Elyssia001
Chillin' with the herd
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2012
- Messages
- 38
- Reaction score
- 12
- Points
- 46
First off I'd like to thank SouthernbyChoice for answering my questions about LGDs. She's incredibly helpful and knowledgeable and her kindness is what has encouraged me to post here!
I originally signed up for this forum after registering in it's sister forum BackyardChickens.
My husband and I live alone on a small 1/10th acre city lot in the suburbs of Detroit, MI. Ever since I was a child I have wanted to live on a farm and raise animals. But when I married a city boy and both of us took jobs in urban areas, I thought I would have to content myself with my vegetable gardening and a few fruit trees. So imagine my excitement when I found out that some of the cities in the area allowed small backyard flocks! That got me interested in learning more about chickens. The more I learned about them, the more I wanted to embrace the whole self-sufficent life-style.
After a year of research and planning on small acreage self-sufficency, I've convinced my husband my husband to give it a go with me. Laster this spring we are going to start looking at properties to buy in the 5-10 acre range.
As much as I want to dive right into things, I know slow is the best way, so I want to make sure we have enough land for what I'd like to work up to, so that we never have to move. The goal is to raise enough meat and dairy for a family of 4-6 and enough fruit and vegetables to feed the same 4-6 people and then have surplus for weekend farmers markets during the summer.
For those helpful souls here, perhaps you can help me figure something out? The land we are looking at ranges from old crop land to wooded lots, so any pastures will have to be cleared, seeded, and allowed to "do their thing". I would want to set aside an acre for a vegetable garden and grain field (want to grow my own chicken feed), and another for a fruit orchard.
Given that the majority of the area here gets sufficent rainfall to grow grasses throughout the spring, summer, and fall, and with winter lasting from mid november to early march, how many medium-sized sheep or goats could be kept per acre if rotational grazing is used?
I originally signed up for this forum after registering in it's sister forum BackyardChickens.
My husband and I live alone on a small 1/10th acre city lot in the suburbs of Detroit, MI. Ever since I was a child I have wanted to live on a farm and raise animals. But when I married a city boy and both of us took jobs in urban areas, I thought I would have to content myself with my vegetable gardening and a few fruit trees. So imagine my excitement when I found out that some of the cities in the area allowed small backyard flocks! That got me interested in learning more about chickens. The more I learned about them, the more I wanted to embrace the whole self-sufficent life-style.
After a year of research and planning on small acreage self-sufficency, I've convinced my husband my husband to give it a go with me. Laster this spring we are going to start looking at properties to buy in the 5-10 acre range.
As much as I want to dive right into things, I know slow is the best way, so I want to make sure we have enough land for what I'd like to work up to, so that we never have to move. The goal is to raise enough meat and dairy for a family of 4-6 and enough fruit and vegetables to feed the same 4-6 people and then have surplus for weekend farmers markets during the summer.
For those helpful souls here, perhaps you can help me figure something out? The land we are looking at ranges from old crop land to wooded lots, so any pastures will have to be cleared, seeded, and allowed to "do their thing". I would want to set aside an acre for a vegetable garden and grain field (want to grow my own chicken feed), and another for a fruit orchard.
Given that the majority of the area here gets sufficent rainfall to grow grasses throughout the spring, summer, and fall, and with winter lasting from mid november to early march, how many medium-sized sheep or goats could be kept per acre if rotational grazing is used?
we raise chickens and rabbits!
