Maid-N-Meadows: Fall 2020 Update

             Fall is on the slippery slope toward winter and we are just barely hanging on! There is so much to do and yet so little time before the cold creeps in. Plus, this year, we are going to function a little different than normal and milk through the winter. That means chores on top of preparations! But lots of fun stuff to be excited about and excited we are!

Notice the corn in the background drying in "shocks". Local Amish farmers will feed their animals with this corn, over the winter.

Managing CL In Goats

       

 Talking about CL in your own goat herd is a subject that fills many a goat farmer with shame. No one likes to talk about it or admit they have it on the farm. It is a disease that is incurable, gets in your soil, in your barn, and spreads through tools as well. Quite simply, it is gross and hard to get rid of without hard culling and testing. It was a sad day when I realized what we were facing.

Dairy Sheep Diary Part 3

       

          We have had our dairy sheep for four years now. If you are just catching up, check out "Dairy Sheep Diary" and "Dairy Sheep Diary Part 2". A lot has happened with the sheep in the last 6 months. We are still really enjoying our girls and milking them more and more. This year we are using some of their products to sell at our farmer's market booth, along with selling the rams for meat.

10 Things I Hate About Farming

         Some days, I HATE FARMING. Some days I can't help it! I get hot, tired, and frustrated to the max. So before anybody gets any unrealistic, romantic ideas about what farming looks like....let me just burst that bubble really fast! Here are the top 10 things I hate about farming.

Maid-N-Meadows 2020 Summer Update

            I know! It is actually almost fall....just a few weeks from now. I wrote a spring update and then summer just HAPPENED! And doing anything beyond the bare minimum was just about impossible. But the heat has died back and the garden is dying down....we are almost caught up on the goat and sheep chores. This week we are cutting hay and working on getting the bees ready for winter.

        The babies have grown so much over the summer. Beulah will be 2 in October and Elora will be 1. I am both excited and dreading this year of toddler delight and mayhem. Little people keep things so stirred up! They investigate and move things constantly. The little girls keep each other in stitches or tears, depending on the moment. They are just a lot of life, all the time. :-) Very fun but lots to manage, as well.

    Jaden has become like a second mother. We often work together to get through cleaning, schooling, bed time and you name it. But she is also exploring new adventures when she isn't curled up with a good book. She makes the cheese with Daniel, most days, and today was practicing driving the tractor, raking hay. We are prepping the goats and sheep for breeding season and she is prepping her calendar for all those little babies she is going to midwife into this world.

 Jacob has kind of outgrown everyday life here. He works for a neighbor farmer and is gone most of the time as older teenagers often do. Karson has taken over the main labors of the farm. But he likes to work with his friends too, so this summer we arranged for him to work with a friend once a week. All the older children hang out with their friends on Sunday for fun, too. 

    But everyone gets involved somehow, somewhere. We had a ball this morning eating sticky honey while we worked to clean out the comb. Between finding old costumes and taking turns on the extractor...all were engaged. 

Family Homesteading = Togethering

         What is the number one reason we love farming and homesteading? Two words. "Family Togetherness" If the most important and valuable thing we do in our lives is family bonds and relationships, then I want more of that! When I ask myself what will really matter in 100 years, my answer is the time I spent with my children and the impact that will have in their lives and the next generations'.

Dairy Sheep Diary Part 2

              We have had dairy sheep on our farm for three years now. We have enjoyed our fluffy white sheep! Today, I would like to share a few things we have learned along the way and a few resources that we have been enjoying. I will also give an update on how our flock is doing and how well they are paying for themselves. Part 1 of our Dairy Sheep Diary is here and it explains why we initially got into dairy sheep. Lets jump in!

It is fun to look out on a field dotted with white fluffy clouds with legs! Our dairy sheep are high percentage East Friesians with a bit of Lacaune in the mix. East Friesians are often called the Holstein of the sheep breeds, due to their milking ability. But we also use their wool for various projects. Last year, we began using their milk in soap. That has been a fun project....a project that we are continuing to develop! We have also been selling the ram lambs at the local stock pen as meat and they have graded as Prime and Choice, which are the two best grades for meat. All in all, they have paid for themselves and a little more. As we have been retaining all our ewe lambs, it has helped to have some income to support their feed and fencing costs. 

Our first black lamb in a flock of white sheep!

     Our cheese facility is up and running now, but our sheep only produce about a gallon of milk per day in their prime. With only 7 lactating ewes, we do not have a holding tank that will keep such a small amount of milk cold. Growing our flock has been very slow due to a couple of different factors. We will continue to grow our flock until we reach a size that will make buying a tank practical. At that point we will begin making cheese in this dandy commercial soup kettle! 

LESSONS LEARNED

    The biggest lesson overall is that East Friesian lambs, ours at least, are not very hardy creatures. Our goats and calves do fine in cold weather, so long as they are dry and have access to their mother's warm milk. Our lambs tend to need intervention if more than one is born on a cold, wet day. If a mother has more than one and it gets very cold, I bring those lambs in the house! With a price tag of $300 per ewe sheep, they are worth too much to chance! (Actually, I am a sucker for babies and I bring them all in when it gets cold or I am worried about them.....my pillow is much softer because I am not up all night worrying about them.) So in conclusion, my lambs don't hold heat well enough to stay outside, and jackets might work well, but I have been too nervous to try them yet.

    Once these sheep are a month old, they are easy keepers. They are parasite hardy, have few foot problems, and require very little in the way of maintenance. Compared to boer goats, sheep are easy as pie. A shearing in the spring with a little foot clipping, is about all the attention they need.

     The other major lesson we have learned so far is that bottle fed rams can be a pretty bad idea. Our ram has absolutely no fear of people what so ever and is actually quite crazy. He once got angry at the tractor and really bashed his own head up because he would not stop ramming into it. Actually, he might just be crazy. I will not be sad the day we eat him. And I do say we will eat him because he is not safe to send off the farm to a market or as breeding stock.....he is just that crazy. Our other ram was dam raised and is quite docile and enjoyable to be around. But he doesn't have quite as good breeding traits....so we keep them both.  

Dairy Sheep Resources

      Some resources I have enjoyed since my first Dairy Sheep Diary are a few Facebook groups. Dairy Sheep Available In The US, is a group that helps folks find dairy sheep, which is helpful as they can be hard to find. Homestead Dairy Sheep is a Facebook group for general questions on sheep as well as a chance to "show and tell".

      For medication dosing and general vet questions I use the website "Ask-A-Vet Sheep". This vet gives good advice in emergency situations when my vet is not available. I love the variety of posts on here and find them very informative. 

        So that is the latest on the sheep! I hand raised 3 ewes this spring and I think there are three more with the flock. With the Lord's blessing, we might just about double the ewe number this year! Here is to hoping! :-)