One Acre - What can I have?

[bonbean01]

We have 7 acres and one of those is a catfish pond...and then the house and yard, garden and only with rotational pastures are we able to keep 9 sheep if we want good grazing. The chickens don't take much, and we feel we have reached our limit without killing the grazing areas. Still learning and researching the best way to utilize the grazing areas with this small of a herd of sheep. We don't want to feedlot our sheep, so are keeping our herd small.

Not sure if that helps, but it is what is working for us.

Good luck and wishing you well...enjoy

 

[Symphony]

Right now it's all pretty much scrub. I think there may have been goats on it before. It has a two stall barn and a huge hen house. Can you tell me more about mangel? Morning Glory will grow like a weed here. I'm in California [Brentwood]. The research portion has just started for me; so I wanted to get lots of input before expanding from chickens.

Thanks for the response!

Tressa

You might want to first see if your city allows such animals. Brentwood looks pretty high end, I don't know how urban it is but I doubt neighbors want a crowing rooster all day.

 

[boykin2010]

Pygmy or dwarf goats came to mind. Dexter cows, mini horses, ducks, peacocks, turkeys, pigs

Just a few things that came to mind that could stay on an acre. I am keeping 12 sheep and 40 or so chickens on 4 acres right now so you could easily keep some sheep if you wanted. However, if the grass is brushy then it would be better suited to goats. I actually have 20 acres but I only use 4-5 acres for the animals.

 

[manybirds]

Pygmy or dwarf goats came to mind. Dexter cows, mini horses, ducks, peacocks, turkeys, pigs

Just a few things that came to mind that could stay on an acre. I am keeping 12 sheep and 40 or so chickens on 4 acres right now so you could easily keep some sheep if you wanted. However, if the grass is brushy then it would be better suited to goats. I actually have 20 acres but I only use 4-5 acres for the animals.

don't forget rabbits and quail, i myself would keep maybe a pair of kinder does and get them bred, they produce milk like a nubian and have a very respectable amount of meat for such a little goat, eat there boy babies and either sell the girls or keep them. you could keep a breeding trio of rabbits and butcher the babies, i would get some top quality welsh harliquin ducks, under the right fead they can produce more eggs a year than a good chicken plus there good for foraging and meat, i would recomend getting them from holdereads waterfowl not from a hatchery as hatchery quality's are oftem crossed and you wouldn't get the egg laying u wanted. you could have a pair of geese if you want, meat and the fat and down. have a ridable sized pony or a mini for cart pulling and kid rides. have a cage of quail as there meat is good and easy to butcher and clean. it wouldn't take up nearly as much room as you might initially think. 4 cattle pannels and a calf hut for goats, if you wanted the mini pony you could keep it with the goats or a ridable sized pony would require more a a lean-to sized shelter. 2 cages for rabbits (for meat buck a 24x24in cage and for the doe a 24x36in). you could get some courtnix quail in a rabbit cage or something like that , i have a friend who does that and puts all there eggs in the incubator as soon as there laid and hatches them and raises them for meat, she waits until there are 200 quail then butchers, i believe she only keeps 5 breeding quail. ad some hog pannels and a little barrel or somehting to lock up at night and a kitty pool for the ducks and geese. thats only a 16 ft x16ft encloser for 2 goats and maybe a mini, a 16ftx16ft cage for the ducks and geese and 2 little rabbit cages and 1 rabbit cage sized thing for the quail.

 

[SheepGirl]

If the OP wants to be more self-sustaining on an acre, I wouldn't get a horse. You can't really do anything with them to be more self-sustaining. That is 900-1200 lbs worth of animal that I would rather trade for 6-8 sheep...where I could get milk, meat, and wool.

 

[boykin2010]

If the OP wants to be more self-sustaining on an acre, I wouldn't get a horse. You can't really do anything with them to be more self-sustaining. That is 900-1200 lbs worth of animal that I would rather trade for 6-8 sheep...where I could get milk, meat, and wool.

I agree. I didn't think about that, but trading a horse for 6-8 sheep/goats sounds better.