The issue with animal husbandry is you have to be on premises 24/7 so no vacations or get away time. When we raised cattle and my wife raised and bred Percheron Draft horses, getting away for any length of time was an impossibility. Sure, we could have had hired help, problem is, can you trust hired help to provide the level of care necessary? Not really. Why we quit raising cattle and horses because raising forage requires no outside help or employees.
Now, if we want to go somewhere, all we have to do is make sure the cats are fed and we take the pup with us. Much easier and less stressful.
Far as the shop is concerned, I have very self starting employees who know exactly what is required so I don't have to be there all the time. In fact, most times, I'm in the way anyway. Had the same 2 machinists for over 10 years now and unlike the younger generation of today, they are actually very reliable and to what is required and of course I compensate them accordingly.
I think what that comes down to is that some people are just naturally wired to care for domestic animals and that others (myself included) are not. I know my grandfather always missed his horses, after he brought the first tractor on our farm in 1950. He also loved raising beef cattle, hogs, chickens, and geese.
No doubt that raising livestock involves lots of hard work, but if your wired for it and love it, is it really “work” ?
Some of it was ok with me, but much of it, like cleaning out manure and dealing with frozen water in the winter was not. Trying to beat the rain to get the hay in, stacking them bales in the scalding hot hayloft in the summer, and dealing with the mud in the fall harvesting corn also lacked any particular appeal. Making money is a separate, but related issue.
I see animals mainly as “food” and I firmly believe that the primary reason that the Good Lord populated the earth with them, is to feed mankind.
Near the end of grandpa’s time here on earth, it was getting very difficult to profitably produce beef, pork, and chicken. It took near perfect weather conditions. There were also many other “outside influences” like fuel, fertilizer, seed, equipment and land costs, that were beyond our control.
As those costs rose, most of the neighboring farmers gave it up, allowing their land to get overgrown and/or consumed by subdivisions and urban sprawl. That made a rich habitat for the local whitetail deer population.
For those farmers who “stuck it out”, it became even harder to grow crops for the livestock. The deer liked most of those crops. After grandad died of a heart attack, out behind the barn while grinding feed on one sad fall day, it didn’t take my dad and his brother long to decide to get rid of all the livestock.
My family had raised cattle on this farm since well before the Civil War, but none for the last 40 some years. Fortunately, I discovered that those whitetail deer taste as good or better than the Angus and Hereford cattle did, and we hadn’t got rid of all the old farm equipment.
They also take care of their own water in the winter, feed themselves, don’t need their manure cleaned up, never need a vet, and make meat that is healthier to eat.
There’s so many around here now, that the state allows us kill up to (9) deer per person (only (2) of which may have antlers) with reasonably priced resident hunting licenses, starting in mid September, and ending January 1, thru various seasons for guns, bows, crossbows and muzzle loading rifles.
It would be ludicrous for me to even consider raising cattle again. I dislike much of the work involved, I like the taste of venison better (as does my wife and kids), and I can often produce venison for less that $ 1 per pound, after subtracting all input costs.
Not even accounting for inflation, we hadn’t been able to produce beef for that cost since the 1960’s.
It almost seems too good to be true. I get to enjoy all the fun stuff of the farming, like turning the sod over in the spring and watching the corn pop up in rows, but none of the hard, expensive stuff.
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