Dan Verniero

The bucket of water would dampen the ground around the ground rod, making it more effective in a dry climate. I have a 110 charger and a small solar charger, and love the ease of use and flexibility of electric fence. The 110 charger is from Premier, and it kept the neighbor's rodeo bulls away from my dairy cows! The solar charger is ok for the horses, but it's too mild to take much pressure. Solar chargers just refer to the fact that there is a solar panel to charge the battery that actually powers the charger, and mine is only a six volt battery that has needed replacement every couple years because it won't hold a charge through a couple cloudy days. Pay attention to enough grounding and use good conducting wire. I've had very good service and products from Premier. Not had good luck with either goats or chickens respecting net fence, again, it depends how much pressure gets put on it.

I would consider getting healthy crossbred stocker-type cattle and learning how to fatten them on grass before purchasing purebred stock. Pasture management is a lot more important than breed IMO. Once you've learned what it takes to raise fat cattle on grass, then maybe focus on purebreds. Any breed or color other than black angus-type will get sold cheap at the sales, order buyers want them large framed, black, and polled. So buy some small red cattle at the discount, and market them directly. Breeds that incorporate much brahma blood will have tougher meat, generally, even if they do better in hot climates, you might have trouble getting direct sale repeat customers, and dairy crosses usually don't dress out well. Read the Stockman Grass Farmer, Salad Bar Beef by Joel Salatin, and Greg Judy's books. I think a bull with only ten cows to breed might start looking around the neighborhood, too; maybe you could find a local, suitable, cow-calf producer to cooperate with to get feeders from.

I usually raise CRX from McMurray's in Salatin-style pens and have been very pleased with them. Low mortality, good foragers, nice big carcass in a short time, and good tasting. Last summer I bought a couple different breeds of layers for home production, and I bought some straight run because I think a good rooster is essential, even if you aren't hatching eggs. So I started butchering the excess roosters a couple weeks ago, and gotta say, they are a whole different kind of bird. First, it's the only time I've ever butchered birds in cold weather and the amount of down was staggering, compared to summer raised CRX's. Since I'm using them fresh, I do one at a time and dry pluck, so the down is usable, anyway. Second, the carcass is almost all dark meat, the broth it makes is almost beefy looking, and the taste is incredible. They are over 7 months old, and the meat is not chewy at all. We slow cook them, after hanging salted for two days. (Thanks for that tip, Adam!) They were in the chicken tractor with the CRX's early, and have free ranged ever since, they are Blue-Laced Red Wyandottes. The hens started laying at 6 months, dead of winter, minimal shelter, and whole grain supplemented diet. I will probably continue to raise the CRX to fill the freezer and sell, but I may get a batch of dual purpose roosters for the gourmet market (including us!)

I'm having good luck with my first Americaunas. I've raised all sorts of mail order chicks, but never this breed before. They started laying before Christmas, with no additional heat or light, not even an insulated shelter. I got them July 1, they were raised on whole grains and dairy surplus, and are very active foragers. I have nine of them and get 6 to 8 beautifully colored eggs a day, fed scratch and scraps in addition to free ranging (we have a good perimeter fence that contains cows and horses, too) Usually I get a uniform looking breed, but I have to say I like the diversity this flock shows.

Adam,
I sure appreciate what you are doing. I have a couple questions about the specifics of salting your slaughtered birds. I'd like to try it, having raised my own meat birds for many years and never hearing of it before. Do you salt them once they are sort of drip dried from the chill tank? Leave them salted if they are going in the freezer?
Just to contribute my experience here, I've raised Cornish Crosses from McMurray hatchery for the most part. I usually raise them with other egg laying breeds, in Salatin-style tractors, with daily moves to fresh grass kept short by lambs. I usually grow one round a year. I've had great luck, as far as low mortality, few leg problems, quick turnaround, easy processing, and delicious meat. I also feed whole or cracked local grains, fermented with excess dairy product from my Jersey cows, no soy or antibiotics. This summer I got 26, and lost one to a bull snake early, the rest went in the freezer at 11 weeks and 4.5 pounds, average.

Blacksmithing is a great fit with farming. Having ways to heat, bend, and cut metal are extremely useful. I've made wheel hoes, hand tools of all sorts, gate latches, reinforcing straps, etc. As an income producing venture, there are all sorts of niches. Etsy is a good place to have an online presence, but don't neglect knocking on likely doors. I prefer to accept a lower price and wholesale my iron craft items for the most part, because craft fairs and other direct retail methods seem to eat up time and money. There are schools and associations to help anyone get started smithing; there's been a resurgence in the craft for going on thirty years now. Look at www.abana.org

Have you looked into an Epps fly trap to help with the biting flies, they are very effective and simple to use, and they cover about ten acres. I had really good luck leveling out a pasture by mob grazing cows on it when it was a little wet, but you've got to have enough cows, that will respect portable electric fence. I don't think it would be so successful trying to crowd buffalo! Controlled grazing of trained cattle can do some amazing landscaping work, eliminating weeds, leveling ground, and getting the grass and legumes to grow thicker. You don't have to own the cows, either. In most areas I think you could find people looking for pasture who will pay you to watch their cattle while they improve your land. If you are just overwhelmed with the work a new place takes, though, mow your fields with a flail mower and you'll be doing your soil a favor, instead of haying it or letting it fallow. Haying removes nutrients and reduces the pasture diversity; letting it fallow speeds it's return to forest and weakens the stand as a whole. A flail mower chops the grass fine and allows it to act as mulch. Improved grazing management will heal the whole water cycle and may eliminate the need for heavy equipment to subsoil.