The new year has begun, and while it was a struggle to manage the farm and family matters last year, I’m feeling good about where things are now. I had too many animals on the farm of various types, fences that didn’t hold, and learned a lot about the animals’ different needs. I culled, sold, gave away, and downsized in a big way in some areas and upsized in others. I was running as fast as I could and that led to exhaustion. My “farm dreams” were sore in need of a reality check. But, the good news is, I am still standing, and I did manage to change my trajectory and improve my personal health.
The Animals
The animals I had on the farm at the beginning of 2024: Cows, sheep, pigs, chickens (both meat and laying chickens), barn cats, and guard dogs. I ended the year with cows, laying hens, one less guard dog, and two added livestock guardian dogs.
Cows: I bought and sold several cows during the year trying to get my dairy herd “just right”. I honestly didn’t know what I was doing. At the end of the year, I had two pregnant cows, one cow in the freezer, two young heifers, and “a plan” so that I would stop losing so much money on cows.
A kindly neighboring farmer who has a beef cow/calf operation clued me in to how not to lose money. The key idea was to establish the “breeding stock”, and only sell the offspring rather than selling cow/calf pairs. In the beef world that makes perfect sense. In the homesteading world, a bred-back dairy cow with a desirable heifer calf at her side commands a nice sum of money. (A larger dairy might be selling the cows that don’t produce enough for their needs, but that would be perfect for a “homestead”. In a homestead setting, a cow that produces 10+ gallons a day may not be desirable, whereas one that produces 3-5 gallons a day might be perfect.)
It’s tempting to sell a pair into the homesteading market, and sell a few I did. However, the amount of money and time you put in to bringing a healthy, disease-free, trained, and productive dairy cow to that point of sale, is generally a net loss even if a slim one, and then you start over. It takes 2-3 years to produce that perfect pair if all goes well. Homesteads are always trying to find the perfect balance of how many cows the land can support. Otherwise, winter feeding costs can be prohibitive. I think I’ve found the balance, but we shall see.
So, after mad cow swapping, as I call it, I’ve invested in, and settled on, my breeding stock and with all seriousness am focusing on genetics and selective breeding. My intent, moving forward, is to only sell offspring when and where it makes sense. Bull calves become steers and go to freezer camp. Heifer calves can be sold young at weaning, or sooner as a bottle calf. On occasion, an exceptional heifer calf can be held back and trained as a future dairy cow. The goal is to hold on to the breeding stock. This information will sound elementary to a seasoned rancher, but for me, the concepts were new. You just don’t know what you don’t know.
I have matured from someone who just wanted a family milk cow, any cow, to someone who is serious about the future of quality milk cows. I am also serious about quality A2A2 raw milk which contributes substantially to my family’s diet and health.
Barn cats: Cats, kittens, and more kittens. Early in the year, I had rounded up all but one of my barn cats who escaped, and had them all fixed so they would stop multiplying. The barn cats are critical to keep the mouse, vole, and rat population down. Since then, that one escapee cat had two litters of kittens, and the coyotes picked off several cats who had been fixed, which was frustrating. I will always keep barn cats, but I still struggle to make sure they are safe from predators. Cue the farm dogs.
Farm dogs: At the beginning of the year I had two German Shepherd Dogs, who were great at protecting me, but not the livestock. At the end of the year, I had two Livestock Guardian Dogs (Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd mix) for animal protection, and had to put down one of my GSDs (previously written about), leaving just one. The 3 dogs work in concert with one another protecting me, the farm, animals, and there is harmony and cooperation between the three. The coyotes have stayed off the property and I haven’t lost a cat, or chicken, recently.
Chickens: After losing five flocks of both layers and meat birds to coyotes over the past several years, I added LGDs to the farm and started over with a new laying flock. My neighbor shot the boldest old coyote after he killed her entire flock, but there are packs of coyotes here. I don’t know when I will try and raise meat birds again, but it’s on the list. There are many people in my area who grow out meat birds, but they charge a lot of money for them. I can still buy “organic” chicken meat at Costco. Not that I fully trust the “organic” label. I can still grab a rooster and put him in a pot. I’m hoping a few of my hens will go broody and raise their own chicks. I still want to be able to raise chickens (and other fowl) for meat, but chickens other than the Layers are not my focus in the new year.
Veterinary and Breeding Costs
I was way over “budget” on vet and breeding costs in 2024. There is a wonderful large animal vet not too far from me who makes farm calls for a mileage fee that is very reasonable. There is also a gentleman, a rancher by profession, who offers breeding services and is also very reasonably priced for on farm visits. The vet and breeding costs could have been a lot higher, but I’m guesstimating that I spent a couple thousand dollars altogether. There were a few things that shot my costs up. One was a cow who went down hard with milk fever (we saved her!); a cow I had to have bred many times over + bull rental fees; several cows I wanted disease tested, and the new LGDs needed checkups, shots, neuter, and flea/tick meds; cats that needed fixin’.
I learned a lot. The first lesson was to cull a problematic cow sooner rather than later. The second was to pay attention to a cow the closer she gets to calving to ensure she doesn’t go down with milk fever by providing additional minerals (calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium) to her diet pre and post calving. I knew that, but things were so busy that I didn’t do what I should have done. She almost died because of my lack of attention. I learned how to pull a stuck calf safely rather than frantically call the vet. I learned to get cats fixed sooner rather than later to avoid prolific breeding. There was no way to avoid the LGD vet costs, but I did find an alternative source for ongoing flea, tick, and heartworm meds which saves me about 50% on cost.
I expect 2025 costs to go down significantly, but you never know what challenges may appear. I can assess animal health now by just watching them with a more experienced eye.
The Weather
The weather was a wild ride in 2024. The year started with an arctic blast that blew in with ferocity. We went down to -10 degrees, which is unheard of in the South, and very high winds. My HVAC system could not keep up, so I had a fire going most of the time to add heat to the house. Normally you would not need a wood burning stove down in the South, but I wished I had one then. As a matter of “prepper” course, I had plenty of wood and kindling at the ready – just in case. I spent the majority of my days keeping a fire going, and making sure animals were safe and dry with plenty of water.
We don’t use water trough heaters in the South because they are totally unnecessary. Ha! I was boiling large pots of water on the stove, dumping water into 5 gallon buckets, and carrying those out to the water troughs several times a day. The ice was so thick I couldn’t hack my way through it without the addition of very hot water. One water trough that is shaded most of the year froze solid from top to bottom, and cracked the tank. Thankfully I have several water troughs about the farm, so I concentrated on keeping the ones closest to the house defrosted enough for the cows to drink from. If I had lost electricity, I have propane tanks and a “boiler pot”, normally used for deep frying turkey, that I could have used to heat up water in a large enough quantity to be useful.
It was during the arctic blast and blizzard that I decided I was going to sell the farm and get out of this lifestyle altogether! LOL. But, it only lasted a few weeks, so I recovered.
We had severe weather in the Spring that flooded our entire town and surrounding areas. It wasn’t considered a 100-year flood, but a 1,000-year flood. The townspeople lost power, water, and sewer for a few weeks. I was grateful that I lived outside of town, on a hill, and had a septic system and a good well. I was thankful that I had stocked up on animal feed and supplies. Grateful that I had a gas generator and plenty of gas, although I never needed it. I was thankful that my animals were not in low-lying areas. Many people’s herds were washed miles away. I could only observe and offer help to my friends. As well, later in the year, Hurricane Helene devastated areas of Appalachia in Tennessee and North Carolina. I don’t live anywhere near that, but my heart broke for the people who were affected. There was no amount of preparation that could have saved those people and their homes. All I could do was donate to trusted groups and pray.