Skyline Pastures

For once on this farm this story is not about me. Today I tell the story of CJ, whose battle was brief, but shall live on forever (in the form of I told you so’s) Preface Yesterday during lunch farm chores, I heard a very loud, unusual, peeping noise coming from the chicken coop. A chicken was in distress. I went up to the coop to investigate.... https://skylinepastures.com/blood-has-been-shed-this-day/

Those of you who know me well, know that I am not a fan of the cold weather. This poses a problem for me on the farm during winter. It is COLD outside. However, the chores must be done regardless of the weather out. Having family and friends in the south, I often get asked how I can stand being out in the cold.... https://skylinepastures.com/farm-gear-baby-its-cold-out/

1st: your supposed to eat the feed hay, not lay in it! 2nd: get your tongue out of your nose when I'm trying to take a pic!

Last week was a hard week. We lost three animals in the same amount of days. So sad. It all started on Tuesday night, when CJ went to put the egg laying chickens in the coop. We had been letting them free range around the yard for a while now and have had no issues. They loved wandering around the yard and making dust baths under the trees/bushes. [ 1,158 more word ] https://skylinepastures.com/death-on-the-farm/

The next batch of chickens have arrived! We picked up 100 new baby chicks! Thankfully, it is quite warmer than the last time we brought chicks home, so everything went smoothly, and it was easy to keep the temperature steady in the brooder. They are all cuddled up and cute as can be! We will not be selling all the 100 birds this time, as we would like to keep some on hand for our personal use. [ 781 more words ] https://skylinepastures.com/farm-update-for-september-11th/

Things are moving right along here on the farm! Jasper got a little attention here recently. We had the farrier out to take a look at his hooves and he got a nice new pedicure. He was not impressed. We haltered and tied him to the barn. CJ was at his head while the farrier handled his feet. I stood by feeding Jasper apples to try and calm him down and distract him. [ 866 more words ] https://skylinepastures.com/farm-update-for-august-18th-20/

Here on the farm we would like all of our animals to be fed in the most natural way. How they were intended to eat. What they were designed to eat. What is natural for them and in turn natural for us. This has been our principal since we started this adventure and it is very important to us. However, we also assumed that would be an easy feat. [ 1,040 more word ] https://skylinepastures.com/grass-fed-vs-grain-fed/

First and foremost, Cow Cow is doing great! He has come so far from where he started! He is eating great, gaining weight, and enjoying the pasture. CJ even taught him how to drink his milk from the bucket instead of nursing with the nipple. This makes his milk feeding much faster, he slurps it up in no time! It is kind of funny watching CJ go in. [ 809 more words ] https://skylinepastures.com/farm-update-for-august-2nd-2020/

Another blog post is up! Please make sure to like or comment on it so that we know who all is seeing the post. We are going to try and only post from the farm page, rather than it posting from there and CJ and I both sharing as well. I realize you guys don't need it showing up 3 times in your feed! It gets hard to keep up with all the comments that way as well. Hopefully everyone will be able to see it this way and we can keep up with the comments easier. Thanks!

We had a situation where we had to call a veterinarian out for Cow Cow. He was banded when we got him. His testicles had been drying up and it was progressing well. However, one day we noticed that his testicles were, um, quite rejuvenated. The area around his scrotum looked red and inflamed. This did not bode well. We were worried. [ 1,886 more word ] https://skylinepastures.com/swollen-testicles-dehorning-st/

Hello Everyone! Processing day has come and gone, and it was very successful. Our initial expectations were to raise chickens that approached the pastured broiler industry standard of about 4 lb., but we blew that out of the water, and we believe the credit belongs largely to the stress-free environment in which the birds grew, as well as the delicious (to chickens) smorgasbord of bugs and fresh grass made available to them each day. [ 312 more words ] https://skylinepastures.com/update-for-july-9th-2020/

Happy Friday! Cow Cow is still improving and doing great! We almost had an adventure here today, but thanks to my quick thinking (ok, maybe more like begging God to have mercy), the crisis was averted! Today brought a slight issue with me being able to check on Cow Cow while also not going into the pasture. Mother Nature decided to bring the rain. [ 915 more words ] https://skylinepastures.com/cow-update-june-19th-2020/

Things are going great here on the farm! Cow Cow is doing much better and getting heathier every day! Once his nutrition is under control, we need to move on to other things with him. At some point we will need to bottle break him and get him to drink milk from a pail instead of a nipple. He knows how to drink water from a pail, so you think this would be easy. [ 924 more words ] https://skylinepastures.com/farm-life/

Good things to report! Cow Cow has improved significantly in only a matter of days! We started off with 2 quarts of milk, twice a day. I do have to mix the formula carefully, since the milk replacer is so rich. We do not want to upset his stomach further after being deprived of the milk. We will get him up to the proper mixing proportions as soon as we can. [ 759 more words ] https://skylinepastures.com/cow-cow-update/

So we have had yet another adventure here with the cow. The adventure requires a little back story We were upfront and honest with the farmer we got him from about our inexperience with cows and trusted that he has the best intentions for the calf in mind. While I admit fully that we should have done more research on our part BEFORE getting a cow, we did trust that the farmer would give us the correct [ 1,721 more word ] https://skylinepastures.com/cow-attack/