We switched from Jerseys to Ayrshires in 2023 primarily because we struggled with low quality forage in our pastures, and Ayrshires were advertised as being tough cows who thrive even on sub-par forage. We first purchased two cows from Sunny Acres Farm in NY, and were pleased with our experience. A year later we bought …
Since the lambing went so smoothly this spring, the cows decided to step up to the plate and keep us stressed and busy. In early April, Clementine, who is our one Guernsey and our largest cow, was discovered during morning chores to be unable to stand. If you know anything about cows, that should strike …
Our 4th year of lambing out a flock of sheep has concluded. This year was MUCH smoother than the previous three – the lambs have been generally born healthy, strong, and without complications. There were three ewes who didn’t conceive, one lost pregnancy, one lost lamb, and 42 healthy, bouncing, fast-growing lambs. I don’t know …
Three and a half years ago, when we embarked on our sheep adventure, neither of us had much experience eating lamb, nor had we ever processed a sheep before. As we were disinclined to pay $75+ per lamb for someone else to slaughter and butcher our sheep for us, we rolled up our sleeves, and …
Our daughter tried to put a halter on one of our wilder sheep(Belladonna), but was only able to get it looped around her neck before the sheep escaped. She was unable to get near her again to remove the halter, so it hung around Belladonna’s neck as she wandered about the pen. As Dan fed …
Our first ewes are due on the 24th of February, so we have begun preparing for the expected flood of babies. Five are marked down for the 24th through the 27th, and a few I didn’t get dates for look like they might also join in for that time frame, thus the expected ‘flood’. Haha! …
It has been a very wet year, and on top of that, the early winter was unseasonably warm. Our soils don’t drain well, so our place was a muddy cesspool from November until early January. The pigs were impossible to manage, as they take moist soil and turn it into deep sucking mud in short …
It has been a while since I posted an update, and that is not because I forgot to! June and July have been interesting and very busy. Clementine had a beautiful bull calf on May 25th, and has become a good milk cow. She is a great mother, and we experimented with leaving the calf …
In my last post, everything was mud. Not long after, we were able to get the animals out on grass, moving them through the pasture. There were a few more encounters with mud, since that is how the spring weather tends to go, but now we are dry and warm! We have been moving the …
We had a beautiful snowfall earlier this week, and Dan took the opportunity to take a video of our backyard and the newly renovated barn. We have installed raised beds for the cows and a manger for the sheep. Our goals with these improvements are cleanliness and waste reduction. So far, so good! The sheep …