Just reading this thread, lots of good stuff. I grew up on the edge of the suburbs with a dairy farm across the street. I live in town now and don't have any stock, although I have friends who have chickens (for eggs). I put my effort into fruit - I have plum, peach, apricot, fig, valencia orange, tangelo, empire lemon, ponderosa lemon, and thompson seedless growing in my yard. Right now the tangelos are ripe and good eating.
We have some weird birds around here I guess. I see them land in my garden and mess around. Then I see holes dug and my beets pulled out of leaves picked apart. I've lost a lot of onions too. They don't touch anything else. yet.
Beets are a super food! Oh, so good.
I know what you mean about pests, I especially have problems keeping the birds away from my figs, and the tree rats wreak havoc on my grapes. All the neighborhood cats use my yard as the community litterbox, but they can't be bothered with the task of keeping the rodent population down. Any cat like that is worthless.
My favorite thing to do with beets is to boil a few beets and potatoes, cube them, add some shredded chicken, mix with mayonnaise and season with salt & pepper. It gets funny looks at work when I have it for lunch (nothing like a bright purple salad) but is sure tastes good.