Chores for a blustery day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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