We're back (but not in the saddle yet)

Well, we are back from our vacation and I can say we had a great time. We went to the "National Irish Dexter Show" and had a very interesting time. While we were there we saw many many different body "types" of Irish Dexters. Young, old and new babies---very interesting to compare all of them. Of course, some we liked and some we didn't but it helped us to figure out where we would like to go with our own eventually.
We also met some Irish Dexters. That's a dun heifer checking me out in the pictures above. She also liked my new bright yellow boots that I purchased at the show. I never could get a picture with her mid lick and her tongue out---nor the funny look on her face after she quit licking. Maybe the turquoise boots I wanted, but were not in my size, would have been more to her taste.











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I also took some interesting (to me) pictures. I like the colors and structure of them so I may frame them and hang them on my wall. I have a number of them that I like so I will whittle through and cut and paste and see what I come up with. When we were leaving and the light was bad not far from where I photographed the "oxen rd" pic----I saw one just the same but it said "giraffe rd". To bad I missed it---I could have had a matched pair :-)

The weather was of course beautiful, balmy mid 70's with mid 60's at night and even better----it was raining when we got home! We need it so badly we are practically doing rain dances so what better way to end a vacation than to come home to something you need so much!

Well, I have lots to comment on this week plus a slew of things to do since I was gone of course. First of which is shearing my sheep---though now I have to wait until they are dry to do it. Painting my chicken coop will be the other thing----we now have fully feathered "big" birds in our garage. Birds more than ready to see their new home as soon as it is in move in condition. (of course today was windy AGAIN! What's the deal here???)

Hope everyone had a great week.
http://www.smallmeadowfarm.com

How we manage our.....

Recently we have had a number of questions both on the blog and through our web site about how we take care of our pastures and animals. Many others like us are struggling to turn not well cared for small acreage into productive "mini-farms". Basically self sustaining, organic farms---at least to a degree.

Since our original purchase of the acreage we have divided it into 5 sections that are based on the soil type and plant growth. 4 of these sections are permanently fenced and the 5th is on two sides.
Each section has its own pros and cons and so each requires differing amounts of amendments and styles of application. Over time we have acquired, and hope to acquire, tools that will enable us to more effectively handle some of the property without owning a larger tractor. Some of the tools we have or hope to purchase are: a 30 gallon pull along liquid fertilizer sprayer, a pull along and hand push lime/granular product spreader, a new scythe for cutting along the sides of our dam and some barrels and a small pump for making compost teas. There are a number of other coveted tools---but those would help greatly.

Most questions we get are either about our soil restoration, how we graze our animals or how we care for our animals. We also get many good ideas from others on how they are handling their situations but this is about our property---so I will stick with our solutions :-)
Since we read many books, magazines and articles we continually come across new and well used ideas. We have picked through them and narrowed them down to those that, have or seem as if they will, work best for us with the tools and money that we have. We read and utilize ideas from The Stockman Grassfarmer, Joel Salatin, Neil Kinsey, permaculture, Albrecht method, and many many others. So let me comment on some of the things we have been asked and have learned. This is not to say any one person is right or wrong---just that it has or has not worked for us. All properties are different and so there for not all things will work all the time for everyone.

Do you rotationally graze your animals and/or do you graze the sheep and cows together?
Yes, Sometimes they are all together, sometimes they follow each other and sometimes they are split in segments. Currently the rams are with the cows, so pregnant ewes aren't continually harassed, and the ewes are in their own group. For grazing we have a permanent outer fence and then cross fence with electric wire to make smaller sections when needed. We are still working on improving our use of electric wire to rotate with though. Electric wire can be bulky, hard to reel and heavy when there is a lot of it. Also the poles have not been long lasting for us---and the better type work for cows but not sheep. A couple more problems we have with it are: 1) we have very rocky hard soil in a number of areas which requires a hammer to install the "temporary" fence--not the easy "step it into the ground" situation it's suppose to be and 2) Since we use wire and not electric netting (expensive but much much better and a possible future purchase for us) the rams and lambs can just slide through to the next pasture, or neighbors yard, when they are in their heavier wool phase. (And yes, we do definitely have a strong enough electric box which is very adequately grounded)

Do you use clover (legumes) to improve your pastures?
Yes and no. We do plant legumes in our pasture for our animals, and some smaller areas have some clover and vetch in them, but clover (including most legumes) does not like "un improved" soil very well. Clover hates acidic soil. Also, alfalfa can require irrigation here which we are not set up to do. So if you have rocky, acidic, crappy, steeply sloped and dry in spots soil--- as we do---your legumes will flat out not sprout or it will grow all stunted looking and not become a full, thick stand like it is suppose to. I know since I have seen it--pathetic looking stunted clover. This whole thing is kind of a catch twenty two as someone once said: "you need good soil to grow clover for clover to make good soil". So how are we addressing the improvement and eventual establishment of legumes in our pasture? By rotating the animals through each segment regularly so they can poop on the property (a major Joel Salatin recommendation) and by liming and adding other amendments to improve our calcium and nutrients needed to grow good plants (Neil Kinsey is a good writer on this subject). We are also choosing trees, such as thorn less honey locust, and shrubs for their nitrogen adding abilities to help with this issue. see here
This year we will also start regularly spraying our pastures with various types of liquid "teas" to help with soil tilth and fertility.

Do you grow grass and legumes only or add other things?
We actually add other plants, also known as forbs, to our pasture on purpose. Much research on our part made us realize that plants like chicory, pig weed, dandelions and other plants add much needed vitamins and minerals to livestock diets---which helps with overall health and parasite control. Healthier animals show more resistance to parasites--which is always a plus. Our cows don't seem as open to the forbs, though they do like chicory. And though I would like to see them eat more forbs it's o.k since we have the sheep who will eat them. A recent writer in Stockman Grassfarmer has been doing studies on how to teach cattle to eat unfamiliar weeds that are good for them including canadian thistle. Now I would consider Canadian thistle a serious weed, but the above mentioned chicory a benign "forb". Thistle is much more aggressive in taking over pastures but with training the cattle could be eating them and reaping the rewards of their nutrition--which are supposedly many. If all cows ate thistle, well then, maybe we might consider it a forb too. I don't think I'll add those to my pasture though :-)

Forbs are also good for your soil since they, like alfalfa, "mine" for nutrients. Dandelions (free seeds everywhere) have large roots that open the soil structure like alfalfa allowing in rain and oxygen---and when they die back in the winter they add all the nutrients mined from down below as a small bit of compost. Believe it or not I don't have dandelions growing in my pasture and constantly harvest seeds along road sides to drop in there. Either my animals eat them "all gone" OR they aren't getting established----go figure since most people with grass would love to have my problem. If I planted the culitvated kind in my garden---I am sure I would have thousands!
Look around on line and you will stumble into protein ratio of various weeds/forbs which can be very high at times---good stuff.
Another food source we are trying is to add multi purpose trees, as in honey locust, for fruits/nuts/seed pods for the animals. And, in the future, we will experiment with sowing in oats in the fall instead of just winter rye and maybe some buckwheat in the summer. (P.S---I had heard livestock couldn't eat buckwheat but recently saw a University bulletin on using it for hay---if anyone has knowledge of this I would appreciate a comment since I would like to try it)

Have you tried worm compost on your pasture?
No, but I would LOVE to. Worm compost/castings have been show to be one of the absolute best items you can spread on your pasture or garden. Castings (even at the low rate of 200 pounds per acre) improve ph (rendering it neutral over time), add humus,make minerals available to plants, improves soil structure and on and on. The more worms you have in your pasture ---the better. They won't just come 'cause you want them though. You have to have a closer to neutral ph in your soil for them to be comfortable. Ph is my main problem: but when worms do finally show up---wow!
We could get worm compost in large enough quantities for our pasture IF we want to pay $285 to have it brought to us in a truck from 2 hours south of here. That's not including the cost of the castings either--hence our reason for not using it yet. One of these days though......maybe I will have a huge huge huge worm farm in the alloted 10 foot by 4 foot spot I have set aside and produce great volumes of castings for my pastures every year. hahaha I wish!

Are you completely organic with your animals?
We try to be. In regards to feed we aren't really "organic". We try and grass feed our animals as much as possible off of our own pastures which we handle in a completely organic matter. When we purchase hay though, we are not getting a certified organic product and depending on the farmer---it can be more or less organic than others. Certified organic hay has not taken off around here yet but we look forward to when it does.
In regards to grain: again, sometimes we get organic and sometimes we don't. Availability and price both play a part. We don't really feed that much grain so this is not as much of an issue for us as it would be for some. It could be though when we are milking our cows and drinking the milk.
This year we are trying to grow enough grain, by converting our front yard into beds, to feed our chickens through next winter. This way we will be assured our chickens and eggs have been completely organic and gmo free. We will work towards growing enough for the chickens then try to grow enough for the cows while they are milked.
Another issue when considering organic handling of animals is whether they are "doctored" in sustainable ways. All livestock have parasites and diseases that can afflict them. Internal parasites are one of the biggest stumbling blocks to organic/sustainable animal production. We are currently experimenting with different ways to keep our animals free of internal parasites without relying on chemical wormers. We STRONGLY advocate the use of FAMACHA before ever worming a sheep or goat. We have also found that vitamins and minerals seem to play a much much larger part in keeping our animals from carrying dangerous levels of parasites or getting sick than we previously understood. Many diseases that afflict livestock from Johnes disease, hoof problems, CAE in goats to scrapie in sheep, and many other things, are now thought to stem from nutrient problems. It's hard to believe, but in reality we still don't know much about how soil and nutrients work together to effect our health and that of our livestock. It's a part of research that is overlooked frequently.
Yes, we have vets scoff at us for our belief in famacha and using vitamins and minerals for health of our animals. We are going on two years now with the things we have experimented with and we haven't lost an animal and we only seem to have made them healthier. Better coats, faster growth, healthy babies and on and on.
We did lose animals previously ---before we used our noggin and figured it out on our own after many many vets called for advice in many many states. It is hard to find a vet that will stray from the text book---even if your animals are DYING. I look back at goats we had and that the vets "wrote" off. I now know that in a couple of cases simply feeding kelp or other mineral supplements BEYOND regular livestock mineral salt blocks would have helped them immensely and solved two issues we had at the time--one of them infertility. It was simply a matter of nutrients. That was 12 years ago though---and even less was known then. Argh! Twenty twenty hind site :-)

Well, I hope this answers some of the questions. I know there are many more but with time I will eventually address all of them. If anyone wants to talk organic pastures or animals contact me at my email address alandtc at(@) catt.com

SmallMeadow Farm Icelandic sheep, Irish Dexters and heritage chickens

And since I was posting....

Here are a few pictures from the other day when it snowed. Everyone was out but a bit wet at times since our snow was very "mushy" this time around. There is still a bit on the sides of some roads today which is funny since it has been up to 40---but we have had a very very cold wind so....

At the top we have "Ike"---a moorit spotted horned ram. He bred most of our ewes this year. He is actually one of my favorite sheep (out of the rams and ewes) for no other reason than the fact that he is moorit and spotted. One of the biggest reasons why I raise this breed---I love the browns that they come in and I love the spots. Ike has lots of other good points (we wouldn't breed him if color was his only good point) but I have to admit I am a sucker for a moorit spotted sheep.
Next in line is "Dare"--our Irish Dexter Bull. He's still the young guy in the pasture---but he's working hard to show he's up to the task for which we purchased him ;-)
The last picture is of two of our other rams. The moorit ram in the front is GG. He got to breed a few of our polled (meaning without horns) ewes. He actually is not suppose to have horns BUT something tried to tell him he should. We were going to cull him (yes, eat him) because of it but as we waited for him to grow large enough to cull---we found that we didn't have to worm him at all through the summer (very uncommon trait and since parasites are deadly to sheep unless you treat with chemicals....well you get the picture). So he got to stay and try out a couple of "wives" of his own. We'll hope none of his babies have horns but do have his "no worming needed" ability. The other sheep behind gg is "Al" a black spotted ram. He is a really nice ram that we will be selling this year. We have too many rams so Al is one who will not be staying with us. It's too bad since he has a very soft fleece for a ram and a very mild (around humans) personality but there are only so many rams that you need when you have as small of a farm as we do. Sometimes it's really hard to choose which to sell off since each one has different pros and cons.
Starting in about 6 weeks we will begin lambing season. The first ewe due is starting to look a bit "large". It will get more exciting as the time gets closer. Just wait---you will love seeing my lamb pictures! They are the best and cutest and funnest and sweetest and...........Nothing as cute as a baby lamb!

An Update

Well, I haven't posted in a number of days so since it is raining (hard) here this morning I thought I would play a quick game of catch up. So here is a fast run down of what has been occurring since the first weekend of the new year.

1. Our digital camera got thrown away--on purpose. We have had so many problems with it that I just couldn't stand it any more. So until I get a new one within the next month there will be no pictures :-( sorry about that.

2. We have fenced our garden area of about 3/4 of an acre. That took 2 days of my husband, my son AND me to put in the corner posts and 7 foot T posts. Then another two days for my son and me to finish the corner bracing and pull the livestock fence. We wasted some fence and just pulled straight across where the gate will go. I would like my husband to make me a gate for my garden out of metal, something that looks like branches or vines have gone crazy on it. I know exactly how I want it to look but we need time and we have to order the metal from the metal yard. So for a while we will have to go in through the orchard pasture gate---trudge through that pasture--- and then go through another gate into the garden area.
Generally that wouldn't be bad except I have put the cows and the rams in there to "poop" in all the leaves that were dumped--instant compost (almost). So I have to go in everyday to feed and water them.
They are really really enjoying being there too-- the first day the cows ran around jumping (yes, jumping), bucking and kicking in the leaves and bellowing (deep and low and dangerous sounding) and throwing the leaves up with their heads and horns. Hilarious! You could really tell they were having fun. (And people wonder about confinement cattle HUMPH!)

3. I moved 25 peonies bushes from inside the garden to outside the garden fence and dug up two 5 gallon buckets of iris rhizomes also. Each of my peonies is a different variety and 10 of them had rusted tags that I could not read the name on it anymore so this spring I will have to try and figure out who is who---which will probably fail.
I haven't decided where to plant the iris' yet---but it is irrelevant since we have had rain since the day I lifted them up. Which by the way is not a complaint----we had so little rain last year that I swore I wouldn't say one thing even if I had to trudge through it all winter. Anyways I will get the iris' planted some time soon and when they bloom this summer I will take a picture (with my new camera). They are all different colors and they look very pretty when they bloom. I caught a picture of some of my lambs last year in front of them though you can't see them really well---since of course the picture was of the sheep not the flowers. It's the pic at the top.

4. My son and I have mulched just about every plant and bed on my property with the leaves the city dumped here for us (click the label "mulch/compost" on the side bar if you don't know about this subject)

5. I am almost finished with the lace shawl knitting project I started. With the advent of Christmas and relatives, New Years and then fencing it has had a bit of a crimp in how quickly it has progressed but I am nearing the end.

6. Last but not least I have most of my seeds ordered (any that need starting in the next month or two---which is most) and have transplanted my asparagus starts to a larger pot where they are now putting up multiple stems. I could have a mini dinner with them right now :-)
Out of the original 25 seeds potted up---I have had 23 that actually sprouted. Not to bad. I have more seeds but started with just those as I wasn't sure how well they would do---not having grown asparagus from seed before. It was easy though and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Which I will since I have most of a package left still.

That's all folks---hope things are going well for every one else too.

A close up of one of the culprits.

There's the bad beeve in the back. That is Caragh (our biggest cow) and Dare our 7 month old bull laying in the front. Rose is about 36" tall.

Rams and cows

Well this evening (Sunday) our oldest Icelandic ram got through the gate and into the cow pasture. We actually didn't have to chase him down as much as we thought we would when we first noticed he was in there. We caught him without much problem. Put his halter on and led him out of the pasture. He was a bit tired but no damage was done to anyone. I know you are wondering what problem there could possibly be with an Icelandic ram in a pasture with cows. In this case: big problems--for us anyways.
It all started last fall as rut approached. If you have never seen Irish Dexter cows---they are short. So short in fact that when a female is young she might not be much bigger than an average ram. Heavier but not much taller. Well, last year I made the mistake of bringing the ram into the barn to shear him as he went into rut. I wanted him to be cool as he started well....getting physical. I chose to do said shearing in the back stall of the barn. What I forgot when deciding this was that Rose--the cow---loved that stall and considered it hers and hers alone. She practically dances when she gets to go in it. Perception is everything when you are a cow and as far as she was concerned I "ruined" it when I took the ram into it--made it all stinky or something. She stared at us the whole time but I never gave it a thought. I just figured she was interested in what was happening. When I let the ram out though, she immediately started harassing him. Since he was coming into rut he felt inclined to defend himself against this supposed encroacher of his territory and so, of course, at that point war was declared by all involved. Butting, chasing and bashing ensued--with us running around trying to stop it--yelling the whole time. Up and down the hills of the back pasture, never quite able to get close to one or the other to catch them. They were so evenly matched that no one true winner could be declared. Finally the cow decided she was tired and wanted to give up, but the ram---well he is a ram and victory could not be declared until there was a true winner and the looser was no longer around. It was quite funny now that I think of it---My husband standing with the cow hiding behind him with his arms out, Rose keeping my husband between her and "guy" --peering (literally) out around my husband to watch were the ram was so she could keep my husband between them, Guy circling them both like a shark and me running in circles after him and just never quite able to catch hold of the brat. It took about 45 minutes all told but seemed like hours.
Since that time---we have always had to keep those two separate. They (or at least he) will fight every time. He picks at no other cow but her. She is his arch nemesis. Raminski vs Dexter Rose.
During the summer it seemed to have settled down and we didn't have too much of a problem--though we made sure to always keep them separate. But now that rut has started again, Guy sees his competition on the other side of the gate and is sure that Rose (the female cow) is going to steal his "harem" from him and purportedly breed them :-O. I am about 100% sure she is not interested--but he is not so confident no matter what I tell him. He spends quite a bit of time along the fence line protecting all from Rose. Pacing, making threatening "nickering" noises and guarding the fence line.
We have been told by friends "oh you should get a picture of that" when the two get together and fight. But to this day---we are so surprised and thrown out of whack by this dilemma when it infrequently happens, that we forget to get a picture. Next post I will try and get a picture of each one individually so that they can flaunt their mug shots here for all to see.