Thus the question mark. How many acres to raise a steer? One or so to pasture but the grass only grows six months out of the year here.

Also my guess is Hobbie is asking about a SHTF situation. If that happens forget about modern yields. To be totally self sufficient I'd want at least 5. 10 so I could raise for barter

That's what I was thinking too. Basically going back to 1920 or whatever and nothing but critter poop going on the fields and gardens. Hobbie, you could also raise rabbits for meat but trust me, they're a B**** to milk!

As for the OP's ?, I find it creepy.

You can google acres per cow in yer area. Yes you want a cow. Pork is good, but so are veal meatballs. Agree billions around the world may subsist on only a couple acres but how varied nutritious and delicious is their diet? I’m telling you livestock is gonna eat up a lot around a 5 acre spread. Also we talking corn belt conditions not west of the big muddy.

Hawker, in your opinion, in a SHTF scenario. How much land to feed a family of 4, with a milk cow, hogs, chickens, rabbits, a typical self-sufficient homestead.

no doubt -- the cities around here are buying up all the water rights out of the rivers and many wells also. --- Remember the old days of shoot-outs over water rights -- welcome to 2030.

Just got off the phone with my 87 year old dad who grew up on a 40 acre farm. He said 20 acres was cotton/corn fields. 10 acres were wooded. With 10 being utilized for garden, pigs, chickens, cow, and horses/mules. He couldn't recall if any was used for hay or if they acquired it from some other source. He was one of 10 kids.

There is ALOT of wiggle room in my standard of living, as is the case with most folks. I don’t need a cow. I do like bacon and scrapple but those can be worked around.

Gates gonna be a pot farming tycoon.
Sorta like Frank Zappa moving to Montana to be a dental floss tycoon.

I’m going with 25 acres final answer.

Lol! I would think that is doable. I would want a milk cow as well. We milked goats for a little while back in the day and it took some getting used to.

Since this morphed into a SHTF thread I will play....

First off you have to be abe to protect 25 acres. That might be tough when there is no recorder's office to say its yours, and no one will care or honor it. Think Indian bands raiding settler farms except this time it will be BLM/ANTIFA types.

Second, what time period do you think a SHTF scenario will land us 1930 ? 1492 ? better plan on being a hunter gatherer, farming is not easy especially in the north, mother nature can put you out of business fast as well. It would be nice to have a few pigs and a cow, they called those "rich" people back then that had to be able to protect them from hungry animals and people.

I live in a unique situation. I have a view of the diet of the ancestors here and not one of them had a cow, pig,chicken,or a garden. They subsisted on mostly meat,fish, waterfowl,and some greens and berries when available (three months out of the year.)

They moved around during different seasons to take advantage of abundance wherever it was available. We would most likely have the best shot at survival doing the same.

All of you wanting a cow will need a bull too. Without calving periodically say every other year or so they will dry themselves off. Then you just have beef Unless you buy a different one every year or so and if that is the case then you are not alone and subsiding. Need boars for the sows too and roosters etc. Not easy to carve out some hams and have a pig live. Eggs make more since and chickens are much more efficient at converting feed into human food.

Bryce

good eggs are one of the best sources of vitamins/protein/fat that you can eat....

Not really a SHTF scenario, but if BG is taking farmland out of the loop folks better figure out how to grow some food. They will need it and there may be a demand they can make a little money on.

Of course I will be alarmed when there’s no food on the shelves or no supplies to preserve food such as canning lids. I’m just saying our current practices have negative impacts and limits.

I’m not familiar with a plan to reduce the world population by 90% so that’s news to me. I do think we have plenty of people on the planet right now and some certain sects of the population and certain countries could sure help all of us out if they would slow down their reproductive rates etc.

Happy trapping! ScottW