How To Grow Mustard Seed Plants

Many people do not realize that a mustard seed plant is the same plant as a mustard greens plant. This versatile plant can be grown as a vegetable and eaten like other greens or, if allowed to flower and go to seed, mustard seeds can be harvested and used as a spice in cooking or ground into a popular condiment. Learning how to grow mustard seeds is easy and rewarding.

How To Grow Mustard Seed Plants

Mustard seed plants are normally grown from seed but can be grown from purchased seedlings as well. When selecting mustard seeds for planting, any mustard plant grown for greens can also be grown for mustard seed.

Plant the mustard seed about three weeks before your last frost date. Since you will be harvesting the mustard seed, there is no need to use succession planting like you do with mustard greens. Plant your mustard seeds about an 1 inch apart. Once they sprout, thin the seedlings so that they are 6 inches apart. Mustard plants grown for seed are planted further apart than plants grown for just leaves as the mustard plant will be getting much larger before it flowers.

How to Grow Mustard Seeds

Once mustard seed plants start growing, they need little care. They enjoy cool weather and will bolt (flower) quickly in warmer weather. While this may seem like a great thing if you are looking to grow mustard seeds, it is not. Mustard plants that bolt due to warm weather will produce poor flowers and seeds. It is best to keep them on their normal flowering cycle to be able to harvest the best mustard seeds.

Mustard seed plants need 2 inches of water a week. Normally, during cool weather, you should get enough rainfall to supply this, but if you do not, you will need to do additional watering.

Mustard seed plants do not need fertilizer if they have been planted in well amended garden soil, but if you are unsure if your soil is nutrient rich, you can add a balanced fertilizer to the roots once the plants are 3 to 4 inches tall.

How to Harvest Mustard Seeds

The mustard plants will eventually flower and go to seed. The flowers of mustard seed plant are generally yellow but some varieties have white flowers. As the mustard flower grows and matures, it will form pods. Watch for these pods to start to turn brown. Another sign that you are nearing harvest time will be that the leaves of the plant will start to yellow. Be careful not to leave the pods on the mustard seed plant for too long as they will burst open when fully ripe and the mustard seed harvest will be lost.

The next step in harvesting mustard seeds is to remove the seeds from the pods. You can do this with your hands, or you can place the flower heads in a paper bag and allow them to finish maturing. The pods will open on their own in 1-2 weeks and a gentle shake of the bag will shake loose most of the mustard seeds.

Mustard seeds can be used fresh, but like other herbs and spices, if you plant on storing them long term, they will need to be dried.

Indian Runner Ducks

Uses: Utility - Eggs and good for organic pest control.
Eggs: Up to 200 eggs per year.
Origin: East Indies.
Weight: Drake: 1.6 - 2.3 Kg, Duck: 1.4 - 2 Kg.
Classification: Runner.
Colours: Apricot Trout (Saxony), Black, Blue, Chocolate, Fawn, Fawn & White, Mallard, Silver, Trout, White.
Useful to Know: Indian Runners do not originate from India but the East Indies - Malaya, Java and Lombok. They are prolific egg layers that are happier spending most of their time foraging for food than being on water. Probably THE most popular duck that can be found in a multitude of colour varieties.

Indian Runner ducks are possibly the most influential of all of the duck breeds. Many of today's breeds of light duck have in part been created from the Indian Runner Duck. The Welsh Harlequin, Abacot Ranger and the famous Khaki Campbell for example would not exist if it were not for the Indian Runner.

The Indian Runner is reported to have first appeared in the UK in 1835 and they were originally called Penguin Ducks. The first fawn and white runners were standardised in 1901 with other colours following.

Indian Runners are active ducks that enjoy foraging for slugs and insects. One of their original uses in Asia was to clear the paddy fields of pests. They would be driven there in the mornings and rounded up again at night so that they could be kept safe from predators over night. Of course, they are well equipped to cover the distance quickly being able to run at a reasonable pace. In some parts of the World, they are still used in this way. Some organic vineyards in South Africa are starting to use Indian Runner Ducks to clear the vines of pests to avoid the use of chemicals.

How to Choose Meat Goat Breeds

If you are raising goats for meat, you may wonder what breed is best for the small farmer. While you can, of course, raise any breed of goat for meat, specific breeds are focused on putting on weight versus producing milk, as well as other characteristics that make the breed more desirable for meat production.

If you are raising goats for meat, you don't need to buy a show goat - in fact, you shouldn't. Show goats and meat goats are raised in completely different ways. You don't need to buy registered stock. Most meat producers will find a good, full breed buck and breed him with mixed-breed does. Finding the right market for your goat meat will determine what qualities you want in the kids.

Boer

Boer goats were raised in South Africa for meat and were selected for superior body shape, high growth rate and fertility. They have large frames. They are white and reddish-brown, or all red, short-haired, and with black, brown or red markings on the head and neck. They have short horns that are curved close to the head.

Spanish

Before Boer goats became available in the US in the late 1980s, Spanish goats were the standard meat-goat breed, especially in the South. These goats are descendants of goats brought by Spanish explorers. They're medium-sized and lanky, mostly short-haired, and come in all colors. They have long, often twisty horns.

Brush

These are a mixture of breeds that are adaptable and hardy. They're also called hill, briar, wood, or native goats. Both Spanish and Brush goats are more of a type of goat than an actual, defined breed.

Tennessee fainting goat

Tennessee Fainting goats are, in fact, from Tennessee and are also called myotonic goats, Nervous goats, Wooden goats or Stiff Leg goats. When startled, these goats go rigid and "faint" or fall down. Myotonic goats are hardy, fertile, and have a long breeding season.

Kiko

Large-framed, white, hardy and able to thrive under poor conditions, the Kiko was developed in New Zealand and brought to the US in the 1990s. Kikos are strictly meat producing goats.

If you have a lot of range available, Kikos may be a more economical breed than Boers for you to raise.

Pygmy

Pygmy goats are mostly pets, but they do have some potential for meat because they have a compact and meaty body and are fertile out of season.

Dairy Goat Crosses

Often, dairy goat breeds such as Nubian, Alpine, Toggenburg, and Saanen are crossed with Boers for meat production.

Other Crosses

There are also some new crossbreeds available as meat goats are growing in popularity. Some of the more common new meat goat breeds include:

Moneymaker. Moneymakers are a cross of Sannen and Nubian breeds, then bred with Boers.
Texmaster. This is a medium breed in size, a cross between Boers and Tennessee Fainting Goats developed in Texas by Onion Creek Ranch.
Savanna. This breed resists heat and drought. They are muscular and have a short white coat with a cashmere undercoat to help them stay warm in colder winters. Highly adaptable to various weather conditions, they're a good choice for places with weather challenges. They make excellent mothers.

Tips for Cleaning Your Chicken Coop

When it comes to cleaning your chicken coop, it's a chore you just have to do, even if you use the deep litter method, which minimizes how often you clean. But whether you use the deep litter method or not, these tips will help you get the chore done in the minimum amount of time with the minimum amount of fuss.

Use hay, not straw or pine shavings. Hay has less dust than pine shavings and is easier to manage -- and cheaper! -- than straw, and chickens love to eat the seeds. Cover your coop floor with hay and use it in the nest boxes, too.

Use roosting boards, removable poop trays, or tarps.  Most of your chickens' poop is going to be collected underneath the roosts, so if you can figure out a way to capture and easily remove the poop under the roosts, your job will be a lot easier. Some folks make trays that slide out easily and can be emptied on the compost pile. Others use a tarp slung on poles underneath the roosts. Whatever particular method you use, the point is to be able to easily clean under the roosts.

Make your roosts removable. When building your chicken coop, design it so that roosts either flip up easily out of the way or can be removed from the coop entirely. This makes it easier to rake or shovel out the entire coop when you clean it.

Slant the tops of nesting boxes. There's a chicken law: anywhere horizontal, a chicken will perch if she can. So make sure the tops of your nesting boxes have a slant to them to minimize or eliminate chickens, er, eliminating into the nest boxes.

Use a tarp. Some folks use a tarp underneath the entire coop (if it's small enough to allow for this). When cleaning time comes, you just pull out the tarp with all the bedding and poop on it, dump it in the compost, clean it off and reinstall it with fresh bedding on top.

Happy New Year

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Small-breed Milk Cows

Miniature cows cost $1,800 to $3,500 depending on the size, markings and color. (A good standard Jersey sold as a family milk cow will cost $1,400 to $1,800.) Although small-breed cattle may cost more initially, they have some interesting advantages. 

How small are small-breed Jerseys? What about miniature Holsteins?

Miniature cattle are classified in three categories as measured by height at the hip. These three categories are (1) midsize miniature, 42 to 48 inches; (2) standard miniature, 36 to 42 inches; and (3) micro-miniature, 36 inches and under. Small-breed cattle range in weight from 500 to 800 pounds. In general, a miniature milk cow is a third to half the size of the standard milk cow. I find that the 42- to 44-inch height is the most ideal for a family small-breed milk cow. Smaller cows may present logistical problems — you might have to sit on the floor to milk them.

How much milk do they give? Is it the same quality as from a standard cow?

A standard-size milk cow in peak production can give 6 to 10 gallons of milk per day. What do you do with that much milk? That’s the great thing about small-breed Jerseys. My cows give 1 to 1 1/2 gallons per milking. This level of production provides enough milk for drinking as well as for making some cheese and butter on a weekly basis, plus a little left over to give to a neighbor or friend. The quality of the milk is excellent, with butterfat content of about 4.9 percent. I store milk in gallon Mason jars. Each jar of milk will have about 3 inches of cream at the top.

How much feed do the small-breed cattle require?

That all depends on your philosophy concerning cattle. I believe that cattle are designed to be grass-fed. The rumen (one of a cow’s four stomachs) has bacteria that make the cow an efficient converter of cellulosic material into beef and milk. If grain is introduced into a cow’s diet, different bacteria are required for digestion.