# Turning excess milk into profit.



## Tim Pruitt (Oct 26, 2007)

Unpasteurized, unregulated milk sales are illegal in Louisiana. Same goes for cheese. 

That leaves turning milk into meat or soap as the only legal way to sell a milk product. I am not into soap making but have explored this as a possibility.

I do have the knowledge or expertise to make milk into meat by raising either pigs or calves. Pigs may not have as good a market but there is a pretty good opportunity to sell home grown beef without hormones and as little other chemcals as possible. Here a person can raise the beef to market weight and find buyers to that want 1/2 to a full beef. (I have a list of people who would be eagar to buy.) You can raise it to maturity, take it to the slaughter house who will cut it and wrap it to the customer's specifications and then they pick up their meat at the slaughter house after you are paid. The problem of course can be obtaining a good supply of healthy newborn calves since there are very few dairies left in the country.

My question is for those of you who have tried doing both: Which of the two, (soap making or beef) is the least time consuming? which is the least amount of work? which will make the most money from the milk?


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## KJFarm (Oct 26, 2007)

Tim, we have raised lots of calves on our milk when there was surplus. The dairies around us are very few now, and the ones still in operation, usually have buyers that pick up every calf born. Occasionally, we can talk them out of one or two. I like buying them fresh from the dairy, but it is just not always possible. Our other source for calves is buying small calves (1-3 weeks old approx.) at the sale barn, that are split off of a cow in the ring. These calves always do so well, because they got plenty of colostrum and have a little age on them.
It's not that hard to get them on a bottle either, usually after missing a meal or two, they decide that bottle is is their lifeline and they take off and grow like weeds. After a few feedings, they will start coming to you and you don't have to wrestle with them. We buy beef calves, they are more expensive to purchase, but you get more when you sell them than you do with dairy calves, and they dress out with more meat.
We sell meat to individuals also, and turn a good profit on it - and until you've eaten home grown beef, you just haven't lived!!!


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## Guest (Jan 8, 2008)

I'd say lb for lb you would make more money with soap. But it really takes very little milk to make a batch of soap ( or it did the way my wife did it). You would have to make a boat load of soap to get rid of very much milk. We raise calves too. You can get rid of a lot of milk fast with calves especially after they get a little older and you don't have to worry as much about scouring them. I've heard of people feeding upwards of 3 gallons a day to one calf after they get some age on them. Calves out of the sale barn you have to worry about. Buying ones that are cut off the cow are usually fine like KJ said, but if you buy dairy calves out of the sale barn or single calves not knowing where they came from you'll lose some if your not careful. I've thought about raising pigs on goats milk but never have, they say that it makes the meat sweet. The only thing I see good about pigs is that if you needed to make cheese or had other uses for milk you could just feed them something else that day. With baby calves they need at least their gallon of milk a day, unless you want to supplement with milk replacer, but then again there is another extra cost. I have four jersey calves that I raised on goats milk in the lot now fattening up. If you could find clean beef or beef/dairy cross calves that would be the way to go to get rid of a lot of milk quick. My .02


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

No way with the size of your herd could you make that much soap until you build your sales. I would diversify instead. Do your meat idea until your soap sales catch up with demand. You could make more money selling your milk to soapers.

My batches of soap which make 54, 6 ounce bars, uses only 1 gallon of GM, and you can't put anymore in it without a huge curetime. So at full production, before holidays (Valentines, Mothers Day and about 3 months before christmas) I make 3 to 6 batches during the week each night. No way is it less work than feeding some hogs. Plus you can add bread to the goatmilk for raising hogs nearly free.

Like having goats, soap becomes a passion. But with selling milk and cheese illegally, breeding stock and soap sales, my bottom line this year was bragworthy. I wish I could do away with the milksales. Vicki


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## Tim Pruitt (Oct 26, 2007)

Good point Janie about buying calves that are separated from their mom at the sale barn. I need to get down to the cattle auction barn on a regular basis so I can pick up a beef calf or two when the time comes. I think I will pursue that idea a little more. And Vicki's point is valid too, a little of both soap making and calf raising might be the best approach. 

Thanks to everyone for their valuable input.


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## kidsngarden (Oct 28, 2007)

The more I read and the more I do the more I see that to farm anything you need to diversify. You have goats you sell the milk , make cheese, soap, eat them, sell them for meat, sell for show or dairy stock (this is one reason I am getting rid of my current stock and starting over)

As a soap maker, it really doesn't require much to make soap so if you have a huge amount I agree about doing soap and calves. Our pigs like the milk as you know and also our chickens (which we sell the eggs) you'd be surprised how much milk they will sip right up! They love it!

Bethany


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## Rambar Ranch (Oct 25, 2007)

If your going to buy a calf from the sale barn try if at all possible NOT to buy one with a majority of brahma blood. They will starve themselves before going to a bottle if they've already been nursing off a cow for any time. I usually try to get the ones that still have their dried umbilical chords still. These will take to a bottle very quickly. The healthiest calves I've gotten are from the local dairies, but these never sell per/lb as much as the beef breeds. A holstein dairy will also sell for much more than a jersey steer when it comes time to sell.

Ray


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## Little Moon (Dec 29, 2007)

I agree that to diversify your efforts would be the way to go. Three years in a row I got a bum calf from a local rancher. They took to the bottle very well, and grew out nicely, make sure you have plenty of grass for them as they are not on the bottle very long, and will take 18 months to grow out. Weaner pigs are great to raise on goats milk - you can cut the meat with a fork and it has a wonderful flavor and texture. I haven't tried soap making yet, but it is on the horizon. Good luck and share what you find out.

Anne


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## Cotton Eyed Does (Oct 26, 2007)

I used to buy calves from the auction barn, bring them home immediately give them a shot of LA200 and start them on Decoxx-M in their bottles. I like raising calves, but last year they were selling so high I left the sale barn without any twice. Used to you could get a baby for $75.00 for a nice beef x calf, but they were going for an average of $300.00 a piece last year. I think it was year before last I bought 5 and more than doubled my money on them in 3 or 4 months. All I fed them was goat milk and just a hand full of creep feed every morning after they were a couple months old. They grew very fast and were nice sized. I fed them twice a day I started out with a calf bottle and as they grew I went to the nipple bucket.


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## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

I know that a lot of folks purchase bottle calves and raise them for 2-4 months and then sell them for a hefty profit. They use up most of their excess milk this way, but don't have to worry about feeding them out (especially if they don't have pasture) nor have penning concerns.

We like giving ours to the weaner pigs we purchase. Raised on goats' milk they are delicious (waiting list for porkers) and soooo easy....just dump the milk into the trough! 

Oh, and the chickens lay great on goats' milk, and it really cuts the ol' feed bill. 

Camille


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## LMonty (Oct 25, 2007)

Time, we just butchered our first pigs last week. Two more went to the butcher Monday for customer pickup later this week. We raised 4, actually made just a little money on them, selling three at 1.75 lb hanging weight and ours was still essentially free (not taking into account labor, which was really pretty minimal). Best darn pork that ever graced a plate! That was with us buying all our feed-no milk YET, though I have a first freshener bagging up and another Nubian who looks like a walking tank, and it wont be long before we have some. I am also looking for a calf for us,a nd will want one for sale too. Thats when we hope to actually make some money on it. Havign to buy all the feed- we'd barely break even. 

I'd venture a guess that the pigs are much quicker money- you could raise a few twice or three times a year, where a calf takes much longer to get to eating size unless you veal it. Selling it early is good, but if you want to get the money for direct meat sales, diversifying and doing both might be one way to transform that white stuff to gold on a regular, year round basis. Thats what we are going to try to do, both pork and beef. It hits more buyers that way, and income is spread out a bit more for us on our very small scale.


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## Tim Pruitt (Oct 26, 2007)

I have a good source for weaned pigs. My cousin raises a great strain of meat hogs. The two I purchased were excellent quality and had lots of lean meat when I finished them off. The meat had just enough fat on the edges to make it tasty. 

I made the mistake of buying and raising the wrong kind of hog once and had bags of fat to throw away.


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## Narrow Chance (Oct 29, 2007)

:yeahthat I was going to mention that Tim. We raised a couple of pigs to hog stage. We slaughtered them here.. did it the old fashion way. There was so much fat.. and not near enough meat. 
Pigs have thier pro's and con's.. as does the calves. If I had my dreathers.. I'd do the calf if you could get one. there's more time involved.. such as feeding with a bottle.. until you get it where it can drink the milk on its own.. and gosh.. it's almost a hands down when it comes to the smell. But either way.. if your doing it for your own family.. nothing beats home grown pork and beef. 

Rett


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## Tracy in Idaho (Oct 26, 2007)

I wouldn't sell people milk in this day and age even if it was legal in Idaho -- and it isn't. All it takes is one sick kid, a good lawyer, and you're done for 

We raised two steers this year -- Holstein crosses. One for us, and one for a friend. The one we butchered was drinking nearly 15 gallons of milk a DAY. At 7 months old, he was 800+ pounds live weight! 

It is the BEST meat we have ever grown, and by far the cheapest.....our friend bought the calves in exchange for us raising them. The milk would have been dumped, and they ate crap hay the goats/horses couldn't -- hay that would have been burned.

We also raise a couple of pigs every year -- yummy! And we feed it to our chickens too -- it grows great broilers without the leg problems.

Tracy


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## Melissa (Oct 27, 2007)

I do calf's, only because I've got close family that has a cow dairy, well, we actually have quit a few cow dairy's around here. in this small town alone I think it's over 5. 
humm.. you could build the calf's a lambar like for goat kids... less work. when over at my aunt and uncle's place if it's milking/feeding time I'll help feed calf's, they use the little wire bottle holders for each bottle. drooling everyware, sucking on anything that moves, other calf's, you. they remind me of those little dino's from the last Jurassic Park movie that were the size of chickens but large numbers of them could kill you. yea, that's what I think of when I think of calf's

-Melissa


PS

THIS IS MY 50TH POST!!! I'M NOW A JUNIOR DOE! YEAAA!!


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## Odeon (Oct 26, 2007)

We usually raise a calf every other year, and one or 2 pigs a year (for our use, and the in-laws). Tracy is right about the calves, and they are a great way to dispose of any hay that isn't "goatworthy". I hate to waste hay, so its another nice alternative!

I also refuse to sell milk, not even for "pet" use. Just not worth the legal risk to me.

Ken


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## KJFarm (Oct 26, 2007)

Tim, once you get the calves on bottles and coming to you readily, it is very easy to teach them to drink from a bucket. It is a labor saver to use a bucket, when they are drinking all the milk they want, instead of having to refill bottles multiple times. They can drink it down a lot faster than nursing the bottle!! And yes, a great benefit to calves is, they will eat scrap hay and feed that the goats waste. Worm them with pour-on Cydectin down their backs, vaccinate for Blackleg and just watch them grow.


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## GallopingGoats (Oct 28, 2007)

Tracy, did you butcher at 7 months? 
Of those of you that raise pigs, what else do you feed them beside milk? At what age do you butcher?
For the people that feed their milk to chickens, are you saying you only feed them milk?


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2008)

I still feed mine laying pellets or mash. But if you feed them milk they don't eat as much feed and you don't have to worry about thin eggshells either. I used to have to feed oyster shells so the eggshells wouldn't be thin, put them on goats milk and you don't have to worry about it because of all the calcium. That's a good point about calves and hay, they'll clean up what the goats waste. I got Jerseys last year because that's what was available when I needed them. Some people around here like the Jersey for butcher. Don't know if because the carcass is smaller or just the meat. I'm hoping I can butcher next fall and sell the other three to people. I'll let them out of dry lot when grass comes. Thats the only thing about beef it usually takes 15 to 18 months to get them to butcher weight. Or what the feed lot butcher weight is anyway, you can butcher before then. You just won't have regular size cuts.


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## cheesewhiz (Oct 26, 2007)

I milk 3-5 goats most of the year. I have a good cheese market with marinated feta that doesn't take refrigeration to the staff of a wilderness program. I also raise a few dairy calves, but I am relief milker on a 100 cow dairy so have an easy source. I only raise them to weaning and do make a real good profit. It fits my program for labor just fine. WOW, Tracy, 15 gallons of milk a day. I would like to try that some day.
Amen to not getting any Brahma blooded calves. I used to be the calf raiser on a big dairy in California and we bred a few of the poorer cows to Brahma and those calves were something else. It was a major chore to get them on the bottle and half grown calves could jump over the moon (really I just saw them jump over the cab of a big pickup).


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## kidsngarden (Oct 28, 2007)

GallopingGoats said:


> Tracy, did you butcher at 7 months?
> Of those of you that raise pigs, what else do you feed them beside milk? At what age do you butcher?
> For the people that feed their milk to chickens, are you saying you only feed them milk?


My chickens get layer pellets and excess milk in a seperate feeder. They are also very free range so they get green stuff and bugs all the time.
I use commercial pig grain feed in addition to milk and scraps. Butcher at 6 months. We aren't doing pigs for awhile because we want to focus more on goats. Feeding commercial feed is very expensive - essentially just got our own meat butchered and fed for free after raising 5 and selling 4. We tried feeding spent grain and supplementing it with corn once. That was NASTY gamey meat! I want to do it again and find a bakery or something and feed a bit of grain and their leftovers and milk.

Bethany


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## DostThouHaveMilk (Oct 25, 2007)

Our calves are ususally trained to bucket by one or two weeks old. I've found they train more easily if put over at two weeks old.
Bottle holders also save a lot of time.
Most of our bull calves end up in the hands of dairy goat owners around here when I sell off the farm. No complaints yet. All healthy and have done well. I have not heard of a single one dieing...well, except the two that were over a month old each when sold (for $65 for the two I think it was) and the new owners didn't have proper shelter for them. They died of pnuemonia, but certainly not because they weren't well started. Those people came off our sell list pretty quick!

I've considered pigs a couple of times but dad has usually said no and I've usually said no myself. 
I love the meat from pigs fed goat's milk. We bought a pig from the only licensed goat dairy left in Ohio a couple years back. I saw them when I visited her dairy. I could not stand the smell or the sound but those were some mighty happy pigs!
What is now the goat pen was originally called the Pig pen so dad has experience with pigs..lol 
If we were to get pigs what would be a good breed to go after?
My uncle sounded like he would be interested in raising a couple of pigs with me...lol


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## Cotton Eyed Does (Oct 26, 2007)

We've raised pigs too. They usually turn into such pets (We eat them anyway though :/) One of them, Prissy Pig, had a toy dinosaur that was made out of that really hard plastic and it was about 18 inches long of so. She carried that dinasaur around with her everywhere. She slept with it. Talked to it like it was another pig. She would play hide and seek with you around the pig pen. Cutest little pink pig I ever saw. Grew up nicely too.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

We used to get two baby pigs each year right as we started freshening, we raised them on nothing but milk, bread from the store, you can get about 3 days of bread for two pigs for $5 here. My brother still gets it to feed to the hens (and my goats!!) They got all old milk, grain and hay from feeders cleaned every Saturday and a shovel full of dirt from the woods.

I raised them in an old 4 horse trailer, just powerwashed it out each weekend, and moved it to a new place. The only way of raising them! We only kept them for about 4 months, started with 2 more as the next group of does freshened...plus dealing with 80 pound butchering hogs was much eaiser than 300 pounds.

We raised blue butts for awhile, I loved them stupid pigs! Vicki


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## Feral Nature (Oct 26, 2007)

I love blue butts too just because of their name...and their blue butts.

We have bought probably 4 or 5 beef calves from the local beef cattle auction over the years. They were split off their mammas and sold separate. They usually ran about $100. I would then spend a few dollars on prophylactic antibiotics per vet instruction since they came from the barn and I had other cattle. They always did well and i could either raise them on the bottle or put them on a nurse cow. In a few short months they would triple in value as a 300 pounder worth over $300. A "light" calf brings alot at the barn. So you could get 2, eat one and sell one.

I agree that a calf with Brahma blood is insane and flighty as a deer. Stick with English breeds.


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## Tracy in Idaho (Oct 26, 2007)

Yep, we butchered him last month. For us, dealing with them in the winter is not worth the extra 3-400# we would have put on him. AND, with the does drying up in preparation for kidding, it wasn't worth the effort. We're definitely planning on doing it again this year.

I agree -- get them on a bucket asap -- we usually manage it by the second week they are here. It is a PAIN to deal with them on bottles. I had a friend who works for a pipe manufacturer cut me a big 24" pipe in half and cap the ends -- just a trough that we pour the milk in.

Chickens -- no they still got their layer or grower, but I filled their water containers with milk 

Pigs get butchered at about 280-300# -- go by weight, not age, though they are probably in the 5-6 month old range. We like a bit more weight on them because we use the extra fat to mix with deer or elk burger.

The pigs eat everything. Milk, extra eggs, scraps, grain left over from the milk stands, grain swept off the floor, garden produce or waste, and whatever grain is cheap at the feed store.
(4-H pigs get commercial hog feed)

Tracy


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## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

Tracy in Idaho said:


> Chickens -- no they still got their layer or grower, but I filled their water containers with milk
> 
> Pigs get butchered at about 280-300# -- go by weight, not age, though they are probably in the 5-6 month old range. We like a bit more weight on them because we use the extra fat to mix with deer or elk burger.
> 
> ...


What Tracy said...except that we feed our pigs ground grain from a farmer on the Palouse (10-12 cents/lb. 2007, which is a lot less than commercial feed, plus no weird additives).
Pigs also love egg shells (like potato chips).

Best pigs are the leftovers after the 4-H crowd gets done picking (usually the younger sets, which means they are usually ready to butcher in October, after the fair glut hits the butchers). York/Hamp crosses are nice (where you usually get your blue butts), Duroc crosses (generally a thicker pig), and we like a 3 way cross that includes Landrace, because they are tremendously long and you get more pork chops and bacon.

Next Spring I am planning to feed my grown chickens ground oats mixed with minerals. Farmer 3 miles from me has been feeding his chickens this for some time. I figure that with the milk or protein and calcium we should save some $$ in feed. In the Spring and Summer our chickens free range. In the winter, they refuse to let their toes touch the snow!


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## kidsngarden (Oct 28, 2007)

My favorite Breed of pig is duroc. Mostly because the gilt we held back for breeding was a Duroc and I loved her to death. (but never did get a boar to breed her so she was just a pet, really!) We called her ginger and she was just like a dog. So smart and would just come right up for a scratch. I couldn't bear to butcher her (she was too old anyway and would've been sausage) and it broke my heart to sell her.

Bethany


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## Feral Nature (Oct 26, 2007)

Well I just firmed up the deal on my 2 spring pigs so I am all excited. We haven't raised pigs in a while so we are looking forward to the pork. Now would be a good time to buy another freezer.


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## J-Basqo (Oct 26, 2007)

I havent had enough excess milk to raise market hogs or steer yet (but it is in the near future). I do however "BARF" feed my dogs ("Bones And Raw Food") to a certain extent (they get dog chow half of the time), but I feed them excess eggs, milk, and guts and trimmings, including the rabbit hides I dont use and feet and legs (in meal sized portions). I only have 3 dogs so it is not like it is a BIG savings but I still buy less food. My point being however even if that isnt some thing you find yourself doing, if you find a local dog breeder or working kennel (sled dogs and hounds etc) that BARF they will a lot of times (if they are not raising there own-and sometimes even if they are) will pay a couple $ a lb for a "goodie" bucket. I used to sell my rabbit gut buckets to a guy who had dogs. 

Also I havent done it recently but I plan to this freshening, is feed my rabbit fryers goats milk. When I was raising rabbits back home with my mom we used to soak left over bread heals (none of us kids would eat them back then) in milk and give it to the litters of bunnies.
I would also think that if you didnt desire to raise meat creatures you could sell the left over/day old milk that would just be tossed for a small fee to a local Hog or Beef raiser. 
A friend of mine last year had so much extra milk she was giving it to the girls at the vets office I work at to raise their orphaned fawns, so leaving a message at your vets office could bring you some animal use buyers too. There it lots of ways to use the excess. Some if it may not make as "big" of a profit but it at least is not wasting it. 
Patina


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## Kaye White (Oct 25, 2007)

KJFarm:


> it is very easy to teach them to drink from a bucket.


That's the only way I will deal with calves! Course, I've usually got from 5-7 going at a time on goat milk and Jersey has 3 on her. Those big colored buckets that hang over a fence, have measuring marks inside. I go down the pens-32'x 20'-one calf to a pen, one bar in a panel cut out for them to stick their heads through, bucket on outside of pen, 5 gallon bucket of milk...feeding is done in no time. Go back down the line with water hose, wash bucket out, hang on fence out of calves reach. Clean next time for feeding.

Well....we just sent 4 dairy calves to the sale Mon. 1-holstein 785#-.55/#,1-brown swiss 845#-.75/#,1-Holst/jersey(all black) 715#-.88/# and one shorthorn 610#-.75#. Total check after commission-$2,155.78. These calves were all brought in as 3 days old on April 16th,07. There's 23 more head at different ages, in groups of 5-6 left in the steer pasture. Two Brangus that are going to butcher on Fri.(licking chops-FAT!!!)900-1,000#'s ea. My freezer and family's.
That's a pretty good profit on $75 calves. They stayed here for 9-12 wks. on milk, then up to a pasture.
Here right now, 600-800 calves are bringing the most money. It's usually the light weight calves 400-600 that bring the most per #. ?? I can't second guess feeder buyers. LOL...but the same buyer bought all 4 calves.Feedlot bound.

I like dealing with the calves. They're big and pushy by the time they go to pasture away from the house. 
Kaye


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2008)

I agree....use buckets when its possible. Makes things ALOT faster. I would change them to buckets at...OH...2 days old. The longer they was on the bottle the harder I found to put them on buckets. But, if you happen to get brown swiss calves....just give up and keep them on the bottle, they are HARD to get on a bucket. Kaye will agree with that point.

The best to me to get the top money at market is Holstiens. The market on them is going strong right now till they change over the Cert. Angus Beef program....due around the middle of 09. Now, black holstiens are able to bypass the program and get into that market. Just a heads up on that.

Ken in MI


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## KJFarm (Oct 26, 2007)

Calves are bringing good money right now. We just took 5 of our Beefmaster calves to the sale Monday. One heifer brought a $1.00#, the others brought from $.72# to .94#. These were just taken off the mamas about 2-3 weeks ago. No grain, just pasture and milk, the heaviest bull calf was 845#. I feed milk to my bottle calves for 3 months, they get pretty much as much as they want. Have 3 calves on my Jersey that are 6 weeks old, and they are getting huge.


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## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

I do however "BARF" feed my dogs ("Bones And Raw Food") to a certain extent (they get dog chow half of the time), but I feed them excess eggs, milk, and guts and trimmings, including the rabbit hides I dont use and feet and legs (in meal sized portions).

We also feed our placentas to the dogs, especially pregnant females or ones with pups. The stud dogs get next dibs, although we make sure that Kodiak, our neutered Pyrenees gets his fair share because he is "on" 24/7.

'Tis a good time of year for the dogs!


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