I post a lot about some of our animals on facebook and Pinterest and I have realized I only show some of the animals on our homestead. We are very intentional about all the Animals on our farm, and they all have a purpose.
Goats
We love the LaMancha breed because they are sweet and quieter, and give a lot of milk, And family has been breeding and raising LaMancha for four generations. We have raised other breeds but love the gentle nature and the milk supply that the lamanches give us. The LaMancha are the only american bred dairy goats. Goats make A2 milk so it’s much easier to digest.The goats give us meat and extra kids to sell, and milk that we turn into cheese and yogurt. (you can use it for butter, but it doesn’t have as much fat in it as cows do) Their manure goes to the compost pile every spring and turns into fertilizer that goes to the garden every year. You can read more about it here.
Topaz is one of our oldest goats she is 7 years old and is so sweet, she is also a second mom to everybody’s kids because she is that maternal. She gives all her kids moon spots.
This bunch of kids are cuties!
Amanda is a very good mom and her son is so sweet!
This is Cassie, She was born like this!
Cows
Our cows are Jersey and Jersey-Angus cross and Dexter. We have three mama cows right now and three bull calves. Our cows are so laid back and sweet. We use the cows for meat. The bones we turn into bone broth and use it for soups and when someone is sick. The price of the meat works out to be like $2 a pound and will last us a family of eight six months. Of course sometimes we will still buy some chicken, fish, or pork every once in a while or for special occasions but we really like our grass fed beef.
Our cows are so sweet!
Milk dud was born in march
Chickens
The chickens we have are Bielefelder Kennhuhn and Barred Plymouth Rock.
According to Wikipedia, The Bielefelder Kennhuhn or Bielefelder is a German breed of domestic chicken. It was developed in the area of Bielefeld in the 1970s by Gerd Roth, who crossbred birds of Malines and Welsumer stock with American Barred Rocks to create the breed. Like other breeds with Barred Rock parentage, it is auto-sexing – chicks of different sexes can be distinguished by their color.
Most of our Chickens are Barred Rocks.
Barred Plymouth Rocks, also known as Barred Rocks, are docile, gentle and super friendly. They are a dual-purpose heritage breed that will produce around 250 brown eggs a year. They are winter hearty and handle the heat well. Their lifespan is 6-8 years, but they can live longer.
Our chickens give us a lot of very nutritious eggs, meat and they eat the kitchen scraps, and if you free range the chickens then they do a very good job of eating the ticks and chiggers. They also give us compost for the garden as well.
Turkeys
Our Chocolate Turkeys are a rare heritage breed that was common in France and the U.S. South. They are still endangered today.
Chocolate Turkeys are a very docile turkey and lay a lot of large, beautiful, speckled, eggs. They also do a good job of eating the ticks and chiggers.
Our beautiful chocolate male.
Geese
The geese started out as pilgrim geese and the bread with the neighbors geese and we don’t know what they are mixed with. They have bred and managed themselves for 15ish years so now they are just mutts. lol. They are one of the hardiest animals we have here on the farm. We literally do nothing with them, and they survive off of scraps from the other animals and foraging and breeding themselves and raising their chicks in one of the old Barns. And they just hatched eight goslings, two weeks ago. And the whole flock will is helping to raise the gosling!
Our mutt geese and their 8 goslings they started out with,
They now have ten!
Dogs
Daisy, our oldest dog is a Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd, and Missy is Great Pyrenees, and Ditto and Teddy are Daisy’s pups and they are Great Pyrenees and Anatoilan Shepherd mixed. Our favorite guard dog breed is the Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd. The great pyrenees loves to roam, but the Anatolian shepherd likes to stay close, so it makes for a great guard dogs! They guard the goats, cows, chickens and anything we bring on to it. They are great with the animals and we love them!
Teddy is all most a year old, and a big sweetie
they all get along really well
And are so sweet!
And then there’s Bunny, is a Chiweenie, and she is a companion and herding dog. Yes, I said a herding dog, believe it or not she has taught herself how to herd animals and does a great job at it! (But it is a little funny)
Bunny is so funny!
The goat milk is soooo good. Best I have ever had of any kind of milk!
I’ve heard great things about Lamanachas! I think they are also born without horns, right? We have Nigerian Dwarf at the moment and can’t wait for fresh milk. I’d also love to get a Jersey Dexter cross! So fun. You guys have a lot going on, but everything has a purpose.
No Lamanaches, are born with horns and we dehorn them. Yes everything has a purpose =)