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How Do I Figure Out How Much Land To Buy?
The debate on how much land is needed for a homestead has been around for a while. However, there will always be the one factor that puts the argument to rest for everyone and that is affordability. If you desire to start homesteading and you are wondering how much land you have to have, absolutely the first and most important factor is to buy what you can afford. Beyond that, we will cover ideas for calculating the amount of land that you need based on factors like: Will you raise animals?, Will you start a market garden?, How many buildings do you desire?, Will you have an orchard?, etc. Let’s dive into the question that encompasses all of these questions: What do you want to use the land for?
This seems to be a strange question at first and your answer is “homesteading of course”. But what do you want to do on your homestead? Cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, or just a dog and a cat and a garden? For your animals, how many? For your garden, how many people will you be feeding? Do you want to start market gardening as a home business? There are so many questions!
Now I know what you are saying. “Dude, you can homestead anywhere.” It is a mindset and a lifestyle. You can be an urban homesteader, a suburban homesteader, or a rural homesteader. All of these are true. However, for the purpose of this article we will concentrate on a rural site. We will also concentrate on some basic calculations and variables that are known.
Once you sit down and figure out what you want to do with your land, you are on your way to understanding how much land you need. Just remember that the more self-sufficient you want to be, the more land you will need.
Basic Rules Of Thumb
There are some basic rules out there for land sizing and calculating how much acreage is needed for specific tasks. These rules are fluid and can be broken but this is a good place to start.
Livestock
Cows need about 1.5 to 2 acres per cow/calf combo, you can fit 2 to 10 goats per acre depending on the amount of plant growth available, and sheep about 6 to 10 per acre. You can have about 25 pigs per acre and a horse needs about 1.5 acres. Chickens are great because you can fit a ton of birds in a small space so that is tough to calculate.
Now, many people have these types of livestock on much smaller plots of land but for the purpose of our article we researched the proper, healthy amount of land to raise the livestock on sourcing from numerous Ag University data.
Produce
Gardening and fruit orchards can vary on size needed because of your family size so for this article we will use a family of 4 as our base. Your main garden will be a big source of food. It is also more economical to raise vegetables than livestock. If you are a seasoned gardener you will be able to handle a ton of variety and volume.
You should have roughly 200 square feet of planted space per person. This assumes you are planting a fall and spring garden for year round production. So a total of 800sf for your family of 4 not including walkways and paths. Perennials such as raspberries, asparagus, blueberries, etc. should have about 75sf per variety, Grapes about 120sf per vine.
If you plan on growing grain to make your own bread here is a basic breakdown of the space needed. Wheat: 1 acre = 43560 sf, 1 acre = 37 bushels of wheat berries, so 1 bushel = 1177sf of planted space. That 1 bushel = 60 lbs of whole wheat flour. 1 bushel = 90 – 1 lb loaves of bread at 2 to 3 cups of flour for a 1 lb loaf.
An orchard with 25 to 50 dwarf trees at a 15 foot spacing = 5625sf(1/8 acre) to11250 sf(1/4 acre). This will increase if you purchase semi-dwarf or full sized trees because of the spacing needed between trees.
Structures
There are many structures and outbuildings that are necessary for a homestead. A house, garage, chicken coop, well house, stable, barn, shop, greenhouse, shed, etc. In today’s thrifty minimalist mindset, tiny homes are popular and some can be practical but if you have a family, a modest home of at least 1600 square feet is appropriate. These sized homes are the most readily available in country locations and easy to find.
All other out buildings can vary greatly in size. Let’s figure in all of the above structures for a grand total of 4300sf.
Wood Heating
Probably the biggest variable that will determine land size is related to climate. If you are in a colder climate and desire to heat your home with wood that you harvest, you will need a significantly lager plot of land obviously containing trees.
An average sized well insulated home in the northern United States can burn up to 4 cords of wood per season. If it is a colder than average winter, then you will obviously need more. According the the University of Illinois Extension office you will need between 46 to 55 – 5 inch trees or just 1- 22 inch tree to equal a cord of wood. So we are looking at about 200 small trees or 4 large trees per season. Wow, that is a ton of wood and that will require a great amount of land. This is hard to factor in easily but many online forums suggest that 10 heavily wooded acres in the northern states can be managed sustainable.
So How Much Do I Need Again? Let's Add Up Our Example.
As you can see, it is a challenge to determine a perfect number for each situation but we have a pretty good idea. On a solid, fairly self-sufficient homestead for a family of 4 with a home, barn and a few other structures, in a moderate climate, with some 12 chickens, 10 sheep, 6 goats, a garden, and an orchard, you will need a minimum of 3 acres. If you want to heat your home with wood, about 13 acres will be perfect.
Now I will throw one last wrench in the gears……ready? Not all land is the same. Some plots of land will have unusable portions that may be too steep, too rocky, etc. Factor that in when looking for your plot.
While it’s hard to nail down what you will need for certain, the best advice we can give is to just start somewhere and move up to a larger place when you can. Cheers.
