Learning Fodder and a Chicken Coop

Three days into the fodder experiment I forgot to water the seeds and left the soaking seeds soaking for 48 hours not 24.  Since then I have been very good about getting enough water on the seeds and we bought a grow light to help the fodder turn green. The night we fed the tray of fodder with the seeds that soaked an extra day; it was slimy and not all the seeds sprouted so the animals got some pretty yucky fodder.  So soaking 48 hours is not advised!  I also think I may be keeping the trays too wet.  When I put the holes in the trays I put them in the bottom of the trays it is more difficult because the bottom of the trays have little channels in them, Darling Husband pokes the holes into the side as close to the bottom as possible but the channels never empty – it seems the trays with the holes on the sides do not sprout as well.  We are learning.

This Christmas we made a chicken coop for our oldest daughter and gave her 5 chickens and a miniature rooster.  Maybe in spring she will have enough eggs to share with us.  The person who gave us the chickens has offered to give us more.  He knows a lot of local poultry people, I am hoping he may be a connection for getting some Red Bourbon Turkeys in the spring.  

Fodder Part 3

The yellow is from when I had them stacked on top of each other.    

We bought a plastic shelf and a grow lamp to put in the shower until we get the cargo container for the fodder.  In the reading I have done light isn’t supposed to be a big deal for the fodder BUT since adding the light everything seems to be growing faster.  

The seeds and roots seem to be a little thick using 3 cups of seeds so we have cut it down to  2 ½ cups in each tray – I have trouble getting the seeds even with just 2 ½ cups of seed but I will get better.  Also growing for 9 days instead of 8 seems to work better for us but we will see how having the light changes things. 

Christmas Eve we gave the animals the fodder for the first time.  3 of the sheep just turned their noses at it but Blackwell wolfed it down as fast as she could.  Magic was not interested in it but our neighbor’s horse who shares a pasture with Magic LOVED it, the second day we gave it to Magic he ate it after his hay was gone.  

  The cattle prefer their hay but when the hay is gone they eat the fodder.  We only are doing 1, 11 x 20 inch tray every day so the sheep are getting a handful, Magic gets a handful, and the cattle get most of it.  As soon as we have the cargo container and shelving in it I will start doing 3 trays a day and see how it goes.  

Truck VS Fence: We All Win!

The driveway my girls park their cars on is next to one of the pastures we put the new High Tinsel Fencing on.  We had a lot of rain last weekend.  During one of the heaviest rains Oldest Daughter’s truck slid off of the driveway and hit the wire fence with the side of her truck.  She was able to drive away without any damage done to her truck or the fence.  How many fences can you drive into without causing damage?  I guess Darling Husband over built it for a reason.  

Fodder Part 2

The day Darling Husband picked up the seeds and on his way home a friend called saying we may have a great opportunity to get a cargo container.  So instead of making shelving we had to figure out where we would put the cargo container, try to find a shipping company to move it at a reasonable price….

The next day the trays from Greenhousemegtastore.com arrived! Normal people would not start growing the seed until they are ready.  We started growing them in the shower!  Just one tray a day to see how it would grow.  It is surprising how fast a few trays of seeds fills up a shower.  

Yes, it is an ice cream tub I am soaking the seeds in!

Saturday doesn’t count we started 3 cups of barley seeds soaking.  Sunday is the first day we started seeds in their tray.  Tuesday I forgot all about the seeds and didn’t even water them.  Wednesday the first seed tray sprouted – Yay I didn’t kill them when I forgot to water them.  Friday the first sprouts are starting to turn green.  Our first tray of fodder will be ready to feed the cattle on Monday but how am I going to keep them stacked and watered nicely until then?  

The first sprouts.  I will take more pictures later.

Fodder Part 1

The cattle are eating everything much faster than we thought they would and had read that they would.  So far every pasture we have put them in is cleaned out in 1-2 weeks AND pasture rotation doesn’t work if new grass has not grown in the pasture that is resting.  I imagine rainfall has a lot to do with how many acres a cow need to live, and our lack of rainfall = no grass growth so we would need more acres per cattle.  Bummer!  I have been searching for a way to feed our cattle and sheep and not have a $350 or more feed bill per month. 

In my internet searches and looking through farming catalogs I keep reading about fodder systems.  They are expensive but seem to be a great way to give the animals the nutrition they need.  Then we started looking into making our own fodder system.  Quartz Ridge Ranch  http://quartzridgeranch.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/our-daily-fodder-routine/ has done an incredible job of showing how they made their fodder system.  Darling Husband and I decided to put shelves next to his shop that way they would be easy to cover if we decide we need to but temporarily we can just protect the area with a tarp.  We ordered trays to put the seeds in.  Then we started searching for Barley Seed.  Our local stores didn’t carry any but I could order it.  In internet stores many were out, many who had barley seeds at reasonable prices it wanted to charge insane amounts for shipping, others had the seed but higher prices than I wanted to pay.  I spent hours searching then I thought to put California in the search for barley seed. WALLAAAAA! On the top of the second page I searched was an organic seed company near my husband’s work!  

Christmas Card Picture

This weekend we took our annual Christmas Card Picture!  Every year we try to be creative and show something new we have done on the property.  Many years ago our oldest daughter decided she no longer lived with us so she wouldn’t be a part of this holiday chaos.  Darling Husband always comes up with a fun idea.  This year his idea was going to be a lot of work and when we were running out of time I saw an idea on another websight using the sheep.  Taking a picture with 4 kids is hard enough but we decided to add the sheep. 

Sunday morning we got the kids up, put them in plaid shirts, and got the sheep.  We chose a spot that wouldn’t show too much junk.  We grabbed a small amount of hay that would hopefully keep the sheep that were not on leads near us.  The 2 sheep that were on leads were held by the kids.   Darling Husband used the camera and I used the picture thing on my phone.  We would just keep taking as many pictures as we could while the kids and sheep posed for us. 

Some not so great pictures....I forgot about the blog and deleted the really bad ones.

After we finished and hoped we had a good picture we discovered the camera didn’t have it’s memory card.  UGG there go ½ the pictures.  

Our final picture!

A Goat

I am not a fan of goats.  I know there are a lot of goat lovers out there but I am not one of them.  When researching what animals to start with I read a lot of articles on how goats were hard on fencing, mischievous, and comparing goats to devils.  Sheep on the other hand, while they are not very smart, they really are sweet, great followers. 

Our friends were moving and needed a safe place for their pigmy goat while they were moving.  We thought no problem we will put it in with our sheep for a few days.  Friday afternoon they arrived with the goat.  It’s cute.  The owner says if we want it we can keep it. 

Darling Husband says how cute it is and maybe we should keep it.

 I say NO, I did my research and decided against goats! 

He says well maybe.

 It is cute but no!

 We put a rope halter on the goat and made the walk to the sheep’s enclosure.  The goat fights us the whole way but it isn’t used to being on a halter.  Put it in with our sheep and right away BAM BAM BAM the goat starts head butting my sweet kind sheep.  We watched for a few minutes with the sheep huddled in the corner and decided it wasn’t going to get better while we watched so we walked away.  As we walked away it started making these maaing noises that are terribly nasally and nasty.  Sheep have nice baaing noises compared to the goat.  

Every time we checked the sheep were huddled in a corner and the goat was standing in front every once in a while charging them.  At 10:pm we checked on everyone for the last time and watched the goat give one last charge and head but to the sheep.  Darling Husband said “THAT’S IT! The goat will not abuse our sheep anymore!” and we took the goat to the old sheep enclosure.  It was by itself, our sheep are safe, the goat is safe. 

Pens that work for sheep do not work for goats.  The sweet sheep lived in that pen for months without a problem.  The goat lived in it a few days and banged out the sides the last straw was twice it got its head and horns stuck one time Teen Son and I were able to get it unstuck the second time I called it’s owners because I couldn’t get the horns back through the fence.  We will not become goat owners any time soon!

Corner Pasture

We finished the fencing.  The next step was to put the cattle in a trailer and back the trailer as far across the bridge as we could.  Open the trailer and pray the cattle continue across the bridge into the new pasture without spooking.  Sounds so simple.  Except the Dexter Cattle had not been easy to get in the trailer when we bought them so the day before we moved them we gave them ½ the hay we had been normally feeding them.  As the sun came up Darling Husband took the solar charger off of their electric fence and set it up at the new pasture.  Then I grabbed a flake of hay and walked through the pasture and into the trailer.  Our cattle may be small but imagine walking with 6; 200 to 800 lb hungry dogs chasing you.  All the cattle followed me into the trailer without any problems.  Well one problem; I had given Stick Boy my phone to take pictures then wanted Darling Husband to take pictures of me and the cattle in the trailer but DH just told me to get out of the trailer.  He didn't like his wife and 6 cattle in a 3 horse trailer – I thought it would make a great picture – He doesn't understand my need for pictures of our craziness.   

Darling husband backed up the trailer to the bridge with the idea being he would back part way across except as he was backing up we realized he made the bridge 6 inches to narrow.  AAK.  So we open the doors and hope the cattle will see the fresh food and come out easily and happily - and they did.  

Onyx our Lowline Angus had to be the first to come out.

Happy cows enjoying the new pasture.

These pictures make the pasture look bigger than it is.