Small Livestock Raising

They’re not just for pets.

   Even if you’re ‘landlocked’, living in a small home or apartment, you can raise small animals for food as you’ll see in the following examples.  I’ve provided a link where possible so you can access even more, complete information.  Ideal for the small time homesteader.

Some of these sources may shock you, but in hard times, they will feed you.  Keep in mind, these are used as food sources in many parts of the world.  If you have suggestions for other resources, let me know at: bedavid@yahoo.com

Khaki Campbell ducks

Called Campbells because they were developed by Mrs Adele Campbell in Britain a hundred years ago, and they're khaki-colored, or darker, like cocoa, with green beaks, and the drakes have dark green heads and bronze backs and tails. Very cute ducks.

Adele mixed Indian Runner, Mallard, and Rouen ducks in search of an egg-laying machine, and succeeded admirably.

There are some breeds of chicken which might be able to outlay a Khaki Campbell, but they're probably highly specialized birds and might be more trouble than they're worth. Khaki Campbells are no trouble at all -- they're hardy, and good foragers. They'll lay 300 eggs a year or more -- up to 340. And they'll eat all the slugs and snails in your garden, and clear the pond of mosquitoes. Good backyard duck.

You’ll find this site loaded with excellent how-to information on raising a varieties of ducks and chickens.

http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_poultry.html

Excerpted from GRIT, Celebrating Rural America Since 1882. To read more articles from GRIT, please visit www.Grit.com or call (866) 624-9388 to subscribe. Copyright 2011 by Ogden Publications Inc.

Dairy Goats Offer Niche Meat
Selling off dairy bucks can provide a valuable service, and add money to your pocket.
From GRIT magazine, by Carolyn Evans-Dean

If you raise dairy goats, it’s bound to happen. You will find yourself with too many bucks and no desire to keep them. With owners citing foul odors, high cost of feed, and a buck’s uncanny ability to escape and mate with the does, many of these unlucky males find themselves going off to freezer camp, slaughtered to sustain the farm family through the winter.

The coping mechanism works for a while. After all, there are many tasty ways to prepare goat, and it is low in fat making it a healthful choice – curried goat, goat stew, goat chops, goat tenderloin, barbecued cabrito, mshikaki, chivo picante, kaldaretta and spicy leg of goat, to name a few. Once you exhaust your personal repertoire of recipes though, your family might grow weary of eating goat in its many varied forms.

All is not lost, however. As exhibited by the diverse names of the dishes listed, many recipes arrive as people immigrate to the United States. As a matter of fact, goat meat is the single most popular meat in the world; a bit of trivia that is not widely known, and most Americans are usually surprised when they hear it.

Armed with this tidbit of information, it is possible to create some farm income by selling your excess bucks to ethnic populations, usually found in urban centers. People from the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, Southeast Asia and Southern Europe number among your potential customers.

In 1993, the first Boer goats were imported into the United States. Primarily raised as a meat variety, their popularity has increased exponentially with demand. However, herd growth has not been able to keep up with the demand. According to the American Boer Goat Association, as much as $30 million worth of goat meat is imported to the United States each year. There is still such a shortage of the meat in the United States that many consumers are forced to substitute more widely available lamb in traditional recipes.

Now, you’re probably thinking those smelly bucks out in back of the barn aren’t exactly a meat goat variety, and they might be on the thin side when compared to a Boer goat. You’re probably right. But if you were determined to have a Thanksgiving turkey or an Easter ham and the only one available was a little on the small side, you’d likely take it anyway. People who like goat meat feel much the same. They want goat, even if it isn’t the exact weight they were originally looking for.

So, how do you reach out to these potential customers?

Try to locate a Halal butcher or slaughter facility in nearby cities. Such facilities specialize in slaughtering animals in the way dictated by the Islamic religion. Chances are, they will be thrilled to hear that you have goats available, and they would perform the processing in accordance with their practices. By adhering to this technique, your meat will be more desirable to more people.

Another idea is to locate restaurants in nearby cities that specialize in Jamaican or Caribbean food. Look in the phone book or online for restaurants that have the words Caribbean, Jamaican, King or Jerk in their names. Traditionally, these types of establishments have a need on their authentic menus for goat meat. The owners may ask you to do the slaughtering, since they are in an urban area. Be sure to check local regulations about processing meat on your premises for sale to others.

If you seem to have a steady surplus of goats, visit Middle Eastern markets in larger cities. If they aren’t interested in purchasing your surplus animals, they might be able to pass your information along to someone who is.

Smaller traditional butcher shops and meat markets that tout themselves as “Old World” may be good places to sell meat goats. People of Southern European heritage often have good relationships with their butchers in order to obtain cuts of meat to prepare traditional meals.

Try placing a free advertisement on Craigslist.org. It seems that everybody is on Craigslist these days looking for just about anything. It stands to reason that you’d be able to find a buyer for your goat. Remember to place a new listing several times each week to ensure that your ad stays near the top in its category. Once your unwanted goats have been sold, you will want to edit the advertisement or remove it from the website.

Once you have a few satisfied customers, word of mouth will spread, providing you with a steady clientele and income. In fact, you may be tempted to take on the unwanted bucks belonging to your farming friends. You could do them a favor and line your pockets at the same time. Keep in mind that male goats can sometimes be smelly and a bit difficult. You will most likely want to line up customers before taking in those unwanted bucks.

How much can you expect to earn?

It really depends on your market. If you don’t have a nearby city with a population seeking goat meat, the perceived value of the goat is lower because of decreased interest. With a higher population, the demand will be greater with more opportunities to sell the goats.

By expanding your horizons and locating a few new customers to take your unwanted goats, you will free up valuable freezer space and be able to satisfy your family’s craving for variety by bringing something different to the table. Roast beef, anyone?

Excerpted from GRIT, Celebrating Rural America Since 1882. To read more articles from GRIT, please visit www.Grit.com or call (866) 624-9388 to subscribe. Copyright 2010 by Ogden Publications Inc.

How to Raise Catfish in a Barrel

By Angie Mohr

Things You’ll Need:

·      55-gallon black plastic barrel (food grade)

·      Framed screen large enough to cover top of barrel

·      6-foot garden hose

·      Tap assembly for barrel

·      Aquarium oxygen pump

·      40 catfish fingerlings

·      Drill

·      File

·      Marine sealant

Set up tap assembly in the barrel. Mark a spot on your barrel approximately 8-inches up the side from the bottom. Drill out a circle just large enough to snugly fit the tap assembly. Smooth the edges of the hole with a file and insert the tap assembly with the tap facing outward. Attach assembly to barrel with marine sealant to create a water tight seal. Allow sealant to dry for 24 hours before adding water. Attach garden hose to the tap end of the assembly.

Hook up the aquarium oxygen pump according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Seat the pump firmly into the barrel and make sure that the water intake into the pump is screened over so as not to accidentally suck up the fish.

Find a suitable permanent location for the barrel. Keep the barrel in a shaded location safe from raccoons, cats, and other fish predators. The barrel will have to be close enough to an electrical outlet for the pump to plug in. Under an overhang on the north side of the house would be an ideal location

Fill the barrel with water. It is best to use tap water for this process as pond or lake water can contain toxic algae which can poison your catfish. When the barrel is full to within 8-inches of the top, allow the water to de-chlorinate for 24 hours before introducting the catfish.

Add your fingerling catfish. You can purchase fingerlings from your local Extension office or a local fishery. Add up to 40 fingerlings to your barrel. This number will allow the catfish to grow to eatable size (1 to 1 ½ lbs) in 9 months. Allow the fish to acclimatize to their new surroundings for 4 hours before feeding.

Feed your catfish twice a day. You can purchase commercial fish food or you can raise your own worms or larvae to feed them. Feed until catfish begin to lose interest in eating. If you feed too much, food will rot in the barrel and cause the water to become cloudy and encourage the growth of algae

Change out the water daily. Drain off 15 gallons of the pond water through the hose and tap assembly every day. Replace with 15 gallons of fresh tap water that has been allowed to de-chlorinate for 24 hours. Use the waste water as a nutrient-rich fertilizer for your garden.

Monitor the water temperature in the barrel frequently. The ideal temperatures for catfish are between 70 and 80 degrees F. In the north, this makes the ideal time to raise catfish from early spring until late fall. In the south, it is from early fall to late spring. Shade the barrel from the sun as much as possible in warm weather to moderate the temperature. Catfish can handle cooler temperatures but will grow more slowly.

Harvest your fish when they reach 1 to 1 ½ lbs. You can either harvest them fresh as you need them or harvest them all at once and freeze them, either whole or filetted. When all of the fish are harvested, drain the barrel and wash with a weak bleach solution before starting the next batch of fish.

Raising Turtles & Frogs for Food

Yes, turtles are an excellent source of protein, are easy to raise and taste great.

The site below offers how-to information including how to raise earthworms.

The only edible part of a frog is its hind legs. The delicate meat is tender and lightly sweet and can be most closely compared to the white meat of a very young chicken. Fresh frog's legs can be found from spring through summer in the fish section of many gourmet markets. They're usually sold in connected pairs ranging from 2 to 8 ounces. Look for those that are plump and slightly pink. Store, loosely wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Frozen frog's legs can usually be purchased year-round, though the flavor doesn't compare to fresh. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before cooking. Because their flavor is so subtle, frog's legs should be cooked simply and briefly. A quick dusting of seasoned flour before sautéing in butter or olive oil will gild the lily perfectly. Overcooking frog's legs will cause them to toughen

RAISING FROGS

The bulldog frog is considered a specialty in some countries because this is not commonly served and is unknown to many. Here in the Philippines, the frogs that are edible are the (rice fields) frogs that can be raised. When the frog is mature, this grows as long as 14 inches when stretched, and can weigh as much as half a kilo or more. It can thrive on land or in water.

The male frog has ears larger than its eyes, the females have the eyes as big as the ears. The females are bigger, but the males have their forelegs longer and stronger. The throat of the mating males is yellow and enlarged (inflamed) while that of the female is white.

The eyes of the frog are protruding and large and yellow; the tongue is long and sticky. They have no neck with which to turn the head around, so their protruding eyes are used to look upward, downward and around. Behind their eyes are large ears or hearing organ (tympanium) that are sensitive to sound and tremor in their environment.

In their natural habitat, frogs live in streams , ponds, water canals, rice folds and almost everywhere that there is water and vegetation where insects thrive. They feed on soft plants growing in the water like algae, and on fishes (even dead), insects, liver, cooked flour products, boiled potatoes, fresh meat and chicken and visceral, and meat even not fresh. The mature ones also live on insects, crabs, water insects, snails, shrimps, spider, crickets, grasshoppers, fish, snakes, termites, worms, wrigglers, earthworms, young turtles and birds. They like live foods to those that are alive and moving.

Egg laying

Frogs lay eggs from April to September. The eggs are laid on a thin sheet on a leaf top above the water. After the female lays eggs, the male frog fertilizes them from outside, and places them afterwards in an egg mass in the water. After 5-10 days, the eggs are hatched. From 10,000 - 20,000 eggs normally laid, only about 30%or less are hatched, live up to the tadpole stage, depending on the temperature of the water. The small frogs will grow and live on the plants in the water. The shape is like a narrow fish, with gills for breathing, without legs and with a tail for swimming.

The small ones will grow, a few weeks to a few months, and will become a full fledged frog. They will lose their gills but will develop lungs; discard the tail but four feet will grow; the intestines will be shorter and the mouth will be that of a frogs. At this time, the growing frog will live longer on land than in the water.

http://www.mixph.com/2006/07/raising-frogs-for-meat.html/comment-page-1

http://reslider.free.fr/backup/raising.html