Animals should show a profit, not a loss: can people on tight budgets afford not to raise livestock?

Can people on tight budgets afford not to raise livestock?

COUNTRYSIDE: Your magazine is great! But the economy in this area (New Hampshire) is failing for working folks. We are losing our income, but our outgo is the same or greater. Property taxes, transportation, etc., all have increased. We can barely make enough for feed for our critters, Cuts have to be made. We're keeping some of the critters, but none of the magazines and newspapers, including COUNTRYSIDE. If needed, more cuts will mean no critters.

We've been getting quite a few letters like this one--and they both sadden and confuse me.

We're always sorry to lose a reader, of course. That loss is especially acute when that reader appears to be one this magazine was designed for. However, I'm even sorrier to hear that COUNTRYSIDE hasn't been fulfilling one of its primary missions: helping people--or at least this person--cope with tough times.

How can people say they can't afford to keep livestock!? People on very tight budgets can't afford not to keep livestock! If farmers raise animals to make a profit, why can't a homesteader at least break even? If nothing else, shouldn't livestock provide an unemployed person with meaningful work and something to eat?

Some of the answers might seem obvious: feed costs are high, and even many "for profit" livestock producers are losing money these days. That, however, isn't so much an answer as it is a challenge. Homesteaders can, and must, meet that challenge. After all, feed costs are likely to soar even more, and what did you think "tough times" referred to anyway?

This is one of those topics that's too large and complex to be covered in a one-page article. However, there are a few basics. Nearly all of them can be described in a single sentence:

Too many people don't treat their animals as sources of income.

Some of them simply don't know how. They don't know how to properly care for and manage livestock. Or, they don't know how to run any kind of business enterprise. COUNTRYSIDE tries to help, but the real basis for both of these has to come from books (which can go into much greater detail)--and experience.

The most important step is developing the right attitude. But let's say you've established a no-nonsense, businesslike attitude about livestock. Then what? Here's a brief outline of some of the details you'll have to work on:

1. You need good stock--not necessarily registered or pedigreed, but healthy and productive--and you need proper equipment. Obviously, this is much more easily accomplished before the wolf is at the door. Not only does it require start-up capital: you'll also need some experience before you can accomplish it.

2. Read, observe, ask, study, learn! No one can ever know everything about all aspects of animal husbandry-feeding and nutrition, health and grooming, genetics and breeding--but the more you know the better off you'll be. (Note that all of these details differ between species. No wonder people who start out with a barnyard zoo complain that they lose money!)

3. Treat your animals as a business. Keep good records--on health problems; production; and most of all, costs. Then use those records--to fine-tune feeding; health management; and most of all, culling. This involves studying your records, on both a regular and sustained basis.

4. Be creative. If your homestead meat, milk or eggs cost more than they would from the store, find out why. If it's because you have too many animals and you're producing a surplus, you might cut back, find a market for the surplus, or develop a profitable use for it on your own homestead. If you lose poultry or other animals to predators, improve your facilities. If you have health problems, do what it takes to correct them--whether that means doctoring, changing your management to eliminate the problems (better feed, sanitation, etc.) or culling. If your feed bills are too high, find alternatives.

Managing homestead livestock isn't like dumping a can of dog food in a dish and patting the animal on the head or playing frisbee with it once in awhile. Management involves thought, study, observation, recordkeeping and analysis--in a word work! Shoveling manure is the easy part!

And you should be rewarded for that work, as well as for your skill and knowledge.

Can't afford to read COUNTRYSIDE? I'm sorry about that, although I can understand.

But you can't afford to raise livestock? You're doing something wrong!

We'll do our best to help you correct that, in this issue and those to come.