Bottle Kids, Cold Loving Pigs, Frosty Forage, Bale Grazing & Rogue Chickens
We were off the farm for five days visiting family and between a really scary incident driving back that could have been so much worse and now the attack on Bourbon St. early this morning, I am feeling so lucky to be able to go out and walk around the farm this morning and take care of our animals.
It’s grounding and it’s healing and more than ever, I am reflecting on how extremely fortunate we are.
Just when I thought it was smooth sailing with the fall kids, I started noticing two kids who weren’t growing as fast as their siblings and cousins and who were much more interested in feed than their peers, too.
One of them was one of Nutmeg’s triplets and the other was her “aunt,” Cinnamon’s doe kid.
Nutmeg is our first doe to have triplets that I hadn’t intervened at all. And while the kids are all growing okay, if I can help her out and get some more calories in them, I will.
Bucklings tend to be more stubborn with taking bottles than doelings and so the smaller doe kid is the primary kid I have been feeding. I tried supplementing her brother, as well, but he refuses and screams and thrashes like I am assaulting him. The bigger doe kid also has taken some supplemental bottles here and there, but she also seems to be the best at hogging Nutmeg’s milk!
With triplets, I figure even if I am only able to supplement one, that can take the pressure off the mom to where all three kids benefit, in a way.
Meanwhile Cinnamon’s kid has been much slower at adapting to a bottle and the way she suckles makes me think that might be part of the problem — Cinnamon’s supply is decreasing because the doe kid isn’t efficient at nursing!
In any case, I am getting a decent amount of ounces in each of them, so hopefully they will catch up growth wise.
All the animals seem to enjoy the cooler temperatures, but especially the pigs.
We moved the trio of sows and their boar suitor near our house before Christmas, where they are tasked with rooting through all hay, pumpkin scraps, pumpkin seeds and pumpkin sprouts leftover by the goats and cattle and then helping eradicate invasive cogon grass at the same time.
Cogon grass has a rhizome root system, which is hard to get rid of through other methods. We have had success with leaving the pigs in an area with cogon longer than usual and seen much more diversity of grasses come up in their wake.
Even on the coldest mornings, the breeder pigs were all up and at ‘em early, rooting and foraging for all kinds of treats. It’s a lovely thing to look out to first thing in the morning.
The group of feeder pigs are also doing great and continuing to make their rotations through the woods with hay bales, coffee grounds to spread and pumpkins to eat!
The cattle are plugging away in their bale grazing rotations!
There’s a surprising amount of perennial cool season forages coming up, but we’re moving them quickly since the growth rate isn’t super fast this time of year and we don’t want to let them eat everything down too much.
Plus we also feed a bale of hay per rotation. Bale grazing helps continue to spread out manure and hoof impact and the excess hay adds additional organic matter to the soil as it composts and breaks down.
And before we left town, Grant got a few more sections of our main pastures bush hogged and seeded with rye grass for late winter and early spring forage.
First the oldest flock ground to a halt with their egg laying and now the middle aged flock cut their daily production in half!
Luckily, the youngest flock is still holding their weight and that’s why we always get a new flock of chickens in February, to start laying in late summer and hold steady through the winter.
Of course, since we’ve passed the Winter Solstice, the days are getting longer and we should see an uptick in laying by the beginning of February, if not earlier.
We still have a bunch of birds in the youngest flock who keep flying over the fence to forage further afield during the day. One of them jumped in our farm truck when Grant was collecting eggs and got into a bucket, so he didn’t notice that she hitched a ride back to the barn!
While I was in the barn washing eggs, I heard some commotion in the truck and was amused to find her trapped in the back, ready to rejoin her flock. So I walked her back to the flock and gave her a stern talking to about the consequences of flying over the fence.
With our up and down temperatures and storms, I’m still very happy to have gotten my goat crew back to the hoophouse for the winter.
And now with the Arctic Blast expected next week, they are set to be cozy and warm with their thick layer of hay bedding.
No one is due to kid like last January when we had a similar cold snap. So although our goats do perfectly fine in the cold, I am glad to not worry about newborn kids in 20 degree temperatures anyway!