I just wanted to ask for some opinions in how much space a mini needs.we are moving to a larger house to accomodate room for our baby on the way..and will be losing a lot of land.i have 10 minis...and my husband has asked me to sell a few.we will only have a 2 acre pasture.i can afford feed and hay if theres not enough grass...i dont want to sell any of my babies but will if I have to
..is it possible to keep them comfortable and healthy with that little land? Opinions please...
Although we raise cattle, I only have about an acre or maybe two to use for the minis, and they seem to have plenty of room. Of course I have to feed hay just about year round. For the most part, they reside in 4 drylot pens plus barn/shelter area; two are 48x96', one 48x48' and one 16x48'. Not drawn to scale, but here is a drawing of most of my pens; I have use of the mini pen (48x96' plus barn area), Dakota's pen (16x48'), part of the cattle shed and adjoining working pen (48x96' plus the shed - when we work cows, the horses are locked in their stall in the corner of the barn), and the other pen isn't connected.
An acre is 43, 560 square feet; the total for my pens plus barns is about 15, 300 square feet, so only about 1/3 acre. they seem to get enough exercise in their pens plus they have access to a small amount of pasture (its our hay yard where we stack the cattle hay in winter). I honestly don't know how much "pasture" I use, as I move portable panels around all summer; they are in their drylots at night for safety. If you set up the property right, while you'll have to feed hay year round, your minis should have enough land to move around and excercise adequately. You can always move in and see how well it works for you before you decide if you need to sell anyone to keep them all happy. Oh, and I have 12 minis, currently.
If you divide up the 2 acres into 4 1/2 acre pens you can rotate them through and allow the grass tomgrow back in sections otherwise you are going to have one large drylot fairly quickly. But you sure can keep 10 Minis on 2 acres.
Thank you for your replies!! Im going to try to talk my hubby into letting them all stay. I was thinking I had to have 1/2 acre per mini. I have run 4 minis on an acre before..& they had little grass.it really doesnt bother me about the grass.we just dont want to overrun ourselves with them.lol
Thank you for your replies!! Im going to try to talk my hubby into letting them all stay. I was thinking I had to have 1/2 acre per mini. I have run 4 minis on an acre before..& they had little grass.it really doesnt bother me about the grass.we just dont want to overrun ourselves with them.lol
You might want to check the covenants for your new house, some are restrictive as to how many animals you can have per acre. And, some covenants list minis as exotic, others as livestock; so you might want to check into it.
We lived there before...the hurricane messed it up...so we moved into a singlewide we plopped on some land.we were gonna rent the other place out after it was fixed...but decided to go back with lil one coming...i bought more minis when we moved. We werent planning on going back...but its larger for us...smaller for our critters.we had 5 before.
Thanks eagle...i believe I will try the rotation..and have a few small paddocks to separate a few out for foaling...weanlings etc. here is what the property looks like now.we sowed it,and then the hurricane came.we havent had a way.to cut all the pasture..they will be in heaven a while anyways.lol
If you divide up the 2 acres into 4 1/2 acre pens you can rotate them through and allow the grass tomgrow back in sections otherwise you are going to have one large drylot fairly quickly. But you sure can keep 10 Minis on 2 acres.
..is it possible to keep them comfortable and healthy with that little land? Opinions please...
