2 acres + large barn What can we do?

I think we would do a combo of hay, pasture. IF we do a steer. Pole barn is 30x40 cemented floor, lights, water, electricity etc. With a dirt covered lean to attached that is 15x40 however 11x12 is set aside for chickens with appropriate outside lot for birds to roam.

Plan would be to store hay inside pole barn that is concrete to keep dry and away from critters.

Sheep I would consider, need to look into this more.

We have electric fence between the properties would cow really go thru it? Hmm maybe neighbor and I can chat and do a rotation between our pastures they could be friends and stay together and we can just rest theirs and then alternate? Hmmm will see what they feel.

Right now it is yard. Typical grass clover kind of mixed in. We may plan to do the livestock next spring and plow and plant a harvester mix for now and bale all the hay we can and save it?

Thanks for all of the ideas, really making us think how to do this. I want to be even just somewhat cost effective and I like knowing where my food comes from. Right now beef prices here are insane due to drought.

Hello,

We are currently building or expanding our farm. While I have much more average than you currently it's not all usable for animals .

We started with chickens, than decided to try beef cows. I already had a 1 1/2 acre field so we put a barn there and fenced the entire thing. Currently I have 2 black angus steers that live there with out issue. I do leave a round bale out for them at all times to keep constant pressure off the pasture. Both steers will be processed in November. ImageUploadedByHomesteading Today1404388020.238464.jpg

We also have 2 pigs, 9 bourbon red turkeys and 12 laying hens. I have a 5 acre field we are in the process of fencing now to expand our cattle. We have had so much interest in what we are doing we are becoming a farm for profit that offers all natural beef, pork and poultry products. We also sell out of eggs every week. Here's the coops we built
ImageUploadedByHomesteading Today1404388407.855828.jpg

And for the turkeys
ImageUploadedByHomesteading Today1404388922.913561.jpg

One thing we are planning on is meat chickens, because the coops are wired with heat I will be rotating chickens and turkeys through the turkey coop for the winter. This spring we will be adding tractors for the meat birds once the snow is out. I think this could work well for you also. I just got 300' of electric poultry netting that will be used for pigs as well.

Hopefully I have you a few ideas, I like threads like this because we are always looking for ways to do more. Good luck

Hello,

We are currently building or expanding our farm. While I have much more average than you currently it's not all usable for animals .

We started with chickens, than decided to try beef cows. I already had a 1 1/2 acre field so we put a barn there and fenced the entire thing. Currently I have 2 black angus steers that live there with out issue. I do leave a round bale out for them at all times to keep constant pressure off the pasture. Both steers will be processed in November.

We also have 2 pigs, 9 bourbon red turkeys and 12 laying hens. I have a 5 acre field we are in the process of fencing now to expand our cattle. We have had so much interest in what we are doing we are becoming a farm for profit that offers all natural beef, pork and poultry products. We also sell out of eggs every week. Here's the coops we built
ImageUploadedByHomesteading Today1404389832.946717.jpg


And for the turkeys
ImageUploadedByHomesteading Today1404390045.935412.jpg

One thing we are planning on is meat chickens, because the coops are wired with heat I will be rotating chickens and turkeys through the turkey coop for the winter. This spring we will be adding tractors for the meat birds once the snow is out. I think this could work well for you also. I just got 300' of electric poultry netting that will be used for pigs as well.

Hopefully I have you a few ideas, I like threads like this because we are always looking for ways to do more. Good luck

...............Large animals and small acreages donot go together ! IF , you put one cow and one horse on one acre they will circulate around the perimeter constantly looking for that 'greener' grass and create ruts in the ground which leads to soil erosion when the big rain storms arrive . Don't create problems when none exist . , fordy

Not sure how I got 2 o well

Two acres is enough to do a lot. Don't waste any on lawn, of course. Might be a mix of something like:
20 Pigs
40 Sheep
100 Chickens or other poultry
and great gardens from all the wonderful organic fertilizer you'll have.
This assumes you're buying in winter hay and divide the two acres up into managed rotational grazing paddocks (very easy to do, more small is better than few larger). See:

http://SugarMtnFarm.com/2014/03/30/k...-pig-for-meat/

and an example of micro-paddocks:

http://SugarMtnFarm.com/2013/09/25/s...aning-paddock/

With proper management you can produce a lot of food on two acres. Start slowly and grow into it, finding your comfort and skill level.

We do a lot more than two acres but we also do a lot more than the above animal numbers.

-Walter


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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Highlands,

Ok updated! We are zone 5. Last year though we had multiple periods much colder. It was quite a year for us for winter.

We were driving and found a small micro farm down the road from us. They have 4 cows on 1 acre or so. They do feed hay as well as small pasture for them. We are still going to try some goat but we ideally would like to try a cow, but may do goats the first year just to get into the swing of things.

The book we just bought said 2 cows and two pigs for 1/2 and acre?! Which seems like a lot!

We have gotten about 1/4 of our fence up, still a long long ways to go. But slowly getting there. The turkeys spent their day out of the pen and loved it.

I even made some horse friends behind us today .

I don't think anything will happen this year, we still have a lot of work to do but thank you for all of the advice. Now off to check out your links.

Get a Jersey cow before you judge cows milk. They are the smallest regular milk cow, and they give one of the richest milks. You should get 2 gal morning and night, if not more, out of a good Jersey cow.

40 sheep in two acres...??? I don't think so LOL. Maybe more like 4 sheep. Too much more than that you are going to end up with a dirt lot.

Managed intensive rotational grazing rather than free ranging means you can sustainably run a lot more livestock on less land and the land plus forages improve over time. On one acre I can do ten pigs sustainably without buying any commercial hog feed / grain. I do get whey but the pasture makes up almost all of their diet. I can run even more sheep than pigs on the same acre - sheep are smaller (less mass) than pigs and even more efficient at grazing. As I said, it does require buying in winter hay. I've done it. Proven. Works. I farm. This is how I make my living. Entirely possible that _you_ can't do it but I can, I have the skills, and my pastures improve every year - no dirt lot. The key is managed rotational grazing.

Cheers,

-Walter

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Chickens followed by goats (dairy or meat or both) with or without meat rabbits is the natural progression of small acreage homesteading.

I suggest the book "The Backyard Homestead". It's a plan and how to on optimizing small acreage for most productive sustainable food output.

If it were my piece; I'd probably set up a rabbitry, goat stalls and a milking parlor in the barn.

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There is a time and a place for decaf coffee.
Never, and in the trash.
Are you an AZ farmer too? Arizona Backyard Farmers on facebook

You'll have to enlighten me on how that is possible sometime. I struggle to maintain pasture with 16 sheep a cow and a horse on ten acres. I rotate them daily into 1/8 acre pasture with moveable fence, no free range. Still seems like a lot of pressure on the pasture. I also cut hay on a different pasture area.

highlander, where you at?
How long do you let these pigs and goats meander on your acreage>?

Consider that I don't know where you are I can't comment on your climate, soils, etc so I can't tell you how to do it. Perhaps you have poor pasture. Perhaps your land is far drier than ours. No way to know since you don't fill in your zone or other location information that would help with that question. Clearly there is a difference between our pastures, management, skills and animals because I make a living at pasturing livestock on our farm - we have no off farm jobs. Hard to argue with that reality. Just because you can't do something doesn't mean someone else can't.

Please fill in your location information which makes it easier to answer questions. At the very least your zone. See this thread:

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Mountains of Vermont, Zone 3 as it states in my location information in the top right of every post.

Please fill in your location information which makes it easier to answer questions. At the very least your zone. See this thread:

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Pigs for 11 years using managed rotational grazing. See:

http://SugarMtnFarm.com/pigs

and follow the links about feeding and grazing. Sheep, chickens, ducks and rabbits since the early 1990's. We make our living and pay our mortgage farming. We have no outside jobs, no trust fund, etc. We farm. We're successful enough at it that that we're building our on USDA/State inspected meat processing facility which will soon let us take on that third leg of production. Vertical integration helps, as with any business.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Well your posts certainly sounds a bit hostile and defensive which gives me pause. I live within 100 miles of you. My pastures are good, native meadow grass, nothing that has been improved upon but not bad for natural pasture.

I raise sheep. I make a profit at it. Have been raising them for 6 years...long enough to know that even 10 sheep will make pretty short work of a 1/16 acre plot. If you truly are raising 40 sheep on 2 acres without substituting hay and without decimating your pastures beyond repair then more power to you. I'm not posting to disparage or contradict you, just giving my opinion based on my experience with sheep and pasture.

With 2 acres you can do whatever you please.
We started with 2 acres and raised a couple of steers for beef every year. Yes we had to buy feed in for the winter but considered that as adding to the fertility of the land so it was no big deal.
We usually had 100 or so meat chickens that we kept in a big pen.
We had up to 100 or so rabbits that we raised in tractors to take advantage of the areas that were considered a yard instead of pasture.
We also kept a few goats. One year we milked 12 and fed the milk to calves which we sold once they were weaned.
We had a good sized garden and several fruit trees.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

Twobottom you're the one being hostile. You called me a liar. I farm for a living and know very well what I'm doing. I'm not telling you how to run your farm but I know how I run mine with managed rotational grazing that improves the soils.

The person asked about what to do with two acres, not 1/16th acre. Two acres is 32 times larger than 1/16th acre.

My real world experience is that I can raise 10 pigs per acre and about twice that in sheep during the warm season without supplementing with hay. During the winter we bring in winter hay - which I clearly stated in my original post. Winter is cold and snows are deep.

At then pigs per acre (pigs are what I have most experience with) means 20 per two acres. Each acre I would divide up into four to ten paddocks depending on my goals. That gives eight to 20 paddocks. As the herds and flocks age and the seasons pass these small paddocks let me move the animals quickly through.

This is called intensive managed rotational grazing and is very effective for maximizing forage growth, maximizing food value per acre, minimizing soil compaction and improving the quality of the pasture over time. This is what I do and it works.

Over time this has improved our poor mountain soil so that now we have rich soil. Legumes suck nitrogen down from the air. Carbon is deposited as organic matter from the plant growth and cycling with the animals. Composting of plant and animal remains enriches the soil as well.

I'm not sure why you're stuck on such small plots (the 1/16th acre you mention) or why you're switching the numbers around and trying to distort things. Stick with the facts of the discussion and with your experience.

Please fill in your location information which makes it easier to discuss things. At the very least your zone. No need for you to be secretive. See this thread if you don't know how to fill in your profile info:

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-Walter

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Boy you're hostile and defensive. I never called you a liar. Whats your beef, bud? I think it is a normal reaction for most to be surprised and incredulous when someone suggests running 40 sheep on 2 acres. You yourself must realize how this sounds. It sounds pretty outrageous. Like I said if you are doing it successfully then more power to you.

As for your insistence about my filling in my personal info. I'll fill in as little or as much as I like. Where I reside is my business. I'm a zone 4, like I already told you I'm within 100 miles of you.

Then fill in Zone 4. That helps with discussions. And tone down the hostility. It is uncalled for.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids