what other types of "meat" can i raise on half an acre or less?

[theemon]

I had thought about pigs, but ruled them out, now I'm maybe thinking rabbits, I dunno. What else do u all raise on a small amount of land?

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

A goat might work on 1/2 acre. Hey, around here there is a guy who will take his goats onto various empty lots and park lands and they eat the noxious and invasive weeds. It's an organic weed control. Maybe you could get a few clients and take your goat out on weekends for a free meal and more than cover the gas money.

 

[ScottnLydia]

You could consider chickens of course, turkeys need about the same conditions, rabbits need only the space their hutches take up, ducks and geese are easy if your environement is adequate. All can be done on minimal space.

Pigs are very good, but are intensive. by that I mean they can smell if in too small an area, and require a lot of food to grow out. Neighbors (if you have any) don't often care for them!

Goats, well, first determine if you like goat meat. Meat breeds like Boers are readily available, but goats need to be kept entertained or well contained! I know folks that have come home to find their flower gardens eaten and the goats trampling dents on the roof of their cars!

My personal choice is hair sheep. They can eat weeds like goats but aren't as anxious to get out and cause trouble. They don't need shearing and have mild tasting meat. Ewes can even be milked like goats too if trained!

There are even breeds of 'mini cattle' but that goes well beyond where I would go.

Heck, in Peru they raise guinea pigs for meat, so let your imagination roam!

~S

 

[wsmoak]

Definitely rabbits. After trying both, while I'm not ready to completely give up chickens, I will be doing *one* round of spring meat birds, and rabbits the rest of the time.

The meat is mild like chicken, and it's *all* white meat. They stay where you put them in their hutches, and make no noise at all. Butchering is much easier -- no scalding and plucking. The manure can go straight into the garden, no need to compost it first.

I picked Californians because I like the markings, and New Zealand White because they are easy to find.

-Wendy

 

[triplepurpose]

I read an interesting article recently in the Heifer Project magazine about "grasscutters" (aka cane rats, sometimes called agouti) in Africa. They are very large rodent-like creatures that eat mostly grasses (cut and carried to their hutches) making them easy and very cheap to raise. Apparently the meat is very tasty, a bit like goat.

No idea where you would get grasscutter stock outside of West Africa though, so rabbits may be the more accessible option.

 

[Ashburnham]

Those big white meat pigeons are a good option too- breed and grow very quickly.

 

[coffeenutdesign]

I agree with rabbits for a small space.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I know your inquiry is about meat, but after the chickens and rabbits, the best way to utilize a small plot is intensive gardening. One can literally raise 90% of one's survival diet from gardening in a space of 60x100, feeding a family of 3. Easy? No, but entirely possible with experience and skill.

There were some magazine and TV features of a family running a HUGE produce business out of their urban home lot of nowhere near an 1/2 acre. It was a very interesting read. The one acre personal gardens of the former USSR were reported to have supplied the ordinary person a much larger portion of their diet than did the huge "collectives" the farmers were forced into working by the central committee.
OK, enough stray thoughts.

 

[erinszoo]

We have half an acre and have chickens, ducks, turkeys, and rabbits. We do one round of meat birds each year in the fall ... we like to process when it's cooler outside. Rabbits are simple although they can have some funny diseases that will kill them without warning but then they breed like, well, like rabbits. It takes about 10 minutes to process one and the meat tastes like white meat from a chicken. We also have a space we're preparing for a pair of dwarf nigerian goats. They produce enough milk for our family of four to have milk and cheese plus they often kid 3 babies at a time which can be used for meat. Some people don't like goat meat but if it's fixed well, it's lucious. There's also some new breeds of miniature cows but I don't know much about them.

AND we have a large garden. We even grow some of our own grains. But ... and this is a big but depending on how you live ... almost every piece of our yard is in production for something. The kids go to the park to play because there really is no lawn space at all except what we dedicate to the birds for grazing. We do have a patio but that doubles as a garden potting area and a processing area.

 

[Caribear]

We live in town, and we have chickens, rabbits, and quail. Coturnix are super easy to raise, ready to butcher in six weeks or so, and can do very well on only one square foot per bird. They are all dark meat, though, if that would be a problem for you. But they are super easy to process as well.