What can I do with 20 acres of woods?

Thanks for all of the good advice!

None of the property is currently fenced. I 'm waiting to fence until I decide exactly what I'm going to do.

As for the '90 Jeep, it's served us well (220,00mi+), but it's on it's last legs and has been relegated to farm duty. I have a '77 International Scout Traveler that I'm fixing up to take it's place. I'm a sucker for old 4x4's.

Sorry about not having a location listed, I'm in NE Missouri, about 10 miles north of Bowling Green. There's plenty of folks on here from MO, but I think I'm further north than most.

Thanks again,
M

Pot-Bellied pigs are smaller and won't tear up the place like full sized hogs and could turn all those wonderful acorns into home grown organic pork. If you train them to a paddock with daily treats of corn you could even let them free-range, particularly if you have a livestock guardian dog habituated to them. You can also butcher a potbelly on your own without special equipment or massive freezer space. Primitive sheep and hair sheep I'd fence, and can clean up the underbrush

I wouldn't advise getting goats. From what I understand, oak in large quantities can be poisonous to goats.

Greetings from Montana: Your property looks lovely, you are a very fortunate person to even have it! We have 40 high mountain acres of think Lodge Pole Pine and Douglas Fir. I am working on clearing some of the land so that I can plant fruit trees as a business type plan. Clearing the land is very hard work but very rewarding. I am hoping to get some type of a new farmers loan though USDA eventually. Good luck with your plans too!

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www.MontanaSticksAndStones.com at Goshen Farm

The Ozarks are prime land for a goat, much more suitable to goats than cattle. For wooded land, you might choose a meat breed of goat, such as a Boer, versus a dairy breed who will be dragging her udder around in the undergrowth.

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It appears that you can use that cistern to collect rain water, as it appears to be lower than your roof. There are several ways to do this, depending on how asthetic you want it to be.

Im not sure about how well Oak trees grow after you thin them, so you might wanna ask someone who might know more about Oak trees than a westerner..... that said, Buy a portable sawmill, make piles of oak sawdust and a few piles of oak lumber, sawn to grade can make you a tidy sum while clearing a few ttrees out at a time opening up the ground albeit a little bit. Logging is not wrong, just most folks never think about sustainable harvest of a timbercrop, and while 20 acres will not last long waiting for return growth, there is always a few trees to cut on your neighbors ground, hence a portable sawmill. Ive owned one since Feb 1986, and while it sits for months at a time, it was paid for in the first year i had it, cutting custom lumber at a measly .08 per board foot, price cost dictates most folks around cetral idaho now charge .15 to .20 per bdft which probably would vary from state to state placeto place..... anyhow, once you learn the value of a piece of oak furniture square you can saw for grade, and sell to custom furniture makers, even in small quantites if you have what they need at a reasonable price..... Anyone with timber can make it happen......and if you do it wron like anything else you could starve doing it as well.

I have a mobille demnsion circle mill, awesome machine for cutting any type of wood.... i have sawn side by side with bandsaws [woodmizer] and would have one if they gave it to me, but then again, even i could change if it worked better in hardwood than the softwoods we have here. http://www.mobilemfg.com/ will get you started looking at what i am talking about, people often ask me hoe much i would sell my mill for, actually it is worth more to me than a new mill, as it is setup for sawing up to 28 feet in length, and becuse as a part wears out it is replaced , so basiclly it is a new mill that looks well used [built in 1977]. And it is awesome watching a log broke down into lumber, and every log is different and yet the same as well. The Almighty knew what he was doing when HE invented trees for lumbering.

William

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Upon the plains of hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions, who when on the dawn of victory paused to rest, and there resting died.
- John Dretschmer

If you are going to keep poultry, I would start a trapline when the fur primes up this fall. Coon love hickory nuts and acorns and will be thick there. They will also tear down pens to get your poultry. Even with current low prices, you should be able to get a few bucks for your furs.