{"id":2679,"date":"2012-10-27T03:00:21","date_gmt":"2012-10-27T07:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=2679"},"modified":"2012-10-27T03:00:21","modified_gmt":"2012-10-27T07:00:21","slug":"q-and-a-feeding-pumpkins-to-cattle-making-bread-and-trimming-pigs-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2012\/10\/27\/q-and-a-feeding-pumpkins-to-cattle-making-bread-and-trimming-pigs-feet\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: feeding pumpkins to cattle, making bread, and trimming pigs’ feet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feeding pumpkins to cattle<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do you feed pumpkins to cattle? Do you chop it, cook it, or just throw it into feed troughs whole? I grew some mangels so how do you feed those.<\/em>
\n\u00a0<\/em>
\nGail<\/em>
\nPalisade, Colorado<\/em><\/p>\n

With adult cattle, just toss the pumpkins in. I usually throw them down hard to crack the shells to make it easier for the cattle to get at them. I only chop the pumpkins with a machete for younger calves who might possibly choke on a chunk. With mangels, you DO chop them when feeding to stock. The old timers had beet cutters that chopped the beets (mangels) for livestock. I just rinse them and then lay them on a piece of board and chop away with my trusty machete (from the dump!). Watch your feet and shins though. A machete is an awesome…and dangerous tool. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Making bread<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have made your rye bread and Grandma’s oatmeal bread, my husband and brother loved them. Now for the bad news, I don’t know what happen to your pumpernickel rye bread. The dough would not stiffen up after 1\u00bd more cups of flour\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Next do I pull all the stalks off my rhubarb for the winter? This is the first year growing rhubarb and I don’t want to kill them. <\/em><\/p>\n

Sherry<\/em>
\nLancaster, California<\/em><\/p>\n

There’s a great deal of difference in flours. With any bread, if the dough seems too sticky (EXCEPT half-time spoon rolls, whose dough is very sticky!), simply add more flour until the dough is stiff enough. With the pumpernickel rye, you want quite a stiff dough, so keep adding \u00bd cup at a time until it gets there.<\/p>\n

Don’t pull any of your rhubarb stalks off for winter. The leaves and stalks add valuable compost to the plant and help it overwinter. You can also help by adding about 8 inches of rotted manure right over the whole thing. I do this often and my rhubarb has stalks two inches in width or more and the leaves are huge! — Jackie<\/p>\n

Trimming pigs’ feet<\/strong><\/p>\n

I need to trim the hooves on some of our pigs. They are not very cooperative and need some kind of sedation. The anesthetic shot has to be given by a vet which is pricey. Do you have an idea? The pigs are half Berkshire\/half Potbelly. <\/em><\/p>\n

BTW we did all of this year’s canning with your Canning Book, great recipes. We opened a jar of sweet gherkins, delicious.<\/em><\/p>\n

Flemino Tary<\/em>
\nMadison, Minnesota<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve never had to trim any of our pigs’ feet, but our pigs run outside, dig, and root. You can trim pigs’ feet and other minor procedures by having a stout pig crate on your farm. This requires a chute to get them into it, but once inside, you should be able to trim all four feet by using a soft rope to gently pull each foot up, like you would a horse. In the future, I’d suggest building a cement walkway with a rough surface so the pigs have to walk on it to reach their feed and water. This way, they’ll self-trim their own feet. Making it a slanting surface will force them to climb a bit (don’t overdo it, though!). Climbing a little and walking back downhill wears off the excess part of the feet.<\/p>\n

I’m glad you got plenty of use out of my book. Isn’t canning fun? And tasty! — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feeding pumpkins to cattle How do you feed pumpkins to cattle? Do you chop it, cook it, or just throw it into feed troughs whole? I grew some mangels so how do you feed those. \u00a0 Gail Palisade, Colorado With adult cattle, just toss the pumpkins in. I usually throw them down hard to crack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,8,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}