmers market to sell. I never have a need to go anywhere, since the funeral(Feb 24) I've only driven about 5 miles. My biggest monthly bill is real estate tax, followed by phone/internet/satellite TV and electricity. I get by fine on $500 a month or less. Because I have 6 acres, and use only one of them, I gave some to a family member and helped them put up a home. They don't help out with the gardening or anything, but they do help me eat some of it.
So, if I can get by on less than an acre and produce all I need, I figure an acre per person is plenty. It did take quite a bit of work to clear out that orchard and garden spot. Probably a thousand hours or more.
Fruit orchard, in partial bloom, taken a few minutes ago.

Before you get in over your head with dairy animals you might want to check on local laws regarding selling of dairy products.

Terri, I have 2 boks on Feed and Feeding, but there by Morrison and Morrison. Ones a 38 and the others a 41 if I remember rightly. VERY GOOD BOOKS. Cant be out of date unless the animals they referred have changed their eating habits, and the feed compositions have changed also. They dont have goats in it tho

i didnt think there was 100,000 acres cleared in CR. That must be 1/2 the country

Listen to the mustn'ts, child.
Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me...
Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.
Shel Silverstein

This poem came to mind whilst reading both of your threads, chancehayden. I applaud your enthusiasm and your spirit. The only advice I would add is to start small enough so that you aren't in debt, AT ALL. This would give you the ability to learn as you go, add land, machinery and practical experience as you will need it.

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http://dairydaze.blogspot.com/

To be fair to the OP, I think someone else came up with the 100,000 acre number (and then someone else doubled it). His original thread I think was about 350 acres in Costa Rica.

And CR is over 10 million acres, there's quite a bit in farmland.

Just how much money do you have to start this project with?

I highly suggest you not go into debt. My definition of small is 2 goats.

I actually am a 60 year old millionaire, LOL, who started out with a few hundred dollars, and keep asking myself, what is your goal? Why do you need such a massive project, when most of us started on a few acres? I helped build two homesteads, from the ground up and we only borrowed money one time, 10 years into homesteading, to buy an additional hay field. We paid off a 10 year, $30,000 loan, in 13 months. I really don't understand your grandiose plans.

I think you will improve your chances of success if you scale back. I really would like to know what your start-up monies are. It is hard to give advice without knowing how much money you will be working with.

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I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

I guess how much money will be needed for start-up will depend on how small I start. I don't feel comfortable discussing my financial situation on here but I have a few thousand dollars in various forms, most or all of which I'd be willing to risk in the optimal situation. I'm planning on having a job while this is being developed also.
The reason I'm talking 30-40 acres is because that's roughly the amount that I've figured all my planned projects and ideas will need in the long run. In the first few years, only 5 to 10 of those will be undergoing transitions into foraging pastures, food forest systems, perennial systems, and annual/season systems but every year we'd expand until demand meets supply or until we feel comfortably.

I'm thinking there is no such place, [never been clear-cut or timbered] east of the Mississippi. I studied land management in college, and there are some wilderness areas E of the MI, but most all of them (except for inaccessible regions, or no commercial timber) have been logged. The remaining wild lands are in public ownership. Settle for not clear cut/logged 'recently' and you might find lots of candidates.

Hope the small amount of money saved and from parents and family is at least 6 figures, (for a small [and when I say small, I mean less than a hundred acres], preferably a minimum of 7 figures.

To maintain such a place, I'd recommend getting a very very good job, so that you can afford half a dozen hired hands to take care of all those critters.

If someone has superman genes, and can break the laws of space/time, more power to them...

My best wishes also. I dream big too, but reality is usually smaller...

Same here...

On the problem of borrowing money.... it is pretty much an unwritten rule... If you need the money, your not getting it... if you don't need the money, you can have all you want.

There IS a way to do everything you've mentioned...

Find a rich widow woman who's already got it all, and marry her. Or, marry her daughter. It is a traditional way for landless peasants to obtain land.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Gently rolling grassland with a creek and a few hardwood trees are REALLY common in the Midwest, but very possibly not in your area.

You might try looking at the websites that sell ranches or pasture lands: in your area they might have been clear cut a long time ago but they would not have been clearcut recently. When you look at places on-line I would look for pastures.

Oh, yes. Since your mind is tilted towards business-and agriculture *IS* a business- see if you can take a beginning business class in college. ANY beginning business class will cover things like risk management, return to investment, net, gross, accountant methods, depreciation, taxes, etc. *If* you do not yet know this you will need to. There really are people-some of them at HT- who earn a modest living off of their places but the tax man WILL want the proper forms filled out.

i do think that people start out biting off more than they can chew and then giving up.

better to find a piece of land ..preferably with water and buildings on it and elec to it, and then move from there to what you want.

best to prepare a few things ahead before jumping into anything at all.

I'd love to see you find a property, house with creek or water of some sort, spring, whatever..spend some time on the property to see what is there and what dreams could bring to it. then Plant your trees and shrubs, with a good plan by reading some permie material to get an idea of what to put where.

do your pathways and zones and then maybe put in the chicken coop or the fencing for the larger animals first..and add a few animals at a time, say 20 or 30 chickens or a few cows..whatever.

you might want to go to the critter thread and read up on raising the types of animals you are referring too, I love Pauls Chicken threads, got me to thinking more about proper ways to raise them IF I put them in.

slow and steady wins the race

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Brenda Groth
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

I know a spot in Washington State that's never been logged, or burned. But it's in a National Park.

Besides, are you planning on buying property that's never been logged and then cutting the trees down to make room for your veggie garden? What's the point of that?

Definitely keep us posted!!!!

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A closed mouth gathers no foot.

Wow! Such grandiose plans makes me tired just thinking about it all! Don't mean to be negative, so I'll give an example of my own experience, instead:

Like you, Chance, I had a grandiose plan which involved raising rabbits. Yup, just the one species... and I was already experienced with rabbits, too. I had always wanted to have a commercial rabbitry. Within 3 to 5 years, I wound up with a herd of over 700 and catered to the show, pet, meat and laboratory markets. In addition, I was an "Independent Processor" and was able to legally sell rabbit meat to stores and restaurants. I had top quality show rabbits and did well at the shows and including the national convention shows. I ran a vendor table to help pay the expenses of showing. I maintained a separate herd strictly for commercial meat purposes. I advertised weekly, gave tours, and sold a LOT of rabbits (breeding stock, fryers, meat, pet, etc.). I hired local high school kids for removing manure. Yes, it was a successful full time business.

What I DIDN'T realize until it was too late was that EACH aspect of my rabbit business was actually a separate business all its own. What this means is that I was stretching myself too thin trying to run too many businesses to be able to adequately and fully develop each one to its best potential... and this is with just ONE species of animal!

My advice to you is: Don't stretch yourself too thin! And remember... each species of animal is unique and each INDIVIDUAL animal is unique. You will have a lot to learn about each one. Animals get sick, just like humans, and just like humans, they have a wide variety of illnesses, too. Things just aren't going to go all hunky dory all the time. Chickens are pretty easy, but all other animals ARE labor intensive!

Pat Lamar