Choosing our farm plan

Before we bought any animals we had to look at our land, consider what we had to work with and create a workable farm plan.  We have 26 acres of total land, a tool shed, house and creek on the property.  Useable land is only around 20 acres when you cut out lawn, creek, low land areas, and tool shed.  We currently have pastureland, lawn and forestland as our vegetation areas.  The lawn areas will be mowed regularly, the pastureland we will graze livestock and birds, and the forest areas we will select-cut unwanted trees (thorn trees, misc. trash trees) and limb-up standing trees to establish good wildlife areas and additional grazingland.  Wetland areas will be planted to native vegetation to encourage wildlife habitat.  Our farm plan centers around a grass-fed pasture operation, grazing cows, sheep, pigs, and poultry.  Doing this will lower our financial investment in expensive machinery, buildings and other costs that are related to starting a conventional farming or ranching enterprise.