Ararat Farm Newsletter May 2023
Hello Everyone,
Well, May blew past so quickly that we failed to get a newsletter out to you all. It has been one busy month from adding more animals onto the farm so taking some out for Spring Beef wrap up to moving chickens daily. Not to mention the normal daily chores that must always be done. Thankfully we have had both hot and cooler days this month that has been a relief as well as rain off and on what makes the grass grow lush and rich with nutrients. There is a lot to cover today so lets get started.
Summary for the month of May:
Cows graze up the ridge
Pigs…and more pigs!
Pasture Chickens
Spring Beef Wrap Up
Hosting Appleseed
The Herd
This month the cows have started grazing up the ridge which has been so exciting for us this year. In the past we have not been able to graze the herd up the ridge due to lack for water from the spring drying up and not flowing. Thanks to our new spring we have ample water supply to pump up the ridge with water left over. This provides us more grazing for the cows as well as good stimulation for the ground to encourage better grass growth.
The Bulls are Back
The end of this month the bulls returned to the herd. It was one of the best days of the year for them. We are in the middle of our calving season which means we have some mama cows cycling so we need the bulls (more specifically Frosty our main breeder) back in so we can keep our cows calving the same time every year.
Pigs…and more Pigs…
So as if 17 pigs were not enough we decided to get more. Actually our breeder had pig ready for us so we had to get them. We now are home to 32 pigs on the farm. As you can guess it’s a lot of pigs to keep up with along with a hefty feed bill. Thankfully they are all growing really well and have been really nice pigs to handle and work with. The pigs that are for summer pork are getting really big and we are looking forward to seeing what their finishing weights will be.
Pasture Chickens
For the month of May the chickens have been a bit of a blur. We apologize for not keeping up with updating on their progress. They grew out very well on the daily moves to fresh ground and GMO and Soy free feed. Thankfully the weather was nice that they did well. Their one bad day went smoothly and very quickly thanks to the great help we had.
Wrap up Spring Beef
As we mentioned in the previous newsletter we were in the middle of Spring Beef, hauling cows for orders and finalizing everything. This month we wrapped it up with deliveries featuring our new cooler trailer that worked perfectly. Sure, we finished building it the night before the first deliveries and of course we put the finishing touches on between deliveries but it paid for itself in the first delivery. It smoothed out organizing and delivering everyone’s orders. Thank you to everyone who ordered this Spring!
Hosting Appleseed
We ended May by hosting a Pistol Seed through Project Appleseed. Project Appleseed is a history and marksmanship course that focuses on the events and what led up to Americas Independence. We really appreciate this organization and love hosting them on the farm. Below is a link for more information.
https://appleseedinfo.org/
That’s All Folks
Well, that sums up the month of May. It was a very full month and we hope that you enjoyed the update. This next month has already started the ground running but we hope to have better timing on providing and update but, as you can imagine life on the farm in never ending and non-stop. We appreciate you visiting today and hope you have a wonderful rest of your daY! Until next time…
Your Ararat Farm