If you had to pick livestock to raise, very small scale

Perfect, predator-proof fencing! Keep your chickens, sheep, goats and cattle SAFE from wiley bobcats, digging coyotes, and athletic mountain lions, as well as the neighbor's annoying dogs!

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

LOL But did ya notice its backed up with LGD's............Large Guard Dudes......

I thought those LGD's were Large Gun Dudes.

__________________
"For if you start dancing on tables, fanning yourself, feeling sleepy when you pick up a book... making love whenever you feel like it, then you know. The south has got you.”

__________________
Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

LOL I have to admit once while taking a tour of a huge prison I kept looking at the fences thinking" wish I had these at home that just MIGHT keep the riffraf out..."

The most versatile animal would be sheep. They can provide meat, milk, and fiber. There are so many breeds to choose from. Want mild meat/no shearing-choose a hair breed or longwool breed, for stronger taste and fast growth a Suffolk type, want more milk-choose maybe Il de France, want great fiber-choose a fine wool breed, want lots of lambs-choose Finn or Romanov. Some breeds are not as specialized but have a mix of reasonable meat, milk and fiber. Everyone has their favorite. Maybe a mix of breeds like I do. I have Katahdin, Dorper, Corriedale, CVM, Border Leicester, Romney and mixes. They will all get tame if you hand feed them a bit of grain.

A co-worker would buy 4 calves in the spring, graze them all summer on their 10 acres while giving them a little aded hay and corn, and run them to the butcher in the fall. That way they did not have to feed cattle during the winter.

The pasture stayed neat, and the sale of 3.5 head of cattle paid all of the costs for their meat. And, since they did not feed hormones or whatever they sold the meat to their friends neighbors at supermarket prices: those steers were worth WAY more than wholesale!

Muscovy
upside
gets most of their own food.
raises their own. 20 or so each year per female
meat tastes like beef (wonderful "beef" stew!!)
lots of meat ( just beast and legs of 1 male = 4 servings of stew and the legs for dogs)
not a fatty meat
no noise
you can eat their eggs
use feathers if you want
eat bugs, flies, and skeeter larva (maybe even ticks)
ready to eat young or you can wait.
doesn't NEED to swim.
doesn't fly if wings are trimmed
you can harvest them yourself (skin and taking the breast and legs. barf the rest)
you can supplement their grass and bugs with dog food chicken feed and or rabbit feed if you like
no vacs needed
not much cost to start


downside
makes their water nasty
makes ground nasty if penned up in small yard
ducklings can drown if they can't get out of wading pool.

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He who thinks he knows, doesn't. He who knows he doesn't know, knows.~ Joseph Campbell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeMrK...AE7062ADE5A19C

I agree.
I have a pair that has raised 50 babies this year.
The last 14 are about ready to butcher.

Goats are an excellent dual purpose animal, but hard on fences, and if you want meat, you'll need to consider crossbreeding dairy does with a boer buck. The resulting doe kids won't be good milkers though, but all the kids will pack more meat, always trade offs. Dairy sheep ewes crossed with a meat type ram is also a good choice, but you have to like the taste of lamb. Hogs grow fast but all you get is meat. One milk cow is a good choice, bred back to a beef bull is another choice.

The point was very little work and as natural as possible. I dont know if you can get both. We have bee's, chickens, hogs and dexters. So far the hogs are the easiest. Small 64x64 pens made from T-post and hog panels, shelter made out of pine boards. we are overwintering and there water does freeze but all in all friendliest and easiest.

Ummm.. just be aware that yak milk tastes nothing like cow milk. It's really, really, strong stuff... for cheese it's ok, just different. But you may not want to use it for cream in your morning cup of coffee...

I am in the same boat as the OP. I dont want to be tied down with lots more work. This is some of the pros and cons Ive found researching various animals
1] Dexters - seemed like the perfect solution - But their's always on eo those! Unless you want to keep a bull finding a bull to breed to is not always easy. AI is a altenative but its expensive and the rate of conception is lower - so you can end up rebreeding several times to get a pregnancy, which again adds to the time and expense. Untill Dexters become more common where bulls are around the area They are a no go for me.

2] Goats - they are escape artists, and time consuming, kidding and milking and fence repair isnt in the card for me right now, Milking pretty much means that twice a day you have to be home to milk or find a good pet sitter who knows how to milk Ive been lucky to find a dog sitter much less one who will milk a goat. If things change I will be getting a dwarf breed of goat, havent decided on which type yet. The meat is like tame venison - no gamey flavor.
3] Sheep - didint care for the meat untill I discovered mint sauce and jelly - oh yeah! That is gourmet. Also raising your own lambs means your meat is going to be less how shall I say it - less pungent. But sheep are not the brightest creatures on earth and they are fair game for coyotes. Theirs that pesky but again!
4] Pigs - they dont need much in care and are about the most labor easy livestock outside of chickens. You can get feeders on about any corner in the country. They will root an area up - which isnt all bad. If you rotate their area they do more good to the ground than harm. The "but" with them is they wont do well on just a fenced pasture area, they will need some supplemental feed. Ive found pigs to be the easiest animal to keep in an electric fence - once they touch a electric fence they wont do it again. Even with supplemental feed they are the most productive bang for the buck.

So for us at this time we are sticking with a couple of feeder pigs and a lamb. All will hit the freezer come fall. I dont think keeping livestock over the winter is cost efficient, with the exception of the dwarf breed of goats. AND I dont want to have to deal with doing barn chores in January, banging ice out of buckets is not my idea of a fun way to exercise

How about Large Black Pigs? Would 1 sow and 1 boar do well on a 2-3 acre pasture if allowed to breed? I haven't studied the breeding habits of pigs yet. I have seen these for sale in my area, and they seem to have all of the characteristics I would look for in an animal - at least on paper...

http://largeblackhogassociation.org/breed-history/

Will coyotes take down a domestic hog?

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"For if you start dancing on tables, fanning yourself, feeling sleepy when you pick up a book... making love whenever you feel like it, then you know. The south has got you.”

I have a few Large Blacks. I love the meat. Mine range on about 1.5 acres most of the time. For that size land and the number I have (4 sows, 1 boar) that really isn't enough. I plan on butchering 3 of the sows in Spring, then there will be plenty of area. I get 2 litters of 6 per year without anything special. I **do** have to feed them some supplemental feed, but they do forage somewhat, given the opportunity. They are very pleasant pigs - gentle and good natured. I have no idea if a coyote would take them as I have LGDs to discourage that sort of thing

Mary

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In politics the truth is just the lie you believe most - unknown

Before I got my own sheep, I had a shepherdess that bought hay from us. She would bring her wethers over and I would pasture them until fall. No grain, not tough on fences like goats, and she would pick them up in the fall and take them to the processor. That was a sweet deal. I got one sheep for me.