Stone Grove Farm

12/29/2023

Our last 3 ewes looking for a new 🏠 FinnX. Two white April lambs and yearling black ewe. Would love to see them go together. Message for info.

10/22/2023

How lucky we are to have friends and customers who share our lamb with us! We never have a chance to enjoy lamb unless it is from a restaurant, so when friends said come over for smoked shoulder, there was no hesitation on our end! Leftovers as a plus 🤤

09/25/2023

Bee happy it's raspberry season!!

08/03/2023

Climate change results in wonky weather patterns (or actually no patterns at all but quite dramatic unreliability) which, in turn, results in less productivity and more uncertainty in agriculture. I like this article because it sums up a current issue which can also be witnessed here in Maine with hay making. After weeks of rain, hay is being made but much of it is past it's prime, meaning less nutritional value for the animal.

In drought or excessive rain years, expect to pay way more for hay and to potentially supplement nutritional requirements with grain or supplements (get hay tested to find out). It gets expensiiiiive.

The article doesn't do a great job at including the downstream effects to the consumer. I feel for those who must stretch their feed out to save money for the next bale, or those who have to sell/ auction their beloved stock. The producer and the consumer are both struggling.

Some of the comments of the article are thoughtful and worth a look.

On an increasingly hot planet, the new normal for some farmers could mean no farming at all.

08/01/2023

Just a guy and his ponies, all daydreaming about apples 🍎.

07/27/2023

Our farm pond, the stream on our land, and the bog down the road all contribute to the biodiversity we see here. The dragonflies are starting to emerge from the waters, predating on all if the pests 🦟 that bother the animals (and us).
This individual is a Black Tipped Darner can be found in northern regions from Alaska to Maine and is about the length of a pointer finger.

07/24/2023

*Chomp, chomp, chomp*
The sound of ruminating is a relief after the rams had a jail break and ate dropped apples. Apples sit heavy at the bottom of the stomach and ferment, throwing off the animal's ability to have normal gut function. Horses can colic, but in small ruminants we call it bloat. Their tummies get immensely round and rock hard, they won't burp or regurgitate, and they may act super stiff. We were able to treat the boys early and it worked.

07/21/2023

Many hands make light work. Anyone who stays here for more than 4 hours gets a job, like rolling round bales and picking raspberries 😆

So relieved to get our hay in since is it an unprecedented year for wet hay fields. It's last year's crop, but better than what's being made right now.

07/17/2023

Farm dogs River and Daphne are so different but so similar...Over the 8 years together, they've picked up the other's habits incuding:
✔️ barking at nothing,
✔️ carrying sticks everywhere (logs for River),
✔️ rolling in livestock p**p, and
✔️ eating raw eggs out of the coop before we get there

07/12/2023

💙 Maine 🫐

I wonder if the neighborhood bear will visit this year 🐻 🤔

07/11/2023

The amber snail 🐌, family Succineidae, is thriving everywhere right now along with other terrestrial gastropods due to the amount of rain we've been having. They are amazing soil health engineers and indicative of healthy soils (feedback loop there). You'll often see them at the top of vegetation 🌾 during moist conditions, a behavior somewhat unique to them. This action also means that grazing animals 🐐 can reach them. Natural predators include beetles (fireflies!), rodents, some birds, snakes, and frogs.

Amber snails are one group of gastropods that act as intermediate hosts (middle man) for meningeal worm aka brain worm, which comes from white tailed deer 🦌. Too many snails on pasture harboring large numbers of worm larvae (🪱~10+, I've seen up to 33! 🪱) can really harm, even kill, livestock when accidentally ingested.

Trying to find the balance of enhancing biodiversity and soil health with animal health risk is so tricky and is something that sustainable farmers need to consider. This is a catch-22 situation.

On our farm, I've determined the risk of illness from brain worm to my animals is typically low, but this year is medium, given the boom in snail population, average size of the snails (~12-15cm) plus frequent visits by deer. If we had more poultry, I'd put them in with the sheep. For now, I plan to keep an eye out for any neurological symptoms and treat accordingly 🤞.

🌾🦌🪱🐌🪱🐐🌾

07/10/2023

Faye the farm dog's daily routine:
✔️ Hunt for 🐁, 🐍, and 🐸
✔️ Swim in the farm pond
✔️ Repeat