It took us years to decide what type of livestock would work for our farm. Some of that was fear, lack of knowledge, feeling unprepared and money. The first couple years of owning livestock, there isn’t much to be made. In fact, you’ll be lucky if you break even, BUT if you can hold out, you’ll make a turn at year 3-5 and profit will be achievable.
What livestock is best for you?
We’ve owned chickens, turkeys, guineas, ducks, cows, sheep and goats? Here’s what I can tell you about them from our personal experience and why we do what we do.
Fowl
Technically not livestock, but often the gateway to the bigger options…ha! These are the easiest to care for, in my opinion, but also the easiest to get picked off. You have decide if you want them to free range or be in a well protected run. Water in the winter is forever a struggle unless you have electric to use heat. But the reward is so great!
Chickens – You’ll need layers feed, water, coop with a roost and laying boxes, plus a run. You can keep 10-15 in a relatively small area without breaking the bank.
Guineas – We had these as an extra predator alarm. While they work, they are NOISY. I would never suggest this for inside city limits. Something also worth noting, is that we never had snakes when we had them and that was a big perk for me. Regardless of how much we trained them to the coop, our always went rogue and preferred to sleep WAY up high in the trees.
Turkey’s – We’ve only ever had these for personal consumption, but if you can get a turkey that is intended to live longer than a meat turkey, the eggs are phenomenal. They’re a treat in our house and our kids fight over who gets them first.
Ducks – The ducks were gifted to us, as some friends moved, and they didn’t want to take all the birds with them. They supplied all the things…their pool was a big one. For me, this was a pain point. We didn’t have a water source close enough to the coop for it to not be a pain. Draining and refilling what felt like constantly. Maybe if we’d had more, it would’ve been worth the trouble. But, if you have a pond or a lake and water source, 100% worth it! We loved their eggs and they’re pretty stinking cute.
Cows
We had 3 cows total. And I loved them so! But if you don’t have a great water source or can’t keep a trough filled, you’re going to be chasing the water, especially in the winter months when you dry lot them. It was A LOT of work for the water alone. Everything else felt relatively simple. I can’t speak to a large herd of cows.
Something worth noting is that we ran our cows with our sheep. They work well together in a pasture environment because the cows (and horses) grazed with sheep and goats help to break parasite life cycles because the sheep and goat parasites cannot survive in those other species. In fact, we hadn’t wormed our sheep, because we hadn’t needed to. The moment the cows went to butcher, we had a parasite and worm problem almost immediately. It was insane to watch in unfold.
Sheep
All in all, sheep are relatively easy to care for, if you have separate pastures, you can move them to graze. They will root up any pasture you have if you leave them too long, so moving it crucial. Also, they are less parasite and worm resistant than other livestock, and you might find yourself having to work them more often if your pasture and paddocks are not set up correctly. Often, the best type of set up for this is a less wooded area. The biggest perk of sheep is that, once trained, they will follow you anywhere, even, if they get out.
BUT, have you ever tasted lamb meat? Gracious it’s ridiculous. So good. Our favorite is lamb burgers, on fresh pita with homemade tzatziki sauce and all the fixings. Second favorite, leg of lamb. For our farm, we’ve decided to let the sheep go due to the goats being better for our land, but we will be buying lambs and butchering them yearly from our good neighbor!
Sheep for Sale
We’ve decided to get out of the sheep game. Interested in buying ours? We have 4 white dorpers, pregnant and 3 Katahdin/Dorper mix, also pregnant. Lastly, our black headed dorper registered ram. Contact us if you’re interested! hello@brushcreek-farm.com
Goats
Goats get a bad wrap. However, they will blow through some brush, if given the opportunity to graze it. We live in a heavily wooded area with lots of rocky hillside and that makes it a great place for our goats in the summer. We don’t have to feed them hay at all, we just let them graze on our property using mesh electric fence to move them as often as needed. I won’t pretend they haven’t gotten out a timer or two, but after a relationship is established, and they’ve been trained either with grain or otherwise, they will come to you and fall out back to where they need to go. Depending on the breed of goats, you decide to get, some are known to be more parasite resistant. For us, we are choosing to run Kiko goats.
Ultimately, you have to decide what you’re willing to do and the work it will all involved. In the end, they will all need food, water, shelter and fencing. There is no shame is starting small and taking the time you need to grow when you can. We’ve been on our property 8 years and we still have lots of big plans for the future. Happy homesteading!
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