Need advice re: homestead setup

[Redgate]

We have a mini-farm (23 acres w/house,barn,pasture) we are planning to homestead when dh retires in a few years (we don't live there yet). We have been working on plans for the set up for a while now, as we want to spend the next few years getting it ready for our moving in. *However, I have come up with several questions I can't seem to find answers to, and need advice/suggestions from those more experienced.

To give you an idea, only about 10 acres of it will be usable (the rest in steep, wooded terrain). *On a portion of those acres, we are planning to have 3, roughly 2 acre, pastures and 1 additional paddock in the woods, maybe 1 acre. *Our plan is to rotate our animals through the pasture/paddocks. *We are planning to have the pastures divided into horses and cows (just a few), goats and burro, fryer/broiler chickens in tractors, and one pasture empty. *So questions are:

1-We are currently planning to use 48 inch 2x4 no-climb horse wire as our primary fencing, with wood trim and hot wire if needed. *Will this work for all those species? If not, what fencing type is most suitable for multiple livestock species?

2-We have an abundance of deer that currently graze our pastures. *While the does can jump the fence with no trouble, the fawns will be unable to go through once the wire is installed. *Will this cause any major disruption for the deer?

3-Should we decide to add pigs, would that type of fencing set up work to allow them to pasture graze as well?

4-We are planning to raise our animals as organically as possible. *However, we have an abundance of wild turkey on the property as well. *Will the wild turkey and deer cause health issues for our chickens and/or goats?

5-We are planning to use the goats primarily for brush clearing, so they would be off pasture for large amounts of time. *I have heard brush will cause milk to taste bitter. *Does this mean we have to choose whether we want milk or brush control and not both?

Thanks in advance! *These are my biggest concerns at this point.

[kawalekm]

Hello Redgate
We're in a similar position to you. We bought our land while still living in town and am slowly developing it into our homestead while still living in our regular house.

I could advise you to do exactly the same thing that we did, plant trees. The first thing we did to our property after the sale went through is to start planting our orchard. Apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, almonds, walnuts, pecans, and chestnuts. The next year we planted loquats, pomagranites, persimmons, hazelnuts, and pawpaws. After three years now the first of the trees is starting to flower and bear fruit. Since you have to wait several years before the tree produce anything at all, you can do those first and forget about them while you're doing everything else. Your steep hillside would be perfect for them because you can't use it for anything else besides grazing.

We have both wild quail and turkey on our property and I haven't heard of any problems with people's chickens. Animal damage is heavy here. We have to plant every tree in a wire pot with a drain pipe truck collar to protect them from ground squirrels. We put chicken wire around each tree to prevent deer browsing. In my experience, a 4 foot fence doesn't hinder deer in the slightest, even the fawns. I routinely see them in spring along with their mothers in all our fenced areas. Our standard fence here for horses and cattle is 4 strand barbed wire on T-posts.
Michael

[bookwormom]

our goats clear brush and the milk is fine. I wonder how that got started. However, out of curiosity I tried some of the goats favorite foods, which are honeysuckle and sawbriars, and they do taste bitter. goatcandy.

are you planning on rotating? you don't want to overgraze. Where are you located? your setup sounds like ours. I am planning to get a couple of pigs, put them in the new pond area to enlarge the pond, then put them in the garden to till and fertilize that a bit, plus eat Johnson grass roots and grubs, and then when hubby has tamed them so they come running when he calls, I would like for them to forage in the woods for acorns before they head for the butcher. We have two chicken coops at present. up by the barn where they can freerange, and down by the house in one end of the woodshed, where they are enclosed. that is where I want to keep any mommas and babies next season to keep an eye on them, Gw. We are intrigued with the henmobile, and have an old trailer to build a henhouse on top, should have enough scrap lumber for it too. the idea is to haul it to the pasture after you have moved the cattle off to a new one, so they chickens can scratch apart the cowpatties, eat any maggots to keep the fly population down ( you will appreciate that aspect once you notice what a problem they are), catch bugs and grasshoppers, when the cows get moved, the chickens move too.
good luck in your endeavor.

[Redgate]

I didn't want to type too much info, so it looks like I left a lot of questions. *Yes, we will have an orchard, and we already have a spot for that and the garden. *We will begin planting in about a year (we are still debating between fall or spring). *The steep hills and ravines are in the wooded area, it is literally unusable for anything except hunting, browsing animals, and trailriding--all of which we intend. *Regarding our pastures, yes, we will be rotating. *That is why we are dividing them in that way. *I figure the horses and cows will complement each other in grazing, then follow them with the goats and burro to clean up leftovers, then follow them with the fryer/broiler chickens to help spread the manure and for pest control. *I am still debating between chicken tractors and free-ranging, as we have a lot of predators. *In addition to those areas, we are planning to fence the orchard and garden, and situate a hen coop for the egg-layers between the two. *The hens will be allowed to free-range in this smaller area, rotating between the garden and orchard, depending on need and time of year. *I will also use the goats for cleaning up the garden each year, as well as a pig (if we go that route). *We are not new to animals, so I have a pretty good idea regarding the pest control needs and their habits. *We have had horses, pastured with a cow, had one goat, worked with goats, burros, pigs, etc, and had multiple chickens and waterfowl. *It will be fun to get back into them! *I figure the wooded paddock area will be used primarily for quarantining new animals, browsing goats, and as an extra "if needed" pen. *Furthermore, we hope to eventually fence the entire perimeter fence in some type of wire, and once we know all the animals and they are tamed, we hope to peridiocally browse the goats in the back areas.

So that is my plan. *We are open to ideas though, as we would love to gradually expand until we are pretty self-sustaining. *I still have a lot to learn in that respect! :)

[Terri]

I do not yet live on my land.

One spring I planted asparagus roots from "Morgan County Seeds"' which has unusually strong roots. Because it is wet here in the spring, they survived without being watered. If I had not planted them VERY early, they would have died in the summer from lack of water, but, they did not.

I haven't dared plant trees: I am afraid the summer dry spell would kill them. I put the trees on the acre that we live on.

[DavidOH]

1-We are currently planning to use 48 inch 2x4 no-climb horse wire as our primary fencing, with wood trim and hot wire if needed. *Will this work for all those species? If not, what fencing type is most suitable for multiple livestock species?

2-We have an abundance of deer that currently graze our pastures. *While the does can jump the fence with no trouble, the fawns will be unable to go through once the wire is installed. *Will this cause any major disruption for the deer?


I have seen Deer and fawn clear a fence that high from the bottom of the ditch. It should not be a problem for them on level land. Sorry, I can't comment on the rest. David