[drdrichards]

Hi All,

I live in an old farmhouse/cottage and recently purchased the surrounding original Victorian farm buildings together with an orchard and small meadow, from the farmer up the road who used the money to build a huge new barn to keep his dairy herd inside all the time. I now have a large brick stable with several stalls, four substantial brick pig pens adjoining it with what seem like large water troughs in them and a covered area at the back of them, a barn for cows, with about 8 stalls in it with feeding troughs and water, in which some of the farmers heifers used to be kept over winter as I remember prior to buying it, and a further small brick barn previously used for keeping machinery. The orchard and meadow together amount to around 3/4 of an acre in size. I am interested in keeping livestock but have absolutely no experience. I am thinking in terms of either pigs, sheep, goats, geese, hens, perhaps one cow or a combination. I would welcome advice from experienced smallholders as to what may be suitable.

[Roxy]

On such small acreage, I would tend to go for poultry, goats and maybe a couple of sheep for eating, or indeed pigs.  But you would not be utilising your buildings to their full potential I guess.  Cows need a lot of land, and for that matter, sheep and goats. Although its perfectly possible to keep goats yarded full time, so long as you are prepared to give them plenty of feed, and collect grass and leaves for them.  I kept six goats and some hens on a third of an acre, and they had limited turnout during the day, but I collected bags of leaves etc. every day to keep them happy.

If you have no experience, it would of course be best to "start small" and see how you go .....hens would be ok, but goats, well, I would suggest either wethers (castrated males) or young females, so that you can learn how to milk, before you have a  milking goat, and get thrown in the deep end.

[drdrichards]

Thanks that's very helpful. The cow barn virtually adjoins the rear of my cottage and so I guess we might want to extend our house into that (we have two teenage children who need their own space) and cows would be the most complex option anyway I suppose. Perhaps starting small and eventually building up to no more than two sheep, a goat, a pig or two and a flock of geese?

[OhLaLa]

..perhaps starting small and eventually building up to no more than two sheep, a goat, a pig or two and a flock of geese?

Taking those rose tinted specs off for a minute - sounds like there are ample outbuildings but 3/4 acre in total to go with it ain't much (little more than a garden in fact). Just my opinion but:

2 sheep - 'They' say you need to allow a minimum of 1/4 acre for one sheep (I allow more), so that's 1/2 acre of your 3/4 gone already - plus you need to be able to rotate the grazing - so that means splitting their grazing into about 3 sections.

Just the one Goat? - Also goats are browsers not grazers. And you will need good high fencing to keep them (it) in.

A pig or two. Definitely 2, not 1. Pigs like to root about outdoors, they will reduce the grass to nothing but dirt very quickly. Again, you will need to make sure their perimeter fencing is very strong.

A flock of Geese - how many? Geese will range and graze happily, but you haven't much grass?

I'm not being mean or putting a downer on it - I haven't seen your layout - just pointing out that you need outdoor space for the animals health (both mentally and physically).

Another thing to bear in mind is bark is very tempting to nibble at - so goodbye orchard.

I'm just being practical - where are you going to put the muckheap?

You know what I'd do? Get planning permission to turn the lot into a residence, sell up both properties and go buy something with more outside space.....

....well that's me opening a can of worms!

 

PS: I see you've posted this same message in 4 sections of this website?