Farm Size Thoughts

[BarredCometLaced]

If I wanted to have a farm with 5 horses, 2 draft horses, 30 sheep, 2 goats, 40 chickens, 2 pigs, and a turkey or two PLUS some woods for trails, how big of a farm would I need?

 

[tadpole98]

If I wanted to have a farm with 5 horses, 2 draft horses, 30 sheep, 2 goats, 40 chickens, 2 pigs, and a turkey or two PLUS some woods for trails, how big of a farm would I need?

well, per horse would be 1 acre per, so thats 7 right there. Plus when you want to rotate fields you will want 7 more while the other field recovers. I would actually suggest three rotations but thats up to you. (for our cattle we move them once a week and have around 10 pastures. By the time they are at the end of the rotation the first field has enough grass for them to eat)
Sheep: for a good pasture you can keep up to ten per acre. If its a poor pasture with not much to eat then a max of 5. I would try to find a farm with very nice, fertilized pasture with good grass for them to eat. so lets just go with 6 per acre, you would need: 5 acres, plus a few so just say ten acres.
2 goats you would need one acre.
40 chickens, if you plan to free range them then just an acre. I have 60 hens and they dont travel very far. just make sure you build a very large coop enough for at least 70 chickens, bc once you discover the joy of hatching, youll need a bigger coop..
1 acre for pigs.
and a half acre for your turkeys.

so all that on the low side is: 16

But you know what? all in all when you get into the swing of things and you want more than planned, (like we never meant to have goats or sheep or any of that, just cows and maybe some horses and of course, chickens), I would get around 60 acres. Thats a good even number for a farm
Bc for the woods and your house and barn, that will fill in a few acres also.