OK I should say can I afford to have animals?

So far I must say that I'm pleased that by sellings eggs and goat cheese it has been paying for the chicken and rabbit feed. I have yet to buy a load of goat grain to see how that gets paid for.

But there was a discussion this week amoung like-minded folks about the costs of raising animals...namely feed costs. Corn and soybeans are going through the roof and making it expensisve to raise your own meat, milk, and eggs. However grocery prices are rising fast also, and yet when you figure in the costs of organic fresh food, well I guess that raising your own isn't such a bad deal after all.

The trick for us is going to be the number of animals to feed cost ratio. In other words, extra animals must go. We can no longer afford to feed out goat kids for 9-12 months for the freezer. The amount of packaged meat vs the grain cost does not balance. So now we have to sell them very soon, or else.....you know. That isn't easy to do when they're still cute. We are already going through goat grain faster now that the kids are weaned. I will have to put in an order for 500 lbs at $110. I may buy part (16 percent protein) goat grain just for my milking does...and then feed the kids and buck a 10 percent all stock ration to save money. All Stock is around $7-8 for 50 lbs. If I had more pasture and less woods they could graze more.

I have 3 milking does but one is dried off and very old. She really needs culled as I don't know if she could handle another pregancy and her milk production was really poor this year. I'm thinking just 2 does are enough for our needs.

I started having the boys cut down our chicken flock to a more manageable size in preparation for my newer hens, which will start laying in July-August. I have 25 young hens and about 20 older hens and I go through almost 100 lbs of feed a week for all of them, at $20. I'm hoping that since we got rid of 6 hens that it will help. I plan on weeding out the non-productive looking hens and just have enough eggs for our family and 2 regular customers until the young hens start laying. There is no money in selling eggs. It just makes good use of extras. But I haven't had extras in ages! We're lucky to save the cracks for home use. It's a treat for us to eat eggs, good grief. That seems a little backward, y'know. We're trying to decide whether to have enough hens just for our egg needs or have enough to sell as well. I'd say if I'm not making profit why do it?

We already have the rabbits cut down to a pair of giant chinchilla bunnies named Jack and Jill, and they are very good at what they do. I will say that rabbit is the cheapest meat to raise! With a litter of 9 - 12 at least 3 times during warm months, it is very economical.( And yes it does taste like chicken.) A 50lb bag of feed at $11 lasts quite a while until there are little ones to raise, but that's for a brief time.

Soon folks won't be able to afford to raise livestock anymore.

Cinnamonhuskies:

There is no money in selling eggs

Some other comparisons that come to mind are that your eggs, milk and meat are healthier as you stated. I don't know what prices are like where you are but I know I pay $2 per dozen for farm fresh eggs (8 dozen a month), $5.40 a gallon for hormone free, non homogenised milk and when I do start getting half a cow that will run $3 a pound (I am paying no less than $1.99 a pound on sale for more suspicious meat).

I don't have the ability now to raise my own dinner but my parents are still considering it. I told them I can't physically help with the feeding and care but I am willing to pitch in on cost if I can benefit with healthy foods.

Dear CinnamonHuskies Michelle, Another factor is exactly your self-sufficiency.  You have meat & milk & eggs now, all that you need in case the grocery stores are closed fro a while -- or their prices are astronomical!  You'd have plenty of customers for your goat cheeses in such an event.  -- Of course, my readign comprehension may be abysmally low, but tha t is how your request for others to put on their thinkign caps seems to me to play out.  Love in Him, Deb

 I don't know how much room you have or what you're other practices are, but could you raise at least part of the feed? Chickens don't need bagged feed to be healthy. Corn, sorghum, things like that, don't take much space for a good return. I don't know about goats, but rabbits can also be fed from the field, both grain and a little green. As I said, I don't know your situation, but that's where I'd start looking as well as culling for the most efficient use of feed. 

I just got chickens this week and I hope to sell some eggs roadside next summer along with our veggies next summer. But I want them for our use and just because I have always wanted chickens.

 Egg prices here for local eggs have really gone up.  Last Sat, a dozen eggs were $5.00 at the local Farmers Market. Babs

well one way is to balance it by just having enough animals for your family only.  enough chickens for your family etc.  so you would still be self efficient but be supplying for your familys needs.

Not sure how much this could help offset some of the feed costs, but is there any kind of market for the animals' manure in your area? When my parents stopping having chickens (they got them for meat and ended up not having the heart to butcher them), they had to start paying for the manure fertilizer they used on their organic garden. And if you do end up having to to grow some of your own feed, at least you won't have to buy fertilizer to improve the soil and increase your yield.  

metaldog:

Not sure how much this could help offset some of the feed costs, but is there any kind of market for the animals' manure in your area?

I'm not sure about fertilizer....right now everything that comes out of the barn composts for a year, then is tilled back into the garden.

We have an 1/2 acre plot at a neighbor's house that is planted in seed corn for the animals. We also planted a small plot of Indian corn, which is currently less expensive than seed corn, higher in protein, and the animals like it just as well. If I had more pasture , I could range the animals more and that would help.

 Dreaming, I'd love to have the foreclosed vacant house next to my property....they have much more open acreage and a pole barn...we could move all the animals next door and demo the house. But even at $39,000 that they owed to the bank, we just don't have the money. (It hasn't had a realtors sign, just sits vacant. I don't understand how buying foreclosed properties work anyway.)

Deb, I guess I am forgetting about the self-suffiency factor if grocery stores shut down or food is unavailable for a period of time. It is nice to have it all on the hoof (or claw).

Besides growing your own grain, ask around and see if there is a grist mill anywhere near you.  I was talking to a woman at a re-enactment the other weekend and she works at a mill that makes grits.  A by-product of grits is pure cornmeal.  But they don't have as much demand for cornmeal as for grits, so they end up giving some of their cornmeal away to a local pig farmer who gives the employees pork in return.  If there is a grist mill near you, you might could get cornmeal for super cheap or even free. 

I remember from Laura Ingalls that they would give the chickens cornbread leftovers, so there's how you feed them cornmeal.  In the middle ages, there was a thing called "horse bread" and it was a type of bread full of different grains specifically made to feed horses.  So I'm sure you could feed goats corn mush and/or cornbread.