Any or all I'd say, should it take more or less land on a smallholding to keep animals? I my own case I'd like to have chickens free-ranging in my woods.
and what sort of land? Rivers are good for carnivores but rather less so for vegetarians, sparse upland slopes are great for goats and sheep but not so hot for planting potatoes.
I have a vague recollection that the origin of one acre was that it was the area needed for one family, but that probably ignores all the common land that would have been available for hunting, foraging, fuel etc and probably ignores the fact that I've misremembered the figure.
Are you planning sustainable wood for you heat/fuel needs? I'd be interested to know what size of a managed wood you'd need. Electricity form what? Solar/wind/hydro?
Northern_Lad
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 14210 Location: Somewhere
Posted: Thu Sep 08, 05 2:13 pm Post subject:
JB wrote:
I have a vague recollection that the origin of one acre was that it was the area needed for one family,...
Standard measure of how much land land one horse and man team can plough in a day.
Are you planning sustainable wood for you heat/fuel needs? I'd be interested to know what size of a managed wood you'd need. Electricity form what? Solar/wind/hydro?
This is a non specific thing, but lets say you were looking at being enefgy self sufficient by using super insulation, wind, solar and a wood fuel backup.
The land is perhaps not the best in the world but by no means the worst, also lets ignore any "common" resources, which for the purpose of this topic will include rivers
What have you got up your sleeve Tahir (other than your watch!)?
I don't wear a watch.
judith
Joined: 16 Dec 2004 Posts: 22789 Location: Montgomeryshire
Posted: Thu Sep 08, 05 2:36 pm Post subject:
What are this family's requirements in terms of the meat they eat. If they only want poultry and dairy, and were prepared to drink goats' milk, then they would need a lot less space than if they wanted beef on a regular basis.
What grains would they want? Would they be growing all their animal feed? Hay, silage, grain for chickens, fodder beet, etc, etc.
Are they looking to turn a modest profit from their holding to pay for items that they can't grow or raise for themselves. Or will they say "if we can't grow it, we won't eat it". What about oil for cooking?
Do they want to keep breeding stock or would they buy in or barter for young stock to grow on?
Far too many questions to give a straightforward answer.
What have you got up your sleeve Tahir (other than your watch!)?
A nasty surprise for one of his children (or missus) for starters:
Quote:
Family of four
There are basic scenarios for 1 acre 5 acre etc holdings in Seymour, how accurate, I dunno...
Last edited by Bugs on Thu Sep 08, 05 2:40 pm; edited 1 time in total
Jonnyboy
Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 23956 Location: under some rain.
Posted: Thu Sep 08, 05 2:39 pm Post subject:
As a rough guess, to give you a comfortable lifestyle with a varied(ish)diet, a minimum of 4 acres for the animals/food and 10 acres of established woodland.
You wouldn't have much beef in your diet though, and if you want to keep a house cow you need to rely on someone else's breeding stock.
No profit, self sustaining, if livestock are kept then the feed would need to be produced on site, milk isn't an essential so we needn't worry about it.
I think we've got to disregard personal ethics (vegan/veggie etc) and just look at making the most effective use of the land.
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