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I will need much better shelters to winter-over hogs. And after the first six months of growth their increase in size slows down. You simply do not get as much meat per pound of feed return.
I would like to have a winter shelter and to keep a boar and a sow, to produce a litter of squealers each spring. But we are not ready for that yet.
Right now we just went from one dozen hens [last winter] to four dozen hens [this coming winter]. One goat last winter, we had fifteen goats this spring, but most had died through a wide assortment of ailments, now we have five goats that we hope to take through the winter. Next spring we want to add 6 or 8 sheep to the mix.
Then we will be planting sixteen apple trees, and we will be building a greenhouse.
I know when my dad raised a pig for our freezer, he said the savings was approx. 11 cents per pound. That was back in 1975. The only real advantage is you know what the critter has been fed.
Folks pay $45 to $60per head plus 50 cents per pound to butcher an animal.
We freerange our livestock as much as we can, to keep our feed expenses down. However if you pen livestock and feed grain all year the cost of feed will easily quadruple.
We think that we can raise a hog on about ten bags of feed. Right now he is eating two 5-gallon buckets of produce and two one-gallon buckets of grain each day. I think that if we had more produce, he would eat that too.
The economics of raising hogs really depends on how much spoilt produce you can get. I know a local Garlic-milk delivery-truck driver who has told me that each day when he goes to the land-fill to drop-off their out-of-date milk products, there is a crowd of hog owners who fight over his dairy goods. Milk, yogurt, cheese; the hogs love it. And those guys will get into fist-fights over who gets it.
I do not want to be fighting others for hog feed, we have access to grocery store produce throw-outs: Lettuce, cabbage, apples, oranges, corn, peaches, tomatoes, cantaloupe, etc. He likes everything but pumpkin.
Yeah, Sssshhhhhh! I'm trying to listen to Forest talk about KAF getting nekkid! You're drowning him out!!
OMG, you are too funny!!!
KAF, do I have another partner in crime running nekkid in the woods out there? Some things are SO much more fun when shared with good friends!
Oh yes, I do like to garden naked... and well, just about anything else. We were all born naked weren't we? And the Lord intended nudity as well. Dang Adam and Eve screwing that one up for us.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elcarim
Looks like the PERFECT place to get "free" to me! KAF, I'll call and ask your hubby if you can come out and play when I get there!!
Ah, hubby won't mind much. He may even get naked too. lol... but no hanky panky you understand. Ya know, sometimes I want to visit a nudist colony, but I'd never have the ummm.... ya know... to do it. lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elcarim
Yep! Thank you. I knew I wasn't the only dirty minded person around here!!
Oh no, you aren't the only one. lol I'm a bad bad girl.
Oh yes, I do like to garden naked... and well, just about anything else. We were all born naked weren't we? And the Lord intended nudity as well. Dang Adam and Eve screwing that one up for us.
Ah, hubby won't mind much. He may even get naked too. lol... but no hanky panky you understand. Ya know, sometimes I want to visit a nudist colony, but I'd never have the ummm.... ya know... to do it. lol
Oh no, you aren't the only one. lol I'm a bad bad girl.
MY EYES!
WHAT HAPPENED TO MY EYES?
I CANT SEE!
YOU HAVE DAMAGED A PORTION OF MY BRAIN
I VISUALIZED WHAT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT AND NOW I AM BLIND.
THANKS
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