Seeeee! You have to come to the East Side! Then you and my husband can talk manly talk and your wife and I can talk about our husbands...er, I mean girl talk. Scottsdale is pretty lenient with regards to chickens. They classify crowing and barking as the same. They basically say that the noise has to bother two or more people (one can be an animal control person). And they don't limit the number of chickens (thank God!) Where we are, our neighbors have stated that they either don't mind or that they actually LIKE my rooster. We do, however put him in the garage every evening. And we're not in the ritzy area. It may be different if we were surrounded by mansions.
Lmao! Sounds like Scottsdale wouldn't be too bad. We're discussing moving to Montana and starting a ranch, but I may look in to getting property here first to see how things go. I'd love to follow Joel Salatin's holistic management techniques and I think they could absolutely thrive here year round. I'm significantly more leary about it up North, where you have snow and diminished growing seasons.
I was discussing raw milk last night with the owner of Save Your Dairy in Queen Creek and she said they are having a huge shortage of milk. Between decreased production from the heat and the dramatic increase in demands, she can't handle it anymore. They have stopped delivering to the remote cities like Tucson and closed their main store at the farm. Everything is sold through their reservation and delivery system, called the Guardian Angel program. I've been running the math this morning, and aside from start up costs, a properly managed farm could be quite successful, I think.
The average dairy cow produces between six and eight gallons per day, or 180 to 240 gallons per month. At $10 a gallon, which is the discounted rate and significantly less than it could be, that's $1800 to $2400 per month for one cow. Each cow costs an average of $1800 for "heritage" breeds, i.e. non-Craig's List. The natural pasturing Joel believes in would eliminate feed costs, which is the largest expense of the typical dairies. The proper Salatin method requires about an acre per year per cow. Running tandem with that, is the flock of chickens. Three or four days behind the cows, he runs a flock of chickens. It equates to about 100 chickens per cow. Assuming a 75% lay rate, that's 180 dozen eggs per month, about $360 at $2 a dozen or $540 at $3. At my current feed rates for 14 chickens, it comes to about $150 a month for supplemental feed.
Multiply that gross income by ten for a "small" farm running on ten acres and you are looking at $24,000 for milk and $3,720 to $5,580 for eggs. A $1 million mortgage runs about $5,000 per month. I can't image the equipment and water sources would run any more than that. So a $27,000 per month income with $10,000 a month expenses... Yeah, that's a whole lotta money... Now, where to find twenty acres of agricultural land and get the farming grants to cover startup costs...
Yeah, yeah, too much math this early in the morning!!!
And here is after a couple of hours of work. Not pictured are the 2x4's for the hanging rack and backsplash piece. There isn't much workspace, but I'll save the piece I cut out for the sink to place over the sink when I need more table area.
It's time for me to go on the war path again. Lost all my watermelon this summer. They can get through anything. I refuse to give up.
it is a bit freaky.. Gota love them..
