Meet the New Crew
May 5th, 2014 · No Comments · Posted in farming
My wife drove the truck nearly five hours to the Finger Lakes area of the state to pick up our new herd of Dorper lambs–five ewes and a ram. Dorpers are “hair” sheep, meaning they shed their coats in the spring rather than being shorn. They are especially prized for their meat.
We bought them from Ulf Kintzel, owner of White Clover Sheep Farm in Rushville, NY. Originally from East Germany, Ulf is a professionally trained and apprenticed shepherd and it shows in the lambs he sells. They are beautifully conditioned animals. We unloaded them last night in the permanent paddock, where they’ll be quarantined for the next few weeks.
Let’s see–how many moving parts do we have on the farm now? There’s a mother Friesian ewe and her lamb occupying half the permanent paddock and another pregnant ewe soon to move in. The other half of the paddock is occupied by the new lambs. The other ewes, the boy goat and the Jersey heifer are behind temporary fencing on pasture, while the other ram has a new home all by his lonesome near the tool shed.
The goats are still getting hay and grazing their enclosure. I haven’t figured out how to put them on pasture yet, since we have only so much portable fencing. Two groups of 25 broiler chicks are being moved in “tractors,” and another 55 laying chicks–20 Rhode Island Reds, 35 Ameraucana–occupy the basement brooder.
Oh, and lets not forget the 14 laying hens out in the orchard. They need to be feed and watered every day as well.
The chores just keep multiplying. Ah, spring…..
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