Raising Your Own Food

[bucks n beaks]

Does anyone raise their own food? Not talking about gardens as I know alot of folks do that yearly. But chickens, pigs, lamb, cows, etc. Question is more along the lines of a homesteading/self-sustaining topic rather than big farm operations. We started last year with 10 egg layers, got 2 feeder pigs a couple of weeks ago, will do our own pastured poultry meat chickens this year (probably 30-50 to last the year), and eventually will have our own flock of Dorper Hair Sheep for our own consumption, as well as potential to sell a few feeder lambs in the future. Also down the road we plan on raising 1-2 steers a year, maybe even get to the point where we keep a momma cow and have her AI'd every year to keep our own supply versus buying from outside. Don't want to fool with keeping a bull and letting him in and out, back and forth, etc. Definitely don't have the room or infrastructure for that but keeping 1-2 cows in with the sheep and rotational grazing our 10 grazable acres is what we're looking to do.

I could kick myself in the tail for not doing egg layers sooner in life than i did. I don't keep them in a stationary coop. But rather built a hoop coop that I move daily to keep them on fresh grass. Over this winter I have planted them on our garden spot behind electric netting. They've had about 1500 SF to roam everyday picking up the leftovers, vines, weeds, seeds etc. to supplement feed cost. I did put a few bags of pine shavings in their coop that keeps them from walking in their own nastyness and to keep the poop smell to non-existent. And when we start moving them daily again, that pile of shavings are going to be a golden start for garden compost. Also none of our food scraps go to waste. And more eggs than our house of 5 can eat. We've given away many many dozens to coworkers and friends. We're definitely not going full time farming. My wife and I both work full time. We take care of the pigs and chickens in the mornings and evenings. Probably 20-30 mins total a day feeding, watering, picking eggs, etc. Weekends we spend more time with them, changing our set up, working on stuff to make it better and more efficient. Hands-on time will definitely grow as we get more animals, but we enjoy it and look forward to more in the future.

Anyways, just wanted to see what you guys are doing or have done in the past. Figure it'd be a nice conversation to start as hunting season dies down and before Turkeys and White Perch overtake people's thoughts.

[missed mallards]

City dweller here.

In my younger years we’d spend summers helping my uncle on his farm. He worked cattle, chickens, and had a few hogs. And a garden the size of the neighborhood I live in. To my knowledge he never went to the store and worked everyday, or so it seemed, putting up groceries. What he didn’t put up we sold wt the county mkt.

Not something many do these days or have the Knowledge to sustain. Up until then bacon and sausage came from a store. We learned the art of the pig killing, butchering, smoking, curing, and all that. Cows he had a guy come on farm and butcher. Chickens, if I had a penny for every egg I gathered I’d be like ole Jeff and have them tear down a bridge for my boat to pass too.

To this day though if I had pigs I’d have to figure out a way to get them on concrete and make it work. The smell is something I still can’t handle.

From college until I got married, our freezer stayed packed with deer, hogs, ducks, and anything else the winter afforded us with. Now… I just go to the store. Wife ain’t to keen on wild game and to be honest I’m not near as geared up to process like I use to do. It was a lot of work but it was enjoyable then. Now dragging one out isn’t near as enjoyable as it once was either.

That’s cool your able to do it though.