Saturday, May 17, 2008

Farm Update




This has been an exciting week on the farm.

Our pastured pigs are doing excellent. Jason took on the task of putting together this feeder. It was a MAJOR task. This feeder came in a million pieces with hardly any directions. But, since I have a brilliant hubby he more than conquered putting this thing together. He mastered it. The pigs seem to love it.

We feed our pigs 100% organic grain that is specifically made for our pigs by Coyote Creek Farm. Our pigs are also on pasture at all times free to roam and root on several acres.

Jason thinks we will have pigs ready to butcher by the end of this summer. If you are interested in our pastured pork, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me (kramerswife@hotmail.com) and I will get in touch with you when they are ready.

The great thing for us is that there aren't any other farms around who raise pastured pork and finish pigs. Even within the state of Texas the supply is sparse, but the demand is great. We plan on offering bacon, ham steaks, pork chops, pork loin, along with various other cuts of pork. Bring on the bacon! I can't wait to have bacon in our home again!

We moved our 300 pullets (female chicks less than one year) out to pasture a few days ago too. Jason and I took on this project as our weekly 'togetherness project'. It was filled with lots of laughs.

They outgrew the brooder house and were ready to be on grass. Jason fenced in a paddock with electrified netting and built these nifty houses for them to use as shelter. We are keeping these close to the barn for now in order to protect them from the pesky hawks we have around here.

All of these pullets will be our laying hens so our egg supply is about to increase enormously. We are currently selling out of eggs every single week.

When these pullets are big enough, the plan is that they will rotate behind our cows in the paddock the cows just finished grazing on and break up the organic matter (a.k.a. poo) and also fertilize the ground with their poo. Chickens are also amazing at eating bugs so this also helps with flies. Our bug population has drastically decreased since we've had chickens on our land.


The first litter of pigs are doing great! They are up and moving around with their momma, Lucy. Lucy is an excellent momma. It is so cool to see these little guys grow extremely fast.



These are photos of our newest litter that Ethel had. The two runts that I mentioned in the previous post are doing great. I am very optimistic that they are going to make it! The Fern in me is very happy about this. The little runt that injured his leg is getting around good enough to nurse.

These are the precious kittens that need homes. We have some that are spoken for already, but we have 3 litters to get rid of so there are plenty to go around. We will be heeding Bob Barker's advice in having our pets spayed or neutered. This could quickly get out of hand couldn't it?

Things are pretty busy around here, which is the way that we like it. We are getting ready to go from production stage to now getting geared up to start selling our products. I will be posting about some exciting news for our growing farm soon! Stay tuned!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

you're killing me with preciousness with all these kitty posts... I can't take it anymore.

Seriously... presh.

QuiltedSimple said...

You guys have been busy - the pigs look great - love the feeders.

I'd take a kitten - but I think shipping to Ohio would be hard

Take care,
Kris

5 Chicks and a Farmer said...

D.O.- Did I tell you that Jason and I laughed out loud about your dentist poster comment??? Hilarious. By all means, have a kitten. You know you want one.

Kris- I'd ship you two if I knew the humane society wouldn't track me down. After all, they ship us chicks in the mail, right? Ha!

Angela said...

OK I am feeling guilty, my kids are begging for animals and you make it look so easy. We may need to talk one day, so I can figure out what I can handle and what not! I never thought I would say a pig photo was beautiful- but it is!

Steph said...

1. I honestly don't know how you keep up with all of this! I have one kid...ONE...and it's a full time gig for me, and you have two kiddos and hundreds of animals to take care of. You're amazing!

2. So are you selling eggs? As you guys start selling your meat and eggs, let us know..we'd love to buy your meat! :)

3. I was totally excited about the Idol Finale and was going to have a party...you of course were invited...but we're out of town all week. I am super bummed about that! I guess we'll just have to share our Idol feelings over the blog...GO DAVID COOK!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow you guys are amazing! The farm is awesome!

And even though I'm not a cat fan, those kittens are super cute!

Love you guys!
Larra

sugarcreekfarm said...

I so love your pics - you need to put up some photo tutorials on how you get such great looking shots!

Glad you're having more success with your piggies than we had this year. We just need to borrow some of your good weather for a couple of weeks in the spring.

Mindi said...

I'm looking for a kitten for a neighbor. I was wondering if you still had any kittens left that need a loving home. By the way, you're photography skills are amazing.