August 14, 2010

I finally finished my rotational pasture mowing yesterday - only a month late! We'll be feeding some hay for the next couple weeks to augment the comparatively small amount of grass we have left. That seems to be the norm for the summer even with our low stocking rate.

Sugar was in heat on July 31st. The next several days will tell us if she's bred because she'll come back into heat if she's not. If she did settle, that means a late April or early May calf. The timing couldn't be better. If she comes back in heat and is bred this week, it will mean a mid-May calf which is fine, too. A little late is better than a little early with our typically unpredictable April weather.

We have a 65 gallon Rubbermaid water tank for the bovines. Porter's new game is to use his horns to catch under the lip and flip it over. I didn't want to spend this much money but I guess I'll go to TSC this week and buy the biggest stock tank they have. I prefer plastic to galvanized steel but the steel ones don't have a lip around the top where he can hook his horns.

Our bull calf T-Bone looks entirely different than when we brought him home at three days old. When we got him, his coloring was exactly like his sire's - Milking Devon red - with a white patch on each side from his (primarily) Dutch-Belted mama. At a little less than 4 months old, he has turned almost completely black with a Jersey face. If I have time later, I'll try to get a pic and post it along with an old one to compare to.

bull pics

The first two pics are T-Bone when we brought him home in April. The third is him today. It's not a great shot but shows the change. The fourth shows Porter's water tank-flipping horns.

Note to our farm customers

We have removed our listing on Local Harvest because we have been getting more calls for chicken and eggs than we can deal with. Raising chickens is not our favorite activity here and we started out just producing for ourselves. If you are a current customer, rest assured that we will continue to provide for you. We will have an egg surplus beginning in November or December but we don't plan on increasing the number of meat chickens we raise in a year - 100 is enough for us.