The Art of Being a Winter Farmer - Survival Checklist
We are in the depths of Winter here in Manitoba it is a different kind of Winter than the pre-holiday sparkly season. We are well and truly in it's icy grasp, hardened by road closures from blizzards and teeth shattering cold spells.
Although winter may seem like more of a fallow period it presents it's own set of unique challenges when you raise livestock.
WINTER COATS + FUZZY GOATS
Goats are capable of withstanding cold temperatures as long as they are provided with plenty of high quality food, water (in liquid form), and shelter from the elements with cozy bedding.
Just like we put on our winter coats when it gets cold, the goats have their own version called cashmere.
Not all goats are cashmere producing fibre animals, there is a breed of goat bred specifically for that purpose. But all goats have cashmere. It is the soft downy undercoat that grows in beneath the coarse outer hair and sheds out when the warmer months arrive.
As their cashmere grows in they balloon up like fuzzy little puffballs.
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE GOATS
Food is the way to any goats heart. Through the winter months this gets a little trickier without the bounty of tasty morsels the forest offers up. Bales of boring old hay pale in comparison to fresh leaves and tender flowers. I do my best to supply different snacks where I can, a varied diet in addition to their usual bales provides them with additional vitamins and minerals as well as a way to pass the time through the winter.
Discarded Christmas trees after the holidays are not only a delicious nosh, they also provide a boost of vitamin c and a handy place to scratch your head (or your butt). This year I was lucky to receive a load of trees from a shopping centre who used real trees to adorn their halls through the season and they provided some wonderful enrichment through January.
YOU DO WIN FRIENDS WITH SALAD
I also participate in a waste reduction program called LOOP which pairs farmers with grocery stores in their area. This mutually beneficial program takes excess expiring food that is no longer fit for human consumption out of the landfills and puts it into the hands of farmers like myself to make use of for animal feed. The goats are now conditioned to expect some sort of deliciosity any time they see me carrying a box and they come happily running over with their fuzzy winter coats and swollen pregnant bellies.
Goats are incredibly wasteful eaters, so these additional feed sources help me stay cool and collected when I see them knock an entire round bale down and have a nap in it instead of eating it.
Ok. I lied. It maybe only helps me stay slightly more cool and collected but hot damn it's frustrating to watch your hard earned money become a sweet grassy nap spot.
So this year after the busy market season I invested some funds into a couple bale feeders from Lakeland Farm and Ranch . So far they have gone from demolishing one bale every 3 days to one bale lasting 20+ days because it's no longer being made into a goat crash pad.
Fingers crossed this stops making my hay supplier think I am secretly raising a herd of cattle somewhere on my land due to how much hay I have been burning through.
