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20 Comments

  2. Love this article. I have local farmers and ranchers who give me a hard time because I am always searching for heritage breeds that do NOT need assistance in birthing. But this is exactly why. I need animals that can live and reproduce without modern supports.

    1. Mama bear,,,,,,,,the EPD of the bull is the key to calving ease, I’ve seen Dexters have problems, Jerseys too. The most reliable calving ease I have experience is longhorn ,most difficult were pinzgauer (175#) and Belgium blue (dubbed muscled )
      If your going to have cattle you need to learn how to handle birthing problems ,doing “C” sections may be a little much though
      If your going to keep cattle find some one with real experience and spend the time to learn what and how , most real cattle people would be glad to teach you ,
      If you do things right cattle can be a joy ,if not a heartache at best at worst a grave mistake,even with experience you can be badly hurt or worse.
      I can’t imagine life without the girls (MOO)

      1. I agree. I have goats, rabbits, sheep, pigs, chickens, and turkeys. I am pretty ruthless about culling those who can’t birth without problems. Just lost a gilt that had trouble birthing. So many of the modern breeds and hybrids can’t birth without help.

        When TSHTF there won’t be the medicines and gadgets to support these modern animals.

        Those who have problems and survive I either sell or butcher. I now have goats and sheep that very very seldom have birthing problems. Working on the pigs.

        For cattle, I am looking at Belted Galloways. Their calves are smaller so birthing problems are rare and they are excellent mothers. There is a source not far away so in the next year or two I will add cattle.

        1. Mama bear,,,,we had white galloways for years ,used for crossing with Angus,nice breed ,good points ,,dubbel coat for better wintering ,good feed conversion ,my hand raised were nice to work with ,,, harder on fences than Angus ,,polled,,standoffish at times ,
          Liked them

          1. I appreciate the feedback. Double coated for winter is good for here because we can get some very cold temps in January and February. I did not know about the double coat. Thank you.

  3. This is the best, common sense article on farm sustainability that I have ever read. I started working my newly acquired farm just 8 years ago. I had always wanted to raise livestock and plant a larger garden for all of my adult life. I wanted to be able to be self sufficient and better prepared to take care of my wife and myself plus all the rest of the family that will suddenly appear when TSHTF.

    I almost headed down the wrong road you warned about when I first started, but met a younger man who had already made that mistake and made a correction in his operations. Bottom line is that one cannot maintain a herd of large, black Angus cattle on a pasture of high-dollar improved grass that requires annual, expensive fertilizer. I raise red, South Poll cross cows now; they can survive and still look good with limited input. All of the issues you addressed are spot on; not just for the cattle, but all the other farm animals as well.

    Thanks for your words. I trust that others take notice. Unless you are a wealthy, retired oil tycoon, you cannot maintain a showcase ranch with the best looking oversized cattle and the greenest improved fields when TSHTF. Not to mention that you will be the biggest target in the county for the renegades fleeing the large cities.

    May God bless you and your family.

  4. Brad N-

    Thanks for sharing. As someone who is just starting to populate their homestead with livestock you have provided some great insight. Very insightful information on not feeding cattle grain. Any thoughts or advice on Pigs?

  5. this is a good article, it brings back memories of growing up on the farm in the 50’s and 60’s here in the upper mid west. Of Dad and Mom and I helping a cow birth a calf in the middle of night in Feb or March, only to find out that the calf is born dead ( and sometimes had been dead for awhile inside the cow ), or of sows having piglets and needing help. Yeah, this article has brought memories. A lot of them good and some not so good.

  7. Thank you for this article!! It is full of professional common sense that some ranchers are lacking. Working with Mother Nature is way better than trying to fight against her.

  9. Brad, thanks for such an excellent article! From the laugh-out-loud comment that if a fence won’t hold water, it won’t hold goats, to the high efficiency of your operation, it’s a wonderful read.

    Thanks for sharing that you always wanted to be a cowboy when you grew up. Too many of us abandoned our dreams in the pursuit of things more “practical” and then discovered that happiness is way more important than practical. Even though I’m in my sixties, I still need to know that people made their dreams come true.

    So, what do you do with all the goat milk soap you mentioned? Do you sell some or do you just have a whole gaggle of kids that need a lot of baths? lol.

    Is there a formula for figuring out the carrying capacity of your land or was it mostly by trial and error?

    Thanks again for the great read this morning.

  10. Brad N! Thank you!!! Solid and informative. We very much enjoyed your article. Our homestead animals are limited presently to chickens, but we have considered (and are considering even more seriously now) the addition of land for the purposes of expanded ranching. The sharing of your experiences has renewed our in-home conversation and idea development.

  11. For those interested in heritage breeds, I highly recommend The Livestock Conservancy. http://www.livestockconservancy.org. You can also look up specific breed organizations. We started with Jacob sheep 18 years ago and are very pleased with their hardiness and good mothering skills. We initially got them for wool, but their main use now is for meat. I am waaay behind on my wool processing.

  13. BRAD N ,,,,,,, good article!!!!!! Rancher 7,000 acres ,after a early retirement ,did some things differently , but don’t disagree ,winter calving to time for fall sale made a difference in the check and bottom line , Had lots of calfs in the kitchen by the wood stove over night ,nights of sleeping in a chair next to a new calf ,the bathtub full of very warm water to revive a calf dug out of a snowbank ,

    LGD ,anatolians ,,, a pair will turn a black bear ,three will rout a wolf pack , two will hunt and kill a coyote ,,biggest problem is to not make pets of them ,

    Overgrazing at time can be a useful tool for fire suppression

    Goats got to love them BUT can be from hell in the garden ,and never ever leave the kitchen door open with the goats loose ,there is a reason the devil is often pictured as a goat ,,
    OBTW a cow in the kitchen is bad too

    Worst day on the ranch is better than any thing city ,,almost ,,,

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