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Author: Richard Fasching

Selenium Supplementation For Goats

Selenium Supplementation For Goats

Selenium is an essential trace mineral for goats and for livestock in general (“trace” means required in small amounts).   If you are raising goats in areas where the soils are deficient in selenium, you need to provide it to goats via supplements.  Why?  Selenium (Se) is important for growth, reproduction and immune function.   Symptoms of selenium deficiency include failure to gain weight, growth depression, decreased twins/triplets, reduced fertility, reduced kid weights, reduced kid vigor, and increases in susceptibility to bacterial…

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The Season for Filling the Freezer

The Season for Filling the Freezer

Unlike most folks who call late fall “Indian Summer”, at Fasching Farm we call the time between the killing frosts of fall and mid-November as the “season of filling the freezer.”   Garden vegetables are typically finished growing by September and have already been harvested, processed, canned, frozen or stored in the root cellar.  Soon the temperatures will dive and the snow will stay – only a short window of opportunity to lay in the stores of food required for the…

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Making Sauerkraut

Making Sauerkraut

Today it rained for the first time in a month, so we decided it was a good day to cross off one of the “to do” items off out list – making sauerkraut old school style.  This is the way my grandmother and great-grandmother made sauerkraut.  It is quite simple and the product is much better than the (sour) kraut you buy in the store.   First, the history lesson.  We use the same tools to make sauerkraut that were commonly…

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Magical Season

Magical Season

Summer is always a busy time of the year at Fasching Farm, but this year it has especially flown by without notice.  Numerous projects, in addition to everyday chores and activities, have kept us so busy there wasn’t time to look at the clock (or calendar).  Now we find ourselves in September!  Summer is about gone.  School is starting, and you can already feel the cooler nights and shorter days.  That can only mean one this – the beginning of…

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Raising Chickens for Meat

Raising Chickens for Meat

We are always fielding questions about raising chickens for meat.  And even though out meat birds are already half grown, you can use this post for planning next years meat bird adventure.  There is great satisfaction raising your own food and chicken is no exception.  Raising your poultry as a meat source is a way to live more sustainably while having control over where your food comes from. It is gratifying to know what goes into them, how they are…

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Piggie Pool

Piggie Pool

Who doesn’t like a cool dip in the pool when temperatures climb?  Last week I installed the piggie pool and added some water.  Instant piggie play time!  Pigs love water, espcially when it gets warm outside.  And there are reasons why. You may have heard the term“sweat like a pig”? well, pigs they are actually unable to sweat. They like to bathe in water or mud to keep cool, and they actually prefer water to mud. To thermoregulate, they rely on wallowing in water or mud…

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Springtime

Springtime

Spring, which officially started March 19, is described as “a time of rebirth, renewal and awakening. Many trees are blossoming, and early flowers are pushing through the earth. A time when the weather turns warm.”  Whoever coined that description of spring did not live in SW Montana.  At Fasching Farm we describe spring as “a time of staying up into the wee hours of the sub-zero degree mornings to birth goat kids, worrying about the safe arrival of hatchery chicks…

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Bottle Feeding Baby Goats

Bottle Feeding Baby Goats

When the kids are born, it is important that they suckle from their mother as soon as possible.  The first milk produced after birth is called colostrum and it contains high quantities of antibodies, vitamins and minerals that are essential for newborn kids. In most cases, the doe will raise the kids herself and you will get to enjoy watching them grow and play.  Kids will nurse for 3 months or longer (every kid is different).  Nigerian Dwarf kids may…

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Making a Root Cellar

Making a Root Cellar

Three generations of my family, my Great Grandparents, my Grandparents, and my parents each used an earthen root cellar to store a plethora of garden produce, canned preserves, cured meats that lasted a full year or more until the next harvest.  Prior to the introduction of electricity in rural America, root cellars were the means of storing food long before the refrigerator and freezer were common household appliances.  Traditionally, the root cellar (or cold room) was an underground space built…

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Goats Milk vs Cows Milk

Goats Milk vs Cows Milk

One of the most common questions we get on the homestead is “what’s the difference between goats milk and cows milk”?  An excellent question!  And the answer(s) are the primary reason we decided to raise dairy goats instead of dairy cows. There is definitely a difference in how the human body reacts to goats milk versus cows milk. Answer:  Goats milk is easier to digest than cows milk. There is a difference in fat molecule size. The fat molecules in…

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