Need Advice on Farm Animals

You really should read this book: Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn by Catherine Friend written by a woman who started farming and had these same questions.

This is my opinion So please take it as such

We own 30 cows and two bulls. We have had sheep goats horses chickens ducks and the like. you get my point. All except for the birds have needed help delivering. "farm" animals are all hard work. Sheep will chew your 5 acres down to numbs in a month, along with goats. I would stick to your birds and get your meat from the local meat locker.

Yeah they are cute but the way you put this you wont want to step in poop or pee which sorry hun, its life with animals. Cleaning the barn will be a nicesity. Please for the sake of the animals unless you are 100% on this Dont.

I grew up with these animals. I am not afraid to grab a calf out of a mother, (because I know it saves them both... sometimes). Even dogs sometimes need help. Pigs need help. Please think about this.

I don't have either (the neighbors have some goats and sheep).
For the milk I'd do goat, for the meat I'd do sheep (the wool is a bonus).
If you are going to do lambs and kids you are going to have to breed them.
You'll need sturdy fencing either way you go - goats climb and jump, but sheep can push really hard.
There's a house down the road with goats, chickens and one miniature bull in their yard/pasture.
The goats are always climbing up and sitting on top of the hen house.
(It's a good idea to give them something to climb.)
Goats have personality - I could get attached to a goat.
Goat does not taste like beef.
It's not bad but I like it with jerk seasoning (Caribbean style).
I like lamb better than mutton - a leg of lamb or lamb stew is very tasty.
We have a butcher nearby, so people around here take their animals there rather than butcher and process themselves (they won't do chickens).

If you Google 'raising goats or sheep' you'll get lots of information to help you decide.

http://barnyardsandbackyards.org/2010/08/16/our-first-yea...

Not sure which one to get but we had three sheep (as pets) in the same fenced-in barn area as a bunch of chickens and never had any problems. It was actually funny sometimes to look out and see the chickens taking a ride on our sheep!!

Sorry, I can't raise animals for the meat; I get too attached!! And that's NOT saying anything against anyone that does!!! That's just me!!!

Good luck!!

My mother loves goats and has had many over the years. She's never eaten them though. They were pets. Not ALL goats have to be milked.
My mom did have a nanny goat that she milked and she donated the milk to a place in town that distributed it to families that couldn't drink cow's milk for whatever reason.

Goats are fairly simple to care for. They certainly help with keeping vegetation down so you want to make sure they can't get in your garden area. They need a shelter and some hay for bedding.

I know people with sheep and they are very well taken care of because the people use their wool to make yarn. It's a business for them.

One of my neighbors raises goats to eat them. His family loves goat meat.
I would have a hard time butchering something I got attached to.

Anyway, having been around lots of goats, I think they're pretty cool to have.
After my dad died, my mom downsized and left all her acreage so she likely won't have goats anymore, but she really misses them.

Best wishes.

We had goats for a few years and they were such a pain! Now we have pigs and love them! I also loved having chickens, but you already have those. Enjoy your critters!

Being in a NYC suburb, I really cannot help you here. Only one thing to put my two cents in on: goat meat is gross. Very chewy and gamey - NOT like beef. Bison meat tastes more similar to beef (IMO).

Good luck with this! I could not do the butchering either (hypocritical of me, I know, since I eat meat!)

I've been researching this question myself in anticpation of our move out to the country. (Woo hoo!) At first I was set on having goats. But I am never going to milk a nany 2x a day, so that's pretty much out. Plus, I love to garden I can just see the thing getting loose and chomping all my dahlias. Heck, what am I thinking. The deer are going to do that anyway! So my final plan is to raise a few pigs. They seem to be the easiest. They grow wicked fast, our entire family loves the meat, and the space requirements are simple. And they'll eat just about anything. I'm hoping to work out an agreement with the dairy farmer down the road to trade a hog for a few gallons of raw milk each week.

Sheep do get out, so don't count on that. I grew up on a dairy farm and while we did not have sheep or goats, our nearest neighbor raised sheep and those damn things got out all the time. They are much harder to get back in than the cows were. You wouldn't think that, but they were stubborn little beasts.

I wouldn't put the chickens in with them to share food, etc. Chickens can be dirty and can easily carry disease to the other animals.