Growing your own grain???

Or, you could by 2 bu 'here' for under $5, and use the land & your time for something else.

The 'payoff' is a lot of labor, for rather small gain.

Just want people to be aware of that. Not discouraging it - just be aware.

There is a lot of satisfaction & control when growing garden or orchard crops, no matter the $$$ gains or losses. Grain crops seems less so - to me. Perhaps to others as well?

Don't over fertilize oats - it lodges bad if it gets too much N..... Oats mostly depends on climate, cool early growing season, dry hot ripening season. Fertility and such take a back seat to climate to start with.

--->Paul

We used oats since we also seeded down the land with alfalfa/clover/brome for grazing the next year.
We used the oats in feed for the various animals.
We spread it out to dry more after combining and bagged it up.
100 pounds of oats is 10 bucks or so at the mill so a bag saves us that when getting the feed ground.
I can't remember how many we got off our 1/2 acre anymore maybe 7 or so.

We would like to try wheat sometime for human consumption.....

We did 3 acres of corn this year for the animals but the picker sheller I borrowed is proving to be a pain in the tuckus...sat unshedded for 5 years or so and things are breaking.....
We will probably end up picking the ears and storing them in the gravity box and anywhere else till we need to shell some for the mill.
We don't have enough animals to pasture out there.

In a shtf situation there may be no way to go down to the mill and get your yearly needs. Then it will be imperative that you have a supply and a way to replenish that supply. I'm no doom and gloomer but I know I can do it if I need to and that's what I needed to know.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

That's my thinking too. Just because a person can buy bags of grain today doesn't mean that will always be the case. With grain being a diet staple and very storable it's worth knowing how to raise your own.

__________________
"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

I have two questions...

Is there any way to shell sunflower seeds? My mammoth sunflowers gave us 6-10 gallons of seeds and I was wondering if they could be cracked/shelled by some contraption.

Has anyone tried growing amaranth as their (human) grain source? Seems like it would make a nice living fence and the grain is very healthy. Seems pretty easy to harvest and process as well.

How do u all think they threshed grain back before the Revolution? Theyre barns were the typical bank style barns with a (Threshing) floor in the middle, with hay on one side in the mow, and straw in the other. There shocks of wheat/oats were stacked at the back of the (threshing)floor, or as we call it today, the driveway. Stacked high and tight after drying. . These types of barns usually had one or 2 sheds on on or both ends. The one I had where I first lived had 2 sheds, another on the way to grade school only had one. It was smaller tho all around.
Anyway, In the late Fall, during snow or rain storms, the farmer and his dad and grown kids would go out to the barn, throw some shocks down evenly on the middle (threshing) floor. Then, one behind the other, and off to the L side, they would use a flail to thresh the heads from the stalks. A flail is made by haveing a handle and haveing a 2ft length of GOOD leather. 1ft is nailed to the handle, and another is fixed to a 2ft long length of wood. Length adds weight. To use it, each would bring it down on his right side, then twirl it around with a step and bring it down on his left. Over and over for say 5 or 10 rounds. Then they would fork up the stalks and reposition them, and do it again. After that, they would fork up the stalks shakeing them good and looking to see if too much grain is still on them. If satisfied, they would fork the loose straw in the straw side of the mow, and relay the threshing floor with another layer of shocks, and go at it again. Pretty cheap and easy, and I would imagine, not overally exerting. But not something I think I would care to do by myself.

Yeah, it really depends on if you are growing the grain for animal feed, or if you want it for personal family use.

For animal feed, then I'd grow it and cut it and feed it on the stalk, a la Gene Logsdon style.

For personal use...well, it depends on how many people, I guess. If you have kids, then maybe you could make a game out of whacking the grain out with plastic bats?

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I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
The Cloud
Percy Bysshe Shelley

I have read a lot about growing your own small grains and seen some demonstrations on threshing and winnowing wheat. But i got to say id rather use a combine much easier and you don't need a $200,000 combine. I know a young guy just started out farming and his first combine he bought this year was an Oliver 525 with a 13ft grain head and a 3 row corn head he bought the whole thing for 950$ and with 400$ more in nuts bolts chains and oil he harvested his first crop of soybeans this year. You can use a pull behind combine like an IH 80 or 82 or an Allis chalmers all crop for small grains and can typically find a good unit for 1000-2000 and you can find a good corn picker with or without a sheller for the same price but you can often find self-propelled combines like an Oliver 525 535, MF 540 550, New Holland TR 70, a JD 3300 or 4400 for $4-5000 with a corn or grain head some times both. is it ever cost productive to grow your own. I really doubt it if you actually break down the numbers including labor and such but its fun, you know your grain is safe for you and your family and animals. as to a Post-Apocalyptic world i don't have a clue i think it will be heck on earth in that case. Even if the economy goes south i think it will tough to do much of anything. as to planting small grains i bought an Oliver superior grain drill with grass seeder and can plant anything from oats to wheat, soybeans, alfalfa, grasses most small grains. I paid $250 For it but you can often find old seed drills for a 100-300 bucks and they do a good job. I know a few farmers who use a 3pt broadcast seeder and it does ok if you lightly harrow the field after planting. but drilling will give you a much much better stand and whole heaping better yield per acre than any other style of planting. as to corn a small walk behind seeder for small plots is ok and if your planting an acre or more id look at a 2 or 4 row corn planter like an IH 56 or JD 494 but me i will spend more and get a JD 7000 planter it doesn't use plates it uses a finger system and gives a much more accurate planting ratio and much better stand of corn with better bushels per acre than an old plate planter. you can find one for 2000 more or less if you get fertilizer attachments or a no-till model. but If you have a 35 hp(light side) or a 45 or bigger tractor you can throw in 4000 more and have a complete set of grain equipment that will last you a lifetime if you TAKE CARE OF IT. ie grease regularly replace the chains and belts when needed.

Last thing is you can buy a grain drill for $1-300 and plant your self a nice big field and pay a local farmer to combine the grain for you. around here the going price of harvesting is $22-25 an acre so for 20 bucks you could have it harvested and save you $, time and work and have all the grain you need for you and your animals. lots of small farmers don't even have a combine they hire it done.

well that's my rant

have fun take care and god bless

here is a good one and if you got somthing like this you can make some extra $ in the fall to offset the cost by helping farmers harvest there crops.
comes with both corn and grain head. good little combine for the hobby farmer.

http://www.tractorhouse.com/listings...x?OHID=5891605

I paid $2 for my 1924 McCormick grain drill. Replaced the wood sides, and now need to do it again. Bought it origionally in 70

If you are interested in growing your own grains, here is a great thread on the All Crop:

Allis Chalmers All Crop

IMHO, if for personal use, not worth the hassle. But for the sake of preparedness, buy what you need every year, but always save enough to grow it yourself if need be.

If for animal, growing it yourself might be worth it.

I haven't grown any yet, but have ordered seed to give it a try. I plan on planting very small plots of 3 types as a test. All work will be done by hand. One of the grains I ordered says it's good for goats, with chickens cleaning up the grains that drop from the heads (goat leavings.)

I ordered small seed packets of organic open pollinated varieties. If it works out, I'll save seed to plant the following year. I like to share seed with friends and neighbors. That way if I lose my crop, I can probably get some starter seed from someone I shared with. I've never had to go to them for new starter seed as I always save back a bit instead of planting all that I have in storage. I've also been known to grow a seed saver plant in a pot on the porch. Those plants get covered to keep the animals from eating them.

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What's a good way to save seed?

I was thinking that vacuum packing them and maybe packing an oxygen eliminator might work for storing seeds for several years. Or does the germ need oxygen?

__________________
"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

I have said it before, but I think there is a HUGE opportunity for some enterprising family to create a HOMESTEAD system to cut and thresh homestead sized stands of grains, especially wheat, for homestead use. I think we would see a great increase in planting and use of home grown grains if there were truly a machine developed for specific homestead use.

I'm thinking of a unit that could cut grain heads only and collect them for delivery to an inside storage and threshing meachine--but on wheels, so families could share or rent the threshing units and do the threshing inside, thus beating the weather.....(this is an updated version of what FarmBoyBill is referring to when he describes the threshing floor of older times--well, actually Biblical times, think Ruth and Boaz....)

For the cutting unit, think of a way, mounted on a rig(we'll call it a rig--could be a tractor, a compact tractor, ATV?, lawn tractor....) adjustable for height, to clip the grain heads only, then use a vacuum (hmmm, leaf vac on a box wagon?) to collect them and get them to the barn. For the threshing, how about a blower system to dash the grain against a stationary beater(instead of dashing a beater against the grain heads?)--then use either additional wind blowers to sift the chaff and lift it out of the grain which falls by gravity, through a sifting screen, to the bin.

Keep the horsepower under five.......think DR.......

As I have said before, if only I had learned to weld.....

geo

A big metal comb to comb the heads off, perhaps?

Geo, in addition to what I posted in the other thread, there are powered machines that can be had made in the Far East:

http://www.ecvv.com/product/1629330.html

Quality and parts availability would be a concern.

But gie me a a few million and I will make on for you!

In Ruths time they used livestock to walk around the threshing floor to pound/grind out the heads of grain. Later they used a stone to do it, the same way as they ground grapes, AND maybe that was what Gidian? was doing when he was threshing wheat in his dads grape press.

When you speak of homesteading, and homesteaders. You speak of people who usually, ( The real ones), not the wannabes, want to do things the cheapest way, even if it is hard. The wannabes want to do things the easiest way, even if it isnt cheap, AND, They want people to make up machinery that will cost little to enable them to do it.
The smaller and more compact a machine is, the more expensive it is. The bigger a machine is, to a point, the more cheaper it is.

The origional homesteaders, or at least the ones we commonaly think of, are like D Boone, and D Crockett, the Applacian mountain people, ozarkers, and such like. They were poor, and they were thrifty, and they got by, They couldnt expand much cause of their limited financial base. Most of them likely were useing scythes, cradles, sickles, flails, clear into/past the 1900s. Their fields were small, only expanded by the trees they removed around them.
If someone had brought tractors, mowers, planters, threshers into those places. They wouldnt have sold. #1 Predjiduce?, #2 They didnt have farms big enough to make them pay, and #3 they didnt have the money to make the down payment on them to begin with.

In a roudnabout way, its the same way now. Those 3 things are still a BIG factor in determining what a homesteader will and will not buy. Theyve had foot powered threshers for at least since the 70s for sale, as I have a catalog listing them for sale. There easy to make if one is so incliined, and can be made totally out of wood, or, out of wood and nails, AND the nails can be used in the cylinder head. Winnowing can be done on a windy day, or with a fan plugged in. The thresher can be run with a 1 horse power, which the amish make now, and maybe they even make dog powers. I know they make 2 horse powers.
Getting 3/6 people over to help cut an acre or 2 might make for a thing like a threshing bee. Might be people would come to do/watch it. Ive got plans of makeing a cradle useing thin rod. Probably could be made to put on/take off. They dont make the 3ft or so blade for cutting grain anymore for the scythe, so it would take more time, BUT since no one has grown the muscles into it from teenage years, a 20in blade probably would be enough.

BUT. If a person was not inclined to do any scything. Why not take a horse mower, lay a sheet of tin behind the bar make a 3ft rake with 6in tines 4in apart, get somebody to run the mower and team, and somebody to rake off the platform, and your ready to go. As to a reel, I could rig one, in my mind, But, id have to think about it before I wrote about it.

Maybe somebody could make up a bat reel rig for horse mowers so that small farmers and homesteaders could use their own horse mowers to reap grain with. Sure would be cheaper than buying a combine for a couple acres of wheat or oats.

Planting and harvesting corn is the easiest of grains... no special tools required for harvest, besides willing hands and strong backs. Oats and wheat require cutting and threshing and removing the husks. More labor intensive unless you have combines.

Many locals around here plant 1/4 acre plots of wheat and oats for deer plots. Half the time, the crops mature and there's a nice harvest of grain available. I've hand stripped buckets of wheat... the oats weren't worth it.

Like Fordy said, if your putting a bushel in the ground and you only need a bushels worth to live, why not just get a bushel of ready to eat grain and put it aside. I 'can' see growing some oats or wheat, if you're prepping your post civilization grain growing skills... but not for any other reason. The cost of seed, fertilizer (no fertilizer... either good chemicals or not so strong organics... no good grain crop), sowing, reaping, threshing, animal/predator/disease control... quickly make it an expensive process.

I love pinto beans... I don't grow them, because my years supply of beans can be purchased with one hour of cash cow work. I've raised beans in the past, but the costs in time, equipment, labor, etc. made the beans about 10x store price. I know I can do it, if I have to... as in the grocery stores are but a faint pleasant memory.

If you plan on trying your hand at grains, do a little research on varmints that love your grain, at every stage of it's life. Amazing what grasshoppers can do in a weekend, what army worms can do overnight, a family of coons can do during a single night...

I finally went 'medieval' on my coon population this summer. And, as of yesterday, I still have pears on my tree. Fat Coons = No Pears. Dead Coons = Fat Sweet Pears.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

You mean like this one?:


http://www.backtotheland.com/html/wheat_thrasher.html


Ok thats about 4 variant of threshers I have found...is everyone happy now

Depends on the crop.

Keep them cool, keep the temp steady, you don't want them 0 humidity, but a tad dry is better than a tad too humid. Temp & humidity extremes or big swings are what hurts them, as well as mice & inscets of course.

Soybeans don't like to keep over a year - they dry out the oil & hurts germination. Corn can keep pretty good for 4 years. Wheat & oats keep pretty good for many years - easy to just up the panting rate on these to make up for poorer gemination. For comparison, tomato seeds can keep for decades.

Most seeds, if you keep 1000 seeds, you'll get some to grow 5-10 years from now, it's just your next crop could be pretty thin. Depends if you just want to keep the possiblity of having that crop in the future (produce seed from what grows to make a full crop the following year), or you _need_ to have a full crop in a future year.

Farming is a full year process in most locations, you need to have seed to plant this spring to harvest next fall to have over winter to keep some seed to plant next spring. If one needs food instantly, then you need to keep in that rotation & keep your supplies moving, use some, plant some, save some. Hard to 'jump in' after you _need_ the food....

--->Paul