Dancing Heart Farm

History
In 1984, my family and I moved into the 1840 farm house on 37 acres in northwestern Pennsylvania that my great grandparents had purchased in 1919.As a kid, I played on the farm, ate Grandma's berry pies and Grandpa's sweet corn and picked up worms behind the plow. Grandpa had died two years before, but Grandma lived until 2002 and continued to care for her flower beds and delighted us with stories of the old days (i.e., seeing her first car, riding to school in a horse drawn school bus, etc.). The children, ages three, five and seven, loved having the barn, fields, woods and stream to play in.

Gardening had been a strong interest for years and I had some experience as a teenager with raising heifers, but when I started raising pigs in 1986, I was at the bottom of the learning curve. It is amazing that the longer I raise them, the smarter they seem to be. The truth is, after reading about them and talking with other farmers and going to seminars and making mistakes, I am better at letting pigs just be pigs.

The local paper carried an article about rotational grazing grants in 1987 and I asked if pigs qualified. I got a chuckle from the agent, but the next spring, I got a phone call and he said they had some money left over. So for about $700, I got $2000 worth of electric fencing and my outdoor hog raising project was born. Pigs stink and if I had to raise them inside, I don't think I would. With their portable pens outside, I can do chores without smelling like a pig and the heritage breeds (i.e., Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths) love it outside on pasture.

A managed cut of timber on the farm in 1994, enabled the down payment on a four wheel drive compact tractor and left the woodlot improved. Using the tractor to drag logs for pulp wood, tilling gardens, etc., helped pay for it.A small working gravel pit generates some income for farm projects and as a section is completed, the topsoil is pushed back over, I broadcast some pasture mix seeds and we have great pasture. The topography is improved (less extreme sloping) and the gravel ground, while it would be terrible to plow and cultivate, makes great pasture.

Livestock
In 1998, my wife and I began dreaming of raising sheep and goats year round on pasture with portable three-sided pens. We didn't have electric on the back part of the property. I came across a state program for a three-quarter funding match for a solar-powered water system. At the same time, a grant for drilling wells for livestock was available and a grant to help with fencing. All together, farm programs have paid for about half of the total expense for 7000-plus feet of fencing, a water system with seven frost-proof hydrants and several portable pens. And yes, we do have a CPA do our taxes and although it is expensive, he has saved us far more than he has charged.

In 1999, wanting to enjoy our animals and do it as stress-free as possible (for the animals and the farmers), we chose hardy, Shetland sheep with tails that do not need docking and rugged cashmere goats from Montana . This spring, we were surprised to discover that we could roo all but one of the Shetland sheep, instead of shearing. When sheep roo, the wool can be pulled off at the natural breaking point or rise of the lock. The sheep, goats and pigs all birth in the spring on pasture and we go to bed at night and wish them well. Actually, I sleep a little better than my wife does at birthing time.

Raising animals outside is good for the pasture. The earth absorbs the liquid nitrogen and other minerals far better than any bedding. I call it "direct deposit." Seventy-five to eighty percent of the minerals that go into an animal, come out the other end. By moving floorless pens to weaker areas of the pasture, nutrients are transferred as the animals seek shade and/or shelter.

Minerals, salt and hay are made available in the pens which are faced away from the prevailing winds. Hay is fed on the snow over weak sections and the seeds and animal droppings build up the pasture. Pastures are rested as the pens and animals are rotated.

The fencing is 48-inch high tensile game fence fastened (stapled) to the outside of the posts. It has 13 horizontal wires and vertical wires every six inches. One hot wire is run six inches above the top of the woven wire and another one is run about 18 inches above the ground on the inside of the fence. Low spots along the fence line are filled with dirt. Gates, if need be, have woven wire fastened to them. So far, this system has been very effective as long as I remember to close the gates. It has kept goats in and predators out. I saw a red fox inside the fence at kidding time, devouring the afterbirth, but it did not bother the goats. The goats tend to eat beneath the hot wire, but not rub against or climb the woven wire. This makes for a clean, easy to maintain, fence. My observation is that our goats prefer grass to clover and our sheep prefer clover to grass. Raising animals outside is good for the animals. The pens can be moved to fresh areas often, keeping areas from getting muddy and preventing consequent foot problems. At times, I feed them at the end of a gravel driveway within the pasture or on a graveled section of pasture. This helps keep their hooves from needing to be trimmed so often. There is no build-up of ammonia, dust, fungus, bacteria, etc. that a barn brings with it. Studies have shown animals are healthier when raised outside. Barns are for the farmer's comfort and convenience, not animal health.

Catching the animals is a challenge and one we do not have perfected. I have built lanes that are six to eight feet wide with a gate on one end and a chute with a catch box on the other end. I feed the animals in this area and, hopefully, I can trap them in there when I need to handle them. Last fall, I culled two older goats that, in spite of repeated worming, had difficulty keeping weight on and handling the cold weather. I believe a strong, healthy, vigorous herd will be more productive and satisfying and I will be likely to farm much longer with greater enjoyment and less effort as time goes on. The 18 remaining goats have not been wormed in two years and have good flesh and shiny coats. Last spring, we had 27 kids born on pasture, on their own, in May (sometimes in rainy weather) and we weaned 26. A time or two, in the very wet and cool spring, three or four of the kids became runny, but they straightened up after I moved the goats and their pen to fresh pasture. In five years, I have lost one adult goat to deer brain (meningeal) worm, culled one for failure to thrive and another one with a bad udder. They are on pasture year-round and so I have found little need to give shots. My goal is to provide a natural, interesting and safe environment that encourages health. My disclaimer is that this system works for me but that I can not know what will work for you.

I use objects to make the pastures interesting and varied: a boulder, a log or two, discarded concrete steps set back-to-back, rock piles, trees, a concrete sluice pipe and an old septic tank set on its side (a non-anti-septic playground). In the winter, I pull trees I cut for firewood or logs into their pasture, and they delightfully debark and de-twig them for me. The pigs of course have a wallow and shade. In the winter, they bed in small A-frames or a 10' x 10' pen with the front mostly closed off. With dry bedding, food, water and a place out of the wind, they winter well outside. They usually spend the winter on the garden and a sacrifice area. Much of their fencing is two strands of electric (spider) wire. The Tamworths and Old Spots seem to love the outdoors. This past summer, they had an easy life with lush pasture, goat's milk, sweet corn ears and stalks, drop apples and donated pumpkins. They each also received two pounds of feed per day and were plenty heavy by winter. The pigs manure the garden and the corn feeds the dairy goats and the pigs. The goat's milk feeds the pigs. The apple prunings from the orchard feed the dairy goats and the pigs eat the drop apples and the mash from the cider-making. The Old Spots (orchard pigs) do love apples and I am sure have the ability to store huge quantities of calories of surplus farm produce on their bodies for future harvesting. The Tamworths (Irish grazers) do love to graze. Both breeds enjoy hay after being grained, when not on pasture. They farrow on pasture in May.

Raising animals outside is good for the farmer. It is far cheaper than a barn, it doesn't smell, it gives me lots of fresh air and exercise and it keeps me in touch with nature. At times, at about 4:15 on a wintry February afternoon, after arriving home from work, I don't feel like doing chores. After shedding my coat and tie and putting on my insulated coveralls and boots, I am ready to go. I often work up a sweat, unzip my coveralls and sit on the tailgate of the old farm truck in the middle of the animals as the snow lights on my hat and the goats and sheep chew their hay or the pigs push and shove, making their pig-complaining sounds as they push each other around. I need the exercise and watching the animals in a healthy, natural setting is inwardly therapeutic and energizing.