Is 10 acres too much to manage?

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Sun, 02/22/2015 - 00:03 #1

Member for

9 years 9 months
Robertsfamily
Last seen: 02/24/2015 - 01:28
Joined: 02/21/2015 - 23:45

Is 10 acres too much to manage?

Hi everyone - we're right at the point of decision regarding leaving the big smoke and moving our family of 6 to the outskirts of the Bendigo region. We're looking at 10 acres with the dream of growing our own veggies, free ranging chooks and running our small business via an outbuilding. The land is flat and cleared with a dam onsite. 

 

If we were to run and animals on the site to keep the grass down (as opposed to slashing) what would be best to start out with on a 10 acre plot considering we have no experience. 

 

We would love to hear from anyone else who has moved away from the hustle and bustle and any advice you have for us :)

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Sun, 02/22/2015 - 11:08 #2
barb
Last seen: 09/17/2019 - 18:07
Joined: 11/23/2011 - 09:38

Hello Roberts Family,

And welcome to the Forum. Thank you for your great question.

 

Many years ago, my husband and I worked in an air conditioned office, never got our hands dirty except on the weekends when we loved to get out in the garden. Then our lives changed dramatically, when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

 

Did my husband decide that life was over? No, instead of retiring to a chair and watching TV all day, after much discussion, we decided to sell up and buy a property in the country. Being people who never did any thing by halves, we ended up buying a 400 acre property in sub tropical Queenland. We had no experience whatsoever, but did we let that stop us? Not on your life. When we moved onto the block, the first thing we did was to go and meet the neighbours and ask them what they recommended we do with our block and what grew in our area. Luckily, we had struck gold as far as neighbours go. They were all great people and very helpful. They recommended growing cattle and goats.

 

So, to cut a long story short, we read everything we could on cattle, goats (there wasn't a lot about goats available), growing fruit and vegetables, fencing, parasites of livestock and so on. Then we went off to the cattle sales and followed all the blokes who were obviously old hands at the game and just listened to them talk about the various pens of animals. After a couple of sales, we bid on a pen a beautiful young Brahman heifers -a mistake, we should have started with weaner steers, but that's another story. It's better to start with steers, as breeding takes a bit of experience.

 

We planted fruit trees, grew vegetables, had chooks, bred cashmere goats and cattle. And, had to pinch ourselves every day, as we could not believe how great our lives were now, rather than being stuck in air conditioned office each day. Yes, there were times when that would have been nice, when we had spent most of a night dealing with a cow that had a breached calf, but we would never have wanted to go back to the old life. The other great thing was, our daughter thrived and loved the country and the animals.

 

Bottom line, Go for it. My husband passed away several years ago, but I would never consider moving back to the rat race. I love it here.

 

Wishing you the best of luck in your new lives,

 

Barb

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Thu, 02/26/2015 - 14:40 #3
peter_marybank
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 02/26/2015 - 13:47

Hello Roberts Family:

A few points to consider

  1. 1). Buy your farm with your head - live and farm with your heart. In other words be satisfied your farm has what you need in terms of your plans or is reasonably close. Especially pay attention to water. Your vege patch, chooks and other livestock will need a continuous supply of good clean water. Will the dam go dry or get fouled and dirty in late summer early autumn. Will it refill in most average years with normal winter rainfall. Water is critical
  2.  
  3. 2). Your in a bush fire area - consider what your plans are to go through each summer especially if there are childen involved. Check the CFA website, very good info available in terms of knowledge and planning

 

3). Hasten slowly - Your farm doesn't have to be running a full steam seven days after you arrive. Allow yourself some time to get some dirt under your fingernails. Consider commencing with your vege patch and a few chooks. They are low cost, low risk and you'll gain some valuable experience.

 

4). Don't rush into livestock. Get to know your block, especially pay attention to what your block looks like in March / April each year. In your climate this will be the driest time when you're at the end of summer, pasture feed is most limited and you're waiting for the autumn rains to arrive. This is when your block will be at it's worst - I would suggest you experience this period with little or no livestock to see what it looks like. You could ask your neighbours to put some sheep in your paddock if you feel you have too much grass - they'll probably be very low on paddock feed - this is a cheap way of getting experience.

 

5). Get to know your neighbours - much more important than getting some stock to eat the grass down, especially in the short term. Go to the local market, see and meet like minded people and what your region is capapble of producing.

 

6). Don't be frightened of what you don't know - Revisit point (5), they're a great source of knowledge and support.

 

 

Enjoy, and all the best, you won't regret the move

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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