My wife wants to start rearing livestock, cows, pigs, sheep etc for sale/ food. Before I invest in a barn/ fencing is there any money to be made in livestock or are we just going to break even?
"I think that I am very reasonable therefore ......." ICRCC
You won't get rich from it. A lot depends on what you have and how you market it. Chances are you will lose money the first few years. I have family that are dairy farmers, pig(he used to do rabit and goat), fed grain growers and fruit / veggie farmers. I also know some one that does wool from llamas. All of the people put in a lot of time but do not have off the farm jobs. They make due.
You will never make much money from a small operation, in fact the best you could hope for with the building of a barn and all that is required money wise to start raising livestock, is to at best, break even.
BUT...on the bright side you will know exactly what has gone into and is in your meat. If you are planning to sell meat from the slaughtered animals you will probably have a certain amount of demand based on people knowing that you raise your live stock “chemical free”.
If you are not planning to raise them chemical free then you will be hard pressed to meet or beat the meat prices at local markets.
Noli Illigitimi Carborundum
(Don’t let the bastards wear you down)
completely natural and organic...but if there's no money in it.....it'll cost me about $40,000 for a semi decent barn...
"I think that I am very reasonable therefore ......." ICRCC
completely natural and organic...but if there's no money in it.....it'll cost me about $40,000 for a semi decent barn...
It will take a long time to recover that cost. May I suggest that you do with recycled wood to start. Or better yet, spend some time working with a few local farmers to see if that is the route you want to go. Pigs are not always the most pleasant critters. It's one thing to keep critters for your know food, it's another to keep enough to sell. Chickens or rabbits I have found are a good way to start.
Small livestock is much easier to start with ( laying hens, pigs,bees,rabbits) I have started with 50 laying hens and 2 bee hives. Every farmer and homesteader i talked to said pretty much the same thing " don`t invest a lot the first year start small and realize the commitment and build from there" also ask a lot of questions of those who came before you.
It`s better to have a knife and not need one then need a knife and not have one.
Depending where you live...you may not be able to raise beef chem free and legally sell the meat. I agree with CK, start small and work up to larger. Look up Joel Salatin, he's got vids on utube and has written lots of books on the subject of real farming.
We've started with chickens, a friend has a dairy cow (and a calf now too). I don't think you'd need a 40G barn to start (if ever)....the biggest reason farming is not profitable today is because of size. There is a demographic that are looking for a small farmer they can call their own and they will pay 4.50 a dozen here for farm fresh eggs.
One day, the lowly farmer will be King
Small farmer, I agree with the rest of the folks, take a long time to earn that 40,000 barn, I started small and grew with the customers, I do well partly because I am offering a high qaulity product along with living conditions that folks are seeking out, but the second reason is because I live close enough to the cities to have folks who are willing to spend $8 to $10 dollars per pd for my lamb. I perfer to be sold out and have folks waiting for the next season then to have extra to sell.
My main goal is always to sell enough to cover the costs of raising and butchering my own food for the year, anything above is gravy..
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/