This could Wipe Out Your Homestead Financially! PLEASE LISTEN

that's right Molly you get them trespassers all right welcome back to the homestead and today we're going to get into a little something I'm going to talk about you know this could actually bust and break and destroy all the homesteads really if you don't if you don't budget properly right if you don't take things into account and a lot of y'all are just starting out on this journey so I'm going to share this little secret with you guys and it's going to help you out a lot right and it's also going to help you think about the things you should you know really monitor on your homestead but definitely budget for foreign hopefully you guys have been following the stories about the drought that's kind of been going on especially down in Texas and these other places right and I know some of you guys want to get on your homestead and you want to have a little livestock maybe some sheep you know these are hair sheep there that's why I like them they're hair sheep you don't have to shave them with the wool but you guys are going to want to get some animals maybe some horses like we got for alternative transportation if the grid goes down and besides I just like riding the horses and messing with the horses you might want to get some beef for yourself raise a little beef meat for yourself so you got to take all the stuff into account uh when you're setting up your homestead because right now I don't know like there were some stories I don't know if you guys have been following this stuff but the stories were about the drought and how Farmers from up here in Missouri is where I'm at they were taking their hay down to Texas because they had a drought going down in Texas they were taking that hay down to Texas and they were bringing livestock back up here because the guys down in Texas well they didn't have enough hay to feed their beef down there so they had to let go of their beef and get some hay for the beef that they could keep that they could take to Market now you have to take into account prices of hay now when we first got out here to the homestead I mean we were paying like two dollars and fifty cents three dollars for a square bale head like this right here there was a couple times during this time we've been here 13 years that we've had these drought spells and the price of the hay has gone up so one time it went from like three dollars I remember it went to like four and four fifty and that was a big deal like people were barking about it wow look at that they said and then it never really settled back down I never really bought hay for three dollars a bear a bale anymore after that four dollars a bail became the normal and that was good for a couple years and it's pretty much stayed around four dollars a bail now we get these small square bales you want to think about this as well when you guys are setting up your place right the square bales like I just showed you guys they're a lot easier to handle even for the horses and stuff you have to have a place to store them because we usually get several hundred at a time I'm gonna go through my little program with you we usually get through a several hundred uh Bales a year at a time so at first we had the belgians and I was buying like 400 and something bales you know to feed them and to keep the Sheep running a year so it was pretty expensive just even at three dollars a bale you could do your math it's like 1200 bucks we'll say 400 Bales three dollars a bale 1200 bucks and so I was really doing the math on that and thinking about how much I was using the belgians and I decided that I didn't use the belgians enough to justify all the feed they were gobbling up during the winter time and in the summertime even though they're on pasture they're pretty hard on the pasture they eat a lot of food and so I had to move them along and that's when I started kind of fancying the ideas of getting the John Deere deer skid steer and that's actually worked out really well for us so you guys have to kind of pick and choose your battles now a few years ago I switched the horses over to the big round bales instead of messing with the little Bales I can roll through about four or five of these a year with them that works pretty good those Bales right there are about 35 dollars is what they were normally 35 dollars for a big round bill of netted hay for the for the pasture you know for the horses and those bales that I showed you over there those Bales are running seven eight dollars a bale now this could literally wipe out an entire homestead's meat program because a lot of you guys are on a budget right super tight budget right because I remember when we first started this stuff you know until you get your systems in place and you start figuring out all the different ways you can make your money on your homestead things are pretty tight and your budget's pretty tight so I'm just trying to warn you guys up front right now about the situation with the hay for this year and I think going forward a lot of these guys they took their hay down there and they brought the the livestock back but now they're up here and we didn't have a great second and third cutting of hay which normally we do and now there's limited supply of hay up here and they're back in the trick bag now these guys are going to probably end up because you don't want to carry your livestock through winter here's a hot Homestead tip for you you guys are feeding your animals through winter all you're doing is basically keeping them alive they're not gaining right so the idea of your livestock is so they put on weight and then when they get to a good weight you take them to Market and then you sell by the pound and when you hold on to your beef and your lambs and you know your stuff during the winter time they're not able to put on any extra weight they're basically just maintaining or they're gonna lose a little bit by eating the hay all through the winter so a lot of these guys they dump their heavy livestock you know right in going into winter time and you get tax breaks on that but you dump them right before you're going in the winter time so you're not carrying them through the winter with the hay I keep seven eight U's not a big deal but on the back side of that is the when they lay them out they're going to lay them out in winter time that early win you know late winter early spring and so I'll have to keep feeding them and then I have to switch over to alfalfa hay which is a little more Rich for the moms so they can have milk and grow some milk there for the babies foreign [Music] about that smokey [Music] and get some huh I know I'll break it open for you give me a minute here foreign on it with his teeth like that I mean horses aren't really they don't eat like that so I like to break it up for them it's a lot easier for it it just makes it a little harder to make sure if you guys are doing this stuff you get that netting up don't leave that netting laying around that stuff will kill everybody kills your chickens big mess this hay doesn't look too bad once you peel her open a lot of brown on the outside make sure if you guys are looking at hay you go into it you want to make sure you see green on the inside that prices of this hay definitely affects the farm life and if you guys are new to this if you're getting into this lifestyle you have to keep this on your radar nobody ever really talks about this you have to budget for the hay and I would say budget double so if you guys are going to go through 200 bales and it's three dollars in your area that's 600 bucks budget for 1200 that way you're always leaving a little buffer in there some of this hay has gone over a hundred percent up in cost a hundred percent up in cost that's just Stone Cold facts and uh I'm just trying to bring you the truth to keep you guys prepared if you want to live this lifestyle and if you're already living it you this could be your first year second year in and maybe this is blindsiding you sorry I was a little late with the information I've been kind of beating the drum about it if you haven't noticed but everything you buy at the store everything you buy everywhere costs more money right now and I'm afraid it's only going to go up so you guys stay vigilant out there if you like this information make sure you hit the thumbs up on the way out if you're not subscribed to our Channel make sure you subscribe to our Channel we got more daily videos on the way we had a lot of stuff to catch up on the homestead with a lot of stuff going on in the garden we had to put down ferment get ready for the root cellar just a lot of preparations going on a lot of preparations already going on for 2023. we got a lot of great information coming out for you guys foreign foreign ER bye I had to let Mr Turkey out he got caught on the other side of the fence but before you get out of here is another reason why to keep your eye on the food prices going into winter and then spring all right don't get caught flat-footed

Channel: OFF GRID with DOUG & STACY

Views: 211,391

Keywords: Off Grid with Doug and Stacy, Doug and Stacy, Doug, Stacy, Off Grid, off the grid, off the grid living, off the grid homes, off grid living, off grid cabin, off grid with Doug and Stacy, off grid solar power system, off grid house, off grid homestead, off grid solar, homestead, homesteading, homesteading for beginners, homesteading off the grid, cooking from scrtch, self sufficient, growing food, how to grow food

Id: t4mEOm1Ht4Q

Length: 10min 46sec (646 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 28 2022