Is 67 Acres too big for beginners?

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Tue, 04/23/2013 - 15:14 #1

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Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 04/23/2013 - 14:27

Is 67 Acres too big for beginners?

All advice welcomed and needed!

My partner and l are looking at buying some acreage in Gippsland (Bass Coast area) and have 2 properties in mind. Both however, vary greatly in size and this is where we need your help.

Property 1: 67 acres of gentle rolling hills that are sectioned off into 6 paddocks with 6 dams. As we are city slickers (for now), we feel that 67 acres may be unmanageable for first timers without any prior knowledge whatsoever. As our move is driven by a lifestyle change and not one of farming anything commercially, we are wondering whether we would be overly commited to maintaining the property (weeds, fences etc.) and not be able to enjoy the surrounds as much?

Property 2: 10 acres of relatively flat land that we know we would be able to take care and will suffice in size for the immediate future. I know l said we don't want to farm anything of a commercial nature, but we don't want to out grow the property either. I've read many times that it's easier to downsize than to upsize.

What we'd be looking to do in the immediate future is :- have a veggie garden, plant a variety of fruit trees, have a polymer hot house, keep either a few head of alpacca's or steers and possibly a couple of horses......oh and also a large chicken coop of course. 

We really love the house and views that the 67 acres comes with, but we're worried that we'll have no idea how to maintain it and it will cost us substantially. There is a local farmer who is looking to release 62 acres (leaving us with 5 acres), and this would help us greatly, but what happends at the end of that 2 years? l guess by then, we may have some idea of what we're doing :)

We look forward to your replies.

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Mon, 04/29/2013 - 14:44 #2
rmcpb
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 10/22/2012 - 11:13

Personally, I would go for the larger selection if that is possible. By the time you take out the orchard, vege patch, chook run and hot house you will use a good lot of land. Add a good sized garden to your house and you would be surprised just how much land you use when not restricted as you are in your urban block.

If you want to run a couple of horses then they will take up a few acres unless you are going to feed them constantly. Add a few alpacas and cattle and 60 acres will disappear quite quickly. If you lease the land to the farmer then you can learn a lot in those couple of years and you will be off and running.

Nothing like some space around you I say Laughing

Cheers
Rob.

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Mon, 05/27/2013 - 23:04 #3
speleomike
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 09/23/2011 - 16:27

Hi

My wife and I bought 100 acres a little under 3 years ago for alpacas. We had never farmed before and were city people. We now have 58 alpacas of our own and about 15 cows agisted. We have learnt fencing, animal health and shearing, doing general repairs, lots on weeds and pastures and driving a tractor, slashing and lots more. This is all just on weekends :-) Our neighbour was also very supportive and helpful to us.

As for farm size ... steers will take a bit of area, look up the DSE (dry sheep equivalent) for your area. The link below has a table at the end for areas in NSW. Pick someting similar to your area.
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/farm-business/budgets/livestock/sheep/background/dse
That will tell you how many sheep per hectare you can run. Cows will take about 10 times that. e.g. 10 acres at 3 DSE would be 30 sheep = 3 cows. But be conservative so say 2 cows only. 100 acres would support say 20 cows. So you see you can roughly work out what area you need for various animals. Alpacas for instance don't eat much so you could run a dozen on 10 acres.

If you can afford the 100 acres go for it. But you will need to get enough of your own animals on it or get agisted cattle or sheep to keep the grass down. With 10 acres you could manage it with a ride on mower and a few alpacas.

In considering the property size think of your finances and allow something for fixing things like fencing, water tanks, stock troughs, ride on mower?, chain saw?. These all depend on what condition the property is like. Are the fences good? Walk around the property and check? Are there any dams or tanks for water collection?   Also consider how sellable it will be if you wish to exit farming 2 years or so down the track. 

Eiter way you will have lots of fun and learn much.

Mike 

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