Another lurker!

Yes, I confess, I too am another lurker on the forum. [] Love reading the up's, downs, in's and out's of other's on lifestyle blocks. We have ten acres in North Canterbury. At the moment we have nothing on it - we've had a few sheep through (which we were paid for lol) and have taken hay off it, but we wanted to spend a full year, to see the 'lie of the land' so to speak.

Hi Trace, welcome to lsb and thanks for de-lurking

It's a very good idea to get an idea of the lie of the land before commiting to livestock - you'll know the worst about how wet, dry and windy it gets.

Cheers
Kate

Welcome Trace,

Ditto to what Kate says, it's hard to resist but a really good idea if you've never had livestock before.

My own personal belief is that it's better to be understocked and have some feed go to waste than be overstocked and having to buy in feed.

Hi Trace
Good to see another lurker join the forum. I will watch with great interest to see how you get on as we are still in the dreaming stage.
Ailsa

Hi Trace, another from North Canty here, how far north are you? We are around Ohoka-Mandeville area.

In the 19 years that we have been here, and the 10 years or so that my parents had an LSB near Thames, every year was and continues to be different, so having no animals is a bit pointless in working out what can or cannot be run. If you happen to have reliable irrigation then this will take out some of the variability, but plants tend to grow better with rainfall rather than irrigation.
The important thing to not waste too much money is being prepared to quit animals even if the price is lower than they cost, and to not having unsaleable pets .... like Miss Piggy, or 10 or 15 of the donkeys, or the Shetland that still hasn't got a round dogmeat tuit, or .....
So, on your 10 acres, of which 1 acre is the house and garden, you can theoretically run 9 cattle. So halve that and get 4 beef calves, or preferably 2 calves and 2 yearlings. Next autumn buy 2 more calves, and sell the now almost 2 year olds to the freezing works just before you have to start feeding out.
Also, check with the neighbours about how good this season has been.

Sometimes "pets" are what keep a person going, and there's no price you can put on that.

There are many good reasons to wait, and one of them is to get an idea of your land, watch what neighbours do etc, all of which will be relevant to your block.

A year gives you time to research what kind of animals you want to look at, to meet breeders or join a breed society or head out to the local A+P show, or you might find out you're a huge fan of trees and want to plant them instead. You can look at other people's farm set-ups and perhaps change fencing or put in a race or yards.

You will get an idea of prevailing wind, strength, effects etc (affecting soil moisture, shelter options), you can talk to locals about common weather features - contrary to LRs experience, both my parent's farm and my block, and those of my block-living friends have annual weather patterns, the occasional flood etc ,and that has had a big influence on the stock they finally bought, how many and how they grazed their property.

Yep all good points people. To be honest our land is just for pets - the animals that we do get will be here for life, we didn't buy for self sufficiency or to make money off it, just for a change from a hectic lifestyle. We are ex Aucklander's, however where we lived there, we were still on water tanks, our own sewrage system etc but in a little community - which is rapidly turning into a bigger community. Shifting down here means that we don't need both of us working extremely long hours - both of us work, but myself only part time and my DH much better hours and a lot less traffic than up north. I worked with TB's for a number of years both here and overseas, so have some knowledge of rotating stock etc. Never kept chickens though, and keen to do so, so am soaking up all the info that keeps popping up on here.

To the other N Cantabrians - we are in Swannanoa.

Goats!, don't overlook goats as pets, just a couple to keep each other company, they will give you cuddles and talk to you and just LOVE treats and a scratch and are far smaller than other livestock that will do the same thing... I get cuddles off my girls (and boy) and it's just SO nice. They all want a cuddle so it often turns into a group hug. Very nice! You can sit out in the paddock with them and watch them while you just get some 'down time'. Just the best!!!!! You don't need a farrier to come out and do their hooves, you can do them yourself, just like clipping toe nails. All they want is something nice to eat, a shelter and water and a safe paddock. They are also very good at pointing out weak bits in your fences.... and will show you where they are... from the other side of the fence ha ha ha. If they have company and plenty to eat, they don't usually stray. Oooh go on, think about a couple of goats.. Ferals make great pets, and raising a feral kid or two is just the bees knees. They become tame in minutes, especially when they learn what the bottle represents and it's a human that gives it to them. OOooh you will be 'their mummy' in seconds!

Have I helped to convince you about goats!!! We at 'Team Goat' on the LSB vote Goats!

Go with the chooks too, they're funny. Make yourself a seat top park on to watch their antics. Half a walnut in its shell and tossed out to them is like watching chickens play rugby. They don't score any points for the team but they do score themselves bits of walnut. One chicken will go for the walnut and run with it until her beak pinches off a bit of walnut and the nut drops to the ground. Another chook, chasing the one who had the nut, will swoop from behind her, grab the nut from the ground and run with it until her beak pinches through whatever nut is left in the shell... etc etc etc until there is no nut left.

Great fun!

Yakut

LOL I'd heard about the houdini capabilities of goats [] but hey I will keep them in mind. I've seen some really cool paddocks for goats complete with big rocks, wooden reels etc for them to climb on. And from what I've seen of chickens there certainly is a 'pecking order' so I'm thinking the walnut trick is pure entertainment for us humans lol.

If you have goats you will have to work out what to do with the leader if it is a houdini. I cannot keep most of our goats in with a 7000 volt hotwire, or with deer netting. I got rid of the worst a couple of years ago, with huge protestations from The Manager, but the others have now made other holes.
Goats are a "never again" as far as I'm concerned.

Yakut;309484 wrote: Go with the chooks too, they're funny. Make yourself a seat top park on to watch their antics. Half a walnut in its shell and tossed out to them is like watching chickens play rugby. They don't score any points for the team but they do score themselves bits of walnut. One chicken will go for the walnut and run with it until her beak pinches off a bit of walnut and the nut drops to the ground. Another chook, chasing the one who had the nut, will swoop from behind her, grab the nut from the ground and run with it until her beak pinches through whatever nut is left in the shell... etc etc etc until there is no nut left.

Great fun!

Yakut

ha ha ha, that sounds like a good game for the girls to play! I have some walnuts here, so i shall give that a try and watch them. I sat out watching the girls free roaming the other day - it was so nice. The white girls decided to dust bath in the garden and were filthy when they had finished! Some of them come over to me to say hi, then wander off and do more scratching. It's quite a nice break from gardening to just watch the chooks. And i always thank them for the eggs they have laid when I go and collect them.