Hawk Hill Farm Happenings

Don't forget to have fun

2012-03-03T11:04:00.000-08:00

It is WAY too easy to get overwhelmed with everyday life and responsibilities to forget why we are doing this in the first place. We work to live not the other way around. And living means spending time with friends and family and HAVING FUN!!

Having fun is exactly what we did last weekend. The Glengarry Pioneer Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary by holding a Pioneer Ball. All were encouraged to dress in period costumes or Scottish attire. I would say that 30% dressed in heritage dress and another 30% dressed in Scottish attire. In this community most residents have a kilt tucked into their closet. Close to 230 people danced, ate and drank their way through a wonderful evening.

Hmm it has been so long since I have been in a dress I felt like I was in drag.

TTFN
Laurie

Another lightbulb comes on

2012-02-11T10:22:00.000-08:00

When I look at the time ahead and the time behind me I realize that I have less in front than behind. Oh well.

I have so much to learn about farming in general. I don't know how farmers do it in one generation, especially if they are like the current generation and don't want to learn from their elders but I suppose we all muddle along as best we can.

One of the ways we can reduce our cost of production is to improve the quality of our crops especially our forages and pastures. We have effectively mined the land for the last 14 years by taking hay crop after hay crop. While putting some manure back on the fields I am not sure that we have returned as much as we have removed. It is time to get back to basics. It goes beyond being a grass farmer with a by-product of lamb.We are bacteria and fungi farmers with a by product of soil. The rest just is icing.

The industry standard with horses is to bed with shavings or sawdust. This stuff just does not break down. Why? It takes a carbon:nitrogen ratio of 25-35: 1 to begin composting manure and bedding. Fresh sawdust and shavings are 500:1; even rotted sawdust is 200:1. It will actually pull nitrogen out of your soil in order to break down. No wonder horse facilities have mountains of this stuff hanging around.

We stopped using shavings 6 years ago and now bed the horses in straw when they come in ....which is very seldom. We now put 1-2" of sawdust on the bottom to absorb urine and then bed the rest in straw. We do the same with the sheep, though with the hay waste, we seldom have to add more straw. Unlike with the horses, we let a pack build up for the sheep and clean it out in the spring.

This winter we have our chores down to a fine art form; whizz in and out. It leaves a lot more time to read up about soil care and feeding. Maybe I will learn enough by the time I join the complement of fertilizers.

TTFN,
Laurie

I am a slow learner

2012-01-23T12:20:00.000-08:00

We have had horses for 12-13 years now and it has taken us this long to figure things out for the good of the horses, our pocket books and us. When we started we spent a lot of money getting the barn renovated for box and standing stalls, bought tons of blankets, etc. Lots of money was wasted.
Now we:

leave the horses out 24 hours a day year round with a run in shed
bed the run in shed with coarse sand instead of straw (it stays drier and is a lot easier to pick clean)
insulate the stock tank and use a bucket heater to keep it open in the winter
throw a handful of pennies in the stock tank to control the algae
feed in a round bale slow-feeder net in a tombstone feeder
fecal test 4-5 times a year and only deworm as required
only vaccinate the minimum for a closed herd
trim as required instead of on schedule (changes with season and ground conditions)
99% of diet is forage, supplement based on analysis
adjust diet based on body condition

They are healthier and less stressed and so are we. I am looking forward to the time we have the same breakthroughs for the sheep. I hope it doesn't take 12 years.

TTFN,
Laurie

A Shepherd in Winter

2012-01-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

As I lay nestled under the duvet listening to the morning weather - “-23 with a wind chill of -30” – I chant my winter shepherd mantra – “What the hell were you thinking?”. At -40 I add “I could have been in a villa in Tuscany right now”. I drag myself out of bed in a house that was built in an era when upstairs heat and insulation were considered optional. Fleece PJs and fluffy socks – a TSC vision of loveliness.

If I am lucky Bob has the stove going before I get downstairs. There is oatmeal for breakfast with a bit extra for the chickens. I am training them to come when they are called with oatmeal bribes. (see the former post) If you think that you look like a fool herding sheep without dogs, try chickens.

Now the ordeal of getting dressed for chores: insulated coveralls, my dork hat with ear flaps, neoprene gloves, neoprene boots, ice cleats. If I ever give up farming I could find employment as a dominatrix.

A stilt legged shuffle to the barn. Oh, you say, the warmth of sheep wafting over me when I open the door. No, the barn was built by the same folks that thought heat in the house was for wusses. It is a drafty, old bank barn where we house very few sheep but keep the hay, the water and the feed. The sheep are in paddocks with run-in sheds scattered around the barnyard. Water sloshing over my coveralls freezes instantly. I recite the mantra again.

I look over the breeding groups: a red butt here, a blue butt there. It is starting to look a lot like Christmas and the tune comes to mind. I am jostled by the sheep as I fill feeders; the guardian dogs are prancing in the snow. I am starting to wake up, to warm up.

Like with childbirth, I know I will forget all of this when I see the lambs frolicking in the spring pastures. A pushy ewe dumps the bucket down my boot; here comes the mantra again.

Puberty comes to the Chicken Coop

2011-12-31T08:14:00.000-08:00

Cock a doodle errrrrr. Ahh pubescent roosters in their first crow. Like human boys when their voices crack, the roosters just don't get it right at the beginning. It sounds like someone decided to choke them half way through a crow. That is what we heard when we first entered the barn this morning. Cock a doodle errr.

We purchased day old Partridge Chantecler chickens at the end of September and they finally have moulted into their adult plumage. The five hens are a beautiful liver chestnut with black partridge marking on their feathers; the roosters have a glossy chestnut head and mane and irredescent black/green tail and wing feathers - stunning birds and Canadian winter hardy.

I am teaching them to come to a foil pan with cooled oatmeal, a trick I learned over 20 years ago with my first flock of layers. I teach them to come to the banging on the bottom of a pie plate full of oatmeal and then entice them into the coop for the night. They love the oatmeal and come running. Once the spring comes and they are outside I will post a video. Actually somewhere in the archives of CBC television is a video of my first flock doing just that. Thankfully the footage of me crowing at my rooster to get him to crow for the camera ended up on the cutting room floor.

During the transition to laying eggs in the spring you often get very odd sized eggs from tiny to huge. When I got one of the huge eggs (probably a triple or quadruple yolker) I entered it in the Rural Delivery Great Canadian Big Egg Contest. The egg won and was shipped to the World competition (or more accurately the eastern seaboard of North America) where it came second. As a result of that success I was on television once, the radio at least three times and in the press a couple of times. I figured that I deserved a seat in the Senate after that (seems to be all the qualifications required). By the way, the chicken died.

Now I have to enter the strange and wonderful world of poultry fanciers to find a Chantecler rooster from an unrelated line. Then in the summer I will start breeding and hatching chicks for sale.

It's cock a doodle dooo Stupid rooster, get it right!

TTFN
Laurie

Mamma - The story of a little cat and a love story

2011-12-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

The year was 1992 and after 10 years of marriage, I was on my own again. My sister came down down from her home in the Arctic and asked me what I wanted to do. My reply: 1 hire a lawyer, 2 buy a stereo and 3 get a dog. That week we did all three.
The dog was an 18 month old Bearded Collie called Dixie who really should have been called Houdini. She was able to escape anything that she was put in leaving behind a pile of chewed door, window etc. Just change the noun and she went through it. The solution was a chain link dog run connected into another run in the garage. When I was home from work, she had free run of the farm.
It was heading into the winter when I first noticed that Dixie might have "company" while I was at work. Her kennel often had rodent parts scattered about: leg of mouse, tail of rat. About one month later I noticed a black streak dashing from her kennel when I pulled in the driveway. Finally I saw her companion, a diminuative jet black cat. Over the winter, the cat had kittens in the kennel, leaving Dixie to babysit while she would go hunting. She would return sharing her spoils. She had a second litter but lost most but Shadow who went to my sister's house.
By spring I realized the cat was there to stay so, unless I wanted to be continuously finding homes for kittens, she would need to be spayed. She needed a name. A discussion over coffee break resulted in Mamma. Not original but appropriate as she became the grand dam of every farm since. She stayed in the house for a week after her surgery, one of only two times she came in to stay over a period of close to 20 years.
Mamma and Dixie were inseparable and often you would see the two curled up together.
In 1995, enter a new man in my life, a whirlwind romance, marriage and move to another farm. Mamma tolerated the new extended family of cats and dogs. We were not sure that Mamma would stay at the new farm but home was where her Dixie was. She would cry outside the door until Dixie went out in the morning.
In 1997, we moved to Hawk Hill. Again Mamma came with us and was the constant companion with Dixie. If we left the car windows open, Dixie would soon crawl in the car to sleep and Mamma would join her.
A new dog joined our flock - Haley, a exuberant Golden Retreiver who was about the same age as Dix when I first got her. She was suitably ignored by Mamma.
When Dixie was about 13 years old, she became quite lethargic one night and by the morning had died. It was almost as it her time was up and that was it. We buried her by the boulder behind the house. Mamma was devastated crying at the door for her Dixie to come out. She was still not interested in human comfort. But slowly over time she adopted Haley as her dog. You would see the two in the same way you saw Dixie and her. And she cried for Haley in the morning to come out of the house.
More years passed and last year Haley developed a rapidly progressive spinal tumor and need to be euthanized in February. Mamma was a very old cat by now spending most of her time in an insulated box house in the garage only coming out to bask in the sun. She again missed her dog and had to turn her attenion to us as we no longer had a house dog. She tolerated the occassional scratch but no more.
This week age finally caught up with Mamma. She spent her last day in the house beside the wood stove (the second time in her life). She is buried by the boulder behind the house. She and Dixie are together again. And now it is me crying outside the door for Mamma.

Laurie

COPD in Sheep

2011-11-16T08:46:00.000-08:00

While sheep have been used as a model for asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) in humans there is very little written about the condition in sheep itself except for anecdotal evidence that sheep grazing on kelp on the Scottish Islands are less susceptible to respiratory coughing etc. Something to do with the iodine levels.

We have one lamb (possible two) and one ewe that have what I am starting to believe is COPD. When they are housed inside, especially if the ammonia levels increase or dust levels are higher than desirable, they have upper respiratory tract congestion, coarse breathing and coughing. These conditions do not really respond to antibiotic treatment but respond better to improvements in air quality.

I know that the one lamb had a very difficult time during birth, was a backwards presentation and had problems for the first few days. I am guessing that the lamb may have aspirated some fluid during birth and have some lung damage. I think that has left this animal more vulnerable to air quality issues. He spent the majority of the summer housed outside with access to airy shelters. His breathing difficulty only arrived once he was brought back into the barn.

This morning the lamb's breathing was very rough. I treated him with a wind aid treatment with potassium iodide, eucalyptus oild and pepperment oil. I then put down a heavy layer of fresh bedding. Within minutes his breathing was back to normal. He will be moved into a clean stall with better ventilation.

A second lamb that has mild respiratory problems also underwent a difficult birth.

I have a mature ewe with a similar condition: fine when housed outside but chronic breathing problems that does not respond to antibiotic treatment when housed inside. The condition improves with improved air quality. We bought the ewe as a mature animal so I am not sure if she was the result of a difficult birth but I would not be surprised.

More than even I am convinced that animals are healthier when housed outside. While our barn structure does not allow for huge improvements in air movement (low ceiling bank barn), we are going to do what we can to move more air through the builing and minimize the time the animals are inside.

I am also convinced that difficult deliveries, especially backwards presentations predispose the lambs to chronic respiratory vulnerabilities. Unless a lamb is extremely valuable those that underwent a difficult delivery will be slated as market lambs. Ewes that have chronic lambing problems will be culled.

I would love to hear from others that think they may have seen COPD in their sheep.

TTFN,
Laurie

Go with your gut and don't believe everything you see

2011-11-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

We had a sick lamb the last few days and I was at a loss as to what to do to help her. Sure I could treat the symptoms but I wanted to know the cause.

This was a 5 month old market lamb. She was lethargic, obviously constipated, not urinating, uncomfortable, very slight elevation of temperature, not eating or drinking. All really serious signs. We treated her with bloat ease and when that did not work mineral oil. Even though she had just been dewormed, I went with my instinct and retreated her with a product for tapeworms. I also did a fecal test and there was nothing present.

Yesterday morning she still had not passed anything so I brought in the vet. He diagnosed a slight respiratory noise put her on LA tetracycline and vitamin supplement.

Fifteen minutes after the vet left she pooped and peed (obviously too soon to have anything to do with his treatment). She immediately started to eat and drink. And then that afternoon she started to pass huge numbers of tapeworms. She was obviously blocked with these parasites.

By evening she was bright, eating voraciously, drinking and very vocal in her protests of injustice of isolation.

If I had just gone with what I saw (ie nothing in the fecal test) or treating the symptoms, I might have a dead lamb on my hands.

Lesson for others. Tapeworms are not inoccuous. This is the second lamb in two years we have had blocked by this parasite. It is not just barberpole worms that can kill.

TTFN
Laurie

Getting better before we get bigger

2011-11-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

I just gave a talk at the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency with the 10 lessons learned as a beginning shepherd. One of the lessons was to get better before we get bigger .... and we better practice what we preach.

Bob just did a summary of the feed costs for the lambs. Despite higher grain costs we have been able to cut our grain costs per lamb by $10 and by keeping the lambs on pasture for a month longer than last year we were able to cut our hay costs by a significant amount as well ($11 per lamb if we sold the hay on the open market). That was all accomplished by improving the quality of our pasture and our pasture rotation. Those cost savings are huge in one year for an operation as small as ours. What was also good is we were able to do this without losing anything in our average daily gain.

We still have room for improvement but sure good to see some progress in efficiency.

TTFN,
Laurie

Tunis wins again

2011-10-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that the summer is gone, fall is quickly passing and we are heading into winter. Yikes, I haven't even stacked my wood yet.

The first of our lambs has been shipped and we have two more batches to go at the beginning of November and December respectively.

Unfortunately the formal lamb tasting that we had scheduled for October 23rd had to be cancelled because we could not find a chef that was able or willing to take it on. So we hosted a smaller lamb tasting here at the farm: 16 people; and three breeds of lamb. Well the results were interesting. Our Tunis took last place for smell, not sure about the reason for that because it overwhelmingly took first place for both taste and texture. There is so much correlation between aroma and taste I am surprised that they disconnected. While I certainly would not turn up my nose at any of the lamb cooked up yesterday, I am glad that we have chosen to raise Tunis and so do our clients.

I am heading to Guelph at the end of the week and making a presentation at the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency Annual General Meeting. It should be interested trying to make something new for long time shepherds with tons more experience than me.

TTFN,
Laurie

Yoda grows up

2011-07-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

We would like to introduce Yoda. He is a North Country Cheviot/Hampshire cross ram that was born on this farm May 15th, 2011. Yoda was one of a set of twins along with his sister "Little Girl" and is the son of Winston, our purebred Hampshire ram and Rough, our purebred North Country Cheviot. (btw - this shot is courtesy of Sandra Croft)

Yoda was a last ditch effort to save some of Winston's genetics. Winston had a respiratory problem last winter that was really resistant to treatment and despite all our efforts we lost him in the middle of January. Necropsy results showed that he had a massive lung abcess that was resistant to all the antibiotic treatment because it effectively was sealed off. Fortunately it was not communicable but unfortunately it occurred right at breeding season. Winston was able to breed one ewe before he died, Rough. We despirately waited to see what she would have and thankfully she had a stunning ram lamb who weighed 16 lbs at birth.

Rough and her two daughters have routinely produced wonderful lambs that grow rapidly and dress out well. The stats from the mother's side and superb stats from the sire's side were enough for us to decide to keep Yoda as a terminal sire replacement... at least for a few years.

Yoda has continued to thrive, tipping the scale at 70 lbs at 50 days of age with an average daily gain of over a pound a day. Gotta love those genetics.

Why Yoda...first it is a 'Y' year for registrations of purebreds. No Yoda is not purebred but we use the same numbering for all our flock regardless if they are pure or not; second, with those ears could it be anything other than Yoda.

Keep posted in the future for Yoda babies... probably not next year but the year following.

TTFN,
Laurie

New Hawks at Hawk Hill

2011-07-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

When we first moved to this farm we took some time to decide on at name for the farm. However several walks to the back of the farm gave us the obvious name for the farm.

First we live on a hill and in this area there are not too many of them. From the very top of our hill we can see the hills of Quebec to the north and those of New York to the south. We really are wedged into that top eastern corner of Ontario.

Second, there was at least one pair of red tailed hawks nesting on our property; one at the top of the hill and one in the woodlot partway down to the back. Over the years those birds have moved on but we have had marsh hawks, sharp shinned hawks and others for the summer.

This year we saw a Kestrel for the first time in years... and she has taken up residence at the end of our barn, nesting in a pocket between the ceiling of the stable and the floor of the hay loft. We have 4 very determined chicks staring at us out of the hole between the boards.

We used to have starlings nesting in the same area but I think they became "Take out".

We have deer in the backyard, turkeys in the pasture and the occasional skunk chowing down on the cat food in the garage.

Check out the babes and their next door neighbours, a nest crammed with barn swallows.

As an aside we just took our 50 day weights on our lambs. They ranged from 32 lbs for a ewe lamb in a set of triplets to a 70 lb ram lamb (one of a set of twins). Our daily average gain is 0.83 lbs.

TTFN,

Laurie

Moms and Babes are out on pasture

2011-06-06T12:13:00.001-07:00

Summer finally appears to be here though it seems like just a short time ago I was bundled in my winter gear. OK so it was just a short time ago I was bundled in my winter gear. There were a few nights in the barn during lambing when I had a few layers on to keep warm.

Our ewes had their lambs between May 6th and May 23rd. We have 24 healthy lambs who are growing like weeds. Lesson learned this year; don't feed the ewes as much protein before lambing. Some of our lambs were huge... like 14 lb twins and a 17 lb single. All arrived safely save one but I spent much more time with my arm up the back end of a ewe than I would like either for my sake and for the sake of the ewes.

We had our first set of triplets this year and while the mom is handling them well, I am just as happy with a set of healthy twins. I am not interested in sheep that produce litters since I figure that bottle feeding just about kills my profit on a lamb, plus it is hard not to get attached to the little lambs if you are hand feeding them three to four times a day.

We are bottle feeding a single ewe lamb.... Little Girl. She is still with her mom but because of past problems with mastitis, the ewe does not produce enough milk for the two lambs. She knows her name and will come running out of the flock for her bottle.

We are heading into haying season and somewhere in between I need to plant my veggy garden. WHAT HAPPENED TO SPRING?

TTFN
Laurie

Scent of a ....ram

2011-04-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

Well the robins and red wing blackbirds are here, the geese are overhead and the sap is getting close to the end (8 litres of syrup and counting). It was time for the sheep to get naked. Our shearer was here on Monday and 2 huge bags later everyone is shorn. It is amazing what is hidden under those fleeces. Our mature ram was half the size I thought he was and our junior ram needs a few pounds.

The sheep will be heading back outside for another couple of weeks and then coming in for lambing. It is hard to imagine how quickly the time has passed. We bred 15 ewes last fall so I am hoping all of them caught. Most are very obviously pregnant but some of them that were bred at the end of the season are not so obviously pregnant.

A couple of days after shearing our mature ram came up lame in his back right foot. This is one case where I really had to dig deep for information. We do not and never have had foot rot on the farm... thank goodness. His hooves looked good, maybe a touch long so I trimmed him but it looked like the scent gland in between the cloves of his hoof was plugged. I scrubbed out his feet, trimmed them and cleaned out what appeared to be a blockage in the scent gland and 24 hours later he seems to be fine. NONE of the sheep vet manuals mention the scent gland. It was just a fluke that I found out that they exist and if they plug you will end up with and " unexplained" lameness. Fortunately I knew about the scent gland a couple of years ago and knew what to do.

We have a few lambing jugs to build. And so it begins.

TTFN

Laurie

The Sap is running

2011-03-22T06:05:00.000-07:00

Ever since we have moved to Hawk Hill Farm ...getting to be 14 years now... I have wanted to make maple syrup. We have several large maples around the house so it seemed an obvious thing to try. This year we were in the hardware store and supplies were on sale. Bob suggested maybe next year but he turned his back and I bought enough to set up three buckets. Well that got us started and we now have a grand total of 6 collection buckets and are boiling down sap. After less than a week we have 2 and a bit litres of amber syrup made and the sap is running really well. We just want to make enough for ourselves so about 5 litres in all will be more than enough. Because we can collect the sap on the way back from the barn, it is a very painless way to make syrup. And we are doing a big " no no" in everyone's opinion. We are boiling it off on the woodstove in the house but in our defense it will be this year only.

We have a refractometer that we use for testing the brix (sugar) level of grasses for making hay. We are using this to test the brix level of both the sap and the syrup as it is being boiled off. Surprisingly the sap from one sugar maple is testing at about 6°Brix coming out of the tree compared to the normal 2°brix. That makes it a whole lot better for boiling off since we have about a 20 to 1 ratio of sap to syrup rather than the typical 40 to 1 ratio. The other two trees are testing at about 3° brix. We are partially freezing the sap to concentrate the sugars before we start boiling so the maximum ratio we are dealing with is 20 litres sap to 1 litre syrup. We remove the frozen (for the most part) water from the container and the remaining sap has a higher concentration of sugars than before freezing. It is the same principle that works for production of ice wine. It saves us a lot of time and fuel for boiling off the sap.

With the weather forecast for this week ie cold nights and bright sunny days we should be finished making our syrup for this year by the end of the week. Dream number 534 accomplished.

TTFN,
Laurie

Time for mid-winter update

2011-02-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

We are in the midst of a mid-winter, heading out of winter snow storm - half rain, freezing rain and now heavy snow. A great big yuck. The horses are in the barn for the day as are the rams and after finally mucking out what was several tons of packed bedding out of the log barn, the ewes and guard dogs can go back in there for the day though they seem more interested in being at the round bale.

This time of year which is between breeding the ewes and lambing is mainly devoted to education. Both Bob and I end up enrolled in courses, attending workshops, viewing webinars etc on sheep and equine care, forages, soils and crops, farm management, and marketing. What has impressed us is how well these courses are attended by other farmers. It is my impression that farmers are very proactive with respect to professional development. It is really good to see.

In between we have managed to sneak in fun courses like cooking, wine tasting and tours. It all helps to keep the brain cells going and getting through the winter without a major case of cabin fever.

Keep warm folk,
TTFN
Laurie

Of Blogs and Bogs and Bears

2010-11-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

Blogs really are an unusual phenomenon when you think about it. When I was a child it was very common that little girls would have a diary where you poured out your innermost secrets and then hid it away for no one to see. The biggest disaster in the world was if, heaven forbid, somebody found your diary and read it and, even worse, they shared it with someone else. Yet with the social media today the more people who read your blog the better. And in some cases, the more personal the information the better. OK it seems pretty weird that I am saying this on a blog but.... I don't get it. I write my blog because it keeps people up to date on what is happening at the farm which is as much a business as it is a home. It puts a face on the business and allows clients to feel connected to where their food is produced. But to share my innermost secrets in public. It ain't gonna happen.

On another note I just found out that I inadvertently have started wearing a trendy piece of clothing ie Bog rubber boots. No I do not have the fashionable paisley or plaid versions but rather the conservative black ones. Silly me! I just thought they were comfortable, waterproof and warm. Little did I know that I was making a fashion statement. Super models stand aside!

And now for the bears. We have had two men hunting on our property for several years. These are good hunters, conscientious, good shots and courteous to us as landowners. They were here at the beginning of the hunting season just after our first snow. They saw bear tracks in the snow at the back of the farm. We knew they were in the area but not necessarily on the farm. A new owner bought several hundred acres just behind our farm. This land which previously was wooded has now been clear cut and drained. All the wildlife that would have been in that woodlot have obviously moved onto our land. We are probably going to see a lot more animals on our property. While I have no problems with bears, I am glad we have the guardian dogs with the sheep. I just want to co-exist with wildlife ... except for beaver... but that is another blog.

TTFN
Laurie

How cute is this

2010-09-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

This is a pair of our Tunis twins from this year. One is heading to a new flock in October. I don't know why they like sleeping in the feed dish but they all do.

TTFN,
Laurie

Lambs are Weaned

2010-09-03T05:17:00.000-07:00

The lambs were weaned yesterday which means a lot of crying and baaaing on both fronts- the ewes and the lambs. However some of the ewes seem to be happy to be rid of their babies which are nearly the same size as their moms and lift the moms off the ground when they are nursing.

The lambs will be in the barn for at least a month while we condition them to being away from mom and get the replacement stock their first vaccines.

This year has been a bad year for parasites in sheep here in Ontario. We monitor our flock by fecal tests on a regular basis and deworm as necessary. We also rotate our pastures at least weekly. All that has been to no avail; whether it is parasites that are developing resistance to the products we are using or just conditions we just had to deworm the flock again before we had expected to. We are going to start selecting our breeding stock based on their resistance to parasites and it looks like we have one ewe line that will need to go. The harsh realities of farming.

Later
Laurie

Laminitis

2010-08-05T11:16:00.001-07:00

Laminitis is one of the most dreaded words to a horse owner. Our 17 year old broodmare, Katee, developed laminitis within weeks of arriving to our farm a little over 10 years ago. It was a painful learning experience for both us and the horse. I knew very little about horses at that point but knew enough to recognize laminitis. Our vet support was poor at best - arrived 12 hours later, administered Banamine and left. No real direction. She developed secondary problems as a result and had chronic hoof problem for years.

Fast forward 10 years. Katee was having inflammation in her hocks making her very uncomfortable and difficult to exercise her to control her blood sugar. Now, we are fairly sure that Katee is insulin resistant and have since her initial attack always been careful with her on pasture. At the suggestion of the vet we had her hocks injected with cortisone. While it helped her hocks, it triggered another bout of laminitis.

Fortunately, 10 years into horse ownership, I know a lot more. Within minutes of realizing she was dead lame, I gave her asprin, put cold compresses around her feet, put frog supports on her feet and got her into deep bedding. With the aid of the vet we got her into thicker pads. She was stall bound for the first few days with constant icing (debatable as to whether that was appropriate). I kept her on Asprin and then Bute for a week, kept her in foot pads. By day 5 we were able to hand walk her comfortably for short stretches gradually increasing the time out.

This morning (day 7) she was out in the grassed round pen for a couple of hours with a grazing muzzle. Inside she is on controlled weight of hay fed in a hockey net bag to slow down her consumption. Plus she has had a couple of longish hand walks. She is wanting to trot and is striding right out.

I am cautiously optimistic about the prognosis but deeply guilty about causing her problems in the first place.

If you have a horse that is insulin resistant or has had a bout of laminitis in the past - Do not use cortisone at all, even joint injections. It really is not worth taking a chance. You might be helping one area but causing yourself and your horse even more grief.

TTFN,
Laurie

Lambing is finished - can sleep be far off

2010-06-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

Like two synchronized swimmers going through their routine, the last of our two ewes lambed simultaneously two days ago. We had what I considered a very successful second lambing season. 10 of the 11 mature ewes lambed out. We do not know whether the 11th ewe caught and lost her lamb or did not catch. With the 10 ewes that lambed we had 18 lambs. One was stillborn but test results showed no obvious cause so it was not a management problem on our part.

Now we can finally sleep through the night. But I am not through fussing about them. Until they are about one week old I always fuss about whether they are nursing enough etc. I worry about infections in the ewe, mastitis etc. OK I just fuss. Thank goodness I didn't have children of my own because I would have driven them and me crazy.

We record tons of information during births so that we can start to recognize norms and when to intervene. I needed to intervene with two births. One where the lamb was backwards with one hoof caught behind the pelvic bone and the second presenting forwards with one leg back. I am pleased to say that both lambs are fine as are the moms.

We also collect other information that is interesting but I don't know how relevant it is. We have had 14 sets of twins. We have only had ewe/ewe twins or ewe/ram twins. In all the mixed sex twins but one, the ram twin was born first. Go figure!

The sheep will all be out on pasture in the next week. And things quiet down to leave us time to hay.

TTFN,
Laurie

New Beginnings

2010-04-18T04:40:00.000-07:00

The last of the horses we had for sale left yesterday for their new home. It was a day of mixed emotion; one of sadness of passing of a dream, but more importantly, one of excitement for the beginning of a new dream.

It has been nearly 10 years since we have had only three horses in the pasture... it looks empty!! Lucan (looking ever so lovely to the left) is coming home from Saddle Ridge this week. He has been there for 10 weeks and hopefully knows a lot more than us. Then there will be our four horses at home. Now really begins the learning.

Bob and I are taking riding lessons and will be for most of the year. We have no expectations of being competitive riders. I really like Sally Swift's Centered Riding approach. We just want to be able to safely hack with our horses here at the farm and over other trails with friends.
Next step is getting Lucan and Mirage back into harness so we can also be driving here and away.

Despite being a horse owner and breeder for over 10 years, I am not under the illusion that I know it all or even a small fraction of what there is to know. I am constantly learning something new about horse nutrition, behavior, health, hoof care, training... and so the list goes on.

The luxury of having only four horses is that I can start looking at the individual nutritional needs. I have been doing this with the assistance of a wonderful web site called FeedXL from Australia. The most obvious lesson I have learned is unless you get your hay analyzed and adjust the horse's supplement requirement based on that analysis you are just wasting your money on supplements. So few of them even come close to meeting the horse's requirements; they overshoot in some nutrients and are so low on others you would need to feed hundreds of pounds to meet daily requirements. The net result is we were overfeeding and under nourishing the horses. Hay samples are leaving this week and will be done every year from now on.

The other lesson that I have learned is the markup on these supplements is astronomical. By custom mixing our own supplement we will be able to save hundreds of dollars a year and have better results. With some supplements we literally were pouring dollars into the manure pile while they excrete unneeded vitamins etc. Obviously you need to work hard with an animal nutritionist.

With only four horses I can really focus on more timely hoof care. We have been trimming our own horses for four years now and with 14-16 horses it was tough work. It was everything I could do to keep them on a 6 week trim schedule let alone a preferable 4 week schedule. Now I can address issues and imbalances as I see them... and with trimming monthly, I doubt I will ever use my nippers again.

Finally, I will go through my horse stuff and be able to sell items I will never need again... and maybe use the money to get a new saddle.

TTFN
Laurie

Impossible to Change/Change to Impossible

2010-04-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. -Alan Cohen

This quote was posted on a favorite Facebook page Solve Horseback Riding Fears by Jane Savoie and it really captures what I have tried to do most of my life. Over 5 years ago I gave up a secure but stressful job with the government to work full time on the farm. While it is much less secure and definitely has its moments that are as stressful, it is a whole lot more satisfying.
At that time we were breeding horses, and while the quality of horse we were producing was extremely good, the market was continuing to dry up so another change was required. It broke our hearts but we sold most of our horses and started to breed sheep and raise stockers. There are some that would say I was crazy at my age to take on a new, physically strenuous enterprise but I guess that is changing to the impossible.
With these changes I have to make sure that I celebrate the small victories to keep motivated. Yesterday for example we got the lab reports from flock fecal samples. All three sub-flocks of sheep are free of internal parasites. The bonus is we do not have to treat our sheep and can move towards our goal of prevention rather than treatment.
Yesterday also I tested whether I still was capable of selecting the best quality of dairy cattle (an earlier part of my life). I had reviewed the All Canadian Nominations for 16 classes of Ayrshire Cattle and noted my placement. Yesterday the official placements were released and my placements corresponded with those of the judging panel 26 of the 32 times and were off my a single placement for the balance.
Small victories, big motivation. I have a sister that kids me about "living large" but these small victories are important to me.
The sheep are shorn and lambing begins next month. The seasons evolve as they should.
Next week for the first time in my life I am starting regularly scheduled riding classes. I want to be ready when Lucan comes home. Change to the impossible.

TTFN,
Laurie

Look carefully before you generate your own power

2010-03-13T11:25:00.001-08:00

Two years ago we agreed to have an internet tower built on our farm so as to expand the broad band, high speed network into this part of the province. It has been a huge advantage to property owners. Last week we were visited by the property assessor and it turns out that part of the property will be reassessed as commercial and will be taxed accordingly.

It turns out if you plan to add a wind generator and/or solar generator and sell back into the grid that part of your property can be zoned as industrial with the land tax rates associated with industrial zoning. Do the dollars and cents and make sure the taxes don't take up your profit.

With the government pushing green energy, I am surprised to find that one hand is giving and the other is taking away.

Later,
Laurie

Humane Management of Livestock

2010-02-23T12:53:00.000-08:00

We are designing a sheep handling facility to make it easier to vaccinate, trim, sort and body condition check the sheep. If you are planning a facility, your best bet is to look at the research and recommendations of Dr. Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin is a very much respected authority on the human handling of livestock. We just picked up her book on humane management of livestock and what an amazing reference. She has such good insight on animal behaviour and how it can be used to move and handle livestock in a stress free manner.

And why is this important? Primarily is the moral consideration. Just because an animal is being raised for meat production doesn't mean that it should be handled any less humanely than an animal that is not raised for meat. Be it our horses, who now are mainly pets, or our sheep or cattle, they all get the same level of care and compassion. Another reason is explained by Dr. Grandin. Meat from animals that are stressed is prone to be dark and not last as long in storage. I also believe that it has a significant impact on tenderness and flavor.

Dr. Grandin also discusses the current approach to breeding livestock. Too often breeders focus on one trait to the exclusion of all others be it rate of gain, production, performance, colour etc. This often has an unexpected and unintentional adverse impact on other traits such as temperament, longevity, fertility. Like with our horses, our breeding program is looking at a balance of numerous traits.

Along that line, I also am surprised that flavor so seldom figures into a breeder's production goals. I suppose it is because flavor is individual and is so difficult to test. I would love to see more taste tests used as part of breeding success. Ultimately the customer is the judge and if it doesn't taste good they judge with their wallet. Flavor is always going to be front and center with our goals.

Check out Dr. Grandin's website. It is very good reading.

TTFN
Laurie

Training and weight loss challenge

2010-02-14T07:07:00.000-08:00

The new year is upon us with new year's resolutions, the excitement of the Olympics and a general need to get over the mid-winter blahs. Both our horses and I have turned into pasture and couch potatoes respectively soooo..... we shipped Lucan out to a new trainer to get started under saddle (and to lose some of that round bale belly). I have yet to make the phone call to get me to the trainer but putting it on "cyber" paper hopefully will give me the incentive to do so. But I have taken the step to start a more healthy eating style with an anticipated weight loss outcome. Years of wear and tear has been hard on my hips and knees and considering they are the only thing that is keeping my tush off the ground I better take care of them. Healthy eating, weight loss and exercise will help me on that path.

Now back to Lucan. He is at Saddle Ridge Stable being trained by Reuben Geleynse and is coming along very well. Reuben has a nice soft way about training which will result in what we want from Luc; a calm, safe horse for hacking. We will be documenting his progress on uploaded videos on our Youtube channel. And yes, we no longer just believe that Luc has ribs under all his fat, we (almost) can feel them.

TTFN
Laurie

Holy Doodle Batman, Hawk Hill is going High Tech

2010-01-29T16:36:00.000-08:00

When personal computers first came out, I was in University... OK I was in graduate school.. but hey I have earned these grey hair. At that point I was a technophobe. I don't think I turned on my Osborne (remember them) for three months after I bought it. Now it is a pretty rare day that I don't spend at least some time on the computer.

The internet has opened incredible training options in webinars, on line journals, discussion groups, training videos. How to vaccinate a lamb is just a click away.

While I am just new to both blogs and social media, I recognize their power in networking people both friends and future clients. That is why I have just started a new Facebook page: Hawk Hill's Lamb Lovers Page. It is a place where those of us who love lamb can share recipes and other information about our favorite food - Lamb.

Check it out and become a fan.

TTFN,
Laurie

Raising meat animals then and now

2010-01-17T11:46:00.000-08:00

I was reorganizing my recipe books (and updating my new recipe page on our website) and I started to read through some of my old recipe books. I was reading a 1950 edition of the Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book. It was very interesting to see what they had to say about beef and chicken. Here are a few quotes.

"The quality of beef depends on the age of the animal and its feeding. The best beef is from a steer 4 to 5 years old."

and Chicken:
"Broilers or spring chickens or squab chickens are young, tender birds (8-14 weeks old). Allow 1/2 small broiler to a person.
Fryers weigh 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pound (14-20 weeks old). One fryer serves 2 to 4.
Roasters weigh 3 1/2 pounds and over (5-9 months). A 4 pound bird serves 4 to 6.
Capon (unsexed male) usually weigh 7 to 8 pounds and serve 8 generously."

Oh have times changed. Most beef is processed between 12-20 months of age. And with current chicken breeds it is easily possible to have a 9 week old bird dress out at an average of 6 lbs. I have done that myself numerous times. It brings up what we have gained and what we have lost.

I think that one thing we have lost is flavor. A beef animal takes time to develop the marbling throughout the meat and as I mentioned in an earlier post, most of the flavor is in the fat. The gains are obviously quicker turnaround times and reduced feed costs... maybe. To bring an animal to market faster required more concentrated feeds -- grains, higher protein concentrates etc. These feeds cost more than a forage based diet. You can go back and forth on the cost, time argument and much of that depends on location, market etc. A pasture based diet is only inexpensive on cheap farm land. Land prices around much of southwestern Ontario could make a pasture based system very expensive indeed. What it should come down to is what the client wants in their meat and what they are willing to pay for it. We will always be a pasture based management system supplemented with grains to start and then finish the animals. We will process at 2 years of age at the earliest. However we are small enough to allow us the flexibility of breaking from the norm. We will play with our management to make the best flavor and quality in the beef.

Another unexpected loss is quality of leather. A number of years ago, I apprenticed with a harness maker. He bemoaned the fact that it was getting increasingly difficult to get good quality leather. And the reason is that cattle are slaughtered much younger. The hide thickens as the animal ages. (You sure notice this come vaccination time.) Younger animals means thinner hides.

As I mentioned I can raise a roaster sized chicken in 9 weeks. However to do so we give them free access to high protein feed. This year we will reduce the protein level in the feed, and allow them access to pasture. bugs etc. We will see what difference that makes in the flavor of the meat. I know the young roasters were tender and tasty. Lets see what we get with the pasture penned poultry.

TTFN
Laurie

Bag of Bones Soup

2010-01-11T06:58:00.000-08:00

Many of our clients are new to buying lamb by the side or whole and are unclear as to the process of selecting cuts. We had a very helpful local butcher (who actually teaches butchering) allow us to watch and learn as he processed our lambs. We also have been reading (and cooking) so that we can better advise our clients.

Here is some basic information when ordering lamb.
Unless your supplier is processing a number of lambs at the same time, don't request ground lamb. Almost one pound of meat remains in the grinder and is lost. If you need ground lamb you could process some at home; partially thaw stew meat and run it through your food processor. It won't be perfect but you won't lose as much.

If you want brochette cubes you are going to have to sacrifice a hind leg. This cut provides the best meat for brochettes.

If you want stew meat, the best cut is the shoulder. You could ask for boneless shoulder roast and then cut it for stew meat. However make sure you get the bones back. Cooking the bones in the stew greatly enhances the flavor.

Most of our clients do not want the organ meat. However I recommend they take it anyways. I find the delicate flavour of lamb liver superior to liver from any other animal. It certainly is worth a try. You might find a new addition to your menu.

Many of our clients also don't want the bones. For the most part I think they do not know what to do with them. Soup is the obvious answer. However I want to share some cooking tests that I did with the bones. I love Scotch Broth, a classic lamb based soup so I boiled up a bag of lamb bones. The lamb flavor was weak and totally lost in the soup. When I have made Scotch Broth in the past I have always used the left over leg bone from a roast so the next time I made soup I first roasted the bones in the oven until well browned and then covered them with water and used that to make soup. Wow what a difference. It would have been further improved if I had roasted a few carrots, onions and celery with the bones. Keep an eye on the web site because I will be adding a new recipe for "Bag of Bones Soup". Note: The recipe is now on our web site.

So next time you are ordering a lamb, take it all. It sure will add more tasty diversity to your menu.

Cheers and good eating,
Laurie

If you are not eating Hawk Hill lamb, you are just eating sheep.

2009-12-17T15:03:00.000-08:00

We have had two meals based on our purebred Tunis lamb and personally we thought the meat was delectable. A delicate aroma and flavour with fine-grained tender meat. Exactly what we had been led to believe by Tunis boosters.

We decided to put the lamb to a taste test and compared four different breeds of sheep. We tested our pure Tunis, our cross-bred Tunis/Cheviot, another Ontario lamb of a different breed from an organic farm and commercially available lamb from New Zealand. All were loin chops and all were cooked the same with no flavour additions. The lambs originating from our farm were both raised under the same regime though the Tunis Cheviot cross was about one month younger than the pure Tunis. There were four of us testing flavour, texture, aroma and taste. While not a true blind taste test it was the best we could do in a social dinner setting.

Well there was a significant difference in all the lamb. The least difference was between the Tunis and the Tunis/Cheviot cross. All of us preferred the Tunis and or the Tunis Cheviot. The Ontario lamb from another farm was not liked by any of us and the New Zealand lamb was in between. The Tunis and the Tunis/Cheviot had a more pleasant aroma, texture and flavour. The meat was more tender and the flavour was rich without a "wooly" after taste.

At one point I was considering selling our Tunis ewes and just using the Tunis/Cheviot crossbreds. Welllll.... the taste test has made me reconsider and the Tunis ewes are going to remain as part of our lamb production flock.

We then had the balance of the New Zealand lamb for our meal the next night. I am totally spoiled. Tunis rocks.

We are trying to encourage a meat marketing agency here in Ontario to run a chef-judged taste challenge. Growth statistics, conformation, carcass structure etc are all important but in your breeding program you cannot forget the most important factor - taste.

Later
Laurie

Hawk Hill Thanksgiving

2009-12-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

We are well past the Canadian Thanksgiving and even that celebrated in the United States but tonight we are celebrating Hawk Hill Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving is close to the original reason for the celebration. All our animals are in their winter shelters and they are set for snow and cold to come. The barn is full of hay. The rams are in with their ewes starting the whole new cycle of life. The snow blower is on the tractor and the wood is stacked in the shed. The last of the vegetables (frost and snow hardy brussel sprouts) have finally been harvested.

We also have a new crop of ewe lambs to be thankful for. I can't help but smile when I look at those beauties.

Tonight we sit down to a meal that has all been grown at Hawk Hill: roast lamb (even the rosemary and garlic flavourings are grown here), potatoes, beets and brussel sprouts.

We are thankful for another good year heading into a winter where we take as many courses as possible and read in front of the fire.

Let it snow.

Cheers,
Laurie

Hawk Hill Tribute to the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street

2009-11-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

We are finishing up the late fall chores: getting winter paddocks set up, shipping the last of the lambs, doing some fencing and spreading the manure pile. As Bob took out load after load the pile evolved into what looked amazingly like Sesame Street's Snuffleupagus. So in tribute to the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street we are posting our manure pile "art". Snuffy is now spread over the back hay field.

Cheers,
Laurie

"To a Maus"

2009-11-18T06:20:00.000-08:00

My favorite Robert Burns poem is "To a Mouse" that he wrote after ploughing up a mouse nest.
Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

That poem came to mind the other day as we found we had a mouse resident in our tractor. Every time we turned on the engine she scurried out of the engine compartment and onto either the loader or the central console by the gear shift. She is a deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, with big Mickey Mouse ears and a dove white belly. All in all a lovely beast but not in my tractor where she can strip my wiring for bedding and generally cause havoc. So yesterday she was "relocated" to the back field. I hope she knows the back field dialect.

Mankind gripes about wildlife invading our space but it was us that invaded theirs. As much as possible we try to amicably coexist with wildlife but draw the line with the skunk in the garage... and the mouse in the tractor.

Later,
Laurie

Royal Winter Fair Trip

2009-11-12T06:45:00.000-08:00

We just returned from our annual trip to the Royal Winter Fair and tucked in a trip to the Stock Yards at Cookstown for the sheep sale. It is nice to get away from the farm for a few days and nice to get back home.

First we went to the stock yards at Cookstown for the sheep sale. Some of the lamb prices made sense and some didn't. There seemed to be an aversion to black fleeced lamb with their prices being lower than equivalent quality white fleeced lamb. The buyers also didn't like Katahdin sheep. Their prices were low compared to equivalent quality wool breeds. The buyers bidding price was established by the worst lamb in the lot. If there was a lot of 10 lambs, 9 of which were good and 1 which was poor, the poor lamb set the price for the whole lot. Definitely a reason for having consistent quality and type in your lots. Finally the buyers were more focused on length and quality of loin rather than the quality of the hind leg. That would make sense considering there was a number of buyers for restaurants. Restaurant cuts also focus mainly on the loin and the ribs.

We attended the Market Lamb classes at the Royal and the Market Lamb Auction. We wanted to see what both the judge and buyers were looking for. As we have always done at the Royal, we did a bit of ring-side judging to see how our placements of the class compared to the judge. We were pretty consistent in placing the top end of the class, sometimes not in exactly the same order as the judge but we had the top 5 in the top 5 and more often than not within one placement of the judge's. I have been doing this at the Royal and other shows since I was a kid and entered judging competitions when I was in 4 H so I have a pretty good eye for a good animal. Unlike the sale barn the judge was focusing equally on the leg and the loin with even a lean towards leg quality. The Grand Champion market lamb sold for close to what I expected - ~$10 per pound live weight for a total of about $1000. A nice price for the owner but it was an excellent market lamb.

The one thing that was obvious with the market lamb classes is how far the purebred breeding stock classes have strayed from that type wanted for market lamb. That is quite a head scratcher for me. Breeding lines especially in Suffolk and Dorset have focused on large, very leggy animals.

Because we want to focus on lamb quality rather than breeding stock, if we show it will be limited to market lamb and carcass classes... the sheep equivalent of performance classes.

We also got a chance to visit Pax in his new digs. Nice place and nice people. He looks great and is doing very well. It is such a relief to know that our horses are well loved and cared for once they leave Hawk Hill.

Time to finish trimming some horses,
Cheers
Laurie

Prior

First Snow at Hawk Hill

2009-11-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

We have been working non-stop building fences so I have been outside all day every day this week. There has been the feel of snow in the air and in the sky. Last night at about 2 am, I looked outside to see everything covered in a blanket of snow. It probably will not last long but it is a stark reminder that fall is leaving and winter is about to start.

We still have to finish a fence line or two and then the horses move to their winter pasture and the ewe lambs and rams head into their winter pastures. The last of the market lambs leave at the end of this month. The word back from all our clients has been a unanimous "Yum"! Two lambs are already booked for 2010.

We are taking a much needed break and heading to the Royal Winter Fair and then on a farm tour in Quebec. I am looking forward to meeting other shepherds and viewing other farms. There is still so much to learn.

The one advantage of downsizing our horse herd is also downsizing (big time) our hay requirements. We now have the opportunity to experiment with other crops and forage management systems. I am really intrigued with "cocktail" cover crop planting for soil improvement and fall forages. Maybe it is the scientist in me but we are already planning for different plantings to test.

Coming soon are two more steers and then the rams go in with the ewes.... and it all starts over again.

So as winter comes our animals are settling in for the long haul. In total we will have 34 animal residents for the winter: 2 dogs, 3 cats, 6 horses, 4 steers, 17 ewes and 2 rams; that is more than enough to keep us busy.

Give me another couple of weeks of clear weather and then... let is snow, let it snow, let it snow.

TTFN
Laurie

Chores for a blustery day

2009-10-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

The English language has some words that perfectly describe something and "blustery" is one of them. It is wet, windy and generally miserable. We are doing some repairs to the fire brick on our stove so the house is only marginally more comfortable without the drying heat of burning wood. So what do you do on a blustery day.... things that you have put off doing because it is too nice outside to miss an opportunity for outside chores. In this case it was vaccinate, hoof trim and weigh the ewe lambs and weigh the two remaining ram lambs.

The whole process of vaccinating, trimming and weighing the ewes was done in less than an hour and most of that was catching and moving them. Once we have all our chutes and tilt table set up we hope to cut that time down considerably. The ewes were all in good body condition and have gained at a reasonable rate. We don't want them to get fat so they are growing on mainly second cut hay and a small amount of grain.

The two remaining ram lambs were not able to compete with the bigger rams for feed and had not gained at the same rate which is why they had not been shipped yet. Now that they are alone and we have upped their grain and added a bit of soy meal their rate of gain as jumped with one gaining nearly a pound a day. They will both get shipped at the end of November.

Now into the house to add the data to the growth charts.

A blustery night is popcorn in front the TV.

Later
Laurie

Sold Out- Hawk Hill Market Lambs

2009-10-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

We are very satisfied with our first full year of lamb production at Hawk Hill. We had 8 ram lambs for sale and all are sold except for the one we are keeping for our own freezer (there has to be some perks to this job). One purebred, registered ram went for breeding stock and we hope he will throw as nice progeny as his father. The others have been shipped as market lamb and every one was pre- ordered before they were even weaned.

We already have some feedback (excuse the pun) from our clients and the consensus was "delicious". Even our butcher commented that ours were the best lambs that he had processed this year. It makes us very proud.

We have two more lambs to head to market, probably at the end of November. We also are preparing the hides to be tanned (two of those have already been booked as well.)

Our ewes are getting back into condition and will be rebred in December.... and then we start all over again.

We are taking this Indian summer break to catch up on winter preparations.

Cheers
Laurie

Steers are in their winter pasture

2009-10-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

It is funny how we put things off because in our minds they are so much more difficult than they are in reality. Well getting our steers prepped for winter and in their winter pasture fell into that category. We have two yearling Angus/Ayrshire crossbred steers out on the back pasture. We want to get all the livestock in pastures close to the barn with good run in shelters to protect them from the winter storms. We have put it off for the last week but with heavy frosts for the last two nights we couldn't put it off any longer. So Bob, Kayleigh (a neighbor that works here on a part time basis) and I headed out to the pasture. We drove the "boys" into a stall in the barn. We dewormed and vaccinated them and drove them into their winter pasture. No muss, no fuss and everything was done in under an hour. They are in a pasture with water, electricity, a round bale feeder and a shelter. They are all set for the winter. Here they are in their shelter enjoying a spot of sun on a chilly fall day.

Next comes the winter move for the horses.

Later
Laurie

Don't clash with Titan

2009-10-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

This is Titan, our Maremma livestock guardian dog. He is gentle and loving with us but I sure would not want to be a coyote that tangles with his sheep. The coyote problem in Ontario is increasing every year with more loses for sheep producers. This problem has a huge impact on your bottom line as a pack of coyotes can wipe out your yearly profits in one night of mayhem.
Enter Titan. He is a 2 year old purebred Maremma livestock guardian dog that we purchased as a pup with our first flock of NC Cheviots. While some suggest that the dog should not be socialized to humans, we have too many people visiting the farm to take the chance. Plus we needed him to come easily to our few basic commands. However Titan is not a pet. He is a working dog on duty 24 hours a day. He lives with his sheep and has developed an amazing communication with them. If he senses a threat, he lets the girls know and they all head back to the protection of their paddock and shelter at a dead run.

One night last month the gate to their shelter broke open. Titan rounded up the sheep, put them back into their shelter and guarded the door until we returned home. He certainly earned his chew bone treat that night.

While we have no experience with any of the other guardian animals we certainly can recommend a Maremma. And since we like him so much we will be adding another Maremma in a year or two to our staff.

TTFN,
Laurie

Fall is here with a vengence...winter is coming

2009-10-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

The one advantage to the arrival of winter is that you can no longer kid yourself into believing that you can: paint the garage and the barn, build a new shed, build a new garden, plant some fall vegetables etc etc. With the cold weather is the realization that winter is here and you can no longer prepare.

Our lambs are now weaned and slowly are heading out to either new homes (or new freezers). We sold one purebred Tunis as a breeding ram and while are still open to sell the other Tunis ewe lambs we have no problem keeping them ourselves.

We just purchased a new Terminal ram - Winston is a purebred Hampshire ram that is long as a freight train and promises to add a lot of meat on our market lambs.

Our horses are content being pasture potatoes and we have not had time to do much other than that. Two are heading out for retraining this winter.

We have been trying to declutter and every trip to the dump, scrap metal, recycling plant makes me happy.

Cheers
Laurie

Fall is coming fast

2009-08-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

Time is flying fast...just like the geese that are showing up in our pastures and the swallows that are starting to flock to migrate for the winter. The overnight temperature was in the single digits and it was definitely sweatshirt weather this morning. I better get my tomatoes harvested soon and hope there is time for my melons to ripen.

The lambs are growing well and field by field we are switching our pastures from "horse-safe" fencing to "sheep-safe" fencing and are establishing a system that will allow us to rotate pastures on a weekly basis. That and spot tile drainage and reseeding our pastures will really set us up well for next summer. We will be able to rely more on pasture for nutrition and less on hay and grains. We also will be able to improve our parasite control. As planned the sheep might be as long as two to three months before they return to the first pasture. Our cattle will rotate behind the sheep cleaning up the pasture before the sheep return.

We finally have harvested our first cut hay and have it under cover. The second cut will come in next month and like squirrels preparing for the winter, I will give a big sigh of relief.

Our two steers are doing well on pasture and have just been rotated into another field. Our horses will be moving onto their winter pasture soon and the summer pasture they are currently on will be reseeded.....it never ends.

Until later in the fall,

Laurie from Hawk Hill

July at Hawk Hill

2009-07-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

Well there has been quite a bit happening at Hawk Hill since my last post. All our lambs were born. We had 14 live births who now are nearing two months of age and are growing like weeds. Three of the purebred lambs are available for breeding stock and we are keeping 4 of the crossbred ewes for our own commercial flock. The balance are to be sold as market lamb. We absolutely love the Tunis/Cheviot cross lamb. They are hardy, fast growing and beautiful. There looks like a lot of nice legs in this picture.
Our cattle plans have changed radically since my last post. We took delivery of the two cows early in May and the first of the cows calved out in the middle of June. After she calved, she became extraordinarily aggressive and put me in the hospital. I have been out of commission for the balance of June and July healing.The cows are gone and we will just raise up our steers. After they get shipped next summer, we will change our focus to poultry and raise some guinea fowl.

We also made a really difficult decision and sold privately and by auction 10 of our horses in June. We now have 4 horses (Three Canadians and one Arab Canadian cross) for our own use. Lucan and Lilac are heading out for refresher training this fall. We are going to focus on getting ourselves and our horses out riding and driving.

Now we are hoping for the weather to improve so we can finish the hay.

TTFN,
Laurie

Welcome to Hawk Hill's Blog

2009-04-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

Well I guess Hawk Hill Farm is being pulled into the 21st century. We have had a web site for the last 6 years (check us out at www.hawkhillfarm.ca) and have had videos on Youtube for the last year so what is next.... A BLOG.

As you can see by our description we are a small farm that is more than hobby but less than allowing us to pay all the bills. We started 8 years ago breeding and raising Canadian Horses (we have some lovely mares and geldings for sale by the way) and the last 2 years we have been raising sheep (North Country Cheviots and Tunis) and this year we have started into beef.BTW that handsome boy to the left is Hawk Hill Bandit Lucan, the first Canadian born on our farm.

We are lambing late this year so lambing will be beginning in about a month. We are so excited. We are expecting both purebred Tunis and Tunis/ Cheviot cross.

Our cattle will be delivered at about the same time we are lambing and they are due in June and July. Keep posted because we are planning to breed for Canadian Kobe.

I will try to pop in on a regular basis to keep you up to date on Hawk Hill Farm Happenings.

Toodles,
Laurie