What are your opinions on free ranging?

[Florida Bullfrog]

Point taken. I DO raise some of those breeds, but not all of the breeds I have are those breeds. And even if ALL of the breeds I have were "predator-resistant," out-thriving and reproducing faster than the many predators that live where I live doesn't jive with my purpose for having chickens.

And that’s all my intent is, to make the point for reference purposes. There’s many reasons why free range isn’t practical beyond predators, and a person may not free range because they simply don’t want to, which is fine.

My war isn’t with people who choose to coop their chickens, I’m fighting the idea that cooping must be done. Somewhere along the way “I don’t want to” became “it can’t be done” in the conventional wisdom of poultry raising. .

 

[Franklinridgefarms]

And that’s all my intent is, to make the point for reference purposes. There’s many reasons why free range isn’t practical beyond predators, and a person may not free range because they simply don’t want to, which is fine.

My war isn’t with people who choose to coop their chickens, I’m fighting the idea that cooping must be done. Somewhere along the way “I don’t want to” became “it can’t be done” in the conventional wisdom of poultry raising. .

Even though, we may have differing views on the subject of free ranging, I respect your experience and knowledge. In a sense, I think we probably have a similar over all goal. Being that I have been involved with agriculture since childhood I absolutely love the fact that so many people are keeping chickens. The concept of backyard chickens, as evidenced by this forum of the same name, showcases people from all over the world at all stages of experience sharing knowledge and asking questions. It’s great! Many folks are learning that they can keep chickens to provide eggs and or meat for themselves and possibly to share with or market to others.
It proves that we as individuals can produce some of our own food. Many rely totally on the current system/supply chain out of necessity or preference. Somewhere along the way, a lot of our agricultural production got big, and owned and/or controlled by huge conglomerate corporations. As is the case with chickens both layers and meat birds. Hogs are also that way. Small dairy farms are fading fast,
Beef cattle production is the last stand for small farmers. Beef cattle are still owned by individuals. The system is closing in and the few large packing corporations do control a vast majority of the market affecting both the farmers and consumers a like. They hold prices down when buying cattle before they process them, then raise the prices when selling to the grocery stores which have to raise prices accordingly to the consumers.
I would love to see a huge movement of local farmers being able to supply food directly to other local consumers and thus have to rely less on the big multinational corporations and the supply chain. Of course the big corporations don’t want that.
People having their own chickens proves that it can be done.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Even though, we may have differing views on the subject of free ranging, I respect your experience and knowledge. In a sense, I think we probably have a similar over all goal. Being that I have been involved with agriculture since childhood I absolutely love the fact that so many people are keeping chickens. The concept of backyard chickens, as evidenced by this forum of the same name, showcases people from all over the world at all stages of experience sharing knowledge and asking questions. It’s great! Many folks are learning that they can keep chickens to provide eggs and or meat for themselves and possibly to share with or market to others.
It proves that we as individuals can produce some of our own food. Many rely totally on the current system/supply chain out of necessity or preference. Somewhere along the way, a lot of our agricultural production got big, and owned and/or controlled by huge conglomerate corporations. As is the case with chickens both layers and meat birds. Hogs are also that way. Small dairy farms are fading fast,
Beef cattle production is the last stand for small farmers. Beef cattle are still owned by individuals. The system is closing in and the few large packing corporations do control a vast majority of the market affecting both the farmers and consumers a like. They hold prices down when buying cattle before they process them, then raise the prices when selling to the grocery stores which have to raise prices accordingly to the consumers.
I would love to see a huge movement of local farmers being able to supply food directly to other local consumers and thus have to rely less on the big multinational corporations and the supply chain. Of course the big corporations don’t want that.
People having their own chickens proves that it can be done.

I suspect a renewed respect for goats will come first. a cow is simply too big an animal for almost anyone to process themself, and storage becomes impractical.

But I've been wrong (many, many, many times) before.

 

[Franklinridgefarms]

I suspect a renewed respect for goats will come first. a cow is simply too big an animal for almost anyone to process themself, and storage becomes impractical.

But I've been wrong (many, many, many times) before.

Goats are definitely an option, I wish there wasn’t the stigma that is attached to goat meat and milk. The meat can be quite good.
A beef animal can be processed and sold as whole, half, or quarter,
We don’t do any processing ourselves. I do finish out a few for beef a year, and take them to a processor. A whole beef will last us 2-3 years.
Eventually, I would like to feed out some hogs as well.

 

[Chicken Heel]

Goats are definitely an option, I wish there wasn’t the stigma that is attached to goat meat and milk. The meat can be quite good.
A beef animal can be processed and sold as whole, half, or quarter,
We don’t do any processing ourselves. I do finish out a few for beef a year, and take them to a processor. A whole beef will last us 2-3 years.
Eventually, I would like to feed out some hogs as well.

Nothing wrong with goat meat. It is my understanding a lot of Mexican Restaurants use it for their taco meat.

 

[Franklinridgefarms]

Nothing wrong with goat meat. It is my understanding a lot of Mexican Restaurants use it for their taco meat.

I’ve wondered that because a lot of times the ground “beef” does have texture similar to ground goat meat.
I personally like goat meat. One of the best hamburgers I’ve had was a goat burger.

 

[1cock2hens]

On the topic of free range, I free-range my buck but my does are new to the farm and I don't trust them yet

Goats have more than quadrupled in price in just a few years, when I was in ffa(2001-2003) a goat cost about 40 any day of the week, now bucks go for 150 easy and does easily sell for double that without papers

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I suspect a renewed respect for goats will come first. a cow is simply too big an animal for almost anyone to process themself, and storage becomes impractical.

But I've been wrong (many, many, many times) before.

I just got into mini-cows. Way easier to handle than full sized cows.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

View attachment 3122064

I just got into mini-cows. Way easier to handle than full sized cows.

I'm raising mini meat goats - which is to say that my dame keeps throwing males, which I wether and take at an early age - the sire outweighed me by a little, I'm about 160#. and they are mutts. As @1cock2hens said, price is up. With a wormer and the CDT, we can get $120 +/- for the latest boy around 8 weeks, depending on whether the buyer wants him intact or not.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I have 4 does, and they keep my property free of fricken blackberries and poison oak, so they get moved where we need them. But they never have less than an acre... usually. They have less than that now because of all the dang trees we lost during Snowmageddon and Treepocalypse this year. We lost dozens of widowmaker trees, and we still have 5 that need to be removed. They took out a good chunk of the girls' temp fencing (it's pinned under a 50ft oak).