By Kassie Dwyer When you raise dairy goats, you will soon find that even if you have a large family and you are consuming all of the delicious milk, cheese, and yogurt you possibly can (and so are all of … Read More
Before we moved to our farm, I always knew that we’d collect rainwater for our livestock. When visiting my grandparent’s farm and my uncle’s ranch as a child, I recalled they had downspouts that flowed into water troughs. So, when … Read More
If you know me at all, you know I’m a huge fan of home remedies. I remember my mother using baking soda for indigestion, and at the end of a long day, I love taking a bath with epsom salt … Read More
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, … Read More
At The Livestock Conservancy conference in November, mother-daughter duo Winifred and Martha Hoffman (BestYet A.I. Sires) gave an excellent presentation about Dutch Belted Cattle, which I wrote about in this post: 5 Reasons to Add Dutch Belted Cattle to your Homestead. … Read More
It’s not fun or sexy or exciting, but it is necessary — cleaning or mucking out stalls. If you asked ten people how they do this, you’d probably get ten different answers, and our answer has changed over the years. … Read More
If you’ve ever wished you could read your animal’s minds, then Temple Grandin is the person who can get you closer to that goal. Before reading her books, I never thought about how being a prey animal affects the personality … Read More
A couple of weeks ago I visited a poisonous plant garden. No, it wasn’t at Hogwarts. It was at the University of Illinois. Don’t go looking for it. You won’t find it. It is hidden away behind the school of … Read More
I’ve written previously about how I recently returned from two months traveling across the U.S. working on farms. On a farm I visited in Kentucky, the family had a family cow, and their teenage son was typically responsible for milking. … Read More
When people are new to owning livestock, they usually don’t want to have too many males. When I’m asked a question like, “Can I breed a buck (or ram or boar or whatever) to his daughter?” I usually say, you … Read More
Thrifty Homesteader is about creating a more sustainable life, but what exactly does that mean? It means making choices that will make you healthier...
