How much area and housing do we need?

[Imissmygirls]

I did a really nice rotational grazing for a few spring/summer/falls using about 5 acres and 7 cows/heifers, but it was a moist pasture where the grass grew well.
We divided it into 4 paddocks and grazed the group until the grass was about eaten in one area, then moved them.
The one thing I found absolutely necessary was to mow the eaten pasture area after the cows were moved. It made all the difference in regrowth.
IN the spring, the animals can't keep up with the grass growth, so you have to plan on mechanically harvesting some of the acreage so it keeps growing for fresh forage for later in the season.

 

[lupinfarm]

That is totally stupid, 3 to 5 acres per horse. If you properly manage your pasture, seed yearly, rotate, keep a sacrifice field for the spring months, you can keep a lot of horses on a small pasture. There is a small farm (5 acres) near me that has 3 horses, they rotate and keep a sacrifice field and they always have lots of green grass. When our top fields are fenced we'll be using the bottom field that our pony is on currently for hay (it yields about 400 small squares) and she'll be rotated on the top pasture and in the dirt paddock.

We're on 8 acres.

 

[lupinfarm]

Also for cows... 20-30 acres is an awful lot for 10-12 cows, most farmers here would run upwards of 40 cows on that land.