Modern Homesteading Today
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Livestock
A homesteader without livestock only has vegetables to put on the table. Even if you are a vegetarian there is an amazing amount of joy that comes from having livestock or animals on the farm. Animals and rural living just go together – that’s the way it is!
Before we start talking livestock we need to remind ourselves that all animals need some kind of housing. Do I need a small chicken coop, a small barn or lean-to, or a larger dairy barn? The types of animals I want to have on my homestead will affect the kind of housing and fencing I require, and the type of housing or fencing I already have may affect what kind of animals I should purchase. This may be different if you have a large building or fencing budget?
While we are talking about livestock we need to examine what kind of animals I want and why we have them. If you just want pets that is great as long as you can afford too feed them so why not? If you want a few animals for your own meat, then that is different from raising a herd for profit.
Most homestead farms tend to have cattle, wild hogs or pigs, sheep, rabbits, horses, and poultry such as chickens, turkeys and ducks for profit or for meat. Homesteaders have many choices to make if they want to make a profit because livestock prices do not often do well, and local cultural traditions and type of farmland often dictate what you raise for that profit.
The nice thing about homesteading is that you are trying to live off the land and so you can have a variety of animals in small enclosures without laying out huge wads of cash for full scale barns.
Animals that need very little space are goats, pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks and turkeys and rabbits. All of these can be kept in an enclosure with some type of housing that keeps them dry during the rains and out of the wind during the colder months if we winter them.
Many people in the colder regions buy chicks and baby animals in the spring and sell or butcher them in the fall.
Farm Animals
Goats
My favorite animals are goats. Goats kept in a well fenced in area are fun farm animals to have.
Since were talking about goats why not a milk goat? One can usually buy them for around $100 to $150 in the milk stage and they will give you more milk than you can drink in a day. The best time to buy a milk goat is just after they had a kid. At first I let the kid suck, and I draw milk. That way, if you have to go away and miss a milking, the kid can keep the Nanny from bursting.
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We brought a few goats home this way in the back of a king cab Ford Ranger. They seem to love the ride. This goat gives us plenty of milk and cheese for us and to feed the hog.
Some people prefer to sell the extra milk but in our area it is a long ways to transport milk on a regular basis and the population is very small so we milk fed our pig. We saved hundreds of dollars on gas and in the end we got well fed pork for the table.
Sheep
Many people also love sheep. They are docile animals and the lambs are real cute.
Sheep also need to be fenced in for their protection. Wolves, wild dogs, and coyotes all love to eat sheep. Homesteaders raise sheep primarily for their meat as the wool doesn’t often fetch good prices. Sometimes the mother rejects the lamb and it is necessary to bottle feed it. While that can be an extra chore each day, the children sure love them as was my pleasure during my childhood.
Cattle
On a spring summer day there is nothing as pleasing to see a cattle grazing in the pasture. Cattle are raised by many people as a source of income and meat. If a person can afford it, and they have plenty of pasture or hay land they can make increasing profits each year, providing all goes well.
Poultry
A good homestead livestock is chickens. Chickens provide meat and eggs. They are easy to butcher and are small enough that you can do one or two as you want them for the oven.
Chickens are easy to fence in but quite often it is the critters that get in. Weasels, raccoons, foxes, are all varmints that need to be kept out. One way to control this is to make sure the fencing goes down into the ground, or the bottom is piled up with rocks or dirt. It is also wise to put netting over the cage to keep hawks and eagles out.
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Ducks are also a pleasure as they graze around on the grass. A dugout or lagoon is not necessary. As long as they have water to drink they will graze just fine.
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Turkeys are large birds and fill a roaster nicely but are difficult to raise as chicks. They require heat lamps, plenty of feed and water at first but they are worth having if you have enough electricity to raise the chicks.
There are other varieties such as guinea fowl, wild turkeys, swans, emus, ostriches. These specialty birds require more research and may be harder to market in your area.
A good rule of thumb is to stick to what you will eat or what will put dollars in your pocket.
Hogs or Pigs
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Every hog starts out as a weanling pig on our homestead. We personally do not winter any animals becuase it gets very cold in the winter (-45-55F with wind chills) and the cost of large buildings does not make it profitable for the homesteader.
In the above picture we are transporting a very nice size weanling in a cage on the truck to transport home. Four months later it was placed in our freezer. It kept us well fed until other livestock was available. We fed it only grain and lots of garden produce, plus milk from our goat. It was very lean and our cherry smoked bacon was better than you can buy in the store at a fraction of the price and it never ate any hormones or commercial grains.
Horses
Some people love to have horses for riding or for pulling equipment or logs. Horses for some people even bring sizable profits. But horses eat a lot of hay in the winter and bring little in return in the way of milk or meat.
Rabbits
Some people raise rabbits for meat or to sell as pets. They are easy to raise and make good pets and that is alright until when it comes to slaughtering. The cries of many children have led to being over run with rabbits as they can breed quickly
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