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I hope you have a LARGE freezer. That's a LOT of meat!
My husband and I made it our goal to not buy any of our meat from the grocery store for our family of 6. We decided to accomplish our goal by the end of this year. Of course, we want/need variety in our meats. Well, we're already at the point where we're set for the year.
We had one pig that the kids raised to at least 275lbs in the deep freeze. Even if it's a 50% dress out, that's a ton of meat. It has taken us forever to get through it all.
We process our extra show birds (RIRs) but that is not many so we bought meaties (Freedom Rangers) to give them a go. 25 birds plus extra unwanted cockerels that folks gave us for the table = 1 chicken every two weeks for the entire year! Considering one chicken could potentially be a few meals, that's more than enough chicken.
I have begun a conservation project of heritage turkeys (small, self-reproducing birds). I bought a trio last year and had what I'd call a great hatch this year. We sold extras and kept a few. 1 female will be added to our breeders and we'll process the other 3. We'll cook one up for Thanksgiving and I'll likely make ground turkey of most of the rest since that's what I'd buy at the store. That's a lot of turkey for the year. I may have to give some to neighbors.
We have a few dairy goats. Any male kids born will be processed. Extra meat will be given to friends. A few kids is a lot of meat so between the chicken, turkey, and goat, we're already set with enough to share with friends.
If that were not enough......I have a habit. A rabbit habit. I show Jersey Wooly rabbits locally and nationally. It's my thing.
I cull hard. For me, that means we have another source of meat. A highly nutritious source of meat. While any rabbit is edible and we do eat even the teeny breeds we raise for show (Jersey Wooly and Polish), I also have a soft spot for conserving endangered livestock so I picked up some rare American Chinchillas - a meat breed. My trio at 70 days old were 4lb, 4.5lb, and 5lb live weight. Rabbits dress out at a high percentage so those are at
least 3 lb carcasses from a 5 lbs animal. Oh, and rabbit is more filling than other meats so you naturally eat less of it. The breed I have are good mothers/milkers, does weigh 12 lbs, have about 9 kits per litter, kindle (have a litter) 4x/year on an easy breeding program, and kits dress out at 9 - 10 weeks of age. I have a trio and have the potential to get over 200 lbs of meat on non-commercial breeding program. THAT'S A LOT OF MEAT! Just think if I processed them at adult weight.
Haha! Okay, just kidding, that's a Cichlid
BUT...I do like to go fishing a few times per year, so we've got occasional fish. Much more if I make just one deep sea fishing trip.
So, that's chicken, turkey, goat, rabbit, fish.....did I mention we live on a cattle ranch?
We're not even going to purchase any beef from our landlords as we have too much already. Meat is just one small part of our diets, really. I'm going to scale it down a bit and sell extra rabbit as BARF diet for pets.
Anyway, my point is that you really don't need to have a lot of animals to keep you in meat for a year. Try raising a flock of meaties or whatever your most commonly eaten meat is for your family, and then go very small scale on the others or specialize in one or two and trade with your neighbors that raise other types of meat. Just my thoughts.
ETA:
Sonew123, I kid you not, my husband called me just this morning on his way to work to tell me that there was "fresh turkey" in the road just a few miles from our house just in case I wanted to go pick it up. I told him, no, I'd just let one of our neighbors get it like last time.
Unless I hit it with my own car, I'm not eating it.
Good for you for being so quick in thinking!
