Latest / Beyond Labels Premium / Episode #191: Joel Salatin’s Homestead Guide to the Smartest, Hardest-to-Raise, and Most Lovable Farm Animals

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Episode #191: Joel Salatin’s Homestead Guide to the Smartest, Hardest-to-Raise, and Most Lovable Farm Animals · Beyond Labels Premium

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Don't don't be scared of getting a cow because they're big.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, they are they are by far and away the easiest of these three goat, sheep, cow.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's no, I mean, I've I've we've had them all, and there's no question, but what the cow, even though she's big, the cow is the easiest of the three to control and actually and actually work into your ecological, you know, your your good ecology by being able to move her around real, real easily.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to another episode of Beyond Labels.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Dr.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Cena McCullough, and I'm here with our favorite farmer, Joel Salatin.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: And today, Joel is going to walk us through different animals that you can raise on your homestead and their requirements for each of those animals.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: Go ahead, Joel.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Educate me.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so where do we start?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to start with goats, uh, because goats are somehow there's there's some sort of love affair between homesteaders and goats.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to suggest that they are the hardest of all the homestead animals to raise.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to start there and I'm going to go to the easier, easier animals as we go through.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: But um the thing about goats that you have to understand is that they are um they are the hardest to control.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And by that I mean there's an there's an old saying, Cena, that uh if your fence won't hold a if your fence won't hold water, it won't hold a goat.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so um that should tell you something about I mean the goats.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the goats are out is is pretty uh you know, is one of the most common homestead um homestead phrases ever mentioned.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: The thing about a goat is that they are not grazers, they are browsers.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: So a grazer, which is like a sheep or a cow, a grazer wants to graze below their shoulders.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: They want to eat grass that down below their shoulders.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: A go a browser wants to eat above their shoulders.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, their their um their saliva glands are actually different in the in the two different kinds of animals.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: For example, a cow, a cow, uh, when they when they're eating down low like that, their saliva is running into their into the food.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, the saliva actually heals the end of the grass when they bite it off.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's a lot of indication that that is almost acts like a uh I don't know, like a salve for the injured plant where they've you know bitten it off.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why a lot of times, that that's why generally grazed plants uh grow back a lot faster than mowed plants.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh because in a mowing, you just, you know, the lawnmower, it whacks the, you know, whacks the leaves off, whereas a cow uh jerks it off and leaves this all this biology in her saliva, you know, coating the end of that of that broken um blade of grass.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, that's so beautiful that they work together.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like he gets the food, you know, the nutrients or the light, but he then heals it back.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very much so.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and so when a cow is eating up above its shoulders, um, the saliva doesn't run down as well.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: A goat um does have that ability, and and so so they secrete that saliva.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um they they have a much different.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's actually been uh studies showing the the um the ability of the lips, of the lips of a goat, like a cow has this big old muzzle, you know, and uh they're fairly uh slow motion.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas a goat, you look at a goat, and I mean their lips, their their lips are just going like a you know, like like a like a house of fire the whole time.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and you know, their their lips can you know come together um what you know hundred whatever, a hundred times a minute, whereas a cow, you know, uh ten times a minute.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: So so anyway, uh the goat wants to be a browser.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now here's the thing plants, brushy plants, bushy plants, their energy cycle, their energy flow is way more lethargic than the energy flow of forages.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: So forages are everything, you know, grass, clover, uh, weeds, you know, just that are growing down in the ground that are there are succulents, succulent uh forages, as opposed to something that's woody, which goats love.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, goats will practically you know climb a tree to get to the leaves.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so goats love that above above-shoulder grazing.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but the problem is that those plants, those woody type plants, have a much slower energy cycle.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: So when they get denuded, when they get uh um pruned or eaten, the growback time is three or four times faster, I mean slower than forages.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: So a forage plant, you know, you you you cut back a forage plant, and let's just say it is back uh to full, you know, full grazable capacity in let's just say, for example, 30 days.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um obviously, you know, if you're in Nevada, you know, it's it's whenever the rain comes.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: If that's a year, it's a year, you know.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: But east of the Mississippi here, we have more regular rainfall.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: So let's just say, let's just say for sake of discussion, 30 days, assuming it's spring.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas a a denuded uh bushy or brushy or woody plant, that grow back time uh wouldn't be until you know wouldn't be until maybe um uh a hundred days.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you're you're three times as slow in the recuperation cycle.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that is why, that is why over time, goats tend to kill their habitat.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Goats love browse, but because it's its um recuperation cycle is so much slower, they tend to kill the woody species and and then you know, and then the grass comes.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: So from a you know, if you've got an overgrown pasture with a bunch of you know, honeysuckle and brambles and uh uh autumn olive and that sort of thing in it, nothing can improve that pasture like a goat, because they'll gradually kill.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And normally it takes about five years for all that brush to be killed.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, the the the thing about goats is that right when you start liking your goats, um, because because now you figured out how to keep them in, you figured out how to, you know, uh uh lead them around, move them around, and all that, uh, it takes about five years to start liking your goats.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: They've just eaten themselves out of their habitat.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, this is the this is the issue with goats, and and why in in other cultures around the world where goats are are such a mainstay of the culture, you always find them as a as a subgroup to either cows or sheep.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, when you have when you have a mixed herd, what we call a flirt flock and herd, when you have a a flirt like that, there's a because there's always some woody, um, you know, junky stuff around, you you don't mix them at identical numbers, like 100 goats and 100 sheep.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you have like you know, uh 20 goats and 80 sheep, for example, to have a a flock of a hundred.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and so the the goats tend to go to one thing and the sheep tend to go to something else, or the the cows.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Sheep and cows graze much more similarly.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: So goats, goats are um are the hardest to control, so they challenge your fencing a lot.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you really need you really need a an extremely hot spark.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about something uh over 8,000 volts, and yeah, uh hot.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: And you and you need multiple wires, you know, normally at least three, at least three wires.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um for for electric fence.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: For a physical fence, yeah, you know, you can use physical fence.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Just remember though, I'm not even going into all the nuances, all these animals, everything that I'm gonna talk about, you want to be able to move them.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you need portable control, portable control mechanisms.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there are other ways, other techniques that you can handle these goats to move them around.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: For example, I know a guy once that built a triangular, he only had uh three or four goats, which you know, on a homestead it might be all that you have.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: And what he did was um he made a triangle.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was about you know um 16 feet by 16 feet by 16 feet, so an equilateral triangle.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that way, uh out of out of uh like cattle panel that he strengthened with just you know uh a couple light boards on the side so it wouldn't, you know, noodle and and and wobble around.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: But it was light enough that he could that he could pivot it because it was a triangle, he could, he could grab any side and pivot it on one point.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: So he could literally go around a circle like a, you know, like a like a pie.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: And when you finish that circle, then you could use a different pivot point, create a new, you know, and make another.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and and that way the goats uh were always in a physical str physical barrier, but you know, you could move it over your brush and your you know, your your kind of brambles and double shoestring and you know the things that you were trying to deal with.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um it would it would get problematic if you were in a butt in a bunch of trees, a bunch of sapling, you know, then then it'd be hard to you know rotate your thing around your rotate your your um triangle around.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: So there are lots of you know uh techniques.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: We actually made a um and this would work for goats, work for anything, but I'm I'm putting it in the goat thing just because I think it adds some some possibilities.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: We actually made a um a wheeled uh box out of just light wood and put caster wheels underneath it, you know, uh rubber, uh rubberized um roller wheels, you know, 10-inch wheels, and and and moved it around.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: We used it for a ram for our sheep.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: We called it the rambler, and he could actually move it around by himself, he could actually you know push up against the side, pushing for grass on the outside.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, now it would have to be modified for goats because goats would definitely have climbed, you know, crawled out underneath or climbed out over the top.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: But um this sounds like a lot of work.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it it is, it is.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Goats are goats are so mischievous.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they have just uh they're they're very inquisitive, and controlling them is a real issue.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the other thing that I'll say, from a from a homestead standpoint, if you don't if you don't like the meat from this, I mean, why are you raising goats?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Either milk them or you eat the meat.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't like goat's milk or you don't like chevron, which is what we call you know uh goat meat, don't go through the hassle of getting a goat.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: On a homestead, you want an animal that you like.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you like eggs, then have chickens.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you like chicken, have chickens.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you like lamb, you know, you can have sheep.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: But don't complicate your homestead situation by by saying, Oh, I saw this, you know, cute picture, and the next thing you know, you know, you're bringing home an animal that you don't even you don't even have a dietary affinity for just because it's cute.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh it could be your pet.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh that's kind of a high maintenance.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: If you want a pet, get a high maintenance pet.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Get a cat or a dog.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um done.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Cats even shoot, if you want that, just get a gerbil, you know.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's that's a lot lower maintenance or a rabbit, you know.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well, wait, Joel, you said that you know the goat can it take five years to really like this goat, and he might eat all his food by that point.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: So what if then at the end of five years you really still like the goat?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: How do you get more food?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: What are you just planting a bunch more stuff?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, no.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: So tip typically what happens is by that time, you know, you're you're comfortable with them and you start a rent a goat program.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: So you got neighbors, you got neighbors that have brush and you know, places they want to clean up.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so you start, um, so you start, you know, moving on to the neighbors.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and that that's that's uh that that's how you do it.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's funny.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's like sending them off for a play date.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like they're your kids.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: Go play, I'll come back at dark and get you.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's right, that's right.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: You just have to realize that when if the if you turn your goats, here's what typically happens.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Here's what that's a great question, Cena.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: What typically happens is in five years, your fields are now pretty.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the goats have eliminated the the junk and everything, and your fields are now pretty, you got mice grass, and you turn the goats into grazers.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And when you do, it's too rich.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's too rich a diet.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: So then you get mastitis, you get uh hoof, hoof pro you know, sore hoof problems because they got you know way too much uh protein, um, you get uh uh prolapses in birth, um uh you know, all sorts of issues because the diet is is just way, way too rich.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so that this is the issue.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Or I mean the other the other thing that you can do is obviously you can go, you can cut, cut, and carry.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you can go um go with a machete or uh you know a little a little uh electric chainsaw, and you can whack off you know branches and leaves, and you can start working in your woods to prune your woods, and you can cut and carry.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: You can bring you bring stuff to the goats and put it in a put in some sort of a you know a hanging manger or feeder or something, and the goats can get their get their browse, you know, what they would be browsing that's maybe beyond their reach or in an area that you don't want the goats in, and you can bring it to them and cut and carry.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that can certainly be done.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Again, that's you know, that's a significant amount of uh of effort.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, or so that just sounds like too much work.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it yeah.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm ready for the next animal that you have to offer.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like the next the next animal is I'm gonna is the sheep.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh I'm gonna um the the thing about the sheep is they're much easier to control.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now they're still way harder than a cow, but they're way easier than a goat.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and sheep, again, can be milked.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: And there is uh I know a uh a lady named uh Rachel Hester.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: She's written a book about the small homestead sheep flock for milking, for dare for daring sheep.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Do you realize, Cena, that there are more milking sheep in the world than milking cows?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: What?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I've never even tried sheep milk or even seen it for sale.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, listen, uh, well, you know, um, you know, it takes several sheep to get a bucket full.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have very much.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: But is it legal to sell it?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like can you sell raw sheep milk, or is it like raw cow milk, depending on the state?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure about that.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure about that.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: I I just don't know.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it but it is a very um it's it's a it has a lot of nutritional properties that the other milks don't, and uh a tremendous amount of medicinal properties, and and it doesn't have the off-taste often that goat's milk does.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Goat's milk is by far and away the most the the hardest to keep from getting an off-tast, whether it gets a little warm or you know, and listen, rams, goat, goat bucks, not rams, bucks, um, in goats, they are nasty critters.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they are na they I mean they pee all over their noses and their faces, they stink to high ovens.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I I just I just don't get the I just don't get the goat buck, but uh but you but you gotta have a buck if you're gonna have milk and you're gonna have kids, you know.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's nothing cuter, there's nothing cuter than goat kids, and nothing more you know enjoyable to watch, rambunctious, you know, all the things that you can imagine with uh with little goat kids.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: But so luckily we're having Morgan come on the show who loves goats, so she can provide a balanced perspective.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, on goats, because I can tell you're not a big fan of goats, Joel.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, um the reason we don't have goats is because we had goats, and um and and we got rid of the goats when I woke up uh in the morning and looked out the window, and all the goats were placidly chewing their cud lying on our back in that day.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: We had the kids were small, we had a minivan, and they were all up on the roof of the minivan in the hood, uh uh uh quietly enjoying the morning sun and chewing their cud.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, That's it, um, they're going away.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, were they eating the car or were they just sunny?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: They were just enjoying that was a nice place to lounge.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you can't blame them for that, they have good taste.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they were just sunny, they weren't where they belonged.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: And and and their little hooves, their hooves were not really good on the automobile.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you know, though, I so even though they sound like they're high maintenance, I like their personality.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: They're like rogue animals, hard to control, stubborn.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: They're good at climbing mountains too, right?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: Aren't goats goats are good for mountains.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: See, yeah, goats can goats can go anywhere.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, in fact, when we had our went out the back door one day, the goats were out.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they were usually out, and um and and so of course then they eat the garden and they eat, you know, your flowers and they eat everything.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: But I was cleaning out the gutters of the house.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: I had a ladder up here in the back of the house, up the side of the house, and the goat was halfway up the ladder.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh!
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: I came out the back door, he just looked over at me like, Oh, good morning, you know, glad you can make it.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he was halfway up the ladder.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you just you can't make this stuff.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Goats are um, yeah, they would get out and then they would get up on top of our chicken shelters, you know, our chickens out in the field, broilers, and they get up on top and they would break the break the doors down, you know, because they would jump up on top and break down the doors, and then they'd get the chicken feed.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: And um they're resourceful, that's what you're saying.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: They're entertaining and resourceful.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have I don't have I don't have enough time to deal with you know somebody that wants to cause me that much trouble.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so back to the sheep.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Goats have certainly been been a homestead staple.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh I I don't want to say don't get them.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying get them with your eyes fully open.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: Be prepared.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Be prepared.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: You realize what you're what you're getting into.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Sheep, sheep are easier to control.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they are grazers, so they will eat grass much better.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the nice thing about sheep is and both sheep and goats, is that their manure comes out in little you know, little uh beans, little soybeans, little um pellets.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like a bunny.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, like a bunny, and and it's fairly dry, and so it they're They're nice to have.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, sheep can graze your lawn.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: They can graze around your house real nicely because their manure isn't in a big pie.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it and it's not even as it's not even as slick as chicken manure, you know.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's a much more conducive to, you know, right around your your home, your cartilage, your yard, you know, with your kids.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's it's really good that way.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, you know, there are two there are different kinds of sheep.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: One is called a hare sheep.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, there are a lot of different kinds of goats, too.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's there's meat goats, there are dairy goats.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't want to get into all the little nuances of that.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um but but the sheep, um, there are basically hair sheep and wool sheep.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: And hair sheep kind of have really come into the country in in my lifetime.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we never heard of hair sheep, you know, in the early days, but what's happened is as synthetic fibers have come so much, you know, um rayon and and nylon and all these things, the demand for wool around the world has plummeted, you know, in our lifetime.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so wool is now no longer a it's it's it's cheap.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um and in fact, you know, when I was a kid, when I was a kid, uh you could shear sheep and you could actually make something from their wool.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now it costs more to have them sheared than the wool is worth.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because because there's no market for the wool, because synthetic fibers.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so these these hair sheep started coming in, so people didn't have to shear their sheep anymore.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: And there are numerous you know, breeds of of the hair sheep, but but you got the wool sheep and the hair sheep.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: So the wool sheep, you're gonna the thing about a wool sheep is you're gonna have to shear it.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Just be aware is you're gonna have to shear that wool sheep once a year at least.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: The hair sheep are more like a cow in that they get um, you know, they get a lot of hair going into winter, and in summer they shed off, you know, kind of like a dog.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, so the sheep can eat, you know, below their shoulders.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: They are excellent grazers.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: And the nice thing about a sheep and a goat is that you can home process pretty easily.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: They're about the size of a deer, you know.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: So you can you can pick up their carcass, you can actually process them at home, butcher them at home, do the meat at home, and everything could be there, they're they're a perfect homestead size, as opposed to a cow, which you pretty much have to have a front-end loader or something, you know, to it's it's a heavy, heavy carcass.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: It gets a lot more difficult.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, so sheep and goats are are are conducive to that.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, you can definitely milk a sheep, and there is is more and more uh development in that arena.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: The nice thing about sheep and goats is that they have lots and lots of babies.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh twins are common, even triplets are not uncommon.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so you can uh and and you can breed them early, you know, a sheep, you can, you know, you can breed a lamb that's only you know nine, eight, nine months old and have babies the very next year.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas, you know, a cow, um, you gotta wait until they're you know um a year uh over a year old to breed, and then you gotta wait another year to get to get uh babies.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: So they grow real fast.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, a lamb, a lamb will, I mean, you can have birth a lamb in uh in April, and by Christmas you can have lambs ready to ready to harvest.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that you know they grow, they grow really, really fast.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's go to the cow.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we're gonna get our our our you know forage eaters out first.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: The cow, the beauty of a cow is that she can be held by one single strand of electric fence.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sheep, you can you can do it with two, but you have to be really consistent and you have to train them uh for two wires.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Cow, one wire.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Very, very easy.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: They are by far and away the easiest of all the animals to contain, you know, so they don't run off to the neighbors.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: They're the easiest of all of them to contain.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: However, the one common denominator, cow, sheep, goat, is you do need a physical corral.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Don't even think about getting any of these until you have a physical, a physical corral that is that can hold them.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um otherwise you're gonna be uh frustrated at you know not being able to get them into a place where you can just go rest and know that they're gonna be there when I get back.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so you know, a physical corral, either a board fence, woven wire fence, something physical that you know that you can get them contained, they'll be okay.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And and and a cow, uh for sure, you know, you want a place that they can be in that is secure in uh and and and all these things, you're gonna want some sort of a chute, a head gate.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, it's a lot bigger on a cow.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: You got, you know, it's a lot, it's got it's got to be a lot beefier.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, cows are big, strong.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, a sheep you can get by with some you know pretty uh chintzy materials.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but a cow, you're gonna need some two by sixes.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're gonna need some some real some real strength there.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Not because not because uh they're wild, just because uh, you know, when a when 1200 pounds just happens to shift uh shift from one side to the other, you know, it's uh it's a lot of it's a lot of weight.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: The cow, of course, is a grazer.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: They will they will pick leaves off you know trees if they can reach them, but you know, a little bit of that goes a long way.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: Cow, of course, again, like the sheep, can be either beef or milk, or you can have it for both.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where some of your old uh breeds, like your you know, your your Devons and your Milking Shorthorn, there were a lot of um long ago, there were a lot of dual-purpose breeds, but today you either pretty much get a beef animal or a milk animal.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I can tell you that my favorite milk cow that we ever had was half Holstein and half Angus.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: She was a black white face.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so you know, she she was half beef and half dairy, but um she was uh but but you know because she was half Holstein, even though she looked beefy, she could really milk nicely.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Her name was Whitey, because she had a white face.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: But normally we we all we always milk Guernseys, uh that's a dairy breed, and our beef animals were you know other other things.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you can you can easily move a cow around with just a single strand, cows and sheep and goats, all these animals.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: If you one of the biggest reasons to move them all the time to fresh ground is not just for hygiene and sanitation, but is it so that they will they will sense you as their friend, as their caretaker.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: You you want these animals, if you call them, you want them to follow you.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you've got to go, if you've got to have a roundup every time you want to get those animals someplace, uh you're gonna get frustrated with your animals really, really fast.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, think about think about when you um uh see and I know you've got dogs, when you shake that dog food, whatever it is, or you bang your, you know, you have a routine, I guess, that you um that the dogs know, uh, they come running, right?
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: They they know when it's supper time.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: If I they get fed as soon as I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do when I come out of the room is feed them.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so if there happens to be a day where I'm sleeping a little longer than normal, they will literally sit by the door and go.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like they know it's time to get it.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: You're neglecting me.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're neglecting me.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the one of the great benefits of moving these animals uh routinely like this is that that they become very uh very routine routine oriented and very um disciplined, uh disciplined in a good way.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh in other words, when you call them, they don't just look at you.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: Confused.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: So they like structure?
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is like structure, exact, exactly.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, people always ask me, I mean, we we have herds of you know, uh 300, 400 head of cattle, you know.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: How in the world do you move them?
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, I just go out and I call them.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: You mean they they just follow you?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, they follow me.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yesterday I I was out and you know, and moved moved the whole group, and it took about you know two minutes, and um and I just called them.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: Two minutes?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, they they they come they come pretty pretty fast.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and you know, you just open the gate, call them, and they just come right through, you close the gate, and you're done.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um so so moving them routinely rather than just having a a pasture that they just are in.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: They're just in there all the time.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: And and and and I don't want to belabor this podcast with all the the new on the controlled grazing, you know, the grass growth cycle and and why you want to move them onto fresh ground all the time.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of that, especially for sheep and goats, is for parasite control.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you want you want to be off, uh you don't want to be on a place more than a couple of days, uh, and then and then you don't want to come back for at least 21 days, preferably 30 to 40 days, since you have that pasture sanitation.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: One of the one of the um the assets of a goat, if I may say one of the good things about a goat, is that if you are using them the way they want to be used, which is as a as a grazer, uh, I mean as a as a browser, the beauty of the goat, because they eat above their shoulders, they can stay in an area a little bit longer than the grazer because they're not eating over their manure.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas the sheep and the cow, they're grazing across their manure and their urine.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: So they're, you know, they're peeing and pooping out, and then you're you're asking them to graze over.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: So, but a sheep, because they're above their shoulders, they're pooing and peeping on the ground, and and they're grazing way up here.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the that's the the silver lining and the cloud behind the difficulty to control the sheep is that you don't have to move them as frequently.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you if you move a goat, you know, um uh once a week, uh that's perfectly fine.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas a sheep or a cow, if you you know uh do once a week, um, you know, not only do you greatly retard the forage growth, uh, because now they're gonna eat the regrowth, because remember, grass recuperates faster than from bushes.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, so a bush, even if you leave, even if you leave goats in a spot for a week, a bush, when they when they defoliate a bush, it's not gonna grow new leaves in a week anyway.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas if you leave cows in a field more than a week, very possibly that grass will grow enough to regraze in a week.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now they've retarded its growth and weakened it because it hasn't gone through its blaze of growth cycle.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, goat goats do have that that you know that ameliorating thing.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: One nice thing about sheep and goats, too, especially sheep, is that they do not like water.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: So if you've got a creek or a pond or something, uh, we do this routinely here with the sheep.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: You can make uh an electric fence with a U, a U down to the creek, and um and they can drink, but they won't go across it.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now, a goat will.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: The goats will wander.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you give them uh an inch, they'll take a mile.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: But sheep, um, sheep, even a fairly small creek, uh, they don't want to go, they don't want to go through it.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: They do not like water.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Sheep are very uh opposed to water.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: But you can use water then as a as a barrier, you know, if you want to just like you know, make horseshoes and and go along like a creek or a pond or something, and and the sheep will stay in and not cross it.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Cow, no, they don't mind water at all.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: They'll go stand in the creek.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: So there you want to you want to make sure you fence them out of the creek so they don't go and poop and pee in the in the creek and stand in the creek.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: So these are these are nuances of the goat, the sheep, the cow that are that are things to think about as you as you um you know create the animal.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: A lot, a lot of homesteaders, a lot of homesteaders, you know, the newbies, um are scared of a cow.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and so are scared of it.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: So big.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's so big, yeah.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so what they do is they end up getting goats, and and what what I'm trying to explain to people, at yes, a cow is a bit is big, but the ability to control a cow, the ability to get a cow to do what you want the cow to do is so much easier than a goat.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's even easier than a sheep.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so, so don't be intimidated about if you've ever wanted a milk cow, get a cow.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Don't don't be scared of getting a cow because they're big.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: No, they are they are by far and away the easiest of these three goat, sheep, cow.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: There's no, I mean, I've I've we've had them all, and there's no question, but what the cow, even though she's big, the cow is the easiest of the three to control and actually and actually work into your ecological, you know, your your good ecology by being able to move her around real, real easily.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: She will want a companion.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: None of these animals do you want only one.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: You always want two.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: They're social beings and they want a you know, they want a partner.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: They always want a partner.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, your milk, if you if you want a milk cow, um, you know, get her a get her a partner.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: And even even if it's a beef that you, you know, that you're gonna raise up and you're gonna slaughter your beef.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, a beef animal will um my encouragement there is if you haven't um if you haven't done anything like this before, start with a weaned calf.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: Don't buy a cow that you're gonna birth.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, buy a weaned calf.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it'll be four or five hundred pounds, or get two of them and um and start there.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: In your corral, on all your goats, sheep, and and and cow, your training to electric fence needs to be done in your physical corral.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: You can just put your electric fence across a corner or one end of it so that they learn that wire means something.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: So if they go through it, they don't get out on the interstate or you know, to the Starbucks parking lot.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and so train them well.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: We put a spring, all our training fences, whenever we're training a group like this, we use a spring so if they hit it, they don't break it.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: That way they'll train twice as fast because if they break it, it'll just sit there.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you go out and hear it pop, pop, you know, because it's down on the ground, and uh they're looking at it like, oh, that's interesting, you know, what's that?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: And um and so a spring uh will allow them to go over it or under it or through it and not break it.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: And and the training will go a lot faster because you haven't lost however much time it took you to go out and discover that the wire was broken, you know.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, put your energizer on it.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: With the electric fence with all three of these, you want to have a fault finder so you know what your voltage is.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: So a goat, you want at least 8,000 volts, a sheep, probably 6,000 volts, and a cow is perfectly content with two, uh with 2,000 volts.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: So again, if you have little children, the fence you have for the, you know, it's not it's not gonna kill your child.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is a a low amp high voltage, okay?
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not like you know, uh an electric chair, um, where they use high amps.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: But it it it it will hurt.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you you get it, you get a 9,000 volt deal.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that spark will jump almost half an inch, and it it will, you know, it'll make you, yeah, it's not fun.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so the nice thing about a cow, if you've got little children, is you can control a cow with a low enough voltage that even if a child touches it, you know, they're not going to get really whacked, uh like they like they would with your fence with your goat.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: The cows sound like gentle giants.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: They are, they are, they are gentle giants.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that and that's one of the reasons I wanted to I wanted to talk like this to our audience to to take away the intimidation of a cow.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because uh a cow is uh, yeah, um is is is a is you that's exactly right.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: They're a gentle giant.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I mean, there are cows that become, you know, the cow from you know, a rambunctious cow.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: There are certainly rambunctious cows, but um, but in general, the the the bee the the cow the bovine, the bovine animal uh is is a much easier to control to to work with than the sheep and goat, which are much more high strung, they're a lot more you know active, they they they're they're quick, uh, they're small and quick.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the gait the the gait of a sheep or a goat is twice as fast as a cow.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, well, when you're bringing a cow up a you know up a lane or something, um, a cow walks slow.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: As a sheep and a goat, I mean, you almost have to run to keep up with them.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: They they have a much quicker, you know, a much quicker gait.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: I like that though.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: The cows seem so calm.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like every time I'm around your cows, they just calm me down because they're so calm.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: Now, um, I don't know if you've ever been asked this before, and not that you would ever do this or recommend that anybody do this, but do you think that your cows are calm enough that you could ride them like a horse?
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because I could see my kids being like, Oh, look, it looks like a horse kind of can I ride it?
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like, can you do that?
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: No, absolutely not.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, they would get would go ballistic.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: They would go ballistic.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there are people who do ride cows.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh um, I mean, you well, I mean, as opposed to bull riding, uh, which is you know a different doll deal, but you know, oxen, yeah, people used to ride oxen all the time.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that was that was a very common thing.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, I mean, there's there's nothing about a cow that's inherently unrideable, uh, but our cows are not they're not that tame.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yes, they're gentle giants, but they're not that they're not that tame.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and tell us the difference between a cow and a bull and an oxen.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: So a cow some some some some people will be listening, and we're so far removed from the food supply that like this basic naming of animals.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do this for the chickens too.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like, like some of us have never been taught the basic naming of animals.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh I've often what thought it'd make a great um homestead trivia game, the to to have a you know the uh a game that you the nomenclature, you know, like a goat is a doe and a buck.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: A sheep is a you and a ram.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we're we're talking about mama and papa, okay?
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: The goat is a doe and a buck, a sheep is a is a you, e w e and a ram.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, goat babies are called kids, sheep babies are called lambs.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um a a castrated um a castrated sheep is called a weather, and a a female.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: A young female sheep is called a ew lamb.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we go to cow, so the cow is is somebody that's is a female who has had uh two, you know, her second baby, second calf, and the male is a bull, and a castrated bull is a steer.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: A young female is a heifer, and so she's a heifer until she calves, and then she's a first calf heifer until her second calf when she becomes a cow.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: How do you like all that?
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_02: I know now I'm not embarrassed that I asked the question because I don't know that most of us know all these names.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like, right, yeah, but but most people most people don't.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're yeah it's um yeah, it's it you know, and what's funny is a hundred years ago everybody knew this.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's sad actually.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's sad.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: We we've lost our we've lost our nomenclature on all these things.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're uh I'm I'm watching the clock here.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: I want to get to um I want to get to pigs.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: Let me get to pigs.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, maybe chickens can be its own podcast because I'm sure most of us will start with chickens.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'll conclude here with chickens.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh let me do pigs and we'll do chickens.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: So so pigs, pigs, you have a um, you know, of course, the the the the mother is called a sow.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the father is called a boar.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you have sows and boars, and then the and then when they pig, those are those are piggies.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's very, very original.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um piggies.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_02: I thought they were piglets.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, or piglets, yeah, yeah.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, I got one right.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Either way, pig piglets are or piggies, yeah.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and the the actual so each of these has a different uh birthing nomenclature, too.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so so a sh a sheep a sheep, lambs, um, a goat, kids, and a cow, calves, and a pig, pharaohs, and a rabbit Kindles.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: How's that?
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: So all all the different birthings have different names as well.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_02: We need to have a little course, like a kid's course on this that adults can also take.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: Under the guise of educating their kids, exactly.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: So we don't feel bad about ourselves.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_01: So um pigs, so female young female pigs are called guilts, and um young male pigs are called um, well, if they're castrated, they're called jokes.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: If they're uncastrated, they're called barrows.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um so here let me tell you about pigs.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: The thing about pigs is they um they're the smartest of all the farm animals, and they have the worst eyesight.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: So if you have if you're very smart and have poor eyesight, they're the hardest animals to build trust with because they can't really tell what you're doing.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, he's out here, but what's he doing?
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, whereas a cow, they have really good eyesight.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: Sheep, goats, they all have really good eyesight.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_01: So as soon as you go out there, they're very aware of whether you're opening a gate or closing a gate, whether you're, you know, putting in a water trough, taking out a water trough.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_01: Are you walking?
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: Are you walking like you're gonna move them, or are you just walking like you're gonna look at them?
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_01: They're very, very aware of of what you're doing and how you're moving and what you're doing.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_01: A pig, not so much because they have they have poor eyesight.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so um pigs are the easiest, at least in our experience, they are the easiest to get riled up.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't have your we say your ducks in a row, if you don't, if you don't have your setup ready, um, they're the easiest to get frustrated with and riled up because they don't trust you like the other animals, because they can't see you very well.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and their eyes are practically on the ground, you know, they're even a even a big pig, you know, their eyes are only whatever, you know, 12 inches off the ground.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, so to them, you know, you look you look like a like a movable uh traffic cone, you know.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: What's all this traffic cones coming in here, you know, walking around me?
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh and so pigs are very um they're very controllable, they're way more controllable than a than a sheep.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_01: They're about as controllable as a cow, except that the fence has to be extremely visible and and they they they need a little hotter spark.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas a cow, I said 2,000 volts is enough.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_01: Pig, you probably need about four or five thousand volts, a little closer to what you'd have with a sheep uh to control with a pig.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_01: But the thing about a pig is that fence has to be really, really visible.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a problem because it has to be so low.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you're always down, you know, close to the ground where you have you know grass and weeds and vegetation.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we do see now, we do a lot of weed eating around here for the pigs to keep their wires clean and and and visible um you know for those pigs.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: Training is the same way, spring on a corral, boom, you know, you're up and running.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um the the downside of a pig is that they tear up things.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_01: Cows, sheep, goats, they don't tear up anything.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they can overgraze, but they don't dig.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_01: Pigs dig.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_01: So they can take a pasture and turn it into a bunch of uh, you know, divots, you know, uh pock marks, divots.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we don't run pigs in our pastures because we don't want our nice pastures, you know, torn up with divots all over.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's why we run the pigs in in the edges.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now, for a very a very small homestead, and uh goodness, Sean and Beth Dougherty are definitely the gurus on this, um, because they they say they say the main reason they have pigs is for compost.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_01: One of the difficulties of a homestead is generating enough compost in one place that you can actually have a few wheelbarrows of it to put in the garden or on your fruit beds or you know, around some apple trees or something like that.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so um pigs, I think, as opposed to any of the other animals, pigs are the most conducive to a um a continuously bedded stationary spot.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, um a pig pen and and and the pigs don't mind getting wet.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't even have to have a doesn't even have to be rainproof, you know, just a shade cloth or you know, a a simple, I mean a lot in in a lot of places in the world, you know, they raise pigs in in a in a uh a stall place, uh, and they just put um like branches over top, you know, just make a like a per a just a light lattice work, you know, a porch top, uh, and just lay branches on top, and that's enough shade for a pig.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: So pig pigs are are are very uh hardy that way.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you if you give them a little bit of protection, both from sun and from snow, um, you know, they they are they're very hardy uh that way.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas, you know, goats and sheep are um you know, they don't like to get wet.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they're very they're very fastidious.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_01: They you know they they definitely don't like you know inclement weather, um, especially goats.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: They don't like water, and they don't like to get wet.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, goats and sheep are both you know pretty um finicky, I guess would be the word that way.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas pigs, uh, you know, they can take rain.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um they're they're they're very hardy that way.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_01: So they can go.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: They seem much more low maintenance, except for the, you know, you got to make sure the fence is visible to them.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_02: But other than that, they seem really easygoing and low maintenance.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_01: They are, they are.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_01: They're uh pigs are very low maintenance, and they're very again, they're very conducive to just put them in a pen, put a bunch of carbon in there, some wood chips and and stuff, they can, you know, play around in it, root around in it, and uh, you know, give them your garden weeds and and and stuff.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and and pigs are pigs are a very uh yeah, they're they're very low maintenance, um, easy to easy to deal with.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_02: But if you put it so in the pen, do you have to worry about them the poop?
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like them living in their own Yeah, so so they they they're like they're like guinea pigs.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: They they're very fastidious, they pick a spot, they pick a poop spot, and uh, and so they'll pick a corner, and that's where they'll go, and that's the only place that you have to keep you know adding some carbon or else it'll get stinky.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so you can absolutely pigs, and and I I just encourage people all the time, this idea that oh, pigs stink, you know, we're not gonna have pigs, they don't they don't stink if you if you keep their poop spot uh properly carboned up.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_02: Just like any pet.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: Just like any pet, right.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: And um and and so, you know, if you have, I mean, you can raise a couple pigs in a in a in a pen that's no bigger than I don't know, um, you know, 12 12 feet by 12 feet would be plenty of room to race two pigs in.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh and so 12 feet by 12, you know, it's not not that much.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: And and they're gonna, you know, they're they're gonna they're gonna pick one corner of it, that'll be their poop corner, the rest of it'll be fine.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you just keep you just keep putting uh carbon in there, and they they won't stink.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um what what makes a pig stink is um is not enough carbon.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_01: So then they and water spill.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so make sure they can't dump over their water, because then everything turns to mud, slop, and mess, and it's it's no good.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_01: But if you keep those pigs fairly dry and deep, deeply bedded, they will be um, you know, they won't they won't stink.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: You can go out and you can lie down with them, you can rub them, and and you you can they they won't stink.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you go in there and spend much time with them, um be careful to keep moving because they are omnivores.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_01: There's a reason why the mafia has pig farms, you know.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_02: Wait, what they will eat you?
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, if if you if you quit moving, uh you'll you'll lose your fingers, your toes, your nose, your ears, and when in a couple hours they'll be to your liver.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they are omnivores, yeah.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_02: What do they just think you died because you you just stopped moving so think you're dead, or you they just say, oh, that's an easy prey, just gonna it's gonna ball.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, I don't know what they think.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_01: All I know all I know is pigs are omnivores, so they are happy to eat meat, they're happy to eat you know, all sorts of things.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_02: Wait, so does that mean when we visit your farm and we see those cute little piggies that we shouldn't put our fingers in there to try to touch them?
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like, will they eat your finger?
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they will, absolutely.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you yeah, you gotta be careful about a pig.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh uh yeah, you you you put your fingers in there.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, I mean, obviously they're not gonna just come up and grab your hand, but um uh but they they're gonna they're gonna sniff first, and then the next thing you know, they're gonna they're gonna want to bite your fingers, bite your, yeah, yeah, they will uh they'll eat you alive.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_01: It does, it does give me pause to realize that um yeah, that that um if if I if I go in with them, uh they would be perfectly happy in three hours to have me consumed.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_01: That does give me pause.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_02: So you joke around about when you die, you want your family to throw your body on the compost pile.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_02: You can give it to the pigs.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_02: They'd be happy.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_02: This sounds like maybe then.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, as a mom of a young child, you know, a four-year-old, maybe I shouldn't get pigs to start with until she's older, because I don't think she's gonna understand that, right?
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, isn't this maybe a hazard with little kids that they might eat their fingers?
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: They're playing with them.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I mean, I mean, you you can't, you can't, which is one reason uh why we don't pharaoh here.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we buy piggies because they're because uh a big sow, very, very protective, and they will absolutely uh kill you if you uh make one of their little piggies squeal or anything.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, we we have we have friends that have been maimed.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's stories of people being killed absolutely by, oh, the most gentle sow in the world.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_01: I went in there and I accidentally stepped on a piggy, and now you know I'm I'm maimed for life with you know um busted ribs and arms and everything, 500 pounds of of maternal fury um coming after you.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's why that's why we don't pharaoh here.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_01: One of the big reasons we don't pharaoh is because it's so dangerous.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, so think about that in your homestead.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, get a couple weened weaned pigs and um and uh they're fine.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_01: But no, I I don't I don't think uh it's kind of like kind of like kids in uh like a fireplace, you know.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_01: They look kid kids know um, you know, when when they're when they're being pushed around, and uh and you know, and when they're being pushed around, they don't want to be in there.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so um kind of like an electric fence, if they touch it once, they won't touch it again.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it won't it won't scar them for life, but they'll probably remember it.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, the last thing let's deal with is um is chickens, and um and and they are de it you know when anybody says, well, what's the first you know, homestead animal you would get, for me for sure, it's the chicken.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_01: One of the reasons I like the chicken is because you don't have to have a complete fencing setup.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, fencing on a home fencing on a homestead, if you're gonna keep animals, livestock, cows, goats, sheep, things like that, uh if if you're gonna keep animals out on your homestead, fencing is critical.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_01: You've got to have, because you're listening your neighbors already think you're crazy, and you don't want to mess up your neighborhood by having animals eat your neighbors' rose bushes.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so that doesn't make good neighbor relations.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they say good fences make good neighbors, and and so fencing gets to be an issue.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas chickens, you don't need any fencing.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_01: You can you can have them either in a coop, uh, you with with, you know, again, deep bedding, the carbonaceous diaper, we've talked about that in the past.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, but if you move them around, you can have them totally, totally contained.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_01: Now, let me just say this on chickens.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_01: I do not think that if you have 300 chickens or fewer, don't free range them.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I know everybody wants to free range their chickens.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they're so cute out there.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let me tell you, every eagle, every hawk, everything out there thinks your chickens are cute too, and they're really cute when they eat them.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so, um, I mean, I just had a guy here yesterday, you know, he had 40 chickens and um uh last year, and he's down to four because hawks ate them all.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so these portable portable shelters, the kinds we make, the kinds Justin Rhodes make, whatever, I I don't care what, but but portable shelters are easy to build, or you can buy them, but chickens are too expensive, they're too valuable to just turn them loose and let you know, aerial predators eat you alive.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you said 300 or oh, go ahead.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_01: And ground predators for that matter.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, go ahead.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: But so you said it's 300 or fewer, don't free range them because of predators.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: If you have more than 300, what can you free range them?
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like are are the predators less likely to come get them because they're a huge mass?
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's exactly right.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the the the hawks and things are are a little more intimidated at a very large flock than they are a small flock.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, this this is why all animals in nature, you know, they they flock together, they herd together.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's all part of that, you know, part of that mob, uh, that mob protection, you know, against predation.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so, and so um and and and and I didn't used to say this, you know, but I've come to this as I've spent more and more and more time with home, with, you know, small acreage people, um and and and new people.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I just get so tired of hearing about all the hawk stories and the predator stories.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, people we like our chickens, you know, they're cool.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_01: They uh they lay eggs, they eat our kitchen scraps.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the beauty of the chicken is she'll eat, she has a a wider variety of diet even than a pig.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_01: And they'll take all your kitchen scraps and and and supplement their feed and turn, you know, and and give you eggs.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_01: And there are a few things as as complete nutritionally, I think, as an egg.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and and you don't even have to milk the chicken.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, a cow, you know, you could say, well, you know, milk and cheese, that's pretty complete too.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is, but you know, now you got a big old cow and you got to go milk her, you know, and you got to refrigerate it and all that chicken, you go out there and there's eggs, you know, and you just pick up these eggs.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like it's like um um you don't do anything.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_01: And she just gives you an egg, and you know what I mean, and and you have a low spoilage.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, as long as you keep it lower than 80 degrees, you know, you can hang on to that egg for you know a couple weeks and it doesn't even go bad uh without refrigeration if you want to do that or put it in a you know a root cellar or a basement or something.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so I I just think for a lot of reasons, the the the chicken is conducive to a localized infrastructure.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to worry about your boundary fences, you don't have to worry about all this, just um, just enclose them in a portable shelter, move them around, and um and and and you know they can they eat ticks, they they eat uh grasshoppers.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um the only thing about a chicken that's of all the things that I mentioned here, they are definitely the most susceptible to respiratory diseases and and and rain and cold.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_01: A chicken, man, matter than an old wet hen is absolutely true.
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, all these phrases we say tell you a lot about why do they say matter than an old wet hen and not matter than an old wet cow?
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, because a cow loves to get wet.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they love to stand in the rain.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're drawn to rain, okay?
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_01: But a hen, a chicken doesn't like to get wet.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_01: And as soon as it starts raining, they're heading to the heading to cover somewhere.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so the chickens are the most of the things that we've mentioned here, chickens are the most fragile as far as um as far as pneumonia, uh, you know, inclement weather, those kinds of things.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_01: They're the most fragile.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_01: But but they're the easiest to shelter because they're chickens.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you don't need two by sixes, you don't need a big corral, you don't need any of this big stuff.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_01: Just, you know, some very lightweight uh material, and you know, uh and and you've got a you've got a whole you know shelter for the chickens.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_01: So chickens are my number one go to for a lot of reasons on a homestead.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_01: They're very child friendly.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're not gonna you know kill your child, uh and and you can have chickens.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_01: Quickly, um, you know, being up and running, they've got a quick turnover.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_01: You can get a chick, and in five months you're getting eggs, or you can get ready to lay bullets from somebody and run with it.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if there are listeners here that are already upset because I can't find any chicks or chicks uh around, I talked to Daniel yesterday about this because we're getting lots of calls, um, Cena, from people who are wanting to do chickens this summer and they can't get chicks.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_01: All the hatcheries are sold out, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_01: And um so the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association, Appa has a website.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're having trouble finding chickens, join Appa Papa, American Pastured Poultry Producers Association, and there are people there that have chicks and have uh birds for you.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um they're not all they're not always on a public website.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, if you search for chicks, you know, on safari, you might not find them, but but they are members of the American Pasture Poultry Producers Association.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_01: And if you if you sleuth there, you will find people who have chicks who have birds ready to go this year, um, that are kind of um what should I say that it's almost like a like a gorilla, you know, an undercurrent of of marketing um people.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and so I've just given you the you know the keys to the the keys to the underground kingdom here, and um and and you'll you'll be able you'll be able to find something because I I know I know we've had several calls just in the last week.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh nothing's available until October, you know, and uh the big commercial hatchery, I mean this bird flu thing has really upset the apple cart with poultry in the U.S.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_01: It has really upset the apple cart.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so not only is it making you know the industry um uh whatever have problems, but it but it has fueled, it has fueled a desire.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm gonna get chickens.
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're back to 2020.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, in 2020, over a million backyard flocks of chickens were started.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_01: You could not get chicks in 2020.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_01: You could not by by midsummer, you could, you absolutely could not get them.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and we're seeing the kind of the same situation here um with the bird flu uh thing.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's it's crippled the industry, but it's also unleashed a new desire to, well, I'm gonna get chickens.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_01: Eggs are so expensive, like you know, I can grow them myself.
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing easier to grow yourself.
• 1:08:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot easier to grow your own eggs than grow your own beef or grow your own pork or you know, grow your own lamb.
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, so that's a you know, that that's a a conducive thing, but it's um we've got to ride out this this bird for thing.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_01: There are birds available, and um, you just gotta get on the the uh appa group and uh you'll find some.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_01: So those are those are four.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we didn't do we didn't do rabbits, we didn't do turkeys, those are kind of uh an ancillary.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_01: We can come back revisit that another time in the future, but that gets us the main animals that you're gonna find on a homestead with their kind of the nuances and um and and and differentiations.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, quick question.
• 1:09:45
  SPEAKER_02: So chickens are also omnivores.
• 1:09:48
  SPEAKER_02: So will a chicken eat you like will they peck at you?
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah, absolutely.
• 1:09:54
  SPEAKER_01: They they will eat if you go in and lie down in the chicken yard and uh and go to sleep, uh, you will have your your eyes will be gone, you know, within an hour.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I almost didn't ask that question because I thought, what a stupid question.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Would the what why would a chicken eat me?
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_00: But they they would be they'll be happy to eat you.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:18
  SPEAKER_00: They'll be happy to eat you.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'd be organic, like you.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they would probably like it.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, they they they would like your intestines best.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they would go after your intestines first.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this is really gross.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I mean the the the nice thing about a chicken is that they're not as big and strong as a pig.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, if if if a chicken started pecking on you, uh you know, they're they're gonna come at you a lot slower than a pig would.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_02: Unless I had 300 of them and they all came at me.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_01: They all came at me at once.
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Do they attack it, you know, like how you know some animals were attacked as a tribe?
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_01: They're no and and neither will the pig.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_01: They're just uh curious.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Let me check this out, you know, they're just curious.
• 1:11:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not like they're on a you know, like they're on a rampage or anything on a mission to eat all the humans, like not at all.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um they're they're just they're curious, yeah.
• 1:11:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because you said the pig was the smartest animal, and I was thinking, if they're the smartest, then wouldn't they know not to eat the person who's taking care of them?
• 1:11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like no, and you that they're they're smart, but they're not that they're not that smart.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_01: They only think about one thing, and that's that's um what to eat.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_02: I know a lot of people like that.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_01: If there's food in front of them, they're um they're happy campers.
• 1:11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're gonna eat it.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, funny little antidote to close us out.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_02: Then you can you can close out with a um with a question if you would.
• 1:11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Donnie is convinced that our dogs, some of a couple of our dogs, are now um sizing us up to see who tastes better because you know dogs like to lick you.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_02: A couple of our dogs will now lick, like almost like sticking the tongue out gently and sticking it on your skin, like tasting you.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_02: And Donnie's like, I know it, I know it.
• 1:12:21
  SPEAKER_02: They're waiting until a weak moment, and they're gonna they're gonna choose me to eat them.
• 1:12:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Well, they wouldn't choose me, like they love me too much.
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my yeah, it's funny.
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_00: That is funny.
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_02: They are our entertainment, like yeah.
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay, question.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh question is um do you uh do you have any of these animals?
• 1:12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And if so, uh what's been your your best what's been your best animal you know experience as a homesteader?
• 1:13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I love that one.
• 1:13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, thank you, Joel.
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_02: This has been very educational.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think everybody can learn something from this.
• 1:13:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm definitely having my kids watch it if for nothing else that we can finally learn all the labeling of the animals.
• 1:13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_01: So so you know, you know, seeing a chicken, uh, you've got a chick, and then you've got a hen, and you've got a rooster, and a pullet.
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_01: A pullet is a young female that hasn't laid eggs yet.
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, a female with no eggs.
• 1:13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:13:46
  SPEAKER_01: So uh a pullet and a guilt and a heifer are all the same kind of animal.
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's a young female that isn't in production yet.
• 1:14:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, okay, we're gonna have a quiz.
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, an online quiz we'll send out to everybody.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_02: No, this is fantastic, very inspiring.
• 1:14:16
  SPEAKER_02: I am convinced that I need to start with the chicken for sure.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_02: That seems manageable.
• 1:14:23
  SPEAKER_01: The chicken, the chicken's the go-to.
• 1:14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they sure are.
• 1:14:27
  unknown: All right.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_02: The chickens should pay you.
• 1:14:29
  SPEAKER_02: All the chickens in the world should pay you to be their advocate.
• 1:14:32
  SPEAKER_02: Only the only the laying hens, not the meat chickens.
• 1:14:35
  SPEAKER_02: They'll be like, no, don't listen to him.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you so much for joining us this week.
• 1:14:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, if you have homesteading topics that you want Joel to cover, please post them on Discord or email them to us.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we'd love to hear your suggestions and how we can serve you best.
• 1:14:58
  SPEAKER_02: All right, we're looking forward to connecting with you again next week.
• 1:15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Bye-bye.