we have done it all.
These are my recommendations:
- forget cattle. You need a lot of land (5 acres per cattle, unless you want to buy hay all the time), a big truck, a cattle trailer, and it is REALLY hard to butcher them yourself and you need a BIG freezer to store all the meat (God forbid you lose power). To breed them you have to feed a bull all the time when you only need him once a year. They provide 5 gallons of milk a DAY+-. Way too much for most families. and they require vet assistance for castration, shots, etc If you really want cattle for meat, go cheap. I guarantee, unless you are really into beef, you will not taste the difference. We have had angus, longhorn, beef master, jersey, Holstein and all kinds of crosses. they all taste like beef... butcher before age 3 unless you want all ground beef then butcher at any age. Make sure you get the horns off or they will tear up your fences. If you get a jumper, he has to go right away or he will teach the others to jump. that's a nightmare... we never had a bull, just borrowed a neighbors.
- goats are great! dual purpose, meat and milk. whatever breed is best for your area. Learn how to disbud (you do not want horns), castrate, give shots, etc on your own. have 1 to 4 babies at a time. can get 1 quart to 1 gallon of milk a day, depending upon the breed, which is perfect for a family. uncut males taste terrible, so don't even try. easy to butcher yourself, so no butcher costs. Any age is o.k. to butcher if you stew most of the meat. meat is great for stews, especially.
- forget ducks. they are smelly and messy because they need a pond, whether a kiddie pool or a real pond. they also have a low egg to feed ratio because they eat more and waste more feed than chickens do. The meat is fatty and they don't provide nearly the amount of meat as a dual purpose chicken.
- chickens are great! If you get dual purpose birds (like orpington or barred rock), nipple drinkers and low-waste feeders. Rhode Island reds were mean. you will have to set up a light during winter months. avoid wood chicken houses as they breed lice. get a cheap foam incubator and hatch your replacements at least every 3 years, butchering the 4 year olds, as they start to lay less often at that age. roosters get mean when testosterone kicks in, about age 1.5. we butchered them by then.
- Tamworth pigs, for sure!! docile, easy keepers. can have 5 to 15 babies at a time. can castrate yourself (uncut males taste terrible unless you turn all the meat into heavily seasoned smoked sausage). they eat nearly anything, even better than chickens, and don't need much room. Ours got much bigger than average size. Grandma got to 700 lbs, while mamma was 600 lbs. can butcher at any age and size (smaller is easier), and the meat is always good. Better yet, hunting pigs is legal in most states year round, usually without a license. A neighbor of mine quite literally jumps on them and hog ties them. however, wild males taste horrible and its hard to tell male or female when hunting them.
- we did not raise sheep, but our neighbor did. He said the best tasting ones are blacks which don't need shearing. He sure was right! Bought 2 from him and they were the best lamb we have ever eaten. I don't know the breed name. best when eaten before age 1.5.
- forget turkeys. the stupidest animals we ever raised, got sick a lot, and ate like horses. the eggs were good, but only got them 6 months of 12.
- forget meat rabbits unless you have no room for anything else. We had californians and new zealands. I calculated it cost $15 in feed alone to raise a rabbit big enough to feed a family (in a stew), at about 1 year old. And you have to keep all the breeders apart or they fight, eat each others babies, and get sick. Hard to supplement with table scraps because you have to be careful what you feed them. babies have to be brought inside during the cold months, taken out for feedings every 2 hours. water lines/bottles freeze easily. Lot of work.
- garden for sure, using all the manure from your animals. Goat, rabbit and sheep manure can go directly on the garden. cow and chicken must cook for 3 to 6 months or it will burn the garden.
- orchard for sure. learn to can.
- learn to sew and mend.
These are our experiences. Good luck
Topic: Perpetual Subsistence Farming and Gardening (Read 2910 times)