eliminating bills - homesteading

[abigalerose]

Yeah I think I've decided to completely cut goats out of my plan! Expensive little suckers lol. My horses cost $35 a month during the winter, at most. Plus wormer 2x a year. My cousin can trim their feet and so far I haven't had to float their teeth yet but I imagine I will sometime. Don't know how often it is but should only be $50-$75 per horse. So as long as they don't seriously injure themselves, which being horses they're liable to do lol, they're not too horribley expensive. Right now it cost me $7 a month to feed my chickens, I imagine that cost will go down once they're free ranging. And then like I said a cow should be able to graze witho no problem and my dogs should pay for themselves. So far I don't have any astronomical feed bills. If I had to cut down for whatever reason I could force my self to sell my big dogs (I have a chihuahua that I forgot to figure in but she weighs 4 pounds, her feed bill is little lol I could never part with her), and I could cut down to one horse. I wouldn't do these things happily but if it were for the greater good I could make myself.

 

[Beekissed]

You might consider Katahdin hair sheep for your livestock....they can even be milked if you breed and choose for those with larger udders and teats as you go along. They will graze efficiently, don't need to have grain feeds to stay fat and sassy and their hay doesn't even have to be high quality. They love browse as well as graze, are naturally hardy and parasite resistant and prone to twinning.

They can be transported easily as well, so no need to have big stock trailers and such when taking to market. They can even be bred three times in two years if so desired, though I wouldn't go so far as to push that on a flock. They can give you a return on your initial investment in the first year and then you'll be operating at a profit after they pay for their hay/feed costs.

No shearing, docile and sweet to handle, finish out fat on just grass and hay. AND, around these parts, hair sheep and meat goats are bringing the highest price per pound at the livestock auctions, particularly if you breed for lambs to be had on certain eastern holidays.

http://pioneerthinking.com/raisinglivestock/milking-katahdin-sheep/

You don't even have to keep a ram on hand at all times....a lot of people purchase a ram lamb for breeding and then turn around and sell him at market before he's a year old, still selling as a lamb.

They flock extremely well and stay IN fences instead of trying to get out all the time like goats do. They also leave a very light footprint on the land, eat pastures down evenly instead of picking around things, which is better for the health and growth of the grasses there.

Then, you could put your big dogs to work guarding and/or herding the flock and they can earn their keep.

 

[baymule]

On the pigs, I want pigs too, but I didn't want to overload myself. So we raised 3 feeder pigs last fall and slaughtered in the spring. We raised 1 for ourselves and 2 for friends. It got my feet wet, so to speak and I now know that I want to concentrate on my sheep. The pigs dug huge pits, which was ok, because we put them in the garden 100'x70' and when we took them out, I rant he tractor around and around and around and around....... NOT what I would want to do in the pastures I am working so hard to get established! One pig will last us awhile, so will probably raise another one in fall of 2017. In the meantime, I don't have to keep a sow or a boar. My suggestion is to raise feeder pigs first to see if you even like it.

 

[MoonShadows]

I would love to have pigs and goats, but I keep getting "out voted". Just a matter of time before I ware them down to my way of thinking.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Everyone needs pigs and goats! Ok well I love my pigs and goats anyway! I don't mind the rooting. But we don't have prime beautiful property either.

A pig will last us 6 months. But we pretty much only eat chicken and pork.

 

[abigalerose]

If I raised a pig for myself and not my dogs, it would last me a long time! I rarley eat pork, and usually only in bacon form. I'd have to have the whole pig made into bacon
If I decide to do pigs I'd get one guinea hog, raise it and eat it. If I like it maybe I'd raise my own. (2 sows and 1 boar maximum! Because id be over run with any more than that).
Maybe I'll wait on the goats till I get a husband with a good job because they're like potato chips and I'd be liable to end up with way more than I needed, especially considering how cute Nigerian dwarfs are.
Now the sheep thing, is a good idea, I never would have thought of it myself because I don't particularly love sheep, but hey maybe that's a good thing because it'd help me make more clear decisions about them. How much acreage do you need per sheep though? And how many sheep do you have to have to do you any good?

 

[NH Homesteader]

Ha I don't know but my guess is there's not much bacon on a Guinea hog. There's only one part that us used for bacon. I believe it's on the back, so longer pigs are more bacon type pigs.

(edit : my husband corrected me, bacon is pork belly. The chops are in the back. Duh bone in pork chops, of course that's where they're from)

I wouldn't say that goats are that much more expensive than horses. In fact I would say horses are more expensive at least where I am. I have no idea how you manage to feed your horses for as cheap as you do! Of course we have really bad winters. My husband just said it would cost us probably $100-150/month minimum to keep 3 horses.

 

[abigalerose]

Just joking about the bacon anyways
And I don't doubt that they're not anymore expensive than horses, I just can't afford both! Lol. And even though horses don't have much use, they win over goats for me because horses are what I'm passionate about.
Horses don't always have to be as expensive as everyone says, this is something I learned from my grandpa. I do spend more on the horses than my grandpa did when he was in charge of the horses we use to have (I was too young to pay for things back then). He kept the horses for.. well free pretty much. Aside from the cost of the horses (2 green broke geldings at $400 each, the market was pretty low then, and a mustang gelding that I got $200 for, for showing him in a 4H show, so that one was more than free lol), he didn't really spend anything. For feed they had grass. In the winter he gave hay but it was hay that he grew and baled himself (for the cows), and he just didn't bother with grain. Also being old cowboy that he is he didn't get their feet or teeth done. And I will say, their feet actually looked fine, I guess we have a good combination of rock and grass here that keeps feet wore down. And I'm not sure how often or if he even wormed them at all. Maybe he did once a year. Actually I know he did when we first got them, so I figure he must have wormed them every year when he worked the cows too. So basically he spent about $25 a year total on caring for three horses. Except for the year that a piece of pipe fence went all the way through ones neck, he had a vet bill that year lol. And the horse lived, not even a scar.
Maybe that's not the best way to take care of horses, but that's how he did it and that's how a lot of people around here do it, and the horses were in good shape, not ribby or over weight (although the mustang did get pretty hefty at times and we had to put him in a less grassy area), they didn't have any troubles with their feet, and they were happy horses. I spend a little more because I'll have to buy hay in the winter, at least this year, but I know people who have hay and I can get it a little cheaper, and I feed grain sometimes in the winter, but I get that cheap too from the anish community, and it's good quality! I worm twice a year, and I have someone that will do their feet for free. So I have a little more up keep and spend a little more money, but it's not as crazy as people on the internet make it out to be. If you research before buying a horse it's probably just gonna scare ya because there's people that say "board is $200 a month, feed is $200 a month, you need to put shoes on them for $100 every 6 weeks, worm with every changing of the season and get their poop tested for parasites.." and so on and so forth, but realistically, I don't know ANYONE who spends that much on horses and does all that. Not in Missouri anyway. No one here would have them if you had to spend $500 + on them every month. I'm sure some rich upper class horseman would be disgusted with the way I care for my horses, but on the other hand I'm 10x the owner as some of the other horse owners I know, and even their horses are healthy and happy.
And I do have an emergency fund set aside for them, btw

 

[NH Homesteader]

Well my husband is in the middle ground, no astronomical bills but couldn't do it as cheap as you! Like I said, bad winters here and there aren't a lot of open fields for grazing or haying. So the price of hay is high. I don't know all that much about horses! He's the horse person in the family!

 

[abigalerose]

Yes it really does depend on where you are, and who you know at that. My grandpa has 60 acres split into three 15ish acre fields, with another little field off to the side and about a 5 acre field that's mostly consumed by a big pond, and then the area where the house/barn/round pen/"arena" is. So we always allow the horses in the pond area and by the barn (there's an auto waterer) so they can get water no matter what and cool off in the summer. And since there's a lane that goes all the way down the side of the property and opens into each field it's easy to rotate between the pastures while still giving them access to the water. Although one field does have a small pond. And the grass is so good we can keep them in the same pasture all year

 

[baymule]

That's your key--the grass is good. Wild horses live all their lives on grass and they do just fine. But for most of us, we have to feed them, so count me in that group.

The loin on either side of a pig's backbone can be cured like bacon. They call it Canadian bacon.

Loin: The area between the shoulder and back legs is the leanest, most tender part of the animal. Rib and loin chops are cut from this area, as are pork loin roasts and tenderloin roasts. These cuts will be dry if overcooked.

 

[abigalerose]

Yes good grass is everything. I'd like to set up 3 rotational pastures at my place and stall them at night to make things a little easier, but that'll take some time.
And ew to Canadian bacon