BEST AND WORST Livestock for Beginners

Overview

The video ranks livestock choices for new homesteaders into three tiers — Easy, Medium, and Expert — based on ease of sourcing, care, breeding, feeding, re-homing, and overall beginner-friendliness. The presenter draws on roughly 10 years of homesteading experience and points viewers to in-depth classes in their “Pioneer Library” plus a free Start Homesteading course.

Key takeaways & practical tips

Start small and slow.

• Choose animals you can care for and re-home easily if they’re not a good fit. Scale up only after you’ve confirmed you enjoy livestock.
• Consider fencing, feeding, watering, breeding difficulty, disease risk, and the emotional difficulty of butchering when choosing animals.
• Use artificial insemination (AI) services if you don’t want to keep a bull (commonly available for cows).
• For low daily attention, bees or pond fish are good options, though bees have technical challenges.
• Be honest about mess and butchering: ducks and rabbits can be emotionally or physically harder for some people to process.
• Use resources (Pioneer Library, masterclasses such as Chickens 101 and Raising Feeder Pigs) for step-by-step instruction.

Easy (best for complete beginners)

• Chickens
  • Very easy to source and re-home; can order small numbers.
  • Eat kitchen scraps; point-of-lay hens provide eggs quickly; meat birds can be ready in ~8 weeks.
  • Low fencing demands, hardy, and lots of community help available.
• Ducks
  • More eggs per year and tolerate bad weather better than chickens.
  • Downsides: very messy; plucking/butchering is harder emotionally and physically; some people are allergic to duck eggs.
• Rabbits
  • Efficient meat producers; colony systems can be very low-maintenance.
  • Some breeding learning curve; inexpensive to start; must be prepared to process animals if used for meat.
• Fish (pond)
  • Low daily care if well-managed; pond panfish and other species can self-replenish and provide hands-off protein.
• Worms (vermiculture)
  • Can be kept in apartments; convert kitchen scraps into worm castings for gardens and feed for chickens.

Medium (for people ready for more responsibility)

• Mini Jersey cows (highlighted)
  • Excellent backyard dairy: docile, easy to fence (even single strand/t-post), produce milk/cream for many dairy products.
  • More expensive to buy, harder to re-home, and a lifestyle commitment as dairy animals.
  • AI is an option instead of keeping a bull.
• Pigs (feeder pigs)
  • Require solid fencing and a steady feed supply; generally hardy with predictable feeder-to-butcher timelines.
  • Many resources and masterclasses exist for guidance.
• Bees
  • Minimal daily care in many seasons but require technical know-how; colonies can be lost if mismanaged.
• Other fowl (turkeys, quail, pigeons, guineas)
  • Good next-step poultry options. Each species has specific pros/cons (some are less domesticated or harder to confine than chickens).

Expert / Difficult (for experienced keepers)

• Goats (Nigerian Dwarf and full-size dairy)
  • Nigerian Dwarfs are easier to handle but still more challenging than basic poultry; full-size dairy goats need more intensive care.
  • Consider browsing behavior, hoof trimming, disbudding, worm loads, and variable temperament.
• Sheep
  • Challenges include fencing, parasite/worm control (due to grazing), and shearing/fleece management (unless choosing hair sheep).
• Beef cattle / bulls and full-size dairy cows
  • Larger, potentially dangerous, harder to handle and contain; beef is a multi-year commitment.
  • Full-size dairy cows typically require consistent twice-daily milking (more commitment than mini Jerseys).
• Other large livestock (horses, donkeys, alpacas/llamas/camelids)
  • Require specialized veterinary and management needs; generally not recommended for beginners.

Resources and next steps

• Check the “Pioneer Library” for topic-specific content (podcasts, videos, and masterclasses) and tagged material for chickens, pigs, goats, etc.
• Free Start Homesteading course: a two-day/home-study (about 5 hours) beginner course available via the presenter’s website — sign up with email to get access.
• Recommended masterclasses mentioned: Chickens 101; Raising Feeder Pigs; movable netting/chicken tractor classes.

Notable products / examples / speakers mentioned

• Pioneer Library (site with masterclasses and archived lessons)
• Masterclasses: Chickens 101; Raising Feeder Pigs; movable netting/chicken tractor classes
• Start Homesteading Today course (free 5-hour beginner course via the site)
• Example recommendations: mini Jersey cows (favorite), pond fish (brother-in-law’s pond example), colony rabbit method
• Speaker: the host/instructor associated with the Pioneer Library / Start Homesteading course (unnamed in captions)