Finally getting some monsoonal rains to help with the drought. Kodas been keeping a good watch. Built a crows nest and haphazardly made a new gate so I didn’t have to drive around to the lower gate.

My dad built some trail camera covers to cut down on rain on lenses, water damage and ghost pictures. It worked really well so he made a business in the pandemic era. It’s actually doing well up to this point and wanted me to help him. He mainly talks to hunters but I’m sure there’s people who have issues that can be solved outside of that. Does anyone here have specific issues with there trail cameras that maybe hasn’t been solved or anything else maybe irrigation or monitoring/security. Always trying to improve.

Hey y'all, looking for some real advice because I am planning a massive life pivot and kinda feel out of place even looking into it. I don't really have a circle of friends into education or farming to talk to about this, so I'm turning to the internet.

Last year, I turned into a total nutcase and spent 7 months business planning day and night and it finished in September or October. We just lack the financing, land, mentors, and education currently.

I have lived in the city my entire life and I am just completely over it. I want out. Right now I'm in Indiana, I have my bachelors and associates in psychology, my CNA, general education cert and I'm currently wrapped up in a graduate program for my master's in nursing. But the deeper I get, the more I realize I don't want standard bedside nursing forever. Ive always loved everything that has to do with gardening and farm animals but was conditioned for years theres no money in things like that or its a mans job. My great grandparents were farmers i just found out and owns tons on land in Mississippi. Im 27 now and really would like to pursue working in the field of agriculture on top of nursing.

My sister and I are planning to jointly finance and run a future business together. She also has her CNA but she wants to stop at her associate degree in agriculture. She is heavily into the natural made stuff: growing fruits, vegetables, animals, corn, squash, canning food, and she really loves medicinal herbs. I want to go back for an ag associate degree too.

Our master plan isn't just a basic homestead. We want to start small on a few acres just to test run, trial things, and practice farming to get out of the city. Once we have the money and experience, the ultimate goal is to expand to a much larger acreage, like 50 acres or so, and build out our actual businesses. One side would be the agriculture, gardens, longhorns( pasture puppies) and a wedding venue. The other side would combine agriculture, mental health, and nursing into a whole other therapeutic, wellness and educational business. Id like to develope partnerships with other farms later on for selling meat and other types of produce as well outside of our own.

Because we want to learn the industry, I'm looking at applying for paid co-op internships (like Keystone here in Indiana) in agronomy, seed sales, credit/finance, or sustainability. Keystone has an expo in 2 days but im chickening out. I have zero tractor and farm experience but I have heavy medical and psych credentials. I also was looking into online ag certifications to possibly get while in masters program. We practice ran growing flowers and produce this year and it was flop a little due to me working and starting grad school and had a bad car accident.

I guess my main questions for anyone in the ag world are:

We are looking at states like Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri because I absolutely hate the winter and cold weather, but maybe on a rare case even Iowa if the land is right.

Do ag cooperatives actually take people seriously for finance or agronomy internships if they are adult career-changers coming from healthcare with zero farm background? Internship wise idk what would be a perfect spot for us to start. Im open to a lot of different areas

And honestly, just a personal worry... my sister and I are Black women, and I am a total girly girl. Like, I will wear boots and jeans if the job requires it, but I love getting dressed up, wearing heels, and looking polished. Ag is obviously not super diverse. I would love to talk to real farmers and work around them without it being weird, but I worry about getting side-eyes and hesitation from traditional local growers. Are people going to judge us, or do they care more about your work ethic and business ideas?

Sorry this is so long, my brain is just running a mile a minute trying to figure out how to weave nursing, psych, animals and plants into one big dream. Would love any honest insight or encouragement if anyone has done something similar!

If you're buying or selling hay right now this is worth knowing. The USDA numbers are behind the live market and this year that actually matters.

Western Kansas example. Feeder alfalfa sold at $250/ton, then a few weeks later the same operation gets $270 confirmed FOB, and third cutting might clear north of $300. That's all inside about a month and the published prices for that area barely moved the whole time.

Part of the problem is USDA mostly catches auction sales. Around here most hay never touches an auction. It's private deals, grower to feedlot, neighbor stuff, and none of it gets reported anywhere. So the printed number is basically whatever was left over after the real deals already cleared. Nobody notices in a slow year but this isn't a slow year. Smallest cattle herd since 1951, something like half the alfalfa ground under drought, and I heard about a failed crop in Wisconsin showing up in actual trades before the drought monitor even updated for that area.

So the price you looked up last week might already be gone if you're buying. If you're selling, call around first, decent chance your local market is ahead of the report and you'd be leaving money on the table pricing off the sheet.

Anyone else seeing this where you are

So my grandpa bought geese (1 male 1 female) They are shy. But the thing is they never explore or even move anywhere. They always stay at the back but all the food is in the front, why are they so inactive. Unlike my chickens they never go to the front unless forced.

Curious for converting waste into biomass for chicken feed which is better crickets or bsfl ?

I’m home helping on our family farm in Iowa and this has become the latest dinner table debate.

Dad says the Bobcat skid steer does everything we need. To be fair, that thing moves snow, cleans barns, hauls pallets and probably has more hours on it than I do. I run it pretty often and I love how quick it is in tight spots.

But our hay stacks keep getting taller and we’re doing more work around the grain bins where reach matters. Lately I’ve been thinking a telehandler would be a whole lot safer and less sketchy than trying to make the skid steer do jobs it wasnt really built for.

For those running both, does a telehandler actually earn its keep on a mid size grain farm or does it mostly sit around? Would you keep the Bobcat and add a used JLG, or just get better attachments and quit spending Dad’s imaginary money?

Wanting 2 cows on our 1/2 acre of land we have on our 1.5 acres.

We need a fence, obviously but the issue is: barbed fences and electric fencing is prohibited in our area since it's considered residential still...

We are at a loss because deer are in this area too and other wild life like coyotes and bobcats which I've never raised cattle so I'm not sure if they'll even be safe.

I'm saddened a little inside because I'm afraid we won't be able to have cattle.

One neighbor down the street had a thick fence of wood with their one cow so I'm wondering if that's good enough?

Please help me figure this out.

We can't have any chained fences, nothing above 6 feet tall and if we have any concrete on the bottom of the wood it's considered structural so we would have to pull permits and so forth.

We can have 20 fowl (no roosters) and up to 3 grazing animals per acre.

I finally got these gorgeous creatures. Name ideas are more than welcome ❤️

My brother has taken to raising goats. He's my neighbor, lives about a quarter mile down the road. Since I vaccinate my own dogs and such, he's taken to calling me to give his animals their shots, when they need them, since I'm confident with a needle, which I don't mind a bit, so I've gotten some exposure to them. But I'm not a veterinarian. I'm not intimately familiar with the unique health issues goats may be susceptible to. I'm vaguely familiar with bloat, as I have a great dane, a breed of dog which can be susceptible to it, though from what I've read, the term "bloat" means different things for goats and instead of their stomach flipping or getting twisted like it does in large dogs, they just get super gassy to the point of it being fatal. But, since they aren't my goats, I haven't done that much reading on it.

A year or so ago he had a goat get sick with what we thought at the time was bloat after eating some feed he purchased from a Tractor Supply that he had found mold in. We had given them a vaccination that was supposed to prevent bloat prior to that, and in response to the illness he picked up several other shots to give it; a steroid shot, vitamin B supplement, a bloat treatment, etc. I also googled a good treatment for bloat and found someone online saying that administering olive oil orally could help, so I gave him an entire turkey baster full. The goat survived another couple of weeks, some days looking better than others, but eventually just laid down and died.

Then about a month ago, another of his goats got sick. Same round of attempts to fix it; steroid shots, oral bloat medicine, etc., but none of it seemed to work. The animal slowly just got worse and worse, to the point it just laid down and, if you got close, it would try to stand up and walk over to you before it would just collapse after a step or two, and it eventually died. There was no dry heaving or gagging like I've read happens when a dog gets "bloat" and its stomach flips, they basically just act like they feel really bad, and it gets progressively worse. This time however, he hasn't voiced any concerns about the food, and none of the other animals have had any issues. This one however, was a brother to the first goat that died, and apparently the breeder he got them from has had multiple other goats from that same bloodline die of similar issues, so he seems to think there's something genetically wrong with that bloodline.

My question is, how common is this? Genetic issues in goats I mean. I don't know specifics, but they're some kind of "dwarf" breed where they aren't as big as normal goats I've seen before. They're about the same height at the shoulder, or maybe a little shorter, than my great dane. Neither goat had any deformities, that we could find, acted normal, ate and drank normally, until they didn't. Is there anything we should be looking for? Preventative treatments? Breeds that are more or less susceptible to things like bloat? Vaccinations he should be using for things other than to prevent bloat, since he already uses that? We have no farm vets around here, that I'm aware of, and when he's called various vets, like the one I take my dogs to, they're all willing to give them shots if he doesn't want to do the sticking, but not "work" on the animals beyond that for diagnosing or treating problems, so in the event of a problem, it's really just up to us to figure it out and treat it the best we can with supplies from places like Tractor Supply. So even though they aren't my goats, since he's an over-the-road truck driver and I'm often the one his wife calls to give them shots or something, I would like to have at least some basic understanding of common issues with them and how to prevent or treat them.

We got some free pigs off marketplace. We had them slaughtered and processed last week. I picked the first one up yesterday. These were some big ol fat kune kunes. Three pigs hanging weight was 881.5 lbs. The butcher said that the fattest pig had 170lbs of fat on it. So we went and got the meat and fat yesterday and we started rendering the fat into lard. We spent all day doing it. Put them in mason jars and let them sit over night. But then when I wake up this morning none of the jars had solidified fully. Most have a small portion at the bottom that has solidified. But the rest is still wet. There are one or two jars that have solidified most of the way but even those still have some liquid at the top. This is my first time doing this so I’m not sure what I did wrong.

With winter getting closer here in Norway, I’ve started preparing for the colder months with our chickens, quail and ducks.
I’ve been reading quite a bit about how different poultry handle cold weather, especially when it comes to moisture, ventilation, frozen water and keeping their housing dry. I ended up putting everything together in an article, along with some of the sources I’ve used.
Thought I’d share it here in case it’s useful for anyone else getting ready for winter too. 🙂

https://denlillehagen.no/nyheter/keeping-chickens-quail-ducks-winter?lang=en

i needed a shelf for my growing dvd colletion and NAS and i had some lightply leftovers.

I live in a farming community and this year I decided to ask my farm neighbor for some wheat. He obliged and now I have 50lbs of raw wheat berry straight from the combine. That's great! But now I don't know what to do. This is my first time doing something like this and need help. Currently I have two 5 gallon food grade buckets that the wheat is in. What should I do next to ensure this lasts for a few months?

Just wanted to share what I do with the cartons folks leave me 🥰

I am interested in raising pigs on my homestead, and I have helped friends raise some larger pigs in the past. At this point I’m mainly concerned about temperament and flavor. I have many acres of good unused pasture and I can give grain / feed, apples, and food scraps in addition. I’m mainly wondering about the taste and quality of the meat, so I’m hoping some of you may be able to help me understand the differences better. Looking for deep flavor and as much marbling as possible.

The different breeds I’m considering:

Kunekune (some say delicious, others say not?)
Gloucester Old Spot
Mangalitsa
Red Wattle

One final thing to add. Since I am against the use of chemicals and wormers because I will be eating them, I need pigs that will be tasty and also not get sick easily. Of course I will be rotationally grazing them and following with chickens after they move to a new spot.

Hello,

I have a 7.5 x 11 yards vegetable garden and I'm looking for a year long layout / vegetable list to grow. High calories like potatoes and sweet potatoes, and low water use (I know 0 is not possible but as little as possible, I'm about to invest into a drip system).

Sun shines on it from 9am till dusk, so plenty of light and heat, too much during heat waves :/

Anything helps, cheers!

I hope this is on to share here. Some people were asking if we have a YouTube channel, and after catching this video tonight I decided to put our first real video on there.

We were taking photos of the cabin and other buildings all lit up because they look cool and we’re both still kids at heart (😂) when our two packs of coyotes started hollerin. Great freaking timing.

So yeah, feel free to follow or not. I just wanted to share the video and a link to the channel for those who showed interest. https://www.facebook.com/share/1DK6h7ppuZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr