Yay for the water!!!! The only thing worse than no water coming in is no water going out!
Those were some cool links, Bee. FK, I know nothing about cows except that they can stick their tongues right up there noses, but it looks to me that the breed is important from that first link. I know horses, and I know most modern breeds would not survive well if turned loose on the plains. Numbers would sharply decline at first, then the sturdiest would start to survive and within a few short years, there would be no signs of QH's with huge bodies and tiny feet and TB's that break down before they grow up, etc.
When I switched my breeds of chickens to one more suited to our cold winters here in MA, they did much better with the free-ranging and unheated, door-open-everyday coop that is my style.
I think one has to be really motivated to switch to that style of farming and find new markets for their products, but the markets are there and are growing. If I wanted to use my two acre pasture for Salatin-style chicken farming, I could sell every last egg and still have a waiting list. This is obvious when I have a few extra dozen to offer during peak production, and I have, literally, 17 people wanting each dozen, without even trying. I keep getting asked when I am getting more chickens. And I told all these people that I don't feed organic, but I do the best I can.
With my interest in ss practices, my father and I have had many talks about how his father farmed. My father remembers the last of the horses that worked in the fields. Generally, Pepere wanted to be "modern" and would switch his practices whenever a new method came along. They became less and less ss as time went on. Many of the old methods are almost lost, which is sad.
One thing that interested me was the soaking of grains before feeding. Dad doesn't remember everything that was fed, coming from a family with 11 kids, he wasn't involved in every chore. He doesn't remember a grinder, but he does remember putting oats, grown on the farm, into buckets of water to soak for several days until they started to bubble and ferment. Then they would be fed to the pigs.
No corn was available. Any grain fed was barley and oats, and potatoes were cooked outdoors in a large pot to feed as well. And hay, of course, with those long, sub-zero Northern Maine winters.
Just my rambling. I find it all so fascinating. I can't wait for my turkeys for pastured turkey meat in my freezer and canning jars, and I am determined to get a quarter of grass-fed beef next fall. The health benefits are amazing. More boomers are aware of this, but most of the population just wants their processed foods, so there is room for both types of farming.
Lori! Funny gal!
----remember I say "downgrade" I never say stop..HA HA
