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How to Make Your Own Chicken or Poultry Feed

Homesteaders who aspire to greater self-sufficiency often want to grow or at least mix their own chicken feed. If you can grow everything your chickens eat, you don't have to purchase feed. If you mix feed from purchased bulk ingredients, at least you know the composition of the feed - some farmers want to avoid soy or corn, for example, or use non-GMO versions of these grains.

First, Raise Chickens on Pasture

One really easy way to feed your chickens without buying as much chicken feed is to raise them on pasture. This is the most natural diet chickens can eat. As long as they have enough acreage or consistently fresh pasture (such as using a movable coop to give them fresh ground daily or weekly), chickens can self-regulate and find enough insects, bugs, weeds, grasses and seeds to stay healthy.

However, if you live in a place where winter comes and the grass stops growing, you'll need to give them feed at least through the cold. And it's a good idea to have supplemental feed for them even if they are primarily foraging.

If you want to raise your flock on pasture and supplement with your own poultry feed, read more about pasturing chickens and other poultry for that information, then come back and read on to learn how to make your own feed.

Equipment for Making Your Own Poultry Feed

Making your own feed for more than a handful of chickens requires a commercial, heavy-duty feed or flour mill. This way you can freshly grind the grains you purchase for your hens.

You will also need to think about storage for the bags of grains you buy. Consider building a storage bin with partitions for each of your grains and a lid at the top. If you can use a sliding gate at the bottom to dispense the grain, you can naturally rotate the grains. You may need to clean the bins out completely once or twice a year to prevent pests from infesting them.

What to Put in Your DIY Poultry Feed

Whether you grow some, all or none of it, the key question is: what plants should you feed them? In what proportions? If you search the Internet you will find many different recipes. In some ways, you're going to have to customize your feed to the specifics of your geographical region: what's available, what's inexpensive, and what you can grow if you plan to grow it yourself will all factor in to the final feed.

You will want to study the ingredients in commercial poultry feed to see what percentages you are shooting for. If you are a little lower in protein than commercial brands, that's okay - just be aware that your birds will not grow as quickly. You do need to make sure that you strike a balance of all the macronutrients, like fats, carbohydrates and protein, and micronutrients such as vitamins and enzymes. Some trial and error might come into play.

Here are some of the ingredients you should consider putting in your chicken feed. Please remember this is just a general guideline. You'll need to research this more thoroughly and put together your own custom mix.

Main Feed:

Alfalfa meal (high protein, good for winter)

Corn (mainstay for chickens, store whole)

Field peas (for protein, to avoid soybean use)

Wheat

Oats and/or Barley (less than 15% of total diet together)

Things to Add:

Aragonite or feeding limestone (for calcium, not entirely needed)

Oyster shell (calcium, free feed)

Grit

Salt

Probiotic (or feed them fermented dairy foods like kefir or yogurt, or fermented vegetables like sauerkraut)

Crab meal (small amounts provide protein and minerals)

Flax seed (omega-3, feed whole to avoid rancidity)

Broad-spectrum mineral supplement

Kelp (mineral source)

Fish meal (helps boost protein and omega-3s)

Cultured yeast (B vitamins, minerals and digestive enzymes)

Healthy bees need good nutrition !

The importance of the right kind of planting

By planting for honey bees we will be providing the three fundamental things that they need, while also supporting other bee species:

1. Nesting sites
2. pollen – protein food
3. Nectar – carbohydrate food

Honey bees cannot survive without all three.  Beekeepers help to provide nesting sites but as trees are felled as soon as they are deemed to be too old we eliminate potential habitats for wild bees to populate.

Pollen and its importance
Pollen is produced by the anther of flowers and is the equivalent of human sperm. Pollen is made up of 6-28% protein, 1-20% fats together with vitamins, starches, sugars and minerals.

This provides the honey bee and other pollinators much needed protein for growth of developing larvae. Adult bees don’t need much but they collect and take it back to feed their larvae.

Worker honey bees secrete brood food to feed to the larvae. A colony of bees require between 15 and 55kg of pollen a year – thats the equivalent of between 7 and 27 bags of sugar!

Nectar, what it is and why bees need it.
Nectar is produced in the nectary bed of the flower which is usually inside the base of the flower, but occasionally externally. It is a sugar solution which contains sugars of various types and includes minerals , proteins, organic acids and vitamins and is used as a carbohydrate to provide energy.

Honey bees take the nectar and turn it into honey by adding enzymes to change the sugar composition and evaporating a lot of the moisture.

One of the most interesting honey bee facts is that each honey bee colony needs up to 120kg of nectar to survive. That’s the same as 60 bags of sugar! This is because the nectar is primarily turned into honey which is used by the colony as winter food when foraging isn’t possible.

Both pollen and nectar levels can vary according to species and time of day and can be affected by the climatic conditions.

What do the plants get out of it?
Through the collection and transference of pollen the plants become pollinated which in turn means that they have the ability to set seed and thereby reproduce. The method of seed dispersal may be through the production of fruit and nuts or pure seed which bursts forth.

For those that produce fruit and nuts, they are reliant on a third party such as birds and mammals to eat and move the seed on, either as a result of being left elsewhere or defecated.

How do honey bees needs differ from other bees?
Due to the fact that Honey bees do not hibernate like all other bees their life span is much longer, in winter a colony of honey bees can be as many as 15,000 strong building up to up to 60,000 in the summer. They store the food unlike others, that use it immediately and create minimal stores for the seasons use as the peak of the colony is much shorter.

Honey bees produce honey to see them through the winter months, learn how you can help them build their stores by becoming a Friend of the Honey Bee.

Some Tips on How to Raise Pigs

1. Of course, the first thing you should consider is your capital.

Do you have enough saved to start a pig farm? How many pigs can you purchase? You can start with just a few pigs. Every time you sell a pig, use some of your earnings to buy more piglets.

2. Another thing you should take care of is where you’ll put your pigs.

You need ample space to keep your pigs. As a general rule, each pig is supposed to have at least 1/10 of an acre of pasture area. This is for grazing pigs. If you plan on building an enclosure, around 100 square feet for each pig is enough. Barns, pig pens, and other enclosures give you more control over the animals. Feeding them will be a lot easier as well as collecting their manure which can be used as fertilizers, another possible source of income. Additionally, pigs in enclosures have more tender meat as compared to grazers which tend to have tougher meat because of the muscles that often develop.

3. Another factor on how to raise pigs is food source.

If you’re keeping pigs for meat, you’ll need to feed them right for them to become bigger, meatier and more profitable. Pigs will eat anything edible. But this does not mean you can feed them anything you can get your hands on. The right pig diet should contain ample amounts of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. If you can, avoid giving them supplements. Get their nutrients from actual food and other organic or natural sources. For grazing pigs, you need to have enough pasture grass around. Plant some if you need to.

4. You should also be aware of what not to feed your pigs.

Raw potatoes are not recommended since they can be poisonous. Raw meat should also be avoided as they may carry bacteria and diseases. Cook or boil them before you give them to your pigs. As a safety precaution, you need to boil everything that you intend to feed them.

5. Food consumption should also be controlled.

One way to know if you are putting too much food in their troughs is to time the feeding. If there is food left after 30 minutes, then that means you are giving them too much. This may lead to overeating which is not good for them. You’ll also lose money because of this. You can also weigh the food. Six pounds is the most you can put in their troughs.

6. One more important tip on how to raise pigs properly is to provide them access to water.

Give them fresh, clean water to drink always. Be prepared to clean their water troughs regularly as pigs like to clean themselves in the water. Troughs made from galvanized iron are usually sturdier and easier to clean so you may want to consider that.

7. Even if you originally planned on keeping pigs for meat, you can still profit from breeding.

You’ll need a farrowing house so you can separate the sows. You can earn more if you sell your piglets. This is also a good way to increase your farm’s pig population.
These tips on raising pigs is only a guide for you to kick off your business venture. Nothing beats experience. As you go along, you will harvest enough knowledge on how to raise pigs which you can use for your pig farm to thrive and provide you with more income.

Types of Potatoes to Try Planting

Potatoes vary in size, shape, color, texture and time to maturity. Maturation time is the most important variable, because potato tubers grow best when soil temperatures range between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Try to get your crop harvested before hot summer temperatures arrive.

Types of Potatoes to Try Planting

Early varieties that mature in less than 90 days are good fits for any garden. Creamy, round ‘Irish Cobbler,’ purple-skinned ‘Caribe,’ and prolific ‘Red Norland’ fall into this group, along with ‘King Harry,’ which is resistant to Colorado potato beetles.

Midseason varieties mature in 100 days or so, and include ‘Yukon Gold’ and ‘Red LaSoda,’ which is often the top-producing potato in warm climates.

Late varieties need 110 days or more of growing time, but they typically produce a heavy set of tubers that keep well in storage. ‘Butte’ is an all-purpose brown-skinned potato that performs well when grown in the Midwest; ‘Katahdin’ and ‘Kennebec’ rule in the Northeast.

Elongated fingerling potatoes vary in their maturation times and come in a range of colors and sizes. None are very early, but late-maturing fingerlings will size up earlier if you pre-sprout the seed potatoes before you plant them.

Top 10 Tips for Keeping Chickens in Winter

For new chicken owners, winter can be a scary time. Will they be warm enough? Will they keep laying eggs? These tips will keep your hens happy and healthy.

1. They don't need a heater.
I've often gotten questions about putting a heater in the chicken coop for winter warmth. My answer: don't do it! Think of all that bedding - you're asking for a fire. Plus, chickens don't need it. They huddle together for warmth. And don't seal up the coop completely. Ventilation is key to prevent moisture buildup.

2. Use deep litter to keep them warm.
The deep litter method is a way of allowing bedding material and chicken poop to build up in the coop over the spring, summer, and fall, so that by winter you have roughly a foot of composting material on the floor of the coop. This composting poop and bedding will give off its own heat, warming the coop naturally.

3. They may not lay unless you supplement light.
Some birds are great layers right through the winter. But in general, supplemental light is required if you want to keep your family or customers in eggs all winter long. However, there are some downsides to supplementing light - it stresses the birds and can shorten their laying life.

4. Feed them corn in the evening to keep them warm all night.
Giving your chickens a nice feeding of cracked corn before bed gives them something to digest during the night, keeping them warmer.

5. Hang a head of cabbage for a chicken play toy.
Just like humans, chickens can get a little bored and stir-crazy in the winter. They sure seem to like it when I hang a head of cabbage on a string in the coop. They go wild pecking at it while it bobs around. It makes me feel like I’m doing something for them, anyway. So try it - keep your hens happy!

6. Make them a nice sunroom.
If you’re worried about your girls not having enough space in the coop, you can build a kind of cold frame or greenhouse style addition to your coop, covering it in clear plastic. They will wander out into it and have a bit more space on nice days, and you can rest easy knowing they aren’t too smushed and are getting some fresh air.

7. Petroleum jelly on combs and wattles protects from frostbite.
In the coldest winter climates, you may find that breeds with large combs and wattles are prone to frostbite. To protect them, you can smear their combs and wattles with petroleum jelly. However, if your chickens do get frostbite, it is usually jsut the tips of the combs that are affected, and they don’t seem to be any worse for the wear - but it can look a little icky.

8. Chickens don’t like snow.
Generally speaking, once temperatures are in the 20 degree F range, chickens (mine, anyway) won’t walk out onto snow. You can scatter hay or straw on the ground and this will make it more palatable for them.

9. Chickens don’t have to be put inside in bad weather.
They know what to do. If they don’t want to be outdoors, they will head in to the coop. Just let them do what they want. They are hardier than you might think, and aren’t as averse to cold as people often think they are. Don’t waste your time and energy trying to shoo them indoors in the rain or snow.

10. Roosts are key.
Chickens will roost together and fluff themselves out. This is what keeps them warm. It also keeps them off the cold ground. So make sure you have plenty of space for all your chickens to comfortably roost (check on them in the evening with a flashlight - if someone’s on the ground, there’s not enough space). Roosts should be at least two feet off the ground.

Most Popular Tomato Varieties to Grow in the Home Garden

The most popular tomato varieties got that way with good reason.

 Some are easy to grow. Others have excellent disease resistance or be particularly flavorful or offer outstanding production … or all of the above!

With thousands of varieties to choose from, it can be hard to decide which tomatoes to grow in your garden.

Check out this list of most popular tomato varieties as chosen by your fellow tomato growers online!

Most Popular Tomato Varieties: 
Hybrid Tomatoes

Better Boy Tomato
Hybrid, indeterminate, 75 days, red, beefsteak (12-16 ounces), resistance: VFN
Big Beef Tomato
Hybrid, indeterminate, 73 days, red, beefsteak (10-12 ounces), resistance: VFFNTA; 1994 All-America Selections Winner
Big Boy Tomato
Hybrid, indeterminate, 78 days, red, beefsteak (10-16 ounces), resistance: A
Celebrity Tomato
Hybrid, determinate, 70 days, red, globe (8-12 ounces), resistance: VFFNTA
Early Girl Tomato icon
Hybrid, indeterminate, 50-52 days, red, globe (8 ounces), resistance: VFF
Grape Tomato
Hybrid, indeterminate, 60 days, brilliant red, elongated cherry tomatoes, resistance: FSA
Independence Day Tomato (Fourth of July Tomato)
Hybrid, indeterminate, 49 days, red, small (4 ounces)
Jersey Tomato (Rutgers Tomato)
Hybrid, determinate, 75 days, bright red, globe (6-8 ounces), resistance: VFA
Juliet Tomato
Hybrid, indeterminate, 60 days, red, elongated cherry (1 ounce), resistance: cracking; 1999 All-America Selections Winner
Sunsugar Tomato
Hybrid, indeterminate, 62 days, orange, cherry, resistance: FT, cracking

Most Popular Tomato Varieties: 
Heirlooms (open-pollinated tomatoes)

Amish Paste Tomato
Heirloom, indeterminate, 85 days, red, paste tomato (8 ounces)
Black Krim Tomato
Heirloom, indeterminate, 69-80 days, red/brown, beefsteak (16 ounces), resistance: FN
Brandywine Tomatoes
Heirloom, indeterminate, 69-80 days, pink, beefsteak (16+ ounces), resistance: F
Cherokee Purple Tomato
Heirloom, indeterminate, 69-80 days, purple/brown/black, beefsteak (16 ounces)
Green Zebra Tomato
Heirloom, determinate, 78 days, green, small (3 ounces)
Mortgage Lifter Tomato
Heirloom, indeterminate, 85 days, pink, beefsteak (16-24 ounces)
San Marzano Tomato
Heirloom, indeterminate, 85 days, red/pink, plum (4 ounces)
Yellow Pear Tomato
Heirloom, indeterminate, 71 days, bright yellow, pear-shaped cherry (1 ½” round)

How Many Goats Should You Get?

Before you bring home any goats to supplement your green lifestyle, you have to determine how many goats you really need. One of the biggest mistakes new goat farmers make is getting too many goats. You need at least two goats so that they can keep each other company, but it's better to start slow. And you need to get only wethers or does, depending on your purpose, unless you have seriously considered the implications of getting a buck and decided that you really need one.

The number of goats you can adequately provide space for on your property depends on the answers to a few questions:

How much fenced pasture or range is available to the goats?

If you live in an area where you can't let your goats range (roam over a large area), such as a desert area or in the city, you need about 20 square feet per adult standard-sized goat for sleeping and resting, plus another 30 square feet (outdoors, ideally) for exercise. This gives them enough space to move around and not be cramped or too confined.

If you have a larger outdoor area in which to raise your goats — where they'll have pasture, woods, or range — you need less indoor space per goat because they only rest and sleep there. The rule of thumb is 10 to 15 square feet per adult standard-sized goat.

How much space do you have for a sleeping area?

Goats like to sleep together in small groups, and so the actual sleeping area they need can be quite a bit smaller than their living area. If you have a building with a lot of separate pens, keep the doors open so they are accessible to all of your goats. (Of course, the herd queen and her brood will take over the best spot anyway.)

Will they have kids?

A standard-sized goat needs at least a 4-foot-by-5-foot kidding pen. If you have more than one doe that you want to have kid, breed them at different times, and clean and sanitize the pen between kiddings.

How to Process Goat Fiber

Before you turn your goat fiber into yarn, you need to put it through several processes. To process your fiber, you need to wash, card or comb, and spin. Here are some hints for preparing goat fiber.

Washing
Unless you're selling your raw fleece to a commercial operation, you need to wash your goat fleece to remove grease, dirt, and other impurities:

Separate the fleece into smaller bundles and put them into mesh bags.

Do not pack the fleece tightly into the bags.

Put 145°F water in your sink. Wearing rubber gloves, check the water's pH.

If it is below 8, thoroughly mix in small amounts of baking soda until the pH is 8 or 9. (Neutral pH is 7.) Then mix in a small amount of detergent.

Place your bags of fleece in the water and soak for 15 minutes.

Pull out a bag and check a lock of fleece. If it is gummy, all of the grease is not out and you need to keep soaking it for up to another 45 minutes.

Refill the sink with 145°F water, using only half the detergent and no baking soda. Soak for 15 more minutes.

Remove the fleece from the water and let out the water. Fill the sink with more hot water and soak the fleece for 15 to 30 minutes, agitating it with your hand from time to time.

Remove the bags, refill the sink, and rinse for 15 to 30 minutes, using cooler water each time.

Rinse a final time.

Check the pH of the final rinse; it should be 6. If it is higher, add a small amount of vinegar to lower the pH. Soak and rinse for 15 minutes.

Dry the clean fleece.

Remove the bags, press them gently, and then remove the fleece from the bags. Spread out the fleece to dry on a towel as you would a wool sweater. You can use a fan to accelerate drying.

Carding or combing
Carding and combing are ways to separate the strands of washed fiber to prepare it for spinning into yarn. Both methods blend the fibers and remove hay and other contaminants that may still be left in the fiber. They also straighten the fibers to make them lie in the same direction. Carding produces a fluffier end product than combing because combing better aligns the fibers and makes the fleece more compact.

You can card your fiber by hand or with a carding machine. To comb your fiber, you can use paddle combs. These are similar to hand carders, but they are simpler and have only one or two rows of teeth. They are good for working medium to long fibers or for working with cashmere, where you have to remove the guard hairs as you go along. Combing separates the long and short fibers and prepares the fiber for spinning.

Spinning
Handspinning is the traditional method and requires a drop spindle or a spinning wheel.

You need to practice spinning the drop spindle without yarn to get used to working with it. To spin with a drop spindle, you attach a piece of yarn (called a leader cord) to your spindle and then attach the end of your fiber to that. You have to spin in the same direction (normally clockwise) to hold your fiber together. As you spin the wheel, you gradually add fiber to the end of the rolag or roving you are working with.

Spinning on a wheel requires you to use your hands and feet. You use your feet by pushing on a treadle that keeps the wheel moving as you gradually add fiber to be spun into yarn. You need to practice to learn to move your hands and feet together and get a consistent product. After you get it, the process seems like second nature, and spinners even say it's incredibly relaxing.

How to Take Your Goat’s Temperature, Pulse, and Respiration

Part of a green lifestyle may include raising goats. As a goat owner, you need to know how to check your goat’s vital signs. Checking your goat’s temperature, pulse, and respiration can tell you a lot about his overall health.

Taking a goat’s temperature

Taking a goat’s temperature is easy. You need either a digital or traditional glass thermometer that you can buy from a feed store, a drug store, or a livestock supply catalog. Both types are fairly inexpensive.

If you use a glass thermometer, make sure you shake it down before you start so that it reads accurately. Tie a string around one end of a glass thermometer so that you can retrieve it if it goes too far.

To take a goat’s temperature grab a thermometer and take the following steps:

Immobilize the goat.

You can hold a small kid across your lap. Secure an adult in a stanchion, have a helper hold him still, or tie him to a gate or fence.

Lubricate your thermometer.

Use KY jelly or petroleum jelly.

Insert the thermometer a few inches into the goat’s rectum.

Hold the thermometer in place for at least two minutes.

Slowly remove the thermometer.

Read the temperature and record it on the goat’s health record.

Clean the thermometer.

Use an alcohol wipe or a cotton ball that has been wet with alcohol.

A goat’s normal temperature is 102°–103° Fahrenheit, but can be a degree higher or lower, depending on the individual goat. A goat’s temperature can also go up or down throughout the day. On a hot day, you can expect some of your goats to have higher temperatures.

To determine what a normal temperature is for your goats, be sure to take their temperatures when they are healthy and keep a record of it. Measure their temperatures on a hot day and a normal day so you have an accurate baseline.

Checking a goat’s pulse

The normal pulse for a goat is 70 to 90 beats per minute. Kids’ heart rates may be twice that fast.

To take your goat’s pulse:

Make sure she is calm and resting.

Find the goat’s artery below and slightly inside the jaw with your fingers.

Watching a clock and count the number of heartbeats in 15 seconds.

Multiply that number by four to get the pulse rate.

Checking a goat’s respiration

The normal respiration rate for an adult goat is 10 to 30 breaths per minute, and for a kid it is 20 to 40 breaths per minute. To count respirations, simply watch the goat’s side when she is calm and resting. For 60 seconds, count one respiration for each time the goat’s side rises and falls.

Choosing Goat Breeds for Fiber

If you're a home spinner or want to get your own supply of fiber, consider raising fiber goats. Angoras produce the fiber called mohair, which is a silky fiber used in many products. Cashmere, produced by the cashmere goat, is an even more exotic fiber and is in high demand. It comes from the undercoat of these goats.

Properly caring for fiber goats takes a bit more work than raising some meat or dairy goat breeds. If you want meat, some of these fiber goats are dual-purpose goats:

Angora: Angoras have long, wavy coats, with fiber called mohair. They are usually white, but some breeders are experimenting with producing other colors and even have their own registry, the Colored Angora Goat Breeders Association (CAGBA). They have short, curved horns, which are usually left on the goat, because they may regulate body temperature. The average adult goat produces 8 to 16 pounds of mohair each year, while kids give from 3 to 5 pounds of longer, finer hair.

Angoras may be raised on a range, but they are sensitive to cold, and wet weather can kill them. They also are not natural mothers and sometimes abandon their kids. The kids often need help to start nursing. And with twins and triplets, the bigger kids hog all the milk if not controlled, leaving the little ones nothing to eat.

Cashmere: Cashmere goats in the United States aren’t a breed but a type of goat. According to the Eastern Cashmere Association, feral goats from Australia and Spanish goats in the United States are both cashmere producers. They just need to have been bred to produce the right quality of cashmere, a measurement that is determined by the cashmere industry. (The fiber has to be less than 19 microns thick.) Most of the larger cashmere breeders originally imported high-quality fiber goats from Australia to start their herds.

Cashmere goats are dual fiber/meat goats. Like their non-cashmere feral relatives, they are quite hardy. But like dairy goats, they don’t like rain and will run for shelter when it comes.

You can also find two different breeds of mini fiber goats in the United States:

Pygora: The Pygora is a cross between the Pygmy and the Angora. The Pygora is a small, easy-to-handle, and good-tempered fiber goat. These little guys are registered by the Pygora Breeders Association (PBA), which started in 1987. A Pygora can be up to 75 percent of either breed.

Pygoras can produce up to four pounds of fleece a year, a bit less than the full-sized Angora. They are smart and can sometimes be found in petting zoos and circuses.

Nigora: Nigoras are a cross between a Nigerian Dwarf and an Angora . They have the advantage of producing colorful fiber as well as milk. This is still a fledgling breed, with a breed club started only in 2007. No breed standards exist on this breed as of 2009.

You might have trouble finding Nigora goats, but you can buy a Nigerian buck and some Angoras and start your own herd!

Russian White Dairy Goats

White Dairy goats in central and northwestern Russia, have strong, dry constitution and a harmonious conformation characteristic of the milk type. They have a light and narrow head. The neck is long and straight and the sacrum wide. The udder is big and smooth; quarters are proportionally developed and teats are wide-set. The legs are strong. The positions of the front and hind limbs is regular. The skeleton is strong. The coat is composed of coarse short, or occasionally long, hair, which is usually white. Animals may be hornless or horned. They resemble Saanen goats in appearance.

Typical of this group are the animals found on private plots in Gorki, Leningrad, Moscow and Yaroslavl regions. They are typical milk goats. Live weight of adult females is 50-60 kg, males 60-75 kg. They average 550 kg of milk per lactation and the best animals up to 1,000 kg. Fat content is high - 4.2-5.3%. Milk goats are prolific: 100 females give birth to 190-220 kids. Some goats kid twice a year. Cases have been recorded of up to six normal kids at one kidding.

Dairy goats in the North Caucasus, Crimea and Central Asia are somewhat smaller, have hair of various colours but are inferior in productivity to the goats of Gorki, Moscow, Yaroslavl and Leningrad regions. There are goats there which have a wool undercoat and, consequently, double utility: they are milked and, in addition, yield about 100-150 g of fiber per head. Milk yields per lactation are in the range 250-400 kg with a fat content of 3.5-5.5%. The average live weight does not exceed 40-42 kg.

Raising Dairy Goats and the Benefits of Goat Milk

Whether your property is one acre or several hundred, sloping or flat, crowded with brush or completely forested, you can still raise dairy goats for milk. Two goats will produce enough quality fresh milk — with each doe averaging 3 quarts a day for 10 months — to feed your family all year. Add a few more goats and you'll have enough milk for making cheese, yogurt and even ice cream.
Goat milk ice cream?  Some of you might be raising your eyebrows right now because you've heard goat milk tastes funny. We could blame the funny-taste fallacy on a conspiracy concocted by those comical Far Side cows. But more likely it is because someone kept the buck among the herd, especially at milking time. A buck can be quite odoriferous, and his strong, musky scent can permeate the milk. The fact is, properly collected goat milk tastes just as good as cow milk. Some people believe it tastes better.

More of the world's people consume goat milk than cow milk. Goats are hardy animals: They adapt well to heat and cold, productively forage and graze, require little space, and are inexpensive to keep. Since mature does (females) usually weigh between 120 and 135 pounds (dwarf breeds can weigh between 35 and 85 pounds), they're much easier to handle than hefty cows, which can weigh 1,000 pounds each. Goats may surprise you in other ways, as well. They're highly intelligent, remarkably friendly creatures. And, since they're active, extremely agile and very curious, their antics can amuse you for hours. With all that in mind, it's easy to see why dairy goats can be the ideal addition to today's family farm or homestead.

The Dairy Breeds

There are more than 200 different goat breeds worldwide; six primary breeds dominate the dairy goat arena: Alpines, Oberhaslis, Saanens, Toggenburgs, LaManchas and Nubians. While all breeds generally do well in most of the country, the first four breeds listed are well-suited to cooler climates since their origins can be traced to Swiss mountain regions. LaManchas and Nubians hail from tropical and desert climates where it's warmer, and they tolerate hot summer conditions better than the Swiss breeds.

Russian Agriculture

Grains

Grains are among Russia's most important crops, occupying more than 50 percent of cropland. Wheat is dominant in most grain-producing areas. Winter wheat is cultivated in the North Caucasus and spring wheat in the Don Basin, in the middle Volga region, and in southwestern Siberia. Although Khrushchev expanded the cultivation of corn for livestock feed, that crop is only suitable for growth in the North Caucasus, and production levels have remained low compared with other grains. Barley, second to wheat in gross yield, is grown mainly for animal feed and beer production in colder regions as far north as 65° north latitude (the latitude of Arkhangel'sk) and well into the highlands of southern Siberia. Production of oats, which once ranked third among Russia's grains, has declined as machines have replaced horses in farming operations.

Legumes

Legumes became a common crop in state farms in the 1980s. Potatoes, a vital crop for food and for the production of vodka, are grown in colder regions between 50° and 60° north latitude. Sugar beet production has expanded in recent years; the beets are grown mainly in the rich black-earth districts of European Russia. Flax, also a plant tolerant of cold and poor soils, is Russia's most important raw material for textiles, and the country produced about half the world's flax crop in the 1980s. Flax also yields linseed oil, which together with sunflowers (in the North Caucasus) and soybeans (in the Far East) is an important source of vegetable oil. Production of fruits and vegetables increased as private farms began to expand around 1990. In the mid-1990s, the largest yields in that category were in cabbages, apples, tomatoes, and carrots.

Livestock

Increased production of fodder crops and expansion of pastureland have supported Russia's livestock industry, although economic conditions have caused cutbacks in animal holdings. Cattle are the most common form of livestock except in the drier areas, where sheep and goats dominate. The third-largest category is pigs, which are raised in areas of European Russia and the Pacific coast that offer grain, potatoes, or sugar beets as fodder. Only very small numbers of chickens are kept, and frozen chicken has become one of Russia's largest import items.

Ultra-Rare Endangered Species Back After Half-Century

For the first time in 50 years, two #Persian #leopard cubs were born in a #Russian national park in a major effort to reintroduce the endangered #species back to the wild. 

Once a breed that heavily populated southwest Russia, poaching and habitat lost has landed this big cat on the endangered species list, with only about 1,290 adults left in existence.

 With the likelihood of a new family of #leopards populating the mountains of Russia, this birth certainly provides a small step forward for the endangered species. 

Dogs in cars !!!

#Dogs what they hang their heads out of car windows. Take a look at the joy experienced by these cruising #canines when a breeze hits their faces !

#Husky in a hybrid? A white #Siberian #husky leans out of a window

A black #shih-tzu shoots the breeze at night

Tasting the freedom: three #pugs peer out of a pick-up #truck

This toy #Pomeranian isn't content with regular car journeys, so also makes the occasional trip on the local bus. He always gets the window seat

This #labrador makes full use of riding shotgun

   Poodle boot camp

Hot #dogs. Two blonde #Labradors hang out the window

A corgi watching the Californian sunset

A family of pocket #beagles sit patiently waiting to catch that breeze