How to Keep Livestock and Make Money

When we bought our property, it was a filbert orchard, but we belived a farm meant animals -

for us, it was chickens, ducks, bees, goats, sheep, alpacas, and horses. It could have been cattle, emus, pigs, donkeys, or deer.
There are countless livestock options to choose from, but which (if any) are right for you?

Are You Livestock Ready?
Before launching any animal-related enterprise, be certain you are willing to accept its demands. Not everyone is cut out to keep livestock. Before jumping into a livestock venture, ask yourself these questions:

• Are you willing to be on call for your animals 24/7, 365 days a year?
Will you camp in the barn when horses are foaling?

Will you roll out of bed every two hours to feed a bottle lamb? Are you able to catch escaped cattle and repair their trampled fences, missing that playoff game on TV? Animals rarely get hungry, sick, loose, or injured at convenient times.

• Is a livestock sitter available when you need one?
If not, would you give up dinner invitations, overnight trips and long-planned vacations to care for your livestock? Keeping livestock invariably ties you down. Neighbor kids or a vet tech are good options for vacation care.

• Can you weather the inevitable livestock keeper’s lows? How will you react when your favorite mare shatters her leg or a racoon slaughters half of your prized chickens?
Animals die and injure themselves and each other. Evaluate whether you can handle these stresses.

• If you want to make a profit, are you capable of selling the animals?
Can you send the steer to slaughter? Can you sell the foal you love? Are you willing to put in the work to market your products? Do you have the means to advertise and market your business, maintain a farm website, and haul your livestock to expos, fairs, demonstrations, shows and sales?

If not, think “pets and hobby farm,” rather than a breeding operation.

• Can you afford to support your animals when things go awry?
This is a big one. Markets go up and down. Disease can decimate your herd. Expect the unexpected when keeping livestock. You need to ensure you have the financial resources to see yours through bumpy times.

And think carefully about using retirement savings or borrowing to finance your venture.

• What is your motive for keeping livestock?
Do want means of producing offspring to raise or to sell? Are you simply wanting livestock as pets? If you keep livestock to claim a lower cost agriculture land tax assessment, your farm must eventually turn a profit. How much profit is enough? And would you be content if you lost money or your animals simply paid their way?

Basic Livestock Owner Requirements
1. Like the animal—and the people involved.
Whether you decide to keep one animal or 100, you should genuinely enjoy working with the livestock species you select.
You must also like the people associated with it. When you are buying, selling, co-op marketing or showing, you’ll be dealing with the people involved on an ongoing basis.

2. Ensure the livestock species you choose is suited to your climate. You could breed yak in South Texas and hair sheep in northern Minnesota—but why? Panting yak and shivering sheep are unhappy campers. Talk to area livestock keepers and choose a livestock species adapted to the weather where you live.

3. Choose a livestock species compatible with your
temperament and physical capabilities. Loud, abrupt or timid individuals rarely resonate with flighty, reactive poultry and livestock. “My way or the highway” humans and headstrong, aggressive animals are bound to clash.

Assess your mindset carefully and choose a compatible species. It’ll save a heap of upset for all concerned. Interacting with many animal species requires considerable muscle. Don’t take on an animal you physically can’t handle. It’ll be frustrating and dangerous if you do.

4. Prepare adequate facilities before bringing livestock home. If you don’t already have the necessary livestock facilities available on your farm, make sure you have enough land, financial resources and knowledge to add them. Also make sure you can obtain the necessarily building permits to make the changes. If you need chutes or 7-foot fences, build them or choose a different species. Factor in injuries, losses and breakouts; it’s the safe and economical thing to do.
 

5. Take care of the livestock legalities before purchasing animals.
Get any licenses and owner/breeder permits required by federal, state and local authorities, and make certain your property is zoned for the sort of livestock you plan to keep.
 

6. Discuss your livestock venture with area veterinarians.
Are veterinarians in your qualified to treat the kind of animals you choose to keep, whether it be chickens, bison, alpacas, deer or something else? Are the vets willing to treat your animals? If not, are you willing (and able) to transport sick or injured animals to a specialty practice and to learn to perform routine maintenance procedures yourself?

Our nearby horse vet would treat sheep, but not alpacas. Luckily, a veterinary practice 30 minutes away had a strong interest in alpacas.
 

7. Decide whether you want your venture to be self-
sustaining.
For this to happen, you must market the commodity you produce, and to market, you know your target species from A to Z.
Visit successful breeders and producers and ask a world of questions.
Subscribe to magazines, read books, and conduct online research.  See our Resources page.
Meet with county cooperative extension agents and consult with experts at your state veterinary college.
 

8. Educate yourself to perfection before you buy.
Don’t charge into any livestock enterprise on the basis of hearsay.

Making Livestock Profitable
Ask established hobby and small-scale farmers, and most will agree, there is little (if any) money to be made in commercial livestock. Feeder cattle, market hog and standard lamb-and-wool operations require large operations. However, there are ways you can turn a profit raising farmyard standbys. Many hobby farmers find success in two ways:

• Niche Marketing
Raise a livestock species that you can market to a specific demographic. You can try raising goat kids or lambs for a specific ethnic community, or raise organic or grassfed meats.
• Value-added Marketing
Instead of raising animals for market, raise them

to sell their byproducts. You can raise sheep or

goat for cheese or yogurt or free-range chickens

for eggs.

We were successful marketing half or whole lamb, custom cut to the buyer's specifications. It took a few years to build up the customer base, mostly by word of mouth or by posting on our small local stores' bulletin boards.
One tip: don't underprice your products; they're probably better than what's in the grocery store or the craft store, and many people are willing to pay a good price for what you've produced.


Check out these resources:

Texas A&M Factsheet: Niche Marketing

ATTRA

Oregon State University small farms

Alpaca Owners Association: Alpacas as a Business
More Things to Consider Part 1, Part 2, Part 3