Wintry Feeding

I'm sure everyone is enjoying the warm weather this week. I know I am! The animals are too. There were lots of animals lying in the sun as we went around and fed today.

Here I am pulling the twine off a large square bale of hay. They are a bit awkward to unwrap. It has to be done over the top of the feeder because once the twine is off the bale, it falls apart. Most round bales are easy to move with the tractor after unwrapping, but not the square bales.

This cow is number 1914 - she was the fourteenth calf born in the spring of 2019 - and she is always one of the first to reach a new bale of hay. The smaller number 1502 at the top of her tag identifies her mother.

Most winters we keep our ewe lambs in the greenhouse where they are more protected from the weather and it is easier to feed them higher-quality baleage. They also don't have to compete with the full-grown ewes for food. This keeps them growing well throughout the winter so they have a good first lambing season in the spring. You can see the hay bale windbreak we assembled on the north side of the greenhouse when temperatures dropped below zero earlier this month.

Thanks for reading,

Leith, Mary Kate, Norah & Edith MacKenzie