Barrow = Castrated male
Boar = Immature or mature male
Farrowing = Act of giving birth
Gilt = Immature female
Shoat or piglet = Newborn
Sow = Mature female
Reproduction:
Gestation = 114 days (3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days)
Litter size = 8 to 13
Tons of manure produced annually per 1,000 pounds of stock: 18.25
Kilograms of manure produced annually per 1,000 kilograms of stock: 36,500
Top senses: Taste, smell
BREEDS
Major
Berkshire
Chester White
Duroc
Hampshire
Landrace
Yorkshire
Minor
Glouchester Old Spot
Guinea Hog
Large Black
Mulefoot
Poland China
Tamworth
Anatomy of a pig.
Fencing: A single strand of electric wire about 1 foot (30 cm) off the ground will hold pigs trained to it — but they are notorious for rooting the dirt around the edge of the fence up and over the wire, thus shorting it out. To protect your pasture and your fence, use humane nose rings on hogs (see NASCO Catalog in appendix E, Resources).
Housing: Portable steel huts work very well and are inexpensive. If sows will be farrowing during the winter, they must do so in a heated structure.
Other thoughts: Pigs are an animal people either love or hate — there’s no in-between crowd. We love pigs because they are intelligent and entertaining, but they can also be a challenge. They love to get into things (a result of their curious nature), so they can be quite mischievous. Since they are omnivores, they’ll sometimes eat things you don’t want eaten — like a live chicken.
Table A.5
PIG FEED
Sheep
Scientific name: Ovis aries
Terms:
Ram or buck = Immature or mature male
Ewe = Immature or mature female
Wether = Castrated male
Lamb = Newborn
Reproduction:
Gestation = 148 days
Estrus cycle = 16 days
Normal birth = 1 to 3 lambs, though some breeds may have up to 6 lambs
Tons of manure produced annually per 1,000 pounds of stock: 9.75
Kilograms of manure produced annually per 1,000 kilograms of stock: 19,500
Top sense: Smell
Fencing: Sheep are the second most difficult species — right behind goats — to keep fenced. Two to three strands of electric fence will hold most sheep that are trained to it. Wool is a great electrical insulator, though, so the trick to training sheep to electric is to do it right after they have been sheared, or else wet their wool so that it will conduct the shock. If you only run a small flock of sheep, then Electro-plastic Net (Premier Fencing, Washington, Iowa) works well.
BREEDS
Major
Corriedale (dual)
Dorset (meat)
Hampshire (meat)
Polypay (dual)
Rambouillet (wool)
Romney (wool)
Suffolk (meat)
Minor
Cotswold (wool)
Delaine-Merino (wool)
Gulf Coast Native (meat)
Lincoln (dual)
Oxford (meat)
St. Croix Hair (meat)
Tunis (meat)
Housing: Sheep have their housing on their backs. The only time you need a building is if you’re lambing in winter, or shearing in winter.
Other thoughts: Sheep are high strung and more difficult to handle than many other types of animals. They frighten easily and move in a tight bunch, so working sheep requires a great deal of patience. But the reward can be worth the effort: Sheep are inexpensive to get involved with, they can be raised in small places and on pieces of land that aren’t suitable to other types of livestock, and you can build up a flock from just a few purchased animals relatively quickly. A sheep that does bond to you will run up to visit as soon as it sees you coming and will follow you everywhere. If you just want one or two pet sheep to keep down the weeds in your yard, offer to buy some bottle lambs from a sheep farmer. Bottle lambs become completely bonded to the person who feeds them!
Table A.6
SHEEP FEED
Appendix B
Composition of Common Feedstuffs
Appendix C
Figuring Feeds & Feeding
When mixing feeds, you can use this math trick (often called the square method) for finding the amount of each constituent needed to make a desired mixture:
Step 1. Draw a square.
Step 2. Insert the desired value in the center.
Step 3. Place the known values for each constituent in the upper and lower left-hand corners.
Step 4. Subtract the differences and place in the opposite right-hand corners.
Step 5. Total the figures in the right-hand corners and calculate the percentage from those figures.
As with the rules of algebra, these steps can be worked forward and backward.
Now for some real examples.
Example 1. You want to mix shell corn (crude protein = 9%) and soybeans (crude protein = 43%) to yield a mixture containing a crude protein of 18%. How much of each feed do you need? First draw the box, then place the known proteins in the left-hand corner, and 18 in the middle.
Now put the differences in the opposite corners. Add those numbers together (this becomes the divisor), then figure the percents of each.
Example 2. You are feeding a grass-based hay with about 10 percent crude protein in it. You want to supplement with a grain mixture so your 50-pound lambs are receiving 12 percent crude protein. From the feed chart for sheep (Table A.6), you see that the lambs need about 2.2 pounds per day of dry matter. The hay is fed out free-choice, so let’s make the assumption that the lambs can each get 85 percent of their dry matter from the hay, and you’re shooting for about 15 percent from the supplement (0.33 pounds). In this exercise you work the square backward to discover the crude protein in the grain mixture. Again draw the box, but this time the desired protein (12) goes in the center, and the known protein of the hay (10) goes in the upper left-hand corner. Place the difference of these two numbers in the lower right-hand corner (2).
Now, you have to figure out what total would make 2 equal to 15 percent of the mixture. Here’s the math for that:
Now you know that the total equals 13, so 11 is the figure that goes in the upper right-hand corner. Add 11 and 12 to find that your grain mixture needs 23 percent crude protein.
Example 3. For a final example, let’s look at a mixture of more than two constituents that will yield the 23 percent crude protein grain mixture you need for your lambs in Example 2. Assume that you feed a mixture of 2 parts corn (9% crude protein) to 1 part oats (13% crude protein), and you will add soybean meal (50% crude protein) to make your mix.
First, figure out the crude protein of the corn-andoat mixture using the following approach:
Now set up the box, as we did in Example 1.
Appendix D
Grasses & Legumes
Appendix E
Resources
Books
Beck-Chenowith, Herman. Free-Range Poultry Production and Marketing. Creola, OH: Back Forty Books, 1966.
Herman has done a lot of work on raising and marketing free-range birds and has put his experiences together to help other small-scale farmers with a less labor-intensive approach to poultry production. His detailed instructions include plans for skid houses.
Bingham, Sam, and Allan Savory. Holistic Resource Management Workbook. Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1990.
If you need the full holistic management planning model, or to continue your studies, read this workbook.
Damerow, Gail. Fences for Pasture & Garden. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 1992.
In my book I didn’t r
eally have space to do justice to fence construction, so if you need some more information on the how-to aspects of building fences, Gail’s book is very good. There are thorough discussions of design, materials, and lots of construction tricks that make for both a neater and a sturdier fence.
Haynes, N. Bruce. Keeping Livestock Healthy. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 1994.
Anyone raising livestock should have a copy of this book.
Logsdon, Gene.
Read any books by Gene Logsdon (many of Gene’s books are out-of-print, but they are worth looking for at the library or used bookstores). Gene is a superb advocate for small farmers, with lots of good how-to information in all his books. He is articulate, but best of all he’s also funny!
Macleod, George. A Veterinary Materia Medica and Clinical Repertory. Essex, Engl.: The C. W. Daniel Company Ltd, 1992.
———. The Treatment of Cattle by Homeopathy. Essex, Engl.: The C. W. Daniel Company Ltd, 1992.
These two books are good resources if you want to learn more about using homeopathic preparations around the farm.
Mettler, John J. Basic Butchering. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 1989.
A good primer for anyone who wants to do their own butchering.
Morrison, Frank B. Feeds and Feeding. Ithaca, NY: The Morrison Publishing Company, 1950.
All livestock farmers should have at least one good feed book. Morrison’s is the classic on the topic. Despite its age, this is an excellent reference and is user friendly for farmers and ranchers. Other good books are:
Jurgens, Marshall. Animal Feeding and Nutrition. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 1996.
Church, D. C., and W. G. Pond. Basic Animal Nutrition and Feeding. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995.
Rombauer, Irma S., and Marion Rombauer Becker. Joy of Cooking. New York: Macmillan, 1975.
If you plan on taking up butchering, the Joy of Cooking has the best instructions I know of for sharpening knives.
Salatin, Joel. Pastured Poultry Profits. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 1996.
———. Salad Bar Beef. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 1996.
———. You Can Farm. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 1998.
Any of Joel’s books are well worth having. He’s a phenomenally successful direct-marketer, and he outlines just how he does things in excellent detail in his books.
Savory, Allan. Holistic Management. Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1998.
Savory’s textbook is the bible of holistic management.
Schwenke, Karl. Successful Small-Scale Farming. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 1991.
A good general small-farm book, with information for the garden, on raising crops, maintaining a woodlot, and more.
Spaulding, C. E. A Veterinary Guide for Animal Owners. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 1996.
Anyone raising livestock should have a copy of this.
Voisin, Andre. Grass Productivity. Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1988.
Voisin was the original “thinker” on grass farming.
Periodicals
Small Farm Today (bimonthly)
Clark, Missouri
800-633-2535
www.smallfarmtoday.com
Good all-around small-farming magazine
Small Farmer’s Journal (quarterly)
Sisters, Oregon
800-876-2893
www.smallfarmersjournal.com
Lots of horse-farming information, plus good general small farm information. Many reprints out of old out-of-print publications. Editor Lynn Miller writes a good commentary on American agriculture and society.
The Stockman Grass Farmer (monthly)
Ridgeland, Mississippi
800-748-9808
www.stockmangrassfarmer.net
If we could afford only one agricultural magazine, this would be the one we’d keep. “Al’s Ob’s” (editor Allan Nation’s monthly column) is worth the price of admission.
References and Organizations
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Pittsboro, North Carolina
919-542-5704
www.albc-usa.org
ALBC is an organization dedicated to helping maintain the domestic gene pool by helping to keep minor breeds alive. If you are interested in raising minor breeds, they can help you identify other breeders or breed organizations for the breed you are interested in.
ALBC also publishes an excellent reference book, A Rare Breeds Album of American Livestock, by Carolyn J. Christman, D. Phillip Sponenberg, and Donald E. Bixby (ALBC, 1997). The album has good color photos.
Holistic Management International
Albuquerque, New Mexico
505-842-5252
www.holisticmanagement.org
HMI is a nonprofit organization that helps promote the adoption and use of holistic management techniques.
Forage Information System
(Oregon State University – Department of Crop and Soil Science)
Corallis, Oregon
http://forages.oregonstate.edu/index.cfm
Oregon State has done a good job with their site. Find out about any forage crop, including pictures of most plants, be it grass, legume, or forb. This is also the place to look for certified forage testing laboratories.
Heifer Project International
Little Rock, Arkansas
800-422-0474
www.heifer.org
A nonprofit organization, HPI helps feed hungry people around the world by providing breeding stock and sustainable agriculture training to those in need.
American Mulefoot Hog Association and Registry
Tekonsha, Michigan
517-767-4729
http://mulefootpigs.tripod.com
The American Mulefoot Hog Association is dedicated to the preservation of the rare and endangered Mulefoot Hog.
Livestock Breeds
(Oklahoma State University)
www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds
Oklahoma State has put together a great site with information on livestock breeds from around the world. If you’re searching for more information on a particular breed or just want to do some general breed-related research, stop here!
National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA)
Fayetteville, Arkansas
800-346-9140
http://attra.ncat.org
ATTRA is a great resource. They provide technical assistance to farmers, market gardeners, and other agricultural professionals on any of the broad areas that fall under the classification of sustainable agriculture, alternative enterprises, or innovative marketing. They have a variety of prepared publications, or if they don’t have a publication that can answer your question, then the staff will research the question for you and get you an answer, usually within a week or two. All ATTRA materials and services are free of charge.
Organic Trade Association
Greenfield, Massachusetts
413-774-7511
www.ota.com
The OTA is a membership organization for groups that are working in the organic industry, including organic certifying organizations. If you are interested in pursuing organic certification, the folks at OTA can help you identify a certification organization that’s operating in your state.
Owenlea Holsteins
Homerville, Ohio
330-625-2369
www.bright.net/~fwo This site is run by F. W. Owen, whose biography reads, “I am a real dairy farmer, who actually milks my own cows (and have for the last 40 years).” Where Fred finds time to keep up this truly amazing site is beyond me, but kudos to him for his effort. He has extensive information on grass-dairying, and some eclectic stuff to go along with it (like the Internet Public Library). He has a search engine for searching the archives of GRAZE-L, an online dialogue of grass farmers from around the world.
Sustainable Farming Connection
www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection
This site is a labor of lov
e for Craig Cramer. Craig used to be the editor of New Farm magazine, until Rodale stopped publishing it. This site has great information on just about any sustainable agriculture topic you can imagine, including links to other sites and organizations.
University of California Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education Program
Davis California
530-752-7556
www.sarep.ucdavis.edu
SAREP provides leadership and support for scientific research and education in agricultural and food systems that are economically viable, conserve natural resources and biodiversity, and enhance the quality of life in the state’s communities.
United States Department of Agriculture
www.usda.gov
USDA’s site can provide a wealth of information on agriculture in general. Statistics, programs, etc.
United States House of Representatives
www.house.gov
The House’s site provides access to all federal laws and regulations, as well as links to states that have their laws and regulations accessible via the Internet. You can also track what the “fellas” in Washington are doin’ at this site!
Small-Scale Livestock Farming Page 33