"Andrew Stephenson" wrote in message
...
Thanks again, people. To cut bandwidth, a compendium response:-

*** Gordon:

[Hail storms; food storage] Good point. No serious risk of hail
but dust and wind are hazards in deserts. Will crank that into
the setup.

We lost all the cotton in west Texas to rain and sand blowing this year.
Desertficatin is a real bitch.

[Goats, sheep, chickens] Useful. Ta. That certainly simplifies
the energy budget considerably, if goats/sheep will eat junk veg.

*** Larry:

[horse stats] Useful figures. Already had horses down as luxury
items; your reasoning provides hard justification. Hence, people
would only endure the cost of owning a horse if it did a job in a
special way. Eg, as a mobile source of power and/or force. Main
use I see is for haulage. I shall downplay the horses: maybe a
couple of dozen in all.
==========
You can eat them as well.

*** Jim:

Also consider Doves as in Dove Cotes, an excellent source of
meat, and also saltpeter for gunpowder

More good points. I already have pigeons as a semi-pest species,
largely controlled by raptors, like kestrels. One food source I
considered was hamsters, which ISTR Andean households routinely
rear in semi-captivity. As rodents (?), they should be able to
thrive on nutritionally dubious scraps.

Rodents are starting to need food more like people. Stay with ruminants they
can use food that humans can't.

If you live by the sea it is a great source of food and convenient way to
get rid of characters that become untidy without and fuss or muss.

Gordon