Winter Slumber or as Close as we are Going to Get

This winter has continued as an unusually warm and dry winter. Despite the weather, I have basically taken a month off from most farm work, except for the usual day-to-day chores. That is not to say we have not accomplished anything this month. I sold off 7 sheep this month. I am now down to 10 ewes from a high of over thirty from last winter. We have culled down to our best animals and will take our breeding forward from here.

Sheep we had outside still, many of these got sold off

We have also been lambing and are now done. We have 13 lambs out in the building. Our survival rates were not all that impressive, but they are an improvement upon last year. Better facilities and tighter breeding windows will help lamb survival in the future.

A Young Ewe and Her Lamb

Hazel is really enjoying the lambs. She often asks to see the lambs simply by putting on her boots and stocking cap then banging on the front door or trying to turn the knob while repeating the word "babies" repeatedly. Rarely a day goes by that she does not go out and see them.

Hazel Petting One of the Young Lambs

We are beginning to get ready for the next production season. I have been frost seeding legumes with a hand seed spreader over 15 acres. We did attend the Living Green Fair at the Second Reformed Church in Pella. It worked out well for us as we not only sold a number of products, but we also made quite a few new customer contacts. I want to thank the event organizers for putting together a successful evening.

We are working on doing inventory of our remaining 2011 products. We are looking at doing a delivery cycle in mid-March. This will help customers to stock their freezers and allow them to get items for their Easter meals. The March delivery will help empty out the freezers and bring in some more cash to begin to buy chicks, bedding and feed. Our production troubles from last year have left us in a fragile spot to start a production season and we still have to buy around $1,000 in hay to get us to spring. It is our goal to have our production and delivery schedule up and available with a current order form up on the site in the next couple weeks. So stay tuned folks as we begin to pull together our 2012 production season.

A Quiet January, Just Kidding

Much of late December was focused on the development of our buisness plan over the next three years. This plan was focused on growing our beef enterprise, maintaining our poultry production at comparable levels to what we are producing and reducing the number of sheep we raise to a bare minimum, while continuing to bring infrastructure on line to make it easier to chore. Janice and I shared this plan at the Practical Farmers of Iowa Annual conference in early January.

Practical Farmers of Iowa Presentation

We picked up a grass-fed bull to breed our cattle, he is an Angus/Jersey cross. We also have had 5 lambs so far with three more ewes due in the near term. I think we will be selling off four more ewe lambs, bringing our herd down to 12 ewes. We have to sit down and finalize our poultry schedule for next year so we can get chick orders in early next month.

Our new bull, Carl (he is the all black one)

Two lambs just after birth, from one of our best ewes

The weather has been unusually warm and will continue to be unusually warm into the foreseeable future. Our usual daily high for this time of year is right around 30 degrees. The forecast below is for the last week of January and the first week of February, it is unheard of. I am not complaining, it is great when you live in the country not to have to fight snow all winter, especially considering that we have had some very rough winter over the past few years. I said I was not going to complain, but here it comes. The one problem with this nice weather is you can keep wanting to work outside. Normally winter is a lot of time not working (doing non-farming things, like hobbies), but not this year.

Mild weather continues

Around the farm, we have built some fence, been working on the chicken building, and burning off some of our many brush piles from last winter. The chicken building still needs some interior sheeting work, exterior metal sheeting around the tractor, ventilation system, eave work, roosting racks for the laying hens, and some finishing touches here and there, but it is getting much closer. 

Hazel outside on the snow

The weather has given me a few days here and there, where it is warm enough to take Hazel outside. I like having her outside and not cooped up in the house so much. She has proven to be very afraid of snow (she was afraid of grass too) and won't touch it and does not like to walk on it. I took the opportunity recently to try to get Hazel familiar with the snow (a word she loves to say). She has having a good time stepping on it and mashing it up with her boots, I suspect that is because it was making it go away. It is late and I too must go away (sleep), but stay tuned. 

Looking Back and Moving Forward

Well 2011 is now behind us. It has been a rough year for us both balancing family and working off farm for me, but also trying to keep the farm running despite considerable difficulties. The business had nearly 100% mortality on 3 chicken batches (of 5) this year brought about by illness, predator pressure, and a hatchery mistake. Our position was furthered weakened by having higher than desired mortality in turkeys and very low weights at processing time. On the up side, we processed our first beef and found to be the best grass-fed beef we have had yet, and we have almost finished constructing a massive new asset, the poultry building. Needless to say these challenges and the expense of building a structure have left us in a very tight financial position.

Started putting on trim this weekend with the help of Mark from Madison

Interior Sheeting is going up with the help of Jim and Mark

In 2012, things will get better. Our new brooder set-up should help us get past chick mortality problems, the new layer house will be much harder for predators to access the birds or their eggs, and we are going back to building fence so we can get much better at keeping our cattle on our farm. I have also just been told that my job with the Natural Resource Conservation Service will be coming to a close because the money for part-time federal employees is still not forthcoming from the United States Department of Agriculture. Next week will be my last week. I was looking at leaving in April of 2012, this just accelerates the timeline quite a bit. The time off will let me stay a home with Hazel more and will allow me to focus on my 2012 goals.

Janice reading to Hazel from one of her Christmas Presents

The 2012 master task list by month

I think we look forward to the possibilities in 2012, despite being concerned about our financial position and short on operating capital. Most of the 2012 task list is smaller items or projects that have been started but not completed. Happy 2012 people and wish us luck.

Rough landing

I could not live with the bright blue chicken building. Mostly because it was so far from what I was aiming for. So I painted it with the last reasonably warm day we have had.  Whenever I get to the trim, it will be white.

Green Chicken Building

Two weeks ago, we had a mini skid steer with a trencher attachment on the farm and I trenched out the buried wires that go under our farm gates along with the main power supply line to the new building.  Janice and I put the underground line in conduit. It was a tight fit and threading over 125 feet of fairly tight conduit was not fun, but we got through it together. Last weekend, Michael Carter, my stepfather-in law came out and we finished wiring the building, then we crossed our fingers and threw the switch. Everything works as intended. 

Power supply line cut for high tensile fence

Our average turkey size was only 8.2 pounds this year. Where our typical average is between 11 and 13 pounds. With the number of turkeys we raised this year, every pound off average represents about $1000 in sales. So we did between three and five grand less in sales than we were projecting, so things are extremely tight right now. We are selling animals that have given us the slightest reason to sell. Our goal is to avoid selling our cattle breeding stock in the process of righting the ship.

Two of our original ewes that we sold

We have still been trying to put weight on some of our small turkeys. We still have 24 birds out there. This is an older photo of them when they were smaller. I am not sure where the birds will end up, but I hope to have them either sold off live or butchered within the next week.

Small turkeys that did not make the Thanksgiving cut

Well this is where we are at this point in December. I hope that we pull up and flatten out by the end of the month. Stay tuned and wish us luck.

Foamed Blue Chicken House

Well it certainly has been a long time since I have scraped together enough time to create a blog post. Our effort has been focused on getting the chicken building sealed up before winter so we can focus on the inside as it gets colder. 

Since the last post, we have put in the windows and doors, framed and roofed the tractor shed,  and wired most of the building. Today we took major striders forward by having the side of the building spray foamed and then I began to paint it.

11/12/11 Framed Tractor Shed with Jim's help

11/12/11 The Whole Building

11/12/11 Wired Bank of Switches 

Michael Carter really took to wiring the building and spent part of three successive weekends working on the building until it was ready to be spray foamed. 

11/19/11 Building Interior Prior to Foam Insulation

11/19/11 Let the Foam Spraying Begin

River Bluffs Spray Foam Insulators is run by Larry Smith out of New Sharon, IA. They are very professional, reasonably priced, and great to work with. I was really impressed with how clean they left the building when it was done. I would gladly work with them again. 

11/19/11 Short Video of Larry Spraying Foam

11/19/11 The Foam is Done

11/19/11 Chicken House now in Technicolor

I might have picked out paint in a hurry, with a child, under the glare of indoor home improvement warehouse lighting. I swear it was not that blue on the swatch. These is some debate as to whether or not we will repaint it. I think it will look better when the trim is up and painted white. It might not be quite so blue then.  We will see what it ends up looking like, but for the time being it is bright blue. It might even help folks find us, "if you pass a bright blue chicken house, you have gone too far." We will see and share with you here, until next time.

Heating Up as the World Cools Down

We are approaching the final turn in our production system. The last large group of the chickens are going to the locker this Thursday. Then turkeys will go in two groups over the following two weeks. I may shift the turkeys back a week if I think their weights are not going to hit the mark as they represent such a massive share of our business.

Turkey encampment just north of the house

Video of turkeys on pasture & Hazel talking

Work on the building is moving along. I am now back at work a few days a week so it will likely slow up a bit here. We have put almost al of the siding on the main building and still have a lot of framing on the tractor side to go. Since the picture below was taken, I have stared putting in the windows. The building is certainly not square. That becomes very apparent when putting in the windows. I am glad I am learning on a farm building and I am not working on a house.

Chicken Coop Coming Together

Since the last post, I have moved all of the hay we had still out in a rented pasture up the road. I also had a small Vermeer tracked skid loader on the farm. I do love those things. I did some earth shaping where our new circe drive will be, removed the old compost bin and square foot gardens that are in the wet area of the yard that needs work, and removed all of the poultry bedding from the garage as it was serving as our brooder. I did start a major task for next year with the skid loader.

I stated removing the ancient perimeter fence on the west side of the property. It was three stands of barbed wire over a short woven wire fence with alternating home grown cedar posts and old steel t-posts. It is largely broken down and buried in the dirt. I might have gotten about a 10th of the fence removed, but it will be much easier to put in new fence next year with a blank slate. I had to chase cattle out of the neighbors bean field twice this year. That means that next year it will be corn and they will be much harder to find and return to this property if that happens next year.

The calves are frolicking on top of the big hill north of the house

With all of the work that needs to get done each day, Hazel has been outside a lot. She has been on my back a bit, but is starting to do more outside on her own. She likes to watch the animals while I work with them and she likes to play in the chicken building while I do light work on it. I do the loud and dangerous things during nap time. The video baby monitor is an amazing thing.

Hazel riding in her Chicco carrier

Stay tuned as we hopefully start to slow down a bit moving forward. I know I can not keep this pace up for much longer.

September Grind

This September has been the busiest I have ever had, period. I am still working around three days a week, taking care of Hazel on many of my days off, and trying to push the farm forward. The only way I able to sustain this effort is to know that by the end of October farm work will slow down a bit or at least change.

In the past month, we have finished framing the chicken building, put a roof on it, decided to make it bigger by adding a tractor lean to to the side of it, butchered chickens, moved all of our turkeys outside and all the rest of our chickens outside, we have been selling sheep, butchering lamb, having calves, all while  trying to ride out the last two months of our production season where we go through around $150 a week in poultry feed.

The chicken building has moved forward because we have had weekends off in September and because we have called on a number of friends for help, sometimes repeatedly (Jim and Adam especially). This weekend we are going to try to side much of the building. I am trying to get the poultry building sealed up before winter so we can work on the inside when it gets cold outside.

9/18/11 after a word day where the purlins went on and the framing got almost finished

9/25/11 after a work day where the steel roof went on and the house wrap stated to go up

Looking up at the new steel roof 

We did butcher chickens at the locker two weeks ago, but they came out very very small. A week before that we had a weasel hit kill 44 in the pasture pens in one night. Needless to say the chickens have not been treating me very well. The turkeys are doing much better. They are almost to the point where we will day range them, or give them a large area to run outside of their pens during the day.

Turkeys on 9/20/11, they are much larger now in just a week

The cattle have been grazing the native grass & legume planting we put in 3 years ago on the 12.5 acres that used to be crop ground. That stand is still developing in the sandiest parts of the field, but looks pretty good in others. The cattle have had very large paddocks designed to last them about a week. Since the stand is pretty dormant they are not doing much damage to it, besides we are trying to get them to knock down as much vegetation as possible so that it can decompose with contact to the soil and add to the soil carbon. 

Cattle down on the prairie planting

All four calves in one place

The sheep have been clearing out the forest floor

While the cattle have been on the prairie the sheep have been clearing brush and weeds in the timber. Where they go it is like scorched earth behind them

Hazel has been doing very well. She has started to make turkey gobbling noises and has shown a surprising amount of muscle coordination for a child of 17 months.  As always she is a joy to be around and is just a lot of fun. I do wish I could spend more time with her, but I appreciate all the more what time I do get. 

Hazel, the little engineer, lining up a screwdriver to the screws on the bottom on my chair

Hazel, Janice, and my pants on the clothesline