Sheep breeding season is turning out to be something of a fiasco. Usually we have the two breeding groups separated enough that they are mostly out of sight of one another. It didn't work out that way this year since Sugar is taking up our big stall and the two calves are in the other stall in the red barn. At 4:50 this morning when I went outside to leave for work the rams were standing there side by side watching me. They were supposed to be separated by two layers of temporary electric fence which they had trampled. Right now all the sheep are together and have access to the white barn and all of the pasture. The two ewe lambs are in a separate stall since we don't want them bred. I'm going to try to work out something better this weekend.
We really need to get rid of Taffy, the heifer calf. She is going back to Jennifer's uncle's place. The stall where we have her and Porter is just too small for both of them. They are 5 months old now and my best guess is that Porter weighs nearly 300 pounds. Taffy is just a little smaller.
Garage is almost done and I didn't take any photos of the process. We do have a "before" pic, though, so I can post a before & after.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Saturday, November 07, 2009
November 7, 2009
Not much going on around here to write about. Oh, don't get me wrong, we're as busy as ever but it's just not blog-worthy stuff. Weekends are almost exclusively devoted to working on the garage. The opening for the door is framed in and the installers are coming next week to install the door and opener. Yesterday we worked on sheeting. More of the same today, then door, windows, trim and finally siding.
I got the gates to put up in the white barn for stalls. I'm a little nervous about moving the calves over there because they're not halter trained yet. Based on what I've read, I'm not sure they're old enough to train at this point but they are definitely too big to control. We'll probably end up driving in some posts and making a lane from cattle panels to move them in.
In the next couple weeks the sheep need to be separated into two breeding groups.
Next Saturday I'm going to the hearthside cooking workshop at Malabar Farm State Park. That should be cool but I probably shouldn't take the time to do it.
I got the gates to put up in the white barn for stalls. I'm a little nervous about moving the calves over there because they're not halter trained yet. Based on what I've read, I'm not sure they're old enough to train at this point but they are definitely too big to control. We'll probably end up driving in some posts and making a lane from cattle panels to move them in.
In the next couple weeks the sheep need to be separated into two breeding groups.
Next Saturday I'm going to the hearthside cooking workshop at Malabar Farm State Park. That should be cool but I probably shouldn't take the time to do it.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Copper and Sheep Update
I get requests from time to time to comment on old posts I've written about feeding mineral mixes to sheep containing copper sulfate. Pat Coleby from Australia popularized this and her mineral mix recipes are available online.
We made this mix from ingredients purchased at gardening stores for two years and had no problems and our sheep were healthy and had no parasite problems. In February 2008 we had the mix made for us at a feed mill. I double and triple checked all the info provided by the mill and everything seemed fine. In May 2008 we nearly lost one of our ewes to copper poisoning. I ended up driving to the large animal department at the OSU Veterinary College and picked up some Ammonium Molybdate and dosed the sick ewe with it for three days. She was jaundiced to the point where the whites of her eyes were light brown and her urine was dark brown. She was nursing newborn twins at the time. Contrary to the prediction of the doc at OSU, she lived and continues to be healthy to this day. She continued to nurse her twins and gave birth to another set in May 2009. We added Sodium Molybdate to the sheep mineral and kelp for the next 30 days to help safely flush the excess copper from the other ewes.
We are currently feeding sheep mineral from Countryside Natural Products. It is quite expensive but the sheep don't eat much. We are using the Coleby mix for our cow and calves.
This post should not reflect negatively at all on the recommendations of Pat Coleby. To this day, I believe she is way ahead of the pack when it comes to animal health and root causes of illness and disease. My belief is that I simply had a ewe who overate the mineral. I understand that she has changed her recommendations with the latest edition of her books but I haven't read them yet.
We made this mix from ingredients purchased at gardening stores for two years and had no problems and our sheep were healthy and had no parasite problems. In February 2008 we had the mix made for us at a feed mill. I double and triple checked all the info provided by the mill and everything seemed fine. In May 2008 we nearly lost one of our ewes to copper poisoning. I ended up driving to the large animal department at the OSU Veterinary College and picked up some Ammonium Molybdate and dosed the sick ewe with it for three days. She was jaundiced to the point where the whites of her eyes were light brown and her urine was dark brown. She was nursing newborn twins at the time. Contrary to the prediction of the doc at OSU, she lived and continues to be healthy to this day. She continued to nurse her twins and gave birth to another set in May 2009. We added Sodium Molybdate to the sheep mineral and kelp for the next 30 days to help safely flush the excess copper from the other ewes.
We are currently feeding sheep mineral from Countryside Natural Products. It is quite expensive but the sheep don't eat much. We are using the Coleby mix for our cow and calves.
This post should not reflect negatively at all on the recommendations of Pat Coleby. To this day, I believe she is way ahead of the pack when it comes to animal health and root causes of illness and disease. My belief is that I simply had a ewe who overate the mineral. I understand that she has changed her recommendations with the latest edition of her books but I haven't read them yet.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Vote No on Issue 2
This is from the OEFFA website:
Here are the real facts about Issue 2:
-- Issue 2 would create a Livestock Care Standards Board, stacked with Big Ag and factory farm supporters, which would have sweeping authority to make decisions related to farms and food in Ohio that would have the force of law. The Board would have largely unchecked power to override any act by the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Assembly.
--Issue 2 will create a Livestock Care Standards Board with no accountability to voters. Their decisions will be final. There is no further review or evaluation of the standard, no established forum for public comment, and no ability to appeal their decisions.
--Issue 2 serves the economic interests of factory farms, opening the door for the proliferation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in Ohio.
--Issue 2 emphasizes the need of the livestock industry to provide “affordable food,” yet ignores its hidden costs, including environmental contamination, human health impacts, and the loss of rural communities.
The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association has been Ohio's voice for sustainable agriculture and local, organic foods for more than 30 years. We represent farmers, ranchers, gardeners, and conscientious eaters who value the importance of livestock in sustainable agricultural production systems and in providing prosperity for Ohio’s farm families.
Here are the real facts about Issue 2:
-- Issue 2 would create a Livestock Care Standards Board, stacked with Big Ag and factory farm supporters, which would have sweeping authority to make decisions related to farms and food in Ohio that would have the force of law. The Board would have largely unchecked power to override any act by the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Assembly.
--Issue 2 will create a Livestock Care Standards Board with no accountability to voters. Their decisions will be final. There is no further review or evaluation of the standard, no established forum for public comment, and no ability to appeal their decisions.
--Issue 2 serves the economic interests of factory farms, opening the door for the proliferation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in Ohio.
--Issue 2 emphasizes the need of the livestock industry to provide “affordable food,” yet ignores its hidden costs, including environmental contamination, human health impacts, and the loss of rural communities.
The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association has been Ohio's voice for sustainable agriculture and local, organic foods for more than 30 years. We represent farmers, ranchers, gardeners, and conscientious eaters who value the importance of livestock in sustainable agricultural production systems and in providing prosperity for Ohio’s farm families.
Friday, October 16, 2009
October 16, 2009
How we spend our Friday nights at Liberty Farm:
Jennifer is washing and pressing the liquid out of our first batch of butter from Sugar. You can't get butter that yellow from cows kept in confinement.
We got 1/2 gallon of cream from 1 1/2 gallons of milk. It yielded 1 pound of butter and about 1 1/2 quarts of buttermilk. Biscuits and lamb sausage gravy for breakfast tomorrow.
Jennifer is washing and pressing the liquid out of our first batch of butter from Sugar. You can't get butter that yellow from cows kept in confinement.We got 1/2 gallon of cream from 1 1/2 gallons of milk. It yielded 1 pound of butter and about 1 1/2 quarts of buttermilk. Biscuits and lamb sausage gravy for breakfast tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Cream Line
We got 6 gallons today. No wonder Sugar won't gain any weight. I think we'll be cutting some of the grain from her diet.
Monday, October 12, 2009
October 12, 2009
Sorry for the light posting lately. When we leave the farm for a 10 day vacation, the workload is a bit overwhelming when we return. We still have about 8 yards of concrete to pour this month in the ongoing conversion of the dilapidated greenhouse into a garage and machine shed. And the contractor asked us to hold up on siding it until the concrete was done so they could work at it from all sides! I have a bad feeling I'm going to be out there in the snow nailing up vinyl siding. But we got our wood stove installed so I'll be able to come in and warm up. Our computer is in the same room as the stove and all this typing is making me sweat.
We separated the calves from Sugar last Friday. They took to drinking milk from a bucket like pros. Actually I bought buckets with rubber nipples thinking they would want to suck but it's much faster to just slurp it up. Taffy bawled so much she had completely lost her voice yesterday. Her moos sounded like croaks. It's coming back some today. Sugar is going with the flow like she always does. Porter doesn't seem to care as long as he gets his milk.
Since the separation, we're getting between 5 and 5 1/2 gallons of milk a day. This morning Jennifer got 3 1/2 gallons, gave the calves 1 1/2 (3 qts. each) and put 2 gallons in the fridge. Tonight I got 2 gallons and gave it all to the calves. The best part is we have CREAM! We'll make some butter by the end of the week and maybe celebrate the weekend with a little ice cream. You haven't lived until you've eaten homemade butter pecan.
All of the butchering is done for the year and we're now looking ahead to sheep breeding. The sheep will be shorn before the end of the month and we'll put the rams and ewes into two breeding groups in early November. Guess I better get to work on finishing the barn remodel so the rams have a place to live. Right now they're bunking in with Sugar because the calves are closed in their old stall.
Last but not least, our internet here on the farm is now smokin'. For those of you outside the normal cable or DSL area, I highly recommend this and this. We have the mifi connected to a cradlepoint router to make it a little more powerful and give us an ethernet connection for the desktop. The antenna really pulls in that cell signal. We're getting download speeds of over 1.5 Mbps.
We separated the calves from Sugar last Friday. They took to drinking milk from a bucket like pros. Actually I bought buckets with rubber nipples thinking they would want to suck but it's much faster to just slurp it up. Taffy bawled so much she had completely lost her voice yesterday. Her moos sounded like croaks. It's coming back some today. Sugar is going with the flow like she always does. Porter doesn't seem to care as long as he gets his milk.
Since the separation, we're getting between 5 and 5 1/2 gallons of milk a day. This morning Jennifer got 3 1/2 gallons, gave the calves 1 1/2 (3 qts. each) and put 2 gallons in the fridge. Tonight I got 2 gallons and gave it all to the calves. The best part is we have CREAM! We'll make some butter by the end of the week and maybe celebrate the weekend with a little ice cream. You haven't lived until you've eaten homemade butter pecan.
All of the butchering is done for the year and we're now looking ahead to sheep breeding. The sheep will be shorn before the end of the month and we'll put the rams and ewes into two breeding groups in early November. Guess I better get to work on finishing the barn remodel so the rams have a place to live. Right now they're bunking in with Sugar because the calves are closed in their old stall.
Last but not least, our internet here on the farm is now smokin'. For those of you outside the normal cable or DSL area, I highly recommend this and this. We have the mifi connected to a cradlepoint router to make it a little more powerful and give us an ethernet connection for the desktop. The antenna really pulls in that cell signal. We're getting download speeds of over 1.5 Mbps.
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