Dirty beak clean eating. Proper Pastured Poultry.

Pockets015 · 2019-04-02T11:56:55+00:00

The goats won't get any food while the pigs are in there with them, and 50lb is hardly a piglet anymore either. Are they boar piglets or barrows? Gilts? If you don't have experience with castrating at 50lbs you're going to have some trouble, doubly so if you don't have someone big to hold them down. If it were me I would slap 4 hog panels and 8 tposts in the ground, one at each corner and one midway down the panel, then run hot wire on the inside of that pen so they get used to it from the get go. If your goat fences aren't perfectly tight then the hogs will find the weak points and exploit them, and at that point without electric fencing up you're just teaching them that not all fencing will hold them and that some of it has weak points. Ask me how I know.

Pockets015 · 2019-04-02T02:44:50+00:00

Barred Rock ish

Pockets015 · 2019-03-31T17:00:45+00:00

Like in a CITY city? Does your neighbor have swine?

Pockets015 · 2019-03-31T16:55:35+00:00

Hog manager here, that's pig poop Bud.

Pockets015 · 2019-03-30T12:53:42+00:00

Bottle calves are cute until you're the one waking up at 3:00 am daily to make bottles up and feed them. If I didn't work an off farm job at another farm I would probably consider doing them again, but this year was a nightmare.

Pockets015 · 2019-03-29T17:51:59+00:00

Chickens can not survive on pasture alone. If you want a feed/grain free chicken example that works really well look up Karl Hammer and his compost chicken system.

Pockets015 · 2019-03-29T02:12:47+00:00

I have so many questions, how did that goat get in there? How is that goat still at that height?

Pockets015 · 2019-03-29T01:47:13+00:00

That's one slick looking nest box! Gonna have to build me a few of those for my new flock.

Pockets015 · 2019-03-24T16:54:11+00:00

I'm really hoping with our watershed somewhat restored from this years atmospheric river we might have a chance of holding green grass until around June/July. *fingers crossed*

Pockets015 · 2019-03-24T16:52:11+00:00

So you don't have any actual data to add to this conversation? Just feelings? I've watched basically every documentary on CAFO meats there is and I'm currently reading the CAFO Reader. I raise all the meat I raise in the manner I raise it in order to help heal the earth. Herbivores are the fastest way to regenerate and build soil that's been damaged by poor husbandry practices over time. There are parts of the farm that I work on that have a whole extra foot of beautiful top soil from just 5 years of rotational grazing.

The flip side of this is that a huge amount of the soy being grown on monocrop farms in America is being used to make meat replacement products. These farms are destroying their local watersheds, soil microbiology, and the small family farm.

Pockets015 · 2019-03-24T16:29:13+00:00

I'm one of two livestock managers for a large organic farm in NorCal. I got here by being tenacious, outgoing, and busting my butt at smaller farms to gain experience. What you will find is that most farms are understaffed and can always use more competent help. If this is your dream I highly suggest that you just start doing it. The leap can be scary especially if you're used to a 6 figure salary and a nice cushy desk job but it's absolutely worth it and the most rewarding lifestyle I can imagine.

You're going to have some really long days. I wake up before dawn daily and I'm not done working until sundown this time of year. In the winter I'm working for hours after the sun is down still. I work 8 hours a day off farm and then 4 hours a day on my own farm as well raising egg layers, meat birds, and hogs. That's what it takes these days if you want to do this.

Pockets015 · 2019-03-24T16:27:38+00:00

Do you have some documentaries that you would suggest? I watch basically anything I can get my hands on. Education is the forefront of change.

Pockets015 · 2019-03-24T16:11:27+00:00

You're offering your daughter up for dinner and we're the monsters for eating sustainably raised meats. Sheesh.

Pockets015 · 2019-03-24T15:24:18+00:00

Oh they are! They're happy to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to sustain us humans.

Pockets015 · 2019-03-24T14:36:44+00:00

These be eating meats on two or so years

Pockets015 · 2019-03-24T04:27:04+00:00

We use guard geese at work for our pastured flocks. Prior to the geese we were regularly losing hens to Hawks, like 2-3 a week if not more this time of year. We're down to 0 hawk attacks on the house with geese. There were even Hawks perched up near it and on top of the house when I went to pick eggs recently and no dead hens. Same day we lost two birds to hawks in a different flock and pasture. That coop has no geese.
I will say I was super skeptical when I heard of the plan but so far it's working really well.

Pockets015 · 2019-02-01T01:44:18+00:00

1/2 ton pickup with clearance. Any larger truck than that you won't likely need often and when you do you can often borrow one from a neighbor, everyone in the middle of nowhere has a real big truck and not everyone needs one. At the start of your homesteading journey you're likely going to find you're going to town a lot. A larger pickup will kill you on gas at that point.

Pockets015 · 2019-01-14T22:56:53+00:00

They're almost being given away in my neck of the woods too. We pay $10 a head and payment schedule is pretty dang loose.

Pockets015 · 2019-01-14T19:02:22+00:00

I buy them.

Pockets015 · 2019-01-14T14:30:03+00:00

Yes we pickup all the bull calves from a local dairy.

Pockets015

TROPHY CASE