Help on future breeds, management

[punk-a-doodle]

Oh man Avalon, it must be hard to keep horses on sandy ground! I remember when I'd ride as a kid, we would hang up rubber gloves full of manure and water to wait to see how much sand filtered into the fingers. That wasn't even in a sandy area, but our teacher was very concerned with colic.

Time to take a trip to the library now that you guys have helped me get some ideas on what to look for. *insert nerd icon here*

 

[Avalon1984]

Quote:
It is hard vut it can be done. We do our glove test once a week just to be sure. Once winter comes along and we have snow we can rest for a little while. Enjoy reading up on all that good stuff. We learn every single day and boy it is an adventure

 

[Cowgirl71]

Quote:
Where will this farm be? That will make a huge difference on how many acres you'll need. Here in southern Missouri, it's about 2.6 acres per cow-calf pair. In other places it can be lower, or as much as 10 acres, 15 acres, or even more, depends on the soil quality and amount of rainfall.

One thing to keep in mind is that cows, goats, and sheep all need salt. Cows and goats also need a mineral with copper in it. Sheep cannot have copper, it's fatal. This is the main reason we don't have sheep, because we have cows and goats that share the mineral feeders. So you'll have to keep the sheep in a separate pasture.

I really really love the dairy cows! I love drinking their milk and enjoy making a lot of different dairy products. We make lots of butter, cheese, pudding, yogurt, smoothies, whipped cream and ice cream. A couple days ago I tried making a cheesecake with Ricotta and Fromage Blanc and it was very good, I'll definitely be making it again!

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Hey Cowgirl, we aren't sure yet what sort of area we'll be moving to. It'll depend both on where my husband wants to pursue a job at/gets a job at, and where they have the right sort of schooling I'm interested in picking back up. I'll probably make another, similar post when it gets closer to moving time, and when we know where we'll be. Probably won't be for another 2-4 years.

Thanks for the reminder about the copper. Definitely going to have to figure that one out.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Hm, thought this was pretty darn interesting for cattle:
http://nevada.rangelands.org/Prog Ran … 207-11.pdf

… ature=plcp