It is always a bit of a shock when someone asks me if something -- apples, pigs, turkeys, you-name-it -- can be grown organically. I've heard the questions so many times over the years that it really should not be a surprise to me, but optimist that I am, I always think that I will never hear the question again. Why? Because every type of food can be grown organically. Prior … [Read more...]
Turkey Stroganoff
If you are like most Americans, you are not crazy about dark turkey meat. In fact, you don't like it at all, which is why Big Ag figured out how to grow turkeys with breasts so big that they can't fly or mate naturally. (Yes, that means supermarket turkeys are the result of artificial insemination.) I was right there with the majority of you, only eating white turkey … [Read more...]
Getting Started With Geese
Goslings and Brooders By Kirsten Lie-Nielsen Now if you’ve decided on beginning with goslings, and you know where you’ll get them, it is time to get the brooder ready! Goslings are much hardier than baby chicks, but they still have special requirements to ensure they will grow up into healthy, happy birds. Lighting and Temperature Control Day-old goslings need a brooder … [Read more...]
All About Electric Fencing
Episode 10 For the Love of Goats If you own goats, you only get one chance to get fencing right. One of the first things I learned about goats was that they were too smart for me to use a sub-standard fencing option. When we brought home our first goats, we thought that the existing single-wire electric fencing that had been installed for the former horse farm … [Read more...]
Goats vs. Cows: The Ultimate Comparison
When we first moved to the country, I didn't give much thought to goat vs cow. I thought we needed a goat to make "goat cheese" and a cow for all of our other dairy products, such as milk, cream, cheddar cheese, yogurt, and so on. Before I learned the error in my thinking, we had already purchased two cows, in addition to three goats we bought. If you grew up drinking … [Read more...]
What’s the difference between alfalfa and grass hay?
When I got started with goats I barely knew the difference between hay and straw. Although I quickly learned that hay is food and straw is bedding, I just assumed that all hay was the same. That is definitely not the case. Alfalfa, clover, and peanut are legume hays, while timothy, oat, bermuda, and orchard are examples of grass hays. If you're sitting there thinking … [Read more...]
Can I keep sheep and goats together?
Like many things related to livestock, the answer to the question, "Can I keep sheep and goats together?" does not have a simple yes or no answer. Sheep and goats have the same diseases This is probably the #1 reason I hear people say that you should not keep sheep and goats together. However, if your goats and sheep do not have any diseases, then they can't give them to each … [Read more...]
A Beginner’s Guide to Sheep
Are you considering getting sheep or do you already have a few? In addition to providing an introduction to raising sheep, this post also includes some of Thrifty Homesteader's most useful posts about sheep... Getting Your Sheep When it comes to choosing a breed of sheep, I'm partial to the breeds on the Conservation Priority List of The Livestock Conservancy, and it's … [Read more...]
What Nobody Tells You About Raising Ducks
If you've ever thought about raising ducks, this guest post by Rebekah Pierce of J&R Pierce Family Farm will help you get started successfully and if you already raise ducks, please share your tips in the comment section! Here’s how our decision to start raising ducks happened. I was waitressing at the time, and my now-husband (then my fiance) sent me a text … [Read more...]
Alfalfa pellets vs cubes and hay
Even though I have written about feeding alfalfa pellets to goats, I still get a lot of questions about exactly how pellets are different than cubes or hay and how they should be used as part of a goat's diet, as well as other livestock. Can alfalfa pellets or cubes totally replace hay? If you are asking about sheep, goats, and cattle, the answer is no. Ruminants cannot live … [Read more...]
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