There has been a shift in the daily schedule here necessitated by the time of year. Specifically there are females that are now 10.5 months removed from the date on which they were bred. Though the average gestation here has historically gone some 11 months and 10 days or so we have learned the hard…
There are signs of life appearing in the pastures here. Just 10 days ago the majority of our fields were still a tannish brown. Now all of a sudden after a week or relatively mild, if not warm, weather and a couple of days of soaking rain it seems the grass in our pastures is…
Bio-security and proper quarantine procedures are something which we take seriously here, though not on an OCD level. You will not find anyone “sanitizing” the dung pile areas here on a daily basis. I mean, really? I suppose if it makes you feel better then by all means have at it but it’s 5 to…
There is one season that Vivaldi did not compose for: mud season. Though here on the actual farm we are doing ok (the only asphalt is in our house’s dooryard/turn-around) the public road, Wheeler Camp, which ends at our sign and the entrance to the farm itself is quickly turning into a series of 6″…
It has occurred to me lately that given the time of year it would be good to post something dealing with the topic of show preparation. That is after all, in one form or another, what most of our late winters and early springs have been taken up with for the past eleven years (we…
The Arena, which houses our female production herd at the top of the farm, has been in a state of relative lockdown since last week’s big rains. The downside of having beautiful 20′ wide shed roofs running down both sides of that 200′ long building is that in a winter like 2010/2011 those sheds become…
