On any livestock farm, there will occasionally be an animal that dies. What do farmers do with the carcass, especially for something big, like a cow? A dead farm animal carcass can be rendered, buried, burned, composted or left to feed wildlife. It’s hard to hear, but sometimes, even dispite your best efforts an animal…
For the new livestock owner, shopping for hay can be confusing, there are a lot of options. One of the types of hay that comes up pretty frequently is second cutting. What is second cutting hay? Second cutting hay is the hay made from the second harvest of a hay field. Second cutting hay is…
When you have livestock, one of your biggest expenses is going to be feeding them. For most animals that means buying hay and a lot of it! How do you know what hay you should buy and what are the signs of high quality hay? High quality hay is green in color, smells great and…
Figuring out what hay to feed your animals can be challenging, especially for the beginner. What is first cutting hay and how can you tell if it’s good? First cutting hay is the initial crop of hay off of a hay field for the year. Chances are if you are buying hay and the cutting…
Hay and your lawn are both grass, right? Is hay really just baled up lawn grass or is something else going on here? Hay is not lawn grass. Hay is made from plants selected for yield, palatability and nutritional value, while lawn grasses are selected for looks and dense growth. While your lawn and hay…
Raising all of your own meat for the year, that’s a lofty goal, especially for a beginner! How much meat will you need to plan on raising and what combination of animals should you plan to raise? A family of four will need 892 pounds of meat for a year, on average, consisting of 232…
There are multiple animals that you could raise on your farm, but which ones are the most likley to be profitable? The best farm animals to raise for profit are pigs, small ruminants (sheep or goats), game birds, standard breed roosters and rabbits. Pigs can be profitable Potential market: Customers who want great tasting, ethically…
Should farm animals eat corn? Some people state that corn is fine for livestock, others that corn is a monster. There is a tremendous gulf between those two statements. Which is the case? Corn is a digestible food for animals with simple stomachs, like pigs or chickens. Corn as a large portion of the ration…
Multiple species of farm animals can be successfully raised together. Other combinations seem like a good idea, then don’t work! Farm animals that can be successfully raised together are ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats) and poultry, pigs and poultry, mixed ruminants and mixed poultry. If you are looking to raise multi species together, the best combination…
Wanting to start raising your own meat? Now you need to know how long it’s going to take! You can do quick projects of 2 months or less, all summer projects taking around 4 months and longer than 1 year projects. It really depends upon what you want to raise! Raising your own meat can…