Best livestock for a small pasture

[MrDavis]

Hi this is my first time posting, ...anyway i was thinking about buying a couple acres of land (maybe 10?) and i'm wondering what would be the most efficient livestock to have. I would only sell extra, otherwise it would just be for me. I was thinking maybe some deer but it appears that wild game has significantly more protein than fat(is this true?). So maybe potbellied pigs? It also needs to be something that will multiply reasonably quick. Anyway i really need some help on this haha

[TylerDurden]

Deer would be best. The less inbred a species is, the tastier its meat will be. Pigs, though, do seem to produce large litters.

[donrad]

I suggest meat breeds of sheep and goats. Goats are browsers so are good for clearing brush. Hogs will root up and eat everything that is or has been alive so they are good for clearing land. Also a chicken tractor is a recent invention good for both meat and eggs. Geese will survive on pasture only. Khacki Campbell ducks lay more eggs than chickens.

Your investment in fence types and water supply will determin what type of animals you can keep. Preditors in the air and on land are always a battle.

[miles]

Would be good if you get animals suited to the local climate, so they can stay outdoors throughout the year.

[donrad]

There is a lot of breeding going on right now to develop animals that are better suited to fending for themselves in natural conditions. Smaller size, able to survive on pasture only, heat & cold resistance, foraging ability, birthing ease, etc.

Usually this means reverting to "heirloom" species that did just fine for thousands of years before agribusiness changed to animals that could survive indoors in factories or in feedlots on grains and waste products.

[CitrusHigh]

If you're interested in raising your own livestock I've got a few tips for you.

Acquire heritage animals. This means, as the last poster said, heirlooms varieties that are less tampered with. For hogs you really have your work cut out for you because heirloom hogs are rare and coveted, if you get cold weather you'll need to get a hardy species. With cattle this is a bit easier, even though holesteins are ubiquitous, when I went looking for a heritage variety of cows it was not long before we found our brown swiss and guernseys (in your case I'd recommend guernsey or jersey, I love our brown swiss, she's a wonderful cow but she requires soooooooo much more pasture than the guernsey and the  guernsey milk is a little tastier too, though lower yield). The incredible amount of cream that these animals produce makes raising a holestein seem like the stupidest thing on the planet, unless you like drinking cloudy water. For chickens its even easier, all kinds of breeds are available, just choose the ones you want. Then when they have mutt birds you will see some of the prettiest and most original plumage you've ever seen on poultry.

Get a variety of animals and learn how to mimic nature and most importantly work with nature instead of against it. Good models for success in this area are Sepp Holzer, who grows fish, livestock and citrus in the austrian alps. And what's his face from Polyface farms, google it, you'll find him. They are examples of how to do farming as right as possible (even though, and I am a farmer, I still think farming is a ridiculous thing to do, when food used to raise itself and all you had to do was pick or catch it)
       - This means growing a wide variety of native grasses, these days we think 10 different kinds of perennial grasses is a good variety, when an original prairie would have had hundreds or even thousands of different species of forage.
       - This means intensive rotation so your grazers and browsers don't destroy the vegetation.
       - Then following behind with chickens so they can scatter droppings for more even fertilization and eat the insects living in the dung. A chicken tractor is necessary for this.
       - Begin a permaculture project. There's no excuse not to have plants all over your property that produce food year after year. The idea is to make a food forest that maintains itself. Also not just to have foods that you'll eat directly, but also plants that make foods that every kind of animal likes. The larger the genetic diversity on your piece of property, the healthier and therefore less maintenance everything will be. The way to farm successfully is to have nature do the work for you, and you reap the rewards.

Above all, model on success and work with nature not against it.

[raw]

Great post! I'm also planning to start my project for livestock in 24 acres instead of 75 (for this moment). Will be looking to raise wild turkeys, geese (in 10 acres of swampy land), some wild deer, sheep and some goat. Instead of transforming the natural wooded area to a pasture land, I'm looking for a way to do that naturally.

[donrad]

I moved to the country and purchased 40 acres about 20 years ago. Lived off the land for 10 years. Raised rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese, and a 4-h hog project.

The biggest challenge is parasites in the animals. Sheep, goats, cattle, etc have to have their pasture rotated so they don't return to the same spot for about 6 months. This interrupts the life cycle of parasites. Neighbors coming home would find their livestock lying dead in the pasture from parasites. You have to pump them full of poisons to keep them alive if you don't have enough land to make paddoks for rotation. Even the cats & dogs need yearly doses of poisons if they live ouside. Even my rabbits started dying and they were living in wire cages suspended above the floor. I did not disinfect them enough.

Please do some research & don't just rush out & buy some animals & stick them in a pen.

[Alan]

you should not even DREAM of buying land until you've worked as a farmhand for a number of years.

[miles]

you should not even DREAM of buying land until you've worked as a farmhand for a number of years.

That sounds dumb.

[magnetic]

Deer would be best. The less inbred a species is, the tastier its meat will be. Pigs, though, do seem to produce large litters.

And they will clear away brush and till the soil, or so I hear.

[CitrusHigh]

I think you're off base with the parasites alarmism there.

I rotate our cows over the same set of pasture weekly and have never had parasite or any health issues beyond a short bout of mastitis. Maybe you didn't know what you were doing and didn't understand how nature works? Our cows get nothing but grass, water, trace mineral and kelp. Those are the ONLY inputs, no drugs, no hormones, EVER. BTW, minerals are absolutely crucial for larger animals like cows, most ground, if ever farmed has been badly depleted of nutrients, mineral supplementation is NOT optional, it is VITAL. Big animals, big nutrient needs. Big animals big nutrient deficiencies. They require like 2 ounces of salt each day for example. Kelp and Redmonds trace mineral are in my opinion the way to go. You can also offer wood ash, not sure what the purpose of this is, but i know our cows like to walk up to our fire pit and lick the burned wood, I assume they're scenting something they need nutritionally.

Pigs are good for forested areas, especially if the forest produces mast like acorns. But pigs need heavy management too, they are destructive busy little buggers, which is great in the wild, beneficial it is, but if not rotated they would quickly destroy every last bit of vegetation on a given piece of earth.

Deer are good and fine, but they require deer fence, which is quite expensive, still if you can afford it, it may be a good option if you can encircle your whole property. One vial of deer semen is worth approximately $10,000 USD, so it can also be quite lucrative.

[donrad]

Don't take my word for it.

If you are going to raise any animal do at least some basic research. Any book or course you take will go into detail about parasite life cycles and prevention methods.

It is a very real problem. If you ignore it, it will be just a matter of time until they move in and become established.

There is a pork certification program where they have the sow give birth under surgically sterile conditions in a special facility. The parasites are there at birth, getting transferred from the mother.

 

[donrad]

You can get a wealth of information on local internal and external parasites, plus literature on raising animals at your county agricultural extension service.

[mystic]

Just do it.  It's not that hard if you're not doing it for the money.  I'm on 20 acres and run 5 cattle.  Used to breed deer and goats.

[magnetic]

Just do it.  It's not that hard if you're not doing it for the money.  I'm on 20 acres and run 5 cattle.  Used to breed deer and goats.

Could you tell us about your experiences, about the advantages/disadvantages to raising cattle versus deer and goats?  Is there a reason you switched to cattle?