Milk and apples?

[Back to Nature]

So I read the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. (Great book.) In it the pigs claimed all the milk and apples. Also, I read online that apples can help the meat taste sweeter, and I read that milk is really good for pigs. So are milk and apples good? If so, why, and how much/many should be fed each day/week? I ask because I'm trying to become as self-sufficient as possible, which means cutting commercial feeds out of ALL my animals' diets.

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Pigs LOVE apples & milk. There is a farmer in Vermont who feeds solely dairy products to his pigs & they do REALLY well. You just have to make sure they do not get overly fat - Walter feeds a lot of whey which is low in calories but full of nutrients. Apples are also full of nutrients but are not available all year round & are expensive unless you have a free source.

Get yourself a couple of milk cows so that you are having milk each day for your family & extra for the pigs, chickens etc PLUS you will also get a beef each year for your freezer. Why 2 cows? So that when one is dried up (at least two months before freshening) you still have milk. That is what we have right now. Our Jersey/Holstein is giving us 3 gallons each morning (we only milk once a day) & the Jersey is taking a break before she calves in February. A good milk cow is absolutely essential to a self-sufficient lifestyle.

At this time we are feeding our feeders milk, crimped oats & alfalfa - experimenting to see how they do.

Liz

 

[Back to Nature]

Pigs LOVE apples & milk. There is a farmer in Vermont who feeds solely dairy products to his pigs & they do REALLY well. You just have to make sure they do not get overly fat - Walter feeds a lot of whey which is low in calories but full of nutrients. Apples are also full of nutrients but are not available all year round & are expensive unless you have a free source.

Get yourself a couple of milk cows so that you are having milk each day for your family & extra for the pigs, chickens etc PLUS you will also get a beef each year for your freezer. Why 2 cows? So that when one is dried up (at least two months before freshening) you still have milk. That is what we have right now. Our Jersey/Holstein is giving us 3 gallons each morning (we only milk once a day) & the Jersey is taking a break before she calves in February. A good milk cow is absolutely essential to a self-sufficient lifestyle.

At this time we are feeding our feeders milk, crimped oats & alfalfa - experimenting to see how they do.

Liz

I was thinking of getting 3-4 cows and a small herd of goats. I know that's a lot of milk, but it takes a lot of milk to make cheese, and I love cheese. What I don't drink I can feed to the other animals and sell to family and friends.

I'm not sure how to feed milk to chickens. Do they just drink it or do you have to soak it into something?

I plan on having a few apple trees, mostly because I heard that pigs like apples. I don't eat a ton of apples, but I like cider, so... Maybe I'll have five or six trees of different varieties.

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Sounds like you have some great plans. Keep dreaming big! We would never have dreamed where we would be today, 10 years ago. We often reminisce & see where life has taken us. We are very blessed but we also have never been afraid to take a risk. Sometimes it has paid off, sometimes not but on the "not" times we have just gotten up & tried again. Farming is hard work, absolutely no doubt about that. We have been aiming at self-sufficiency for years & are still a LONG ways from where we want to be but we have made progress & have learned so much in the process.

Never give up! Keep dreaming & planning.

If you are planning on making cheese then get yourself cows with high cream content. Our Jersey/Holstein is a good milker but her cream does not even begin to compare with our pure Jersey's. The cream from Millie (Jersey) is so much better - makes good cheese, whipped cream etc

I'm not sure how to feed milk to chickens. Do they just drink it or do you have to soak it into something? idunno

You can soak it for them in bread or grain but also just pour it into a rubber bowl. They will drink it just like they do water. They LOVE milk

Liz

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Also, think that one milk cow *can* give 8 gallons of milk a day, if you have 4 in milk, that will be like 32 gallons a day, that's like 224 gallons a week! You will need containers to put the milk in and somewhere to store it, and that's A LOT of milk. I have 5 milk goats and get about 35 gallons a week AND THAT'S a lot of milk!

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Also, think that one milk cow *can* give 8 gallons of milk a day,

Most homestead milk cows do not give 8 gallons a day! AND if Back to Nature is going to be making cheese then she is not going to be wanting to purchase Holsteins! You can regulate the amount of milk a cow produces by not feeding any grain & milking once a day. Our milk cows are grass/hay fed & only get some oats when being milked. A gallon of full milk is equivalent to approx 4lbs commercial feed so 1 gallon will feed one pig. If you are making a lot of cheese then you will be feeding whey which has a lot less calories so you will need to feed alot more.

As for storing it that can be a problem in the cold months but otherwise quite easy. Add some yogurt to your milk & that will help promote the good bacteria & keep out the bad.

Liz

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Good to know! Thank you! I just was remembering when I first got goats I was very overwhelmed with 35 gallons a week. I had to buy another fridge!

 

[Back to Nature]

Sounds like you have some great plans. Keep dreaming big!

Thank you! People say I need to stop planning so far ahead because I can't predict the future, but I think it's good to have a solid destination, as long as your efforts are flexible enough to allow for change and/or obstacles along the way. But it will happen someday...

Also, think that one milk cow *can* give 8 gallons of milk a day, if you have 4 in milk, that will be like 32 gallons a day, that's like 224 gallons a week!

I would only have two in milk at a time. And I LOVE milk. I will drink some, turn some into cheese (I consume cheese like water), feed some to the animals, and sell some to neighbors, family, and friends. I was thinking of getting Brown Swiss; I would breed them to a meat breed to freshen them, so I could butcher the calves. I would breed it to a Brown Swiss when the time came to replace it. Point being, I would rotate the cows so that they were maybe bred three months apart. Hmm.. Would that make three in milk at a time? LEt me know what you think of this plan. I'm just going off of internet research so far, since I don't have space for anything other than my rabbit...

This may be off topic, but I'm about to go to college in the Upper Peninsula in six months. I will stay there for four years until i get a bachelor's degree. Then I will move back and rent a house with a yard; I will live here until I get my master's and specialty license from Michigan State. While I live in this house I will get maybe some chickens, rabbits, and a pygmy goat or two (if I have space). Then when I've gotten my top degree I will save some money and move to a farm with acreage. God willing!

 

[Cornish Heritage]

I would breed it to a Brown Swiss when the time came to replace it. Point being, I would rotate the cows so that they were maybe bred three months apart. Hmm.. Would that make three in milk at a time? LEt me know what you think of this plan.

LOL! Great plans on the farm often go array so you have to be prepared for the unexpected. Animals do not always breed when you think they will. For example this past summer we separated all our ewes with the "right" rams & left them in there for what we though was a reasonable amount of time. Then we put them all back together with a "clean-up" ram. Guess what? The "Clean-up" ram bred them all! Did we cry & stomp our feet? Nope! We just smiled & adjusted our plans.

SO reading is great & well advised but the real thing can be way different. Death happens unexpectedly, animals sometimes do not perform as we want or expect but that is OK. It helps us grow & teaches alot. Of course there are many happy times where everything works out perfectly.

Liz

 

[Back to Nature]

Animals do not always breed when you think they will.

With the cattle I'd only have the cows. I'm going to study livestock reproduction so I can artificially inseminate my own animals. I know that it might not take sometimes, or anything could go wrong, but at least with the cattle I can almost control which bull I'm using.

My plans include room for error. I'm planning for more space, more feed, and less offspring/product than what I read about. So if I hear a cow can give, say, five gallons on average and eats 20 lbs. of hay each day (idk how accurate that is) then I'd prepare for 2-3 gallons and 25-30 lbs.

It's always good to have back-up plans and I know everything won't go as well as in my head. I can guarantee that at least. I just feel like it'd be best to have A plan.