How was your 2013? ups/downs of farming

[Southern by choice]

Thought it would be nice to see how others fared in 2013.

As we are coming to a close of 2013 I thought I'd share the highs and lows.
At the beginning of the year my goals were to become more efficient, publish my website, work on the continuing clean up of "country " woods... meaning old engines, and 60 years of debris... build more breeding pens and a few other things. We wanted to also add 2 new bucks (Nigerians) and a doe, and be of service in the community.

Some of those things did get done but many did not... the ups and downs of having a small food producing farm...

January the family went North to see my sis… fighting the battle with cancer … we all brought home some nasty virus and then added more by what nasty bugs were here … we battled this all the way through February… Needless to say my pens did not get built and that put the poultry breeding behind schedule. Eventually we were able to separate all roosters and build a few breed out pens but we were very late in the year. Our spring hatch turned to almost summer. Late for the season we did not breed many birds. We kept quite a few for started pullets to sell in the fall. This is our normal schedule… Sept/Oct - started pullets.

The rains started in the fall before 2013 even hit and as any North Carolinian can tell you… they never stopped! It rained for almost 3 straight seasons. It was horrible! MUD! It was never ending…it was so stressful. We worried about the goats and how they would fare. Spring came but no relief… then Summer… rains were not as bad but we never got the high temps to really dry things out, mowers broke down and meanwhile I’m running fecals all the time making sure we are not going to end up in a parasite crisis.

We also ran into water issues and high iron causing a binding effect with the copper. Had the sheep/goat specialist out… and another vet … and another. All the goats are fine but we have had to revamp our watering system and get bloodwork done and try a few things.


Meanwhile farms all around us were losing animals to worms and or cocci…. We actually did a preventative out of worry. It was very scary as most of the people having issues were some of the most well managed clean farms EVER! That really took an emotional toll as these were all people I cared so much about and it was simply devastating. I literally had to take a break from hearing any more bad news.

During this time we were on a quest for a buckling…. The breeder that I was hoping to get a buck from had some beautiful animals however I was concerned the buckling would be too closely related. I did end up getting a buckling from a different line. He is specifically to be for my Lamancha. I will wait on the other buckling as I think the breeder may be getting in some stock from different lines! This one will be for my Nigies only.

As the summer rolled through we did see for the first time EPG’s going up. They weren’t too bad but we did end up de-worming everyone across the board regardless of EPG counts… not a normal practice for us. I was just thankful we hadn’t lost anyone.

It seemed we were behind on everything constantly and there was no catching up. We also had to take over our partners herd of Kiko’s….


Two of our goats were going to their new home as pets, they would be minimal milkers and the people just wanted pets… the most wonderful people… yet my heart said something didn’t fit… my goats weren’t the right goats for them… the lady is a fiber person and is an incredible artist. After a long conversation we talked about angora goats… I knew they would be perfect for her. So my does stayed and they ended up with 3 adorable angoras! I felt very good about it and they LOVE their girls! By this time I was so attached to the doelings they stayed.


By August I was in somewhat of a haze… my sister’s cancer had just taken over everything and the family was “on call” for months … all through the summer but by Aug it was looking as if she would pass anyday. She weighed on my mind and somedays I’d be a normal person and on others I would forget everything… thankfully good friends knew how distracted I was, I would forget to return calls, e-mails etc. Needless to say I really failed a lot of customers.

Because we were on call we also opted not to do our fall sale… that meant 100 started pullets were staying put at peak time for selling started pullets. It did work out however.

End of August we had an infertile pet doe end up with listeria which we nursed back to health … a very long 3 weeks!


My sister passed away in September… she won her battle and is with the Lord in full health. The time was a blurr…. It was the rest of the family that cared for her all that time and they carried the burden, but in my heart - it was so heavy. The month of Sept thru Oct went by and it just felt kind of empty. My daughter acquired a couple of does whose lines are not from these immediate parts, and we are just now getting back into the swing of it.

October came and went and all I remember is that it seems all our birds went into molt a month before and we tanked in eggs… No fall breeding, no eggs for eating and we couldn’t even supply our customers… one of which is a restaurant. They are still coming out of their molt! Wondering if I’ll ever see an egg again!

Poultry did sell well in November, goats are all healthy, started breeding a few does. One of the does we had kept was bred and went to her knew home! She has a great home and will be loved and well cared for. We also had a litter of pups! Our waiting list was mostly for males so of course we had all females! Sadly momma stepped on some, the runt died and we are left with 3! I’m good with that as it is a lot of work! LOL Callie and D’s litter will be due in January… if it took.


In the end...
I was able to get part of my website up but am still building it… working on a separate site now. We managed to get over 1 ton of motors and junk out of the woods, build a few holding pens, reduce the Kiko herd, add some does, found 1 of our bucks, expand the fencing, and in no way shape or form improve the efficiency !

The highlights of the year have been that I met some really great people, was able to serve in my community in a small way which helped me emotionally with so much sadness. Many prayers were answered especially one… a very special soldier made it home. We saw God’s grace and his mercy through the circumstances of many.

So here we are at the end of the year and I find myself having all the same goals that I had at the beginning! Finish another website, clean out debris from the woods, build more breeding pens, add another buckling, serve in the community.


At least the freezer is full of chicken and goat!

 

[bonbean01]

Oh Southern...you've had such a time of it, as many of us do...your Sister was a hard blow to you. That had me in tears...and then mention of a special soldier, well time out for tissues for me. You are an amazing person and I am so blessed to know and love you!
This thread was a great idea, and I will put my year up too....just not right now.

 

[GLENMAR]

I'll go next.
2013 did not start out all that well for me. In January we lost my beautiful Arabian gelding to colic.
I had raised him from a baby, and had him 16 short years. Still brings tears to my eyes to think about it. Within a month of losing him, we also lost two of my Norfolk Terriers. I think they got into some poison off the property. They were sick, then down hill really fast. We tried blood transfusions on one, and after $1800, she still was not getting better.
We had 2 single buckings born to my two Nubian does. They were bottle babies, and were sold by summer.
Febuary- March The Scottish Highlands came.They are sooooo cool.
In March, not much here just hatching. I got some Blue, Black and Blue Splash Orpington eggs to hatch. They turned out BEAUTIFUL. I kept a flock of those.
All my Sebastopols turned out to be males. So no eggs.
In May my Naraggansett hen hatched 10 poults. She successfully raised all of them. Most were sold in the fall. They were really cool. My first full year with turkeys.
April- RABBITS. They finally kicked in. Rabbits everywhere. American Blues and New Zealands.
Veg garden starting out too. Many pens of chicks to be sold during the summer and fall.
July- Our first honey harvest. Did not get too much, because they were new bees.
But, that was really neat.
Got a new buckling from another BYH member in Colorado. He was a little freaked out about the plane ride, but has since settled down great. He is beautiful, and so sweet.
October- We decided to have a fall festival. I had BBQ catered in. We had games and pumpkin painting for the kids. Everyone had a great time. About 40 people showed up. Mostly my co-workers. It was HOT that day. I wish it had been a little cooler. Cakes were beautiful. Of course everyone loved the animals.
December- We just got done breeding all 3 Nubian does for May 5th kids. Came home with a new farm truck today. It's a F350 duley. That truck will be able to do ANYTHING. The best part is that it is used and paid for.

Looking forward to 2014.
Happy New Year.

 

[ksalvagno]

Southern - My deepest sympathy regarding your sister. Sounds like you had one heck of a year.

Glenmar - Sorry about your horse and pups. We lost our beloved Violet of 13 years this year right before we moved. She had a massive tumor in her stomach and could no longer eat.

 

[SheepGirl]

This past year was good for me. My ewes lambed in March & May this year and produced 5 lambs out of a new ram I purchased. Unfortunately the smallest lamb in a set of triplets, a 5.8 lb ewe, didn't make it. All four other lambs are doing well and the two ewe lambs are pregnant with their own lambs.

In late March/early April my father came home from his second year long tour in Iraq. The year flew by, my ewes were sheared in late April and my lambs were weaned shortly thereafter. Had another lamb born in May to a ewe lamb just shy of 12 months old. She weighed 98 lbs pregnant with him and when he came out he was 9.8 lbs! She weighs 104 lbs now.

Spring, summer, and fall were good -- had no health issues with my sheep at all. Rosie my one ewe lamb had developed scours (she has a messy rear end now), however I never treated her for anything...didn't even take her temperature. That was her only 'symptom.'

Lambs gained well over the summer except the ram lambs. Hank is weird. He does fine and even gains weight on short winter pasture but then when given first or second cutting grass hay he loses a bunch of weight. His two sons are the same way. They had poor gains when on hay throughout the summer but I let them out on pasture in mid-late Oct and they've been on it for just over a month and they've already gained one condition point. And there isn't even that much grass there and it is all brown to boot :/ At least I know I have sheep that can turn brown hibernating grass into weight gain!

My triplet ewe lamb is only about 15 lbs behind my single ewe lamb. And she's six days younger. Not bad at all considering she was just a little over half the size of the single when she was born!

In September Hank escaped his pen and unfortunately bred Ciqala, so she will have lambs around Valentine's day. This will be her third pregnancy in 25 months, which is about 8.3 months in between lambings. Not bad for a Montadale x Babydoll Southdown cross not known for accelerated lambing. In 2015 this streak will probably stop and she will be back to having lambs in Feb or March since the earliest I've seen her come into heat was about early-mid Sept. But two pregnancies over the course of 14 months produced 5 lambs. Unfortunately the first pregnancy produced a stillborn and a lamb that died within a couple days--probably due to a combination of bad genes (son/dam breeding) and I'm sure she had a mineral deficiency based on the symptoms of the lambs. The second pregnancy produced three lambs, one of which died shortly after birth.

Anyway enough rambling on about my ewe! The rest of the ewes were bred in October, every ewe settled on their first heat so we should have Ciqala lamb in mid Feb and then starting Mar 1 for two weeks I will have five more ewes lamb.

December we had our first snow and the ewes are adapting to the cold real well. In fact they spend most of their time lying down in the snow. But I turned my gate into a fenceline feeder (check my 2014 lambing thread, pg 3, for a photo) and it's working excellently. Barely any waste and the hay stays clean (no poop, pee, or mud!) even though it's being fed off the ground.

I think that's it for now

 

[BrownSheep]

Overall its been a wonderful year.

January- We started lambing towards the end.
February was a hard month. Got a new yak bull. Lost my grandma the same day the only bright spot was it brought our family together for the week. It was a week filled with all of the 9 kids and 21 grandkids which I'm certain my grandma enjoyed. My two ewes died of grain poisoning, including my Bertha. She was my first ewe and one of the sweetest. This left us with 4 orphaned lambs along with a rejected one. My big tom turkey also died( heart gave out) and my chucker (who thought he was a turkey) disappeared.

March- We hired a sheering crew to come in. Best money ever spent. 21 sheep in 21 minutes between the 3 guys. We also had the largest lost of lambs ever in a rain storm. 5 of the 9 that were born. Turkeys and lambs were taken to the butcher.

April. Sophie our surprise yak calf was born. One of the most stunning royals I've seen! We also brought home 3 royal heifers.

May. Brought home two cheap gummer ewes and their lambs. Lambing season also ends....See how insanely long we spend lambing?

June July and August are spent spending an amazing amount of time building, tearing down, and rebuilding fences.
In August my family went to the fair as a 4-H exhibitor family for the last time. My sister and I still plan on helping out with our old club. Left for college.

September- One of the old ewes died...We suspect lightening strike.

October- Not much going on. One bum lab dies.

November. Big rams are sent into the ewes.

 

[elevan]

This was overall quite a bad year for us.

January turned my bathroom into a hospital triage area. I had one duck in the bathtub and a dehydrated guinea in the shower stall. Mom's rabbits ate one of their own which led to us butchering several until we figured out which one was the problem. They were 4 months old and being housed together. Shortly before this we had a rabbit (Vinnie) who had his tail and ear ate off, he went to the bathroom hospital area for recovery.
I came home from picking the kids up from school to find the neighbor's dog attacking one of my animals. I laid on the horn, threw it into park and jumped out of the car running at it. The horn startled the dog enough to make it let go and I realized that it was Hank, our head rooster. I kept running to make sure he was ok and he ran to one of our dogs for protection. I then proceeded to chase after the dog all the while yelling for the neighbor to get it. They come out yelling at me that it's just and bleepin bird. I LOST it and gave them everything that was on my mind which of course escalated the yelling between us. I called the dog warden and the sheriff's department over the situation.
I found Maggie, one of our goats, dead in the middle of the field with a broken neck. We suspected the neighbors but couldn't prove it.
Our guineas went missing for a week straight along with DH's cat. When they came home I saw them leaving the neighbor's barn so we suspect that they had them locked up.
We had our first bottle baby goat in the house with us (Scottie).
Built my mom a new 3 hole hutch for her rabbits so that they wouldn't all be housed in the same pen.

February - Rollie, one our rabbits, had babies on the wire on a cold bitter day....no survivors.
The kids shut our best hen's neck in the door of the coop, breaking her neck...I found her that way the next day.
Goldie, our oldest goat, died on Valentine's day.
Jerry, our llama, whose age was unknown (other than older) died.
When a friend came to bury Jerry we went to the barn to get him out and found Lilly (our next oldest goat) curled up next to him dead.

March - took our two standard sized goats in for processing, where they kept escaping their holding pen and we had to keep catching them and putting them back in.
Put our bottle baby goat outside after he was finally weaned on March 10th.
Marilyn, a rabbit, had babies and was great for a first time mama.
March 14th, went out to check on Scottie (bottle baby goat) to find him curled up in a sleeping position - dead.
March 19th - looked out the window to see mom's horse IN the overflow pond!! Called my brother to see if he could come help me get her out but between the two of us we couldn't do it. I called animal control seeking help and they sent out the fire department and a horse sanctuary team. The firemen put on wet suits and got into the pond and pushed while we pulled - to no avail. Then someone thought of a sled using a piece of corrugated roofing...she slid right out of the pond. The vet worked on her for hours, pumping in warm iv fluids and medications but it was to no avail, she had been in the pond to long and succumbed to hypothermia. She was 28 years old.

April - went on the radio to promote my jam / jelly business for the local store that sells it and ended up talking about goat meat too.
Published Goat Notes as an eBook and a hard copy.
Had someone confess to killing Maggie, some of our chickens and a dog.
Marilyn, one of our rabbits, dropped 5 kits today on the wire. She shouldn't have been pregnant...she shouldn't still be with a male....but alas they are not my rabbits.
Neighbor's cat was caught attacking one of my ducks. DH caught it before I could shoot it. It was turned over to animal control.
Hit 2 deer with my car damaging a good bit of the side of the car. The deer lumbered off never to be seen again.

May - lost our best doe (and herd queen)to a bad kidding while we were gone during the day. Came home to find her already gone.
Broody hen hatched 7 chicks and then one by one lost them all but one.

June - Duck hatched out some guinea keets which we promptly took from her. Sold them a few days later.
2 days later the duck hatched out her own duck eggs, 7 in all. Then she proceeded to lose a duckling every other day until she only had 1 left, which she raised up to full size. I do wish that I'd taken the ducklings and hand reared them so that we'd have more.

July - Goats started climbing the fence and going into the neighbor's yard where she would set her dogs. This became a daily occurrence. After several weeks of this I decided to sell the herd. I had to literally tie the buck in the barn to prevent them from going over the fence. Not a good life for the goats.
Hens stopped laying in the nest boxes because the goats were using the coop for a playground.
Lost four guinea hens that had been setting on nests outside of the coop to predation.

August - Goats went to their new home. I still miss them to this day.
My Grandma Emily was diagnosed with cancer...such a dirty word that is. The doctors said she was too frail to survive chemo.
Another broody hen had 2 chicks....lost one but managed to keep the other alive.
The final broody guinea hen that we had hatched out 20 keets, but eventually lost all but 5.
2 of our cats had kittens but the got flystrike and didn't make it.

September - someone ran over one of my favorite cats and killed it.

October - Pig got loose and led us on a chase. I grabbed the gun ready to put her down I was so fed up when she finally went back into her pen.
Grandma Emily passed away on October 31.

November / December - Thankfully nothing bad. Here's hoping that next year turns out much better.

Gosh reading through this makes me look like a horrible animal owner but it was just a really rough year.

 

[Livestock lover]

Never got the goats I wanted.

 

[BrownSheep]

This was overall quite a bad year for us.

.
Gosh reading through this makes me look like a horrible animal owner but it was just a really rough year.

I think this is just because the bad stuff is easier to remember. It hits us hard and doesn't leave us. I can tell you when an animal died or was hurt but forget all of the times something wonderful happened.

 

[Livestock lover]

I think this is just because the bad stuff is easier to remember. It hits us hard and doesn't leave us. I can tell you when an animal died or was hurt but forget all of the times something wonderful happened.

That's very true.