For those of you following Facebook, now the bloggers are getting their first glimpse of our composting team. Nothing on our farm goes to waste! (ha, ha) All our fertilizer, aka compost, is raised and produced on our farm. That way we know for sure where our compost come from. The pasture and hay that we produce has had no chemicals applied to the source material for compost. The team is composed of short and long legged Dexters, a Scottish Highlander and a cross breed. They are very adapt at eating grass and hay so they fit well into our operation. All waste material, aka, manure, is then pushed into large piles, the heat from the summer reduces it down, its turned over a few times to make sure all is composting well and then wintered over to kill any remaining seeds that may have made it through the cows many stomachs. That compost is then spread back on the pasture and hay fields to provide natural, organic and micro nutrients. Now the best part, this compost is then used on our peony fields 2-years in advance to prepare for their planting and propagation. We are so blessed and thankful that the composting team is with us as they truly are the key to wonderfully rich soil. Both mom (cow) and daughter (heifer) are doing great! For those of you who are not familiar with Dexter cattle, they are very friendly amidst their horns and are 1/3 smaller than a normal beef cow like Angus and Herefords. These are examples of long legged Dexters. The color on the calf is called ‘dunn’. They are dunn, red or black in color.
This is one of our biggest cows whose name appropriately is ‘white face’. She too had a calf today and both are doing great. Mom has a few different crosses most noticeable is the Hereford having the white face (remember an earlier post of Redd and Brownie?). She also has some Texas Longhorn and Scottish Highlander. Now the daddy, Buford, is our long legged Dexter bull (who by the way is a big baby and loves to have his back scratched) that lives naturally with the herd. Will have to post a pic of him someday but Facebook followers have already seen him. So his new son has lots of crosses but is absolutely a charmer! This makes 5 new team members this spring and thankfully all are doing great!