How many acres for a good homestead?

[campfarmerangie]

I live on a 450 acre camp and conference center where my husband is director. He loves his job, and we live in a beautiful, old brick farm house on the edge of pasture that leads up to the Blue Ridge Parkway-gorgeous views. However, it is camp property and always will be. Although I can, theoretically do whatever I want on the land, I do have to ask the camp's board of directors about certain things. And it's not MINE. I feel like we live in a fish bowl, where I always worry if there is trash in the yard, if someone's seeing my underwear hanging on the line, or if heaven forbid, we have a wine bottle in the recycling! The last straw was when someone, last week, called animal control on my cow. Most of you know the heart ache that I've been going through with this cow with her staph aureus infection in her udder. She is dried up and is awaiting her slaughter date (Jan.17th). The informant told the officer that there was a cow at camp that's udder was dragging the ground and bellowed constantly. She wasn't being taken care of and looked skinny and hungry. Well, the officer coming and visiting was salt in the wound, believe me. My dh explained everything, and the officer didn't even want to look at her, he just said, "Sorry to waste your time, seems like you have everything under control."
Rant over, now to my question: Dh and I are considering buying some property of our own near the camp. We are not required to live here, just close to here. It would satisfy everyone, my dh could keep his job that he loves, and I can have my little homestead without having to ask permission for everything. If I want to keep a cow or two, pastured poultry, have a small barn and a large garden, what sort of acreage do you recommend? Thanks!
Angie

[Claire]

Depends on how self-sustaining you want to be. If you just want enough room for the cows, chickens, garden, etc. you would do fine with a few acres (2-5 acres so you can rotate pastures). If you want to be more expansive, say, grow your own hay or something like that I would go for more (maybe 10 so you can have pastures and hay land).

[Liz]

It all depends on how the land is laid out and if there is an existing home. If you are just buying land I would say 5 acres minimum. 2 acres is doable, but would not allow for rotation and would get used up pretty quickly. Ten is even better if you can swing it. Anything from there up is gravy (imo), and would potentially allow you to really expand the grasses (hay cutting or lease some), or really expand your herd size. You may decide to keep a small beef herd on the side for the freezer or as a cash crop (grow for market only).

I hope you can find some that will allow you to stretch your wings, air the laundry or truly enjoy a glass of wine!

Good luck!

[simplynaturalfarm]

I would say 15-20 acres would be great. It would give you enough to raise 5 cow/calf pairs without too much work or stress on the land. I would say 10 acres, but while there is nothing worse than too much land, having not enough comes very close *G*. It is possible to do a lot of stuff with a small property, and I kept a Jersey and a horse on 2 acres all summer long without having to supplement with hay.

[hazelsmilker]

Angie,

I'm so sorry that you had to go through that with animal control. It sounds very much like what happened to us when Hazel calved last spring. It was quite upsetting.

We have 2 acres. It is not really enough for a milk cow, calf, a couple of pigs, some chickens, an orchard, and a big garden. Just one more acre would be better.... We aren't about to move though; we've done too much work on the house. The orchard would take years to replace as well.

[campfarmerangie]

Thanks for all your replies. I was just wondering if 3 or so acres would be enough, because that's about all we can afford around here if it has an existing house. Or we could afford about 10 acres that does not have a house. I'm beginning to think that 10 acres would be good-maybe we could build a barn and live over top of it? I'm just so torn because we own a nice house on my parents 80 acre farm, which is about an hour from here. My ultimate dream is to move out there and jump into farming full time. Unfortunately my dh just doesn't think it will work. Sigh....

[Tim in NY]

I would go for the existing house and take a three acre property vs a 10 acre property you had to commute to for chores. If you get enough rainfall, which I think you typically do in VA, three acres of open land should easily provide pasture for one cow, especially if you are improving the pastures with pastured poultry. Because the chickens are putting more on that they take off, you are really adding fertility to the soil feed bag by feed bag. You would just have to accept the limits of what 3 acres can sustain. I think you would need to just keep one cow and her calf, but you could keep other livestock like pigs and chickens, maybe even a few ewes if you liked them without difficulty. This is all assuming you were rotating you pasture with electric.

And you would need to buy in hay as well, but that is also more fertility for the farm.

[Christine]

What's wrong with a wine bottle in the recycling? Ten wine bottles might be problematic, but wine in moderation is one of God's gifts. That and cheesecake. And fresh milk, fresh eggs, homemade bread, cookies, real maple syrup, fresh fruit and veges. I could go on forever.

Kip

[katiesdad]

As mentioned by others, it depends on what you want to do now and in the future. It takes just as much 'equipment' to work 100 acres as it does 10 acres. The more land you buy the cheaper per acre it is. (or should be.)

I think 5-15 acres is a nice size. 5 would be the absolute min.!!! I prefer 10-15 acres. We live on 40 acres, but gave 15 to our daughter and SNL. This size would give you room to build a small house and a BIG BARN ;D. It would give you a nice garden spot and room for two small pastures and a nice sized hay field.

Plan for expansion.... water and electric services and future placement for more buildings. (I told you a BIG BARN, but you didn't listen ) A good well and/or pond is a plus if the land lays right. We have about 10 acres of timber which comes in as a great asset for firewood or shelter for livestock.

Good luck, sounds like you have a nice opportunity where you are at, but it is nice to have your own place and freedom to do as you wish. Good Luck!

Jeff

PS, forgot to mention, our daughter & SNL built a metal building and lived in 1/3 of it for a few years before they could afford to build the house. a house and 3 acres vs 10 open acres... I would take the 10 acres, especially because you can still stay at the camp.