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The News from Wolf Cairn Moor 6/22/04
Summer is finally here and all is going well at Wolf Cairn Moor. We have put nearly 200 Cornish X Rock fryers in the various freezers of our 5 children. We still have another 100 or so to go and then about 40 old laying hens for stew meat.
Next yearâs 100 layers are doing well at about 2 months old. They are a hybrid breed called Gold Star. We have never worked with them before but we have hopes. They are supposed to weigh less than our beloved Barred Rocks and consume less feed while laying nearly 100 more eggs per year. Time will tell, but one has to experiment a bit to keep life exciting. Herself wanted some Aracanas in the mix so we got 15 of those just for variety and the odd colored egg.
Our 22 geese are foraging well and 2 of these year old longnecks are trying to set in spite of our efforts to the contrary. We had wanted them to wait until next year when they would be two years old and a bit more settled, but nature has its own ways.
We gave the two ladies a half dozen eggs to sit and figure it will give them something to do for a month; who knows, maybe weâll get some tender young grass fatted geese from their efforts? We purchased a dozen each of Toulouse and Embden and have decided that we like the Embdenâs best due to their white plumage, gentle temperament, intense egg laying abilities, and aggressive foraging skills. All of the Toulouse will go into the freezer when the grass fails this fall.
Our rabbitry is producing well with 90 fryers either in the freezer or waiting their respective turns. The does are bred back a final time for the year and due to kindle in about 10 days. This will allow us to put this last batch of baby bunnies in the freezer around the first of October. There should be around 100 of them if the does produce within their individual kindling norms.
After the first frost the does will taken from their cages and allowed to live in a communal situation to help us deal with frozen water bottles during the winter. A single heated waterer will make our job easier and their water always available. We will switch their feed from the 90% pellets and 10% hay of the producing season, to 10% pellets and 90% hay of the non-producing season. It will save us money and theyâll enjoy the freedom and theyâll maintain just fine on the much cheaper hay until next March.
We are trying to arrange for delivery of hay this winter to feed our 9 Milking Devons and 2 Jersey cows. The math is troubling to get right when buying hay; (cow weight X .02 of body weight) X 225 days of winter and non-pasture period. Then one has to factor in cows with calf, cows carrying a calf, cows producing milk, and the severity of a winter that has not happened! Buy too much hay and it will eventually become poor quality hay or expensive bedding; buy too little and just double the price for the extra hay in the spring.
One or two of our Milking Devons may be headed toward the freezer this winter. I know that they are a rare breed and all of that, but some of them donât suit us in personally and they will still make great eating.
(Pardon my brief break but I had to go milk Dorsey the Jersey cow.
Can there be a more relaxing way to start a morning than sitting down with the âStepmother of the Human Raceâ while she provides nutrition for me, my children, and Grandchildren, as well as a bit for sale to local families. Of all animal husbandry on the homestead those that give the best vibes are: gardening, gathering eggs, milking the cow, and working honey bees.)
Weâre selling about 21 gallons of milk a week right now at $2.25 a gallon; well $2.00 a gallon to our kids and $2.50 to everyone else. We have quite a list of health conscious folks wanting fresh whole milk but we and our cows can only do so much, and life isnât all about the money.
Locally, milk is $3.50 to $4.00 a gallon for 2% so our prices are fair and we get our milk for âsweat equity.â We use a gallon a day at home so milking our own cows saves us a peck of cash a month, and then we take in some cash or barter from others; maybe life is all about moneyâ¦, nah!
We have been stretching fences in every direction trying to stay ahead of the cows as they try to poach the fields behind them. This week weâll fence in another 10 to 15 acres while resting from our lumber making.
This week Herself, my son, and I will begin cutting timbers and making lumber from my woods for constructing a new winter proof milking parlor and calf pens. It will take a while with my little chainsaw lumber maker to work everything up, and then it still has to be brought to the barnyard and wrought into something presentable for the more discerning cows. We have about 60 acres of Tamarack and Birth trees just quivering to join in on the project and donât want to keep them waiting.
Not much else happening other than watching the 250 strawberry plants and 100 raspberry brambles we set out this spring, but our list of âto-doâsâ seems to grow almost daily. Add on to the house, build a larger chicken coop, build a well-house, run water to the barn, seed and fertilize the pastures, etc. etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Oh yeah, the 8 Scottish Terrier puppies are about a month old now and growing like weeds.
So it goes in Northern Minnesota,
Haggis @ Wolf Cairn Moor
Summer is finally here and all is going well at Wolf Cairn Moor. We have put nearly 200 Cornish X Rock fryers in the various freezers of our 5 children. We still have another 100 or so to go and then about 40 old laying hens for stew meat.
Next yearâs 100 layers are doing well at about 2 months old. They are a hybrid breed called Gold Star. We have never worked with them before but we have hopes. They are supposed to weigh less than our beloved Barred Rocks and consume less feed while laying nearly 100 more eggs per year. Time will tell, but one has to experiment a bit to keep life exciting. Herself wanted some Aracanas in the mix so we got 15 of those just for variety and the odd colored egg.
Our 22 geese are foraging well and 2 of these year old longnecks are trying to set in spite of our efforts to the contrary. We had wanted them to wait until next year when they would be two years old and a bit more settled, but nature has its own ways.
We gave the two ladies a half dozen eggs to sit and figure it will give them something to do for a month; who knows, maybe weâll get some tender young grass fatted geese from their efforts? We purchased a dozen each of Toulouse and Embden and have decided that we like the Embdenâs best due to their white plumage, gentle temperament, intense egg laying abilities, and aggressive foraging skills. All of the Toulouse will go into the freezer when the grass fails this fall.
Our rabbitry is producing well with 90 fryers either in the freezer or waiting their respective turns. The does are bred back a final time for the year and due to kindle in about 10 days. This will allow us to put this last batch of baby bunnies in the freezer around the first of October. There should be around 100 of them if the does produce within their individual kindling norms.
After the first frost the does will taken from their cages and allowed to live in a communal situation to help us deal with frozen water bottles during the winter. A single heated waterer will make our job easier and their water always available. We will switch their feed from the 90% pellets and 10% hay of the producing season, to 10% pellets and 90% hay of the non-producing season. It will save us money and theyâll enjoy the freedom and theyâll maintain just fine on the much cheaper hay until next March.
We are trying to arrange for delivery of hay this winter to feed our 9 Milking Devons and 2 Jersey cows. The math is troubling to get right when buying hay; (cow weight X .02 of body weight) X 225 days of winter and non-pasture period. Then one has to factor in cows with calf, cows carrying a calf, cows producing milk, and the severity of a winter that has not happened! Buy too much hay and it will eventually become poor quality hay or expensive bedding; buy too little and just double the price for the extra hay in the spring.
One or two of our Milking Devons may be headed toward the freezer this winter. I know that they are a rare breed and all of that, but some of them donât suit us in personally and they will still make great eating.
(Pardon my brief break but I had to go milk Dorsey the Jersey cow.
Can there be a more relaxing way to start a morning than sitting down with the âStepmother of the Human Raceâ while she provides nutrition for me, my children, and Grandchildren, as well as a bit for sale to local families. Of all animal husbandry on the homestead those that give the best vibes are: gardening, gathering eggs, milking the cow, and working honey bees.)
Weâre selling about 21 gallons of milk a week right now at $2.25 a gallon; well $2.00 a gallon to our kids and $2.50 to everyone else. We have quite a list of health conscious folks wanting fresh whole milk but we and our cows can only do so much, and life isnât all about the money.
Locally, milk is $3.50 to $4.00 a gallon for 2% so our prices are fair and we get our milk for âsweat equity.â We use a gallon a day at home so milking our own cows saves us a peck of cash a month, and then we take in some cash or barter from others; maybe life is all about moneyâ¦, nah!
We have been stretching fences in every direction trying to stay ahead of the cows as they try to poach the fields behind them. This week weâll fence in another 10 to 15 acres while resting from our lumber making.
This week Herself, my son, and I will begin cutting timbers and making lumber from my woods for constructing a new winter proof milking parlor and calf pens. It will take a while with my little chainsaw lumber maker to work everything up, and then it still has to be brought to the barnyard and wrought into something presentable for the more discerning cows. We have about 60 acres of Tamarack and Birth trees just quivering to join in on the project and donât want to keep them waiting.
Not much else happening other than watching the 250 strawberry plants and 100 raspberry brambles we set out this spring, but our list of âto-doâsâ seems to grow almost daily. Add on to the house, build a larger chicken coop, build a well-house, run water to the barn, seed and fertilize the pastures, etc. etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Oh yeah, the 8 Scottish Terrier puppies are about a month old now and growing like weeds.
So it goes in Northern Minnesota,
Haggis @ Wolf Cairn Moor
