We had to pick up hog feed this morning, so we headed out early this morning on our 3 hour round trip to the feed mill.
On the way there we talked about the questions we wanted to ask about the goats grain as well as the horses. Our goats grain has Ammonium Chloride mixed in it, which is something that is beneficial for bucks to help prevent Urinary Calculi aka Urinary Stones. Since we don't have any bucks we wanted to know if we could get the feed without it.
Mr. Wild wanted to know if we could feed the horses and the cattle the same grain mix, with the exception being our Jerseys (but they don't run in the same field as the rest of the cattle & horses, so they are fed separately).
The manager was there so we started asking questions. He said we could have our own goat grain mixed, but they only mix it by a ton & a half. If mixed at a smaller ratio they said it wouldn't get mixed in properly and that it would cost us MORE per bag if we bought in a smaller amount. We buy 300 lbs at a time and currently don't have a dry location to store a ton of feed that isn't for ALL the animals. We decided to call around to the other feed mills before buying. Kinda disappointed, but we understand they are a big mill and we are a small farm (for now).
Next we asked about the horse & cattle. He said they do carry a very basic mix of SOYbean meal, corn gluten and shelled corn. As soon as he said SOY I started shaking my head NO. I let him finish and then I said NO, I will NOT feed ANY of our animals anything with SOY in it. The manager asked why and I told him that 95% (its more like 98%) of soy that is grown in the U.S. is genetically modified. He looked at me like I had suddenly grown a fish face and said he wasn't aware of that. I asked him if he knew if their corn was GMO and he said he didn't know, that he wasn't aware of that EITHER!!
This man, whose family not only owns the feed mill but the hundreds of acres surrounding it where they GROW many of the ingredients in their feed DOESN'T KNOW IF THEY ARE GROWING GMO!
Now we needed 500 lbs of hog feed, 300 lbs of goat feed, 500 lbs of cattle feed & 250 lbs of horse feed. We didn't buy any of it. I told Mr. Wild that I was not going to feed our animals THAT WE ARE RAISING FOR FOOD modified anything! And that I am sick to my stomach that we didn't ask these questions sooner, because we've been doing just that for months. The manager of the feed mill isn't the only one who showed his ignorance today =o(
Showing posts with label horse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horse. Show all posts
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Time flies, right!?!
Well, so much for posting all the time! So much has happened since March, so lets play catch up, the summarized version.
We left Las Vegas May 16th and arrived at the farm in Kentucky May 19th around midnight. We spent the next week in a hotel because super tiny rural farming areas take their time turning on power & water. The phone & internet took almost 3 weeks after the 4 days of waiting on power/water.
We've been working around the clock to get things in order, fixed up & cleaned up. The main house needed plumbing repairs in the bathroom and kitchen as well as new insulation on the pipes under the house.
We had part of the hill in front of the barn dozed/flattened and put a trailer on it.
We had the upper pond drained, mucked out & widened and the dam rebuilt. Its fed by a spring, so we haven't had to wait on rain.
We've fenced off the hills behind the barn for the goats, which we now have 11 of. The original 2 we came out with are doing so much better than they ever did in Vegas!
We bought a horse, his name is Fury, but everyone calls him Buck. Still trying to learn the story behind that.
Our neighbor down the road bush-hogged our front field; the grass was about 3 feet tall, maybe more.
The neighbor on the hill behind us plowed a plot for a garden. We got that tilled and broke the sod chunks out best we could and got to planting. We've gotten tons of tomatoes, potatoes, beets, zucchini, squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew and the pumpkins are growing like crazy! A couple of weeks ago we planted lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, basil and cabbages.
We bought chickens, ducks, turkeys, guineas and rabbits. We've built hutches and cages. Then we built 8ft x 8ft chicken wire enclosed raised cage/rooms for the turkeys, they grew fast!
For our anniversary, July 1st, we bought 2 great pyrenees puppies, both boys. Their names are Sledge (right) & Hammer (left). Cute huh! We've been working with them in the chicken/goat/horse area. They are almost ready to start staying in the yard with all of them.
We bought 5 hogs. Have them put up and have been feeding them corn, getting them ready for butcher in October/November.
And lastly, we bought 2 jersey milk cows, one in her 2nd phase of pregnancy, both in milk and healthy.
We've gone fishing a few times, lots of hunting too! The laws for hunting on your land are interesting.
We started our 2nd year of homeschooling August 10th. We've studied the Civil War, canning/preserving, gardening, animal husbandry, breeding rabbits, studying the animal tracks that we find behind the house in the morning, identifying the plants and trees. We've made jelly out of Queen Anne's Lace, which everyone around here calls chigger weed. We've gone walnut & acorn picking, then did rubbings of the leaves. Also lots on dinosaurs, because those are a huge favorite here! Oh! and the caterpillars, they absolutely fascinate Tyler. They spin these huge web looking cocoons that hang in the trees.
Oh! And we had a baby deer adopt us, so we've been bottle feeding her since June.
I'm promising that we'll be updating frequently! There is so much to share and in detail! We're working hard on becoming self-sufficient and want to share our journey as so many others have that inspired and helped us along the way!
We left Las Vegas May 16th and arrived at the farm in Kentucky May 19th around midnight. We spent the next week in a hotel because super tiny rural farming areas take their time turning on power & water. The phone & internet took almost 3 weeks after the 4 days of waiting on power/water.
We've been working around the clock to get things in order, fixed up & cleaned up. The main house needed plumbing repairs in the bathroom and kitchen as well as new insulation on the pipes under the house.
We had part of the hill in front of the barn dozed/flattened and put a trailer on it.
We had the upper pond drained, mucked out & widened and the dam rebuilt. Its fed by a spring, so we haven't had to wait on rain.
We've fenced off the hills behind the barn for the goats, which we now have 11 of. The original 2 we came out with are doing so much better than they ever did in Vegas!
We bought a horse, his name is Fury, but everyone calls him Buck. Still trying to learn the story behind that.
Our neighbor down the road bush-hogged our front field; the grass was about 3 feet tall, maybe more.
The neighbor on the hill behind us plowed a plot for a garden. We got that tilled and broke the sod chunks out best we could and got to planting. We've gotten tons of tomatoes, potatoes, beets, zucchini, squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew and the pumpkins are growing like crazy! A couple of weeks ago we planted lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, basil and cabbages.
We bought chickens, ducks, turkeys, guineas and rabbits. We've built hutches and cages. Then we built 8ft x 8ft chicken wire enclosed raised cage/rooms for the turkeys, they grew fast!
For our anniversary, July 1st, we bought 2 great pyrenees puppies, both boys. Their names are Sledge (right) & Hammer (left). Cute huh! We've been working with them in the chicken/goat/horse area. They are almost ready to start staying in the yard with all of them.
We bought 5 hogs. Have them put up and have been feeding them corn, getting them ready for butcher in October/November.
And lastly, we bought 2 jersey milk cows, one in her 2nd phase of pregnancy, both in milk and healthy.
We've gone fishing a few times, lots of hunting too! The laws for hunting on your land are interesting.
We started our 2nd year of homeschooling August 10th. We've studied the Civil War, canning/preserving, gardening, animal husbandry, breeding rabbits, studying the animal tracks that we find behind the house in the morning, identifying the plants and trees. We've made jelly out of Queen Anne's Lace, which everyone around here calls chigger weed. We've gone walnut & acorn picking, then did rubbings of the leaves. Also lots on dinosaurs, because those are a huge favorite here! Oh! and the caterpillars, they absolutely fascinate Tyler. They spin these huge web looking cocoons that hang in the trees.
Oh! And we had a baby deer adopt us, so we've been bottle feeding her since June.
I'm promising that we'll be updating frequently! There is so much to share and in detail! We're working hard on becoming self-sufficient and want to share our journey as so many others have that inspired and helped us along the way!
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