Joseph Lewis

So what would your desired community be like? Do you have experience with cattle? What about running a dairy?

Vechur cattle don't have the market cornered on A2 milk, many other breeds have the A2 milk. Dexters can go either way on the A2 gene and tests are available to find out if your cow is A2 or not. About the only breed that doesn't carry the A2 trait is the Holsteins, and that is where most of the milk comes from commercially. No need to be looking for a rare breed if you believe this milk is healthier.

I have raised Dexters for four years. I have experience with other cattle as well, but the Dexter breed is what I chose for my small operation. I have been very happy, I rotation-ally graze and the only other thing my cattle get besides an occasional treat is hay and minerals. I like their smaller easier to work with size. They are easy on the land compared to the larger breeds, and are very hardy. The only thing that has kept me cattle in during this whole time is an electric fence, it cost less than $500 for the initial setup. Cattle are the easiest critter I have ever had to fence in, wish my goats, sheep or chickens were this easy.

I have 23 head, building up to 50 cow calf pairs eventually. My cheapest Dexter cost $250, my most expensive was $900. Most were purchased as heifers and hauled home in the back of a small truck. Half of my Dexters are registered. I don't think you can find a cheaper registered breed than Dexter's, and the unregistered ones seem to go a little cheaper than a run of the mill Angus. They would work very well for the average small operation in a good climate.

I have not been a member of this forum long, but have had chickens a long time. Here are a couple of my PVC chicken tractors:

The size difference is pretty big. The goose eggs have a much tougher shell and are substatially larger, but to me they taste the same, both are way better than store bought eggs.

On another forum a similar question was asked and I got curious how much acreage I was using for my chickens. Most of my chickens are free range but I keep some in tractors. I measured it on google earth and my side yard is 1/3 of an acre. On that side yard I tractored 3 turkeys, about 8 Muscovy ducks and roughly 50 chickens. My tractors are 5'5" wide and 14' long. I moved them everyday and I still had to mow the side yard to keep up with the grass. I have good ground and live in northern Missouri. Ramp that up and it is 183 head of poultry on an acre and it would still need mowed. 400 may or may not be possible, but I bet you could get close in the growing season, at least with good land and sufficient rainfall.

My chickens have spent all winter in my garden doing the work for me. I use 5x14 chicken tractors that have about 30 birds in them. I follow the chicken tractors putting down cardboard and cover the cardboard with 10 inches of mulch. The chickens work great, depending on conditions they can destroy the 5x14' area in less than a day in wet weather, or several days in dry weather. They don't dig deep, they only destroy the surface. But I have used them to go over sod with good results.

I think chicken tractors would work best for this use as it keeps them in a small area. Here is what can be done in short order in good working conditions, left a little longer and there is no vegetation:

We had some problems with egg eating for the first time last year. In order to catch the culprits I used a syringe with a needle to inject eggs with food dye. The idea was to mark the evil dooer(s) and extract revenge. For some weird reason the egg eating stopped that day and I don't know why except maybe they caught on to my plan. I still think it would be a good way to catch the guilty party, but I didn't get to test it this time.

The best website I have found for looking for real estate is www.landsofmissouri.com Lands of Missouri , the site includes every property listed through any major and the majority of minor realtors as well as many for sale by owner properties. You can refine your search in many ways, location, acreage, price per acre, utilities, housing, etc.. You do have a tall order as you are asking for a lot at that price. I searched on that site and found 45 properties in Northern Missouri that were atleast two acres and have a house. Many of those properties may be too far south for you depending on where you are looking.

Missouri will have more freedom than Iowa and lower taxes in just about every comparable way. Iowa isn't a bad state, but Missouri has more freedom. A great way to compare states is the site http://freedominthe50states.org/ 50 State Freedom. You can even run comparisons based on what laws are most likely to affect you. Overall Missouri is ranked #7 and Iowa is ranked #25. Iowa has one advantage to Missouri when it comes to laws in my opinion, Iowa doesn't have vehicle safety inspections which I consider a pain. There may be others, but overall Missouri is more free. Iowa is more liberal than Missouri, so you will get more money through state programs there than in Missouri. Some utilities in Missouri have rebates and such for energy efficient purchases, that will depend on what area you move to.

Thanks for the interest, I will no longer consider any candidate after this Tuesday, 1-27-15.

I will post when I find the best candidate and I am no longer looking. We figured we would allow two weeks for those interested to contact us. In the meantime we will be talking with those who have expressed interest and try to find the best fit for both parties. Our goal is to have both parties benefit from the arrangement. Thanks for your interest.