By Jacki Martinez Perkins “She’s beautiful, she’s rich, she’s got huge … tracts o’ land!” – King of Swamp Castle in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” We do not need huge tracts of land in order to keep livestock. Industry professionals like to use general guidelines of 1 acre per animal, but this is,
By Jacki Martinez Perkins, MOFGA’s Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist When you think of dairy, what comes to mind? Do you enjoy cream in your coffee, cook with butter, garnish with shredded cheese, or go for sweet treats like whipped cream or ice cream? There’s a large variety of dairy products originating from all over
By Jacki Martinez Perkins, MOFGA’s Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist Parasite monitoring is an important part of raising livestock (and, in case you’re dissuaded from raising livestock due to parasites, I’ve got news for you: everyone has internal parasites). Arguably, healthy bodies can manage a low-grade level of internal parasites in their systems as a
By Sherri Talbot When new to goats, the process of deciding on a breed can be daunting. Various breeds can make good pets, grazers, meat animals, fiber or milk producers. Knowing what is right for your homestead is often based on what use the animals will serve. Let’s look at some of the most common
By Jacki Martinez Perkins, Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist There’s no way around it: At some point in Maine’s cyclical seasons, the grass stops growing and goes dormant. The need to feed hay to our herbivorous livestock during this time is crucial, and knowing what your needs are and what you’re buying is essential to
By Jacki Martinez Perkins, Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist I grew up not only in a different time but also in such a different world than most everyone else I know. My dad was a dairy farmer, and my mom was the only female large animal veterinarian in Maine at the time. By the time
By Shana Hanson Most livestock want to eat woody plants. Cattle, sheep and goats in Europe were historically wintered on abundant, tannin-rich forages; farmers dried tree leaves for sheep and goats, and ensiled leaves (stored anaerobically to ferment), or sometimes cooked or steeped dried leaves, for cattle and hogs. From 6,000 years ago until horse-drawn
By Jacki Martinez Perkins, MOFGA’s Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist At MOFGA’s 2023 Farmer to Farmer Conference we hosted a session about new fencing technology and how it is being implemented in rotational grazing systems in the Northeast. Dan Smith, who has worked with the dairy industry for decades, secured funding through the Northeast Dairy
By Jacki Martinez Perkins, MOFGA’s Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist The knowledge base for all farming endeavors needs to be extensive, but one major difference we see between livestock production and crop production is the year-round care and maintenance of a key source of revenue: the livestock themselves. Good quality feed and water keep them
By Jacki Martinez Perkins, MOFGA’s Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist Getting into livestock production can be an uphill battle. Choosing equipment is one of the more anxiety-inducing processes. My parents (a dairy farmer and a sole-practitioner large animal veterinarian) often found themselves in situations where they had little to no help from others, and so
