Hobby Farming

The book I read to research this post was Hobby Farming for Dummies which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book is about smallhold farming although there is information on things like cattle farming which you might associate with proper farming. If you live in the country and are considering going into hobby farming you should take a look at what nearby farmers and neighbours are doing. Chances are if they are keeping  ie beef cattle there are good reasons for doing so. You might be inclined to farm something which can higher returns but often means a higher initial outlay. Good female alpacas often sell for $30,000 or more. Alpacas, llamas, sheep, angora rabbits and musk ox can all produce wool. Llamas and goats like hillsides. Musk ox live in alaska so it must have a cold climate and the fibre they produce which comes from the undercoat is 8 times warmer than wool also their meat is low in fat. Some people farm buffalo and yak which will attract visitors. Some farmers have even crossed cattle with buffalo to produce beefalo which have meat which is lower in fat than beef. My local supermarket started doing ostrich steaks recently and the eggs which weigh 3-4 lbs especially are considered a delicacy. Some people farm emus which in addition to providing meat and eggs also provide a type of leather. An animal which is especially suited to the smallholding which wants to specialize in pigs is the vietnamese pot bellied pig. They are as affectionate as dogs and can even be allowed in the house. A lot of people are after exotic pets and you can make a nice income breeding them but don't forget you probably need a specialist vet which doesn't come cheap. Also you should never take animals out of the wild especially in tropical countries because you don't know what diseases they are carrying. Many tropical diseases we are only just discovering. An exotic pet will often be happier living in the wild and in a lot of cases we don't understand their temperament. Some of these animals can be dangerous. A blue tongued skink which is a large lizard that is often kept as a pet can hold its own against a dog. Finally if you do decide to go into animal husbandry you may need a gun in case something like a wolf or a fox attacks your livestock. There's even cases of wild dogs which have been dumped by their owners and formed packs attacking livestock.