Babies, Boars, Best Friends and Butts

Babies
March brought a handful of new babies to the farm including a baby of our own. Colton Michael joined the family on March 8th and his big brother is in love. Colton was out in the barn with us for chores within a few days.

Belle & Cinderella

Right around the time of Colton's birth we also had several cows freshen and below are some pictures of them. Belle was a twin and Cinderella is the daughter of a cow we raised named Connie. Last Summer we purchased a small group of cows from a farmer and while they were nice cows we realized when they got home that these animals were extremely small in comparison to our primarily holstein crossed cows. We started calling the smallest one in the group 'Mini Horse' because she looked so tiny next to our cows, and the calf below is from Mini Horse, so to follow in her mother's footsteps, we named her 'Pretty Pony.'

 

Pretty Pony

 Boar

Julian & Olivia

Another addition to the farm is a boar that has taken up residence with our two Tamworth females, Olivia and Francine. The boar has been named Julian and despite several days of trying to avoid the wrath of the big girls, he seems to be settling in nicely. When Julian was initially introduced to Francine and Olivia they were not exactly welcoming and after a lot of nipping at him, Julian bolted out of the pen and hid at the other end of the barn. After a few days in an isolated pen the girls were re-introduced to Julian on his own turf and they are getting along nicely...maybe in a few months we will have some piglets to tell you about.

Best Friends

Me and my entourage

Every day when I walk to the heifer barn, as I reach the end of our driveway and cross the road almost my entire flock of hens comes running to greet me. I would like to think it's because the love me, but I think it is more likely because I generally bring them some kitchen scraps in my little red egg bucket and they look forward to those treats. It's not just me though, Anyone approaching
the 100' radius around their coop seems to be greeted by these friendly girls.

Butts
Just look at the picture...

Heifers all huddled around the bale feeder

 No complaints on this weather for getting fieldwork done!