Thinking About Selling Animals..all...

[Helena]

Been thinking about emptying out my little barn come spring. Have had goats, chickens and a couple horses with 2 rabbits now and ..well..etc. Am finding it difficult to find good hay at reasonable prices and getting harder each year. Also, with the price of feed going up everytime i visit the feed store. Last month a hundred pounds of whole corn was $10..now $14 plus all feeds are going up little by little too. Guess making ethnol for fuel is causing this. Vet bills and cost of regular care. Husband is not as interested in the animals anymore and that causes some "conflict" at times in the barn too. Haven't been away from the homestead in about 4 years for lack of help with animals when we want to ieave for a few days. So..with his retirement he wants to visit family, beach etc..and I can't blame him. I wouldn't mind if I never left home. So...does anyone feel the way I do ?? It is hard to imagine not having animals in my little barn and baby kids in the spring..but I suppose there is a season for everything to begin..and end.

[AverageJo]

Might want to put where you are in case there are folks that would want some of them now?

I truly know where you're coming from!! Sometimes I think our animals are more of a liability than anything. I'd hate to know what my hourly 'wage' is to take care of them!!

[Linda J]

I'm at the same place you are. I'm the one caring for the 2 dogs, 2 horses and a donkey and the chickens. I work full time, and my husband works long hours, and we are involved in our church. One little dog died last month and I've told hubby to not think about adding anything that breathes or needs feeding to this place. I think there's just something inside that just clicks at a point. I'm ready to rest.

[clovis]

If you are considering selling off the animals, I think it could be a wise idea.

Aside from the time savings and worry, I think feed prices are are set to go up again. I think when the ethanol stuff kicks in, feed prices will spike again.

Sometimes I see people that let animals tie them down. I say sell them all and live the life you want to live.

[SFM in KY]

I think it is a very individual decision and you need to do what you feel comfortable with. I have had some years where I have not had animals ... when I was in my 20s, living in a city, husband, two children, working full time. But not having animals was a necessity, not a choice.

I have downsized ... fewer animals ... but I would never be happy living without them entirely. Fortunately, DH feels the same way. You are tied down by the animals, we've not found anyone we feel truly reliable for chores even on a short term basis but neither of us like to travel, we really don't have anyone we want to visit and we've both been just about everywhere we want to visit as a "tourist".

[jwal10]

I understand the wanting to get away thing. I do have someone for the few days I get away. I have to have my little bunch just to stay healthy. Yeh, you can always get a few when you come back or get tired of being away....James

[houndlover]

I have goats and sheep, rabbits, and six dogs. We travel - but generally only a week or two at a time. Wouldn't want to be away from home longer than that. Local 4H kid takes good care of my animals and helps me out whenever I have extra stuff to do like shearing. I bet there's someone in your area you could hire to help you out. I think I'd get old very quick without my daily chores to do. I don't feed any of my animals any corn products, so the feed sticker shock has been less for me.

[manygoatsnmore]

Every time I add up what I'm spending per month to feed the menagerie, I start thinking about downsizing. I'm a great procrastinator, though, so it hasn't happened yet. Financially, getting rid of the animals makes sense - I could put the $$ spent on feed and other care onto the mortgage in order to be totally out of debt faster. I'm not as young as I once was, and I really don't like going out to feed and water in ice cold rain all that well, to be brutally honest. But, how do you just sell the doe goat that you've had for nearly 10 years, or the herd boss that you nursed back from the brink of death last year? And to watch our Arabian mare kicking up her heels in the field, racing and blowing, tail flagging high, still takes my breath away. Having a big dog around is a great deterrent to unwanted visitors, 2 or 4 legged - keeps deer from the orchard and garden, too. And my sweet old cats will be here until they die of old age. I do love having a few hens scratching up slugs and bugs, and eating those fresh eggs with more flavor than any store bought egg. I can depend on dd to feed and water all the stock if I'm gone - she handled it well while I was in Hawaii, even if the house was trashed when I got back, lol. Milking is the only part that is hard to find someone to do if I AND dd need to be gone. So, I still have many goats, and more, lol! (Besides, I'd have to get a different HT name if I didn't have them. ) Don't know if they are worth it, but I don't know that they aren't, either. Waffle, waffle, waffle.......

[big rockpile]

Got rid of all my animals few years ago but with the price of Food thinking getting Rabbits and Chickens once again.

big rockpile

[unregistered29228]

I would never encourage someone to get rid of their rabbits or chickens. They are so easy and cheap to keep, and provide meat and eggs indefinitely. Goats I don't have any experience with, but when times are hard, it would be great to have meat and eggs to depend on.

[6e]

We got rid of all of ours for some of the same reasons. Mostly the feed bill, but with groceries on the increase and things not looking too whoopy in the economy, now we're regretting that decision. So, now we're working on getting everything back, but have to find a more economical way to feed. You are right that the feed is going up and up and I don't see it going back down unfortunately.

[jen74145]

I go with low-maintenance nowadays. As we are in a city for DH's work now, that means our two cats. I *want* a dog terribly,but that's just too much right now.

I will have chickens again when we go home, though. I only kept enough hens for our needs; a half dozen birds was more than plenty. If you have five people and 25 birds, yipes!

Rabbits... well, we're not big meat eaters. They were pretty easy, but not as easy as the chickens.

[tnokie]

My wife would like for me to get rid of my critters too. I have pigeons,chickens,dogs and just got a mini pig which she thru a fit about!lol.We just started buying afarm to retire on and I want to get my animals accumulated for that time. But she wants to get rid of them and concentrate on getting the farm payed for and haveing time to travel! I'm like "well why did we buy a farm to retire to?"
I am already retired because of disability and would be lost without the company of my critters.

[hotzcatz]

I asked the fellow at the feed store today how much a square bale of alfalfa hay was. He said because of the drought the farmers got the shippers to deduct several dollars per bale so it's down to $31.50 per bale now. ???!!! Guess them rabbits are just gonna have to keep eating ti leaves and coconut fronds.

How much is a bale of alfalfa hay there?

[SFM in KY]

The most expensive feed we buy now is the commercial rabbit pellets, they've gone up $1 a bag in the two years I've had them, 50# is $10 a bag. The horse grain has actually gone down. We buy the grain that the feed mill grinds themselves ... they actually use the formula I've used for years that a friend of mine formulated for this kind of climate/feed. They grow a lot of their own grain so it makes for a pretty economical way to go and has actually gone from about $9 for 50# several years ago (dry year/ low yield) to $6.50 for 50# right now.

It's difficult to get good alfalfa hay here, climate is so damp it is hard to get alfalfa cut and dried correctly ... stems take longer to dry so the leaves get too dry and brittle but if you don't get the stems dry it molds. We've found a couple of hay growers that usually do a pretty good job with the grass/alfalfa mix though. The small square bales (40/50 lbs) are running about $4.50 and the big round bales (800 to 1000 lbs) are $45 each.

[Pony]

We've been discussing growing our own. We have a couple of acres just sitting there, and we may as well get something more out of them.

I'm reluctant (though at times, tempted) to reduce the numbers of livestock. But it would take me more to establish a base herd of animals than to maintain what we have.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Alfalfa is so dependent on location. In Southern Missouri, it's $4.50. In South Texas, I *finally* found locally grown for $10 a baled. If you get what is brought in from Arizona and New Mexico, it's $17.50 a bale.

[Riverdale]

The increased cost of feed is not due to ethanol.

It is due to increased demand from India and China

Our local feed mill (house brand) has stayed steady (and I buy in 50# bags) for the past 2 years.

Next year, if we get turkeys and a lot of broilers, I will buy 1000# of turkey feed and chick starter as it would be cheaper.

And I think we'll be going back to bunnies (and a couple hogs and a couple sheep or goats) in 2011.

The local feed mill(next town over) went from $8.60 for 50 pounds laying pellets to $9.90 in October. My thinking is that large of a price increase will cause more culling in the fall than anything else. If you're selling eggs, you could just raise the price commensurately.

[julieq]

We paid the lowest price ever for alfalfa hay this fall at 4.00 per bale. Grain and poultry food is going up in price though. But then our groceries are going up too! We got rid of poultry and goats a couple of years ago, thinking we'd be freed up to travel and save some money. Hated it! We missed our animals, fresh eggs and raw milk terribly. So, now we've got another flock of chickens, five dairy goats, two horses, one GS dog, seven house cats and about 20 barn cats. Gotta sign off and go do chores!