We finally got to the point this year of sending one to be slaughtered, cut and wrapped.
It was worth every penny spent on food and hay and bedding. Which, doing rough calculations, and subracting her piglets that we sold, was about 1500 dollars. 209 lbs. of meat from Spot the sow. Worth. Every. Penny. I'm keeping at least one of her female piglets, but I wish I could clone her. She's been everything one could hope for in a homestead hog--smart, but not TOO smart (I have a couple pigs that could give a lot of people I know a run for their money)...healthy and fit, lean and strong but wide. Excellent forager, never wantonly destructive, not easily bored as many pigs are. Not particularly friendly, she'd never lean on you for a scratch, but would submit to handling without shoving her weight around.
Excellent mother.
Only complaint I ever had about Spot was that she'd happily stalk and eat live chickens. Or just rip parts off them while alive and move on. It was a point of contention between us and the main reason I celebrated when Richard was finally ready to say goodbye.
On to the cattle. I didn't want cattle lol. I love beef and cream, but didn't want the hassle and the extra work. Turns out my fears were realized x10, when we got 4 Jersey bull calves in November and December 2015. The price was right, but the price of milk replacer was ridiculous, not to mention the time spent cleaning the vast mountains of

Fast forward and we're furiously scrambling to keep them fed in a drought year, last year when there was NO rain and stored hay was worth more than gold by September. $100 a week to keep them fed last winter. We sold two of them in late winter because we just couldn't keep it up anymore. It was a pittance,but it was the cost of 3 large rounds of hay at the time, and enough to get the rest through until grass grew.
Fixing fences, checking and repairing hour upon hour. Dairy Farmer next door, and several times a year, one or two of my bulls throws caution to the wind, tramples over or through the fences, and is poof, gone. I get an irate phone call, or even police knocking on my door. Luckily, my bulls are well-handled and well-mannered.Throw a rope on and they'll follow along behind like a well-trained dog.
Then there's Jay, a dam-raised Jersey bull that was boarded here and abandoned when his owner couldn't pay and vanished. He's a different creature entirely. He's come around a LOT, but if he doesn't know a person, or feels threatened in any way, he's a junkyard dog. Luckily, he's also a follower rather than a leader, so if he got out with one of my own boys, he'd come along behind when I led my own home. Except for the first time when there were dozens of juicy heifers next door and it took 7 people to tie him to the back of a vehicle so he could be towed home. Even dehorned, he did some damage.
But anyway. Jerseys don't grow large. At all. They're not as tall as, say, Holstein, and very certainly not as heavy as meat breeds like Herefords.
We just had our two smallest bulls processed and got just short of 600 lbs. Of meat. I haven't roughed out the cost per pound because I know it's SCARY after what we spent last winter on hay.
But.
After tasting the beef (omg) and knowing what went into those bulls, and what didn't (never medicated)?
Worth. Every. Penny.
Would I change anything? Well, knowing what I know now, if I had to do it over, I'd only get a pair of pigs and two beeves. 4 of any large livestock is a lot of work, and a stupid unnecessary learning curve.
We still have two bulls in the field, Jay and a grow-out we got last year, named Buddy.
Pig numbers are currently at 12 grow-outs and 3 adults. Numbers were higher earlier in the year, but we had to cull hard for genetic anomaly that left a pig unusable for meat. Still haven't figured out what it is, but the pigs we got from one guy all had it and passed it along to all their piglets almost 100%, and those pigs crossed with my boar Hank, passed it on 50%. New breeding stock lined up now so we don't ever have to worry about it again should we decide to have more piglets in the future.
It's the weirdest thing too, and has our vet stumped. And me, not easy to do lol.
Pig will be in perfect health, then all of a sudden drop weight like a rock. No fever, no parasites, no infection, normal stools. Eat and drink and carry on as normal, but in the course of a few days become emaciated no matter what is tried. Pig then goes down and acts as if it's in pain, and dies
within hours of going down. Necropsy shows NOTHING unusual. Nothing. We've lost 6 that way,throwing money at it trying to figure it out and save Richard's pet piggies.. A truckload of cash.
Still worth every penny.