Should we buy this farm?

[Leersia]

Ugh, the tension headache I have from thinking about it!

Has anyone bought a small farm who had few farm-type skills, like us? We are outdoorsy people and hard workers, but I am wondering if we will be able to handle taking care of 15 acres. It is in Colorado, and it comes with water rights - which means that we have enough water to irrigate fields for about 3 alfalfa cuttings per year, but not for crops as the river water dries up in midsummer. So I'm not even sure what we could do with this land, how many animals we could graze if we converted it to pasture, etc. We'd love to have some chickens, turkeys, pigs, a nice garden, etc. Not necessarily trying to make money on the land. We're just so clueless I feel that we have no business buying this land, but it is a fabulous investment and we love the space and location, and we could save it from a developer, as it abuts the city limits. I need some inspiration, some hand-holding, perhaps a reality check or two, if anyone has anything for me . . .

[mattemma04]

How exciting for you!

If I had the money I would buy it.Yes 15 acres is a lot you handle,but you need not work all 15 every year.As long as the property lines are not in dispute(get a real survey not a mrotgage survey) I would go for it.I would plant things that do not need hand holding constantly once out of seedling stage.

Hmm with that much land I would do nut and fruit trees.Probably some berry patches.Section off areas for certain animals.I am a fence person,lol,so my first step would be a survey and fencing. I would look into yearly crops that grow well with less water.Could even be plants.Bamboo sells for killer prices online.Oh and do some bees maybe or allow beekeepers to put bee hives on your land for money or honey.Buckwheat I know grows pretty darn good without me watering in and on fill dirt too.Same goes for the flax seed I throw around the yard.Lol,I do all but put hives in my yard and my lot is under an acre.I would love to have more as long as I would not have to cut all the grass all the time!

Whatever you decide will be the right thing for you.The resale of that 15 acres will probably bring you a profit in the years to come.Best wishes whatever you decide.

[limette]

Originally Posted by mattemma04

How exciting for you!

If I had the money I would buy it.Yes 15 acres is a lot you handle,but you need not work all 15 every year.As long as the property lines are not in dispute(get a real survey not a mrotgage survey) I would go for it.I would plant things that do not need hand holding constantly once out of seedling stage.

I agree with all of this. Also verify in writing the zoning regulations. There are areas where it doesn't matter how rural you think it is, or how huge the property is, animals are still not allowed.

If we can get our house sold, we'll be purchasing an old farm house on 4 acres. We wanted wayyyy bigger but it's all we could find. Our only experience is in gardening a city lot and a ton of reading/research about farming.

At first we want to just farm for ourselves and see how much we need to do to provide most of our own food and then maybe get into market farming.

We would like to try (not necessarily at the same time), chickens, dairy goats, pigs, meat sheep, ducks and rabbits. We wouldn't need many of each because again, it's just for our own freezer. Dh wants an alpaca because he thinks they are cute.

We also plan to have fruit trees and bushes and hazelnuts in addition to our veg garden.

It seems like a lot on 4 acres but we already know from practicing square foot gardening how much you can fit into a small space and we're going to incorporate other practices such as permaculture, french intensive gardening and rotational grazing to our plans.

Having a big acreage to work with is nice because you can start small and keep adding to it as you go.

Good luck with your decision.