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Post by Alan on Aug 19, 2011 8:10:36 GMT -5
Luckily here in Pekin and Southern Indiana in general there aren't a whole lot of "pigs are pets" people and those that were here can no longer afford them as pets, which means that theres a ton of other rednecks around (who realize that pork is pork) who have bought up breeders left and right and sale the babies cheap $25-50. I got mine from a friend who gave them to me to save himself some money on feed. That said, finding a cheap guinea hog, kunekune, or russian is going to be a pain but there are wild russian hogs that run through this area from time to time, so the possibility of trapping is not out of the question. I agree with you about pedigree breeding in livestock 100%. The beef cattle folks are about the only conventional livestock raisers that are rational about genetics and the use of outbreeding/crossbreeding. Our milk cow is a Jersey/Highlander cross. She grows a wooly coat in the winter, sheds slick as a jersey (almost) in summer, has always calves without assistance, never had mastitis or any other medical problem, and has never shown the least sign of milk fever at calving. And she stays in excellent condition on mediocre but improving pasture and really crappy hay. The only grain she ever gets is bribe grain in the milking stall to keep her content till I finish and excited about getting milked. In regards to your actual post. Those pigs sound pretty cool. How did you convince a Pot Belly breeder to sell you some for meat? I've actually seen people say online that Pot Bellies are inedible! LOL. I've thought about using a PB but most of the ones I see for sale on Craigslist are going for ridiculous prices.
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Post by Alan on Aug 18, 2011 20:48:56 GMT -5
For those who missed it I recently posted pictures of my pallet based hogshed over at homegrowngoodness.blogspot.com I've got pictures now of the fence since it's finished and will get them up in short order and just finished a secondary hogshed project......anyhow, this is only slightly related.
Do any of you raise heritage hogs? If so what kind and why? What do you find is best adapted to your climate and why? Do you pasture them?
We recently aquired three potbelly types (yes, I know, in this country they are unfortunately regarded as "pets" but all PC bullshit aside they were the Asian heritage hog). 1 male and 2 females. All are siblings. The females are relegated to one pen and the males to others as my plan is to find either a male guinea hog, KuneKune, or cross (My friend Bill maintains a nice 1/3 russian, 1/3 guinea, 1/3 potbelly mix I'm hoping to aquire) and to aquire a female KuneKune, Guinea, or cross for the male potbelly. This should give me a good genetic base for a small 100-150 lb homestead hog. Yes, they are short on bacon (nearly non existent) but deliver the goods in all other departments (including lard to be used for soap making) but their small size makes them easy to handle live and for butchering purposes. They are also increadibly active foragers. We plan on raising a few acres of Amanda Palmer every fall to fence off with electric fence and let them run on (makes more sense to take them to the corn than the corn to them) and fatten up the babies for butcher (while also clearing crop residue and refertilizing and plowing the land). Our secondary use is in selling breeding stock to others.
We hope in time as well to run them in fields in between our fruit and nut trees to clean up windfall fruit.
Thoughts to share?
(for those wondering, yes, I'm slightly OCD about this landrace genetics thing when it comes to everything I do, be it livestock or seeds, I have seen the effects of line breeding and pedigree breeding and how poorly those types perform in my production system, and intrinsicly throughout 10,000 years of aghistory others have agreed with me while producing in a self sustainable system)
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Post by Alan on Aug 18, 2011 20:39:17 GMT -5
.....the fire burns the water drowns. Sinner and the sin, to a judgement call or not at all! Do you hear them sing? Their bloodthirsty again, your trading shells for wings, somewhere (theres a soul) waiting for you to die."
-Travis Meeks -Days Of The New
This past fall Castanea was kind enough to send me a ton of Waxy corn seed as well as an Asian f1 flint corn hybrid of about 90 DTM the flint I've now used in an admixture including Amanda Palmer giving rise to some beautiful tall flint/palmer crosses of multiple colors. Totally unstable, but totally worth future persuit as well as this seed was planted amongst the low fertility and zero irrigation fields and performed stellarly, producing two to three good ears at about 4-5 feet in the air. The working name is "Dancing With The Wind" aprapot to the effect of wind pollinated corn in a bachanalian orgy. Pictures to follow (along with those of Amanda Palmer) here and on the blog in the near future.
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Post by Alan on Aug 18, 2011 7:40:24 GMT -5
Fusion, I'll see if I can find the paper, but there was a Maize Genomics Center (If I remember right) study that showed that SU was fixed in populations at multiple times in multiple locations including Peru, Mexico, the southwest, and the east coast. In most locations it was considered simply an oddity. Buhl is a standard su variety. su - keeps 2 or 3 days su/se - keeps 3 to 5 days se+ keeps up to 7 days sh2 - keeps up to 2 weeks synergistic - various, but generally 2 weeks or more. Virtually all heirloom sweet corn varieties are standard su. If you dig around in the literature, you will find that the se gene was found in a variety named "Narrow Leaf Evergreen". The su gene is pretty well documented to have originated in South America. There are about a dozen other modifier genes that lead to sweeter corn such as du, waxy, etc. DarJones
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Post by Alan on Aug 16, 2011 23:36:21 GMT -5
Martin, I would be interested in growing it and giving it a go. I love turnips and rutabegas with a passion. I am particularly fond of Kapulers six root grex turnips, though they need some selection for size of bulbs.
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Post by Alan on Aug 16, 2011 23:04:16 GMT -5
I have begun the Amanda Palmer harvest for the year begining with the 2 acres atop the hill here at Bishop's Homegrown. These plots were verly lightly fertilized with composted poultry litter (about half even of what I used last season for the low fertility Astronomy) and recieved no irrigation, they were also planted using a no till planter at the reccomended rate for modern commercial corn (how else am I gonna prove their productivity to local farmers if the population can't stand up to such methods, minus the chemicals obviously). The deer and raccons have done much damage to this part of my crop as has the drought but the crop has still produced and is producing viable seed and feed for humans and animals. Most selections are obviously coming from those stalks producing ears to high for deer damage and stalks too strong to be taken down by raccons.
This year Amanda was all over the place as the genetics for so many different and unique types of corns vied for their place in the field. Some pollination was spotty, some are dry grain now, some are 3/4 dry, some are 1/2 dry, some are in milk stage, and some are only now silking and tassleing giving the opporotunity for uniqe dtm selections.
Ironically some which are dry now are amongst the tallest at 15 feet or so with two good ears. These are my winners.
I'll try to post some pictures soon and will definitely blog shortly.
Down the hill there is a production plot of Amanda Palmer, still planted much thicker than it should be and still underfertilized (compared to commercial corns) it is a sight to behold. From it came two first place prizes at this years county fair, beating out the local farmers and their GMO hybrids.
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Post by Alan on Aug 16, 2011 22:57:56 GMT -5
I have grown pretty well all of Kapulers sweet corns, some with great success, others are not so well adapted to the Ohio Valley and most if not all are part of Astronomy Domine.
I personally love Rainbow Inca at the bi-color stage showing just a wee bit of color, not boiled mind you, but roasted over a fire in the husk it is amazing, then again, I also love with a passion golden bantam more than any other corn in the world including my own astronomy domine.
Double Red and the other red lines Kapuler has released all do well for me here though the production is low due to genetic drag. Taste is fantastic though I prefer a larger kernal type of corn. Ruby queen does well here too, dig around in Astronomy and you'll find the OP equivelent of Ruby Queen quickly.
Painted hills is too small and weak stemmed for my taste and the production is low, but the same holds true here of Painted Mountain.
True Gold and True Platinum are both large components of Astronomy giving taller stalks, more productivity, and stronger stalks, so too are their hybrid parents involved in the cross.
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Post by Alan on Aug 16, 2011 21:28:08 GMT -5
Seems I have overlooked popcorn and since as of this year most of my long term projects are done I wouldn't mind to start working on a popcorn genepool. Anybody got some good seed varieties to share. The taller and stronger the stem the better in my situation.
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Post by Alan on Aug 12, 2011 20:35:21 GMT -5
;D Much appreciated Martin!
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Post by Alan on Aug 12, 2011 18:20:45 GMT -5
I should also add this is something I fully encourage Joseph, just be careful with those day lenght sensitive corns as breeding with them is a real pain in the ass and one wrong selection a generation or two in leads to the law of diminishing returns.
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Post by Alan on Aug 12, 2011 14:47:39 GMT -5
Joseph, while you are mostly correct about the parentage of Astronomy Domine I should point out that in fact there are tons of genetics from Cocopah, Paiute, Anasazi, Hopi Pink, Rainbow Inca and pretty much anything that Native Seeds Search has had available in sweet corn diversity over the past six years , of course it could be moved more in the direction of those genetics if one so chooses. I never thought I'd be writing this.... Astronomy Domine is the most variable sweet corn commonly available today. It is mostly derived from the Northern Flint race of corn, a race with low levels of genetic diversity. Additionally, most of the parent lines were inbred varieties. Traits include: Mostly non-tillering. All stiff-stalk. All cylindrical cobs. Mostly medium sized kernels. The kernels all adhere equally strongly to the cob. In short, Astronomy Domine is a traditional New England sweet corn with added colors, and with the relatively low diversity typical of the northern flint race from which it is derived. The "Hopi Blue Flour Corn" that I crossed to get Darth's seed has been commercialized and inbred so it was also quite uniform. However... The other Hopi corns that I grew were much more variable: Hopi Pink flour, and Anasazi sweet. These come from the Mexican Highlands race of corn, and being closer geographically to the center of diversity of corn, and not having been commercialized, they are much more variable. I am currently working on projects to incorporate genes from the Mexican Highlands race and the Andean race into Astronomy Domine.
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Post by Alan on Aug 12, 2011 12:37:23 GMT -5
Looking for more diversity in these crops. Any help much appreciated and trades reciprocated.
-Alan
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Post by Alan on Aug 12, 2011 12:35:51 GMT -5
Anybody have some topset types they would like to share? Once again (as was the case with my request for torpedo onions) I am attempting to up my allium diversity here on the farm. Also looking for multiple garlic varieties.
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Post by Alan on Aug 1, 2011 23:04:48 GMT -5
Ironically enough 12540 Dumont, those all (with the exception of the green entry) are ones I have not yet grownout. If you have some seed to share this fall I'd be greatly appreciative and would reciprocate with a trade. HeartsKosovo, pink Aggressive TasteHerman's Special OtherCherokee Green RedsChapman, beef Neves Azorean Red PSR-37, OP Early Girl orange/GoldAunt Gertie's Gold These are what we are trialing this year. We also have African Queen, Santa Clara Canner, and Indian Stripe. I have never, no matter what else I have grown, been able to beat the taste, productivity and all around easy of the Early Girl. Hence our turn to the PSR 37. Out of the gate this year the Neves was the first tomato, followed very quickly by Sungolds and PSR 37/Early Girl. This photo is an Early Girl.
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Post by Alan on Jul 31, 2011 19:50:30 GMT -5
Paricularly productive, tasty, and with little catfacing and or cracking.
Mostly (since I've already been through the gammit of off colors) I'm looking for 5-12 ounce productive round slicers/juicers in red, yellow, pink, and orange, can be OP or hybrid or segregating or landrace. Preference to stuff that makes excellent juice, looks good on a market table, and qualifies as a survival type.
Also, looking for highly productive, crack resistant beefsteaks of all colors.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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