New adventures on the farm!

[Crabby-Chicken]

We have tried to raise more of our own food, as close to organically as we can. We started out with a couple dairy calves, We enjoy them and when their time comes they dont even know what is coming. They are treated well with lots of land to room and anything they need. Then for a year we dont have to buy beef at the store!!!

So now we are trying pigs,,,We will let them have a bigger area when they are older, making pastures for them to roam. Our horses thought we hadlost our minds! Anyone else raising their own food animals?

 

[chandab]

We raise beef cattle, not just for ourself, its what we do; so we have our pick of steers in the fall to grow out.

 

[laughingllama75]

We raise our own beef, milk and pork (we do a hog for our friends who do our broilers). It is the best health decision we ever made.....no more antibiotics pouring into our body everytime we eat, no more (well, 99% less!) chance of salmonella poisoning from poultry.

We love raising them.........and like you said, they have a great life, right up to the end when they stick their head into a big fat feed bucket and we dispatch them with a gunshot. No going to a slaughterhouse, filled with horrid smells and the fear of being transported somewhere strange.

I wish everyone could raise their own....

 

[sfmini]

We had a Jersey Steer a year ago, and this year we have two angus/hereford cross heifers. The steer was Harry Hamburger, the girls are Lucy and Ethyl.

Harry was a nice guy, had been handled a lot so was tame, the girls are pretty wild.

We have a neighbor with chickens, and he gives us his excess eggs, about 2 dozen a week show up on our front porch. Very tasty, I have taken to mixing one with egg beaters and a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese and scrambling in the microwave for breakfast at work. Nice and fluffy and below 200 calories.

I am staying away from all of the animals these days because of a broken fibula that won't heal. Spending 10 hours a day wearing a bone growth stimulator and not gonna risk messing things up. Avoiding surgery this way. So far it "appears" to be working.

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

LL75 that sounds great! I am thinking I would like to trade a half hog for pasture chickens. Maybe I will try an ad on Craigslist!

Jody I hope it works well! Sounds very painful! How was Harry Hamburger? We are going to send a holstein this year. But from then on it will be jersey calves. So is the jersey beef as good as I hear it is?

 

[bevann]

We grow some of our own stuff.Have lots of sheep and neighbor gives us venison and elk in exchange for keeping his work truck in our locked fenced in area at the back of the farm.I have a black thumb so not too much in the way of a garden except a few tomato plants which I don't manage to kill.I go to the orchard and pick peaches to put in the freezer.Karl picks the strawberries to go in the freezer.Karl's son was an Ag major and taught at the local university for a while .He just bought a 6 acre property and is trying to live self sufficient.4 girls under 12 who are very involved in 4H.He works part time and wife works full time.Said if both worked full time they would add only $20 per week to income due to day care etc.He raises rabbits to sell as meat and pets, boer goats, lambs and has chickens and just got 3 pigs..Does all his own butchering.Girls have a large garden.I think he is on his way to self sufficiency in a few years. I like the idea of raising my own food, but at my age and with my joint issues it is just not possible for me to do at this stage in my life.

 

[Ashley]

I have a steer I raised that should be ready to butcher this fall, only prob is I don't like hamburger so not sure what I will do with it. I also bought a pig last fall, she's pretty tasty but again I need to find a home for some of her meat as I will never use it all by fall.

My brothers boys and girl each have chickens so we buy eggs from them, but not much of an egg person either.

 

[sfmini]

Harry was very tasty. I didn't know dairy breeds had good meat but it really is.

We also have a huge garden, that is Pete's domain, he even cans.

 

[REO]

That's the way to do it

I grew up with deer hunting and other farm stuff.

But knowing me, I'd not be able to let them become food once I've petted the critters (and I would LOL)

so If I had some they'd have to be raised and dispatched away from me LOL! Then bring me the meat to cut up and cook!

 

[Lil Eowyn]

Good for you! =)

My mom is an organic freak, but I'm glad because our family is healthy. We get raw milk from a farm, and my beef from a farmer (My Grandpa is retired as a beef farmer). We get our bread from a certain bakery, and jelly and honey from different farmers too. We usually have oatmeal in the mornings, but we also have cereal not the sugar kinds, but like Rice Krispies or stuff like that Most of my family hunts, (I'm the only girl in my fam who does) and we eat what we shoot.

 

[little lady]

We hunt some of the meat we eat, when we make our won sausage we buy a hog from a local farmer who raises natural and I plant a small garden which is usally more than enough for us. Once we retire we want to raise our own hogs and chickens again.

 

[mickeymoto]

My hubs does a large garden, and get eggs from my neighbor. She does not charge me, as they used to be my chickens! I had a petting zoo form many years, so am unable to raise my own meat. Don't have a problem with it, just cannot do it myself. I am a wimp. Like someone else said, once I pet it, I am a goner, and I pet everthing, because I like animals more than most people

 

[Riverrose28]

Many years ago we raised a beefalow, that is cross between a angus and a buffaloo. I fell in love with him, when we got him I had to nurse him, brush him and halter tame him. He had the most beautiful long black hair! I named him cyclone as he would run in circles. I was younger of course, and if he got out of the pasture I would jump on my horse and round him up, fun days. Then came the day my hubby brought him into the barn and put him in a stall. He was to be fattened up and slaughtered. I cried, and couldn't go to the barn for a month till the dead was done. I'll never do that again. I do eat deer and we have raised broiler hens. Now we do have some chickens and I eat the eggs, but my livestock days are over! I get too attached to furry babies with four legs, guess it's the mom in me. WE have ahuge garden though and I can so much it's unreal, green beans, lima, black eyed peas, peas, yellow squash, potaoes, onions, corn, succinii, pumpkin, watermelon, all kinds of peppers and tomatoes. I also make my own jams and jellies, we have grape, blackberry, and strawberry, and have won many times at the fair. I also make breads and freeze them from what we grow. My salsa is to die for. I probably left our a few veggies but you get the idea. So if you are in my area and want to trade some meat for veggies, let me know.

 

[sundancer]

I do the vegtables but I cant do the critters. I get attached, they would become pets. I dont eat that much meat anyways

J

Julie

Victory Pass Stable

Maine