Homesteading Acreage

When you talk about how many acres are needed to get off the grid and become self sufficient, the battle begins between those who say you only need 1 acre and those who say you need much, much more.

Actually, both camps are correct. It all depends on how you plan to live and how self sufficient you truly want to be. You can live on a single acre and raise animals, grow crops, and build a home.

But you have to take many things into consideration – such as raising a dairy cow. If you want to cut costs for hay, then it has to be able to graze in a pasture. If that’s the case, then it needs plenty of room and an acre (that houses your home, garden and other elements) wouldn’t be quite enough.

It’s not impossible though. If you have the means to buy feed and hay instead of allowing grazing, then you could own a dairy cow on a small property like this – but your costs and inconvenience would increase, as would your reliance on the outside world.

It also depends on how large your family is and how many people you have to sustain on your property. It’s going to take more of everything to support a family of five than it would a couple.

Some people want a large piece of property simply for the barrier it offers to not have neighbors bumping right up against your property. This could make a difference in a civil unrest situation or in a crisis when people are fighting for survival supplies.

You can’t neglect the fact that price will factor into the equation. Unless your pockets have no bottom to them, then you might have to consider how much you’ll be paying per acre – or how much money in taxes the government will require from you each year.

Some families opt to invest in large plots of land so that when their children are grown, the family can expand and build a second, third or fourth home on the property. This is what families use to do in the old days, but now they’re all spread out across the country.

Some preppers will tell you that the size of your land is nowhere near as important as the quality of it. If it offers more than one entry to the property, rich soil, and a water source – that’s worth more than a larger plot.