Pigs will produce more meat than any animal I can think of. They also have a lot of useful fat.What animal would produce more meat over time if I purchased some; sheep or cows?
I agree with most of what you said ... but ... (you can't get butter from a goats milk though.)obviously you would get more meet out of a cow. If you raise the two for one year depending on the breed of each you may end up with a 75 lb live goat and a 250 lb cow give or take. Then you subtract weight for the guts, hide and bone.
Still more from a cow. What you must consider is your available resources hay gets expensive and in the winter can be hard to find. If your working with small acreage I'd go with the goat. they can eat a lot of things a cow won't touch. (you can't get butter from a goats milk though.) Rabbits are ok but they are too lean to survive off of alone (rabbit starvation is the term)
On most pasture, one cow eats as much as five goats or sheep. The smaller stock will mature and be large enough to butcher (120 lbs) in 6-8 months. The cow takes 18-24 months to reach 1200 lbs.What animal would produce more meat over time if I purchased some; sheep or cows?
I would add the caveat: ideallyI used to raise pigs, rabbits, and chickens as well. The correct answer is to raise all of them.
We have 3 ready for buthcer. Since I am currently deployed my Wife arranged with the Amish Family down the road to trade 1 of the gilts for 300 dollars in produce and butchering of one gilt for us. Still have one Barrow to find a home for. We are also having our fourth Gilt bred to a Boar down the road so we do not need to search for feeder pigs next spring.I would add the caveat: ideally
pigs are 'unhealthy' when they are treated as organic robots on large 'industrial farms' (I use the term 'farm' loosely :rant: ) designed to produce 'meat' in overcrowded conditions where the hygienic level swings like a pendulum depending on how long into the 'cleaning cycle' it is.
humans in overcrowded slums historically got pretty sick quite often too (black death, anyone?)...
we raise our pigs (1 per year) for 10 months until they are about 200-250 lbs, that gives us anywhere from 120-150 lbs of 'cuts' along with some salvageable edible organs (heart, liver, skin - we don't butcher the barrows ourselves, the guy we get the runt from does it) IMHO raise & butcher a barrow (castrated male) or a gilt (pre-estrous young female) as opposed to a boar or an in-heat sow; the meat tastes better, of course if all you have are the latter then geld the boar and allow the wound to heal and/or wait for the sow to go out of heat before slaughtering if you can
hungry now... :gaah:
I trade mechanical work on his equipmentWe have 3 ready for buthcer. Since I am currently deployed my Wife arranged with the Amish Family down the road to trade 1 of the gilts for 300 dollars in produce and butchering of one gilt for us. Still have one Barrow to find a home for. We are also having our fourth Gilt bred to a Boar down the road so we do not need to search for feeder pigs next spring.
All livestock have pros and cons. Every person has to decide what will work for them. To me, having livestock is worth the work and effort because even though I love vegetables, I like me some bbq too!the pasturage. Cattle and horses shear it off above the ground. Hogs trample and wallow and generally ruin an area, unless they have LOT of room to roam around in. Texas and other states are shooting hogs like vermin, leaving the bodies to rot. Rabbits require care that dogs, etc, don't overturn their cages and kill them. Goats usually have more than one kid, cows rarely have more than one calf. While a sow might have a dozen piglets or more, she usually can't feed more than 8 or so with her milk. So the runts die at an early age, or you have to hand feed them and protect them from the other pigs.