Why I don't eat meat anymore
- Thread starter QuietH3art
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What we do here is get an "share" of the animal, meaning you give the farmer $1. THAT buys you part of that cow. That allows you to get milk at say, $1 a gallon or a reserved half a beef when slaughter time comes.
Finding a farmers market and getting to know the farmers is crucial. Farmers know every other farmer for miles and how, what's and whys of farming and growing on a bigger scale as well as knowing all the diseases, ailments and tricks of the trade that will def save you $$ and time in the long run. Not only will working for a farmer give you insight as to what will be required to grow your own, but it's also a very healthy way of life. Farming is HARD, heavy work most of the time and it's not for everyone. Some days I'm so sore and stiff from baling 2000 bales of hay or picking bushels of veggies the day before but it is a healthy way of living and you'll stay in shape much more than most occupations.
I've also found that working on a farm is one of the most rewarding places to work too. From starting the veggies from seed to picking the fruits to bottle-feeding some snot-nosed little calf to seeing a massive porterhouse steak on your plate and having it melt in your mouth and KNOWING it's GMO/hormone free! By knowing these methods, you increase your value in any community of preppers.
Also of note, by raising your own, you will have extra stuff. That's when you either can the stuff, freeze it or give it away to the neighbors because that is just what we do around here. I think most farmers are the same way. They're looking for someone who will do the hard work and not complain about it too much. One tip that I learned early is when bottle-feeding baby cows, ALWAYS wear long pants! I usually wear cargo shorts to work just due to the hot weather BUT it's not good for milking times. Here's why: if you wear shorts? Some calf WILL slurp you up the back of your leg with it's snotty, slobbery, milk-covered pie-hole and if you're like me, you'll let out a screech and instinctively hurl yourself into the next calf pen thus evoking much, much, much loud laughter from the other people around you. The joking will never end, trust me.
Rabbits are great for fast breeding but they are very lean and will need some sort of lard or suet to replace the fats needed for daily consumption. Their urine and feces is also a great fertilizer as it's very high in nitrogen and ammonia-ingredients needed for 'other' projects.
Finding a farmers market and getting to know the farmers is crucial. Farmers know every other farmer for miles and how, what's and whys of farming and growing on a bigger scale as well as knowing all the diseases, ailments and tricks of the trade that will def save you $$ and time in the long run. Not only will working for a farmer give you insight as to what will be required to grow your own, but it's also a very healthy way of life. Farming is HARD, heavy work most of the time and it's not for everyone. Some days I'm so sore and stiff from baling 2000 bales of hay or picking bushels of veggies the day before but it is a healthy way of living and you'll stay in shape much more than most occupations.
I've also found that working on a farm is one of the most rewarding places to work too. From starting the veggies from seed to picking the fruits to bottle-feeding some snot-nosed little calf to seeing a massive porterhouse steak on your plate and having it melt in your mouth and KNOWING it's GMO/hormone free! By knowing these methods, you increase your value in any community of preppers.
Also of note, by raising your own, you will have extra stuff. That's when you either can the stuff, freeze it or give it away to the neighbors because that is just what we do around here. I think most farmers are the same way. They're looking for someone who will do the hard work and not complain about it too much. One tip that I learned early is when bottle-feeding baby cows, ALWAYS wear long pants! I usually wear cargo shorts to work just due to the hot weather BUT it's not good for milking times. Here's why: if you wear shorts? Some calf WILL slurp you up the back of your leg with it's snotty, slobbery, milk-covered pie-hole and if you're like me, you'll let out a screech and instinctively hurl yourself into the next calf pen thus evoking much, much, much loud laughter from the other people around you. The joking will never end, trust me.
Rabbits are great for fast breeding but they are very lean and will need some sort of lard or suet to replace the fats needed for daily consumption. Their urine and feces is also a great fertilizer as it's very high in nitrogen and ammonia-ingredients needed for 'other' projects.
Have neighbor who brings me "free range" pig...it is nice!
This is another reason that I am trying to get even more pickier about my food! The stress hormone levels alone that have to be produced by these animals to be so confined, needless to mention the inability to keep this clean and the potential for spreading diseases! How can anything with so many thousands of animals considered to be anything other than a factory! To me...this is not food! And, cattle feed lots...chickens...these factories are not only detrimental to us, but to the workers and to the animals. People who have been exposed to just the smell of chicken houses, and those cattle lots can testify the smell carries for miles!
just drive past an intensive chicken shed...the smell is horrendous!! that's another reason I wont buy supermarket chickens...apart from it being baby meat and cheap rubbish, I have to pay about TWICE the amount for my free range chicken than someone who buys supermarket chicken but I always say the difference is in the taste.
I need better neighbors!
I live in Ga., and ride a motorcycle. I can attest to the smell, both from the houses and especially from being behind one of the trucks on the highway. Whew! Someone once told me he loved the smell, "smells like money to me".
I really can't taste much difference, but I feel healthier!
My son-in-law and daughter live and work on a hog farm. His employer raises pigs for slaughter. His employer's father, on the same property, keeps breeding sows. The number of hogs they fit into those buildings is insane. The waste is atrocious. They stack the pens so the ones above eliminate on the ones underneath. And, of course, there's the food they are given - gmo corn with antibiotics and hormones added into it.
I have never liked the taste of white pork, but love bacon and ham. I just don't eat it because I've always known of the way it is raised and gets to market.
Cows, pigs, poultry - it's big business. People have to eat.
I have never liked the taste of white pork, but love bacon and ham. I just don't eat it because I've always known of the way it is raised and gets to market.
Cows, pigs, poultry - it's big business. People have to eat.
My mother told me as a teenager the school took them to a slauter house in Louisville Ky., she didn't eat meat for a long long time. It's hard to imagine a face on a Big Mac, but some animal lost it's life for people to enjoy one. That dosent bother me too much, the conditions they raise the animals in does. My rabbits are fed really well, and have roomy cages that are clean, and they get to socialize with the other rabbits. I almost feel guilty as I give them lots of my extra produce from the garden, where I sometimes feel I should be giving it to other people.
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You are probably looking at $210 in feed a month for a cow. We feed sweet feed, corn, pasture and hay. Last time I was at the auction house cattle prices were around $1.30 - $1.50 a lb, but we haven't been in a few years and I have heard prices has gone sky high. The two that you see in my pic were both about $100 a piece (newborn calves are not sold by the lb here) and that was 3 years ago.
Thanks! Thats not too bad. How long did it take from cattle to 1800# bull?
Heres an interesting link i found. Would you concur with these approximates?
http://www.farmandranchguide.com/ne...cle_94e22c5a-4601-11e1-8214-0019bb2963f4.html
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I'd rather have NO neighbours.
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I guess that would probably be about right. I am not sure how much pasture land rents for though and I do know that the figure $910 for a 1300 lb cow is on the low side, at least around here.
