There are of course a multitude of commercially available automatic waterers. Most of which in our experience using them are not only expensive, but also leave something to be desired. And then there are water trough float valves available, most of which are designed to be attached to a garden hose. This is the easiest solution. It also leaves much to be desired. We wanted permanent waterers with buried water lines. And we were going to figure out how to do it in a way that we liked and could afford.

The first thing we had to do was decide on our goals.

After studying the commercially available waterers we decided on a simple, easy to replicate style that uses ground heat rather than electricity to keep the water open in the winter. We decided to install a couple more elaborate insulated winter waterers where we overwinter animals. Then we just installed easier warm weather waterers in summer grazing areas. The summer waterers can simply have the water shut off and be drained and removed/covered during the winter.

The winter waterers are insulated with waterlines trenched below the frostline. In our climate this is sufficient. They lightly freeze over at night but can be dumped in the morning and stay open during the day while the animals are using them. In a colder climate or with fewer animals you would most likely wish to add a heat source to the base to ensure nothing important freezes.

So let’s build a waterer!

First, you’re going to need supplies. The hardest part to find is an appropriate float valve. We opted to use ¾” Apex xtraflow long tail trough valves, with a pipe thread to garden hose thread adapter. We have been happy with them. They will set you back about $70 a piece. While they are admittedly one of the most expensive components, they seem to be durable and reliable. Plus, your float valve is really the heart of your waterer. A quality one is a must.

These valves are installed in the bottom of 5 gallon buckets. We are using 5 gallon buckets as they are cheap, readily available, and easy to replace if damaged. They are also a good size. They allow multiple animals to get a good drink without having to wait for a small bowl to refill, but not so large as to be hard to handle to dump and clean.

For each waterer, you will need two 5 gallon buckets.

One to install your valve into. One you need to cut the bottom off to set into the ground. If you can find 5 gallon bucket dimensioned 3 gallon buckets to install your trough valve into even better. That will give you extra space between the two buckets for your plumbing fittings.

You will need a hose lead to connect the trough valve to your plumbing in the ground. This allows you the very important feature of being able to remove and dump the waterer to clean it. You will also need plastic 55 gallon barrels and waterproof insulation if you want to make insulated waterers.

Lastly you will need water lines.

If you are making winter waterers, what you use is dependent on what your water lines are and how you will be tying in. You will need to attach to your water lines either below the frostline or indoors somewhere. In our case, our waterlines are PVC.

For warm weather waterers, we opted to use ¾” mainline irrigation tubing as it is inexpensive, durable and easy to work with. Irrigation line can withstand being frozen with water in the lines. The only caveat is that you have drain them enough to depressurize them. You also need to leave valves open to give space for the freezing water to expand.

Once you have your needed materials, you can trench your water lines to the desired locations.

If you need the waterers to be functional in freezing weather, they need to be trenched to the same depth as your houses waterlines. If they are just for summer use, a shallow trench is sufficient. We used a single bottom plow to dig a trench about 12” deep most of for our water lines. Then laid out the irrigation line and reburied the trench.

At the location of each waterer, you will need to dig a hole big enough to bury your 5 gallon bucket in the ground. Your waterline should come into the bottom of this hole. Fit the end of the irrigation tubing with a hose end fitting (and a shut off valve if desired) that you can screw your hose lead onto. Hook everything together and settle it all in the hole so the hose isn’t crimped. Voila, you have an affordable automatic waterer in your far pasture!

To make an insulated waterer, you need to do the same thing but on a bigger and deeper scale.

Please keep in mind that we live in a very mild climate. We only have a few weeks a year that the ground freezes and its not above freezing during the day. Its hardly worth even owning a heated bucket here. Therefore, “heating” waterers without electric is much easier for us than most people.

The principal on which these ground “heated” waterers work is that once you get down deep into the soil the temperature is stable, and this heat keeps your water from freezing. They also rely on your animals drinking water to keep the water moving as that also brings warm water from deeper in the ground. If you live in a colder climate or have few animals, you will need more insulation, much deeper insulation, and will probably do best with some added heat.

Please consider this and adapt according to your climate!

For an insulated waterer, you will need to dig a hole big enough to fit a 55 gallon barrel inside the ground instead of just a 5 gallon bucket. This hole needs to be deep into the ground, and the bottom of it needs to be below your frost line. It needs to be down to the depth of your water lines or further for it to work. So if you live somewhere cold, you may need to stack several barrels, use a piece of culvert, or some other tube instead of barrels.

You need to insulate the inside of this barrel to below the frost line. You do not want the frozen ground radiating cold into your waterer. Then you will install the same 5 gallon bucket waterer we made above through the top of the barrel. It is a good idea to insulate the portion of the 5 gallon buckets sticking above the side of the 55 gallon barrel. We did this by cutting the bottom off a large plant pot that would fit over our 5 gallon bucket and sandwiched insulation between the two.

If you wish to use heat inside your waterer, it is easy to do. There is plenty of space inside your hole for a heat source. Even if you are going to try this without heat, it is a good idea to install something like a heavy duty extension cord before you bury everything. This makes it easy to add heat later if you change your mind. Lastly, we highly recommend installing a shut off valve between the waterer and your water line, particularly if this is directly attached to all the plumbing in your house.

In closing, please note regarding the insulated watereers:

Because your waterlines are exposed down in the hole. It is essential that these waterers are on and being used in the winter. If you turn them off and dump the water out without insulating the hole your pipes will freeze.

We hope that gives you some ideas on how to simplify your life without breaking the bank! If you’d like to read more about how we get things done on our farm, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Build A DIY Automatic Waterer first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Pruning blueberries is typically done in the winter when the plants are dormant. It is a bit of a balancing act. Prune too much and you get lots of new growth and very large berries but not very many of them. Prune too little and you get dense twiggy bushes with almost no new growth. This twiggy growth is weak, produces small berries, and no new wood for future crops.

Blueberries are ideally pruned every single year.

You want to encourage the plant to produce a moderate amount of new growth every season which will result in consistent future production. Many times, blueberries are pruned infrequently and are pruned hard every few years. This is undesirable.

If you prune your bushes hard, they will produce a lot of new growth which is great, except that all that new growth is the same age and will get old at the same time. The result is that you get very inconsistent production. Pruning in a way that causes the production of tons of new growth creates a temporary fruit slump the following season. Then the canes all come into peak production and get old at the same time. Removing all these canes when they get old and unproductive would result in practically cutting the bush to the ground. Obviously not ideal.

So how do we prune blueberries for optimum consistent production?

Start by removing anything dead, damaged, or that is too low and going to be laying on the ground when carrying fruit. Once you have done that, remove weak spindly growth from the base. These are often shoots that sprouted in late summer. Also remove old, unproductive canes. These are the canes that have little to no new growth on them. They are often very twiggy.

If necessary, thin the canopy to allow airflow and light inside. If your plant tends to overbear fruit resulting in small berries, you can also thin some of the small fruiting branches that are loaded with buds. This will encourage the bush to put more energy into producing larger fruit.

Lastly, if your bush has enough shoots and you prune yearly, remove the 2 oldest, least productive canes. If you strive to have a bush with 8-10 canes and you remove the oldest two every year, you completely rejuvenate your bush every 8-10 years. This helps keep your blueberry bush young and productive.

What if your bush is old and does not have any new growth?

On old, neglected bushes, you should cut about 1/3 of the oldest canes down to the ground. This will encourage the plant to send up new shoots in the spring. Next fall you can remove more of the older canes resulting in a rejuvenated bush in a few years’ time. Simple as that!

Blueberries really are one of the quickest, easiest things to grow and prune on our farm. So if you’re like most people who have never pruned their blueberry bushes, we encourage you to go out and give it a try this winter! You will likely be rewarded with the delicious results for many years to come.

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The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Prune Blueberry Bushes first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

As you might already know, a livestock guardian is only as good as the area they can access. Many a farmer has lost animals to predators who were savvy enough to work out where the dogs could and couldn’t access. Jump gates give your dogs the freedom to do their job while keeping your other animals in their designated pastures. They also allow you to set up dog feeding areas where you don’t have to worry about conflict arising around your stock stealing food from the dogs. Jump gates are also good in the sense that they don’t teach or encourage your dogs to breach your normal gates.

So what exactly is a jump gate?

Jump gates are simply gates designed with a dog sized hole in the middle. The hole is typically sized and shaped in a way that discourages livestock from thinking they can fit through it. There are as many different jump gate versions as there are farmers. However, many of the same principals apply to make them work regardless of the exact details of the gates.

Firstly, you want to size your hole as small as possible.

What’s appropriate will vary depending on the size of your dog. If your dogs are 80lbs, don’t size the hole for a 200lb dog. This is particularly important if you have goats as they are more apt than sheep to try things. Measure your dog, and try to size your hole to be just large enough for them to comfortably squeeze through.

Secondly, you want your hole to be up a couple/few feet off the ground.

The idea here is to place it too high for your sheep or goats to be able to just step through the hole without jumping. Dogs are athletic and capable. They are easily able and willing to jump through a small hole a couple feet off the ground. Sheep, not so much.

Thirdly, the shape of your hole matters.

A triangular shaped hole is more deterring to livestock than a square one. Orient your triangle so the wide part is at the top and the bottom is the point. Triangular shaped holes look tiny at the bottom (and thus looks to your goat or sheep like they absolutely wouldn’t fit). However, there is actually plenty of shape for your dogs shoulders to go through the top of the triangle.

There are many different materials that you can use for jump gates.

Some people use wood, some people cut holes in cattle panels and reinforce the opening with boards. Some people make portable ones, others are fixed in permanent fence lines. Our personal preference is to use bright white PVC pipes to make jump gates like those pictured in this article.

We think that this is one of the best options if you are rotationally grazing using electric fence and moving your fence lines frequently. PVC jump gates are lightweight which makes them extremely portable. They are non-conductive so we do not have to worry about them accidentally grounding out our fence. Simply pound a couple fiberglass stakes into the ground between 2 sections of fence and slip the jump gate over the top of them.

Additionally, our PVC gates are highly visible to the dogs, and they do not look anything like any fence or gate we want our dogs to stay behind. This way our dogs are not confused, nor are they encouraged to climb through our other gates or fences. This is an important consideration as you design your jump gates. You cannot undo teaching a dog something. You do not want to accidentally teach your dog how to breach your perimeter fences.

Training your dog to jump gates is easy.

Put the dog on one side of the gate (with no other escape route) and put something they want on the other side. Encourage them to climb through the hole and reward them for doing so. It will likely only take them a few tries to start using it. If your dog is new to the concept of jump gates, you may want to start with a bigger, square hole positioned lower initially. Once they are comfortable with the concept you can move to your final jump gate style.

Because there are so many variables in fences, and the size of animals, we cannot really say what style or dimensions are best for jump gates. What exact jump gate works for your farm may take some trial and error. It will depend on how ambitious your animals are about getting to the other side of the fence. Try to take into consideration how difficult your livestock is to contain as you are designing your gate. Goats are going to be harder to keep from using the gate as are animals confined to smaller areas. Regardless, hopefully this gives you a good starting place!

Next time, we are going to discuss how we made inexpensive automatic waterers. If you don’t want to miss out on that article, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Using Jump Gates To Help Your Livestock Guardian Dog first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Just like with anything else we have pruned, it is important to take a moment to understand where apple trees fruit before we get started. As we have mentioned before, this is the underlying ‘how and when’ to prune guide. Apple trees fruit on old wood. They produce little, short branches called spurs that produce fruit. They are typically pruned during the winter when they are dormant like most deciduous plants.

For maximum production, apple trees are typically trained into a single leader conical shape.

If you want a rounder more ornamental shape, they can be trained that way as well. The same basic pruning principals still apply. When pruning apple trees, you want to try to prune as minimally as possible. The more pruning you do, the more pruning you will have to do in the future.

When you are pruning trees of any kind, you want to remove branches down to the branch collar, but not below it. This is where the tree will heal over the cut from most quickly. If you prune below the branch collar or leave a stub it takes the tree longer to close over the cut making it more likely for rot to set in. This is particularly true if you remove large branches.

Let’s get started!

The first thing you want to do is remove any dead, damaged or diseased wood. Next, remove branches that are crossing over or rubbing on each other, and branches growing downward. Then, thin branches that are growing too close to each other. When thinning branches you want to remove one of the branches all the way down to its base. Ideally when pruning apples you want to remove whole branches instead of making cuts partway up if possible.

Next you want to remove any branches that are bigger than the trunk, this is particularly true of young trees. If you don’t remove these branches they will potentially become the dominant shoot instead of your trunk which can result in a weak, misshapen tree.

You also want to remove all the water sprouts—vigorous vertical branches. Young trees might not have any. Older trees, particularly those with very horizontally oriented branches may have a lot. These shoots are pretty obvious. They grow straight up, and may be 4-6’ long, and all this year’s growth.

If you are pruning an older overgrown tree, or one that has been neglected removing the water sprouts may not be enough. You may need to thin your tree. To do this start by removing small weak shoots followed by those in areas where growth is particularly heavy. Your goal is to promote light and airflow as that is what your fruit needs to ripen properly. Lastly, you want to remove any suckers at the base of the tree.

If you are pruning a young tree to a central leader shape, your goal is to create 1 central shoot with scaffold branches every 12” or so.

As you are training your young tree, choose a leader shoot every year, and 3-5 side branches in a whorl. Remove everything else. To encourage your young tree to produce the desired side shoots you can top your central leader above where you wish to produce a new layer of branches. Cutting off the tip of the shoot will cause nearby buds to sprout. Once they have sprouted you can select a new leader and your side branches.

If you are growing your tree in a central leader style, you want to keep your upper branches shorter than your lower branches so that your tree maintains a pyramidal shape. This is to keep the upper branches from shading out the lower branches.

If your tree’s branches are growing too vertical, you can use spreaders or weights to encourage the tree to produce wide branch angles. An angle of about 60 degree is strongest. More horizontal branches will produce more fruit than vertical growing branches. Some cultivars naturally grow nice wide branches, some need help to attain that shape. If you take the time to train a young tree into an ideal shape, it will be easiest to maintain throughout its life.

We hope this helps you grow pretty and productive apple trees! If you would like to read more articles like this one, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Prune Apple Trees first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

In our opinion, the ease and labor savings of feeding whole round bales is worth it under 2 conditions. If feeding it outside, you’ll need to be able to use a round bale in less than a week to avoid it being spoiled by rain. You also need to be able to feed them without wasting the majority of the bale.

Unfortunately, preventing waste is not as easy with small ruminants as it is with cows and horses.

Left to their own devices sheep can waste 50% or more of a bale if not fed in a feeder. This is economically unacceptable in our opinion. However, most round bale feeders are designed for cows and horses not sheep and goats. Thus, they do not work very well, or at all for small ruminants. Either the sheep can’t reach the hay, or they can get inside the feeder defeating the purpose. Some feeders like many cradle feeders can be dangerous to use.

There are a few round bale feeders designed with sheep in mind. In many cases they are prohibitively expensive or difficult to obtain. Probably one of the most common DIY designs is using a cattle panel with larger holes cut in it wrapped around a bale. This is certainly better than nothing, but we thought there had to be a better solution.

The result is our corral panel feeder.

The idea of this feeder is to incorporate the collapsible nature of the expensive sheep feeders we’ve seen with what we’ve learned over the years about slowing down hay waste. This feeder is simple to make, easy to move, and works well for our flock.

We typically feed 4×5 bales, so this feeder is suitable for similarly or smaller sized bales. You may need larger corral panels, or a 4^th one if you feed different size/shape bales. We like this feeder because it works well. It’s inexpensive, durable, and portable. It also doesn’t require having a tractor capable of lifting bales over the ring.

To make this feeder, you will need a few simple tools, mainly a drill and a way to cut chain. Then you will need three 12’ corral panels, three boards 1x6x12 (or 2x6x12), lengths of chain (like that used on pipe gates), bolts to attach the boards to the corral panels, and snap clips. You will also need an optional round bale hay net.

To make the feeder:

Start by drilling holes and attaching the board to the bottom of the corral panel as seen in the picture below. This is to help keep the hay inside the feeder, and their feet from going under or through the bottom to step on the hay inside. Without it your bale net and hay that has collapsed down near the bottom are likely to get trampled into the mud.

You will need to cut your chain into 6 pieces that are long enough to wrap around 2 corral panel tubes and be clipped together to support your panels. These are to allow you to shrink the feeder as the bale gets smaller.

Once you have done these two things you’re ready to set up the feeder.

Put a bale net on your round bale and place it out into the field. We typically put the bale net on after the bale is almost in place, right before we set it down. That way we can cut and remove the twine without worrying about the bale collapsing as we are transporting it. Our preference is to place the bale up on a pallet rather than setting it directly on the ground.

Once your bale is in place you can set up the feeder around it. Arrange your corral panels in a triangle around the bale. Initially, you can probably just use the corral panel pins to hold them together. The bale is likely large enough for the sheep to reach. A tarp can also be easily thrown over the top of this feeder and tied off to help protect your hay from rain or snow.

Once your flock has eaten most of what they can reach, you can start shrinking your feeder. To do this you will pull one end of each panel out past the next panel like a pinwheel. Use the pieces of chain to secure the panels to each other to prevent them from falling. You can also do the same thing with 4 panels instead of 3 if you’d prefer. When the bale is gone, simply un-clip the panels, drag them to your next location and start again.

We find that these feeders provide an acceptably low level of waste.

The level of waste from these feeders is probably on par with the waste from our other feeders, but with massive day to day labor savings. Our waste is well less than 10% if we are feeding decent quality hay and use a bale net. While we said a bale net is optional, it does really help cut down on waste. It prevents the sheep from dragging large chunks of hay off the bale and out of the feeder.

Keep in mind also that the quality of your hay will directly affect the amount of waste you get. Good quality hay will produce the least waste. If your hay is full of weeds and straw, it doesn’t matter what feeder you use, they will pick through and leave the inedible parts.

We hope that this idea will help you to save time and money on your farm.

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The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post The Best Round Bale Feeder For Sheep first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Kiwis are a little bit more confusing to prune than some plants. Fortunately, they are vigorous and grow so rapidly, they are very forgiving. If you screw up and prune them wrong, you might get less/no fruit this year, but by next year no one will ever know.

Exactly how you prune your kiwis is going to vary a little bit depending on what kind of trellis you have them growing on, however the same principles apply regardless. Both hardy kiwis and fuzzy kiwis are pruned similarly. They both fruit on the same kind of wood.

As we have mentioned before, knowing what wood your plant fruits or flowers on is critical to both knowing when and how to prune.

A lot of plants fruit on either new wood, or old wood. Not both. New wood is defined as wood that grew this season. Old wood is wood that grew last season or before. Kiwis can’t make things that easy for us. They flower on new wood. But only new wood that is growing off of 1 year old wood. So, shoots that grew last summer are going to produce the shoots that flower the coming spring. Shoots that grew 2 summers ago will not grow fruit on the new wood that sprouts.

Another caveat to pruning kiwis is that you prune male and female kiwis differently. You also prune them at different times of year. Female kiwis are pruned in the winter. Male kiwis are ideally pruned in the spring immediately after flowering. Additionally, you lightly prune both sexes in the opposite seasons.

Note: If you don’t have fruit and don’t know what your kiwi vine genders are, you need to look at the flowers when they are blooming. Males and females have very distinctly different looking blooms and are easy to tell apart. Males have a large cluster of stamens only. Female flowers have a pistil and possibly a few stamens. If you don’t have fruit and don’t know what your kiwi vine genders are, you need to look at the flowers when they are blooming. Males and females have very distinctly different looking blooms. Males have a large cluster of stamens. Female flowers have a pistil and a few stamens surrounding it.

Since male kiwis are a little bit more straightforward to prune, let’s start with them.

Later, we can apply the same principals to pruning our female kiwis. Typically, kiwis are trained to some kind of horizontal cordon similar to grapes. There is one main shoot going up to the top of the trellis, or in our case pergola, and a couple branches that are your permanent structure. We aren’t going to go over how to train this structure here, but if you are unfamiliar with how to do so, please refer to the years 1 and 2 sections of our grape pruning article.

Male kiwis are mainly pruned in the spring/early summer. After the male has finish blooming, we want to remove all of the wood that flowered back to our main cordons. Leave stubs so that there are buds to sprout new growth from. Over the summer your male kiwi will produce tons of new growth from these buds. Yes, it might seem scary to remove essentially all growth from your plant, but kiwi vines are very vigorous and it will grow back with a vengeance.

Over the winter just lightly prune your male to remove very twisted or wild shoots. In the winter you want to leave as much growth as possible to maximize your pollination potential. Pruning your male kiwi this way and at this time will maximize the number of flowers and minimize the weight and space the male takes up.

Your female kiwis are mainly pruned during the winter after the fruit has been harvested.

Start by removing anything that is twisted around itself or other vines. Then you want to thin out your vines. The goal is to remove old wood, but you need to leave enough 1 year old wood to get fruit. Ideally you will have new shoots growing off the main cordons or near the main cordons. If that is the case, leave that shoot and remove the wood past it. If you do not have enough shoots like that, thin your shoots that fruited this year and leave them. Plan to thin/remove them the following year.

After your kiwi has flowered and set fruits, you can trim the fruiting shoots a few buds past the fruit. This will encourage your shoots to send out side shoots rather than continuing to grow the fruiting shoot. This is what you want as those side shoots are the ones you want to retain for next year. Taking a few minutes to do this at the same time you prune your male kiwi should make your winter pruning easier.

When pruning kiwis you will be removing the majority of the wood.

It may seem like a lot, but that is what you want to do. If you leave tons of excess shoots your vine will put more effort into growing leaves and shoots and less effort into producing flowers and fruit. There is no sense in keeping old wood that will never fruit again. Removing it will allow you to maximize the amount of fruiting wood present.

Hopefully this helps to take some of the mystery out of pruning your kiwis. Don’t worry if you don’t get it exactly right the first time. Vines are extremely forgiving. Observe the results of your pruning, learn and modify as needed next season.

If you would like to read more how to articles on pruning, please sign up for our newsletter so that you don’t’ miss out.

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Prune Kiwi Vines first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Feed costs are one of the biggest expenses livestock producers have. How you feed your animals is likely the biggest factor in whether they are profitable or not. Thus, it makes sense to do everything you can to minimize your feed costs. On our farm, almost exclusively feeding locally sourced feed is the most logical, economical choice.

As an added bonus, we are supporting our local farmers by putting money directly into their hands and our local community instead of into the pockets of big corporations. Your local grain farmers need and appreciate community support just as much as the boutique micro green farmers at the farmers markets.

Today we are going to give you our take on feeding locally sourced whole grains to our animals.

But first let’s address the issue of feeding whole grains. There are a lot of myths floating around on the internet about feeding animals. Many of which most people have completely bought into. It has gotten to the point that if you mention online that you feed whole grains instead of pelleted complete feeds, you’re told your feed choices are the cause of all your problems. You may be accused of ‘neglecting’ or ‘abusing’ your animals. People will tear you to shreds for even mentioning feeding whole corn to chickens. So, you might be questioning whether it’s safe to feed whole grains to your animals.

The answer is yes! Whole grains are safe to feed and are typically well utilized. Did you know that pelleted feed like so commonly seen didn’t really become a thing until after World War II? It wasn’t until the 50’s when they really started to perfect making complete feeds. Not that long ago we started making this feed animals now ‘can’t live without’. Prior to pelleted feeds, animals were mainly fed whole food diets. The point being, no matter how much big ag wants you to believe that you have to feed your animals their approved brand of pelleted feed, you don’t.

Don’t get me wrong, pelleted feed certainly has its advantages.

It’s convenient and very much simplifies things particularly in confined operations like keeping chickens that do not get to free range. But it also has its disadvantages, and is definitely not required for healthy animals.

Studies have proven time and again that animals can utilize whole grains very effectively, and that they can even be safer to feed because they don’t carry as much risk of acidosis as pelleted feeds. Livestock like sheep are capable of performing well on a variety of different whole feed diets. Thus, when feeding livestock you should utilize whatever feeds are most readily available and economical—typically feeds from local farmers.

If you have a pasture based operation where your animals are getting the majority of their diet from the food they forage, you can likely very easily utilize locally sourced whole feeds. You will likely see little to no performance change. However, to derive benefit you need to understand what feed value it has and why you’re feeding it.

As a general rule, energy and protein are the two nutrients most likely to be lacking in livestock’s diet.

Lucky for us the gold standards for energy and protein are the most commonly grown grains. They are very easily sourced and cheap. Read on to see how we utilize whole grains to reduce our feed bill.

Our flock is pasture based. The sheep get almost everything they need from pasture, and a trace mineral salt. They don’t need a complete feed, they are herbivores designed to thrive off of forage only. The grass in our pastures provides almost everything sheep need for the majority of the year. We’ve done forage tests and know this to be true.

The exception being when we ask them for high production. During late gestation and early lactation, nutritional needs are very high, particularly if they have triplets. While our flock can raise lambs on a forage only diet, they will hold condition better and make more milk with some supplementation. And we want that, because that is better for them and better for us.

Energy and protein are often lacking in their diets because they cannot consume enough grass to meet their higher needs during gestation and lactation. This can easily be remedied by feeding them a mixture of whole corn (energy) and raw soybeans (protein). We source them from a local farmer, at a significant cost saving to us over bagged feed. Our lambs can also effectively utilize the same whole grains as long as their rumens are functioning.

If you are feeding omnivores like chickens instead of herbivores, you need to utilize whole feed diets a little more carefully to make sure their nutritional needs are being met.

The requirements of omnivores are somewhat more complex, and you need to have at least a basic understanding of their nutritional requirements. If you do not feel comfortable with designing a diet for omnivores it is probably best to supplement with a complete feed. Alternatively, utilize one of the available feed supplements. They are designed to be fed along side whole grains to make complete poultry/hog diets. This ensures your animals are getting what they need while you learn.

Keep in mind that transitioning your animals doesn’t have to happen immediately or all at once. You can experiment a small amount as you are able and move forward when you feel comfortable with your increased knowledge and how your animals are performing. If you can find a local mentor with experience utilizing whatever feeds are available locally, even better.

As a side note, since we mentioned feeding soybeans above, we would also like to clarify that ruminants like sheep can effectively utilize raw soybeans. You just need to keep in mind they are high in fats so can easily be overfed. Monogastrics like chickens CANNOT eat raw soybeans. For non-ruminants, soybeans need to be cooked/heat treated. You can likely get soybean meal which is safe to feed them from local feed mills.

Lastly, we want to mention the main downside we see to buying feed locally.

Availability. Most of the grain farmers harvest and take everything directly to the grain mill which means that feed is often only available seasonally. You have to get it from the farmer at harvest. Thus, it requires some planning ahead and the ability to store extra feed somewhere dry.

Storage can be as simple as trash cans with lids, or as complicated as a grain bin. Whatever fits your needs and budget. Our preference is to feed our animals seasonally to make logistics easier. We purchase wheat in July when it is harvested and use that to feed our poultry and any sheep who need some extra groceries in the summer or fall. Then in the fall we purchase enough corn to get through the winter and spring.

We hope this has given you some ideas of how you might lower the feed costs on your farm while simultaneously supporting your fellow farmers!

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Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Slashing Your Feed Bill With Locally Sourced Feed first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Let’s start with a familiar analogy. If you have been involved in the gardening community for any length of time, you have likely heard the mantra thriller, filler, spiller as being the secret recipe for planting containers that look amazing. Without all 3 of these elements, containers often look like they are lacking. The same is true of your garden beds. There are certain elements you need to have present to really make your landscape pop.

It doesn’t matter whether you are looking for formal or cottage garden. The same basics apply, and the same elements need to be present. The sky is the limit when it comes to execution and your creativity in applying these principals.

So, what are these elements?

Similar to the recipe for containers, you want to have focal plants and filler plants. It’s important to have plants of different shapes, textures, colors, and sizes. Too many focal plants and not enough filler and your garden fails to be cohesive, and might feel cluttered. Too few and it becomes boring. Many times the same plants may fill different roles in different gardens, so you really have to think about what your goals are, and how much space you have to work with.

For example, in a very formal garden, your focal plants might be topiaries. In a cottage garden, they might be larger flowering shrubs. In a small yard without space for large shrubs, really flashy, large flowered perennials might be your focal plants. It might be a vine trailing up a fancy trellis. Choose things that add height and interest. Plants that will draw your eye. Then start designing with your focal plants first. Place them in strategic locations.

Next you want to fill in around the focal plants with your ‘fillers and spillers’.

Often these workhorses get overlooked and get little to no credit for being what makes a landscape look like a million dollars. They are also the most likely element to be missing. These are the plants that in and of their own right aren’t really that exciting or interesting. However, they bring the color and texture a garden needs to look complete. These plants can be shrubs, perennials, or groundcovers. Annuals, particularly reseeding ones, can even have an essential place. Don’t skimp on your fillers!

The goal with these plants is to fill in around your focal plants with different heights, textures, and colors to bring interest to your garden throughout the season.

For example, Nepeta is one of our favorite landscape plants. It produces a fine, mounded texture, and provides months of bright blueish-purple blooms. Verbena bonariensis provides a very spiky upright texture. Russian sage provides an airy upright texture with the added bonus of dusty gray-green colored foliage. Annuals like California poppies can provide an explosion of color in early spring filling in around slow to sprout perennials, then fading away as the perennials take their place.

Asters can provide a fluffy mound and color in the fall when most plants are no longer blooming. Cheddar pinks can provide a swath of color in the spring, and an unassuming carpet of green later in the season. Planted en masse Gaillardia can provide a blanked of coarse textured color for much of the season. Iris can provide spiky upright texture. You probably get the idea. Look at plants as a whole rather than just for their flowers, and ask what the entire plant can or can’t add to your garden.

It is important also to not overlook plants grown mainly for their foliage.

They have an equally important place in your garden. These plants can provide interest and texture that are different than what flowering plants add. Sage provides coarse textured dusty green foliage. Black leaved Physocarpus varieties, and variegated plants like red twig dogwoods add a depth of color all season long.

And while we are discussing plants grown for their foliage, we should mention that ideally you want a mixture of deciduous plants and evergreens, just like you want a mixture of perennials and shrubs. Your shrubs and evergreens help to provide interest in the winter months, particularly if you pick deciduous plants with winter interest features. The perennials and deciduous plants help to provide color and interest in the summer months. A landscape of all evergreen plants is terribly boring in July just like a landscape of all perennials is in December.

There is no right or wrong percentage for each of these types of plants in your garden. It depends on the effect you are going for. A more formal garden will have more evergreens, a cottage garden would lean more heavily on deciduous and flowering plants.

Lastly, we want to note that many times the depth and interest of varying plant heights is lacking.

A lot of times people either plant all shrubs that are all the same height or stair step their gardens. Tall plants in back, medium plants, then short plants in front. While, yes, it would be pretty silly to plant the tall plants in the front, if you follow it to the letter and your whole entire garden follows this format, it’s boring.

In either scenario mentioned above, your garden will lack depth and interest and mystery. Instead follow this principal loosely. Create random islands and peninsulas of taller plants that reach out towards the front of your beds. Or toss in something a triangular trellis with a vine on it in a random place. Doing this provides a lot of visual interest that strictly tiered (or not tiered at all) beds provide.

We hope this gives you some ideas to help make your garden the envy of the neighborhood!

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Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Designing A Garden Like A Professional first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Our sheep milk hot cocoa recipe can be made using fresh milk. It also works equally well using frozen milk. As you might know from previous blog articles, sheep only lactate seasonally, but sheep milk freezes well without any loss of quality. This means that you can have delicious creamy beverages like fresh hot cocoa outside of milking season. Simply defrost the frozen milk prior to using it.

Additionally, we find that you can easily make a large batch of cocoa and then store it in the refrigerator for several days. Simply reheat as desired. Here is our favorite sheep milk hot cocoa recipe. We encourage you to give it a try this winter.

Ingredients:

½ cup brown sugar (you can also use granulated)
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt
4 cups sheep milk (you can use fresh or defrosted frozen milk)
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

In a small sauce pan combine all the ingredients together except the vanilla.

Place over low heat. As the milk mixture is heating, use a whisk to stir the chocolate in. Whisk until the chocolate is incorporated, the sugar is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Continue to heat until the mixture is steaming. Make sure to stir the hot cocoa regularly as it is heating to prevent scorching the milk. Do not allow it to boil.

Once the mixture is hot, remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and pour into mugs to serve. Feel free to stir in any add-ins you desire at this point. Whipped cream, peppermint candies, marshmallows and chocolate shavings all make great additions. Or for cinnamon fans, steep the cocoa with a cinnamon stick.

If you wish to make a large batch to store:

Heat the milk mixture up just enough to melt the sugar and chocolate. Make sure both the sugar and chocolate are fully incorporated and that the mixture is whisked smooth. Then turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Allow the hot cocoa to cool to room temperature before putting it into the refrigerator. As the mixture is cooling you should whisk it regularly. When you heat and cool sheep milk it tends to form a thick skin on the surface as it cools, much more so than cow’s milk. This skin can easily be eliminated by periodically whisking it back into the milk until the mixture is smooth.

Once the mixture has cooled, it can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for several days. To serve, you will need to stir or shake the hot cocoa thoroughly. Then simply pour into mugs and reheat in the microwave.

If you would like to get more recipes using sheep milk, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post 5 Minute Sheep Milk Hot Cocoa first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

We find that evaluating what did and didn’t work last year and dreaming about next year’s garden is the perfect way to pass time during the cold dreary winter months. Winter is a less busy time. Plus, by making plans now we can be sure that we will have everything we need in time. We also won’t miss any critical planting dates if we take the time to notate them ahead of time.

How much planning is required depends on many factors. Factors such as what kind of garden you will be growing, and what you plan to grow yourself vs. what you buy. If you have perennial crops or just annual ones, etc. In addition to planning our season out ahead of time, we find that taking notes throughout the gardening season is very helpful.

Notes can help you to remember what did and didn’t work. Or when you planted or harvested things or when you sprayed pesticides or fungicides. Were there ideas that you wanted to try? When you sit down in January to plan, it can be really hard to remember exactly what happened last July. Keeping good records can revolutionize your gardening experience.

The first thing you need to do is evaluate what your goals are.

Do you want to have cut flowers all summer? Do you want to improve on something that didn’t work out last year? Or maybe you want to grow vegetables? Minimize the number of plantings you have to do? Succeed at growing broccoli without it being eaten by worms? Do you want to have a particular vegetable all season? Do you want a summer garden? One that will continue to provide you with vegetables into the winter? Do you want to minimize the amount of time you spend gardening this year because it’s a busy summer?

You probably get the idea. There is no right or wrong answer. However, taking the time to think about what you want ahead of time allows you to do research or re-evaluate if some of your goals are in opposition to each other. Taking the time to research a new crop you want to try, or a pest problem you’re having ahead of time can sometimes make a huge difference to your success.

Once you’ve figured out the goal, you need to evaluate what you have and what you need to buy. You might need seeds and plants. Or you might need to purchase supplies like row covers stakes or potting mix. Purchasing these sorts of things early gives you access to the best selection. Plus, you will be sure to have everything you need before things get busy in the spring. This is important. Some things are very timing critical, and if you miss your window of opportunity that’s it for the year.

Once you have determined what you need, you need to plan your schedule.

We like to do this on our calendar app so that it will remind us of planting dates. To determine your planting schedule you need to know a few things. You need to know your first and last frost dates, days to maturity for your crops, and how cold tolerant they are.

You can find your average first and last frost dates by doing an internet search for it with your zip code. First and last frost dates are important because they dictate how long your growing season is. They dictate when it’s safe to plant things in the spring. They also tell you when it’s too late to plant to have your crop mature before frost in the fall.

The second thing you need is days to maturity for your plants. This is typically listed on your seed packet somewhere. It may be listed as days to harvest or similar wording. If your seed packet does not tell you, the information should be available online.

Most seed packets will also provide information on direct sowing vs. transplanting, and how soon the plants can be safely planted outside. This is all important to know. If you are unfamiliar with the term, days to maturity, it means how long it takes the seed to go from planting to flowering (for flowers) or harvest (for vegetables). Keep in mind this number is an estimate. Things will grow more slowly in cool weather.

Armed with this information we can start to plan our planting schedule.

For the sake of illustration, we are going to use our zone 8 climate. Our average first and last frost dates are November 5^th and April 6^th. This means that April 6^th is the absolute earliest we can plant out anything frost tender (and that probably waiting a couple weeks longer is best). We also must plant everything early enough to ensure that it is mature or harvested prior to November 5^th.

Next, we can divide our seeds into a few different groups. We have the cold crops, warm season crops, and those that we transplant. Transplants can also be broken down into cold vs. warm season crops. This goes for both flower and vegetable seeds. If you are unsure what category a particular plant falls into, go ahead and look it up.

Cold season plants can be planted early in the season, often weeks prior to the last frost date.

The cold season seed packets might say things like ‘plant as soon as the soil can be worked’. They are cold and usually frost tolerant. Warm season plants are tender plants like cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers that need warm temperatures and long days to live. Transplants are things that are started inside, usually 4-6 weeks before your last frost date. This allows them to get a head start which can be particularly important in cooler climates. Transplants come with some advantages. The biggest of which is probably that you get to pick flowers or harvest vegetables sooner.

Many things can be both direct seeded and transplanted.

However, when you are considering whether to transplant or direct seed something you need to pay attention to comparing your days to maturity to growing season length. Many commonly transplanted things have high days to maturity, and the number of days required may exceed the length of your growing season when direct seeded.

To know how late in the season a particular seed can be planted or plant can be transplanted, you need to count back from your first frost date, and make sure that the days to maturity is less. So for example, the end of June is the latest we can plant winter squash (with 100 days to maturity) here and expect a harvest. If we planted it in August, it would not have time to ripen fruit before the plant got frosted.

We also need to decide if a particular plant is something that is planted once a year or succession planted.

Succession planting is planting the same crop repeatedly every few weeks or months. It is typically done with crops that mature rapidly and have short harvest windows. You have to decide if you want to put in the effort to repeatedly plant and remove a crop or whether you are satisfied with one planting. Some examples of things that are commonly succession planted include lettuce, radishes, and sunflowers. Things like peppers and tomatoes are not succession planted. They take a long time to mature and they will continue to produce a harvest as long as they are alive.

To determine whether you can succession plant, and how many successions you can do requires you to look back at your first and last frost dates.

Compare that to the days to maturity. Depending on where you are located, you may need to consider how hot your summers will get. Many cool season crops are not tolerant of the long, hot summer days. They cannot successfully be grown mid-summer, so you also need to take this into consideration.

Lettuce is probably one of the most commonly succession planted crops so let’s use that as an example. It is cold hardy and will germinate in cold soil, but is not heat tolerant. In our climate, we can start planting lettuce about a month before our last frost date–at the beginning of March. We can continue to plant it until about June 1^stat which point it will be too hot to continue.

Lettuce reaches maturity in 50 days or less for baby leaves, and it gets bitter quickly as it ages. Thus, if we want a steady supply of lettuce, we need to plant it every 2-4 weeks between March and June. If we wanted fall lettuce, we would count back 50 days from our first frost date of November 5^th. We can plant fall lettuce any time up to the end of September, and it will have time to mature before frost.

You shouldn’t have to start from scratch to figure this out for everything if you don’t want to.

There is a good chance that a local university extension will have a published approximate planting dates for your area that can make a good starting point for your planning. Nonetheless, understanding how those recommended dates are determined is important so that you can determine planting dates for things they may have omitted from their publication. Keeping meticulous records year to year will help you to tweak the dates to be ideal for your micro-climate.

So far, we’ve been mainly talking about annual crops, and in many ways perennial crops are a lot easier to plan for. Nonetheless, planning and record keeping is equally as important for perennial crops. If you have fruit trees, timing your pesticide and fungicide application right can make the difference between getting a bumper crop and harvesting nothing. So you should also notate on your calendar things like spray dates and when to start scouting for pests, and also when the pests appeared to help you in future years. Over time you can create a personalized schedule that works best for you.

We hope that this inspires you to spend some of these dreary winter days preparing to make next year’s garden better than ever!

If you would like more gardening tips, please sign up for our newsletter to have our future articles delivered directly to your inbox!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Winter Is The Perfect Time To Do Garden Planning first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.