Farming in the shade

Now that most of the sheep are out on pasture, The Farmer has begun cleaning out the barn. The bedding is packed down very solidly, and so the first step is to scoop it out of the barn and bring it outside to place it in the manure spreader.  Once the spreader is full, he turns it on, and the spreader spews it everywhere, breaking it up into smaller pieces. Stand back! He loads it into the mixer wagon, which beats it up some more. He opens the side gate on the mixer wagon, and the compost travels up the conveyer into the invessel composter. The composter slowly turns and aerates the manure and straw, allowing it to heat up and do its thing. The constant turning of the drum makes for a high-quality, consistent product. After 3 or 4 days in the composter, The Farmer takes the compost out of the drum and piles it up outside. It then ages for about a year before we sell it. All compost is not created equally. Our compost is made from sheep manure and straw beddi...

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...

The past few days have been rather mixed , weather-wise. Very little of our mixed weather has been pleasant. But when babies are ready, they come, even if the weather is not great. Some of us believe that babies come especially when the weather isn't great.  This little guy was born a day before the snow. At least he had a chance to get acclimated to his new surroundings in two steps: 1) Outside world, decent weather. 2) Outside world, snowy weather. But this little guy--calf #2--was born during the snow that came this past weekend. This picture was taken during a lull. We got more snow after this. His mama had the sense to drop him on a pile of hay, fortunately. Since then, we've had sheep delivering lambs left and right. Fortunately for them, they are in the barn. This ewe is delivering her first lamb of the year. And about 30 minutes later, she has finished delivering all three of her lambs. This is a busy time for The Farmer, but he tends to clear...

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 .