Farm | Reflecting on Our First Lambing Season
I learned a LOT this lambing season. I had never witnessed a lamb birth, or a birth of any animal for that matter, prior to welcoming these babies home.
Our first lambing season
a season of learning
I learned a LOT this lambing season. I had never witnessed a lamb birth, or a birth of any animal for that matter, prior to welcoming these babies home. I was a typical mama and worried about them, did everything I knew to do to care for them and enjoyed how quickly they began to grow. I'm thankful for our eight healthy, spunky and sweet lambs that are making me smile each day.
It's rather funny really that I only witnessed the birth of two lambs when I spent an entire week on the homestead waiting and watching for them. I guess I wasn't needed as much as I'd thought.
Everyone was healthy except for Clyde who was born on a cold day and ended up with pneumonia. So, I can check off my first vet visit with a baby lamb (I enjoyed the snuggles at the vet more than he did). He recovered quickly and is the largest of the Homestead lambs.
I owe a ton of thanks to the incredible vets at Country View Equine who answered a plethora of questions. I also owe a HUGE thank you to my cousin Sarah joined me at the farm for a few evenings to teach me banding and tagging. In a couple years I'll be a professional at this right?
personal reflections
1. Making cute lamb jackets was a complete waste of time, the mamas tore them off and a couple of the lambs were too big for them. A simple sheet of fleece with leg holes worked much better.... but definitely not picture worthy.
2. Even when I thought I'd need to assist a ewe, she had it perfectly under control, next season I need to trust they've got it.
3. There isn't anything much cuter than a lamb learning to be mischievous, I'm looking at Cain as I write this...
introducing Homestead's eight
Cain
Clyde
Clark
Calvin
Eva (named after my great grandmother)
Elsie
Emma
Ellie
they really do grow too fast
I'm still blown away by how quickly these little ones learn to walk, hop and play. Each lamb was trying to stand within minutes of being born and was up walking around and feeding within an hour. Now approximately two weeks old and they're showing off their high jumps.
I promised some video this season so here it is, my favorite part of these littles is watching them play.
I'm learning to be flexible
This lambing season I learned I'm going to have to be flexible (five of our eight lambs were born within 24 hours and we had to make-shift lambing pens for them) and learned I shouldn't worry so much. I'm grateful for an easy first lambing season and look forward to watching these babies grow.
Farm | Homestead's First Lambs
Well, the day finally came! Erma welcomed two healthy lambs yesterday evening. Meet Cain, the firstborn son at Homestead, and Eva his sweet little sister.
We welcomed Homestead's very first lambs!
Well, the day finally came! Erma welcomed two healthy lambs yesterday evening. Meet Cain, the firstborn son at Homestead, and Eva his sweet little sister.
While I wish I could say I watched the birth of my FIRST lambs, I was out running farm/house errands when I got a call from my brother-in-law asking if I knew about the lambs. Then a phone call from Matt shortly after letting me know 'they are super cute'... I asked all the good Mama questions, are they standing? Are they dry? Are they nursing?
Pulling in the driveway my heart was racing, there they were! The sweet faces of newborn lambs. I helped dry them off, though it wasn't too cold yesterday, as a first time lamb Mama I wanted to do everything right. Erma is an incredible mama, delivering these sweet babies on her own and is caring for them so well.
We have six mama's yet to deliver, who wants to make a guess at our final lamb count?!
Renovations | We're Ready for Lambs!
We're 1 week away from our first lambing season here at the farm. I can't believe it's almost here!
One week until lambing!
We're 1 week away from our first lambing season here at the farm. I can't believe it's almost here!
We've been working hard on our basement remodel, so hard that we've waited until the last minute to transition to necessary barn improvements for our growing flock. We spent a wonderful Saturday and Sunday in the barn and while it was a bit chillier than I would prefer it was nice to be working on our farm projects again.
On the project to-do list was building lambing jugs (small pens) for our ewes and their lambs to bond after birth. Our new families will spend 1-3 days in the jug to make sure mama and babies have a chance to bond so when they are let back out with the flerd (flock + herd) baby knows exactly how to find Mama and her milk.
The jug also allows us farmers to make sure that the new lambs are growing and getting the nutrition they need from mama. If for some reason the ewe cannot provide for the lamb it is easier for me to evaluate the need for bottle feeding if they aren't out roaming with the flerd.
I also spent some time at my sewing machine making lamb jackets. These jackets make me happier than a kid in a candy shop, they are so small and totally cute.
I'm so anxious to snuggle our new lambs and I can't wait for them to arrive. Our first due date is Easter so I'm praying for some lovely time celebrating The Lamb and hopefully adding a few lambs to our pasture!
Farm | Our First Shearing Day
There are a lot of new experiences when you bring new animals to the farm. Today was our first experience with shearing and I can't help but laugh at how funny the girls look without their winter jackets.
Our first shearing day
There are a lot of new experiences when you bring new animals to the farm. Today was our first experience with shearing and I can't help but laugh at how funny the girls look without their winter jackets.
Unlike cattle sheep are not easily corralled... so getting them in the barn and ready for the shearer was probably the most comical experience I've had with these ewes, mom even jumped in to help.
Once the girls were settled into the barn Jerry went to work shearing them and clipping their hooves, what an incredible process. These girls are squirmy and I'm glad I wasn't the one with the clippers.
So in the next few weeks we will be delivering our first wool to the mill to have the wool cleaned and crafted into some comfy mattress pads. I can't wait to sleep on my own wool.
With temperatures getting warmer and lambing only a month away I'm sure these girls will appreciate the extra weight off their backs.
Farm | Female Grass Farmer
I was approached by Alyssa with Alyssa Bloechl Photography to write a guest post on her blog. Alyssa captures farmers and farm life through her camera lens and I was thrilled to be apart of her series of guest blogs.
Sharing my story
I was approached by Alyssa with Alyssa Bloechl Photography to write a guest post on her blog. Alyssa captures farmers and farm life through her camera lens and I was thrilled to be apart of her series of guest blogs.
For this post I decided to focus on sharing my story in hopes of inspiring other women with no farming background to push through the fear of not knowing as much as the woman/man that grew up on the farm. I wanted to share if their is a passion there is a way and that small beginnings are better than never beginning.
Read my story on Alyssa's blog and if you are an inspiring FarmHer I'd love to chat with you!
Farm | Our Flerd
Our flerd
Well, it happened, we are now shepherds! It’s not too much of a surprise that we now have eight fluffy ewes, they’ve been on the farm radar for quite a while. After raising a couple lambs many years ago I knew it was a significant possibility that they would be added to our farm someday, because who would not want a lamb?!
So this weekend we brought home North Country Cheviot's, a dual purpose breed. We will be raising them here on the farm primarily for meat but I'm exploring ideas for using their wool as well. While the ‘cuteness’ factor was a heavy player in getting sheep for our farm (of course) they also come with some amazing farm benefits.
Sheep graze differently than cattle, so adding them to our pastures is super beneficial to the establishment, growth and maintenance of our new pastures. Sheep will graze what the cattle do not and are amazingly effective ‘mowers’. With the steep slopes on our farm they will be able to graze where we simply would not be able to mow with our tractor. Mowing is a crucial part of naturally keeping weeds in the pastures to a minimum, and is also essential to pasture regrowth; we are glad they will be taking the majority of this chore away from us.
Having sheep and cattle on the same pasture also allows us to better utilize our pounds per acre. Since both animals graze differently than each other we can get the most return for pound of meat to available grass.
We are also very excited to offer a new product to YOU. Grass-fed lamb has amazing flavor if you haven’t tried it yet we highly recommend you do!
Now to give you background on my new favorite word, flerd. We will be running our sheep and cattle together as a ‘flerd’ (flock + herd). When the lambs are young we will attempt to bond them to cattle, that way when a coyote ventures into our pastures they will run to the safety of the cattle. We have a lot of coyotes lurking around and since neither Matt or I are too keen on a guardian dog we are going to try this approach to keep our new wooly friends safe from predators. There have been many studies in which ranches have had great success with 'flerding' and we hope the same is true on our farm. Wish us luck!
Our flock will play an important part in establishing the pastures on our farm this coming spring. We have a lot of work ahead of us to best utilize this new addition but we can’t wait to see how quickly they change our landscape. We look forward to our first lambing season in April 2018 and offering you Easter lambs in 2019.
Renovations | The 'Cows' Came Home
The ‘cows’ came home
It’s been a little quiet around the blog since the purchase of our homestead. We have been spending every spare moment, between work away from the homestead as well as running our small businesses, to revive this old homestead into a working farm and a live-able home. We finally reached a milestone here on the homestead and I am happy to share it with you!
This week the ‘cows’ came home
We are thrilled to finally have them here with us. Three of the steers from our old farm have made their way home. This week our herd has grown with the addition of three new Highland calves and in the next few weeks we will be welcoming home three Hereford calves.
Rocket - Our Red Highland & Brisket - Our Brown Highland
Picket - Our White Highland
It’s been an adventure, as most farm start-ups are, as we’ve spent the last month and a half building a home for our cattle. There was not a barn on our homestead when we moved in, the old barn had been buried some time ago; but we did find a picture of it through the cleanup, YES! With a lot of work and several willing souls, we constructed our first barn, the cattle lean, as well as a winter lot.
We are thankful that the cattle are home with us again and we look forward to cozying up the barn and the house a little bit more before winter. Below is a digital timeline of how the barn came together... (it isn't quite finished)
Know Your Farmer | How Do I Do It?
get to know your farmer
How do I do it? How do I raise an animal knowing in the end it is headed to someone's dinner plate? I get asked this all the time...
Well, I am going to be real honest with all of you, it is hard. I, the ‘cattle mama’, have a very hard time saying goodbye. Our cattle stay on the farm for upwards of two years. I see them every day, multiple times a day. They all have names and they all have their own cow-sonalities (Matt hates when I use personality when speaking about them). They follow me everywhere I go, and mooo as soon as they see my face. There is a very special bond that I create with them without even trying.
Yes, it is hard, and yes there are tears when they leave. I chose to raise them anyway because it is important to me to be a conscious consumer. This choice of being an educated meat consumer was made in college when I attended a class that pushed me to become mindful of my consumption choices. One of the topics was food consumption. I heard many people during that class say that they didn’t want to think of it as an animal on their plate, that it was just meat. I was challenged by this as I had grown up loving livestock, but myself included never really made the full connection. For me accepting that it is an animal on my plate became part of being a conscious consumer. I believe everyone should know where their meat comes from because steaks don’t just fall from the sky.
The second piece to this was not just knowing that it was raised on a 'farm'. I wanted to know who raised it, their methods to raising it, and their passion for raising it. It became a connection of more than knowing where it comes from, but also the kind of life the animal lived.
Since the very beginning of our farm venture my desire has been for you to KNOW me, the one raising your steak. So yes, I fall in love with each and every calf that comes to our farm, I can’t help it. So when you ask how I do it, I do it with love and tears. It is actually easier for me to know these animals live happy, healthy lives on our farm than not knowing anything at all. I also chose to do it so you can become a conscious consumer and know where your steak comes from.
Farm | The Story of Starting Our Farm
Since we first introduced Homestead Meats I have wanted to share with you the struggles and joy that have come with starting our farm. It has not been easy, and it isn’t done, but we are getting there and it brings a smile to my face to share our story with you!
Homestead Meats went from a dream to reality but not without blood, sweat and tears. We had talked about having livestock post-college after Matt met my first steer, Sir Loin. It was our plan to buy a farm and then start raising; however that changed when my parents offered up some of their acreage to get us started.
We started the planning process in December 2014. There were many hours of research of proper pasture management, feeding schedules, hay production and so many other things that go into starting a farm. Neither of us were raised on farms so there was a lot of information we needed to learn.
That winter we began clearing fencelines in order to make way for appropriate fences and secure additional pasture space. Wow was that a job! In fact we hate to admit this but we are still working on the last bit. Neither of us had any clue what we were getting into, how long could it possibly take to clear a few fencelines? We have found out… And the answer is long enough.
By spring 2015 we were tired and I was wanting to do something other than clearing fences. So I began ‘shopping’ for stock tanks, fencing materials and other necessary equipment. Thanks to several local farmers I was able to get a lot second hand which was a true blessing.
In May 2015 we hosted a ‘farm day’ which really meant come help us clear some brush… we had great attendance and the only casualty was the brush and my phone. We will see how the attendance is on our next ‘farm day’.
July 2015 we brought home our first steers and introduced them to their new home. They bonded quickly and made the months of work worth it.
This spring 2016 we expanded from 3 acres to 8 acres, meaning more fencelines needed to be cleared, more barbs strung and more blood, sweat and tears shed. We harvested our first crop of hay on our fields, and I had conveniently forgotten that hay day is always the hottest day of the summer.
This summer 2016 we brought home two sets of steer calves to the farm. With a total of 6 steers running our pastures we can finally say we have the beginnings of a ‘herd’.
We harvested 2 crops of hay off our fields in 2016 and are looking forward to better production next year.
As we are quickly approaching winter and our second anniversary to when it all began we are continuing to complete the first project list. The final barbwire fences and electric will be strung before November (I am determined to have this done), and we are hoping to start on our wooden corral before the ground freezes.
Like many experienced farmers have told us the work never ends, and they aren’t kidding. We are also learning that there are lots of lessons to be learned on the farm and not all of them are easy or fun to learn, but the joy of raising our own livestock makes up for it all. We have been so grateful for all of those who have helped bring this dream into reality. We owe a huge THANK YOU to all the brave souls who have helped us with many tasks along the way.
While our current location is not on our own homestead we look forward to starting an operation on our own land someday. Until then I will enjoy being ‘so close’ to finishing our current setup.
-Brit