I’m still planning a small, old-fashioned, self-sufficient homestead on one acre in the near future. But before I get there, I want to figure out the whole thing—not just start doing it and hope it works.
I want to understand how much space everything really needs, how the crops and animals can work together, how the rotation will work, and whether I can actually make the whole system fit on one acre.
My goal is for the homestead to eventually be completely food self-sustaining. I don’t necessarily think it is possible to be completely self-sufficient in every aspect of life. There will always be things that come from outside the homestead, whether that’s money, tools, materials, medical care, or something else. But when it comes to food, I want to see if I can produce everything I need right here on the land. In other words, I don’t just want to do it. I want to understand how to do it.
I want to understand how much space everything really needs, how the crops and animals can work together, how the rotation will work, and whether I can actually make the whole system fit on one acre. In other words, I don’t just want to do it. I want to understand how to do it.
The homestead will include a small house, an orchard and nut trees, berries and grapes, a productive garden, Nigerian Dwarf goats, chickens, one pig, and a dog. The goal is to produce as much of our own food as possible, including food for the animals, while gradually becoming less dependent on things that have to be purchased.
One of the long-term goals is to save my own seed. Instead of buying seed every year, I want to grow open-pollinated crops, select good plants, save their seed, and use that seed for future plantings.
The challenge is making all of those pieces fit on one acre while keeping the rotation system intact.
The paddocks come first
The goat rotation is the part of the plan that has to remain intact.
I’ll have 18 identical paddocks, each measuring: 33 feet × 66 feet = 2,178 square feet
There are nine paddocks on each side of a single 4-foot-wide lane.
That gives the paddock system a footprint of: 297 feet long × 136 feet wide
The 18 paddocks themselves occupy: 39,204 square feet
The 4-foot lane adds: 1,188 square feet
Together, the paddocks and lane occupy: 40,392 square feet, or about 0.927 acre.
That leaves: 3,168 square feet on the one-acre property for everything outside the paddock-and-lane system.
At first glance, that doesn’t sound like much. But the way the homestead is designed makes a big difference.
The paddocks are part of one rotation
The 18 paddocks aren’t 18 permanently separate pieces of land with one job each.
They are all part of the same rotation.
At the beginning of the plan, I have:
- 8 pasture paddocks for the goats
- 5 hay paddocks also for the goats
- 1 livestock-root paddock
- 1 soybean paddock
- 1 sunflower paddock
- 1 flax paddock
- 1 mixed household-food garden paddock
That makes all 18 paddocks. But those uses aren’t permanent. The crop paddocks will eventually move into pasture and hay. Pasture and hay paddocks will eventually enter the crop rotation. The idea is to have the entire area working as one cycling system rather than permanently dividing the property into “animal land” and “crop land.”
The goat rotation
The goats have direct access to every paddock from the central 4-foot lane. Each paddock has its own gate. That means the goats can go from their holding area to the lane, enter the paddock being grazed, and return through the same gate when they want to get water or shelter. That is important because the whole point is to allow grazed paddocks to rest while another paddock is being used.
The hay paddocks are part of the same overall system. Hay will be cut with a scythe and stored for winter in a hay stack and fed when the pasture is done for the year.
The crops have multiple jobs
The livestock-root paddock provides high-yield storage roots for winter feed.
The soybean paddock provides homegrown nutrients for the livestock system.
The sunflower paddock provides sunflower seed for both household and livestock uses.
The flax paddock provides flaxseed for household and animal uses.
The mixed garden paddock is basically for me and provides many smaller quantities of vegetables and other plant foods that don’t need an entire 33′ × 66′ paddock. Corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, tomatoes, greens, and other garden crops can be grown in appropriate quantities within the mixed garden rather than each receiving its own permanent paddock. And because the paddocks rotate, these help with fertilization of all the grazing and crop paddocks.
Saving seed is part of the system
I also want the garden to become increasingly independent of purchased seed. The goal is to grow open-pollinated varieties so that seed can be saved for the following year. I’ll be able to select healthy plants, allow the appropriate crops to mature, harvest and properly dry the seed, and store it for the following season. That means the garden can gradually become part of a self-renewing cycle.
The house doesn’t take much space
The house is only: 12 × 36 feet = 432 square feet.
So from the 3,168 square feet outside the paddock system: 3,168 − 432 = 2,736 square feet remain. That’s the space available for the orchard, nuts, berries, animal facilities, access, and other non-paddock uses.
Three Nigerian Dwarf goats don’t need a lot of space
There are three adult goats: two does and one buck, with seasonal kids. These are Nigerian Dwarf goats, so they don’t need the same amount of shelter space as full-size dairy goats. The goats spend, for the most part, their time in the paddock rotation. The shelter is primarily for protection from weather, sleeping, kidding, and other times when they need to be under cover. Their water will be here too, so I don’t have to carry water to the paddocks. They will come and go as they please.
A compact shelter of roughly 80 square feet and should be enough for three adult Nigerian Dwarfs and their seasonal kids.
The chickens will share the general shelter structure, with a goat-inaccessible chicken feeding, roosting, and egg laying area inside. So basically, a separate shelter inside the goat pen. I’m thinking it might be a loft.
One pig
There is one pig, starting as a just weaned piglet and eventually reaching about 250 pounds. It will receive roots, milk and milk products, kitchen and garden scraps, and cut-and-carry vegetation.
I don’t want the pig continually destroying the goat pasture, so it won’t simply live permanently on the grazing paddocks. Instead, the pig can be used strategically when a paddock enters the crop-growing part of its rotation. It will be used to root up the paddocks before it is planted to a food crop. That gives the pig a useful job in the system while keeping its permanent infrastructure small.
The orchard can use space efficiently
The orchard doesn’t have to look like a traditional orchard with widely spaced full-size trees.
I’m planning:
- dwarf fruit trees
- hazelnuts
- currants
- blueberries
- grapes
- strawberries
And some of these can use the property’s edges.
The fences become productive space
Grapes can be trained along the fences. Berry bushes can occupy appropriate fence lines. Currants can use perimeter areas. Strawberries can fill suitable low-growing spaces around the orchard and garden. That means I don’t have to dedicate a large separate rectangle just to grapes or berries. The fence itself becomes part of the food-producing system.
The 2,736 square feet has to do several jobs
After the house, I have: 2,736 square feet. That space doesn’t need to be divided into a series of large, isolated areas. A compact goat/chicken shelter can take a small footprint. The permanent pig facilities can also be compact. The orchard and hazelnuts can occupy a concentrated area. Grapes and berries can use the perimeter.
The house can be surrounded by productive plantings. And access paths can serve multiple purposes. The animals’ main grazing area is already in the 18 paddocks. The crop-growing area is already in the rotation. So, the remaining land doesn’t have to provide another large pasture or another large field.
The goal is to make every part of the acre useful
That’s really what this layout is about. The paddocks provide pasture, hay, and crops. The crops provide food for the household and animals. The animals provide meat, eggs, milk, manure, and other useful resources. The orchard provides perennial food. The fences provide places for grapes and berries. The garden provides vegetables and, eventually, seed for future gardens. And the rotation allows the same land to serve different purposes over time. I’m trying to make one small homestead function as one connected system.
Can it really fit?
The numbers are now much clearer: 1 acre = 43,560 square feet, 18 paddocks + 4-foot lane = 40,392 square feet. House = 432 square feet, remaining after paddocks and house = 2,736 square feet. The remaining space is tight, but it isn’t automatically impossible. The animal shelters don’t need to be large. The pig facility doesn’t need to be large. The orchard can be compact. Grapes and berries can use the fences. The garden is already part of the rotation. And the paddocks aren’t permanently locked into one purpose.
So rather than immediately deciding that I need more acreage, I’m going to see exactly how efficiently I can arrange the remaining 2,736 square feet.
The goal is still the same: one acre, one person, and a small self-sufficient homestead where the land, crops, animals, and seed-saving system all work together.
Every acre of land can have a different shape, so the overall layout of the homestead will vary depending on the property I find. What matters is that there is enough usable land to accommodate the entire paddock system. The overall shape of the paddock layout can change to work with the shape of the property, but the size of each paddock cannot.
Ideally, I would like to find a piece of land that is shaped as closely as possible to the layout of my paddocks. The paddock sizes and the rotation system are fixed because changing either one would affect how the whole system works. So, the goal is to find land that can accommodate the paddocks at their required size, while allowing the overall layout to be adjusted to fit the property’s shape.
Where the Meat Comes From
Meat is another part of the food system that I want to produce on the homestead rather than buy meat or try to continue being a Vegan or Vegetarian. I like meat, especially pork, but I want variety and having cattle, even one head would take up more space, feed and would be more than I need for me and my dog. So, I will use goat meat or chevon as it is called for my ‘red’ meat.
The plan includes goat meat, chicken, and pork, with each animal serving a different purpose.
The goats provide milk first, but they also provide meat. The does are Nigerian Dwarf goats, and the breeding system is designed so that all of the goats’ kids eventually become meat rather than adding more permanent breeding animals to the herd. The older breeding buck will be butchered when the new buckling takes his place, (called line breeding) and the extra young males will also provide meat. Goat meat will be my main source of red meat.
The chickens provide both eggs and meat. I will keep four laying hens and a rooster, and the hens will hatch the meat chicks. I’m planning on raising about six Barred Rock broilers each year. They will be raised on the homestead’s own feed system and butchered when they reach the size I want, at about 16 weeks.
Then there is the pig. I’m planning on raising one pig and raising it to roughly 250 pounds. The pig will provide pork, including the bacon and cooking fat I want to keep. Rather than buying feed for the pig, I want to grow what it needs and make use of things the rest of the homestead produces, including roots, milk and milk products, garden scraps, and other suitable food from the homestead.
So the meat system isn’t based on one animal doing everything. The goats provide milk and goat meat, the chickens provide eggs and chicken meat, and the pig provides pork and fat. Together, they become part of the larger food system rather than being separate projects.
And the meat isn’t only for me. It will also be used to feed the dog, so the animal production has to provide enough food for both of us.
Of course there will be other things to consider, how will I butcher the animals? Is there a place close that will do that for me? How much will that cost? I do not plan to butcher the pig and goats myself, but chickens, I can do that myself.
SMALL HOMESTEAD by the river 