# Money is going to be tight on the farm.



## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

We haven't had any autumn rain. We have hot dry summers and count on autumn rain before the weather cools for winter and spring rains before the summer starts for our pasture. We had a few good rains in mid summer and have had nothing since. NO feed in the paddocks at all. 
We usually buy smalls and seconds grain from a local farmer for half what we'd pay for normal grain. He sold the lot and didn't save us any (we buy 20 ton per year, enough to fill one silo) so it's full price grain for us this year.

We have to make a choice, do we reduce our stock numbers and spend less on feed or keep the livestock and spend more on feed. We only raise enough for ourselves plus a few to sell. 

We will probably......
Sell all our piglets at weaning except for the ones we raise for ourselves.
Slaughter all our grower pigs early.
Slaughter all our fat lambs early.
Put the horses into the rough scrub (forest) paddock and hand feed.
Cows and sheep will be in a small sacrifice paddock and hand fed.


Penning them up to feed means we can easily collect all the manure and feed waste. We still have a lot of soil improving to do in the orchard, vineyard and vegetable gardens. So although feeding out will be costly it will have some benefits. It will also mean that any growth we do get over the cool months won't get eaten off straight away and the pasture will get a good head start in spring.

All this is really disappointing to us as we put a lot of time and money into pasture improvement this year (hopefully spring will be ok). 

You just never know how things will go on the farm.


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## Ezmerelda (Oct 17, 2010)

I wish we could send you some of our spring rain. We're having too much - and the weather has been very cold too boot.

Well, it was for times like these that our ancestors built up stores to carry them through - here's hoping we've both got enough to get through this!


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Ouch, I imagine the price of grain is just as high over there as here, bad time to be short of feed couldn't be when oats was $1 bushel.
It gets harder every year to keep the grain end of things going with the cost of machinery and everything but it has been a saving grace at times.

Sounds like you know what is best for your pasture and feed.
We usually cull our herd pretty hard in that situation but it sounds like you don't really have animals that need to be culled.

Good luck and there's always next year


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

I hope everything turns out O.K. Take of of that farm, I hope to visit one day.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

It's not a bad thing to have to do it hard every now and then, teaches you a bit. We'll put all of our 'disposable' income into feed. It means all the things we had planned with this money (extra canning supplies and building projects) will go on the back burner. 
I'll try to gear up for a big plant sale in spring, that might catch us up a bit before summer. If we have reasonable spring rains the gardeners in the local towns will be looking for plants.
We'll go on with all the things that cost very little, always plenty to do.....


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## eddy_dvyvan (May 8, 2012)

Hey Wellrounded.

Is there any way you can improve you paddock rotation, wont really help now but may prevent or lessen the impact in the future.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

eddy_dvyvan said:


> Hey Wellrounded.
> 
> Is there any way you can improve you paddock rotation, wont really help now but may prevent or lessen the impact in the future.


Yes we can eddy, always room for improvement. We're working on it all the time. Not much you can do about zero rain though other than get rid of more livestock. We've had a third of our good ground locked up as well as the bush paddock (120 acres) since last spring trying to take advantage of any rain we might get over summer/autumn and build a good feed wedge going into winter. There isn't enough growth there to bother grazing any of it.
This place is not your average established plot of land, it's pretty much virgin ground. We have a very low income and can only do so much each year. Two years ago we only had boundary fences and native grasses, now we have 4 different rotations and paddock systems, each based on the pasture quality of those paddocks. All our pastures need a lot of work, they will for the next ten years or so.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

READ...Money is going to be tight on the farm.
And then wonder why 99% think we preppers are crazy??:nuts:
My spoken prayers are for every farmer at EVERY meal I serve.


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## PrepN4Good (Dec 23, 2011)

We are having the opposite problem here in NC...cold rainy spring...my garden is 2 months behind where it was last year at this time.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

PrepN4Good said:


> We are having the opposite problem here in NC...cold rainy spring...my garden is 2 months behind where it was last year at this time.


I wish I could send you some warm and you send me some rain..... We are close to half way through autumn and day temperatures are still in the 70's, crazy. We usually have a few butchering days in early autumn, as soon as the cold kills the flies.... There are still flies everywhere. We've still got cabbage moth and butterfly all over the vege garden, I'm out there picking caterpillars off every few days. Dam weeds are still growing! :nuts:


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## farmers (Jul 28, 2012)

Jay-Jay you are right, many family farms may fall this year. My heart goes out the younger farmer. It's in our blood. Many of us are praying.


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