Animals were essential to farm life, providing food, power, and many by-products that helped families manage everyday work and endure cold winter months. Pigs grew quickly on almost anything they were fed, reducing kitchen garbage while supplying meat that could be preserved as sausage, bacon, and side meat for vegetable seasoning; their lard was rendered for cooking and soap making, their bristly hair was used for brushes, and their skin produced quality leather. Guinea fowl were kept for eggs and meat and for their loud alarm calls that warned of potential predators; they were highly social, good flyers, and ate garden pests with little scratching in the field. Chickens, fed spare grain and kitchen scraps, roamed yards and fields pecking for seeds, insects, and small animals, and they supplied eggs, meat, feathers for stuffing, and the roosters' morning wake-up call. Mules, a hybrid cross between a donkey jack and a mare horse, were loyal, sure-footed, and very strong for their size, making them the hardest-working animals on the farm as they pulled plows, heavy-loaded carts, and drags, eased daily tasks, and increased output so farmers could produce a surplus for trade. Milk cows usually had one calf each year and provided steady milk for the next 10 months, supporting a regular supply of butter, cream, buttermilk for baking, and possibly cheese, while extra calves supplied beef and quality leather goods.