Ranking Every Farm Animal We’ve Raised in 12 Years — Key Takeaways
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Ranking Every Farm Animal We’ve Raised in 12 Years
Roots and Refuge Farm1h 12mOct 24, 2026
Watch the originalDairy goats and beef cows ranked top-tier, while rabbits, quail, guinea fowl, and bison were hard no's for this homestead based on 12 years of hands-on experience.
Key takeaways
Processing 25-30 ducks took twice as long as 100 chickens
Processing 25-30 ducks took twice as long as 100 chickens
- Ducks need two scald plucks, then wax-ice bath cycles, then an hour of hand plucking
- The waterproof feather layers make plucking drastically harder than chickens
Hybrid poultry is more economically sustainable than 'heritage' breeds for meat
Hybrid poultry is more economically sustainable than 'heritage' breeds for meat
- Heritage birds need year-round grain, grow slower, and yield less meat — the opposite of sustainable
- Hybrid Cornish Cross and broad-breasted whites get butchered young, so you don't feed breeders all year
Rabbits stop breeding above 80-90°F, wrecking their feed-to-meat advantage in hot climates
Rabbits stop breeding above 80-90°F, wrecking their feed-to-meat advantage in hot climates
- In hot regions they can't reproduce for ~6 months of the year, so you're just feeding them
- This kills the feed conversion rate that makes rabbits attractive as meat animals
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In this video
- 1mIntro and Ranking System Setup
- 3mBarn Cats and the Rodent Ecology
- 6mPet Dogs Versus Working Dogs
- 10mFuture Guardian Animals: Donkey and Llama
- 15mAlpacas: A Divisive Animal
- 20mFiber Sheep and Meat Sheep
- 23mMeat Goats and Dairy Goats
- 28mBees and Rabbits
- 32mQuail and Meat Ducks
- 36mLaying Ducks and Geese
- 40mTurkeys: Heritage Versus Broad-Breasted
- 44mChickens and Roosters
- 50mEmus and Guinea Fowl
- 54mHorses as Hobby, Not Utility
- 58mBison: Fascination Without Ownership
- 1h 1mBreeding Pigs and Feeder Pigs
- 1h 4mBeef Cows and the Bull Question
- 1h 8mJersey Dairy Cows and Wrap-Up
“If the point is sustainability, that's still not sustainable. You're going to have to feed them twice as much.”
— Jessica
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