Skills You’ll Need to Maintain Your Farm

lettersbyreesianal
6 days ago
4 min read

A lot of people get excited about buying animals, right? You see the chickens, you see the goats, you see all the stuff on YouTube or TikTok, and you think, “Man, I want that too.”

But let me slow you down real quick because the easy part is buying the animals. The hard part is keeping ‘em alive, maintaining ‘em. That’s where the real work is.

So today I just want to talk to you about some of the skills you’re gonna need if you’re really trying to maintain your farm.

How To Maintain Your Farm

Animal Handling

First thing, you gotta know how to handle your animals. And when I say handle, I don’t just mean feed them. I mean, actually touching them, picking them up, letting them get used to you.

If you never touch your animals, if you just throw feed in there and walk away, they’re not gonna trust you. And then when it’s time to give medicine, or trim hooves, or move ‘em, now you're in a fight. You stressed, they stressed, it’s a whole mess.

So from the jump, get hands on. Pick up your chickens. Rub on your goats. Walk through your animals. Make sure they know you. That way, when the day comes you actually gotta treat ‘em, it ain’t World War Three.

Building Skills

Number two, you’re gonna need to learn how to build. Straight up. Because on the farm, stuff breaks. Fences break, coops break, waterers break.

If you gotta call somebody every time something breaks, you're gonna spend more money than the eggs are worth.

You need to know how to use a drill, a hammer, and a saw. You need to know how to take pallets or scrap wood and turn them into something your animals can live in.

You don’t need to be a professional carpenter, but you gotta be handy enough to fix things. Trust me, if you’ve got animals, you’ve got projects.

Feeding on a Budget

Another skill is learning how to feed your animals the smart way. Feed is expensive, fam. It’ll eat up your whole budget if you let it.

So here’s a tip: ferment your feed. Soak it in water, let it puff up. That way, one scoop becomes three. Saves you money and the animals like it better, too.

Another tip: use your scraps. Chickens will eat just about anything: veggie peels, rice, oatmeal, bread. Don’t give them spoiled food, but safe scraps can stretch that feed bill.

And whatever you do, store your feed properly. Put it in bins with lids. Rats and mice will tear through a feed bag like it’s nothing.

Compost and Gardening

Listen, your animals and your garden gotta work together. That’s how you really win.

Put your compost pile inside your chicken run. Throw your scraps in there, chickens eat what they want, scratch it up, fertilize it, and before you know it, you've got compost for your garden.

That’s free fertilizer right there, fam. And that garden is gonna feed you, and sometimes feed your animals too. It’s a cycle.

Observation

Now here’s a skill nobody talks about: observation. You gotta have eyes for your animals.

If you’re just walking by, you’re gonna miss stuff. You gotta actually look.

Is that chicken’s comb pale? Is that goat limping? Did that plant turn yellow overnight?

The sooner you catch something, the sooner you can fix it. If you don’t notice until it’s too late, you’ll lose animals, you’ll lose crops.

So slow down. Look at your animals. Look at your plants. Pay attention.

Problem Solving

Farming will throw problems at you every single day. And a lot of the time, there ain’t no textbook answer. You gotta figure it out.

Water line broke? Predator got in the coop? The animal got sick at 9 p.m.? You're gonna have to improvise.

That’s why I tell people they don’t just need strength, they need creativity. Out here, problem solvers survive.

Money Management

Let’s be real. This stuff costs money. Feed, tools, fencing, medicine. So you gotta have some financial skills too.

Don’t go buy 20 chickens if you can only afford to feed 5. Don’t buy goats if you ain’t got a fence. Start small. Work your way up.

And if you can, figure out a way for the farm to pay for itself. Sell eggs. Sell a few birds. Sell some extra produce. Put a little money back into the farm so you’re not just bleeding cash.

Patience and Consistency

The biggest skill, though? Patience. Farming doesn’t give you instant results.

You don’t plant a seed today and eat it tomorrow. You don’t buy a pullet today and get eggs next week. Everything takes time.

And while you're waiting, you still gotta show up. Every day. Rain or shine. Hot or cold. Animals need food and water every day. Gardens need care every day.

Consistency will make or break your farm.

Final Word

So yeah, fam, those are the skills you’re gonna need: handling your animals, building, feeding smart, composting, observation, problem-solving, money management, patience, and consistency.

Don’t be scared if you don’t have all these skills yet. Nobody starts with everything. You learn as you go. You make mistakes, you adjust, you get better.

But just know, maintaining a farm is more than buying animals and seeds. It’s about building skills, day by day.

And once you get those skills? That’s when you really start thriving out here.

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