A week ago we released a video that showed us bringing a Scottish highland bull to our farm to breed!
For a long time we have been breeding Purebred Mini Jersey cattle. So of course the question arose…
WHY?!?
Why did we decide to bring a bull that wasn’t a mini jersey to breed our cows?
CLICK BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO EXPLAINING IT ALL
In a recent blog post I discussed the high cost of cow semen. We were down to our last straw of mini jersey semen.
We had hoped that our two cows, Luna and Honeybee, had already been bred through A.I.
We decided to try a little experiment with Grasshopper, and do a cross.
We are not planning on selling this years batch of calves, as we have recently dealt with the Johnes disease on the farm.
Most likely this years batch of calves will wind up as meat in the freezer.
Highlanders are a very hardy meat breed of cows, and we had a friend local who had a herd.
So, we figured, why not! Try something new.
Fast forward a few weeks, and now we believe that NONE of our A.I. attempts have been successful.
Does that mean we will have 3 mini meat mutts this year?
Probably not. We have mixed things up yet again, but you will have to wait for a future video to see what new things are happening on the homestead!
HOMESTEADY ITEM OF THE WEEK
I said last week that I was going to start sharing an item of the week that I use on my Homestead that you might find helpful to use on your own homestead. Part of the way we are able to do Homesteady full time is by sharing Amazon affiliate items that we use with our audience, and any time you purchase a item we feature, or use our amazon link to do your internet shopping, we make a small commission without costing you a penny extra! Please consider shopping on Amazon through www.amsteady.com or checking out our item of the week!
This weeks amazon affiliate item is the Earthway seed spreader.
Most of us Homesteaders don’t have fancy tractors and attachments to do our field planting, cover crop seeding, or food plots for wild life.
So how can we plant a new field, or add new seed mixes to our existing fields?
The earth-way seed spreader allows you to broadcast 25Lbs of seed anywhere you can walk!
This seed spreader is a soft bag that has a strap that goes around your shoulders, allowing you to spread seed as you walk. And unlike some of the cheap hard plastic hand seed spreaders you will find at your hardware store, that only hold 5 lbs of seed, this spreader holds 25 LBS of seed! That is half a bag of seed that you can carry over your shoulder.
This year I planted a pasture/wildlife foodplot with clover for deer season all with the handheld seed spreader. I also reseeded our existing pastures after the pigs had gone through it and tilled it up for us. I added clover, rye and buckwheat, all with the handheld broadcaster. Both the new pasture AND the existing pasture seed took and now we have a great new pasture and improved our existing ones!
As a homesteader you can clear an area of woods and plant a new pasture with a seed broadcaster, or reseed an existing pasture with new seed behind your livestock to add new plants to your pasture. And in the early spring you can frost seed your pastures to improve your diversity in your fields.
The earthway seed spreader is the best one on the market! Don’t have a tractor? No problem, use the earthway spreader and get your pastures planted!
I LOST MY WAY.
Way back when I started Homesteady, I approached the idea of living off the land with multiple pillars. Farming was just 1 of those pillars. What else was included in the Homesteady way of life? What other ways can we live off the land?
The description of my Podcast, early on when we first started making this show, was…
I almost never stop to comment on blog posts but I had to with this one. THANK YOU for your very honest raw video of your hardships this year. We are a few years in now and man can it get hard at times. We have been there when it seems nothing goes right. I love the info yall put out there – I have looked to youa lot – but it’s comforting to be reminded that even your role models struggle from time to time. I have been there as over extended mom. I know yall overcame this because it post in 2.5 years old but still wanted to say thank you!