eliminating bills - homesteading

[abigalerose]

You know, I've seen a lot of people say mushrooms are a good selling "niche", so that's definitely crossed the mind, I just don't know much about mushrooms lol

 

[NH Homesteader]

Yes the buck will smell and that smell makes the milk nasty! Also the buck could be aggressive with babies and he could prematurely breed future kids of your does before they are even weaned. Goats do not graze on grass much so if you have grassy land you'll have better luck with sheep or cows. You can milk sheep, but I wouldn't want to do it! If you have brush and woods you would have happy goats.

 

[baymule]

OK, I am going to offer some more advice. This is coming from me, 61 and I am talking to you like you are my daughter or grand daughter.

Get a job. You will need money to get your plans off the ground. It will give you ready cash to invest in your farm. A milk cow, dogs, rabbits, few goats, chickens, 2 horses, pigs, and a couple of beef calves all EAT! Seven acres is not enough to support all these animals. You will have to buy feed and hay, and a lot of it. You might want to reconsider getting so many animals and ease into this, to see what works and what doesn't. If you get in over your head right off the bat, then you might get discouraged.

The milk cow, horses, and beef calves need grass, high quality grazing, and a lot of it. Cows and horses consume a lot. Your 7 acres is also wooded, so that doesn't leave much for grazing. Economically speaking, a couple of pigs, a couple of calves to feed your dogs could cost you way more to raise and feed them than just buying very good dog food and augmenting it with products from your own animals. Like I said, ease into this. And what if you don't get any deer? Besides that, JMO, durned if I'd give up the deer meat for dogs!

Maybe instead of calves, you could concentrate on smaller animals. Chickens and rabbits could be the way to go. Get you an incubator and raise your own chicks. Excess roosters go for dog food. If you have pure breeds, you can sell the chicks too. This means that you will have to build breeder pens to keep the different breeds separated. Rabbits reproduce rapidly and can give you a lot of meat in a short time. Both are inexpensive to get started.

Horses are a luxury item. I have three, so I feel qualified to speak on this issue. Two of mine are old, 27 and 29 years old and will die with me. One is unrideable, but she still eats. Horses are a hole in your pocket you dump money in. Period. I am horse crazy, have been all my life, and that will never change. I am not saying not to get horses, but get everything else figured out first. Get your horses after you get settled on which animals you want to raise.

Again, my opinion, but I feel like you are on the right track with the American Guinea Hogs. Buy registered stock. (this is where that job comes in handy) You can sell the best as registered breeding stock, for more money than a feeder pig. These are small pigs, and would be a good fit for your farm. They will graze also, if you have good grass. You might develop customers for the meat, as well. People want good, clean meat from animals that have not been raised in a barn over a lagoon of their own waste.

For building materials, check Craigs List. You can get used tin for cheap and plug the holes. See if there are any roofing tin manufacturers near you, They often have roll end pieces they will sell for less. Find businesses that get shipments in packing boxes made of lumber. Load them up, take them home, take them apart and stack up under cover for building your barns and sheds. Go by places like Lowes and check out the cull rack. They sell reject lumber for half. My chickens don't care if the 2x4's in their coop are crooked. Scrounge. It's fun and you can get some awesome deals on stuff you need.

Fence the whole place in non climb horse wire. (another use for all that danged money you make at your job.....) Use 7' T-posts with 2 strands of barbed wire at the top. This will keep your horses from necking over the horse wire, bending it and messing it up. With this wire, you can keep all your animals IN your property. Then you can cross fence and divide up into pastures, because the grass will have to rest between being grazed.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/non-climb-horse-fence-48-in-x-200-ft?cm_vc=-10005

Since your parents don't want the farm, will they put it into your name or let you buy it at the super-daughter-deal?

At 19, you know what you want and you are going for it. Good for you. Sending you a hug. Your dream is real, it is achievable, and you can do this. Consult with a good CPA who can steer you in the right direction as far as taxes go. Pay the fee, it will be good advice than can keep you from making mistakes. A CPA can educate you on the ins and outs of a small farm. Write down your questions, if you try to remember everything, you'll forget to ask something.

Most of all, dig in, get started and make your dream come true.

 

[NH Homesteader]

My husband grew up on a horse farm. They averaged about 15 at a time. They did training and all rode and did some cart training. He calls them hay burners. Unless we are in a situation where they miraculously are cheaper to keep than a tractor, we will not be owning any horses. As he says, at least if you park a tractor you don't have to keep putting gas in it! Sorry, he loves horses but its just not in our budget.

I think it's nearly impossible for me, living in a place with four seasons, to not have to put grain and hay (and a fair amount of it) into my animals. It's expensive.

I like the suggestions Baymule gave above. Chickens are the gateway animal! Kudos to you for wanting to do this! At 19 I just wanted to go out and party with my friends. Wish I had your enthusiasm for homesteading back then!

 

[abigalerose]

Thank you for all the good advice! I'll start by saying that I already have 3 horses so I can't exactly wait to get them later! And now I'll give you some more back ground, becuase it may make a difference to some of your advice. Or maybe not. The farm was left to my mom, by her dad. We were also all left some money (hence, why I havent gotten a job yet), I won't say how much money, but I will say that it has had an impact on what I've been doing, farm wise. Now, when it comes to animals grazing, I've got what I like to call an "overflow farm" 2 miles down the road, it's where my grandma and grandpa live (and where I'm at at least 4 days a week), my grandpa has 60 acres and two ponds, all fenced, he use to have a whole herd of cattle, but he sold out to buy a lake house, and then they changed their mind! Now he has 5 cows. And he's not getting more anytime soon (busy with work and renovating their house), and even though I want to keep all my animals at my house, he doesn't mind if I keep some there (horses and cows that is) so long as I take care of them, and since it's not even 2 miles from me that's not hard. So right now my horses and little jersey cow are there. Okay moving on, the 7 acres I'll be living on is all pasture except .5-1 acre, which is wooded. There's some fencing up already. There's 3 collapsed building which means there's a ton of barn wood and tin (yay!) and there's some rolls of fencing that no one ever used. There's a big barn, and a big milk barn (needs a new roof), and the house. Plus a couple more little shabby buildings and a chicken coop.
So my cousin and her boyfriend are moving in with me (4 bedroom, 2 story house, plenty of space) which means the bills (the electric bill) is split in half. Her boyfriend builds fence for a living, which means as long as I have/buy fencing material I get fence built for free. We already put up a section of wood fence and two gates, for only the cost of screws becuase of what was already on the property (no one ever got rid of ANYTHING and it's been in my family for 4 generations).
I talked with my parents tonight and I will probably be waiting on the raw feeding, becuase with only 7 acres it'll be hard to grow enough meat for all my big dogs. And buying that much meat would be through the roof, which is unfortunate becuase it's super beneficial to them (note: they need almost all red meat).
I will potentially still look into raising guinea hogs though, they seem good for a small homestead.
Haven't decided yet what I should do about milk though, my calf is only 7 months. I could do goats (pros: not a lot of space needed, cons: feed costs) or just get an adult dairy cow (pros: LOTS of milk, you don't technically need to buy feed, cons: cost of the cow, space, I've never milked lol) or I could just wait it out and drink store milk till my calf is ready.
A lot of people around here make good money training horses (super rural area), and id only be training 1-2 horses at a time (ive got a half acre I'd keep training horses on and keep them stalled with only a couple hours of turn out, and grain is cheap if you buy from the Amish, etc.).
Let's see, what else...
The dogs. Golden retrievers are my all time favorite dog, and I'm very good at whelping dogs (don't mean to toot my own horn, but toot toot) so I chose to raise goldens, upon researching I got interested in English goldens (another long story for another time) and fortunately/unfortunately they are an EXPENSIVE breed. The start up costs are big (I've put some of my inheritance money towards this) they are also big dogs. But becuase I know people who've raised dogs, I know how to cut corners (without risking the dogs health, I would never do that) and I also don't show my dogs, not sure why, just something I don't have an interest in, which saves me money. So at $2000 a puppy (average) and 7 pups a litter (low average, a lot have 9 or 10), if something goes wrong I could be taking a big loss, but if things go right, well you can do the math. I've accordingly planned for disasters too. I take the dog raising very seriously, and it's not just about money. It was a plan before money ever even came into the picture. I'm going to get USDA licensed and all that jazz for the dog breeding as well, and I know you can write off pretty much everything for taxes, so I'll just have to find a good tax person to help me.
Okay that was a lot of rambling, and I forgot what my point was, and I'm sure I forgot some info too lol, but obviously, for someone who wants to farm, I got very lucky!
And I'm a weird 19 year old, I hate parties

Ohhh, and my dad wants to put the farm in my name, my moms not sure about it right now

 

[baymule]

Yes, convince Mom to put the farm in your name. Then it is yours. You sound like you have your feet firmly planted on the ground. Good for you, there are many people much older than you who still haven't figured out their place in life. You must have some very good parents who have raised such a fine young woman.

On the money end of it, I would still advise you to go get a job. Put your inheritance money up for hard times. Seek out a professional to help you manage that. You can put some in an IRA, for your retirement. Look for one that you pay your taxes on it now, so that it accrues interest and makes you money-when you take it out after age 59 1/2 it is tax free. Who knows what the tax rate will be by then.

What kind of horses do you have?

 

[abigalerose]

I have two quarter horse mares, a palomino with Mr.Gunsmoke on her papers, and a sooty buckskin with Two Eyed Jack on her papers, and I have a gold champagne Missouri Fox Trotter mare that I rescued

 

[NH Homesteader]

Sounds like you are a very fortunate person! One thing to watch out for is there are a lot of people selling "Guinea hogs" that are not Guinea hogs. Study the breed before you buy any. People sell pot bellies as Guinea hogs sometimes so be careful because you do not want a pot belly!

It sounds like sticking to cows is a better bet for you. Look into how much land you need to sustain another and if you can do it, I would get another one. Animals don't like being alone, cows with friends are happier cows!

Where are you located? Do you have grazing year round? If not there's another huge expense, but I'm sure you know that if you already have horses!

 

[abigalerose]

Yes I'm thinking another cow might work best too. I could keep two jerseys together or keep one at my house and one at my grandpas (although I do like for them to have buddies). I'm in Missouri and at my grandpas there's is grazing year round unless it snows. If it's a light snow and the grass is tall the horses will eat what's sticking out but we usually have hay in the winter so they have the option. My grandpa does have a hay field but unfortunately his tractor wasn't working this year and he didn't get around to finding anyone to cut it. I'm not sure what it'll be like at my house since I have 7 acres opposed to 60, but I'm sure if i stall and supply grain I can do limited turn out and have some hay and things should go smoothly. Another option that I may have, my uncle owns about 80 acres surrounding my farm on three sides. He doesn't use all of it as he has more land else where, if I can talk him into it I may be able to rent a pasture, but we'll see, he's pretty stubborn. And I'll keep an eye for that if I get hogs! If I get registered ones I'll know for sure what they are lol

 

[MoonShadows]

You know, I've seen a lot of people say mushrooms are a good selling "niche", so that's definitely crossed the mind, I just don't know much about mushrooms lol

I am thinking of earthworms.