Ok, I am wanting to track this down for this coming year.. April has been nicely wet, cooler weather for the first two weeks of the month, more common weather on the third week and even a hot day on the last week..
April has seen growth in the gardens, and some wild forage which is wonderful, its been a working month in many ways on the farm..
Costs for April 2017
Hay-$400.00
Feed- $126
Straw- 16
Farm Output- Personal use only but local costs to replace if bought off the farm
- Eggs: 7 dozen at 5 per dozen as eating eggs- $35 dollars
- Duck Eggs 9Dozen- 72 dollars
- Sheep Milk- 32 liter -(Moving the milk price to the same as the lady down the road that sells it at 8 dollars per liter)-256
Manure: Finished composting down.. at least 50 dollars worth of compost produced this month.- $50
2 new lambs (current market value per lamb 100 as bottle babies Price dropped down since last month. -200 - Lambs info (* for later in the year, I Will adjust the price to reflect the butcher, the return and sale price sale, but for this month, lets stay with if I sold them as a bottle baby this month)
- 17 chicks – While I am now seeing 5 dollar mix breed chicks locally (as within an hour of me) I am staying with the returns that I said in my chick overview – 269
Farm loss’s in Feb
- 1 chick -15
Farm extra’s Costs
- Roof- ( I am not sure on this one, its house repair work) the house is both part of and not part of the farm.. for now, I am leaving it blank on this.
Farm extra’s..
hardware – 100 (wood costs for the shelving for the greenhouse area)
Ferrier – 150 (trims and Caleb shoes)
Vet- 0
Garden Overview April
Total Garden Costs -$ 41.60
Total Garden Return – $203.90
Total Out cost for Jan on for the farm -$ 792 output cash costs
Farm impute Value – 1070.90
Total output of the farm in returns
- Jan – In the hole –1,029
- Feb – In the Hole –1,429
- March-On the good side -$ 1,038
- April -On the good side -$279
Yearly total Minus- 1,141
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 
J & D > Five Acres close to the home(stead) and expertly and energetically cultivated (that’s you!!) can feed a family if there’s others to exchange and – as a last resort – to sell for the cash to buy things that can’t be grown locally. Your land looks to be warming up!
It is indeed starting to warm up, things are starting to grow, we still have single digit days and dips and very cold spring winds and rains but I have lots of mirco climates on the farm 🙂
D > We’ve tried what you call ‘tracking’, but we found it fiendishly complicated! These days – for the purposes of our accounts – we keep simplified/notional records.
O yes, its very hard to do, that is why I only do a light tracking year every two and a hard tracking year like this year once every five.. and do basic tracking yearly..