Colonel's Blog, Earthdate 17 April 2023...
Hey Y'all!
Happy Monday from Air2Ground Farms! Wow, what a busy few days! We got another early start to the day today but didn't expect to be scraping ice from the windshield before we could leave. We were out before sunrise again so we could milk and get on the road before 0700. We delivered the remaining 5 hogs to the processor this morning. Well, I'll just go back to the last blog and catch you up. I told you I was writing in a thunderstorm that started with large hail. We're very glad we put the vehicles under the barn. Not sure there would have been damage, but it sure did put us at ease. The only damage we found so far was a single hole in the milk barn roof where a piece of hail went straight through our clear vinyl skylight. Yesterday morning started with normal rounds. We ate a quick breakfast and then focused on the sheep. We first built their new paddock with three poly-wires. It's probably 2.5 acres, a bit big but we don't want to stress the grass, especially when we add the beef cows this afternoon. We then built a lane from their last paddock to the new one, ending at the working pens. Next, we put all of the dogs in a single pen so they wouldn't get the sheep too excited during the move. We let the sheep out and into the lane, where they only made one wrong turn. We recovered within a couple of minutes and continued the move. They went into the pens without further incident. The pics today are of the hoof trimming process and then the sheep out on green grass. They rest comfortably on their rumps and sit quietly (mostly) while we trim their hooves. We use scissors specially made for the job--they remind me a bit of garden sheers. Their hooves were in much better shape than the past times we worked them. While they were lounging, we also vaccinated all of them. The ewes will pass the antibodies to their unborn lambs and they will be born with built up immunity. As we finished each one, we let them out of the pens into a small paddock we had set up inside the larger one. When everybody was finished, we went and got the dogs and let them make their perimeter scan of the new area. The sheep watched them intently and were ready to be out when we took up their small paddock. We decided to put all three male puppies in with Tank since the area was so big. So now Tank, TJ, Ghost, and Tozer are all in with the ewes and rams. They seem to be doing really well. After we finished with the sheep and dogs, we made our way over to the hogs. They still had not really gotten used to the trailer and although they had eaten their food in the trailer, they refused to go in. We had to push, coerce, push, coerce, etc every one of them to get them loaded. It took about a half hour and was neither our best nor worst experience loading hogs. We brought them up to the house to spend the night in the trailer with plenty of food and water. From there, we cleaned up the poly-nets that made the lane, the poly-nets that were part of the prior paddock and dog pen, and the 3 poly-wires and posts forming the perimeter of the prior paddock. When finished, we cleaned up all of the hoses, water troughs, mineral buckets, dog food bowls, dog food can, etc. We then went down to check on the dogs and sheep again, delivering their mineral blocks and ensuring they knew where to find water. We ate an early-ish dinner prior to evening rounds. By the time we were finished, I just didn't have the energy to write a blog! That brings us to this morning. We delivered the 5 hogs to the processor where they were equally as reluctant to leave the trailer as they were to go in. After a few minutes of coercion, they all finally relented. Across the scales, their different live weight were, in ascending order: 280, 290, 298, 304, and 340. We then went inside to fill out the cut sheets. Two and a half of them are already sold in bulk and we ensured the processor will butcher as our customers desired. On the way back home, we stopped by the feed store where we purchased vaccine and syringes for the cows. As soon as I publish this, we are moving the cows into the pens, vaccinating all of them, and then turning them out into the paddock with the sheep and guardian dogs. It will be the first time they are all together! Wish us luck!
Check out our YouTube where we describe the things to know when purchasing a whole hog and see the group of hogs we took this morning.
Local Farm Report for 16 April 2023:
Harvest:
30 Chicken eggs
11 Duck eggs
1 Goose egg
1 Guinea egg
6 1/2 Gallons of milk
Cheers!
Psycho & Shelley
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