I want a farm too. and along with all the usual stuff, i'll have tons of dandelions. oh, what a miracle flower.
ethanol from corn, and biodiesel from rapeseed are the shittiest answers, there are actually viable variants of biofuels that don't suck NEARLY as badly.
lol,, dave dilli just read this,,.. lol.. i think shes fixing to tell you how your dream will really be.. this should be good....
you should have said ten hours a day twice a day dave... Sorry to turn your dream into a night mare but consider it fun while it lasted I grew up on a farm and spent most my adult life on a dairy farm so i am not just spewing shit i dont know about think of what i am doing here for you pre- therapy... Dairying nor farming is as simple as you are making it sound. Tis a wonderful rewarding life but it is a 24 hour a day seven day a week job and your life is your partner. Consider it your wife... Even on a small scale farming is not as cut and dry as you are making it sound. Fences get knocked over animals escape and crazy things give birth in some really stupid places at stupid times. These times generally come in the middle of the night in the worst possible weather, not on a nice wednesday afternoon when you are having your afternoon smoke n chillaxin with nothing to do. Getting into dairying is not cheap nor easy. Most folks that do it are born into an existing dairy. Even those starting very small more often than not fail. There are a couple programs out there designed to help those with this sort of dream work into into an existing operation but given the way the economy and such is heading most old timers simply sell out rather than even attempt to pass things on. Without getting too technical and too into the depths of farming and boring the hell out of anyone else reading this thread, I will simply say food for dairy animals is an exact science. Simply put, most cattle have been bred so far from there origins, they dont produce enough to make them profitable without following regimented diets. If it is simply personal homestead uses it is a bit different but you said you wanted a dairy..If you are growing your own feeds , you need a lot of pasture lands or crop land to feed even a couple dozen cows. Buying feed is always an option from custom croppers or working with another local farmer however unless you know what you are doing it is not a justifiable option and most definitely not profit making. Then you have dry animals(bred but not milking), young stock , and yearlings. All of which you must have to keep your operation going. For whatever number you want to milk your other numbers need to be about equal meaning , if you are milking 20 cows you need to also have about 20 that are dry and 20 younger animals... You have to have a breeding program in place. Not cheap either but more cost effective if you know how to artificially inseminate your girls...Otherwise you pay someone to come and do the job for you. Bulls are only used for cleanup purposes these days. Costs can be minimized to some degree with rotational grazing and having all your cows freshen (give birth) at one time and then quit milking them all at one time as well in the fall but i aint going into those details either... One person can only do so much on a farm. A one man or woman operation can only have about 15 -20 head ( total animals ) and be able to keep up with all that needs doing. Feeding, cleaning , milking, hoof care, health care overall , heat checks, breeding, crop care etc etc etc.... For a quick idea on what one can expect to spend on a dairy operation for one animal not including tractor, crop costs or feed costs.This is simply milking facility, housing and human cost involved you need to figure 35000 per milking beast plus all the other.. In order to sell milk legally there are govt contracts, inspections, regulations, and codes. Things all need to be built to there standards. You need to find a co-op and a milk hauler unless you are dreaming really big here and are thinking of having your own milk plant on site as well. Even if the world fell to shit tomorrow there will still be regulations that will be enforced. FOOD is definitely in that list . like i said i could go lots deeper into this but unless yer really interested in it, this should be enough to put you back into reality n get your head thinking rationally again. please excuse the typing, just had my mornin smoke before taking care of the daily chores on the homestead.. All of 7 goats, gardens and chickens chores should be done by 7 or so this evenin OH n you cant be serious about ethanol n shit too are you? Even a farm based system to run your farm will set you back a cool million to even set up with govt grants. While you are waiting to set that up expect very large power bills. On the farm ours ran upwards of 16000 a month over 5 years ago ( granted we milked 600 cows)
my mom has a biodiesel car and actually their fab because when there's a food shortage they can run on petro diesel. Also, if everyone wasn't so god damn fat from all their hamburgers and meat we would have enough room to grow all the biodiesel we needed.
1. I'd love to hear more 2. I know things are constantly variable with organic things. I actually had a lot of relatives on my moms side who were in dairy, and I have heard a lot of horror stories, I also think that I would gradually move into it, and I don't think I am aiming at a one man operation, I know all about government regulation, oh god do I ever know about government regulation. I unfortunately do not know the specifics of a dairy cows diet, I do understand it is a very specific thing, I once got into a conversation about how different hays affect a horses temprament, and I imagine something similar can happen with cows. I'm thinking my best case scenario would be to try to get a job as a hand at an existing dairy, learn as much as I can, see if it's still interesting, and if it is, look into the various government programs. and as to the ethanol thing, if I'm ever going to make liquor, it's going to be distilled corn whiskey, and it's going to be to make a dead, boot legging grandpa proud (he ran liquor during prohibition, hell of a guy)
some grain? like wheat, barley, flax, oats etc? Edit: farm equipment cost a lot and its also very expensive to keep them fueled
I have this dream for my eventual property. Id like to grow most if not all my own vegetables and fruits. Id like horses. Id like a beehive. (Its weird. I just love bees and honey and all that. I cant explain it)
Honey is great. Its the only natural food with everything you need to survive (including water). Apparently.
I was browsing earlier, and I found it out. Im not totally sure its true though, it might've been from the Bull forums.
