Looking for Livestock in Maine (Cooper: university, horses, medical)

[msina]

I'll tell Oliver!

[beltrams]

Originally Posted by AustinB

I'll send Hank Kimball and Mr. Haney right over.

Mister HEY KNEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, NO!

'Loved it when Oliver would nearly have heart failure at the sight of Haney.

I had a student a couple of years back who was always trying to buy and resell any useless, junky item from me or to me. He once grew catnip and thought he'd get away selling it door to door at several dollars a pound.

Then he discovered what the local metal recycling place was paying for copper, aluminum, old car and security batteries, etc. and then nothing not nailed down was safe!

Being a modern teen, he'd never seen Green Acres, though I kept calling him Mr. Haney.

Since we got along pretty well, I showed him this YouTube clip, which he thought was pretty funny and a decent take on himself:



Mr Haney Phone Company - YouTube

[Cinebar]

Originally Posted by beltrams

Mister HEY KNEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, NO!

'Loved it when Oliver would nearly have heart failure at the sight of Haney.

I had a student a couple of years back who was always trying to buy and resell any useless, junky item from me or to me.

Then he discovered what the local metal recycling place was paying for copper, aluminum, old car and security batteries, etc. and then nothing not nailed down was safe!

Being a modern teen, he'd never seen Green Acres, though I kept calling him Mr. Haney.

Since we got along pretty well, I showed him this YouTube clip, which he thought was pretty funny and a decent take on himself:



Mr Haney Phone Company - YouTube

"Modern teen?" My 16-year-old is as modern as you can get and he LOVES Green Acres (and The Beverly Hillbillies and The Waltons).

I bought him the full series of all three of those shows, over the space of probably a year or so, and he watched the episodes many times over. I remember he came home from school one day and said that he and one of his teachers got in a conversation about GA and they broke into the theme song at the same time, singing it together in the school hallway.

He once grew catnip and thought he'd get away selling it door to door at several dollars a pound.

Are you sure it was catnip?

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by msina

I'll tell Oliver!

"Ohleevah!" ROFL

Speaking as someone who did grow up with a multitude of critters, I have to say that MW's warning about cows is very accurate.

Plus, the one word I always associate with cows is "snot" Maybe I ought to add "cow kick" (it hurts) but obviously "stench" should be added to the mix as well.

Further, they are typically dumber than a chunk of mud, so they lose their charm pretty fast once they've gone through a fence or two, trampled your entire garden (twice for good measure) and your neighbor calls to complain that your voyeristic bovine is looking through her bathroom window (ack! - true story).

It doesn't endear you much to the neighborhood, but the one plus is that you grow to love them even more lying on your dinner plate next to a pile of steaming mashed potatoes - guilt-free I might add.

If I were you, I'd start reading up as much as humanly possible about farm management before I even contemplated getting one cow.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to shadow a farmer for a week or 4 (if you can find one near you). It's a huge commitment, and you probably don't want to get stuck with animals you can't get rid of easily (and in this economy, people are now finding they often can't give them away).

I don't mean to discourage you, but I do think you need to really invest a lot of time in research before you embark on a farm life involving livestock (with particular emphasis on cows). Also as MW said, it's imperative that you learn how to dispatch an animal if need be. Lots of things can happen on a farm - including injuries which will cause a great deal of grief for the animal (and you when you find yourself watching them suffer).

Good luck.

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by Tioga

.EXCELLENT POST...MAINE WRITER...should print that off and show it to those who think the "whole livestock thing" will be fun, easy, or like some grade school educational trip to some dairy farm. Another surprise some "homesteaders" up our way get, is when they need/want to leave their "farm" for a number of days. "Who are we gonna get to care for these animals, while we take the kids on a vacation for 10 days?"...Hmmmm...I know..the animals will take care of themselves....NOT..........

Thanks. Lots of people told me how great it was to have livestock and feed my family. I wish they'd told me what could happen. Romantic notions of farming are out the window as soon as you pick up a baby critter and diarrhea runs down the outside of your thigh. I owned a 250ish pound pig before I'd ever touched a pig. I had to get her into a crate so we could load her into the truck. I enticed her in with a blueberry muffin while silently begging the pig, "Please don't kill me. Please don't kill me." She was a sweet pig, a pet that lived here for more than a decade.

There are great moments. Things do go well. It's the things that go wrong that are eye openers.

[RHB]

Sometimes I think the "things that go wrong" are 1/2 the fun in life (makes for the best stories)...it might not be a good experience, but at least you had the experience - that's what I always told my children.
Thankfully some people prefer livestock to gardens, country to city, some like to shop for their food-which is good, without those people I'd be out of a job, and the local farmers that supply me would lose a customer. I actually have one farmer expanding, because he couldn't supply me the whole season, and now that he has us as a customer he can farm more-which is what he loves.

[Submariner]

The last boar we had, I got just as he was being weaned. Everyday I would put a chest harness on him and take him for a walk. That way when he got up to 300 pounds, he liked me and liked going for walks with me.

Not everyone walks their hogs, but it was nice that anytime he got loose, he always came to our front door and knocked.

I hate chasing livestock. It is much better when they do not run from you.

[Maine Writer]

There are too many good things to do without getting hurt for the sake of experience. The calf in the road could have hurt or killed someone. The cow could have killed me. My life isn't richer because I shot suffering and mean animals. A 12 ounce pygmy goat and his eight ounce sister - worth it. Watching my girls barrel racing, walking their bunnies, waking up to find a horse still on her feet - worth it. There's no good reason to put people and animals in harm's way. It's not livestock vs gardening or buying vs growing food. Those aren't even remotely related to the question. It's common sense safety.

[RHB]

Okay, maybe I didn't phrase things all that well. All I was trying to say was large livestock didn't work for you, but it does work for some people. People should do things that they enjoy, or try something that they think they might enjoy. No one is saying not to be safe, that's why we wear lifejackets on boats, we don't go white water rafting without knowledge on the rivers, and without safety gear. I think the op is trying to learn, and seek advise on how to do something they would like to try. I also think this thread has been a little rough on someone who is asking to learn - not by telling them to be safe, or that cows really don't have a concept of fencing and what it's for, just the size of the critter is one that warrents careful thoughts and percautions - but in some of the other comments (green acres, you can't take a vacation)
I'll back out now...didn't mean to offend anyone...

[AustinB]

Th op should work on somebodys farm for a while, to learn how to properly handle and care for large animals, before trying to do this for themselves.