We're new!

Hi!
I'm in Southern Idaho and a lot of what hold for us carries over into Eastern Oregon.
400 acres is a lot for a person to take on and I have a variety of suggests based on what you end up with and your experience level.
If you get actual farm ground I would suggest renting it out or hiring custom farming to farm it for you. At least in E. OR & ID alfalfa is ALWAYS in demand and the prices keep climbing. This year is was at about $200-275/ton. If you are planing on raising livestock it is something you will find yourself needing as well.

Go into things incrementally. A lot of people get their property and try to do all the things they want immediately. If you want chickens get ten not 60 ( I may be speaking from experience). Pick a species of livestock, get comfortable, and then get another.

As for general farm dogs it is my opinion that just about anything can be a good farm dog. It's when you want specific function filled that you really need to focus on breed. We have/had St. Bernards, Labs, Heelers, Spring spaniels, hounds, ect and they have all been good farm dogs. More importantly they were good family dogs. BUT if you want a dog to herd get a herding breed. If you want it to gaurd livestock get a LGD.

If you are close to Portland there are a lot of niche markets you can fill. Oregon in general has a pretty artsy go local vibe to it.

Hello from your neighbors in Idaho!

Dehydrator
http://www.sufficientself.com/threads/i-just-ordered-a-excalibur-3900-dehydrator.13401/

Grain Mill
http://www.sufficientself.com/threads/i-got-a-family-grain-mill.13058/

Wheat discussion (I bought from Mormon food center, later found www.montanaflour.com)
http://www.sufficientself.com/threads/which-wheat-red-white-hard-soft.12598/

Go for it. 400 acres is but a dream for a lot of us here. Read the back posts here on BYH, Sufficient Self (link on the right) Lots of good information on these sites.

Welcome! If you are going to garden, be sure to join BYH sister site, www.theeasygarden.com too.

Hey @FarmersDigest it's great to have you here!

I merged your other thread into this one so you can have all your stuff in one place! If you have topic specific questions, feel free to post them in specific areas of the forum.

You're also welcomed to visit our "sister sites"

www.SufficientSelf.com
www.TheEasyGarden.com

Welcome to farming!

My advice, like several others, is to take it slowly. It is tempting to get everything at once, but try to hold yourself back. Start by getting some idea of what your farm to look like. What are you going to raise? Sheep, goats, cattle, emu? Is your goal to provide yourself and friends with meat, wool/fiber, milk, grain, hay, veggies, etc....or to market your products on a larger scale. So many things you can do with 400 acres.

Don't feel like you need to know everything before you start. You will never know everything. My family has had sheep for 14 years and I am always learning something new.

Milk cows are a big responsibility. The milk is amazing though! I have a small Jersey who, thankfully, is a complete sweetheart. You can milk her just about anywhere. We bought her last summer (2013) and it has been a major learning curve. We've raised steers before for beef, but a milk cow is a completely different creature. If you get a milk cow, I highly recommend getting a bucket milker. I started out hand-milking, but that gets old pretty quickly (unless you happen to love hand-milking). I purchased a hand pump vacuum system (Henry Milker, Magidans, etc...) and that worked decently. There are mixed reviews on those type of milkers, some people love them and others swear that they will ruin the teats. I didn't see any sign of damage, but I wasn't looking forward to milking all winter with my little hand pump and the tubes that popped off whenever they got cold. I was able to find a used bucket milker (DeLaval) and a pump and milking is fun again.

I chose to leave the calf on my cow this spring. After he was a couple weeks old, I started separating them at night and milking in the morning. The calf would then be with his mother for the rest of the day and be locked up again at night. This meant that I only had to milk once a day. And if I needed to be away or was otherwise unable to milk, I just left the calf with his mother. Now that he is weaned I have to milk everyday, but I'm still only milking once a day. She isn't giving as much milk as she would be if I milk 2x/day, but she's giving more than enough for us.

I love my Jersey, but I'm still more comfortable with sheep than cattle.

Good luck with your new venture. Don't forget to have fun (and keep us updated) and never hesitate to ask questions, that is what we all are here for - to get advice and to help others where we can.

Southern by choice said:

Don't apologize! Often what happens is you will get a lot of responses for one thing but not enough on another subject.

I think the first thing would be to take it slow. I say that because often when a person is brand new to farming and they take on a variety of animals all at once disaster strikes.

You may also want to check out your county or surrounding counties extension services. Often there will be specific classes you can take to learn about particular issues (ie parasites, diseases, nutrition etc)
those classes are never the whole picture but sure can be a help.

Also looking at different breeds of cattle that do well for your environment, same as sheep goats etc.
We have no cows but we do have goats and sheep and poultry. Meat goats and dairy goats.
@purplequeenvt has sheep and has cattle. she milks their cow... she would be great to ask how that works for her. @WildRoseBeef is also great! They have been tagged so they will probably at some point chime in

A good place to start is making a list of long term goals and then short term and a tentative plan as how to get there.
You may be surprised at how longgggg everything takes. lol
Processing chickens is an all day affair here.
Of course after you said your Dh is a butcher I was thinking why don't you live here!

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Well that's good to know! As knowing me, if no one replied to a question, I would think it was a dumb questions I asked. (if no one replied lol)

Wow, I can't thank you enough for all the great advice you gave us! My hubby and I are taking what other people say with experience very seriously. So we really do appreciate it!

Lol I keep telling him with 14 years experience as a butcher, he's going to make it no matter where we move!

Southern by choice said:

LGD's live with the livestock! They need to. However we do routine our dogs to the whole family and house BUT they are not "housepets" They each visit us in the house, but they live for their job and are best at that. All of our dogs are gentle giants with our family. They love the children. LGD breeds are NOT like regular dogs or pets. They are wired quite differently and they need to be.

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That again makes so much sense. So how do they do with family dogs? The ones that do live with the family in the house? I am a big sucker when it comes to dogs. I have always had one by my side.

Goat Whisperer said:

& Welcome to BYH from North Carolina.

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Thank you Whisperer!

goatgurl said:

Welcome from Arklahoma, you've picked a good place to come and learn. what kind of livestock do you plan to have besides the cattle and horses? An English shepherd is an excellent farm dog for all around. a lot of us have livestock guardian dogs who stay out in the pasture with the goats or sheep all the time as protection from predators and most of them are great with family too but they are hardwired to live with and protect their flock just like a border collie or Australian shepherd are hardwired to herd animals. my Katie (Maremma lgd) will meet me at the gate and wiggle and wag to let me know how glad she is to see me, follow me on to the house and then go back to her goats. that's her normal.

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Thank you goatgurl! We want sheep and pigs too. At first, it'll be the cows, and chickens. Oh and a ton of deer! (they are wild) Well that would be a great thing, lgd. The man that lived their now said he gets coyotes and has heard other farmers say they've seen cougar. Katie sounds like a good girl.