Hazel Update (April 2020)

Although I haven’t posted anything about the hazel planting in a while, it hasn’t disappeared – in fact it is doing quite well.

Being a scientist by training, I’ve implemented a number of experiments to help me determine which practices are most beneficial in terms of improved plant survival and growth, and efficiency of labor and material use

Additives incorporated at planting –

The first one I spoke of in the establishment page: use of biochar with composted manure vs. only composted manure vs. no additives. As I described on that page the experimental design is not at all robust, but it seems the results are sufficiently different that some mention is appropriate. This year being the first major bloom season I noticed that the number of plants flowering (which is also linked to size of plant) is greater in the two areas where the amendments were added. Below is the percentage of plants flowering in the 3 treatments:

no amendments 21/54 39%
biochar + compost 12/13 92%
compost 9/10 90%
total planting 42/77 55%

Weed Barrier Use –

I used 2 foot wide heavy duty landscape fabric in two ways to help hazels compete with surrounding vegetation. The first way was to position it as close as possible to the row to the north of the east-west oriented row. The second was to make a cut perpendicular to the edge to the middle (1′) where a small circle was cut (“keyhole”). This was much more time consuming and many more earth staples were needed to secure the edges of the fabric.

Once again the flowering behavior will be used to sum up (proxy for?) the size and vigor of the plants as a result of reduction in weed competition.

Fabric with keyholes 27/38 71%
Fabric to north 13/24 54%
No fabric (after 1st yr) 2/15 13%
Total planting 42/77 55%

Conclusion: it’s worth the extra effort to make the cuts and install staples.

Individual exclosures:

In an area prone to visitation by deer plus calves and sheep on occasion, I felt it worth while to protect the plants with individual exclosures in the 2015 planting. I tried 3 types: plastic mesh + 2 bamboo stakes, chicken wire + 2 rebar stakes, and clouches (from Plants Alive) + 2 staples.

Results: the chicken wire/rebar combo was better than the other two anecdotally (no hard data). The plants too quickly outgrew the clouche and the plastic and extracting the exclosure material was difficult. The chicken wire could be used for 2 years, but was much more expensive. None of the 3 can be recommended to protect against browsing by even relatively small sheep as they can push them over rather easily – chicken wire combo presented better resistance to this than the other 2.

It did become apparent that some protection was better than no protection in terms of survival the first year. Part of this was as a deterrent to “mower blight”. One did need to lift the cages at least every other month to remove weeds/shade from within.

2-way vs. row mowing

By the time the 2018 planting was made the number of plants made creating individual exclosures cost prohibitive. I transitioned to a 6 foot perimeter fence that had 30 pound test-weight mono-filament line strung at 1 foot intervals. To exclude the sheep and calves, I also ran 2 lines of electrified wire at 10″ and 20″. I tried to keep the charge above 5KV at all times with a solar energizer. The 2018 planting was also at “final” (6′ within row) spacing so I could mow in both directions, which I did approximately weekly alternating north/south and east/west.

Results: I lost just 5 of the 95 plants installed that year and mown both directions – 3 to mower blight. Having the individuals isolated from huge clumps of weeds appears to help in survival. I haven’t done as well as intended at lifting and clearing out weeds in the ones protected by chicken wire, and when perimeter fence proved at least mostly effective, I removed the cages so mowing could eliminate weeds closer in to plants. Because of the age difference, no inferences can be made, but I figured folks might be interested in the 2 methods, plus the mono-filament usage.

I’ll try to get an update on nut production when the season arrives. The appearance of flowers on a majority of the 2015 plants was very encouraging.

The Color Genetics of Brea’s Triplets (Sheep genetics)

Jan2

Over the last 9 months I’ve been pondering how Brea could produce a black lamb. I think I’ve finally figured it out. It requires switching to the Shetland/Icelandic/Finnsheep mindset where white is not a color in the same way black and brown are. In their systems a better term would be the whitewash gene – and (warning, genetic speak to come) and it is at a separate location on the sheep’s chromosome than the black/brown gene’s location. The whitewash gene comes in 2 versions (a.k.a. alleles): W = will cover any other color gene and keep it from being expressed, and w (small w) which will allow the black/brown gene locus to be expressed. Under that system, black and brown are 2 alleles at the color locus, with black (B) being dominant to brown (b). Brea’s genetic makeup (genotype) can be inferred from her offspring when crossed with the perfect test genotype: wwbb. Since these loci are distributed independently (we assume, until proven otherwise), there is equal chance for either allele at the whitewash locus to get passed with either allele at the color locus. The chart below shows how Brea must have one black (B) and one brown (b) allele at the color locus and have one W and one w allele at the whitewash locus. Tioga, the sire to the triplets, was brown. Thus, he had to be bb since both color alleles need to be b in order for brown to be expressed and he had to be ww at the whitewash locus or else he would have been white since W is dominant. A basic premise in genetics is that each parent passes only one allele at each locus/gene to an offspring. Brea has 2 different alleles at each locus (= heterozygous) so can produce eggs having 4 different combinations. The appearance of the offspring is the interplay of all the alleles at both of the loci (plural of locus). In the figure below, the row under Brea’s name represents the 4 possible allele combinations Brea can produce. Tioga can only produce one type of gamete/sperm genotype (genetic package) see second column from left. The first row below Brea’s genetic contributions is a row showing the lamb’s genetic makeup when her eggs are combined with Tioga’s genetic contributions. The second row down is the appearance – in this case lamb color – produced by the interplay of the alleles and genes. The third row is the triplet who has that genetic makeup. Note – because the dominant whitewash gene, W, overrides the color gene we have no way of knowing Dazzle’s color genotype UNTIL she is bred to a wwbb ram and we can view their lambs. We know she is a carrier of the brown allele, because she had to get one from her dad. Sorry for the layout. I couldn’t upload my Excel version of the chart. Clear as mud??? At least it doesn’t have to bug me any more!

			Brea
		WB	Wb	wB	wb	=egg genotype
Tioga	wb	WwBb	Wwbb	wwBb	wwbb	=lamb genotype
		white	white	black	brown	=lamb color
		Dazzle?	Dazzle?	Daria	Daphne	=name of lamb

Danny Boy in blue snuggling with the Finn cross triplets: Dazzle on left, Daphne across top, and Daria at bottom.

The fun thing is… this also explains some odd outcomes from breeding Babydolls where only the B allele exists at the color locus (it’s “fixed”, in genetic terminology). Many years ago Fergie (black) gave me twins, one black and one white, when crossed to a black ram. I had sort of adopted a single gene model and where white is dominant to black, and I could not figure out how 2 blacks could make a white. In light of this alternate model, here is the explanation. Fergie’s mom was white, so she must have been heterozygous at the whitewash gene – Fergie received a w from her mom. Over the years Claire, Nina, Olivia, and Audrey have produced black lambs so are are all Ww. Sara must be, too, since her father was black (J. C.). Eureka! Science works!

Felting Fun

Feb16

It’s not ALL work with the farm. I had a mini-vacation earlier this month to play with fleece. I had long wanted to learn needle felting from Stacy Dreckhan of Beelighted fiber shop and Artify consignment art store in Zumbrota. The opportunity presented itself and I made the voyage for a private lesson, no less! It was great fun and I was quite satisfied with the resulting gnome. The sheep is, I believe, a product of Nancy Ellison’s daughter, but is something I am interested in emulating.

Stacy, the master felter.

former PPF lambs hit the fair circuit

Aug5

Michael Goulet and an assistant made a bit of a splash at the Benton County Fair this week showing Bella and Bliss in the March Lamb division. This is the first time Babydolls had been exhibited at in that county’s fair. Bella landed a second place award and Bliss came in right behind her in third place. Congratulations to Michael for his showmanship and thanks to his mom, Connie, for the image!

Michael with Bliss and assistant with Bella in the show ring.

First of the cross-breds arrives

Mar27

Becka selfie with eartag.

On Tuesday afternoon, March 22nd, Tammy gave birth to a bouncing baby girl who I’ve named Becka. She’s deep black and her half-Finn heritage is evident in her shorter tail and incredibly soft facial hair. She’s the best snuggle buddy in the pen! She’s the youngest right now (March 27), but more than keeps up with her pen mates. I will definitely be keeping this treasure for my fiber flock. I’m hoping Nina provides me with an off-white half-sister soon.

Wooly Warmth

Dec20

I’m super excited to be getting a duvet (comforter inside a case) made from the bulk of my second-quality wool – FOR ME! The St. Peter Wollen Mill offers this service. I send them 8 pounds of greasy (but skirted and sorted) wool and they return a 90″ by 90″ duvet. I also intend to take them up on their service of sewing the zippered cover once I figure out what 10 yards fabric I will send to them. I will be cozy this winter snuggled under my flock’s old coats!

End-of-Season Hazel Count

Dec20

This last week I made a final hazel inventory with the help of my boarder, Mark Hamann. We found 121 first year hazels still alive representing an 82% stocking level and 63% survival. You can see I did lots of replanting even during this first year to replace losses from wandering calves and weak plants. I accepted some weak plants at discount because I wanted specific genetics – so expected some losses.

In general the plants, all from Badgersett, performed well. One high light was the final row, planted on the 16th of August, which has 100% survival to date. These plants had been upcanned to Anderson bands (AB39, 3″ x 3″ x 9″ or AB410, 4″ x 4 x 10″) and were actively growing when planted and had been growing outside for a number of weeks. As Philip says, maintaining the momentum is important.

There has been much burrowing by rodents under the landscape fabric I used to keep weed competition down. The diameter of the tunnels is about 1.0 to 1.5″ so could be 13-lined ground squirrels or mice. There are mole tunnels as well in the planting area

Mark with ground cloth removed from row B.

Snowless winter allowed us to mow tall weeds that had provided summer protection from desication.

, but between the rows, not under the fabric. They tend to be quite a bit larger in diameter. The nicely loosened soil there is much more to their liking than that compacted by the calves on the other side of the fence.

In our year-end clean up, we removed the fabric from one of the 4 rows and mowed the weeds down that had provided protection from drying wind. At this point I figure the risk of providing habitat for rabbits and rodents was greater than the plants getting desicated by wind. I’m hoping they will soon be covered in snow.

Fiber Farming Update

Jul2

Things appear to be taking off on the fiber front. I prepared materials explaining my fiber offerings for sale and sent them to a couple of potential customers and received good feedback from both. North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN and Blue Heron yarn shop in Decorah, IA both expressed interest in buying rovings. I will continue to do direct market sales at fiber events but this will enable me to move more volume. The direct sales margins are better but the time invested is also seriously greater.

Brochures highlighting rovings for retail outlets and class materials use.

2015 Babydoll Sheep 4 Sale (Updated 8/3/15)

May24

The lambs received their second CD&T vaccinations on May 22nd and are separated from their moms now. It’s time to fledge some of them to greener, or at least different, pastures. Since I am nearing my capacity for overwintering animals, I will only be retaining Audrey. The prices for lambs are: $400 per ewe (Abigail, Adrien, and April), $250 for RR rams (Abner) , and $200 for QR rams (Amos). If more than one animal is purchased the second and any subsequent animals will be discounted $25. All of the lambs except the wether are NABSSAR registered.

Adult sheep: I also have a proven black ram for sale @ $250. J. C. (D.O.B. 2/15/12) is RR and has sired some wonderful lambs for me over the last two years. He also has the most gorgeous fleece. . . SOLD

Also from last year’s lamb crop, I have a pretty black ewe, Rachel (D.O.B 4/11/14) for sale at $375. RESERVED

As of August 3rd, I still have 3 ewes lambs, and 2 ram lambs for sale. Check out the page under Babydoll sheep to see the parentage of each and additional photos. The prices listed there are for individual sheep – remember the quantity discount for additional sheep to the same buyer. See also the page on how to reserve a lamb. Ashley, the cost of health certificate is included in the price – sorry for my lapse.

Adam at 35 days

Annabelle at 33 days.

Amos looking studly at 2 months.

Andy on mowing detail at 2 months.

Adrien at 2 months

Abigail at 2 months

Abner at 36 days.

Baby Annika at 2 months.

J. C. looking regal.

Miss Rachel at 13 months. Daughter of Hattie and J.C. and twin to Rhonda.

Shepherd’s Harvest Festival May 15 – 17

May11

This coming weekend is one of Minnesota’s big events for fiber folks. It’s held at the Washington County fair grounds in Lake Elmo, an eastern suburb of St. Paul. In addition to lots of classes on everything from fiber animal care to dying fiber for special effects, there is a LARGE assortment of vendors with their wares.

I will be selling my Babydoll and Shetland fiber at the Natural Fiber Alliance booth. It will be in all conditions from fleeces “in the grease” to spun yarn and batts. My first lot of processed wool will be back from Dakota Fiber Mill, so there are even more colors to choose from – think coated black lamb!!! Another new item is rovings made from a Babydoll/alpaca blend. Scrumptuous!

http://shepherdsharvestfestival.org/

A sampling of the fiber that will be for sale next weekend (or any day on-line). It does not include items yet from this year’s shearing, like super black lamb and a wool/alpaca blend.

Prairie Plum Farm

Sustainably produced food and fiber.