Cow – Skyline Pastures

2023 is going to be our biggest, best year yet!

January 26, 2023

by charles.lafferty Cow Winter

Good evening, everyone.

We are going to make 2023 our busiest and best year yet! In addition to processing 2 beef cattle, 14 forest raised hogs, 15 Thanksgiving turkeys, and hundreds of pastured broiler chickens, we are going to significantly improve infrastructure on the farm. We will expand our forest paddocks to provide more diverse forage for our pigs and improve the farm overall. Additionally, thanks to a generous grant from the Pennsylvania Veteran Farming Network, we will be running water to all of our pastures to better facilitate watering our animals and eliminate the cumbersome task of running hoses and carrying buckets of water all winter long.

Cows eating at night — By moving the feeder around we are able to spread manure and disturbance throughout our pature.

We are also working to catalog our processes and document our farming practices so that others can replicate them if they so desire. Many of our customers are veterans and of those, many have an interest in agriculture and self-sufficiency. We want to clearly demonstrate scalable systems that potential farmers can use to raise livestock both for themselves as well as commercially on their properties. We will continue to blog, post to YouTube (we know there isn’t much there yet, but please subscribe so that you can see things as we upload them), and post to our Instagram and Facebook.

We will also be hosting an on-farm workshop in the late summer/early fall to demonstrate the dramatic positive effect our pigs have on our woodlot. This workshop will have participation from other organizations within Pennsylvania who are interested in supporting and encouraging farmers to build regenerative silvopasture systems on their farms and homesteads. If you are interested in participating, please reach out and we will add you to the guest list.

As always thanks for reading, and we hope you will join us in making 2023 an excellent year!

-CJ and Tanya

When it gets REALLY COLD on the farm!

December 27, 2022

by charles.lafferty Cow Winter

Last year we had some cold nights here at Skyline Pastures and they caused quite a bit of trouble, especially with animal water. We were out in the woods every day breaking water for the ducks and were constantly swapping out waterers for the chickens. We took notes and started this winter thinking we were much better prepared…and we were. Right up until the temperature got below 13 degrees this year. 13 degrees seems to be the magic number where all of our preparations and electric water heaters become ineffective.

Ducks need constant access to a pool of water for the purpose of dunking their beaks and general ducky activities. Typically, we use 2 black concrete mixing trays but this year we decided to use two of the thin blue kiddie pools thinking the deeper water would stay liquid longer and we would be able to break the ice each morning and top off with the hose. We are now back to using the concrete mixing trays. Both of the kiddie pools froze solid and cracked when ice removal was attempted.

Frozen Duck Pools — These pools are too fragile for the cold winter days.

The cows have a 100-gallon water through with an electric floating heater that we were sure would be able to handle any temperature mother nature could throw at it. Nope. We needed a sledgehammer to break that ice. There was a small hole where the heater sat, and the rest was a 6-inch-thick slab of solid ice. To make matters worse we ran a length of empty hose about 300 feet from the barn spigot to the cow trough and even though the hose had no ice in it to start, the flowing stream of water froze solid before it could travel the distance to the cows. At least we had the Kubota to haul lots of 5-gallon buckets to top off their water.

Cow Water Trough — This needed a sledgehammer to give the cows access.

Next year the plan is to trench in water line to anywhere we keep animals and have frost proof hydrants to ensure liquid water throughout the coldest months of the year. This infrastructure project should take our farm to the next level and reduce the long winter days of hauling buckets. Here’s to next year!

Moving the Cows

July 31, 2022

by charles.lafferty Cow

First let me preface this blog post with the fact that I did not almost die today. This was solely due to my expert planning and strategic measures.

The two new cows have been doing great in their pasture. They have been happily munching away and doing a great job of clearing the tall grasses. We have been keeping them in smaller paddocks through out the pasture so that they concentrate on one area at a time. This has been working well for us and the cows. They have cleared out their pasture so we wanted to move them into a closed off paddock inside Jasper’s pasture so they could take care of the tall grasses there as well. Poor Jasper cannot keep up with a whole pasture by himself!

Alayna and I had decided to run some errands and since she now has her learner’s permit, she was driving. I had her drive up to the pasture so that I could tell CJ that we were leaving. Upon our arrival to the pasture, I see that CJ has already set up a lane of electric fencing from one pasture to another. This is it; he is going to move the cows.

Now, the fencing he is using… I do not like this fencing. I do not trust it. It is small, flimsy, and only comes up to about my knees. We all know how short I am, so I have zero faith this is going to contain two large cows. I express my concerns, however, CJ decides that “it will be fine”.

I advise Alayna to put the van in park so we can watch the show. I call Lil CJ out to watch as well. I do make him get in the van and close the door. He opts for a sunroof view. Alayna expressed concerns that the cows might hurt my nice minivan. I explain to her that, 1: The cows are not angry with my van, so they will not charge us and 2: My van can move much faster than those cows so should things go south, just drive away.

Now it might sound a little strange, or an abundance of caution that my children and I hid in a minivan for this event, but for those of you that do not know the previous cow relocating event, let me tell you a story within a story…

The last time CJ tried to move our last cow, affectionately named Cow Cow, from one pasture to the other he did not use any fencing. He assumed that Cow Cow would just follow him if he had a bucket of feed. CJ’s brother Aaron was over that day, so he figured we had extra help if things went south. The kids and I were standing nearby to watch. This was poor planning on my part as a parent.

Things started off well, with Cow Cow following CJ with his bucket-o-feed. Cow Cow calmly emerged from his pasture. Once he had passed the gate and was out in the yard, he realized that he was not on a lead and that this silly man with the bucket had no way of containing him. Cow Cow was free. He proceeded at that point to happily run wherever his big ol’ cow heart led him. The particular direction that he chose was right for the kids and I. Not choosing death by cow for my kids or myself, I yelled for everyone to climb up on the huge pile of cut logs. It was the only thing nearby that we could use for safety. We all climbed quickly up and evaded Cow Cow. Only this pile of wood is not stacked well and is unstable. It is also HUGE. The logs themselves are HUGE. It starts to shift under our weight, and I advise everyone to stay perfectly still. If this wood pile were to collapse, we could be seriously injured & then trampled by our own crazy cow. This was not my brightest plan, but there we were, trying to avoid the cow and not get crushed to death via our sanctuary of choice. Cow Cow is perusing the edges of the wood pile this whole time, either contemplating bringing us down, climbing up, or possibly just wondering what the crazy farm lady is up to now.

He eventually loses interest in us and our wood pile and decides to frolic around the open yard, enjoying his freedom. CJ and his brother are now chasing him, and Cow Cow is running everywhere they do not want him to go. Cow Cow runs all the way down to our barn. The kids and I are able to climb down to safety. I decide that I need to be brave here and help the men contain the cow.

I grab a large stick nearby and head towards them. I tell myself that I can do this, cows are not killers, and by God I am a farm wife, I should be able to do this! When I arrive down by the barn, Cow Cow is between the men and I. The gate to the new pasture is open and I figure we will just kind of guide him to it. Cow Cow has a different plan. He turns to face me, and I see the twinkle in his eye. I know what he is thinking. He is about to call me out on my bravery. I hold strong, stick in hand, ready to come into my glory as a cow herding farm wife.

He then runs straight for me at a full cow gallop. NOPE! I drop that stick, turn around and run as fast as I can straight through the thick briar bushes and hide behind the bunny cage. I am not strong, I am not brave, I am not a glorious farm wife. I am a ‘scared of my own cow’ farm wife and that is how I will stay! Love me or leave me, but first… rescue me from the briars please.

I missed the rest of the adventure, being stuck in the briar bushes and all, but the men were successful at getting Cow Cow back into his old pasture. We never tried to move Cow Cow again.

So, this is my reasoning for taking an abundance of caution when CJ is about to move the TWO new cows through a tiny little rickety fence. I choose life, and the protection of my large, fast, get-away van.

CJ proceeds with his plan to move the cows while we watch from the safety of the van. It goes well, the cows get maybe halfway down and stop. Watch here 😊 https://youtu.be/gCKkRfnhcF4 They get spooked and try to turn around but hit the fence and they start to panic, running around each other, and continue to hit the fence, getting more panicked. A prime example of why I do not trust CJ when he says, “It will be fine”. Alayna puts the van in drive and is ready to roll out. I have taught her well.

CJ does not panic though, and he handles the situation well, stepping out of the fence and letting the cows run back to their pasture. His problem was that the fence lane had gotten narrower as it went along, and the cows did not appreciate that. He fixed the fence and tried again. This time he herded one cow at a time. Watch 😊 https://youtu.be/BfDSIk0V2eU He was successful, however, while he was walking the first cow through the lane, with his back turned to the other one, the second cow decided to charge him from behind. Alayna notices this and tries to warn him with her cries of “Dad, DAD, you have a cow behind you!”. CJ again handles it well, and turns to face the other cow, who stops her charging, and he is able to walk the first down, and then the other.

Success! He has done it and my children and I were able to watch safely. I think we will use the van to watch all future cow relocation events.

I will add here that CJ has a remarkable way of staying calm in these situations. We do not have years of knowledge and experience under our belts with cows, but we are learning and getting it done! Well… He is learning and doing, I am normally hiding somewhere with a stick.

I am proud of him & happy for him that he can live his dream. Another success under his belt.

Farm Update for August 18th, 2020

August 18, 2020

by charles.lafferty Cow Getting Started with the Farm

Things are moving right along here on the farm!

Jasper got a little attention here recently. We had the farrier out to take a look at his hooves and he got a nice new pedicure. He was not impressed. We haltered and tied him to the barn.

Jasper Investigating the Camera — Jasper was curious to see what I was doing in his grass.

CJ was at his head while the farrier handled his feet. I stood by feeding Jasper apples to try and calm him down and distract him. I am not sure how often he has had this done in the past. He certainly was not comfortable with it. He did behave well though. While he did not like anyone messing with his feet, no one was donkey-kicked in the face as I suspected would

happen. You could tell he was just trying to get away. I was impressed with the farrier’s complete lack of fear with Jasper. It was interesting to watch and he manhandled my donkey quite well. He would take hold of Jasper’s leg and would not let go of it until the job was done, even if it did cause him a few bloody knuckles.

Overall, Jasper’s hooves just needed a little trimming. He did have a slight case of thrush on one hoof that we are treating with peroxide. We will continue the treatment and keep an eye on it.

Cow Cow is doing well and getting bigger every day! I can tell he is lonely and wants to play so I got him a beach ball to play with. He absolutely loves it! I could not believe it! I have CJ go

Cow from the side — Cow Cow strikes a pose

in with me (just in case) and throw the ball around with him. He pushes it around with his head, gets excited, and starts bucking all around. Admittedly, I normally run away at that point and then go back when he is calmer. It is so cute to watch him play and it makes my heart happy.

We did set up a better system for delivering water to the pastures. We hooked up enough hoses to reach the pastures. This works much better than carrying multiple buckets. This sounds pretty simple but CJ was concerned that the water pressure would not be able to push the water that far and uphill. I think CJ just enjoys working hard. I however, really do not like carrying buckets, so I tested it out to see. Works like a charm and now is the go to method.

I think CJ and I will be setting up an electric fence in the pasture to where we can get in there and do what we need to while still being separated from Cow Cow. He wants to play and even went to the extent of jumping up while CJ was cleaning out his water trough. Cow Cow had both front hooves up on CJ’s shoulders! Not cool, Cow cow! Bad cow. He is getting big enough to push even CJ around. CJ was able to swat him off and no harm done. However, if that had been me, he would have knocked me down and trampled me to death. This is not acceptable.

Due to his loneliness and eagerness to play, we are discussing getting another cow for him. I am not sure how I feel about this. On one hand I know it would do Cow Cow so much good to have company and another animal to play with. On the other hand, this is more work, more feed, more issues, and I am just not sure we are ready to take that on. CJ is of the opinion that two cows would not make any more difference than one. He often reminds me of my “just do it” attitude. I do not think that he realizes how much that particular attitude has changed! I fear soon I will be the victim of a cow gang. We will discuss the issue further before we make a decision. While we have learned a lot, there is still more to learn and I want to do better than our first cow purchase experience.

We have found another resource with a gentleman that plowed our driveway last year. He is also a farmer, and has stated that he could provide us with hay this winter for the cow and donkey. He also has a connection with a Jersey cow farmer and she is willing to come out to our farm. She is happy to give us advice on what type of hay is best for the cow this winter and any other tips that she can give us. Hopefully she can come out next week. I am excited to meet and learn from her!

Chickens in Poultry Net — The Chickens are hunting for bugs.

The egg laying hens are doing well and back to laying eggs regularly now that the temperatures have calmed down. We did lose the one sick hen. We are still not sure what was wrong, but she continued to decline even though she was isolated from the others and had access to food and water. We are down to 5 hens now and the rooster. The rest of them seem to be healthy and doing well thankfully.

We are gearing up for the new meat birds coming in September and already have customers placing orders! So exciting! So proud of CJ and his crazy idea of farming. When he sets his mind to do something, nothing can stop him! He is achieving his dream! I love experiencing this new adventure with him, even if most of it is spent with me running from the cow!

Cow Update June 19th, 2020

June 19, 2020

by charles.lafferty Cow Getting Started with the Farm

Happy Friday!

Cow Cow is still improving and doing great! We almost had an adventure here today, but thanks to my quick thinking (ok, maybe more like begging God to have mercy), the crisis was averted!

Calf from side — My ribs are no longer showing 🙂

Today brought a slight issue with me being able to check on Cow Cow while also not going into the pasture. Mother Nature decided to bring the rain. It was bound to happen. Typically, I keep his feed bowl right by the fence so I can keep track of how much he is eating and refill easily. I can not do this if it is raining. His food cannot be out in the rain. CJ moved his food bowl into the shelter. This means I must go in there to check on it.

Since his recovery, Cow Cow has much more energy, and for some reason only acts up when I am in the pasture. He also will not listen to me if I try to get him to stop acting up. Basically, he is a toddler. He acts like a little crazy, rambunctious, little demon for Mom, but then acts all super sweet for everyone else. I do not think he is being aggressive. I honestly think that he is trying to play. I am the one who cuddled him, gave him love, and cares for him. Now that he has energy, he just wants me to play with him. While I would love to play with him, I cannot allow him to play in that rambunctious manner. When he is grown, this could be very dangerous. Since (like a normal toddler), he pushes the boundaries, and does not listen very well, I think that it is best that I stay out of the pasture until I can get him to respect me and my personal space. Also, I do not want to die via cow.

So, I came up with a plan. I filled his milk bucket with water and just enough milk replacer to give it flavor but not too much that it would cause any harm through over-feeding. I had

Fencing in need of repair — The gaps in this fence are enough for a calf to fit through

Alayna feed him over the fence as normal, while I ran in the pasture and refilled his food. This worked well, I was able to get in, do my thing, and get out. Once out of the pasture I took over holding the milk bucket for Alayna and she walked back to the house. Cow Cow finished, I took the bucket away, and started walking away. Cow Cow decided to test his boundaries at this point and was pushing THROUGH the fence. To get a better picture of this moment that sent panic throughout me: the fence was in the active process of giving birth to the cow and he was about to be outside of the pasture and running free in the wilderness.

There are many things that went through my mind in this moment. Some I will not type here, because, well… CJ would frown upon it. But the general idea, is that I was about to have a rambunctious cow on the loose. I was going to have to chase this thing all over. I do not know how to catch cows. I do not know how to catch them with a leash, or a rope, much less my bare hands! I panicked for a moment. He had most of his upper body through the fence and I saw the realization on his face. There was that moment where it went from “I am going to try this” to “Hey, this is actually working, I can do this”. He had but take a step and he would be free.

My heart dropped and my mind sent up a prayer, an oh crap, and a here we go, all at once. I puffed up my chest, bent my arms inward (kind of like a body builder flexing), jerked forward in the most threatening manner I possess, stomped, and bellowed in the most aggressive, deep voice that I could muster: “Get back, Back, don’t you even dare, don’t do it, back, go on, GET BACK IN THAT FENCE!”

I must have sounded somewhat threatening, because Alayna came out yelling “What is going on, are you ok?”. Cow Cow stopped and had a look on his face that said, “What the heck was that”. I continued my jerking and bellowing for him to get back, and thankfully it worked! He started to slowly back up. Even if he did look at me like I had gone bonkers. I do not care, it worked!

Lord, have mercy. I thought I was going to have to chase a cow! I can, not, even! However, the crisis was averted, and all was well in the end. I will have to use my newfound threatening skills when I am inside the pasture to see if that works on getting him to respect me. Of course, only if CJ is in there with me, should he not find me threatening enough. HA!

Fixing that fence, has now moved to the highest priority. It shall be done. We will also have to come up with a better way to handle feeding during rainy weather.

As you can see, he has his energy back! He is eating great! He is getting more used to eating the dry feed and eating the amount that he should be eating. He has gained a little weight, I think. I did buy a cattle weight tape so we (I mean CJ) can get an idea of how much he weighs, and we can track how much he is gaining each week. I believe he needs to be gaining at least 2.5lbs/week. He may be a little slower at first due to him trying to catch up to a healthy weight, but we will get him there!

Cow Cow Update

June 14, 2020

by charles.lafferty Cow Getting Started with the Farm

Good things to report!

Cow Cow has improved significantly in only a matter of days!

We started off with 2 quarts of milk, twice a day. I do have to mix the formula carefully, since the milk replacer is so rich. We do not want to upset his stomach further after being deprived of the milk. We will get him up to the proper mixing proportions as soon as we can. Right now, he is getting about a third of the normal amount of milk replacer, mixed with water to equal the 2 quarts at each feeding.

The calf feeding bucket I bought is working out beautifully! CJ put up a board on the fence to hang the bucket and it works great! Sometimes Cow Cow can be a little aggressive with it, so we must stay near incase he jostles it too much. He knows where his feeding station is now and will come right on up when he sees the bucket. He is still learning the routine and often comes to the station begging when we walk near that section. I know he wants more, and my heart wants to give him as much as he can eat, yet we must continue to take it slow with him. We do not want to overdo things and make things worse!

He also gets free choice of calf feed throughout the day. We must be careful of how we do this as well. While he can eat as much feed as he wants during this time, he needs to eat it in smaller amounts. Again, its all about keeping his stomach settled. I give him about 1 – 2 quarts at a time and go out about every hour or so to check if he has eaten it. If he has eaten most of the feed, then I will give him more. If not, we check back in the next hour and go from there. He does not enjoy the feed as much as the milk. He does not seem to have a routine yet either with how much feed he is eating daily. Sometimes he gobbles it down, and sometimes it sits almost all day. I created a feeding chart for him, and it now hangs by the back door for me to be able to keep track of exactly how much he is eating and when. I feel like a mom with a newborn all over again! At least this one lets me sleep at night!

I am comfortable that we are on the right path as he has turned into a whole new cow! I cannot believe the difference in him! He has so much more energy. When we first came to us, he stayed in the shelter and hardly moved. Now he is up, moving, and roaming around the pasture. If he sees you outside the fence, he will come up to the feeding station. If you do not give him milk, he will follow you all along the fence line, mooing, as if to say “um, hello, maybe you don’t see the hungry cow here!”. Yesterday I saw him even run! I had no idea cows could move that fast! Imagine a young deer running through pasture, at full speed, that is what he looked like!

His behavior has improved as well. He is calmer; however, he can still be a little pushy when he is hungry. He associates me now with food. I am mom. I am the milk bringer. He perks up when he sees me. This also means, when I do not have what he wants, he can throw a little tantrum and try and get pushy with me. I have seen what this little guy can do, and I no longer underestimate him. He has my respect (and trepidation). He does not behave this way with CJ (of course). He is always on his best behavior when CJ comes in the pasture. At first, I fully believed that the little stinker was trying to make me look foolish. Encouraging CJ to continue to believe that I exaggerated the cow attack. (I most certainly DID NOT!) I no longer believe this is the case, even though I swear, I can see him laughing when CJ is not looking. He just knows that I am mom and I have control of his food. Just like my human kids, when they are hangry, I get the brunt of their meltdowns. I am cautious around him because of this and make CJ go in the pasture with me now just in case I need saving.

Once he is settled in his feeding routine, and knows that he will always be fed, I expect him to calm down even more. He is still a hungry boy and you cannot blame him at all for that! He is obviously improving and getting healthier by the day. That is all that I need for now.