Hay has arrived

cattle_07 (Photo credit: NDSU Ag Comm)

Last night we were able to put up 38 round bales of hay.  This is a great start to next winter’s feed supply. Our neighbor cut, raked, tettered and baled the hay over the weekend and brought them up into the barn last night.  We are excited to have a great jump start for next season.  Now the challenge is to get some of the pasture eaten down by the cows that we have.  We may be in the market for a few more adult animals or steers that need to finish.  There is a total of about 12 acres that needs to be eaten, well more than our three adult cows will be able to eat.

We do not supplement our cattle at this time, featuring a grass fed beef program.  We hope to provide good, flavorful and nutritional meat once our calves finish out.  We also employ a hormone-free, organic program.  (We did not certify our land organic, but sprays and chemicals are not used on our farm).

Until Next Time

Homesteading Series part 6 plant selection

So now we move on to the selection of plants.  Again this may be higher on the list, but we will discuss it here.  The reality is that all of these parts are intertwined.

Selection of plants can be broken down into several categories.  First we need to consider what the animals will be eating.  So one consideration is the pasture, the other consideration is the crops.  Second we will look at the garden plants.  Third, and finally, comes the orchard and berry plants.

Plants for the animals.

Pasture:

Crops. View from a bridleway. The different textures and colours are created by barley in the foreground, wheat behind and young sweet corn to the right. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As can be noted from examining the blog here, we are fans of grazing systems.  This allows for less equipment and generally more self-sufficiency.  We prefer rotational grazing, but I digress.  So what plants do you want to have in your pastures?  Pasture should include one or two types of grasses.  Typical types include Fescue, Ryegrass,Timothy, Orchard Grass and Kentucky Bluegrass.  Other plants that are typically included in pasture are red clover, ladino clover, white clover and alfalfa.  It is recommended to have a variety of these plants within a given pasture to provide varying amounts of protein, vitamins, and mineral.  Certain plants also thrive at different times of the year.  By varying the types of plants within a given pasture, the grazing season can be extended both earlier and later in the year than normal.

Selecting Forage Crops

Carsington Pastures, Derbyshire (Photo credit: eamoncurry123)

Crops:

Perhaps crops are what many people think of when they think of plants on the farm.  Crops are used for many different purposes, the main one of which is food for the animals.  Field corn is a crop that is vital to many farming operations.  It is very versatile and can be fed to numerous species of animals.  Corn has traditionally been a very inexpensive feed source, though that had changed some with the subsidization of the ethanol fuel industry.  Soy beans are another crop that is grown in abundance in the United States.  It is used as a protein source and also as a way to fix nitrogen into the soil when used in a crop rotation.  Other crops that are commonly grown are Wheat, Barley, Rye, Oats, Spelts and many others.  Some of these, such as oats and wheat, can be used for two purposes.  The grain is harvested for use as a feed and the stalks can be harvested for use as straw (animal bedding).

Garden Plants

The vegetable garden is one of the main focal points of a homestead.  A garden serves to provide fresh food and also bountiful harvests that can be stored for winter usage.  The plants that can be grown in a garden are limitless.  We will discuss a few here, but the scope of this particular series does not permit for an in depth discussion.

USDA 98c0442 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sweet Corn is the starting point, as it is one of our favorites.  The only downside that I see with Sweet corn is the space required to grow it, though the space can be maximized by using interplanting (we plant melons within the rows of corn, which allows the melons to spread out.  Both melons and corn take a lot of space, but by growing them in the same row, we can capitalize on some of that space.)  Beans are another key crop.  We also raise green beans (Green Jade works well as a variety).  There are many types of beans, several of which can be dried.

Other vegetables that are traditional garden staples include lettuces, spinach, onions, beets, cucumber, zucchini, squash and many others. Heirloom vegetables are those that are passed from generation to generation. They serve to preserve the plant genetic variability. Heirloom plants (as long as they do not get cross pollinated) will produce seed that it is true, meaning that the seed can be saved and replanted. Once replanted, the seed will produce plants that are the same variety as the mother plant. Hybrids plants do not produce seeds that will grow predictable plant offspring. Oftentimes the seed is not viable. At other times , the seed will produce on of the parent varieties that was used to make the hybrid plant. An example of this is Incredible Sweet Corn. This is our favorite sweet corn. Saving the seeds and replanting them will usually produce a dent corn or field corn that was used in the cross pollination to get the incredible hybrid.
We utilize several varieties of heirloom vegetables so that we can save the seeds if desired. A few examples are blue hopi corn (Below)

and golden bantam corn. Heirloom seeds can be purchased from several suppliers. We usually make our selection from Fedco Seeds.

Orchards and Berries

The third and final category for homesteading plants includes Orchards fruits and berries.  This category will be finished in another post due to space and time constraints.

Related articles

• Start a Self-Sufficient 1-Acre Homestead (rajultrivedi.wordpress.com)

Baled Out

First off, let me appologize for the cheesy title, but I had to do it…

For those of you that have been following our blog for the past few weeks, we have been looking into buying hay.  We purchased approximately 75 bales in the fall.  These bales were all purchased via Craiglist and chosen based upon a low price.  I paid $2 per bale.

So about two weeks ago, we noted that we were going to run out of hay.  We began the search for more hay.  We took inventory and noted that we were feeding between 1/2 bale to 2/3 of a bale per cow per day.  With the 3 heifers, that means basically 2 bales per day.

In our previous post entitled “Success,” (http://heritagebreedfarms.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/success/) we proclaimed that we found more hay.  The seller had 1000 bales for sale at $2 per bale.  I called and found out that the seller was actually a client and an acquantance.  I arranged the purchase of 100 blaes, which should be enough to get us through until the grass is growing well enough to at least compensate the cows and supplement their feeding.  I left my phone number with the seller and then awaiting the timing for the pickup.  After waiting several days, I attempted to call the seller multiple times, but was unable to get ahold of him.  I was losing hope at that point.

We began to look around for more hay, with the one remaining bales rationed for the next day.  Off went some emails and texts to various people that we know so that we could buy more bales.  Thankfully in the middle of that, the seller called back and we were on our way.  We picked up the bales around 7:00 P.M.

Upon picking up the bales and then returning home, we tried to get the hay wagon into the barn.  At that point, a lesson was learned—-the wagon that we borrowed was a wagon to catch bales of hay from a kicker wagon.  The importance is that the front axle is reticulating (not fixed like a normal trailer).  My weak attempts at backing the trailer were near comical.  As soon as the wheels to the wagon began to turn, the wagon would basically jack-knife.

This began the unloading of 100 bales after the kids were in bed.  O-yeah and in a light rain, which actually let up during the unloading.  Finally at 12:30 A.M., we unloaded the last bale and headed inside.  one project done and two tired workers.   But thankfully we got “Baled Out” in the nick of time.

Success

We are happy to report that hay is on its way to Heritage Breed Farms with little to no time to spare.  We located hay on Craigslist.  How about that?  It turns out that we found small square bales for $2.00 per bale with no delivery fee.  Since we are feeding 2 bales per day to the three cows, our cost of feed per cow is about $1.33.  Luckily we will begin to benefit from the growing grass.  This is helping to open our eyes to the need to stock up well ahead of time for next year.  At that time we hope to be feeding 6 animals, if not more.