Black and White Herd
The two new Angus/Holstein cross calves have joined the Black and White herd.
Almost set up for the winter.
Difficult will be sold within the next few weeks. She had a very bad start and I do not want to breed her or eat her so with full disclosure she is being sold.
The big little piggies are growing fast.
In fact it is becoming an increasingly and hilariously dangerous job to feed them three times a day. I think someone is offering extra points to see the farmer tripped up and the buckets of milk soaked oats flying through the air.
Buckets and cows waiting for milking.
Here is Poppy watching her babies sleep. The other night a couple of men came to help me turn the bull calf into a steer. It was a quick and quiet procedure. But when I took the men across to show them the piglets I found that Poppy had lain across the piglets doorway, effectively locking them in. Strangers in the barn!
I have a distant memory of her doing this with her last litter. Shutting them into the creep with her considerabe body.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
20 Comments on “Black and White Herd”
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She is a very protective mommy. It is lovely to see.
I can almost hear Poppy saying “No-one is having any of these piggies until I say so!” Perhaps you should inform the Tweens that in other places they would have to deal with just a bucket of slop being hurled over the fence at them 🙂 Love the Farmy. Laura
Piggies can be so cute and naughty. They love to jostle at mealtime and be rambunctious. Of course, very shortly before their butcher date (about 10 years ago), our piggies were so excited at mealtime that they jostled my husband into a shattered ankle on the rough ground in the woods behind our house. Not fun. We have not had any piggies in a few years now, I think I may be past the time when I can deal with the little/big buggers. But I miss having them! So nice to vicariously enjoy them through you :*)
She’s a good mama, but one day very soon, she’ll let them all out to play, and she’ll wave them off happily and go about her business with a sigh of relief. Until then, it’s fierce protective mama 🙂
I had a nice visual of “see the farmer tripped up and the buckets of milk soaked oats flying through the air.” Possibly this is because Emma and Ronnie deer are causing me the same trouble. To boot, Ronnie likes to try to mount Emma and me, practicing for his job during the rut someday. Poppy takes her role as mother and protector very seriously!
Oh mercy – being jumped on by a DEER! Time they went off into the world for sure! But you will literally have to be watching your back when you are out walking!
Poppy is an angel! You gave Difficult a lot of love and hope – she’s had a good life with you, where otherwise she would have died very young without ceremony 🙂
yes – she really should not have made it but she has turned out to be a lovely albeit stunted heifer – hopefully her sale will pay for the two big calves..
Fingers crossed 🙂
I love the maternal instinct stories. Such amazing characters, those pigs!
Will you keep one of Poppy’s litter to be a Mom next spring? Maybe she passed on her good instincts. Or maybe with the price of pork being so low isn’t it worth it to breed that many piglets? Of course who knows what it will be….
GAAAAHHHH! How do you plan?? It’s impossible. It’s all just a gamble on some future price.
I’m suddenly very disenchanted with becoming a farmer. It’s basically gambling but with effort and time and hope.
Sorry. That comment went haywire as my mind worked to the end of my original and I thought rather nice idea.
I know you do it for the joy of doing, not to be rich. But it still has to stress you out to invest so much in a particular thing and find it is a loss.
Though these big ones are all being sold as mini roasts so the initial investment of feed and breeding will be recouped. I cannot keep any of the girls as my boar will be their daddy and two sows is enough for the meantime I think. I have no plans to replace molly or poppy at this time. And yes Thank goodness i was not hoping for riches – breaking even and food in the freezer is as good as it gets! c
Difficult is a credit to you 👏 Are those turbines getting nearer ?
Yes they are – with their flashing red lights.. c
Poppy is a good mama. I’m happy your herd integrated well. Being ready for winter is a good thing. Do be extra careful feeding those hungry mouths. You can’t travel with a bite out of your leg. 🙂
It’s nice to see the good mothering, Poppy is demonstrating. Did the bad mother get sold off?
Yes she was sold a while ago
I derive a great deal of comfort from the rural landscape, seeing cattle in the fields, grass & crops, love driving past the nearby pig farm small holding, seeing the chooks at the house down the road out on the verge and hearing the rooster. I love the insight you provide on how a small, ethical, compassionate farm runs. It’s one of my antidotes to that other consumer – tabloid media driven world that I know lurks but I avoid like the plague ♡
Always comforting to read your pieces….glad I don’t have to do the work:)
Poppy is such a good mother!