1st Generation Farmer

[Toekneeserrano]

So growing up in Eastern Washington, and a couple years in Louisiana I learned to love as my family called "Gardening". We're talking about a acres of garden.

So this week my wife, daughter, son, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and myself bought a 6 acre farm in Yakima, WA! There has been 7 years of organic alfalfa on the property so far.

With the property we got a 1950 farm house, 2 car garage, 60x20 pole/hay barn, 1970's? Ford 3600 Tractor with a blade, harrow, auger, discs, sickle, and a bush hog mower.
The property has a spring creek. 4 fenced pastures. 100yr/old weaping willows, with water lines in place. Grapes, Blackberries, Apple Tree, Plum Tree, and a pear Tree.

Things to look forward to;

Jersey Milk Cow,
Goats,
Pig
Chickens
Rabbits (kids
and a "Garden" with added fruit trees...

This is the start of a long hard/ rewarding adventure.... Or how the previous owner put it... "Congrats, You just bought a job"

Well thats it for a start! Add or comment advise or do's and donts.... Happy Farming people!

 

[Toekneeserrano]

 

[mvwicker]

Looks beautiful, congratulations! My sister lives on a similar-size farm, in NJ, and grows organic vegetables and berries in raised beds. I never eat better than when I visit her!

 

[Baby Grand]

Nice spread! Welcome aboard & congrats on your new "garden".

 

[joshuabardwell]

Congrats! She's a beaut!

If, when you say the farm is organic, you mean government-certified organic, do be careful what you do and make sure that any inputs you put on the land don't jeopardize your organic status. I don't know a lot of details, but there are requirements such as, "Cannot have used such-and-such a pesticide or fertilizer in so-many years." If you carelessly violate one of these rules, you will lose your status for a while, and cost yourself money.

 

[creekbend]

Congratulations. Best wishes.

 

[Toekneeserrano]

@ MVWICKER - Thank you! My wife is a little Modern Martha and Im sure will be taking advantage of all our culinary options.

@ Baby Grand - "Thank you"

@Joshuabardwell - Great Point! We plan on keeping it that way. We have almost phased out all toxins, chemicals, and man made products from our life (other than some electronics and equipment), we do our best to keep things local and natural, and without making our life ****.

 

[IndyIan]

Sounds like a great place and lifestyle. We have goats and chickens and get a couple pigs every couple years and my Wife also talks about getting a Dexter cow too at some point. If you haven't had a whole lot of animal experience I would recommend starting a bit slow and small and see which ones you like and what you are going to do with them. We like the goats as they are manhandleable and taste good, the only real PITA is trimming hooves a couple times a year, but we do it with no special/expensive equipment.
Also we find a couple Maremma livestock guard dogs keep the predators away, eat very little for their size, and can happily dispose of goat and chicken carcasses for you if you do your own butchering.

 

[Reyer Farms]

Glad for y'all. Life will never be the same.

 

[Guesseral]

That's a lot of stuff on 6 acres!

 

[sailorman]

Welcome to TBN ! Sounds like ya got a real adventure ahead of ya !!

 

[MIKE R]

Welcome to the forum. Have fun.

 

[crowbar032]

Sounds like a great place and lifestyle. We have goats and chickens and get a couple pigs every couple years and my Wife also talks about getting a Dexter cow too at some point. If you haven't had a whole lot of animal experience I would recommend starting a bit slow and small and see which ones you like and what you are going to do with them. We like the goats as they are manhandleable and taste good, the only real PITA is trimming hooves a couple times a year, but we do it with no special/expensive equipment.
Also we find a couple Maremma livestock guard dogs keep the predators away, eat very little for their size, and can happily dispose of goat and chicken carcasses for you if you do your own butchering.

Interesting. You feed the livestock guardian dogs that protect the goats, goat meat leftovers? Won't they get a taste of what they're protecting and do some self service? Just curious. I have goats, but use donkeys as guardians.

To the OP, start slow. We all have big dreams and thoughts of where we want to end up, but it always takes more time and energy to get there than what we plan on. Also don't get discouraged when something goes wrong. It happens to everyone, it will be unpredictable, it will most likely be expensive but you will learn from it and you will move on/forward. Also, there are some other forums geared toward animals that would be worth joining which will save you some mistakes (not that I want to run you off from TBN). Also with a garden like that, get the biggest chest type freezer you can find. Congratulations and happy farming.

 

[skylarkguy]

Welcome, that is good country up there. I'm in a similar boat, starting from scratch after growing up in a semi urban environment. My grandfather was a produce guy but it skipped a generation. Best of luck.

 

[IndyIan]

Interesting. You feed the livestock guardian dogs that protect the goats, goat meat leftovers? Won't they get a taste of what they're protecting and do some self service? Just curious. I have goats, but use donkeys as guardians.

To the OP, start slow. We all have big dreams and thoughts of where we want to end up, but it always takes more time and energy to get there than what we plan on. Also don't get discouraged when something goes wrong. It happens to everyone, it will be unpredictable, it will most likely be expensive but you will learn from it and you will move on/forward. Also, there are some other forums geared toward animals that would be worth joining which will save you some mistakes (not that I want to run you off from TBN). Also with a garden like that, get the biggest chest type freezer you can find. Congratulations and happy farming.

No self serve yet for the dogs, we usually wait a few days before feeding them the bones and it seems they forget by then. We have butchered in our yard and then the dogs will guard the parts when it's fresh, but we try to avoid that. They are pretty easy to train, and they don't even go after the cats once it was made clear to them.
How do you handle feeding grain to the goats with the donkey? Or does the donkey not try to eat it all?

 

[crowbar032]

No self serve yet for the dogs, we usually wait a few days before feeding them the bones and it seems they forget by then. We have butchered in our yard and then the dogs will guard the parts when it's fresh, but we try to avoid that. They are pretty easy to train, and they don't even go after the cats once it was made clear to them.
How do you handle feeding grain to the goats with the donkey? Or does the donkey not try to eat it all?

Well, I'm probably luckier than most. I have enough pasture that I don't have to grain much. As long as everyone gets a bite or two or sweet feed each day, everyone seems happy. We'll see how it goes this winter if there is any snow on the ground.

 

[Toekneeserrano]

Re: 1st Generation Farmer ***UPDATE***

Our first pig went to butcher hanging weight of 196!!! Kinda proud of that
We bought a bottle feeder calf. Little Jersey steer... got my first experience with banding and after helping casterate in the past Im going to be sticking to the banding method for sure

Were down to 6 laying hens started with 10 Hens and 2 Roosters. The roosters were shot after attacking the family and our neighbor hood racoon and coyote have eat'n 4 hens

Got an unbelievable amount of food from the garden and have bailed over 180, 70+ lb bails with the final and best looking crop still in the field growing.

We traded some local farmers hay for pig and with the hay only costing me about 2 bucks a bail I traded 16 bails for 2 more pigs

We have planted 10 more fruit trees and some walnut seeds the trees look good but Im not too sure the seeds made it...

I could go on for days! I love it out here... my wife and kids love it out here and we love raising kids out here so much were now preping to have number 3 in February )

Hope all is well in everyones adventures and life cheers from a mason jar to the good life