Not to steal my own thread, but since we've taken this turn anyway I have a couple MORE questions.
1) how much meat do you get off an Alpaca? Goats are about 40% of live weight. Pigs are about 70% of live weight. Just wondering where the alpaca fall.
2) Is there an "good" way to skin them? Do...
ksalvagno - as "awful" as it sounds I had actually thought about that but didn't want to offend anybody. We eat our cull goats when we have them and people freak about that and they are MEAT GOATS. I did some research and found many who share your view. Do you know if it matters if they are...
Okay Alpaca enthusiasts, here is my situation followed by a couple of questions. I currently own/breed/raise meat goats. I have two fiber goats I bought this past summer to begin working with fiber. I also have a pair of Great Pyrenees guardian dogs. We also have horses, pgs, chickens etc but...
Thanks, we did finally have our litter. Found 5 live piglets and one dead (still born or crushed we don't know). We noticed the nesting at least a week prior to farrowing. She was also quite bagged up for more than a week, but did see more engorgment about 24 hours prior. The biggest telltale...
We have a PBP that is (hopefully) nearing her due date. I have NO idea when she would have been bred. I do know I haven't seen any amorous advances from the boar for more than a month for sure (and yes it could be up to three months since I've seen any hanky-panky).
With our goats even...
Don't know if these qualify for emergencies but I keep dried blackberry leaves and dried red raspberry leaves. Blackberry leaves I have found to work very well for diarrhea caused by stress, feed changes, etc (I haven't had to use it for any major diarrhea issues). Red raspberry for help in...
I have two old spot/yorkshire gilts that we are raising for meat. We also have a young male and female pair of PBP that we will be raising as breeders for future generations of meat pigs. Should I be feeding the PBPs any differently than the feeder pigs we have?
We are currently feeding a...
We had our first goat baby (doeling :D) born here two days ago. We were unsure of moms due date so had not given the CD/T booster yet. (we bought her two weeks ago already bred). When can/should I give the doeling her CD/T booster?
I'm finding some sites say wait until 3 weeks, then again...
I have always done round bales (except when we hayed our own fields, then we did square). Before I had a tractor I did the daily peeling of the bales. That acutally worked okay until winter came (I also didn't have a barn) and I had a large heavy snow covered tarp over them :(. I have found...
Weedchick - that's kind of what I was thinking. But the ground doesn't freeze until a it later than November so if i put them in the would have at least a month or two to root around. Then some time in spring (as big pigs) to do a spring tilling for me.
Here in northern lower Michigan the weather gets really nasty!! I have a heavily fenced in 48x30 garden area (that I can also hotwire) that I would like to put two feeder pigs in around Oct/Nov and have slaughtered around April-ish. I do realize that it will take more to raise a pig (feed...
I feed a ration of whole oats(250#), rolled corn(200#),soybean meal(50#) and molasses(25#) to my goats and horses. (I mix a few additional things to feed the goats)
What I was wondering, will this mix work for pigs (going to market)if supplemented with hay? If NOT, what additions can I make to...