Summer Inventory

  I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the current status of our operation...
    We currently have 28 beef animals on the farm.  10 of them are bred to calve in November.  We do not have any bulls as we have gone to an all artificial breeding program.   We are in the process of switching the herd to Lowline Angus.  There are many advantages to the breed, some of them being calving ease, early finishers (15 months on average), docility, and small stature.  We should be able to increase our production and quality of meats while maximizing our pastures.
    We currently have 7 hogs.  6 of them are breeding gilts and one boar.  We have one bred to have a litter soon, the rest will have litters in July/August timeframe.  We are a little behind on the hogs this year by using the boar.  He was a little young when we put him in the pen to breed, and is just now starting to hit the mark.  Our hogs will finish later than normal this year.  However, we will be rotating them on our pastures and even planting some finishing fields for them to utilize.
    We currently have 80 laying hens in production and another 200 started to begin laying late July.  By September we should be laying about 18-20 dozen a day.  All of our hens have access to fresh air and green pastures.  We are in the process of building egg-mobile 2.  Number one is in use, but will not hold all of our chickens.   
    We currently have about 245 broiler chickens on hand.  90 are set to go on June 16.  We just put another batch out on pasture today and got a new batch on Thursday of last week.  All are growing well and happy!  We have just about all of our 500 broilers sold, only a few remain.  
    Turkeys will be arriving in a few weeks.  This is our first year for the birds.  We will see how this adventure turns out for us.
    The garden is in full swing.  We have peas, lettuce, onions, and beets in the ground.  We transplanted all of our tomatoes, peppers, and broccoli over Memorial Day.  We have 4 patches of sweet corn out of the ground with another ready to pop up.  We plant our corn in weekly intervals to keep a steady supply of fresh corn going all summer long.  Our first batch is scheduled for July 10 or so.  I expect it to be on time.
    Our silage and picking corn is in the ground and coming right along.  I have one more field to plant up the hill and that will be a done deal.  We feed our cattle silage in the winter to keep their condition up.  This will be especially important this year as we will calve late and the mothers will be nursing all winter long.  
    Our potatoes are poking out slowly.  We have reds, russetts, and kennebecs in the ground.  I love the reds, so we planted more this year.  Margie loves russetts, so we put in the same as last year.  Doing the planting has some perks!
    Green, yellow, and purple beans are in as well.  We have lots of them up and lots more on the way.
    That about does it.  We look froward to this year being an exceptional one.  If you have any questions about availability please feel free to contact us.  We would be more than happy to answer any questions.  Check the Available Products page or the home page for updated lists as well.