# something about farm management



## Bayleaf Meadows (Apr 30, 2017)

Thanks for the various comments, the discussions were interesting but didn't end up going in the direction I was trying to explore.  I looked for a way to delete the whole thread, but didn't see that option.


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## CntryBoy777 (Apr 30, 2017)

Not sure of the ultimate goal here, but in reading over the sheet and catagories, I see "Insect Control", does this include weevils in the grains and preventative measures of that sort....or, fire ants, wasps, or others that could be harmful to livestock and animals?
Also, what about predator pressure? In different locales this list can vary greatly, and even from year to year in the same locale.
Is this meant as more of a self-evaluation every so often to remind the farmer the routine of things to keep a check on periodically, or something to aid in one's awareness of important factors to not neglect?
Another catagory could easily be deaths of animals....explained or reasoned, and unexplained.
Most that begin a small farm, having come from "City Life" are totally unaware of the many factors to consider in keeping animals and just want some of these, and those, and those look interesting too. Though, they are unaware of the dangers they may bring to their "Doorstep" by doing such, irregardless of how clean the pen is, or if it is tidy and neat...a coyote, fox, bobcat, weasel, bear, hawk, or owl will most certainly dine on an easy meal.
These reasons are why, to me anyway, your "Goal" is unclear. Nothing said is presented with any unkind or condemning tones and is not meant in such a way, I'm just giving ya an honest response.


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## greybeard (Apr 30, 2017)

CntryBoy777 said:


> to me anyway, your "Goal" is unclear


Same here.

Checkoffs require a standard (example=definition of 'enough')and there's no one standard that fits all (or even most)  even within a single geographical location, year over year, species or breed, not that certain 'entities' haven't ever attempted to set one.


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## Baymule (Apr 30, 2017)

I evaluate my small farm and the animals on it daily. I check the things listed, plus more. I have a step counter on my cell phone and I walk on average, 5 miles a day on 8 acres, doing what I do.


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## Bossroo (Apr 30, 2017)

CntryBoy777 said:


> Not sure of the ultimate goal here, but in reading over the sheet and catagories, I see "Insect Control", does this include weevils in the grains and preventative measures of that sort....or, fire ants, wasps, or others that could be harmful to livestock and animals?
> Also, what about predator pressure? In different locales this list can vary greatly, and even from year to year in the same locale.
> Is this meant as more of a self-evaluation every so often to remind the farmer the routine of things to keep a check on periodically, or something to aid in one's awareness of important factors to not neglect?
> Another catagory could easily be deaths of animals....explained or reasoned, and unexplained.
> ...





greybeard said:


> Same here.
> 
> Checkoffs require a standard (example=definition of 'enough')and there's no one standard that fits all (or even most)  even within a single geographical location, year over year, species or breed, not that certain 'entities' haven't ever attempted to set one.





Baymule said:


> I evaluate my small farm and the animals on it daily. I check the things listed, plus more.




A measure of any venture is the bottom line ( and this applies to those in the venture for profit or hobby farm).    $$$ initial input costs  + $$$ operating costs  --  selling price $$$  ( or your own consumption price compared to purchase of item =    PROFIT  or LOSS


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## Southern by choice (Apr 30, 2017)

greybeard said:


> Same here.
> 
> Checkoffs require a standard (example=definition of 'enough')and there's no one standard that fits all (or even most)  even within a single geographical location, year over year, species or breed, not that certain 'entities' haven't ever attempted to set one.


Agree!

I consult on many farms throughout NC. We also manage several. There is no template that works. 
It is uniquely individual. Breed type and purpose are also factors.
Far too many variables and there is no "perfect" environment or a "one way" design.

You can have a farm where it is so spotless, plenty of grazing areas, immaculately kept yet chronic respiratory is an ongoing issue.
Another farm may have massive land yet the animals never leave the hay feeder  or barn.
Another, parasite issues may require complete dry lot areas and no grazing.


Because goats are not grazers anyway, land type is more important than size.

My Kikos live and eat very differently from my dairy goats and our dairy does are very different from our dairy bucks.
Amongst the does there are some  ( more fru fru goats) that thrive on hay and feed and rarely graze. Other does (non fru fru goats) that prefer trees, vines, leave, "junk weed" and will turn up their nose at feed and even the best hay.


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## OneFineAcre (Apr 30, 2017)

I could stand improvement in all categories


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## Southern by choice (Apr 30, 2017)

Ahhhhh, I see.

LOL for my farm it is well organized but I would still make major improvements if possible. I am limited by the existing buildings already here and have to work within that so it really can be hard. I cant move a warehouse or two other 20x20 concrete buildings or the streams!  
Truly, until we move we are kind of limited. 
I wish I could convert one of the buildings to a milkroom. But then I lose my kidding stalls and baby house. Always something!

In your list above one thing we did was extend and add onto our barn... yet the goats don't cooperate. They will all just stay on the one side and the other group on the other side. Ugh.


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## Southern by choice (Apr 30, 2017)

Airflow would be a good thing perhaps to put on there.
Often barns are too tight and that can cause an abundance of issues.  Fans may help but windows, shutters etc are better.


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## Baymule (Apr 30, 2017)

I don't really keep a list of things to do, I am just outside doing my "chores". I know what needs to be done and I do it. My husband and I have projects and we are getting them done, one by one. We bought this place and it didn't even have a fence up. We have built fence, built a chicken coop, sheep shelter, a 36'x36' barn, worked on improving a garden spot and fenced it, hung gates, repaired a tool shed, planted fruit trees, cleared pasture, we are raising our 2nd batch of feeder pigs and our ewes had our 2nd batch of lambs.


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## greybeard (Apr 30, 2017)

Bayleaf Meadows said:


> Well, my goal is to have a scale that might show someone who owns a small farm where they might work to improve themselves, farm-wise. It is not to compare one farm to another farm in some type of contest. It has nothing to do with profit at all, so someone could not use it to work toward better sales or cutting expenses. It definitely has some amount of subjective, circumstance related judgement involved and that wouldn't make it less useful.  Mostly, I am thinking about my own Nigerian dwarf goats, but it could work for rabbits and alpacas (maybe with some minor changes?), if you wanted to do so.  Sure "enough" is not a hard and fast rule - as opposed to "x square feet amount per animal" and that would be why it says "enough."  Here's an example of an area where I could improve- "organization."  Whenever I need something, I first have to find it, so having a place and a label and maybe an inventory would help my farm in terms of organization.  I have seen some wonderfully organized farms that I would give a high mark to and some that have no rhyme or reason. I have also seen farms that look very well arranged except that the whole area of security is being overlooked and losses to predators will take a toll.  Mostly, though, I am just speculating on what elements make a small farm a better farm.
> @Baymule, what things do you check on a list?



My place is finished it's not my first farm, and I've been doing this a long time.
I read a lot of threads and posts here, and one of the most prevalent comments goes something like this: _We need to build _____ and buy ____ but that will all have to wait until we can afford it."
_
It's an almost daily statement here at BYH.
Never minimize the asset that is expense cutting_. _
And, financially is not the only avenue there is to profit in farming. If money was all that was involved, I wouldn't be doing it, and would have never got interested in it back in 1965.

Even then tho, I really can't see how I could have used a check list, especially with no standard against which to determine my efforts were lacking.  

_



_


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## Baymule (May 1, 2017)

"Ranking"  Sounds like a score card to me. In that case, lower my score because I have 4 plastic feed bags leaned up against the portable building that are full of glass shards and old rusty cans and metal. They came out of the half acre the pigs are on, since February 20, 2016. In a few short months, they have unearthed very old burn piles from probably the 1960's and exposed all manner of undecomposed trash. I went "glass walking" this morning and picked up a double handful of glass shards.  Hmmm.....maybe since I am removing all that glass and sharp rusty old cans my score should go up?

@greybeard is right about the financial part. We are looking at this place as our forever-rest-of-our-life-home. We want things done right, not slap-dash and we want to make the fruit of our labors last us a long time.


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## Southern by choice (May 1, 2017)

Aesthetics in general have nothing to do with the health of the animals. May be pleasing to the eye and look great, tidy, and neat but the real issue is health.
A small farm of 4-10 goats requires far less time and effort than a small farm of 50+ goats.
Flies are an issue especially for those of us that have streams throughout the property... there is only so much one can do
@Baymule  we have the same issue- under that earth is lots of glass from the many generations that buried it. UGH
When I have over 200 individual hooves to trim that takes a lot of time... a dump run is irrelevant. 

Actually, all joking aside... for a family farm where children and spouses are involved I think a checklist is a *GREAT *idea! 
It allows everyone to be on the same page as to how things are done as well as coming up with ideas of what changes may need to take place. Especially where small farms begin to grow, lots of management changes take place as numbers go up or additional species are added.


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## OneFineAcre (May 1, 2017)

Bayleaf Meadows didn't say that aesthetics had anything to do with the health of animals.

Aesthetics are important, humans place a great deal of emphasis on aesthetics in nearly every aspect of our existence.  That' why we plant tulips sometimes instead of green beans.

Aesthetics is one of the things about my place I find most frustrating, I can never get ahead on keeping things organized and  clean.  I've got a pile of trash that the goats uncovered that I'm still burning.

I know I observe how other peoples places look.  How a place looks would influence if I purchased an animal from someone

And, I use check lists all of the time.  I have a check list for everyone of my animals.  When they were born, when they freshened, when they were vaccinated, when they were wormed.

Check lists are even more valuable the more animals you have.


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## Southern by choice (May 1, 2017)

Agreed, not arguing ...  


Southern by choice said:


> Actually, all joking aside... for a family farm where children and spouses are involved I think a checklist is a *GREAT *idea!



I use to be a checklist junky...


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## greybeard (May 1, 2017)

OneFineAcre said:


> Aesthetics are important, humans place a great deal of emphasis on aesthetics in nearly every aspect of our existence.


..important "to" humans and many do indeed place a great deal of emphasis on them....etc etc.
The animals and forage and the feed in the bin don't care.

I know the current world is all about an orderly, highly regimented society, where everything is laid out in black and white but imo, it stifles innovation, invention  and decreases self dependence. The other 1/2 of that is, history has shown us there is far more to be learned from failure than success.
I'm not much on that 'by the book'  by the calendar, 'my way or the highway' kind of thing. When I have young people (4H/FFA) over here at my place to learn about forage or working cattle, the thing I want them to do more than anything else is *think* and when explaining what we will be doing, I rarely explain 'how' were going to do it, or 'when' each part will be done,  and do so only after asking them how they would do it or how they think it should be done.  Many of them have some pretty good answers too, and more than once, I've adopted one of their ideas, but sometimes, if I think it's safe to do so, I'll let them try it their way even if I know from the git go it won't work. They may or may not remember the successful way we ended up doing it in the end, but they will always remember what did not work.


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