Hooting Hills Ecological Farm

Hooting Hills Ecological Farm Small scale regenerative family farming. We raise and sell grass fed beef and lamb, pasture raised chickens and pork.

We also dabble in vegetables and manage our farm organically without the use of pesticides, herbicides or petrochemical fertilizers.

First light is a magical time to be outside, catching the sunrise. I even convinced the boys to come along this morning....
01/16/2023

First light is a magical time to be outside, catching the sunrise. I even convinced the boys to come along this morning.

Yesterday, I was doing the service on the polaris ranger trying to change spark plugs. One of the boots was torn and broke when I disconnected it. Luckily I had todays hay unrolled already so we just had to remove a wire and let them into a new patch of hay and stockpile all of which is easily accomplished on a morning walk.

Now to find a new plug wire so we can keep unrolling hay, spreading the manure, organic matter and seed across the farm instead of one winter sacrifice feeding area. This keeps the hair coats on the animals cleaner and is less work for us. Sure we have to do the daily paddock moves but we don't have to haul manure.

Puppy pictures to start the week off right. Our Great Pyrenees Loretta had a litter of 8 on December 12th. They were abo...
01/09/2023

Puppy pictures to start the week off right. Our Great Pyrenees Loretta had a litter of 8 on December 12th. They were about 2 weeks old when Old Man Winter came howling. I was worried and hung a heat lamp near them in the barn. Apparently Mom thought that would make them soft, the next morning I went out when it was the coldest and she moved them all to the wind exposed side of the barn. Good thing these little polar bear cubs are made for the cold and it didn't seem to phase them.

A few days ago a neighbors cow died while trying to calve. He offered me the majority of the meat for the dogs if I came to help butcher. This was my first beef butcher experience, we gutted her in the field and then skinned and butchered her the next day on the ground. The puppies have been feasting on raw diced grass fed beef liver the last few days. It's quite entertaining to watch these little guys voraciously eat liver. The aftermath is a bunch of pups with blood all over their faces licking their chops and biting each others faces wrestling around.

We would not be able to raise poultry without these dogs. If anyone is looking for a guard dog that is tough as nails and ready to work DM for info. We will be selling them in the next month or so.

This is our vegetable garden where we planted a diverse cover crop mix back in August. It includes hairy vetch, clover, ...
11/17/2022

This is our vegetable garden where we planted a diverse cover crop mix back in August. It includes hairy vetch, clover, winter peas, rye, barley and rapeseed. Unfortunately we didn't get any rain, so not as much forage as we hoped for.

There are many ways to terminate cover crops, roller crimp, flail mow, or till/plow under are a few. Here we let the cows and sheep do the work, running the forage through a built in fermentation vat (aka the rumen). The manure is directly deposited where we need it no spreading or work required. As a plus we should get some winter and early spring growth to graze again March/April when we are usually short on forage.

Recent government regulations even for organic producers would have these manure piles quarantined off with caution tape. Personally, I would rather eat spinach growing out of a weathered cow pat than take my chances with the hydroponic industrial "organic" produce commonly found at the grocery store.

Home butchery episode 2. I almost forgot the most important part. It's a family affair!
11/14/2022

Home butchery episode 2. I almost forgot the most important part. It's a family affair!

The modern home kitchen has been transformed into an immaculately clean and disinfected space to irradiate objects in th...
11/14/2022

The modern home kitchen has been transformed into an immaculately clean and disinfected space to irradiate objects in the microwave.

This is a farmstead kitchen during butcher season. A whirlwind of activity resulting in a spectacular mess and also some spectacular hams. Lard rendering, ham brine cooking, bacons dry curing. Almost ready to grind sausage and start a batch of bone broth.
It is truly remarkable the amount of food that comes out of a well fed pig.

Finally had our first calf from our South Poll bull and a sale barn angus cow we got as a young heifer. Pretty little h...
10/17/2022

Finally had our first calf from our South Poll bull and a sale barn angus cow we got as a young heifer. Pretty little heifer calf too, so she will stay in the herd hopefully until she is a Grandma with lots of calves of her own. Of course she came the morning right before a longer daily move down a lane across the farm, so looks like I'll be carrying her for this one.

There is nothing more peaceful than watching a cow lick her calf clean and get it up nursing.

Turkeys are staying on the move foraging fresh paddocks for crickets and clover. The dogs are really enjoying this paddo...
09/25/2022

Turkeys are staying on the move foraging fresh paddocks for crickets and clover. The dogs are really enjoying this paddock too up on hackberry ridge with some trees for extra shade.

The turkeys are also fed an organic grain ration comprised of barley, field peas and sunflower seeds. No corn, soy or roundup residue.

If you are looking for a fresh pasture raised Thanksgiving turkey you can order one on our website or stop by and see us today from 12-3

It was love at first sight...This is the kind of weird stuff that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. A mating pai...
09/11/2022

It was love at first sight...

This is the kind of weird stuff that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. A mating pair of mantises on a young honey locust tree I planted last year.

In 10 years this tree will support all the grandmantises too while providing some nice dapple shade and edible pods for the livestock, and fixing nitrogen back into the soil (has anyone seen the price of nitrogen fertilizers). As if that wasn't enough, she will effectively increase the size of our farm with the huge surface area created by spreading and reaching limbs and leaves. After all the principal job of every farmer is to capture as much sunlight as possible by maximizing photosynthesis.

We finally got a slab poured to set the walk in freezer on with the help of Uncle Rick and the Grandpa's. Dad helped me...
09/10/2022

We finally got a slab poured to set the walk in freezer on with the help of Uncle Rick and the Grandpa's. Dad helped me build and set the forms and Ray helped showing me how to use a bull float, edger and mag float. I've never poured concrete before so this was a good learning experience. The boys even had some good jobs pounding forms to settle the edges and washing out tools.

This will give us room to grow our business and handle more animals then we can currently with a bunch of chest freezers.

The small bulldozers have been deployed back to Charlie pond to try and help wallow in and seal the banks. Not sure how ...
09/04/2022

The small bulldozers have been deployed back to Charlie pond to try and help wallow in and seal the banks. Not sure how that experiment will turn out, but the pigs sure enjoy playing in the mud on a hot day.

Morning chores Owen has been enjoying a mode of transportation previously reserved for kings and royalty. Now if only he could steer...

Thanksgiving turkeys have graduated to pasture. They are now enjoying daily moves of the wagon and weekly moves of the e...
09/02/2022

Thanksgiving turkeys have graduated to pasture. They are now enjoying daily moves of the wagon and weekly moves of the electric netting. Keeping them moving and always with fresh forage available is key to healthy happy turkeys and soil. The guard dogs are doing their job keeping predators at bay.

Lets talk about the pros and cons of a lawn. Pros: nice space to kick a ball.Cons: you can't eat it, takes a whole bunch...
08/23/2022

Lets talk about the pros and cons of a lawn. Pros: nice space to kick a ball.
Cons: you can't eat it, takes a whole bunch of time and gasoline to maintain, very little biological diversity.

This year in our front "yard" we have rotated our rams through to graze and fertilize, harvested hundreds of pounds of pumpkin and watermelon, enjoyed some raspberries transplanted out of Grandmas back yard patch in Michigan and just yesterday ate our first juicy sweet asian pears right from the tree. Sure there were a whole bunch of weeds and the neighbors probably all gripe about it. Guess what, don't care 😜. Heres to going against the flow and not keeping up with the Joneses.

Address

529 New Garden Road
New Paris, OH
45347

Telephone

+19374728506

Website

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