Hi All,
I live in an old farmhouse/cottage and recently purchased the surrounding original Victorian farm buildings together with an orchard and small meadow, from the farmer up the road who used the money to build a huge new barn to keep his dairy herd inside all the time. I now have a large brick stable with several stalls, four substantial brick pig pens adjoining it with what seem like large water troughs in them and a covered area at the back of them, a barn for cows, with about 8 stalls in it with feeding troughs and water, in which some of the farmers heifers used to be kept over winter as I remember prior to buying it, and a further small brick barn previously used for keeping machinery. The orchard and meadow together amount to around 3/4 of an acre in size. I am interested in keeping livestock but have absolutely no experience. I am thinking in terms of either pigs, sheep, goats, geese, hens, perhaps one cow or a combination. I would welcome advice from experienced smallholders as to what may be suitable.
When people first start off with animals, there is an overwhelming temptation to want to breed them. Personally, I would strongly advise against this. Keep just enough for your own needs since it is very disheartening to produce wonderful food that other folk will only buy if it is below the cost of production.
Start off with a few chickens for eggs. I am now going to upset some but... rare breeds are rare for a reason. Get some hybred layers from a reputable company these will be vaccinated with proven track record of egg production for the strain - animal feed is so expensive you cannot afford to carry those who do not pay their way.
Couple of weaners for sure - some that will actually grow in a fairly short space of time as pig food is not cheap. Folk will wax lyrical about the quality of rare breed meat but when Jimmy Doherty and the commercial pig farmer did a taste test at a market, the public did not overwhelmingly come out in Jimmy's favour. Supermarket meat and home produced meat are however two different things.
Sheep are a lot of trouble to look after with feet and shearing (you cannot get shearers to come out for a couple of sheep) and they also eat quite a lot of grass. There are easycare sheep and other wool shedders but they do hang on to bits of their fleece and look extremely moth eaten and manky during the summer months and can still get fly strike if you are not careful. Fencing needs to be in good order.
Goats will strip the bark from the trees in your orchard and kill them, you need very good fencing to keep them in and they also need attention to their feet at regular intervals. If you want milk then you will have to get them in kid with all that that involves as you will not want to keep a billy. Though it pains me to say it, it is cheaper to buy milk from the supermarket than the extra feed the animal will consume to produce it.
You have some very useful buildings there - do get some farm disinfectant and a jet wash before restocking. Is there any possibility that you could rent extra land nearby? Folk may offer you the opportunity to graze empty paddocks in the summer for free once they know you are able to get off before the winter comes (and their grass is ruined). In these circumstances perhaps you might consider steers (smallish breed) to fatten using a combination of your paddock, winter housing and extra grazing. If you varied the ages then you could keep up a rotation of killing one a year. If you lost your extra land at short notice then unlike breeding animals, they could go to the butcher early.
Depending on time constraints, how about converting your paddock to a productive veg garden instead? Fruit and veg are getting very expensive to buy so perhaps you could grow your own?
The possibilities are endless... enjoy! Oh and by the way, print out and refer to this when you are tempted to stray from the path.
Topic: Lots of Buildings but Little Land! (Read 3672 times)
