Week 8

This week I worked a double shift, which means I worked 8 days in a row. I normally work four days a week. By doing this, it gave me the full time farm experience.    This was a crazy week with lots of things going on. 

For starters, the first day I got back the two herds (breeders and yearlings) where accidentally combined into one herd, thanks to a gate being left open.  We had to separate the cattle, which wasn't difficult because the cows cooperated.  On a separate day, one of the yearlings escaped outside of the fence.  A section of the electric fence was disconnected so we think that is how the cow got out.  The funny thing about the situation was that the ear tag on the cow read #007.  I quickly opened a gate and herded the cow back inside the fenced area. 

  

We ordered and picked up 50 Cornish cross chicks this week.  Unfortunately 25 of them died the next day due to an animal getting inside the brooder, most likely it was a cat.  I had to go back to the hatchery again to pick up another batch of chicks.  This time we did some more improvements to the brooder and now nothing can get inside of it. I am still working on the second chicken tractor, so that when the Cornish chicks are of age they can be moved outside.

I learned some vet skills this week.  A few of the cows are being sold to another farm so we had to give booster shots for De worming and a nasal spray to help protect against shipping fever.  I got to do the nasal spray for one of the yearlings.  Also this week, one of the cows had difficulty with delivering her calf.  After going into labor for 2 hours we tried moving the cow out of the pasture and into the squeeze chute.  A strong thunderstorm with heavy rain moved in and we had to get out of the pasture to avoid the lightning.  After the storm quickly passed we managed to get the cow out of the pasture and into the squeeze chute.  Jeanmarie had called two vets both of which where unavailable to help deliver the calf.  Greg and I had to use  obstetrical chains to help deliver the calf.

      

     After this eventful week I finished the week out doing a lot of weed whacking along fence lines.

Both herds accidentally combined into one

Cornish Cross Broilers

Newest Calf

Moving the chicken tractor

Nasal spray to protect against shipping fever

Week Seven.. Chicken Move Out

Wow time is flying by, it is week seven already of my internship. We started out by moving the broiler birds out of the barn and onto the pasture.  We found these chickens running to the new patch of pasture and it makes moving them more enjoyable because they have such a positive reaction.  This breed of broilers is a very aggressive forager and we find ourselves moving the chicken tractor multiple times a day.  We ordered another 50 meat birds and should be picking them up this week.  This time we ordered Cornish giants.  I placed another set of eggs (41 to be exact) in the incubator on 7/19. Hopefully we have a better success rate with this batch.  Greg and I built a permanent brooder so that no predators can go after the newly hatched chicks and we started building the second chicken tractor for the Cornish giants.

      When I returned this week, two more calves had a slight fever due to a naval infection.  This week Greg taught me how to draw medicine with a syringe and how to properly inject the calf by checking to make sure you don't pierce a vein before injecting the medication.  On one of the days we where giving the calves shots I had to hold one calve by myself as Greg ran to the medicine cabinet to grab something he had forgotten.  As Greg came back the calf was startled and tried to ran away as I was holding it.  The calf managed to knock me onto the ground causing me to land in a pile of cow manure, but I didn't let go and held onto it until Greg finished giving it a needle. All we could do was laugh.  I showed him who was boss.

Week One at Tullamore Farms

     This is my first week interning at Tullamore Farms, a grass-fed beef and pasture chicken egg farm located in Stockton, NJ.  I am working with Jeanmarie, the farm owner and Greg, a farm hand; they are both amazing people with a lot of knowledge to share.   The farm has about 147 acres of hay and 35 acres in cow pasture. I learned so many things on just the first day that I don’t even know where to start.  I will begin with the morning chores, which take place every morning.  Before starting anything, you need to make sure you unplug the electric fence which detains the cattle .  After that’s done, we have to check on the chickens and unlock their cage so that they can walk around on fresh pasture.  After that, it is time to move the cows to fresh pasture simply by removing the temporary fencing. It is very important to check on all of the cows to make sure they are all healthy.  Some things to check for are extremely runny noses as well as any cow that strays far from the herd.  The cows are comical; they know what time you are coming, and if you are taking too long to walk out to the pasture and move them, the entire herd starts mooing.  After moving the cows we check to make sure they have plenty of straw bedding and enough hay to eat and fresh water.

Coop for the Egg Layers

Beginning To Build the Chicken Tractor

      Now that the morning chores are done, the rest of the day is spent doing general work around the farm.  The past few days Greg and I started building chicken tractors.  My project for this internship is to raise pasture meat birds from start to finish.  So far, I have been building chicken tractors, but I will also be assisting in planning, ordering, and selling at the farmers market.  

     On a side note, Greg started teaching me how to drive a manual farm truck.  It is a little difficult, but I will eventually be able to drive it with practice.
     Greg and Jeanmarie are constantly checking the weather, it’s a very important to know if rain is coming.  They have about 147 acres of hay and they have to cut it and bale, and they can only do that when there is no rain.
     I finished the week out visiting the farmers market.  I walked around and looked at the other vendors, and got a feel for the customer base.  There were a lot of organic and grass fed farmers at the market.

     Greg and Jeanmarie are anxious to start cutting and baling hay so hopefully I will be experiencing that next week