I decided to start a monthly journal entry on the costs of our livestock feed. This does not include any cost for aquistion of stock, or unusual costs such as lambing supplies or a new bowl or something. Just feed.
If you’re a new homesteader starting out, it’s really easy for your feed costs to get totally out of whack! And all you seem to do is write out checks to the local feed mill! I know that my costs are a little high right now because we are still feeding out hay, which for us has been an expensive deal with the drought of last year.
We have 8 sheep, 1 pony, 4 goats, 7 bunnies and about 85 chickens. Just for a reference. We did not include the cats and dogs as they are pets…
March… $318.91
15 bales of hay
500 pounds of chicken feed
80 pounds of rabbit feed
100 pounds of goat/sheep grain
2 bales of shavings (for baby chicks bedding)
We will probably be downgrading our chicken flock somewhat. We are just not getting enough eggs vs. the sale of eggs to really justify so many chickens. The 500 pounds of feed for the chickens was really over half of the cost… $150! Of which, we sold about $24 in eggs over the month. Very out of whack. Now, granted, with the cold weather, they haven’t been laying much. And hopefully with the warmer weather will come more grass and bugs and lower feed costs. And we are also feeding 20 meat chicks, so that goes into our freezer/food eventually… still…. lot of chickens and work for little return. We’ll see…. Want to try some more alternatives to bird feed… more outlet bread suppliment and also sprouting grains for them…
15 bales of hay was a little pricey as well, since we’re paying $7 a bale for it… $105 bucks. Soon, we should have plenty of grass and pasture so that price should drop considerably as well. That will be nice.
So how are your homestead feed costs coming along? Any great feed tips to share with everyone???
Pin It
I feel your pain with feed. Except for chicks any other fowl I place on scratch grain that isn’t laying. Anything over 18 months old go to the stew pot or dog food. I know animals can become pets and its hard to cull, but you have to keep your cost down. If you can get to a grain elevator and buy in bulk you can save a good chunk of change. Come on spring and some green grass. Do you advertise egg sales? Craigslist is a great resource for new customers. Best advice I can give though is just pray God will lead you through it .
Hi… I’m not too worried about the feed and all, hope you didn’t think I as struggling or anything, just making some observations about the amount and such. We have many more egg customers than we have eggs, so advertising is not required. Right now, our hens are just not laying much. They haven’t really been for the last two or three months, which makes it a little rough having to pay to feed so many… our feed mills will grind food, but it’s not that much cheaper than by the bag for us and frankly they all seem to grind it too fine and we loose a LOT of feed that way. We’ve done it before and I’d just rather not anymore. I might be switching to pelleted food, I’ve tried it before and they didn’t like it a whole lot. But it seemed to last a little longer. I might give mixing it with crumbles… like a bag of pellet and a bag of crumbles… see if that slows them down a wee bit! haha… Can’t wait till the grass is growing and the bugs are out though, that will be nicer on the feed bill!! Thanks for your good wishes!!!
sooooooooo love your videos..I think Ive seen them all..all the way back to moving into the Mody. I know Ill never have a small farm..no more energy or funds on my part. So..instead..I fantasise on your site. So love the animals.
You and the girls have done so much with the homestead..be proud..someday your girls are gonna tell about the days with mom and how all this was created. THE MOST valuable treasure of all.
I have a question? I so love the white little fence..its so cute. But..why havent you filled the ditch with gravel and dirt? It just kinda seems..dangerous..someone could trip? Just wondering..Im sure it must serve a function. It does look nice..and thank you for sharing your video!
~ Linda
Well, thanks! I’m glad you like our videos… I hope to be able to do more now that we can actually upload things relatively easily… it’s been hard the last two years or so because of our internet connection, but now it seems to be better with the faster service situation.
Regarding the ‘ditch’… it’s actually a very important part of the place… we live in an area that is prone to flooding. In fact, many years back, the whole place was nearly 6 feet under water once! Now, that was mainly because the county messed up and didn’t repair some culvert pipe near the road and railroad tracks. The county ended up paying the previous owners a big wad of cash for the problem AND they did some major work out on the road side and such.
My big farming neighbor that is all around us on three sides, he has been doing a lot to remedy the situation as well, and last summer laid down a ton of drainage piping and that has really really helped as well. We haven’t had ANY flooding issues so far this spring and normally we would have some water somewhere.
The ditch is full of water though, and is draining the main property all the way back to the weed patch. It was dug after the big flood under the recommendation of the county engineer folks. When ever we get a big storm or a lot of rain over a day, that ditch is a running stream.
I suppose we could fill it in with gravel, but it would be a LOT of gravel and expense. Everyone knows it’s there and all, and we have bridges over it here and there… No one has tripped yet. I think because it’s big enough, you have to pay attention to it. If it were smaller, more people might fall victim to it! It’s kind of funny to watch Cody jump it, he always does. He will walk across one of the little plank bridges, but he’s always very careful about it, as if he doesn’t trust it. The goats and sheep all walk across the bridges, it’s funny to see.
We are planning to build a few more bridges in the spring, to replace one or to that are a bit on the wobbly side…
Hope that answers your question… we kind of like the ditch… we wanted a stream, and we treat it as our occasional creek! haha… we call it the creek… wishful thinking I guess.
-sherri
Oh, I forgot to say… I want to ditch up a little bit of ditchweed and cattails and plant them in the “creek” and see if they catch… I think that would be kind of neat! Not sure though if my critters would graze them down or not… I might try it and see what happens! I think that would be pretty…
so agree..about the cattails..we had a “ditch” on a piece of our property when I was a child..it was more of a drainage ditch. AND it does look nice..so..keep it as a piece of beauty..dont mess up what works my daddy always said
Yeah… I did think at one time that I’d like to put some pretty river rock in the area right by the courtyard, thought it would look nice and all. Still might but there are so many other priorities at the moment and I’d hate to mess it up and all. It does work pretty well. In fact, we are planning to dig it out a bit, since it kind of clogs up with leaves and junk from time to time. But the stuff we dig out is super good for the garden boxes!!!! (ggg) Already kind of composted down some and nice and rich black soil!
Well, we do what we have to do to survive. That is the rule in farming. Things don’t always come out the way that we want it to be but at least we have some sort of plan to counter the problems that we will be facing.