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Secrets to Tomato-Growing Success

1. Choose a bright, airy spot.
Plant tomatoes where they will get at least 10 hours of light in summer. And leave room between plants for air to circulate.

2. Rotate even a little.
Alternate your tomato bed between even just two spots and you diminish the risk of soilborne diseases such as bacterial spot and early blight.

3. Pass up overgrown transplants.
When buying tomato seedlings, beware of lush green starts with poor root systems. They will languish for weeks before growing.

4. Bury the stems.
Plant your tomato seedlings up to the first true leaves. New roots will quickly sprout on the stems. More roots means more fruits.

5. Water deeply but infrequently.
Soak your tomato bed once a week, or every five days at the height of summer. Water directly on the soil, not on the leaves.

6. Pinch the suckers.
Prune off these non-fruiting branches. This directs the tomato plant's energy into growing bigger, better fruit.

7. Stake them high.
Use 6-foot stakes for indeterminate varieties like the 'Brandywine' tomato. Put in the stakes when transplanting to avoid damaging roots.

8. Add compost and trim.
While the first fruit is ripening, encourage new growth and continued fruit set by scratching compost around the stem, and trim some of the upper leaves.

9. Plant again.
Three weeks after you plant tomatoes in your garden, put in another set so all of your harvest doesn't come at once.

10. Pick ripe, but not dead ripe.
Heirloom tomatoes that are too ripe can be mealy. Harvest them when they're full size and fully colored.

Babydoll Southdown Sheep

Olde English Miniature Babydoll Southdown sheep are an ancient breed with sweet, teddy bear faces. Because of their diminutive size, miniature Southdowns make outstanding weeders for use in orchards and vineyards -- they are only 24 inches tall when mature, and so can't easily reach tree branches or trellised grapes. Their small hooves help break the soil surface without compacting it. They move easily up and down hills, and can get into a field or vineyard much earlier than machinery can. And not only do they provide an organic alternative to pesticides and expensive mowing operations, their recycled grass (manure) helps improve soil fertility as well.

Main Stud Pepper  Miniature Southdowns are usually white; however, there are also black (or brown) ones. They are easy to handle and are not aggressive. They are not wanderers and do not bother fences. Ewes are good mothers and often have twins and occasionally triplets.

Care for miniature Southdown's is similar to that of other sheep, including sheering, vaccinating, foot trimming, and worming, however, as an ancient breed they are resistant to foot root and more resistant to parasites than other breeds.   Their wool is short stapled and fine with a 19-22 micron count, which puts it in the class of cashmere.  

Types of Beets

Growing beets will give you delicious, colorful roots and nutritious greens. Closely related to spinach and chard, and once called “blood turnips” because of their bright red juice, beets also can be golden, white or striped. If you keep livestock, you can grow special varieties of forage or mangel beets to feed to your animals in winter.

Types to Try

Red table beets produce edible greens in 35 days, followed by round or cylindrical roots a month later. Leaves from most red beets have red stems and leaf veins similar to red-leafed chard varieties.

White, orange and golden beets are prized for their mild, nutty flavor. Because they don’t bleed red juice, these beets are best for roasting with other vegetables.

Storage beets are table beet varieties that excel when grown for fall harvest followed by winter storage in your refrigerator or root cellar.

Mangel beets, often called forage beets or mangel-wurzel beets, grow huge roots weighing from 5 to 20 pounds each that can be used as livestock fodder in winter.

Planting Beets

Cultivate the planting site and mix in a 1-inch layer of cured compost and a standard application of organic fertilizer. As long as your soil is not alkaline, you can also mix in a sprinkling of wood ashes for additional potassium, which will support more vigorous beet growth. All beets grow best in fertile soil with a pH between 6.2 and 7.0. Water the prepared bed, and plant beet seeds half an inch deep and 2 inches apart, in rows spaced 12 inches apart.

Beet seeds germinate in five to 10 days if kept constantly moist. Repeated watering can cause some soils to crust on the surface, which can inhibit the emergence of seedlings. Cover seeded rows with boards or burlap for a few days after planting to reduce surface crusting. This technique is also useful when planting beets for fall harvest in warm summer soil. Just be sure to remove the covers as soon as the beet seedlings break the surface.

Beet seeds are actually capsules with two or more seeds inside, so thinning is essential to growing plump roots. Relieve early crowding by snipping out the weaker seedlings soon after germination. A week later, thin seedlings to 3 to 4 inches apart.

Harvesting and storing home garden vegetables

One of the joys of summer is homegrown sweet corn, picked right outside your back door and plopped straight into a pot of boiling water or onto the grill. The advantage of having a home garden is that you can pick and savor your vegetables when they're at their optimal flavor. But how can you tell when to harvest your vegetables? How should you store zucchini if they all reach optimal size at the same time? What are the best conditions to store your homegrown vegetables? This fact sheet provides some information that will help you make decisions on harvesting and storing your vegetables.

When harvesting vegetables, be careful not to break, nick, or bruise them. The less vegetables are handled, the longer they will last in storage. Harvest only vegetables of high quality. Rotting produce cannot be stored for very long, and could spread disease to other stored vegetables.

Different vegetables need different storage conditions. Temperature and humidity are the main storage factors to consider; there are three combinations for long-term storage:

cool and dry (50-60°F and 60% relative humidity),
cold and dry (32-40°F and 65% relative humidity), and
cold and moist (32-40°F and 95% relative humidity).

For cold conditions, 32°F is the optimal temperature, but it isn't easy to attain in most homes. Expect shortened shelf-lives for your vegetables as storage conditions deviate from the optimal, as much as 25% for every 10°F increase in temperature. Some vegetables, such as cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes, require cool (55°F) and moist storage. These conditions are difficult to maintain in a typical home, so expect to keep vegetables requiring cool and moist storage conditions for only a short period of time.

Where can the different storage conditions be found in a typical home? Basements are generally cool and dry. If storing vegetables in basements, provide your vegetables with some ventilation. Harvested vegetables are not dead, but still "breathe" and require oxygen to maintain their high quality. Also, be sure they are protected from rodents.

Home refrigerators are generally cold and dry (40°F and 50-60% relative humidity). This is fine for long-term storage of garlic and onions, but not much else. Putting vegetables in perforated plastic bags in the refrigerator will provide cold and moist conditions, but only for a moderate amount of time. Unperforated plastic bags often create too humid conditions that lead to condensation and growth of mold or bacteria.

Root cellars provide cold and moist conditions. As with basements, provide ventilation and protection from rodents when storing vegetables in cellars. Materials such as straw, hay, or wood shavings can be used as an insulation. If using such insulation, make sure that it is clean and not contaminated with pesticides.

10 Vegetables & Herbs You Can Eat Once and Regrow Forever

There are some ingredients I cook with so often I can never buy too many of them, and most of them are produce. Onions, garlic and fresh herbs are staples in a lot of dishes, and they may be inexpensive, but when you use them on a daily basis it can add up.

Some foods are easy to regrow at home from leftover scraps, and some of them can even be grown right on your kitchen counter. Here are 10 vegetables and herbs you can buy once and regrow forever.

1. Garlic
When garlic starts to sprout, the little green shoots are too bitter to cook with. Rather than throwing away sprouted cloves, you can put them in a glass with a little water and grow garlic sprouts. The sprouts have a much milder flavor than garlic cloves and are great in salads, pasta and as a garnish.

2. Carrot Greens
The ends of carrots you usually chop off and throw away will grow carrot greens if you put them in a dish with a little water. Set the dish in a well-lit windowsill and you’ll have carrot tops to use as a garnish or in salads.


3. Basil
Put a few basil clippings with 4-inch stems in a glass of water and place it in a spot with direct sunlight. When the roots are about 2 inches long, you can plant them in pots to grow a full basil plant.

4. Scallions
In as little as 5 days you can completely regrow a full scallion (or green onion) from the scraps. Leave about an inch attached to the roots and place them in a small glass with a little water. In a few days, you’ll have all new scallions.


5. Romaine Lettuce
If you have a stem from a head of romaine lettuce that’s still intact, place the stump in a bowl with about ½ inch of water and put it on a windowsill. You’ll start to see new leaves in about 2 weeks, and they’ll be full grown in 3 to 4.

6. Bok Choy
Just like romaine lettuce, bok choy can be regrown by placing the root end in water in a well-lit area. In a week or two, you can transplant it to a pot with soil and grow a full new head.

7. Onions
Plant the discarded root end from an onion in a pot or directly in the soil outside to regrow. You can harvest it early and get fresh green onions or wait until the bulb is fully developed.

8. Ginger
Like onions, ginger root can be planted in soil to regrow, but the process is a lot more lengthy. It can take a few months for it to sprout, and you should be able to harvest a fully grown bulb in 8 to 10 months.

9. Mushrooms
Plant mushroom stalks in soil with some compost or used coffee grounds and keep them in a moist environment, preferably where it will be cool at night. They can be tricky to grow, and within a few days the stems will either start to sprout new heads or rot.

10. Cilantro
Like basil, cilantro can grow roots if the stems are placed in a glass of water. Once the roots are long enough, just plant them in a pot. In a few weeks new sprigs will be starting, and in a few months you’ll have a full plant.

What are the advantages of horse breeding

If you love horses, working in a business that involves them means that you'll be doing what you love, often an important element of a successful small business. Moreover, if you're already knowledgeable, you'll be well ahead of others starting a business from scratch in products, goods or animals about which they know nothing.

Some other advantages include:

1. The opportunity to ride horses regularly
2. A chance to be around your horses constantly
3. Caring for foals
4. Selling horses for more money––while optional if you're operating as a stud farm, this tends to be a necessity to prevent overcrowding, to remove horses that aren't getting along and to keep your business well funded. This can be a source of pride in knowing that your horses are going elsewhere but it can also be a very emotional side of the business
5. Operating as a stud farm, offering the services of your stallion(s), offering your mares where appropriate and perhaps offering boarding and foal raising facilities. This can be a very rewarding aspect both financially and as a source of pride but it's also fraught with the potential for liability and worry.

How and When to Shear Your Goats

If you're raising goats to harvest the fiber for your own use or to sell, you need to know the basics of shearing. Not all goats have the same requirements. For example, you need to shear Angora goats twice a year to get the most fiber. You don't shear cashmere- or cashgora-producing goats; instead you comb or pluck the fiber once a year.

You need to shear your mohair-producing goats in the early spring and early fall. Make sure not to shear cashmere-producing goats because you will lower the value and quality of the fiber by mixing coarser guard hair with the fine, valuable cashmere.

Shearing isn't hard to do, but it's hard on your back because you have to bend over. If you have only a few goats you can use scissors or hand shears. If you can afford it and want to do all the shearing yourself, you can also invest in electric sheep shears, which range from $300 and up. Otherwise, you're better off hiring a professional shearer to come to your farm.

To prepare your goats for shearing:

A few weeks prior to shearing, use a pour-on insecticide containing permethrin or pyrethrin to kill lice and ticks.

If the weather is rainy or snowy, keep your goats confined for 24 hours before shearing so that they stay dry.

Clean and add new bedding to a dry shelter to keep the goats out of inclement weather for a month or so after they have been shorn. They're more prone to health problems without their protective coats.

Start your shearing with the youngest goats and work in order of age because the youngest usually have the best fiber.

When you're shearing a goat, always use long, smooth strokes. Doing so keeps the fleece in longer pieces, which makes it easier to work with and increases its value. Be careful not to cut the skin, taking special care on the belly, the area where the legs and body meet, the scrotum, and the teats. If you do accidentally cut a goat while shearing, treat it with an antibiotic spray such as Blu-Kote.

Before you shear, get the following supplies together:

Blow dryer

Sheep shears

Grooming stand or stanchion

Scissors

Paper bags, pillowcases, or baskets to hold the fiber

Postal or hanging scale for weighing fiber

Follow these steps to shear a goat:

Secure your goat on the stanchion or grooming stand.

Blow any hay or other debris out of the goat's coat.

Use your blow dryer on high speed.

Shear the goat's belly.

Start at the bottom of its chest and move to its udder or scrotal area.

Shear each side.

Work from the belly up to the spine, back leg to front leg.

Shear each back leg.

Work from the beginning of the coat upward to the spine.

Shear the neck.

Start at the bottom of the throat and work to the top of the chest on the bottom and from the chest to the ears on the top and sides.

Shear the top of the back.

Work from the crown of the head to the tail.

Remove any excess hair that you missed with your scissors.

One area often missed is in the area of the udder or testicles.

Release your goat.

Check the fiber.

Separate any stained or soiled fleece or other contaminants. Weigh the unsoiled fleece, roll it up, put it in a paper bag, and mark the bag with the weight of the fleece, the goat's name and age, and the date sheared. Store fleece in a dry area.

Sweep the area.

Make sure the next goat to be sheared starts with a clean area.

How to Groom Your Goats

If you're raising goats as part of a green lifestyle, your goats won't require a lot of grooming. But grooming pays dividends in the long run by making the goat feel better (who doesn't feel better with a good brushing?), enabling you to evaluate the goat's health, and giving the goat more experience with being handled.

Here are some basic grooming tasks:

Brushing: Brushing removes dandruff and loose hair that some goats get and increases blood flow — improving the health of the skin and coat. It also gives you an opportunity to check for any signs of illness or disease, such as a lump, swelling, or other abnormality. At a minimum, brush goats in the late spring or early summer, when they're shedding or throwing off the undercoat that kept them warm in the winter. Use a firm-bristled grooming brush like you can get in any feed store or livestock supply catalog.

Brush in the direction of the coat starting at the neck, then down the back and down the sides. Make sure to brush the neck, chest, legs, and abdomen.

Bathing: You don't have to bathe goats, but doing so helps remove the lice, makes clipping easier, and keeps your clipper blades sharp for a longer time. Goats prefer to be washed with warm water but will survive the inevitable cold water that is all most of us have available. Use a goat or animal shampoo.

You can use a collar to secure a baby goat or a goat that you can easily control. Secure other goats on a milk stand or by putting on a collar and attaching it to a fence. After the goat is secure, just wet it, lather up the shampoo, and rinse.

If you plan to clip the goat right away, blow-dry its hair. Otherwise, let the goat dry naturally.

Clipping: An annual clipping is a good idea for all goats. Shorter hair helps goats stay cooler and allows sunlight to reach their skin, which drives away lice and other critters. Choose a day after the cold weather is expected to be over.

Two areas that most people clip more frequently are the tail area prior to kidding and the udder during milking season:

Tail to kid: Before, during, and after kidding, blood and fluids stick to the goat's tail and the coat around the tail. Clip up the sides of the tail, across the end of the tail to make a short little brush, and around the vulva area and inside top of the back legs.

Udder: Removing hair from the belly and udder makes the udder easier to clean before milking and prevents hairs from falling into the milk.

Trimming hooves: Keeping a goat's hooves trimmed is one of the easiest, least expensive, and most important parts of goat care. Regular trimming takes very little time and cuts down on health care expenses in the long term.

How to Goat-Proof Trees

If you're raising goats, you need to protect your garden and trees from them. Goats are browsers, which means that they eat bushes, trees, and woody plants. They also prefer variety in their diet and so try most of the plants that are available. If you want to keep any flowers or bushes and trees, make sure they aren't growing in an area where your goats might go. You can fence them off, or in the case of trees, you can goat-proof them.

You need to remove any trees that are poisonous to goats and fence off or goat-proof any others you don't want destroyed.
Goats will damage and eventually kill trees by browsing on the leaves and shoots, stripping the bark, and rubbing their horns on the trees. Your goats cause worse damage when they don't have access to any other plants to eat, but they enjoy tender bark and leaves even when grass and shrubs are available.For smaller trees or saplings, can buy five-foot-tall tree bark protectors from a garden store. These mesh or corrugated plastic tubes were designed to fit around the tree trunks to protect them from deer.

You can goat-proof a larger tree by wrapping it up to the level that your largest goat can reach when standing with its front legs on the tree. You can determine this height by holding a treat up next to the tree and measuring how high the goat can reach. (If your goats aren't full-grown, you have to estimate.)

Norwegian dairy goats thrive in African mountains

Eighty Norwegian dairy goats were flown into Tanzania thirty years ago. Now there are 300,000 goats with genes from these founder animals on dairy farms in mountainous areas.

Tanzania's Uluguru Mountains are a green paradise, with verdant slopes that rise over 2,600 metres. But now, not far from forests populated with yellow baboons, blue monkeys and black-and-white colobus monkeys, you'll find goats of Norwegian ancestry in the mountain towns of this East African country.

The goats live on steep terraced hills planted with corn, bananas and coffee, at altitudes that would be barren and rocky in Scandinavia. They are a result of a long-term Norwegian-Tanzanian research partnership aimed at boosting small-scale milk production. The partnership has helped many farmers diversify and has yielded tangible benefits.

Is bison healthier than beef

With a strong prevailing perception that it is healthier, bison's popularity is exploding. 

Not bad for an animal that was almost extinct just a century ago.

5 Reasons to Eat Bison:

1. It is taster than beef and richer in flavor.
2. It is simply healthier than regular cow beef.   It is lower in saturated fat than regular cow beef.
3.Bison is a great source of nutrients, it has the basics: zinc, niacin, iron, vitamin B6 and selenium.  A quick review of some important things these nutrients do:
Selenium – helps prevent cellular damage from free radical.
Zinc- does a lot- helps immune system, hair and skin health and overall cell function
Niacin helps convert food into energy for the body – all at the cellular level
Iron- carries oxygen through the body
B6- tons of value of for physical and even mental health.

4.  Bison cattle are not handled like cows.  They are mostly living in a freer environment compared to cow/cattle.  Although there are many cattle  farms that treat the cows humanly, bison seem to be cared for like the elite class of the farm.

5.  Bison is one of the leanest meats and still has a lot of protein.  But it is the amount of protein you get in bison meat, without the saturated fat  that makes this a great alternative to regular beef.

Types of Dairy Cows

Each breed gives a slightly different milk product that varies in nutrient content (i.e. protein and vitamins). 

There are five common breeds of dairy cows:

Brown Swiss: Believed to have originated in the Alps of Switzerland, these hardy animals are tolerant of harsh climate and produce large quantities of milk, close behind the Holsteins. Officially recognized as a breed in the U.S. in 1906, the first small group of cows arrived here in 1869. Though few animals were actually imported, this hasn't stopped their steady growth in number, and today, the Brown Swiss are very important members of the dairy industry. Average output is 21,000lbs./9525kg (~2450 gallons) of milk per cycle with 4.0% butterfat, 3.5% total protein.

Guernsey: As their name suggests, these cows hail from the British Isle of Guernsey in the English Channel. Well-bred by monks from select French Norman/Breton cattle lines (Alderneys from Normandy, Froment du Leons from Brittany), the first to arrive in the U.S. were brought by ship in 1840. Guernseys are small, about three-fifths the size of a Holstein, but produce up to 14,700lbs./6,350kg (~1700 gallons) milk with 4.5% butterfat, 3.5% total protein each cycle.

Holstein-Friesian: Originally bred in Northern Germany, and the North Holland/Friesland regions of the Netherlands. These familiar black and white cows were selectively bred to make large quantities of milk from the area's most abundant natural food source- grass.
First brought to the U.S. in the late 1850's, their ready adaptibility, and economic production of large volumes of milk relative to other cows has made them common on dairies worldwide. Figures for average milk output range up to 28,000lbs./12,700kg (~3260 gallons) per cycle, with 2.5-3.6% butterfat, 3.2% total protein.

Jersey: Developed on Britain's Isle of Jersey, close to the Isle of Guernsey just off the coast of France. With a history as a pure breed that dates back several hundred years, they are descendants of stock from the French region of Normandy.
The 1850's saw the arrival of the first Jersey's in the U.S. Like the Guernsey, they, too, are small, but produce relatively large amounts of milk- on average, 16,000lbs./7,260kg (~1860 gallons) per cycle, with a high butterfat content of 4.9%, total protein 3.7%.

Milking Shorthorn: Part of the Shorthorn cattle breed originally developed for beef in Britain, descendants of these moderate producers were bred and selected for milk rather than meat. Arriving in the U.S. in 1783, the first mulit-purpose Milking Shorthorns provided the early settlers with not only milk, but meat and pulling power as well. A typical cow produces 15,400lbs./6,990kg (~1880 gallons) of milk per cycle with a butterfat content of 3.8%, total protein 3.3%.

White rhinoceros

The southern #white #rhino is a major conservation success – but with only four #animals remaining, the northern white #rhino is very close to disappearing from the wild.

Together with the greater one-horned rhino, the white rhino is the largest of all rhino species. Its name comes from the Dutch "weit" (wide), in reference to the #animal's wide muzzle. It is also known as the square-lipped rhinoceros due to its squared (not pointed) upper lip.

Compared to black rhinos, white rhinos have a longer skull, a less sharply defined forehead and a more pronounced shoulder hump. They have almost no hair and two horns. The front horn averages 60 cm, but occasionally reaches 150 cm in length.

Size: 150-185 cm in height, females weigh 1,400-1,700 kg, males weigh 2,000-3,600 kg

White rhinos appear to require thick bush cover, relatively flat terrain, water for drinking and wallowing, and short grass for grazing. They primarily inhabit grassy savanna and woodlands interspersed with grassy clearings.

The ainmals tend to avoid the heat during the day, when they rest in the shade. They are usually active in the early morning, late afternoon and evening. 

During very hot periods, the cool and rid themselves of ectoparasites (external parasites) by bathing in mud in shallow pools. Adult males can spend almost their entire life in these areas, unless water is unavailable, in which case they follow a narrow corridor to a drinking site every 3-4 days.

Breeding females are prevented from leaving a dominant's male territory, which is marked and and patrolled by its owner on a regular basis. Males competing for a female may engage in serious conflict, using their horns to inflict wounds.

Females reach sexual maturity at 4-5 years of age but do not reproduce until they reach 6-7 years. In contrast, males tend not to mate until they are 10-12 years old. They can live up to 40 years.

Breeding pairs may stay together for up to 20 days. Mating occurs throughout the year although peaks have been observed from October to December in South Africa and from February to June in East Africa. The gestation period is approximately 16 months with a period of 2-3 years between calves.

White rhinos are the only grazer of all rhino species, feeding almost exclusively on short grasses.

Demand for Dorper sheep rises in East Africa

A rise in demand for #Dorper #sheep as a source of #meat across East Africa in recent years is putting pressure on #breeders.

From the flat plains of Kajiado, Laikipia and Naivasha in Kenya to the lowlands of Tanzania, the demand for Dorper breeding #sheep has been rising over the last few years.

 The Dorper sheep has increasingly become a breed of choice for many #farmers in the country, mainly due to rising demand for its low-fat quality #meat.
“Dorper sheep do well on natural pastures although #farmers may offer supplementary feeding during scarcity or based on nutritional requirements. They are hardy and will perform well in low ecological zones,” noted Ole-Sein, the proprietor of the 1,700-acre Rimpa Estates in Kiserian.

According to Ole-Sein, a breeding #ram currently costs between US$313 to US$500 with ewes selling from US$125 to US$188, underscoring the increased monetary value of the dorper to #farmers across Kenya.“We breed rams and then dispose them to farmers for breeding purposes. Demand for #rams is quite high across the country,” observed #livestock production officer Cleopas Wahome.

 “Demand for breeding ewes has been rising far beyond the supply. Farmers from neighbouring countries such as Tanzania have been flocking the country looking for ewes,” observed Kone Ole-Sein, a Dorper farmer from Kajiado County and also the national secretary of the Dorper Breeders' Society of Kenya, an umbrella body that brings together corporate and individual farmers.