# Farming with prepping in mind



## Raven (Jan 17, 2014)

We live in the southern part of Minnesota. It gets cold in the winter usually accompanied by alot of snow and wind. It gets relatively hot in the summer with a high humidity (for us anyway). When we bought this place, we wanted to live here until we died, God willing. With that in mind, we wanted a sustainable crop of livestock that we could grow and give us an added income. Heritage breeds are a perfect choice for preppers. They fell out of favor with farmers when the industrial farming took hold. The reasons that they fell out of favor are the very reasons that preppers should consider them. While the modern rendition of breeds such as the Holstein cow, are selected for genetics that gives a ton of milk but require a ton of human interventions, heritage breeds of cattle (for the most part) do better with a grass fed only diet. We have Dexter's and Highlands. The Highlands do very well on browse and grass. Our Dexters do well on substandard pastures. Dexter beef is very much like Jersey in that they both have that fine grained texture. Jerseys are much harder to winter in our area. Dexter's and Highlands also make great oxen for working. Dexter's are also great milk cows. If you buy stock, make sure you get them from grass based beef or dairy herds though. The genetics in those herds have already been fine tuned and they are saving you enough money to make them worth the extra cost. We also raise Red Wattle hogs. I chose them for their ability to pasture well, forage, maternal instinct, but most of all the taste. They are more of a red meat hog. Modern hogs are bred to be fast growing, no fat and no mothering abililty.
We also raise rabbits, poultry and have had goats and sheep. We built rabbit tractors for grow outs and I am researching colony raising of rabbits.
We are putting up a perimeter fence of woven wire, the interior fence is movable electric. This allows the movement of the animals in a mob. If you can help it, don't graze your grasses lower than 4" and don't keep the animals in a space so large that they are not forced to eat the lesser palatable grasses. If you dont' do this, the grass will not have time to develop a good, sound root system that has a better chance of withstanding drought or flooding. Doing this will also increase the brix in your pasture and allow better and more varied grasses to grow. Run your cows through first, pigs second and poultry third. Cow manure is a source of vitamin B12 for the pigs and the manure will be broken down quicker by the poultry that look for the bugs in it. Doing this will also decrease your animals worm load as parasites tend to be species specific for the most part. This whole thing is a time consuming process (and never ending) but that is what prepping is all about. If you can't raise them yourselves, meet up with a like minded neighbor or friend and learn about their care, support their work by buying your meat from them. Prepare for the future, you might need these alliances. We just look at this as an extension of our long term survival.


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

Similar to why I put some heritage varieties in my garden every year, and am working on learning seed saving and sprouting.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

My wife and I limit our livestock to chickens. We do have two horses, but they are for fun.
Our chickens are raised for egg production, and when they are too old to lay are processed and eaten. We had as many as 50 at a time, but for the last few years stay between 15 to 20. This includes several roosters.
We have experimented with many different breeds, and at the moment have Americaunas and Delawares.

We were thinking about a cow, but we found a local farmer that is well known for his beef and we buy a quarter every year, cut and wrapped. That plus our old hens, plus a deer each season keeps us supplied.


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

Need to research, but I saw a trailer, that was growing a grass and sprout combo, that was self contained, and produced a lot of feed for pgs. I will find it.


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

Raven, thanks for some valuable insight. Never thought of the order that you put animals to pasture would effect, but, I have never had any animals yet. 
When I get to retire, I hope to have meat rabbits, and chickens. With at least one hog. 
The videos I found were on sprouting, and seems very feasible for rabbits and hogs. 
Will probably do the crickets for the chickens.


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

Cool thread.


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## Ralph Rotten (Jun 25, 2014)

I wanna get a goat to eat the fodder grass I wanna try growing hydroponically.

Equine Benefits - Fodder Systems - Healthy, fresh feed every day

I have been playing with indoor hydroponics, but i only eat a couple of vegetables, so what do i do with the rest of that stuff. What I need is a hamburger tree.


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## BagLady (Feb 3, 2014)

Deebo said:


> Need to research, but I saw a trailer, that was growing a grass and sprout combo, that was self contained, and produced a lot of feed for pgs. I will find it.


I saw that the other day, Deebo. It was on the food channel, Andrew Zimmern's show. 
Since we do raise a pig or two per year, I found this very interesting too. BTW, it was wheat. They fed the pigs after a 3 day growth of sprouted wheat.

OP; Thanks for the advice. Good read.


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

Yes it was. The wife grosses out, and I'm like, yeah I'd eat that. 
Lots of YouTube vids on the sprouts. 
I have a batch of Teriaki on the dehydrater with your name on some of it Baglady.


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## Raven (Jan 17, 2014)

Deebo said:


> Need to research, but I saw a trailer, that was growing a grass and sprout combo, that was self contained, and produced a lot of feed for pgs. I will find it.


4

A friend of ours nearby tried the fodder system for his animals. They loved it but it was very energy reliant in our area. The water pump could run on solar, and the racks were put into a greenhouse but the temps were hard to regulate in our area. The animals do very well on it but it wasn't all that sustainable here. If we can find a way to do it with less monetary input, I will try it and it is always in the back of my mind but I always try to keep "grid down" in the back of my mind when planning. For now, keeping 14 5 gallon buckets filled with wheat, barley or other grains, might be a better option. When the seeds first sprout, they don't need the light and this amount of buckets could easily be stacked in a warmer corner of the house. Fill the buckets half way with the seed and then put just enough water in to get them to swell and sprout. I would use the 14 bucket approach because I could start one bucket a day for a two week supply for chicken feed. It wouldn't come close to feeding our cows or pigs though. They will have to settle for hay alone. They don't seem to mind which is one more plus for raising heritage breeds. Places farther south would have a much easier time utilizing a fodder system. If I can find the pictures of my friends set up and and figure out how to post a picture, I will try to put them on here.


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