The Care of Soil in Grazing Pasture
Mark Sisk of Fairsing Farm describes the soil and ground cover of a new grazing paddock for his Red Polled Dexter Cattle.
New Bull Calves for Sale this Spring!
(See our page Cattle for Sale) FF Barbie's Dakota born on June 23, 2017 Sire: SugarP Rufus FF Chanel’s Dutch born June 3, 2017 Sire: SugarP Rufus Fairsing Autumn’s Duke born June 1, 2017 Sire: SugarP Rufus (SOLD) Fiona’s Danny Boy born May 10, 2017 Sire: SugarP Rufus For more information, please contact Mark @ [...]
Reflections of a Rural Immigrant
I have spent all but the last four years of my life living in or around major cities: Washington D.C., Chicago, and New York. And it was my joy to do so. I love cities. I love rural life as well. […]
The Haflinger Backstory
The Haflinger Backstory: Among my earliest memories is a fascination with farming. I don’t think I was even aware that there was any kind of farming of any interest except livestock farming. […]
Trees
Trees, in the fields of our northern Catskill mountain farm, in a pasture or a hayfield mean one thing; rocks: Big ones. […]
Musings on Manure
The other day I was shoveling manure. Not the kind of figurative shoveling of manure that most people shovel so much of the time. This was the real stuff - literal manure. It was the build up in a pen where I had kept calves for some time. In the winter it is typical to [...]
Seeing Double
GABA stands for Gamma-Aminobutyric acid. It is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. It has been studied extensively in animals not least because clinical observations suggest that it may play a role in human disorders as well, though that has been difficult to demonstrate. Until now that is. The December 17, 2015 issue of Current Biology reported the [...]
Winding the Clock
We have a Regulator D, eight-day clock with Roman numerals that hangs in our dining room. It's from an old school house. It chimes on the hour and keeps rather good time (when I am careful to make the right adjustments, and dutiful in keeping it wound). However, from time to time I forget to wind it, [...]
The Birth of a Calf: A Miracle to be Sure
Chanel (though I didn't name her; that really is her name) had a calf early on Labor Day. When I checked on her Sunday evening she seemed her usual very pregnant self. She had missed what I thought was her due date by a week. Since she was naturally covered (bred by a bull in [...]
Thoughts on Turkeys
Friday I took my five Bronze Turkeys to be butchered. It was hard. Turkeys were an after-thought on our farm. On a friend's farm I saw one and I thought how interesting the turkey was, just regally strutting around, as turkeys (I have learned) tend to do. So this spring I bought six day-old poults. [...]