What animals would you start with?
 

Assuming you already had buildings (barn, chicken coop, shelters, etc.) and enough pasture for pretty much any type of animals you could want on a homestead... but... you have no hands on knowledge of raising any livestock, and you have a goal of becoming as SS as possible. What would be *your* first choices?

Chickens are a good place to start. You get eggs to use every day, you can butcher them for meat, if one dies, it isn't a costly disaster.

probably chickens. Depending the age of the chicken you could be getting eggs fairly soon.
If your wanting something larger then I'd maybe go with about 3 or 4 goats to start off with for the first year. That way you can learn their habits and decided if you want to stick with them or not.
I've never had sheep so I'll let someone else tell you if they are worth it for the wool or what not. :shrug:

Chickens and Rabbits have always paid for theirselves in my book.Then Cattle,they are big but pretty easy to keep in,and can be pretty gentle.Goats are pretty easy but can be hard to keep in.

big rockpile

I agree with the previous posters. Chickens are the best animals to start with. They are relatively inexpensive to buy. If they have room to forage, their feed bill will not be that high in relation to the eggs and meat you get from them. Housing doesn't need to be elaborate, just good enough to keep the varmints out and to keep them from freezing in cold weather. You can throw together nests out of scrap lumber.

Yup, chickens!

If you decide you would like cattle, Don't start with newborns or mother cows. That would include a family milk cow. Buying calves less than a year old, and letting them grow on your pasture until they are almost full size would give you lots of experience with cattle without having quite so much doctoring needed. You can learn to milk a goat much safer than starting out with a cow. Hand milking requires some tuff muscles in tthe forearms, and a goat could get your muscles in shape. Whatever you decide on, start out on a small scale.

No one has recommended pigs yet, so I will!

They are a relatively short term commitment if you buy them as 30lb feeders. 6 months later they are ready for butchering. 2 pigs is a lot of meat and they don't take up that much space. They are pretty low maintenance, especially if pastured.

If you decide that is too much effort a few months later, there are usually people looking for a 100-150lb pig for doing a pig roast in the summer, so you have a way out that you maybe could still make a small profit on.

Chickens. Then goats.

I was thinking Pigs.But with rooting they can be a problem some times as far as making a hole out.

big rockpile

Chickens and (if you spin, weave or love fiber) sheep.

I would say chickens and pigs.

We got goats first (my children were young and we needed milk) but chickens are easy.
Layers and broilers(8weeks start to finish).

We also raised a bull calf to 6m(butchered) on goat milk before we got chickens.

We are trying pigs this year w/o electric fencing but with a border collie(she is bored with goats and chickens). Next week we pick them up. We also have another calf this year and 40 broilers and hatching more layers :help:

A good/productive garden was where we started originally and now working on an orchard too.

oh yes chickens chickens chickens! They pretty much take care of themselves, you NEED eggs for cooking, and then you always have a meat supply too. Be sure to keep a rooster, and if you get a broody hen let her breed more so you have your own endless supply. They are the EASIEST of all to keep, fun to watch too.

Chickens can help you out here too with a chicken tractor.

This worked for us.

We're pretty new to livestock and decided to start with chickens and then goats which is where we're at now. With having 4 kids these were the most pratical choices. For us we'll be getting a llama next more than likely, to help protect our livestock as we've already lost 2 goats and 2 chickens to wild dogs. After that we're looking at pigs, but not there quite yet.

We had that same question once upon a time.Chickens were a good starter.Then we tried cows and i didnt like them .One of the things that you have to remember is that you may have to move these animals off your property.So unless you have an appropriate vehicle i would pass on them to begin with.Some people will tell you that you can pay someone to haul them .and you can but it is a hassle usually.That being said we moved on to sheep and they were great.They were a joy to be around and you can move them in a pickup with a minimal amount of work.Try a hair breed like a Katahdin or a Dorper

Scary

My suggestion would be start with one dpecies and keep them for at least a few months. Get to know the ups and downs. Then consider other species. No point in being a 'jack of all trades master of none'.
Chickens were also my first and they were great. Then ducks/geese. But they are surprisingly different than chickens, so be prepared.

Thank you so much to everyone for your great answers, lots of good reading and good advice, and lots for us to chew over :)

Definitely chickens then! We'll probably go with Rhode Island Reds since they seem like a good "all purpose" breed.

Since we have 5 children we'd like a source of dairy products, looks like goats may be the easiest answer there... although we'd really like a cow, but that seems to stem more from the "it's not a farm if there's no cow" thought. :rolleyes:

Thanks again, we'll use all your replies in making our decisions.

~ Jane

With 5 children it sounds like you could use a cow and if you get goats you may need a guardian do to protect them. After having my goats killed by dogs I am sticking to cows from now on.

I'd go with chickens and rabbits first and second. Third choice would be a goats. You might want to put a couple of Bantie hens in with the Rhodies. When we had Rhode Island Reds they gave plenty of eggs but didn't go broody. We had to get some Bantams to hatch the eggs.

I agree with the chickens then rabbits. You might think about harvesting the bunny poo to start a worm bin or two to have worms to feed to the chickens and you'll have worm castings for your garden. Worm bins are easy to maintain.

If you had room, a nice sized pond could be stocked with local type fish. That would keep the children busy fishing and swimming as another way to not get bored. I think it was cowgirlone, that grew freshwater shrimp in her pond and had quite a good harvest. The leftovers from cleaning fish are good for the garden too.

When living it town, we bought an acre garden property just outside of town to cultivate. There was a small garage and shed that the first thing I did was attach a pen to keep chickens and ducks. The ducks were more for pets until the second year I got muscovy ducks. They also lay good eggs, hatch their own chicks, and can provide protein source. They are easy to keep and fairly hardy and feed efficient. They love bugs too, especally flies. I would say muscovy ducks would be good to add to your chicken flock. They'll get along, but watch any big roosters when the ducklings hatch. Keep them segregated at that time.
I also found keeping turkeys are great feed conversion birds. After getting past the tricky few days and couple weeks with the poults, they take off with putting on the pounds. For fall, if you have more turkeys than you can eat whole, or sell, they make excellent ground meat. Very versatile domestic homestead animal. They don't require a lot of space, and get docile to your daily visits. Interesting creatures to watch, too.

Animals
 

Someone suggested cows over goats since their goats were killed by predaters. Wild dogs came in and killed my brother's full grown Hereford heifer weighing about 800 lbs. So, things do happen to cows as well. The vet was summoned for insurance purposes. They had torn her hamstrings and kept aggravating her until they killed her. You could see by the ground what they had been doing. I just thought I would put my two cents worth in. Farm animals need to always be watched and guarded.

I hope whatever you get that you enjoy it. Animals are God's creations just like we are.

I agree with most of the posts above. Here's how I would do it if I was starting over from scratch.

I'd go with chickens and guineas first. Guineas will eat bugs, and make good watch dogs, they'll let you know if any preditors come around, and they keep the snakes away. Both will provide eggs and meat. I'd stick with bantam chickens as they don't tear up a garden as much as the full size breeds.

Next I would add rabbits, then goats. Depending on the breed you get, the goats will give you milk, meat and a income from the kids, without the higher feed expense of cows. Goat and rabbit droppings are both excellent fertilizer for the gardens.

I've heard that Muscovy ducks will keep the fly population down. (I think it was Muscovy's, someone chime in and correct me if I'm wrong)

I've done the cattle and horses. I'll get a spring calf and pasture it for the fall freezer, but I don't want to raise them again. They are much too expensive to feed over the winter. Cattle are harder to work with than goats, and horses are an expensive hobby, unless you provide trail rides or some other service that turns them into a money maker.

You might want to invest in a pair of guardian dogs if there are many large preditors in the area. I used to loose guineas and chickens, but haven't lost any since I got a pair of Pyr's a couple years ago.

As time goes on I'd add geese, turkeys, pigs, quail, and pheasant.

And I would plant some fruit trees and berry bushes.

I had Moscovy ducks free range and locked them up at night they are wonderful but that is one of the most common breeds It would be good if you tried to raise som eof the more rare breeds found on the ALBC web site, I am planning to get just rare breeds when I get home from this deployment. I was wanting Dexter cows now My jersey was expensive to buy hay from over the winter like some one said. Dexter are suppose to be gentle and hardy and eat half what another larger cow breed would. Definitely get chickens and rabbits ASAP.

Laying chickens, then try a batch of broilers, while waiting for the layers to get big enough to lay. Goats and pigs. LGD - to guard the chickens and the goats. Rabbits to feed the LGD. Feed surplus milk and household scraps to the pigs, plus a little grain.

We were most wary of pigs and waited last on those - wish we had gotten started with them right away. Now, it just doesn't feel right unless we have a couple of pigs around to 'clean up'.

niki

I agree, chickens, then rabbits, then goats.

pop into the poultry forum to learn about all sorts of birds LOL. I think the general concensis is that Buff Orpington make the best family multipurpose chicken. I personally would never have a RIR again, but we had the meanest ones growing up which clouds my judgement.

reese

Thanks for the added advice, we appreciate it! So much great info :)

Rose2005, no, we have no experience with bees, other than what we've read in library books and seen on the bee show that's been airing on RFDTV. We're definitely considering them though!

Be cautious of the "heritage" breeds. Unless you farm for hobby and not food.

Just remember when starting out. Those rare breeds are expensive and no less but maybe more susceptible to disease. With good growing conditions the commercial breed do very well.

A good dexter will give 3-4 gallons of milk. But may cost 1000.00 bucks to buy. A "used up" holstein will be cheap and easy to come by and will easily give the same milk.

And those that reccomend Banty chickens. You with five children need food on the cheap. It would take two to give you a good meal. But one of the "monster" meat building breeds could be enough and be cheaper to boot. As for eggs a good leghorn or red X will give more and bigger eggs for less feed. Those banty eggs are very small and they lay less than 180 a year. But those "pro" breeds will lay 250 a vear with most being jumbo. Especially in the second and third years.

What I'm getting at is the agri. industry has made some great strides in production. Don't discount that for romantic notions.

I'm not sure you actually meant a Hereford?? They are a beef breed and give just enough milk to raise a good calf. I have yet to meet a pure Hereford at her prime that could give 3-4 gallons a day, let alone a "used up" Hereford. Jersey is what I would reccomend for home milk supply. They are great.....and they are wonderful eating as well, so you can milk the cow and raise the steer calf to butcher. If she has a Jersey heifer, you can trade it out for a steer, or better yet sell it at a profit. Decent, healthy Jersey heifers are never hard to sell around here, and most people get a pretty penny for them.

Yes I was wrong on the breed but as you stated those jerseys go for alot of cash. I was thinking Holstein. The point remains that the "commercial" breeds are cheaper to feed and raise. Thats why the are used.

Not to argue, but the holstiens I have milked take more input(they are bigger and higher maintenence) than Jerseys and actually give more milk than most families can use. And they cost the same or more. The holstiens are good for the commercial dairies, but I don't really reccomend them for family milkers unless you need a LOT of milk and you have a lot of room to support a bigger cow. And if the cream is desired for butter and such, Jersey's give much better cream. Just my opinion...=)

Chciken and a couple of alpine and a couple of Boer goats.

The reason I suggested banty chickens instead of full size is if they are free range chickens the full size ones can tear up a garden quick. The bantams don't scratch as deep so they don't damage established plants near as much. They will eat the bugs, and help with the weeding of the garden. If you get a couple of broodie hens then you should have chicks hatching and have plenty of meat for the table, eggs, and organic gardening.

If you plan to keep them penned and buy feed for them, then full size might be better. More meat and bigger eggs...

I had a holstein that gave 6 gal. a day. Much more than I needed. She was expensive to feed, but I did have lots of milk for whatever I wanted. (fed a lot of it to the pigs) I switched to goats which are less expense to keep, easier to milk, and don't kick near as hard... LOL (actually the goats don't kick at all) For me it's much easier to handle a 150 lb. goat than it is to handle a 2000 lb. cow.

Just my opinion based on my experience...

We like to use the full size heavy breeds for free-range egg laying and eating, but we keep a few banty hens to use for setting. We give them whatever eggs we need to hatch at the time and they cheerfully hatch and raise them for us. Nothing like a banty hen for raising chicks!=)

chickens. then string some electric fence and get a couple of goats-meat if you have no desire to drink goat milk (which is delicious)-dairy if you want fresh milk. the electric fence and a correct field fence is essential to containment of goats. meat goats are somewhat easier-don't milk them 2x's a day. then i'd move into rabbits, ducks, turkeys, etc. cows would be last, but i don't care for cows.

They are also more susceptible to mastitis and other diseases and Dexter are hardier eat half of what other dairy cows eat and dont need grain inputs also they are known for their sweet disposition. The same could be said of Many heirloom breeds who are better adpated to a homesteaders lifestyle and can better forage and survive.

Agreed I love having a few little cohins to hatch other birds eggs they make great mama's