By Grant Estrade
Intro:
The idea of raising your own livestock may seem a bit old fashioned or even antiquated at first, but the more the issue is discussed the more it seems to make perfect sense in modern life. This particular topic is a sensitive one for many due to the fact that when raising livestock the animals being raised more likely than not will be consumed. The purpose of this article is not to try to convert, but to serve as guide to those who may be interested in backyard livestock.
My personal view of consuming livestock is pretty simple. I believe we are all part of the same natural ecosystem, and it is appropriate for humans as animals to consume other animals as we will also be consumed by living organisms eventually. I am against animal cruelty, CAFO operations, growth hormones, innapropriate diets, practices such as de-beaking, and the like. I want to know where my meat comes from, how it was treated, and what it was fed. I cringe that our society only sees the meat when it is neatly packaged in plastic. I believe that it is the responsibility of the meat eating consumer to care about the animal that they eating as they are as cumpulbale in the raising of that animal as are the folks who actually did the raising.
My first experience with raising livestock was a result of an early fascination with reptiles and amphibians. My brothers would harass me by calling me "nature boy", but I always took it as a compliment. The raising and breeding of snakes which were fed a rodent diet quickly grew as a hobby, and the purchasing of mice from the pet shop turned into the main expense of keeping snakes. I inevitably got my first job at a local pet shop and my first business idea was born. With the help of my Father, we built a pretty sophistacted mouse and rat breeding program, which realized a profit by selling the mice and rats to the pet shop where I was employed, and reduced my snake's food bill.
As a result of the rodent operation the waste product were soiled wood shavings from the trays in which the rodents were kept. I had been raised around the concept of composting my whole life; not in a formal way, but by watching my parents and grandparents throwing all of the kitchen scraps, etc. in a pile tucked away in the backyard somehwere. This activiy wasn't glamarous, being a tree hugger, or, as a good freind put's it, "hippie-rrific"; it just made sense, it was what we did. So I therefore felt the natural inclination to put all of the rodent shavings in a pile tucked away in the backyard. It composted nicely, not that I really knew what I was doing at the time, and it was with my mouse compost that I built my first vegetable garden. I still remember getting cooking tips from my grandmother on how to cook the mustard greens I had grown.
I only realized the importance of this experience when the memory was stirred as I told this story to a customer one day at the shop while we were standing in front of our pigs and chickens. The importance was that at the age of fifteen in the backyard of suburban New Olreans, i was instinctively following the pattern taught and stressed in every permaculture, composting, and sustainable agriculture book. It's the lesson of creating closed loops cycles with all of your waste products. So before you get livestock do your research in how you can create as much as a closed loop cycle as possible. An example would be kitchen scaps fed to chickens, chicken manure to garden (chicken eggs/meat to kitchen), garden produce to kitchen, kitchen scraps returned to chickens, and so on. Not only must you understand the waste cycles, but also the nature of each type of animal.
I have spent hours just watching our pigs, chickens, and rabbits to gain insight into their natural tendencies so that i can give them the things they need to express their nature in order to be happy. The more the animals are allowed to express there nature, the more I can use them as farm/garden employees to do my dirty work. Livestock, when allowed to express there nature, are just as efficient as money, sitting in a interests accruing savings account, earns interest tirelessly 24/7 without complaint. If you're as gardener or farmer having livestock is just as good as having money in the bank. And as a side note, which is why, in my opinion, livestock is essential for any family farm to survive financially.
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