Raising your own meat

[Explorer]

With the quality of meat in stores going downhill and the poisons that cause cancer they are pumping into our food I am doing all I can to eat healthier these days. This years project is turkeys. These birds are only seven weeks old and have grown alot! I wish I had room to grow a beef but have had good luck with birds. Are there any other members who raise their own meat, and what kind of sucess have you had in doing it?

[Explorer]

Wow i have seen sideways pictures but never upside down pictures before!! Sorry I cannot figure out how to flip them!

[el diablo]

I've got 2 bronze breasted turkeys right now 40 hens 18 that are laying the others are bout 3 months from laying. Last turkey we did dressed out at 38 lbs. just slaughtered 2 pigs we raised and is some of the best pork I've ever had. Pigs are really easy but messy/smelly so you have to have the room or ull piss all ur neighbors off. They'll be big enuf to kill in 6 months. Wanna raise a cow next. Also did some rabbits that came out good but gotta cut back cuz the feed bill was gettin rediculous with the horses and dogs on top of all that.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

I made a mess of turkeys and ducks. I had them all laying and was living high then the coyotes found a way in and all 4 are gone. I was working on chickens but now I need to build a better coupe. I get rabits from my neighbor and I think I may do goats this year. We ate from our garden all week last week in heber and ate all grass fed beef. Our next place will have pasture and its beef time. Can't beat doing it your self.

[Explorer]

I made a mess of turkeys and ducks. I had them all laying and was living high then the coyotes found a way in and all 4 are gone. I was working on chickens but now I need to build a better coupe. I get rabits from my neighbor and I think I may do goats this year. We ate from our garden all week last week in heber and ate all grass fed beef. Our next place will have pasture and its beef time. Can't beat doing it your self.

My brother was blessed with an archery coyote kill with his recurve bow on a coyote that was sneaking around our chicken pen. Goats are nice hardy animals to raise just keep them away from any flowers or bushes that your wife is fond of lol! It took years for my honeysuckles to grow back after our fist goat. Yes I refuse to buy anything from now on without acreage and a well. I cant even grow an affordable garden with the water prices here. Luckily the cattle auction is a few miles away and I will be buying my first beef full grown but after that I hope to have property to raise my own. I dont trust auction beef but I will keep it alive at my brothers property for a few moths before butcher to clean it out with good feed and water.

[Explorer]

I've got 2 bronze breasted turkeys right now 40 hens 18 that are laying the others are bout 3 months from laying. Last turkey we did dressed out at 38 lbs. just slaughtered 2 pigs we raised and is some of the best pork I've ever had. Pigs are really easy but messy/smelly so you have to have the room or ull piss all ur neighbors off. They'll be big enuf to kill in 6 months. Wanna raise a cow next. Also did some rabbits that came out good but gotta cut back cuz the feed bill was gettin rediculous with the horses and dogs on top of all that.

hmm I was thinking of trying rabbits. Cant do pigs. I guess because i grew up with my parents doing nothing but chickens they are not my favorite.tried quail and that was a disaster.. I made alot of rookie mistakes with them and only ended up with 38 out of 105 surviving. Most of them flew into hard wire and injured themselves. Gotta use soft netting i discovered. The plus side with quail is they lay alot of eggs and if you incubate them it is pretty productive. Great to here ideas.

[Edge]

If you eat a lot of hamburger, dairies sell bull calves for $15 -$25 dollars. They are rarely on the cow long enough to get a sufficient amount of colostrum and you'll have to bottle feed, high mortality rate and dairy bulls have a reputation of being the meanest. Slaughter them earlier than you would a beefer. You will want to mix some pork fat, but great burger for cheap.

[carpcody]

If you can find bull calves that cheap right now you better go buy all they have. Day olds around here go for 120-150 a piece now days. We do everything from beef, pigs, chickens and rabbits. If anybody wants to get into the rabbit thing send me a pm, I have a bunch of cages with feeders and waters I'm looking to get rid of.

[Edge]

I have an acquaintance that gets them so cheap, she turns around and resells them for $50. If she weren't such a witch, I'd put her number down.

 

*update* just talked to my gf. She says the "witch" was indeed paying $20 for the bulls and reselling them for $50 last time the subject came up. I don't deal with the woman, she's a piece of work. We leased a horse to her for giving riding lessons, and got the horse back emaciated.

My gf still communicates with her, I'll see if she can find out what dairy she gets them from.

[Edge]

Carpcody, what is it costing you for your swine and feeding them?

[muledeerarea33?]

What's it costing to feed a beef to slaughter age? For you guys with not enough land to graze on and just have to buy feed? I'm still working up the funds to get two acres of permanent pasture growing so I don't have to hand feed daily. I'll split it in sections so I can keep good feed for 8-9 months and the food bill will be cut down, and have two beef. Rancher buddy of mine said they do a lot better with a friend whether ranching or doing a "backyard beef" I have a big back yard lol

[Edge]

What's it costing to feed a beef to slaughter age? For you guys with not enough land to graze on and just have to buy feed? I'm still working up the funds to get two acres of permanent pasture growing so I don't have to hand feed daily. I'll split it in sections so I can keep good feed for 8-9 months and the food bill will be cut down, and have two beef. Rancher buddy of mine said they do a lot better with a friend whether ranching or doing a "backyard beef" I have a big back yard lol

They eat better with competition.

Your neighbor is usually given a doggie for helping out pushing and branding them. Sounds like you need to do some cowboying, Dan.

Bill gets cow hay in Wilcox, think its Sudan Grass.

 

Our Brangus cost about $3.15 per pound, including, his purchase, feed and processing. But we also hit all the farmers market and ask for their spoilage

We also collect a lot of hay from friends that have horses and for what ever reason they don't want to feed it.

[muledeerarea33?]

Haha! Edge, I'd need a big horse to cowboy! They don't call me hoss every where for no reason. I'm buying my burger grind now for around 2 bucks a pound and most the grind I get from the local butcher is really good stew meat or even small steak meat!! I'm trying to get close to that but I suppose when you know where they're food comes from it costs a bit more. And yes, my neighbors get fed well when I have extra anything lol.

[carpcody]

 

 

Carpcody, what is it costing you for your swine and feeding them?

 

I try to find good deals on craigslist to buy them, I usually end up paying $50 or so. I do some side work for a dairy and get some rolled corn in exchange that I mix with the feed I buy. I'm not sure what it comes out to a pound but it's not very much at all. We have a couple calves that get a mixture of pasture an rained on hay so their pretty economical as well.

[carpcody]

Even at $50 it's not too bad of deal. If you can stand getting up and bottle feeding at night and during the day. Still you have to anticipate at least a 50% die loss on day olds.