You want to become truly self-sufficient. Even though you might have a beautiful garden with all the vegetables you need, if you are still buying meat and dairy from the grocery store, you aren’t very self-sufficient at all. In this post, we’ll be looking at some of the best animals for a small homesteader to raise that can do more than just provide meat.
Goats
Having goats on the property is always a good idea, as even just a single goat can provide you with between two and four quarts of milk each day. The milk can be used to drink, naturally. However, you could also use it for a host of other things, such as making butter and cheese. You could even put it in the soap you make. Those who have large herds of goats may also use them for meat if they choose.
Sheep
Like goats, sheep don’t take up a lot of space, and they can provide you with some great benefits, namely wool. With the wool, you can then make clothing, blankets, and much more, which makes you even more self-sufficient. Sheep’s milk might not be something that you commonly think about, but you can use it to make some great cheese. As with goats, you can use the sheep for meat if needed. However, the other benefits they offer tend to make them more valuable in other areas.
Poultry
Of course, you certainly want to consider raising poultry, and chickens are probably top on your list. It’s true that chickens are a great option. You can raise them for eggs or meat, and again, they don’t require too much space. Even the chicken feathers are useful. You can clean them, and then you can use them to stuff pillows, for example.
You certainly have some other choices with poultry as well, including ducks and geese, as well as turkeys.
Hogs
If you raise hogs, you will have a substantial amount of quality meat on your homestead. You can make bacon and sausage, and you will have plenty of pork chops and roasts. Hogs will eat many different things, including some of the table scraps that you have and that you might otherwise throw away. Just make sure there isn’t too much protein in their diet. Also, you can use hog manure in your garden.
Learn About Your Animals
Regardless of which type of animals you choose to raise as a homesteader, you need to do your due diligence. This means learning about the different animals and the various breeds that are available. You want to choose the best animals for your lifestyle, and you need to know how to care for them properly. With a little bit of research, you will have no problem when it comes to raising and keeping these animals. Of course, these are just some of the good options for homesteaders out there. You can find plenty of other good animals that might work better for you, such as rabbits, or even fish.
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One comment on “Best Animals to Raise for a Homesteader”
What a great article! Thank you for a quick overview.
I have recently become acquainted with a wonderful woman that is here in the US from China. We were talking about a nephew that is extremely lazy and decided he was going to make a killing on selling eggs. He had NO idea how dirty chickens are, nor how much work it truly is to try and keep almost 50 hens a laying! Within 4 weeks his flock had dwindled to 8 hens and he is trying to get rid of them.
She was telling me about the vast majority of people/farmers in China raise ducks but never chickens. Ducks do not claw the ground down to the dirt like chickens, ducks are a more naturally clean animal, ducks do not need grain, they feed on the little critters inherent around any homestead. Then she explained how you will see flocks of ducks following the people down to the fields in the mornings. The ducks are set loose upon the gardens, where they munch insects like crazy and do not disturb the plants. Chickens, in my experience, would destroy the garden if let loose there!
Now I know and have added ducks to my homestead plan. They will provide eggs, meat AND non-chemical insect control. What more could I want?