To market to market to buy a ....Cow, Pig, Goat, Chicken...

The following list of markets may be helpful isf you need livestock and need them now - or need to sell you animals TODAY

WV MARKETS - this list is about a year old so changes may have occurred call and make sure markets are still open and operational.

	West Viriginia Markets
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday			Thursday	Friday	Saturday
	Bragg's Agricultural  Enterprises	Ohio County Livestock Auction, Inc.	Buckhannon Stockyards,  Inc.				Greenbrier Valley Livestock Market	Elkins Stockyards, Inc.
		Mt. Echo, Wheeling, WV	Buckhannon, WV				Caldwell, WV	Elkins, WV
		304 547-0849	304 472-5300				304 647-5833	304 636-0500
		304 845-2636	Fax Same				Friday	Saturday
		Tuesday	Wednesday				2:00 p.m.	1:30 p.m.
		1:00 p.m.	1:30 p.m.				Dean Hanson, Renick, WV &	C. C. Conaway, II
		Douglas Teagarden	C. R. Helmick				Billy Morgan, Ronceverte, WV	Elkins, WV
		W. Alexander, PA	Buckhannon
							Preston Farmers Market, Inc.	Mineral Wells Livestock Exchange
			New River Livestock Market				Terra Alta, WV	Mineral Wells, WV
			Beckley, WV				304 789-2788	304 489-2255
			304 252-4300				Fax-2884	Saturday
			Wednesday				Friday	1:00 p.m.
			1:00 p.m.				2:00 p.m.	Richard Randolph
			John L. Pate				Delores Pomeroy	Spencer, WV
			Daniels, WV				Terra Alta
	Agricultural Advertising                                Russel Bragg,  Owner  HC 74 Box 103                                                Hinton WV 25951 304-466-8074
							Livestock Market of Spencer, Inc.	Pocahontas Producers Co-Op Assoc., Inc.
			South Branch Valley Livestock Exchange
			Moorefield, WV				Spencer, WV	Marlinton, WV
			304 538-6050				304 927-4817	304 799-6593
			Fax-6959				Friday	2nd, 3rd and 4th Saturday
			Wednesday				7:30 p.m.	2:00 p.m.
			1:30 p.m.				Roger L. Atkinson	Ray Sharp
			Rick Mathews
			Gary Vance					Weston Livestock Marketing
								Weston, WV
								304 269-5096
								Fax-5175
								Saturday
								1:30 p.m.
								Charles D. Cole

VIRGINIA MARKETS

Monday	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SATURDAY
Farmer's Livestock Exchange, Inc. (Winchester)	Fauquier Livestock Exchange, Inc. (Marshall)	Orange Livestock Market, Inc.	Farmers Livestock Market, Inc.	Pulaski Livestock Market, Inc.	Abingdon Stockyard Exchange, Inc.	Springlake Livestock Market, Inc.
1995 Northwestern Pike	7404 John Marshall Highway	15415 James Madison Highway	21865 The Governor George C. Peery Highway	5509 Banks Avenue	21488 Vances Mill Road	1069 Sickle Court
P.O. Box 2696	Marshall, VA 20115	Gordonsville, VA 22942	Tazewell, VA 24651	Dublin, VA 24084	Abingdon, VA 24210	Moneta, VA 24121
Winchester, VA 22604	540.364.1566	540.672.4688	276.988.5501 flmtaz@hughes.net	540.674.5311	276.628.8613	540.297.1707
540.667.1023	Tuesday 2:00 p.m.	Wednesday 3:00 p.m.	Thursday 6:00 p.m.	Friday 2:30 p.m.	Saturday 10:00 a.m.	540.389.9007 (Fax)
Monday 1:00 p.m.	Directions: Intersection of Route 709 (Zulla Road) and Route 55	Directions: 12 miles north of Interstate 64 on Route 15	Directions: Highway 19 and 460 West of Tazewell.	Directions: Take I-81 to Route 100 North. Go 2 miles. Market is on the left.	Directions: Take I-81 to Exit 17. Go south on Route 75. Go 0.5 mile and turn right on Vances Mill Rd.	Saturday 1:00 p.m.
Directions: Take I-81 to Route 37 to Route 50 West.	(John Marshall Highway) in Marshall				Go 0.5 mile and turn right on Vances Mill Rd. Go 0.2 mile and market is on the left.	Directions: Take Route 24 to Stony Fork Rd.
Market is on the left				Staunton Union Stockyard, Inc.	Charlottesville Livestock Market, Inc.	Victoria Livestock Market
Roanoke Hollins Stockyard	Staunton Union Stockyard, Inc.	Christiansburg Livestock Market, Inc.	Rockingham Livestock Sales, Inc.	320 New Hope Road	PO Box 33	368 KV Road
471 Lee Highway	320 New Hope Road	870 Park Street	1820 Dealton Avenue	PO Box 2426	Afton, VA 22920	Victoria, VA 23973
Roanoke, VA 24019	PO Box 2426	PO Box 187	Harrisonburg, VA 22801	Staunton, VA 24402-2426	434.295.4551	31 Wilton Rd (Mail)
PO Box 95	Staunton, VA 24402-2426	Christiansburg, VA 24073	540.434.6765	540.886.5131		Richmond, VA 23226
Cloverdale, VA 24077	540.886.5131	540.382.2291	Thursday 2:00 p.m.	Tuesday and Friday 2:00 p.m.	Saturday 2:00 p.m.	804.539.6946
540.992.1112	Tuesday and Friday 2:00 p.m.	Wednesday 1:00 p.m.	Directions: From I-81, take Exit 243 to Route 11 North.	Directions: From I-81, take 250 West toward Staunton.	Ewing Livestock Market, Inc.	804.226.7024
Monday 2:00 p.m.	Directions: From I-81, take 250 West toward Staunton.	Directions: From I-81, take Exit 118 to Route 460.	Turn right on Pleasant Hill Road and left on Dealton Avenue.	Turn right onto Statler Blvd. Market is on the left before Rt. 11.	Highway 58	Second Saturday of the Month
Directions: Take I-81 to Exit 146. Turn east on Plantation Road.	Turn right onto Statler Blvd. Market is on the left before Rt. 11.	Turn left to Roanoke St. Turn right on Depot St.	Virginia Livestock, LLC (Front Royal)	Fredericksburg Livestock Exchange, Inc.	PO Box 187	Goat Sale 2:00 p.m.
At stop light, turn left on Williamson Road.1.5Mles on left.		Turn left on Park St.	2796 Rivermont Road	906 Summit Street	Ewing, VA 24248	Horse and Tack Sale 5:00 p.m.
Lee Farmers Livestock Market, Inc.	Virginia Cattle Company (Radiant)	Culpeper Agricultural Enterprise	Front Royal, VA 22630	PO Box 328	276.445.4897	Directions: Located on Route 40 (KV Road) between Victoria and Kenbridge.
Highway 58	5866 Orange Road	10220 James Monroe Highway	540.635.5511	Fredricksburg, VA 22404	Saturday	Virginia Carolina Livestock Market (Danville)
PO Box 971	Radiant, VA 22732	PO Box 658	540.635.1923 (Fax)	540.373.8207	Shenandoah Valley Livestock Sales	652 Livestock Road
Jonesville, VA 24263	540.672.1760	Culpeper, VA 22701	Thursday 1:30 p.m.	Thursday	1044 Edom Road	Danville, VA 24540
276.346.1943	Tuesday 10:30 a.m.	540.547.2188	1st Saturday-Horse Sale 12 noon	Directions: Interstate 95 to Route 3E.	Harrisonburg, VA 22801	434.836.1010
Monday 1:00 p.m.	Directions:Take Route 15 to Route 230 West and market is 3 miles on the left OR take Route 29 South to Route 230 East and market is 6 miles on the right.	Wednesday 5:00 p.m. (Monthly)	Directions: Take I-66 to Route 340 South. Go through Front Royal. Turn right on Rivermont Road. Go 1.5 miles. Market is on left.	Go under Route 1 through two stoplights past Lafayette Blvd. Fredericksburg Industrial Park/Summit Street is on the right.	540.434.4482	klaaking@yahoo.com
Directions: Located on Route 58 in Jonesville.	A gift from Bragg's Agricultural Enterprises	Directions: Take Route 29 South of Culpeper. Market is on the left.	Wythe County Livestock Exchange	Tri-State Livestock Market	Saturday 12:30 p.m.	Thursday 1:30 p.m.
Lynchburg Livestock Market, Inc.		Southside Livestock Markets, Inc. (Blackstone)	3561 Stoney Fork Road	17455 Sky King Drive	Directions: Take Route 42 North. Turn right on Edom Road.	1st Saturday-Goat Sale 12 noon
243 Livestock Road		170 Livestock Road	PO Box 1451	PO Box 558	Market is on the left	3rd Saturday-Tack Sale 12 noon and Horse Sale 4 p.m.
PO Box 4122		PO Box 696	Wytheville, VA 24382	Abingdon, VA 24210	Madison Livestock Market, Inc.	Directions: From Danville take Route 29 North. Turn Right on Route 721 (Livestock Rd). Market is on the right.
Lynchburg, VA 24502		Blackstone, VA 23824	276.223.0003	276.628.5111	7129 Orange Road	LAUREL AUCTION BARN SAT 3pm
434.821.5956		434.292.7277	276.223.0333 (Fax)	Friday 9:00 a.m.	Radiant, VA 22732	336-399-9099
434.821.2620 (Fax)		Wednesday 3:00 p.m.	Thursday 11:00 a.m.	Directions: Take I-81 to Exit 14 in Abingdon. Take Route 11 West.	540.672.2811
Monday 1:00 p.m.		Directions: Take 460 West. Turn right on Route 614.	Directions: Interstate 81 to Route 52. Go approximately 1.5 miles.	Go approximately 1 mile and turn right on Sky King Drive.	Saturday 2:00 p.m.	336 399 9099 From NC take I-77 North to exit 19 turn left onto coulson church rd go .75miles turn right on oak grove rd go 1.25 miles right on rescue dr .25 miles on lift  , From WVA take I-77 South to exit 19 and turn right onto coulson church rd go
Directions: Route 29 South about 8 miles south of Lynchburg Regional Airport. Left on Calohan Rd. Left on Livestock Rd.	For your Market                                           Marketting And Agricultural                                                      Advertising. Give us a try. 304 466 8074                                                        Russel Bragg,  Owner HC 74 Box 103                                                Hinton WV 25951	Turn right on Livestock Road.	Market is located at 3561 Stoney Fork Road.		Directions: Route 29 to Route 230 towards Madison Mills.
Virginia Livestock Markets Schedules				Sale Schedule Changes	Market is located approximately seven miles on the left	51 Pleasant View Rd
				Monterey Livestock Sales, Inc.	Narrows Livestock Auction Market, Inc.	Austinville, VA 24312
				1367 Jackson River Road	114 Stockpen Mountain Road
				Monterey, VA 24465	Narrows, VA 24124
				540.499.2718	(540) 726-2152
				Directions: Route 250 to Monterey. Go south on Route 220 (Jackson River Rd) for approx one mile on left
						

Nutrition and Food



Country Supper

  So many people act like eating is a bad thing,

Eating is a great thing!

   Eating gives your body energy from carbohydrates, protein to build muscles, fiber to shift the poisons out of your body, vitamins and minerals and fats to make your brain work correctly.

In order to do the work around your farm or home it is neccisary for you to eat well and eat often. You will not have the energy to produce unles you takein the nutrients to be burned and provide this energy.

The human body, at rest, uses about 10 calories per pound of body weight, that means for a 200 lb man he can sleep all day and eat 2000 calories and not gain or lose weight , the same 200 lb man is now putting up hay all day lifting large bales and walking for miles behind a hay wagon straining to unload the wagon throwing bales way up into the top of the barn and sweating profusely. Now he is likely to be burning in the 7500 to 8500 calories in the coarse of a 24 hour period. This is alot of groceries. Thats why when you are paying someone to work for you on your farm it pays you to feed them well while they are there. A well fed worker is stronger and more productive, the same goes for beasts of burden.

Conditioning is a term used for getting ones body ready for work it consists of streching , warming up,   taking on progressively harder loads as your body strengthens, cooling down, and allowing for recovery periods. You can plan your work on your farm around the ideas of condiitoning you body to handle the chores easier. From splitting wood, to mowing grass, to hoeing - every task ususes different muscles and if you dont plan your work beofre you jump into it and prepare your body for it you could end up injuring yourself.

So in conclusion dont be afraid to eat hard if you are working hard and try to plan your work ahead so that your body is up for the heaviest part when you get to it.

RECIPROCITY

     This concept of treating others as you would want to be treated is an oft repeated and culturally universal idea. Like many other seemingly simple ideas the actual practice of this theory is not a concrete science. For instance-- in a homesteaders perspective; propose that there were some flaws in your crop or livestock that you have determined to sell. You have corn on the cob and 1/5th of your ears have worms devouring them, out of a truckload of corn every 5th ear has a worm problem. You know this but you have 4/5ths of a healthy crop and the remaining 1/5 has Earworms in the end but at least 1/2 of each defective ear is edible. The only way to determine which ears are not wormy is to strip back the husks. Corn ears are sold in the husk so the customer doesn't know which ears are wormy and which are not. How does one reconcile the sale of this corn to customers. One customer buys a dozen and gets no wormy corn , another gets 2 bad ears, another gets 10 bad ears and only 2 good ears. Does one discard all of the crop, use it yourself, feed it to the hogs or sell it and trust to faith that the customers will know corn has worms in it. How about marketing,  Does one advertise "Some of my corn has worms" or take it as a given that all corn sometimes has worms. As a consumer I would want to know if there was a chance of getting x amount of wormy ears so if feeding a lot of people I could figure on buying extra ears to make up for the shortage. One could lower the price to allow consumer to buy extra for the same price but then you are competing with other producers and by lowering your price you are not treating them fairly -as prices are usually agreed up on for an entire market before trading begins. So whats the solution, In this case id most likely sell corn by the dozen but put 13-14 ears in every "dozen" so as to make up for the possibility of a bad ear and I would neither mention the extra ears or the worm problem at all. The competing vendors would be unaware of the extra and the consumers would certainly not complain and have less of a chance of getting too many ears of bad corn.

http://eatchiclifestyle.com/2009/07/24/corn-earworms/    

Another example is if you raise cattle and you have one that develops a cough and is weak, and you are afraid it may die, you give it some medicine and some antibiotics and it recovers but still is not 100% so you decide to sell it at auction. How much information should you give to the people who ask you about it when you unload it at the auction barn? If you were buying you would want to know that the animal you were looking at has been sick. But the livestock auction is not a place to buy perfectly healthy animals the consumer should know that if the animal were 100% then it most likely wouldn't be at the auction they should also know that auction animals if perfectly healthy are likely to pick up diseases while at the auction house premises. A consumer should know that any animal that is for sale is likely to be sick or else it most likely wouldn't be for sale. The same goes for used cars or farm equipment. "Buyer beware" applies even when dealing with the most honorable and God-fearing of people even your family.If it is for sale there has to be a reason -whatever it is.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. "is often changed to "Do unto others before they do unto you" or  "Undo others to do unto yourself." but, as a rule , this is no way to do business.

Going back to your corn problem. If you sold 200 dozen in a given population of consumers then 1/5 of them are going to get at least 2 bad ears with 2 /5ths getting more than 2 bad ears that means approximately 40% are most likely going to be unhappy consumers.So you will have 120 happy customers and 80 unhappy.  Now if you throw in a couple extra ears you will no longer have 200 dozen you will have 170 "dozen" and only about 10% of your customers will get 9 ears or less of good corn. Now you have 153 happy customers, 17 unhappy customers. you lost 15 % of your crop return when 20% of your crop was bad so you actually gained.  You also increased your customer satisfaction rating by 30% they will return to that farmer who "Can't count very well "and next time buy more than one dozen ears.

No farmer ever went broke giving things away. But if you sell inferior produce your customer base will dry up and with it your income.

 If you choose to sell livestock or goods at auction you are taking a risk that no one will be interested and you will lose , but at the same time the buyers are taking a risk that they will buy a product that is inferior. If you have a neighbor that asks to buy your animal and asks what is wrong with it you should either tell them the complete truth or tell them that they will have to buy it as is as you may not be aware of any flaws and you should set the price accordingly. Don't lie because you wouldn't want to be lied to but in conducting business with a neighbor or acquaintance full disclosure is not always the best policy either. If your neighbor wants to buy a goat to eat brush he doesn't need to know she is the lowest milk producing animal in your herd - yet if you let him know he will leverage that as a way to seek for you to lower your price for her.

Earthquake 2011 Big world.

    How amazing was it to be sitting at my desk at work like hundreds of hours before only to feel the earth itself move underneath me - to image the awesome force unleashed somewhere deep under the surface to make the whole crust shift and heave.  Also to share this sensation with thousands of people across the east coast is kind of hard to grasp.

       It makes one feel small and insignifigant. We are all tiny parts of a world that is a tiny part of the universe. We do not know whats out there anymore than a grub living in a rotting log knows about the forrest that log is a part of. All the grub knows is its business of eating, working, growing and reproducing.

How to milk sanitarily.

More people in the world drink goat milk than drink cows milk. Sheep and even donkeys have been raised for milk production in the past and still are in some parts of the world.

The idea one has to keep in mind is that milk is sanitary so long as its in the animal but from the time it leaves the animal till the time it is consumed it has to be kept sterile and that is nearly impossible without expensive equipment and facilities.

The first thing most milkers do is to wipe down the udders , some even shave the entire udder of the milk producing beast. So the utters and teats are always wiped down with warm antiseptic water - or teat dip - we use Mouthwash as a cheap substitute.

After the milk gathers in the udder and fills it, it has to pass through the orifices at the end of each teat. These are basically holes and where milk comes out and bacteria and dirt can enter so the first few squirts are to flush out the orifices. It gets sprayed onto a rag or in a 'stripping' cup. This first few squirts are good to examine for clumps , infection , or blood as the presence of any of these is cause for concern. The milk should not be used for human consumption if it has any of these characteristics.

So once your milking fresh milkyou should milk each teat until it is empty and then take your fresh warm milk and strain it either through cloth or through a very fine strainer. The reason for this is even the most careful of milkers and cleanest of animals can allow hair and particals of dirt to fall into the milk bucket - this is not catastrophic as it is so minute an amount of germ present that by straining the milk any thing like this can be removed leaving only clean palatable milk.

The next thing to be wary of is cooling time - you have cow temperature milk that is around 90 degrees or goat milk that is closer to 100 degrees. Warm fresh milk has a shelf life of less than 30 minutes at that temperature before bacteria in the air starts to cause the newly acquired milk to sour . The faster you can chill the milk to <40 degrees F the better as at this temperature the bacteria growth is slowed and the milk can be kept and used. Dairies have equipment that chill milk quickly by pumping it through heat exchangers I try to keep a clean stainless steel bread pan chilled in the freezer to pour the warm milk in and then set it n the freezer until it is uniformly chilled . the large surface area allows for quick chilling, Milk should always be stored covered as dust in the air carries bacteria enough to shorten the usable life of the milk.

  

The parts of a hitch and how to hitch up a Donkey

A donkey is a fertile member of the equine family that is usually deminuative with large ears and a short tail. They are often mistaken for mules which are infertile hybred animal whose sire was a jack (male)donkey and whose dam was a mare(female) horse or pony. More rarely there are hybred crosses between a stud horse and a Jenny (female ) donkey - the resulting animal is called a Hinny and looks slightly more like a horse than a mule does.

Donkeys and mules difffer in size , confirmation , and bray - with donkeys having the hawHEE haw HEE and Mules having more of a   shrill screaming whhhhhinny sound.

Donkeys , burros , or asses are all the same animal and they have been used by the poor and women througout the centuries and throughout the world  as overworked beasts of burden. They have been used for milk and for meat as well. A donkey can do nearly as much work as a horse on less feed and water.

A hitch to hook up any equine consists of a collar, sometimes with a pad, hames that lock into the collar and sread the weight of the load over the whole of the collar, the tugs which are chains wrappen in leather that tie the load to the hames. the spider which keeps the tugs square down the sides of the animal, britchen or crupper that keep the tugs directly off the hips of the animal, and then the tugs hook to  a single tree which hooks to the load or to a double tree (when using two animals on a load).

How to start small engines...and keep them starting.

Homesteaders need small engines as a rule. Chainsaws, Lawnmowers, Rototillers, tractors, leaf blowers , weed eaters and a seemingly endless list of other gas powered tools and equipment.

The care and maintenance and occasional repair of these small engines is a skill that is learned over years of toil and trial and error but I can attest to some small knowledge that may save someone else some toil.

There are two types of small engines , two cycle and four cycle and the difference between the two is how they are oiled. Two cycles are oiled from inside the engine  the oil being added to the gasoline and four cycles have oil added around the moving parts that needs changed from time to time. Two cycle engines will wear, overheat , and break down if the gas you use is not mixed with the right kind and amount of oil. Most weed eaters and chainsaws take mixed gas- are two cycle engines.

Engines only will run if four conditions are present. There has to be air present, gas present , a spark present at the right time , and exhaust has to have somewhere to go. So your troubleshooting has to involve checking these four conditions.

    The easiest part to check is for spark, a spark plug is usually easy to see and easy to remove with a deep well socket. Pulling the start rope with the spark plug out should result it two things- a spark will flash at the end of the plug  and the engine should turn fairly easily with air rushing out the hole where the spark plug was. This is the same air and fuel that will blow up in the engine to cause it to run so it is possible for this mixture to ignite with the spark from the loosely hanging plug so care should be taken to dry up any gas and stay clear in case the small amount that comes out of the engine does ignite. If there is no spark there is either a bad plug which is easy to replace and test a new one, a bad plug wire, or a bad coil or magneto. The coil is the piece that sends spark to the plug and the magneto is the part of the mower that is like a generator that produces electricity to charge the coil.One should be familiar with any safety switches and on off switches for your equipment because they are designed to not allow the unit to start unless certain conditions are me. _(Riding mowers wont start unless the blades are disengaged and it is in nuetral, weeeaters and chainsaws often have on off switches -- sometimes which are not immediatley obvious.)
     There must be air present, - engines require a different amount of air when they are cold then when they are warmed up. They also need more air when running at high speeds. This is where the breather, carburetor, and choke come in.  There are usually screws on the carburetor that can be adjusted to allow more or limit the amount of gasoline to get in. Many times engines that are left with old gasoline or dirty gasoline or water in gasoline require the carburetors to be torn down and cleaned - that's a big job that I wont discuss here. The carburetor is where air and fuel are sent into the engine, it either opens or closes with the throttle. open it allows a lot of gas through. Part of the carburetor is the choke which operated independently of the throttle and adjusts the amount of air that is allowed to the engine, it is usually closed on a cold engine and opens further as the engine is heated up. The breather is the container that usually contains a filter that is either foam or paper that keeps dirt and dust from entering the carburetor with the air and causing wear. The presence of a filter also creates a small amount of resistance that many small engines require to run.

     There must be fuel, lines get stopped up, filters get stopped up, old fuel sometimes turns to varnish and builds up in the carburetor, water gets in fuel and the wrong kind of fuel could be used.  Small engines do not run without fuel being able to get into the motor. Too much fuel can also be a problem as it will not allow enough air in and therefore will not burn. Also  don't forget to to fill your tank with fresh fuel and try to run it all out the last tim e youuse your equipment for the year.

     Finally exhaust systems do rust up and get clogged up or rust out and fall apart and many small engines are designed to need the resistance of the specified muffle system to start and run correctly. You can generally tel if a muffler s working correctly by feeling to see if air come out when you turn the motor over with the spark plug in