How are you going to raise your animals during SHTF?

[ladyhk13]

When shtf and the stores shut down, you run out of feed for your horses, cows, alpacas, chickens, cats, dogs and whatever else you have been raising how do you plan on feeding them? Have you made plans to grow food? If you have dogs and cats have you thought about flea and tick control?
Please don't answer with things like "I'll just eat them, or they'll be on their own" or stuff like that. This is a serious question since these animals will be our food (and re-bred for future food), milk, eggs, and the cats are not only pets but will be mouse/rat control which in turn will help keep down disease, dogs are our pets but also provide protection and to those with no family are a source of comfort and companionship.

Even though we don't have animals yet (except a cat and dogs) we are working on getting the new property ready so that we can have a working farm so I have been planning on going as natural as possible. These are my thoughts so far and I would love everyone else's input and ideas as well because I know I don't have all the answers or knowledge it's going to take. We will be building as if shtf when it comes to the animals as much as possible so there won't be any surprises when/if it happens.

As far as cows and most grass eating animals (NOT horses) I am looking at Switchgrass for the pasture. It seems to have very high nutritional value and will yeild many tons of hay per acre when cut. The won't be getting any grain at all.

For horses there needs to be a different blend so I am still looking into which will be best for them. I also don't know about growing oats? What would you do about no feed available for them? How much acreage is going to be needed in order to grow oats for 2 horses for daily feeding? I don't know much about feeding them off grid but I hope someone here can answer this.

Chickens - I plan on free ranging them. They can eat in the Switchgrass or the horse pasture I don't imagine it would make a difference, they would both be good healthy pasture. I can give them non-meat table scraps and ground up egg shells instead of store bought and I believe that would be enough for them, am I correct?

Cats are natural hunters so for them to eat would be fairly easy but I am buying extra cat food and it will be either in sealed tubs or in bags that I've done in the sucky machine. I also have been buying an extra flea/tick treatment a month to put back.

Dogs will be harder to feed since they aren't really natural hunters. Buying an extra bag of food each time you get the normal bag is a biggie. That also will be in tubs or in bags sealed in the sucky machine (those sizes are so much easier if you are on the go). When that runs out they will be eating whatever we eat. Have been buying an extra heart/flea/tick medications each month as well. This is done so that when they are no longer available those things are still able to be kept under control. The flea/tick med only need to be given during the summer months so during the winter I can keep those extra packs. If I can get enough to last a couple of years hopefully whatever event will have passed and our "world" will have returned to somewhat normal. If not, well I guess I'll be trying to barter someone for some ginea hens (dh will totally hate it but not as much as I hate ticks so I think I'll win that one lol).

Ok, please give me your input and ideas.

[Sniper-T]

couple things...

EAT them!!

lol, just kidding LH.

Seriously, my dog will continue per nauseum, as long as possible. He has dry food, which we supplement with table scraps. He also gets the bones/scraps from anything I kill. when the time comes that there is no more dogfood, and if I cannot support him, a difficult choice will have to be made. But dogs will typically eat almost anyhting you put in front of them, so I am not anticipating too much difficulty. I have a couple spare tick collars around, but no other meds specific to him.

My cat is type 2 diabetic, and her insulin will run out long before her food, but I also subsidize her meals with table scraps/tidbits. She will quickly become an outdoor cat, as she would be able to catch a lions share of mice/moles/voles.

I'm working at putting in some feeder crops, but wont be online with those until next year. If I can snag a cow or 3, they'll free range, as I have the room for that. Horses would do the same if I got them, but they could be subsidized from neighbours crop fields (where I would be collecting from too) Horses eat an immense amount of food, so accepting them into my fold would be a tough decision. I would have to have a serious need for the work they could provide, before I'd undertake their keeping.


Be careful with Oats. You cannot give horses too much or they'll bloat and die.

I can snag some chickens from a neighbour, and they'll be free ranged in a tractor (keep the coyotes out), and can be subsidized by what is convenient.

Raising animals wouldn't be high on my list of things to do post SHTF. They require a tremendous amount of space, effort and resources, for a limited return. I believe that my time would be better suited raising crops, and hunting for my protein. IMO

[ladyhk13]

So you will be one of the people basically living out in the "wild" sort of speak so you won't be really worrying about dealing with animals.

I was hoping not to have to give any supplimental food to the horses at all. But I was told that if you are riding them they must have more than just grass/hay because they are burning up too many calories. We are looking at a couple of them for use around the property instead of 4 wheelers and transportation if it comes to where automobiles cannot be used for whatever reason.

[Sniper-T]

actually... I currently do live out in the wild. I can and do shoot food (and targets) in my yard, off my deck, or on any of my miles of trails/bush. I am surrounded by bush, and some pasture land, and within a few miles corn/alfalfa, wheat, sunflowers, etc. I have a neighbour (2-1/2 miles away), that raises chickens and keeps offering me some; and another neighbour(4 miles away) that has a dairy farm that will not be able to operate without power. He plans on releasing all but a few of his cows if SHTF. I have two hog farms within 5 miles, who also plan on releasing. I dare say, there will be an abundance of anuimals initially, when SHTF. If some can be encouraged back within my fences, I'm ok with that. I also run some traps in season for easy eating/furs.

You do have to supplement horses forage but just be cautious on how much oats. I'm sure Grumpy can provide more information than that as to how much of what is best.

[Possom]

It all depends on what u r wanting to keep honestly. Goats are easier to maintain then cattle. Require less acreage and will eat about anything you put in front of them. Roughly, you can pasture 7 goats on the same amount of pasture needed to maintain one cow The problem with cattle is the amount of meat yielded out of one animal. What are you going to do with at least 500 lbs of meat without a freezer to store it in? Salt it all in barrels? Where as a goat will yield 80 lbs of meat or so. Much easier to pressure can or salt and store. Chickens are pretty well self sustaining during the summer although you need to keep an eye out for predators.

As for winter maintenance of livestock. Hay was put up for years and years before the tractor came into use. Old style hand bailors and rakes and mowers were horse drawn. Now they are yard ornaments.

You would be amazed what you can accomplish with a good team of mules and a little know how.

[Evolver]

For dogs there are many different food recipes made from items that would be found in your preps... Carbohydrates (rice, oatmeal and other grains), meat, and cooked, rehydrated vegetables mixed in equal amounts. Most recommend using one teaspoon of calcium or bonemeal powder (800 to 1,000 mg) for every pound of food. Other supplements may include fish oil, vitamin E and kelp and alfalfa powder.
Items to avoid are...

Chocolate
Any candy containing the sweetener Xylitol
Grapes and raisins
Macadamia nuts and walnuts
Moldy foods
Mushrooms
Mustard seeds
Onions and onion powder
Garlic (raw, cooked, and powdered)
Yeast dough

If S ever HTF our pets will need to be introduced into the wild slowing so there systems aren't in a full on shock from a change in they're normal diet so having a tried pet food recipe is good to have.

[ladyhk13]

That's what I meant about being "one of the people" living out in the wild (you will probably be the only one lol! You are kind of an unique person in that you do live off of what you hunt already and don't need or are planning on raising any animals unless they come to you. But you did say you are going to put in fodder crop, what kind are you planting and is it for a specific animal or animals? If you do get the neighbors cows, hogs, horses to come to your place and inside of your fences I imagine you would not let them back out? Should this happen what are your plans for feeding them? Hogs eat everything down to the dirt so have you thought about how you would deal with any kind of rotation or a specific kind of grasses you can plant that maybe they will have a harder time going through so it would buy you time for longer rotation?
Just questions for deeper thinking.

[Grumpy Old Man]

For horses, Bermuda grass and alfalfa mix is good. DON"T let the horses graze green alfalfa! Alfalfa is high protein. Just because you are riding your horses doesn't mean they need to be grained. If you are working them daily, riding 5 or more miles daily, running endurance races, etc, then you may want to consider oats, but be careful, overfeeding can lead to them foundering. People tend to forget that horses lived for millions of years grazing with the only grain coming from wild seed heads. Barley and maize can also be fed as a cool mix for working horses.

Check the ingredients of the feed next time you're at the feed store. Some things you won't be able to get like beet pulp or rice bran; others like flax seed you can. Apples and carrots are always good too, but they are more treat items than a major diet component.

[Taz Baby]

Well as far as animals go we are going to only raise the ones that can eat off the land. Like Rabbits,(trap and breed) goats, squirrel(trap and breed), mini jerseys that will be grass feed, dogs can eat what we hunt, cats to. As far as the meds go for them there are a number of plants that you can use to keep fleas and ticks off, for Heart worms we will stock up on. But when that runs out feed your dog a raw fish once a month it keeps all worms away. Chickens, ducks, geese, will be free range and any other bird like wild animal we can trap like:: fowls, pheasants, grouse, ect or any animal will eat what they have been in the wild. As far as the meds for the cows, there are a number of things that are plant based that can cure them. But right now we are not ready for animals.

[ladyhk13]

As for winter maintenance of livestock. Hay was put up for years and years before the tractor came into use. Old style hand bailors and rakes and mowers were horse drawn. Now they are yard ornaments.

You would be amazed what you can accomplish with a good team of mules and a little know how.

If you could find a good video on technique it would be wonderful! This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about...if we have to go back to the old ways, what are those old ways - how exactly are we going to do it? We know they used to feed animals differently but how they did it is the info we need to share here. The tools are out there somewhere but are there things we need to be looking for now that they are so old? I know there are some here who are experimenting with wheat (but I wouldn't imagine you would feed that to your animals) using hand tools so maybe they can give a review of the old ones that work and ones to stay away from or that require special techniques/care.