Watering

It is extremely important to keep a good watering schedule for your plants. At Pearsons Town Farm we have multiple seed and green houses. These environments should be watered in the morning and evening. You should also check your soil regularly. If the weather is particularly humid for example, mid day watering would be smart. Just make sure you don't over water and drown your plants!

Baby Goat Nutrition

The first few hours of a baby goat's life is crucial. I have been very involved with kid's (the name of a baby goat) at the farm because of all the pregnancies going on. I feel that this video is a very great and informal video on the nutrition of a baby goat. We actually have some baby lambs that are being bottle fed right now at the farm, because they can't nurse with their mom. Some mom's don't cooperate with nursing, or their nipples do not fully drop down to the level of reach for the newborn. Because of these reasons bottle feeding can save a baby's life. Yes, it is cute but more importantly it needs to be done timely and correctly. For our bottle feeding lambs at the farm we bottle feed them every two hours. Not feeding on time can result in malnourishment and can risk the life of the baby goat or lamb.

Arnold's Injury

Injuries can happen on a farm all the time. Some goats can be extremely aggressive. We have one goat that is always aggressive with the other livestock, his name is Carl. Carl has hurt a few animals in the past and this time it was Arnold.
I try to not get attached to animals at the farm because a lot of the time they will get sold, or eaten. However, as weird as it sounds I really connected with Arnold. My boss told me the farm was keeping Arnold for breeding purposes. This made me connect with Arnold even more! I started to take him for walks around campus, and I even made a Christmas card with Arnold in an elf suit that I sent out to my friends and family. So you get the point that I love Arnold the goat. So when I found out he had a bad cut and wasn't doing good, I rushed over to the farm.

Arnold's cut was pretty deep and had pus coming out. I sat with Arnold for about one hour, watching him walk. He was limping, so I was concerned on the status of the cut. He was eating which was good, but not drinking water. Arnold sat down because his leg was obviously hurting. Because he was sitting, he couldn't reach his water. I got him his own smaller water bucket so he was staying hydrated.

The next day my co worker and I bandaged Arnold up with gauze. I have been cleaning the cut with warm water to prevent infection.

Keep Arnold in your thoughts!

How to Tell a Sheep is About to Give Birth

One of our sheep's at the farm is pregnant. This sheep, Katie is approaching her due date. When any animal is about three weeks from her due date we move them to their own small separate stall to feel comfortable and secluded from the other animals.

There are physical characteristics that is vital to check on daily. The basics of course, would be to make sure the animal is eating and drinking.

In the pictures below, you can obviously tell the sheep's stomach is swollen and large. Next, you need to check the backend of the sheep. If the backend of the sheep is red and swollen, they are close to delivery. In a picture I included you can see the sheep's mucus plug started to come out, it is not very large yet but it is showing growth.

Humans have ultrasounds machines that can quickly and easily check the health of the mom and baby. On a farm,  you need to get hands on to check the status of the pregnancy, by checking the tightness around the lady parts of the sheep. You need to pinch around, and if the area around the backend is tight, she is not ready, but if the area starts to get loose, she is probably closer to delivery.

What is a Typical Day at the Farm?

So it's time to go to work at the farm. Something to keep in mind is, no day at the farm is the same, (you never can be certain what happen with livestock), but I am going to describe to you a typical day at the farm.
First, is feeding and watering the animals. At the farm I work at most of the animals get hay.
Goats- hay
Alpaca's -hay and grain
Sheep- hay
Pigs- grain or food scraps
Chicken's- grain

Then, of course every animal's water bucket needs to be refilled.

Second task, poop, poop and more poop. This is when it's time to grab my shovel and the wheelbarrow and shovel out some of the waste in the stalls. Not doing this regularly can cause harmful bacteria to erupt. It is not necessary to clean out the entire stall everyday, just the fresh waste. Then it's time to load all the waste into the compost pile, because believe it or not, poop makes great compost!

Third, it is to clean up the barn. I will sweep the barn of all the hay that gathers up during the day. It is important to sweep all the dirt, hay, etc  to keep the barn healthy for the animals and people. Breathing in dirt and hay can be hazardous.

Now, if it is wintertime like it is currently, this is the time I would usually shovel around the farm, creating clear paths to get to the water pumps, the greenhouses and other entry's.

In summer or springtime planting is a big project. If you have already planted your seeds, you need to  make sure they are being watered.  You can also check on your harvest and take whatever is fully grown. Once you have harvested, cleaning the produce is critical to keep the food edible.

Depending on the time of year, is what you can work on. Obviously, you cannot plant lettuce in 30 degree weather.

That is a typical day for me when I work at the farm.  (with the occasional distraction to take a selfie with a goat.)

With the copious amount of projects that are in action on a farm, I have found that there is always something to do.

Happy Farming!
-Jamie

'Tis the Season of Planting!

The time to prepare for this season's harvest has come! Thanks to our many greenhouses at the farm we have been able to grow produce during the cold months. We have a great harvest of spinach sprouting as well as lettuce and cabbage. It is very important to start seeding early that way you are all ready to go when the ground is ready for planting. 

When it comes to the soil, compost soil is most natural and effective soil to use. Using natural fertilizers like leaves keeps the soil rich and chemical-free. 

Happy Planting! 

Welcome to the World Baby Benjamin!

Baby Ben was the second kid born in the barn. He is such a sweet baby goat who loves to follow you around like a little puppy. He is growing very fast. He loves to be held in your arms, his mom however, doesn't feel the same. Mama goats are very protective of their young. If they can't see their kid they will start to freak out and make crying noises. Baby Ben is growing fast and doing great!

Check out Pearson's Town Farm for more information on the farm I work at!

https://www.facebook.com/PearsonsTownFarm/

Baby Goats!

Last Thursday I got an email from my boss at the farm saying that one of our pregnant goats Topaz had delivered her baby! I quickly put my breakfast stuff away (meeting this baby goat was more important than eating.) I walked into the barn and there she was, only a few hours old, drinking milk from her mama. She was very cold and shaking because she decided she wanted to enter the world on a northeastern snow storm! I made sure she had her little jacket on, while my boss set up a heat lamp. I held her in my arms to keep her warm and she fell asleep, which was very adorable.

Topaz, the mama goat was doing great! After about 15 minutes passed she tried to push out her placenta, which let us know that there were no more kids for Topaz to deliver. It was an interesting procedure to watch, which resulted in her sniffing her placenta. 

Anyways, two days later our other pregnant goat, Brandy decided she also wanted to deliver and a baby boy was born... stay tuned for my next post to hear about baby Benjamin!