Farmhouse Progress, Piglets & Goats For Sale, Hay in the Bank
I thought y’all would enjoy seeing some progress on our new house last week! The cabinets went in, so it’s really starting to look like a house and become real.
The cattle were rotating through the field surrounding the new house last week, so they got to supervise the install. The last picture is taken from the porch of the house. I cannot wait to look out the windows and see the animals grazing!
The goats are in the next field over and it’s funny to think about the difference between cattle and goats when it comes to fencing and temperament.
A single strand of electric poly wire can keep the cattle where they need to be. Whereas even with their net fencing, the goats may have been so curious about what was going on, they would have managed to escape their fence to get in the the house and “help” the installers!
We are planning to put a permanent field fence around the house to make managing the goats’ rotations through this field easy once we move in though!
Speaking of goats, we have some beautiful bucklings and piglets to sell. The goats we can continue to raise to process later this fall and we have plenty of forage for them, but there are some bucks with the sweetest temperaments that would make great herd sires, or castrated to become pets. So if you know anyone needing goats, send them our way!
And we have extra piglets born in May and June, as well. The sows had such great litters that we don’t need all the piglets for our pork program. They are basically heritage super crosses — Berkshire, Hereford, Hampshire and Duroc genetics.
Other than that, the big news this week is our neighbor started delivering our hay for the winter. And seeing all the fluffy rolls stacked in the barn feels like money in the bank!
Last year was a terrible year for hay because of the drought, but this year has been much better, with a decent amount of rainfall for grass growth, but enough dry stretches for them to cut it and properly dry it.
Farms have different opinions on hay production, but we feel that our land and soil still has such a long way to go, that we are not endeavoring to make our own hay any time soon. Not to mention we have no interest in owning and maintaining more specialized equipment that depreciates!
Rather, we are happy to buy it in from neighbors. We do clip our pastures twice a year, but we lay down all that extra material as mulch, also known “green manure” onto the pasture to put the nutrients back into the soil. Grant loves to think of this as “feeding the underground herd,” or all the worms, bacteria, fungi, arthropods and a host of other critters that help turn dirt and decomposing matter into healthy soil!
Further, because we don’t spray herbicides, we do have quite a variety of forage species in the pastures that wouldn’t make for good hay, but the animals love to eat, like morning glory. It’s considered a weed, but the cattle absolutely go after it first when moved to a new field and of course the goats love it, too.