Continued from yesterday....
2. Look at unconventional methods. We use holistic care for all of our animals. I still vaccinate my dogs, but we only use heartworm prevention, we do tick, flea, and other parasitic worms holistically. Goats must be wormed, but we do that holistically as well. The chickens are pretty easy to keep, we treat them with the same parasite prevention as the goats, just to prevent passing stuff around since they share a pasture. We have taken the goats for treatment for other things and they have gotten chemical (traditional) wormers and have gotten sick. every time. We have found it is much easier and cheaper for us to raise our animals unconventionally. Dig through websites and you'll find a small percentage of farmers who don't follow the norm. Find those people, ask them questions, and try their methods.
3. Be picky about where you get your animals. (Ask me how I know). Animals from sale barns or box stores (feed store chicks, etc) are not high quality. They are usually the culls that real farmers don't want. Don't just get an animal because it has the right number of legs. Research breeds, find one that fits your climate, your needs, and your life situation (aggressive breeds don't work well around kids, etc) and then find local options for that animal. Make sure you know the history of the animal, that it has never been in a sale or auction barn, how it has been raised (is it used to human attention? or is it rarely around people?) and any health problems with the herd or flock. Here are some examples:
Chickens: we started with an assortment (25 - don't do that). We ended up not really liking any of them because although they were hardy birds and laid a good number of eggs, they were either aggressive or got picked on too much. I wanted an in-between bird, one that wasn't an aggressor, but wouldn't get beat up on all the time either. We've also decided that we want dual-purpose birds. Meat and Eggs, and prefer a heritage breed because they are hardier than hybrid 'dual' purpose birds. We've narrowed down our flock to 3 breeds that we will start breeding this spring. The hens we'll keep, the roosters we'll eat - yum :)
Goats: We thought a goat was a goat was a goat. Mr. P's Grampa gave us our first two, eliminating the up-front cost, but woo. What a project those two were. We didn't get them early enough to disbud (de-horn) them, so we had to deal with horns. They weren't a good milking breed, which was our main purpose. But, we lost 1 to a dog and had to find a replacement quickly (goats can't be lonely), so we just bought what we could find. Not a good idea. This one was sickly, and a meat goat. We also acquired a couple more dairy goats, but one had been purchased at a sale barn and had to be put down because she was very sick. We have learned the hard way. Know what you want, and buy high quality animals - registered (or pedigreed) if you can. You are getting a guaranteed product with a registered animal, and you can sell the offspring for a lot more money. Yes, it's a higher up-front cost seemingly, but just take it from me. It's worth it. People who take the time to register their animals, usually take good care of them.
Cows: We don't have any, but our good friends who recently became farmers acquired a cow in the purchase of their land and also bought another cow. Their steer that came with the house is a big pain. He's crafty, not terribly nice, and he's big and has horns. But, he's going to be on the plate this spring, so it wasn't a long-term deal. They bought a bred low-line (small breed) heritage cow and she's very sweet, has no horns, and is only about up to my waist full grown. She's a much better fit for them long-term as a dairy cow.
Pigs: Yes, we are getting pigs this fall. Thankfully our new-farmer friends had pigs this last fall and are passing their knowledge onto us. We have extensively researched breeds, methods of raising them and we're going to spend the summer getting ready for them. And then in about a year, we will have a freezer full of sausage and bacon. And the family rejoiced. ;)
That's all I can think of right now, but those are biggies. I'm sure I'll come up with more and who knows? There might be a part 3 tomorrow...
No comments:
Post a Comment