Raising Your Own Meat??

[MyHorseMyRules]

Pigs, cows, goats, chickens... You name it, we probably raised it. I have to say pigs and goats were my favorite. Chickens, we kept only for eggs. Cows... They're big and stupid. They can be really sweet, but I've just never been that fond of them. If I were going to make a recommendation, it would be goats. They take very little effort, and I love the meat. So do the dogs.

I've never had a problem killing them. They live good lives, and it's really nice to know where my food is coming from. I also don't bother trying to stay detached. This was Mulan the pig (my little sister picked the name), and she still had a couple hundred pounds to gain. She was very, very sweet. And she gave us lots of delicious meat.

 

[Romy]

Around here you can barely give the wool away. And the rattling sound of running sheep with poop in their wool... ick. You have to pay someone to shear them, and then hope someone wants your wool.... (and if you don't shear them, they die of heat)

Lambs are really cute. Sheep are dumb (compared to goats) but nice. I would like them if I found them tasty and they did keel over cause, as GO put it, you looked at them.

Around here sheep are referred to as meadow maggots. :rofl1:

That's another reason I'm a fan of fall butchering a spring lamb. No shearing to worry about. Though, if you really want to get into sheep there are hair sheep that shed naturally. Katahdins and karakuls are both primitive, more disease resistant and hardy than the commercial wool breeds. The folks I've talked to said they are much more like goats intelligence wise, but don't climb fences.

If you like your lamb butchered super young, the hair sheep lambs have beautiful ringlets on their pelts. Where they are raised commercially folks time the uncurling of their hair down to the hour to give them to most time to gain weight before their pelts aren't worth as much.

I think karakul is the breed Jeanine keeps with her CAS.

Or you could get jacob sheep, because a four horned skull would look TOTALLY RAD.

 

[Gempress]

I don't have any experience, personally, but many of my friends do small scale farming. But I will hopefully have my flock of laying chickens next year.

I agree with everyone else in terms of not naming anything you're raising for meat if you're worried about getting attached. The cow/pig/chicken/duck/whatever won't care if it has a name or not.

If you're wanting to raise your own livestock for environmental reasons, ethical reasons, or simply as a hobby, that's great. But whatever you do, don't go into it if your goal is to save money. Unless you have enough grazing area that you don't have to worry about providing supplemental feed, small-scale meat farming is generally more expensive than buying the cutlets out of grocery store.

The trick to raising sheep is to do it blindfolded. If you look at them, they die.

ROFL! I've heard a lot of ranchers say that about sheep!! As one friend put it, "A sheep is born looking for a good place to die."

 

[Locke]

So glad this thread was started. I'm hoping to live on some land in the future, and while I know I could not eat a home raised cow, I could definitely eat chickens AND they lay eggs.

Are pigs easy to raise?? Are there places to take the pigs to be slaughtered if you don't want to/can't do it yourself??

 

[Dizzy]

I'm sorry, put me in the same class as Dizzy and her "vibes", but I had immature thoughts on your thread title :rofl1:

Woah - who you calling immature

I am a very responsible member of society I'll have you know HA HA

 

[Romy]

So glad this thread was started. I'm hoping to live on some land in the future, and while I know I could not eat a home raised cow, I could definitely eat chickens AND they lay eggs.

Are pigs easy to raise?? Are there places to take the pigs to be slaughtered if you don't want to/can't do it yourself??

Yes. There are even mobile slaughter houses that will come out and process animals on site if you'd prefer that, or have several and it'd be hard to move them. They should be USDA inspected.

 

[GlassOnion]

ANY meat should be inspected. Especially pork (look up neurocysticcercosis; it's rare, but present. Trichenella spiralis too).

As one friend put it, "A sheep is born looking for a good place to die.

In school, the official (joking, of course...) stance is "treat sheep gently, early, and often, they're looking for any excuse to die."

 

[Buckshot]

Raised pigs, beef, chickens, turkeys and some non food stock. We did everything from birth to the freezer. I would like to get back in that mode but it is certainly a cramp in the freedom to go where you want when you want. BTW the hunting thing for dog food is something you either want to check the law on or keep it under your hat. It is very illegal here.

 

[Romy]

Yeah, travel is the bad thing about raising food stock. That's the main thing keeping me from wanting to get back into dairying.

If you've got a good setup and good neighbors, you can often trade farmsitting with them. Or if you don't mind paying someone, it's not hard to find a mature 4-H kid to come out to feed and water your stock while you're gone. I used to cattle-sit for people when I was in high school. It paid pretty well.

 

[Shai]

I have floated the idea of eating a couple of the less pleasant horses instead of Wilber, but that was met with considerable opposition--:lol-sign:

Oh man, I just had an image of someone shooting a bag of Ol' Roy with a shotgun. "Ha! I got 'em! Whoo boy, look at that! Clean kill!"

Ya know, I'd just recovering from cracking up over the first one when I got to the second. You guys kill me :rofl1:

Around here you can barely give the wool away. And the rattling sound of running sheep with poop in their wool... ick.

One or more of the hair sheep would be my sheep of choice lol.

 

[Romy]

ooh, if you're allowed to raise some kind of poultry look into jumbo ringnecks.
If you've never tasted pheasant. Oh. My. Gosh. It's amazing. It's got the texture of fine grained bird meat, with the flavor of... pheasant. There's really nothing to compare it to except to say that it's really really yummy.

The other benefit to pheasants are their hides can be worth money for decorative purposes or fly tying/crafts if they are in good feather at the time of butchering. I've got a schematic drawn up for when we have land to build a couple of flight pens capable of housing up to 100 ringnecks.

There are hatcheries you can get orders of 100 jumbo chicks for $1 each, and then you've just got to factor in the food bill and stock loss (because not every chick will survive).

It's something to think about. I wouldn't get into them without some experience in other poultry first because they can be a bit tricky and they need to stay really clean compared to chickens. But the nomminess, it's totally worth it. Plus they come in different colors:

Melanistic

Blackneck

Wild type

There's also slate, white, mottled, versicolor, etc. I <3 nommy birds. Ringnecks are not very personable either, which makes them easier to eat. They mainly flip out and bang into the flight netting when they see a human form, unlike some of the other pheasants you can make total pets of.

 

[Shai]

Wild pheasants are just gorgeous...as are some species of wild duck...

'course they'd be in imminent danger of being retrieved in this house :s

 

[MyHorseMyRules]

Mmmm... I make stuffed jalapeños a lot, and sometimes I'll put pheasant in them. Sooooo good!

 

[k9krazee]

My boyfriend's family recently got into raising cows. They usually have three a year and sell halves or quarters for a few hundred bucks, and keep a half themselves. The meat is AWESOME and the half a cow will usually last them until the next cows are ready to be in the freezer.

 

[Shai]

My boyfriend's family recently got into raising cows. They usually have three a year and sell halves or quarters for a few hundred bucks, and keep a half themselves. The meat is AWESOME and the half a cow will usually last them until the next cows are ready to be in the freezer.

Jargon lesson:

Meat cattle are usually steers (castrated males)

Cows are sexually mature females who've birthed at least one calf.

So people don't often raise cows for beef, they would raise "feeder calves", "steers", or "cattle"

 

[AllieMackie]

I would love to have a small farm one day with various animals for meat and other purposes. Not sure if I could slaughter myself, but there are a number of folks I could get to do so whom are inspected. Friends who own farms use them all the time.

I would also love sheep that give wool, because I can clean, card, spin and dye it myself. I would loooove to have a small sustaining yarn and fibre business. I know some folks who do so very successfully with a small flock. Sheep do die easily, which sucks, but they're also inexpensive and reproduce well.

 

[Romy]

I would love to have a small farm one day with various animals for meat and other purposes. Not sure if I could slaughter myself, but there are a number of folks I could get to do so whom are inspected. Friends who own farms use them all the time.

I would also love sheep that give wool, because I can clean, card, spin and dye it myself. I would loooove to have a small sustaining yarn and fibre business. I know some folks who do so very successfully with a small flock. Sheep do die easily, which sucks, but they're also inexpensive and reproduce well.

Angora rabbits! Actually, even meat rabbits are good. You can dehair the hides and felt the hair. It's soooo luxurious. <3

I've always been intrigued by highland cattle. Their hair is probably only good for rugs though, if that.

Mmmm... I make stuffed jalapeños a lot, and sometimes I'll put pheasant in them. Sooooo good!

That sounds amazing.

 

[AllieMackie]

Angora rabbits! Actually, even meat rabbits are good. You can dehair the hides and felt the hair. It's soooo luxurious. <3

I would most definitely have angora rabbits. Daily brushings give TONS of fibre. One of the local spinning shops has angoras in their store and they rock.

I'd love to have some alpaca and cashmere goats for mohair, but I don't want to0 get ahead of myself. :rofl1:

 

[MyHorseMyRules]

I would also love sheep that give wool, because I can clean, card, spin and dye it myself. I would loooove to have a small sustaining yarn and fibre business. I know some folks who do so very successfully with a small flock. Sheep do die easily, which sucks, but they're also inexpensive and reproduce well.

Teach me? Pleeease?

 

[Shai]

I would love to have a small farm one day with various animals for meat and other purposes. Not sure if I could slaughter myself, but there are a number of folks I could get to do so whom are inspected. Friends who own farms use them all the time.

I would also love sheep that give wool, because I can clean, card, spin and dye it myself. I would loooove to have a small sustaining yarn and fibre business. I know some folks who do so very successfully with a small flock. Sheep do die easily, which sucks, but they're also inexpensive and reproduce well.

I suspect Finn is quite happy with the bolded section and couldn't possible care less about the rest lol