We Have More Animals!

It has been a busy year for us on the farm. When we planned the year, we knew that it would be an adventure and it hasn't disappointed. 

We purchased two more goats! 

At one point, we even considered selling the two goats that we have now. They are mischievous, spoiled and had turned into pets. They do help graze down certain areas of the property but not to the extent that we had hoped due to their spoiled nature. They didn't seem to have another purpose and we didn't know if the upkeep was worth it for our farm. 

On what seemed like a completely separate issue, we were discussing the amount of milk that our family consumes. We have a herd share that allows us to obtain raw cow's milk directly from the farm. We started this as an experiment to see if we liked it and we discovered some great health benefits from switching to this form of milk. Additionally, we are now spoiled to the great taste and my kids do not even consider the pasteurized milk obtained from a grocery store to even be called "milk". We average five gallons of milk consumption per week for our family. The amount of milk and the travel to pick up the milk on the farm has made us consider obtaining our own cow for home milk production. The hubby isn't fond of this idea as he states our fencing situation is not completely ready for an animal that large. We did some research, listened to some neighborly advice and then decided to try milking Nigerian Dwarf goats to see if we even enjoy the process before investing in a larger animal. 

Meet Apple and Charlotte!

They are bred with a Nigerian Dwarf buck and are due at different times. We hope that this gives us time for them to trust us so that we can develop a relationship that allows for easy milking. Cross your fingers! 

The goats are kept in a deep bedding pen in the barn during the night. We walk them on leashes to their outdoor pens daily. The leash has been a new thing for these goats, but they are learning the routine and are becoming much easier to handle. 

The introduction of the goats. Caspian and Princess (Pygmy) didn't care to share their space but have shown more irritation at having to share any of the human attention that they believe is completely theirs to own. 

We are now patiently waiting for Apple and Charlotte to give birth as we prepare for our trial at a small milking operation. 

We purchased sheep!

We knew when we purchased our property that we would need ruminants to help us manage it. We have some hay fields that have largely been ignored with the exception of occasional cuttings. We don't have the farm equipment to harvest this hay and it isn't currently at the quality that it would be worth borrowing the equipment. So, we decided buy living lawn mowers. 

After doing some research, we decided that we didn't want to take on the additional issues associated with wool, so we opted for a hair-breed. The lamb ewes are a mixture of Katahdin and St. Croix. 

We are rotationally grazing them over our property. In order to get the most out of our current fencing materials, we are running them with our laying hens. We set up three pens. On the first rotation, the sheep and chickens are together in the same pen. During the second rotation, the sheep are given fresh grass while the chickens remain in their area to scratch through the droppings, search for bugs and continue grazing the area. During the third rotation, the sheep are moved to another fresh pasture while the chickens are given free range over the two previous areas. This gives the chickens new ground to fertilize the soil by scratching through the most recent droppings of the sheep and providing their own contributions (droppings). Then, we reset the mobile pens and restart the rotations.

The sheep have started to understand this system and seem so happy when we move them to the fresh ground. Another benefit by this continued handling is that they are becoming very accustomed to our presence and much calmer than when we first brought them home. 

We hope that this continued rotational grazing will keep our flock healthy and reduce our need for anti-parasitic medication. 

We hope to find a ram by December with the intention of producing some late spring lambs. 

We purchased more baby chicks!

The hubby built a great chicken brooder in the spring, and it occurred to me that it would be a shame to not use it more often! 

In all seriousness, we have been raising chickens for a few years now and we have some ladies that have reached an age where they are no longer producing eggs. We plan to graduate them to freezer-camp in September and wanted to ensure that we had replacements for them in the future years.

We should consider developing a system to hatch out our own eggs, but this hasn't yet reached the top of our priority list. So, we purchased a group of day-old chicks. 

We chose to go with Americaunas for this batch simply for their beautiful egg color. I know it sounds vain, but our last batch were Barred Rocks that will produce brown eggs and I wanted to continue to offer color in our egg cartons. 

They were loaded into the brooder and are doing well. 

By obtaining baby chicks in August, we don't have to keep the heat lamp on them nearly as long. We can also expose them to the fresh air of the outdoors sooner as the natural temperature of this month is more conducive to their needs. We simply roll the entire breeder outside and push it back indoors at night. 

Personally, my favorite time to obtain baby chicks is in August. It just seems much easier to keep them healthy than when we get them in the other times of the year. 

Well, there it is. We are continuing to grow in many ways here on the Growing Roots Farm. We are excited to see how these new additions work for us and what we can learn from each of them.