One Acre - What can I have?

[hannahbanana3]

We have 2 mini horses, 4 pygmy goats, 15+ chickens and 4 rabbits and dogs and their all fine.

 

[Kotori]

Well, I don't know how self sufficient you want to be, but here is a little compilation of small area things: Meat rabbits, aquaponics, chickens, BSF Composter, vertical gardening, goats, mini cow.

Meat rabbits can be in standing hutches or wire cages. I would suggest a worm bin underneath to make the manure plant-safe.
Aquaponics- the 'art' of raising fish under plants- plants turn the deadly ammonia into nitrogen.
Chickens- meat or layers need just a small tractor.
BSF composter: Black soldier fly. very efficient, the larvae are high protein, high calcium for the chickens. Liquid waste can fertilize water for aquaponics.
Vertical gardening- trellis or shelves. solid waste is good fertilizer
Goats- live on weeds. Just throw in any weeds, trimmings from safe trees, dried leaves from safe trees, etc.
Mini cow- you can have them 1 per acre on good land. I would suggest a Lowline steer- high dress rate, and it's angus
Or if you want milk too, a Dexter milk cow, steer the offspring. < You would (probably) have to buy some hay. let the cow graze and use pure grass hay for the steer.

A dwarf fruit tree would also be feasable.

A water catching system would probably be useful.

Composting the animal manure can be done with 4 wood pallets or I suppose 2 broken pallets.

 

[manybirds]

I just rented a house with an acre of land, all fenced and ready for livestock. I plan to move my chicken flock [12 hens - two roosters], what should I add? I want to be a bit more self sustaining. I appreciate all suggestions.

Thanks.
Tressa

you can have EVERYTHING! you could have a small dairy slash meat goat herd on a 1/4 or 1/2 acre pasture, honey bee hives, small herd of meat/show rabbits, a horse and or pony, if you willing to fead it hay year round 1 or 2 cows (though you couldn't have the cows and the goats and i would recomend goats because there smaller and easier to handle), quail (superb meat), chickens, ducks, geese, pheasants and peacocks if you really wanted, turkeys dogs cats etc. you just have to know how to work your space right and where to put stuff.
o yey and a nice little vegatable garden

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

There was a REALLY cool article in Mother Earth news a while back about how to set up a 1 acre more self sustaining farm... I'll look for the link, but you can go to Mother Earth news online or try googling it. I remember thinking it was really cool for someone just starting out with 1 acre. It showed you a whole layout and explained each section and how to manage it.

 

[kfacres]

an acre isn't much- does this acre contain the house and yard as well? Basically consider an acre 208 x 208.

although you can have other animals... most often those with an acre-- have a mud lot.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

I might seem like the bad guy here, but I wouldn't go crazy. You can defiantly have more animals than just your chickens, but if you have to many animals then you will have parasite issues and with goats you will have lots of worms. I encourage you to get some animals but I wouldn't go crazy. Whichever animals you get I hope they all do well. btw goats are a good choice because you can have 6 to the acre. Good luck!

 

[Bedste]

I have ONE acre.....

I have one dog

60 plus chickens

and 4 goats

I free range a few chickens every day and I have 1/6 of the acre fenced off for the goats..... I have 6 small coops and two sheds, a house and garden and a swing set and lots of room for grandkids to play

 

[Bossroo]

It GREATLY depends WHERE that 1 acre is and the weather . I have 20 arrid acres in Cal. ... 6.5" of rain per year in the winter/ early spring. Grass only grows to about 4-6" , is sparce and is brown about 8 months of the year. While weeds, such as tumbleweeds, star and bull thisle, etc. grow in abundance to 2-4+feet that I ahve to kill, maime and destroy every spring. I have ONE Valley oak tree that is over 100' tall.I planted redwood trees round the house (that I have to irrigate) for shade. Late spring, summer and fall the temps are in the high 90s to way over 100's . I have a garden which I have to irrigate with well water, 20+/- horses that are housed in 8- 12x 24 stalls and 3 5acre lots. I have to buy 98% of their feed ( mares and their foals get to nibble some green grass in the early spring only) I raise 25 Cornish X from 35 days of age for game hens and some lots to 8 weeks for friers, 5 times a year confined in a horse stall ONLY as there are way too many 4 legged and winged PREDATORS . I have to buy ALL of their feed as the only bugs in abundance here are ants and stink bugs (which are not eaten) and a few grasshoppers in the spring, and they won't eat the brown grass eather. One acre... drill a 100-400' well for water ( many folks around here get about 4 gals.of water per minute from their wells), build a Fort Knox for 24 hr. protection for any livestock from predators, and buy 98-100% of their feed. The cost for the meat, eggs or milk or vegetables or fruit one would glean will be many fold the price of store baught .

 

[manybirds]

what i would do is have a small cattle pannel (4-6 pannels) pen with a calf hut for goats (will hold about 2-3, plus one temporary meat sheep or goat), i would have a similiar pen for a pair of geese and 1 or 2 pairs of ducks. i would a brooder or rabbit hutch type pen and have a few pairs of quail living in it, you could have about 3 meat pen sized rabbit cages. if you wanted you could have a small coop with either 4ish hens and one rooster (chickens) or keep game birds or turkeys in there. though spacing would get really tight if you did you could probably squeeze a small horse or pony in (i probably wouldn't because living quarters would get to tight). also you could keep a bee hive or 2 on the property. if you are willing ot give up your yard completly you could get a small garden and a few fruit trees

 

[CochinBrahmaLover=)]

I have 1 acre

I have 2 goats

I (had) 30 chickens , the fox who lives nearby said no no and reduced it down to 7 chickens :/ . Well, actually 5, but we got 2 more.

Are you like in a place where there is woods behind you? More pasture? We have ONE acre, but we also have a whole forest behind us that our chickens and goats can go through. Really depends where your at