A few days ago Cory was surprised to find twin calves out in the pasture when he was getting the milk cows. Both of the calves were healthy, but one of them seemed a little more weak than the other. We kept an eye on the boy and before long he was doing well like the girl. The twins have been playing hide and seek in the pasture since they were born. They like to a sneak under the fence and hide in our ancient blue corn or anything that is tall. Thankfully Annika and Asher enjoyed finding them the first few days, so we could make sure they were doing okay. That saved us a lot of time! We have learned from a previous experience that when cows give birth to a girl and a boy, the girl will be sterile. Unfortunately we will not be able to use her for milking.
Last night after the kids went to bed, Cory, Josiah, and I took a walk through the pastures. In the past several months we always enjoyed our walks, but we couldn’t help feeling a little sad as we walked. The two year drought had taken its toll, and nothing looked very good. Last night was completely different. We have been blessed with abundant rain and the weather has been cool. It has brought everything back to life. It’s been amazing how quickly everything has recovered. Thank you all so much for your prayers in this! We greatly appreciate all of you!
Aiden has been doing a great job of moving and feeding the meat chickens twice a day on pasture. He is moving them through one of our alfalfa fields. Cory and I observed last night that they are looking really good and close to being done. Aiden reported that he thinks they are enjoying the alfalfa, but we aren’t sure if they like it better than grass. The alfalfa is high in protein, and it will be interesting to see if this makes any difference in the amount of feed we have to give them when we figure this up at the end. Cory and Caleb built a dolly a few weeks ago, and this made moving the chicken tractors easier. Now Aiden can move them when he is out feeding them, and this saves Cory a lot of time. Back in the spring Aiden offered to be hired do all the work of the broilers. He does a lot of moving since he moves the layers, sheep and cows, and a different herd of cows for a friend too.
Cory and I have been praying about our pastured pig situation for a long time. The pork we have raised has been wonderful and everyone has enjoyed the flavor, clean smell, and peace of mind in knowing that it is beyond organic, soy free, and medication free. It’s been our most popular product. Along with the drought, our biggest struggle has been keeping our prices affordable, while paying for all the costs and labor that goes into producing this kind of quality pork. The drought and increased cost of everything forced us to stop raising hogs, with the exception of a few that we bought from Cory’s dad this year, and for that I’m very thankful.
Since that time I have been doing a lot of research and talked to as many people as I could about different breeds, feeding, and natural care of pigs. With this knowledge that we have gained, the abundant rains, and our experience with some experiments done on a small scale this summer, Cory and I have decided to give this one more try. We will be getting weaned piglets in about 6 weeks. Some will be for breeding and a few will be to raise up for ourselves to determine if we like the meat before we sell anything. We plan to give a lot away to get other people’s opinions. We are going with a heritage breed that is supposed to do very well at converting pasture and farm waste (apples, excess garden produce, skim milk, etc.) into meat more efficiently. They are also known to have more bacon and a little more lard. We are not ready to announce the breed that we are going with yet, but as soon as we get them, Lord willing, we will be sharing with all of you. Stay tuned!
My plan at the beginning of the growing season was to try and put out more updates like this so you would know exactly what’s going on at the farm. Unfortunately it hasn’t been possible with all the watering, routine work, and most importantly the care of my family. Thanks to the rain, I have had a little time to catch up on everything and this is one of those things I get to do. 🙂 Please know that you are always welcome to ask questions or visit our farm to see what’s going on, and I always let people know exactly what they are getting when they buy something from us. We hope to be able to continue to put out more content, and answer those questions that we have been getting in a post, instead of just responding to the person that asked. Thanks for your continued support! We appreciate you!