Terms to Know:
Cooperative extension: A nationwide educational service staffed by experts who provide information to farmers, children, small-business owners, and others in rural and urban communities.
Forage: Food eaten by browsing or grazing animals. Generally understood to mean leaves, grasses, or leguminous plants. Also known as the act of searching for and procuring food.
Pasture: Land used for grazing animals.
Unpalatable: Distasteful or not agreeable.
Webster’s Dictionary defines livestock as “animals kept or raised for use or pleasure; especially farm animals kept for use and profit.” This includes common farm animals such as poultry, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle. If you are considering raising livestock to provide food for your family or to supplement an off-farm income, there are some issues to consider before purchasing any animals.
You will need to have some land to raise your livestock. Although a small flock of chickens, or a few ducks or geese, can easily be raised on a small lot, with larger animals you will need land to provide pasture for food, exercise, and manure disposal. Even with poultry, if you choose to let them roam outside an enclosed shelter during good weather, they will tend to forage a fair distance away from the shelter for food.
If you already own some acreage, you will want to determine if your land is zoned for agricultural use. Land that is surrounded by crop fields and other livestock farm most likely is zoned for agriculture, but if you are near a body of water or close to a town or city, you will want to check with the county or parish zoning office to make certain. Some land, while zoned for agriculture, might restrict the number of animals permitted, especially if you are near houses or a body of water. If this is the case, you might encounter the term “animal unit equivalent” (AUE). This measurement is defined as a 1,000-pound animal (the average weight of a mature beef cow) and is used to determine stocking densities of feedlots and pastures. It helps to estimate the amount of pasture forage an animal will consume and the amount of manure produced per animal. From the table below, you can see that five sheep or goats can use the same amount of pasture as one beef cow.
|
Animal |
Weight (in pounds) |
Animal Unit Equivalent (AUE) |
|
Beef cow |
1,000 |
1.0 |
|
Dairy cow |
1,200 |
1.3 |
|
Bull |
<2,000 |
1.5 |
|
Young cattle |
800 |
.75 |
|
Sheep/goats |
120 |
.2 |
All pastureland is not equal in nutritional value. Generally, the more average rainfall a given locality receives per year, the more forage produced per acre. In the United States the Great Plains region will support fewer animals per acre than an acre in the Midwest. If you are unfamiliar with the particular environment of your region, the local county extension agent can help you determine your land’s pasture potential.
Another consideration is to determine if you should purchase land or rent land. Agricultural land, including pastureland, can be expensive; prices generally influence the purchase price of farmland, which can range from under $1,000 an acre up to $5,000 an acre. (The region of the country influences the price along with competition from crop farmers for land, and a real estate agent can help you determine the price of an average acre of land.) Small-scale farmers can generally get away with purchasing small tracts of land (10 to 40 acres). If you plan on renting your land, you can expect to pay from $80 an acre to more than $200 per acre, where region, competition, and productivity influence the rental price. If you do find a rent that agrees with your pocketbook, entering into a long-term contract with the landlord will help even out any future fluctuations in rent.
Outside Help
Once you have settled on the land, you need to determine if you and your family have the time to devote to properly care for livestock. Each species has its own particular needs regarding housing, feeding, and general care. Smaller and young livestock will need shelter from predators and poor weather, while more mature and larger animals will be able to stand poor weather and protect themselves. It is difficult to give a particular amount of time needed to care for your animals, but generally plan to commit 10 hours a week to direct and indirect care of your animal(s). This includes building shelters, pens, and fences; maintaining buildings, equipment, and fences; feeding and watering; collecting eggs or milking the animals; cleaning pens and disposing of manure; procuring feed, hay, and bedding; plus the numerous small chores that crop up. If you have dairy animals, you will probably spend more than 10 hours a week on dairy chores, including cleaning equipment before and after milking, and with handling the milk itself.
You may need to hire outside help to assist you in some chores. If you do not have a tractor or farm equipment — tractors can cost anywhere from $5,000 for a used, small tractor in good shape upward to more than $80,000 for a new utility-type tractor — you may need to hire a tractor along with a person to operate it. While it is hard to place a price on how much will be charged for doing daily farm chores (manure spreading, skid steer operation to clean pens and buildings of manure, plowing fields, mowing hay fields, and baling hay), you should expect to pay from $30 to $60 an hour.
Many machine rental businesses will be able to rent small tractors, which can pull small plows or other machinery used for planting pastureland or small fields of crops. Skid steers can also be rented. These machines are extremely versatile and come with many bucket attachments. Hay bale spears can be used on skid steers to move the large rectangle or round hay bales. Attachments are also available to help drill holes for fence posts. Skid steers do not have the capability of doing fieldwork such as pulling a plow or a planter.
One invaluable machine to have on a small-scale farm is an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). A mid-sized new ATV can be purchased for around $6,000 and is a good first-machine investment for a small-scale farm. ATVs, depending on size, can be used to pull a harrow to break up manure pats in the pasture or to smooth a recently plowed field. They can pull trailers and small manure spreaders. Front-end attachments are available to enable you to plow snow with an ATV. Driving one around the fence line can save you time when checking pasture fences.
You may need additional help for other labor-intensive chores, such as daily milking or fencing fields. A neighboring farmer’s teenaged children or a retired farmer may be looking for some part-time work. Some towns may have a local community service to help employees and employers find each other. You can also place an ad in the local newspaper or farm paper. Other farmer gathering spots, such as the local café, a farm-implement dealership, a livestock auction barn, or veterinary office, may have a bulletin board where you can post a Help Wanted ad.
Keeping your costs down
Another farm management consideration is the direct expenses involved with your livestock. The initial investment in your livestock is usually surpassed by feed costs, which includes pasture rent or cost and forage expenses. In fact, feed costs are generally the most expensive part of keeping farm animals. It is one expense that you can exercise a lot of control over and will want to keep a close eye on. Skimping on feed can lead to poor health, decreased growth, and even death. Paying too much for feed can cause your profit to disappear. Larger livestock or bigger herds can literally eat you out of house and home if feed costs are not contained.
To help keep feed costs under control, there are some general practices you can follow. On a farm, wildlife will be constantly competing with your animals for food. To avoid feeding the local raccoon population, feed should be stored in a secure room in a barn or shed with a secure door. At the very least, a metal garbage can with lid can be used to store feed. Use a rubber tie-down for extra protection against these nimble thieves. In addition to keeping your feed supply for your own animals, this will keep insects, wildlife, and birds from contaminating your feed with feces. All these creatures can spread disease to your birds and livestock. Some of the diseases can wipe out an entire flock of birds or herd of animals.
Hay should be stored off the dirt and covered to minimize wasting the outer layers of the hay bale due to spoilage from moisture. The wet layers quickly lose nutritional value and are usually unpalatable to animals. Before covering or placing hay in a building, make sure it is dry. Damp hay stacked in an enclosed shelter can heat to a high enough temperature that could cause a fire. It can also provide an ideal environment for mold to grow. Moldy hay is unpalatable to animals, and some types of mold can even be harmful, especially to pregnant or young animals.
During cold weather, feed intake — especially energy in the form of grain — for your animals will increase. If you can, provide your animal with some type of shelter from the wind. For larger, adult, non-milking livestock, a simple windbreak type of shelter will provide sufficient cover, even during the worst winter weather. A windbreaker can be any structure protecting against the prevailing wind. This can be a building, a shelterbelt of trees and shrubs planted around a pen or feedlot, or a solid fence (made of wood or metal) that the animals can stand near. Young livestock will need, at the very least, a three-sided shelter with a roof during inclement weather. Poultry will need a fully enclosed shelter even during the summer for protection from predators.
A secure fencing system will keep your livestock in and decrease your liability for accidents your animals cause. The saying “good fences make good neighbors” is still valid today. Livestock can cause a lot of damage to lawns, landscaping, and crop fields. In addition, many animals will gorge on grain or rapidly growing corn, wheat, or soybeans. This can lead to severe health problems and, frequently, death.
There are only a few states with open-range laws in which all land, both public and private (unless it is within city limits), can be foraged by livestock. The landowner has the responsibility of keeping livestock off their land. The owner of the livestock is not liable for any damages caused by the livestock, so motorists need to watch out for cattle or livestock on the road. Because of these dangers, most states do not have open range laws. They require animal owners to contain their livestock; if a stray causes a motor-vehicle accident or damage to private property, the farmer will be held responsible. Fencing requirements vary according to animals. A few strands of electrified wire will contain well-trained adult cattle. Goats need more foolproof fencing due to their inquisitive natures.
Each species will have some specific requirements to allow them to mature into healthy adults or to reach the age when they can be slaughtered. Ruminants, such as sheep, goats, and cattle, have very different digestive systems than monogastric (simple stomach) animals like pigs and humans. A ruminant’s stomach is formed into three or four specialized compartments in order to be able to digest fibrous plants. Because of this, they have specific dietary requirements that vary among the ruminant animals.
When you purchase poultry and livestock, you will want to quarantine them for one to two weeks from your other animals on the farm. Even if an animal or bird appears to be healthy, they may be harboring viruses or bacteria, which takes a few days for signs of sickness to show. By isolating new arrivals, you will give a potential disease a chance to develop and run its course. Always take care of your established animals before taking care of your new ones in isolation. It is a good idea to clean manure off your boots and even dip them in disinfectant after caring for the new animals.
A good habit to develop is to practice great sanitation. Clean feeding and watering equipment immediately when you see that they are soiled by manure. Keep pens and corrals free from manure buildup and dispose of manure properly by composting or spreading onto fields for fertilizer. Depending on pen size and number of animals per pen, you may have to clean the pen daily, or you may get by with only having to clean weekly.
Disinfect equipment with bleach or commercial sanitizer between batches of flock or between uses for different animals. During insect season, manure removal, draining of stagnant water, and spraying premises with insecticides will cut down on the insect population. Flies and ticks are known carriers of disease. These simple and inexpensive measures are very effective on cutting down on disease transmission.
When you purchase young animals or poultry, remember that their immune systems are not fully developed, and they will be very susceptible to diseases — even disease that would not cause illness in adult animals. Sanitation is very important for young animals and birds. Many diseases enter the body through the mouth. Anything that contacts the mouth or that can be touched with the young animal’s mouth should be cleaned and disinfected. Try to stick to a feeding schedule so as not to upset their digestive tracts, and feed the best quality feed or milk that your budget can afford.
The Pitfalls and Benefits of Raising Livestock
As with all project or jobs, rabbit rearing or pasturing a few head of cattle or sheep does have its drawbacks. A major dilemma will be how to handle the manure produced by your hay- and grain-munching critters. An average-size dairy cow can produce more than 100 pounds of manure a day that attracts flies and other insects, which can quickly become a problem if the manure is not properly cleaned and disposed. If your animals are out on pasture and if the field is large enough, manure should not be a problem. However, when the animals are confined to small pens or inside buildings, manure can quickly build up.
Plan early on how to deal with this problem. A farming neighbor may be able to help you with the use of a manure spreader, or a nearby crop farmer may let you spread the manure on his or her harvested fields. Manure can be a valuable fertilizer if properly aged or composted, but fresh manure will kill or “burn” plants. If you have just a little manure to dispose of, gardeners in your area may be eager to use the droppings for their plots.
Stables, buildings, and pens can become breeding areas for flies and insects. They are a nuisance with biting and buzzing, but most significantly, they can be a source of disease. Proper manure disposal, not letting stagnant water collect in puddles or containers, and prudent use of insecticides can help you control insects on and around your animals. Regardless of the species of livestock you raise, you will need a sturdy building or, at the very least, a secure pen to protect your animals from poor weather and keep them close to your house on occasion. All buildings and pens housing animals need to be strong and well-maintained. Protruding nails, broken boards, and snapped wires can hurt your animals or you, leading to costly medical bills. Slippery spots or holes can twist an ankle or break a bone.
Spilt grain or feed can attract wildlife to your barn or stable. Raccoons are notorious for scrounging around feed bunks or feed storage areas for a free meal. Skunks are also always on the lookout for easy to obtain feed. Both of these animals can carry the rabies virus (along with other disease) and can spread this fatal disease to livestock. Grain and feed should be stored in a critter-proof room or container. A simple garbage can with a secured lid works well for small quantities of feed.
While these negatives are bothersome, they are far outweighed by the benefits of raising livestock. Livestock eat weeds and grasses, which help keep your acreage well-mown and productive. Instead of investing thousands of dollars in a brush mower or using valuable time to run these machines, properly managed grazing livestock can maintain the grass growing between orchard trees or in pastureland.
Raising livestock can also be a fun family activity, especially if you decide to show your animals at the local fair or livestock show. As long as children are properly supervised — and when the animals become used to children — many of the chores associated with farm animal care can be given to children. The main benefit to raising livestock is that they can become a consistent source of food and side income. Who knows: Maybe your small-scale livestock farm may become a full-time occupation. It all starts with these small steps: deciding if small-scale farming will work for you and having the tools to make important decisions.
Tips for New Livestock Owners
When you purchase your first animals, ask the original owner what feed your new animal(s) are eating. Abruptly changing feed can lead to upset stomachs or worse, so try to purchase a bag of the same feed the animal is eating. Gradually switch over to any new feeds by mixing old feed with the new over a period of five to seven days. You should also request a written document listing past illnesses and a vaccination history of the animal from the current owner.
Clear the pens, buildings, and pasture you will be using for your new animals of any clutter, debris, or garbage. Most livestock breeds are fairly curious about items and may lick or try to eat items that may be toxic. Keep new arrivals separate from current farm animals for at least a week in order to acclimate the new arrival to the farm and to make sure the new animal is healthy. Gradually introduce the new animal to its new companions, preferably keeping a sturdy pen or fence between the animals. This will also minimize the change of your current animals from catching any disease the new arrival might be harboring.
Take time to familiarize yourself with your new animal’s temperament and try to establish a routine. Most farm animals thrive on routine and come to expect to be fed, water, or groomed at a certain time.