Livestock Thread

[Rakovnik]

Okay what is the deal with the hate on raw milk? Depending where you go, people have had it their entire childhoods and are alive. Or it’s arsenic mixed with enriched plutonium that will make you explode the moment you imbibe it.

Is there any truth to the overreaction against raw milk? Red pill me on it.

Both ends of the spectrum are dumb, raw milk isn't an elixir that cures webMD diagnosed illnesses nor is it a super poison that is going to kill you but it does carry real risks.

In the US our refrigerated milk is pasteurized at 161° for 15 seconds which kills *most* of the harmful bacteria and leaves most of the good bacteria. In countries where they have poor electricity/ no refrigeration they use an ultra high temp 300° pasteurization effectively killing everything in the milk and therefore it's shelf stable.

So you're trading off a little more good bacteria for a lot more harmful bacteria and not from the cow itself necessarily but from the milk handling equipment like milk transfer pipes, storage tanks, etc.

 

[Jotch]

I buy raw milk direct from the farm to support my local farmer and it also tastes better to me and costs less in my case.

 

[Kate Tokamak]

Registry bands? For tiny chicks? I don’t know about falconry and the like, but won’t those bands cut into their legs when they grow? Are you planning to keep the chicks?

chicks was the wrong word. more like fledglings. i just meant that any birds that hatch i'd like to be able to register once they're old enough

 

[Terrifying Organisms]

I have about 20 or so chickens, and I have discovered lice in their bedding. I've been keeping the mites at manageable levels over the last few weeks with 'natural' remedies, (diatomaceous earth in their straw, etc) but nothing appears to have actually knocked them out. Just bought some proper fuck-you mite-killer science-shit from a veterinarian - it goes in the chicken's drinking water and kills the mites on the bird (the insecticide actually circulates in the chicken's blood, so they die when they try to feed on them).

Does anyone have any experience/objections to such a treatment? https://www.exzolt.com/

Claims to have no egg withholding period.

 

[147573952589676412927]

New lamb today ✞

 

[Evan Kor]

Tell me what animals you guys have. How are they doing?

None currently but I'm planning on raising American Guinea Hogs. They eat mainly grass, are easier to care for than most pigs, and aren't (as)murderous as many other pigs. They're also a heritage breed that doesn't need constant drug/antibiotic injections just to survive. I'm still finishing up the initial enclosure which is made of 2x2 hog panels with wooden posts set in concrete(don't worry concrete fanatics, the bottoms of the post aren't in concrete) and T-posts every 8'. I'll end up using the woven(?) wire field fencing and only T-posts for the larger enclosure. Always good to have at least 2 spaces in case something destroys part of the fence and a backup area is needed. I would've had this project done last year but family medical issues got in the way.

I'm trying the EZ Twist fence post ties instead of the traditional type. However, the drill attachment I bought doesn't like the 11 gauge wire. Also using the same drill attachment along with 9 gauge wire to provide extra fastening at the wooden fence posts along with the standard fence-post staples. I am overbuilding this but part of the reason is to spite my oldest sibling who I know would tear up everything if I randomly died.

 

[Slap47]

I buy raw milk direct from the farm to support my local farmer and it also tastes better to me and costs less in my case.

I kinda wish I knew a farmer so I could do an experiment. There really is no reason why pasteurization should kill the flavor of milk so I'm kinda leaning towards the milk just being better because its fat content is like 5%.
However, the only real way to know is to actually try both side by side.

 

[Kromeleon]

It’s a combination of being fresh, higher fat content and usually from a different breed of cow that is fed a better diet than the commercial Holstein/feedlot max production combo.

 

[Slap47]

It’s a combination of being fresh, higher fat content and usually from a different breed of cow that is fed a better diet than the commercial Holstein/feedlot max production combo.

I could 100% see this being purely a matter of the dairy cow being grass fed because the difference between grass-fed beef and standard beef is quite extreme. I could even see it being the case that the type of person to give out un-pasteurized milk is using older cows because they're a more traditionalist/peace with the land type person.

 

[MIU]

Is it cheaper overall to grow your own chicken and then slaughter it compared to buying it in the store?

 

[Forgive Me Im Retarded]

Is it cheaper overall to grow your own chicken and then slaughter it compared to buying it in the store?

I think in the long-run it is. I lucked out and bought a property with a running coop, got chickens from a neighbour so my start up cost was nothing. And we get eggs daily which is also good (but I have old chickens so we still buy eggs from the store, just not as much).

Depends on how much chicken you eat, how many you raise, and how much the startup costs. The running costs of chickens is really low, i pay something like $50 every two months for feed, but if you want to raise chickens to eat you’ll need lots of them, so it’s almost better to get a large number and sell the excess.

Other maintenance costs are quality of life for the chickens, i like to give my chickens fresh sand to bathe in and I don’t have a natural resource to dig up so I do have to pay for it every year, and if you need parasite care as well.

 

[MIU]

I think in the long-run it is. I lucked out and bought a property with a running coop, got chickens from a neighbour so my start up cost was nothing. And we get eggs daily which is also good (but I have old chickens so we still buy eggs from the store, just not as much).

Depends on how much chicken you eat, how many you raise, and how much the startup costs. The running costs of chickens is really low, i pay something like $50 every two months for feed, but if you want to raise chickens to eat you’ll need lots of them, so it’s almost better to get a large number and sell the excess.

Other maintenance costs are quality of life for the chickens, i like to give my chickens fresh sand to bathe in and I don’t have a natural resource to dig up so I do have to pay for it every year, and if you need parasite care as well.

I see, what would be the best way to slaughter them painlessly? Preferably in a way that the chicken won't notice

 

[Forgive Me Im Retarded]

I see, what would be the best way to slaughter them painlessly? Preferably in a way that the chicken won't notice

Beheading I find is the easiest and quickest. You can even get cone guards where the body is inside the cone and the head pops out the point, makes it easier.

It is true that they will continue to move for a while after death, some people have trouble with that. And it’s best to have a place ready to drain them of blood on the spot. You can hang them for a few hours but the flies are pretty terrible.

With plucking their feathers you can get a special bucket with nodes/spokes on the inside that spins around and tears the feathers off (im blanking on what it’s called but it’s easy to look up), or if you’re fine with doing it by hand it’s difficult and tedious but hot water helps a lot.

Then to prep the chicken carcass we usually cut off the feet, neck and cloaca/anus, and pull the rest of the organs out through the pelvis. They’ll keep in the freezer for about six months with minimal preservation, but a lot of people vacuum pack. If you’re doing a bunch of chickens at once then you can separate the chickens into parts for storage as well.

My cats love the wingtips and I usually give the dogs the feet and neck, but you cannot give animals cooked chicken bones, they splinter and break really badly after being cooked and can pierce their stomachs.

 

[thread rapist]

I see, what would be the best way to slaughter them painlessly? Preferably in a way that the chicken won't notice

You seem very green. Unless you live on a large enough property, i would recommend not having chickens for meat, but for eggs instead, as a start.
The quality of the egg is dependent on breed, happiness/stress and diet.