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To: Diana in Wisconsin
I've been planning for a while and have done a LOT of research. Trying go go for as much self sufficiency as possible here since we didn't do anything towards retirement and SS isn't much to live on. I'm 53 so hopefully I'll be able to get everything done while I'm still able. We're living in a cabin I built and so I still need to build a house. Build a bigger/better shop at which point my little shop becomes a barn. Got hundreds more trees to take down to get some more sun coming down. Cross fencing, animal shelters etc etc. Spring came a month early which screwed me up on the perimeter fence. I do all my work in the woods in winter when there's no chiggers and ticks. I'm a chigger magnet. That extra month and I would have had the fence done. Got it cleared and got corner posts in. We're doing four foot tall, 6 strand, high tensile electric fence.

Kunekune are supposed to be the only true pasture pig. The kunekune is pretty much unchanged since the Maori people had them centuries ago. They can live on grass and don't root much. and yeah, they're cute. They're from New Zealand, hence the funny name starting with a K,(kiwi). There's some good videos here https://www.youtube.com/user/KunekunePigSociety/videos from the UK kunekune society - https://www.britishkunekunesociety.org.uk - the NZ version https://kunekune.co.nz/ and the American version http://americankunekunepigsociety.com

I'm also thinking about Kiko for the meat goats.(yup, New Zealand) They're about the lowest input of all goats except for maybe Spanish goats but a lot of the Spanish goats became general brush goats with no care put into breeding them. Most people that raise meat goats use the Boer goat - white body red head - but those were developed in S Africa where it's dry as a bone so they have major hoof and parasite issues here in the temperate Ozarks. The ground is wet here for more than half the year. Also thought abut Kiko does with a Boer buck but then I wouldn't have a buck that looks like this.

The neighbor across the road has longhorn cattle. Kikos are the longhorn of goats.

Come to think of it. High Tensile fence is a New Zealand design. Weird as I'm like 99% English ancestry. The kiwi folks tend to do things with the environment in mind but that happens to equate to low input and self sufficiency so it works for me. They're also just big into farming and self sufficiency though, kind of like Aussies. I have no interest in 800 lb hogs that tear up the place and stink. One problem with any pig breed is that they BREED. Dozen piglets per litter. Gonna be sharing some pork or selling them live. Speaking of pig, I gotta get off of this computer and go fire up the smoker for some ribs.

32 posted on 08/03/2019 11:24:09 AM PDT by Pollard (If you don't understand what I typed, you haven't read the classics.)
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To: Pollard

“Speaking of pig, I gotta get off of this computer and go fire up the smoker for some ribs.”

We’re in, ‘BLT While We Can Get Them’ mode this week!

Great info about the goats, too. Thanks! I spent summers on my Aunt’s farm tending goats. I hate them. Unless hers were the most ill-mannered goats of all time, I just can’t do it. Can’t stand the smell, can’t stand their cheese - and I LOVE cheese!

I have a feeling we’re getting some, though. Beau has a steep hillside where they will be very happy. ;)


35 posted on 08/03/2019 11:40:55 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.~Alfred Austin)
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