I do you know your cut out to raise livestock

[animalmom]

OK, almost in defense of those "people from the city." My DH and I both saw our first cow in a zoo, on different coasts. If you were to look up "city folk" in the dictionary you WOULD have seen our picture. Neither of us had any experience with any animal beyond a dog or a cat, and no FFA of 4H experience.

Nevertheless, both of us had the desire, and finally the means, to take our lives out of the city. Granted we didn't show up at any farm in high heels or even a skirt, and we really had the desire to raise particular animals for our needs and wants.

We did our research, slowly got our livestock, and made a lot of mistakes along the way. I'm glad to say that we've been successful with our goats for 4 years now, and our rabbits for 5 years.

I DO understand that there are people out there who would like to have animals, but really have no business having livestock. I've talked with some of these people and when the height of the conversation revolves around how cute the animal is, instead of housing, health, and food requirements let alone breeding... well those folks need to stay with a dog or a cat.

Just cause someone may have been a city folk, or currently are but have plans for not being one, don't count them out. I suppose it is like the saying of having to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince... you have to talk with a lot of different people to find the right person, the type of person you can deal with and you want your animal to depend on.

 

[Banriona]

Raising livestock in a lot of ways is like raising children. It takes planning, research and a certain level of maturity before obtaining them to be successful. Your purpose is not to just sit back and enjoy the cuteness, but to get down and dirty in the poop, deal with illnesses and injuries, personality problems, discipline etc. You will have the same type of learning curve though. There is only so much a book can teach, sometimes you have to actually have the animal before you can learn certain things. Just like with raising children, you get out of it what you put into it. If you put in minimal effort, you will have sickly animals with behavior problems - same as if you put in minimal effort with parenting. Also just like with children, it takes a village. No farmer can do it entirely on their own - just like no parent can raise a child entirely on their own. We all need advice, support and help along the way.

An orphan can successfully raise a family - and a "city person" can successfully raise livestock. It depends on the individual and how much work they are willing to put forth before, during and after the animals come along.

 

[GLENMAR]

I had someone recently who wanted a trio of rabbits, but then I found out they only had 1 hutch.
They thought they could put them all together. I did not sell them to that person.

 

[greybeard]

"How far up a cow's butt do you think you can stick your hand?"

 

[Baymule]

 

[Baymule]

When you have livestock, you will have dead stock.

 

[greybeard]

I get the impression that a lot of folks asking questions on here have raised animals either when they were young or did it on a smaller scale at some time or in my case I'm looking at getting into a different type of stock. I have raised cows a long time ago but since I will be 64 when we start and I no longer want to contend with a 1500 lb or bigger critter we will have mostly goats and a few hair sheep and pr, we are moving from South Carolina city life to our little bit of heaven on our 20 acres here in Tennessee. I'm not sure how successful we will be but we aren't really concerned since there is such a good resource here to ask questions. We just got back to our farm this afternoon and chanced upon a good buy on a Massey Ferguson tractor just as we got into town.

Don't let age stop ya Mike. I'll be 64 in a couple of months and take care of 30 pairs, Charolais and Beefmasters.
Alone.