Before John's fun update about the farm, we wanted to be sure you knew about Whippoorwill Creek Farm's fall offerings: Holiday Sausage Making, The Thankful Dinner, and Writing on the Farm.
Our barn is also a great place to host family dinners (we can do the cooking or you can), team-building events, and corporate holiday parties. We can tailor the event to your needs! Give Beth a call at 641-218-8480
Hello all my Peeps!
That's something that you don't hear on the farm much (except during chicken hatching season, I guess). It's been a bit since I've let you all know that is going on out here in Whippoorwill land.
The biggest new news is that our son, Jacob, has moved to Iowa and is currently residing in our lovely barn. He left San Francisco in a U-haul with two friends in early October and is currently juggling finding a job and an apartment with helping us out on the farm. He has already earned some chops at moving fencing and will probably be running the place soon.
We are headed hard into the fall season with calving nearly and dearly finished. We have had a better year so far than the last three but are still not where we want to be.
We began the season with 34 verified pregnancies, but we now have 24 calves. Three calves were lost to birthing issues, and 2 pregnancies about to finish (hopefully successfully). If your addition matches mine, that's 5 cows without calves who were initially pregnant and lost their calves somewhere along the line. A ten percent loss is considered acceptable (not by me, but by the industry), and so sadly we are still well over the standard, and not sure why.
To give you an idea of what that means for the farm, each full-grown calf is worth about $2500. 26 calves then brings in $65,000 gross for the year, while 34 calves is worth closer to $85,000. Even small losses add up quickly.
We’ve tested all our cattle for the various diseases that can cause miscarriages at this level and haven't found any evidence of such. In a conversation with a USDA livestock specialist today, we decided to have our water tested for problematic bacteria or chemicals. The majority of the water for our cattle comes from ponds around the farm, though a small amount comes from our own Whippoorwill Creek in the spring and early summer. I'll carry out the testing throughout the year and let you all know what we come up with.
Hopefully we can sort this out and have a year where 34 cows produce 34 healthy calves.
On other fronts, the goats are doing well. We did lose one of our older does, Doug, who some of you may have met. She was a great mom and a leader in the herd, but as she aged, she became thin and went downhill quite suddenly late this summer. It was a sad loss, but the rest of the herd and her daughter are looking good and are cleaning up the brush on the farm.
Our buck, Mr. Buckles, has moved to another farm in trade for a new buck that we are calling Ben. His former owner called him Big Ben, but Mr. Buckles was hands down bigger, so I have a hard time giving Ben his full moniker.
Ben arrived, stayed about a week and then disappeared one day.
“I think I just saw a goat walk across our yard,” a neighbor called to tell Beth.
Several hours later, we had story that involved a lariat, a quarter mile frog march with a disgusted and disgusting goat through tall prairie, a levering of said smelly buck into the back of the pickup, and an exhausted team when we returned home at dark. Sounds like fodder for another blog post (coming soon).
To make sure that he didn’t go roaming again, we got him a friend to hang out with (one of our young wether goats) and he hasn't made any trouble since. Apparently, my stern discussion with him and the promise of a November turn in date with the does had its proper effect.
We also have two new bulls (one is yet to arrive) that will be making our cows smile this fall. I have named the first bull Ralph Malph. For those of the Happy Days generation, his photo tells the whole story. Our second bull, a Murray Grey, will arrive just in time to join the "happy hunt" when I turn both in with the cows, slated this year for December 1st.
Our garden is also getting some love with an addition of compost from the barn lot and a new layer of hay for weed control in the spring. We have planted most our our garlic for next season and even added some seed potatoes while we were at it. Hopefully, next year will be one of consistent gentle warm spring rains and lots of mild sun—but with climates changing, I mislike the odds.
All of our classes continue to be well received, if not massively attended. The Grass vs Corn Showdown was a hit (grass-finished beef was indeed tastier!) and we hosted another Healthy Cooking class.
Upcoming, we have a Holiday Sausage Making class, a dinner featuring us and our meat at Walker Ranch outside of Iowa City and our first November Thankful Dinner here on the farm.
Well, work calls and I haven’t even gotten around to the fall colors, the election, or our plans for next year’s small grain planting with our co-farmer, Jake. But I will be back soon with our early winter tell all showcasing more riveting stories of terror and daring do.
Be well and stay well. Signing off from the farm, John.
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