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Nonsense post deleted by adam2

Oh no, "Peak Milk"! The sequel to Peak Fish???

The precursor to the biggest disaster of all . . .

PEAK TEA!

or peak coffee....

or Peak Sticky Bun

or .... God forbid .... Peak Custard!


(This thread will tell you what to stockpile for use as currency in the bad times ahead!)

Vortex wrote:or Peak Sticky Bun

or .... God forbid .... Peak Custard!


(This thread will tell you what to stockpile for use as currency in the bad times ahead!)

If we hit Peak Sticky Bun wouldn't you need to stockpile currant-cy?



Sorry

If we hit Peak Sticky Bun wouldn't you need to stockpile currant-cy?

I can't see any valid raisin for that.

Sally wrote:or peak coffee....

Glad I drink black coffee

hatchelt wrote:Nope:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6132282.stm

The UK may have to import milk from Europe within five years if more is not done to help dairy farmers, a leading retailer has warned.

Actually, in all seriousness, a lot of things are bound to change over the next 5 years, and I would hope there would be plenty of incentives, economic and otherwise, to maintain local milk production in the UK. Transporting goods from one place to another is just going to become too expensive.

With criminal negligence of its prime duty to ensure basic food security,
this Govt has accelerated the long trend of disabling British farming,
to the point where numerous counties are now without dairy farms.

It should be noted that these farms cannot simply be "switched back on",
as it takes years to train staff, acclimatize a viable new herd on farmland, establish a business reputation, etc.

Here in the Cambrian Mountains of Wales we're looking to find four or five heifers of the old dairy strain of the native Welsh Black cattle,
whose breeding has been focussed exclusively on beef for the last 35 years.

God willing they'll make good house cows to meet our needs of milk, cream, butter, cheeses and whey for the pigs,
as well as giving trainees experience of twice daily milking and of their general care and upkeep.

Regards,

Bill

Billhook wrote:It should be noted that these farms cannot simply be "switched back on", as it takes years to train staff, acclimatize a viable new herd on farmland, establish a business reputation, etc.

I see your point about the difficulty of switching things back on, at least when it comes to something large scale. I must admit I know nothing about cattle and it's good to hear from someone who does. On a small scale though, how practical would it be to keep a couple of cows as opposed to say a few goats? When I was a kid (no pun intended) we kept goats for a while in our garden and I think that the milk from just one was more than enough for a family of four.

Billhook wrote:God willing they'll make good house cows

Love the expression "house cow"! It kind of conjours up this surreal image of a cow curled up on the rug next to the fireplace in the living room.

Erik -

you're right about a (good) goat's milk being enough for a family of four,

but I doubt you'd have much spare for cheese etc.

For that, and to cover periods when the first nanny is not in milk,

second, third & probably fourth nanies would be needed.

For many smallholders a house cow (who provides for the house, not the market)
will give more than is needed, so sharing yields with a neighbour is adviseable to level out gluts & dearths.

With regard to your charming image of a house cow coming indoors,
I well remeber how tame they would get on John Seymour's farm in W.Wales,
and how, much to Sally's fury, one came in the farmhouse one day when nobody was looking,
and proceeded to eat a whole tray of corn dollies that she'd spent hours making.

Regards,

Bill

Got Milk?



Link

Lovely graph that, SaturnV, really cheered me up no end
At least its Friday - if you had posted it on a Monday morning it would have killed me outright!