I'm a bit below Ocala on 3 acres. That Bahia is brutal. Grows like crazy in the wet season. Only use I've ever found for it is layering it in backfill on a wash out behind the garage. It seeded the soil and held it in place long enough to grow again. All the fill came from pocket gopher mounds on the property. Had to be a good 20 wheelbarrows of soil. It's held up well and cost me nothing but my time. Thanks for your content Mr Bullfrog. Stay safe out there.
I call her a mini Jersey but I do believe she is in fact a medium one. They were already tame when I got them. That was a criteria for me when I selected them. I did grow up with cows and they can have distinct personalities. Some cows are high strung or aggressive and others are laid back. They respect the fence because it is electrified, although now that they’re conditioned to the fence I am currently running it without the charger and they don’t know the difference.
What about British milking sheep or East Fresian sheep? You will have to move them around to new grass every day or two depends on what you are looking to achieve with them or you can grow fodder to keep them interested in eating they tend to get a lil bored with their food and location if not moved enough and that will directly lower how much milk they produce in a day. They can continue to produce more milk per day if they are moved around often enough and their milk I heard has a more neutral taste and does not taste gamey nor goaty like goats it just seems to taste more neutral. It is good for those that are lactose intolerant and has more fat nutrition and calories could get 2,000+ calories from less than half a gallon on a good day of course. Because they have more fat content in their milk You can make more butter and cheese from sheep's milk with just half a gallon of milk or so. You can get wool and lanolin which can waterproof things or be used in tinctures/ medicinal things and eat their meat too they are both I believe dual purpose plus they have wool. I heard the British milking Sheep are more hardy though. Both can give you twins or triplets I believe the occurrence of getting triplets can be found in the British a bit more. Also rabbits provide easy meat for anyone that might be into it I'm not sure about sustainability in terms of feed for either rabbits or quail but hopefully I could find a solution for it I believe bobwhites can forage a bit more all are quick, easy and cleaner to butcher with fast turn arounds mainly the rabbits and the cotornix quail I think bobwhites take a bit longer to mature to full weight. The plus about rabbits though is their waste which can be used as immediate pretty much instant fertilizer and won't kill off your plants and is a bit easier to collect if you have the rabbits in a correct type of cage setup for it. Their "fertilizer" even more so with the chemical fertilizer shortages that is going on worldwide, their waste is priced more than gold in some places for its value and how quickly you can use it for growing food. About the sheep I got some of my information from 123HomeFree you might like some of the things that he shares about. Also what do you think about Bielefelders they are a lil more docile at least with humans you can kind of get closer to them and maybe catch one but they generally don't let you get close and can forage well in the woods, they get big quickly at only a few weeks old, not sure if they can fly though I think they can a little bit, the males seem to lead them well and hopefully fight off predators but I'm not sure of that just yet, and the only downside so far is that they start laying about 9 months old though. I might look into small scale black soldier fly farming to have extra feed for the chicken breeds that don't forage quite as much as the jungle mix breeds.
I was considering sheep and I was inquiring about sheep and goats to the person who offered me the mini Jersey milk cow in exchange for some of my Cracker hens. Goats probably would do poorly for me insofar as they’d likely destroy my blueberries, while the cows seem to be doing a good job of cleaning out the blueberry rows while leaving the blueberry bushes alone.
I probably will one day. I don’t have the entire farm fenced in yet and I want the cows and the dogs to be so bonded that accidents aren’t likely to happen. Every southern farmstead, including my own growing up, has at least one story about a prize bulldog being kicked in the head by a cow. When bulldogs go into a frenzy they can’t help themselves.
