Busy

Spring is definitely here, and I'm right on the precipice of being overwhelmed. Most of my work right now is on off-farm stuff: I'm teaching a class on Forest Ecology at Western Washington University this spring as well as doing my normal 1/2 time post-doc at the University of Washington. We've also been working on the house, slowly remodeling it bit by bit (I'll be replacing the plumbing next weekend, for instance). Luckily, there's not too much to do on the farm right now. Here's an update of farm stuff.

I decided to invest recently in a larger tractor. This is a 1963 or 1964 Super Dexta (marketed as a Ford 2000 diesel in the US). It's got about 40 hp, a live pto, three point hitch, and a loader. It's ugly, but everything works.  My Farmall Cub is great, but with only 10 hp, it's just too wimpy to do some of the things I need to do, and having a loader is really useful. The only downside is that the Super Dexta doesn't have power steering, but you can't get everything. Also, the Cub will be for sale soon if anyone in the area is interested.

I got my 3.5 ton grain tank set up and had the first delivery a few weeks ago. The money I save on pig feed, transport costs, and labor will pay for the tank in about 6 months. Love it!

I ran water and 100 amp service to the barn. Previously, a water line went from the back of the barn to the house, but all above ground, through a hole cut in the back door, and up to the utility sink. Electricity was fed to the barn by some ancient overhead wires and was capped at 30 amps. I haven't finished this project yet, but most of the (literal) heavy lifting is done. This will also come in handy if I take advantage of the mobile slaughtering truck for rabbit/poultry processing as it needs 100 amps and a water connection.

Last fall I plowed up about 3.5 acres and planted clover and barley. I'd say the planting effort was a success, but perhaps not a rousing one. I definitely don't have a solid stand of clover (it's probably about 25% of the total cover in the area, and very patchy). The barley is not growing as vigorously as I hoped, and is about ready to start flowering now. The clover will spread, though, and I plan on clipping the "weeds" several times this year to encourage the clover. I've also been following the pigs as I move them through the pasture with additional clover seed. The pigs do love to eat the clover, though.

This garlic is the only thing I have growing right now in the field (other than the forage crops). It did great through the winter. I used my manure spreader and my rabbit manure to mulch them after planting, and I'm hoping I won't have to weed them this year. My plan is to expand garlic production next year into a full scale $5000/year production, so I'm glad things are going well thus far. I want to plant them on raised beds in the future, and I'll be figuring out a system to do that this summer.

The pigs are doing well. They've been out of the barn for a few weeks now are are enjoying their pasture life. The ground is a little wetter than I'd like, but the spot they are in now is the wettest part of the pasture. Even though they have multiple shelters, all 12 growers and 3 sows still prefer to squeeze into a single shelter. Hilarity and oinks ensue. I've sold 4.5 shares thus far, mostly to customers from last year. One of the pigs will go to the pig roast and I may keep one gilt as a breeder, so I'm well on my way to being sold out--a good thing!

This gives an idea of the amount of rooting and pugging the pigs can do this time of year. They were on this paddock for about a week. Reseeding is definitely necessary.

Our boar is by himself in his pen (along with the chickens). As you can see the ground is pretty well torn up, which is not ideal. I penned the boar and the sows in here to wean the piglets and get the sows rebred for about two weeks and they did their best to destroy the fairly decent stand of clover and reed canary grass that was there. I may need to turn this into a dry lot by adding lots of wood chips, as I'm going to be keeping the boar here all winter next year. I reseeded the area so I'm hoping for now I'll get some regrowth this year, but it's the weakest link in my husbandry plan right now and will need to be dealt with. I haven't been able to find a good boar to replace this guy, so I'm going to stick with him another year. I've been thinking about the best strategy for managing my genetics and I will try to post on that another time.

This is the prototype of the two doe connected pen that I mentioned in a previous post. It's working great. I haven't pulled the trigger on expanding rabbit production yet, as I'm waiting to get a better sense of the market/demand. I've been contacting restaurants and other purveyor's of meat, but haven't had much success thus far in finding interested buyers. I think it's only a matter of time before I expand the rabbit production, though.

The apple blossoms say it all! Spring is here! My one existing bee hive didn't survive the winter and I haven't found a local supplier of package bees or nucs yet. I kept the hive up in case I can entice a swarm.

I haven't found someone willing to sell me weaned calves (for the right price) yet, so I may not raise any beef this year. The best solution long term is to probably buy day old calves in the fall or late summer, bottle feed them over the winter, and then raise them to slaughter in the following fall. I will need to invest in some calf hutches in order to do that, but the supply of cheap, certified organic day old steers is abundant around here. I'll see how my time and cash flow look in a few months and make a decision at that time.

Phew! Back to work!