Small holders/self sufficiency

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goldypops

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Hi, is anyone the above/do the above??? I have an agric degree but its a long time since I did anything practical. We have a few spare acres so are thinking about either rearing livestock for our own consumption or bit bigger scale and selling rare breed pigs etc. Anyone got any fool proof ideas, and is it worth it or not? Know this is a bit of a vague question!!
 

Maybe of no help to you but we are thinking of getting half a dozen chickens, growing our own herbs & some veg.

Unfortunately we live in a town with only an average sized garden otherwise I would go back to small scale farming which is what we had on the smallholding we used to live on.
 
We keep chickens for eggs, sheep to keep the grass under control and for meat, and buy in piglets to grow on for meat for ourselves. That's aside from any veg which I might get round to growing.

There would be a huge market for our home-grown meat, I'm often asked for it, BUT when we've costed it out it's not worth it plus we keep the animals partly so that we can be certain that they have had the best life possible before their ultimate sacrifice and to me putting them in a trailer they've never been in before and driving them to the abattoir, which has got to be a scary place for them, is NOT giving them the best end they can have. So they are slaughtered and butchered here - which makes it illegal for me to sell the meat to anyone else.
 
Why don't you look up the River Cottage website, I'm sure you can become fairly self sufficient and this forum board will help you out tremendously. (I'm not a member, but my OH is)
Good luck
grin.gif
 
Can heartily recommend ex-battery hens! you pay 50p each to the charity and mine (6 of them) are producing on average 35 eggs a week. Any extra to what I will need per week I swap with my friends for their veg. So I do not need to have so much room as we all swap between us from what we produce from our smaller "plots".
 
Living in ireland and here things are very easy to do, if you can manage to stay non-attached to the creatures! To date we have two pigs, one is a saddle back long white cross breeding sow which I plan to get in pig next year. There is potential to make a handy bit of cash selling weanlings this way, plus any to keep for the freezer. We have three lambs also, given for free as they were orphans. Now growing nicely, two are ewes which again will be bred from next year and lambs will be eaten. However, you do need herd numbers, which here is free to do and include an inspection, also I've heard that local abbatoirs are not allowed o slaughter free range pigs, but have to look into this. Chickens are here also, though they kept sneaking off and brooding resulting in too many roosters and no eggs! Still, they look purdy! Have to say there is nothing more satisfying than watching your animals happy and fat mooching about in your fields! In my mind it's worth it just for that!..cheers!
 
I would say that it is hard work, but worth it. We have chickens, goats, pigs, cows, sheep etc etc. The cost of keeping them fed can be a beggar, especially at the moment, so keep it small scale. The food side is just incomparable though, but it is very expensive to set up as a commercial venture. The admin is ridiculous also.
 
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