farm-blog

Everything is early

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:49:15 +0100

I can never remember having the oats combined in August and the straw done the 2nd day of September. Usually we are struggling to get finished by the third week of September. The weather has been fantastic, almost to good as this week has been incredibly hot with humidex's up to 40 C. I know that other parts of the country are knee deep in water but we might be joining them this weekend as Hurricane Earl is on his way.

Congratulation to Nicole Booth and her family on winning Grand Champion Female with Worth-a-Bit Annie K 5U and Grand Champion Male with her son sired by Worth-a-Bit In Focus 12U at St Mary's fair last week! Great to see customers do so well. This heifer was purchased from us at the 2009 Angus in Action sale. This year we will be consigning 4 bred heifers to the sale which will be held Oct. 16 in Nappan, NS.

The Lobster Barn Pub and Eatery is now serving East Coast Angus Beef!! Head out to Victoria to visit the Myers girls for the best burgers on PEI.

Fall is coming!

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:50:43 +0100

You know fall is just around the corner when we start to wean calves to get them ready for the fall shows. Five calves made the cut and after a few days to adjust the training will begin.

Another sign of changing seasons is harvest time. We combined our organic spelt yesterday and are quite happy with the yield. This crop was not underseeded but the clover is unreal! Soybeans are planned to be put in this field so at least it will be a nice plowdown.

I have had some bad luck with the navy bean crop. Anthracnose (seed borne disease) took over the crop and I had to plow it down. The plant's stems were turning black and the pods were stained with black spots. Insurance will atleast cover our costs. I can now prepare this field for spelt this fall which is the one bright spot of the whole deal.

July

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:55:54 +0100

As usual trying to do dry hay here is torture like no other! Very rarely do you seem to get three good days in a row. We have managed to get it down to just 15 acres remaining so all in all not too bad. The summer has been warm and we have had rather cool summers for the last couple of years so we won't complain. The soybeans have really taken off and so has the price. The navy beans are cultivated and are close to filling in the rows.

The show season has started (at least for some people) We attended the North River 4-H Club Acheivement day on Saturday and we received our entry form for the NB Beef Expo. We are looking forward to attending this year.

The PEI Angus Assoc has launched a website and facebook page. Keep up to date on all activities, cattle for sale and other things here.

The 2010 calf crop is looking impressive. Stop by for a visit anytime and checkout their photos on the cattle page of this website for a sneek peek.

June is a busy month!

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:31:45 +0100

I have gotten a little behind in my posts this month. Life sometimes gets in the road!

Congratulations to all the exhibitors at the Maritime Angus Field Day in Pictou the weekend of June 10. A record number of exhibitors were in attendance. The future is bright for the Angus breed!

The following week we were pleased to have visitors from Alberta tour our herd before they took in the Canadian Angus Assoc annual meetings in Halifax. Hats off to Betty-Lou Scott for organizing a great conference.

Asparagus will be finished in the next couple of days and silage has started (between the showers!)

For those of you on Facebook, we have started a page for the farm. Click here to join and get info on purchasing "East Coast Angus Beef".

Rain Rain go away!!

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:41:21 +0100

You should never complain about the weather. We were actually very dry for the first time in years and now we are getting an inch a day it seems for the last week. Only have a half day of planting left so this is a real nuisance. Spraying and cultivating is at a standstill.

This weekend is the Maritime Angus Field Day and Junior show to be held at the Pictou, NS fairgrounds. There are 30 heifers entered and Kirk Wildman, President of the Canadian Angus Assoc. will be the judge. The following weekend Angus activities move to Halifax for the annual meeting of the Canadian Angus assoc. Delegates from across the country will enjoy the maritime hospitality and great food we are famous for!

Thanks goes out to all of my asparagus customers. the crop and has been great and I appreciate all the positive feedback. Victoria Village Inn, Landmark Cafe, Maplethorpe Inn, The Dunes Cafe, Dundee Arms Inn and The Inn at St Peters all serve our product so please support them.

May stuff

Sun, 23 May 2010 12:37:34 +0100

Picked the first asparagus on May 12. This is about a week earlier than normal. Put the cows out on May 18 and this is about a week earlier as well. We could hardly get the trailer door closed as they put their heads down and started eating as soon as they came off.

I used some of my air miles and ordered a kodak pocket video camera. I will practice using it before I post videos of the calves we will have for sale this fall.

I once said that I would never use face book because it was just a place for gossip and useless personal information.... well I have to take that back. It still is used for the above mentioned things, but it is a great place to get the word out about anything! It has really helped to sell my asparagus and beef this spring.

new look!!

Tue, 11 May 2010 00:37:34 +0100

I just changed the look of the site. I thought the burlap background had more of a "farm" feel. What do you think?

It's been while since I updated as the spring work is in full out mode. The fencing is 3/4 done, wormed the cows today and vaccinating and castrating to be done tomorrow. We like to do this about a week before we put them on grass so we can keep a better eye on them in case of any complications.

Field work is well underway and will start sewing on Thursday. This year we are growing oats, barley soybeans and navy beans.

There is a good series of videos being posted on cattle.com They talk about mating various cow types to the bull that most compliments her as well as videos on evaluating structure.

Buy local and CSA's

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:57:16 +0100

Jen and Derek Campbell have successfully started a CSA. That stands for community supported agriculture. They have allowed us to partner with them to supply beef for this venture this year. To learn more about CSA's click on this link, www.peistuffonline.com/jdcfarm/

April happenings

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 18:10:39 +0100

I took a little road trip earlier this week. I delivered organic spelt and milling wheat to the Speerville Flour Mill just outside of Woodstock, NB. I then attended the Carleton County Steer Show held in Florenceville, N.B. It was a great show with the top 5 steers being top notch. The Parkinson family took both Grand and Reserve on the day.

Speervillle Flour Mill                                           Tracy MacIntosh showing her steer at the Carleton County Steer show.

ONE 4WD SOLENOID             $400.00
ONE GEAR SHIFT HANDLE    $400.00

ONE FAT STEER                    $1100.00   (Makes alot of sense doesn't it?)

Spring is about a month ahead of schedule here. I harrowed a field last night and it was extremely hard and dry. The lupins are also growing, about six inches high now.

Visitors, flu, fats, asparagus, tiles and heroes (???)

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:06:31 +0100

Monday started off with shipping cattle to Atlantic Beef Products in Albany and the bulls we were boadring for the winter left as well. Thanks to Lindale Angus, Dale and Linda Lackie and Jim MacFarlane for their business. This allowed us to move cattle around in the barn so we could make a pen for our replacement heifers and put a bull in with them to start breeding.

Monday must have been "the official day for visiting the Dixon's" as we had 8 visitors plus the contractor who was putting new windows in Dad's house called up out of the blue and said he was coming. While we were sorting fats, Mom was moving beds and desks by herself!

The last visitor of the day was Sandy MacDonald of Cape Breton who had purchased a bull from us last summer. It was a real surprise and pleasure to see him.

As busy as Monday was, Tuesday was just the opposite, at least for myself as I had finalli cought the flu and never made it out of the house.

The warm spring weather has arrived here very early and on friday I gave my asparagus field a coat of manure and a light dicsing. Asparagus is a perennial crop as some of you may know but in order to allow the spears to come through the ground straight we gently break up the hard soil on the top and mix in the manure. This is three weeks earlier than usual.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that our new herdsire had arrived, no pics yet but here is our "other" new bull!

I tore up the carpet and wanted to put tile around the wood stove. Luckily for me, a new couple moved into the community and he is a tile worker and she is an artist! Wayne and Pearl were very excited about this opportunity and they did a great job!

If anyone has the chance to eat at a Hero's Burger when they are in Ontario, please do, they are a proud supporter of Angus Beef.