This is a guest post and entry in our non-fiction writing contest by Chris J
When I bring up survival or preparedness to my friends, family, or co-workers, most just scoff and say things like “Well, I can keep food on my table by hunting.” Apparently, they think that they are the only ones with this idea, and that they will be in the woods alone to have their fill at nature’s table.
What they fail to understand is that others will be doing the same thing. They are right for the first few days of a disaster, when most people are not running out of food yet.
However, if the disaster lasts longer than a couple of weeks, all but the true survivalist will be out of food. Once their meager supplies of food are consumed or spoiled, the village will empty into the surrounding countryside. Deer, squirrels, rabbits, and other choice game will be hunted out within a few weeks. Hungry people will start turning to the less desirable table fare such as raccoons, possums, and rodents. This happened during the Great Depression in my home state of Tennessee.
Deer were made virtually extinct as poor families did their best to live off the land. A wildly successful restocking program in the sixties made deer available to everyone, but let the wood become the sole provider of food for just 5% of the people and you would see deer all but disappear again.
Even if you own thousands of acres, you won’t be able to keep every poacher off your land, and you can’t protect every wild animal that passes through your land. You can more easily protect livestock, though, because it is generally kept close to the farmstead and will rely on you for care.
Defending something in your yard is easier than defending something moving unseen through the woods a mile away. Livestock comes with its own set of issues for the survivalist, though. Most people don’t own enough land to have enough livestock to truly provide for them. In today’s modern agriculture, even large farms don’t raise all of their own animal feed. If the feed truck stopped running, would their livestock simply starve to death?
Below are a few suggestions and thoughts regarding putting food on your table during an extended crisis:
1. Stored food has both a shelf live and a definite amount. Once it is used up, it is gone forever. Learning to grow crops and livestock can provide a perpetual food supply.
2. While most of us can’t economically grow our own livestock feed, make sure to include that feed on your supply list and always keep an adequate supply. If you have a 6 month supply of stored food, consider at least a 3 month supply of animal feed. This includes pet food. You don’t want to have to decide between your family or your pet when it comes to dividing up the meals.
3. If you have a small amount of space, start small. You don’t need a huge herd of cattle to put food on your table. Raise chickens or rabbits until you are comfortable. Goats don’t require a lot of space, will eat darn near anything if they have to, and are excellent sources of meat and, with the right breeds, milk.
4. Get to know your neighbors. Partner with a local farmer or rancher before the next crisis. Offer to help defend his farm and home in exchange for food. A $30 grain grinder and a visit to the local farmer for corn or wheat will provide you with the means to feed your family. The farmer might even give you the grain in exchange for grinding him some flour or meal.
5. Grow a garden every year, even if it is only a container garden or a small plot in your back yard. The knowledge you gain will be valuable even if your harvest is not large. And, a garden can be defended, unlike the food that many plan to forage from the local woods.
6. Learn to store and prepare the food you grow and raise, and have the necessary tools on hand. Don’t wait for a crisis to get motivated to learn, do it now.
7. Realize that growing your own food is hard work, and it takes a lot of time to grow it all. Start with small steps so you don’t get discouraged, and organize your like-minded friends, family, and neighbors so that each can provide a small part of the needs of your community.
With a little planning, you can have a food source that you can defend, and one that you will continue to provide long after the last of the game has been shot out and your bag of rice and beans has been emptied.
This is an entry in our non-fiction writing contest where you could win:
- First Prize) Winner will receive a gift certificate for $170 worth of Winchester Ammo donated by Lucky Gunner. A Smith & Wesson Heat Treated Collapsible 21″ Baton and a copy of my book Dirt Cheap Survival Retreat.
- Second Prize) Winner will receive a Wise Food Storage meat bucket and 3 dozen Tattler Reusable Canning Lids donated by LPC Survival.
- Third Prize) Winner will receive a LifeStraw water filter system donated by Eartheasy and a copy of the Wolf Pack Cookbook.
36 comments
I’m all for keeping as much livestock as your property and time can handle. I’m also all for changing city codes to allow for backyard hens and pygmy goats. People are way to comfortable going to the grocery store for all their food needs. When the deck of cards falls, I’m not gonna be the one looking for that last can of Spam on the shelf! Great article!
Great article. I agree with you lilmorse. Most areas have very restrictive HOA rules. It has become almost impossible to find areas in Colorado where you can raise even the smallest of livestock without incurring the wrath of the HOA. Most of my neighbors have moved here (population approximately 600,ooo) from cities of higher populations. Their yards are of utmost importance and our precious resource of water is squandered to keep everything green and manicured just so. None of these people know how to raise anything besides grass. Most of them also have to go to the store everyday to buy what they will eat that day. That is why I have to plan on Bugging Out!
My old boss owned a pot belly pig.(one of those little ones) Well the police tried to take it away because of zoning.His wife got the story into the newspaper. Since it was kept inside she thought it was ok.Well several articles later in the paper she was able to get a zoning variance for it.They later divorced and he told her to take the stupid pig.
Im sorry but why again do you have to bug out? Because your neighbors go shopping everyday for food? That what I got out of your comment.
Our deer population density exceeds the human population by a hundredfold, our plan is to harvest some at the first hint of trouble and keep it up as long as possible. We bait/feed them semi-regularly (and have lots of extra feed), so they know where the easy food is and check back often. They typically only come in at night to feed, but we’ve prepared for that. Besides propane freezers, 1 large and 2 small, we have 50# of Mortons Tender Quick to mix with regular sugar/salt for preserving any we can’t freeze/can. Depending on the time of year, black bear won’t be a problem either – although I much prefer venison.
Without feeding/baiting game regularly, and NV gear, the ‘weekend warrior’ type hunters aren’t going to do so well hunting I think. We see it every year during deer/bear season, they’ll bait for weeks before the season starts and often still come away empty handed. To reliably plan on hunting for (big game) meat, you’d want to start attracting them now and be able to continue to do so post-shtf, imo.
I prep for a “2 year long” nuclear winter in which no gardening will be done and the animals are either dead (area depletion) or hibernating. Woods may be flash fried too – killing a lot of fauna and flora. I “plan” to garden, gather after that time peroid.
If the shtf, the hunting stock will be quickly thinned out (think about the book One Second After). Then you will need some personal livestock. And you’ll need to guard it day & night.
GA Mom, I think you are right about having to guard day and night. They will steal pigs out of feeder houses here now.
I have a plan for protein, first hunt deer( they are like vermin here) then after they are gone I’ll be dining on muskrat, possum, coon, pigeon, and maybe fish/turtles.
O/T, if you have time pray for my brother in law, looks like he will need a new heart valve. They are deciding on how and when now.
Prayers for your BIL, and for all those who care about him/will be caring for him.
Prayers for your BIL coming your way. Hope all turns out well.
Well , let’s see , all the animals will be gone , flora , flauna ,fish…pets !
All the stors we’ve gathered …gone ! What if soil doesn’t allow growth ?
What will all the masses turn to for food then…uh huh ! USA tenderloin
and I hope I’m long departed before I am tempted to cross that unholy
boundary!
Raising livestock is reliable for one , hunting is hit and miss , not a good way to feed yourself if given a choice . Plus , without game management , the game in your area will be depleted faster than yo think .
you could store a couple of pallets of soil protect it from radation then you would be able to container garden the first year
All you have to do is scrape away the top 10 inches of soil to grow again. Also Fallout has a very short half life after 2 weeks it should be extremely weak by then.
Hunting isn’t really an option where I live. Used to have a kazillion rabbits and then the coyotes and/or disease ended that. Very few now and will be gone in an instant after SHTF. Have the land and buildings for raising animals but as an arthritic old lady, I cannot raise them myself, tho am thinking about rabbits. Have chickens, so would have meat for a little while.
Great post, Chris!
Sounds like you need a reliable ranch-hand or maybe rent a building and some land to some local homesteaders or wanna-be’s or set it up for the scouting program or outdoor enthusiasts to assist you (take down those coyotes, put in some feeder crops for deer, plant some soy and oats etc.) Land Leases for hunting and farming are not only common today, they are wildly popular and generally successful.
Best Wishes, Digital_Angel_316
re #4; the $30 dollar mill/grinder, these will not produce flour. I got one to try on Palo Verde and Mesquite pods didn’t work. They will not even grind fine enough for coffee. Even for grits or cream of wheat you’re looking at 2 to 3 passes through the thing.
Been thinking about Cavy, or guinia pig as a food source, they will eat rougher foods than rabbit, and at a wider tempature range. They have been a food staple in Peru for a long time.
I’ve been thinking about raising food Cavy too when I get the space. Like pheasant, they can be kept indoors, and I’m betting legislature hasn’t declared them as anything but pets. I imagine have a deal to sell a few of the prettier ones to a petshop is also a good cover for why you’re breeding them, even if the shop that buys them deals mostly in reptiles.
Great post. Something I have been taking into consideration for my hunker down position. I have zero farmer skills but have been to the Farmers Market twice now. I’m not sure if they can tell yet that I’m looking for more than fresh vegetables.
Great post!! We’re going to get chickens and learn to raise them as soon as the weather gets warmer. My husband is a country boy, so this shouldn’t be hard for him, and I’m a city girl, but I can learn….have been learning a LOT since being with him. I now know how to cut maul and stack wood (although with my back I’m very limited physically). I’ve learned a bit about motors by helping him and holding the flashlight while he explains what he’s doing and why. I’ve learned to make due with what I have (having 5 kids before I met him taught me that as well, I’m still learning). He’s a water and sewer specialist so I’m learning chemistry against my will (jk). We plan on hunting if hunting is possible, otherwise, we have stored meat that will last a little while and the chickens and dried beans for protein if the going gets tough. You DON’T want to be around when all that’s left is the beans. LOL
Prayers for your BIL, blindshooter, I’m hoping all the best for him.
I once invited (to a class I was teaching) an 80 year old man to speak about when his family was thrown off the land seized to create the Shenandoah National Park, in an area of it close to where I live. He remembers that even before the depression and through it there were no game in the forest. Getting a deer was a cause for celebration, and it didn’t happen often. Of course today we have to have insurance for all the deer we hit accidentally on the road, and hunters have no problem each season. Bottom line, when the SHTF, wildlife will be decimated, and the market for meat will be such that they numbers will completely and almost immediately collapse except in really remote areas. Second point — rustling cattle is already on the rise, and the S hasn’t even HTF just yet. Your animals will need to be protected, as they will indeed be valuable assets. Third point. Sheep are just as sweet and in my mind, as easy to keep as goats, easy to butcher, and produce skins and wool. Salt seems to me to be nearly as important to have in sufficient quantities as the animals themselves — they need it, and we need it for preservation and processing.
I’m not so sure the wildlife will go away so quick. Remember that the early settlers were a lot more experienced in the woods than the average citizen is now. Sure there are probably a majority reading here that can expect success in the woods but I have seen the average hunter in action and all but the very dumbest deer have no fear. Even if they have a working light I’m not sure they would think to use it to “firelight” or know how to do it even.
Even with that belief I would not plan on eating deer for long( I have been known to be wrong once or twice…) so being able to trap small game and vermin + fish and turtle trapping is still the plan for me.
Have no news on BiL yet, I think they are planning a cath to see what they have to do. Thanks for all the kind words and most of all the prayers.
This old ex-farmer would like to remind everyone that keeping animals is not a light responsibility. They are kept in fenced lots or cages for their protection but that also means that you are prohibiting them from using their natural instincts to forage for their food.
You have a responsibility to deliver fresh water and food daily. You have a responsibility to keep them clean and healthy. Where will you put all that manure you gathered?
Thinking of taking a week off and visiting mom, or going on a cruse?
If you leave, you just bet their lives on the fact that you have a 100% chance of returning on time. How would you like to spend a week in a cage with no food or water?
Sure, these problems can be overcome, but not without some serious planning and preparation.
Hunting is not an option, I couldn’t drag a deer home if I could find one. How many people would attempt to take it from me? Wild rabbits and squirrels will be gone within a month of grocery stores shutting down.
If I had the space I would have rabbits, chickens and maybe goats, with full knowledge that I MUST be at home every day to take care of them. Today the temperature is -7 and I would have a serious problem keeping water in their cages.
We don’t have the space for animals so we must rely on beans and rice for a balanced protein and everything we can think of to avoid food boredom.
Currently we are working on Gayle’s oatmeal additives list.
We have thought about this alot. We have read many books, visited many people who have small back yard farms and started doing what we can here right now. We will be moving to our land by this summer and have a list ready of livestock we plan on having on the land. Jersey cows being one of them, a smaller breed. Something to think about with small children- a new born baby can drink raw milk. I wont stop living my life now and a family is part of my life. Also, check out fourseasonfarm.com. They have great books on gardening all year round. We have started practicing this and are pleased so far. We do our gardening by hand. And when we move plan to do our fields with both machine and hand tools, so that when shtf we will have knowledge of using hand tools. Our neighbor will be a farmer who has a little of this and that and hundreds of acres of farming land. We already get along well with him, a plus. All this is talk of the future, but we know we need to do as much as possible for ourselves and trust God.
it is a really bad idea to give raw cows milk to infants and toddlers. My family are dairy farmers and bought pasteurized for my brothers and I until we were old enough to handle the raw stuff.
Jersey’s are lovely little cows. Huge personalities. One thing about cattle is they need company. Don’t just keep one.
Wow Dash, surprised your family didn’t learn how to pasturize their own.
We had a cow that my grandfather milked. After he died, we bought raw milk from the local dairy. My wife’s family had milk cows until 10 years ago. Yep, cows need (should have) a companion. A goat will do or their own offspring. But then you will have a bull, right?
ehh, we could have I suppose, but at the time it was easier just to buy it. We did eventually buy a cream seperatorand seperated for cream and ice cream.
I appreciate your thoughts and opinions. However, I do have personal experience with, as well as friends who were not able to nurse, giving raw milk to infants. If you know exactly where the milk is coming from and how it is taken care of it can be safe. Just google raw milk for infants. There are a mix of opinions on this, however, personal experience says its safe. My son has always been in the 90% for height, average for weight, never had any health issues and started school at age 3 and excelled beyond the average 6 year old in the same grade. As well as only having one, we’ve down our research on that too. Plus we go to our friends dairy weekly. We plan on having a few as well as other animals. God didn’t make man to live alone, I’d imagine there are very few animals that can make it alone.
Why raise livestock when I can just hunt?
To ensure a self-replicating supply of meat and other products for my family right here in my yard. I like to eat regularly – and I like to eat “regular” food. Hunting – even now – is too “hit or miss” to depend on for the survival of your family.
And livestock can do a LOT more for you than just provide meat. Just their manure alone will be priceless. If you hope to grow food, you need fertilizer. Lots more than you would ever dream. Check out the reviews of Gene Logsdon’s book “Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind” for a far better explanation than I can provide of why manure is so valuable even now. Livestock can make use of foodstuffs “not quite good enough” for humans and turn it into meat, eggs, milk, etc. Plus, livestock can replace your perimeter alarm system – they hear and see far better than we do and will alert you to anything amiss outside. They used geese in the no-man’s land between East and West Germany.
Dairy goats can provide milk (cheese, butter), meat, fiber, leather, parchment and rennet for cheesemaking. Dairy goats can replace a brush hog or machete to keep brush down around the homestead, lessening fire danger and keeping your fields of fire open. You can also use them as pack animals and to pull a cart or small cultivator.
Chickens can provide eggs, meat and feathers. They eat as many insects as possible, lessening the insect load to protect you and your crops. During the growing season, with the use of portable chicken tractors, you can move them along the garden paths where they will eat insects, weeds and weed seeds and keep the soil worked up so rain can easily penetrate. After the growing season you can move them from bed to bed so they can work in the plant waste and clean up any remaining weeds/weed seeds and insects. You can also put them to work making your compost. Just toss all your vegetable wastes into their run(s) where they will eat what they like and while scratching break down the rest while incorporating their manure.
Pigs can provide meat and leather. Pigs are capable of clearing raw, unplowed land and working in organic materials along with their manure…making wonderful planting areas for you. Following pigs with chickens to work up the soil even finer and clean up insects and weed seeds will do an even better job…without you ever touching a mattock, shovel, fork or rake!
Even if we couldn’t eat them, livestock are capable of providing many necessary items and saving you a ton of back-breaking labor! After TSHTF, livestock will be your wealth. Ancient peoples knew this. Their homes were two stories – the livestock lived downstairs (where they were easily defended) and the people lived upstairs. The livestock’s body heat rose and added a little heat for the humans. Even recently, when folks were moving west in the US, as people settled they built the barn first to ensure their livetock was protected – because without the livetock they would likely starve. The people would live in the loft until they could get around to building a house. I fear that anyone without livestock after TSHTF doesn’t stand a chance for long-term survival.
If you are considering livestock, pay particular attention to Hunker-Down’s posting above…livestock need consistant care…every day, no matter what. If you think its hard to find a good babysitter for children, try finding someone to milk your goats twice a day!!! That is the only reason I don’t have goats & pigs now…caring for MIL just doesn’t allow me enough time. I do plan to get them this year no matter what…with things looking so grim, I must have them here before TSHTF. Will just have to figure something out! I think if I get dry does (not pregnant) I should be able to manage, since I won’t have to milk twice a day.
AZYOGI took the works right out of my month. Guinea pigs! Peru has come up with a “better guinea pig” which grows faster and bigger which can be purchased for breeding and eating. They thrive on grass so you can “free range” them in fenced in areas like chickens They are mostly dark meat and taste like rabbit which isn’t too far from chicken, but no feathers to deal with.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=raising%20guinea%20pigs%20for%20food&source=web&cd=7&sqi=2&ved=0CEwQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fstories%2F2004%2F10%2F19%2Fworld%2Fmain650148.shtml&ei=WREZT6f0McaWtweUy83ACw&usg=AFQjCNEH_BOPWpX11nW2D8sD1ll5xPRnSQ
Great article!!! I want to make a suggestion regarding the feed issue for live stock. It is possible to use “bio-mimickery” for sustainable live stock. It uses the inter-relationship between different animals to provide for each other. If you are raising cows, goats, sheep or another type of ruminant they naturally eat grass. That seems obvious but most people feed them grain based feed. In a post SHTF situation, if not always, it would seem that it would be best to not have to ship in feed and cart out waste. Using bio-mimickery requires moving ruminants to different paddock every day and allowing them to eat grass. Then move in the chicken tractor 3 days later. this is extremely important timing. After 3 days the fly eggs hatch in the cow pies. The chickens kick through the droppings to eat the fly larvae. This spreads the manure and fertilizes the grass. The chicken droppings adds nitrogen and other nutrients as well. The protein from the larvae makes great eggs and meat and solves the fly problem. Then just keep them moving and when you come back around you have an explosion of grass for the cows to eat. No shipping anything in and no carrying anything out. Check out Polyface farm. It makes so much sense to me.
In Montana there are a lot of people who are assuming they can hunt their way through a severe economic challenge or even a STHF situation. Yet when I ask them about preserving the meat, I get something along the lines of “in the freezer, of course”. And most of these guys take the deer/elk to the butcher for processing.
Chris J,
Good article, good insights, practical and common sense. Mother Earth News could use such an article as this — http://www.motherearthnews.com
Digital_Angel_316
This article is great and I feel the more information on this subject we can get out there the better. I find a lot of people who are still resisting all of what true prepping involves, relying on the fact that they have a gun and ammo for hunting when food is scarce. I just try to bite my tongue and move on, but it is hard to. I just did an article on this as well…well my husband did. Thank you so much for this article, it is so important for people to not just rely on hunting if SHTF. You can check it out here
http://hillbillymom08.blogspot.com/2012/01/huntersopening-day-everyday.html
Good article. I will definitely be checking into the guinea pig thing since I am in a suburban area.
Comments on this entry are closed.