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Summer camp…
…for our two-year old heifers. They’ll eventually be bred here at Slainte Farm and return home to calve. For now it’s a welcome break in their routine and fresh grass! And btw congratulations to our partners Mary and Mike on their recent marriage! David
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Off to summer camp…
…go eight Thistle Hill yearling heifers. Once again Mary Perrine and Don Ferro have volunteered their adjoining pastures. It’s a lovely setting at the base of Cobbler mountain and the girls and we appreciate the hospitality. The two farms get lawnmowers and entertainment for the grandchildren and the heifers get loving care and civilizing and are well away from the bulls. David
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The spring green-up…
…is well underway at Thistle Hill! And Nala seems appreciative of the work we’ve done to improve the pastures. The over-seeding we did a year ago has really taken hold. Perennial rye and and cereal rye and several clovers have all thickened our sward significantly. Not apparent but a big contributing factor we feel certain was the conditioning of the soil with the work of turnips, radish and cow peas. The cover in the area pictured here was very thin and the soil quite sandy. Our hope is that continued rotational grazing and the addition of more cover crops will put this pasture on a par with our very best.…
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Solving the problem…Pt 2…
…well it’s a band-aid anyway. The numbers are in on using our own trees to make-up for the shortage of board fencing at the local coop. Thanx to a neighbor with a portable sawmill we were able to turn six trees…oak, walnut and cherry into high grade lumber. Garrett Heydt was the man with the saw and he did an excellent job. When finished we had 700 feet of oak boards and six 4”x6” twelve foot beams…just those beams paid for the fencing we won’t be needing not to mention the beautiful walnut and cherry we sawed into planks. The cherry in particular seemed to us to be furniture-grade. But…
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Winter feeding…
…takes several forms at Thistle Hill. This is my personal favorite because we’re feeding the soil as well. The cows follow behind the tractor as it unrolls the bale of hay. They’ll eat up to 60%..the rest becomes organic matter enriching the soil…feeding the microbes and, in turn, the plants. Oh and tonight the new calves will sleep on it…staying warm off the cold ground. And yes New England, that’s what we call winter in Virginia! David
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Grass is always greener—II
Just a quick add…pictures of the turnips we’re getting (with our hound) and the radishes. Add in the roots we left behind and you get an idea of the wonderful impact in the soil! David
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The grass is always greener…
…when you add cover crops! And for the first time that’s what we’ve done. Son-in-law Curt Humphreys and Coop manager Glenn Covington reviewed the results of the project this weekend…and pronounced themselves satisfied. Grandson Church had started the plan with Glen but he’s now off at Cornell Veterinary School. If you enlarge the picture you should be able to pick out turnip, radish, cow peas and the clover. Tougher to see but they are there are Cereal Rye and perennial rye. I never thought we’d get to the point where I’d think we’ve maxed on clover. Glenn is a little worried about possible bloat. We have pastures that were…
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A good omen…
…as a rainbow finds daughter Carolyn inspecting one of our newly-seeded pastures. It’s been 10 days since we seeded a cover crop of ryes, clovers, turnips, radishes and cow peas. It’s the cow peas clearly winning the germination race but if you look closely you can see the ryes breaking the surface. We let the cows graze the planned seeding areas lower than usual. Otherwise we did no special prep work but depending on a no-till drill to set the seeds. Our thanks to Glen Covingtin of the MarshAll Coop for consulting on our project. David
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Proud guard dogs…
…watching over our enlarged asset base. It’s a new For-most head gate, squeeze chute and a-i cage rolled into one transportable unit. With four remote pastures now this mobile chute makes life a lot easier. No more coaxing a sick animal into a trailer to get it home for doctoring. This thing has all the bells and whistles including a scale and more controls than I had when I was flying for the Air Force! David
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Updating upgrading…
…our pastures. Four days after seeding with a mix of cover crops we see the first sign of success!! Young cow peas are the first to germinate…can the turnips and radishes be far behind? David