C&D Farming..oh what a life!

[Jesusfreak101]

That's frustrating.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Girl...why are you having people come to your farm to visit animals or purchase them while your immune system is so compromised , and we have this virus going on ? If you get sick and croke ...I will never talk to you again ........

 

[rachels.haven]

Dumor is okay. It's my second choice for goat feed and I actually like it better than Purina and Nutrena. It DID keep weight on my milk goats when I used it.

Blue Seal may be regional. It would be at feed stores or tsc. If you can't get Blue Seal 20 percent dairy goat feel free to go with Dumor. Both blue seal and Dumor are good for wethers if my memory serves. My bucks just get grass hay, minerals, and water right now. No one is skinny or rutting. Sometimes I give them a daily ration of alfalfa pellets or alfalfa pellets with grain mixed in, but I don't want THEM looking pregnant.

The sorting issue is specifically why I feed pelleted goat feed in a mix with minimal ingredients. They need to eat as close to all as is good for them and not just the candy. Pellets, pellets, pellets, seed. Sometimes they try to leave alfalfa pellets, but then I reduce what they get the next time until they just finish it all.

Oat hay and oats are yummy, and they are part of COB, but that is in place of goat grain and it's much lower protein than 16 percent. If you want oat hay and oats, plant oats! Who could say no to a cereal grain? Feed for the beasts, hay, straw, maybe food for you!

In regards to minerals, I was using sweet lix meat maker for every goat-buck and doe. Shipping about gagged me every time. Now I'm using Purina goat mineral. It's loose mineral, and not a block, put in a feeder in the barn. So far so good. Lotsa copper.

It might be smart to offer baking soda during diet changes. Personally I don't find it necessary in the long term though. At least keep it on hand.

 

[Duckfarmerpa1]

@B&B Happy goats ...my son, Ben just gave me the same lecture tonight. A loooong one. He said that I need to think of the people I love if I won’t think of myself. If he visits me, he could then carry it to my Dad. If something happened to my Dad...my son would be lost. He raised his as his own, with me. So, Chris and I talked about it...I’m going to limit the people to town people only. If you read what I just wrote on the Corona virus thread, I don’t think it will be an issue for long? I have a soft heart and can’t say no to anyone, about visiting the farm. We are also getting my ducklings tomorrow, but the girl lives a few streets over. Just four. I’m still going to start my egg hatch on Tuesday...and if I can’t sell them, then...we’ll, we can have more chickens. Eat some, I’m sure. Oh, yeah, eggs are up to $2.69 at the grocery store!! Mine are only $2.50. For the first time in awhile I’m actually running low on eggs...lol. I might even sell pullet eggs for $1.50? Chris thinks they taste better. Today was awful out so we scoured the internet for farm equipment. Unfortunately everything is in Ohio. Gas prices are great righ5 now, and predictEd to go even lower...but, we really shouldn’t be going that far right now.... if we didn’t have this farm...I think I’d be going nuts! Chris and keep teasing about being on lockdown with each other...ugh!!

 

[Duckfarmerpa1]

Oh, forgot to add, used the milk machine again tonight. Still the one pumper won’t work. After a few minutes of watching the same milk swish back and forth in the tube...I said forget it, I’m hand milking. The good news...I’m getting much much better at the hand milking. @Jesusfreak101 gave me great advice and it goes much faster. But, I’m still not giving up on the idea of a good machine. So, another going back. When do I get frequent flier miles for my trips to UPS?

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Lol maybe in your dreams on that ups thing they are oddly strick about that the brats. Lol we use them alot as well some of their drivers drive us nuts
They damage packages often or drop them off down then street with GPS now days and numbers on the mailbox you would think they could get it right. However that being said some FedEx trucks scare me. They don't break my things through mmm scary truck that looks to be held together with duck tape or people who damage things oh and FedEx actually gets here early as ups is always late.... pros and cons lol. Waiting on bottles to get warm then heading out to the cold wet rain blah. Then dishes and bed woohoo working in dishes some now as well.

 

[Bruce]

Oh, here’s a random picture of our house...we intentionally made it to look like a barn.

Can you get the hay wagon up the ramp into the drive bay??

I could be wrong, of course, but personally I haven't seen a rectangular pupil in a long time. All the goats are like "grain me " and that food induced oxytocin starts flowing.

Hmmm, I need to look at more goats, I thought they always had rectangular pupils except maybe in low light when they would have to open up.

I’m going to limit the people to town people only.

Oh, because people in town couldn't possibly have been exposed to the virus???? Young lady (I can call you that because I am a fair bit older ), I believe you should be thinking with your head (and Chris's head and DS's head), not your heart.

Oh, yeah, eggs are up to $2.69 at the grocery store!! Mine are only $2.50.

I don't know what cheap egg factory eggs sell for at the store but I sell my girls' eggs for $4 though I do deliver them. Of course my "egg route" is only 4 customers and I deliver when I have to go down to the "big" city for other shopping. Delivered 8 dozen yesterday. The organic "free range" eggs at the store can run $5. My girls don't get organic feed except for what they find on their own outside ... which this time of year is NOTHING!

 

[Duckfarmerpa1]

@Grant , not sure about wagon..it 8’x16’.....might by kind of tricky? But I sure dont want the hay in the house,,, it’s time build another barn...abig one...he’s hesitate because he went over the numbers last year, we’ll, this year it’s a must....hell reallize all of this on his own time...we were only going to get one haying equiptment, ended up with three. Then the called with more offers. If we can get this stuff off, we’re on our way!! Plus, just got a call from a guy who could sell me two does...alpine, for a steal. It’s a ltitle far, but gas is low. My thouts..I could breed them now...then have their milk while Busty needs to dry up to get ready for kidding again....I mean, he’s already buying post hole diggers, haying machines, etc, so I know he’s up for it. I would pay for them, I care for every single one. We’ll see figures crossed! Oh...I got my four Muscovies today!! I didn’t want to wait for lavender just in case something more servers happens with out situation, etc.

 

[Duckfarmerpa1]

Oops, I didn’t mean to post that to grant...it was late last night and I was tired..but I should have known with all that sarcasm and wit that it was all coming from @Bruce !! . Well, you can sure tell from all my typos that I was darned tired last night!. The guy called again this morning and has more stuff for us to buy!! Chris isn’t worried anymore about a stay at home order happening today since they haven’t said it yet, so, we’re not killing ourselves to get everything off the trailer. Plus, the guy said, the stuff isn’t being advertised, so if we want it, he’ll save it just for us...very nice guys. Ok, the guy said we need a cover crop...we already have fields of Timothy hay...is that considered a cover crop? I think we’re going to stick to mixed grasses...I know a long time ago everyone gave me a bunch of places to order from....anyone care to remind me so I don’t need to go through all the coffee threads? The truck bay is filled with...you guessed...another car lift, and trucks....I said we need to move some trucks, into town into our movie theater. That’s where we we park our trucks and rent storage space for other peoples vehicles. Running out of room due to his number of toys!!

 

[farmerjan]

A cover crop is one that is usually planted after a row crop has been removed. In other words, if you plant corn, then harvest it for either silage or shell it for the grain, a cover crop is something like rye or wheat that is planted so that it will grow a little before the winter and "COVERS" the ground. The same for something like soybeans that are harvested then a cover crop is planted to cover the ground for the winter. Then in the spring, the cover crop is either cut and harvested for the crop (rye as hay or allowed to head out and the rye seed is harvested) or it is plowed under for what we call a green manure crop and then something like corn or some other "row crop " is planted.
A cover crop usually only lasts for a single season or even for only a "half season" .
Although hay covers the ground, it is not considered a cover crop per se because it will not be plowed up or harvested and the ground left bare after it is harvested. Hay is considered a permanent crop, usually lasting from 5 to 20 years on the ground.
We planted wheat for a cover crop after we harvested the sorghum-sudan as hay last year from one of the fields. Normally we would cut it and make hay early, then kill the stubble to plant something else like corn or the sorghum-sudan again. We use it in our rotation to renovate our hay fields. 2 years of a sorghum-sudan crop, wheat or rye for the winter, then plant back into sorghum-sudan or into corn, then harvest that then plant a cover crop then take it off in the spring and plant a permanent crop of orchard grass for hay.