[sean518]

Not seeing a link or anything, am I missing it?

– Sean

[sean518]

How many pounds of hay per acre does everyone in the northeast expect to harvest?

[sean518]

Donn, George, and Billy:

I have some questions regarding haying and sheep. We currently have 16 Jacob Sheep ewes, we’re working our way up to 50, and we just bought our first Cormo crosses, which we’d also like to get up to about 50 ewes. So all our sheep are primarily fiber animals, though we also sell freezer lambs.

It seems like you use some of the same fields for haying and grazing. What’s the best mix of plants to have in those dual purpose fields? Do you also have other fields that are dedicated to just haying, and what’s ideal in those fields?

Is it really worth the extra labor and hay to keep the lambs through the winter? Is it not possible to hay the spring flush, or is the weather just typically too wet at that time? Or is it just not possible using horses?

I have a lot more questions… but I’ll keep it to those for now. I’d love to check out your farm sometime, Donn, if you accept visitors. We’re not all that far away.

– Sean

[sean518]

I think that’s a great idea, Erika!

The site is up and running now:
http://americanenterprise.si.edu/

I was very curious to see who the sponsors of the exhibit were…
http://americanenterprise.si.edu/support/current-supporters/

And there at the bottom is the good ole American Farm Bureau Federation… the self proclaimed “Voice of Agriculture.”

[sean518]

I made an A-frame chicken tractor last year out of 2×4’s and plywood enclosed upper, but I find it to be rather heavier than I’d like, as I’m moving it by hand. This year, I plan on making them out of cattle panels, much like these:

http://thelazybfarm.com/new-chicken-tractor

I have a few cattle panel sheep/goat shelters that are very similar, and they just can’t be beat for portability/cost/ease of assembly/space. You can make it as long as you need with more cattle panels. The only drawback is that if you get a heavy wind, depending on how much tarp you have covering it, it will blow over or bend the cattle panels skewed. With the sheep I have tarp across the whole thing, and I have to make an A-Frame at either end to support the panels with sort of a beam running down underneath the middle of the top.

– Sean

[sean518]

Hello Jeroen, welcome aboard. Beautiful horses! I have two 50% European blue roan Belgian fillies. We board two other European crosses (we call the European Belgians Brabants here in the US to distinguish them from American Belgians, which are just called Belgians) and one of them has CPL in one hind leg. It’s not fun at all to deal with, but it is manageable. I’m glad I have crosses, as I don’t want to have any horses with CPL, and that will lessen the chances (along with the feathers). There is a lady in Ohio who has just started importing Belgians from Belgium again. She’s making sure that their the offspring of clean legged horses, although that’s no guarantee that the CPL won’t happen. She got a shipment of two blue roan filles, and has two more shipments already lined up. They’re out of my price range, though, she’s asking $13,000 each for them.

Best of luck with everything!

– Sean

[sean518]

@Taylor Margison 39707 wrote:

Wow! What nice looking rabbits! Thanks for posting!
Those babies are adorable, and that first bunny pictured looks enormous. But maybe it’s just the fluff….

We also decided on angoras for their pet/fiber duality and we’re also keeping them outside. I’ll post some pics of the cages I’m making. I’ll look into the Bass company as well. When we were looking to buy cages I priced materials and actually managed to make them for significantly less, and with my own customizations, than what I could find at the store.

How many babies did you end up with? I love that black bun!

-Taylor

The heavier gauge wire that Bass uses is really important. I made one cage with wire I purchases at our local Agway, and it is not standing up well. Bass uses 14 gauge for the tops and sides and 16 gauge for the bottoms. I think the wire I purchases at Agway was 12 gauge. Another important improvement in the Bass cage over what I made is the reinforced door frame. It just takes one hook closure to hold closed, whereas I need several closures on the door I made because it doesn’t have a frame and the wire is flimsier. And it’s a pain to have to open and close that door with all those clips. Bunnies will squeeze their way out of a door that’s not tight if they can, that’s how half of our first buck ended up in our dog’s stomach. I’m sure it’s possible to save some money building your own cages, but I’m not sure that the extra time it takes is worth it. I’d love to see the cages you built. I did enjoy building the hutch structure, though! Hopefully this summer I’ll have the time to build a larger version on the back of our garage.

We had nine kits in the litter, which is above average for Angoras, especially since it was her first birth. We lost one right away, and another the following day, but the remaining seven are going strong. And they really truly will only nurse those babies once a day. You can stick her in with them more than that and she’ll just squirm her way out and possibly hurt the kits. But once a day, she’ll hop in and just stand there until their bellies are full. Somehow it was decided that this should happen at 6am, which is the time that only I’m awake…

[sean518]

Where in NY did you get the English Angoras? The French Angoras seem to have very calm temperments to me, are they not supposed to?

I started an Angora thread here:

http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?6174-Angora-Rabbits

[sean518]

More pics attached. Some people keep them inside, but I definitely didn’t want to do that. They seem very happy in a relatively small cage, 24″ x 30″. I built a small lean-to structure for them where we can stack 6 cages. The cages are from Bass. I made one cage, but the wire gauge I found was definitely not as good as what Bass uses. Between the door attachments/frames and all the extra’s, it’s almost more cost effective to buy the cages from Bass, I highly recommend them.

[sean518]

Thanks for joining us, Tay!

We just had our first litter of French Angoras here after getting two does and a buck about a month ago. They’re interesting rabbits, nothing like what I was used to from the rabbits I had when I was a kid. Good luck with everything!

– Sean

[sean518]

Congratulations, Denise! We have an 80 acre farm and we’re slowly transitioning to the point where I’ll be able to work it fulltime and quit my office job. We’re building a flock of Jacob sheep and might be adding some Cormo soon. We have a couple dairy goats and we’ve done a small CSA with our not so small garden. We’re not super close, but not super far away from you. If you ever wanted to visit, or if you have any sheep questions, feel free to ask! I don’t pretend that we’re experts by any means, but we’ve gone through two lambing seasons now, and you have to learn a lot pretty quickly when you have sheep.

[sean518]

I think that all of these ideas are great. I wouldn’t find the kind of advertising you’re talking about intrusive at all. An open site to view and a small donation to post/view pictures sounds like the perfect idea. I’m sorry to say that I still haven’t contributed financially, and I feel guilty about it every time I’m on here gaining the incredibly valuable information that’s available (although I have volunteered and designed a couple print ads!).

– Sean

[sean518]

We live in a very rural area, and we have plenty of coyotes around these days. From what I gather, it’s very rare to have a medium to large breed of dog be attacked by coyotes. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but they’re generally more interested in prey animals like sheep and small animals like rabbits and such. That said, there was a single coyote near my barnyard at first light a few months back, and my Akbash mix went toe to toe with it. It’s kind of odd for them to come that close to our house/barn, and even to see them at that time of day as they’re mostly active at night. She chased the coyote around in circles until it ran off. She had no visible wounds when she came back, but she did have some of the coyote’s blood on her. We have three minis in their own pasture and I wouldn’t be worried about them at all. They’re pretty fierce.

I’d be a little more concerned if I was in a more populated area. I think they’re more likely to get accustomed to being in the same area as people, house, dogs, etc.

[sean518]

@fogish 39114 wrote:

You need to make a profit 2 years out of 7 when farming/agriculture otherwise red flags go up and your chances of an audit sky rocket. If you make a profit every third year you are covered. Make sure you keep track of your depreciation claims, they can add up quickly. It was hard for us to show a profit this last year. Hay prices went way up, horse prices went way down and we still had some mares that had not finished depreciating yet. Essentially any money you spend on material or equipment for the farm can be written off including mileage if it’s related to the work. The more you are claiming though the larger a loss you take unless you made a lot of money.

The biggest expenses can have the deduction split up over 3 years, the rest will be applied the year they were spent. Sit down and really run the numbers of what you need to buy and how much it will cost and what your production will be and a low ball estimate of your pre-tax net income from it. This will give you an idea if you will make it or not. If you will be losing money every year they call it a hobby, a business makes more money than it spends 2 out of 5 years and Ag. is 2 out of 7 years. I believe you have to keep documentation (receipts mainly) for anything you claim for 3 years.

http://ruraltax.org/

The IRS finds a loss 5 out of 7 years acceptable only if you’re a horse boarding/breeding operation. For any other type of agriculture, a loss is acceptable 2 out of 5 years. This is not to say that you won’t be allowed a loss for more years than that, but at that point, the IRS can investigate to make sure that you’re really in it to make a profit. If you have a solid business plan and practices, then you can be allowed a loss for more than that number of years.

Here’s an informative piece:

http://www.hobbyfarms.com/farm-marketing-and-management/farm-income-taxes-14991.aspx

[sean518]

Well, it’s been discussed on here before. It’s thought that they were originally either to protect the collar from heavy snow/rain or to prevent dust, dirt, and chaff from getting in/around/under the collar. These days they seem to be mostly ornamental. Kind of a farm team equivalent of scotch collars. I’m sure that’s why my father got them.

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