Farm update January 2023

With life happening at full speed around us, and taking on a few big projects, our farm page has taken the backseat.  

We're still expanding our herd and retaining most of our heifers.  A few AI calves on the ground in 2022 and a handful more are expected in 2023 to help broaden our genetics.  

We are appreciative of those who help support us with breedingstock, beef, and hay purchases, and are looking forward to the year ahead.   

Orchard grass hay now available

We now have premium quality orchard grass hay in the barn and ready for pick up. 

60-65 lbs two-string bales; sold by the bale.

We are open by appointment only.  

Call or text 503 580 9626

Hay season has begun!

Hay season is finally here after a rainy start.  We had our first cutting of orchard grass wrapped for haylage due to so much rain.  The cows don't mind, they love this stuff!

The rain was really good for our newly planted field, and we are finally getting some dry hay cut and in the barn.  We should have enough to feed all of our critters soon, and some very nice orchard grass available for sale.

Planting season

We've kept ourselves busy and socially distanced this Spring planting another field of orchard grass.  I think my dad enjoyed getting back into the tractor seat and helping a little too! 

 

Hay season 2019

It has been a busy summer on our farm.  We decided to start baling our own hay this year so that we could control, as much as mother nature allows, the timing of harvest.  A hot dry stretch at the beginning of May allowed us to get the first cutting off much earlier than normal.

Growing orhard grass for our cows for many years, we focused on small paddocks with frequent grazing rotations.  High palatability along with its nutritional attributes make orchard grass an ideal feed for livestock.

Planting another orchard grass field mid May gave us enough hay for our growing Highland fold...and our daughter's expanding goat herd.  Many thanks to our family for their support and loaning of equipment!

We are now selling the extra hay and have met some great people; feeding lots of different types of animals including rabbits, alpacas, goats, sheep, and horses.  Keeping the bales smaller at 65lbs has been great...much easier for some of us, including myself, to manage.

The third cutting on our established field and first cutting from the Spring planted field are now in the barn.  We are hoping to squeeze in one more cutting before the Fall rains start!

Spring 2019

A busy Spring on our farm... they all seem to be!  We welcomed a nice crop of calves.

The steers got an invite to munch away on a nice nearby pasture.

A warm dry start to Spring had the pastures growing nicely, and we were able to get the first cutting of hay off extremely early for this area.

Which also meant irrigation season starting.

And lots of fat happy cows!

Covered portable hay feeder for horned cattle

Necessity is the mother of invention... though not an new invention, just another project to build!

The cows down at the woods have done a great job clearing everything edible and we had been haying them by tucking flakes of hay around the trees to keep them from trompling it.  We wanted a way to feed them a little easier, especially if we wanted to get away for a few days and not have to worry about them.  

The new covered hay feeder is made mostly of salvaged material.  It is movable, but heavy enough that the cows can't push it around.  There is a gate at the end to make it easy to add more hay.  Even the gate was repurposed; it was swapped out from our daughter's goat pen for a more goat friendly mesh style... a win-win!  The next test will be to see if we can fit a large bale in it and how many days it will last the coos.

New pasture

Our cows got their first taste of the new orchard grass pasture that we planted in early May.  The majority of the new pasture will be baled later this month for their winter feed.

Horned cattle hay feeder

This is the first winter season that we are using our new hay feeder.  In years past we have hayed the cows on the ground and in old tractor tires, but they always wasted so much of it.  We already had a hay loft in the barn and thought it was finally time to make winter feeding easier and more efficient for us and to hopefully cut down on the amount of hay trompled and wasted.

We covered the back wall of the barn with tin to help protect it and my handy husband built a feeder out of long metal bars that look like rebar.  We cut a hole in the hay loft, and now we can drop a bale of hay right down into the feeder... no more carrying them across the yard!

There is still some waste and we wonder if the bars shouldn't have been slightly closer together​, but it is a vast improvement over ground feeding.  The cows can reach their noses and tongues right through the bars. Cleanup has been easy this winter too with the addition of concrete in the barn area.  

UPDATE: We added a wire cattle panel to the back side of the metal bars and it helps prevent even more waste!

Hay day!

Last week our hay was finally cut after all of the wet weather we had this spring, but once it was down the forecast was starting to look wet again later in the week.  The hay guy raked it a few times and got it baled.  Luckily it stayed nice until it was all in the barn, and the next morning we woke up to rain.