Homesteading and Hobby Farm/Ranch

Sludig · Oct 28, 2024

Got 2 ibc water totes. One got cut up as a square bale feeder, One I'm going to use to pickup bulk cattle cubes I think and maybe some lime as I need to start dealing w/ my pasture quality. Pick up P&K tommorow.
Lime was an issue as their spreader is PTO and rear hydraulic driven and I only have PTO on my tractor. But only doing 4 acres. I do have a 200lb tow behind spreader for my mower. Giant waste of time but I might just accept spending a lot of time doing one strip at a time and refilling doing that.

Come spring bring on the nitrogen.

Also got a big steel feeder like this but just a little shorter for a single bale for the cows this winter. Need to get it painted first though.

Sludig · Oct 30, 2024

900 lbs of P&k. Really didn't look like much at the bottom of this buggy and went quick. $330 really hoping to see a difference in the spring.

plan to get about 6 tons of lime soon if we can borrow a tractor with rear hydraulic as mine is just pto and the spreader needs it. Funny it's only $35/ ton but biggest expense is just trying to get it down. You can do bagged but then it's $7/50lb lol

Nitrogen in the spring, which i fear the cost of. But honestly then I'll have a pretty lush property that maintains for Good while lightly grazed. Just got to pray for continued dry winter before spring , because with spring rains my pasture turns to swamp and even mud tire trucks get stuck.

Sludig · Nov 2, 2024

New mom fighting with my 6 month heifer. Also randomly trying to stare me down and do a lot of pawing the ground. Wifes like gonna kick her? Fuck no I ain't trying to defend a 800lb charge with a kick.

Sludig · Nov 17, 2024

First snake all year.

A few pieces loose, not quite finished up but skinning out this cow shed tommorow in metal siding.

Dumb bitch thinks my boot tasty.

Edaw · Nov 20, 2024

Blazin · Nov 20, 2024

Getting two more goats this weekend , made another larger pen in the barn like 15x20 for them to have a dry hang out spot over winter . Maybe get some pics up this weekend

moonarchia · Nov 21, 2024

Edaw said:

Palum · Nov 25, 2024

Has anyone used any of the tabletop hydroponics things? Thinking of getting one since the wife likes planting herbs and veggies but outdoors has too many critters and seasonality. I saw that Aerogarden or whatever is going out of business but there are pretty affordable generics on Amazon. I knew a guy who did microgreens as a side business and really loved that but he had more of a whole basement setup, but would want to try smaller setup first before going cart sized.

Sludig · Nov 25, 2024

To grow real vegetables, no replacement for outside or a greenhouse. Inside, you can fuck around with small time herbs you don't need to use tons of all the time. Wife bought this stupid auto watering garden thing, but realistically it's the size of one small tomato plant that can fit on it. For the price its absurd.

My parents used to run these plastic racks that you'd load the veggy trays into and they have a T5 or similiar bulb system over them, and you could probably do lettuce and stuff to completion indoors with that. Just need space for like a 2feetx6feet stretch or larger depending how crazy you want to go.

Burns · Nov 25, 2024

Palum said:
Has anyone used any of the tabletop hydroponics things? Thinking of getting one since the wife likes planting herbs and veggies but outdoors has too many critters and seasonality. I saw that Aerogarden or whatever is going out of business but there are pretty affordable generics on Amazon. I knew a guy who did microgreens as a side business and really loved that but he had more of a whole basement setup, but would want to try smaller setup first before going cart sized.

Some years back, I spent a bit of time looking into growing tomatoes indoors, since all store bought tomatoes are bland crap due to them using nitrogen to turn green tomatoes red. In passing, I remember seeing those small, counter-top systems, but don't think anyone was singing their praises. They may to be a product that rely on selling to uninformed buyers.

The best solution that I saw were grow tents for either hydroponics or regular soil. They come in various sizes and make it easier to control the atmosphere to bring it closer to what plants prefer. We don't have basements in Texas, so I would need to put something like that in the garage, which means it would also need a heating system.

I didn't actually give a it a try though, but it might be a place to start looking into it.

Here are a couple videos showing closet type tents. The first is hydro, the second is soil/hydro hybrid (I think):

Siliconemelons · Dec 3, 2024

Edaw said:

They also VR them on the way to slaughter so they dont stress and tense up the meat- producing better steaks for the omnomnom.

But the green fields and milk is a better PR showing.

Blazin · Wednesday at 8:45 AM

Thank goodness for bank barns. Was -19 here this morning but in the lower barn with no heat it's 39 still. Animals been locked up a few days, I have to occasionally give them a few mins outside to stop being pissed at me so they can see they don't want to be out there anyway. Haven't texted neighbors yet but I think we are reaching a level where people with shitty set ups are going to start losing animals.

Sludig · Wednesday at 10:49 PM

Yeap, I sometimes wish I was even further south but I didnt want to go into Texas. Funny im used to much colder in CO, but here you quickly get used to it being warmer, and different worrying about animals. All my birds locked in the coop angry. But I've got a batch that insist in going up in the tree no matter what if I don't.

We hit 4 degree's this week in a suprise from the forecast of 12. Below 10-15 seems to be where at least my goats seem to struggle a little. Well fluffed out 6 month old doe was shivering pretty bad and not eating, so I sat with her in my fluffy cotton coat jacket thing for like 10 minutes, head happily stuffed up my armpit. After that good to do and it's been a more reasonable 15-20 most nights.

Dexter cows suppose to be good on straight grass/hay but I've been on the colder nights splitting a bulk coffee can of feed between the 3. Wish I knew how to gauge their body condition better. Now with the cold snap really need to get everything I have wormed, no signs but pretty much everything overdue or unknown like the cows being recent purchase.

BrutulTM · Thursday at 3:09 AM

Sludig said:
Wish I knew how to gauge their body condition better.

https://extension.missouri.edu/media/wysiwyg/Extensiondata/Pub/pdf/agguides/ansci/g02230.pdf

Sludig said:
Now with the cold snap really need to get everything I have wormed, no signs but pretty much everything overdue or unknown like the cows being recent purchase.

Dewormers like ivermectin kill a lot of beneficial insects, particularly dung beetles and predator insects that control flies naturally. We quit using them cold turkey about 4 years ago and haven't seen any negative response. Some people have a certain fallout with animals that can't get by without the wormer and there's an adjustment period that's pretty expensive but we didn't experience that at all. In a commercial herd it's actually worth it in the long run to get rid of those genetically inferior animals rather than treating the whole herd to the level that they require but I understand that the calculation is a bit different in a homestead situation.

lurkingdirk · Thursday at 8:07 AM

I have a wood stove in my livestock barn. Last few days I've kept it going, and mostly kept the animals inside. I let them out a couple times a day, but they only stay out a bit, then come back in on their own. With the stove going the barn is around 55 Fahrenheit. Not toasty, but certainly better than the -5 outside. I think my animals are slightly spoiled. I also have a heater in the chicken coop. I've left their exit door open (it's small), and they come and go, but mostly get in the warm and roost. Being able to heat their space is nice as it prevents their water from freezing. I've got heaters for the watering tubes, but I like this better. Even if it costs me a little more.

Turns out while I heat the chicken coop I also get more eggs.

Blazin · Thursday at 11:52 AM

lurkingdirk said:
I have a wood stove in my livestock barn. Last few days I've kept it going, and mostly kept the animals inside. I let them out a couple times a day, but they only stay out a bit, then come back in on their own. With the stove going the barn is around 55 Fahrenheit. Not toasty, but certainly better than the -5 outside. I think my animals are slightly spoiled. I also have a heater in the chicken coop. I've left their exit door open (it's small), and they come and go, but mostly get in the warm and roost. Being able to heat their space is nice as it prevents their water from freezing. I've got heaters for the watering tubes, but I like this better. Even if it costs me a little more.

Turns out while I heat the chicken coop I also get more eggs.

Chicken dust makes me nervous about the safety of heaters, what type of heater do you use in coop?

lurkingdirk · Thursday at 12:13 PM

Blazin said:
Chicken dust makes me nervous about the safety of heaters, what type of heater do you use in coop?

Kerosene, and I wipe it down daily. I also constructed a steel shield that goes over it. The steel keeps most of the dust off, and it heats up and then radiates the heat. Fairly efficient, and I'm never worried about the dust catching fire. I totally understand your sentiment, though. I just try to keep it really clean, and that's a job in a chicken coop.

Sludig · Thursday at 1:06 PM

55 is a bit hot. i believe in the advice of closer to freezing. like 34ish. Because if the animals are too acclimated to a warmer on average, at least with chickens people claim they will not handle a sudden plunge if the heat should fail.

lurkingdirk · Saturday at 12:30 AM

Sludig said:
55 is a bit hot. i believe in the advice of closer to freezing. like 34ish. Because if the animals are too acclimated to a warmer on average, at least with chickens people claim they will not handle a sudden plunge if the heat should fail.

I've been told this before, but I have no evidence it is true. The heat fails periodically, temperatures get to below freezing. Chickens remain fine. But they do lay a lot fewer eggs.

Haus · Saturday at 4:57 PM

Not sure if this should go here, or the home improvement thread or where but here we go...

As some of you might have seen me post I have a long term goal I call "Project Peaches", which is buy land, build house, live there until the wife and I die. The Peaches part is that I plan on buying enough to start planting fruit trees for little more than self entertainment, but still...

How many of you have build houses from scratch on your land? What all was involved for you? What tips, tricks, and things to avoid might you be willing to share?

The game plan right now is land purchased within the next 6 months (pending a stock event involving my job), with enough additional to finance the house build. But I don't know where to start with building a house from the ground up. So far it's just been floorplan shopping on line looking at that. I figure it will involve probably hiring/finding a GC to manage sub contractors, or trying to tackle that myself. Then foundation and all the fun of building. Plus making sure proper utilities are run where possible, and planning/installing a septic system along with this.

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