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 people … [Read more...]
5 reasons to add Dutch Belted Cattle to your homestead
After reading Keeping a Family Cow, I've been considering adding a cow or two to our homestead. So I was easily hooked when I learned about a beautiful heritage breed of milk cow - Dutch Belteds. At The Livestock Conservancy conference in November, mother-daughter duo Winifred and Martha Hoffman (BestYet A.I. Sires) gave an excellent presentation about this breed. Three … [Read more...]
Milking donkeys
For those with food sensitivities who are unable to drink cow, goat, or sheep milk, there are other alternatives. In addition to milking her East Friesian sheep, Angelia Silvera of Gods Blessing Farm in Niota, Tennessee, started milking donkeys more than a year ago because of her health problems. “Donkey milk has healed my stomach and digestive issues, and cured food … [Read more...]
Make caramel coffee creamer
Until I was in my 30s, I was never a coffee drinker, but it started with coffee ice cream. Then I moved up to those super sugary, flavored coffee drinks. Then I started making coffee at home and buying the flavored creamers at the grocery store. Once we moved to the homestead, and I started looking to make everything from scratch, I figured out this recipe pretty quickly. If … [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...]
Natural Cheesemaking book review
Have you been looking for a book on natural cheesemaking? Do you want to learn to make cheese without commercial starters, microbial rennet, or freeze-dried fungal spores? Ready to ditch the pH meter, plastic cheese form, and sanitizing solution? Want to say good bye to stainless steel vats and learn to make cheese like our ancestors? Then you need to check out The Art of … [Read more...]
6 reasons homesteaders need a kitchen scale
When I started reading about how to make soap, I noticed that everyone said I needed to have a digital kitchen scale. Why do I need a scale to make soap when people have been making soap for thousands of years? Eventually I learned that when people made soap historically, they used whatever oil was available locally, which usually meant lard or tallow in the U.S., coconut or … [Read more...]
Dam raised vs. the bottle: Socialization
The decision to dam raise or to bottle raise kids needs to be made before the kids are born. There has been a bias towards bottle raising baby dairy animals for the past few decades as factory farms took over the dairy industry. When you have thousands of cows in a dairy, it is impossible to socialize them if they are dam raised. Dairies want as much milk as possible from the … [Read more...]
Dairy animals: goats vs. cows
If you are interested in producing your own milk and other dairy products, you may think you need a cow, but a goat might suit you better ... If you grew up consuming cow milk, you may have considered a cow when you decided to start producing your own dairy products. But there are plenty of reasons why goats are a better option for most people in modern society. Goats are … [Read more...]
5 steps to getting started with milk testing
After reading my post on 5 reasons to milk test your does (or cows), you have decided you want to get started! So, what next? 1. Read the rules. If you have goats, you can do DHIR (Dairy Herd Improvement for the Registry) milk testing through the American Dairy Goat Association or American Goat Society, whichever one you use to register your goats. (Click on the name of … [Read more...]
