So here I was mowing an acre of ground on my lawn mower. Not hard, but what annoys me is not the time but the money....I spent close to $2000 on that mower, plus gas and oil and annual maintenance. Hopefully the mower lasts for years but these days who knows.
And I was sitting on the mower thinking: what if I could have a fence, a Great Pyrenees (or something) and a herd of goats, or sheep, or something. I know nothing more than pretty much the most basic layman stuff about farm animals, wasn't raised on a farm myself. I'm not necessarily interested in making a ton of money or doing this as a business, but ideally it would at least pay for itself, or end up costing less than, say, $200 a year on average (granted, startup would be more because of the fence, and hopefully most of the animals would live several years at least, especially the dog, but say amortized over 5 years).
I don't know if the math even works out on this. But it feels dumb to me to waste money on a mower just so I can waste my time mowing the grass, when I could be letting an animal do it, an animal by the way that might have some survival value in my preps, especially if it could end up costing less, or at least, no more money.
So my question is this: is there a scenario in which this makes sense, what animals might be best suited for this and end up with the least net expenditure, and any general tips.
And I was sitting on the mower thinking: what if I could have a fence, a Great Pyrenees (or something) and a herd of goats, or sheep, or something. I know nothing more than pretty much the most basic layman stuff about farm animals, wasn't raised on a farm myself. I'm not necessarily interested in making a ton of money or doing this as a business, but ideally it would at least pay for itself, or end up costing less than, say, $200 a year on average (granted, startup would be more because of the fence, and hopefully most of the animals would live several years at least, especially the dog, but say amortized over 5 years).
I don't know if the math even works out on this. But it feels dumb to me to waste money on a mower just so I can waste my time mowing the grass, when I could be letting an animal do it, an animal by the way that might have some survival value in my preps, especially if it could end up costing less, or at least, no more money.
So my question is this: is there a scenario in which this makes sense, what animals might be best suited for this and end up with the least net expenditure, and any general tips.