When raising animals for food, and eggs, or growing veg, it always has to be questioned whether it is actually worth it, financially and effortwise.
Well I think it is on many levels.
Financially, it is. But it depends what you take into account – I have seen so many times the question on a forum; “how much land do I need to make a living” or ” If i buy this place, can I make it pay?”
Personally we cannot hope to cover the mortgage or bills with our smallholding activities, but we were going to buy our home anyway, and what we are doing saves money, rather than makes money. The vegetables we grow through the year feed us all year (with a few exceptions.. we buy spices, onions and the occasional red pepper or aubergine), and although I have to cost in the buying of seeds, we grow so much we easily cover that. It’s easy to work out – one head of calabrese, for example, costs more in the shop then the packet of seeds that has lasted us three years, and we grow enough calabrese to last all year.
The sheep don’t cost us much to run, some foot spray, the shearer is a big expense – we could shear them ourselves but he is so quick and efficient, and the fleece is actually useable afterwards. The capital costs of buying the ewes will take a while to recoup, but I believe we will, as with three lambs in the freezer, that is definitely more profit than our costs for the year.
And we would have to do something with the fields. One and a half acres of field does not cut itself, and we have no vehicular access. Next door cuts his fields with a ride on tractor thing.. that would have cost us much more to buy than three sheep, and a lot more to run too. And our girls are not so noisy!
I was very dubious about whether it was actually financially viable to raise weaners for pork, and asked lots of question, but we certainly did come in under budget, and can cut costs further back next time too.
With the hens, the sale of eggs cover our feed costs. We built our own hen houses so, that kept the costs down. Raising chickens for meat – no we cannot beat factory farm prices. But I’m ok with that.
I’m ok with it because it is not all about money. For us, most of it is actually because we enjoy it. It is hugely satisfying to provide all your own food, I like my mutlicoloured flock of chickens and positively enjoy the community feeling of selling eggs to neighbours, particularly when they call just hopefully that we do have some eggs to sell. The sheep were a complete surprise to me, they are friendly and really nice to have around, they come up to us for attention, and we can walk our fields and enjoy their company. On top of that we found out how much we like processing their wool. Making clothing from your own land (effectively) is also very satisfying. The pigs were a lot of fun to have.
Another huge factor for us is being able to give the animals a relatively happy life. I’m not convinced there is enough free range, outdoor reared, traditionally raised, non chemical fed animals to go around, so I feel we are all duty bound to raise as many as we can.
The biggest factors though.. for us, is the fantastic taste of the food we raise, and to know what went into it the animals and to know that absolutely no chemicals were used to grow the vegetables.
So yeah.. it is hard work, but it’s worth it.
Every space in between every line of what you’ve just written is screaming, ‘Of course it’s worth it!’
Keep on keeping on, I’m loving learning about all the things you do and, who knows, hopefully some of it will rub off on me!
It is worth it, and not just for the “intangibles.” Since I work in economics of energy problems for a living, I’m a numbers geek. I’ve done serious, number-crunching cost analysis on most of our farm operations. By far the most profitable is the firewood. We “pay ourselves” around twenty bucks an hour when we cut firewood off of our own land or our leased woodlot. House maintenance pays off equally well — contractors are expensive, and unreliable. The garden is probably the next most cost-effective business we’re in. We don’t work very hard at it, and it brings in hundreds of pounds weight of food. Sheep are cost effective when you take into account lawn mowing and lawn mower maintenance. Our lamb came in this year at about $3/pound, our pork at about $1.70. Of course the taste is much better than supermarket meat. I hate work. (I mean, I hate leaving the farm to go to work elsewhere.) When the mortgage and credit cards are all paid off, I’m going to stay home more, to make more money!
this is a topic which is personally interesting to me, i am on a 30 acre rural property in the southeast of australia and it is currently spring, which although it is means blooming flowerbuds and fresh smells it also means an expanding weed problem in old pasture grass (ie. south african capeweed) and the usual heatseeking venomous snakes waking up for summer! Combine them with the other serious need to cut grass given the fire risk here, being next to flogged/and logged state forest (most australians ignore or fear its natural assets-what there is left of it).
Yes there are 3 dorper sheep and 2 cows but they need fencing to put them everywhere which is impractical & expensive…..so i breathe the exhaust fumes of whippersnippers, lawnmowers for maybe 4-5 months a year. And i don’t even do the really hard stuff- tractors, slasher, rotary hoe, etc for the green manure crops, potato crop…
also got to erect a 40 metre greenhouse structure this coming week, but have to paint it first against rust! plus laying out hay for its vegetable raising beds- all in the hope of selling the stuff later- for 60cents kg if you go to a retailer. ARRRRRRRGGHHH- sorry to go on, so i won’t, good to know others are doing it too, very different environments & problems but i think at the end of the day, even if it hurts your muscles- yes it is worth it, i will never go back to a stinking overpopulated suburb in a city, it is very special to have a day surrounded by peace and a sense of timelessness standing in a newly dug bit of soil as the magpies fight overhead & the galahs cackle & jet by. It is lovely to imagine you are in another age.
wow 30 acres… I am jealous
oh- did i mention feral rabbits have suddenly made an appearance in my area- great, hope they don’t detrot the regen. native plants. (how do you create that unhappy smile on a keypad?) bring on mosquito-passed myxomatosis!