Animal Garden = Animal Feed

(originally posted Sept 13, 2009)


Here's how we cut feed store costs and raise healthier pigs:


I'd be remiss if I didn't put up a post explaining how we are feeding our oinkers....I know I've alluded to it, but here's the bottom line.

Remember this? It's our Animal Garden...about 3000 sq feet of veggies grown mostly for our pigs and chickens. (I say mostly because I'm not above going down there and forking up a nice bunch of carrots or beets to sell, if I'm running out of those in the Main Garden.)

I plant my seeds and seedlings very close together down there in the Animal Garden. This helps keep down the weeds. Plus, as the plants grow, we can thin them out and feed the thinnings to the animals.

Sure, in the beginning, the thinnings don't add up to much. But we do it anyway, as it allows the remaining veggies to grow bigger. When we pick feed, we just pull the largest veggies, leaving room for the neighbour to get bigger.

We have a woodstove down at the barn. Every day now for the last month or so, we have been lighting the stove with canners on top full of veggies.

The Gman built a table inside the Animal Garden awhile ago. It has been a huge time saver! Instead of hauling veggies into the barn to chop up on the freezers (we were using the freezer tops as our table) now we can toss all the veggies on this table and chop right there.

Just some of the veggies picked for a meal: from left to right....a really mangy looking beet I wasn't willing to sell....a sugar beet...some rutabagas, turnips and over on the far right are some mangels.

Here's the wheelbarrow which we try to fill once a day...this will fill two canners to the top and then some.

We chop the leaves off, since the hens Lurv them and the pigs do not....I can almost hear them screaming that greens are Filler...we don't want Filler...we want Roots!!

they all get fed off to the hens.

The stalks however, get tossed in the wheelbarrow since the pigs like them...fussy things.

All morning we keep the stove going. By lunch time, the veggies are well cooked and we go down and pull the two canners off the stove.

 

One will get fed to the pigs in late afternoon along with their grain. The other will be fed the following morning with their breakfast grain.

 

And the Pigs Lurv these veggies....unreal how quickly they gobble it all up!

 

We're now in the finishing stages of growing these pigs out, so they get these canners full of veggies, plus any trimmings or weeds we happen to pull out of the gardens.

Next week, we will likely up them to two canners full for each meal. Gotta fatten these porkers up!

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The Pigs are Done....Off to Freezer Camp

The last pig has been taken care of.....

if you're new to reading our blog, we buy lil weaner pigs in the early Spring.

They're maybe 40 pounds when we get them and over 200 pounds when we slaughter....

We raise 'em up here on the farm, growing them out on some grain.

They don't get much grain....we raise them out on pasture, plus feed them lots of veggies.

They taste fantastic! Must be all that pasture they eat....

then they are finished on all those healthy veggies....

Want to see the butchering process?

Go ahead and take a look, we don't have pictures of the

slaughtering, it's just the butchering.

I'm convinced that if more people knew how their "grocery store meat" was treated and handled, they would Never buy from a grocery store.

We make sure our animals have a wonderful life for the time they are with us....they get to run around and forage, root around and eat lots of bugs, worms and really good food.

A couple of pics from our pork this year...

prior to Gman cutting it into roasts, steaks, chops and bacons....yummy stuff!

We do all our own brining and smoking of the hams and bacons...check this out

if you want to see how it works.

There's smoking of fish on that link as well....just scroll down a bit and you will

see the pork post.

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Pastured Pigs

Last week, we got the pigs moved...all Gman did was turn their house around the other way so that the door opens into the back pasture. He uses his excavator for that job...that machine sure is handy!

He had already checked and repaired the electric fenceline from last year (which we left in place). Once he determined all was well, we dropped the wire around the Animal Garden where they had been staying...and playing.

So now, they have a LOT more room and of course a LOT of grass and willows to run around in. We're hoping again this year they will work on uprooting some of the willows, as the pigs did last year for us. Makes it easier to work on pasture rejuvenation!

The left fenceline....two strands of electric will keep the pigs in, because they were already trained to electric in the Animal Garden.  Even now, every once in a while, I hear an awful squeal...and then say to myself "Yup, the fence is working"

Now the pigs can chow down on pasture...this will save on the feed bill...always a good Thing! And I can get the Animal Garden planted!

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Pigs!

Dirty Little Pigs!

I've been spraying the hose for them (and AT them) every day. Since pigs can't sweat, they need a good hosing down when it's hot out!

The like rolling in the mud...it helps cool them off

Muddy lil oinkers!

This one is eyeballing me...you can see if you click on the pic to make it larger.

This afternoon, I am going to try to get back into the garden to keep planting. This is the May long weekend, the traditional "plant your garden time" in Canada.

Glad I got a lot of mine done early this year.

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What are YOU Looking At?

Ohhhhhh, who's that?

Look! She's come to feed us!!!!!

Ummmm....got any food?

Can't you see I'm starving here????

(And after eating.....the Pig Races start!)

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Da Piggy's New Home

We got them moved the other day. Here they are in what will be the Animal Garden. They'll stay in here for maybe a month.

See them playing with the soccer ball?

A better view of their new pad.....when they get moved again, they will go in the pasture. The Gman will just turn their house around....then they won't be able to get back into the Animal Garden.

A very Happy Piggy....with a dirty nose! They are glad to be able to run around in their new pen....

Meanwhile, back at the new strawberry bed....the girls are still working it over for me!

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Piggys, Rototiller....and More Seeds

The 3 Little Pigs are still acting skittish....they refused to come out of the corner yesterday when we went to feed them.....

More skittish than the pigs was da Wolf! He didn't want to even see them, and he huddled behind Gman, in order to stay safe....

Guess he remembers being goosed by one of them last year, when the pigs were a Lot Larger!

While we have them in the barn, we will just use a couple of bales of hay to keep them to one side of the room.  We'll move them down to their permanent home in a few weeks....

Late afternoon, the Gman started pulling the rototiller apart. It's long overdue for a good tuneup...now he has to search out for parts.....

I got more seeds started yesterday....all flowers. I seeded some Red Yarrow, Heartsease Violas, Columbines (my favourite flower) and some Echinacea....now let's hope they germinate!!

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3 Little Pigs

Last week we had a call on the cell, saying our piglets were ready for pick up. Only one problem - we were in California!

So our neighbours picked up ours (and theirs) and they have stayed with them for the past week.

Yesterday we had to go pick them up....easier said than done. Piglets can run like the wind!

You can see the Gman's big fishnet there in the bottom of the pic - just in case!

There's 8 pigs in this pen - we need to get ahold of 3 of them The neighbours figured we should all have a couple tall glasses of homemade beer first.....you know, to get the guys in working form! (The men, not the pigs)

Here's the Gman trying to coax one to come and eat some bread out of his hand.....

That may work for getting ahold of one little piggy, but once the others see him get picked up and put in the tote, there is no way any of them will fall for that trick again!

Gotcha! And dayummm....that little piggy was squealing and twisting around, legs flying around trying to get free....

Into the tote he went....my friend and I held the lid down so the little one couldn't get out, while the Gman was busy wrastling up 2 more. Our other friend was laughing so hard!!!

We've now got them home and in the barn....more pics to come hopefully later today....dayum, they are cute! Sphere: Related Content

How to Get Started on The Path to Providing For Your Family

Here's a link to a post I wrote almost a year ago (Wow! Has it been that long???)

There is lots of good info in there about getting started with laying hens, and then, as time and finances permit, moving up to raising meat birds. Most of you folks who are regular readers already know that we also raise weaner pigs during the Spring, Summer and Fall.

Success on the homestead is often a result of Starting Small, and Gradually Growing....check it out!

Comments? Questions? Please leave some! We like getting feedback about what we put on this blog - hopefully it helps a lot of folks out!

Know what you eat! And....Know what you grow! Sphere: Related Content

Houston, We Have a Problem (The Dreaded Phone Call)

Uh oh.....I just got the phone call.

We've been expecting this call for a couple of weeks - we Knew it was coming for at least 2 months. But are we prepared? Uh....NO!

You've read about our trying to empty our freezers, in an attempt to get ready to refill our freezers! Only on a homestead intent on providing as much of our own meat and veggies could this happen (I think).

Remember all those tomatoes and zuccini I pulled out of the freezer, in order to free up room for....now what was it for? Ah yes....pork.

Since this years pork went in the freezer, we have also added 1 goat to our freezer camp. We still have to take out a bunch of trout and Kokanee salmon we caught and can it all up.

I have a feeling the Gman may be firing up the smoker this weekend, so we can smoke fish before we can fish. I have the feeling I'll be pulling out all the fish this morning and put it into coolers to thaw it slowly.

Why am I getting this feeling? Well, because of the dreaded phone call. The one we knew was coming but still are not ready for.

I got the message half an hour ago....our beef is ready....gulp! This is a side of beef in exchange for one pig.....

My only question is.....Where? Where is this beef going to go? Where I ask? Houston, we gots a problem all right!

Can I fit a side of beef in here? I don't think so! We've got about a dozen meat birds underneath that box.

(See all the little Annie packages? Those are for me to take down to Kelowna when I go....homegrown food for me, even when I'm in the city!)

And some good news, at least to me! I KNEW we had a store bought bag of green peas somwhere...ha! There it is, right in the freezer door, I shoulda opened my eyes!

(We've got lots of snap peas frozen, but ya know, there's times when a girl just has to have herself some shelled peas with dinner!)

This freezer is stuffed full with a bunch of homegrown or foraged berries and some yogurt containers full of dog food.

And boy, is da Wolf ever going to eating well the next few days! The neighbours just came by with 2 big bags of meaty bones for him...out of Their freezer! Why?? Well, cause they are on their way to town to pick up Their side of beef and find themselves in the same predicament we're in!

Not that I am complaining about having TOO much food, I just need a place to put it, is all!

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Dangggggg.....It's Coldddddd

It's freezing and then some out there! This is what we woke up to this morning.....-12C when we first got up! The ole Arctic front again.....

Friday the Gman got the first 2 pigs ready to go off to the butcher....we dropped them off yesterday.

Came home, and canned up the trimmings for da Wolf. We did these jars last night and we have one more load to go. At least da Wolf won't starve this Winter!

I'm feeling ok...getting tired tho. That's bound to happen on the third day, so they tell me. The last 2 days I was able to get out and get some garden work done. We still have at least 1 long row of potatoes to dig up.....they'll just get put on the woodstove right away for the pigs. The potatoes were Frozen yesterday, when I dug them up!

We also went over and got the poop trailer again. The Gman used his excavator to dump the trailer onto the Main Veggie Garden....who knows, tho, when it will warm up enuf to spread it out over the gardens?

This morning, I am going to go over to the neighbour's for coffee...yeah! I get to go out! Next week I won't be able to, as I'll be in the middle of my chemo cycle, but today I can still get out and see people.

Too bad we're not with my boys for Thanksgiving.....too far to travel when I am not at my best. But they are with my parents for the Holiday, so at least they are getting some turkey!

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Raspberries, Hops.....and the Monster Turnip!

Wednesday we spent working around the place.....we had been away for several days, so animals needed to be checked on, veggies needed to be picked, the worst weeds needed to be pulled, blah blah blah

Picked 1 1/2 pounds of raspberries, weeeee! How nice to see these beauties coming on strong! I measured 2 cups of them out, and put them in freezer bags....tossed them in there! I'll use them up in muffins, or pies over the winter.

Picked, blanched and froze another round of snap peas....still have an ice cream bucket of shell peas waiting for me to bust open, blanch and freeze. Maybe tonite.

The Gman pulled all the yellowing leaves off the chard and fed them off to the animals....

Got a bit of Saskatoon berry picking done in the late afternoon.

Oh! And I went in the greenhouse and cut off the third stalk on the corn. Yes, they pretty much all have 2 ears and many want to grow a 3rd! But it is getting later in the season and those 3rd ears are Very Small, so I don't think there is time. I'd rather have the plant energy put into growing the 2 ears on each stalk instead!

The Hops plant is setting fruit.....We've got this growing along the fence close to the house. It's looking good and next year, it will probably take over the whole fence!

If we have enuf hops set, the Gman would like to try making mangel ale this fall.

And here....is.....the.....Monster Turnip! Unreal....6 1/2 freaking pounds!

We fed it off to the pigs, cutting it up for them. I'm sure it tasted really really Woody, but they don't really care.

Pigs are a great composting system!!!!

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Why Do We Call It The Animal Garden?

Stone Bridge left a comment a few posts ago:

"I have kind of a dumb question...why do you call it the animal garden? "

First of all, there is no such thing as a dumb question, but you knew that already, didn't ya?

It's a good question....one that I explained last year, but there are of course new people reading this blog this season.

As you probably all know, we raise laying hens, meat birds and pigs....every year.

Feeding these dang things gets expensive....and besides, we're trying to be more and more self-sufficient as time goes on. We'll never be 100% self-sufficient, but I will settle for growing most of our own food and meat, and making our own fun (the inexpensive kind).

We Really Really Want to stop giving so much of our money over to the Feed Store. Knowledgeable people, yes they are, to a degree. Although once when I was in there to buy lay pellets for the hens, I asked the lady, "What other cheaper ways are there to provide food for them?"

She looked at me like I was insane....oh well, not the first time that's happened! There was nothing, she assured me.

Yeah, right! So I started doing a bunch of book reading and internet surfing to see what I could find.

And since I really like John Seymour's books, I read them over and over and realized we could be growing at least Some of the feed we needed for our animals.

And there it is....the Animal Garden. Yes, it is Bigger than the Main Garden (Human Garden) but then again, there are more Animals here than Humans....

I just hollered to the Gman and he hollered back that the size of the garden is about 40 x 60 feet.

Last year, the Animal Garden was half the size as this year. And we learned that in order to feed 3 pigs, we would need Twice the garden space. So we enlarged it this year...problem is, we also doubled the amount of piggies this season....Doh!

Anyway, here's what I planted in the Animal Garden this year:

10 rows Turnips

7 rows Mangels

7 rows Rutabagas

4 rows Field Peas

6 rows Carrots

2 rows Beets

2 Rows Sugar Beets

2 rows Potatoes

That is a LOT of food....I spaced them all close, squeezing in as many as I could.

So, somewhere around the middle of July, the Gman started doing some thinning down there. We knew that would have to happen...actually we wanted that to happen.

Why? Cuz we could pull out some of the immature veggies, in order to let the remaining ones get a lot bigger. And the ones we pulled? We could feed those off to the animals at an earlier date than having to wait till they got Big. Know what I mean?

Over time, my arm gets better and better. So, today I was the one down there in the Animal Garden, sweating my buns off, thinning and thinning.

Since we will be away from tomorrow late morning until Monday evening, we wanted to have a bunch of thinnings already on hand for the friend who will look after our livestock.

We've got a small freezer down at the barn (we use 3 freezers to hold all our feed - climate and rodent proof = good!) So, today I loaded up that small freezer to the brim.

This is probably about 1/3 of what I picked. But I had already tossed a bunch in the freezer before remembering to take a picture, and I wasn't going to pull them all out, lol....

I thinned turnips, mangels and rutabagas.

You can see that the mangels are already developing some nice roots. They will get a LOT bigger (they can get to about 15 pounds or more). Here I've got the Gman's work glove sitting beside them so you can hopefully get an idea of the size.

Both the hens and pigs go C-r-a-z-y for this stuff....they love all the veggies we toss them.

We still feed the pigs hog grower. Three large coffee cans (2lb cans), twice a day for all 6 pigs (not Each). Now, I know some of you will scoff and think, That's not enough grower (believe me, I've heard it before)....it IS enough grower.

We're not finishing them yet, we are Growing them. And even when it comes time to finish them, we will decrease the amount of room they have to run.....and then feed them Even More Veggies.

The laying hens still get some laying pellets and a bit of scratch and oyster shell. These days however, they are more into the greens, the fancier the better. Seems they're getting a bit Cosmopolitan, the little snobs!

Of course, all animals NEED to have lots of lots of Fresh Clean Water all the time. Clean is important....I scrub out the hens' waterers probably twice a week. You can't let algae crap start growing in their water dishes....they kick dirt in there too, you have to clean them out.....

Rutabagas - these take about 110 days to mature....we pick the thinnings early, maybe thin one more time, then leave the rest to get huge.

Turnips - these take 50 - 70 days to mature. I plant Lots of these, simply because they are quick growing.

And if you leave Turnips in the ground, some of them can get dang huge.....

So, there ya go....that's the story behind the Animal Garden. Plenty of good healthy veggies for our animals....and less money spent at the Feed Store. It's a Good Thing!

Tomorrow, we leave for 2 nights of camping with the Nman and Kgal, then we will go on to Kelowna for the first oncology appointment. Enjoy your weekend!!!

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