Farming in the shade

This has been a hot week! We put up 450 small square bales in the heat Monday night. There was a good breeze—check out the first photo closely to see the flying hay. Wednesday afternoon, after a hot day at the markets, we brought the sheep in from the far pastures. In the relative coolness of the barn, we separated lambs from ewes. It was time to wean the lambs. Today is our annual audit for our organic certification. Wish us well—the certification process involves a LOT of paperwork and good record keeping. In between these main events, we’ve been plowing, cultivating bean fields, and caring for the animals. Wednesdays and Fridays our on-farm shop is open from 1-4 pm. Feel free to stop by for the best selection of cuts of beef. Also, the “buy 10 ground beef, get 1 free” special is still available at the farm store.

Last weekend the lambing season of our larger group of ewes began. We breed a small group of ewes early so that we can have a few lambs available for our visitors at Shearing Day. But the bulk of the flock starts lambing in early April. Generally it's a bit warmer by then, although yesterday we had snow... These are the ladies in waiting. (Note: It's hard to get good photos in our dark barn backlit by sunlight.) This is the group that The Farmer is scanning each time he goes out to check for lambs. He looks and he listens. There is a special "baaaa" that we only hear from the ewes during labor and delivery and for the first few days of the lambs' lives. When we hear that, we look harder. We look for a ewe standing or laying off by herself, or one who has her head turned back to look at her stomach. We look for lambs already born. If someone is in active delivery, we don't move her until she's finished and the lamb is cleaned off.  The Farmer wil...

This year's Shearing Day was warmer than usual. And, thanks to a dry spell, there was no MUD! What a gift. Just over 500 people attended our Shearing Day this year, and I think most of them had a good time.  Here are some of the ewes before shearing. Sometimes I ask the kids what it would feel like to wear the same clothes for a whole year without washing them. The outside of the fleece is fairly dirty, but the inside is very nice and clean! Our shearer worked alone this year, and did a great job. Timothy has a strong back and his own shearing equipment. We hire him to do our shearing, and he travels all over the state of Michigan to shear on a regular basis. He is an award-winning shearer (did you know there are sheep-shearing competitions in many places in the world?) and has traveled internationally to compete and to shear sheep. Want to see the world? Become a sheep shearer. Our capable skirting crew sorted off the wool that was extra dirty or full of h...

Mark your calendars for our Annual Shearing Day event. This is your chance to see sheep shearing on a working farm! It's an open house type event--come anytime between 9 and 3 and leave whenever you want. You will want to plan an hour or two to see it all. We are located at 13275 Blair Street, Holland, Michigan, 49424. Many of our friends and family help us to put on this event. We need help parking and greeting people, herding sheep, skirting wool (you'll find out what that means when you come), answering questions, and demonstrating what can be done with wool. We are so grateful for our team--many of whom have helped us out for years. Make sure you dress warmly and in old clothing. If it's a warmer day, there will be mud--boots are a good idea. You will smell like a sheep barn when you leave--but it's worth it! Even though this is a free event, we ask that you consider donating toward the work of the Critter Barn in Zeeland. Miss Mary will be at our event to ...

Why do we host an open house each year at sheep shearing time? It's important for us to show the process of farming. Many people will tell you things about farming that "ain't necessarily so." Unless you can see farming practices yourself, and meet the farmers who care for the land and the animals, you are at the mercy of what you see on social media. Farming is a messy, heartbreaking lifestyle. It's also an amazing, joy-filled lifestyle. When you come to visit us, you will smell what a barn smells like after it's had 100 sheep living in it for 2-3 months. You will see baby lambs and their mothers. You will watch sheep struggle to get away from the shearer, and then lay still while he works. Then you will see those same sheep jump up and run off to join the others. You will check out the inside of a fleece--snowy white--and the outside of a fleece with a year's worth of oils and dirt in it. Not so snowy white anymore. We encourage you to com...

Spring is here, finally. For a few days we skipped over spring and headed straight for summer. But now we are safely back in spring. The barn is overfull of sheep. The cows are nibbling the sacrifice pasture they've wintered in to death. (A sacrifice pasture is one that will be tilled up and planted to something else, so you don't really care that it gets overgrazed and ruined.) Speaking of ruined, we like to give the pastures a head-start on the animals. Spring growth is phenomenal, but the pastures have to be to a certain stage before you turn the animals loose on them, or they will be stunted for the season.  This pasture is not ready yet.  This pasture is getting close. We will let the sheep out this Friday, April 29, at 4:30 pm. If you'd like to stop out and watch this annual rite of spring, feel free to come. We are at 13275 Blair Street in Holland, Michigan.

The lambs have been coming in fits and spurts. It's been a good year, but not without some losses. Where there is life, there is also death.  About three days ago we had a burst of babies, and one lamb was not accepted by his mother. The Farmer has tried several different scenarios, including grafting this lamb onto another ewe. Sheep aren't very open to the concept of adoption. If it's not their lamb, they don't want anything to do with it. So this little one has been a bottle lamb. The Farmer made sure it got the colostrum--the first milk--that all lambs need to live. Since then, it's been drinking lamb formula out of a garage sale baby bottle with the hole in the nipple cut a bit larger.  This morning a yearling, a first-time mom, needed help with delivering her single stillborn lamb. The Farmer assisted with the birth, and realized that this was the perfect opportunity to graft the bottle lamb onto this young ewe. But remember, sheep aren't real...

Shearing Day 2016 dawned cold and with a fresh layer of snow. As we made the final preparations, we felt a misty rain begin. Not exactly what we'd hoped for--on Shearing Day we'd rather not have ice and we'd rather not have mud. But we don't get to choose the weather. The show must go on.  We had approximately 100 pregnant ewes to shear, and this is what they looked like while they waited for their turn.  Timothy sheared for us again this year. We hire this job out to people who are skilled at this task. He makes it look easy. Trust me. It's not. The ewes took their turns being queued up and waiting in the chute. We shear just before lambing for two main reasons: lamb survival and wool quality. When the lambs are born, it is cold yet in Michigan. If the ewe has her full coat on, the lamb can't benefit from the body heat of the ewe (and perhaps the ewe doesn't even think about that the lamb might be cold--she's fine!). In addition, ...

I'm emerging slowly from the fog that was brought on by our biggest on-farm event of the year (Annual Shearing Day) last Saturday and Michigan's Presidential primary election three days later (my day job has to do with elections). I will blog soon about Shearing Day, but here's something to tide you over until I am more fog-free. The Farmer has been busy for about a month with lambing. We like to have about 30 ewes deliver before our Shearing Day, for the cuteness factor. The clipboard in the foreground of this photo helps us remember who needs to be where in the jugs, seen along the wall in the background. (Side note: I don't know why the bonding pens are called jugs.) After a ewe gives birth, she and her lamb(s) are placed in a jug for a day or three. The length of time varies based on how many lambs she's had, and whether or not someone else needs the jug.  Most of the ewes take their jobs very seriously, as evidenced by this ewe's cautious stare a...

Shady Side Farm will host our Annual Shearing Day on Saturday, March 5th from 9 am - 3 pm (come and go as you wish.) Our farm is located at 13275 Blair Street, Holland, Michigan. We will be shearing our Polypay sheep that day, and our open house is geared toward folks who want to see shearing on a working farm and learn more about wool production. This event is free. Fiber artists will demonstrate their work, and wool products (roving, yarn, socks, etc.) will be available to purchase in our little on-farm shop.  The open house is suitable for families and folks of all ages, though very small children sometimes are bothered by the noise and smells of a sheep barn. Wear old clothing and dress warmly. We shear in a barn. :) For blog posts and photos about other years' shearing days, click here .

Earlier this year we separated the lambs from their mothers, and moved them to the other side of the road. They've grazed that hayfield twice over since then. And now that the grass isn't regrowing much due to short days and cold nights, it's time to give that hayfield a rest. And it is also time to move the lambs on to their next purpose. The ewe lambs that are keepers will be put in with the ewe flock for possible fall breeding. The wethers (castrated ram lambs) will become lamb chops, and other related food products. The first item of business was to block off where the horses are. The last time we moved lambs, they took a detour into the horse pasture. The horses thought the lambs were a real-life version of a "whack-a-mole" game. No lambs were injured in the excitement, but it's a wonder. We didn't need that happening again. The second item of business was the planning meeting. We sometime skip this step, but the fact that we held one show...

During the summer we intensively rotationally graze our sheep and cattle. The sheep are moved to fresh pasture daily, while the cattle get new grass every three days or so.  In the pastures where we can reach a water source using up to eight 100' lengths of hose, we spend a lot of time dragging hoses along as we move the sheep. But in the furtherest pastures, we need to bring water in tanks. On hot days, we bring fresh water several times a day.  Our trusty little John Deere Gator helps us with the hauling of three tanks of water which we use to fill three tubs. I think this ewe is ready for a drink. It's usually a peaceful job, and very gratifying. The sheep need us to care for their needs, and obviously appreciate the fresh grass and water we provide. A shepherd boy described a similar relationship in verse one of Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need."

Today we worked with the sheep. We sorted off the larger lambs and put them into their own group. If they haven't already been weaned by their mothers, they will be weaned now.  Here The Farmer and one of his side-kicks are pulling out a few of the largest lambs, already big enough for freezer camp.  The plan was to move the lambs across the road to a recently-cut hayfield. We've never put sheep on the south side of the road, mostly because we don't have any fence there (other than the little pasture right by the big red barn). But we also haven't done it because we haven't needed to. This year it's different. We haven't had rain, and it's dry here. The pastures are in definite hold pattern--not growing at all. Moving the lambs across the road is a decision we made partly out of desperation. We set up temporary fence from the sheep barn, were we sorted the sheep, across the road to the big red barn and the small pasture. The lambs will ...