Name Change

 (Photo credit: Beverly & Pack)

This may be a subtle thing, but please note the name change.  This was done for several reasons:

1)  We have more than one heritage breed and only one farm.  The Previous name was Heritage Breed Farms.

2)  This name correlates with our new website www.heritagebreedsfarm.com

3)  We hope to expand the farm to incorporate more heritage breeds.

As a side note, I wish that the name could capture the essence of heirloom vegetables and plants as well, but they are termed heirloom and not heritage.  To me this is a minor point.

Until Next time and please check out the new site and let me know what you think!

Dr Jeff

Related articles

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• 6 reasons to buy heritage pork from small farms (miamiherald.com)
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Red Poll Semen Choices

I am basically cataloging here, but this will serve to give me something to look back upon as I make decisions.

I am in the process of selecting Red Poll semen to build the genetics of the herd.  I have the three adult cows to breed back.  I also have the one heifer calf, but she will be too young to breed this season.  I have done some research and I think I have located a good source of semen.  The herd is grass fed in its basics and has some top producers in the show ring and in terms of meat.  I am also looking to bring new genetics into the area.

FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE GO TO OUR WEBPAGE http://heritagebreedsfarm.com  or click here for the shortlink directly to the article itself.

Until Next Time!

Homesteading Series Part 5: Containing animals

A sturdy and well-built post and rail fence (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here we will specifically discuss fencing.  Fencing plans again depend upon the type of animal that you are trying to contain. I will try to lay this out in an organized fashion starting with types of fences. I will then try to cover fencing for various farm animals. These animals will include cattle, goats, sheep, pigs and horses. I will not attempt to cover chickens at this time ( other than to say clip their wings and make sure your tightly woven fence is tight against the ground).

Types of Fences

There many various ways to classify fencing. The first way to organize it is electrified versus non-electric. Another way is permanent versus temporary. For the purposes of this article, the focus will center around permanent fencing. Systems can be hybrid with permanent and temporary, but the perimeter fencing should be very solid and permanent (in the opinion of this author).

woven wire fence(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are various type of materials that are used to make fencing. Focusing on the modern versions, there are hog paneling, woven wire, barbed wire, high tensile, polywire, vinyl and board fencing. Board

Roll of barbed wire on a farm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

fencing, woven wire, and hog paneling are suitable for non electric systems. Vinyl may be considered here as well, though animals can lean on the vinyl and pop the rails off. I recommend adding one or two strands of high tensile along the top and bottom of vinyl fencing to prevent the animals from pushing the rails out. Barbed wired, high tensile and polywire are typically electrified. These systems can be non electric if enough horizontal wires are placed to make them visible. Most fencing is, after all, mainly a mental barrier and deterrent.

As for fence posts, the options here vary as well. Vinyl fencing utilizes vertical vinyl posts. Board fencing uses wooden posts. For the wire- type fences, posts materials vary from treated wood to cedar to locusts posts. They can also utilize t posts and even some specialized products like kencove posts.

As a side note when planning a fencing project, it is important to draw out the design in many fashions. Talk to other farmers or fence installers about your project.  Describe your setting, animals and goals. Mark out all of the gates that are needed. Gates are needed for entry to the field by the farmer, for equipment and for animals movement.

Cattle:

Cattle may be the easiest animals to contain, as long as they are well fed.  The grass is always greener on the other side, so cattle will test fences if better food is available across the fence.  I like electrified barbed wire or high tensile.  Two to three strands should suffice.  The lower strand should be about 24 inches off of the ground and the upper strand at 36 to 30 inches.  I like a wire in the middle as well.  Wooden fence posts should be placed at no more than 16 feet in order ro have better visibility.  Some places suggest further spacing, but I have found that our fence is great with posts every 16 feet.  Make certain to keep weeds off of the fence, otherwise a short will be created and it won’t take long for the cattle to figure out that the fence is off.  I suggest placing the wires on the outside of the fence posts, so that animals can graze around the base of the fencing.  This gives you more grazing space and less weed wacking.  Other options for cattle include board fence, vinyl and woven wire.  I would add a top strand of barbed wire or electrified high tensile at the tops of the 48 inch woven wire.

Closeup of a smooth wire fence without barbs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Goats

Goats are more of a challenge due to their inquisitive nature.  Woven wire works very well for goats.  The can be deterred by electric fencing as well, but the fence must be solid and provide an adequate shock to keep them in.  Board fencing and vinyl fencing tend to leave larger gaps that the goats can get through or around.  These gaps can be closed using electric barbed wire or high tensile.

Barbed wire fence in west Texas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sheep

Sheep are basically like goats in their needs for fencing.  It is not their stubborn nor inquisitive nature that make them hard to fence.  The problem with them lies in the thick wool coat.  This prevents them from perceiving the chock of an electric fence.  Woven wire seems to be the best for sheep, though multiple high tensile strands can works as well.  The strands should be placed at 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, and 48 inches from the ground on up.

Horses

 vinyl fence  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Horses love to lean on fences.  They also like to hang their heads over the fence, looking for food to graze upon.  They can be kept in with just about any fencing system.  Traditional horse people tend to prefer either board fence or vinyl fencing foe aesthetic purposes.  One major advantage to these is the decrease in injury potential.  Barbed wire and high tensile work well with horses, but can cause serious injury if the horse gets a leg tangled up in the strands.  Fence posts should be placed no further apart than 16 feet, as the visibility goes down for a horse after that point.

Pigs

Again, I am going from what I have read, not what I have done.  I have read that pigs can be easily trained to electric fencing.  Their snouts are very sensitive.  In fact, they are very conducive to rotational grazing, but be careful where you leave the gates.  It seems that pigs have a good memory, so much that they are reluctant to cross where an electric strand previously stood. The bottom wire is generally set at 5 or 6 inches and the top wire at 10 or 12 inches.  They will train quickly according to several sources that I discovered.  There are other options as well.  Hog paneling is meant for pigs (hence the name….).  Premier Supplies makes several electric netting options for hogs as well.

http://www.greatamericanegg.com/blog/?p=89

I hope that this article has been helpful.  I know that it just touched the surface of a very complex issue.  This is meant to be something to stimulate thought and provide a basis to start.  Good luck and keep raising your homestead, taking more control of what you eat and what you do.

We recently built a fence, which we had designed.  Our intent was to keep costs low, yet be able to try to contain all of the above animals.  The fence that we elected is 6 strand of high tensile, smooth wire fencing.  We placed three large gates to move animals and equipment in and out of fields.  We also placed two other 4 foot “man gates” in other locations for easier access to the fields.  The strands are laid out at 5 inches, 10 inches, 16 inches, 24 inches, 30 inches, and 48 inches.  We electrified the top strand, the third strand down and the second lowest strand.  We went with this number of strands in order to have a sturdy fence that works even without being electrified.   It seems to be working well, though we only have cattle so far.

Related articles

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Homesteading Series Part 3: Animals

At this point, you may be ready to start planning for and thinking about animals.  (I probably start here rather than with plants, since animals are my profession and plants are my hobby).  You will ultimately assess your own needs, wants, desires and capabilities.  I will go through a few types common farm animals and give what I see as the pros and cons.  I will take this moment to push for heritage breed animals (see where the farm name is derived from?).  By using heritage breeds, you are able to preserve the past and also capitalize on some of their better traits, such as having dual purpose animals. Heritage breed animals may benefit you as well by being more likely to mother their young better than some of the more popular breeds on large farms nowadays.  For instance, a heritage chicken is much more likely to “go broody” than a factory leghorn would.

CHICKENS:  I have already written a post about why you should start with chickens, but I will lay out my thoughts again here.  First of all, Chickens are rather inexpensive to obtain.  We purchased our first six pullets (who were 17 weeks old and about to start laying) for $5 per bird.  So we were out about $30.  The second reason is that I feel chickens are very adaptable.  You can make a small chicken tractor or use an old outbuilding (like we did) and the chickens will do just fine.  Third, chickens are small.  This means that they don’t need a lot of space.  Fourth, chickens are easy to feed.  We feed our table scraps to the girls.  We are also fortunate to be able to purchase organic all mash at a local elevator fairly easily.  Fifth, Chickens provide a very nutritious product…..eggs.  Wait until you crack open your first farm fresh egg, especially if the chickens have access to grass and fields.   The yolk is almost orange, it is so dark.

Buff Orrpington (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The nutritional components of free range chicken eggs is incredible, nearly unbelievable in scope.  Sixth, chicken are fun to watch.  Seventh, you are unlikely to get hurt very badly by a chicken.  Eighth, a chicken that is no longer laying is still good for something……the pot.  You can make your own chicken stock, chicken foot broth, and many other stews and soups with the “retired” old girls.  (A side note:  we utilize Delaware Chickens as they are docile, go broody, produce eggs well, are dual purpose, and we think they are pretty)  (Other heritage breeds to consider are Buff Orrpingtons, Barred Plymouth Rock, Buckeyes, and many others)

Goats.  perhaps second on my list would be a dairy goat.  Though goats can be very frustrating because they do try to eat everything, goats are still rather small and readily available.

Nigerian Dwarf dairy goat, show clip, in milk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)e

A decent dairy goat will probably cost you between $75 and $200 depending on age, breed, and time of year.  A nice thing about dairy goats is that they can produce a decent amount of milk.  When allowed to go out on pasture, they are good at cleaning up brush and unwanted plants, since they are more of a foraging animal and less of a grazer.  A downside to this is that various weeds can change the flavor of the milk.  Another good reason to consider a dairy goat is that the milk tends to be easier for some people to digest.  I believe that this is because the fat droplets are smaller than that of a dairy cow (or is it the protein droplets, I can’t remember at the moment)  We do not currently have a goat, so I am uncertain of a specific breed recommendation.  (we like the San Clemente Island Goat, but simply because they are very rare and are very cute)

Pigs:  Again unchartered water for us at the moment.  We are considering pigs for their versatility.  We are looking into pastured pork, so out focus is on breeds that do well in a foraging and pasture based management system.  Once again, pigs are reasonably priced.  Another good argument for pigs is their varied diet.  These are yet another animal that you can feed table scraps.  My understanding is that fencing pigs is not to difficult.  They apparently train to electric fencing very easily.  I have read that pigs will train uickly to two hot wires.  One at about 9 inches off the ground and another at about 30 inches off the ground.  They will train so well in fact, that it is hard to get them to cross an area that previously had a fence across it.  Most articles I have found simply use polywire or another form of electrified temporary fencing like those used in rotational grazing systems.  (We like Tamworth and Gloucestershire Old Spots for pig breeds.  Red Wattles get an honorary mention)

Sheep:  I suppose sheep are in the fold here too.  Sheep are again easy to obtain and not too expensive.

High sheeps (Photo credit: Bertoz)

Uses for the sheep would be meat and wool.  We do not have sheep at the moment, as we do not see spinning our own wool.  Sheep are grazers, so now we are starting to look at more infrastructure.  They will likely need a barn, a yard and fencing.  This adds to the cost of them of course.  (We have yet to select a breed, though I am intrigued by the Romeldale breed.

Cattle:  I would recommend a good dual purpose breed, but you could have a dairy cow and beef cows.  Most true homesteads likely have a good old dairy cow on hand.  A dairy cow will likely cost about $1500 or so, depending on age, breed and quality.  Some decent cow can be purchase through sale barns for less money, but beware that the farmer is likely selling her through the sale barn for a reason.  Cattle require feed and infrastructure as well.  You will need a tie stall or other location for milking.  You will need fencing for the pasture, or else be ready to push a lot of hay and grain around.  (We think the the Red Poll cow is the perfect breed for this, as they are good foragers. grazers and they are dual purpose)  (Other breeds to consider would be Milking Devon, Shorthorn, Kerry, and Dexter)

I would once again recommend a good old farm dog.  They are great companions, good for security and even can help with some of the wound up of the critters if trained to do so.  They can also be helpful with pests, such as the infamous “whistle pig”  A.K.A. Groundhog.

Hopefully I have touched on the main animals for homesteading.  If I have left any pertinent ones out, please let me know.  I am sure that some are fond of Llamas for guard animals protecting their flock of sheep.  Some may like Alpacas for the hair production.  I suppose that I left turkeys out as well.  They have their place too, just not at the top of my list.  Their place, to me, is on the thanksgiving table.

Related articles

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Topic suggestions and feedback

I am looking for topic suggestions and feedback.
What would you like to hear about?
What posts or threads have you enjoyed the most?
What areas are you interested in?

Ideas are organic farming, beef cattle breeding and management, grass fed programs, heritage breeds of animals, chicken information, how to articles.

I am also looking for potential guest bloggers that would like to contribute periodically for the fun of it.

Let me know in the comments section.  Thanks in advance!

Red Poll Association

We just received our official papers for our heifers.  We are excited about the three that we have and look forward to growing our herd.  Hopefully we will have three live calves in the next 4 to 6 weeks.  We will need to decide about whether or not to register them.  Any heifer calves will get registered.  The poor old boys will likely not as they will be destined for the freezer.

Anyway, this is a short post to highlight the Red Poll Cattle Association’s website.  Our association just updated the website to allow for classified ads to be posted.  This will help us market our cattle better and also make it easier to find cattle for sale.  Check it out at http://www.americanredpolls.com.

Red Polls prove versatile and make economic sense | Features | Farmers Guardian

Red Polls prove versatile and make economic sense | Features | Farmers Guardian.

Excerpt From the Article:

Red Poll cattle

• The Red Poll is derived from the original cattle of Norfolk and Suffolk
• The colour of the breed is preferably deep red, with white touches only on the tail switch and udder
• On average, the milk contains 4.21 per cent fat and 3.26 per cent protein
• Steers finish at 22-24 months weighing about 550kg (depending on feeding regime), however, many breeders are finishing stock between 17-19 months at about 500kg
• The killing out percentage is about 54 per cent and the meat is of excellent quality in both taste and texture
• Heifers, if calved at around three years, will develop into cows able to withstand the pressures of many years of trouble free production. The mature cow averages 520kg and an adult bull around 1,000kg

This is just an interesting article I found this evening about Red Poll Cattle.  Yes, that is right, I am drinking the Red Poll Kool Aide!