Hello Everyone and happy February! What a crazy month of weather. This year has been a very normal and one with the cold temperatures, snow and rain. It’s made farm chores interesting and has provided a lot of off farm work with flood response. The animals have all weathered everything well and greatly enjoy the warm sunny days when they come. Most of those days you find cows laying out in the field soaking up the sun like a cat in it’s sun beam. Let’s get down to this month’s events…
Summary for February:
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New Additions to the herd!
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Piggies!!!
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Flooding season
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Exciting things to offer this year…!
The Herd
This winter has been a snowy, cold and wet one on the herd but they have actually done very well. Wintering them on the ridge really helps with the mud and wet that they have to be in during wet seasons. When the herd stays dry it’s so much healthier for them and for the ground. As we roll out hay bales down the ridge they trample more nutrients into the soil to provide a lush spring growth! It also makes for a warmer area of the farm for early calves to be born in of which we were surprised with 3 this month!(and yes we had a sneaky black stocker bull fraternize with a few of our cows last year…hopefully just 3…)
Looking forward to Spring
Spring Beef is only a few months away and so we are buying up Spring stockers to graze for you all. With the amount of rain we are getting if we get some warm temps on time the stockers will hopefully have some delicious grassy snacks with their hay.
Piggies!
Yep! We have the next batch of piggies on the farm now. They are wintering in the barn to protect them from the harsh cold and give them a better jump start. They enjoy rooting through their heavy wood chip bedding and appreciate the protection from the cold wet season. They are sooooo cute when they are this small!
Flooding Season
It has been a few years since we have mentioned any major flooding but this year has brought that seasonal trend around again. We have had a lot of snow but we have also had a lot of rain that has caused a lot of flooding our area. Matt has worked flood response in surrounding counties and the creek on the farm came up enough the flood in the springs and come out of the banks. It is the normal thing that happens this season but we haven’t had a really wet winter season in a while.
New Things We All Have Waited For
Can you guess what we are about to announce! Yes Buffalo are coming back to Ararat Farm! So many of you have asked when we would do bison again and we have had a hard time finding bison to purchase for the farm. We finally found some contacts and we were able to locate and purchase several animals. We are very excited with where this venture will lead us again and look forward to providing a much loved product for you all! The picture shown here is one of our last ones. We will provide current pictures as soon as we have them!
Wrapping Up
Well, that should bring you up to date with all the latest happenings on the farm. There has been a lot of excitement and a tremendous amount of planning and organizing as we prep for the spring season and the new things coming into this year. The Lord continues to be faithful and gracious in leading and guiding our steps in stewarding the land, animals and business He has placed in our care! Thank you for visiting with us today and we look forward to next time!
Your Ararat Farm!