Shannon Brook Farm

Shannon Brook Farm Please note: The farm is open by appointment only. We do not offer farm tours. All of our farm animals are protected by our team of livestock guardian dogs.

Shannon Brook Farm sustainably and organically produces poultry, lamb, goat, pork and chicken eggs. CERTIFIED ORGANIC PORK, CHICKEN, DUCK & CHICKEN EGGS AND GRASS-FED LAMB RAISED ON CERTIFIED ORGANIC PASTURES. We are a 127 acre sustainably-managed farm in the Finger Lakes practicing regenerative, multi-species, intensive rotational grazing to raise our flocks and herds. You can find our farm produ

cts in our stalls at the Brighton Farmers’ Market in Rochester, NY on Sundays and at two NYC GreenMarkets: Union Square on Wednesdays and Tucker Square on Thursdays year round. In the Fall you can find us at the Ithaca Farmers’ Market on Saturdays. Visitors are welcome. Contact us to arrange to come visit the farm! Shannon & Walter

Shard of Havanna Glen stoneware, new Aster gray chicks and ladies who lunch. This week I found a shard of stoneware, r...
06/13/2026

Shard of Havanna Glen stoneware, new Aster gray chicks and ladies who lunch. This week I found a shard of stoneware, right beyond the front porch of our 1870s farmhouse. My guess is that it is from a Havanna Glen stoneware vessel. Havanna Glen, which is now Montour Falls, was a center for salt glazed stoneware from the 1850s until the 18080s. We received a lot of Asher Grey day-old chicks. They will be blue-grey to black when fully grown. And last but not least, our older hens are enjoying the rhododendrons and the spring weather.

06/05/2026

We've started weaning the bottle lambs by putting them in with the main flock and giving them a bottle only once a day. Since they are imprinted on me all I have to do is call out to them to get them to run across the pasture for their milk. They will get totally weaned soon as they are already self-sufficient. And, a 30 lb bag of milk replacer runs between $60-70. We've burned through 3 or 4 bags already making 14 bottles of milk twice a day. Most of this year's bottle lambs came from ewes who had too many lambs. Some came from mothers who didn't want their lambs and two kid goats were rejected as well.

FInd us at Union Square, Manhattan today with goat, lamb, pork, chicken and eggs, all pasture-raised with care. The lamb...
06/03/2026

FInd us at Union Square, Manhattan today with goat, lamb, pork, chicken and eggs, all pasture-raised with care. The lambs and goats are grass-fed while the pigs and chickens are orgnaically-fed. No funny stuff! Eat clean protein!

Teddy is 12 years old. She and her sister, Truman, were born on our farm to their mother, Frankie, and father Billy. Cur...
06/03/2026

Teddy is 12 years old. She and her sister, Truman, were born on our farm to their mother, Frankie, and father Billy. Currently Teddy is pinch hitting with the sheep as she usually protects the poultry these days.

Frankie, Teddy's mother, came here when she was less than 6 months old and worked right up until her final week. She died at 14. Teddy and Truman have each worked the farm for 12 years. That's 38 years of service between these three dogs.

Frankie came from a sheep farm in Jefferson County in the North Country. She was one of 18 puppies born to her mother, Emma the Maremma. Frankie's father was a Great Pyrenees. I was working at the Jefferson County farm on a cold winter morning when Frankie was born. I was assigned the task of moving the puppies into the farmhouse basement and rotating them out as they nursed, ensuring no puppy missed out on milk.

When we bought our farm in Schuyler County we returned to the North Country to buy Frankie and her sister Johnnie from the sheep farmer. We wouldn't know it for a while but that was the best farming decision we've ever made. These dogs, along with another family of dogs on the farm, have kept the predators at bay without lethal contact. We sleep soundly knowing that the dogs are in charge and everyone is safe.

Hats off to Teddy!

Today while walking amongst the flock to observe and ensure everyone is healthy, I noticed a ewe on the edge of the grou...
06/02/2026

Today while walking amongst the flock to observe and ensure everyone is healthy, I noticed a ewe on the edge of the group with her ears pointing down ever so silghtly. While waiting and watching I noticed she moved unevenly, favoring her right hind leg.
My first guess was mastitis, an infection of the udder. I looked closely at her udder and saw a small difference from one side to the other. The right side was larger and maybe a little darker in color. I didn't want to take my eyes off her, as I might not figure out which sheep she was later.
Patiently I followed her around the pasture as she'd stop to eat. She started to notice that I was following her but then several flockmates were right behind her, giving me the chance to lunge and grab her back leg. I was successful but I had no collar nor a rope so I called Walter to bring them along with the medicine.
Next thing I knew our old dog Teddy was licking my face as I held the ewe down on the ground. Teddy likes these games. It's so much fun to bug me when I can't get away. I realized that Teddy was wearing a collar so I took it off her and put it on the ewe. That way I could lead her to the edge of the paddock.
Walter showed up and we loaded the ewe into the wagon and drove her home. Due to catching the infection early I will be able to treat her a second time tomorrow and feel confident we have it under control. We will return her to the pasture tomorrow evening where she will find her lambs.

Lots of finds on the farm yesterday including a snakeskin inside my truck and a gift from the man who operates the trans...
05/31/2026

Lots of finds on the farm yesterday including a snakeskin inside my truck and a gift from the man who operates the transfer station. The best find of all was the worn horseshoe. I've found about a dozen around the farm, sometimes alongside scythes and sickles,

05/31/2026

Our pigs are on pasture year-round, but they go to the back fenced woods from spring through fall. The move takes us across two large pastures and through a hedgerow with a ditch so we cannot put the pigs in a trailer to drive them in through the gate. Today they got in the trailer 6 at a time, as I requested, and I drove them as close as possible to the silvopasture. At that point I let them out, called them through the trees, down through a ditch, and then in through the gate. The first two loads of pigs went right in with me guiding them. When I brought the third load, everyone piled out of the silvopasture and ran across the pasture.
My plan changed. I went back to the main barn and got a big load of pig feed. The pigs had come all the way back across the pasture and were waiting for me. I went through a gate, closed it so the pigs could not return to their old home and started calling them to come along. Amazingly, we retraced our steps and they went exactly where they were supposed to go. Amazing! It feels so much better than forcing them to do something they are wary of and resisting.
We call our sheep, goats, pigs and dogs to move them. We've never used a herding dog. Although I enjoy watching herding trials and a good herding dog work I find the behavior jarring. I prefer to work without that added layer by developing a trusting relationship with my animals.

Lambing is coming to an end. The lambs are now being born on pasture but I bring them up to the barn to pen them for a ...
05/28/2026

Lambing is coming to an end. The lambs are now being born on pasture but I bring them up to the barn to pen them for a few days. Our front pasture, where the sheep are now, can only be grazed for about 8-9 days. Once the flock finishes that stretch they have to double back and pass by the barn, this is when all the late lambers will join the flock.

The weather is finally cooperating. The yearling ewes delivered ten lambs in the past few days, mostly singles. Broilers...
05/26/2026

The weather is finally cooperating. The yearling ewes delivered ten lambs in the past few days, mostly singles. Broilers and pigs are headed off to their respective butchers. That will get the pig herd down to a reasonable number as they head out to live in the woods for the summer. And Baby Yoda is carefree with no chores to accomplish or animals to feed.

May 23, 2026 and the weather is scary. We started up the woodstove again to heat the house even though it's almost June....
05/24/2026

May 23, 2026 and the weather is scary. We started up the woodstove again to heat the house even though it's almost June. The lambs and ewes are fine on the pasture but our 200 broiler chickens are cold. We set up two large tent structures for them yesterday but the wind shifted direction and came from the southeast, which is unusual. Although the birds will pull through, they were pretty miserable today. The goats have three steel huts in the woods, which they made use of during this blustery round of wind and rain. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when this weather system will get on its way.

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Watkins Glen, NY

Telephone

+16077311840

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