This year I am applying a serious amount of organic matter to the vegetable garden and a new hazelnut growing field. My source is a dairyfarm over in Wisconsin that markets their composted dairy manure as Cowsmos. I have two 1500-pound totes of straight dairy manure compost and two totes of this mixed with biochar – a more persistant form of organic matter used as a soil ammendment. I had help from a dear friend this week to get the material applied for use in vegetable production for my produce CSA and also to benefit the hazelnut planting going in next month. The latter was carefully set up to help determine the relative benefit of biochar vs. simple compost. This will be a long term evaluation.
Veggie Action
The season has begun for growing food! This post will telescope a few weeks’ worth of activities. I’ve been starting batches of seeds in the basement and my bedroom window over bottom heat.
A number of the batches are ready and have been transplanted to their respective grow-out locations in the greenhouse. It feels good to get the seedlings launched to their ultimate sites so I can get the next batch started using the same heat mats and trays.
I have three families I am serving with a fresh produce CSA (consumer supported agriculture) this summer. Scheduling harvest dates – not just “whenever” is a new challenge to the greenhouse and outdoor garden venture this year.
A Song for Annika
Baby Annika, Baby Annika, will you come play with me?
Baby Annika, Baby Annika, we’ll be happy and free.
We will jump and play. We will jump and play, then we’ll lay in the sun.
We will jump and play, then we’ll eat some hay when the whole day is done.
2015 Lambing (Updated 4/9/15)
Hattie and Fergie were just a couple days early delivering their respective sets of twins. Hattie produced Abner and Abigail around 10:00a.m. Tuesday the 24th. Fergie had problems with her first lamb, Adrien, who came out nose first and no legs. She powered through, however, and Adam popped out within a minute or so around 2:00 a.m. Wednesday, March 25th. They’re all frisky and already decked out in ear tags and tail bands. I’m glad they were early, because the lambing jugs have been kept busy with the first-timers, who were supposed to be about a week later (https://prairieplumfarm.com/2015/03/28/sad-story-big-boys-in-little-ewes/). Nina gave birth to little Alyssa on Friday morning, March 27th.
The tide has turned to the off-white colored lambs. On Monday evening, March 30th, Claire gave birth to Amos, a whopping 9 pound ram. Within an hour Iris produced a set of twins, Andy and Annika. True to the vet’s prognostication, Iris didn’t produce milk, so I’m caring for the spunky twins for now. They are well traveled, having accompanied me to work and my uncle’s funeral. Penny broke the “bad news” streak and was the first yearling ewe to have a live birth delivering April Saturday morning, April 4th. Her twin sister, Paula, reportedly lambed successfully earlier in the week at her new home.
All lambs except April are available for sale. Alyssa has already been reserved by a new family. Andy will be wethered and is one friendly little dude for companionship, mowing, and fiber.
Audrey is the latest addition to the flock and last lamb of the season. She was born to Rhonda (and Winslow) Saturday, April 11th. She’s doing great but looks miniature next to the twins born 18 days earlier.
Shearing Day 2015
Saturday, March 21st, was a beautiful sunny day and a fine day for shearing the flock. The work crew assembled for lunch prior to the activity and final set-up for the maturnity pens was completed. We had a crew of six plus the shearer himself. One person fetched the sheep, one shut opened and shut the gate, one flipped the sheep on their rump, one scooped up the fleece, one folded and bagged the fleece, and the final one swept up the belly wool between animals. It was quite the circus. I was the one fetching the sheep, which also entailed removing and, when time permitted, replacing coats on the yearling ewes. The fleeces look wonderful and I’m hoping for some time between Lamb Watches to get some skirting done. Preliminary weights of unskirted greasy fleece are: 35 pounds off-white Babydoll, 31 pounds colored Babydoll, 2.5 pounds silver Shetland and 2.75 pounds black Shetland.
Sad Story – Big Boys in Little Ewes
The last few days have not been the best for lambing. . . 3 still-born ram lambs. Two of these were from the ewes (Sara and Rachel) I had tried to prevent from breeding last fall due to their small size. The third was from my dear Olivia, who was the largest of last year’s lambs. But when the rear instead of front legs – plural, is presented with the nose, all is not going to go through the birth canal properly. Rachel’s had NO legs presented. I wasn’t around for the birth of Sara’s ram so don’t know the circumstances. The good news is the ewes appear to be fine – though I’m watching them closely. My vet had an interesting insight – she said in about 90% of difficult births she has assisted with – whether it be goats, cattle, or sheep – the infant is a male.
Babydoll batts now available
Yesterday I picked up the first batts made from the wool of my Babydoll Southdown sheep from the fiber mill. They are wonderfully lofty! Each weighs approximately 12 ounces and measures 24″ x 36″ x 3″. Because of the layering manner in which they are made, they can be easily split to half that thickness (1.5″), if desired. I’m planning on playing with one myself – not sure if I’ll make a vest or a lap robe insert first. The rest are available for purchase at $18 each. I have 5 off-white and 2 dark brown.
Garden Planning
The planning for this summer’s plantings is well under way. Orders for plants and seeds have been sent. New for this season will be a planting of 180 hybrid hazels and a collection of small fruits: currants, gooseberries, and bush cherries. The hazel planting will include an trial of the effects of biochar as a soil ammendment in the establishment of perennial crops. I’m also working at devising ways to safely enable sheep grazing among the hazels. Due to the large number of plants involved, the per unit cost needs to be kept low. Continuing education is… continuing. I’ll be attending full day class at the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) conference this Thursday on value-added options for fruit growers. I may add vinegars to my offerings of preserves this year.
2014 Fleeces
I will be offering individual raw fleeces for sale from this spring’s clip. Shortly after shearing I will post weights to the web page along with close-up photos of the surface of each fleece and samples of individual locks/staples. The coated fleeces will be skirted to sell just the area covered by the coats. Unfortunately, due to my inexperience at this, I will not be able to set a per pound price until I see the quality (cleanliness, color, and staple length) of each fleece. I expect the prices to range from $16/pound for adult off-white fleece (averaged 5.75# per ewe last year; 8# for Edwin and J.C.) to $22/pound for coated black lambs. I’m guessing about 4# each after considering 25% not covered. *This year the adult fleeces will have 2 weeks’ less growth than last – 52 vs. 54 weeks.
If you care to reserve the “right of first refusal” for any, please let me know. I am reserving Rachel’s fleece for personal use.
Here are some close-up photos I took last week of some of the adult black sheeps’ coats as a preview.
Fergie (Babydoll ewe)
Butterscotch on surface, dark charcoal at skin
2014 clip stats: produced 6# raw fleece, 62% > 2″
Hattie (Babydoll ewe)
Fading faster than Fergie although same age.
2014 clip stats: produced 5.4# raw fleece, 54% > 2″, taupe, soft!
Still dark at the skin! 2014 color of main fleece = dark walnut (britch and gray portions, especially from head processed separately)
2014 clip stats: produced 8# raw fleece, 77% > 2″
Noir (Shetland wether)
Black at skin, warm chocoate brown at tips. Full year’s coat
Expect serious vegetative matter – will be priced accordingly.
No 2014 data and he’s a little dude.
Moonshadow (Shetland wether)
Will be 6 months of growth – clean in spite of his shunning a coat
Examples of what to expect for the yearling ewes:
Nina’s 2014 clip stats: produced 5# raw fleece, but 84% of it was > 2″ to yield more skirted fleece weight than any of the adult ewes. They don’t come out of the womb naked, they’ve been growing their wool for some time already.
Katie’s 2014 clip stats; produced 5.75# raw fleece, 65% > 2″. Caviot… both of these girls were 53 weeks old when shorn for the first time. This year’s crop of lambs will be 51 to 45 weeks old, if I get the shearing date I’m aiming for (1 week before Hattie and Fergie are due to lamb).
Midwinter Coat Check
A couple friends and I trimmed the sheeps’ hooves yesterday and seized the opportunity to check on fleeces and take some new photos. I was especially interested to see the prelimiary effects of coating the 2014 ewe lambs. We tried to have a yardstick in the photo frame to show the girls’ height at shoulder level, but the depth of field wasn’t adequate for that to be in focus. As a substitute, I will note the size of their current coat which is the lenth in inches from neck to top of the tail. Since I will be marketing their fleeces and also most of this year’s lamb crop, I will include some commentary on their genetics and fleece characteristics along with their photos.
Olivia, daughter of Claire. Like Nina, her half sister, she appears to have a longer than average staple. I was getting caught up on skirting yesterday and was excited at the percentage of her mother’s fleece from 2013 that was longer than the 2″ minimum required by my processor, Chris Armbrust at Dakota Fiber Mill. Claire’s 2014 fleece wasn’t quite as outstanding, which reminds me to take data every year. My guidebook indicates staple length as a yearling has an average heritability of 47%, with a range of 17 to 60%. Olivia is now wearing a size 31″ coat.
Penny, daughter of Fergie. I was surprized at the lightness of Penny’s surface coloration in spite of the coat. It’s still hard for me to guess the color of the wool once the exterior, interior and middle get blended in the rovings. From her surface color I’d call her Milk Chocolate! She’s on the verge of outgrowing her 29″ coat.
Rachel, daughter of Hattie. The “saddle” of Rachel’s fleece under the coat has stayed nicely dark and clean. She was one of the 3 first to be coated on August 15th. She is now wearing a 29″ coat.
Rhonda, daughter of Hattie. Rhonda has not had a coat on so far, so has acted as a “control” for the other coated black ewes. Her fleece does not appear to be especially dirty and the color on the surface of her fleece has not faded much at all compared to Penny, but has faded compared to Rachel or Tammy. Her mother, Hattie, carries the fading gene so the color of the fiber next to the skin may also be light. Hopefully the next set of photos will document that. We did coat her as of Monday (January 19) with a 29″ coat. By the way… I did change my mind and register her. She is the only black ewe yearling with a clear face (like her mother).
Sara, daughter of Iris. The cleanliness of her fleece under the coat was the most striking. She’s had one on since September 6th. Her current coat size is 27″. Although her mother, Iris, is the oldest ewe in the flock, her fleece is one of the softest – bucking the trend for greater micron count (fiber diameter) with age. According to my reference (Kruesi’s The Sheep Raiser’s Manual), “fleece grade” has only an average heritability of 35%, BUT I’m hoping there will be some effect. This coming season, I plan to have the wool of some of the sheep tested for micron count.
Tammy, daughter of Katie. Tammy’s fleece under the coat has stayed dark and the coloration of her head wool has also stayed dark to the roots. I get to give her scratches each day, so I know these things. However, in dogs the head color can age differently from the rest of the coat, so stay tuned for the next set of photos. Tammy is still wearing a 27″ coat.