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...]
BioWorma: A New Weapon Against Roundworms in Livestock
Later this month, there will be a new product on the market in the US and New Zealand that farmers and ranchers can feed to their livestock to reduce their burden of roundworms. In goats and sheep, that includes the infamous barber pole worm, as well as bankrupt worm and brown stomach worm. The good news is that BioWorma is not just another chemical dewormer, which worms can … [Read more...]
Heritage Shorthorns: Dual-Purpose Cattle for Grass-Based Production
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. Well, it turns out that there is another breed of milk cow that the Hoffman's recommend even more for … [Read more...]
Stall cleaning: A necessary part of homesteading
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. The answer may also vary based upon the animals occupying the stalls. When my daughter had a horse years ago, it was easy to simply scoop out the poop each day … [Read more...]
Livestock Handling to Reduce Stress and Keep You Safe
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 of livestock. Imagine how nervous you would be if you knew intuitively that you could literally be someone's lunch. Understanding that one fact has helped … [Read more...]
Collecting Rainwater on the Homestead
Although I didn't grow up on a farm, I remember visiting my grandparent's farm and my uncle's ranch as a child. I only have a few memories of what I saw there, but one regarded water. They had downspouts that flowed into water troughs. So, when we moved to our homestead in 2002, we immediately put water troughs under two of the downspouts on the barn. I had no idea at the … [Read more...]
Poisonous plants and livestock
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 veterinary medicine. Since the plants are poisonous, they don't want people taking self-guided tours and potentially poisoning themselves. Our tour was coordinated by The … [Read more...]
Old-time farm remedies best forgotten
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 and essential oils. But not all old-time remedies are better than modern alternatives. In fact, I'm downright shocked that I continue to see the following remedies suggested by people on … [Read more...]
Book Review: Keeping a Family Cow
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. I was really struck by how adept he was at milking the cow for his family as well as his confidence in helping me to learn how to milk too. … [Read more...]
Is inbreeding livestock okay?
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 can do whatever you want, but you have to be ready to deal with the consequences. They say inbreeding livestock produces trash or treasure. Inbreeding concentrates genes. … [Read more...]