Chicken Lady and Farm Updates!

This time last year, I was waist deep in two different farms and training oxen every day. This year is a little different. Right now, I sit at my computer in the sun, overlooking the latest farm in my life- Woodstock Sustainable Farm. My boots are the cleanest they’ve been in years and for once I don’t feel the itch of hay particles down my shirt. (For better or worse.)

Our baby chicks, keeping warm under the heat lamp, also known as the “terrible-lighting-for-taking-photos lamp”

A few minutes ago I sent out a “Tweet” regarding the delivery of our recent batch of baby chicks. Now, I’m  planning the presentation I will be giving to business owners in New York City, Boston, and Providence, regarding our Farm-to-Fork employee meal program. For every business I help to sign up for this program, each of their employees receives a delivery of three meals from Woodstock Sustainable Farms once a week.

For every person who signs up for this program, one LESS meal out of their day is potentially being sourced  from a pesticide riddled field….or from a concentrated animal feeding operations where the cattle are stuffed with more growth hormones than even Arnold Schwarzenegger can handle….

It means their produce isn’t obtained from a sketchy place…like this.

Instead, one MORE meal out of their day is being sourced from OUR farm, where  produce is grown WITHOUT chemicals and where animals have room to exhibit their natural behaviors. Like this:   (sort of)

Substitute this cartoon with some sheep, chickens, and our farm manager-Will….and BAM,  you have Woodstock Sustainable Farms! (Clearly I’m just on a Snow White kick.)

FARM UPDATES- Hoof Trimming and Worming

Unfortunately, most days our farm manager doesn’t dress  as cool as Snow White and last Monday, when he and I trimmed and wormed each one of our ewes, he didn’t even wear a bow in his hair… LAME

On a more serious note, hoof trimming is most easily done when sheep are positioned on their  rear-end. Getting the sheep into this position usually means I end up falling on MY rear-end!

In this perfectly balanced sitting position, most sheep completely relax and almost appear as if they’re drugged.

To determine which sheep need to be wormed, we use the Famacha test (shown on the chart below). If the veins underneath the sheep’s eye rate closer to a 4 or a 5 on the chart, we give them an oral injection of  wormer. By treating only the sheep who absolutely need it,  we decrease the chance of any internal parasites developing a resistance to the treatment.

A few days after all the sheep are treated and trimmed, the pastures are theirs!

Sheep-guard-Dog: Shep!