Post by Joelle on Mar 9, 2012 10:02:32 GMT -5
Farmland2010, you sound so like me it's ridiculous; except that I adore milk, I drink it constantly. So the food saving part was REALLY important to me in regards to dairy, but we also love the beef. Oh, and our huge gardens that provide 90% of our food every year. And our chickens. And our rabbits, pigs, turkeys..... ;D
We have two 10X10 stalls, and they're big enough for both our cows for calving and short-term penning up. We let our cows wander in the pasture all the time unless the weather is really bad. Actually, we've put 2 full-grown cows in 1 stall with the calves and the donkey in the other, and it worked just fine for a night. I wouldn't do that all the time, of course. As long as the cows are used to being out and it's not very cold and very windy AND wet at the same time, cows do great outside year round. For the first year our cows only had a run-in shed.
I love that you're looking to provide food for your family, and that you're not afraid to do research first. That's exactly how my family did it, and now we're "pros" with a whole managerie of large and small critters and we've survived 4 calvings without incident (I probably just junxed myself there, though....) You can totally do this, just keep that mindset that you want to do right by your animals and take your time and you'll be fine. Ask a million questions, even the "dumb" ones, and don't be afraid to admit when you make mistakes because we all do! We tried hard to pace ourselves so we didn't take on more than we could handle, and managed it pretty well. 7 years ago I was a total city girl, and now I'm as country as they come. I even went from scared to death of our horned milk cow to being totally able to show her who's boss, and I'd never been around large animals before. So if I can do it, I'm sure you can!
Welcome to KFC and the wonderful world of cows!
We have two 10X10 stalls, and they're big enough for both our cows for calving and short-term penning up. We let our cows wander in the pasture all the time unless the weather is really bad. Actually, we've put 2 full-grown cows in 1 stall with the calves and the donkey in the other, and it worked just fine for a night. I wouldn't do that all the time, of course. As long as the cows are used to being out and it's not very cold and very windy AND wet at the same time, cows do great outside year round. For the first year our cows only had a run-in shed.
I love that you're looking to provide food for your family, and that you're not afraid to do research first. That's exactly how my family did it, and now we're "pros" with a whole managerie of large and small critters and we've survived 4 calvings without incident (I probably just junxed myself there, though....) You can totally do this, just keep that mindset that you want to do right by your animals and take your time and you'll be fine. Ask a million questions, even the "dumb" ones, and don't be afraid to admit when you make mistakes because we all do! We tried hard to pace ourselves so we didn't take on more than we could handle, and managed it pretty well. 7 years ago I was a total city girl, and now I'm as country as they come. I even went from scared to death of our horned milk cow to being totally able to show her who's boss, and I'd never been around large animals before. So if I can do it, I'm sure you can!
Welcome to KFC and the wonderful world of cows!