Overgrown hooves are uncomfortable and can reduce your animals productivity and quality of life. It can also make them more prone to problems like foot rot. Fortunately, trimming small ruminant hooves is quick and easy once you know how to do it.

Firstly, you will need a pair of hoof trimming shears, and a way to restrain your sheep.

It also doesn’t hurt to have some blood stop powder on hand. If your sheep have a full fleece of wool, they can easily be tipped up on their rump for hoof trimming. They even make special chairs to hold sheep in this position. If you have the more athletic hair sheep, this does not work as well. They are typically able to flip themselves back over. Our preference for trimming our tame flock of Katahdins is to tie them to something with a dish of corn for distraction. Then we trim their hooves in a similar manner to how a farrier trims horse hooves. You will have to figure out what works best for your sheep and setup.

Once you have the sheep restrained, you can pick up a hoof and dust it off. You will notice that there is a rubbery section at the heel, and thin hoof walls around the outside of their two toes. The hoof walls often, and heels occasionally, over grow and require trimming. If the hoof wall is overgrown, it will typically fold over the bottom of the foot. This creates a pocket to trap manure and debris and can cause serious problems.

What you want to do is carefully trim the hoof walls and heel back until they are flush with the sole of the foot.

Try to maintain the natural shape of the foot in the process. The shape of the foot should be obvious from the shape of the sole. The goal is to trim back the excess hoof wall without cutting into the quick. You don’t want to draw blood. You do not want to trim into the sole when trimming off the walls or you will draw blood. Sheep feet are fairly thin and soft so it is easy to cut too deeply if you aren’t careful.

Typically, the trickiest part is trimming the toe. Many times, the toe will get very long and pointy. This excess toe material needs to be carefully removed little by little so that you don’t accidentally cut too deeply. You can scrape out any dirt and flaky material as you trim. This way you can see when you reach the actual sole so that you don’t cut into the quick.

If you do cut a bit too deeply and draw a few drops of blood, don’t panic. Put some blood stop powder on the spot. Then keep the area clean until it has a chance to stop bleeding. Your sheep will probably be a bit sensitive on that foot for a little while, but they will be ok.

Don’t be afraid to trim your sheep’s hooves for fear of messing up.

Don’t vow to never trim again if you accidentally draw some blood. The damage done from not trimming their feet is a much greater risk than the harm of accidentally drawing a few drops of blood trimming them. Plus, as you gain experience you will become less likely to accidentally cut too deeply.

Sometimes if the hoof has gotten very overgrown and misshapen, the hoof wall can separate from the sole. This creates a bulging pocket that is often filled with manure. If this is the case with one of your hooves, go ahead and carefully remove the separated section of hoof wall up to where it is attached. This will allow it to grow back down properly. You must remove the separated section. Otherwise, it will continue to separate due to the mechanical force of them standing on it. Additionally, that manure filled cavity is a fantastic place for pathogenic bacteria to proliferate. Get rid of it.

Sheep with good feet that have not been allowed to overgrow should never have this problem.

Selecting for animals with good quality feet and excellent confirmation will make your job easier. These animals will wear their feet uniformly resulting in less overgrowth and distorted hooves to fix. While we strive to select sheep that have good confirmation and excellent feet that require little to no trimming, we still like to check our sheep’s feet a couple times a year. Many of our ewes need very little hoof care, but we find that it is much easier to address any overgrowth problems frequently than it is to fix a grossly overgrown hoof.

Additionally, checking hooves a few times a year makes it obvious which sheep have poor confirmation and hoof quality. They show up with horribly overgrown, disastrous feet every single trim, and often require remedial trimming. We consider them good candidates to consider for culling as they are likely to pass these traits on to their offspring.

Lastly, if your sheep are living on very soft ground where they require frequent trimming (more than 1-2x a year) to maintain their feet, you can add abrasive surfaces to reduce the need to trim hooves. Having to walk over rocks or rough cement to reach the feeders or water will help increase the wear on their hooves and reduce your workload.

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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 How To Trim Sheep Hooves first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Reason 1: Sun exposure

As a general rule, passion flowers are full sun plants. They’ll grow in partial shade, but they won’t flower. Unfortunately, 6-8 hours of sunlight isn’t enough to make them happy. Their preference is to be in a full dawn to dusk sunny location. Some light/dappled afternoon shade can be desirable for some varieties in very hot locations. However, for the majority of the United States, and the majority of passion flowers, getting them as much sun as possible is ideal.

If your passion flower isn’t flowering and its in a shady or semi-shady location, moving it to a more sunny location is the first thing we recommend trying. In our opinion, this probably tops the list for why passion flowers aren’t flowering. This is particularly true of any of the free flowering hybrids.

The reason we say this is that in the early spring a lot of our plants start actively growing and putting out flower buds. As soon as we put a light shade cloth over the greenhouse to help moderate temperature flowering stops. Even the most free-flowering varieties stop flowering. So try this first!

Reason 2: Daylength

Depending on which variety or species you are growing, this can also be a very valid reason why your passion flower isn’t flowering. Some varieties are photoperiod sensitive and will only bloom when the number of hours of daylight is correct. For example, if a passion flower you are growing is a short day variety like Passiflora ‘Maui’, it will not bloom in the middle of the summer no matter what else you do.

This is more likely to be the case for passion flowers in our Rare Passion Flowers category that are species rather than hybrids. Most, but not all of the named hybrids are easier to get to bloom, and they typically bloom over a longer season. If you have a question about what we find the flowering period for a particular plant to be, you’re welcome to ask.

Reason 3: Age/size

Some passion flowers seem to need to attain a sufficient size or maturity before they start flowering. This is again less common with the named hybrids than many of the species. Sometimes after planting a new plant, they will go into a stage of rapid vegetative growth where the plant is focusing on producing leaves and roots rather than blossoms. Later as the conditions become more favorable it may start flowering.

If you are hoping for a passion flower that will jump straight into flowering for you, many of the varieties in our Easy Care category are very free flowering. Varieties such as P. ‘Fata Confetto’, P. ‘Lady Margaret’ P. ‘Clear Sky’ and P. ‘Blue Velvet’ will set buds on tiny little plants, and we often ship them with buds.

Reason 4: Temperature

Temperature can also be a big problem. Both too hot and too cold can cause issues depending on the variety. Some of the very tropical heat loving varieties want it warm to flower. They won’t bloom in cold temperatures, and may never bloom well or at all in some locations. Conversely, many varieties that don’t like heat may abort buds or stop making buds in hot weather.

We try to list on descriptions if a variety is heat loving, or heat intolerant. Some of the worst offenders for not flowering in the summer due to heat are P. ‘Monika Fischer’, P. ‘Lavender Lady’, and pinks like P. ‘Anastasia’. Often these varieties will not bloom in the summer in the deep south, but may really shine in the spring and fall. However, in many of the cooler parts of the country they will bloom happily all season and out -perform heat loving varieties.

Reason 5: Nitrogen

Lastly, we are including too much nitrogen on our list. We are mainly including it so that we can address the mis-information. This seems to come up as the “most common reason” if you do a Google search, and we find that many times people are afraid to fertilize and care for their passion flowers because they’ve been warned that they “need poor soil or they won’t flower”. As a result we get people sending pictures of plants that are obviously desperately starved of nutrients asking what’s wrong.

So yes, it is absolutely true that too much nitrogen can reduce flowering. However in our experience having that level of nitrogen isn’t very common. It is absolutely not true that passion flowers need poor soil or to be nutrient starved to bloom! So while technically a possible reason, in actual practice it seems pretty unlikely to be the reason as compared to the above 4 reason.

Too little fertilizer can actually be equally if not more detrimental to getting your plant to bloom.

Passion flowers only flower on new growth. They set buds in the leaf nodes as they are developing, so if your plant is nutrient starved and not actively growing much, it won’t be setting flower buds.

In our experience passion flowers are heavy feeders. This makes sense since they are growing so rapidly. We recommend treating your passion flower the same as any other flowering plant you are growing. It does need feeding, particularly if you are growing it in a container. We recommend using a fertilizer designed for blooming plants. These fertilizers have lower nitrogen and higher phosphorus and potassium levels.

If you have eliminated all the other reasons on this list and your plant is putting out excessive vegetative growth and not blooming, you can try slowing down the fertilizer. If you haven’t been feeding your plant for fear of it not blooming, try giving it a fertilizer boost. This is particularly important if it looks yellow, the leaves are speckled, or it otherwise looks hungry for nutrients.

Lastly, if you have questions about a specific variety, or have tried everything and still can’t get your plant to bloom, you are welcome to contact us. We can’t guarantee that we will be able to get it flowering for you, but we will do our best to help you troubleshoot the problem.

Next time we are going to be discussing our favorite long blooming perennials. Don’t forget to 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 My Passion Flower Isn’t Flowering. Why?? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Because most people only have a few geese, and they only lay a few eggs a week, incubating multiple batches of eggs due to hatch at various times often works best. However, you CANNOT hatch eggs in the same incubator where you are incubating eggs that are not ready to hatch. That is a good recipe for losing your later hatches. The losses are either due to bacterial contamination, or failure to lose enough water due to the increased humidity from the hatch.

This is where having a second hatching incubator comes in very handy.

We do not ever hatch eggs in our incubator. Hatching eggs is a wet, messy, bacteria contaminated process. Thus, we think it’s best to keep hatching out of our incubator. We want a separate easy to clean hatcher to move the eggs to. If you are hatching goose eggs, it is also important to take into consideration that goslings are very tall and need enough headroom to stand up. This is something most off the shelf incubators do not provide.

If you are using your DIY incubator exclusively as a hatcher, you do not need to worry about an egg turner. This simplifies the design and building process. The control module we use can accommodate an egg turner. So if you want to add one, it can certainly be done.

The first thing you are going to need is a container to make your incubator out of.

Many people use things like coolers, and you can choose to use whatever you might have around that is suitable. We decided that a $5 plastic tote from Walmart was the best option. It was inexpensive. It’s clear so we can view the hatch without opening the incubator. The goslings can stand up, and it is easy to clean.

When selecting a container, please keep in mind that size and insulation matter. If it is too big you won’t be able to keep it warm enough unless you use a different setup than what we are using. The tote we are using is approximately 16” x 12” x 6”. If the weather is cold we wrap the sides and part of the top with towels to provide some insulation. Anything larger, and our heat source would probably not be sufficient. That being said, you can hatch quite a few goose eggs in a 12” x 16” space.

Next, you will need a floor for inside your hatcher.

This needs to be something that is sturdy, flat and smooth to set your eggs on to keep them off the bottom of the incubator. You need to be able to put water in the bottom, and do not want your eggs to be sitting in it. Our floor is simply a folded over piece of chicken wire with a mesh over the top of it. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Some well supported plastic mesh from a craft store is sufficient.

Lastly, you will need the most expensive component.

The control module. We are using the Incukit Mini^(TM) from Incubator Warehouse. It is compatible with their egg turner motor if you wish to add an egg turner to your hatcher/incubator. While this is one of the more expensive DIY options, all in one unit with the proportional thermostat is very good at keeping temperatures very stable. We think it is worth the cost to have a stable,well regulated environment.

You will also need a few basic tools like a drill, sharp utility knife and a screwdriver.

To make the incubator, you will need to use the utility knife to cut out a square hole in the lid of your tote for the screen and buttons of the control module to fit through. Then you will need to drill small holes to put the screws through.

Before you attach the control module to the lid, drill a few larger holes in the lid. One of them should be in a location that the power cord can be fed through it. The others are to allow ample oxygen to your hatching eggs. Once you have drilled your holes, you can screw the control module onto the lid. Then you can place your floor into the incubator and plug it in.

You should test it before putting the eggs in.

Make sure it maintains the correct temperature! To do that you can place some small containers of water in it to simulate eggs. Adjust your thermostat and insulation until the temperature maintains a steady temperature of 99.5 degrees. You are then ready to start hatching eggs.

The reason you want to test your hatcher with something like containers of water is that without the thermal mass of the eggs it is more difficult for the incubator to stabilize temperature because it changes too quickly and easily. You will get a much more accurate trial run with water.

We are strongly considering designing and making an incubator similar to this that has an automatic egg turner. When we do so we will add that information. If you don’t want to miss out on that update, consider signing up for our newsletter so that our new articles will be 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 How To Make Our Goose Egg Incubator first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Firstly, you need to define what you want your plant to do for you.

Are you planning to plant it in a pot and overwinter it inside? Do you want it to be cold hardy in the ground? Do you want it to cover a fence? Should it be small and manageable? Are you looking for fruit or would you rather it be sterile? And the list goes on. So what is it you want from your plant?

Once you have considered what you want out of your plant, then you need to consider what you can practically provide for it. What we mean here is what kind of conditions do you have to keep your plant in. We are talking about answers to things like the following questions. Are your summers cool or blazing hot? Can you provide it with full sun? Are you overwintering it as a house plant, or does it need to go dormant so you can store it in a garage? Are you new to growing passion flowers or do you have experience? Can you keep it in a 10 gallon pot or only a 3 gallon one?

Once you are armed with this kind of information we can help you to make an educated guess about what would work best for you. Keep in mind that every location and every grower is different, there are a million different variables and micro climates that can affect your plant’s growth. So, you still might have to do some experimenting to find the absolutely best variety.

Passion flowers are an incredibly diverse number of species from an amazing array of different environments ranging from blazing hot to cool and temperate.

As thus, not all passion flowers perform equally. We have tried to break our varieties down into a few categories to make selection easier. The plants in our Easy Care category are typically going to give you the most bang for your buck in terms of flowering and ease of care. Most hybrids are going to out perform straight species. The named hybrids have been specifically selected for their garden performance.

However, one thing is still a non-negotiable essential for all passion flowers. Passion flowers are full sun plants. Most of them are not going to bloom with 6-8 hours of sun. Unless they need protection from heat, they will perform best with full dawn to dusk sun. 8 hours is an absolute minimum. Though many passion flowers will grow well in the shade, they will not flower.

If you are looking for something unique, you can grab something out of our Rare Varieties category.

Keep in mind thought that these varieties typically are much more fussy to grow and many of them only bloom for a short time. Their blooms can be spectacular though if you can coax them into flowering. P. miersii and P. sidifolia are good examples.

If you are looking for a fruiting variety in much of the country, Passiflora incarnata is unfortunately your only real choice. While there are many varieties that grow fruit they are really only suited for warm places like California or Florida. P. edulis is the most commonly grown variety for fruit. Even container grown P. edulis does not have a long or warm enough season to produce fruit in most places.

If you are on the eastern half of the country, Passiflora incarnata and its hybrids are some of the best choices. This is because Passiflora incarnata is native here. It is well adapted to the growing conditions. In terms of size, vigor, number of flowers, ease of care and overwintering ability they are hard to beat. They shrug off heat and humidity often seen in the summers here. They are pollinator magnets that will bloom steadily all summer long.

If you are in the deep south, you need to look for varieties that love heat.

We have many of them including most of our P. incarnata hybrids and the P. caerulea hybrids, but also less common ones like P. holosericea. Typically, most pinks do not do well in heat and humidity, and with the possible exception of P. Victoria, they should be avoided. They are not a good choice for a hot humid location unless you are prepared to baby a plant and possibly lose it to heat stress.

Many of the less heat tolerant plants will survive but will drop flower buds in high temperatures. This is typically listed in the descriptions. These plants should be avoided unless you are ok with only having flowers in the cooler weather. Examples of plants that will live but drop buds/stop flowering in high heat include P. Monika Fischer and P. Lavender Lady, and P. loefgrenii x caerulea. Though P. Lavender Lady really shines in the fall in hot climates when not much else is in bloom.

If you live in a colder part of the country, it is essential to choose a variety that is both cool weather tolerant and also free flowering.

Many of the less free flowering varieties will not bloom well in the north. This is either due to it not being warm enough, not being warm enough for long enough, or warm enough when the number of hours of daylight is sufficient to trigger blooming. Typically you would want to stick with cold hardy varieties, or anything that mentions that it prefers cool weather. P. Belotii is particularly well suited to growing in cooler climates as it overwinters easily as a house plant. This was our passion flower of choice when living in Vermont. Varieties like P. Fata Confetto and P. Blue Velvet and P. Lady Margaret can also be good choices.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a moderate, frost free environment like California, you can grow almost anything successfully so long as you water them sufficiently. This is also the sort of place where winter blooming reds like P. Maui really shine. Winter blooming plants are a disappointment in most areas.

If you live in the sort of middle part of the country where summers are fairly warm and long, you can grow a wide variety of passion flowers.

Most of the heat intolerant ones will do ok, and it is also warm enough to grow many of the heat loving varieties. You just have to grow many of them as disposable annuals or in containers that you can bring inside to overwinter. Nonetheless, their spectacular blooms can be worth it!

If you are wishing for a passion flower to overwinter outside in much of the United States, your choices are fairly limited. P. incarnata is the most hardy variety we grow, and many of its hybrids come in second. Check out our Cold Hardy category and compare the listed hardiness zone to yours.

When discussing cold hardiness in passion flowers, it is essential to note that your location MUST be dry.

Passion flowers are very susceptible to root rot and wilts particularly in cool temperatures. If your plant is in a location that it sits wet over the winter, it will die regardless of the temperature. Keep in mind that passion flowers can be unreliably hardy, particularly in marginal soil conditions in climates close to their limit. Planting your plant in a warm sheltered microclimate that is very well drained and mulching it thoroughly can help it to survive winters better.

If you are looking for a plant that goes dormant and can be overwintered in a cool location like a garage or basement, P. incarnata’s hybrids, and P. Blue Bouquet or P. Lavender Lady all go dormant and overwinter well. P. caerulea hybrids can also go dormant though we find that they prefer to go semi-dormant and be kept somewhere that they get light.

Lastly, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, P. caerulea types will probably perform better than P. incarnata types. While we do not have personal experience growing passion flowers there, it is our understanding that P. caerulea tolerates the cool damp conditions there better than P. incarnata which is adapted to the heat and humidity of the southeast. It can be different to overwinter in the northwest due to the wet climate.

Hopefully this clarifies some differences between different groups of passion flowers and makes selecting your next plant easier! Next time we are going to discuss reasons why your passion flower isn’t blooming. If you’re interested in reading about that, please sign up for our newsletter to have it delivered 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 What Passion Flower is the Best?? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Though it can be caused by other things, bottle jaw is by far most commonly caused by a blood sucking parasite, the barber pole worm. It is one of the only obvious external symptoms seen in severe barber pole worm infestations. Unfortunately, it does not show up until your animal is at death’s door, and sometimes not at all.

While we are going to talk about treating bottle jaw today, if you are not familiar with barber pole worms, we’d encourage you to take a few minutes to go back and read our series on the topic. There are much better ways to determine your animals parasite status without waiting for them to be ill enough to have bottle jaw.

Unfortunately, even the best shepherd can sometimes be blindsided by parasites.

Everyone needs to know what bottle jaw is and what to do about it. So let’s take a close look at bottle jaw and what you can do to maximize your chances of saving your sheep’s life.

If you have a sheep presenting with bottle jaw, you should immediately check their FAMACHA. Most likely you will find that their mucus membranes are white, indicating that barber pole worms have essentially eaten all of their blood. These animals need to be dewormed immediately following proper deworming protocol. Not tomorrow or next week. Right now, or they will die.

While deworming is the life saving measure, it doesn’t mean your sheep is cured or out of the woods yet. It can take a couple days for all the worms to die. It also takes a very long time to make blood. So while killing the worms stops them from eating any more blood, it doesn’t replace the missing blood. That process takes months. You need to provide supportive care to give the best chance of survival.

As a side note, this scenario is why you should always have proven effective dewormers on hand. Waiting for a shipment to arrive is in many cases going to be too little too late. Deworming with something your parasites are resistant to also won’t be enough to save your sheep. And by the time you find out the dewormer is ineffective, it will be too late.

If the sheep still has a good appetite, they should be provided top quality feed including plenty of protein, iron and B-vitamins to make sure they have the building blocks they need to generate new blood. Remove them from very wormy pastures to allow them time to recover if possible. If they are down and do not have a good appetite, you may need to take more drastic measures.

Sometimes treating the actual bottle jaw symptom can make your sheep feel better so they are more willing to eat on their own.

Though fluid under the chin is most obvious, it is also potentially accumulating in other places, most importantly, the lungs. Working to reduce the edema can help to prevent secondary complications like pneumonia. Something an already sick sheep definitely does not need to be contending with!

To treat the symptom, we need to understand that the fluid accumulating under the skin is mainly due to a protein imbalance in the blood. Thus, a high protein diet is the solution to helping to temporarily relieve the symptoms. Supplement their diet with high protein for a few weeks until their body can rebuild enough blood cells to re-balance itself. If your sheep is still eating well, this can easily be done through feeding extra alfalfa or soybean meal.

If your sheep is down with severe bottle jaw and not eating well, we have had good success at reducing symptoms by syringe feeding them a cup of milk replacer several times a day.

Milk replacer is high in protein and calories. This is true even for adult animals. Sometimes getting a few calories in and reducing the edema so that your sheep doesn’t feel like its drowning is enough to increase appetite and feed intake.

It can also be helpful to dose them with something like Nutridrench which contains propylene glycol for energy. However, don’t overdo propylene glycol, and discontinue its use as soon as possible. It can cause the rumen to shut down which is definitely not something you want. Syringe feeding milk replacer can be discontinued when their appetite has returned and the symptoms have receded. Usually in a week or two. Reduce the amount fed gradually to make sure the symptoms do not return. Be sure to continue to feed them a high protein, nutrient dense diet.

While it will take months to completely replace all the blood the parasites consumed, your sheep should be out of the woods in a week or two, and the bottle jaw symptoms should be gone. Please keep in mind though that it will take months for them to have completely recovered, and they should be monitored closely for a while.

You should start to see a blush of pink on their mucus membranes within a couple weeks.

It is a good idea to monitor their mucus membranes to make sure they are improving. It is also a very good idea to do a fecal egg count 10ish days post deworming. This is to make sure your dewormer was effective and to determine if you should deworm them again. You don’t want them to get loaded down with parasites again before they have a chance to replace all the missing blood cells.

We sincerely hope that you never encounter parasite problems or see bottle jaw in your flock. But it is always good to be prepared for and educated about potential problems before they arrive. If you are unfamiliar with how to deworm, how to check your animals for anemia, or how to determine if a dewormer is effective, our Barber pole worm series has the basics of everything you need to know.

If you don’t want to miss other articles about caring for your sheep, 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 Help A Sheep With Bottle Jaw first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Before we get started pruning a peach tree, please take a minute to refer back to our apple pruning article if you are unsure how to make a proper pruning cut. Pruning to promote rapid healing of your cuts is extra important for stone fruits. They are highly susceptible to fungal diseases, and open wounds provide easy entrance.

Stone fruits should be pruned in early spring. They are probably about the last thing you should prune in your orchard. Pruning them too early can cause cold damage to the trees. It is better to prune them while they are flowering than it is to do so in January. Plus your pruning cuts heal more rapidly when the tree is actively growing.

Unlike apples which are pruned into a pyramidal shape, most stone fruits are pruned into an open vase shape.

They are trained into a sort of Y shaped tree with several main branches rather than one main shoot. We prune our peach trees and other stone fruits this way because they produce fruit on one year old wood. (Apples produce fruit on old wood.) So rather than cultivating old wood, we are trying to promote new growth. Good light throughout the canopy is also necessary to develop quality fruit. Pruning to an open center tree helps to distribute light evenly and increases the number of flower buds and quality of fruit.

If you are starting by planting a young tree, the first winter you ideally want to select 3 main branches. It can also be done with 2 if your tree doesn’t have 3 good branches. These branches will make the framework of your tree so should be evenly spaced around the trunk. If your tree has more branches, select the best 3 and remove the others.

These branches should have wide crotch angles so that they are strong and capable of supporting the load of fruit without breaking.

You want to remove shoots with poor crotch angles, water sprouts growing straight up, and branches growing towards the ground. You should also remove any suckers and dead or damaged wood, but leave as much of the small side shoots as possible on young trees.

The second winter, you should have a tree with the good scaffold branches selected in year one. If you did not have your 3 main scaffold branches with good crotch angles, select some this winter and remove all the other branches. Your scaffold branches can be trimmed back to 2-3 well placed side shoots if they have grown sufficiently.

Anything growing straight up or towards the ground should be removed. If you have V-crotches develop from same sized branches on your scaffold shoots, one of the 2 should be removed. Lastly, if the tip of your scaffold branches turns sharply upright at the ends, they can be removed to an outward facing bud to encourage horizontal growth. In the future you can remove the tips of upright scaffolds in the summer months.

Once you have created a strong framework for your tree, you will work towards maintaining a spreading, open growth habit in future years.

Start by removing any dead, or damaged wood. You should also look for and remove shoots that have brown rot cankers on them if possible. Completely remove water sprouts that are growing vertically, but retain shoots that grow horizontally.

You want to retain fruiting shoots that are 8-12” long but remove new shoots that are less than 6” long assuming your tree has plenty of new growth. Typically, there is no shortage of new growth or flower buds on young stone fruit trees. These short shoots won’t produce large fruit, so it is best to remove them. If the fruiting shoots on your tree are very dense you can thin out the shoots to only be every 6” or so apart.

Remember, these trees fruit on 1 year old wood, so your goal is to encourage growth of new wood.

As your tree gets older, you can thin shoots and make heading cuts as needed to maintain tree shape and to encourage new growth inside the tree. Heading cuts are cuts made partially down a branch rather than removing the entire thing.

As your trees get older, they will inevitably get woodier and less productive. The fruiting wood will move further and further out the canopy making the trees more prone to breaking. You should only expect a peach tree to be productive for about 15 years. However, if your tree is still healthy, and production is slowing down you can try to prune it harshly. Cut back to side shoots facing good directions in 3 year old wood to encourage new growth. You will reduce your crop the following year, but may increase the longevity and productivity of the tree by doing so.

We hope this helps you keep your stone fruits productive. Because you are pruning for new growth, they are very forgiving and a great place to dip you toes into the orchard pruning water.

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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 How To Prune Stone Fruit Trees Like Peaches Or Cherries first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

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.