Recent content by whinneysfarm

Baymule, I like the different type of bribery food! It doesn't have to be commercial grain, anything they find irresistible will do (bonus points for smelly!). Even better not feeding them a day in advance, I image that would make any animal happy to do whatever you say!

canesisters, I love that - challenge the norm that most people know and don't realize it can be done differently. I've talked to some people about different training methods, and too many say "forcing them has always worked in the past, why change it". Another great point, just because the...

I could not agree with you more right now! I'm currently dealing with some pain-in-the-butt animals and knowing how many good animals there are out there, the stress is not worth it. My biggest farm learning curve so far is realizing what type of animals I need to have to make my farm work, not...

You are sweet for looking out, thank you! I was hoping a ping might awaken them from their deep slumber 😂 I'm so excited to follow your deep litter journey, please don't forget to share some details every now and then! I'm still some years away before I can start the process, so I will continue...

Finnie, thank you for the great book recommendation! I love the idea of building the farm with the animal's point of view in mind. Cooperative animals are certainly a guaranteed way to make life a little easier!

Such great advice from all, thank you everyone! Building on farmerjan's last thought, desensitizing the animals to the chutes and trailers is invaluable for both animal and farmer. I live in a wildfire area so evacuations are a constant threat, and running the animals through routine roundups...

I am in the planning stage of my next farm and I would love to hear everyone's ideas, opinions, and advice on features that you must have on your farm or ranch. I'm looking for what makes life so much easier, especially as we age! What have you done/put in that you love, or what do you regret...

I'm loving this discussion on setting up the farm for success! I'm actually going to start a new thread so I can hear everyone's ideas on other important farm features, and so I don't derail this thread too much. To get back to deep litter, I hope it's okay if I tag some of the experimenters...

Great thinking!! I have been considering the extra wide entryways but I didn't think about tractor height. I'm definitely planning for the long term including old age, so convenience and ease are very important for the next builds. That's part of the reason I want to go with deep litter in the...

I thought of those when rubber was mentioned. Heavy... but heavy duty for sure! I think they would attach to the wall pretty well. I am day dreaming about this setup as I painstakingly pick up each goat berry and add it to my growing compost pile.

Those are all great ideas, much better than metal! Even just an extra layer of wood would probably be much more economical... thank you!! I'm really looking forward to trying this out in the future.

Oh definitely, I look forward to harvesting the wonderful compost under the deep litter! But before it's ready there is still a good amount of litter built up, actively yet slowly breaking down. I'm sure the moist decomposing litter will affect wood/metal fencing over time so I'm thinking maybe...

I am so excited to find this thread, I really want to use a true deep litter system for my goats' next dry lot location but I haven't seen many people doing it. Do any posters here have updates on how your deep litter system is going? One concern I've had is fencing/siding - as the deep litter...