Oh, man, how daunting...I recently agreed to look again at 100 acres+ properties after I thought we'd agreed to downsize our vision to about 30! DP reckons he can take care of fences when he buys a portable sawmill (he hasn't even seen one in operation yet, so we can't count on this!), and that 50 head of steer will be very low-maintenance...but he's going to keep working and I'm supposed to raise our two children, contemplate a third and somehow finish my current degree and look at a fourth year (to actually make this study count toward a qualification...) as well as help look after 100 acres. Considering all I wanted from a move to acreage was to keep horses without having to agist (agisting only one horse now, but want my kids to ride and DP wants to have a horse but only if we own land), it's a big ask!
Just last night an acquaintance was telling me that maintaining her 12 acres was difficult, with just horses on it. And today another friend was saying that she gets help (cash in hand) to maintain her 40 odd acres that she keeps goats on, and sometimes the goats make mince meat of fences - if goats do that, we're going to spend a lot of quality time fixing cattle fencing...
That 6 acres of land in Tonimbuk is looking REALLY attractive...!
Sheesh, reading this I feel I've waded in way over my head...
Goats are much harder on fencing than cattle. Our fencing keeps the cattle at bay, but the goats have this way of finding one small hole and then trying to make it bigger. Could have cried when one got into our veggie patch and took out a 1/3 of the corn.
Maya, if he thinks that he is going to be able to contain 50 head of cattle, and steers at that, with timber fencing then he is in for a shock LOL. Cattle are fence wrecking buggers and he will find it very very hard to keep up with maintaining fences because they push up under them all the time. Plus there is NLIS (National Livestock Identification System) to worry about where all your livestock has to be ear tagged and you will have to have this if you are to sell livestock at market (which I assume is the plan because there is no point in having steers otherwise) as well as a property identification number and keep all the correct paperwork as well.
I can vouch for cattle being shockers with the fences... I often have a jersey in my front garden munching my lavender...
My friends up the road got a "hobbyfarm" she's an optometrist - they run 80 head of cattle so not much but her DH has a 7 day a week job on his hands. The noxious weeds, the feed, the maintenance of the animals and fencing. It's a big job. They have nuts too...
I would definitely rethink the big block if it's not going to be a full time job for one of you...
LOL Maya. 10-15 years ago it would have been an awesome idea and a lot of small-acreage farmers did quite well out of it, but there is so much new legislation now and laws that have to be adhered too that it isn't as simple as it used to be and that is without the full time job of maintaining them. Plus there is also the animal husbandry as well - you need to make sure that they are vacinated and drenched for worms and liverfluke etc and if you choose to do it organically you need to be able to have enough spare paddocks to rotate them to stop worm infestion and reinfestation and 100 acres is too small for that.
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I often have a jersey in my front garden munching my lavender... 
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