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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, December 31, 2009

How much to feed the livestock?

I have posted before that I try to grow as much feed or learn to forage for as much feed for my livestock as possible. So knowing how much to grow and what to grow can be important for the self-sufficient homesteader. I know that there are calculation methods out there and probably most of the agricultural schools have guides on how much of what yields what per acre. I have taken a much less scientific approach I guess to my learning to grow for my animals. The bunnies are relatively easy in that there is either something growing that they can eat or something that can be foraged. In our area there is always green stuff growing. The simple thing for them is knowing what is growing when and what they can eat. The chickens are also pretty easy because like I said there is always something green and much of it they will eat also as they free range during the day. I also supplement with mangle beets, a small amount of grain and whatever kitchen scraps and such that I have. This year I grew sunflowers and corn for the chickens in the winter. The chicken patch of corn was relatively small about 20 ft. x 30 ft. however, we don't feed them much corn, about 2 to 3 cobs a week. They have more than enough to forage for and kitchen scraps. They are also the cleaner uppers when the horses or goats spill some of their feed. Each year I plant a bigger patch of whatever and see what it yields. I don't think I will plant a bigger patch of corn for the chickens. We have more than enough from the patch that I planted to get through the rest of winter. The mangle beets last quite a while as they are quite large. I have 3 hens that peck a little each day before they go outside and their beet lasts them about a week. I planted 4 30 foot long rows and that is plenty for the chickens. The bunnies get the beet greens and so they are dual purpose animal feed. I will plant more though because I will try using them to supplement the horse feed next year. Mangle beets are easy to store, just throw them in a corner of the feed room or leave them in the ground and pull when needed. In barns in Europe then simply pile them up in the aisleway and use as needed. They keep very well in the cold. Storing corn can be an issue and feed corn is taking up a good portion of my freezer space. I simply am not comfortable with trying to dry it, especially with the wet year we have had. Mycotoxins from improperly dried corn can kill your livestock so I simply froze the corn and pull from the freezer as I need to. I have a plot of oats planted for spring harvest that is about a quarter acre in size. I am not sure how much I will get from that plot but it will give me an idea of how much I need to get the amount of feed that I need. Oats can be grown in two seasons around here, plant in the fall for spring and plant in the spring for fall. My goal with growing feed is learning what feedstuffs yield the most on the smallest amount of land. I grew millet and it grows very well and yields a good amount of grain on a small acreage. Same thing for black oil sunflowers. Each 10x20 plot yielded about 25 pounds of seed. Certainly not enough to get through the whole year, but by planting more I can get through the summer when sunflower seed is the most costly. Homestead is all about planning and looking to the next season. Wheat is cheap in the fall and winter so it makes a good grain to add to the mix and easy to stock up on then. So it is beneficial for me to plant spring wheat to be harvested and used in the summer until the fall wheat starts coming in. The key in knowing how much to plant is to know how much you use. I know when I was buying pre-made horse feed I went through about 800 lbs a month. I started mixing my own feed (oats, wheat, black oil sunflower seeds, cracked corn, alfalfa pellets) and my horses are healthier on 400 lbs. of feed a month. I also look at things like pasture maintenance as part of my feed program. The longer I can keep forage growing then the less grain I have to grow or purchase. One thing that I have found is there simply is no exact set amount of feed for each species or even each animal. I guess that is one of the things that I love about homesteading/farming. You wear many hats and one of those hats happens to be animal nutritionist. Usually, in determining what I am going to grow and how much I am going to grow for my livestock I use several things. When do I need it the most (winter), what grows easily (mangle beets), is there something I can use for more than one animal, and how much room does it take to grow a decent amount. hay I will never grow as it takes too much room and is too labor intensive. I will harvest and have harvested hay from my mother's place with a lawnmower and a rake. It means that I don't have to dip into my winter hay stores for an extra month or two. But growing enough for 6 months of hay needs is simply not feasible on my 10 acres. However, I could plant a half acre of sunflower seeds and get enough of those to get through to the next year. That is worth my time. Small grains yield more per acre than large grains or grasses. Corn needs more room than oats. I would like to be totally self sufficient in my feed needs, but as long as I have horses I am not sure that will happen. There need is greater than my capacity. However, we are working on this and each year we learn a little more. I will try to come up with some better numbers for a future posts, but this should get you folks started. God bless.

Garden Planning

Yes, I know it is midwinter. However, this is the best time of year to plan your attack on the garden in the spring. For us in the south spring comes early and we will be sowing peas, carrots and other cool weather crops sooner than we think. So, it is time to plan. Each year I keep a notebook of garden happenings for the year. I make notes about certain crops and drawings of where things were grown. The drawings allow me to rotate things around to conserve soil nutrition. The notes give me ideas of how to improve, things that didn't work so well, plants or varieties worth growing and those not worth growing. So I sit down every January and take stock of what the next year's plan will look like (or hopefully look like). I start a new notebook (just a small spiral notebook) and start with what I plan to grow. Once I have that then I check my seed supplies to see if I need to order anything. This year I am completely out of broccoli and cauliflower seeds so I will definitely be ordering those. Then I look through my seed suppliers catalogs and decide if there is anything I want to try. If I am adding something new (like this year expanding the herb garden), then I add those things as well. I then take a look at the previous year's garden drawings and make a new drawing rotating plantings around the garden so that I am not growing in the same spot I did the previous year. Because my garden goes around a pond then I pretty much have to grow in blocks instead of one big plot with everything all neat in a row. I have blocks with everything all neat (well, I try anyway) in a row. I highly suggest everyone have some sort of plan for their garden. It definitely saves time on the garden, and it also saves money on the garden as well. I remember when I didn't plan and I would spend money on seeds that I did not need simply because I forgot that I harvested seeds the year before and had tons of them. Or I would replant something that had not done well the year before and waste time, energy and money trying to grow something that simply did not do well for me. Our garden is designed to not only provide us with good wholesome food, but save us money also. It is important that I keep that focus in mind when the gardening addiction hits full force in spring. Hope your planning goes well and we all have a bountiful harvest. God bless.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A Good Day for Sewing

Well, it looks like today will be a good day to spend on my sewing projects. I feel like I can certainly get quite a bit done and get that "to be mended pile" out of the way. It is always a good feeling to get something finished and put away to where you don't have to look at it for awhile. I am terribly guilty of letting my mending pile up. When the weather is nice I like to be outside getting fresh air and getting projects done out there. But today is not a nice weather kind of day. It is pouring down rain and a little on the chilly side. The fire inside the house is quite nice to have on days like this and nothing is as relaxing as sitting by the fire doing something that you enjoy. Today will be that kind of day with a little sewing and playing board games with the children after schoolwork is done. Then maybe I will take some time to read that book I have been working on for a couple of months now. Usually I am just too tired to read much and by the time I sit down to read, I can only get through a couple of pages before my eyes start to get very heavy. The only downfall to the day is keeping a toddler locked in the house all day. They get a little bit stir crazy when they can't get outside and use up that excess energy. Maybe we will have a lively dance session to burn off that energy before nap time! Well, I believe I am off to have a wonderful day to rest my weary bones and tend to things that get put aside when the weather is nice. Have a very blessed day!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Black Gold: Composting for a Healthy Homestead

Years ago I began creating compost piles for my garden soil. There is something about taking that rich black organic matter and applying it to a garden space that makes a homesteader's heart jump for joy! About a year ago it occurred to me that compost was not simply for a plot of land in which I intended to grow food. I could apply this same concept to our pastures that were worn out and had sat fallow for too many years. I started creating compost piles for our pastures and each one that has received compost gets a little better and a little richer over the years. We still have quite a bit of work to do as it definitely is time consuming and hard work creating the piles for such large areas of ground. My goal is to eventually have applied at least 6 inches of compost to every square inch of our 10 acres. My husband thinks that I am little compost obsessed and this year particularly I think he is a bit worse. This year is the biggest year of composting yet. I have one large pile going for the garden, one for the goat pasture, two for the old orchard, two for the front pasture and I will be getting at least one going for the big pasture. So that is my goal this week is to do nothing but work on these compost piles which start with......you guessed it all of the fall leaves that are blowing to the ground right now. It takes time to do this, at least is does for me. I do it by hand, rake, stall fork and wheelbarrow. Of course, the children are perfect in helping with this task as well. The oldest child rakes and has a wagon to place her leaf piles in, while the youngest jumps in every pile of leaves that she can find and personally makes sure that we work very hard (getting our daily exercise you know). She also is very good at pulling the wagon for my oldest down hill, but uphill it is a team effort. While the dried leaves of whatever trees happen to be in the pasture are great to get the pile started and add to the pile, we also need some "green" ingredients. Well, thankfully we have 3 horses that are more than willing to help out with the green ingredients and there are lots of noxious weeds in the pastures that need pulling to completely get rid of them. Yes, I pull these weeds by hand and add them to our pile. I start each pile with a layer of carbon ingredients, ie. fallen leaves and then a small layer of either manure, weeds or a combination of each. Then I repeat the process making sure that my carbon layer is the biggest. I believe the ratio is 4 wheelbarrow loads of carbon to 2 wheelbarrow loads of green stuff. The compost pile for the garden is right next to the goat barn so each morning the manure swept from the goat barn and any stray hay goes into that pile which is quite large and I am not really working on building it so much right now. It is 5 feet on each side and about 4 feet tall. By spring it will be a good size pile of rich black compost. So I am working on the pasture piles right now. This year my goal is to add at least 2-3 inches of this rich compost to the smaller pastures. The large pasture may not get quite so much as it is quite large (5 acres), but anything it gets will be a start. Of course, the chickens also have a composting operation in the chicken house and I must say the ladies are doing a fine job. I added more bedding this past week and before adding it I turned what was in there already and it was breaking down nicely with a layer of the good stuff underneath. I know you are wondering why in the world I am bothering to pull weeds from the pastures, especially by hand. Well....like I said these pastures sat fallow for many years. When pastures that were once rich and lush sit, the weeds take over robbing nutrients from the soil. So the grass that does grow get less nutrition and eventually much of it stops growing and all you are left with are weeds. Bushhogging and overseeding help, but those alone take years and years to correct the problem and then you are still left with nutrient depleted soil. Then if you miss some bushogging the weeds once again gain control. So, I pull them by hand. Not all of them at once, but I figure each patch that I get pulled is a little more toward my goal of better pastures and each year the pastures do get better and last longer for grazing with proper rotation. We also plant cover crops to help replenish the nitrogen content of the soil and this does help. Our worst area is the old orchard. This area is mostly a hillside and so most of our seed and dirt are at the bottom of the hill. The top and side of the hill have washed almost to hardpan clay which is something we battle in the south as much as farmers up north battle the rocks. With the exception of the bottom of the hill this whole area is like rock when the weather is dry and like a slip and slide when the weather is wet. All this despite the weeds that do hold some of the dirt. The trees that once made up this fine orchard have long since died off being severely diseased when we arrived. It would still be a fine place for a small orchard but first the issue of soil nutrition must be addressed. Hence, more compost piles in this area and those piles larger than ever before. So far I have one pile that is about 4 feet wide and 10 feet long and about 2 feet tall. I plan to add another foot to it today. I am not composting on the scale of some people I know who have compost piles so large that they can simply bury a cow in the middle of the pile and have that cow disappear within weeks.
This same person has his township deliver all of the yard trash to his farm. Each week the dumptrucks from town roll onto his farm to deliver their yard waste and each year he applies at least a foot of rich compost to his entire farm. So, see I am not as compost obsessed as my husband would like to believe. I also have this great need to make my own compost because then I know what goes in it. One year, I got a load of compost from a landscaping company. I spread it out in my garden and then discovered that the compost was made with diseased plants. That disease carried over into my plants. Once that is in the soil it is there to stay and the only way to combat it is to give the plants as much as they need to be as strong as they can be, possibly plant resistant varieties if you can find them and do a whole lot of praying. With the grace of God, the plants will be strong enough to resist any disease living in the soil. So that I guess is my compost story for this year and I guess I had better get busy adding to those piles of compost so that I have them ready to spread in the spring. Oh, by the way....no I do not turn my piles. they are simply too large. Anything not composted on the top will be moved to the side to start the next pile for the next season. So get out there and get composting so you can have some of that black gold of your own! God bless and have a great day!