And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Saturday, November 30, 2024
Wealth, stacked high. That'll keep the herd alive over the winter.
Looks like good #1 alfalfa. I go through about 3/4ths of a bale per day feeding 10 goats. I buy a trailer load (30 bales) about every 5 or 6 weeks and fill up the loft. Come February, we’ll take 5 of them to be processed and cut down some on the consumption. Then in April I expect the nannies will birth kids and we will start over.
Interesting scenario. What billy/nanny mix is the original ten keepers and the five survivors? And if you are going to cull half them in February to save feed, why not do so now to save more feed? Limited freezer or storage space?
Survivors will be our big billy and 3 nannies as well as a yearling weather. We are waiting until the other 5 weathers are a year old before processing. It’s always a trade off getting them fattened up at the cost of more alfalfa. When we’ve processed them at 8 or 10 months, we don’t get as much meat as we would like. The processing plant is FDA certified, so we can and will sell the meat. We are getting a quarter pig in February, so we have to get the freezer space reallocated.
These are 3-wire bales and weigh 100 to 120 lbs with #1 alfalfa. Bales of #2 typically weigh about 10% less and so does Bermuda or TEFF. Here in Northern AZ, I mostly buy these, but large rounds and squares are available. I don’t have the handling equipment for those.
In my neck o' the woods those units are called bricks. A brick of Supreme Alfalfa contains 64 3-string bales. At +/- 100 pounds per bale that would be 6400 pounds per brick. A truck and trailer load would have 3 bricks on the truck, four on the trailer. Back when I was young and agile I'd move two truck and trailer loads from the home place to the ranch every year. That explains why my back and knees are now bone-on-bone. But it was fun while it lasted. It kept me slim and trim.
Better get a waterproof cover on those bales before wet weather destroys them.
ReplyDeleteLooks like good #1 alfalfa. I go through about 3/4ths of a bale per day feeding 10 goats. I buy a trailer load (30 bales) about every 5 or 6 weeks and fill up the loft. Come February, we’ll take 5 of them to be processed and cut down some on the consumption. Then in April I expect the nannies will birth kids and we will start over.
ReplyDeleteInteresting scenario. What billy/nanny mix is the original ten keepers and the five survivors? And if you are going to cull half them in February to save feed, why not do so now to save more feed? Limited freezer or storage space?
DeleteSurvivors will be our big billy and 3 nannies as well as a yearling weather. We are waiting until the other 5 weathers are a year old before processing. It’s always a trade off getting them fattened up at the cost of more alfalfa. When we’ve processed them at 8 or 10 months, we don’t get as much meat as we would like. The processing plant is FDA certified, so we can and will sell the meat. We are getting a quarter pig in February, so we have to get the freezer space reallocated.
DeleteEither that or a life time supply of weed
ReplyDeleteDon't see to many small square bales anymore. Its either round or the huge square ones.
ReplyDeleteMy wife's horse gets smallish bales all of the time.
DeleteThese are 3-wire bales and weigh 100 to 120 lbs with #1 alfalfa. Bales of #2 typically weigh about 10% less and so does Bermuda or TEFF. Here in Northern AZ, I mostly buy these, but large rounds and squares are available. I don’t have the handling equipment for those.
DeleteIn my neck o' the woods those units are called bricks. A brick of Supreme Alfalfa contains 64 3-string bales. At +/- 100 pounds per bale that would be 6400 pounds per brick. A truck and trailer load would have 3 bricks on the truck, four on the trailer.
ReplyDeleteBack when I was young and agile I'd move two truck and trailer loads from the home place to the ranch every year. That explains why my back and knees are now bone-on-bone. But it was fun while it lasted. It kept me slim and trim.
The trick is keeping free range animals out of it till you need it and getting it from storage to the herd when the snow is waist deep.
ReplyDeleteDefine wealth
ReplyDelete