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i'm just beginning too, so i've been doing lots of research. hopefully some of this will be helpful. if you want hardy breeds, you want to look into heritage breeds or hybrids. modern commercial breeds are a lot more reliant on human interventions (medicines, lots of supplemental feed, etc) to...

uhoh..... now i'm sorely tempted to come see some piggies! how far from Chattanooga are you?

i knew someone when i lived in Texas that had them, but it's a lot less humid there. it doesn't often get to 100 here, but we get ungodly humidity. but if they are that tolerant.... uhoh, i might have too many breeds to choose from now! maybe i'll just get a few of each!

do you mean Scottish Highland cattle? i absolutely adore those shaggy red Scottish Highlands, but i would think they would fry during our humid summers. maybe they are more adaptable than i think, though.

from the little bit i've read since you posted earlier, the Ayrshires sound great. they would probably fit what i'm trying to work towards really well. plus, i really love their jagged rust spots!

as always, thanks BDial! and thanks for all the info Imissmygirls. lots of good stuff to work from. :D

sorry, i wasn't trying to say you were wrong. i'd probably call them geeps too. i was just relaying info.

thanks kstaven! we've never had dairy cows, so i'm pretty clueless when it comes to dairy breeds. Jersey and Holstiens are recognizable, but i don't know much about those breeds specifically. i'll look into it.

ok, gotta have some of these. my list of MUST HAVES is getting a tad long... must. stop. getting. on. these. forums!

according to Wikipedia, geeps cannot occur naturally as they are the fusion of two embryos, one sheep and one goat, making them a chimera rather than a hybrid. it goes on to say that actual goat-sheep hybrids are poorly documented. there apparently was a well-documented on in 2000 in Botswana...

just wanted to get this shiny new forum rolling! i posted more info in the Breeds forum so i won't go into details, but i thought i'd repost a general question here so it didn't look so lonely! got suggestions? edited to add link to the previously mentioned thread.

wow. i'm utterly speechless about this. from my experience last week to this in such a short time? it's amazing!

wahoo! it's nice to have a place to ask those kinds of specific questions. thanks Nifty and gang!

all of our good horses use hackamores. they are all neck-reined so bits have always simply been for control of unruly horses. for us, when we are out working cattle all day long, hackamores are wonderful. it's easy to cause mouth sores with a bit when you are paying more attention to keeping...

we haven't had pigs since i was a child, about 20 years ago. but i have the fondest memories of raising them. i managed to block out all memory of the terrible hog barn method we were using, but i remember loving the piglets and, most importantly, loving getting to run the meat grinder! if you...

i have had this response from many a vet over the years. at first i let them convince me they knew best, but not any more. here's the quickest way to deal with that problem: explain, politely at first, that you see these animals every single day and the vet sees them once in a blue moon, so you...

those might be the CUTEST piglets i have ever seen! now i want some...

thanks doo dah. i'll check that site out. ksalvagno and bdial- i've not heard of either of those, but i will look into them. since we aren't trying to make our living on pigs, smaller size might be great for us. probably much more managable. thanks!

thanks beekissed!

newbie over in East TN. got a bunch of cows and horses, 22 chickens, 5 dogs, and 7 cats. working on getting goats, sheep, and pigs by summer!