Puppies, lambs, calves - oh my!

This time of year is especially tumultuous for an animal husbandry outfit like us...

It could be great - with babies born without incident, or it could be super stressful - transporting animals on icy roads, or trying to keep babies alive in sub-zero temps.

(We've spent some time holding baby lambs in our arms in front of the stove, and in years past, kept a calf in the bathtub.)

Then, come March, it’s the thaw, the time of mud. Imagine 1000-lb animals giving birth in 2-ft of mud, and trying to assist them with that.

This fella was born in Feb during the worst weather. So of course he's been dubbed, Blizzard.

Jamie and Cory are known county-wide for being experts at ‘getting babies out of mommas’ and tis the beginning of the baby-birthing season. 

Twins and triplets are common. Here's a pair, there's a dark one underneath.

The list of tasks Cory does is varied and endless and now includes building 'sheep birthing suites'.

Assembling the herd of ewes (female sheep) and rams has often been eventful, as you can see.

The texts sent that day went like this…

These photos explain how the day kind of went. The roads are so horrible here, I could not go pick up our new ram lambs in Kalona with a trailer. So my friend Trina and I loaded 6 ram lambs into the back of the blazer.

Then we drove up a slick interstate without four-wheel drive, because of course, it failed today as well. And dropped them off where I found my husband in his ski goggles and snowmobile suit to help us unload them.

_________

Our pigs at Twisted Oaks Meats have two guard dogs, a male Tibetan Mastiff and a female Kengal Mastiff.  

Conveniently, they got pregnant in time to birth puppies about the same time as our ewes are birthing lambs.

The puppies and lambs will be raised together, creating the ideal guard dogs for our growing flock of sheep.

Were you wondering how the pigs feel about the cold and snow? They love it.

We’re taking deposits on summertime chickens now.   

Since our chickens sell out so fast, we are allowing folks to put down a $50 deposit now for 10 birds, for any month between June and November.

The birds are always outside, daily moved to fresh pasture and eat what they can forage and non-GMO grain.

They really are perfect birds that are the antithesis of the grain/antibiotic-plumped things raised on cement in bright lighting and constant noise and air full of fecal dust.

Click to link to reserve

https://twistedoaksmeats.com/store/wholesale-meat