If you are committed to homesteading, or if you consider yourself a "prepper" (preparing for perilous times to come) the thought has likely crossed your mind, "How many of what kind of animal do we need?"
I have always thought it more practical to raise animals than to hunt them. If you can go get a rabbit out of a cage for dinner, it's a lot easier and more of a sure thing than taking a shotgun and going down the road looking to kill a wild one.
I have experience raising dairy goats and chickens, primarily, but we've also had at one time or another pigs, rabbits, and calves. I've overcome the learning curve on successfully raising goats and chickens, but have not had very good success with rabbits and calves, and really just don't like raising hogs. Pigs just don't have a "handle" on them, and they're too smart! Pigs can hurt you!
Goats I can handle, and I've raised both dairy and meat goats. Like'em both. Chickens are quite simply a given on any homestead.
So, let's look at how many of each animal you need to feed your family...
Chickens -- I have kept careful records of the production of my laying flock through the winter, and with 17 laying hens (and one ornery rooster) I got an average of 12.2 eggs per day in January, 11.4 eggs in February, and 12.1 eggs per day so far in March. That means I'm getting around 7/10 egg per hen per day.
Just to make it simple to calculate, let's say I'm getting a dozen eggs per day from a flock of 17 hens. That is more than enough for our household of three, with some extra to share with extended family. That's in the winter, too, by the way. Of course, I have had a light in the hen house through the dead of winter, although I've turned it off recently. Even so, production will pick up some through the summer.
So, how many eggs will your family eat? Most families would eat about two eggs a day per person, so a family of five would do well with a flock about the size of mine. Remember, you won't just use eggs for breakfast. They're important for baking and some other dishes, as well.
Goats -- With dairy goats, my experience has been that a good milker will give around 3 quarts of milk a day, with two months off in the winter just before kidding season starts. If you figure a quart of milk per person per day, that means one milk goat can supply a family of three with milk and other dairy products like cheese and yogurt. Goats -- like chickens -- don't do well alone, though. They are herd animals and are most content with others of their kind. So figure on at least two dairy goats. Or you could put a couple of meat goats (Boer, Kiko, Spanish, or Myotonic) in with your milk goat, to keep her company.
Pigs -- With pigs, if you don't want to get into raising them, you can buy a feeder pig in the spring and butcher it in the fall, and it will likely provide all the pork a family of five would need. A hog will butcher at about 150 pounds, and you can have it cut into hams, shoulders, tenderloin, and ribs or bacon. The scraps can be made into sausage. (And milk-fed pork is delicious!)
Cattle -- Calves are a big investment, in time, money, and space. We raised (or tried to raise) four or five dairy calves one year. All the Holsteins died. Only the Jersey made it to maturity. If you get a calf to maturity, it will need about five acres of good grass, if you raise it on pasture alone. And there won't be much meat on it until it's over a year old. Having little experience with raising beef, that's all I can say about that.
Rabbits are prolific. They can produce several litters of kits a year. But they are also totally dependent on their caretaker. A rabbit in a 4 x 4 cage cannot escape or defend itself. It can fall prey to a fox or dog, or even to strong afternoon sunshine. Extreme heat will kill a rabbit. That said, a plump, healthy rabbit will provide a good meal for the family.
According to modernfarmer.com:
A single doe will have multiple litters every year, and those litters will reach breeding age within months; that means a rabbit can produce six pounds of meat on the same amount of feed and water it takes a cow to produce just one pound.
I have considered raising rabbits just for use in feeding my dogs alone. That's still a possibility.
I guess ultimately the two main considerations in determining how many animals you need on your homestead are, how much meat does your family eat? and what kind of animals do you like?
And whatever you decide, remember to keep a dog or two, to deter predators, or the number of animals you end up with will be a whole lot less than what you started with!
I have always thought it more practical to raise animals than to hunt them. If you can go get a rabbit out of a cage for dinner, it's a lot easier and more of a sure thing than taking a shotgun and going down the road looking to kill a wild one.
I have experience raising dairy goats and chickens, primarily, but we've also had at one time or another pigs, rabbits, and calves. I've overcome the learning curve on successfully raising goats and chickens, but have not had very good success with rabbits and calves, and really just don't like raising hogs. Pigs just don't have a "handle" on them, and they're too smart! Pigs can hurt you!
Goats I can handle, and I've raised both dairy and meat goats. Like'em both. Chickens are quite simply a given on any homestead.
So, let's look at how many of each animal you need to feed your family...
Chickens -- I have kept careful records of the production of my laying flock through the winter, and with 17 laying hens (and one ornery rooster) I got an average of 12.2 eggs per day in January, 11.4 eggs in February, and 12.1 eggs per day so far in March. That means I'm getting around 7/10 egg per hen per day.
Just to make it simple to calculate, let's say I'm getting a dozen eggs per day from a flock of 17 hens. That is more than enough for our household of three, with some extra to share with extended family. That's in the winter, too, by the way. Of course, I have had a light in the hen house through the dead of winter, although I've turned it off recently. Even so, production will pick up some through the summer.
So, how many eggs will your family eat? Most families would eat about two eggs a day per person, so a family of five would do well with a flock about the size of mine. Remember, you won't just use eggs for breakfast. They're important for baking and some other dishes, as well.
Goats -- With dairy goats, my experience has been that a good milker will give around 3 quarts of milk a day, with two months off in the winter just before kidding season starts. If you figure a quart of milk per person per day, that means one milk goat can supply a family of three with milk and other dairy products like cheese and yogurt. Goats -- like chickens -- don't do well alone, though. They are herd animals and are most content with others of their kind. So figure on at least two dairy goats. Or you could put a couple of meat goats (Boer, Kiko, Spanish, or Myotonic) in with your milk goat, to keep her company.
Pigs -- With pigs, if you don't want to get into raising them, you can buy a feeder pig in the spring and butcher it in the fall, and it will likely provide all the pork a family of five would need. A hog will butcher at about 150 pounds, and you can have it cut into hams, shoulders, tenderloin, and ribs or bacon. The scraps can be made into sausage. (And milk-fed pork is delicious!)
Cattle -- Calves are a big investment, in time, money, and space. We raised (or tried to raise) four or five dairy calves one year. All the Holsteins died. Only the Jersey made it to maturity. If you get a calf to maturity, it will need about five acres of good grass, if you raise it on pasture alone. And there won't be much meat on it until it's over a year old. Having little experience with raising beef, that's all I can say about that.
Rabbits are prolific. They can produce several litters of kits a year. But they are also totally dependent on their caretaker. A rabbit in a 4 x 4 cage cannot escape or defend itself. It can fall prey to a fox or dog, or even to strong afternoon sunshine. Extreme heat will kill a rabbit. That said, a plump, healthy rabbit will provide a good meal for the family.
According to modernfarmer.com:
A single doe will have multiple litters every year, and those litters will reach breeding age within months; that means a rabbit can produce six pounds of meat on the same amount of feed and water it takes a cow to produce just one pound.
I have considered raising rabbits just for use in feeding my dogs alone. That's still a possibility.
I guess ultimately the two main considerations in determining how many animals you need on your homestead are, how much meat does your family eat? and what kind of animals do you like?
And whatever you decide, remember to keep a dog or two, to deter predators, or the number of animals you end up with will be a whole lot less than what you started with!