Ask a farmer...

[fairfarmhand]

Yup. That's me.

 

Not sure if anyone's interested, but go ahead.

 

We currently have 30+ head of cattle. Mostly beef and a couple dairy. Chickens, horses, orchards, and gardens.

 

I'll answer to the best of my ability, but keep in mind that every farm is different. Every set up is unique.

[kewb]

Things I have always wanted to know:

Is your cattle grass fed and finished?  Why or Why not?

Do you slaughter your own cattle or do you send them to a slaughterhouse?

Could I buy meat directly from you and how big of a freezer would I need?

What is involved in taking care of cattle?

How long is your day?

How do you feel about monsato?

 

[Freckles]

What is growing in your orchards? Is farming work from sun up to sun down?

[73349]

What time do you get up in the morning?

 

Does your family run the farm alone or do you hire help?

[athomeontheprairie]

Things I have always wanted to know:

Is your cattle grass fed and finished? Why or Why not?

Do you slaughter your own cattle or do you send them to a slaughterhouse?

Could I buy meat directly from you and how big of a freezer would I need?

What is involved in taking care of cattle?

How long is your day?

we don't have quite as many cattle as fairfarm... for cattle is grass fed in the summer, and we do supplement with grain in the winter. we do not slaughter our own but we take them to the slaughter house. if you know me in real life you can buy a portion of our cattle when we slaughter. this last time we sold two quarters and kept the other half. and we have 3 the biggest freezers we could find. ( in part this is due to our location and how infrequently we visit a store, not simply because of the cattle)

 

What is growing in your orchards? Is farming work from sun up to sun down?

we have apples peaches apricots cherries and blackberries. plus a full vegetable garden ( and watermelon. we love watermelon ;-) ) why men are usually working Sun up to sundown BUT, it is very slow during certain seasons. and work that can't be done during bad weather is for gold in till good weather arrives. during harvest, life begins some up and does not end until sundown. no work is hard hot in constant, but for us that's only 6 to 8 weeks a year.

 

What time do you get up in the morning?

 

Does your family run the farm alone or do you hire help?

we run the farm alone, BUT compared to others we have a very small farm ( slightly less than 2000 acres) we hire help during harvest, and occasionally throughout the year when it's needed. IMO, my general consensus harvest ALWAYS comes first. when one farm is finished cutting, they are quick to help neighboring farms. Harvest does come first, and there is a reason school is only 9 months out of the year. our community NEEDS the high school boys to work on the farms and we need the girls in the kitchen or babysitting for helping with the paperwork in the co-oPS

[fairfarmhand]

Things I have always wanted to know:

Is your cattle grass fed and finished?  Why or Why not? We finish with grain for the last 6 weeks. It just puts a little extra weight on them fairly quickly. We always pay attention to the animals and if they look like they aren't feeling well from the grain, we cut if back. We don't ever withhold hay or pasture from a steer. They always have space to move around and our feed is hormone/antibiotic free. Our system is a cross between grain finished and grass fed.

Do you slaughter your own cattle or do you send them to a slaughterhouse? We pay a processor to do that. Ew. Told my dh when we started this that I wanted nothing to do with that part of raising meat.

Could I buy meat directly from you and how big of a freezer would I need? We do sometimes sell to family and friends. However, it takes 2 years to grow an animal from start to finish, so they have to let us know about a year in advance so we don't sell a steer that we would otherwise use for meat. We don't have the pasture to keep every animal unless we know someone will buy it. A 2 yr old finished steer will pack the largest upright freezer that Lowe's sells.

What is involved in taking care of cattle?Depends on the set up. We use AI (artificial insemination) so December/January means lots of cattle handling and daily checks for heat. OTherwise food and water and some minerals and they generally are fine. Most of the time beef cattle are the cats of the livestock world, needing little maintenance. However, you have to stay flexible. Some time (like this past winter) herd health can be a pain. We really had a hard time with some frost bitten calves, weak calves, sick calves and scours. January totally stunk. In the summer, it's pretty easy. Grass, water, minerals. Check on them once or twice a week. Spray for flies. Wean calves.

How long is your day? Not too bad. Usually, unless I have a sick animal, I spend about an hour a day on animal care. Summers, add in another hour of orchard/garden work. Also the kids help with mowing. Three times a year, my hubby spends about a 3-4 days cutting hay. He is the tractor guy, so he puts out hay in the winter. Have one of the kids open gates for him when that happens. When we have projects/haying/big time stuff to do it IS sun up to sundown. Work comes first when important things are happening.

How do you feel about monsato? I feel that they are short sighted losers. Seirously, they seem like they are trying to run small farmers like ours out of business. We are hoping to start growing Open Pollinated corn in the next couple years for feed. Take that Monsato.

 

 

What is growing in your orchards? Is farming work from sun up to sun down?

Orchards...peaches, apples, cherries, pears, grapes, plums

 

Farming would have to be sunup to sundown work if we relied on it for our livelihood. My dh works off farm, so we have some wigggle room. Otherwise, spring summer and fall would be a huge glut of work followed by a rest period in the winter. One dream of mine when the kids are older/grown is to really see how self-sufficient I could make our farm.

 

What time do you get up in the morning? 6:30; However in calving season, we may be up and down all night if we're waiting on a calf/

 

Does your family run the farm alone or do you hire help? We trade work. Sometimes we pay people if we are coming down to crunch time on a project. But usually my dh has a couple friends that he trades work with. They use our equipment and help with haying, we cut hay for their animals and sometimes give them a calf or cow.

 

[fairfarmhand]

 

 

 

 

we run the farm alone, BUT compared to others we have a very small farm ( slightly less than 2000 acres) we hire help during harvest, and occasionally throughout the year when it's needed. IMO, my general consensus harvest ALWAYS comes first. when one farm is finished cutting, they are quick to help neighboring farms. Harvest does come first, and there is a reason school is only 9 months out of the year. our community NEEDS the high school boys to work on the farms and we need the girls in the kitchen or babysitting for helping with the paperwork in the co-oPS

 

It's so funny. OUr farm is very small for our area (43 acres) but we can handle that many cows because of climate. What area of the country are you in?

[jrn]

My daughter has a romantic notion to marry a farmer when she grows up. (she is 12)  Did you grow up on a farm or did you marry into one?

[athomeontheprairie]

It's so funny. OUr farm is very small for our area (43 acres) but we can handle that many cows because of climate. What area of the country are you in?

we are in the Midwest. many of our neighbors have hundreds of head of cattle. for those that farm cattle is way off of setting your losses. sometimes it seems as though either your cattlewill r fail or your crops will fail. One is insurance against the other. for my family, dh works off the farm, so we have steady income with that. we also maintain about 75 head during the spring/summer/fall on pasture grounds that we rent out. unless we converted farm ground that is the most we can maintain

[Dory]

It's so funny. OUr farm is very small for our area (43 acres) but we can handle that many cows because of climate. What area of the country are you in?

 

I grew up on about 2000 acres and that was considered a fairly normal farm size for up here too. 43 would be considered an acreage. We live on 10 acres now, but our property is right up against my in laws and we farm with them still as they are getting older. I drool at the thought of a place where the climate is good enough to 'farm' on 43 acres.

[kewb]

Thank you for answering all these questions.  I had no idea it takes 2 years to grow a cow for eating. Growing up in the suburbs of NYC my farm exposure is quite limited.  Plus, I have a black thumb when it comes to gardening.

[Chris in VA]

My college roommates were from families of sheep and pig farmers. They said taking a vacation was difficult, but they had enough family members to help out so parents could get a break now and then.

 

So do you do that--find family or farming friends to cover for you and travel?

[athomeontheprairie]

My college roommates were from families of sheep and pig farmers. They said taking a vacation was difficult, but they had enough family members to help out so parents could get a break now and then.

 

So do you do that--find family or farming friends to cover for you and travel?

we live on a farm with my husband grandfather. the three adults never vacation together. someone always stays behind. Always. most of the time this isn't a problem. When my bil got married our Grandpa went down a couple days early. then we went down and stayed a couple days after. the day of the wedding we had a neighbor come over and check on things. ( please realize our nearest neighbor is 8 miles away). when is only time all of us have been off the farm at the same time.

[Dory]

Things I have always wanted to know:

Is your cattle grass fed and finished?  Why or Why not?

Do you slaughter your own cattle or do you send them to a slaughterhouse?

Could I buy meat directly from you and how big of a freezer would I need?

What is involved in taking care of cattle?

How long is your day?

How do you feel about monsato?

Can I answer this one too!!?

 

Our cattle up here is grass fed, but there are only a few places that finish it off completely on grass. The beef is more marbled if there is some grain. We don't use corn for cattle feed up here though. When I visit family in the southern US I notice that the beef is mushy and weird tasting to me and I'm guessing that it's the corn.

 

We have slaughtered our own animals before. I prefer sending them away. Some places prefer for the owner to kill and gut and then send the carcass away for processing. It's less stressful to the animal that way too and the meat will taste better. If you bought a whole beef, expect at LEAST 600lb of meat. We have never kept more than half a beef and usually split it with one or two other families.

 

Cattle have to be checked every couple hours during calving season or you might find a frozen calf. Calved have to be caught and immunized and tagged. You hope like crazy that there aren't any prolapses or cows that get mastitis. Not fun to care for a half wild beef cow with mastitis. Every fall they have to rounded up and sorted and run through the chute so missing tags can be replaced and bulls can be snipped. Some people are elasticizing the bulls at birth now though. Haying season is always busy. If you have lots of cows though, you gotta grow some of the food. You can't just buy it all, that cuts into the profits too much and there aren't much profits in cattle anyway. It's always nice to have someone in the family with long arms and strong hands that will go fishing for a calf if the cow has problems calving too. I was that person a lot.

 

During the summer, usually starting mid to end of May, we would be up at 5-6am and be heading out. My dad did custom baling though and I ran diskbine and hay rake a lot. We would get into bed after dark. The hours were insanely long, but it was only for the summer.

Rainy days were slow days. We would check the cattle and do any necessary repairs on equipment, but other wise get some rest.

 

I hate Monsanto with a passion. I think they are slowly putting a stranglehold on farmers. If a farmer is growing grain, odds are it's their's, and if they are growing Monsanto grain, they have to spray. My little brother was sick every year from our farm being down wind of that stuff, despite it being half a mile away. My horses were always rough shape if I didn't bring them closer to the house during that time too. I had a horse lose all the skin from the bottom half of his legs.

[Dory]

Thank you for answering all these questions.  I had no idea it takes 2 years to grow a cow for eating. Growing up in the suburbs of NYC my farm exposure is quite limited.  Plus, I have a black thumb when it comes to gardening.

 

a lot of people here butcher yearlings. A two year old could possibly be putting 1000lbs of meat in a freezer and that's a lot of meat to try and fit in anywhere. Even after splitting it between a couple families. When I say yearling, it usually was the fall of their yearling year. They stay on pasture with some extra grain for that last summer.

[athomeontheprairie]

Cattle have to be checked every couple hours during calving season or you might find a frozen calf. Calved have to be caught and immunized and tagged. You hope like crazy that there aren't any prolapses or cows that get mastitis. Not fun to care for a half wild beef cow with mastitis.

having dealt with both of these issues multiple times the spring, can I just like this post a thousand times? it IS. NOT. FUN. AT. ALL.

[fairfarmhand]

My daughter has a romantic notion to marry a farmer when she grows up. (she is 12)  Did you grow up on a farm or did you marry into one?

no and no.

 

The farm was a dream that we had before we married. We wanted horses, but never pictured the operation we had now. Got the first couple cows to help pay for horses, and loved cows more than I ever imagined. Took us 8 yrs to get the first horse!  We figured it'd be after the kids left before we'd get a chance to do it, but circumstances have worked out so that we get it now.

 

We've been so blessed. But we have had to learn everything from scratch. No farming parents here, nor grandparents.

[fairfarmhand]

My college roommates were from families of sheep and pig farmers. They said taking a vacation was difficult, but they had enough family members to help out so parents could get a break now and then.

 

So do you do that--find family or farming friends to cover for you and travel?

Beef cows are pretty low maintenance. If we have hay or grass for them and water access they are usually fine unassisted. We do have someone go by to check on them, feed chickens, dogs and cats. Thankfully, a good wannabe farmer friend lives 3 miles from the house, She loves checking things for me.

 

My Milk  cows make things more complicated. I usually share milk, meaning I use calves to keep her udder empty when I don't feel like milking. However, she has to have grain at least once a day or she's struggle to produce enough milk for the calves that are nursing on her. We can usually schedule travels for when we are between high-work times of year. But we can't impulsively do much of anything,

[fairfarmhand]

having dealt with both of these issues multiple times the spring, can I just like this post a thousand times? it IS. NOT. FUN. AT. ALL.

AMEN AND AMEN.

[fairfarmhand]

a lot of people here butcher yearlings. A two year old could possibly be putting 1000lbs of meat in a freezer and that's a lot of meat to try and fit in anywhere. Even after splitting it between a couple families. When I say yearling, it usually was the fall of their yearling year. They stay on pasture with some extra grain for that last summer.

So much of it depends on breed.

 

Our Angus steers finish out around 12-1500 lbs. which translates into about 750 pounds of meat. With a larger ffamily (we do share some with my inlaws) that's about a years worht of beef for us.

[Dory]

So much of it depends on breed.

 

Our Angus steers finish out around 12-1500 lbs. which translates into about 750 pounds of meat. With a larger ffamily (we do share some with my inlaws) that's about a years worht of beef for us.

 

True dat! An Angus has nicer meat, but tends to be a little smaller than a Simmental. I liked the Angus Holstein crosses, or the Angus Jersey crosses. Those dairy cows could really pack the pounds on the calves.

[fairfarmhand]

True dat! An Angus has nicer meat, but tends to be a little smaller than a Simmental. I liked the Angus Holstein crosses, or the Angus Jersey crosses. Those dairy cows could really pack the pounds on the calves.

AWESOME!

 

We have an angus jersey cross that will be beef in a year. We are curious about how his meat will be.

[umsami]

Do your kids ever become too attached to an animal that you plan to slaughter?  If so, how do you handle that?

[fairfarmhand]

Do your kids ever become too attached to an animal that you plan to slaughter?  If so, how do you handle that?

 

nope. We have so many females that are pets that they make pets out of the girls and pretty much ignore the males. By the time they are old enough to slaughter, they are no longer cute. Big, slobbery, flies on them, smelling like manure. The steers kind of lose their personalities after they are about 8-9 months old. They'd just as soon be left alone.

 

Now we have had to sell some females that we loved. MY first bottle calf had to be sold in a drought year when she came up open (not bred.) :(

 

This year's going  to be hard. My Jersey milk cow must be sold as a slaughter cow because she has a contagious illness. That check coming back from the sale barn will feel like the proverbial 30 pieces of silver. sigh, Not looking forward to that.

 

The kids do have to handle death. We've lost a couple Jerseys that were really hard to deal with, for me and for the kids. We've lost a couple calves. Losing the calves stinks because hthey are so sweet and helpless. They cry. They miss the cow/calf for a week or two. Then they are okay.  You learn to take the beautiful moments and cherish them and you move on after a loss. That's all you can do.

[Dory]

Do your kids ever become too attached to an animal that you plan to slaughter?  If so, how do you handle that?

 

Around here we are pretty careful to let everyone know which ones are slaughter and which ones aren't. Basic care doesn't change, but the loving and petting does. When we had a Jersey that was too sick, we put her down and buried her rather then sell her to slaughter. I feel that once a cow has been useful in some way, I can get away with not selling it afterwards. That has worked most of the time. Most steers and bulls are not cuddly and pet like for very long and that helps too. Nothing like getting chased across a field a few times scared for your life to make a person feel less affectionate towards an animal. There was once as a kid that we ended up hand raising the calf that was supposed to be our meat. The mother rejected it. We couldn't butcher. That would've been too hard on everyone. We ended up trading the neighbour for a bull calf and they just put the heifer into their herd. That made everyone feel a lot better.

[I talk to the trees]

no and no.

 

The farm was a dream that we had before we married. We wanted horses, but never pictured the operation we had now. Got the first couple cows to help pay for horses, and loved cows more than I ever imagined. Took us 8 yrs to get the first horse!  We figured it'd be after the kids left before we'd get a chance to do it, but circumstances have worked out so that we get it now.

 

We've been so blessed. But we have had to learn everything from scratch. No farming parents here, nor grandparents.

 

This is good news! Dh and I would like to do something similar, but there are no farmers in our family either. I am happy to hear that it's something that can be learned later in life!

[HomeschoolMum]

How many calves do you rear  each season? My daughters do the calves for their Uncle and they had to feed over 220 last year. I think NZ dairy farms are quite different to American farms. Are family farms that are smaller having a comeback in the USA? I have heard most of your meat is raised in huge "factory farms " where the cattle do not eat grass now. Is that actually true?

We get a whole cow each year from my husband's brothers farm which is great as it is much cheaper than the shops and nicer too. 

[athomeontheprairie]

I have heard most of your meat is raised in huge "factory farms " where the cattle do not eat grass now. Is that actually true?

We get a whole cow each year from my husband's brothers farm which is great as it is much cheaper than the shops and nicer too.

alright hopefully somebody with more experience and knowledge will answer this as well... unlike pork, it is very difficult to manipulate the beef market. Cows must have pasture. End of story. our neighbors move cattle year-round from pasture to pasture, then finish them of in the feed lots. Cows must have space. I am in the Midwest, perhaps it's different in other parts of the country? that statement certainly isn't true around here.

[Dory]

alright hopefully somebody with more experience and knowledge will answer this as well... unlike pork, it is very difficult to manipulate the beef market. Cows must have pasture. End of story. our neighbors move cattle year-round from pasture to pasture, then finish them of in the feed lots. Cows must have space. I am in the Midwest, perhaps it's different in other parts of the country? that statement certainly isn't true around here.

 

Up here, the large operations sell off the calves at about 10months old. The calves sometimes go to feedlots after that. Feedlots usually don't have much for grazing. The cattle are fed silage and grain to put weight on them faster. Allowing them room to run around would be counter productive with what their goals are. The goal is to get the meat from start to finish as quickly and efficiently as possible. Farmers that calve in early summer or late spring will obviously have younger calves. Many calves will go through the auction at 6-8 months of age. A lot of feedlots now are not putting newly weaned calves into the feedlot as problems with respiratory infections is high because of the stress. That being said, some feedlots prefer to buy them young because the lower weight means more weight gain for them and more money in their pocket. In those cases, they usually buy by the group, feed within the same group and sold as a group because the feeders will be less stressed if they stay together and any diseases that one group might bring in, won't be passed to the next group.

 

Some farmers will let the calves have a bit of time between weaning and shipping, and some just seem to use shipping as a means to wean although that often will lead to fewer calves making it through.

 

Most feeders will be sold for butchering at about 18months of age.

 

There is an organic operation just north of us that finished the calves off in a separate pasture and slowly introduced a small amount of organic grain. The calves always have roughage to chew on and some room to move around. Their place is clean and the cattle are content. Completely different feel than most feedlots I've been on. The cattle take a little longer to get to their goal weight being finished off that way, but I prefer the taste of the beef.

 

Our calves that we butcher are finished on pasture (or hay) with some grain that we grow ourselves as well as apple cider vinegar and kelp. It's hard for farmers/ranchers to make enough to live on up here so they do what they have to do to make sure the calves sell. Sometimes that means more injections than I would be comfortable with putting in an animal I was going to eat.

 

Growth hormones are no allowed up here, but antibiotics will sometimes cause growth as well in cattle. They are often overused.

 

When the calves first get to the destination they will be dehorned if necessary, and given a shot of antibiotics and vitamins to boost health and growth.

 

Keep in mind that this is all Canada, so it will vary somewhat across the border.

[Erin]

I have heard most of your meat is raised in huge "factory farms " where the cattle do not eat grass now. Is that actually true?

No.

Most (all?) beef cattle in the US are on their mamas and grass for the first 9-12 months of their lives and in feedlots ("factory farms") for the last 3-6 months.

 

I grew up on about 2000 acres and that was considered a fairly normal farm size for up here too. 43 would be considered an acreage. We live on 10 acres now, but our property is right up against my in laws and we farm with them still as they are getting older. I drool at the thought of a place where the climate is good enough to 'farm' on 43 acres.

Me too!

We have 40 acres, but on the western plains that's not enough to feed our horses and handful of cows.  So it's not considered a ranch, we just "own some ground."  lol

[athomeontheprairie]

We have 40 acres, but on the western plains that's not enough to feed our horses and handful of cows. So it's not considered a ranch, we just "own some ground." lol

Lol. Here 40 acres is just "some ground". some farmers have hobby cows ( we would fall into this category), ranchers have three four five hundred head ( like our neighbors). but you are only a farmer if you do in fact farm (crops)

[athomeontheprairie]

Dory, thanks for the long detailed post!

[Audrey]

My daughter has a romantic notion to marry a farmer when she grows up. (she is 12)  Did you grow up on a farm or did you marry into one?

 

 

I married one. Grew up in big metro areas my whole life, but secretly harboured a desire for farm living.

 

Even though I understood the logistics of marrying into farm life, the first few years were very hard in terms of learning curve on so many things.  I also had to deal with adjusting to a climate that I'd previously thought existed only Antarctically. (Allow me a little poetic license there -- I was from S FL originally.  Here was... a shock... to say the VERY least.)

 

It is a lot of very hard work, but that has been a plus for me because I can't stand being idle or I get quite restless.   I do feel like this is where I am meant to be.  The lifestyle suits me well.  I'm healthier physically, emotionally and spiritually than I've ever been anywhere else or at any other point in my life. 

 

That said, I've seen a lot of non-farm girls marry farmers and not fare very well at all.  You really do have to keep an incredibly open mind, have an incredibly durable work ethic and really, really, really KNOW that this is the man and the land for you, because they are an inextricable package deal.  There is a saying that you can take the boy out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy.  It's sort of true -- except that, of the instances where I've seen a woman try to separate her farmer from his farm, it never goes well.  Either he goes back to the farm, or a very important piece of him dies. 

[Audrey]

Things I have always wanted to know:

Is your cattle grass fed and finished?  Why or Why not?

Do you slaughter your own cattle or do you send them to a slaughterhouse?

Could I buy meat directly from you and how big of a freezer would I need?

What is involved in taking care of cattle?

How long is your day?

How do you feel about monsato?

 

 

We have 160 acres that we live on and farm, plus another 160 that we rent out.  Ours is primarily grain and oilseeds, but we do have a few hogs and a very few cattle.  We finished turning the home 160 all organic a few years ago, so the pasture, the crops, everything is all done organically now. 

 

ETA: In our area 160 acres is a small farm, by the way.  Something 80 acres down to 40 acres would be called a hobby farm.  40 down to 20 acres would be called an acreage, and under 20 acres would be called a farmyard. Our own farmyard, including the woodlot, is just over 20 acres of the home farm.

 

The cattle were an accident, sort of, in the beginning.  My dh had done some work for another farmer and they couldn't pay him, so gave us a calf.  After that, we've had as few as 2 and as many as 12 cattle every year.  Every year we say, "we are out of the cattle biz."  Every year we keep lying to ourselves. :laugh:

 

Our cattle is grass fed, but we do supplement as needed.  We're mostly a crop operation because we have Class 1 soil which is very, very good crop soil, so we have very little land scrubby enough to be pasture.  We have only a few acres to pasture so we have to supplement sometimes.  We buy them as spring calves (born the previous fall) and we market or slaughter them as late in the fall or sometimes early winter as possible.  It can be very, very expensive to overwinter cattle here.  We always keep one for ourselves that we have slaughtered at the local abattoir.  We sell the rest through a marketer.  Occasionally, we have bought yearlings to finish. 

 

You can't buy meat from us directly because of regulations.  We don't have the licenses necessary for that.  You can buy from us live, though, and take it to the abattoir yourself. We've done that before, too.  For a whole, you'd need a really big freezer.  Our house has a walk-in freezer in the basement (put in my dh's parents) and the whole back from the abattoir, cut and wrapped, takes up about 1/3 of it.  I don't know what that translates to in terms of chest freezers, but probably at least 2 really big chest freezers! :laugh:

 

Fairfarm and Dory explained the care issue well. We are in Canada, too, so Dory's explanation is more familiar to me.

 

Every day there are morning chores, afternoon chores and evening/close-down chores.  Chores take about an hour to an hour-and-a-half a round with all 3 of us working them.  During seeding, day starts at first light and can go past midnight if it must.  Same with harvest.  Seeding and harvest are the hardest, busiest, most critical times, so you work until you either drop dead or it's done.  That sounds like a joke, but it's kind of ... not.

 

What I think of Monsanto isn't printable, but could be summed up with two hands gesturing in unofficial "sign language."

[Erin]

Lol. Here 40 acres is just "some ground". some farmers have hobby cows ( we would fall into this category), ranchers have three four five hundred head ( like our neighbors). but you are only a farmer if you do in fact farm (crops)

 

Exactly.  The smallest ranch we've ever lived/worked on was 800 head.   So when friends from outside the area talk about our place as a "ranch" we just chuckle.   ;)

[mirth]

 

That said, I've seen a lot of non-farm girls marry farmers and not fare very well at all.  You really do have to keep an incredibly open mind, have an incredibly durable work ethic and really, really, really KNOW that this is the man and the land for you, because they are an inextricable package deal. 

Do you also have to get over your fear of mice or rats? (serious question)

[Dory]

Do you also have to get over your fear of mice or rats? (serious question)

 

Mice are usually taken care of with a couple good dogs and a couple good barn cats. I have never had a mouse in my house and the only rat I've actually seen was a pet that wasn't legally supposed to be here. There has been some rats that have made it across the alberta border, but there aren't many. I pity those farm girls on here who might have to deal with rats. I think Audrey is further south then me, but we don't even have much for skunks up here, or possum, or raccoons.

[Audrey]

Do you also have to get over your fear of mice or rats? (serious question)

 

 

I wasn't afraid of them to begin with, but we have many barn cats.  I can honestly say that I have never, ever seen a mouse or rat in or around the house or barns.  It is rare to see field mice during harvest even.  The hawks, owls and cats combined take care of them rather swiftly and efficiently. 

[Rachel]

Do you also have to get over your fear of mice or rats? (serious question)

Not a farmer but I lived and worked on a dairy farm in college. The mice were kept under control by several cats. I did develop a major fear of raccoons though. The raccoons loved the corn silage and would make nests in the barns where they could get to the food more easily. I hated having to bring up the cows when they had slept in the barns at night, the coons would try to scare me off by hissing at me, especially if they had babies.

[Audrey]

Mice are usually taken care of with a couple good dogs and a couple good barn cats. I have never had a mouse in my house and the only rat I've actually seen was a pet that wasn't legally supposed to be here. There has been some rats that have made it across the alberta border, but there aren't many. I pity those farm girls on here who might have to deal with rats. I think Audrey is further south then me, but we don't even have much for skunks up here, or possum, or raccoons.

 

 

Dory, I'm not sure where you are in AB, but I'm east of you and 30 miles north of the US border.  We do have skunks and raccoons, but not as a problem.  I've only seen a handful of each in the 16 years I've been here.  I've never seen a possum here, though.  I don't think they come this far north (??). 

[Erin]

I wasn't afraid of them to begin with, but we have many barn cats.  I can honestly say that I have never, ever seen a mouse or rat in or around the house or barns.  It is rare to see field mice during harvest even.  The hawks, owls and cats combined take care of them rather swiftly and efficiently. 

 

Same here.  I remember a number of years back, when we first moved to our place, I saw a packrat the size of a chihuahua!  in our shop.  But one of my dachshunds cleared them all out.  

I haven't seen a mouse, rat, packrat, etc. in ages.  As well as local raptors, we have six cats and three vermin-killing dachsies.  

[Liz CA]

Where / How do ducks sleep? My CSA lady had someone drop 2 ducklings off at her house. She is very experienced with chickens, goats, peacocks, herbs and vegetables but neither she nor I know how to bed down the ducklings. We figured that a basket, big enough to house the two, with an old rag inside may do. First we thought they can live with the chickens but after looking at their webbed feet, we agreed that they probably don't roost.

She has a kiddie pond ready for the aquatic exercise they like to engage in and they already showed off their skills there.  :) In case you know anything about ducklings, I'd be glad to pass on the info.

[eternalsummer]

OP, do you separate the dairy cows' calves from them, at birth or sometime soon after?  What do you do with the boy calves (of dairy cows)?

[Hoot]

Ok so you mentioned the other wildlife that you've had to deal with, but what about snakes? Do you have to deal with them much on the farm?

[aufan]

Where / How do ducks sleep? My CSA lady had someone drop 2 ducklings off at her house. She is very experienced with chickens, goats, peacocks, herbs and vegetables but neither she nor I know how to bed down the ducklings. We figured that a basket, big enough to house the two, with an old rag inside may do. First we thought they can live with the chickens but after looking at their webbed feet, we agreed that they probably don't roost.

She has a kiddie pond ready for the aquatic exercise they like to engage in and they already showed off their skills there.  :) In case you know anything about ducklings, I'd be glad to pass on the info.

  

 

Our ducks stay in with our chickens in their coop. They go in at night on their own just like the chickens do when we let them free range. They just sleep on the ground :)

 

 

OP, do you separate the dairy cows' calves from them, at birth or sometime soon after?  What do you do with the boy calves (of dairy cows)?

Not the OP but we separated ours within the first 12 hours and bottle feed him his mama's milk. Sometimes cows will hold up their milk if you keep calf and cow together and we didn't want to deal with that. They stay separated for about 8 weeks or so(they could see each other and touch just couldn't nurse) and now they are back together full time( and she doesn't let him nurse now). We are raising our steer calf for our freezer.

[fairfarmhand]

Where / How do ducks sleep? My CSA lady had someone drop 2 ducklings off at her house. She is very experienced with chickens, goats, peacocks, herbs and vegetables but neither she nor I know how to bed down the ducklings. We figured that a basket, big enough to house the two, with an old rag inside may do. First we thought they can live with the chickens but after looking at their webbed feet, we agreed that they probably don't roost.

She has a kiddie pond ready for the aquatic exercise they like to engage in and they already showed off their skills there.  :) In case you know anything about ducklings, I'd be glad to pass on the info.

 

Our duck lives in the henhouse with the chickens. He just hangs out on the ground at night. Other people build a duck house by their pond, which is what I'd prefer. We raise ducks the same way as we raise chickens, in a brooder, till they have all their feathers. However, you have to be careful with ducklngs. They love the water, but don't have the sense to come out of it and can get chilled when they are downy. They also need to be able to immerse their whole heads to rinse their sinuses.

[Erin]

Ok so you mentioned the other wildlife that you've had to deal with, but what about snakes? Do you have to deal with them much on the farm?

 

We have prairie rattlesnakes around here.  Buck saw the first one of the season last week when he was out poisoning prairie dogs for a neighbor.  Our policy is if we see them out in the pastures we leave them alone.  (I've never understood people like our neighbor who both poison prairie dogs and gophers, as well as kill every snake they see.)  But if we see them in the yard, they have to die.   ;)

All other snakes are welcome.  

At the last ranch we were on, we had a big bull snake for a number of years, named George.  We kept George happy because in the years s/he was there, we never saw a single rattlesnake in the yard.  (They compete for food sources and bullsnakes, being constrictors, get MUCH bigger than rattlesnakes do and consequently eat more)

[athomeontheprairie]

We have prairie rattlesnakes around here. Buck saw the first one of the season last week when he was out poisoning prairie dogs for a neighbor. Our policy is if we see them out in the pastures we leave them alone. (I've never understood people like our neighbor who both poison prairie dogs and gophers, as well as kill every snake they see.) But if we see them in the yard, they have to die. ;)

All other snakes are welcome.

At the last ranch we were on, we had a big bull snake for a number of years, named George. We kept George happy because in the years s/he was there, we never saw a single rattlesnake in the yard. (They compete for food sources and bullsnakes, being constrictors, get MUCH bigger than rattlesnakes do and consequently eat more)

we have Prairie rattlesnake here as well as bull snakes. we try to keep the five acres by the house and his grandfather's house completely free of rattlesnakes. they must die. we usually leave small snakes alone completely. and we remove the bull snakes and put them out in the field, UNLESS they continue to come back to the farm house. our dog is fabulous at holding snakes in place.

we maintain a dozen cats on the farm... mice, bunnies, gophers, baby birds don't last very long

[Reefgazer]

It has been my daughter's lifelong dream to be a farmer, from the time she was 3 until now (almost 12).  So we are getting her the experience she needs to make it happen, as best we know how.  We have land for her that my grandmother farmed mid-19th century, but other than that, the skills will be from scratch, like you mentioned above.  What advice would you give my daughter who wants to farm?  What experience would give her the most bang for her buck?

[Hoot]

It has been my daughter's lifelong dream to be a farmer, from the time she was 3 until now (almost 12).  So we are getting her the experience she needs to make it happen, as best we know how.  We have land for her that my grandmother farmed mid-19th century, but other than that, the skills will be from scratch, like you mentioned above.  What advice would you give my daughter who wants to farm?  What experience would give her the most bang for her buck?

 

How awesome for your daughter!  There are a lot of farms that look for helpers during the busy season.  There are also apprenticeships at some organic farms where people can come to stay and learn during the summer.  Maybe getting her into something like that would be helpful, though at that age I'm sure it would have to be a family thing.