"Breed For The Need": The Nubian Goat

  Get this: We're starting a new series on the blog! I've been thinking about, and planning this, for almost two years; and today is the first post! I'm dubbing this the "Breed For The Need" series and what we'll be doing is this: Every Tuesday a different breed of livestock (both rare and common) will be highlighted. We'll go over the breed's pros, cons, perks + quirks, and what situation it's best for. Each month we'll highlight a certain species, and this being the first month of doing this (granted, we're halfway through the month), I'll be starting off with goats (of course). 

 So, in honor of this being the first post, I've decided to highlight a breed that I know best of all:

The Nubian Goat

  One of the most popular and identifiable breeds, the Nubian has long held the status of being an excellent choice in the goat world. Unfortunately, this popularity hasn't always been a good thing, and the breed has suffered from many an inexperienced/uncaring breeder to the point where a Craigslist search will bring up one ad after another, showing a steep-rumped, narrow-bodied, short-eared animal that only has the capacity to milk a 1/2 gallon a day, even at the age of 4 years. Blah. 

  A good quality Nubian is built like a tank. Albeit, a graceful one. She should be wide, deep, and have the capacity to milk 1 - 2 gallons a day. Butterfat percentage should be right around 4% to 5% (she's the Jersey cow of the goat world).

  Temperament wise, Nubians are probably the most dramatic, vocal, and gregarious. Think "needy, clingy dog". Nubians love people, but this isn't always a good thing since some will go through almost any kind of fence to get to "their person"! The vast majority of them though are mellow, sweet creatures (and not always the brightest). Even the mellowest doe though, will still retain the signature drama; recoiling in utter horror and disgust at finding a weed in her alfalfa hay, a piece of dirt in her water, or worst of all... That you tried sneaking deworming powder into her feed!! They are divas, but somehow that just makes them all the more lovable (well, until they've escaped from their pen for the 10th time in one day...).

Pros: Generally of gentle nature, and rarely gives off -tasting milk. The high butterfat makes for sweet tasting milk that is always in high demand by the public. It also means you'll get a higher amount of solids when making cheese! Nubians come in a wide range of colors too, which is yet another factor in their popularity. They're easy to find, usually easy to sell (who in this world can resist a floppy-eared goat kid??), and their sale price is generally pretty decent.

Cons: Noise level. These goats tend to be loud; especially during breeding season, or whenever something changes. Or when they see someone outside. Or when they're *sure* that they're about to keel over from starvation since breakfast was 2 hours ago. Alright fine, they're loud. My herd name of "Goat Song" originated purely from the noise level of all my girls. 

   

  Another con is that this breed has a unique genetic defect that isn't seen in any other breed. It's called "G6S", and surprisingly enough, many normal looking goats are carriers of this fatal problem. Rather than attempt to give you the scientific spiel on what exactly it is, I will direct you to this very long, very detailed article that should answer all your questions about it: WHAT IS G6S?

  Responsible breeders will test their goats, and state each animal's status publicly on their website. However, I've seen quite a few well-known breeders tap dance around this slightly and use a sleight of words to make it look like their entire herd is G6S negative. A truly G6S negative goat will have a note that says "tested G6S normal". If the animal didn't test normal, but holds a high value to the breeder, they'll often write "G6S normal on pedigree". See what they did there? It still sounds like they're saying it's a negative animal, what it really means is, "This animal is a positive carrier, but her parents are negative, so we don't know where the positive gene came in." Now, there's a chance that this "normal on pedigree" girl may throw normal kids, but it's a bit like playing with fire. And if you're paying $1,200.00 for that kid that may or may not be normal... Well, I wish you luck, and hope you have deep pockets. So consider yourself forewarned; these are great animals, but they do have this annoying fault!

Best Fit For... The Nubian is best for someone who has a good sense of humor, a lot of patience, and doesn't have neighbors right next door! If you only have a moderate amount of space, and want only a moderate amount of milk, then this might be a good fit for you. Make sure you're ready to take on the responsibility of being a breeder though! The Nubian really needs some help to breed out those horrible steep rumps and narrow bodies; and those problems won't go away until more of us make sure that we're doing our part. 

How To Make Homemade Dairy Goat Feed

  Well looky here! We've got a new tutorial! Three cheers for Caity, who never seems to do these when she intends to!! Wait, wha? Oh never mind...

 Goat food. Recipe. More specifically, dairy goat food recipe. Yep, I live an exciting life. Instead of doing what the average 21 year old does, this one writes down and tries out recipes to feed goats. What can I say? I like to live life on the edge; with lots of danger and excitement. 'Cause, um, goat food is so -- so -- risky and thrilling? Okay, I give. I plead guilty to being a farm girl. And one who likes to cut costs when possible, increase profit, and be able to customize my own feed for my stock. That's excitement enough for me. :)

 Almost seven years ago I started looking around for a way to make my own custom feed for my milking does. The feed at the store was something like $17 for a 50 lb. bag and not only did that NOT last long, but it had corn, soy, and a bunch of empty fillers in it; none of which I wanted my does to eat since I was trying to keeping things corn free/soy free for the sake of my customers. I was pretty clueless at first. What in the world did people feed their goats back in the old days? Can you really mix your own feed? *skeptical tone and look*

  Then I found a recipe that seemed easy enough to make, proved to be cost effective, and the goats did AMAZINGLY on it. I've used this recipe ever since. I've even fed it to my dairy cows (with a slight modification that is explained below). So I thought I would share my recipe with y'all; if you're looking to try making your own feed for your caprine friends, then give this one a whirl!

Homemade Dairy Goat Ration

Ingredients:

50 lbs. Rolled barley

50 lbs. oats; whole, crushed, or rolled... Doesn't matter unless you're feeding cows. Then you want it crushed/rolled to increase digestibility.

3 lbs. Linseed meal

1 lb. kelp meal

Molasses to coat everything

The barley is essential for this mix. Barley = milk. The oats can be replaced with a different grain, but take care that you look into how that changes the protein content. This mix is supposed to come out averaging 16% to 18% protein, but you may want to check that on your own since grain can vary in protein content from area to area. 

To Mix:

1. Find a big clean tarp (those blue, 10'x12' ones work great) and a clean leaf rake. These are your grain mixing tools!

2. Dump the oats and barley onto the tarp and use that rake to start mixing it all together. This can take a few minutes.

3. Once the grain is thoroughly mixed, scatter the linseed meal and kelp meal over it all and gently spread it out. Over mixing at this point will make it all sift to the bottom, which makes the next step a bit harder...

4. Pour molasses over and mix that in too until you get a slightly tacky, but still well coated mix. How much molasses does it take? I can't say for sure. I've gotten nice thick batches of molasses where it only took 12 cups to coat 100+ lbs. of feed, and I've gotten thin batches that took loads of that sticky, sweet stuff to coat everything. I would probably suggest starting with 10-12 cups worth and then working your way up from there. It takes a LOT of mixing to really coat everything. It's almost like you have to "rub" it into the grain with that rake. When you think you've gotten everything coated, pull on a tarp corner to get the bottom flipped onto the top and then get that coated. Yep, right when you think you're done, you'll find that you're not. ;)

5. Store! I kept my grain in metal trash cans meant specifically for grain. I find that this stuff stores pretty well (I think 40-50 days is the longest I've ever had this stuff hang around before it all got eaten), although since we don't get REALLY hot days here in Oregon, or humidity, I can't say what the shelf life of it would be for those of you who get real summers.

  You may have noticed that I didn't include any salt in the mix; that's because I offer salt free choice at all times to my goats/cows. The kelp meal is a nutritional powerhouse that is packed with vitamins, minerals, and other such goodies, but not all of my goats would eat it free choice. Hiding it in the molasses coated feed got it in them no problem.

  So there you have it! It's easy to make, relatively cheap, and you are able to choose what is - or isn't - in your feed. :)

Poor Girl's Greenhouse

  For the whole spring and summer, I've been growing my microgreens outside on the back deck; they took up so little room that it worked perfectly! And then the rains came. Granted, I was delighted to finally have the rain; we needed it super bad. But my micros weren't thrilled with the sudden sogginess. It finally got to the point where the micros weren't growing at all, but rather were rotting, because of all the standing water (I'm not kidding when I say "the rains came". It was torrential and lasted for days!) 

 So I had to build some sort of protection really fast, and really cheaply. I'm a horrible builder (I can do basics if you tell me precisely where to put something), so that left me having to face a project that wouldn't fall down on me, and didn't really require wood... What I came up with was a tweaked version of things I was seeing online. It involved cattle panels, greenhouse plastic, fence posts, and wire. Ta da.

My sister helped me erect this funny little greenhouse, and all total it took us about 4 or 5 hours. In the pouring rain. It rained so hard that our Carhartt coats were drenched through (that's sayin' something!), our hats were worthless, and we could have feasibly brought out shampoo and washed our hair there and then. It was wet. But it was fun; we sang lots of songs from Pete's Dragon (I admit, that's a favorite childhood movie...).

 Anyway, you probably want details on this thing, huh? Thought so. I was originally planning it to be something like a 6.5'x15' structure, but apparently the cattle panels are shorter than I remembered... It came out as a 6.5'x13'. Oh well.

 We pounded 8 fence posts into the ground at 4' spacings, to keep the greenhouse firmly on the ground, and then used some random wire (it was leftover from the electric fence used on the pasture!) to lash three cattle panels to it. Technical, I know. I didn't really know what I was doing; just had a vague idea, and ran with it. 

 The plastic was a mistake. I didn't know what weight to get, so went with the cheaper option of buying the 4mm. Next time I will invest in the 6mm. Trust me folks, pay the extra cash and do it. Water comes through the 4mm. I'm not talking condensation here (you get that no matter what weight). I'm talking actual RAIN. If it's raining hard enough, and you're standing inside that greenhouse, you'll feel a gentle mist of drops coming right through that plastic. Which can be nice in a way; it's like having an automatic watering system. ;) Just tryin' to stay positive here. But still, go with the 6mm plastic. It's worth it. You may also notice that I have two flavors colors of plastic going on here. No idea what happened there. I thought for sure I had grabbed the exact same bags of plastic, but when I pulled them out to put them on the panels... They were different!!! *shocked look* There wasn't any time to exchange one for a matching plastic (remember the drowning micros?), so I just went with it. I like the less-clear plastic, personally. Seems to hold heat in a bit better.

To put the plastic on, all I did was dig a 6"-8" trench around three sides of the greenhouse, lay the plastic over the panels, get it snug, and then buried everything. That greenhouse ain't goin' nowhere.

You may notice in the picture above that I have pieces of cardboard behind each fence post; this keeps the metal post from ripping the plastic. My original desire was to put those rubber sleeves on the tips (you find them at farm stores; they keep animals from gutting themselves, which happens more frequently than you might think...), but once again time was the master of the day and I didn't have said rubber sleeves on hand. So ugly cardboard has to suffice for the moment.

This image below gives a closer look at our "wire lashing" job. Zip ties would have been awesome to have (that would have cut the building time down to probably 3 hours or less!), but did I have them? No. Phooey.

 I'm working on lining the back and one whole side with these handy dandy PVC shelves (this original one came with a kit from Half Pint Homestead), but until those get made, I just plop my extra trays on the ground.

  To keep vegetation at bay in there, I'm getting ready to put landscaping fabric down, and then covering everything with a generous layer of woodchips. It'll allow water drainage, look nice, and do an excellent job at smother weeds and grass.

  It took about 2 weeks for the microgreens to adjust, but now they're doing amazingly!! It gets up to an easy 80+ degrees in there by afternoon these days. I'll be working on winterizing the greenhouse over the next couple of weeks; getting a front and door on it, and then *hopefully* building a homemade solar heater.

 It's still very muchly a work in progress, but I wanted to show it to y'all nevertheless. It was cheap to make (all total it came to $85), works well, and my sister (who is taking over the business when I leave for Missouri) should be able to grow microgreens through the whole winter.

 Not bad for fence posts, cattle panels, and plastic sheeting. ;)

Start Your Own Meat CSA

 

 A few months ago, I read about the neatest idea in one of my Acres USA magazine. The article was about this thing called a "meat CSA" and the story featured a farm in Kentucky that did this. By golly was I intrigued... I knew all about vegetable CSA's (which, by the way, stands for "Community Supported Agriculture". Click the highlighted words to read more about what this is, if you're not familiar with it), but always wished the idea could somehow be tweaked to make it work for meat. Raising meat is my specialty, and my passion; the only problem with it is that it involves a VERY high start-up cost. When a single beef calf costs $500 to $700, and broiler feed is almost hitting $800 for a ton (which will only feed 150 - 180 birds), well -- it can be hard to start a meat enterprise up. Compare it all to buying seeds, which are about $2 to $4 for a packet. Beet seeds are cheaper than lambs, no matter how you look at it.

 What I wanted/needed was something like a CSA... Customers would pay upfront; either a 1-month, 6-month, or 12-month amount, which would allow me some immediate income to not only buy calves, lambs, chicks, poults, and giraffes (you still awake?), but also give me some much needed income to pay bills and buy toothpaste and  socks. The idea is to spread the income out a bit, rather than having it all come in one huge swoop when harvest season rolls around.

  So when I read the article about that Kentucky farm, I blasted out of my seat and immediately bought the Meat CSA Guide that these farmers have so clearly laid out. It. Is. Amazing. I printed the whole thing out and regularly flip through it. I may have the farm on hiatus through 2014, but hey, when I pick things back up, this could very easily be what I decide to seriously look into starting.

  While reading through my guide for the one billionth time yesterday, it occurred that I should share this treasure trove of knowledge with y'all. You can even get the guide for free now, which blows me away. Not only are these farmers giving out every secret of their business, they're even willing to answer your questions (believe me; I peppered them with my fair share). I paid for my guide at first (they used to charge $10 for their wonderful booklet), but then when they changed their mind and switched to it being free, they sent me a second guide for no cost at all. That's it; I'm impressed. They do still have the option to donate money for the guide, which I like to see (as a fellow writer, I know how much it means to get some sort of payment for your work!), so here you go folks: Go get yourself an awesome guide on how to start your own meat CSA. And feel free to give those farmers a few bucks as a 'thank you' *hint, hint. Nudge, nudge.* Yeah, I'm trying to be subtle here.

 Clicking right here will lead you to the wonderful paypal button CSA Guide!

Count Those Eggs Before They Hatch

If you've ever tried hatching your own chicken eggs, then you probably know what an annoying thing it is to not know how many males are going to end up being in that batch when they hatch. And what's worse, is that you usually still don't know who's who until the chickens are mature enough (6-8 weeks on average; some folks can guess sooner, others later) that you can tell by looks as to who's a male and who's a female. A place only needs so many roosters, you know...

A couple days ago I learned two neat tricks to telling the difference betwixt male and female chicks not only when they're 2-week old youngsters, but possibly even when they're just an egg. I can't claim that these are fool proof since I have yet to try this (dying to, now though! My curiosity is killing me!), but so far I've heard a lot of positive results from other folks about these. And hey, it can't hurt right? If you're about to let a hen go broody, or if you want one last batch of eggs in that incubator, then it sure wouldn't hurt to pay a bit more attention to those eggs, right? 

So without further ado...

Below is a diagram of the difference between "pullet eggs" and "cockerel eggs". And should you care for the link to the original article on this (to prove that I'm not going nuts and making this up), you can find that by clicking HERE. It's a Mother Earth News article, so it may take a few moments to load (or it does for me anyway).

Aaaand the second trick: Sexing chicks by their wing feathers. Okay, I personally think this is the coolest thing. The bees knees, if you will. ;) This looks so simple that I'm practically foaming at the mouth to get my hands on some tiny chicks and see for myself that this holds true. I mean, seriously, do you know how handy that would be if I knew how many pullets vs. cockerels I was looking at, so early in the game!?!? Or what if I was buying 2-3 week old chicks from a breeder and wanted to get as many females as possible!? Yep, I'm pretty excited to learn this trick. So, the handy dandy link to this new knowledge can be found by clicking HERE! The link leads to a fun looking homesteading/homeschooling/homemaking/family oriented type blog.

Have any of y'all tried either of these tricks before? How'd they work??

Homemade Colostrum Recipe

I think it must have been around 4am last night when in my deepest of deep sleeps I suddenly bolted upright in bed and thought, "I need to blog about my colostrum recipe!" 

Is this sad or what? Even in my subconscious state, I'm still thinking about my writing. Hopeless, am I. But I think it might have had something to do with the fact that I was dreaming that Heidi kidded (why that goat was back here at GSF, I don't know...) and had thirteen goat kids. All at once. And I was panicking because I had no colostrum to feed thirteen newborn goats. Apparently I shouldn't eat chocolate chip cookies right before going to bed... They seem to give me funny dreams. Hehe. ;)

Strange dreams aside, I figured that since kidding/calving/lambing/what-have-you season is still going for some of us, y'all might find this recipe handy. I used this recipe with Sudden Distraction, and then again with Lyric since neither of their dams had colostrum. Lyric's dam, Jupiter, had a full udder at kidding time, but when I milked her out for the first time, I was surprised to see that it was milk and not colostrum!! No idea why she never had colostrum, but at that finding, I whipped out my ingredients and made some homemade colostrum for Lyric, and I'm happy to report that the little lady thrived in it.

So here you go! :)

Homemade Colostrum for animals:

• 3 Cups milk (preferably raw and whole. In a pinch you can use storebought, but results may vary.)
• 1 egg; lightly whipped
• 1 Tablespoon sugar, honey, or corn syrup. Whichever one you've got.
• 1 teaspoon cod liver oil. This ingredient is somewhat optional... It's there to provide vitamin A, but I've never put it in my colostrum mix simply because I don't have any!! And so far my youngsters have done fine without the oil. (Warning: If you DO put cod liver oil in your colostrum mix, just know that your house is going to *reek*. And the smell sticks to skin... Ask me how I know this. Ugh.)

Put all the ingredients in a pot and slowly warm everything until the sweetener has dissolved. Then put in a glass jar, and store in the fridge. I wouldn't keep this stuff any longer than 1 week before starting a new batch.

One thing I like to add to my bottles, whether it's colostrum or milk, is Slippery Elm powder. For goats/lambs/puppies I put in 1 teaspoon of powder to each feeding (this is for standard size goat kids; if you have Dwarfs, then you might do a 1/2 tsp.). For calves I'll do 2-3 teaspoons (depending on size; jersey size calves get the lesser, holstein size calves get the larger). Slippery Elm stops all possibilities of scouring in its tracks. I've been in a position where I've had to switch milks on short notice with goat kids; suddenly going from raw goat milk, to milk replacer, to half goat milk - half store bought cow milk. It was erratic, and I feared the kids would scour and die on me. But it never happened. Their manure never even changed, since I was giving them slippery elm powder at every feeding. Elm powder is also high in nutrients and gives the animals dense bone structure, strong, shiny hair, and strengthens the nerves. I don't know about you, but I want my youngsters, whether they're goat kids or puppies, to have all that!

P.S. Just in case you're wondering if this recipe is legit or not, I would encourage you to Google it; you'll find the same recipe on many websites, and I've even seen it in a few livestock books. I didn't make it up, if that makes you feel any better. ;)

Basic Broiler Challenge: Week ???

*Ahem*. I got really behind in doing the BBC didn't I? I'm surprised y'all didn't start throwing tomatoes, or ranting and raving madly, or just leaving! Do you want me to start reeling off excuses, or shall I just pick up where I left off? Hmm, I'm going with the latter choice.

But I will say this! It's REALLY hard to take pictures of a chicken single-handedly when the bird gets to 5 lbs. or more. And it's also hard to take pictures when it's raining non-stop. And this particular person doesn't like to blog when she doesn't have pictures. (oh, do those count as excuses??)

But I'm going to blog without pictures anyway. This is getting ridiculous, how long I've stretched this out!

So, where on earth did I leave off?? Hmm, looks like Week #6 was the last update you got... Ouch. That was November 1st!! But on that last post, the Freedom Rangers were each averaging 3 lbs. live weight, and they were officially off grain and on to their milk/cheese/sprout diet. So in this stretch of silence, what happened??

I'm going to spit out the piece of news that you probably want to hear the most: It worked. In the end, the alternative diet worked. And it worked AMAZINGLY. 

Things got really crazy after week #6 because I began drying my cow up, and the goats dried up. So I had to start relying on frozen milk, frozen cheese, and frozen whey that I had stored up. The fodder was also starting to grow slower and slower since we were getting into the cold months. But I had enough of everything to get me to week # 12.

So, week by week, what on earth happened with those birds!?

Let's start back at week #6 for a recap:
Weights at that time were 3 lbs. per bird in my group, and roughly 1.5 lbs. per bird in my friends' group.

I had no idea how much to feed these birds, or how much of each thing, so I was totally going on gut instinct, and watching the birds to see how they did. In the end, the fodder was free fed; meaning I tried to keep it in there at all times, so that they always had food in front of them. With the 25 Freedom Rangers, at 6-7 weeks of age, I was going through 6-8 lbs. of fodder a day. I didn't have a lot of cheese, since my dairy animals had just failed me (thank you 'o cow and goats! Right when I needed you! *insert unamused look*), so I only fed that to them 2x's a day, and gave 1-2 lbs. at each time. One gallon of milk made 2 lbs. of cheese, so it was easy enough to know that each gallon I got would create a day's worth of food. I alternated between the milk and whey, so that I wouldn't run out of either one too fast. For that though, I would fill a 1-gallon poultry waterer with a 1/2 gallon of milk and the birds were allowed to drink that. I experimented with taking away their water for a few hours at a time so that they only had access to the dairy, but I don't think I would do that in the summer time when the birds have heat stress to deal with. I found that the birds would only drink a 1/2 gallon of milk/whey each day; anymore than that and it would just sit and spoil.

Week #7:

The birds had officially been on the alternative diet for 2 weeks, and weights were as follows:

My group:
Average individual weight: 3.5 lbs.

Friends' group:
Average individual weight: 2 lbs.

Week 8:

My group:
Average individual weight: 4 lbs.

Friends' group: 2.3 lbs.

This is where things got crazy... The birds were eight weeks old, full feathered, and had minds of their own. They started flying out of their brooder boxes and getting into each others. If it wasn't for the weight difference, and the fact that my birds were bigger, there would have been no way to tell who's birds were whose! I was getting really stressed out with 52 chickens running rampant in my barn; it wasn't a good situation! I was on the last week in milking my cow and ultimately that's what caused a snap. I was milking once a day, and as soon as I turned on the milking machine and hit the point where I really couldn't leave the cow, in came 30 to 40 Freedom Rangers, all trying to get Mattie's feed!! This was an absolute no-no; birds of any sort are NOT allowed in the milking stall. I put my Freedom Rangers in a kidding pen that was empty, but had no where to put my friends' 27 birds! So I ended up having to give their birds back to them, and finishing my project with only my birds.

Week 9:
Average individual weight: 4.5 lbs.
Average group weight: 112.5 lbs.

Week 10:
Average individual weight: 5 lbs.
Average group weight: 125 lbs.

Week 10 was about when their appetites really began to pick up. Fodder consumption increased to an easy 10 lbs. a day, and they probably would have eaten more. I was no longer giving it as a "free feed" because we were now heading into the beginning of December, and my fodder was getting harder and harder to grow. Milk and cheese consumption stayed the same though. The cheese really seemed to make an impact on their weight gain; I noticed that without the dairy, they didn't do as well. Next time I do this, I would like to try experimenting with feeding more cheese; maybe 6-8 lbs. a day per 25 birds. Just to see if it increases growth rate noticeably or not.

Week 11:
Average individual weight: 5.5 lbs.
Average group weight: 137.5 lbs.

Week 12:
Average individual weight: 6 lbs.!
Average group weight: 150 lbs.

By 12 weeks, the birds were big enough to be butchered. They were the same weight that my Cornish X's hit at 8-9 weeks. It cost me $700 to raise one hundred Cornish X's in the traditional feeding manner (grain. Expensive grain.). Raising one hundred meat birds on the alternative diet would only cost $84. I don't know about you, but I'll take that second price over the first one. I went through a bag and a half of whole wheat for sprouting, and the milk was extra that otherwise would have been dumped because I had no room for it in the fridge.

So, where are those Freedom Rangers right now? Um... Wreaking havoc in my barn. *sheepish look* Yeah, they're still on the hoof. December turned out to be extremely busy for the local processors, and they couldn't fit me in anywhere until January. Then when January came, I didn't have the funds at the moment to be butchering them all. Time sort of just rolled by after that... And they're still here. Hehe. But personally, that really says something about the Freedom Rangers. With the Cornish Crosses, I am SO sick of those birds by 6 weeks. By eight weeks of age I hate them so much that it ain't funny. I've never gone more than 9 weeks with a Cornish X. The Freedom Rangers are now something like 5 months old, and they've been a lot of fun to keep around. The females should begin laying soon, and I suppose I really should get the males butchered before they figure out how to crow!!

Average weight at 5 months? 13 lbs.! These birds are HUGE!

All in all, I would say my Basic Broiler Challenge was a success. I set out to see if meat birds couldn't be fed more cheaply, and I found that they could. I want to order some Cornish X's (yes, even though I hate them) soon and see about raising a test batch of maybe 50 birds on the alternative diet. Since these birds need a higher octane feed than the FR chickens, I think I might see about giving them fermented grain as well, since that's such a high protein. Chicken sells well around here; I just need to figure out how to make it cost effective to raise them! And if this alternative diet idea works with the Cornish X's like it did for the Freedom Rangers, then this could be a very good side business to have along with the dairy...

So. Questions?

Fermented Grain: The Old Timer's Secret

Last autumn, I was told a little secret by an old timer.

Our conversation was done completely via the computer, as the gentleman lived in Alabama, and I'm here in Oregon. He raised nearly-forgotten breeds of cockfighting fowl such as the Plucker, Sweater, and Roundhead; and whether he takes part in that sport or not, I won't say. But his birds were beautiful, and the man knew what he was about when it came to livestock. He was old enough to be my grandpa; possibly old enough to be my great-grandpa, and that's what I was looking for. I seek out these old timers because of the wealth of knowledge these people have. They grew up in different times than what I know. And I want to know what they know. These older people are treasures.

Our conversation started because he mentioned that he fed only fermented grains to his animals and that was all, besides what they foraged for themselves. My ears perked at this; always on the lookout for a cheaper alternative to grain, I wondered what this whole "fermented grain" thing was about. He told me about it, and I was intrigued enough that I tried it that week. Now I'm hooked. And I thought I would share his secret with y'all too, since you can feed fermented grains to your meat animals, your laying hens, and your dairy animals, and not only will it save you some cash, but it does amazing things for your animal's health. The clincher for me though, was that when you ferment grain it raises the protein content to 18% to 21%. That bag of dried barley sitting in my barn is only 11% protein, which isn't enough to make milk, meat or eggs. It needs something to pick that protein up, and most folks have to add something like alfalfa, linseed meal, BOSS, or what-have-you. Protein is expensive. I don't like expensive.

So what is it, already!?!? Yeah, I hear you... :) 

In a nutshell, fermented grain is:

. Any grain you can lay your hands on

. Apple cider vinegar; raw, and with the "mother" in it.

. Water

Seriously, that's all.

Okay, let's start this off with explaining a small batch (I make a gargantuan batch, which I will explain shortly).

Pour some grain into a 5-gallon bucket. You can measure this out, but you don't have to. It won't spoil, because of the ACV. You can use whole grain, cracked grain, rolled grain, a mix of grains... The only thing I don't know is if you want de-hulled grain or not. I think it would be fine (considering how this works), but I have yet to try using something like hulled oats. But now that I think about it, I may have to try it soon, since whole oats are super cheap in my area. Anyway, I'm currently using rolled barley, just because that's easy for me to get, relatively cheap, and I was feeding it to my milk cow along with my meat animals, and the cow needed rolled grain for digestibility. 

Okey dokey, so you've got that grain sitting in the bucket? Good. Now, cover the grain with enough water that it's 3" to 4" above the grain level after the grain has absorbed some of that liquid. So basically, just cover the grain and if you notice that your grain absorbed everything, just throw in some more. I know, I'm an extremely technical person here. Should have been a scientist or something...

Now for the fun part. Put a glug of ACV in yon bucket. This is the part that makes people balk. "What on earth is a "glug!?" Sigh. I am the type of person who cooks by the "pinch of this, dash of that" method. I hate measuring. So a "glug" totally works for me. But if you are the kind of person who needs specific instructions, then try this: Pour 1/4 to 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar in your bucket. If you filled it halfway full of grain, then use 1/4 C. of ACV. If you packed that thing full, then go with a 1/2 C. of the stuff. 

cover your bucket loosely and let it sit somewhere quiet. I just take my bucket lid and set it on top without actually sealing it. It's mostly just to keep invaders (hint, hint, you pesky chickens!) out and the grain in. You don't want to seal it because of the fermenting that's about to happen! Actually, that might be a kind of fun experiment to try... I did that with a bucket of molasses once. The stuff fermented inside a sealed container, blew up from the pressure, and went flying at least eight feet across the barn. And I missed the takeoff moment. -_- All I found was a mess to clean.

But there I go, getting sidetracked! 

So you've got your grain all wet and sitting somewheres? Alright, if the weather is warm (which it obviously is not right now; but spring and summer are coming!) then in 24 hours you should have bubbles a'bubbling in your bucket. That's what we're looking for. When you see the bubbles, then you know you've reached your goal! Fermentation!! Whoop, whoop! If it's cold, then it's going to take longer. How much longer, I can't say since I do not get the cold weather that some of you get! But with my winter temps dropping to 20 degrees (balmy weather to you East Coasters, right??) I was finding that it took 2-3 days before I saw bubbles. The bacteria required for fermentation needs warmth to really do its job. If you're using the 5-gallon bucket method, then you might think about bringing it inside to ferment. I promise it doesn't stink.

You would feed the fermented grain in the same quantities as normal grain. I usually pull out the amount needed, and let it drain for a bit since my dairy animals don't like eating wet food. The meat animals never cared. It may take a while for some animals to get used to eating it, since it *is* fermented after all... And wet. My cow balked at it for the longest time. My pigs adore it.

One thing you DO need to do, no matter the batch size, is to keep oxygen injected in your bucket. If you're pulling grain out every day to feed to animals, then that's fine. If not, then just give it a quick stir or two, and that'll do it. I *ahem* was wondering what would happen if no oxygen was injected into a batch... And I found that you get the world's most epic science project in mold growth if it's left stagnant. My experiments sometimes get a little out of hand... *sheepish look*

You can scale this idea up or down as much as you want. Like I mentioned earlier, I make a BIG batch of grain. I use a plastic, 55-gallon drum that I dump about 100 lbs. of grain into. It takes I don't even know how many buckets of water to fill that thing... And then I pour about a 1/2 gallon of ACV in it all and use a big stick to stir it every day. LOL. This stuff sits for a really long time, and the longer it sits the more fermented it gets and the better it is. As long as you don't have mold, your grain is only going to get better and better. The gentleman who taught me this always said that he got his very best feed at the end of winter, when he was scraping the bottom of his barrels and the grain had fermented so much that you had a hard time telling that it was grain. That was the stuff he used when he wanted a bloom on his animal's feathers or coat. 

So there you have it! By fermenting my grain, I've been able to go from paying $40 for 100 lbs. of 18% protein feed, to $15 for 100 lbs. of grain that will be fermented. And I could probably get that price down still more if I looked for better prices. 

To wrap this little tutorial up:

.Pour grain in bucket.

. Cover with water.

. Put in a glug of ACV.

. Feed when you see bubbles!

I am SO trying this next spring!

How cool is this!? I found directions on how to make your own top bar beehive out of half a rain barrel ( AKA, a 55 gallon drum), and scrap wood! I absolutely adore bees and have been wanting hives of my own for I don't even know how many years... I've seen both the traditional hives in action (known as "langstroth" hives), as well as the not-as-common "Warre" hives, and the other top-bar style known as the "honey cow" (which is what this rain barrel masterpiece is also known as). I personally like the top bar hives over the langstroth hives. But personal opinions aside, this rain barrel hive looks way too cool not to try when March swings around and my local bee keepers have a few pounds of bees to sell me. 

You can find the directions for this honey cow by clicking HERE!

How To Make Your Own Apple Cider Vinegar

Ta da! As promised, here is the latest tutorial here at the blog, and today we'll be going over how to make your own apple cider vinegar. But wait! Why one earth would you want ACV around your house anyway, and what's it good for? Oh I'm so glad to asked!

Apple cider vinegar is one of my "miracle cures" here on the farm. I use it for cleaning (in place of bleach), for boosting the immunity levels of the animals, for treating hoof rot (apply undiluted 2-3x's daily), it is rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements, which are all quickly and easily absorbed into the system, and for use in the house and home, it makes unbelievable pie crusts (use instead of water). You can Google the benefits of raw apple cider vinegar and you'll find huge lists of pros. I love this stuff. It's awesome. 

When I use it for the animals, which is the main reason I keep it around, I usually pour 1--2 cups of vinegar for every 5 gallons of water. 

So, with all that being said, how do we go about making our own vinegar?

Step 1. Grab yourself a glass or ceramic bowl of any size (go by how big of a batch you would like to make). Don't use plastic or metal though... Neither one of those are vinegar friendly.

Step 2. Put a whole bunch of apple pieces in there. Whenever I'm making an apple pie, or we're dehydrating apples, all the peelings and cores are used for vinegar making instead of being thrown away or fed to the chickens. This is a perfect time to make yourself an apple pie, and then by the end of the day not only will you have a scrumptious snack cooling on the counter, but you'll have a batch of vinegar started as well! Whoohoo!  

Don't fill your bowl *too* full of apple pieces. And yes, even the apple seeds can be thrown in. :)

Okay, Step 3! Fill your bowl with water so that your apples are covered by a good 1 inch. If your apple pieces are light like mine, then they'll probably float annoyingly. Just growl at it a few times and then leave it at that. You really can't teach apples to "sit and stay" unfortunately. 

Step 4 is optional. You can put 1/4 cup of sugar in the bowl for every quart of water you have in there. This speeds up the fermentation process, but if you're in no hurry then you might as well save your sugar for the pie.

If you do want to put the sugar in though, just pour it in and then stir the apples around to distribute the sweet stuff evenly.

 Step 5: Put a glass plate over your bowl and place the whole thing in a dark, cool area. I keep my small batches in our pantry; the bigger batches just have to get over it and be in the barn. Leave the bowl sitting quietly for a week! 

Step 6: When the week is up, strain your fruity smelling liquid into a mason jar and feed the slightly fermented apples to the chickens, or throw it in the compost. What you'll have in your jar will be pale colored and have a slight vinegar smell to it. 

Step 7. Find some loosely woven muslin and place it over your jar to act as a lid! Your vinegar needs to continue to "breathe" and the loose weave will allow the good bacteria that you want to get in there. It will also keep the vinegar smell at bay, believe it or not. I have 1 gallon of vinegar fermenting in the pantry, but you would never be able to tell by sticking your nose in there. Once you take the muslin off though, watch out! 

Once you've done that, put the jar back in your dark, cool spot and let it sit another week. It's going to take 6 weeks from here on out before your ACV is ready, so be prepared!

Once a week, you will have to take the muslin off and give your vinegar a stir. On the very top of your liquid, you will see a bubbly, fermented disc. This is normal, and you want it! This bubbly thing is called the "mother" and it means that everything is going as it should be. As your vinegar ages, the disc may begin to take on a different look then what is in my picture below, and it may begin to become more solid. That too is normal, and just means that the mother is working. 

You may also see a sediment on the bottom of your jars, which is a good thing. :)

Believe it or not, that's really all there is to it! Just stir the mother up once a week, and when six weeks have passed, you can replace the muslin for a real lid and then your apple cider vinegar is ready for use! It will also darken dramatically as it ages, and will look and smell just like the stuff from the store. 

Apples + water = apple cider vinegar. It's cool stuff.

New Tutorial Coming Soon!

I have another tutorial in the works, but this new one will be about how to make your own homemade apple cider vinegar! I have 3 gallons of my own ACV in the works, and have been delighted at how easy this is to make. I use ACV in a million different ways, especially with the animals, and can easily go through 1-2 gallons each week! 

2 week old batch of apple cider vinegar!

Fodder Tutorial! AKA: How To Sprout Grain for Livestock!

I've been promising this post for how long now?? Never mind, don't tell me...

So, ahem, *cough, cough*, yes I was a little tardy in getting the pictures taken, but I have them here today! So without further ado, here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to sprout grain for your livestock. Whether you have 3 backyard chickens, or a herd of dairy cattle, this idea offers some unique savings and other benefits. And best of all? It is WAY easier than you think. :) 

First off, what do you need to get started? Hang on to your hats folks, because I have a really technical list.

Two 5-gallon buckets

7-14 black plastic gardening trays (these measure 11"x21")

Wheat or barley (whole, and from your local feed store)

No one fainted at the sight of the expensive list, did they? Oh good. 

You certainly don't have to use the black plastic trays that I have listed, but they really are the *perfect* size for this. you can fit exactly one pound of soaked grain in them, which will yield roughly 8 lbs. of fodder (I've been getting some 9+ pounders lately!). Most Wilco's, Tractor Supplies, and gardening stores will have these trays and they may or may not have pre-drilled holes in them. If you find trays that already have holes, then consider yourself lucky and know that I am jealous. All my local Wilco has are the solid bottomed ones... If you too have solid bottom trays, then prepare yourself for an afternoon of drilling! I drilled holes roughly every 1/2 inch and only on the lower grooves of the tray. Long, tedious work... Or at least when you have a heavy battery powered drill!

You need between 7 and 14 of these trays; depending on how much you want to sprout. If you only want to be harvesting 8 lbs. of fodder a day, then you'll do fine with filling one tray each day, and thus only need 7 of these things. If you want 16 lbs. of fodder, or two trays worth each day, then you need 14 trays. Obviously, if you need more or less than these figures, then you simply adjust your needs and numbers accordingly. 

You may have noticed in the first picture that the bucket on its side had holes in the bottom of it. This is your draining bucket, so once you're done drilling holes in those black trays, get ready to drill more holes in a 5-gallon bucket!! 

Now it's time to get down to business. With sprouting, there are two basic rules to this thing: Keep it wet, keep it draining. You can sprout grain any way you can possibly imagine, just make sure that the grain stays wet and draining at all times! 

So you have your buckets, you have your trays, and you should have your grain now. Barley is the absolute BEST grain for sprouting (highest yield, highest nutrition, easiest to grow), while wheat is an extremely close second choice. I'm currently sprouting wheat because my feed store was out of barley... Oats are the hardest grain to sprout (bummer... such a cheap grain!), but not entirely impossible. It sprouts erratically, has a low yield (I think I got 3--4 lbs. per lb. of grain), and a lower level of nutrition compared to barley/wheat. You don't need any fancy grains, just tell the the feed store folks that you want whole grains for livestock consumption. 

Okey dokey, so assuming you would like to sprout one tray of fodder a day, grab yourself a quart sized mason jar and fill 'er up. This should be pretty darn close to a pound, and even if it's a bit under or over, that's okay. If you want to sprout 2 trays a day, then get 2 scoops of grain. You see where I'm going with this? Three trays equals three scoops, four trays equals four scoops... I think you probably get it.

Now, dump that there pound of grain into your 5-gallon bucket that DOES NOT have holes in it. It's just too hard to keep water in a bucket that has holes in it, so I really wouldn't recommend trying to soak your grain in your second bucket which is riddled with them. (I tease; I'm a teaser)

Cover the grain with a doubled amount of water and let it sit for 12 hours.

Once 12 hours have passed, THEN you get to pull out your holey bucket (notice the 'E' in there... No I did not say your "holy bucket"). I keep my draining bucket propped up on two bricks to aid in drainage.

Pour your bucket of water and soaked grain into the drainage bucket and let 'er rip.

When all the water has drained out, you will be left with plump-looking, squishy grain. 

You can do two different things now: You can either pour the grain into your plastic trays and begin sprouting. Or you can leave the grain in the draining bucket for 12 hours with a second bucket stacked inside. Put a couple pounds-worth of water into the second bucket to act as a weight. I think this step gives you a bit of a better germination rate, but I'm not positive on that. 

Either way, you'll eventually get to the step where you put the grain into the trays. If you have soaked more than 1 lb. of grain, then you just have to eyeball the amounts to divide into each tray. Rule of thumb though, is that you don't want the grain to be any deeper than 3/4" in each tray. Too shallow, and the grain will dry too quickly. Too deep, and it will rot. 

Once the grain is in the trays, your job is to water it thoroughly 2-3x's each day. I'm finding that with this cool, damp weather that we've been having lately, I can easily get away with watering only twice a day. If temps are still in the 70's and up for you, then you need to water 3x's a day. if the grain dries up, then you have yourself a botched batch on your hands.

When I first started sprouting, I kept my trays in the barn. Sprouts don't need direct sunlight, and mine did really well in there. I had an old crib side (so many uses for those things!) that I stacked on top of some old 3.5 gallon buckets, and this became my sprouting area. The crib side allowed free drainage for the sprouts whenever I watered them, but still kept them up off the ground. However, I had to stop doing that a couple weeks ago since the sparrows started mutilating my little crop!!! I kept the grain loosely covered with empty feed bags, but that still wouldn't stop those pesky birds. Grrr.

So plan B. Our raised garden beds are pretty much empty this time around, so I am simply laying some clear plastic over the tops, and keeping my sprout trays inside there. It works nicely since the soil still allows good drainage, and I think I'm getting better yields since the roots are able to wiggle their toes into soil for a short spell. 

Your sprouts won't look very impressive for the first 3 days. If you look closely you'll see tiny white threads emerging, but it's not until the 3rd or 4th day that you realize that something is happening here... You're growing fodder!

Day 3--4

Day 3--4

 Once you reach that halfway point where your tray looks like a sea of octopus tentacles, the sprouts take off and grow like -- well -- weeds.

Day 5

Day 5

Day 6

 By day 7 or 8, you will have a magnificent tray of sprouts before you, and it will look something like this:

During warm/hot weather, you may have sprouts that are ready by 6 days and can be up to 5-6 inches tall, but I find that in cold weather it takes about 8 days before it's ready and will only be 3-4 inches tall. There's no exact rule as to how long you need to wait before feeding, so just go with a gut instinct on this (or how quickly you need fodder!).

Here's a side shot to show you what it looks like. You can see the sprouted grain in the middle, while the roots are all a tangled web beneath it. Yes, you feed the entire thing; roots and all!

Another look at the root mat...

When feeding sprouts to poultry, I like to shred it up like in the picture below. I find that the birds have an easier time eating the whole plant, whereas if it's in clumps then they may only peck the empty grain shells and leave the greens. 

If the sprouts are going to hoofstock, then I cut the rectangle up into chunks with a knife. 

Final step: Feeding time! Peaches adores her fodder!

So there you have it. It's pretty basic and simple once you get the hang of it. Keep it wet, keep it draining, and you'll be fine.