January 2017 on the Farm
In livestock news, our chicken egg production is way down right now because of lack of daylight hours (which the hens find just about as uninspiring as we do). Duck egg production from our laying ducks is completely at a stop until April or May.
It's been a wet & mucky week at the farm this week with temperatures roller-coasteering from one extreme to another. This is really hard on all parties involved, from our staff, livestock, poultry and also for our tractors & vehicles. Multiple trucks have had to go in for repairs--bad news for farm expense! The wind was insane & it was picking up large objects around the farm (including the back window of our utility vehicle), yesterday. The smaller farm animals had to hunker down and walk slowly & heavily braced against ground to avoid being picked up by the wind. My hat blew off so many times I gave up on wearing it.
We've continued caring for our new baby lambs and goats, but also had a baby calf born at the end of last week on one of those super frigid days! Our cattle are tough as the cowboys they once evolved among, though, and mind the weather least of all the farm animals. The calf was fine!
Birth has been happening, yes, but it's also been time to say goodbye to many of our meat poultries. Yesterday and today we've had to catch and harvest a combined few hundred stewing hens & turkeys for butchering into meat cuts, in addition to a small butcher load of four-legged livestock. This is always a somber task, but also what enables the farm to continue and our market & CSA community to eat well.
Until next time,
Your Mint Creek Farmers