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The Newest News on the Farm
So far this has been a fairly mild winter with December days that lead up to an unseasonably green Christmas. This warm weather makes farm chores easier. Though it is not so good for those ready to get outdoors to enjoy some wintry sports, such as sledding and snowmobiling.
At the farm we still have acres of corn to combine and our mighty machine does not like deep snow or mud. If the Combine got stuck, only a giant excavator could pull it out. Not a pleasant scenario but one we undoubtedly got to experience. So, while we wait for the best weather conditions to do our combining, the routine farm chores need to be done. The twice a day milking of our dairy cows sets the pace and daily rhythm.
Those six silage bags that we put up in August are being fed now to our cows. The bags are on our home farm now rather than previous years where we grew, chopped and bagged on land we rented in Massena Center, an hour round trip at least. Not having to travel every day trucking the corn silage feed has been a godsend. It has helped us be more efficient with our time management and the wear and tear on our vehicles. It is a win-win for us. The cows get fed with the best feed in a more timely manner. Thus, the girls milk better. Happy cows need consistency in their routine.
Heifer Barn Expansion
Taking advantage of the mild winter the building on the heifer barn expansion project is underway. Poles and concrete footers are in the ground. The total structure when completed will measure 69 feet by 128 feet and include a feed-through-fence.
Farm Fresh Facts
Let us take a moment and concentrate on the many different types of animals that inhabit our family farm. There are lots of fun facts to discover about our barn yard animals.
Cows are social animals that form close bonds with each other, even becoming attached to their human caretakers. Very similar to us, cows prefer to associate with certain individuals and will choose to cultivate a relationship with them sometimes even to the point of becoming cow besties.
Pigs hardly sweat at all and definitely not as much as we humans do. Even though sweating is an adaptation that is used by warm blooded animals to keep cool, pigs sweat glands do not work very well. This is the main reason why pigs like to roll around in the mud to keep cool.
Geese mate for life. They will stay together as a pair raising their offspring together. Such as with Theo and Penny, our yard geese.
Chickens like to take dust baths. They do this by digging a shallow hole and rolling themselves in the dust to help smother any parasite.
Dogs can smell thousands of times better than humans. The olfactory center of a dog's brain is incredibly forty times larger than ours. That's why you'll see our dog's Sammy, Luna and Sky with their noses to the ground sniffing a myriad of country scents.
Only twenty percent of orange cats are female. Meaning both parents have to be orange to produce an orange female. Whereas, only the male cats need the orange gene to produce orange male offspring.
Culinary Creations
Pasta is so versatile and comes in so many shapes and sizes, each with their own purpose. We selected rigatoni pasta for our dish for its ability to capture and retain copious amounts of the rich creamy spinach sauce served with our savory Ortman Farms ground hot italian sausage.
New Year's Resolutions
How can we at Ortman Farms help you with your New Year's Resolutions? Healthy habits build a healthy lifestyle!