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Maybe like many city slickers I have often dreamed about living in the countryside and having a farm life style. My grandparents are farmers, so I am a little more acquainted with the realities of this kind of life than most but still am ignorant of many things. I am shopping for land now - hoping to get about 5 acres - and begin my new life. I have a job that allows me to work online so will still have some income.
I am thinking about raising a couple of cows for my own food needs. I would like to be able to make some money from them by selling their hides. Can someone give me an idea of how much a hide would cost? is there a kind cow that has a "premium" hide, i.e. the hide will fetch a premium dollar? What other ways can I make money from a cow?
Find a tannery and ask them how they go about aquiring their hides. They may have suppliers from cattle ranches and not want to deal with someone who has just one hide.
Did you plan on tanning the hides yourself? That is an incredible amount of work. Very rewarding as far as personal accomplishment, but what you could sell the hide for would not be paying you a fair price for your time.
On 5 acres, you can only keep one or two cows.
However, if you go with Dexters, you can keep more and have better meat at a much cheaper cost.
There is a great informational video on YouTube about Dexters compared to the typical beef cattle.
It's highly unlikely 5 acres will support and feed 1 cow, let alone 2. By the time you have the cost of supplemental feed, shots, water, and general care,it's not cost effective to raise the animals for the meat, the hide is nothing. While it may be a dandy hobby, don't expect to make a dime at it as it's going to cost more than you'll make from it.
It's highly unlikely 5 acres will support and feed 1 cow, let alone 2. By the time you have the cost of supplemental feed, shots, water, and general care,it's not cost effective to raise the animals for the meat, the hide is nothing. While it may be a dandy hobby, don't expect to make a dime at it as it's going to cost more than you'll make from it.
I was thinking about raising 1 or 2 dexters, if that makes a difference. Selling the hides was not the main reason for raising them. Rather I was checking into ways to maximize $$ from the animals. The main reason to raise them is to get a source of fresh, untainted meat.
You want a few cows to have untainted meat? 5 acres is way too low to have cattle on; I'd say 10 at a bare minimum to have hay field, pasture, barn and your home... to be fair to the cows.. Even if you put in hay? It takes 3 years for you to get an organic certification of no pesticides used (to fit your definition of "untainted"). So, for 3 years, you need to buy organic hay. You'd be better off to buy 10-15 acres, work on getting organic crop certification and be growing your hay.... then to buy the cattle. If you get lucky, you might make money on the hay (organic is a lot more money than regular)
actually a trio of dexters would work ust FINE on 5 acres, they aresmall thrity and have amazing meat. if your planning on using it soley for your consumption there much less in tersm of hoops if planning on selling the meat its more involved, dexter meat is amazing and i you invest in good stock, calves tend to sell well and at a premium. there also an easy to handle breed and ten to be nice natured (ive never met a mean dexter) good mothers and do well on rough pasture. (they were origonally designed to make do on very little
i think hides would be more for your hobby ect (I do the same with my rabbit hide, the hide is the byproduct of my meat raising, but waste not want not o learning to tan ad they sell pretty well to the craft market as a little bonus.
if going with dexters invest in good stock and ook into showing, youll make the most money selling calves as breeing stock out of a dexter keep a cull or 2 back for your freezer an sell everything else as cull for meat or breeding stock.
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