Comments, advice for layout of a hobby farm/country home

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Henry Reed

New Friend
Neighbor
Joined
Apr 18, 2019
Messages
3
Location
Inland Northwest
Hey there, this looks like a good place to introduce myself and get some input from like-minded people at the same time.

Last summer I bought 5 acres in the country, inland northwest. House, shop, garden, fruit trees and chicken coop included. I want to arrange it with some thought and purpose.

This is a "hobby farm" (I have a job in town) and a place to raise kids. They're my real "crop" and they need interesting outdoor spaces and chores to do. I had ducks, horses, geese and dogs when I was a kid, and worked summers on a produce farm... so I'm not unaware of the effort a place like this takes.

What I want here is a general purpose arrangement. I'm thinking three grass pastures that I can rotate, graze, or bale as I have time or see fit. I anticipate sheep, goats, perhaps llamas, or whatever the kids want to have down the road. I'll probably have my parents two horses here off and on. Each pasture will open to central corral spaces, which in turn open to a stall in the prospective barn... so I can feed from one indoor spot regardless of pasture rotation.

I plan on building a reel-up style sprinkler with a 60ft rainbird head to drag through the center of each pasture, for irrigation. Water is cheap, I have almost 3 million gallons allocated to me per summer, for $175.

The central barnyard I tried to make as large as possible, so I can turn trailers around. It makes the North pasture smaller, but in terms of space used day-to-day, I think the trade-off is worth it. Turning the barn on a slant doesnt appeal to my OCD, because it does funny things to the corral shape and makes it harder to run the tractor through, but I'm trying to maximize wintertime sun exposure, while minimizing property blindspots. The duckpond will be directly observable from the house, for kid safety.

Obviously this is a long term plan that will take years, but I'm a planner and like to think ahead so that it doesnt go haphazard. I invite your thoughts!
 

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Welcome! If I was doing it, I would but the orchard and berries down at the south end, and use their previous spot for a bigger garden. Put some herbs, flowers etc up in the existing garden, and put bigger garden crops in the old berries/orchard spot. I'd blow off the lawn too, and make it part of the pasture., or more garden/wildflower/pollinator area with behives. Fence the place so the chickens will run around the gravel barnyard and stay out of the gardens, and you won't have any trouble with weeds growing there :). You might want to check out "5 acres and independence" if you haven't yet.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/08/60/be/0860be4410c2d5b2059478451fa5ab5b.jpg
 
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Thanks for the input and welcome!

I’m having a hard time with that area between the road and the shop. At first I was going to make it part of the North pasture, as you suggest, but it’s not that big and I wondered if it would be more pain than gain to have a small irregular area to work with the tractor. The previous owners animals hung out on the north side of the shop there, and they seriously compacted it and turned it into a dust bowl.

I found a reprint of five acres and independence on amazon for 7 bucks, it should be here tomorrow!
 
Hey there, this looks like a good place to introduce myself and get some input from like-minded people at the same time.

Last summer I bought 5 acres in the country, inland northwest. House, shop, garden, fruit trees and chicken coop included. I want to arrange it with some thought and purpose.

This is a "hobby farm" (I have a job in town) and a place to raise kids. They're my real "crop" and they need interesting outdoor spaces and chores to do. I had ducks, horses, geese and dogs when I was a kid, and worked summers on a produce farm... so I'm not unaware of the effort a place like this takes.

What I want here is a general purpose arrangement. I'm thinking three grass pastures that I can rotate, graze, or bale as I have time or see fit. I anticipate sheep, goats, perhaps llamas, or whatever the kids want to have down the road. I'll probably have my parents two horses here off and on. Each pasture will open to central corral spaces, which in turn open to a stall in the prospective barn... so I can feed from one indoor spot regardless of pasture rotation.

I plan on building a reel-up style sprinkler with a 60ft rainbird head to drag through the center of each pasture, for irrigation. Water is cheap, I have almost 3 million gallons allocated to me per summer, for $175.

The central barnyard I tried to make as large as possible, so I can turn trailers around. It makes the North pasture smaller, but in terms of space used day-to-day, I think the trade-off is worth it. Turning the barn on a slant doesnt appeal to my OCD, because it does funny things to the corral shape and makes it harder to run the tractor through, but I'm trying to maximize wintertime sun exposure, while minimizing property blindspots. The duckpond will be directly observable from the house, for kid safety.

Obviously this is a long term plan that will take years, but I'm a planner and like to think ahead so that it doesnt go haphazard. I invite your thoughts!

Henry, sounds like a good plan.:thumbs: Good luck and welcome to the forum. :welcome:
 
Congrats and welcome. The only thing I would question is that the house is in the direct path via the wind during the summer which depending upon critters could be "odiferous." The only other thing is gate placement- once your structures are in place, see what your routines are, where it would be handy to have a gate, where your paths lead you, etc. before setting anything in stone.
Enjoy!
 
Thank you for the welcome, and the comments! Especially the bit about the wind- is there a point where wind is strong enough or frequent enough that any odors are diluted rather than carried? A stiff breeze is pretty regular here.

The book came and it’s awesome. I’m weirdly old-school and learning about things from a book written by a Great Depression era author is appealing.
 
Thank you for the welcome, and the comments! Especially the bit about the wind- is there a point where wind is strong enough or frequent enough that any odors are diluted rather than carried? A stiff breeze is pretty regular here. The book came and it’s awesome. I’m weirdly old-school and learning about things from a book written by a Great Depression era author is appealing.

Howdy from the SE U.S.! Depending on how large a garden you put in, some extra cash can be had by selling excess produce at a local "farmer's market." If a pretty stiff breeze is common, you also might want to look at a small (say, 3-5 KW) wind turbine as back-up power. Does the property have a fast flowing, deep stream? Might want to look at a water turbine, too. The ideal situation would be if you can go "off grid" completely.
 
While I understand the need for 3 pastures I don't see the need for 3 corrals. I have one corral on a 5 acre section that is only used occasionally for lunging horse before a ride or working horses under children's command. I also think that 2 horses on the small acreage that you have will be short on hay pretty quickly. I have 3 horses right now on 4 acres and they are out of edible grass within a few weeks. ( I do have another 10 acre pasture but am trying to keep them off of it to produce hay which ran up to $100.00 per round bale last year due to shortages) I don't think you will be able to rotate enough to let the other pastures catch up. You are going to have to give the horses purchased feed rather quickly. Usually it calls for 1.5 to 2 acres of grazing space per horse. You also will need to drag pastures fairly often to keep the parasite problems down.

Goats are a real undertaking but very enjoyable. They seem to try to die though so be prepared to learn about their illnesses and how to do your own vet care quickly. As soon as one seems ill you need to act almost immediately to cure the problem or you can lose goats within a few days. They are however a nice addition to your horse pastures if the pastures are fenced well. Goats eat what horses don't want and horses eat what goats don't want. Goats tend to clean the pastures of weeds rather quickly and are a great addition to that land.

I also have fruit trees and they need to be maintained a lot more than I ever thought that they would. Spraying regularly will insure decent fruit. My peach and plum trees must be sprayed every few weeks or the bugs get more fruit than I do. My apples were planted near cedar trees and now 3 years later I find that I have to move them due to them not doing well near the cedars.

Chickens are great! They are easy to maintain and can feed themselves and produce a food source (eggs) daily for almost nothing. They will however be on your decks, cat food bowls and pretty much everywhere unless contained into a chickens only area that is big enough to sustain them. All in all the hobby farm and/or homestead can be a full time job and a daunting task at times. Fence mending and building in itself is a real job here. If your kids would like 4H or FFA, ABGA, ADGA, or other registered goat and livestock groups that could be a blessing or another task depending on how many shows or competitions they may want to attend.

I personally don't like ducks as they smell badly and can make a pond very nasty. But that is just me.

The lifestyle is a big job but can be very rewarding.
 
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