How Much Does It Cost?

I thought I would post about finance for once. It is easy to get carried away with blogging about the animals themselves, but due to the fact we are running our smallholding as a business and there are folks who will be interested in the business side of things, I have just got the calculator out and totted up my feed expenses for the month.

Today is January 31st and this month we have spent £145.80

This was a month with no vet/medical costs so this was how much it cost to feed a pony, 4 goats, increasing amount of rabbits (35 by end of month), 5 guinea pigs, 7 chickens, 2 pigeons , a barn owl, 2 ducks and 2 geese.

This is a cheap month for us because we are in Winter and the number of animals is much lower than it will be later in the year when we are well underway with poultry breeding etc. In which case the extra costs will be chick crumb and grower pellets plus specialist poultry feeds such as game bird, turkey starter and waterfowl grower. Rabbit feed will also cost more once their breeding programme is underway next month.

Then there are vet bills to consider. Next month the goats will needs two shots and Luna will need to see a farrier plus a vet visit to have her teeth rasped. Later in the year Luna will need worming and the whole cycle again before the year is out. Then of course there are unforseen vet bills if and when any animal gets sick.

The above £145-80 was for feed alone. To run the smallholding by way of electric, petrol, equipment and so on, cost a further £200 or so for this month.


I will endeavour to post some figures later in the year for a more expensive summer month because this may help future smallholders in their plans. By summer we will be well underway with growing fruits & vegetables and we will be in full flow with breeding so the figures should show the difference between being in full swing and simply ticking over during winter.

Hope you found this useful :o)


January 2012 - £342-63