From the Pastures: Customer wait over

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. March has been pretty fickle so far with 80 degrees one day and 2 inches of snow a few days later with wind in between. But it has been a good winter for the livestock, as well as their caregivers. The lambs are growing well and their mommas are eager to change their hay diet for something greener. Although the rye, wheat and pastures are starting to wake up, it will be probably three weeks to turnout, but those gals are checking fences for an escape route even now.

I’ve just finished weaning our bottle lambs and the bucket calves before that, so chores now seem almost like vacation. But now that Ruth’s cow, Ella, had her calf, her daily chores start right while her busy greenhouse business is in planting mode. She will finally be able to supply her milk customers who have been waiting for too long.

We continue to have lamb customers since March is Ramadan and they come out before, during and after that holiday, and they all want eggs, too, but our supply was limited until just this week when I was able to get some hens from a fellow emptying his barn. Those egg farmers are locked into a contract and have not benefited from the recent price run-up, but they tell me they are still doing OK. Some egg producers have switched from the organic label to the “pasture raised” label, saving on lower feed costs. It doesn’t help those of us selling organic corn and beans, but those prices have held pretty steady so far anyway.

After our recent wind event I found one of my calf huts jumped two fences and landed in a waterway a quarter mile east of the barn yard. At least it had no occupants. We are expecting to get a calf or two from our friend, Scott, to put with Ella, so Ruth will only get to — or have to — milk once a day. Ella raised eight calves on her last lactation while being milked once a day and has always accepted any calf we put with her without complaint. I’ve never had that luck with any other cow or ewe, so I guess it must be a Jersey thing.

Spring is here and after all these years I still look forward to the blessings ahead. I hope you do, too. Happy trails.