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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Rob, I swear our homesteads are very similar...
My front pasture is also 7 acres.  Mine is mostly flat, but there is a
hill on the north side that is almost too steep to mow with a tractor.
Basically, my pasture is shaped kind of like the state of Illinois with
the long Indiana border to the north and the Mississippi River side to
the South, the river representing my creek.
When we fenced the pasture, we fenced inside our property line by 8 feet
 to make an alley that runs along the north side.  Originally there was
to be a new barn in the Chicago area that hooked up to the alley.  The
main pasture area would be divided into paddocks with gates to the
alleyway.  I designed it so that when a gate was opened, it closed off
one passageway creating a chute that funnels the sheep.  I hope that
makes sense.
Anyway, that was the original plan, to create about 5 paddocks in the 7
acre field that could be used for rotational grazing.  I did something
similar when I had the sheep, but I did not use the alleyway as I
described above.
While I still have that plan in the back of my mind, now I have
incorporated silviculture into the master plan.  The easternmost 2 acres
has the best/most soil of the pasture, and I will plant my trees there
in a grid that provides tractor access for harvesting later as well as
a visual screen for privacy.
I can't till my pasture-too rocky-and it really can't be hayed either at
this point-at least with mechanized balers.
My paddocks/fields were just over an acre in size for no other reason
than fencing ease and expense and pasture maintenance.  Where I put the
dividers depended on the hill, how thickly the grass grew in certain
paddocks, etc.

Robert Walton wrote:
> I'm finally at the point where I've got the time to divide up the 
> front 7 acres of my land. It's all one big field, but it's hilly land
>  so it's not just so easy to divide it up into areas that make sense 
> and can easily be tilled, etc.
>
> I measured and marked off a plan today that would be a start at this 
> and leave 4 acres or so just as is for pasture.
>
> I end up with three 1/2 acre fields. One is nice bottom land, one is 
> long and narrow, flat at the top of the hill. The other is irregular,
>  sloped to the south.
>
> This plan came about because of the strip of trees I'm going to plant
>  where it's trying to erode off the side of the hill. I have that in 
> there and then the rest of the area, I can divide up in to similar 
> pastures or fields when I get around to it. Until then it's all one 
> pasture.
>
> I'm thinking that a 1/2 acre field is a good size. Makes a nice small
>  pasture to rotate and is big enough to plant crops in. One reason
> that I wanted to dived in to (roughly) 1/2 acre plots it to be able
> to know how much seed or what ever I'd need to plant.
>
> What sizes of fields are others using?
>
> Rob - Va

--
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius
will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone
are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve
the problems of the human race"

~ Calvin Coolidge