Guest guest Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 I am in great need of getting some thoughts on this. Will helped me find this wonderful old farm and 100 acres. We plan to put a Jane Goodall School here. There are 21 acres that were in corn or soybeans. We want to switch to pasture and I need to know how many animals that will support. Sheep, cows, chickens, etc. I need that information to include in our fundraising proposals. This will not be a sustainable farm, this will be a high school that teaches about sustainable farms, with experiential learning. Until we raise funds, we can¹t pay anyone. I need help in thinking out this process. I need to have good information to raise initial money for a green school building and saving the old farm buildings. After that, we can pay consultants and we will have jobs available. No students will be allowed to get insecticide certification. I could not believe that 17 year old kids are allowed to do that. Please share. Kathy on 4/24/06 6:56 PM, Kathy DeBoer at kdeboer@... wrote: >> > >> > Does anyone know how many grazing animals 20 acres will support doing >> > rotational grazing? >> > >> > Kathy > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 How many acres it takes to support cows, horses or other livestock depends on the soil and the mineral content. It the 21 acres has been chemically fertilized it will take a few years to build it up by using natural fertilizers. Also when you cross fence a pasture and rotate from one pasture to another during the year the same amount of acres will handle more livestock. The size of cows will also determent how many per acre. The smaller cows will produce more meat per acre than the larger cows will according to the folks that raise the smaller or miniature cows. Congrats on getting a nice 100 acres!! We would love to have 100+ acres so we could raise our own meat and milk. Good luck Kathy. Don Prohaska BuckSnort s (http://BuckSnorts.tripod.com) BuckSnort Nutrition (http://BuckSnortNutrition.tripod.com) Stable Pros (http://StablePros.tripod.com) New Email: bucksnort@... Re: Farm question I am in great need of getting some thoughts on this. Will helped me find this wonderful old farm and 100 acres. We plan to put a Jane Goodall School here. There are 21 acres that were in corn or soybeans. We want to switch to pasture and I need to know how many animals that will support. Sheep, cows, chickens, etc. I need that information to include in our fundraising proposals. This will not be a sustainable farm, this will be a high school that teaches about sustainable farms, with experiential learning. Until we raise funds, we can¹t pay anyone. I need help in thinking out this process. I need to have good information to raise initial money for a green school building and saving the old farm buildings. After that, we can pay consultants and we will have jobs available. No students will be allowed to get insecticide certification. I could not believe that 17 year old kids are allowed to do that. Please share. Kathy on 4/24/06 6:56 PM, Kathy DeBoer at kdeboer@... wrote: >> > >> > Does anyone know how many grazing animals 20 acres will support doing >> > rotational grazing? >> > >> > Kathy > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 Kathy, Congratulations! Sounds like you are doing some wonderful things! I can't help you directly, but if I were you, I would get in touch with Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia. I'm betting he could and would help you. You can find contact info at http://www.polyfacefarms.com/contact.html. And one more thing... You wrote: >This will not be a sustainable farm, this will be a high school that teaches< > about sustainable farms, with experiential learning.< Isn't that a bit like saying " we don't compost at this environmental camp " . (True story about that one!) Good Luck! Yet another Kathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 Not at all like that. Totally different funding sources. The government funds schools and sustainable farms support themselves for the most part. It becomes what we teach kids. Those you speak of probably want to do more. Kathy on 4/25/06 2:14 PM, realfoodie2003 at realfoodie2003@... wrote: > >> >This will not be a sustainable farm, this will be a high school that >> teaches< >> > about sustainable farms, with experiential learning.< > > Isn't that a bit like saying " we don't compost at this environmental camp " . > (True > story about that one!) > > Good Luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 Thank you. I am still in need of numbers to crunch with McKnight Foundation. It does not have to be perfect. Just general information. Kathy on 4/25/06 1:55 PM, dgp at bucksnort@... wrote: > How many acres it takes to support cows, horses or other livestock depends on > the soil and the mineral content. > It the 21 acres has been chemically fertilized it will take a few years to > build it up by using natural fertilizers. > Also when you cross fence a pasture and rotate from one pasture to another > during the year the same amount of acres will handle more livestock. > The size of cows will also determent how many per acre. The smaller cows will > produce more meat per acre than the larger cows will according to the folks > that raise the smaller or miniature cows. > Congrats on getting a nice 100 acres!! > We would love to have 100+ acres so we could raise our own meat and milk. > Good luck Kathy. > > Don Prohaska > BuckSnort s (http://BuckSnorts.tripod.com) > BuckSnort Nutrition (http://BuckSnortNutrition.tripod.com) > Stable Pros (http://StablePros.tripod.com) > New Email: bucksnort@... > Re: Farm question > > > I am in great need of getting some thoughts on this. Will helped me find > this wonderful old farm and 100 acres. We plan to put a Jane Goodall School > here. There are 21 acres that were in corn or soybeans. We want to switch > to pasture and I need to know how many animals that will support. Sheep, > cows, chickens, etc. I need that information to include in our fundraising > proposals. > > This will not be a sustainable farm, this will be a high school that teaches > about sustainable farms, with experiential learning. Until we raise funds, > we can¹t pay anyone. I need help in thinking out this process. I need to > have good information to raise initial money for a green school building and > saving the old farm buildings. After that, we can pay consultants and we > will have jobs available. > > No students will be allowed to get insecticide certification. I could not > believe that 17 year old kids are allowed to do that. > > Please share. > > Kathy > > > on 4/24/06 6:56 PM, Kathy DeBoer at kdeboer@... wrote: > >>>> >> > >>>> >> > Does anyone know how many grazing animals 20 acres will support doing >>>> >> > rotational grazing? >>>> >> > >>>> >> > Kathy >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 Kathy, I would love to learn more about this venture! Please send me more info? Kimi ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ www.Jremedies.com Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58/KJV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2006 Report Share Posted April 26, 2006 Kathy, I said I didn't have an answer for you, but let me try again...I am reading a book called The Omnivore's Dilemma by Pollan. It is a fantastic book about food and how it is produced and I would highly recommend it to anyone. In it, it says Salatin's Polyface Farm produces the following on 100 acres: 30,000 dozen eggs 10,000 broilers 800 stewing hens 50 beeves (representing 25,000 pounds of beef) 250 hogs (25,000 pounds of pork) 1,000 turkeys 500 rabbits I would think that you could potentially produce 1/5 of that on your 21 acres. Kathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2006 Report Share Posted April 26, 2006 We don¹t have anything printed yet. Will and I had been looking at farm land w/in an hour of our elementary school the last few years. Last summer we found this 100 acre pioneer farm 8 miles west of Monticello. It sits on a glacial moraine across from a 1,600 acre state park. 8 minutes to 94, very rural. Large hills, old growth forest, creek and 21 acres that were in corn or soybeans. The land was covered with glaciers and neighboring farms have found clovis points dated 11,000 years ago. Then it was the border between the Ojibwa and Dakota. In 1857 and 1865 Acts of Congress deeded the land to the state to aide in the construction of a railroad. J. Hill is on the deed. In about 1882 a farmer built a pioneer house that is still on the land. In 1920 a dairy barn was built from trees on the land. It¹s still here. In 1950 the children of the pioneer family sold the land to a fellow and we bought from his son. About 75% of what the standards require to teach is history and it would be so easy to do here. The land came up for sale because one brother could not afford to buy out the other. If we had not gotten it, the land would have been sold to a gravel company who would have torn up the old growth forest to mine the gravel. One brother had built a rambler on one acre in front of the farm. After we got a donor to invest in the land,the brother unexpectedly put his 1970¹s house on the market. We didn¹t want someone to buy it and oppose a school, so we sold our house in Andover and moved out here last October. Now that spring is here we are starting to work on the project and it will probably take three years to get it up and running. I have landscape engineers coming out Friday to figure out where the septic and drain field can go. Put together a fund raising team. Writing the charter app. Meeting with the county. Finding curriculum. Kathy on 4/25/06 10:34 PM, Kimi at kwolffden@... wrote: > Kathy, > > I would love to learn more about this venture! Please send me more info? > Kimi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2006 Report Share Posted April 26, 2006 In most areas in Minnesota you can figure one cow unit per acre. A cow unit is cow plus her calf. You can get better than one cow unit per acre when you use pasture rotation techniques. Also it does depend on the type of grass you plant. Don Prohaska BuckSnort s (http://BuckSnorts.tripod.com) BuckSnort Nutrition (http://BuckSnortNutrition.tripod.com) Stable Pros (http://StablePros.tripod.com) New Email: bucksnort@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2006 Report Share Posted April 26, 2006 That¹s very helpful. Right now we are getting estimates so we can write grants. We can change things later on. Will is going to come out and help me with animal flow, grass and fencing later on. I went over to the old barn and they had space for 18 dairy cows, chickens and young animals. I think they use to have the cows on some far pastures and let them roam the woods too. This property has a newer pole barn and a machine shed too. The old barn needs work before we house animals there. I¹m also finding that I can¹t find a curriculum about organic farming for high school students. I bought lots of books from Acres and have been hunting down old farm books at used stores. This kind of surprises me. There is a good curriculum about wildlife, forests, etc for kids. About 20% of the U of MN supports organic, but they don¹t have much for high schools. They have lots on autistic kids and chemical use. Kathy on 4/26/06 9:54 AM, dgp at bucksnort@... wrote: > In most areas in Minnesota you can figure one cow unit per acre. A cow unit is > cow plus her calf. > You can get better than one cow unit per acre when you use pasture rotation > techniques. > Also it does depend on the type of grass you plant. > > Don Prohaska > BuckSnort s (http://BuckSnorts.tripod.com) > BuckSnort Nutrition (http://BuckSnortNutrition.tripod.com) > Stable Pros (http://StablePros.tripod.com) > New Email: bucksnort@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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