Here is the plot I made for our electric fencing. I measured all the distances with a 200′ tape measure and marked trees that I could use as posts with orange tape as I went. Then, I overlaid this plan onto an existing map of the property that I have.
The days are getting busier and busier. i can’t believe we’re only one week from planting the fields! In the meantime, we’ve been planting the kitchen garden and putting in berry patches. We ordered 12 raspberries plants, 6 blackberry plants and about 60 strawberry plants. They all came dormant and bare-rooted, wrapped in plastic. The raspberry and blackberry plants basically looked like little sticks with roots on them.
It’s nice to have a reason to be happy about rainy, cloudy days this spring. It’s much better for the plants to transfer them when it’s wet and overcast. Luckily, Tuesday morning, when Mom and I planted the berry patch, was pretty gloomy. First, we measured out a spot for them between the drive way and the tilled fields. Our berry patch is 24′ x 9′. We have 3 rows of raspberries 6′ apart (4 plants each) and 2 rows of blackberries (3 plants each). Each plant is 3′ apart. We planted them right into the ground, surrounding each bush/stick with a couple good shovel-fulls of compost. Next, we took cardboard and covered the ground all around the plants to smother the grass and weeds. Mom’s been going to a bike shop and picking up cardboard boxes for the last couple of months, so we have a lot of big cardboard boxes saved up in the garage. We laid down compost around the rows of plants and wood-chips (free, from some tree guys that were chipping logs up the street) down on the paths.
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| Cardboard, compost and chips |
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Then we planted the strawberry plants in the compost between the blackberry and raspberries bushes.
Hello, blog readers. This is my first blog post ever. Gallagher has been threatening to rescind my ability to post for months, but I finally did it! Hopefully, I will get used to this and be a regular contributor in the future.
On Saturday I went to a fencing clinic at Wellscroft Farm in southern New Hampshire. There they operate both a working livestock farm and and a fencing company called Wellscroft Fencing Systems. They are very nice, very helpful, and extremely knowledgeable people. The owner, David Kennard, in addition to being a full time farmer and boarder collie breeder/trainer, is also the self-proclaimed “Portable Net Fencing KING of New England.” It was a great clinic and I learned A LOT about fencing in one day. When I told people I was going to an electric fencing clinic 1 1/2 hours away from the farm, the reactions were somewhat mixed. Most people were supportive, but some basically said, “why would you need to go to a clinic?” I am an electrician after all (albeit not a licensed one), and therefore the assumption is that I should be able to hook a stupid wire up to a fence and not electrocute myself too badly in the process. How hard could it be? This is somewhat true. The answer is that I did not go to the clinic to learn how a fence energizer works, or what the difference between voltage and amperage is. I luckily already understand these concepts. What makes fencing complicated and worth learning about, for me, is that there are so many different options and variations, so many ways to do it. And believe me, its very confusing and frustrating to design a fencing system if you have no experience with it. My reason for going to the clinic was to determine the best, most efficient (both in terms of work and cost) method for fencing my pigs and specifically what equipment I would need. I figured it would be easy one stop shopping. I’d sit and listen to a little sales pitch, ask some questions, and buy what I needed.
The clinic was surprisingly well attended—around 100 people showed up at 8:30 for coffee and donuts, followed by a fast paced talk by David Kennard on the basics of electric fencing. In 2 ½ hours he covered how fence energizers work, the different types of energizers (AC, battery, solar), grounding techniques, lightning protection, monitoring voltage and troubleshooting, training animals to the fence, different types of electric fencing (permanent, semi-permanent, and portable), and much more.
A few things that I took away from this talk:
Energizer all have the same basic internal components in that they all run off DC (direct current, e.g. batteries) power. The AC (alternating current, e.g. an outlet in your home) models simply have a rectifier built in and the solar models are simply DC battery powered units that have solar panels attached to to them. Many of the models can run off of AC or DC right out of the box. If you want to run it off a battery, you just need to buy a 12v deep cycle marine or regular car battery. If you want to run it solar, you need to buy a battery and a solar panel.
Animals need to be trained to the fence. The best way to do this is to set up the electric fence inside of an existing permanent fence or pen. Then you bait the fence leaving some grain or other food right on the other side of it. Once the animal gets a shock they will not test it again. It is especially important with pigs to train them with a wooden or wire fence behind the electric fence because pigs, unlike other animals, will often charge through the electric fence the first time they get a shock.
Grounding is extremely important. If your fence, clogged with weeds and grass, is a better ground than your actual ground rod, then you have a problem. The fence must be clean and you need at least one 4′ long galvanized steel ground rod driven, preferably into damp soil. The wetter the better. You can even ground straight into a pond if you have one nearby. Additional ground rods can be added as needed, but must be 10′ apart. And finally, all ground rods for your fence must me more than 30′ from your utility ground, or you will get electrical interference on your 120v system.
If you need to ground a portable system quickly, and don’t want to drive a rod 4′ into the ground, you can take a section of fence or of wire mesh, attach your ground wire to it, and then just throw it down flat on the grass. Just make sure not to touch it once the system is on.
After the talk, we took a tour of the farm and David showed us all of the different types of fencing in action. This was extremely helpful because it became more and more clear how beneficial electric fencing can be when it is set up extensively as a system to control the entire farm. David talked a lot about rotational grazing and how he has designed his fencing system with this model in mind. Rotational grazing is so important in any sustainable livestock model, and portable fencing is what makes it possible, both in terms of cost and labor, for small and large producers alike.
Intensive rotational grazing (IRG) is a pasture management technique that results in highly efficient usage of pasture as forage as well as restoration of nutrients to the soil and an increased biomass. Grazing animals are confined to a section of pasture for a brief period of time (the area and time are dependent on the type and number of grazers) while the other sections of pasture are allowed to rest. The idea is to find the right ratio of grazers to pasture size so that the forage is consumed at an even rate and the manure is evenly spread. If you put 5 pigs on an acre of land, then they are going to poop in one spot, eat some grass here and there, root up some spots here, and maybe not even touch some areas. But if you take those pigs and you put them in a 1/4 acre or even smaller, then they will start to graze, root, and spread their manure more evenly.
After the pasture is exhausted (but not destroyed), the animals are moved to another section and the previous section is allowed to recover. The animals are provided with unlimited fresh forage. The manure begins to break down and seep into the soil proving it with nutrients necessary to regrow. And if the timing is right, this process keeps going on and on. Its really a beautiful thing.
This system work with any ruminants or non-ruminants that can get a portion of their diet from forage. And it works especially well when you bring more than one type of animal into play. One of my favorite farmers, Joel Salatin, is the master of finding ways to achieve symbiosis on the farm, to have everything play its part and in doing so create a closed loop. After his cows have exhausted a section of pasture, they move on to another and he moves his laying hens onto the grazed down land. The laying hens forage for whatever is left and also pick apart the fresh cow patties looking for the insects that are already hatching inside them. This breaks the manure down so it can leech into the field more efficiently.
pigs enclosed in a small paddock using pig netting
For our 4 pigs, we have about an acre of pasture and probably 1 1/2 acres of woods. The plan that I have come up with after attending the clinic is to surround the entire area with a perimeter fence and then use net fencing specifically designed for pigs to segment it off into paddocks. The perimeter fence could and probably should be permanent fencing, ideally high tensile wire, but I don’t have the money for that. So I am going to install a semi-permanent fence using 2–3 strands of poly rope and I am going to run it through the woods using as many trees as possible as posts. The perimeter fence will run through the woods and then across the back of the pasture, through another section of woods and then back along the tree line, creating a big U shape. I will then use one or two lines of pig netting to create a narrow slice containing pasture and woods that will be about ¼ acre total. The best thing about creating the perimeter fence is that it becomes my power source. I can put the energizer at the beginning of the fence, which is close enough to an outlet to run it off AC, and then it will run all the way out though the woods to the far end of the field. So, when I set up my pig netting, all I need to do is clip it onto the perimeter fence and it is ready to go. I will post a map of the fencing plan soon.
We are considering using electric fencing for the vegetable fields as well. We need to keep both small critters and deer out, so the plan is to use a 30” tall garden netting for the critters and then run 2 strands of electric tape above it to keep out deer. Small animals will not dig under electric fencing like they will under conventional wire fences because their first instinct is to test the fence before digging. Since I am already buying the fence energizer for the pigs, the cost of buying the fencing for the garden will certainly be cheaper than putting in a permanent fence and it comes with the added benefit of being able to take it down in the fall if we need to plow again.
Well, I’m happy to report that the doxycycline seems to be doing it’s job and this week is promising to be much better than the last one.
Just in time too, because we had four little piglets waiting for us in New Hampshire. Yesterday morning Dave put the finishing touches on our piglet pen, we packed a couple sandwiches (and some of Becca Chapman’s famous oatmeal walnut pecan cookies), threw a couple of old large dog crates in the back of the truck and prepared to make the trip north.
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| I made their bed for them |
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| Dave’s Pig Trough |
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| Clinton’s Pig Farm |
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| Disc Harrow: dragged behind a tractor, it cuts through strips of sod and breaks up the soil |
We recently relocated half of our first flock of meat bird chicks outside (see last post for details). Here’s a couple videos. They have had to endure some not-so-perfect weather, but seem hearty and healthy and are doing just fine.
Loading in the Chicks from Black Brook Farm Growers on Vimeo.
When I got a fever two weeks ago I figured that my number had finally come up and I had gotten the flu. After a painful, sweaty and boring three days in bed I felt much better and got back to work. Five days later a huge rash broke out on my neck. Unlucky again, I thought, I’ve swiped my neck with a work glove covered in poison ivy. Easy enough to believe, considering I’d spent the last month brush clearing and burning. However, this last Sunday when I collapsed into bed with another fever, the rash still itching and burning on my neck, I started to put two and two together and realized that maybe this was more than just a string of bad luck. Sure enough, a visit to the emergency room later, it was confirmed, I have Lyme disease. Lyme disease is a pretty nasty tick-borne illness, and even though the antibiotics I’m on have gotten rid of my fever and most of my rash, they’ve left me pretty weak and tired.
Needless to say, this news has made the last couple of days pretty stressful for Dave, who has been forced to do all the heavy lifting on the farm (instead of just most of it). Luckily my mom’s here everyday to help. She’s been handling the greenhouse, the kitchen garden and the laying hens while Dave’s been working on getting the meat birds outside and readying our temporary pen for the piglets. In the last week we’ve lost a handful of chicks, which has been pretty heartbreaking. We are in charge of all of these fragile little lives, and although we know that it’s inevitable that we’re going to lose some, it doesn’t make it any easier. A majority of the chicks that died appeared to have been smothered by the rest of the flock. This can happen when they get too hot or too cold and all clump together, but we were pretty sure that it was also because they were getting way too big for their brooder. We felt as if we really needed to get them outside and into some fresh air and sunshine. As always, the weather wasn’t making it easy for us. Dave’s new chicken bible, Joel Salatin’s book Pastured Poultry Profits, had instructed him that it was best to put the chicks out on a dry, sunny day. If the chicks are exposed to heavy rains too quickly they can get wet and cold, or drown, and die. With forecasts of rain for Wednesday and today, we knew that we had to get the chicks out fast, or risk losing more in the brooder this week.
The frame was all set, but the tractor still needed chicken wire sides and corrugated roofing. Luckily, a local farmer gave us the roofing for free (the only cost was Dave’s time prying it off the roof of an old shed with a crowbar) and so all day Monday and Tuesday morning, while I lay in bed recovering, Dave finished up the tractor. Tuesday at around 10:30 AM we moved the chicks in (I watched). We decided to only move out half at first, just to see how they would do and open up some much needed room in the brooder.
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| Moving the chicks in |
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| Our Chicken Tractor. 10′ x 12′ x 2′ |
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| Home sweet home |
If you look at the tractor from the angle above, the back half is covered on all sides by corrugated steel roofing while the front half has chicken wire sides. Both the roof panels on the front half are removable. The left-hand side contains the waterer and the right hand side contains the feeder trough. It is necessary to have 3/4 of the tractor covered by roofing because the chickens need a lot of escape from the sun, as they can easily overheat. We copied the tractor from Joel Salatin’s design. You can watch a great video about it here:
We moved the tractor for the first time this morning to a new foraging spot. It went well, aside from the fact that it’s heavier than we would have liked. Salatin specifically recommends that you don’t use corrugated steel for the roof (it’s much heavier than aluminum), but since we got it for free we couldn’t really be picky. Luckily, we only have to move it 12′ a day, just enough to give the chicks fresh grass. Even though there was still a lot for them to eat in the first spot, it’s necessary to move the tractor at least every two days as their feces will start to grow bacteria.
The rest of the chicks are going to go out tomorrow morning, after the threat of rain and cold has past. Until then, they’ll have to content themselves with their new feeder. They’ve gotten MUCH too big for the old one.
This feeder is just a piece of 4″ PVC pipe cut in half with plywood stands on either side. We’re getting better at cutting costs everyday.
Some Other Things We’ve Been Doing:
* Turning over any sod clumps that the plow didn’t catch out in the field. It’s important that the grass is underground so it rots and doesn’t continue to grow. We’re planning on harrowing the field on Sunday. We’ve also been trying to pick out any rocks.
* Transplanting TONS of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in the greenhouse, and planting brussel sprouts and late season cabbage.
* Seeding the kitchen garden with greens so we’ll have something for the first farmers market.
* Getting ready for the piglets. We decided to wait until Monday to go pick them up, so hopefully I’ll feel better by then.
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| Our garage-farm-office with self-serve-egg-refrigerator |
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| The greenhouse and cold-frames in full swing! |
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| The kitchen garden being built (we’re going to use it to grow lettuce, arugula, beets and some other small crops until the big fields are ready to plant) |
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| Frame for the chicken “tractor” being built |
I’ve figured out how to embed videos! Here’s one from when we visited the piglets a couple weeks ago.
We’re still planning on bringing ours home sometime next week. They should be about the size of the piglets below.
Weaners from Black Brook Farm Growers on Vimeo.
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| Our freshly plowed field!!! |
I guess I should start at the beginning…
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| The first field |
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| Finishing up the first field |
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| Double bottomed mold board plow at work |
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| Starting the second field (soil looks great!) |
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| Movin’ rocks |