Why Go Green?

I suppose that some people don’t see the point to adopting a green approach to their lifestyle. I’m by no means a tree hugger and I am less interested in the state of the planet than I am the state of myself.

For me, the motivation is financial … I don’t like to spend a lot of money on stuff that I can do myself, and do better in a lot of ways.

I’ve been keen on getting some land for a long time, and buying our 4 and a bit acres has certainly given me a lot of what I want (although I would rather more land too). Our property has three 1 acre paddocks. The top paddock isn’t really usable at the moment as there is a lot of rubbish on the land that needs to be cleared, and the paddock is not flat (about a 15 degree pitch).

Each of the animals on our land have to be able to provide something for the table, directly or indirectly, if they have any place on the smallholding.

Chickens

The chooks cost us about $25 per month in feed and they provide us with an average of 3 eggs per day (5 white leghorn hens + 1 Rhode Island red rooster). As we are not breeding the chickens, the rooster has to prove his worth. Fortunately, he protects the hens and improves their community, they don’t fight with each other nearly as much as without a rooster. Also, the chickens eat insects and weeds, so they are good workers. I sell the eggs at $5 per dozen when I have enough eggs. On average, I would sell about 3 dozen eggs a month. They cost me more than they make in direct income, however, they also save me another $5 per month in eggs and much more in pesticide and herbicides. The chickens also convert kitchen scraps into rich compostable chicken poo … which is excellent for the garden. Saving me even more money. The bottom line for the chickens save me about $5 per month or $60 per annum.

Goats

The goats cost a lot to feed, there isn’t any way to get around that. Each goat costs about $350 per annum to feed. If I breed a goat and sell the kid when it is about 7 months old, it has cost me about $200 to feed. Add in the veterinary costs (an average of $35 for worming injections and boosters etc.) and I am losing money if I sell at $200. Fortunately, I can get a little bit more than that for a dairy goat … but not much. I need to improve the quality of my goats so that I can improve their value. The does are class “D” at the moment, but I am breeding them up with better quality bucks to improve their kids. More shows and more knowledge is what I need to improve the quality of the dairy goat breeding program. A top quality buck can fetch >$3,000 and a good quality doe something less than that (these are prices that I have heard, but never had quoted). Each pairing costs me $80 per doe, so that’s another annual cost to factor in.

I plan to have about 12 does and keep the high quality does for breeding. If I breed all of the does in a year, then it is going to cost me around $960, feeding will cost me around $18,000 for the year and medical costs around $500. If each doe throws a pair, then I can look forward to selling the kids for about $18,000. I would still be losing money until the quality of the goats increases to a good level through higher quality milk production and conformation proven at agricultural shows. Goats normally throw twins, but can throw triplets as often as singles.

Also, the goats give milk, at a rate of about 500ml per milking. With 12 does in kid, that’d give me 6 litres of milk per day and that could mean quite a reasonable amount of milk for cheese. Cheese from goats milk earns about $16 per litre. From cheese, that’s a potential $17,000 income from cheese and milk products from about 1,100 litres of milk per annum. Alternatively, I could sell the milk directly at about $4 per litre ($4,380).

So, selling kids and milk would give me about $22,380, or kids and cheeses $35,000 from a cost of around $17,000. Not a huge profit, but there is room to improve by improving the quality of the goats. More land would let me breed more goats and increase profits.

Sheep

The sheep are all about breeding meat for the table. The pair of Wiltipol sheep cost me $500 and won’t be ready to breed until next year. The sheep cost me almost nothing in feed. They eat the grass in the paddock and occasionally get sheep pellets ($25 per bag, per annum … pretty cheap). Annual shearing and drenching costs me $65. Mating the sheep will cost me about $160 per annum and I can look forward to four lambs per breeding season. Getting the lambs slaughtered costs me $70 per animal so it is going to cost me $345 per annum and will save me about $700 per annum in meat, so it will save me $355 per annum overall. I will be doing my own butchering of the lambs, so that has saved me another $120 per lamb.

Vegies

What can I say, they don’t cost much, never escape … don’t need a vet. Seed costs around $30 per annum. The veggie patch also uses the composted sheep, goat and chicken poo and turns it into good food for the table. When I can afford the time to grow and tend the veggie patch, we have had some great harvests (mostly zucchini, cucumbers, rhubarb, potatoes). Growing vegetables doesn’t save much money, but it doesn’t cost much money either, so it is a good value thing. I haven’t done the sums on exactly how much money I am saving, so I can only guess. I reckon that it’s about $80 per annum.

Other benefits

All of the food that we grow, we know. One of the key benefits of this sort of smallholding is that we know exactly what has gone into the food that goes into our mouths. It has been our hands that have tended the animals and plants. The animals are treated humanely and with kindness. We know the animals from birth to death and we can be certain that no chemicals have been added. On top of that, our children have a much better appreciation of what goes into the food that they eat. Winner!