How much does a cow eat?

[Larry Caldwell]

I know an acre is small, and I have also thought about trying a couple pigs in that area. The acre is grass and would provide an easily fenced area to start with. It's just an idea that I want to explore a litttle more for the future.

With a family of eight I am already committed to being here every day to tend to whatever I end up with, and I am not worried about what to do with extra meat (whatever that is).

Hogs will make good use of pasture, but not grass. Work the ground up, plant a shallow root crop like turnips, and turn half a dozen weaners into the area in mid to late summer. They will plow it for you. All you need for a fence is an electric nose wire head height on the weaners. They will touch it once and never touch it again. They will need shelter from the sun, reliable water, and a pool they can wade in to beat the summer heat. Hogs don't do well in hot weather. You can slop them on whatever grain is cheapest. Corn is traditional, but if barley or feed wheat is more available, use that. They will also make good use of garden leavings, over the hill corn, squash, pumpkin, apples or pears. They will taste like what they eat. Fruit finished pork is delicious.

I ran pigs in an oak grove once. When I turned them in, they quit coming to their feed. For two weeks, all I could hear was the sound of crunching acorns and snails. They put on a huge amount of weight and cleaned out the oak grove for me. Hogs do well on mast, but don't taste great, so you want to grain feed them before butcher.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Instead of livestock, have you considered poultry? Fence half of it in for a coup, and garden the other. That way you get eggs, chicken, and veggies. And you can generally sell your surplus.

For the maximum healthful food off of one acre, this is the best suggestion. If you want to have chicken once a week, buy 50 or 60 chicks. You will need a brooder to keep them warm and a coop to keep them safe. Raise them to adolescence, when you can tell the difference between roosters and hens, and butcher the roosters for fryers. Set up nesting boxes for the hens and you will be able to pay for their feed by selling eggs, and have all the eggs your family wants to eat. When the eggs slack off in the later winter, butcher the hens for roasters and boilers. When I was a boy, I remember my mother and grandmother butchering, dressing and freezer wrapping 25 roosters in one day, which was considered heroic. They cut the roosters into pieces before freezing, because that made it easier to thaw them.

Fence the acre, and fence the garden to keep the chickens out of it. For variety, you can run ducks in the garden. Ducks eliminate the need for pesticides, and won't eat your garden. As a friend says, "A surfeit of slugs is due to a dearth of ducks." Mallard eggs are great for custards. But I digress. If you clip the flight feathers on the chickens, a 4' fence will hold them.

You can either let them free range anything that is not garden, or build chicken tractors, which might be necessary if you have predator problems. Everybody thinks chickens are edible. Raccoons, mink, martin, hawks, fox, coyotes, you name it. A chicken tractor means you get to eat the chicken instead of the wildlife.

Chicken Tractor Gallery compiled by Katy

It sounds like you have a lot of free labor, so you might just come out OK on this. About 1960 my family discovered we could buy meat and eggs at the supermarket for about what it cost us to grow it at home, and we could skip all the work.

 

[milkman636]

Thanks for the good feedback Mickey and Larry.

 

[texasjohn]

Given your 1 acre and family size and time availability and family support, this thread is, by far, giving you the best advice for how to meet your needs/objectives. Chickens, rabbits, ducks... stuff that reproduces reasonably fast, multiple offspring, quite a range of feed is acceptable, small enough to not need heavy equipment/tools to handle, lowest cost possible fencing needs, and maximum compatibility with a garden.... synergy ...and it should reduce your kids requests for pets!!

 

[czechsonofagun]

You could get two sheep or lambs, raise them and butcher. Not goats, mind you, goats are trouble.

But I would just cut the grass, it is much easier than any animal :thumbsup:

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I love fried rabbit, I would like to raise some. But I told hubby he would have to kill them for me. I can skin and dress them out but those big eyes would do me in. He didn't answer. He just isn't in to killing things I guess.

Also he doesn't care for chicken, doesn't like fish, doesn't like to fish. But he likes the homemade noodles and chicken and rice made from then. I told him he is missing a gene somewhere, who doesn't like to fish and who doesn't like chicken?

DD and I are hoping to find some good fishing on our trip to Yellowstone around August, he hasn't decided if he is going with us yet, we plan to be gone a month or so. He is a very good husband but different. He isn't to crazy about motorhoming either though he didn't care to get it for DD and I and keeps it maintained and tip top. Would rather work on projects on it then go. All he wants is to go back to work overseas or get another job here and likely will once he finishes working on our newest rent house we bought. All he wants to do is work, I used to also, but heck at some point I also enjoy being retired! He will be 65 in August, I said hang it up. So if he goes with us, thats good, if not he will be here to care for the animals or working somewhere. I have a tenant that will care for them or my back neighbor.

I was going to dress out all the chickens for the freezer but now I'm thinking of keeping about 4 for eggs. I really like fresh eggs and 4 aren't expensive to feed or to much trouble to keep. Also back neighbor will take care of them for the eggs. When I used to have to many I shared with him. Since I started keeping chickens a few years ago both my side neighbors now have chickens too. And I'm hearing more and more roosters crowing back in here. What is it, most of us back in here are our age. Guess they grew up doing this stuff, got away from it and now in old age are going back to raising chickens and gardening, full circle.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Wow, I just realized I got completely off topic, if you want me to delete that last posting I will.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Wow, I just realized I got completely off topic, if you want me to delete that last posting I will.

it's good reading, leave it:thumbsup:

 

[EE_Bota]

Take this mans advice. We have cattle all year long, each and every year. They can be a pain. Grass is not the food to raise one for butchering.

I agree, TexasJohn is right...you get a few eggs, and sometimes get to eat chicken. That's pretty good, actually.