Curiousfarmer

One Bad Day

June 21, 2019

DSCF3492

As caretaker of our animals, our goal is a beautiful life, with one bad day. One bad moment actually, as Andrew and the crew at Avon Locker work to humanely kill the animals on butcher day.

Personally, we had a bad day the other day, as my Dad rolled his ATV. He’s ok, but recovering, as he’s sore all over and his ear needed several stitches.

We were trying to get a cow in and Dad was driving along side her on a side hill and the cow kicked the ATV and somehow it rolled over on top of him and continued rolling off him. I got to him shortly after and we took him to the ER to get checked out and his ear stitched.

One of the reasons we’ve needed to get cows in is we’ve had 8 sets of twins this year, blowing away the old record of 5 sets. Our cows have a difficult time keeping track of twin calves unless we get them in to a smaller pasture by themselves. If we are unable to separate the cow and calves, we bring in whichever calf ends up abandoned and bottle feed it until it can live on grass.

Below is a photo of a bottle calf we took to the library for a kids program and short petting zoo. The kids enjoyed petting the calf. And at the risk of anthropomorphizing, I think the bottle calf enjoyed the attention as well.

61034569_325634864775935_5674898841770393600_o

4 Comments | Curious cattle, Curious farmer | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer

Working in Nature/Tasty Chicken

May 30, 2019

MOULTRIE DIGITAL GAME CAMERA

“Farming with Family, Working in Nature”, is Curiousfarmer’s new motto. I borrowed this motto from a ranch, “Ranching with Family, Working with Nature.” I changed “Ranching” to “Farming” and “With” to “In”, because “Working with Nature” implies a level of cooperation by Nature, which doesn’t exist. I love Nature, but Nature doesn’t give a flip about Curiousfarmer.

The photo above shows an image I captured via trail cam after 98 chickens were killed in one night, photo below. You can see a few live near the dead. 30 were left alive, and they would have been quickly killed if I hadn’t moved them to a safer location.

DSCF3463

One mink did all the killing. He only slit their throats, one after another. To the mink’s credit, he did return later to eat the dead birds, which is how I captured his image.

MOULTRIE DIGITAL GAME CAMERA

It seems like there is nothing tastier than a chicken on a farm. But predation is unpredictable. The only prediction I can make is you will have problems eventually. Last year the first and last group of chickens had zero predation. The middle two groups had quite a bit of trouble from raccoons reaching under and grabbing and eating on a chicken. We never had anything like this mink though.

If you would like to try our chicken, this Saturday will probably be your last chance before we sell out. I think we’re going to refocus on our beef, pork, and eggs, and leave the broiler chickens to someone else. We’ll also probably raise turkeys and butcher on the farm like the past two years, as turkeys are fun, and some of you really enjoy our turkeys.

DSCF3462

2 Comments | Curious chickens, Curious nature | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer

Saturday Morning, May 4th, Madison WI

May 5, 2019

And they opened as the morning progressed!

1 Comment | Curious direct-market, Curious direct-marketing | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer

The Snowstorm of April 27th, 2019

April 29, 2019

DSCF3438

Six or so inches of the latest snow in southwest Wisconsin I can recall. April 14th sticks in my mind as some big snows, so this one beat it by a couple of weeks. It had been warm and dry previously. Some of our friends’ children were confused and got excited about Christmas coming!

All the trees, bushes, and plants that were already flowering took a beating, but my main concern was our animals. My parents practice spring calving, as we don’t have barns for our cattle and April and May is usually quite nice for calving.

Sunday morning we were out at 6 am on our ATVs seeing if any calves were too cold. We looked for any new ones, as any calf that is actively nursing often, is very tough and can take a great deal of cold. We had 3 new ones, but their mommas were experienced and managed to find some decent shelter in the woods out of the wind and snow and the calves were fine.

We weren’t as lucky a couple of weeks earlier in another rain and snowstorm. A heifer was lying near the creek. She didn’t seem too agitated, but she must have had a difficult delivery as she showed little concern for her calf which was lying in the cold water of the creek, just managing to keep its head out of the water.

I grabbed and put it on the back of the ATV and drove it to the barn. We stuck a feeding tube down its throat, (when calves are this cold they lose the ability to suck), and gave it a warm colostrum replacement. I rubbed its body with straw, but I realized it wouldn’t be warm enough to survive the night, so we took it to the basement and put it in warm water for a half hour or so until it started to revive. Then we towel dried and used a hair dryer to dry even more thoroughly and then left it in the basement overnight.

The next morning the calf was standing. We walked its mother into the corral and helped it nurse for the first time. After all that, momma and baby were fine and we turned them back out to pasture a couple of days later.

DSCF3433

1 Comment | Curious cattle, Curious weather | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer

Broiler Chickens to Pasture-April 2019

April 23, 2019

DSCF3427

Right on schedule, we moved the broiler chicks out of the brooder house into their pasture pens on Good Friday, last week. The first night was cold, so we put down some wood shavings for bedding, but its warmed up nicely. They’ve been enjoying their daily moves to fresh pasture. We should have freshly frozen chicken at market, Memorial Day weekend.

DSCF3333

A new addition to market is our brown and blue eggs from our layer chickens. Many have remarked about the quality, flavor, and orange yolks. If you have any doubts about the benefits of pastured meat, eggs, or milk, the dramatic change in our eggs when the snow melts and the hens begin to forage for pasture and other critters would make you a believer!

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer

Spring Seeding and Disc Golf!

March 29, 2019

DSCF3413

Spring has sprung! Two months of cold, snow, ice, rain, and flooding, and Mother Nature has wrought her miracles again with warm sun and drying winds. The ground is dry enough to drive on, so I frost seeded a bag of red clover today.

Earlier in the week we entertained a special guest. Derek Tonn is trying to be the first person to play 2,000 different disc golf courses. If you don’t think that’s possible, there are over 6,000 courses in the United States alone.

As a reference, I’ve played 78 different courses, which is great, but my course is the 1,498th course Derek has played. Its reassuring to meet someone crazier than myself.

2 Comments | Curious crops, Curious farmer | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer

Update, First Litter 2019

March 8, 2019

DSCF3397

12 piglets, two weeks old now! Susie Q is a great mother. It got really cold, 0 F, but she kept her piglets warm enough with her body heat and plenty of straw and hay.

She had started with 16, and lost 4 within the first 48 hours, which is the most dangerous time, but since then they have really thrived. In these photos, taken today, its 25 F and the piglets have spent the past hour outside in the sun.

In the photo you can see I closed off the window and I shut the barn doors at night to prevent a cold draft on the piglets, but I open it during the day. The piglets are old enough, and its finally starting to warm up enough, I plan on leaving the barn doors open at night now.

DSCF3394

Leave a Comment » | Curious hogs | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer

First Litter, 2019

February 22, 2019

DSCF3376

2019 farrowing started well as Susie Q gave birth to 16 piglets yesterday, and after a cold night that dipped into the teens F, she still had 15 alive and nursing this morning.

I could see she was going to farrow yesterday morning so I put 2 straw bales and 1 hay bale loose where she could get to them and she spent a few hours building the giant nest you can see in the photo below. It works better if you let the sow build her own nest for some reason. All the women reading this are probably like, duh!

I wish all my sows were as good of mothers as she. And humbly, I tell you she wasn’t even chosen as a breeder. She was a runt that got accidentally bred, and after a first litter of only 4 piglets born, she’s had big litters since. I think this is her 4th litter.

DSCF3374

2 Comments | Curious farmer, Curious hogs | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer

2019 Herd Boars

February 12, 2019

DSCF3326

The best two herd boars I think I’ve ever had are Father and Son. Zone, pictured above is out of an AI mating, Waldo Duroc, Red Zone. I had been having trouble with my boars not having much mating desire, but Zone is excellent. The only problem is he is also people aggressive, but I think I can continue to work with him if I’m careful.

He is being mated to Chester White sows out of an AI mating, Longevity. They will farrow this spring and I’ll evaluate them again. The Chester White gilts definitely had less piglets born and saved than my Landrace gilts in the past.

DSCF3310

End Zone is pictured above. He is a son of Zone. He is being mated to Rising Sun Duroc gilts for early summer litters. The Rising Sun gilts have very friendly personalities, but we’ll see how they do as mothers.

DSCF3325

Another photo of Zone. He has a lot of length. He is also getting tall as you can see he has to duck to get out of his shelter, pictured below.

DSCF3315

6 Comments | Curious genetics, Curious hogs, Curious reproduction | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer

Late Winter Market

January 21, 2019

dscf3267

We had been experiencing the warmest, driest, winter any of the old timers could remember. But winter is back and reminding us who is in charge, with inches of snow and below zero F temperatures.

We have been enjoying the Late Winter Market at the Madison Senior Center. Its a cozy space with enough room for all the vendors. Plus room to sit if you partake in the breakfast.

Chef Laurel Burleson of the Ugly Apple Cafe sources from vendors and cooks up some wonderful breakfasts. Next week Laurel is using our sausage links. Its been good staying connected to many of our regular customers. Hope to see more of you next week!

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer