I might be in over my head . . .

Hi guys, proud new owner of 1.2Ha block just outside Helensville. We moved from a rather large section on the north shore, so I already had some chooks and have been gardening for a few years.

The land is mainly 1 large paddock with a house in the top corner, so am thinking of running a couple of beef 'cows' as lawnmowers.

There are also a few fenced off areas outside the main paddock that are very badly overgrown, grass about knee high at least, was thinking about getting a goat or two that I can move around these areas to keep them in check. Is this a reasonable idea ?

Forum is great, have been lurking and reading quietly for months now.

Welcome kernels, you'll get plenty of advice here. Sorry, I can't give you any info on goats, only run alpaca.

Welcome ....it can be daunting with a large section but you will soon be wanting more land look into smaller cattle such as dexters or low lines easier to handle and manage on 1.2 hectares.

Have to agree with kindajojo, smaller cattle with a nice temperament. A lot of the areas around Hellensville have struggled in this summer dry. You would also need more than one paddock to rest an area from grazing to let it recover.
You might do better to wait until further into winter to buy animals so you will know you will have enough grass, but i would definitely be wanting to find a fencer first and make some smaller paddocks
Also do you have yards as cattle or sheep require to be yarded from time to time

Some goats are a huge amount of work, and can be very annoying getting in and out of areas that you don't want them. They also fight amongst themselves and beat up the sick one. Goats are high up on my "never again" list.
Cattle will deal to rough grazing. On 5 acres, two steers would do well but sometimes you would have to buy hay for them. To use the grass efficiently you would need to get electric fencing. Personally, I would buy one calf (which will now be about 7-8 months) and one yearling (now about 18 months old), both steers, both beef probably Angus or Hereford as they can be made quite tame. My experiences with Galloways and Highlands have not been happy ones. Next year at beef calf weaning time, buy another calf, and kill the oldest one for your freezer.
You will need access to someones cattle yards, but as they will not be breeding animals you won't need to TB test them.
Remember that you are absolutely prohibited from selling meat, unless you have the right government and local certification.

1.2 ha is not 5 acres, more like 3.
Once you take out the non grazing areas, eg house etc , you probably have just over 2 which is the bottom limit on that size of property to run two cattle.
You could well struggle with having sufficient grass

1.2 hectares (3 acres) is what we had in the Waikato, lots you can do with it. Over time you'll get some ideas for how to lay it out - I found lots of smaller and strategically shaped/placed paddocks was the best

No rush to do anything, live with it a bit first and you will work out what is needed and what will work for you guys.

Thanks everyone for the response, reggit, I think tat will be my plan for now, we've only been here 2 weeks, so I will sit back and just keep an eye on things for a bit.

I had a great chat with another lsb member about goats last night and have now basically gone off the idea. I think I will start with a ride-on-mower for the flatter parts around the house.

My neighbor is running two beef animals on roughly the same size land, we haven't really had a chance to talk yet, but I might also ask him whether he could move them around my land a bit in the meantime to keep the grass down a bit.

Thanks again for the input everyone.

fine advice Reggit.. don't know where I read it when we first moved into ours.. but we had the advice to do nothing for a year.. get to know where the sun is throughout the year.. which parts get boggy/flood in winter.. where grows best etc

of course we ignored all that and stuck the race/gates thru the boggiest, natural spring, wet area on the place.. .. we float thru gates from paddock to paddock in winter[]

In my experience, goats are the way to go, exceptionally low maintenance, if you get one that jumps, put it in the freezer before it teaches the others. Other than that, you trim their hooves every couple of months and that is it. They need little grass, even on about 3/4 acre of grazing this year we have still been mowing it through "drought"

[:0]goats are a no no unless you have excellent fences. I would rather have kune kune pigs, but then these are probably just as hard to keep in.

Cattle and electric fences are easy, but they have big appetites and need supplementary feed during summer.

Sheep are very easy but are not so good on the rough grazing. Get a neighbour to mow the grass to get rid of the rough stuff and go with sheep?

Stay away from IRD, grow as much of your own food as possible and you will end up with an enjoyable property.

Longridge has stated on his post in this thread that if they are not breeding g cows they do not have to be tb tested. I thought all cattle had to be tested every 3 years.

No Bev Hawkins, male cattle dont need testing and you only need to have testing done if you are breeding.
Its on the TB forms that they send out to you if you are in a TB free area as you are
It could be different in areas still with TB

muri;490749 wrote: No Bev Hawkins, male cattle dont need testing and you only need to have testing done if you are not breeding.
Its on the TB forms that they send out to you if you are in a TB free area as you are
It could be different in areas still with TB

If in doubt, check with your LOCAL TbFree people. We have always have to have steers destined for the freezer checked, and around here, which is not a movement-controlled area, it's usually done annually.

Sorry, meant to do a welcome post first... welcome, kernels!

If you can find a copy of the old John Seymour Self Sufficiency book, he has a variety of suggested layouts for different sizes of properties, which tend to best utilise the space.