Selling Livestock as a business

Things to Consider if Selling Livestock needs to make money for your farm.

Most homesteads raise some animals for meat, maybe some for milk, and some for fiber.
Having meat/milk animals means you will have to breed them and you will have some to sell, in hopes to cover the cost of raising and/or milking them.
Even with fiber animals many times you will need to breed them to make extra money to cover their feed since making enough money off raw fiber sales is next to impossible with feed and hay being so expensive some years.

If you have animals that live on pasture alone...and you have pasture all year... well... you are lucky but you probably still have to vaccinate, worm them have medicines (or herbs) and may have vet bills if they get sick. If you have sheep or alpacas you will have to buy an expensive shearing tool or hire a shearer and pray its a good one that takes bio-security pre-cautions with their shears and blades.
There are so many hidden costs in livestock! Multipurpose animals and breeding are just necessary for it all to work most of the time.

Example: I like Alpaca fiber and I had Alpacas for a very short time and this is one of the reasons I sold them. I figured it cost me around $105 a year to keep a non-breeding fiber male gelding Alpaca with mid-grade wool (of which these days the market is saturated) not to mention the management of the animal and my time. He will give me about 4 lbs of prime wool and maybe 2 lbs of seconds... I can buy good mid-grade wool for around $8 lb and a huge bag of seconds for $5. So $37... easy-peasy I got my alpaca fiber with no work or time spent keeping an animal healthy and fed. Then I've got more $ to spent else where!
So just keeping Alpacas for fiber doesn't add up for me. To make Alpacas work I would need to breed to help cover the cost to just break even. I would need Registered stock in order to get the highest prices possible for babies and help ensure they would be better homes.
Honestly, I would need to invest up front in not only registered stock but registered stock with lower micron counts and higher quality fiber than mid-grade! So then I could get more per pound for their fiber.
Because there is no meat outlet for the extra boys, the year a male is born probably means I might now make money or break even. I might even lose money breeding that year if say my fiber was ruined for some reason or another (like it felted or was extra dirty!)
But I might break even or even make some money if I turned that higher quality fiber into yarn or roving. Its ALOT to take on as part of a small homestead business.
However, keeping Alpacas was not for me for many reasons other than money but I do know fiber farmers who make it work with this model. It's not an easy road since alpacas are flooding the market. It brings down prices all over when that happens.

Handspun art yarns can be a very profitable side hustle for a creative individual on the homestead. But the rest of the numbers need to add up too!

Trending Livestock

What livestock is hot and trendy (yes, livestock has trends!) today may be worth half tomorrow, or even bottom out to the point people are just turning them loose or giving them away (example: Miniature horses, Nigerian dwarf goats, 'pet' pigs with no purpose,  llamas, certain breeds of sheep,..yep alpacas!)
This happens especially when an animal is bred and has no 'meat' purpose. Too many animals bred, too many geldings with no homes because they can't all be studs and no one needs a bunch of studs!
If the male has no purpose or his purpose isn't valuable, a huge problem of a saturated market happens and hurts everyone. Including the animals! When there is no outlet for those that don't make the cut as a breeder overstocking leads to bottomed out livestock markets.
Then you also don't have meat outlets for money. So when a male is born you're in the hole cost wise many times!
Now true, you could process extra animals with no market for your own meat! I know people who have done this. But thats a whole other set of skills and equipment I personally never wanted to get into. Processing poultry, waterfowl, and rabbits ourselves was enough for me!
Might be a solution for you if you if you've got the equipment/know how.

Trending livestock can be great for a homestead but only if breeding is done with a purpose and the extra males have a market. Cause no, they all don't make wonderful pets for people!
Getting in on the front end of the trend with a multipurpose livestock animal can mean excellent income for many years! For example the recently imported embryos of the Valais Blacknose Sheep
They will not only bring top dollar for lambs for many many years but their semen from purebred rams will be top dollar and their wool will bring top dollar! Its an investment, but if you're into niche wool sheep its an investment that will pay off for years!!
Especially if a meat demand is established so no one has to be overrun with extra males or poor producing females! Much like the Icelandic sheep breeders did, which is a sheep that has been here for years. A fantastic multipurpose sheep with niche wool for handspinners, a lamb meat market in demand and an excellent choice for sheep milk (trust me it's amazing!)! Read about one homestead dream come true here with this amazing sheep Icelandic Sheep for Profit. 
Despite being here for many years the registered Icelandic sheep still brings way more than an unregistered cross. I've had both, and yes when I decided I needed to let the sheep go to pursue other goals I actually made money on the registered stock I resold. Plus I made money from the wool and had plenty of meat.

Maximizing with multiple outlets and purebred livestock

So anyways...my point is, you might  will have to maximize your livestock potential earnings on the homestead to make it work if you want to make actual cash flow. Most people have the idea of homesteading that is living off the land and raising animals that pay for themselves and hopefully make a little extra to expand things here and there.

Most do not start their homestead dream with the idea of continuing to go to work to pay a feed bill for animals that do not pay for themselves. If this is your idea of homesteading than its a hobby, not a business. Nothing wrong with that!! My miniature horses are not a business, they make us no money. They are for my enjoyment, farm work, personal milking and that's fine with me!

But if you buy an animal and it must pay for itself or even profit in order for your dream homestead to work you have to consider where the money is going to come from first! What is the market for these products or animals you want in your area? Is there a market that can be tapped into over the internet?  Be observant! Very Observant!

Selling Products from your livestock

If you want to sell meat, to who? Where are the customers? Don't say farmers markets.. they are becoming more and more like local craft fairs in many cities. Many successful meat farmers I know have to have several outlets for their meat to really profit. Check regulations for you state thoroughly. Do any small local based health and grocery stores carry local products? That may be a better bet and will be less time than spending the day at a market. Again be observant about outlets for the products from your livestock. Don't just assume your going to have a meat business or milk CSA. Do others in your area? Is there an outlet? A demand?
Ofcourse if you have dairy animals or lard hogs soap is a great small farm business to consider that can be marketed to alot of people! Check out my No Fail Goat Milk Soap Recipe to get started! I've made really nice profits from my soap 'side hustle' over the years.

Selling Breeding Stock to other farmers

Where will you sell the breeding quality livestock you will have available? Is the market already saturated, is there a demand? Going prices?
 If you have invested in a rare livestock breed you may not have a local market at all.
Thankfully the internet can help there. But how does anyone know you're there with things to sell?
Don't say Facebook.. getting in groups and advertising livestock to people who already have livestock , who are trying to sell you livestock is not the best option! Trust ME!
So then you will need an internet business plan. Time consuming , yes, necessary for success, absolutely! Building a website isn't that hard these days either.

Invest In the Best

Always buy purebred and registered (if a registry is available some rare breeds don't have a registry yet) Even If your goal is to just break even never buy crosses.
If you just want an animal that doesn't have to pay for itself then buy crosses all day. But if you want them to pay for themselves and especially if you need to profit, buy pure.. buy registered. I can not stress that enough. 

 I know I know... and I do understand! You may not want to spend the extra money on an animal that doesn't work out. I went down that road too unfortunately.
But, Here's the thing about that... if you buy purebred and if it doesn't work out you are more likely to get your money back out of it.
Purebred and registered (if a registry is available) will always bring more and be in more demand than crossed and unregistered.
There has been more than one occasion where I've invested in pure breeds and then decided it isn't working out and I've sold them for more than I paid! Because the other thing is purebred rare livestock and registered animals have a much much wider market. People will travel across states for them! No one is traveling from TX to TN for a cross piglet,, but they will for a purebred registered one.. trust me on this too because I do speak from personally experience many times over on this subject.
There were also plenty of times I bought crosses or so-called pure but unregistered and lost my butt when I tried to sell them. Or worse ended up having to process them because we couldn't sell them even for less! hard lessons learned...and much money was lost.
A good place to start learning about rare, purebred animals is the Livestock Conservancy

Case Study: French Angora Rabbit above here. Known as a dual purpose rabbit. They are not super rare but by buying high fiber quality bloodlines and pedigreed stock I was able to have a very healthy cash flow with them. They didn't work out for other reasons, my time was too committed to other things but when I sold my herd I made money on their resale too. You can read about why they didn't work for me but they may work for you here Raising Rabbits for meat and Fiber

Case Study: The Meishan pig breed has only been available to the American public for a short time. Its an incredible hog for a small farmer! Its registry is working hard to build a demand for its unique red meat which makes a superior charcuterie and an elegant meal. You can read more about that at the American Meishan Breeders Association

Meishan Meat, Not your typical dry white pork!

Now Brainstorm!

Now that you have some things to consider get out a notepad and make notes!

Keep notes on potential livestock that can help your homestead dream come true and notes on the what , where and how much points of your available markets and outlets.

Y'all have an awesome weekend!
Blessings....

Confessions of a homesteader

You see, seven years ago when I wanted to homestead I had several specific goals in mind and I had a question... Could we raise the majority of our own food? So this was our main goal... to raise as much of our food as we possibly could.

The goal was accomplished a couple years ago!! We were rolling!! Producing over 90% of all the food we consumed!! We rarely darkened the grocery stores doors. And even then it was only to buy coffee, chocolate and paper products!
Yes, it was quite an accomplishment!! It wasn't easy. It was the most brutal thing I've ever done.. rewarding though?? yes..well, of course at times! Who doesn't like to meet a goal! And yes, the food is good!
But mostly it was brutally hard, no breaks or vacations. Tons of stress.
And as I've said this before, it's like living on a job site where nothing is ever done. Think about it.. would you want to live at your place of employment?

Harsh Realities about Money

Also, I did want to see if homesteading would save us money and most of it really didn't at all!!  This is a great misconception when people get into farming. Especially in livestock farming. You will quickly realize their feed store bill is as much ( or more) as their grocery store bill. Think about it,, if it was really cheaper and such a fun simple life wouldn't everyone be doing it? Don't believe the hype about all animals working together... another kind of animal means another learning curve and a new set of problems to avoid..and another mouth to feed.  If farming multi-species livestock and mono-cropping weren't good at producing mass amounts of food more easily and cheaper big ag wouldn't do it! You can not buy supplies and feed as cheaply as big ag... end of story. So if you're thinking of making farming livestock/meat a profitable business you better have something extra special. More on that in other posts because yes! there are plenty of possibilities to be profitable with a small farm with livestock if its done right.

But, If your only reason to raise livestock is to save money, you will probably be very disappointed for the most part. I'm not even talking equipment and infrastructure here... its mind blowing what farm equipment costs!!! Even with our cheap DIY hacks, things for farming are just expensive and livestock always finds a way to tear something new up... especially goats, most pigs (not meishans) and rams. Oh, don't get me started on rams!!
Thankfully we do not depend on our farm to produce income to pay all our bills (just some!), but we also can't go broke feeding livestock. We would have long had to give up the goal if we had! So no, we didn't go to the grocery store for much, but the workers at the feed store know my husband by name!
There are very few kinds of livestock that you can raise that will actually bring in more money than they cost to keep up. But they are out there and I made really good profits on them! Yes, yes! More posts on that too!

There is hope though!

The garden will save you money, lots of money if you're big veggie eaters like us! Especially if

1. You start your own seeds, 
2. Only plant things that do well in your area!
3. Keep it going all year 4 season gardening is where it's at honey! 
4. Learn to preserve, preserve, preserve!
5. Know your enemies and be prepared to battle them. Some garden pest can wipe out a crop overnight!
6. You must have an excellent and huge fertilizer source to grow all your own veggies (I'm talking grain corn to here too, a huge nutrient hog!). I had goats, rabbits, sheep, llamas and still not enough manure to properly fertilize my expansive 4 season gardens. I did composting, cover crops, manure, comfy teas and We still had to truck in manure! It wasn't until I added equine that I had enough fertilizer to keep my veggies happy. Which by the way manure is a good extra income source if you don't garden on your homestead and want to sell it! I should know I used to have to buy enough of it!

There's an investment in infrastructure and equipment there too. Much time and sweat to build good soil. Still no walk in the park and the break even point will vary depending on what infrastructure and equipment you've invested in.
Ultimately it will depend on how good you actually are at gardening.
If you're good at it and love it you can make a good income from Market Gardening. I know many who do! Here's one of my favorite resources for that subject Growing for Market

 Another Reality 

Some people do not realize this but You may or may not get a better quality of food depending on what and how your raising your livestock or how you're growing your gardens. If you feed your livestock cheap junk you're probably not going to be eating any healthier than you could have bought at the store. If you don't feed your soil your veggies won't do well nor will they be high in nutrients for you. You will know how the animal was treated and that's very important too.

There are lots of stresses in farming which in my case has been the worst possible thing for my health. All the healthy food in the world won't help you if you stay stressed out all the time! I can promise you that! So we made some changes.. and I had to learn to destress... 7 years with no days off can do that to a person.

We decided last year that it was time to do other things. To focus on a real farm 'business' (which has taken off!) and the things that truly made a difference.
Finding balance that will allow for time away if we want or recreation here on the farm without feeling like we are dropping the ball on something.
Its been the best choice I've made in a long time. I finally feel like my farm is my home and not my employer.
7 years is a long time for no vacations, no time off when the work itself is so hard. Both physically and emotionally. Maybe it won't affect you like it did me but it is certainly something to consider.

Still Feeling Blessed on the Homestead!

Don't misunderstand...I've enjoyed much of the journey and thankfully my husband didn't let us go broke in the process! (He's the numbers guy! and I'm extra thankful because I am not so good at that stuff!)

But its just really time to focus on the only things that make a difference to our income and the betterment of our lifestyle.

 I'm very blessed to have been given the opportunity to reach the goal I set of growing over 90% of all our food. I'm very thankful!!

I've loved much of it and learned SO much! I LOVE that we accomplished this despite its difficulties and stresses. In a 'have to' situation I know what I can grow and how to use the many skills I've acquired reaching the goal. 

And I know wha iss realistic about farming and growing.. and what is simply hobby farm legend. 

Its just time to make this a home again, not a production plant with never ending work and endless livestock feed bills. 

Enjoy the farm and the truly beautiful land I've been blessed to have. 

I often see people who move to the farm and rave about how they love the person they become, they are a different person on farm...and its true. Farming changes you. Sometimes good, but sometimes not...

 I personally never disliked the person I was and I decided I'd like to get some of that easy going, stress-free girl back!! 

I have been led to many things over these years... successes and failures all led me to where I am.

And I'm thankful for it...so very thankful! God is Good!

And He certainly never said growing food would be easy... Genesis 3:17-19

Nope He never said that 🤣