Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

The last week is/was sorta the same… all involving cornstalks.  If I wasn’t chopping, raking or baling stalks here on the farm, I was helping Farmer Mike with the same.  Both Mike and I could feel the season closing in fast and we wanted to get the stuff done that needed to get done.

The summer was a wet one and even though spring came early this year, some crops didn’t grow as well as they should have.  I know I didn’t get the hay I was expecting this year.  With the ideal fall we’ve been experiencing, most folks have had plenty of time for harvesting cornstalks.  That and the cost of corn and hay is rapidly rising, many farmers may be hard pressed to buy all the feed they need.  Many a weathermen are predicting a long, cold, snowy winter.  Corn fodder may very well be what keeps our animals fed through the waning weeks of the winter.  Nearly every farmer in our area is baling cornstalks this year.

I have been baling stalks for the last 3 days.  Today was the day I saw myself finishing.  Around 10:30am this morning, while baling, I noticed Carol walking across the field towards me and the tractor.  After shutting down the baler and tractor, Carol explained that one of the farm’s expecting does was having problems birthing… she needed help.  It turns out, the unborn baby goat had one of its feet caught in the birth-canal.  While I held the mother, Carol reached in and straightened the hoof of the baby.  Within a few minutes after the correction, we had a new buckling on the ground.

This is our newest baby - Oscar

With this new birth, the previous and at least one or 2 more goats expecting within the month, it looks like the farm will have more than enough goat milk to sell to customers all winter long.  Hopefully, we will have plenty of milk for ourselves as well.  Soap & cheese making makes for fun family projects.

I waited around for a few minute, to see if we were going to have another baby goat (or two).  It didn’t look like it.   That was my cue  to head back out to the field.  By 4:00pm, I was done baling… harvesting was done for the year.  Time to bring the round bales from the field.

Related posts:

1. A New Baby Goat Arrived