Curiousfarmer

Red-winged Blackbird Habitat

June 27, 2013

Red-winged Blackbird nest in a Curly Dock, (Rumex crispus), plant.

I noticed almost all of the Red-winged Blackbird nests are built in the stems of Curly Dock. They need strong stems to anchor their nest, usually using three stems.

Red-winged Blackbirds are my second-favorite bird with the Barnswallow being my favorite. Ironically, these are the two birds who terrorized me in my youth. Both viciously dive at those they feel are intruding into their territory. The Barnswallow attacks the barn cats as they cross the yard. The Blackbird will even attack Red-tailed Hawks and other raptors.

I’m a believer in and witness to Extra Sensory Perception. Not ESP as typically thought of as a human reading someone’s mind, but just anything which hasn’t been proven, but can witnessed. There is so much we don’t understand.

As I said, these birds tormented me until the day I decided to not be afraid anymore. Once I decided they really couldn’t hurt me, they mostly left me alone. I believe somehow they sensed my fear and the absence of it. Maybe they notice body language. Do any of you have stories about these birds?

2 Comments | Curious nature, Curious weeds | Permalink
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Milkweed, Doe, Fawn

June 13, 2013

Common Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca. This is the unidentified plant from my last post. It looks quite different denuded of its leaves.

This doe was nursing her fawn close enough to the road that I could snap a distant photo. The fawn is just ahead of her. When I stepped out of my truck, the doe ran, but the fawn dropped and froze. So I walked carefully and took this photo a couple of paces away. One more step and the fawn knew she was no longer invisible and jumped up and ran like a deer.

2 Comments | Curious nature, Curious weeds, Curious wild food | Permalink
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I’m Still Foraging

May 31, 2013

I’ve known plenty of doctors and lawyers who want to be farmers. I’m the only farmer I know who wants to be a hunter-gatherer.

I’m still foraging, but haven’t written about it lately because I haven’t added any new plants to my diet. It’s intimidating and takes time to learn and harvest and try a new plant. Sam Thayer says learning four of five new ones a year is a manageable goal.

The plants above took only fifteen minutes to harvest and prepare. The greens on the left will be eaten in a salad. The stems on the right will be diced and cooked with hamburger.

For the thrill of guessing, no prizes this time, what are the plants pictured above and the main one pictured below? These wild edibles usually grow so profusely, they make our gardens look like a wasteland.

7 Comments | Curious weeds, Curious wild food | Permalink
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Permaculture Planting

May 25, 2013

Piglets running across my Permaculture planting. They dug up three Hazlenut before weaning. I purchased a Jostaberry and a Blackberry from Jung’s to replace them.

All of my Permaculture reading this winter led me to want to play myself. I’ve always wanted a windbreak north and west of my house, but I don’t like conifers. So I designed what will hopefully grow into an edible windbreak.

In a short-bottomed Y, placed on the contour of the land, I chisel-plowed this spring, then planted the trees and shrubs I purchased from our county, Jung’s, and Chief River Nursery as they arrived. I also dug a hole and placed a kiddie pool to collect rainwater for bucket irrigation when it turns dry this summer.

Below is a Juneberry. I also planted Hazlenut, Highbush Cranberry, Jostaberry, and Blackberry bushes. The trees I planted are Apple, Plum, Peach, Apricot, and Hackberry. If this planting goes well, I have an idea to continue the bottom of the Y with the contour of the land and continue to farm each side of it.

It’s been said the best time to plant a tree is ten years ago, and the second best time is today. The planting certainly doesn’t look like much today, but I hope I’m still blogging in ten years and can show you what it looks like then.

3 Comments | Curious farmer, Curious permaculture | Permalink
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Sows Returning to Estrus While Lactating

May 13, 2013

I weaned the piglets last Thursday. The oldest litters had a nine week lactation, which is the longest ever for my farm.

Something I learned was the time it takes for sows to return to estrus while lactating, eight weeks. That’s the same as our beef cows when on good pasture.

Now the sows are my genetics and were ad libitum, (free access), fed a corn-soy diet. Different genetics and/or a different environment may lengthen the return to estrus. I’m betting it won’t be less, short of weaning, which is the typical stimulus for sows to return to estrus.

Most sows will show estrus five to seven days after weaning, which makes it fairly easy to plan breeding, even with artificial insemination using live boar semen which only lives for about a week.

I used Dru terminal boar semen from SGI to produce most of these piglets. I’m very happy with the vigor and muscling of the piglets. I’m hoping for excellent growth and meat quality as well. Click on the photo below and click again to enlarge and you’ll see the excellent muscling of the piglets.

3 Comments | Curious hogs | Permalink
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Cattle out to Pasture, May 1st

May 2, 2013

This spring has been as late as last spring was early. The grass finally started growing and I turned them out yesterday. The steers stayed on my pasture, and the fall-calving cows went to the rented pasture. In the foreground you can see one of the fall heifer calves. In the background you can see the neighbor’s dairy cows.

I wanted a few more cattle on the rented pasture, so I decided to try an experiment and kept the four fall heifer calves with their mothers to see if the cows would self-wean before they calved again in August/September. The eight fall steer calves were separated from their mothers. The cows and steers which were weaned are bawling for each other. I don’t think the calves were getting much milk anymore, so the discomfort is probably psychological.

6 Comments | Curious cattle | Permalink
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Cultivating Shitake Mushrooms

April 15, 2013

I studied Permaculture this past winter. Reading fellow Wisconsinite Mark Shepard’s new book, Restoration Agriculture, inspired me to read all the books I could find in the Southwest Wisconsin Library system on Permaculture.

The pioneering books by Mollison and Holmgren are great, but the best book by far is Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture. This Austrian farmer inspired me to try and cultivate mushrooms. So I purchased a bag filled with mycelium plug spawn from Field and Forest Products.

Drill a hole, hammer the plug in, then seal with wax. Repeat every few inches until the entire log is covered. Place in a shady place and keep moist.

If all goes well, the mycelium will spend the next year colonizing the rotting log. The following year it will produce the fruiting bodies we call mushrooms.

I don’t know if this will work or if I’ll even like Shitake mushrooms, which is the variety I’m growing. It looked like too much fun not to try, though. Click on the bottom photo to enlarge and see better the tools of this project.

5 Comments | Curious farmer, Curious food | Permalink
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Solar Fence Charger

April 9, 2013

I purchased a Parmak solar fence charger to power the electric fence around my farrowing pasture. This is my first experience with a solar charger and it’s working fine. I paid $200 at my local hardware store.

I hung it on the electric pole and grounded it to the ground running down the pole. Does anyone know if this is a bad idea?

7 Comments | Curious livestock costs | Permalink
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Piglet Fighting

April 1, 2013

Three-week-old piglet biting my pant-leg. We have probably all heard stories about people being fed to hogs. I don’t doubt the veracity of the stories as hogs are omnivores and will eat just about anything.

Piglets are also natural fighters. Below you can see two piglets fighting over a scrap of plastic. Imagine how viciously they would fight over something valuable.

And that must be how the cruel sport of Piglet Fighting started. Two piglets fighting until exhaustion, the winner receiving warm milk. Contact your representatives in Washington and urge them to enact legislation to ban Piglet Fighting now.

2 Comments | Curious hogs | Permalink
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2013 Spring Farrowing Update

March 19, 2013

Spring starts at 7:02 AM tomorrow and 10 F is predicted with 16 MPH winds putting the wind chill below zero. Last year it was 80 F. With so much of my life revolving around it, the Weather is never boring.

The litters are doing well. Less than a handful of piglets have died after the first trouble. I’m using more straw now instead of wood shavings for warmth and adding a couple of slices daily.

In the photo below you can see scabbing on some of the piglets faces. This is caused by fighting among the littermates. Piglets are born with eight very sharp “needle” teeth. It’s common in the industry to clip the tip of each tooth off with a sidecut pliers. Sometimes the open wounds can lead to an infection. I don’t clip the teeth and it doesn’t seem to be a problem other than the scabbing.

3 Comments | Curious hogs, Curious weather | Permalink
Posted by Curiousfarmer