Let's Talk Chicken

     We do a lot of stories about our goats and kids, sheep and lambs, and cow and calf. It is time to tell you about our chickens.

This is how the pasture looks after the chickens have done their eating!

     Dreamfarm has been raising chickens for many years. We started our first year with a small flock of 25, and slowly added more over the years. One season we had over 400, that was too many. We have settled on 250 as a number that is manageable, as far as human work involved and the land that they need to be on pasture. For the first 11 years on our current farm, we had the chicken housings in the valley. It worked well until about 3 years ago when the chickens had pretty much eroded the area and it needed a rest. Last season we moved them to our sheep pasture. It was a nice spot as the houses were under big old oaks and provided shade for the birds but the pasture has a sandy base, and it did not take long for that land to also get eroded. This year we moved them to our alfalfa pasture. Alfalfa is good for about 3-4 years, then it needs to be planted in something other than alfalfa for a season due to something called alfalfa toxicity. So we decided to put the chickens on this field to eat the remaining plantings and leave some good manure. This fall we will rototill the field and plant it in winter rye. Next spring the rye will be tilled back into the soil for a green manure, than planted in a new seeding alfalfa. This field will then
be harvested as hay for our livestock.

Ah, life is great with this new pasture to eat!

     We will use this pasture all season. After the chickens harvest an area, we move the house and portable fencing to a new section. To accomplish this, we get all the chickens to go into the housing and close up the little chicken door. A hand-truck is placed at each end of the house and, with some strength, is moved a length to a new pasture. The chickens move along with the house. The portable fencing is gathered from the old section and moved to the new section. Once all is in place, the little chicken door is opened and the chickens are greeted with new pasture. We do this for all 5 houses.

     We raise a variety of breeds. This gives us a variety of colors in the egg shells, which gives a beautiful display when placed in the egg carton. The color of the eggs has no reflection in the quality of the egg. It is what the chickens eat that makes the egg more nutritional. Our chickens are fed certified organic non-soy grain along with their bountiful pasture. The yolks are a deep yellow, the whites are firm, the shells are strong. Our chickens are happy.
     You can find our certified organic, free range eggs at the Westside Community Market (DOT parking lot) on Saturday mornings. We also have our cheese available.
     By the way, we still have cheese shares available, check our website at www.dreamfarm.biz

   

A Day On The Farm

Hello! My name is Amber and I am working at Dreamfarm this Summer alongside Diana and Alicia. I thought I would share a day on the farm with you. Get ready for cute overload! It doesn't get better than baby goats!

As soon as I arrive Marley and Attica, the family dogs, are at my door greeting me with their kisses and paws. The day begins in the cheeserie (with coffee and NPR) where we pack cheese orders for Willy Street Co-op, CSA, and/or the Farmers Market. The fresh goat cheese is portioned into stainless steel bowls by Diana and fresh herbs are added. Garlic, Herbs de Provence, and Dill to name a few. After each container is filled and weighed, they are labeled and stored in the cooler ready for delivery and market day. After cleaning the cheeserie and washing dishes it is usually lunch time. Now that the beautiful sun and breeze are finally showing themselves, we have been sitting at the picnic table enjoying a salad and each others company Watching the cats lay in the hot sun and the dogs getting bored and feisty with each other is our entertainment. 

One afternoon Alicia and I made two pens outside for the baby goats as they will be outside from now on. It was interesting trying to get them to follow us to their new home; they kept scampering back to the familiar barn so we eventually carried them one by one to their pens. It was really sweet watching them experience the sunlight and fresh grass for the first time. 

After lunch we collect eggs from the five hen houses and lay new straw in their roosts if needed. I have decided I am not a fan of chickens but I love their eggs so I can't complain! The eggs are washed by hand and Diana puts them into cartons for market after they are dry.

We also clean pens in the barn (Yes! It is gross!) and then the farm chores start! All of the animals need to be fed before evening and this takes around 2 hours, which is on the light side I am told, since there will be more to do as the season progresses and as more animals are added to the farm. We are getting pigs soon! 

All of the chickens are given grain in their troughs and water is refreshed. The lady goats receive generous portions of fresh hay and the three youngest baby goats are bottle fed warm goats milk! It's as cute and charming as you would imagine it to be! I'm in heaven! The dogs and cats are next. P.S. Marley is at our side the entire time "herding" the animals and terrorizing one of the cats she likes to pick on. After the goats are fed we take hay out to the sheep and jersey cows and look for more eggs the chickens like to lay in various places on the farm. At the end of chores we take buckets of milk with nipple attachments out to the pens and feed the rest of the baby goats. They like to play and distract themselves so we are constantly putting them back on the nipples to make sure they are eating enough. They love climbing up our legs and nibbling anything they can get their little mouths on. 

This is an ordinary day at the farm ~ the work is onstant but rewarding at the end of the day. I'm looking forward to this season with Dreamfarm.

Kids and Cheese

     The season officially begins when the first baby goat (kid) is born. That happened on March 11, a beautiful healthy single doeling. Her name is Orlee and she is growing so fast. In a typical year, we are over half done with our kidding by mid-March. It is April 8 and only 8 does have kidded. We are waiting (impatiently) for another 24 mothers to have their kids, which means approximately 48 more babies. Goats most likely will have twins, and triplets are not uncommon. We have had quads in the past, but we prefer the mother to birth 2 nice big kids rather than 4 little kids. Kids have a much better start if they have some weight when they are born. Hazel, our lovely Alpine, had triplets on April 1, two girls and a boy. She is giving us lots of milk, a very good milker for Dreamfarm, and we plan to keep her does (baby girls) to join the milking herd next year.
     Soon we will have enough milk to make our first batch of fresh goat cheese. It is exciting to get back into our cheeserie and craft cheese; once the cheese schedule starts, the days and weeks are filled.
     The first cheese we will make is our fresh goat cheese, also known as chèvre. After 4 milkinsg (2 days) we will have enough milk to process. The milk is hauled from our milkhouse to the cheeserie in sanitized buckets. All the milk is gently poured into our vat/pasteurizer and heated gently to 145 degrees for 30 minutes. This is a federal requirement for all fresh cheese. Then the milk is cooled to 75 degrees, and culture and vegetarian rennet are added. The vat of milk is left to develop overnight into a wonderful yogurt-like consistency. In the morning, it is gently hand-ladled into cheesecloths lined baskets and drains until the following morning. This creamy cheese is mixed with salt and herbs and hand packed into containers. It is stored in our walk-in cooler until delivery.
     Dreamfarm offers this fresh cheese through our CSA. Shares are still available. If you would like to receive this cheese every other week through the season, please check out our website at www.dreamfarm.biz. We would be happy to have you join us!
     Dreamfarm cheese is also available at the Westside Community Market beginning April 16 at the Hillfarms Office parking lot, and at the Willy Street Coops.

Is It Spring?

     This past weekend brought some pretty wonderful weather for the end of February. We just got back from the 2016 MOSES (Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service) Conference, and I remember attending some conferences where we weren't quite sure if we would make it to the conference because of winter road conditions.
     The conference was very informational, and we got to re-connect with some old friends. The last workshop of the conference that we attended was titled "Protecting What We Have All Built Together", presented by Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia Institute. The Cornucopia Institute is a watchdog research group that advocates for small family farms and keeps a big watch on the giant organic farms that seem to slip through the organic requirements. One sentence I took with me from this workshop that Mark said is "our CSA customers and farm market customers are dedicated to the small family farm, they will go out of their way to shop directly with the farmer when the farmer has their food available, when it may be more convenient and less expensive to shop the big organic products offered at Walmart." We feel very fortunate that we have such great support in our community, our thanks goes to you!
     Other workshops covered improved grazing for poultry, pigs and cattle. We continually strive to have healthy pastures available for our livestock. There is still a need for more information on goat grazing, and I am hoping there will be a workshop on that subject at the next MOSES Conference.
     Our does (mother goats) are ready to kid any day now. We have over 30 does this year, so we are anticipating over 60 goat kids. The first milk will go to the kids, but once we have a majority of the does done with kidding, we have enough milk to start our cheesemaking for the season. Our cow had her last milking on February 28. She gets to rest and get ready to calve in May.
     Dreamfarm has Cheese Shares available for the 2016 season. Check out our website www.dreamfarm.biz for more information on the shares we have available. There is an on-line sign-up to make ordering easy. We hope you will join us for the season, we look forward to providing our farmstead organic cheeses.
     Happy Spring!

Thank you for reading the infrequent Dreamfarm blog!  The height of the summer pulls us in many directions and unfortunately all farm updates get put on the back burner.  But here we are in September!  We made it!  

Our calf, Juniper, is healthy and growing quickly.  We are slowly weaning her off milk this week and she will only be eating grain and hay next week.  In the coming weeks we hope to rejoin her with her mother, Nelle.  Her companion these last handful of months has been Artemis, our young goat buck.  He will join the lady goats (does) at the beginning of October.  Together they make the cutest pair on the farm.

Our cheesemaking has been very successful this season.  With the help of our healthy animals and the beautiful summer weather, we have been able to produce enough cheese to supply not only our CSA members, but the Willy St. Co-ops, L’Etoile, Underground Meats, Oliver’s Public House, the Sow's Ear, and the Westside Community Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.  The local community has been generous and we are honored to be a part of southern Wisconsin’s food movement.

We have specifically been working on perfecting our Mozzarella cheese.  I think we have finally found a system that works.  Our mozzarella begins with Nelle, our sweet Jersey cow who provides the wonderful milk.  Diana then takes that milk and makes the mozzarella curd in preparation for it to be stretched the next day.

The following photos show a picture story of the stretching process.     

Mozzarella curd Diana
made the day before

Cutting the curd in
 preparation for stretching

The curd is cut into small
squares and transfered
 to a bowl

A mixture of whey, water and salt
is heated to 180 degrees to be
poured over the cut curd

The hot water being poured
over the curd

The first batch of hot water sits on
the curd for about a minute

The water is drained off

The curd has softened slightly.
Another batch of hot water
is poured over the curd.
Now it is time to stretch! 

Once the second batch of water is poured
the curd needs to be kneaded together and
stretched

Once the curd becomes smooth and
uniform, a portion is pulled off

Then the portion is folded in our hands
to form a ball  

When the ball is smooth
and uniform it is finished and
placed into a tub of cool salt water.  

Then they are weighed, packaged and
labeled, ready for sale at the market.  

It's a Girl

Nelle, our Jersey cow, calved on Sunday, June 28,  ten days past her due date. She had a beautiful heifer calf and we named her Juniper. All seemed good until Monday afternoon when I went out to the pasture to bring Nelle in for milking. She was laying in the shelter but her baby was not with her. I searched the entire pasture and finally found Juniper in a different pasture, tucked in the tall grasses. I picked her up and carried her back to mom. When I came back 45 minutes later to get Nelle to the barn for milking, Juniper was gone again. Then I realized Nelle could not get up and her baby was hungry. I tried different ideas to get her up, but she just did not have the strength. I called my younger brother who runs the family dairy farm I grew up on. He is filled with lots of information so I figured he could help me out. But of course, it was his milking time also, so I did not get an answer. I finally opted to call the vet, knowing it was an "after business hours" call, but I was worried. The vet arrived about 30 minutes later and we headed to the shelter. She took Nelle's temperature, listened to her heart and felt her cold ears.

These symptoms showed that Nelle had milk fever, which happens when the body is low in calcium and pulls any calcium it can from the bones to make milk for it's baby. When that happens, the muscles react and lose their strength, making it nearly impossible to stand up. The vet gave her an intravenous of calcium and within 20 minutes Nelle was able to stand. As we were under a metal shelter, a storm came through, which happened to be a blessing because Nelle went straight to the barn and I was able to get her milked. We thought all was good, but the next morning Nelle could not get up again. The vet came out and gave her another intravenous of calcium. He mentioned that Jersey cows, in their older stages, are susceptible to milk fever. Well, it happened again the third day and the vet was back helping. But all is good now and Nelle is producing rich milk and baby Juniper is growing.
     This season we have been moving our young doelings to new browse about every 3 weeks. This gives the adolescents good greens to chew on and keep them busy. Last Sunday Jim and I spent the afternoon moving all the fences to create a new browse pasture. I thought it would be a good idea to use some old existing barb wire fencing which was dense with growth for one long side of the pasture. Jim reminded me that they would get out through it, I agreed but said it would take a couple of weeks before that would happen. So we completed the pasture, moved the goats into it and all were happy. By Tuesday they were getting out through the barb wire lines and into the alfalfa field. By Wednesday, they were up on the road and visiting with walkers on the Ice Age Trail. I corralled them back to their pasture and put up poultry netting along the escape route. But they knocked that right over and headed to the road again. They are now in a different permanent pasture until we can set up new browse for them. They are growing well and will be joining the milking line next season.

     People often ask us what we do in the winter. With animals, there is the daily care and feeding. In addition to those chores, Jim heads to the basement and works on a barn quilt. He has now completed 5 quilts in the last 3 years. They adorn our barns and buildings. He looks through my various quilt books and finds a pattern he likes and transfers it to plywood. This past winter, instead of going through quilt books, he got out our colorful geometric blocks from when our daughters were young. He played around with them and created his own design. Jim transferred this design to plywood, gave it many coats of colored paint and it now elegantly hangs on our milking barn.

     Well, my brother Tim did return my phone call the next day. He was busy, but took the time to give me some advice. He was trying to cut hay and a hydraulic hose broke on his equipment. He took the hose to the farm implement dealer for a replacement, they could not get a new hose for three weeks! When hay is ready, it needs to be cut, so Tim had to rent a hay cutter for $50 per hour. We laughed together about our crazy week and gave each other a wish of luck for the next week.
     Enjoy your week.
     Diana and family
   

The Grand Transhumance and Summer Coats

Welcome to the beginning of summer,  We are excited to enter this 2015 season!  First we want to thank all those who are supporting us through the CSA and at the Westside Community Farmer's Market.  It has been a joy seeing all your faces again.  

For many dairy producers throughout the Northern Hemisphere, summer means lush pastures for their cows, sheep, or goats.  These grasses lend to the best milk for producing cheese, butter, yogurt, etc...  In Switzerland, the culture celebrates the coming of summer with a festival called the Alpine Transhumance.  Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer pastures and winter pastures.  Well, while we don't live in the mountains nor do we keep our goats in their summer pastures for the entirety of the season, we have begun our own small version of Transhumance every day after the morning milking is complete.  With a bucket of grain and Marly at our side we bring the milking does into the far pasture of our land to graze and browse for the duration of the day until evening milking comes around.  They are starting to understand the routine and with each day it becomes easier.  With these new pastures it keeps them healthier and allows them to have green foliage in their diet, which is important for an organic producing farm.  On the other hand they are keeping this area cleared out for us and produce great milk for our cheese.  Both the farmers and the goats are happy!  

Summer on the farm also means shedding of the winter coats, literally.  Yesterday the sheep were rounded up and relieved of their wooly jackets.  David who is a "gun shearer" (A professional sheep shearer who works very fast, shearing a sheep within a few minutes) as they call them, showed up to shear our small flock.  It took him just about a half hour to shear our 6 Jacob sheep.  They are quite dapper with their new look and are ready to go off into their summer pasture.  

As for the farmers, summer is a time we embrace wholeheartedly.  It is a wonderfully busy time.  At the end of each day we are worn to the bones, but looking out at the goats and sheep in their pastures, the chickens pecking joyously, the pigs rooting around, the calves sunning themselves, and the frogs croaking by the pond it all is so worth it.  

Chicken Moving Day

     It is a wonderful day when we can move the chickens from the brooding coop to their pasture pens.

Chickens in the coop before being moved
out to pasture for the season.

     It all started last November when the first batch of chicks arrived at our local Cross Plains Post Office. I get an early morning call to come pick them up. The Post Office is not officially open to the public, so I knock on the back door and they let me in. After the postmaster scans the box and records the pick up, I load them into my warm car and head back to the farm. The heat lamps are on, it is very important that the chicks are kept warm these first days of their lives. Each chick is individually removed from the box and I dip it's beak into warm water for a first drink to get them going. Then the chick is placed under the warm heat lamp. There is chick starter (feed) sprinkled on newspaper to help them find their first food. I check on them often to make sure the heat lamps stay on and that there is plenty of food and water available at all times.
     This fall posed a new issue for Dreamfarm. I ordered all 250 chicks to arrive the same week. But there were hatching problems at the hatchery. The second batch of chicks arrived 1 month later. One month of age makes a big difference in the chick world. The older chicks would be too aggressive
to the younger chicks. We decided that we needed to divide the space in the chicken coop so that the older chicks were in a separate area. It all worked out quite well, and the chicks turned into chickens over the next 4-5 months. It is quite amazing to see the chicken coop turn from plenty of space for all the chicks, into bursting at the seams by spring. That is when we are so happy to get them onto pasture. Three of our chicken hoops needed big repairs. Jim, with help from Diana, Alicia and Rosalyn worked on the repairs and completed them on April 8. All 4 hoops needed to be moved to new pasture. The areas where we housed them the past 10 years needs to rest.
     April 10 was the big moving day. Jim hooks our old blue Ford up to the front of the hoop, 2 people lift up the back with hand trucks. Then Jim pulls the hoop to the designated area as the people in the back follow by holding the hand trucks. We place the poultry netting around the coop, set up the roosts, food and water and all is ready to receive the chickens. The night before the move we closed the chickens into the coop after they had settled to roost for the night. (We opened the door each day so the chickens could be outside). With a "catch fence", we gather the birds into a corner, catch and put them into crates. The crates are driven to the pasture, placed into the hoops; the crate door is opened and the chickens pop out and immediately begin to peck for bugs, worms and grasses. It is a wonderful site. Of course, it does not all go as planned. By the end of the day, many birds have flown over the poultry fence. Some have already roosted in the trees. The following morning, they are huddled outside by the door. For some reason, they can fly out, but they can't figure out how to fly back in! We get them back in through the door, and they do the same thing the next night. But they seem to be laying most of their eggs in the nest boxes before they "fly the coop" for the day.

The movable chicken hoops in their first location
for the 2015 season

     The first eggs are very small, they are called pullet eggs. The egg will size up as the chicken continues to lay. It takes their bodies a little time to adjust. They will peak in production this summer, then slowly drop off as the days get shorter and colder. We raise a variety of breeds, which gives us a variety of egg colors: brown, blue and white. The eggs are certified organic through MOSA. We sell our eggs at the Westside Community Market.
 
     We still have a few "cheese shares" available through our Dreamfarm CSA program. If interested, check out our website at: www.dreamfarm.biz to sign up. We also are back at the Westside Community Market located at the Westside DOT up the road from Hilldale Mall. We hope you will join us for the season!

Diana, Jim and Alicia smile for the camera at the
end of another successful chicken moving day. 

View from the blue tractor on the way out to the
chicken hoops. Alicia walks ahead.

MARCH HAPPINESS

New baby "Jacob Sheep" lamb

March has started off quite cold, but that sunshine sure is nice. It makes our solar unit hum with happiness as it generates power for the farm.

The month of March for Dreamfarm is the start of our busy season. We have six does that have kidded and three sheep have lambed. Another sheep is lambing as I write, and I will check on her as soon as I finish this note. We have 25 does and four sheep still waiting to give birth. Most of them are due within the week and with the full moon, it can create the mood for all this to happen!

Baby lamb
 warming up in the sun

With the abundance of milk from the does, cheesemaking will begin at the end of the month. The cheeserie is ready: all walls and floors have been scrubbed, old caulk was removed from the base where the floor meets the wall, and new caulk applied. The equipment, drain tables, cheese molds, tools, etc. are washed and ready to be put into action.  While we wait to make cheese, our time is filled with the care and feeding of the baby goats. Most does have twins or triplets, so we expect about 60 babies this season. They are bottle fed so a close bond is established between us. Because we do not milk our sheep, the lambs are nursed by their mothers.

Dreamfarm still has cheese shares available through our CSA. Check out our website at www.dreamfarm.biz for more information, we offer an online sign-up for convenience.

Nelle, our Jersey cow and her goat friend Dorla

We encourage you to come out to the FairShare CSA Open House this Sunday, March 8, from 1:00-4:00 p.m. at the Monona Terrace.

There are over 35 CSA Farms participating, along with workshops, fun activities and information help areas. The Natural Family Expo is going on at the same time. Please plan to attend both for a full day of exploring.

It's FEBRUARY: time to order your CSA Share for 2015

Ellie, growing her bellie! Soon to kid.

Time has travelled as fast as it usually does. Here we are into the second month of 2015. It has been a good winter, although a bit more snow would have made for some nice cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. The nice weather has made it possible to go walking with our dog Marly, a few times a week.

Our animals have enjoyed this weather, much more than last year at this time. The goats are growing big bellies in anticipation of "kidding" (having their babies) about the first week in March.  Soon after that, the production of our cheese will start. At the end of April, the Dreamfarm CSA Farmstead Cheese Share deliveries will begin. We would love to have you join us for the season. Please check our website: www.dreamfarm.biz for more information and sign up.


Last October we completed the installation of solar electric for Dreamfarm. With the help of a Federal REAP Grant, a Focus on Energy Grant, and great assistance from H & H Solar Energy Services in Madison, we are harvesting the energy from the sun to run the electrical equipment on our farm and in our cheeserie.

Forty panels were placed on the south-facing roof of our old, majestic barn. As you can guess, we wake up each morning hoping the sun will shine! We will let you know our satisfaction with the solar as the months pass and the days get longer. H & H Solar Energy Services is offering some nice incentives for anyone interested in purchasing solar for their homes. And if you purchase a system from H & H, they will donate some of the profit to FairShare CSA Coaltion. You can reach them at 608-273-4464.

February and March days are filling up fast. The milking room (where the goats are milked) will get a complete wash down (ceiling and walls) by hand. Warmer weather would make this job more enjoyable, the barn has no heat. The milk house (where milking equipment is stored and the bulk milk cooler cools the milk) needs to get scraped and painted. Milk house paint is very thick and glossy, hard to work with. But it gives the walls a nice coat to protect from all the water that is used for keeping equipment clean. That task is done every other year. The walls, all equipment and utensils in the cheeserie will get thoroughly cleaned. Bookwork, conferences, meetings, webinars and house cleaning will fill the remainder of the days. There is the daily feeding and care of the animals, along with the weekly removal of their manure! It is fun to watch the daily changes in the animals as they prepare for birth.

Enjoy these days of late winter. As you relax and gaze out at the barren trees and wintry landscape, think about the pleasures of spring and summer and the bounty they provide for us. Please take some time to look over our website and join us for the season.
Diana
Dreamfarm

Makin' Hay

Tractor, bailer and wagon harvest the hay,
with Jim driving all the equipment. 

 We have roughly 4 acres of land in alfalfa/grass hay that we cut, dry, bale and store in the barn. This is fed to the goats in the months when pastures are not growing. We just finished our second crop, which means this is the second cutting from the field this season. If the weather cooperates, there should be a third crop harvest. Baling can take about a week to complete. Jim cut the hay on Wednesday, then raked it on Friday,  A "rake" is a farm implement that moves the cut hay into rows. Jim raked it again on Saturday to turn the hay over so the underside is brought to the top so it can dry. If the hay is baled before it is dry, it can mold which can make the animals sick; it could also spontaneously combust in the barn and cause a fire. Once the hay is dry enough, the baler is hooked up to the tractor, followed by a wagon. The baler picks up the rows and compresses them into a square, ties them with twine and throughs the bale into the wagon. When the wagon is full it is driven to the barn, each bale is taken off the wagon, loaded onto a small elevator that takes it into the barn, then grabbed and stacked neatly. Baling hay takes a good amount of labor, with the help of Jim, Diana, Alicia and Rosalyn, we got all the hay put up in the mow. Now we are hoping for that next crop in late August.

Rosalyn takes hay from the wagon and loads it
 onto the elevator that takes the hay into the barn.

Alicia and Jim stack the hay into the barn mow.

On a sad note, our dog Oliver passed on Wednesday. He had been slowing down over the last year, but were not expecting him to die so soon. He was a true farm dog, and a true family dog, and most of all he loved all people. He would join many hikers on the Ice Age Trail that borders our farm and assist them on their journey.

For our Dreamfarm CSA Share members that are receiving the Variety Pack, you received an aged cow milk cheese in your last delivery. This cheese was made last fall from Jen, our Jersey cow. It was then aged through the winter and weekly was washed with salt water and turned. Our goats and cow are continuing to provide the milk for your cheeses. It has been a good summer for animals as they do not like it so hot.

Dreamfarm continues to work with the goods days along with the challenges a farm can bring. We have had multiple raccoon attacks in our chicken houses, along with owls who come at dusk and get in the small chicken doors if we do not get them closed in time. Without our dog Oliver, there is not the guarding of the area. We also put up some portable fencing so we can move our goats, sheep and steers through a managed pasture system. A goat got herself tangled in the fence and hurt her foot/hoof. She was limping for days but is looking better. Last week a sheep got her entire head caught in the fence and wrapped around tight. Sheep are much harder to control than goats. But we did get her to hold still and got the fence cut. Off she ran!! I took down the fencing after that.
Here it is August 1, I am sure there is more fun to come.