How to Make Money By Keeping Livestock:

    A farm without livestock? Unthinkable! A flock of happy
chickens, pigs to take to market, a freezer steer—they’re part
of most city dwellers’ escape-to-the-good-life plan.
Meanwhile, established hobby farmers dream of raising
profitable, mortgage-lifting poultry or livestock. But what?

There are countless hobby-farm livestock options to choose
from, but which (if any) are right for you? Here we compare
some traditional barnyard favorites and a select group of
alternative animals to help you choose.
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 you livestock 24/7, 365 days
a year?
Will you dutifully camp in the barn when horses are foaling?
Will you roll out of bed at 2 a.m. to feed a bottle lamb? Are
you able to retrieve escaped cattle and repair their flattened
fences under a sizzling noonday sun, missing that long-
anticipated televised ball game or NASCAR racing in the
process? Animals rarely get hungry, sick, loose or injured at
convenient times.
Is a livestock sitter available when you need one?
If not, would you forego dinner invitations, overnight trips and
well-deserved vacations to care for your livestock? Keeping
livestock invariably ties you down.
Can you weather the inevitable livestock keeper’s lows?
How will you react when your favorite broodmare shatters its
leg or a weasel slaughters a slew of your prized
chickens? Animals die and injure themselves and each other.
Evaluate whether you can handle these stressors.
If keeping livestock for profit, are you capable of selling the
animals?
Could you send the steer to slaughter or could your sell the
foal you love? Are you willing to pull out the stops to market
your wares and continually monitor market trends to stay on
the cutting edge? Do you have the means to advertise and
market your business, maintain a farm website , and haul your
livestock to expos, demonstrations, shows and sales? If not,
think “pets,” not “produce,” and don’t become a breeder.
Can you afford to support your animals when things go awry?
Markets falter. Disease can rip through your herd. Expect the
unexpected when keeping livestock. The endeavor can be a
pricey proposition. You need to ensure you have the financial
resources to see yours through bumpy times.
What is your motive for keeping livestock?
Do want means of producing offspring to raise or to sell? Are
you simply wanting to raise livestock as pets? If you keep
livestock to claim a lower cost agriculture land tax
assessment, your venture 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 to your temperament
and physical capabilities.
Loud, abrupt or timid individuals rarely resonate with flighty,
reactive poultry and livestock. “Do-it-my-way-or-else”
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
brawn. Don’t take on a bird or beast 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 know-how to make the necessary
improvements. Also make sure you can obtain the necessarily
building permits to make the changes. If you need chutes and
squeezes, raceways or 7-foot bull-tight fences, build them or
choose a different species. Factoring in injuries, losses and
breakouts; it’s the safe and economical thing to do.
5. Take care of the livestock-keeping legalities before
purchasing animals.
Acquire 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 veterinarians 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?
7. Decide whether you want your venture to be self-sustaining.
For this to happen, you must market the commodity you
produce. Make certain you know your target species to the
"Nth" degree:
Visit successful breeders and producers, and ask a world of
questions.
Subscribe to periodicals, read books, and conduct online
research.
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 a host of established hobby 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 are faltering; 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
by byproducts. You can raise sheep or goat for cheese or
yogurt or free-range chickens for eggs.
To get the inside skinny on marketing your product,
contact ATTRA or consult any of these fine resources:
Making Your Small Farm Profitable , by Ron Macher (Storey
Publishing, 1999)
Texas A&M Factsheet: Niche Marketing
Ohio State University Extension: Agriculture & Natural
Resources Value Added Products
Livestock Options
Here's a run-down on some of the most popular livestock for
hobby farmers.
Cattle
Commercial beef prices skyrocketed in 2003; however, more
sustainably profitable cattle ventures include marketing
specialty beef—certified organic, natural or grassfed—and
raising rare breed or miniature cattle.
Beef cattle are a fine choice for hobby farmers. They’re low
maintenance and don’t require elaborate facilities. Most folks
can manage cattle with a minimum of fuss and local
veterinarians can generally treat their illnesses.
Resources:
Organic and Grass-finished Beef Cattle Production
Raising Beef on a Few Acres
Agricultural Marketing Resource Center: Organic Beef
Chickens
Chickens are part and parcel of the rural experience. They
demand little beyond a safe place to sleep, feed, water, and a
few hours of your time each week spent egg gathering and
cleaning their quarters. In trade you get eggs and table meat.
It’s a good deal!
Organic, natural and free-range chicken and eggs are health-
conscious buyers’ first choices. Tack a sign to your mailbox
or market through your local natural-foods co-op. Larger-
scale ventures can investigate commercial niche marketing.
However you cut it, chickens have a place on every farm.
Resources:
Agricultural Alternatives: Small-Scale Egg Production
Profitable Poultry: Raising Birds on Pasture
Agricultural Marketing Resource Center: Organic Poultry
Goats
According to Florida A&M University’s publication “Markets
for Meat Goats,” 70 percent of the world’s population
regularly dines on goat meat.
As ethnic communities in North America continue to expand,
so does the demand for quality goat meat. To answer that
demand, roughly 327,000 goat carcasses are imported to the
United States each year. In 1999, 492,000 domestic goats
were slaughtered at federally inspected meat plants and an
additional 300,000 at state inspected or informal facilities.
Meat goats are today’s most promising livestock. The
demand for goats raised and slaughtered to ethnic
specifications vastly exceeds the foreseeable domestic supply.
Viable goat ventures for those opposed to slaughter include
dairying, marketing artisan quality goat's milk cheese,
producing high-end Angora and Cashmere fleece for hand
spinners, and raising dairy-, meat- or fiber-goat breeding
stock.
Resources:
Goats: Sustainable Production Overview
Minnesota Department of Agriculture: Dairy and Meat Goats
Agricultural Alternatives: Meat Goat Production
Horses
While many folks dream of raising horses, in reality, few horse
breeders manage to turn a consistent profit. Nevertheless,
there are always a few “hot” breeds in which money can be
made. Can you peg tomorrow’s favorites? If you can, perhaps
you’ll be the breeder who beats the odds and makes a living
breeding horses.
Resources:
You Can Do It! Make Money with Horses , by Don Blazer
(Success Is Easy, 1998)
Starting and Running Your Own Horse Business , by Mary
Ashby McDonald (Storey Publishing, 2009)
Pigs
It’s true: Most small- to medium-sized commercial
confinement hog operations have closed shop due to high
overhead costs and low pork prices. However, pastured pigs
are easily cared for, and organic, humanely raised pork is in
demand.
Many folks enjoy working with pigs. If that’s you, investigate
those profitable specialty markets; ATTRA can help show you
the way. Ask for a free, sustainable pig production report.
Resources:
Hog Production Alternatives
Adding Value to Pork Production
Sheep
Sheep once were considered “mortgage lifters,” now it costs
more to shear commercial sheep than the wool is worth. But
lamb prices remain fairly strong, especially lamb marketed to
coincide with Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious feasts.
Because hair (meat) sheep shed their fleece, they don’t
require shearing —and they breed out of season, producing
marketable lambs at just the right times. Hair sheep are
growing increasingly popular with niche-market lamb
producers, making them a best bet project for sheep
entrepreneurs.
In 1994, the United States imported 66 million pounds of
sheep’s milk cheese. And according to the University of
Wisconsin’s report, “A Snapshot of the Dairy Sheep Industry,”
meat and wool producers can boost their gross incomes by
about 75 percent by milking their ewes. The American dairy
sheep industry is in its infancy but rapidly expanding.
Other fruitful sheep ventures include marketing specialty
fleeces to hand spinners and raising hair sheep, miniature,
rare or heritage sheep breeding stock.
Resources:
Sheep: Sustainable and Organic Production
Sheep: A Small-Scale Agriculture Alternative
Producing Lamb Organically
Dairy Sheep
Agricultural Alternatives: Milking Sheep Production
More Profit With Hair Sheep
Alpacas and Llamas
Female alpacas run $10,000-30,000, and a pet or fiber
gelding costs $1,000 or more. In the large scope of livestock
choices, there are more investment syndicates doing well in
alpacas than any other farm-animal investments.
Llamas sell for considerably less than their diminutive
cousins, but breeding high-end llamas is cost-effective, too.
Llamas can be marketed as pets, pack and cart animals, and
as sheep and goat herd sentinels. And both of these friendly
camelids produce marketable fleece.
Resources:
Alpaca Farming Raises More than Hair
Alpacas as a Business
Alpacacainfo.com
Rabbits
Raising rabbits for pets, fiber (Angora) and table meat makes
good sense, but don’t go big-time right away. Proceed with
caution and feel out the markets in your area. If you find a
meat-rabbit buyer who accepts your fryers or if you’re willing
to create a local market, go for it.
Resources:
Commercial Rabbit Production
About the Author: Sue Weaver lives on a 29-acre property in
the southern Ozarks near Mammoth Spring, Ark., along with
her husband and a huge animal family composed of horses, a
donkey, Classic Cheviot sheep, Boer and Nubian goats,
llamas, a water buffalo, a Jersey-Holstein riding steer, a pet
razorback hog, guinea fowl, Buckeye chickens, and a passel of
dogs, most of which are former rescues.