[DLagorio]

Best managment plan for a 10 acre smallholding?

ok, so i have been doing a little research into my long term plan of owning a smallholding to allow myself, my wife and 2 daughters to become self sufficient. This is a question to farmers and smallholders alike to tell me strengths and weaknesses - all would be appreciated. i Will give as much detail as possible
 
I would like 2 cows: one in milk and one calf to be fattened up for slaughter 2 years after its birth. to keep the cow in milk, i plan on mating it once a year. so year 1 i will keep the calf, year 2 i will sell the new calf, start of year 3 i will butcher my 2 year old calf/cow and keep the new calf and so on. so basically, at any one time i will have a max of 2 cows (or one cow and one beast if you prefer)
 
my 2 cows will be on 2 acres of pasture. a further 2 acres will be for hay to feed the cows during winter. another 2 acres will be to grow wheat (that's 6 acres so far) the wheat will be to feed my pigs and other livestock which i will come onto shortly. 1 acre will be for my house, barn, cowshed and other out buildings. (up to 7 acres now)

one acre will be for my 5 (approx) pigs of varying ages so i can slaughter 1 or 2 a year. this acre will be sub divided into 4 plots so the ground has chance to recover from the pigs turning it into a ploughed mud field. Another acre will be for vegetables which Will be rotated over 4 years (roots, brassicas, potatoes and peas/beans family) at the end of year 4 the vegetables and pigs will swap acres.
 
that leaves 1 more acre which i would like to have lamb and chickens on (and maybe bees somewhere) ideally, i would like to buy a weaned lamb or 2 at the start of spring and have them slaughtered at the end of summer so as not to eat into my hay supply. chickens are easy enough to looks after.
 
so what do you think? i would like to use tools that do not rely on petrol/diesel so do you think the wheat and hay is too much work for one man to do with a scythe every year? all comments and criticisms from experienced people would be great. thanks

[Fowgill Farm]

Looks to me like you pretty much have things planned out, the only thing i can offer any advice on is pigs and you can check out Starting with pigs on the GOS website where i have some articles http://www.oldspots.org.uk/getting_started.asp
Rather than having varying ages (becoz of integration probs) just get a couple at a time and as one lot go to slaughter get another couple and so on, less demanding on your land & time.
I can tell from your plan you've probably read John Seymours book and my best advice would be to take it slowly don't run before you can walk, always have a plan B and an emergency plan, life has a nasty way of throwing a few curved balls into the loop.
The main thing is to enjoy what you're going to do, some aspects of smallholding are not for some people and they usuallly find out the hard way by rushing in trying to do all at once. This will be our 9th year of smallholding and i have to say the old body is rebelling a bit and what we had as a 5yr plan is still ongoing
All the best
mandy

[DLagorio]

Thanks Mandy, it made me smile when you correctly guessed i have read John Seymours book! it is amazing. i think you're right about starting off small and working up - it seems that is the general consensus.

I am a complete novice in regards to agriculture - though i have grown vegetables, brewed wine, reared-slaughtered and prepared chickens, skinned rabbits etc - i still know very little about what is involved with running your own land. im planning on offering my services for free to a farmer near me next year just so i can get some experience.

good point about the pigs, i have it noted

thanks for your reply

[benkt]

A few personal thought on those plans: as background, we run a community farm on six acres of land and are just coming to the end of our second year.

Swapping pigs and vegetables: They need very different facilities in place - the pigs need good stock fencing, arks (which can be made to be movable though) and ideally fixed troughs and water supply, whereas the veg will, in my experience, do better in fixed beds - and I'm a big fan of perennials -  particularly fruit - as they give most produce for minimum work.

We have two acres down to veg on a five and a four year rotation and then rotate the livestock (goats, pigs, geese and turkeys) with  our fodder beat and barley crops. This way we have only had to stock fence off five 'fields' of between half to two-thirds of an acre - the fencing is hard work, time consuming and expensive! We get plenty of compost out of the animal  bedding, veg bed left overs and grass clippings to keep the veg area going.

On getting started: animals are very different - give yourself time to learn about each. We have tried one new  species each year and that is plenty - next year we're going for nothing new and just trying to get better at those we already have! If I were to choose an order to get them in, bearing in mind I have no sheep or cow experience,  I'd definitely recommend starting with a couple of weaner pigs. If you get them in late spring and send to slaughter in early autumn then you miss most of the bad weather (not this year!) and they are comparatively easy to manage.

Most of all enjoy this planning part of it - soon if enough it will be all mud, vet bills and no holidays but a lot of satisfaction!

[bazzais]

I agree with ben, although its a bold and obviously well thought out plan - be prepared to deviate from it. Be very prepared.

10 acres is not alot when its been poached and wrecked from the same animals on it over and over on a continual basis.

[MAK]

Exciting times for you and the family. You mentioned rabbits. a couple of females and a buck with a breeding roation can yield 120 pounds of meat a year. just a few square meters will be needed.
Good luck with the cows - they sound challenging but rewarding.

[benkt]

Forgot to ask - where are you? Might be someone here who'd be willing to show you around to get some more ideas. We had a visit to a small farm before we started and it was incredibly helpful - and inspiring to see someone else actually doing what we were only dreaming off!

[Ina]

Don't forget you need to include the wheat acres in your rotation.

[pgkevet]

I applaud anyone who has such visions but their reality depends on your energy and fitness to do the work..and you need to factor in all the potential disasters.
Yeah, folk cut acres of cereal crops by scythe..but it's (expletive) hard work and if only doing such things atharvest time then the chances are you'll suffer the effects for a week afterwards.
You also need contingency plans for dry spells, severe wet weather and the like.. let alone plant and animal disease, hedging, ditching and all the other stuff...including your health and getting older.

self sufficiency sounds ideal but again the reality is that you have to raise money for fuel and power and clothes and modern 'necessities' so you either have another job or you need to sell enough produce to earn that revenue or have squirrelled away enough money before you take up the plans.

[Ina]

I believe John Seymour had a vast horde of acolytes to do the hard work... So I've been told, anyway.

[DLagorio]

Ben - thanks for the tips. I was going to start out with just chickens and work my way up - pigs would definitely be next on my list in the second year though. my plan is really the end result that i am aiming for - maybe after 5 years on the smallholding. I live in Tamworth and the farmer i will be working for next year rears pigs and cows/beasts (for meat) so if there is anyone here close to Tamworth/Birmingham, who keeps sheep and lambs, i would happily come and work for free doing all duties from the dirtiest that nobody wants to do, to the nicest one that everybody wants to do.

Mak - 120 pounds of meat a year from rabbit with just a few square metres? i am amazed. what would i need to do to start them off? throw a buck and rabbit in a hedgerow and just wait for the magic to happen? i do like rabbit meat, it makes a brilliant stew but the missus has the old fluffy bunny stigma that I'm trying to break!

Ina - i didn't know if wheat had to be rotated or not - it was another question i had ready to fire so thanks for answering it. would i rotate it with hay and vegetables? does hay even need to be rotated or ploughed? what type of grass makes the best hay? what percentage of my wheat should i keep to resow a wheat field the following year?

pgkevet - another good point about funding. from what i have researched, land goes for roughly 10-20k an acre. it's not cheap i know. I'm 28 and in my final year of accountancy (and also employed in an accounting role) so in 10 years, i plan to have raised enough money to start my plan. I can see it being an incredibly difficult operation though. In regards to plant and animal disease, i am reading up on a lot of natural ways of preventing (as much as possible) any negative health issues but I'm sure it will be inevitable that a vet will be needed at some point, be it for legal reasons such as tagging and inoculations(?) or sick animals. does anyone have any golden pearls of wisdom to prevent any prone diseases in pigs, poultry and vegetables? what are the main potholes i should be aware of?

Bazzais - what is the best way to combat poaching? i thought that by splitting an acre up into plots that pigs and cattle could swop once or twice a year to let the land recover would help this? say if i have moved my pigs from plot 1 to plot 2, and cows from plot 3 to plot 4, what would i have to do to plot 1 and 3 to return it to fertile, healthy pasture land? if i am being naive in any of this please point it out, no offense will be taken 

thanks for all the comments

[hughesy]

Self sufficiency is a lovely idea but in reality there's only one commodity you need.........money!

[Ina]

Self sufficiency is a lovely idea but in reality there's only one commodity you need.........money!

Yeah - and the more you have of that, the easier it is to be self sufficient! 

As to rotation - it all depends... (You'll hear a lot of that!) On an ordinary arable farm, wheat would be, for example, in a rotation with barley and sugarbeet, or rape, or potatoes... You won't have any of that; but you could do what's called ley farming - i.e. several years of grass leys (for grazing and making hay) in rotation with pigs, hens, potatoes, veg... Look at what others do in your area, that way you can see what's possible, what the soil will let you do - well, stuff like hills, drainage, soil type come into it as well. On the drawing board it might look easy and straightforward, but each farm/plot is different.

[MAK]

I hope we don't sound to negative about self suffieciency but that you hang on to your dream and beliefs. I guess some of the experiences we have all had flag up warnings and potential problems.
Dick Strawbridge ( the ex soldier who has done a few TV shows with his big moustache) has a book that has a focus on being green. The book demonstrates how expensive this is and how it would take years to recover investments. Total self sufficiency throws up simular problems and is probabley impossible BUT living close to the land and with minimal reliance on supermarkets is possible. It takes a lot of hard work and you need a dependable income each month to cover bills ( like this internet connection),running a car so we can get into town and maybe a small fund to cope with unexpected problems. 
Dlagorio - You ask about the rabbits - simples. Build 3 enclosures. 1 for the buck, 2nd for the resting does and a third for the mum and 10 or so kittens. Introduce the resting mum to the buck prior to you have put all 10 youngsters in the freezer or exchanged with neighbours. ( the value of meat for swaps is great) You will need to gather fresh greens twice a day or use the hay you made OR buy pellets.We are on our third lot of kittens and are amazed at the variety of dishes a rabbit offers.

[Ina]

MAK is right. Don't be put off; it's best to start small - i.e. just hens (which I think you wanted anyway) - if most of the land is in grass for the first few years, no problem, you can always make more hay (and sell it), and then expand gradually. And as I said - see what others do in that area, because they'll know the soil type etc. Doesn't mean you have to do exactly as they do, but it gives a start. It's also good if you have a new bit of land to just observe it for a year at least - see where the damp patches are, where shade from large trees falls etc. Well, anybody with a garden would tell you that. For example, last house I lived in I took out the awful (to my mind) weeping willow on the front lawn, and planted an apple tree (so  much more useful, isn't it?). Well, there'd obviously been a reason for the willow being there... It was a very wet spot, and my wonderful apple tree died in the next rainy summer. Lesson learned!