L to R: Rocky, Pistol, Pooh, Shady
Can you see the little tracks?
This is Lily, our boldest sheep. She climbs up on the feeder to say hi!
Our two calves. They are doing pretty well.
Still cleaning up. I'm sick of looking at it!
Those who saw our logo here will recognize our motto on the big tarp. This is what we put up to block off the good end of the shed. We joked that night about using "Building On Tradition" as our motto and later decided that it really does fit perfectly so we're keeping it! We really are building on what Brian's family has done here in the last 120 years as we try to make this place more sustainable, and make it turn a profit! Whoever thought we'd find inspiration on an old billboard. :) Check out who else is doing a Sunday Stroll.
5 comments:
Jena, I'm so glad you posted your stroll photos today. Looks like we're having the same weather.
My favorites are always the animal photos. I think the horses are beautiful, but Lily steels my heart. What a cutie!
Your two Holstein calves are SO cute! I grew up on a dairy farm, so we always had Holsteins, as did my husband who also grew up on his family's farm, which was a dairy farm at the time. (After the barns burned down, they switched to fruit/veg. farming, but that's another story.)
This past spring, we adopted a Brown Swiss for a friend's farm, for our petting zoo at the orchard. Our friend joked that "Brown Swiss are the dumbest cows/bulls ever," but we didn't believe her. Truth is, our little Brown Swiss bull, "Buckwheat," had the toughest time learning to drink from a pail. He wouldn't do it unless our fingers were in the milk for him to suck on. It was so unlike our experiences with Holstein calves growing up. I felt bad for the little guy; obviously he missed his mother.
We usually trained our Holstein calves with nipple pails, but my husband's family always got them right on a regular pail. What do you do?
(Guess that's why I nursed all three of our kids until they were ready to drink from a cup...no bottles required!)
LOVED your stroll; thanks so much for sharing your beautiful animals!
Aisling - I'm glad you liked Lily. She is very personable, trust me.
EW - I haven't had any experience with Brown Swiss, although I've heard that Guernsey bulls are quite mean. I'm not sure that I believe that either. People always ask me if sheep are dumb but in my experience the calves are much slower than the sheep. We start our calves on a bottle and then switch them to a regular pail as soon as they can figure it out. I think the bottle is best because the calves head is in the best position to direct the milk to the right part of the stomach. I always make sure the pails hang right at chest level to help with this problem.
I would be curious to see how you would like dealing with Holsteins if it has been a few years. Our vet says that even just in the last 10 years the hardiness and brains have been bred right out of them in favor of milk production.
Too bad you're still staring at that barn mess. I imagine yu'll be able to make more progress when the weather breaks.
The calves are really cute! I'm glad they are getting healthier.
I love the calves!!!
Post a Comment