I hope everyone has been staying cool with these warm temperatures. The animals don't love the hot weather but we make sure they have plenty of fresh water and some shady places to rest during the hottest part of the day. Handling livestock safely and efficiently is an important job on the farm. It helps that our cows are calm and even tempered, and they are used to seeing Leith every day. It also helps that we have a well-designed corral. This picture shows the Bud Box, a si

After a slow start to the spring we were glad to finish our first hay cutting last month. As soon as we finish making hay, we spread 1 to 2 tons per acre of chicken manure on the hay fields. This replaces the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium that are removed in each bale of hay and fed back to the cows on pasture over the winter. Chicken manure is very stinky, and it takes a long time to spread. On the upside, it is inexpensive and does great things for the soil. As a smal

Last week we were busy making some of our first-cutting hay, and we still have one field left to do. We need several sunny days in a row to cut hay and let it dry down to the right moisture level for baling, and our first window of good weather came last week. It has been years since we have made hay towards the end of June - last year we finished our first cutting on June second! This spring, the wet weather has delayed first cutting for farms across the region. When we cut

May is probably the busiest month on the farm. Our first group of ewes finished lambing last month, and they are grazing under solar panels up in Geneva. The second group is in the barn now. They'll move back out onto pasture when they finish lambing. Calving season has started, which means frequent checks of the cow herd. Most of the cows are quite capable of delivering their calves without any assistance, but sometimes a heifer needs help delivering her first calf. We keep

If you drive around upstate New York this time of year, you're likely to see crop farmers spreading large volumes of liquid dairy manure, collected from cows that live in barns year round. Our cows live outside all year, so they spread their own manure across our pastures. During the winter, we control where much of the manure ends up by feeding hay in lower fertility spots on the farm. Nutrients and organic matter from manure and leftover hay accumulate where the cows have b

I imagine everyone is enjoying the sunshine like we are, and the animals are too. A group of ewes is due to start lambing on Friday, and we will move them into the barn tomorrow. Its nice to have them in the barn a few days early to get used to being in closer quarters than they are out in the field. The other group of ewes stays out on pasture until it is their turn to lamb in April. One of the March jobs is frost seeding red and white clover to increase the productivity and

We like the cold on the farm but days like today are a bit much. When it's windy like this we move the animals to a sheltered place on...

I hope everyone is enjoying the cold weather as much as we are. Snowy frozen ground is clean! The lambs born last spring get some shelter...

The last month has been great for the sheep flock. With little snow, they are still out grazing our stockpiled pastures. One group spent...

Last week we did our annual pregnancy check to see who was bred. All the cows get run through our corral and squeeze chute. While it is...

As much as we love sunshine, we need some rainy days every once in a while. All the cows are grazing nice, lush pasture, supplemented...

This August and September have been great grass growing months. The cow herds and the sheep flocks are enjoying some great lush grass....