A kind farmer friend has come and ploughed up half an acre of our 17 acres at our request. And that's the most mechanisation that this bit is going to get so it's over to manual labour now.
In this area we hope to grow some, if not all, of the feed for our animals. The animals currently number 5 hens, 3 geese and 2 pigs but we hope to move that to 50 chickens (for the table), 6 geese, 4 pigs (two for the table and two sows to keep for breeding), 2 sheep and 2 milker goats.
Seedwise I have bought 25kg of maize, 25kg sunflowers, 5kg mangelwurzels (mangolds?) and 5kg peas/beans. We were given 20kg of potatoes and I kept seed from last year of pumpkins and winter squashes (I know the squashes were F1 so it's anybodies guess what they'll produce!)
Today I was out planting the maize in rows, with a stick making 3cm (1inch) holes and spacing them 25cm (1ft) apart and I got to thinking (as you do when you're left in peace in nature). Is there a better way to do this? Can I broadcast sow maize/sunflowers/mangelwurzels? Maybe it's beter not to sow in blocks of one species? How do I keep the weeds down? Do I need to? Should I mulch?
Ok, I am not a farmer. This is my first foray into big cropping (that's big in my terms) and also I'm a beginner at permaculture. So guys, can you help me out? Any advice for planting? Have we done it all wrong by ploughing it in the first place

ops:? Yes I'd love to have a forest garden and there's time and space to develop that - but it does need time and our animals need fed now!
I'll owe a debt of gratitude that I can maybe pay forward by showing our WWOOFers in the future when I have more experience.