# smallholdings



## oldjerry (Jul 27, 2010)

Hasanyone experience of keeping livestock in Italy? Fortunately we dont have to farm to make a living any more like we did in uk,but it would be nice to have our pet goats over in Italy and a sow or two.Specifically, whats the availability of agricultural merchants,abbatoirs etc ,are the regulations as crazy as the uk,and does anyone take any notice of them?


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## sheilamarsco (Jul 2, 2010)

i know that almost everyone near where i live have some animals chickens goats pigs and so on. the local butcher has his own abattoir so i think that wherever you are it shouldn't be too difficult to source this. re the feed there are plenty of feed stores too but i guess it depends where you are living.


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## oldjerry (Jul 27, 2010)

sheilamarsco said:


> i know that almost everyone near where i live have some animals chickens goats pigs and so on. the local butcher has his own abattoir so i think that wherever you are it shouldn't be too difficult to source this. re the feed there are plenty of feed stores too but i guess it depends where you are living.


Thanks for the reply,that sounds hopeful,the regulations that are ruining small scale farming in the uk are largely interpretations of EU regs and theoretically also apply in other EU states,but I cant believe that the italian farmer would put up with much of it,so we'll give it a go.Sorry if this is a bit of a rant,if you ever meet a farmer who isn't moaning,look more closely,he's probably not breathing!


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