Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Updates on our Cattle-Summer 2014

Earlier this year we made the difficult decision to sell some of our breeding cows to streamline our herd.  Although we were sorry to see them go, the remaining animals are thriving.  We got two beautiful calves this April-a robust bull calf, shown above, with the same markings as his mother Cupcake, and a petite, adorable, and sweet heifer calf from Duchess.  The four steers from last year are filling out well-two will be ready to go to the butcher this fall, and the others will spend the winter with us and go next spring.  Next month the cows will be bred again for 2015 calves, and our bottle baby, Clementine, will become a mother for the first time!

Pigs in the Woods

  Rooting is a natural and necessary action for pigs, but standard commercial farming practice is to raise them on concrete, so they don't "ruin" the land.  HFF pigs love to root for nuts and other tasty treats-it adds to their varied diet and helps us turn the soil as we slowly work on developing our "silvopasture".