re: Society breaks down and you have to make it in a subsistence agriculture situation

Minimum Standards:
1 Cow - 2 Acres or 1 Acre split during winter for 1/2 bedding and 1/2 rye grass.

10 Goats/Sheep - 1 Acre

5 Chickens for eggs only - 5'x5' coup + 20' run. (probably need 50 meat chickens for family for the year but they'll only be fed for 4 months).

Animal feed - 1 Cow + 10 Goats + Chickens = ~2 Acres of Corn

Garden - 1/4 acre per person per year. You'd have to jar/can and make sauces, salsas, jelly, jams, pastes, etc.


I'd say a MIN of 10 acres to live off grid without contact from outside world but if you can afford 100 acres you open yourself up to hunting -- deer, wild pig, and etc besides farming.

I could do it on what I have now. I have 4 acres and access to another 5. I would have as big of a garden as I could manage, along with some sort of hoop houses for early and late season growing. I would raise both chickens and rabbits. With the use of the rabbits manure and scraps from the garden, I would raise red worms for fish bait and for vermicompositing and helping to feed the chickens. I would dig a root cellar early in the process for long term storage.

Outside of the digging the root cellar, I've already done everything on the list at one point or another, and have that knowlede.

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What is the minimum amount of acreage you need to make it?

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Depends on how many folks you are feeding, quality of soil, and general climate. Generally speaking though, a single person can survive off of a quarter acre to half acre.

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Hence my mentioning of permaculture.

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My man.

Check out Sepp Holzer if you aren't already familiar.

No one mentioned perhaps the easiest and least expensive means for protein: rabbits. I raised meat rabbits for a time and they will eat nearly anything green. I feed them grass clippings, hedges, garden waste you name it. They’re quite, clean, hardy and breed like, well, rabbits. Two bucks and one doe could easily provide two rabbits a week conservatively. It is easy to upscale as well. The waste is a cold manure so it can be used immediately to increase crop yields. I had New Zealand Whites and they were slaughter size ( 4-5lbs) in about 10-14 weeks. Each doe averaged 8-10 kits per litter up to 4-6 cycles a year.

Let’s say you grow rice. A very very crappy stand of rice might yield 5 barrels per acre. Like I’d imagine most people who could survive long enough to harvest a crop following an apocalyptic type event could achieve this. What else would you have to do?

That’s 500lb of rice on 1 acre. So depending on how fat you are, do the math.

All I grow is various types of peppers so I would have to do my best to barter those for some toilet paper and meat

There’s a lot of factors like number of people you are feeding and what kind of preserving abilities you have access to.

The army that I raise will plunder your crops

Not sure an exact figure, but it wouldn't be a very big area I don't think. I think you could feed a family of 4 on maybe 3 or 4 acres maybe. That should be big enough to raise some chickens and a few pigs and have a decent enough garden for fruits and veggies. Idk maybe 5 acres and still have room to rotate crops every other year where you don't deplete the soil.

ETA you could definitely do it on less than 5 acres but 5 acres would be big enough to give you some options and variety where you aren't eating the same 3 or 4 things every day. Something that size would let you keep living without making a huge sacrifice in you quality of life I think.

Bout Forty acres and a mule with about 3 horses and 8 head of cattle. Need to rename my son Hondo and teach him to be fast with a gun.