Goals for animals:
We will be raising meat chickens again. Three of my children will be old enough for 4-H this coming year so I'm guessing we will buy at least 50 meat chickens. We had a high mortality rate last year and each child needs to have a pen of three to show at fair. I'd like to also raise enough to cover our chicken meat for the year.
We are going to add raising turkeys. We had wanted to this past year but the money ran out first! I'm planning better this coming year. I would like to raise five turkeys. We will need to add onto our chicken coop to brood the meat chicks and the turkeys. We also need to build at least one more chicken tractor. However, I do think we have most of the wood so I'll just need to purchase chicken wire.
We are also adding a hog. I have an area planned and will purchase the cattle panels for fencing so we can use those for other things after the hog is butchered. I'm hoping that we might have a slight surplus of goats milk to help feed the hog to reduce the cost of feed.
I am hopeful that our first dairy goat has been bred successfully! We are hoping for some cute baby/babies around the end of March. I plan on breeding our second dairy goat this coming Spring so ideally we will have fresh milk all year long.
Garden Plans-
Our garden was a massive failure last Summer. The only things that were successful were the peas, green beans, and tomatoes. We were able to put up a years supply of green beans. I am going to spend January reading up on how to improve the soil and when certain things should be planted. Ideally I'd love to supply our family with a years worth of veggies from the garden. I do know one thing, we will definitely till the soil much much better this year! Hopefully we will be able to keep the weeds down as well.
What are some of your homestead goals for 2012?
2 comments:
If you could get the rain to be less next year that would really help my garden too. LOL Wishful thinking I know. Happy New Year!
Make sure you don't keep your turkeys and chickens together. It won't end well. Oh, and the turkeys eat a LOT... like a lot, a lot. And make sure your pig has a friend. They are very social and like lots of mud and water. They're very crafty and will figure out how to get out of almost anything. I wish you well on your plans for the year :) You are teaching your kids the best lessons possible.
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