I am trying to improve the area for my cows and to make it easier to keep clean but it in thailand how ever I am going to give them better living conditions it will take some time
@@lesterhersh7184 can you get stepin posts, polybraid, and solar fence energizer to do daily (or at least every third day moves OR much more frequent) paddock moves to more evenly spread out the manure to fertilize the paddocks? The smaller the paddock and the more frequent the move, the better the manure is distributed. Harvesting the forages stimulates more growth. Best if cow manure has consistancy of pumpkin pie filling with a dimple in the center about an inch or two thick. Too runny indicates too much protein. Too stiff, need more protein.
We have 6 acres. About 4 of it is a step hillside "pasture" forest. We have 6 Dorper Ewes and a Ram. My wife doesn't like lamb, so we sell the weathers and ewes every year (maybe 10-14 lambs total). We have a 2000sqft garden full of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon, onions, garlic, and a bit of corn for fun. We also have 6 laying chickens but we're expanding the coop to have a total of 12-14 chickens. My wifes favorite flower is a Petunia. So we've started a large garden of them to hopefully one day sell to a local florist shops.
For sure, Hugelkultur row crops, with subirrigation and rain capture systems with the water storage in ground to maintain temps and reduce evaporation, chicken tractors joel style, and rabbits (for meat and the fertilizer maker for hugel compost teas using FPJ fertilizer & jadam methods for low cost inputs)
You are the only youtuber who praised God for the blessings besides your hard work. God bless you more 🙏. May i know your name shepherdess? I am also a shepherd in the house of God.
@@Kebekwoodcraft7375 I trade my extra eggs for gone bye veggies at my local farmers market but that’s mostly to give back to my community. I’m careful not to vastly change my pigs diet away from at least 50% grain. I’ve had family feed mostly scraps and ended up with very fatty pigs. Duroc/Yorkshire mixes have been very good meat producers for me so far
@@theShepherdess Keep’em coming. In relation to this content, do you send the animals for slaughter, butchering and packaging or do you do it yourself? Topic for another video, maybe? Keep up the good work.
Thanks for your video. I am 76 so I only watch because you have an interesting channel. We have 16 acres and a good population of coyotes. They discourage me from wanting to expand to growing sheep. I might build a small pig pen next to my garden if my son is interested in producing a pig or 2 per year. I wish you well.
We have three acres and we have a garden and 32 chickens. We can not have any other meat or dairy options on my land. So next year, my plan is to plant native fruit barring bushes/trees. So we can increase our output of fresh fruits and vegetables. My idea of having native plants to my area is to limit the amount of upkeep on the trees and bushes, as they are native and used to the weather. What do you think?
We only have three acres. And it's hillside clay with half being forest. With nine sheep we lower our inputs by training our sheep and walking them on neighboring properties for hours everyday. We milked one this year to try the milk, and now I am working on a stanchion... You have been an inspiration
I recommend Nubian, LaMancha, or Saanan, goat, or a mix of the above. They are the highest producers of milk, and are the friendliest. I found Alpines to be quite skittish
Loving the detailed breakdowns and analysis that show the variables used to arrive at potential conclusions...when so many never wish to give potential predicted outcomes at all. Really need to start stockpiling all of your various spreadsheets.
25 laying hens, for just your family? You will have to sell some eggs, no? I live alone, one hen would be enough for me, but would have two or three for each others company. I would love to do a salatin pen for broilers for meat. The wethers is a great idea, I have 3 rams, once I decide to get rid of my rams I will go for wethers. Not into dairy, so no goats for me, I think pigs would be great! A bit broke at the moment, but my next step is chickens ;-) take care!
You forgot about an important impediment to full use of that 3 acres…(1) the placement of the septic tank; (2) whether it is on a hill; (3) and if on a hill then the placement of your land parcel in relation to the others…meaning if you have a home on the lowest part of the hill and here the other homes with septic tanks are above yours then you can’t plant a garden and no livestock animal will be able to be sustained on the small amount of land that is safe. This is my situation. So, for this situation CHICKENS are the best bet! You can safely raise 100+ on this type of remaining land.
I agree. The septic field is land that is lost to any productive use. Grasses grown on the area of the field is not suitable for consumption by any farm animal. Not even for market flowers.
Do I have enough 🌧??? I live in Western Washington....the pasture turns into standing water...mush in the winter! I love your videos; 😊 thank you Shepherdist
I will really apprechait, if you do a video about breeding the flock, how do you manage rams, how do you mantain genetic variability of your flock? Greeting from Italy!
LOVED this, Grace!! We're starting out on a new little farm that's around 3 acres, so this was very exciting for me to watch! THANK YOU for this encouraging video!! We're currently starting out with fruit trees and bushes, a garden, and housing 7 laying hens and a rooster. And hoping to grow, Lord willing. Love your motto - start small, dream big, don't quit!!😃🙌 Thank you for what you do, all for God's glory!-Martha Joy
If you have a hedgerow consider some bobwhites. Just leave a hen in the henhouse and she will call them in at sunset. They eat the tiniest no-see-ums. Their eggs are delicious and nutritious as are they when they no longer lay. It is a good idea on any farm if you can keep them. Consider the bobcats and other hunters. They eat a lot of insects.
We own 10 acres but we do everything on 3 acres and all our ruminants are fully grassfed. We have orpingtons for layers, a small flock of Katahdin sheep, two mini jersey/dexter heifers, mini pigs and TAMUK rabbits plus a garden and orchard. You can do a lot in a small space if you maximize the space!
We are working with double your example in a year round tropical climate. I think you would have to be very efficient to do what you are saying. Not that it couldn't be done but there are always setbacks especially during the learning stages. 2500 calories of healthy food (meat, dairy, starches and veggies) a day is a lot of food for one person to eat. This is why the introduction of grains, as unhealthy as they are, was a game changer for early humans. It gave us lots of fast calories. A better alternative may be fruits, like berries, and honey if consumed in small amounts. Learn to eat squash. It's a healthy carb and antiinflammatory.
@@hicoteo depends on one's physical workload and the calories one burns. Desk job workers do not need that. Breaking down a truck load of grocery boxes and stocking the shelves, i could not eat enough calories to maintain my weight as a 30 year old. Best workout, 8 to 12 hour shift, 3 loads a week! Working on the dairy farm involved some wrestling 1600 pound bovines, but not the contstant calorie burn of stocking grocery shelves.
@@Marilou-g5t That's my point. To even get 2500 calories of whole food is difficult. You need to eat a lot. Most guys, doing hard work, will need over 3000. If you don't get enough, your body slowly breaks down over years of hard work.
@@hicoteo female who was eating meats, dairy, fruit, veggies, grains, desserts as much as i could consume and still dropping pounds. I realize now, i would have been better off increasing the fatty meats to get better nutrition and quality nutrients.
@@Marilou-g5t I agree with the fatty meat. I also suggested adding some honey. Yeah, it's sugar but if you are responsible it will add some needed calories for those that do physical work. But, try not to overwork yourself either, sleep and recovery is just as important as getting enough to eat. 👍
I have 3.5 acres mostly pasture. Putting a small vegetable garden some fruit trees the rest will be grass. I do not want to grow goats or sheep for meat or dairy rather as pets and to eat the grass. Can you please recommend the best option. Thanks!
I think if you have 3 acres converted into fruit and fodder orchard, you can go for the idea of tree hay, creating a small orchard for trees like mulberry, willow, hybrid poplar with some support species for nitrogen, all created to use as fodder for your goats and sheep. There are many dual purpose goats, so raising 10 females to 2 males goats is sufficient to produce both meat and milk. You can process the male goats and keep the females for increasing the flock or selling healthy female. No need to raise two types of animals separately for meat and milk. To fatten the goats before processing, they should be fed sesame + flax seeds and some peanuts along with some grain. Flax and sesame increase the omega 3 content in the goat meat and its fat that is harvested. Just saying the flavor of goat meat is similar to that of beef and does not have that gamey flavor. So in one operation you produce both milk and meat + skin, if you want to produce leather products. You can sell dairy goat breeding stock to raise some cash that you can use to purchase minerals/seaweed/sea salt.
You could be eating 2400 to 3000 calories per day. Back in 1990 or 91, i took a college weight room and a nutrition class. We had to do a food consumption journal for a week. The instructor balked at the high number of calories i claimed to be eating. At the time, i was heavier than any of the doctors' charts said a 5' 1" gal should be. However, the caliper pinch test showed not too much body fat percentage. Farm gal muscles. A few years later, at 30, i was lifting what the fellows at the grocery store were lifting. 80 to 100 pounds without grunting, after one of the guys said there was no way a female could lift 2 of the 40 or 50 pound bags. With lifting: must keep lifting to keep muscles challenged, not atrophying.
I have 6.5acres and have found that replacing all poultry with geese is *far* more 'profitable' than pretty much all other birds. They are more gentle on the land and you can fatten them on grass. When you have minimum land you have to treat that land well; geese fit.
Have you tasted geese - I've heard it's like liver. Mine were mostly all taken by a fox, one by one, because they refused to go into the house I had built for them. I'm tempted to start off with a new flock that are bonded to the house as goslings, but the survivors of the last batch (roam free on the lake) will probably lure them away to live like them. Goslings grow like nothing I've seen! They seem to double overnight!
@@LilacDaisy2 you have to decide: are you willing to buy grain inputs, do you prefer to grow forages that the critters harvest, do you want eggs or meat, ... Have to fit your own context, not follow some protocol that is a misfit for your needs, wants, skills, resources,...
Another question people should ask themselves is, "what is my land like?" If you have mostly pasture, then you'll want to lean more towards grazing animals; if you live in a forest, you will want to lean more towards pigs, chickens and goats. We have a very large acreage, but not much of it is cleared/developed yet. We've got the pigs hard at work helping us with that, and they go through about an acre per year (i think we need more pigs 🤔😆) We also have sheep, rabbits, ducks, guineas, chickens, dogs and a mule. I will be phasing out the chickens in favour of the ducks because chickens are just too destructive and impossible to contain (contrary to popular belief, they do fly - and quite well, too! They can also dig under fencing) whereas duckies are a garden's best friend, they're much calmer and their eggs are bigger and fluffier! The guineas we have for tick and insect control, and the bug and tick population around our house has dropped considerably in just two years! Gardening has not been very successful thus far - mostly due to other people's escaping animals (we co-purchased with a few other families, and where i had the gardens set up was near where a couple of the others wound up at later on - but i put them there because the only other spot was by our house, where our chickens would ruin them). We're busy making a spot right now for the flat of hazelnut trees that i bought last year, and since they're still very small I'll be doing a large garden in with them. This spot is out of our chickens' range, but just in case one of our pigs gets out or maybe one of my sheep I'm going to fence it off with electronet.
YES to dairy goats! I vote for Nubians. I am adding registered Nigerians to my herd for a source of year around milk since they can breed twice a year. I have some weed eater type goats for sale and I offer to breed the does before they leave for a fee. Another suggestion would be to buy a doe in milk if you can. Keep her on an extended lactation (if her body condition keeps up). She will add food to your house on day one, will have kidded at least once and most of all-trained to the stand. * Not all udders are created equal,so do your research b4 you invest. I have some beautiful Nubian bucklings for sale!
@@theShepherdess we're both disabled, to a degree. And so we're doing what we can. My husband is in a wheelchair. He does all of the planting, harvesting, and watering, from his off-road electric wheelchair. And I take care of the chickens (for eggs) and the meat rabbits, and the house. We would have loved to raise goats, but our physical limitations don't permit that. However, the Lord is so faithful to provide our needs, and we're very thankful for that. We know how blessed we are. Thank you for your channel. We love your content. ❤️
It is inspiring to hear of your efforts to exceed your "limits". In a wheelchair and making a garden. Taking care of the animals. Yes, it seems you are Blessed.@@louisehenari4916
I have an 800sqm residential block in Australia. I realise the importance of a homesteading lifestyle, but i am limited by age and finances, so i do the best i can with what i have. I have regular fruit ,vegetables, and eggs, which helps a lot.I have considered certain animals to breed but haven't pursued anything as yet. Oh nearly forgot i also have bees.
The problem I see with people trying to figure out how many animals they can have is that nobody ever brings up soil type and how each one has it's own AUM. Taking it further, each soil types AUM is affected by the grass variety or forage grown on it. Some soil types are just terrible at sustaining animals and crops.
Good info. Well managed animals will really improve any soil type. Might have to feed more hay/feed in your first few years, but it’ll get better and better.
That's an alright meat/food plan but wholly unsustainable. Planting a huge garden enough to feed you and a breeding set of pigs and a bunch of laying hens sounds far more sustainable. That would atleast provide pork, chicken, and vegetables on a small acreage. I've got slightly more than ten and I do pigs, chickens, and turkeys. Working up to sheep and breeding pigs. Getting to the point of breeding stock and growing enough to feed them and myself is a tremendous amout of work and definitely something to ease into rather than jump right in, that is my humble opinion of course!
In one of your shorts you mentioned sheep farming in Australia. Some of owe sheep are exported. It's a contentious practice. Many people are trying to ban live exports because of the mistreatment they have experienced
We are about to close on a 46 acre property to raise dairy cows, beef cows, sheep, etc. Loving the videos! Lots of inspiration and great info, thank you!
Do you have any videos on herding the sheep? Getting htem to follow you? We have one bottle baby who follows us all over the place but hte other two were dame raised that we got from another farmer. I'm wondering how I can get htem to follow me without running off. I'm not sure what exactly to search for.
Great videos on this channel! We have 1 acre total in a dry region of Montana (though we irrigate some of this), and about 2/3 of this is accessible for grazing (including our back lawn). We have three sheep: a blackbelly ewe, a katahdin ewe and a katahdin ram. They are still 4-8 months old, but at least at this young age have not yet been able to keep up with the vegetation growth. They are very good at eating weeds down. We do about 1 week rotations with the electric fence. We have not made it through the winter yet but hope to have lambs from both ewes. We also have about 14 egg laying chickens including a rooster.
If i was going to do animals I'd also add fruit trees/shrubs and mushroom logs. Somewhere near the house I'd think about doing small scale fish and microgreens, plus the stuff I could forage and grow on the outskirts of the land.
Can adding about 100 broiler chickens in a portable rotating cage over the course of a year be added without diminishing the number of other animals you recommended? Thinking about growing out 25 or so every 3 months???
Good presentation :) I wonder what you think of Mini Jersey breeding pair instead of the goats? I agree on the Rhode Island reds , and also thought Icelandic ? for the foraging abilities I read about.
I love the idea of mini jerseys! A bit longer timeframe than goats as far as getting the animal in milk and the bull would take up a lot of resource, but it’s a definite possibility.
@@windsonghillranch4306 goat and sheep milk, i believe are all a2a2, while cattle must be tested for a1 or a2, a protein in milk that many cannot tolerate
I've had both rir and Icelandic. I wasn't keen on the rir at all. The Icelandic are awesome, but they are also super flighty. Aracaunas are another of my favorites when it comes to foraging, and they're much calmer than most other breeds.
Did you ever see a Geep ? A friend in baja Mexico who raised goat in USA was telling me those are Geep it’s a mixed breed of goat and sheep 😅 I didn’t know that 😊
Semi-arid Southern Alberta is where I live, with only 15" of annual precipitation. I'm surrounded by intensive livestock feeding operations, not pasture. Using your questions, I'll rethink my plans (hopes, dreams). I suppose water rights would make a difference, but it might be pricey to water grass for animals. Thanks you!
You might benefit from watching Steve Kenyon, a Canadian custom grazier for ideas in/near(er) your climate. Lots of his talks on RUclips. As you build your soils, more if your rainfall and snowmelt are captured in your soil. If you run out of recent Steve Kenyon videos, check out Bismark, North Dakota grazier Gabe Brown. He feeds very little hay, less than folks much farther south, and has built his soils. He, along with Allen Williams, a geneticist; Ray Archuleta; ... formed Soil Health Academy and Understanding Ag and Regenified. Perhaps, you would also find Mexican desert grazier Alejandro Carrillo's techniques helpful. He grazes with very little rain. Hope this helps you find more options that will fit your context.
Your local ag supplier should have pasture blends designed specifically for your climate; it's well worth giving them a call! Even your local co-op should have a variety of seed mixes that you can sow and then graze on (I bought my seed at the co-op, and the guy there knew his stuff!). Don't worry too much about the lack of water, there are some animals that don't really need it, believe it or not! Like, sheep, for example: when they're grazing/browsing full-time, you can put a bucket of water out for them and they won't touch it, because they're getting all the moisture they need from the grasses, brush and tree bark (assuming there are trees they can munch on - sugar maples are a favourite with all our animals).
The seeds in your natural seed bank would be less expensive than purchasing seeds. They will grow when the correct conditions happen. Graze to manage the height of your forages and your herd/flock will fertilize while harvesting.
This is such a great push to do more with our land. Our 20 acres just has a handful of Longhorn cattle, which we use as lawnmowers, one dairy cow (sister is milking) and 5 chickens. When we first moved here, I raised 11 goslings and 4 bottle calves, only for them to amount to no value at all, so I "burnt out" and haven't gotten back into the swing. I moved the grown geese down to the water, but they refused to go into the house I had built for them down there, so a fox picked them off one by one. I spent over $1k each (milk and feed through a drought) on getting the calves to a year old, but one died in a freak accent (my favourite, sweet girl, I wanted to milk), I sold one at-cost, my breeding bull kept jumping the fence to get to the nieghbour's cows, so I sold him super cheap, and one steer got into the freezer ($600 butcher fee) but was tough as steel. Everything I put my heart, time and purse into turned sour, so I'm so wary of trying again. Although supermarket food is more expensive than ever, it's still cheaper than my efforts, lol.
@@LilacDaisy2 choose short-legged "beefy" built (not tall and leggy) ruminants that fit your forages. Think South Poll build/style of cattle, not Holstein-like ruminants. Raise poultry in a portable structure and/or electronet with solar charger strong enough to exclude or contain all predators and desired species, like Joel Salatin uses in the sring, summer, fall. I like my Speedrite S1000 solar energizers, O'Brien step-in posts, and the 9 strand polybraid (i think 3 are mixed metal strands). Keep the lines HOT (7000 volts), have a training pen or introduce new LGD's and ruminants on a lead rope (halter or leash) so they are pulled back in / not allowed out for their first times touching the fence - until they look at it and step away (really great when they sniff it and touch it). If they cannot be contained, there will be trouble respecting the fence. Just avoid touching the hot fence, unless you want your heart reset 🤪. It hits hard! Bottle babies are a pain. If the mother is not successfully raising her young, she and her offspring need to go to freezer camp. Bottle babies and grain "rats" get too "friendly" toward the bottle-holder and grain-giver. Marketing whatever does not go in the freezer is the challenge for those of use who have historically been price takers (i worked on a dairy farm most of the last 43 years: milking, vet tech tasks, managing milking and calf care crews). Marketing is scary, dealing with most people is awkward-prefer the critters.
@@LilacDaisy2 use tail paint to detect estrus and have a stud company technician onto the farm to inseminate the females. Will need a good restraint system to allow AI tech to do the job. Safer than keeping most bulls. Get a South Poll bull, most south poll owners get rid of any stock which looks at ya funny. See Greg Judy videos or read his books or Gabe Brown's Dirt To Soil.
@@Adnancorner my cows are dairy. This year I am not milking the cows. Next year I will be. I have one goat leftover from my goat experience. I’ve considered a handful of sheep. But all of my feed is bought and transported to my animals the goats will sometimes get out and destroy trees at every opportunity. I had a small orchard started mostly apples. One or three times one goat got out and wiped out the trees I replanted them the next year and one day the gate opened up and the goats went out of their acre fence and wiped out the trees and garden. So this year I have new trees. One goat that has no interest in tree eating. I prefer the cows. They are easier to find grazing than a goat or sheep. The one thing that she didn’t mention was that people can have a small place and lease grass. Next spring I will lease grass for some of my cows
@@theShepherdess long winter and short summer. A lot of people here in Nevada go to the casino and gamble. I just put plants and seeds in the ground and gamble. Haha
Darryl, Greg Judy's one book goes into detail about custom grazing other people's ruminants on leased land. Lowering your risks and investment, providing the grazing and mowing services.
What are you doing on your small acreage? Comment below.👇🏻👇🏻
I'm from Indonesia...
80X80 garden, 20 elder berry's, small raspberry patch, and a mess of chickens. Rabbits to be added by fall
I am trying to improve the area for my cows and to make it easier to keep clean but it in thailand how ever I am going to give them better living
conditions it will take some time
We have chickens are are considering pigs and dairy sheep. 2.4acres
@@lesterhersh7184 can you get stepin posts, polybraid, and solar fence energizer to do daily (or at least every third day moves OR much more frequent) paddock moves to more evenly spread out the manure to fertilize the paddocks? The smaller the paddock and the more frequent the move, the better the manure is distributed. Harvesting the forages stimulates more growth. Best if cow manure has consistancy of pumpkin pie filling with a dimple in the center about an inch or two thick. Too runny indicates too much protein. Too stiff, need more protein.
We have 6 acres. About 4 of it is a step hillside "pasture" forest. We have 6 Dorper Ewes and a Ram. My wife doesn't like lamb, so we sell the weathers and ewes every year (maybe 10-14 lambs total). We have a 2000sqft garden full of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon, onions, garlic, and a bit of corn for fun. We also have 6 laying chickens but we're expanding the coop to have a total of 12-14 chickens. My wifes favorite flower is a Petunia. So we've started a large garden of them to hopefully one day sell to a local florist shops.
For sure, Hugelkultur row crops, with subirrigation and rain capture systems with the water storage in ground to maintain temps and reduce evaporation, chicken tractors joel style, and rabbits (for meat and the fertilizer maker for hugel compost teas using FPJ fertilizer & jadam methods for low cost inputs)
Love this. Thanks for sharing!
You are the only youtuber who praised God for the blessings besides your hard work. God bless you more 🙏. May i know your name shepherdess? I am also a shepherd in the house of God.
I’ve got pigs. That way if my garden makes more of a mess than dinner, I just give it to the pigs. They’ve never complained:)
Do you get restaurants trash 🗑️ or vegetable 🥗 store?
@@Kebekwoodcraft7375 I trade my extra eggs for gone bye veggies at my local farmers market but that’s mostly to give back to my community. I’m careful not to vastly change my pigs diet away from at least 50% grain. I’ve had family feed mostly scraps and ended up with very fatty pigs. Duroc/Yorkshire mixes have been very good meat producers for me so far
👏🏻👏🏻
What a concise and awesome breakdown. Thank you. Great food for thought.
Glad it was helpful!
@@theShepherdess Keep’em coming. In relation to this content, do you send the animals for slaughter, butchering and packaging or do you do it yourself? Topic for another video, maybe? Keep up the good work.
Thanks for your video. I am 76 so I only watch because you have an interesting channel. We have 16 acres and a good population of coyotes. They discourage me from wanting to expand to growing sheep. I might build a small pig pen next to my garden if my son is interested in producing a pig or 2 per year. I wish you well.
We have three acres and we have a garden and 32 chickens. We can not have any other meat or dairy options on my land. So next year, my plan is to plant native fruit barring bushes/trees. So we can increase our output of fresh fruits and vegetables. My idea of having native plants to my area is to limit the amount of upkeep on the trees and bushes, as they are native and used to the weather. What do you think?
We only have three acres. And it's hillside clay with half being forest. With nine sheep we lower our inputs by training our sheep and walking them on neighboring properties for hours everyday. We milked one this year to try the milk, and now I am working on a stanchion... You have been an inspiration
This is so encouraging to hear. Love how you are sourcing additional resources. 🐑🌱
Hie my sister from Mozambique Africa lam framing Sheep and Gosts
Fascinating, thanks for sharing! And if you ever want to upload a video of your "sheep-walking" routine that would be really cool!
Hi grace! Sorry I've been super busy at work and I haven't joined the small farmer meet up in a while worsted up to date on your videos. 🎉❤
No worries. Always love hearing from you, friend. 😍
@@theShepherdess 🥰❤️
I recommend Nubian, LaMancha, or Saanan, goat, or a mix of the above. They are the highest producers of milk, and are the friendliest. I found Alpines to be quite skittish
Loving the detailed breakdowns and analysis that show the variables used to arrive at potential conclusions...when so many never wish to give potential predicted outcomes at all.
Really need to start stockpiling all of your various spreadsheets.
Absolutely. I've started with a patch in the front yard and have a garden and 14 chickens.
Edited for typos.
❤🐣🐥🐓❤️
25 laying hens, for just your family? You will have to sell some eggs, no?
I live alone, one hen would be enough for me, but would have two or three for each others company.
I would love to do a salatin pen for broilers for meat.
The wethers is a great idea, I have 3 rams, once I decide to get rid of my rams I will go for wethers.
Not into dairy, so no goats for me, I think pigs would be great!
A bit broke at the moment, but my next step is chickens ;-)
take care!
Great comment! Thank you!
You forgot about an important impediment to full use of that 3 acres…(1) the placement of the septic tank; (2) whether it is on a hill; (3) and if on a hill then the placement of your land parcel in relation to the others…meaning if you have a home on the lowest part of the hill and here the other homes with septic tanks are above yours then you can’t plant a garden and no livestock animal will be able to be sustained on the small amount of land that is safe. This is my situation.
So, for this situation CHICKENS are the best bet! You can safely raise 100+ on this type of remaining land.
I agree. The septic field is land that is lost to any productive use. Grasses grown on the area of the field is not suitable for consumption by any farm animal. Not even for market flowers.
SO instead of grass why dont you plant tree hay ? mulberry, hybird willow and poplar all perfect fodder for goats.
Great info!! I love how you are still maximizing with chickens.
Do I have enough 🌧??? I live in Western Washington....the pasture turns into standing water...mush in the winter!
I love your videos;
😊 thank you Shepherdist
I hear you… it’s been one of those years over here. Knee high rain boots all around. 😂
I will really apprechait, if you do a video about breeding the flock, how do you manage rams, how do you mantain genetic variability of your flock? Greeting from Italy!
Coming soon!
God bless you!
Thank you! Your videos are so informative and helpful!!
LOVED this, Grace!! We're starting out on a new little farm that's around 3 acres, so this was very exciting for me to watch! THANK YOU for this encouraging video!! We're currently starting out with fruit trees and bushes, a garden, and housing 7 laying hens and a rooster. And hoping to grow, Lord willing. Love your motto - start small, dream big, don't quit!!😃🙌 Thank you for what you do, all for God's glory!-Martha Joy
Love this!! Thank you for commenting.
I just love you and your podcast. I Always, Always wanted a farm. GOD BLESS YOU 🙏❤️🔥🙏
Thank you so much!!
Thank you so much for sharing info that can help others get started! Appreciate your time, hard work and generous spirit! God bless! 🙂
You are so welcome! Glad it was helpful!
If you have a hedgerow consider some bobwhites. Just leave a hen in the henhouse and she will call them in at sunset. They eat the tiniest no-see-ums. Their eggs are delicious and nutritious as are they when they no longer lay. It is a good idea on any farm if you can keep them. Consider the bobcats and other hunters. They eat a lot of insects.
Great comment!
Have to be a really skinny guy to make it! Hahaha That got a good laugh out of me.
Glad it did. 😂 Thanks for commenting!
We own 10 acres but we do everything on 3 acres and all our ruminants are fully grassfed. We have orpingtons for layers, a small flock of Katahdin sheep, two mini jersey/dexter heifers, mini pigs and TAMUK rabbits plus a garden and orchard. You can do a lot in a small space if you maximize the space!
We are working with double your example in a year round tropical climate. I think you would have to be very efficient to do what you are saying. Not that it couldn't be done but there are always setbacks especially during the learning stages.
2500 calories of healthy food (meat, dairy, starches and veggies) a day is a lot of food for one person to eat. This is why the introduction of grains, as unhealthy as they are, was a game changer for early humans. It gave us lots of fast calories. A better alternative may be fruits, like berries, and honey if consumed in small amounts.
Learn to eat squash. It's a healthy carb and antiinflammatory.
Thanks for the comment :).
@@hicoteo depends on one's physical workload and the calories one burns. Desk job workers do not need that. Breaking down a truck load of grocery boxes and stocking the shelves, i could not eat enough calories to maintain my weight as a 30 year old. Best workout, 8 to 12 hour shift, 3 loads a week! Working on the dairy farm involved some wrestling 1600 pound bovines, but not the contstant calorie burn of stocking grocery shelves.
@@Marilou-g5t That's my point. To even get 2500 calories of whole food is difficult. You need to eat a lot. Most guys, doing hard work, will need over 3000. If you don't get enough, your body slowly breaks down over years of hard work.
@@hicoteo female who was eating meats, dairy, fruit, veggies, grains, desserts as much as i could consume and still dropping pounds. I realize now, i would have been better off increasing the fatty meats to get better nutrition and quality nutrients.
@@Marilou-g5t I agree with the fatty meat.
I also suggested adding some honey. Yeah, it's sugar but if you are responsible it will add some needed calories for those that do physical work.
But, try not to overwork yourself either, sleep and recovery is just as important as getting enough to eat. 👍
I have 3.5 acres mostly pasture. Putting a small vegetable garden some fruit trees the rest will be grass. I do not want to grow goats or sheep for meat or dairy rather as pets and to eat the grass. Can you please recommend the best option. Thanks!
I think if you have 3 acres converted into fruit and fodder orchard, you can go for the idea of tree hay, creating a small orchard for trees like mulberry, willow, hybrid poplar with some support species for nitrogen, all created to use as fodder for your goats and sheep. There are many dual purpose goats, so raising 10 females to 2 males goats is sufficient to produce both meat and milk. You can process the male goats and keep the females for increasing the flock or selling healthy female. No need to raise two types of animals separately for meat and milk. To fatten the goats before processing, they should be fed sesame + flax seeds and some peanuts along with some grain. Flax and sesame increase the omega 3 content in the goat meat and its fat that is harvested.
Just saying the flavor of goat meat is similar to that of beef and does not have that gamey flavor. So in one operation you produce both milk and meat + skin, if you want to produce leather products. You can sell dairy goat breeding stock to raise some cash that you can use to purchase minerals/seaweed/sea salt.
Great comment!
You could be eating 2400 to 3000 calories per day. Back in 1990 or 91, i took a college weight room and a nutrition class. We had to do a food consumption journal for a week. The instructor balked at the high number of calories i claimed to be eating. At the time, i was heavier than any of the doctors' charts said a 5' 1" gal should be. However, the caliper pinch test showed not too much body fat percentage. Farm gal muscles. A few years later, at 30, i was lifting what the fellows at the grocery store were lifting. 80 to 100 pounds without grunting, after one of the guys said there was no way a female could lift 2 of the 40 or 50 pound bags. With lifting: must keep lifting to keep muscles challenged, not atrophying.
Yessss. The farm work I’m doing right now puts CrossFit to shame. 😂
I have 6.5acres and have found that replacing all poultry with geese is *far* more 'profitable' than pretty much all other birds. They are more gentle on the land and you can fatten them on grass. When you have minimum land you have to treat that land well; geese fit.
Love this comment. We added a few geese last year and noticed the same: they don’t require the crazy amount of feed. 😍🌱
Geese do NOT need grain, so they are an "EGGSCELENT" choice.
Have you tasted geese - I've heard it's like liver. Mine were mostly all taken by a fox, one by one, because they refused to go into the house I had built for them. I'm tempted to start off with a new flock that are bonded to the house as goslings, but the survivors of the last batch (roam free on the lake) will probably lure them away to live like them.
Goslings grow like nothing I've seen! They seem to double overnight!
@@Marilou-g5t But they only lay eggs for about a month a year.
@@LilacDaisy2 you have to decide: are you willing to buy grain inputs, do you prefer to grow forages that the critters harvest, do you want eggs or meat, ... Have to fit your own context, not follow some protocol that is a misfit for your needs, wants, skills, resources,...
Another question people should ask themselves is, "what is my land like?" If you have mostly pasture, then you'll want to lean more towards grazing animals; if you live in a forest, you will want to lean more towards pigs, chickens and goats.
We have a very large acreage, but not much of it is cleared/developed yet. We've got the pigs hard at work helping us with that, and they go through about an acre per year (i think we need more pigs 🤔😆) We also have sheep, rabbits, ducks, guineas, chickens, dogs and a mule. I will be phasing out the chickens in favour of the ducks because chickens are just too destructive and impossible to contain (contrary to popular belief, they do fly - and quite well, too! They can also dig under fencing) whereas duckies are a garden's best friend, they're much calmer and their eggs are bigger and fluffier! The guineas we have for tick and insect control, and the bug and tick population around our house has dropped considerably in just two years!
Gardening has not been very successful thus far - mostly due to other people's escaping animals (we co-purchased with a few other families, and where i had the gardens set up was near where a couple of the others wound up at later on - but i put them there because the only other spot was by our house, where our chickens would ruin them). We're busy making a spot right now for the flat of hazelnut trees that i bought last year, and since they're still very small I'll be doing a large garden in with them. This spot is out of our chickens' range, but just in case one of our pigs gets out or maybe one of my sheep I'm going to fence it off with electronet.
YES to dairy goats! I vote for Nubians. I am adding registered Nigerians to my herd for a source of year around milk since they can breed twice a year. I have some weed eater type goats for sale and I offer to breed the does before they leave for a fee. Another suggestion would be to buy a doe in milk if you can. Keep her on an extended lactation (if her body condition keeps up). She will add food to your house on day one, will have kidded at least once and most of all-trained to the stand. * Not all udders are created equal,so do your research b4 you invest. I have some beautiful Nubian bucklings for sale!
YESS! Love this comment.
We're farming on 2 1/2 acres, and loving it.
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@@theShepherdess we're both disabled, to a degree. And so we're doing what we can. My husband is in a wheelchair. He does all of the planting, harvesting, and watering, from his off-road electric wheelchair. And I take care of the chickens (for eggs) and the meat rabbits, and the house. We would have loved to raise goats, but our physical limitations don't permit that. However, the Lord is so faithful to provide our needs, and we're very thankful for that. We know how blessed we are. Thank you for your channel. We love your content. ❤️
It is inspiring to hear of your efforts to exceed your "limits". In a wheelchair and making a garden. Taking care of the animals. Yes, it seems you are Blessed.@@louisehenari4916
How much space for cows feeding area ?
I have an 800sqm residential block in Australia.
I realise the importance of a homesteading lifestyle, but i am limited by age and finances, so i do the best i can with what i have.
I have regular fruit ,vegetables, and eggs, which helps a lot.I have considered certain animals to breed but haven't pursued anything as yet.
Oh nearly forgot i also have bees.
Grace how many ewes you have rigth now
Seems a little small.
Think big, start small, don’t quit. 😉
The problem I see with people trying to figure out how many animals they can have is that nobody ever brings up soil type and how each one has it's own AUM. Taking it further, each soil types AUM is affected by the grass variety or forage grown on it. Some soil types are just terrible at sustaining animals and crops.
They should start with two females and two males to build the flock according to how much the land produces.
Good info. Well managed animals will really improve any soil type. Might have to feed more hay/feed in your first few years, but it’ll get better and better.
Lama sekali gk liput2 Domba nya mbak e😂😂
Christ and truth!!!! Yes! Good for her!!❤🎉
Thanks for commenting!
That's an alright meat/food plan but wholly unsustainable. Planting a huge garden enough to feed you and a breeding set of pigs and a bunch of laying hens sounds far more sustainable. That would atleast provide pork, chicken, and vegetables on a small acreage. I've got slightly more than ten and I do pigs, chickens, and turkeys. Working up to sheep and breeding pigs. Getting to the point of breeding stock and growing enough to feed them and myself is a tremendous amout of work and definitely something to ease into rather than jump right in, that is my humble opinion of course!
In one of your shorts you mentioned sheep farming in Australia. Some of owe sheep are exported. It's a contentious practice. Many people are trying to ban live exports because of the mistreatment they have experienced
Yes! I’ve heard of this. Thanks for sharing.
We are about to close on a 46 acre property to raise dairy cows, beef cows, sheep, etc. Loving the videos! Lots of inspiration and great info, thank you!
Do you have any videos on herding the sheep? Getting htem to follow you? We have one bottle baby who follows us all over the place but hte other two were dame raised that we got from another farmer. I'm wondering how I can get htem to follow me without running off. I'm not sure what exactly to search for.
I use a feed bucket. A few alfalfa pellets or a grain treat in a trough will have them running to the sound of your voice within a week!
Just be sure to call them while you dump the treats in the trough!
You did a really good job with this video. It helped me focus my planning. Thank you!
You're so welcome! Glad it was helpful.
Meat chickens and rabbits are a small area no brainer...
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Great videos on this channel! We have 1 acre total in a dry region of Montana (though we irrigate some of this), and about 2/3 of this is accessible for grazing (including our back lawn). We have three sheep: a blackbelly ewe, a katahdin ewe and a katahdin ram. They are still 4-8 months old, but at least at this young age have not yet been able to keep up with the vegetation growth. They are very good at eating weeds down. We do about 1 week rotations with the electric fence. We have not made it through the winter yet but hope to have lambs from both ewes. We also have about 14 egg laying chickens including a rooster.
Currently building the coop for the 25 chickens!
If i was going to do animals I'd also add fruit trees/shrubs and mushroom logs. Somewhere near the house I'd think about doing small scale fish and microgreens, plus the stuff I could forage and grow on the outskirts of the land.
Can adding about 100 broiler chickens in a portable rotating cage over the course of a year be added without diminishing the number of other animals you recommended? Thinking about growing out 25 or so every 3 months???
What about raising goats for meat and milk?
Also, what are your thoughts about rabbit and guinea pig?
Good presentation :) I wonder what you think of Mini Jersey breeding pair instead of the goats? I agree on the Rhode Island reds , and also thought Icelandic ? for the foraging abilities I read about.
Unless one finds goat milk palatable, the cattle are better.
I love the idea of mini jerseys! A bit longer timeframe than goats as far as getting the animal in milk and the bull would take up a lot of resource, but it’s a definite possibility.
@@windsonghillranch4306 goat and sheep milk, i believe are all a2a2, while cattle must be tested for a1 or a2, a protein in milk that many cannot tolerate
@@Marilou-g5tdexter cows are all a2 ;)
I've had both rir and Icelandic. I wasn't keen on the rir at all. The Icelandic are awesome, but they are also super flighty. Aracaunas are another of my favorites when it comes to foraging, and they're much calmer than most other breeds.
In Ca under 5 acres you have to be very careful. Code enforcement/ Animal control can require certain square footage required per animal
Did you ever see a Geep ?
A friend in baja Mexico who raised goat in USA was telling me those are Geep it’s a mixed breed of goat and sheep 😅 I didn’t know that 😊
I’ve only heard of them! Supposedly they are super rare.
@@theShepherdess i will try to remember to send you some pictures
Lovely advisements.
Goats are great for the soil.
Thank you!
Semi-arid Southern Alberta is where I live, with only 15" of annual precipitation. I'm surrounded by intensive livestock feeding operations, not pasture. Using your questions, I'll rethink my plans (hopes, dreams). I suppose water rights would make a difference, but it might be pricey to water grass for animals. Thanks you!
Thanks for your comment! Love hearing from international viewers.
You might benefit from watching Steve Kenyon, a Canadian custom grazier for ideas in/near(er) your climate. Lots of his talks on RUclips. As you build your soils, more if your rainfall and snowmelt are captured in your soil. If you run out of recent Steve Kenyon videos, check out Bismark, North Dakota grazier Gabe Brown. He feeds very little hay, less than folks much farther south, and has built his soils. He, along with Allen Williams, a geneticist; Ray Archuleta; ... formed Soil Health Academy and Understanding Ag and Regenified. Perhaps, you would also find Mexican desert grazier Alejandro Carrillo's techniques helpful. He grazes with very little rain. Hope this helps you find more options that will fit your context.
@@Marilou-g5t brilliant! Thank you!
Your local ag supplier should have pasture blends designed specifically for your climate; it's well worth giving them a call! Even your local co-op should have a variety of seed mixes that you can sow and then graze on (I bought my seed at the co-op, and the guy there knew his stuff!). Don't worry too much about the lack of water, there are some animals that don't really need it, believe it or not! Like, sheep, for example: when they're grazing/browsing full-time, you can put a bucket of water out for them and they won't touch it, because they're getting all the moisture they need from the grasses, brush and tree bark (assuming there are trees they can munch on - sugar maples are a favourite with all our animals).
The seeds in your natural seed bank would be less expensive than purchasing seeds. They will grow when the correct conditions happen. Graze to manage the height of your forages and your herd/flock will fertilize while harvesting.
How many football fields is 3 acres?
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May I trade out the sheep for rabbit's?
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@@theShepherdess thank you
Squash is super gross
I definitely prefer 🥩.
😂
This is such a great push to do more with our land. Our 20 acres just has a handful of Longhorn cattle, which we use as lawnmowers, one dairy cow (sister is milking) and 5 chickens. When we first moved here, I raised 11 goslings and 4 bottle calves, only for them to amount to no value at all, so I "burnt out" and haven't gotten back into the swing.
I moved the grown geese down to the water, but they refused to go into the house I had built for them down there, so a fox picked them off one by one.
I spent over $1k each (milk and feed through a drought) on getting the calves to a year old, but one died in a freak accent (my favourite, sweet girl, I wanted to milk), I sold one at-cost, my breeding bull kept jumping the fence to get to the nieghbour's cows, so I sold him super cheap, and one steer got into the freezer ($600 butcher fee) but was tough as steel.
Everything I put my heart, time and purse into turned sour, so I'm so wary of trying again. Although supermarket food is more expensive than ever, it's still cheaper than my efforts, lol.
@@LilacDaisy2 choose short-legged "beefy" built (not tall and leggy) ruminants that fit your forages. Think South Poll build/style of cattle, not Holstein-like ruminants. Raise poultry in a portable structure and/or electronet with solar charger strong enough to exclude or contain all predators and desired species, like Joel Salatin uses in the sring, summer, fall. I like my Speedrite S1000 solar energizers, O'Brien step-in posts, and the 9 strand polybraid (i think 3 are mixed metal strands). Keep the lines HOT (7000 volts), have a training pen or introduce new LGD's and ruminants on a lead rope (halter or leash) so they are pulled back in / not allowed out for their first times touching the fence - until they look at it and step away (really great when they sniff it and touch it). If they cannot be contained, there will be trouble respecting the fence. Just avoid touching the hot fence, unless you want your heart reset 🤪. It hits hard! Bottle babies are a pain. If the mother is not successfully raising her young, she and her offspring need to go to freezer camp. Bottle babies and grain "rats" get too "friendly" toward the bottle-holder and grain-giver. Marketing whatever does not go in the freezer is the challenge for those of use who have historically been price takers (i worked on a dairy farm most of the last 43 years: milking, vet tech tasks, managing milking and calf care crews). Marketing is scary, dealing with most people is awkward-prefer the critters.
@@LilacDaisy2 use tail paint to detect estrus and have a stud company technician onto the farm to inseminate the females. Will need a good restraint system to allow AI tech to do the job. Safer than keeping most bulls. Get a South Poll bull, most south poll owners get rid of any stock which looks at ya funny. See Greg Judy videos or read his books or Gabe Brown's Dirt To Soil.
My place is a high desert area I have a 3 acre place. Very little water, a lot of snow. A couple of dairy Cows chickens and a garden
Cows are difficult to maintain in desert. Goats are easy in that climate.
@@Adnancorner my cows are dairy. This year I am not milking the cows. Next year I will be. I have one goat leftover from my goat experience. I’ve considered a handful of sheep. But all of my feed is bought and transported to my animals the goats will sometimes get out and destroy trees at every opportunity. I had a small orchard started mostly apples. One or three times one goat got out and wiped out the trees I replanted them the next year and one day the gate opened up and the goats went out of their acre fence and wiped out the trees and garden. So this year I have new trees. One goat that has no interest in tree eating. I prefer the cows. They are easier to find grazing than a goat or sheep. The one thing that she didn’t mention was that people can have a small place and lease grass. Next spring I will lease grass for some of my cows
Sounds like you are doing great given how challenging that climate is!
@@theShepherdess long winter and short summer. A lot of people here in Nevada go to the casino and gamble. I just put plants and seeds in the ground and gamble. Haha
Darryl, Greg Judy's one book goes into detail about custom grazing other people's ruminants on leased land. Lowering your risks and investment, providing the grazing and mowing services.
Thank you.
You're welcome!
We get 18” of rain
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Perfect video🎉🎉🎉
👏🏻👏🏻Glad you enjoyed!
Thank you!
You're welcome!
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