How Much Land Do You Need To Be Self-Sustaining?

How much land do you need to homestead? Great question. We will look at some of the factors that will enable you to decide, depending on your region, what might be the best amount of land for you.

[Colbkid]

Just one key note, even on a plant based diet you need animals to maintain the fertility and give back to the land. Having animals on a homestead isn't just for food. They serve a many roles, being able to eat them is really just a bonus.

[michaelmckesson]

I live in northern Wisconsin, so I had to do a lot to grow in this area. So I built a greenhouse in the side of a hill. The northern side of the greenhouse is a thermal mass lined with black 55 gallon drums of water. Which absorbs sunlight from the south over the course of the day. That heat is released overnight keeping it warm. I ran two layers of heavy plastic leaving a dead air space between them. Which gives extra insulation from the cold air outside. My solar panels charge batteries for grow lights. Which turn on a couple hours in the morning and evening, to give me a longer growing day. When the temperature drops to minus 30, 40, 50, I burn wood in a fireplace to give added heat. Because even that temperature is to cold for my thermal mass to overcome. You'll need heat on the very coldest days of winter. But Yeah I grow year round, even in northern Wisconsin.

[pierevojzola]

Hi, I am a soldier settler down in the South Pacific. When my wife and I agreed to change lifestyles and look for land we first went to the local Polytechnic and asked the people who teach agricultural degrees for advice. Advice was free, so acquiring knowledge was the first thing. We were told that you don’t farm animals, you farm soil! They explained what kind of land we should be looking for and told us to look at land in the winter time. There are advantages and disadvantages in flat and hilly land. We looked at 48 different properties up to 480 acres. You could tell how good the farmer was by his fences, fencing is important as it keeps your stock in and wild pigs out. The other points were a good reliable source of water, access to the property. I put myself on a study course on small acre farming at the Polytechnic whilst my partner got a good job in the local town. Everything is down to planning and hard cash. We went into farming deer, goats, sheep and steers.
We lived in our motor home for over a year whilst I put up a small one bedroom cottage, build the deer yards, put in fencing, tracks, gates and water troughs. When the farm was in working order I then build our house so we had views over the lake and could see the snow on the volcanoes. We farmed for 20 years and it was a good life, but hard on the body. So mate remember, water and soil and access to information are your starting points. Cheers mate. Harera

[paulristow]

As a kid in Fairbanks AK, my family had a ~1 acre garden and grew all the vegetables we needed for a family of 5. And we usually had some surplus that we would give to friends & neighbors. Of course we hunted & fished; and grains/bread/etc aren't included in this figure.

[letsnotgothere]

I love how simple the visuals are, but how detailed his info is. And also how it's outside and how he talks so naturally, no over cropping or drama in his voice. And how I can see his hands when he talks? Nice

[mydogma]

I am happy with my 40 acres...2 streams and most of it bush... cheers from northern Ontario, great information

[karleggers]

8 years ago my wife and I bought 17 acres with a year round creek that flows enough to irrigate 9 acres of pasture. We have 4 beef cattle on 5 fenced acres that is next to the creek. Yes, the property has generous senior water rights to the creek. The only neighbor I can see is our tenant and the rent collected pays for 2/3 of our mortgage. With 12.75 KW of solar panels on the shop, they generate the energy we need for the entire year. The 24’X70’ greenhouse provides fresh fruit and veggies. 45 hens lay plenty of eggs that we sell on a weekly route. Next, we will start raising rabbits, pigs and meat birds(chickens and turkeys). All that we produce but don’t consume we either give away or sell at the local farmers mkt. most excess is pre-sold. UBI ?, I’ll take that too! We have plenty of “freedom seeds” (ammo) to protect what is ours. We have a MAG (Mutual Assistance Group) because there is power in numbers. My neighbors in my MAG have long distance 2way radios for security and communications when the grid goes down. One neighbor is a retired Doctor and another reloads ammo. We have a years worth of fuel for the heavy equipment and backup generators.
No wonder WEF thinks we are against them…..we are, and we have never been happier!

[UrbanDefensiveTactics]

Actually, generally every thing you say is true.

However, fertile land with densely packed hundred plus year old trees, like two of my rural properties, one acre alone, holds enough self-renewing fuel-wood for the winters in the area.

With respect to privacy, variegation of topography is also important. On one of the same properties spoke of before, the hilly nature of the surrounding land gives more actual "real" acreage between properties, but also creates more line-of-sight privacy from nearby neighbors.

Most important to sustainability is, the year round access to *nearby* potable water sources; in large quantities. -And this is where most land purchases come up short, for new buyers: your non-municipal water source should be no further than one hundred yards from your living space.

Finally and in my opinion, it is truly all about location, location, location. If you want to be as sustainable as possible, water and variegation (not large amounts acreage) is what is most important. You need a good mix of 1/3 level pasture to 2/3 hilly dense woodland. Your home should be elevated fifteen to twenty feet above the normal flood plain, on your property.

Look for natural springs or "developed" year-round creeks (not "creek beds") on your property. You want the creeks to originate from natural springs on your property, if possible so, they can't be diverted, drained off or tainted.

Finally, a person can buy/have more land than they can handle: If you cannot provide security and properly maintain your land, it will be a disadvantage to you, in the long run ( *you only have that which you can protect* ). Five to seven acres, with the above attributes, are enough land for sustainable living, for a family of four.

[bornagaininchrist]

I just found out about this channel today from my online Adventist group, super informative! My family and I are about to move to a country cabin this week on 14 acres in NW Washington state. Sold our city house and wanting to experience country living for the first time. The property is owned by my wifes parents, but they offered us the fully functioning cabin to live in. Really looking forward to learn and grow in this new chapter in our lives. Keep up the great videos 🙌🙏

[HousewifeInTheWoods]

As far as the meat 2 rabbit does and a buck produce 600 lbs of meat per year. no real space needed and minimal inputs and can be raised off the land. A pig doesnt need much space.... 200+ lbs of meat limited space, can be raised off your land. Chickens need minimal acreage as well, can be raised off your land. All easily on less than 1/4 acre....

[thedarkhairedone]

These videos are an answer to prayer! Thank you so much for sharing! We have been praying for guidance in finding a place in the country, Lord willing—and what a wonderful resource these are.

[moniquem]

The Brits have a very old method of growing wood so you get more from less space. It’s called coppicing. You cut the tree in a certain way and leave the stump and it grows back multiple branches that you can harvest next time. It’s still a 7 year cycle, depending on species, but you get more timber from less trees. I’m planning to do it because I think it will be easier. I haven’t worked out exactly how much I will need to have enough to heat my home, but it certainly won’t be 5 acres! I am in a temperate climate so I won’t need as much as someone who deals with snow in winter which is handy. I’m thinking an acre of managed coppiced woodland is probably enough for me.
If you eat meat, you can get the bulk calories you need from that rather than from grain. Grain is still nice to make bread and pasta etc, but you can make a lot of flatbreads etc with non grains to stretch it out. Standard cattle, yes 1.8 acres is about right. Smaller cattle such as Dexters need less space. Goat meat is the most consumed meat in the world. I’ve never seen it in my supermarket, but I will eat it if I raise it. If I don’t love it, I’ll learn to. They need far less space and still give milk. Sheep don’t need as much space as cows either. Sheep can be milked too. And you get wool. From what I can tell, the commercial lamb you can buy in the US is pretty bad, but every American homesteader I watch who has tried raising their own lamb says it’s so much better than what they’ve tried in the past. Then of course there’s poultry. Less space but if you’re not buying in feed you will need to dedicate a fair amount of space to growing it. Pigs don’t need a huge amount of space. In WW2 in Britain they had pig clubs, where a group of people would get together and combine all of their garden and kitchen waste to feed a pig and then share the meat. It will grow a bit slower than if it was fed on grain or commercial feed, but it’ll get there. And then there’s rabbits. They take up barely any space and can be fed from the garden and with grass. They are also fast to multiply and to grow, so you can get a lot of meat from a very small space. Any of these reduce your need for grains and potatoes. I grew all of my vegetables for a year in 4 raised beds that were 6’x3’, plus a trellis up the fence for climbing beans. I didn’t plant potatoes because at the time I rarely ate potatoes. I had plenty of calories and more than enough food because I also ate meat.
Another way to get more calories is fat. A few olive trees, nut trees or even peanuts and you can press your own oil. There’s a small hand cranked oil press out there that’s pretty cheap. It would take a fair while to press a gallon of oil, but it can be done. There are small appliance type machines that do it too if your power supply is secure.
There are lots of ways to do things so you can be mostly self sufficient on far less than 20 acres.

[auntlouise]

I grew a 10 ft x 10 ft plot of wheat. After I harvested it and ground the wheat berries I got roughly 10 lbs of flour. Not nearly enough to keep a family in bread for a year. I'd have to (1) plant it in a bigger plot and (2) replant over and over again, and the soil would need copious amounts of amendments to keep it able to still grow anything.

[dalepres]

Very good analysis of real self-sustaining lifestyle. As a meat eater, I appreciate the open-mindedness and acceptance you have for those who make different choices.

[Lost-boys_EU]

Since I added some free range chickens to my garden, the garden is so much more in balance! Off course it's a beautiful and cosy site to see the chickens but they keep a lot of problems under control especially snales, spiders, aphid, ants etc. This is besides the great fertiliser.

[jeepdriver]

All good points, by the way. Something to consider after someone has done the homework you suggest, is to step back and consider just where the "sweet spot" is. To be 100% self sufficient you'd need to live like a neolithic hunter/gatherer. So ... where is the diminishing point of returns wrt expense/effort and gains?
For example, I am going to buy salt and matches, and not even try to make those myself. Sugar? Is making sugar from sugar beets too much effort? Skip sugar and just use honey from your hives? What about baking powder? Are all of breads going to be leavened (use yeast) if we can't get baking powder?
I think at some point you figure out a cash crop you can grow to barter with to get the things you can't produce yourself. Either that or you have a value-added skill, like turning milk into cheese, or grain in to beer.

[mannurse]

Meat eaters can do more with less land. Goats can convert food from non arable land. Poultry can be squeezed into gardens. Fish can be grown in greenhouses and ponds. You can feed rabbits weeds from your garden and feed catfish rabbit poop. Both of which can take up an IBC totes worth of floor space.

[Whitespike]

The whole of Denmark opened up again this week - for those with a Corona passport. Quitting my job, moving south (cheaper land) ASAP. 1.4 acres is all I can get. Looking forward to the next 4 years. So many miracles must happen.

[thatguychris]

Regarding grain, here's some simple math:

To do only 1 loaf of bread per week, you need about 55lbs of grain per year. It takes around 15-20 sq ft to grow 1lb on a typical homestead. Add to that the 10% extra needed to seed the crop for next year, you're looking at roughly 1200+ sq ft of grain field.

Now add any other baked goods, animals etc and the field needed expands greatly.

[theBorealShepherdess]

I live in Interior Alaska. We currently have a small place, just under 2 acres, where we've had chickens and sheep for a while. But we have a newly acquired larger property we hope to build on this year. It is virgin old growth boreal forest. Firewood will be easy enough, even for our long winters. The biggest issue is land for the sheep. Sheep books will tell you that you can keep 3 to 4 ewes and their lambs per acre. Up here, the growing season is short, so they spend more of the year on hay. Our goal is to eventually produce our own hay. So we will need substantially more acreage per animal than what would be recommended in more temperate zones.