Fall is by far my favorite season. I love the cooler weather because I can actually enjoy being outside. Summer is too humid and there are entirely too many bugs. Winter is too cold and dark. Spring is refreshing but I still enjoy fall most of all. Fall on the farm brings a whole new level to that love. The falling leaves, the beautiful colors around the farm, and the crisp cool air; truly delightful. It signals the start of change and starts to slow down the pace of farm life, sort of.
The first transition the farm experiences is the closing of the rotational pastures. We allow our main 3 pastures to rest during the winter months. Since we haven't had rain in almost 2 months... there is not much grass for them to graze on right now. Everybody was moved to the dry lot and will stay there for the remainder of the fall and winter seasons. They always protest this change, but if we don't allow the pastures to rest we could be dealing with a much bigger issue of overgrazing. Don't worry though, while they are in the dry lot we provide plenty of hay to keep them happy.
We also start preparing the barn for cooler weather. This is a simple change but very helpful. At night and if the temps are below 40º F we will close the back barn doors. This helps keep the barn much warmer and creates a nice wind barrier for the herd. We will also bulk up the straw bedding in their stalls. Straw is our preferred bedding because it is much more absorbent and it tends to hold heat much better than pine shavings or other bedding that we have used. During the winter months we can use a deep litter method to help keep their stalls warm, especially on those extra frosty nights.
One of the most exciting transitions is preparing for the goats breeding season. We have decided to breed our goats starting this month! We originally were going to wait until late December but after some more discussion we felt that an April kidding season would be better for our farm. River is the first goat in heat this month and we anticipate the rest will be in heat by next week. We plan to use Chase to breed the herd again since he gave us some amazing kids this year. So if you are interested in some beautiful Oberhasli goats make sure to keep an eye on our socials next spring.
Speaking of goats.... y'all we are sooo close to having our amazing Goat Milk Lotion available for purchase on our website. I am still working out the logistic of shipping but keep your eyes peeled for those updates! Winter weather will be here before you know it and what better way to cure the winter blues than with some amazing handmilked handmade goat milk lotion!
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