What Animals Should We Get Next?
As I’ve gotten more active in the homesteading community, one of the most frequent questions I’ve seen is, “...what animals should I get next?”. Usually, those people already have chickens and they are looking to expand. When I hear this, my mind goes to the movie “I, Robot” where Will Smith plays a homicide detective named Spooner in a futuristic world that uses robots to replace most of the tedious work that humans have been doing. The man who invented the robots named Dr. Lanning has been killed and police assume it is a suicide, however, Lanning has left a mysterious pre-programmed hologram asking for Spooner to investigate. Spooner asks the hologram questions but there are only so many questions he can ask so he has to try to figure out the right questions to ask. As he gets better at asking the right questions, he gets closer to solving the mystery of who killed Lanning and, of course, save the world as well!
“What animals should I get next?” is the wrong question. The question you should be asking yourself is, “what are my goals?”. What is it that you want to accomplish? You need to start thinking of animals as a tool, not pets. That isn’t to say that you can’t enjoy your animals. I love watching my Muskovy ducks waddle around and wag their duck tails! But that isn’t the goal. My goal is to eliminate as many harmful ticks on my property as I can, and convert them into nutritious eggs and meat. Muskovy ducks are known for being great foragers, and they are a duel purpose bird that can lay eggs and provide good meat. They are quiet and fairly low maintenance. Many people get guinea hens for tick control but after everything I’ve read, it seems as though ducks are a better fit for what we actually need, and Muskovies fit the bill…
So, once you know your main goals, then you can start to research different animals and what they can do for you. I recommend thinking of every animal in terms of what they directly provide to you, and what they indirectly provide to the ecology of your homestead. A few examples:
Goats: They provide milk/meat to you; They are good for clearing brush and leafy plants from your property and fertilize. They are good if you have forest, or neglected pasture.
Cows: They provide larger amounts of milk/meat to you; They keep grass short and provide manure for pasture.
Meat Chickens: Provide meat for you; Provide high nitrogen and parasite control to pasture
Pigs: Provide meat for you; Can clear an area including roots to prepare for garden or other crops. They can consume excess milk or whey from cows if you are making cheese, etc.
So, if you’ve moved onto a new property with old pasture that has been neglected and is full of briers, weeds, and small scrubby trees I’d recommend starting with some goats to clear that stuff up. Keep them in a smaller area to eliminate the brushy plants that you don’t want in a pasture and then move them in a rotational grazing pattern. Keep that going until your pasture grasses have a chance to take hold over the brush. Then, if you want, you can get a few cows but only if you really want to take your dairy production to the next level.
This is Mr. Brown. Despite his smell, he was such a gentle animal! Our kids loved him, he had great genetics and sired several good goat kids. It was a very difficult decision to let him go but we needed to sell him. We do plan on adding a buck back into our herd when we have the right infrastructure in place. I wish we could get him back!
The next question you should ask yourself is, “What do these animals need from me?” followed by, “Do I have the proper resources to provide that?”
When we first got goats, I had no idea how destructive they would be to the fencing! We were terribly unprepared and nearly ruined a relationship with our neighbor because we built the goat pen up against her property and used her chain link fence as part of their pen. Well, goats are itchy creatures and naturally rub up against fences. They also climb fences to try to get to any leaves that might be hanging over the fence. They started to destroy her fence and I had to scramble to get something else in place. We really couldn’t afford decent fencing at the time and I didn’t know what the best kind to get was so I just picked up whatever cheap things I could find used. It was a constant struggle.
Cows are huge and need to be bred if they are going to give you milk. That means dealing with a bull, or paying someone for AI (artificial insemination). Are you prepared to handle a potentially dangerous animal that weighs more than your whole family combined?
Rabbits are economical for meat production and are great for beginner backyard homesteaders but they reproduce fast. If you don’t separate them well enough, have good enough pens, or if you’re too tenderhearted to kill such a cute creature (that was always difficult for me!) then they will multiply faster than you can imagine and you’ll be overrun with hungry rabbits that you don’t know what to do with.
Lastly, do the animals you want to get require a companion animal, complimentary animal, or are there incompatible animals? Goats are herd animals and require more than one. Most people that get cows and make cheese also tend to get pigs because it’s difficult to use up all that whey. If you have multiple high energy dogs then I probably don’t recommend getting rabbits. They will kill them. If you do want incompatible animals, then again, you need to make sure you have the proper resources (enough land and good fences) to keep them well away from each other. When we had chickens, we had a stray dog come by while we were not home. The dog couldn’t get through the fence to the rabbits, but it still chased them around and rabbits can literally be scared to death. We came home to 6 or 7 dead rabbits all securely inside their pen.
To sum up, when you feel ready to level up your homestead and acquire more animals, ask yourself these questions:
What are my goals?
What are the needs of my land?
What do the animals need from me?
Do I have the resources to provide what they need?
Are there other animals that I need to have or avoid?
