Do you make money?
Ya but what did it cost you to raise that chicken?
But if you had to buy it, what would it be worth?
What do you spend to have what you have?
But it does not cost that much to keep those critters?
Why does it cost you so much to raise that lamb?
Why do you spend so much on seeds?
Its got to be cheaper to just buy it in the stores.

Ok folks.. I am going to break a unspoken homesteading rule.. I am going to talk numbers! AHHHHHH.. run for the hills.. stats, data.. hard costs.. Hauling costs, Butcher costs and more.

LOL, no really, now that I am done poking fun at things, lets get to the meat of things.
Those are honestly real questions I have been asked over and over again.

So the first thing we have to do is get a full grasp on what I have on the farm as of Feb 2019 (if you want to see the list for

Jan, Here is the link to that post

Feb Here is the link to that post 

March Here is the link to that post

• We started the new year here on the farm with..
• 3 dogs (two farm/house dogs and one adorable house dog)
• 6 cats (mix of outside farm cats only and indoor/outdoor farm cats)
• 2 Geese (bonded)
• 1 turkey hen
• 21 Adult chickens (breeding pen of four purebred) the rest mixed breed
• 12 adult ducks
• 2 adult breeding rabbits
• 10 Grow out rabbit kits
• 3 goats – Two Does and One Buck
• 1 pig
• 13 sheep
• 14 new lambs on the farm, 16 born, 2 passed.  (Lambing is now done)
• 2 horse’s

Ok, so to make things a little easier to see, anything that changed from month to month or is new is in the slant.

Pastures
Gardens
Hard Fruit Tree’s
Cane Fruit Garden’s
Soft Fruit Bushes

Ordered in a good amount of wildflower seed mix for ground cover for the new meadow, the new picnic area and the for around the fruit trees and for the “lane” as well as some smaller area’s in and around the different garden areas. Cost 184.. including tax’s and delivery costs.

Total spent so far on the above $1,164

Training or Education Cost 2019

April was a flip it month, no training costs as I was teaching instead.

Total Spent to date 230.00

This is my first year that I am totally pulling back on raising extra farm gate meat for sale.. the meat raised on the farm is for our own farm use only. If this changes, I will make notes on that. This will change, we have more lambs born this year then we will need for our own freezers but I have not decided on how many will go for farmgate sales.

One lamb booked for farmgate sale so far.. 

Eggs however are open for farm gate sales.

All milk/milk products are for on farm use only!

Seeds/plants and plant productions are open to a point for use in farm gate sales
Photo sales directly related to the farm or farm critters will count towards farm income, however photography sessions and or sales not related to the farm or the farm critters does not count towards it.

The first thing to go will be the yearling sheep now that they are getting nice and big, they are ready to be done.. as I was growing them for my own use I prefer them to be larger/older then the “average” lamb. I very much like hoggart (over one year in age, but not older then two years of age)

The pig is ready for butcher as well.. its on the list but the weather must get better.

The intend is to grow less meat overall, but a wider kind of types and increase the amount of fruit/veggies/herbs we are growing. I can raise livestock at a rate on the farm out pace’s our own needs very easily. This is something that I need to pull back on!

So the out costs this month are in

Ok so here is our numbers for April (it was a good month in terms of better weather, less hay needed to keep everyone in good shape, straw from the month before made two plus months in bedding, no vet or ferrier costs)

• Hay Costs – $300
• Straw – 0
• Feed Costs – $322
• Vet Costs- 0
• Ferrier Costs- 0

Returns

*14 lambs, they are not returns until they are either keep back replacement value in stock for the herd or until they are sold as farmgate or until they are farm butchered and return yield to the farm in terms of filling the freezer or pantry. so while they arrived this month, they can’t count on this month.  If I could count them.. they would run around 200 each to replace per what I am seeing on Kijji at the moment.. would it not be lovely to have that 2800 bump to my final numbers but that would be the lowest return rate I could get for them, and that would not be a good thing for the bottom line in the end!

22 dozen Eggs (at 5 dollars a dozen, which is the average cost for farm gate eggs Mix of chicken/duck eggs) – $110.00

• a number of hens are sitting as are three duck hens on full nests of eggs, which slowed down the amount of eggs coming in just at touch.

Chicks – 7 Natural Hatched Chicks.  Laying Barnyard Mix, Straight run. 5 each (average local prices for day olds) – $35

Milk- Sheep- Regular Milking of Sweetie this month..  average a quart a milking..  -682 for local amount of whole sheep milk if bought from the store.

Garden- April was such a slow month, I only just started being able to do some small wild forage harvesting in the very last week of April. Foraged on the farm in the food forest yard.

Foraged greens- 20.00

Bark Harvest  from Prunings

Cherry Bark – $90 (Took the amount of dried bark and weight it, then compared to two local sites on what they sell for per oz to figure out value)

Cramp Bark-$ 160 (see above)

Plants – Cuttings Started into new plants and  their value.. based on if I had bought the same size starter plants from Ontario Native Plants, after I add in tax and shipping costs

15 high bush Cranberry – 8 each – $120

5 Gooseberry – 12 each- $60

• Jan income $105
• Feb income $95
• March income $220
• April income 1,277 (* first month I got more return value then I did output.. YES)

In the Red by $3697

Honestly I am not worried, I know that the farm “saves” us money and that we get a yield back on our investment in a big way, plus we know how the animals are raised, the food grown and the processed.

I have tried to do a hard track year but things keep getting in the way.. the last time I did a full hard track year and was successful at doing so ALL year long was a while go.. I need to do so this year and get a firm grasp on where we were, and where we are.

However having said that, in many ways we are starting a lot of the yard/gardens over again because of what happened last year. This will means many things will be up in the air in regards to what can and will get done.

Throw in the fact that we are in for a wild weather ride and we will see..