A Pause Before Winter At The Meadows

The fall leaves have turned some beautiful in our corner of the Ozarks. The mornings are cooler, not freezing yet, but cold enough to put frost on the windows, and so mornings, cold enough for you to see your breath!  The animals notice the difference too, our great Pyrenees guard dogs are more active at night as they guard against increase of hungry predators, coyotes, bald eagles, foxes, and the occasional mountain lion looking for an easy winter meal when wild game is scarce. 

This is a great time to hike on the south farm.  The leaves are falling and the view from the ridge on the south farm the view is amazing.  The hike starts on the south side of Gimlet Creek which runs through the farm. The creek is spring feed creek, which is crystal clear, an amazing spot to just sit and listen to the water.  One the south side of the creek you take a left across another spring and start up the hill.  There used to be an old logging trail, but the tornado of ’23 has taken down a large number of trees so it’s no longer drivable.  The walk is incredibly quiet, just the soft crunch as you walk across an endless bed of leaves.  You will walk by an old farrowing house (a place where hogs gave birth) which is now a favorite spot for some turkey vultures to raise their brood.  If you have never seen or heard juvenile turkey vultures, well, it’s different!  Their cry is something between a mix of a hoot owl call, and a snake hiss.  Very spooky!

As you reach the top of the ridge, you get this amazing view of two valleys, one running north south, and the other running east west.  This is one of my favorite spots to stop, and just listen, breath deep, and enjoy the peace of the forest. This is one of my two favorite places on the ranch. My other favorite place is my 

This is a transition period for the entire farm. In our dairy operation, the spring lambing flock is just beginning to go ‘dry’, a time when their milk production falls off and they get to enjoy a few months just munching on pastures (or hay as the winter progresses) and relax before they lamb in the spring.  We have already finished our fall lambing checks.  Our dairy ewes are checked by ultrasound to see if they are pregnant, we give a vaccination to the ewes who within 30 days of lambing to provide protection for their lambs, and make sure they are in good condition for lambing. Our fall dairy lambing flock has just started, so we don't have a lot of lambs to bottle feed at the moment.  We also have a brief period of almost no milk production and then we will be back at it full speed!  By the end of spring we will be milking about 40 ewes – just in time for peak summer ice cream demand. 

The wool ewes are looking great and have been spending the fall with our lead ram, Jonathan.  Soon, we will bring them back from the south farm to the home farm with the diary ewes. During the cool mornings, I really appreciate the quality of wool our ewes have as I trudge around in wool socks made from our very own sheep's wool.  This is one of my favorite products as we head into the winter. 

The cattle have all finished having their calves – so it is one of the best times of year to tour (in my opinion) because you get to meet the playful little calves and of course the fall lambs.  The Scottish Highland calves are incredibly cute! This is also the time we begin bringing all of the sheep and cattle back as close as possible to the lambing barn and our pastures close to the house. We want to all the livestock to be as accessible as possible in case the weather turns on us. Our winters are not extremely cold, but we do have a few intense, challenging cold periods and snowstorms. But that is another blog.

At this point (especially with as dry as it’s been this fall) the pastures are pretty much gone and we shift to feeding hay. We will go through about 130 large round bales (about 110 tons) and 1,000 square bales.  We will also often supplement with protein tubs and grain to keep everyone’s energy up during the winter and prior to lambing.

This is also the time we try to catch up on projects.  Lambing is not crazy (yet), and the creamery is temporarily not running due to the limited milk supply.  So, the crew is busy building fence, fitting up the ridge barn for spring lambing, and taking care of the lambs we are having now. It is probably the quietest time of the year for us. 

To sum it up, this is that time of year where the ranch seems to catch it’s breath. We are in between the heat of summer with all of its farmers markets, events, and activity, and we are not yet in winter.... it's an in-between time.  

The Gentleman Rancher