Premier Farm Diary

Fence Catalog Season

2012-02-01T09:08:00.001-06:00

Photo: A preview of one of the new photos that may or may not be used in the upcoming fencing catalog.

Seconds after the last of the frost leaves the fields, farmers are driving new posts into the soft soil for their fences. So in preparation for the fencing season, we're getting our 2012 Fence Catalog ready.

Photo: Jody working diligently on layout.

The process starts long before the Equipment catalog is even mailed. Jody and Kerrie (the graphic artists) compile a list of needed photos for Tharren to take throughout the spring, summer and fall. Actual layout for the catalog starts before the first snowfall (November) and lasts through most of the winter.

Photo: Joe and Kerrie discussing catalog pages.

Once the layout is complete, I (Joe) write the catalog's content. This mostly consists of photo captions, item descriptions and how-to's. Stan (Premier's founder/owner) goes over the catalog and makes photo suggestions and copy edits.

Photo: From the end of last year's grazing season. But we'll be back in the pastures before too long.

The catalog then goes to the product consultants. Since they spend their day on the phone with Premier customers they have the best insight into what needs to go into the catalog. I make the changes from the sales staff and Stan goes over it one final time. Stan's sister, Vivian, does a final round of editing. Once all of this is done, Jody and Kerrie upload the files to the printer's website.

We're coming to the end of the process. Look for the new catalog in your mailbox around mid-March.

Photo: One of the many sights we can't wait to see in spring. Sheep in a lush green pasture.

Sold Ewes

2012-01-30T08:10:00.003-06:00

We recently sold a few ewe lambs but before they could leave the farm, they needed their USDA scrapie tags. Carl was away at the American Sheep Industry meeting so Mike enlisted my help in placing the tags.

Ideally we would have used the North Farms handling system but various components had been drafted here and there when the barn's feeding layout was rearranged. It just so happens the panels that make up the chute are excellent gates. Mike and I were able to piece together a small, though functional, handling system. After all, a small handling setup is better than no handling setup.

Photo: Our small but effective handling setup.

The sheep were brought to the holding pen and we were able to get started tagging. Mike placed tags while I refilled the ear tag applicator. About halfway through we switched and I placed tags while he loaded the applicator.

A few times when refilling the chute, the sheep balked at the entrance and refused to go into the chute. Eventually Mike and I were able to coerce the sheep into the chute but not without a few hiccups. This only occurred when the forcing pen was low on sheep. When this occurred we would fill the pen with more sheep.

Photo: The ewes in the forcing pen waiting to go through the chute.

Eventually the last of the sheep were in the forcing pen. Luckily I saw a crook hanging on a nearby panel and grabbed it. The sheep now knew that I was serious about moving them through the system and they cooperated much more readily than before. I mentioned to Mike that all it took for the sheep to recognize my legitimacy as a shepherd was a shepherd's crook. He humored me by agreeing and went back to placing ear tags in the tagger. I wish I had grabbed the crook earlier, it saved a lot of time.

Photo: The ewe who decided to leave her pen and find the alleyway. We carry buckets of feed down this alleyway and drop feed into the bunks as we walk along.

Once the sheep were tagged we had to bring them back to their original feeding pens. Of course sheep being sheep, one decided to go over one of the feeders rather than around where all the others went. We were able to get her back to her pen without any issue after that.

Photo: Mike and Joe moving sheep from pen to pen. Notice the ewes catching a quick bite from a big bale feeder (far right) while everyone else is walking by the drive by feeders.

Scanning 2012

2012-01-23T15:19:00.003-06:00

This morning the wool ewes on the home farm were scanned with an ultrasound to determine the number of lambs they were carrying and the number of days into gestation.

Photo: Ewes prior to being tested. They were held off feed overnight to reduce the possibility of a false positive.

While each ewe was in the scanning chute, their ear tag data was read and recorded. This will help us identify the ewe in order to separate her off shortly before she lambs.

Photo: Don and Mike loaded the sheep into the chute. Carl helped hold the lamb in place for Carol (the ultrasound tech) while Joe read and recorded the ear tag data. Tharren (not pictured) helped with loading the ewes into the chute. When the chute was filled he was able to shoot a few photos.

Photo: Ewes post scanning. Carl used sprayline to identify which ewes were carrying singles (blue marks) or triplets (orange marks). Ewes with no marks are carrying twins. There are a few ewes with red marks, these ewes were unbred.

The results? Out of 126 ewes:
7 open,
22 triplets,
26 singles,
71 twins.

Most ewes are about 80 days into gestation. This gives us about 60 days to get ready for the first lambs to arrive. The ewes with triplets will be separated off so they can receive a few more "groceries" to help develop their growing lambs.

In a few weeks Carol will return to scan the ewes at our East and North Farms.

Winter has arrived!

2012-01-13T15:47:00.002-06:00

Winter has finally caught up with southeastern Iowa. We received 4+ inches after experiencing a week or two of 40°+ weather. Compared to folks in other parts of the country we've been lucky.

Photo: The ewe flock from the home farm. They are a Border Leicester/Ile de France mix. They were bred to several wooled sires (Suffolk, Hampshire and Ile de France). The Ile de France sires are used to provide replacement ewes.

How are the flocks handling the weather? The wooled ewes on the home farm still have a heavy layer of fleece on them. They will be losing this a few weeks before their lambing dates in March. The lack of fleece keeps the ewes cooler during the lambing process. They're currently outside munching on baleage and have available shelter, though they tend to stay outside in the snow.

Photo: The barn in the background houses some of our spare woven wire and panels leftover from fence building and general farm products. The wooden feeder under the barn was used for feeding soy hulls to our ewe lambs during gestation this last year. I believe we plan to do so again this year.

The hair ewes at the North and East Farms are indoors and out of the elements. They have a heavy layer of bedding beneath them and the barn is well ventilated to keep them dry. They were bred in mid-late December for lambing in May. Since they are hair sheep and lack a thick coat of wool, they do not need to be shorn before lambing.

Photo: Our lambing barn sits ready for the upcoming lambing season. During winter the goats and the rams spend their time out of the elements in this barn. This laneway is often used for gathering the flock before they are sent through the handling yard which is at the far end of the barn.

Check your harness.

2011-11-22T15:13:00.001-06:00

Wrestling with a rambunctious ram to put on a harness is not the easiest of jobs but ensuring the harness is properly fitted can help avoid situations like the one below.

When using a marking harness make sure it is correctly fitted to the ram. An improperly fitted harness can cause chafing of the under arm area of rams who have little wool cover in this location. The friction between the strap and the animal can rub the skin raw. In the photo above the harness became loose, allowing the straps to rub on the animal.

Rams typically lose weight during the breeding season. The combination of exercise and lack of food consumption (they have other things on their mind) reduces the ram's girth causing the straps to loosen. Harnesses can also loosen over time as the straps work their way into the wool.

Check a harness for proper fit during the season. This can be done when crayons are changed or when the flock is brought in to document new crayon marks. The harness should be tight to the rams body and exhibit minimal movement. Don't forget that the crayon also needs to be positioned between the legs.

(Note: The ram in the above photo was treated with topical applications of Iodine and Pinetar.)

An Early Morning Sort

2011-11-07T13:57:00.000-06:00

Last week we started Wednesday morning a little earlier than usual. Mike and Carl needed help sorting sheep for the local auction. So Tharren and I arrived at work earlier than usual to help out the fellas. Tharren brought the camera along and was able so shoot a few photos.

Photo: Carl (left) and Joe (right) bringing the sheep from the barn to the handling yard.

Photo: Mike and Carl work on pushing the sheep into a handling pen. I had to turn around and open the pen behind me in order to fit all the sheep.

Photo: We're about ready to start sorting. We needed to push the last sheep into the last holding pen and then we were ready. You may see in the background a prolapse harness hanging on the wall. We keep one on hand just in case we need it during lambing season.

Photo: Mike putting his "shepherd's eye" to work. The pens on the left side of the handling system were our shear pens this spring. We would run the ewes through the handling system into each of these pens (there are doors between each pen for easy filling).

When the sort was complete Mike and Carl hauled the sheep away while Tharren and I returned to the offices to grace the graphics department with "eau de sheep".

Breeding season begins!

2011-11-02T14:46:00.000-05:00

Photo: Mike and Carl took the flock down the road again. This time from the North Farm to the Home Farm. The total distance was about a mile. I was stuck back at the home farm with a ATV with a flat tire. I patched it and filled it with air in time to catch the guys closing the gate to the new pasture.

It's that time of year at Premier. The rams have been brought out of storage and have been put to work in the pastures. On Monday Mike and I put a marking harness on each of the two Hampshire rams Premier acquired earlier this year.

Photo: The wooled ewes taking a walk to their new pasture. Within a few days we sent the rams in with them to start the breeding season.

Tharren came out to take photos for a set of "how-to" instructions for the marking harnesses. We used both the cross your heart harness and the nylon harness. The nylon harness is designed for larger animals and the cross your heart fits goats and smaller rams with a more pointed brisket.

Photo: We scratched the crayon with the pin before inserting it into the harness. The mark identifies where the pin holes are on the crayon. This allows us to quickly line up the holes and insert the pin.

The temperatures have been in the 65˚ range during the day. We used mild marking crayons which are designed to be used in 65˚-85˚ F temperature ranges. There are also cold and hot crayons. Cold crayons work best in temperatures below 65˚ and hot crayons work best above 85˚F. We chose mild assuming that the rams would be more active during the day than during the night.

Photo: Mike using a braided rope halter to pose the ram for a photo. The marking crayon in the cross your heart harness is a little high on the rams chest. It should sit between the legs. The correct position allows for optimal marking when the ram dismounts the ewe.

Once the harnesses were on and the marking crayons inserted we took the rams out to the pasture. I noticed that the crayons were a little high on the rams chest and questioned myself on the effectiveness of crayons in a higher than recommended position. We waited a few minutes to see if the crayons would leave marks and they did. I would have preferred to re-adjust the harness in the field but it would be a little difficult to catch the rams in the open pasture. However, we will be bringing the flock in this week to ear tag the ewes and document which ones have been marked. While the flock is in the handling yards, we will re-adjust the harness so they would fit properly.

Photo: The rams on their way out to the pasture. They will be with 125 ewes for a few weeks. We plan to switch rams after a few weeks. But the first lambs dropped will be from these fellas.

The ear tags we insert will be used to help make our lambing season less stressful. How? We will write down the tag number of each ewe and also the time frame she was expected to have been bred in. The ewes will be brought in shortly before they're due to lamb and we'll sort off the "soons" so they can be brought into the lambing jugs.

Photo: It didn't take long for the rams to mark some of the ewes. I was happy that the high crayon placement still left a mark on the ewe.

Photo: This ram is wearing the nylon harness. The yellow crayon he is wearing marked the ewes very well. We will switch crayon colors during the season to signify different breeding times/different sires.

Ideally we would have put the harnesses on the rams a day or two before we sent them out to the ewes. This would have allowed the rams to get used to wearing the harness and allowed us to properly adjust it. Harnesses typically only need one adjustment after the initial installation.

A quick forestry lesson...

2011-10-13T13:07:00.000-05:00

Last week I took a quick walk on the North Farm to open up a PermaNet electrified netting fence to let the sheep travel between pastures. As I was walking the fence line I saw the following:

A closer view would show you this:

What you're looking at is a "hedge ball" from an Osage Orange tree. The Osage Orange is also known as Hedge, Bodark or Horse apple. The trees were commonly used for fence posts or as an actual "hedge". The hedges acted as fences and the thorns on the trees deterred cattle from passing through. Barbed wire would eventually come onto the scene to replace hedge as the thorny deterrent. The orange/yellow wood makes excellent bows and is immensely strong.

The fruit has been used to deter spiders, cockroaches, boxelder bugs and other insects. As I write this there is a hedge ball sitting on my desk—I have yet to have any insect issues!

Up and at'em

2011-10-07T14:49:00.000-05:00

This week we moved a flock of ewe lambs between pastures at the North Farm. Premier photographer, Tharren, was able to shoot a few photos while the ewes walked through the dew covered grass during the early morning. A few of the ewes are marked with Red Super Sprayline. These ewes were with the wethers acquiring a few more groceries before we put them onto pasture.

The flock in the above photo is walking along an ElectroNet electrified netting fence. We used it to divide a clover field from a grass based pasture. In a few months we will put the rams in with these ewes for spring lambing.

Duck and Goose X-ing

2011-09-29T14:45:00.000-05:00

The ducks and geese that live on the Home Farm have decided that they would like to live closer to the Premier offices. They switched ponds a few weeks ago and now occasionally block the driveway to the employee parking lot.

The waterfowl spend a fair amount of time on the driveway above. We will remedy this by putting up a roll of electrified netting to keep them on the pond and off of the driveway.

To keep the distance the birds travel from feeder to pond, we put out a large Emperor Feeder by their new home. The feeder holds 110 lbs of feed and does not need to be protected from the elements like other feeders.

Preparing for a Better Breeding Season

2011-09-14T15:46:00.002-05:00

Photo: A Suffolk ram that was new to our flock last year. He produced some very nice lambs for us.

We've been gearing up for our upcoming breeding season which starts late October/early November. This means we're tracking down marking harnesses and crayons as well as dusting off containers of raddle marker. We're also picking out the rams to use for breeding purposes.

We kept a few rams intact from this years lamb crop. In the May Farm Diary post "On the Job Training" we noticed a Katahdin ewe raising triplets on pasture after a cold/wet spell. Impressed with her ability to raise 3 lambs on pasture and with her lambs' survival ability we left one of her ram lambs intact when we processed lambs (castrating, vaccinating and ear tagging). We will be trying him out this year to determine how well he passes on his mother's maternal instincts and his tenacity for survival.

Photo: A Hampshire ram lamb we're going to experiment with this year. He's a handsome boy and we expect some nice sized lambs from him.

Here are a few tips we'd like to pass on to help your breeding season, whether it's already started or starting later:

Put on the marking harness a few days before the ram goes out with the ewes. This allows time for the rams to adapt to wearing the harness and allows you time to adjust it for a proper fit.
Switch crayon colors throughout the breeding season. This allows us to narrow down if/when a ewe was bred. This comes in handy during lambing season if you need to put ewes into jugs or the barn.
Keep track of the weather. If you're using a harness and crayons they need to be the appropriate crayon for the outside temperature. If you experience high temperature fluctuations, cool mornings and hot days, pick the crayon range for when you notice your ram actively breeding.
An alternative to harnesses is raddle marker. Last year we brought a ewe flock in every ten days to see which ones were marked. We then documented their ear tag number and brought them into the lambing barn a few days before they were due to lamb. This worked out very well for us this year.
Apply raddle marker with OB Gloves or latex gloves. Reapply every 2-5 days.

Marking Harnesses vs. Raddle Marker

Both are excellent management tools for streamlining your breeding and lambing seasons.

Marking harnesses allow you to switch colors throughout the season unlike raddle marker which limits you to one color per season. Marking harnesses also involve less mess. Raddle also needs multiple reapplications throughout the season. Crayon marks though not considered scourable in the U.S., wear off much quicker than raddle marks.

Raddle marker is not temperature dependent, it works just as well at 90ºF as it does at 20ºF. Raddle marker does not have to be attached to a ram like a marking harness thus there is less stress on the ram.

We hope you have a successful breeding season so you can have an excellent lambing season!

Rain! And we don't even have hay down.

2011-08-30T15:12:00.007-05:00

It has been raining nicely this afternoon so I kindly asked Tharren to go out and document the rainfall and he was kind enough to oblige. We've recorded just over half an inch.

Photo: Tharren went out along one of the barn's to take this shot. Normally our poultry flock spends their time in this area but today it was a little too wet for them.

It's been a little over a month since we've had a significant rain. The pasture's were turning brown, the creeks were getting a little too low for comfort and we were able to make a lot of hay. Folks have been leaving their windows open and farmers were cutting hay constantly just to coax a few drops out of the sky.

Photo: Tharren remarked that this gutter could stand being cleaned since there are a few leaves in it clogging the drain. I'm sure he won't mind being volunteered for the job.

Last hay of the year!

2011-08-26T15:36:00.003-05:00

We baled what are likely the last small square bales of the year for us. The lack of rain has made this our final cutting but we have enough hay in the barn and stored as baleage to get us through the next year. The bales are a clover/grass mix and should offer excellent nutrition to our eweflock and some of our feeder lambs.

I helped Stan, Dennis and Tracy unload the racks while Tharren, Mike and Carl baled. A few times I found myself at the top of the hay mound waiting for one of the fellas to toss a bale up to me to stack. Most of the time I didn't need to stack, the guys are more than proficient at stacking hay by throwing the bales exactly where they wanted them.

Last week we unloaded a few racks and during this time Stan discussed competing in a bale tossing contest during his college days, based on the last few days of stacking hay I have no doubt he did well.

Photo: The final rack. Once the hay was baled Tharren was able to snap a photo of us stacking the final bales. From left to right: Dennis, Joe (me), Mike, Stan and Tracy. The rack used was one Stan used growing up on the Home farm.

Mob grazing and a walk in the pasture.

2011-08-24T11:40:00.004-05:00

On August 9th-11th the Practical Farmers of Iowa hosted several pasture walks focusing on Mob Grazing. Mike, Tharren and I attended the walks in Richmond and Bonaparte, IA.

Photo: The group takes a walk out to a cattle pasture at the beginning of the tour.

Photo: NRCS Grazing Specialist Jess Jackson analyzes the contents of one of the pastures. He discussed that with mob grazing there should be a manure patty in every square yard of the pasture.

Mob grazing, otherwise known as ultra high density grazing, is the practice of stocking 100,000 to 1 million lbs of livestock per 1 acre of land. Animals are moved at least once per day, this depends on the stocking density. Increased density encourages livestock to eat all available forage, including weeds. Pastures are then rested for 60-90 days allowing the plants sufficient time to recover.

What the animals don't eat, they trample. The trampled biomass is returned to the soil as a beneficial litter. The high density concentrates the manure from the livestock in the paddocks. Manure is spread by the livestock throughout the paddock for a beneficial distribution of nutrients.

Photo: A mob of dairy cattle. The cattle are held in with Step-In FiberRod Posts, a MiniReel and IntelliTwine polywire.

The first farm we visited was in Richmond, IA. The farms owner, Phil Forbes, runs a flock of St. Croix Hair sheep and raises dairy replacement heifers. NRCS Grazing Specialist Jess Jackson and Iowa State University Animal Science Professor Dr. Dan Morrical took the group on a walk through the pastures. They discussed which plant species were dominant and what could be done to improve the forage and utilization of the pastures. Mike talked to Mr. Jackson about several pasture revitalization projects Premier is thinking about doing, including eradicating the endophyte infected fescue on our farms.

Photo: The St. Croix hair sheep are a fairly small animal. The ewes weigh about 100 lbs each and a fat lamb has a hanging weight of about 40 lbs. They do well on pasture, have high resistance to parasites and work well for their owners management system.

Photo: Dr. Morrical (center) discusses the sheep operation and the pro's and con's of hair sheep breeds.

The second farm was an organic dairy located north of Bonaparte, IA and is run by the Smith family. The Smith family milks 70 cows and mob grazes their herd on 1/3 acre pastures. Discussions focused on how the farm decided to become organically certified after years of decreasing their herbicide/pesticide use, going organic seemed natural. Other topics included rations for the cattle, raising replacement heifers and the management of the pastures.

Photo: Organic dairyman Dan Smith (facing photographer) describes his operation and pasture management. He mob stocks his dairy herd on his farm which has been organically certified for about 20 years.

For more information on Practical Farmers of Iowa visit: http://www.practicalfarmers.org/.

On a side note, during the walk I met the Erem family from eastern Iowa. They have a recent planting of hardwoods on 7 acres and decided it would be wise to keep the deer out. They spoke with one of our consultants, Gordon Shelangoski, and decided to install a 3-D Anti-Deer Fence. The fence is working and we're thinking about sending Tharren out to take a few photos of the fence in action.

Photo: Suzan Erem and myself discussing the fence her family installed to protect their hardwood plantings.

High Moisture Baleage

2011-08-16T15:16:00.002-05:00

Last winter at Premier, we fed our flock baleage that we produced. The previous two summers were wet and not suited for producing quality conventional field dried hay. The low quality forage was low in protein and energy and required supplementation for our gestating ewe flock. We experimented with baleage and found the results satisfactory.

Photo: Carl (in the tractor) mows with a mower conditioner. The mower has "rollers" which crimp the grass to aid in the drying process.

High moisture baleage is typically baled at 55-65% moisture, though this figure ranges even among forage experts. Moisture is determined through several simple tests or using a moisture tester. The bales are individually wrapped or are wrapped in tubes to prevent mold and harmful bacteria from forming. This makes each bale or tube its own silo and eliminates the need for indoor storage for quality forage. Once wrapped, aerobic bacteria (oxygen using) consume the oxygen contained in the bale and then anaerobic bacteria (non-oxygen using) consume available sugars and produce various nutritious organic acids, preferably lactic acid. The acid preserves the bale in a similar manner that vinegar (actually the nutritious organic acid—acetic acid) preserves cucumbers as pickles. Ideally enough acid is eventually produced to inhibit these bacteria and others from further growth, preserving the bales for winter feeding. The energy available to livestock may be determined by submitting a sample to a feed laboratory and have a forage test conducted for TDN (total digestible nutrients). When ready to be fed the bale is unwrapped and set in one of our Big Bale Feeders.

Photo: The double basket rake allows us to rake two windrows into one.

Photo: The single row shortens the number of trips around the field we need to take while baling.

Photo: The forage in this field is a clover/grass mix. This field was made into small square bales.

Baleage is produced similarly to field dried-hay. The main differences are that baleage is wrapped and there is reduced time between mowing and baling. The higher moisture percentage shortens the amount of time the hay needs to lay in the field curing. Since the bales are wetter, they are much heavier when compared to conventional bales of the same diameter. The bale is also packed very tightly in order to reduce the amount of air (less air means less chance of mold or of harmful bacteria growing). Baleage is moved with grapples since bale spears penetrate the bale or wrap and would introduce unwanted air into the bale.

Photo: The baler's cutter bar pre-chops the forage for better compaction within the bale. This produces very "tight" bales.

Photo: Due to the high moisture content and shorter drying time, the forage is baled while it is still very green and unbleached by the sun.

Pros

Less drying time with a minimal amount of sunshine. The common phrase used with baleage is "hay within a day". We can almost bale between the rain drops.

Plastic wrap eliminates the need for indoor storage.

Higher quality feed. The high moisture allows the stems to better hold on to the leaves, resulting in higher nutrient content and reduces the need for supplementing with protien.

Lower labor costs when feeding. We used to feed supplement to our gestating ewes daily. Now we only need to feed as often as the ewes finish a bale (typically every 3 days).

Little or no supplementation. This depends on forage quality. To determine our flock's needs we sent in samples of our forage for analysis to Dairyland Labs in Wisconsin.

Photo: Individually wrapped bales are easier to transport once wrapped. They also look like very large "marshmallows".

Cons

Added weight puts added stress on the equipment. This can be reduced by producing smaller bales. Smaller sized bales means we will have more bales overall. More bales translates to a larger amount of plastic used to wrap these bales.

Plastic wrap produces a lot of waste but we were able to recycle it rather than sending it to the local landfill.

Spoilage. Punctures in the plastic, low sugar content, air present within the bale and many other factors can cause spoilage.

Specialized equipment such as bale wrappers and bale grapples are needed. We also have a cutter bar on the baler which cuts the forage into 9 in. lengths. The shorter forage packs much easier resulting in a tighter/denser bale.

We have to be careful what gets baled. Too much dirt in a bale can introduce unwanted bacteria. When we mow, we cut the grass a little higher than if we were making conventional hay. Our rake is set so it the tines do not touch the ground and driving over the windrows is something we are careful not to do.

The moisture has to be just right. Too much moisture makes the bales very heavy. It also means the livestock may fill up on water instead of nutrient rich dry matter. Too little moisture and we run the risk of mold and unsatisfactory microbe production. If the wrong bacteria grow, fermentation does not occur and the bale spoils.

Photo: The first bales we wrapped were wrapped with an inline wrapper. It worked very well but we chose to go with individually wrapped bales for ease of transport.

Individually wrapped vs. Inline bales

Inline bales are baleage bales that are set end to end and wrapped on the sides. The benefits are less plastic used for wrapping. However, the bales at the ends of the "tubes" are exposed resulting in lost forage. Bale size must be consistent otherwise bulges and air bubbles may form in the "tubes".

Photo: To protect the bales from curious livestock and hungry varmints (raccoons), netting is installed around the bales to discourage the animals.

Whereas individually wrapped bales use more plastic but they can be handled once wrapped, inline bales cannot. We can move these individually bales without compromising the protective plastic.

Photo: Photo: PermaNet electrified netting was installed around these bales since our livestock guardian dogs have access to the area where these bales are placed and the dogs enjoy lounging on (and puncturing) the bales.

We have to take care where the bales are stored. Sticks and stems can puncture plastic so the ground we set the bales on had to be clear of debris. Curious sheep or a guard dog looking for something to climb on can puncture a bale just as easily, for this reason we set up electrified netting around our bales.

Did our sheep eat it? Yes, they maintained excellent condition throughout the winter. We ultrasound the ewes to determine if they were carrying singles, twins or triplets. Ewes scanned with triplets were later separated off and fed baleage with soybean hulls for a protein supplement, otherwise no supplement was needed.

Photo: Ewes and their lambs consuming baleage from one of our wire panel Big Bale Feeders.

Did we like baleage? Yes and we're producing it again this year even though it has been drier than the last three summers. We still produce small squares to feed in our low waste bunk feeders but the majority of our hay crop is now wrapped up.

Soybean/Millet Baleage

2011-08-08T10:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Mike came into Graphics and asked if I could help move some bales. He needed someone to haul bales from the hayfield to the bale wrapper where he would wrap them. We were making high moisture baleage hence the need to wrap the bales (there will be a post on high moisture baleage in the coming weeks).

I told Mike that I would need a quick tutorial in running the tractor, a JD 6410, since the majority of my tractor experience is on tractors less than 50 horsepower and made before 1965. I was also wondering what's a good speed for driving through the fields. Mike's response was "as fast as you can".

So with limited instruction I drove the tractor across the hay fields for 3 hours while Carl baled and Mike placed the bales on the wrapper. We were baling the soybean/millet mix mentioned in an earlier post. We were originally planning on grazing these fields, but the weather dictated that we bale.

Since I didn't cause any major mishaps or break the equipment, Stan asked if I could come back this weekend and help Carl bale since Mike would be gone. I'll let you know if I break any equipment this weekend.

Moving Hay with Mike

2011-08-02T11:20:00.006-05:00

Mike (one of the farmhands) came in yesterday morning and asked for help unloading a rack of hay. He surmised that it would be better to do it in the morning when it was cooler than in the afternoon when it would be ninety degrees and humid. Tharren and I changed into our "chore clothes" and went out to help Mike. Tharren stood on the hay wagon and tossed bales to Mike and me as we stacked the hay.

Photo: Tharren hopped off the wagon for a few minutes to snap a few shots. If you're wondering where the wagon tongue is, it's shoved between the bales in the center of the stack. The wagon was pushed into place front first so the gallice wouldn't be in the way of our stacking. The bales are stacked from the sides inward (this leaves a slight gap in the middle of the stack).

The hay (clover/grass mix) was baled last weekend from a field on our North Farm. 3 racks (about 300 bales) were loaded before a breakdown ended the fun. Baling was about a third complete before the breakdown. With 2/3 of the field left and a broken baler, the fellas pulled out the round baler and baled the remainder with that.

We feed the square bales in our lambing jugs and lambing barn. When feeding single ewes in a jug it's hard to take a flake off of a round bale. We'll make up our lack of square bales by square baling one of the fields on our East Farm.

Photo: When we stacked the hay, we had to make sure the bales didn't touch the roof. If roof and bale touched, the bale would absorb moisture and lose quality.

Photo: I had to show off my bale throwing abilities when we finished the rack.

Herding the Flock

2011-08-01T13:24:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago Mike and Carl moved one of the flocks from a pasture that needed some rest to one that was full of lush grass for the sheep to eat. Though this is a normal occurrence for a pasture based flock, their route was a little different. Why? Usually when our sheep are moved between pastures they need to cross a creek. The time of the move coincided with several heavy rains, thus the creeks were swollen and would not be safe enough for the ewes and their lambs to cross.

Instead of teaching the sheep to swim, Mike and Carl moved them via an alternate route. They took them off of Premier property and onto an adjacent and lightly traveled gravel road.

Photo: Mike and Carl herding the flock (hair sheep cross) through an opening in the PermaNet fence.

Photo: The flock heading down the road. Both ewes and their lambs took the trip together. You may notice a size range in the lambs. Some are a few months old while others are just a few weeks.

Photo: Though the road is usually "lightly" travelled, Mike and Carl still held up the local traffic. The traveller was a Premier neighbor and wasn't held up too long by the four legged pedestrians.

Photo: A few of the ewes stopped to admire the scenery and tasty forage during their walk between the pastures.

Photo: Mike and Carl conveniently picked a picturesque day to move the flock. The overall distance travelled was less than a mile. The sheep were well behaved and took the correct turn (to the left) at the farm ahead.

Photo: Mike, Carl and their herding equipment: two ATV's and a RedCote crook.

Photo: The flock immediately found their water source for the following weeks as they grazed a new pasture.

Photo: Sometimes some of the younger lambs aren't fast enough to keep up with the flock (another reason Mike and Carl didn't take them across the creek). Luckily for this lamb, Carl was kind enough to give him a free ride.

Polyface Farm Field Day Door Prize Winner

2011-07-25T10:19:00.002-05:00

We would like to congratulate Donna T. of North Carolina for winning a $100 gift card from Premier at the Polyface Farm Field Day.

Premier Visits Polyface Farms

2011-07-13T11:12:00.010-05:00

Photo: Somewhere on the other side of this crowd is Sara McArtor and the Premier Booth.

Last week one of our field consultants, Sara McArtor took a trip to the Polyface Farm Field Day hosted by the Salatin Family of Swoope, VA.

The field day entailed discussions on producing beef, pork, chicken, rabbit and eggs on pasture based systems. There were also talks on composting, on-farm processing and direct to consumer marketing. Folks from all over America came for the event. A few from Australia and Canada attended as well. For more information about the event visit www.acresuas.com.

Sara had a booth showcasing some of our products which included netting and a new line of poultry products from the UK (ChickBox™, Handy Feeder, Combination Drinkers, Cage Cups, Mini Cup Drinker, Emperor Feeder and much more). Folks came up and inquired about our netting. The main questions were: How does it work? Is it easy to use? To answer them, Sara held a hands on demonstration where those with questions could work with netting to gain first hand experience.

Photo: Field consultant Sara (right) discusses netting with some of the Field Day attendees.

She wasn't the only one demonstrating our netting. Joel Salatin (a long time Premier customer) uses it heavily with his pasture poultry. His net still has white horizontal twines and black vertical strings. We stopped producing this color of net 5 years ago, so his net has been in constant use for at least 5 years and some for almost 10!

Photo: Polyface Farm's produces "Pigerator Pork", pigs are used to tear up old bedding to help compost it. The compost is later used to fertilize the soils. The pigs spend the off season rotated through pastures in our netting.

The event is held once every three years but if you're interested in the Salatin Farm, see www.polyfacefarms.com.

How Tough is a PRS?

2011-07-11T09:42:00.006-05:00

Recently a customer brought in a PRS 100. What was wrong with it? It was simply smashed. The case was crushed and the solar panel was shattered. What happened (we're sure it wasn't shipped out like this)? The owner was round baling and accidentally drove over the unit. He brought it in to see what could be saved, after all it's an excellent solar energizer.

We pried the unit open and found that the wiring harness, batteries and Patriot energizer were unharmed. The plastic insert and metal case absorbed the impact and protected what was inside. We rebuilt the unit (new case and a new panel) and the owner was back in the fields later that day.

The plastic insert absorbed the pressure that would have otherwise damaged the Patriot energizer and batteries.

We were pleasantly surprised how durable the PRS unit was, though we wouldn't recommend finding for yourself.

Working the Fields

2011-06-27T12:54:00.016-05:00

The last few weeks have been busy at Premier. The fields that have been grazed of their cool season forage have been transformed from stubble to sprouts. How did we get there?

We start by composting the bedding and wasted hay leftover by our winter flocks. The loose matter is pushed into a large compost pile where we allow nature to take its course. This involves the breakdown of organic matter and the production of heat. We want heat to occur to kill any weed seeds that may be lurking on our compost. We would rather not have those seeds present in our fields. In the photo above, Stan and Carl discuss the benefits of the dump scoop on our track loader. It certainly beats a pitchfork.

The breakdown of the bedding converts the larger pieces of "muck" into much smaller ones. This reduces the likelihood of the manure spreader's beaters becoming wrapped and stuck.

The heat produced in the pile also dissipates the moisture in it. This means that over time the pile gets smaller and less bulky. Less bulk=less loads to haul=less fuel used and less time spent. Does less bulk mean less fertilizer? Not necessarily, it just makes it more concentrated. The hydraulic bucket in the photo above is a pretty nifty attachment to have.

Once the spreader is loaded up we haul the compost to the fields to return the nutrients it gave us earlier when it was a hay field (the bedding and waste were originally harvested from these fields). Notice the fine size of the particles spread. Without composting these pieces would have been much larger. Large pieces tend to kill the growth under them and are harder to disk into the soil.

It's pretty easy to see where Carl has spread the compost. Hopefully Tharren used a highpower lens when he took these photos, otherwise it might have been a fairly fragrant photoshoot.

Kyle harrows the field to break up some of the larger chunks left by the disk. Disking allowed the compost to be worked into the soil rather than sitting on top of it.

Why is Mike dragging another harrow even after Kyle prepared the field with one? The second pass over the fields cover's the recently drilled seed.

Mike (in the tractor) after having finished planting soybeans and millet into the freshly fertilized and tilled ground. We planted the two because the forage that was originally there was a cool season forage. Cool season forages grow much better in the spring rather than the summer. Soybeans and millet are much better adapted to grow well in our hot and humid Iowa summers. We plan to start grazing sheep on this field when the beans and millet are 18 in. high.

On the Job Training

2011-05-10T11:52:00.007-05:00

Photo: Stan with Thor, one of the many guard dogs protecting the flock at the East Farm.

Last week Tharren and I helped Stan do chores. The two main lessons I learned:
-->Why you move the guard dog throughout the pasture.
-->How to transport water without it splashing in the bed of your vehicle.

At the home farm we had to feed the feeder lambs, guard dogs, ewes with triplets (as they require extra "groceries") and orphan lambs. The lambs and ewes were located near one another, thus taking care of them was simple. The guard dogs are stationed throughout the farm. After crossing and recrossing several creeks and climbing several hills we finally took care of the guard dogs Sammy, Sadie, Grizzie and Grizzie's puppy.

The guard dogs have free rein throughout their pastures except for Thor. Thor is kept with the ewes on the East farm who are lambing or have lambs less than two weeks old. Why doesn't Thor have free rein of his pasture? We keep Thor chained so his presence will deter predators without causing undue stress to the newborn lambs and ewes. We moved him to a new location to try to persuade the coyotes that he is mobile and on patrol. This system has worked well for two years but we expect the coyotes to figure it out anytime.

We used a John Deere Gator to haul water from a nearby stream to Thor. As Stan put the semi-full bucket of water into the back of the gator he asked me, "How do you transport water without spilling it?" My suggestion was to drive very slow. But Stan dumped some of the water into a smaller bucket allowed the small bucket to float inside the larger bucket. We drove back to Thor without a drop shed.

On our way back to the Home Farm, Stan noticed a red Katahdin ewe with her triplets resting in the lush pasture. Stan remarked that if the ewe could raise all three of those lambs, she's definitely worth keeping around. I suggested keeping one of her ram lambs for use for breeding, but given the size of the pasture and number of lambs, it would prove difficult to track him down. Still, I hope we can track the lamb down to test his genetic potential.

Photo: The ewe with her triplets. With some skill and patience we'll be able to track her and her lambs down.

Within the next few weeks we should start making and baling silage. There will be a post on this operation coming soon!

Photo: Thor's presence near an old barbed wire fence provided an excellent reason to clean up a decrepit fence.

Baa Baa Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool?

2011-04-05T10:20:00.009-05:00

Disclaimer: I'll admit the title of this post does not match up with the topic of the sheep at the East Farm, but "Baa Baa White Faced Hair Crossed Sheep, Have You Any Wool?" does not have a ring to it.

Spring has sprung! At least it's attempting to. The crocuses are blooming and the tulips and daffodils are out of the ground. The pastures have shifted from the dull browns of winter to an increasingly lush green. We've even had our first 70 degree day followed by an evening thunderstorm (complete with hail for some of us). It is evident that mother nature is still making up it's mind because the following day was cold and blustery, a far cry from sunny and 70.

Other less obvious signs of Spring are appearing as well, our consultants have been busy with phone calls and emails answering questions about fencing and equipment. It seems a lot of people are in a fencing mood right now, I think they might have spring fever.

Tharren and I have helped by doing production work, which involves filling oil and SuperLube containers and putting together EZ Reel and Rope Gate kits. If you’ve received a 4 oz. bottle clipping oil with an offset label, I am proud to say that my oil covered hands placed it there.

Another major occurrence was the shearing of the wooled ewes (and a few rams) at the East Farm. Though we have mostly hair sheep genetics on this farm, we still have a few ewes that appear to be distantly related to the woolly mammoth, though in name only.

Photo: The contrast between the outside and the inside of the fleece was quite significant. It's amazing how much extra material the ewes manage to pick up.

A few shearers came out to take care of these ewes, one brought a baler along. A baler compresses wool into the wool bags to fit more wool per bag, this allowed them to haul fewer of the bulky bags home with them. We did use a ring stand (a ladder that holds the wool bag upright) for the lower quality wool in order to keep it separated from the better quality fiber.

Carl, Don and I wrangled the sheep for the shearers while Mike and Tharren bagged the wool and made sure the sheep left the barn from the correct exit. The process took about 5-6 hours and yielded about 8 hefty bags of wool.

Photo: Tharren was able to achieve this angle by setting the camera on the ground. You can see part of the baler to the right of Mike (in my mind the baler was an invaluable piece of iron, Mike was pretty handy too).

What is next on the agenda for the sheep and the farms? We're looking into letting them out into the pastures to start grazing. During the past few months we’ve collected and composted the used bedding from the barns. We'll be spreading this nutrient rich concoction downwind of the Premier offices onto the pastures. I'll keep you updated on how that turns out. I’m sure we’ll start a few fencing projects within the next few weeks, after all, netting doesn’t quite install itself, but we're working on that.

Photo: A view that has all of us in action. Notice the three pens. We would run the sheep through the handling equipment and into the left pen. The panels between the pens have doors that allowed us to easily fill each pen and keep the shearers busy.

Feeding Sheep and Evading Geese

2011-03-16T09:32:00.012-05:00

Bright and early Monday morning Mike popped his head (just his head, his boots were a little on the muddy side) into graphics and asked if someone could help him put bales in the feeders at the East farm. Though it was a cold morning, I volunteered to go and get some fresh air.

While Mike used the loader of the tractor to move silage bales, I cut the plastic wrap and bindings on the bales. A small pile of the silage hay started to form where I cut the bale, and the more impatient (or hungrier) animals decided they would go ahead and eat from this rather than wait for a full bale to be placed before them. The pile was forming just outside the door of the sheep pen, so between each cutting of the bale, I had to "shoo" the sheep away to keep them from going on the lam!

Photo: Even though he doesn't look intimidating, this Embden earns his keep by "patrolling" the East Farm.

This was NOT an easy task. It was a cold morning, so I was wearing my insulated bib overalls, winter coat, and heavy boots. Thus, "chasing" sheep was not performed at anything resembling a run, but more of an awkward waddle. And the geese that live on the farm weren't helping. The two Toulouse and the Embden are convinced that they perform guard duties around here. They're always patrolling the perimeter of the sheep pen, making sure nothing bothers their wards. I quickly learned that keeping the sheep from bolting out the door qualifies as an objectionable form of bothering because the geese came right at me, necks outstretched and low to the ground, beaks open to grab a fleshy bit of skin to bite and twist.

Photo: What I'm calling the Toulouse has also been called the Commercial Gray. Exhibition quality birds typically have a "dewlap" which resembles a double chin.

Luckily their protruding bellies dragging on the ground gave them a waddle slower even than my own, providing me with ample time to gather my nerves and simply step out of their way. With their plans foiled, they would retreat in order to regroup and plan their next attack. This little dance occurred between each bale we put into the barn (about eight total), and all the while Mike was safe in the cab of the tractor, enjoying the show that was going on below him.

How many Premier employees does it take to ultrasound a ewe?

2011-02-28T12:52:00.015-06:00

This February has been a busy one for Premier and we expect things to get busier as March (and Spring) arrives. Winter Sheep Day came and went (see previous posts) and our Spring Catalogs should find their way to your mailbox by mid-March (sign up on our website for our free catalogs if you haven't done so). Kerrie and Jody took a trip through ice, sleet, rain and snow to Ripon, WI to oversee the printing of our catalogs and to also pick up some "Rippin' Good Cookies!" (if you didn't know, Ripon is well known for their cookies).

And of course winter lambing season is going full tilt and pasture lambing season is just around the corner. In early January I mentioned ultrasounding some of the ewes on the home farm (when I looked at the screen of the ultrasound, there were so many black and white splotches I couldn't tell if I was looking at a Suffolk or a Holstein!). Fortunately my job does not involve interpreting the screen of an ultrasound machine. Carol Dodge (the same technician that tested in January) was right on the money for the number of lambs and due dates for the ewes she previously tested. With that in mind, I have no problem trusting her results.

(Photo: Setting up the chute at the East Farm. Picture from Left to right; Carol, Kyle, Joe, Carl and Don.

While she was testing the ewes a few other Premier employees took part in the soiree, notably Mike, Carl, Don, Tharren, and myself. Kolby, Kyle and Lisa came through and took turns documenting Carol's results.

Why so many helpers? We needed folks to shepherd the ewes through the equipment, help them hold still in the headgate while they were tested, tag ears, use

marking spray, operate gates and take down data. So while I did all the work, I was skillfully supervised by the others. In reality I ran the gate while everyone did their assigned task in order to get the job done in a timely fashion.

We started the day at the North Farm with the ewe lambs. We have 214 ewes, 36 are open (not pregnant), 133 with single lambs and 45 are carrying twins. We marked those that were open with red sprayline, those carrying singles were marked with green sprayline and the ewes with twins had their ears tagged to ensure we pay extra attention to them and their specific demands. We hoped to have only singles with the ewe lambs because it reduces the stress on their still growing bodies.

(Photo: Don and Joe installing a curved panel into the handling system. Carl, Kolby and Carol on mentally readying themselves for the ordeal ahead. Photo taken at the North farm)

We also tested some black wooled ewes (where they came from I don't know, I think Stan hides them somewhere on the farm) as well as the goats. The goats were tested with some difficulty, they're smaller than the ewe lambs and thus weren't well restrained by the headgate for testing. Some of the goats' horns spread out far and wide which made navigating through the equipment quite the task.

At the East Farm we have 355 ewes living the high life in their cozy shed with an ample supply of baleage bales. Since these are experienced ewes, we were hoping for twins across the board rather than singles. 272 of the ewes had twins, 47 with singles and 32 with triplets. We used blue ear tags in the ewes with singles and orange for the ewes with triplets. Ewes with twins we left alone. We plan to sort the ewes with triplets and place them in an area where they can receive more "groceries" for their extra luggage.

(Photo: Carl, Kolby and Carol performing an ultrasound on a goat. Notice the horns, not the largest set of the day but large enough to cause a hassle in the headgate.)

This coming week we'll have a few more sheep shorn so keep checking us out for more photos!

Winter Sheep Day ReCap

2011-02-11T08:15:00.028-06:00

Photo: Stan (left) and Dan Morrical (standing right) at the start of Winter Sheep Day.

Winter Sheep Day was a success! The 120 attendees were from Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, South Dakota and California.

Speakers were Dan Morrical from Iowa State University, Byron Leu from ISU Extension Services, Stan and Jean Potratz of Premier and Rob Rule and Greg Ahart from Superior Farms. Greg flew in from California to encourage everyone to raise more sheep.

Stan started the day by discussing the origins of Premier and how it has changed throughout the years. He focused on how management of Premier’s sheep and land has changed. Premier is experimenting with an expanding hair sheep flock while maintaining a wool flock on our home farm.

Photo: Our ewe flock at the East Farm. They are mostly of wool/hair genetics. This year they were bred to dorper/romanov rams.

Greg Ahart and Rob Rule both work for Superior Farms—the largest lamb processor in the United States. They discussed the current lamb market (it's great if you have lambs to sell), how Superior is now adapting to that market and what types of lambs do the best in their markets.

Dan Morrical discussed alternatives to feeding corn. He enlightened us with his experiences with distillers grain's and soybean hulls. He also discussed mineral mixtures and supplements and the need to keep an eye on your animals' nutrition.

Photo: Stan with Greg Ahart (middle) and Rob Rule (right) of Superior Farms.

We paused for lunch, Stan then spoke about Premier’s year one experience with filling their own bellies with baleage (hay silage in bale form) for sheep. He detailed on the process of making baleage, storing and nutrition analysis.

Byron Leu provided an analysis of Southeast Iowa's hay crop for 2010. Iowa State University's Extension Service enabled many hay producers to test their hay and other forages.

Photo: Byron Leu (left) guiding an attendee through the finer aspects of forage analysis.

After the organized discussions, the group split into thirds, one left for the East Farm with Carl McCall to look at our hair sheep and the new barn there.

Others went with Mike Corderman and Dan Morrical to our experimental lambing barn in which the temperature is kept just above freezing. After the walk-through (attendees were required to wear disposable plastic boots for bio-security purposes) of the heated shed, the group went out to our sheep barn where ewes and lambs are kept.

Photo: The inside of our heated lambing shed. Ewes were brought in right before lambing and left within two days after lambing. It's a little cozier than lambing outside.

Mike discussed the layout of the barn with those who were interested and Dan provided everyone with a list of "Lambing Time Tips" and demonstrated said tips on a few of the lambs.

Photo: Mike Corderman (back of the barn) describing the barn and our lambing procedures.

Others remained inside to talk about livestock guardian dogs with Jean Potratz

Overall everyone walked away with an expanded knowledge of the sheep industry, lambing, nutrition and raising sheep in general.

Photos: This year's lamb crop from the home farm. Lambs were sired by an Ile de France buck. Though the blackface lamb in the right photo came from our "experimental" Suffolk buck.

"Gone With the Fleece"

2011-01-13T15:35:00.019-06:00

Photo: Tharren was able to get outside and capture the shearing process, though it appears he used one of the cameras from "The Wizard of Oz".

The sheep have been shorn! Well, at least some of them have. Last week Dave Miller of Riverside, IA came down and sheared 29 sheep in about 2 hours. Mike and Carl collected and weighed the wool, and it turns out the ewes lost over 200 lbs! (The ewes should try out for The Biggest Loser.) I bet you're thinking we're crazy, shearing the ewes of their warm coats in the middle of winter, they'll get cold! There is still enough wool on them to keep them warm.

Photo: "A little off the top." This ewe was kind enough to pose for Tharren while it was being sheared.

The ewes are also pregnant and the removal of their excess wool will enable the lambing process to run a little smoother. The lack of wool will encourage the ewes to go inside to have their lambs. After all, we don't want the lambs first life experience to involve waking up in a snowdrift, that would be awfully traumatizing. The ewes will also be cleaner during and after the birthing process and their lambs will be able to find their first meal much easier without all that wool in the way.

Photo: Mike and Carl thought they could pull the wool over Mr. Miller's eyes by hiding Carl in the wool bag and adding his weight to the total wool collected (not true: they're just compacting the wool so more fits into the bag).

Winter Sheep Day and other Updates

2011-01-06T08:52:00.018-06:00

I thought I would provide an update of the current “happenings” at Premier. Once again catalog season is here, but this season we’re working on the Spring Fence Catalog. Jody and Kerrie are putting together the layout, then Stan and I fill blank spaces with copy. Tharren is busy taking last minute photos (we keep sending the poor guy out into the cold for pictures of insulators). But it's coming together slowly but surely, look for the new catalog in your mailbox the third week of March

Photo: Some lambs that were born a few days after Thanksgiving.

We also had our ewes tested with an ultrasound to determine whether or not they're going to have lambs, when they will lamb, and how many lambs they'll have. Most of the ewes tested were bred and many had twins and even triplets! Some of the ewes tested are ready to lamb within days while others have a few months left to go.

Photo: More Thanksgiving lambs enjoying their time under a roof and out of the snow.

Premier will be hosting a Winter Sheep Day the first weekend of February. Topics covered will be: Addressing High Feeding Costs, High Moisture Bale Feeding (Baleage), Lambing Time Tips for Indoor and Pasture System Operations, Ration Options Using Corn Co-Products, Lamb Marketing Impact of the Sale of Iowa Lamb to Superior Farms. Speakers will be Stan Potratz of Premier, Dan Morrical from Iowa State University, and Byron Leu from Iowa State University Extension. There will also be an opportunity to tour some of Premier's lambing barns.

The event will be held on Feb. 5, from 10:00am to 3:00pm. There is a registration fee of $5 per person or $10 per family. Lunch will be provided by Premier. Please RSVP to Joe jputnam@premier1supplies.com or Cheyenne cmiller@premier1supplies.com. You can also call 1-800-282-6631 to register. Hope to see you there!

Photo: Premier's copywriter showing off his shepherding abilities.

Ram Pedicure Results

2010-11-23T07:41:00.016-06:00

Photo: Brian McArtor demonstrating how to trim hooves without the help of a deck chair. He is also using a pair of ARS Trimmers.

Mike and I finally trimmed the hooves of the rams Friday afternoon. Of course we had to use a few Premier products (these are Premier sheep on the Premier farm after all).

Mike held the ram in the Deck Chair as I trimmed his feet (the ram's not Mike's). All the trimmers sliced through the hard and dry hooves without issue. The air powered PowerParers worked well for the less detailed work of snipping the tips and overgrowth. To put a finishing touch on each hoof, I got nose to hoof with the ExoTrim and ARS Trimmers. Mike also used a Hoof Rasp several times, but the majority of the work was done with the trimmers. The job was completed with only a few minor mishaps, but they were nothing a dusting of Blood Stop Powder and SureFlexx Bandage couldn't fix.

Photo: The PowerParers cut down on hand fatigue by running off an air compressor rather than brute strength.

I received the reward for all the backbreaking work when I went to put on my coat the next day, and was knocked out by the lingering scent of ram. Luckily ram pheromones are a substitute for smelling salts and I was rudely awakened as quickly as I was knocked unconscious.

The whole ordeal was justified when the rams seemed to admire one another's pedicures. And happily, some were walking more comfortably as well.

Hoof Trimming Update

2010-11-16T15:00:00.004-06:00

Well, we've had a busy week so far applying even more raddle marker to the breeding rams and taking forage samples of our silage bales, but we haven't trimmed the hooves on the rams yet. I don't think that Mike is looking forward to that project.

To collect the forage samples of the silage bales, I had to drill into the bales with a drill bit that collected the sample as I made the hole, and then I had to repair the plastic cover of the bale. After drilling into and repairing 75+ bales, I'm curious as to what we are really feeding our sheep. We'll send the samples for a nutritional analysis (most likely for protein and minerals).

Hopefully we'll wrestle with the rams and take care of their hoof issues, otherwise what kind of shepherd would I be?

Preview for Next Week: Do Rams Like Pedicures?

2010-11-12T14:09:00.009-06:00

Photo: Mike Corderman and Brian McArtor trimming a boer goat's hooves.

While walking down the hallway this afternoon I was stopped by Mike who asked me a very serious question, "are you busy the first half of next week?" I smelled a chance to get outside so I responded, "no, not yet." It turns out that our rams need their hooves trimmed, so check in later next week and I'll have something to say about wrestling well muscled Ile De France rams and attempting to provide them with pedicures.

Love is in the Air

2010-11-10T12:46:00.011-06:00

The pastures of Premier are dappled with blue, orange and bright green smudges. The smudges are the ewes that have been marked by the rams this breeding season. Most of the rams have been turned out, but some were held back until early last week. Last Monday morning, Mike and I applied raddle marker to the chests of our three remaining rams. The raddle will give us the means to know which ewes have been bred.

Photo: Mike adds the first coat of Raddle Marker to our breeding rams. This is only the first of many coats for the season.

Monday's color of choice was blue, but during the past several weeks we have used green and orange markers.

Once the "boys" were released with the ewes, their noses were up in the air looking for that special someone.

Photo: This Ile de France ram is demonstrating the Flehmen Response, notice the curled lip and nose tilted in the air.

On Friday the rams and ewes were sent through the handling equipment, we documented the ewes that were marked by the rams. We use this information to determine when the ewes will be ready to lamb based on their 145 gestation period (ex. a ewe bred on November 5 should be ready to lamb on March 29th).

Photo: The raddle marker provides a distinctive mark for identification of bred ewes.

While the rams were restrained in the handling equipment, we applied more raddle marker to them, they seem to use quite a bit of the raddle marker.

At the East Farm, a new lambing/feeding building is nearing completion, the waterlines were finished Thursday, the window screens need to be installed and the electrical lines have yet to be run. Otherwise, the building is up and the sheep are now able to get out of the wind on the East Farm.

After playing "Love Connection", we brought baleage (hay silage) from the Home Farm to the East Farm. This will become a more common task during the winter when the pastures are covered in snow and the sheep are unable to find fresh grass.

Photo: Mike prepares some giant marshmallows (excuse me, haylage bales) for the sheep.

We unwrapped the bales and placed bale feeders around them. Once the bales were unwrapped, the sweetly acidic smell of silage permeated both the air and our nostrils.

Photos: The sheep decided that the haylage was indeed palateable and have since gone through several other bales. The bales are served in a Round Bale Feeder, not quite a silver platter but close enough.

Once the bales were placed the sheep were shepherded into the barn and after some hesitant chomps out of the bale, the sheep accepted their new diet and dug in. We'll have to bring more bales over in the next few days. This is our first year using silage on the farm, so feeding silage to our ewes will be a learning experience. We'll let you know how it turns out!

Photo: Dennis, Tracy, Mike and Patches hard at work herding the sheep.

Shepherd for a Day

2010-10-13T11:33:00.038-05:00

The Fall Catalog is finished, printed, and in the mail!! This means I’m no longer dreaming about writing catalog copy or worrying about layout and photos. I have enough time away from writing for the venture onto the farm. This is especially helpful because Carl McCall, one of the shepherds, is otherwise occupied with bringing in his own harvest. So last week I spent some time with the other shepherd, Mike Corderman, helping him do chores and repair fences.

I should explain the main reason about my day out. I’ve been working for about 2 ½ months but still do not know my way around the Premier Farm or know where the other farms (North and East) are located. Stan took me on a quick tour of the farms and decided I needed a better understanding of what (and where) Premier is.

The morning was like any other, bright blue skies with a slight chill in the air. I started it off by helping Mike fill buckets of corn and dumping them into feed bunks for the feeder lambs on the home farm. We sprinkled protein pellets over the corn and topped the bunks off with a bale of hay for good measure. All this occurred under the watchful eye and wagging tail of Sammy the guard dog puppy. We had to jump and dodge his tail a number of times before we were finished with the lambs. I thought puppies were typically small, Sammy is quite large but definitely a puppy.

Photo: Sammy is a Great Pyrenees, Shar, Polish Tatra, Maremma, and Spanish Mastiff cross.

Mike and I went out to the pastures to bring in the ewes and check whether or not the ram has marked (bred) them. We ran the ewes through the handling equipment (a series of chutes, gates and panels) to check each ewe for new marks, but we didn’t find any. Though I grew up on with sheep on my family’s farm, I’ve never used handling equipment, so this was a new experience for me. It allowed us to get close to the sheep without scaring the animals.

I was also introduced to the North Farm, where Premier keeps another set of feeder lambs and pastured ewes. We drove there in an old truck that had the lingering scent of ram in the upholstery. Too bad we don’t have a scented Farm Diary, otherwise I’d share it with you.

I filled buckets with corn for the bunk feeders and sprinkled protein pellets on top while Mike adjusted the round bale feeders. While walking down the aisle I encountered another type of guard animal, roosters. Premier keeps its roosters at the North Farm to prevent them from harassing their female counterparts. They were the good variety of rooster, the kind that don’t try to attack you when you walk by. I guess living with sheep all the time has affected them.

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is sheep will try almost anything to get themselves into trouble. This ranges from the classic head caught in the fence to crashing through the side of a barn instead of going out the main door (yes, I’ve had that happen). Today was no exception, two of the ewes on the home farm had foot/leg issues. The first ewe’s hooves were overgrown and causing her foot pain. We trimmed her feet and treated her for hoof rot/scald in case that was present . On her walk back to the pasture her limp was almost gone. It’s a good feeling knowing you’ve helped an animal out. The second ewe had a laceration on her back leg that was causing her some issues. We brought her to the barn so she wouldn’t have to struggle in the pasture. She was treated for any potential infection and is now on the mend.

Photo: Mike Corderman prepares to give the lambs an injection.

The lambs on the North Farm recently came off pasture and were new to grain. Several of these lambs took the lions share of the grain and became sick. Mike discovered several of these downer lambs while adjusting the bale feeders at the North Farm. We carried them into a separate pen and provided them with hay and water hoping they would come out of their funk.

We went to the East Farm and we found Stan overseeing several projects that were going on there. We discussed the sick lambs and Stan thought that the overeating may have caused enterotoxemia. He informed us what to treat them with and if we had any questions while we were picking up the treatment supplies, Gordon (Sales/Shepherd) would be able to help us. While gathering treatment supplies (syringes and needles) we asked Gordon for any other treatment suggestions. He suggested an additional dosage of a different treatment to help combat other issues the lambs were experiencing. Back at the North Farm we treated the sheep we had separated off and found a few more in the flock that needed to be taken out and treated. Today the lambs are alive and healthy, their ears may be a little red from a lecture on proper ovine dietary habits but otherwise they are fine.

Once the lambs were treated, Mike and I finished the chores on the East Farm that we never quite started (treating sick sheep trumped moving sheep). We set up and took some down netting to create a path to move a set of ewe lambs from one pasture to another. Tracy, Frank and Tharren were also at the farm fixing a tile line and tarring the tops of fence posts. They took a break from work to help herd the sheep.

Photo: Stephanie Sexton takes the sheep for a walk on a brisk October Day.

After lunch we cleaned up a mess created by a creek on the home farm. The creek flooded during a heavy rain and washed debris into a fence of netting. After disconnecting the fence, we repositioned the netting and removed all the sticks, leaves and dirt that collected in the netting during the flood. There were several sections of netting that had been decommissioned because of the flood, so the project took the rest of the afternoon.

After a day of hard work, I went to my desk to find a pile of emails and work that I would need to catch up on. I tackled some of the work before sniffing the air and sensing the particular smell of sheep. It was at that point in the day I thought it would be wise to head home. When I left Premier, I smelled like a sheep and was a little red from the sun, so all in all, it was a good day at Premier.

Photo: Stan Potratz and Sammy (One of Premier's Guard Dogs in Training).

Catalog Season!

2010-09-08T15:30:00.010-05:00

If you look across the fields and farmsteads of Southeastern, IA you’ll see farmers readying themselves for a fall harvest, birds traveling down the Mississippi Flyway for warmer climates, and at Premier we are putting the finishing touches on our Fall Equipment Catalog.

Instead of farming our catalog out to be produced by others, we do everything but the printing in-house. This allows us to develop a more intimate knowledge of our catalog and our products.

The various departments at Premier have been painstakingly working on products, copy, and graphics for our fall catalog. We have completed the majority of the work. Now it is down to editing, proofing content and fine tuning graphics.

What does the catalog process involve?

New products to offer are determined through customer commentary and reviews as well as in-house brainstorming. If you have an idea for a product you’d like to see us offer, feel free to let us know. We also spend time throughout the year field-testing our products to ensure that they’re worth being in our catalog. You’ll see a few of our employees’ backyards featured in the catalog where the products were tested.

Once products are determined, our photographer Tharren takes photos of all the products, being used in the field and modeled in the studio. We have so many photos to choose from it is now becoming difficult to pick which of them to use.

The copywriters (Stan and Joe) fill all the white space that the Graphics department leaves in the catalog with descriptions, instructions, how-to’s and everything else that needs to be written up and added to the catalog.

After the graphics department (Jody, Kerrie, and Tharren) ensures everything is aesthetically pleasing, the catalog is sent out among the staff for editing. Print-outs of the catalog are passed among the sales team and several others to edit content. This includes, Gordon, Sara, Mark, Brenda, Kolby, Stan, Mandy, Stephanie and Joe.

After the first round of editing, the edits are made to the catalog and a new set of print outs are produced.

Finally, Stan’s sister, Vivian, has the final proof, after her eyes check for typos and grammatical errors, the catalog is sent off to the printing press. Expect to see our finished product in your mailbox around mid-October.

This process may sound fairly straightforward, but it does take a lot of effort from everyone to pull it off.

We're always looking for new ideas and topics to write about, so if there is anything you'd like to see or read about in the Premier Farm Diary, feel free to contact Joe Putnam at jputnam@premier1supplies.com.

photo: Jody, Joe, Kerrie and Steph hard at work analyzing catalog format

Summer!

2010-07-02T10:20:00.015-05:00

After nearly 3 weeks of incessant rain, the skies have finally cleared and we've had a week of beautiful weather here in Iowa. The saturated ground has begun to dry, and folks are finally able to the mow their lawns, harvest garden produce, and walk across their driveways without needing mud boots.

This week at Premier has been a busy one. Photos for the fall equipment catalog are in full swing. Our summer intern, Kylie, has been in front of the camera nearly every day--she's been using foot trimmers & chicken CatchNets, helping work sheep, corralling puppies, and carrying around our new PRS 50 energizer. And through it all she never stopped smiling!

Hay production has also been going strong every day this week: mowing, tedding, raking and baling (both big round and small square bales). If you look closely at the floor in Premier's break room, you can see little bits of hay strewn about. Baling hay, you see, is a team effort here. Folks from various departments lend a hand at baling time.

Next week we will be cleaning out the chicken house and testing new poultry products. Stay tuned!

Sunny Skies Once Again

2010-05-18T13:06:00.005-05:00

After nearly a week of solid rain, the sky finally cleared today and we actually saw the sun! Despite the soggy pastures, our resident group of pasture lambs seemed as excited for the sun as I was. Their watchful mothers, however, seemed quite reluctant to allow a photographer to venture close to their lambs.

North Farm

East Farm

The East farm has a group of very happy free-range geese, and one duck who thinks he's a goose. They spend their days waddling between ponds at the East farm.

-Cheyenne Miller

Pasture Lambing Begins

2010-04-28T07:56:00.002-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I went to the East Farm to see what was happening over there—you never know when photo opportunities will present themselves. I saw a few ewes standing in a small grove of trees, which I thought was odd as it was not particularly hot that afternoon, and the rest of the flock was happily grazing on a nearby hillside. I approached the grove of trees and quickly found what all the fuss was about—lambs! Born a week early, our pasture lambing had begun quite unexpectedly. The lambs, all singles, looked to be in good health. As a new mother myself, I was quite touched watching these ewes care for their newborns--shielding them from the elements while keeping a close eye on me. They softly grunted to their little lambs while the rest of the world carried on around them.

-Cheyenne Miller, Photographer

New chicks!

2010-04-01T09:13:00.007-05:00

Premier welcomed spring with 65 day-old peeps. Jean (co-owner of Premier) and I picked up the little birds from the post office, where the employees were only too happy to hand over the noisy box of chirping chicks. The incessant chirps were a good sign, indicating that the chicks where healthy and energetic, and indeed they were. We ordered them from an Iowa hatchery, which ships the birds via the U.S. postal service. This brought back childhood memories, as I recalled my dad picking up several hundred Leghorn chicks from the post office each year.

Our current flock of brown-egg layers is now two years old, and this summer they'll be moving to their new range -- a pond pasture behind the Premier offices. Most of the poultry photos on Premier's website and in the catalogs are of this flock.

Premier's new flock is a colorful group. The chicks don't know it, but it's their job to test a bunch of new poultry feeders, waterers, etc. and look their best for in-use product and netting photos. Accordingly, we ordered a variety of birds so we could test a wider variety of products for both free-range and backyard use.

On the list:

1) Brown-egg layers. We've been especially pleased with the Laced Wyandottes and Brahmas, so we ordered more of them, along with several each of Speckled Sussex, Partridge Rocks and Cuckoo Marans. (Another reason we like these chickens -- we enjoy the fresh eggs!)

2) Cochins. These are new for Premier, but popular among our backyard poultry customers. We selected Blue, Black, White and Silver-Laced.

3) Bantams. Incredible -- these wee birds make standard-size chicks look jumbo-sized! We have 24 of these, two or three of each: Frizzle Cochins, Golden Laced, Mottled and Barred Cochins, Black Silkies, Dark Brahmas, Mille Fleur, Golden Sebright, Japanese and the amazing White Crested Black Polish (these were the only ones we could immediately identify with certainty -- because they have what looks like little pom-poms on top their heads, even as day-old chicks).

It's proving to be an interesting little flock. Problem is -- as downy little chicks, they all look alike! We're slowly figuring out which is which as they grow their new feathers and begin to show their colors.

–Vivian Rothe

Scanning Data

2010-02-23T07:34:00.003-06:00

We thought this information might be of interest to some regarding our recent scanning done here at Premier.

Ultra-sound testing conducted by a contractor with a long history of skill.

North farm.
196 ewe lambs exposed to 7 Dorper/Romanov rams in Dec 1 to Jan 15. 75% of lambs are Border Leicester/Ile De France/Romanov/Dorper, 25%Katahdin/Romanov/Dorper. Lambs born on April and May.
- 93% are pregnant
145 singles
37 twins
14 open.
This was a good result for lambs of this age, size and genetic makeup.

Home farm.
126 ewes (Border Leicester/Ile de France) were exposed in Nov. to lamb in Mar./April. Most of these are were too far along in gestation (110 days) for a fetal count to be truly accurate. We will shed lamb this flock.
94% pregnant. This is lower than the norm for this type of ewe at Premier. However 8 open ewes included culls from last year that were retained to allow us to conduct marking paint trials. If these were excluded the pregnancy % is acceptable.

East farm.
190 ewes exposed in Dec to Dorper/Romanov rams. Ewe genetics- a mix of Dorper, Romanov, Katahdin, Border Leicester genetics. Some are 100% hair ewes in appearance. Others appear 100% wool and are more than 60% Border Leicester.
- 97.5% pregnant.
45 singles
120 twins
20 triplets (perhaps 1 of these w. 4)
5 not pregnant

While the % pregnant was very good we were not happy to learn that so many ewes were singles. We suspect that the "single" ewes are those with a high % of Border Leicester genetics as we know, from prior results, that these ewes have many more lambs/ewes if exposed in October than December.

It's our intent to lamb these on pasture with minimal attention. (it's an experiment). We can't do this in SE Iowa until May. One negative aspect of this system is that, because the ewes are left alone from May 1 to June 10, we can't know which ewes had more twins vs singles vs triplets. Ultrasounding solves this. It allows us to separate the ewes in advance of lambing according to fertility and to keep them separate during lambing. We propose to cull the less prolific ewes and avoid retaining their lamb-and by this method trend toward a more prolific, aseasonal ewe flock.

Stan

Scanning Ewes

2010-02-18T13:59:00.013-06:00

Hello Folks,
We are really ready for spring to arrive here at Premier. I am sure like most everyone else, we are sick of snow and ice. Green grass and warmer temperatures can not come soon enough.

Today we scanned all of the ewe lambs. Carol Dodge, Ewe Countem of Eau Claire, WI did the scanning. We then marked the ewes based upon Carol's scans as open, single or twins or more. Then the ewes will be sorted and managed depending on how many fetuses they are carrying.
Shed lambing starts here the end of March with pasture lambing starting the first of May.

We have also been busy finishing the spring fence catalog. It went to the printer earlier this week and should be in your hands the week of March 15th. Pictured are just a couple of the new products that will be featured in the 2010 edition. They can also be viewed on our website in the next couple of weeks. (Double Spiked ElectroNet, RaccoonNet to protect sweet corn, “all in one” solar units and Pig Quikfence.)

Holiday greeting.

2009-12-24T10:59:00.003-06:00

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season from all the folks at Premier!

Big Winter Storm

2009-12-14T12:55:00.005-06:00

Wow- what a storm! Over Tuesday and Wednesday we had close to 8" of snow and then a blizzard warning to top off the snow. Tuesday the farm crew spent preparing for the storm. We secured barn doors, closed building curtains, put out big round bales for wind breaks, filled our bird feeders and made sure that our waterer systems and heaters were all functioning. If you called in late Tuesday afternoon to the store and didn't reach anyone, we apologize but most of us left early to get home before dark.

Wednesday the brunt of the storm hit and again if you called in and got a winter storm message, we apologize but almost all of us were drifted in. Thursday was clean up day. All in all everything made it through just fine.

Filling some of our many bird feeders on Tuesday prior to the storm.

From Thursday after the storm had passed.

Testing a product that will use solar power or AC power to create and keep an opening on a pond for our ducks and fish. Ultimately we'd like to have a pond opening created that will allow livestock all winter access to drink.

Turning out rams

2009-12-04T08:22:00.006-06:00

Over the past couple of days the farm crew has been crutching ewes with our shearing machine in preparation for breeding. They have turned rams out at the East Farm into our pasture lambing ewes. We are exposing 400 ewes and 200 ewe lambs.

Even our ducks and geese enjoy our PortaTrough, not just our sheep and goats!

Happy Thanksgiving.

2009-11-25T10:29:00.011-06:00

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and safe travels.
From all the folks at Premier.

East Farm Handling System/Fencing

2009-11-25T09:04:00.011-06:00

Yesterday, before it rained, the crew started to redesign our handling and feeding area at the East Farm. The existing handling system was temporarily put in place last year and now the more permanent system will be installed.

We plan to use part of the holding pens that are on concrete as a space to feed supplemental grain this winter. We will feed hay to the ewes in the compound east of the existing barn. It is protected on the north and east by the native grass round bales. (We have 50 bales and the sheep will not eat them.) We will also be installing another automatic waterer.

Today we will be hauling ammoniated straw bales from the North Farm to the East Farm for winter feeding. Also we are planning to install multiple rolls of PermaNet 10/48/6 so that pastures can be cross fenced for the winter.

All of this is part of long range plans to pasture and water 400 ewes on that farm (200 this year, 300 the next year and 400 by 2012).

Also this morning we sorted 30 lambs to haul to the Kalona Sale Barn where there is a sheep sale every Wednesday.

The temporary handling system that is being replaced.

Early Morning on the Home Farm.

Extreme Chicken Coop Make Over

2009-11-24T13:24:00.011-06:00

Over the past couple of days the crew at Premier has done a Hen House Extreme Make-Over on our East Farm. We decided that the coop that we have been using for the last few years needed to be renovated so we power-washed, painted and added a south facing window.

We relocated the roost and nest boxes as well as added a new sloping roof to the boxes. We updated the electrical system and revamped the feeder hanging system to allow us to test and evaluate new feeders easier.

Our hens enjoying a sunny late fall day!

Also on the East Farm the outside crew has installed 26 new tile risers and modified or fixed 14 others. This was really time consuming but a task that needed to be done since we purchased this piece of property.

150 Head of Ewes Turned into Bean Aftermath

2009-11-23T11:39:00.009-06:00

Over the weekend a neighbor combined 20 acres of soybeans for us. Today we turned 150 head of ewes into the bean aftermath. They will eat left-over beans for some time.

Upgrading Existing Fences

2009-11-20T09:54:00.015-06:00

This week a crew of Premier folks are renovating an old woven wire fence on the east farm (straightening it, stretching it, replacing rotten posts) and adding energized wires to it. They also added an energized wire to an experimental hybrid new fence (half barbed, half smooth high tensile wire).
See photos below.

Welcome to our Farm Diary

2009-11-12T09:29:00.019-06:00

This will be a regularly updated place to read about the day to day happenings on Premier's farms.

For background, there are three farms—the home farm, north farm and east farm—on which a total of 300 acres are tillable or grazeable.

Premier (the business) is located on the home farm. The north farm is just up the road and the east farm is 6 miles to the...east.

There are 400 commercial ewes. 120 wool ewes are lambed indoors in March/April and the others (mostly hair sheep) lamb on pasture in May.

We also have a small herd of meat goats, pastured poultry, 2 horses, 2 guard llamas and 7 livestock guardian dogs.

A number of different folks will be writing this diary—including Stan (the founder of Premier), Stephanie Sexton (the marketing manager) and perhaps others along the way.

(below in order) Home farm, north farm and east farm.