a herd divided

Farmer Jon here - Well, we finally started the weaning process with the calves. I had to beef up my fencing to (hopefully) keep the calves and cows apart. The actual sorting of the cows and calves went fairly smoothly. I did it by myself, in the pasture. I ended up with one calf that is still with the cows but the rest of the calves have all been sorted off. I left the two bulls, a heifer and a cow that was open last year with the calves to help calm them down. After a few weeks, I'll pull the bulls out so there aren't any shenanigans. The heifer calves won't be a year old for another 45-60 days so I'm not too concerned.

Of course, many think we're crazy for waiting so long to wean. And many think we're crazy for waiting so long to leave the bulls in. And many think we're crazy for waiting so long to castrate the bull calves. But, so far, the cattle are all alive and well. Crazy...

(sorry, I was taking pictures with my cellphone again...)

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rocky mountain oysters

I can't say I can tell you what they taste like. I've had them but it's been a REALLY long time. It's not that I don't want to try them again, I just haven't sought them out... Anyway, I digress.

Farmer Jon here blogging for you on this beautiful (almost) spring day. I wanted to update you on some of this week's events. I recently talked about balance, mainly in regard to the humane treatment of farm animals and how to find that balance of keeping the farm animals happy without getting too carried away at the expense of your farm business. Because, at the end of the day, it's still a business and if we can't make money then we can't afford to provide those animals with the happy, healthy lives they deserve.

As part of that, we decided that we needed to have our 8-9 month old bull calves castrated.  We had considered finishing them as intact bulls but that would require two separate herds for half the year (which means a lot less grass growth) and then we would have to find demand for the very niche market of bull meat in the U.S. Plus, bulls are generally more aggressive then steers (castrated bulls) so there's a chance for unnecessary added danger. So, we decided to haul all of our bull calves, heifers and cows into the vet to be preg-checked, aged and/or castrated. We had to take them to the vet because we don't have a handling facility set up yet (pens and cattle chute). I figured that would be a 3-4 hour process. As usual, my naivety caused me to greatly underestimate how long it would take but even now, I'm surprised that it took about 10 hours before everything was said and done! I'll spare you all the details but you can imagine that there was a bit of cow chasing and some swearing involved. It has definitely helped me to re-prioritize the Farm To Do List. And guess what's now at the top of my list. Yep, a handling facility. Luckily, my family still has some equipment left from the days when they had cattle. They have been kind enough to let us use the old cattle chute and a bunch of other things, including the livestock trailer I used to take the cattle into town with. We've said it many times but I'll say it again - we are very grateful to have such supportive family and friends!

Now that it's done, though, we have a ton of great information. We now know that 11 out of 12 cows were bred back and 5 out of 6 heifers are bred. All of which are approximately 6-7 months along. We also now know that our cows are mostly 4-5 years old. We also got weights on all of them, which we can use to help us decide which cows we want to keep and which cows need to go. And it will help me develop an eye for estimating the weights of cattle. So, all in all, we are very glad we did it. For beginners like us, that information is invaluable. I still have heartburn about taking our medication free animals to a place where many other (sick and/or heavily medicated) animals have been but we needed to get it done and everyone seems OK so far. 

By the way, who's up for a rocky mountain oyster fry?! I may or may not have forgotten them in the truck for 6 hours... Normally that wouldn't be a problem but with the 80 degree weather, I'm not so sure. Or should I say that Jamie's not so sure. I threw them in the freezer anyway in case someone still wanted them.

I also wanted to mention that Open Sky Farm is putting together an email list for anyone who wants to be the first to know of new things we have available. We will also offer email list only specials! Shoot us an email or give us a call if you'd like to be included.

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critters

Thought I'd give you an animal update. Here's a picture of some of the calves using the waterer (I let the cattle use it before I got the rest of the rock down and you can see how quickly they made an indention in front of the waterer)

There is a year and a half old heifer in the middle, back (no horns) and she is surrounded by five bull calves that were born this summer. They are almost the same size.

Here are the piglets, with the escapee sow, chowing down on some fruits and veggies.

Here's more piglets, with that same sow and one of the boars.

 And here are our "farm cats" doing what they do best - NOTHING!

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Oh Babies!

The 2011 Calving Season is in the books and it was a SUCCESS! We ended up with 12 calves (out of 13 cows) and didn't lose a single one. We also didn't assist at all. We fretted about the the first one and a little about the second. But after that we knew they could take care of themselves. We ended up with 9 bulls, which was less than ideal since we are focused on growing the herd right now. We're still trying to decide when and how to castrate and whether or not to dehorn. It would be nice to not castrate and leave the horns on but it greatly increases our workload and the potential for injury. We'll see...

Here's Marty. He was the first calf born on our farm. He's about two months old now.

Here's Pepe (he has a white stripe down his back), he was the last calf born for the 2011 season. Note he is on the wrong side of the fence...

Here's a shot of some of the calves. They were trying to figure out what the creature was on the other side of the fence and why it kept running after that stick and bringing it back.

The Guinea Hogs are almost done with farrowing. Three of the four mommas have had their piglets but the biggest one of them all hasn't had any yet. And she doesn't look like she will in the next couple weeks. I'll probably give her a second chance either way but I sure hope she's going to have some piglets this go around. We are up to 16 so far but that's after we lost three. And I do mean lost. In the evening they are there but by morning one is gone with NO TRACE! Totally bizarre. I have my hunch as to what's happening to them and I don't think it's outside predators.

Momma pig with her piglets. She saw me coming and decided that nursing time was over and it was time (for her) to EAT!

It's exhausting being this cute

Curious Little Pigs

 A few sniffs and licks for good measure

One our newest residents, Nermal (the farm cat), who made the trip from Belvidere, NE (thanks Grandma) is pregnant AGAIN and should be having kittens in the next month or two. Poor Spunky was the only one to make it. But he is doing well, putting up with Max treating him like a play toy.

And of course, we're still waiting on THE most important arrival to the farm. But that's the way we want it. We hope she waits until December before she shows her pretty little face.

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Piggies and a new calf

More babies on the farm!

We knew one of the mama pigs was going to have her babies very soon, but we were pleasantly surprised to check on them Sunday night to find five baby pigs!  Which was rather odd, because the next morning we could only find four.  We have video proof that there was five, but for the life of us we could not find the fifth one. 

 They were so curious and came right up to me.  But if you moved too fast, they would squeal and run away.  These guys are also tiny.  They are just about the size of small kittens.

Their favorite position in the world is to be lined up head to tail with each other.  It's funny to catch them sleeping like that.

Aren't babies wonderful?  They were out exploring the world and ran squealing back into the lean to when a big pig grunted at them.

Our cows just hanging out.  Poor girls, they have so many flies around their face.  We have been trialing a fly trap, but I'm not so sure how much it is working.

And there is the new baby!  I love how all the calves have different coloring.  This one is a girl...finally!  There is way too much testosterone in this round of calves.  I think we are up to 7-8 boys and 2 girls.  Not exactly the numbers that you want.  But we will have plenty of grass finished beef in a couple years. 

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Don't mix first trimester pregnancy and a brand new farm...

...it may drive your husband crazy...

So, that probably explains the lack of posts on my end.  I'm currently 14 weeks pregnancy and keeping my fingers crossed that the nausea, superman smell and exhaustion are close to being done. 

Like I said, new pregnancies and new farms are a difficult mix.  Thank God my husband is a superhuman, because he was doing it ALL for awhile.  And he never complained...not once.  He's my hero!

My husband and I are extremely grateful for this pregnancy.  It was quite a long road for us filled with many tears...mostly on my end.  It took us well over a year to even get a positive test and that's only after we went to see the fertility specialist.  Literally two weeks after seeing the fertility specialist, I was pregnant with no interventions.  I know God has a sense of humor, because he must have been chuckling over my reaction to a positive test. 

But onward with more farm stuff.  Since I actually feel well enough to get out of bed and do some chores, I took some pictures this morning.

First up, the dog and I are both on the same medication again.  I think he just gets my sickness just to sympathize with me.

See those spots on his face?  That my friends is what we call ringworm...it's great!  Max has a face that only a mother would love right now.  I have two spots and I'm pretty sure that we both got ringworm from the cat.  Whenever I put a little Lotrimin on me, I just call Max over and dose him up good.  He walks over to me with his head down, ears back, like I'm about to serve him his final meal before the electric chair.  It's pretty sad and pathetic at the same time.  But darn it if I don't love the crap out of that dog!

One of our newest calves.  I can't remember if this is a boy or girl, but I've named him/her Pal.  That's short for Palomino, because he reminds me of a horse.  So, we have a cow named after a horse.  That's typical in our household.

Here are three of the calves.  Bam Bam's getting a good lick from his mom.  Marty/White Chocolate is staring us down and the third calf has no name.

And this is what happens when my husband has the camera.  I'm curious to know what was going through his head when he took these pictures.  Was he practicing his camera skills?  Was he letting a little OCD out?  Quite an interesting pictures, don't you think?

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