Ok, I am wanting to track this down for this coming year.. March came in like a lion and roared and stomped its feet and is ending in the same.. we have had storm after storm , freezing wind, thunderstorms and more..
Normally by the end of march we have spring on the way, I am seeing bare land, I even on some years doing a tiny amount of wild forage of plants starting on the edges of buildings that have the double solar heat from the barn walls and so forth.. this year. I have none of that.. I am finishing march with a average of two feet of snow still blanketing the farm and drift that are still hip high in some places.
Costs for Feb 2017
Hay-$400.00
Feed- $292
Straw- 24
Farm Output- Personal use only but local costs to replace if bought off the farm
- Eggs: 5 dozen at 5 per dozen as eating eggs- $25 dollars
- Hatching Eggs-12 Salmon Favervolle -80 – (I went with the local hatching sale on the chicken hatching egg sellers.. so total of 6.60 per egg and total of 21 eggs $140
- Mixed Hatching eggs- Locally about $27
Goose Egg- 11 breeding-Hatching egg-55 Dollars
Sheep Milk- 24 liter -(Moving the milk price to the same as the lady down the road that sells it at 8 dollars per liter)-192
Manure: Finished composting down.. at least 50 dollars worth of compost produced this month.- $50
14 new lambs (current market value per lamb 100 as bottle babies Price dropped down since last month. -1400 - Lambs info (* for later in the year, I Will adjust the price to reflect the butcher, the return and sale price sale, but for this month, lets stay with if I sold them as a bottle baby this month)
- 1 goat doeling (as a bottle baby 100) -100
- Newborn Lamb Hide- 20 dollars
Farm loss’s in Feb
- One still born lamb, skinned and hide cured..
- Loss of our Maple season this year.. we had less then three full run days.. worst Maple syrup season we have ever had on the farm.. the tree’s are breaking buds.
Farm extra’s Costs
- One heritage weaner piglet -$50
- 3 Mixed Breed Meat Does (rabbit)- $60
- 4 Purebred Light and Dark Breeding Set -$140
- 5 dollars worth of hatching eggs
Farm extra’s..
hardware – 0
Ferrier – 0
Vet- 0
Garden Overview Feb
Total Garden Costs -$ 0 (I did not buy anything in the month, but lots of planting going on.. check the Garden Overview for list an full update
Total Garden Return – $248.00
Total Out cost for Jan on for the farm -$971
Total output of the farm in returns -$2,009
- Jan – In the hole –1,029
- Feb – In the Hole –1,429
- March-On the good side -$ 1,038
Yearly total Minus- 1,420 (still in negative but it was a good year in march none the less, Lambs, Goatling, Eggs, Milk and so seedlings are growing!)
March was a bad month weather wise, we set new records in regards to snow for those days and the time of year, we had deep cold temps that killed our sap runs.. and thank goodness for the big barn for all the new babies, and for baby coats. The cold slowed down egg laying for a number of the birds.
I know that this post is coming out one day early but I will adjust if needed but as I am home on the farm and have no shopping plans..
Goals- No selling of anything off the farm is planned, the saving costs are what we would have to pay if we bought in the local free market to replace what the farm produces that improves our lives.
Its a tracking year..
and also I have had and seen a number of comments many times of folks saying, my 5 acres and under homestead needs to pay for itself.. well, I like to think mine does, I like to think that a well-run homestead can do just that! So lets see if I am right or not?
Just another Day on the Farm 
awesom
We have stopped selling anything off the farm other than eggs for a couple of years now. I don’t miss it at all – the extra initial costs, the extra work involved in raising, the extra cleanup, being subject to the unexpected increase in feed costs, etc etc. I’m pretty sure our farm easily pays for itself – especially having the house cow. Not only does she supply us with a calf to raise for the freezer every year and a half, she supplies all our milk, butter and cheese. Of course there’s only so much cheese one can eat – so I fill the freezer with soft cheese that goes to the weaner pigs every day til slaughter along with their grain. I actually don’t cost out like you do – rather I go by what we have to spend off farm at the grocery store for things we can’t make (toilet paper/coffee etc). On average, over the course of a year, including dog food (I don’t include that as feed coats) it works out to about 150.00 a month.
I do know our hay costs (horses and cows) is 240.00 a month, and feed from the feed store (beer pulp, salt block, game starter for chicks etc) about 120.00 a month. Grain (for pigs and chickens, ducks and geese) about 150.00 a month averaged out over a year.
I am still working on timing things better to take advantage of available garden waste for feed and so on – the biggest issue there, is I want my pigs in the freezer in July – our fall is too hectic to accommodate keeping them to August/September. Might revisit that next year.
What a great Overview, would you mind if I took this comment and put it as a footnote in the post itself to get more folks to read it?
Go ahead and use the comment 🙂
Thanks
I am very comfortable that at the end of the year that we are going to find that I doing well on the farm and bottom line in keeping with what you are saying.. just knowing how the animals are born, raised and butchered or garden grown is massive to me.. it means that I know that was the chicken etc.. I hate to quote Visa.. but its priceless to me..
And you are far more healthy for it I think. We’ve been eating our ‘own’ food for so many years that the odd time (such as when traveling) that I have to eat ‘out’ my system rebels. People think I’m daffy for being so hard core on the food issue (and of course not everybody can grow/raise their own diet) but even lacking in time and working off farm, I still manage to make most everything. If I want pasta, I make it from scratch. If I need laundry soap I make my own. Craving crackers? Make some. I’m of the belief that the processed/chemically altered foods available in the grocery store – are making many people ill. And it’s crazy that one has to peel store potatoes to get rid of the anti-sprouting spray. I’m not a strict purist though – if I need a lemon for something, I’ll buy one…..and so on.
I was waiting for your food costing project to wind up last year…..I’m still asking around – one woman I work with – her and her husband now spend approx 1600.00 a month on groceries. My daughter in Edmonton (family of four including her dad) is over 2000.00 a month.
I do have the data, let me finish up crunching this months numbers and I will put the overview and final data overview on my list of blog posts.
Its going to coming that we would need to spend around 800 to 1000 per person to eat the way we do.. which is kind of crazy..
Honestly, after the terribly droughty weather last year, no great surprise on the poor sap run, hey? ):
very true deb