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Greetings from Illinois!
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lon23
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22 Feb ’15 - 8:15 am
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Hello all!

My husband and I just purchased our dream property of 9+ acres.  The current owners have a small herd of dorper sheep, 2 donkeys, and a miniature horse.  The herd isn't staying.  There's a mixed grass/hay field  that I'm wondering what we'll do with.  We've discussed buying 2 donkeys to start with, but I don't know if that would be enough mouths to keep the undesirable weeds out of the pasture.  

This is a big transition for us, which is exciting,  but also overwhelming at times, so any insight is greatly appreciated.  We move in around the first part of April.

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NastyNarwhal
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22 Feb ’15 - 8:19 am
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Farm

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K
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22 Feb ’15 - 8:20 am
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Welcome Ion23, that sounds awesome!

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NastyNarwhal
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22 Feb ’15 - 8:20 am
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I am the husband she mentioned.

This is a picture of the new property.

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K
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22 Feb ’15 - 8:21 am
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Welcome NN, what are your guys goals with the property?

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lon23
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22 Feb ’15 - 8:29 am
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Great question.

 

We're not aiming to be a 100% self-sustaining farm, but we would definitely like to be able to "live off the land" to some extent.  We'd like to supplement grocery shopping with homegrown fruits/veggies, eggs, and honey to start.  I'm not sure we'd get into butchering/harvesting our own meat, but that's not totally out of the question, and we have that option if we ever go down that road. 

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NastyNarwhal
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22 Feb ’15 - 8:34 am
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The previous owner is leaving behind a 400 Sq ft chicken coop, an established been hive, and various fruit trees and berries. 

So we'll already have a decent head start. 

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K
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22 Feb ’15 - 8:59 am
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sounds like you guys have a great canvas to start with, as far as the field if you guys don't want to get into animals right away ask the previous owner who he would recommend haying it for you. A small local farmer might be interested in renting it from you for the hay. Wouldn't hurt to ask.

There is just so many different options you could do with it though. Since you have such a large chicken coop you could easily make large chicken tractors and move them twice a day around the field.

Joe Salatin show's how he raises pigs on rotational paddocks on 20 acres, it could be scaled down to meet your needs easily

This is probably one of my favorite videos on what you can do on a 10 acre lot such as yours

we started with chickens, then pigs, ducks, turkeys and then miniature dexters last year. If I had to do it over I would have started right with the cattle. They have been much easier for us then the pigs, but I do enjoy the pigs more.

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