JMD Farm and CSA

Ewe in front with X on her back is due to have at least 4 lambs. New record here on JMD Farm.

Sorry that is has taken me so long to follow up on the first post regarding this matter.  There seems to be so much other stuff to post about so this kind of got put on the back burner.

Well the pregnacy checking of the ewes (female sheep) went really well.  The vet arrived around 10:15 or so on the morning of December 28th.  He comes with an ultrasound that he sets on a table right beside the chute that the sheep come up to a stop gate.  We get about 20 ewes in a large pen beside this chute.  We then bring them in the chute one at a time to be checked.  I hold thier head up rear end pushed up so the vet can come in behind.  He dips his ultrasound wand in vegetable oil and then holds it up to thier abdomen just in front of the ewes bag (milk producing area, similar to a cow but with only two teats).  This is not uncomfortable for the ewes but I am sure a little startlying as the vegetable oil is cold especially on a cool morning. 

Once is has a good placement he can see in the ultrasound picture how many the ewe is due to have.  He can also give an idea as to how many days bred she might be based on how large the lambs are.  However, I will generally go by the marking date rather than this number as I have found it is more accurate.  Marking date refers to the day the ram (male sheep) bred the ewe.  When I put the ram in with the ewes I put a harness on him that has a crayon attached to it.  This is obvisously not like a crayon that is colored with but same generally principle, just much larger in sizer.  When the ram mounts the ewe to breed her he leaves a mark with this crayon on her rear end.  I then write the date down that this occurs, count on average out 5 months, and this will give me a general idea of when the ewe is due to lamb.

New Lamb warming in the sun.

So it seems the ram did a good job this year.  Although I will give the ewes some credit as they produce half the equation.  We preg checked 31 ewe lambs.  These are sheep that will be lambing for the first time.  I was hopeing for 1/3rd of them to be bred.  My plan was to have about 10 bred, 10 to keep and put in as replacement ewes next season, and 10 to sell.  This plan did not exactly work out.  Of the 31 ewe lambs 18 were bred.  13 are due to have singles, 4 are due to have twins, and 1 is due to have triplets.  Usually you want to average 2 lambs per ewe but not necessarily in ewe lambs as they are still growing and learning the ropes on how to be good mothers.

We checked 45 other ewes that are two years plus in age.  The oldest ones are in the 6 year old range.  Of these 45 I have 12 due to have singles, 25 due to have twins, 3 due to have triplets, 1 due to have at least 4 the vet said, and 4 open (not bred).  I have never had one due to have more than 3 so that will be a new experience for me.  She is blowing up like a tick too since I have started to feed her some grain.  She is not due until the middle of March so she has a way to go.  Hopefully it will be a nice warm spring day.  Otherwise we will have our hands full trying to get the lambs dried off and milk in thier bellies before they get chilled. 

All and all the breding this year went really well and I am quite pleased.  In all we are due to have 98 lambs which will be the most we have ever had running around here on JMD farm.  Lambs are really cute when they are small.  They will get to running in a group and it is like a bunch of little kids playing soccer.  You know how there is just one mass of little people chasing a ball.  That is what the lambs look like.  They will all run in a group one way and then they will turn around and run back the other way.

Well here is to happy lambing!

Holy cow it is cold outside.  If you are in a place that is colder than it is here and for long periods of time I apologize and I don’t mean to sound like a baby.

With that out of the way…. Man it is cold outside.  Woke up this morning to the temperature hovering in the mid teens with a stiff wind out of the west.  You know the cold is one thing but to add the wind is like adding insult to injury.  The temperature didn’t make it out of the twenties all day and now by 8 it is back doen to 16 degrees.  The wind is still blowing but not as hard as it was.

The biggest problem with this whole thing as it has been relatively warm up till now.  There wasn’t a transition to the weather.  It was in the sixties on Saturday and now all the sudden it is freezing. 

I am so glad that the lambs that were born came on Sunday and not today.  When it is this cold out there is limited time to get those buggers dried off and milk in their bellies.  If I had the issues that I had the other day with lambs today I would be lucky if they would make it.  

Today was one of those days were I had to pull out the sock liners to keep my feet warm.  This evening we had to go out after the sun had set to do some work on the livestock waterers (see other post) to be sure they didn’t freeze.  We are still dealing with some water issues and can afford to have the valves in those freeze.  I dug deep in the sock drawer this evening for my hand warmers.  I get those every once in a while as presents from my mom and they come in handy on evenings like tonight.  When you are dealing with water and it is 18 degrees it is always nice to be able to sick your hand back into a nice warm glove. 

It doesn’t sound like the cold is going to stick around for long.  I think it is supposed to be back up into the upper 40′s by the weekend.  Don’t get me wrong, I am ok with cold weather.  Winter used to be my favorite season.  This changed a few winters ago when we had snow on the ground for weeks on end.  I think starting in December through mid February I would guess the ground was snowed covered 70 percent of the time.  I know that doesn’t seem like much if you are from a more northern or snowy climate but for here that was a lot.  Although I love the snow I was definitely done with it that winter.  It just makes all the farm work that much harder.

Well I guess we will see what tomorrow brings. (Down to 15 degrees outside now as I finish this post.)

Fly waiting patiently through a snow shower for her next command.

Well this whole scenario started with me looking down to the barn from the house to see a couple of the big steers (male bovines that have been castrated) walking around the front of the barn.  Well you might say “so what?”.  Well, the problem is they should not be there.  They are currently closed up in a large field behind the barn.  The closure between these two areas is a length of electric fence across the gate area about chest high on a cow.  This allows the sheep to come and go but keeps the cattle closed from access around the front of the barn. 

This separation is necessary due to the fact that the sheep need a little higher quality hay as they enter into their last eight weeks of gestation.  This hay gets feed in the barn and I don’t want the cattle in there.  Not to mention I have a couple more early ewes to lamb and I don’t want cattle around small lambs in tight spaces.  That is a disaster waiting to happen.

Anyway back to the story…. So I saw these steers in a place they shouldn’t be and I thought that the sheep must of broken the electric on their last pass underneath.  This happens sometimes as one ewe will hit it just right and catch the electric up in her wool.  This does not shock her as wool must not be a good conductor of electricity.  The electric will break if it snags just right. 

In traveling to the barn I thought that was the scenario I would find.  Upon arrival at said piece of electric I found that it was not broken.  This really caught me by surprise as there is plenty of power on that stretch of fence due to it being close to the box that it is powered from.  So then I wondered what in the world would of possessed these animals to go under this electric which would of ensured a good shock.  I followed them around the field as I wanted to get on the other side of them to take them back to where they belonged.

By the time I caught up with them they were at the waterer in the other field.  They didn’t spend to long there until moving on.  As I drove by the waterer I noticed the balls were all the way in the bottom.  We water our cattle with automatic waterers.  These work similar to a toilet.  There is a float in the centerthat turns the water on when it begins to drop (for example when the stock are drinking) and then shuts the water back off once the float is raised to the original position.  Our wateres are four ball waters.  This means that four cows could drink at a time.  They have to push a disc shaped piece of plastic down to access the water.  This disc or ball helps the waterers to keep from freezing in cold temperatures. 

Coldest evening so far this winter. The horses wanting grain.

So I immediately knew what the problem was.  The livestock didn’t have any water.  The steers had gotten to the point where it was worth going through the electric to find water.  As soon as they found no water in the waterer they had gone through the electric for they continued on to where they knew the next waterer was. 

As soon as I found out what the problem was I rushed to the house to turn on the back up water supply to the waterers.  This immediately began pushing water to all the necessary places.  By the time I got back to the next waterer in the line the steers were there getting what they were willing to risk getting shocked for, that satisfying drink of water. 

As soon as their bellies were full I headed them back in the direction of home.  It wasn’t too much trouble to get them back into the correct field.  In hind sight I am really glad that those animals dared the electric because it would of been the next morning at the earliest that I would of found out that there wasn’t any water.

You might be asking why we use waterers verses just allowing the livestock access to the ponds and streams on the farm.  The answer to that is that JMD Farm is a member of CREP.  This stands for Conservation Reserve Enrichment Program.  It is one of many programs that we participate in to better the environment.  More on that later.

New Year's Day lambs.

Hi to all-

Crazy New Year’s Day here on the farm.  We had our first lambs arrive today on New Year’s.  I think that makes them special.  I knew that I had a ewe that was getting awfully close based on various signs that a sheep’s body starts showing.  When I went down to check sheep this morning I could tell she was in labor.  I guess I have seen it enough now that I just know.

Well I went back about an hour or so later and there were two nice lambs already born up and looking to nurse.  That is when the craziness started.  You always have to do what is called “stripping a ewe’s teats”.  They have a wax plug that builds to close the hole at the end of each nipple when the lambs from the previous season are done nursing.  Sometimes this plug has to be stripped away in order for the lambs to get the milk.  When I went to strip this ewes teats nothing came out…no wax, no milk (colostrum), no nothing.   Not a good sign. 

At that point I am in “I need to get some warm milk in these lamb’s tummies” mode.  The only problem was I don’t quite have all my lambing supplies together yet.  One of those items is nipples for my bottles for when I have to feed lambs.  The other problem is it is New Year’s Day which means none of the supply stores that sell said items are open.  Thankfully I have a friend nearby that I was able to get a hold of and she had one I could use. 

The lambs now will need to be feed every four hours until the ewe comes into her milk.  Unfortunately that every four hours does not end at 8pm and start at 7am.  It continues through the night which means I will be making a few trips to the barn during the night.  Any volunteers? 

Realistically I am glad she lambed today and not on Tuesday when the predicted high is 29 degrees.  Depending on the temperature depends on how long lambs can go without their first feeding.  The colder it gets the shorter that time becomes.  Down to 10-15 minutes when it is below 15 or so.

Unfortunately all the rest of the day hinged on the lambing event which made the whole rest the day a whirlwind between trying to get the cows , sheep, hogs, and chickens fed. 

Will post tomorrow on water catastrophe from the other day.  Coming soon will be information from the sheep pregnancy check.

Sheep in barn on a rainy day.

It is raw out there today.  Headed out first thing to get some of the feeding done before the heaviest rain arrives.  They (the weather people) are calling for 1-2 inches of rain, possibly turning to snow before it’s all said and done.  Right now with temperature hovering in the mid 30′s and rain falling makes it feel miserable outside ezpecially when the wind starts blowing. 

Things have been busy on the farm over the holidays.  We brought the cows from the back fields in to the barn on Saturday (X-mas eve) so we could seperate out some of the biggest steers and put them in with the hiefers (young female cows that have not yet calved) and pulled out an old cow and her calf.  The old cow is stiff in the legs and not getting around too well so we thought having her at the barn where she can get out of the weather and has easier access to hay would be good for her and her calf. 

After the seperation was complete we took the cows all the way to the back of the property and went ahead and started feeding some hay.  They will get feed everyday now as needed.  We had some fence work to do before we could move them back there.  A large pine tree had come down in the late fall when we had a strong front come through with a lot of wind.  We also moved some of the strands around on the high tensil to hopefully keep the smaller calves from sneaking through. 

The sheep continue to do well although on days like today they spend a lot of time in the barn out of the rain.  They don’t like the rain.  More so than other animals it seems.  As soon as the rain starts they head for the barn.  Generally they are a good indicator of when the rain is easing up as they will head back to the fields to graze.  You would think that sheep more than other livestock would be ok with falling weather as they have those nice thick wool fleeces to keep them warm. 

I will try and spend most of the day getting some work done out of the rain.  The oil needs to be changed on the Kubota and eggs need to be washed.  There is some computer work that needs to be caught up on and there is always micellaneous other projects that

My superstar- Quee!

That probably sounds crazy but we do it.  The vet is due to come next Wednesday and preg check all the ewes that should of bred in the fall.  He will tell me how many the ewe will have (can be any where from a single to triplets) and about how far along they are.  It is really helpful information to have when it comes to lambing time.  It is nice when it is 1 o’clock in the morning and I know I can go back to bed because the ewe has just had her second lamb and is only due to have twins.  Keeps me from having to go back in 30 minutes to see if she has had another one.

It is a really quick simple procedure.  The vet takes his ultrasound wand and dips it in vegetable oil and holds it up to the ewes stomach just in front of her bag.  That would be the area on a sheep that produces the milk and where the nipples are for the lambs.  Very similar to a cow in structure just a lot smaller which means having to milk a sheep is no easy feat.  Picture me, on my knees, with my feed in the ewes side trying to keep her still as I try and milk out a teat with two fingers.  This is not a whole hand job like it is with a cow.  It’s very difficult especially when you are trying to catch the milk into a container so you can feed it to the lamb.  Not to mention it being the middle of the night which is when it seems jobs like that are happening.

Well anyway the vet will be here next Wednesday so I will let everyone know how many ewes are bred and how many lambs we are expecting.

Just got the Cedar tree loaded. 2011 Christmas Tree

It is so good to be home.  Right now I find myself sitting on the couch enjoying a good cup of coffee and looking out the window over the farm.  I arrived home from the city yesterday and took a ride around the farm to check on the status of things.  I am always so glad to be home and want to make sure all the livestock survived my absence.  Of course they did but I always enjoy the trip around to check on everything. 

Coffee…it is so great to be back home to have good coffee.  I think I tend to like mine a little darker and stronger than most so hotel coffee doesn’t generally fit the bill.  Nothing worse than not having good coffee especially when a cup is really needed.  We did stop at Starbucks yesterday on the way home from DC which helped a lot.

Upon arriving home and getting a check on things around the farm we decided it was time to get our christmas decorations up.  For some people I am sure this is an all day or longer event.  Some households probably drag box after box from storage.  All of our Christmas stuff would fit into a large tupperware (including tree ornaments).  Some of you might find this crazy but for me it is perfect.  Takes maybe 30 minutes to get everything put out and makes for a very ‘Wabisabi’ holiday look. 

We went out on the farm and cut down a cedar for our tree which looks and smells great.  Now when I say it looks great keep in mind it is a cedar tree.  Cedar trees are not like pine or spruce trees.  They are not blessed with that perfect shape or fullness that you see in most of those other trees.  They tend to have areas that might not have branches which gives them more of a bare appearence in places.  The other downfall of a cedar is they are prickely.  Getting the lights on can be quite the job.  However the pure joy of going out on the farm with the dogs and searching around for the right tree makes it all worth it, not to mention the wonderful cedar aroma that inv

Ok, so I’m here.  Washington D.C.  Five stories up in a hotel room.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice.  The room is clean and the bed seems comfortable, but man it’s loud outside and I don’t mean the guard dogs barking.  Every once and a while there is a load noise outside overhead.  We must be situated in one of the approach or departure lanes for BWI or Dulles.  I am not sure which other than those are big, loud planes.

You know it is good for me to come to the city every so often.  Keeps me grounded.  I enjoy the conveniences of city life.  It’s nice to be able to walk down the street and grab a bite to eat.  To get up in the morning and walk around the block to the nearest Starbucks.  Those are all really nice things and I do enjoy them for a couple of days.  Then all the sudden I get antsy.  I start feeling like the buildings are closing in.  I can’t get a clear view of the sky.  I have to really look hard for some open ground with grass.  That’s when I know it is time to go home.  I need the farm.  The unobstructed view looking east to the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I need to see the sheep grazing, to sit down in the morning with a cup of coffee as the sun rises.

All that is a couple days off yet.  While I am here I will continue to enjoy the city and the time with my family.  I will try to block out the noise, cars, buildings, and lights.  I will focus on being in the moment.

I would follow that with ‘when you’re having fun’ but things are not always fun.  I have been crazy busy on the farm lately it seems.  We are just beginning to have to feed the sheep and heifers (young cows).  I am feeding the sheep because I have them closed in the fields here around the house.  There still is a decent amount of grass but as they move along through their gestation a little extra does not hurt. 

The chickens and hogs of course get fed and watered everyday and the horses get a little scoop of feed to keep them used to coming up.

Speaking of feeding I better go get that done as it will be dark shortly.

Sheep on back hill, frosty morning.

I love my sheep.  Really.  I got my first ewes in 2005.  We started with 10 that year.  I barely got through that first lambing season.  It was horrible.  I had no idea what I was doing.  I had lambs running everywhere it seemed.  In hind sight it was nothing compared to what I do today.

Right now I am running about 60 ewes (female sheep).  This is considered a fairly small operation but it keeps me busy especially during lambing season and on days like today.

The sheep once again decided to go visiting the neighbor’s field.  I decided to put a round bale out for them with the hopes that this might keep them home.  I kind of doubt it will work but it is worth a shot.  I took all the border collies with me this afternoon as I went to gather them back.  They enjoyed the work and never are ready to quit when we are done.  Thankfully the sheep didn’t tear up any fences on their way back so I will not have to fix that tomorrow. 

Everything else on the farm was relatively quiet.  We got the covers on the round bales (rolls of hay for the livestock) straightened back up.  We use long sheets of thick plastic to cover the hay which we tie down with tires.  This method works pretty well.  However, when the wind blows really hard it can move the plastic around in places.  I wanted to get them recovered before the rain comes in which it is supposed to do tomorrow.

Until Then-