Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[lorihadams]

Yeah, hubby doesn't realize what a chore it will be to take care of a herd of meat goats and yes, we have some people that are requesting it now but what is gonna happen when we have to front the money to start a herd and how much can we get for a meat goat that has been slaughtered? We can get more on the hoove for breeding stock than we could for a processed goat and I don't want to have to go down the road to care for a herd of goats on someone else's property that I have to lease.

I don't know how you did it with 120 goats....

 

[FarmerChick]

yea Lori it was hard but it was 'the job' so ya just did it.

120 does I broke into 2 kiddings. I was sure to breed 60...then about 5 weeks later bred the other 60 so the gosh darn kiddings would not hit at the same time. But all geared toward the ethnic holidays for max. cost per kid for sale.

ya just do it if it is your business. alot of research and timing and backbreakers for sure

 

[lorihadams]

Yeah, I sat down with Chad and told him that I was looking to break even on our costs for the farm...I'm considering the products we get from the livestock as profit.

If I can make enough off the goats to buy their feed/hay/straw for the year then I'm happy with that. The milk we get from them is our profit and any products made from the milk I consider profit too....soap, cheese, yogurt, etc.

If I can sell enough ducklings and eggs each year to buy my feed then I'm happy with that and the extra eggs are profit.

If I can sell enough rabbits to pay for the feed for the year then any extra that we can put in the freezer for ourselves, the hides, and manure are our profit.

If I can sell enough extra honey from the bees each year to pay for supplies for them (sugar, pollen patties, hive components) then the extra we harvest will be our profit.

Most of the time I can sell enough meat chickens to pay for the feed and cut the cost of the extra ones for us to so little I consider the savings on the meat a profit.

Chad texted me this morning that people are wanting to buy meat birds and meat rabbits and he needs order forms. I'm happy about that cause that will pay for feed for the next few months. If we can get deposits from people of half down and half at deliver of the meat then it usually will at least cover the cost of the birds and initial feed costs.

I'm not looking to make a living, I'm just looking to find a way to use our livestock to help us be self sufficient....now if he would let me keep a rooster then I could hatch out extra chicks and either sell them or raise them until they are big enough to process but he will not have a rooster.

I know how much we paid to get started with the dairy goats and I know that just buying quality stock is gonna cost us an arm and a leg. We can only sell a meat goat for like $75-100 around here and I know that there are farms around here that sell show quality boer breeding stock for upwards of $1000 each. I recently visited a website for a farm not too far from here that was selling registered show quality boer does for $1000-2000 each and they also had a buck that was for sale for $2500. Why would I sell for meat when i could breed for show quality and breeding stock and make 10 times as much profit? It just doesn't make sense to me. If we wanted to raise them and sell the extra males or babies with undesirable characteristics for meat then I'm okay with that as a side prospect. I just don't think he realizes what the numbers will be like and how much extra work it will actually be. I have at least 3 people in line that want to buy milk from me on the sly for their children. One has allergies, one is recovering from leukemia, and the other has digestive issues. I stand to sell at least 1-2 gallons a week once my does come into milk. I'm just hoping they will produce enough to meet the demand for us and others.

I had a lady call me the other day because her daughter was just diagnosed with some pretty serious stomach issues and her doctor told her to start with 8oz of raw goats milk twice a day and work her way up to 12 oz twice a day for at least 6 months to a year. I told her that I would love to help her but I just don't have that much milk now and I'm getting ready to dry up the one doe I have in milk until she kids in April/May. I did offer to sell her some that I had frozen for making soap but if I can help her daughter out then I'm willing to do that. I can't give her 2 gallons a week but something is better than nothing. I also put her in touch with my breeder to see if she had any extra or knew of anyone in the area that was still milking and willing to sell to her.

I know there are ways to make some profit but I am not looking for that. I just want to cover my costs and justify having the livestock in the first place. Like I would love to plant some extra seedlings from my garden and sell them to pay for my seed costs. If I had a greenhouse (which we are thinking about) then I could do lots of extra seedlings to sell off the extras and grow some extra for us year round. I just don't have space in the house to grow seedlings where I have a temperature high enough for germination. We may do some cold frames with some old windows to start some seeds earlier too.

We would love to have the space to raise some cattle and sell off the extra stock each year and put some meat in the freezer and we are working on that too with our neighbor who already has the fenced pastures ready to go.

I come from a long line of farmers and making a living on it is a hard way to go....most years they were lucky to just break even or have enough leftover to pay their taxes and buy seeds/supplies for the next season. It's a tough life. Satisfying in a lot of ways but tough a lot of the time.

 

[lorihadams]

Chad surprised me and came home early from work and took the kids squirrel hunting so I could get some xmas stuff done. I bought a bunch of Littlest Pet Shop toys from the local consignment shop and had to soak everything in bleach water and then sort it all and decide who gets what. I also had to go through a years worth of pictures for all the grandparents so that got done. Then I went deer hunting and saw a button buck and two small does. I could have shot the larger of the two does but she kept looking up the field and I kept waiting hoping something else would come out and just decided to let her walk. She was a little on the skinny side anyway.

Gonna process rabbits and meat chickens this weekend. We went through our rabbit stock and decided who to keep and who to put in freezer bags

We sexed all the rabbits again that we are looking at keeping just to double check and we have 2 bucks and 4 does that we are keeping. I'm pretty sure one of the does is bred but don't know if for sure she is pregnant and we have another doe that we suspect is pregnant but I tried to palpate her this afternoon and couldn't feel anything. Chad said he felt "marbles" so I'm wondering if she is indeed pregnant and I just couldn't feel them. We are gonna keep her and wait and see cause she could have been bred when we got her.

It will be nice to get these processed cause it will free up 2 hutches so we can separate everyone into their own spaces. It will also be better cause now we can control the breeding cause right now we have 2 does in with one buck but we wanted to breed them anyway. Sunday is the day!

I have one little holland lop that I am gonna see if my neighbor wants...her daughter wants another rabbit and it is currently in her cage anyway and he seems pretty sweet and happy with his space. I would love to give her cage back, rabbit and all, and get it out of my barn. I want to go from 19 down to 6.

We'll keep those as breeding stock and then decide who to keep when we have future litters if we want to replace any of our stock. I'm pretty happy with the ones we are keeping.....good color variety and body type. We have 1 that we think is a flemish doe, one black NZ buck, one white Satin buck with black spots, one white NZ doe, one red NZ doe, one white NZ doe with red spots that may actually be a satin cross, and the holland that we are trying to sell.

 

[BarredBuff]

I hope you have better luck with your rabbits than I have been having with mine they wont breed

 

[rathbone]

^So much for the saying "multiplying like rabbits". I wish we could have rabbits (too hot here). Yours sound lovely!

 

[lorihadams]

Hey BarredBuff...are you checking them out before you try to breed? You may want to look at the does vulva and see if it is pink and puffy...if not she probably isn't ready to breed. Same with the buck...if his testicles are full and painfully obvious then he is a good candidate but if they look shriveled or are up inside then he isn't a good candidate to breed at the time.

I caught my black buck trying to breed my red doe last week before I was able to have the hutch space to separate everyone so I may have babies coming...I dunno, we'll see how it goes.

We just got an order for 5 for $100 for next week. I have one that is a little small so I'm hoping she plumps up this week. The other 4 are right on for processing next week.

 

[deb4o]

WoW lori thats great! 5 for 100$

we were doing rabbits for meat and pets and found in our area there really is no market,some people would love to have them for meat but don't want to pay very much for them,so we were going in the red with that venture.

I did better selling the hutchs after I sold my rabits for 5 bucks apiece to a gal who raw feeds her show dogs.

I had one couple come over a hundred miles just to get a hutch.wish I had more to sell lol

 

[lorihadams]

I sold 2 more to the lady at TSC, she saw me buying rabbit feed and we got to talking and she told me to hold two for her brother. I have to go by there today to tell her they are ready but I sold them to her for $10 each. Chad also sold one to a guy at work for $10 too. The guy that is buying them for $20 each is a client of the gentleman we bought the rabbitry from. He told us that we could have his contacts and whenever they want some he would call us. We are gonna bring them to him and he will deliver them for us.

So total we have made $130 from our $150 initial purchase and I have bought $30 of feed so far. So I am keeping one for us for xmas dinner and I may give one to Chad's step-grandpa cause he loves rabbit. I'm happy with that. I still have the one holland lop that I am planning on selling but I want to check with my neighbor first cause her daughter wants one and the one she really wanted is a NZ that was scheduled for the chopping block but if she wants it I will process the lop and sell her the NZ instead. Gotta call her today too. I will sell it to her for $15 if she wants it. We want to build at least one new hutch or some solid wire cages and get rid of the biggest hutch we bought from our rabbit guy. It is too deep to get hold of the rabbits. You practically have to climb in there to get them. We have even tried to get them out with a stick or rake. I want them to be shallow and longer in width so I can easily get my hands on them. I pet them every time I feed them so they get used to me touching them and don't freak out if I put my hands on them. If they scratch or bite me then they only get a few chances to change temperment or they get the axe. The one that brought blood on me twice was the first to go and we will eat him for xmas.

Today I cleaned up the house a bit and did some crafting with the kids. We found out that we will have another family get together for xmas and I am going to make some homemade xmas gifts for them cause I just don't have the money to buy everyone something. I need to go get some epsom salts, a 25lb bag of rice, and some ziploc bags. I'm going to make bath salts for everyone, a rice bag heating pad ( I have the fabric already), and put everything in a homemade tote bag for the ladies. The men will get a heating pad as well. Everyone is also gonna get pics of the kids.

Hubby wants to buy his daddy a new scope for the gun his half brother is getting him so he picked up a side job on Sunday raking leaves and cleaning gutters for $250 and that will pay for the scope and part of the electronic cigarette for his mom. She wants to quit smoking and told our son that that was part of his xmas present cause every time he sees her with a cigarette he tells her that she shouldn't smoke cause she will die.

I have some leftover birthday money that I am gonna use for us to go to the botanical gardens next week to see the lights with some friends.

 

[lorihadams]

Sold 2 meat chickens yesterday!!! Delivering the 5 meat rabbits Wednesday before we go rock climbing. Gotta go to the post office today to mail my brother's gifts. Gotta hit the library to return an overdue movie. Gymnastics tonight. Processing rabbits and chickens tomorrow. Started a tote bag for SIL last night and need to finish it tonight. Gotta get feed for the rabbits and meaties today too. I'm exhausted.

Got $500 of chad's pay for guiding, side job, and our xmas money from my brother to deposit in the bank. That will help soooooo much. Take a chunk out of our credit card bill until we can sell the exercise equipment to the guy in Maryland finally. He definitely wants it and it will be $1900 for us but he still hasn't had any luck selling his bowflex to make room for our stuff. Killing me. I need that money yesterday.

Anyway...the xmas money from my brother will pay off the beekeeping supplies we just charged so that's done and we should be ready for spring. I hate using our credit card but when something goes on sale and I know i'm gonna get money to pay it off after the sale is over I just charge it and pay it off on the next month's bill. The sale of the exercise equipment will pay off Chad's new bow and supplies and still have money left over to pay off some other stuff we charged. Usually we just charge our gas and then pay it off every month but we splurged cause we knew we would be getting the money to pay stuff off.

Well, I need to hop in the shower and get going....oh, our flemish giant disappeared Saturday. The cage door was locked and there weren't any holes anywhere but hubby and his uncle think maybe she was able to push the door and squeeze out the top. I'm pissed, now I'm down to 3 does and 2 bucks. I have put all three does in with bucks as of today....the white with the satin, the red with the black, and the white/red spotted with the black. We'll see if any turn up pregnant. People are coming out of the woodworks now that they have found out we have rabbit meat to sell.

I may have to kill the holland lop cause the smallest one from the other batch we processed is still on the small size and the lop is bigger. Hopefully the kids won't be too disappointed but I can't sell him a small rabbit for $20. He wants them whole too so that will be extra easy for us come tuesday. Hopefully he is pleased and will order from us again.