Kyle Farms All Natural Lamb

The ram on the left is a January, English-type Suffolk ram, that has not seen grain since weaning and has been on pasture until being brought in for this picture.  The ram on the right is a May Ile de France/Dorset cross ram that was born and raised on pasture as a triplet, and has also not seen grain or a barn until being brought in this week.  We strive to find and utilize terminal rams that don't need to have a grain bucket thrown at them, and can still produce productive, muscular lambs.  The lambs at the top are prime example of what our ewes are producing lambing on pasture.  The ewe is a horned Dorset cross 5 year old ewe that saw no ration supplementation other than the pasture she is on.

This picture taken in August is of Fall ewe lambs and fall bred ewes on a harvested rye field overseeded with clover and orchard grass.

This week will be the last week to order a whole or half share of Kyle Farms all natural lamb.  We will be processing our lambs for November 14th, and need to make sure that we will have enough all naturally raised lambs to fill our orders.  The lambs are growing really well and coming along quite nicely.  www.kylefarmsnys.com

Their mother's out on one of our larger pastures are demonstrating how good they are at finding fence defects for us.  One side of the pasture is bordered by a stream and the ewes find ways under the fence alongside the stream and wander into which ever other pasture they feel like.  Many afternoons/evenings recently have involved phone calls about seeing ewes in pastures that should have been empty and going and moving them back.  They're quite aware of where they should be and as soon as the dog shows up collecting them into a group they head back through whatever hole they found (a new one every time of course).  In a few of the attached pastures its easier to just pretend its one large pasture because they'll go back and forth through the day and by the time you get there to move them, they've moved themselves back to the correct spot.

This coming Saturday, October 24th is the Cornell Sheep and Goat Symposium (and for those in PA the PA Sheep Symposium).  Matt will be speaking at the Cornell Sheep and Goat Symposium, on "How We Do Things at Kyle Farms"  

This should be a very interesting talk as he is very passionate about productive and profitable sheep farming.

Also at the Symposium will be lectures on economics, new developments in the industry and parasites (FAMACHA certification!).  There will be sheep to shawl demo and usually a slaughter demo as well.  More information can be found at sheep.cornell.edu 

It’s Officially Fall at Kyle Farms!

This past weekend the Genesee Valley Hunt Club hosted their annual Hunt Races on Nations Rd.  Those who attended may have seen Kyle Farms ewes in a pasture adjacent to the racetracks.  We are very grateful to Megan for painting a sign to go in front of our ewes advertising Kyle Farms All Natural Lamb and our website www.kylefarmsnys.com

Lambing is still on going, and should be winding down as we get closer to November.  The next lambing group will be lambing in January and February, giving us time to transition the lambs out of the lambing/weaning barns and to allow the barns to rest and be completely cleaned between lambing periods.

We are very excited that Matt was invited to speak at the Cornell Sheep and Goat Symposium on October 24^th.  He will be speaking on “How We Do Things at Kyle Farms,” giving attendees insight on our management practices and how one can run a profitable sheep farm (often believed to be an oxymoron).  This should be a very interesting talk, and the whole symposium looks to be fun, informative, and interactive.

(http://sheep.cornell.edu) 

And now for the topic everyone is waiting for: All Natural Lamb pick up date!

All lamb orders will be available for pick up on Saturday, November 14^th in the morning (most likely 9-12).  I will be sending out order sheets for how you would like your lamb cut. 

We greatly appreciate your interest and support of Kyle Farms All Natural Lamb, and look forward to meeting all our customers on November 14^th! 

The 81st running of the Genesee Valley Hunt Race will be happening on Nations Rd, in Geneseo, NY this weekend.  The events start at 10am and continue all day with activities and entertainment for all.  More information on the Hunt Races can be found at www.geneseevalleyhunt.org

 Kyle Farms sheep are normally found in the fields and pastures that the Hunt Race will cover and will be able to be seen in pastures next to and around the race grounds.  

 This should be a very exciting and fun Saturday event! 

We are happy to announce that we now have our All Natural Lamb shares available through Local Harvest.  For anyone in Western NY, please take a look at our locally raised all natural lamb shares.   Unfortunately we can only offer our lamb for local pick up, but if you're within driving distance of Rush, NY we'd love to share our delicious lamb with you.  For anyone not in the Rochester area, we'd still love to talk about our lamb and our farm and farming practices.  

We are great believers in involving the community in our farm and almost all of our pastures are a part of the Genesee Valley Conservancy, and are managed for responsible grazing, community use, and nature conservation.

Please feel free to visit our Local Harvest site, our website (www.kylefarmsnys.com) and our Local Harvest store, or shoot us an e-mail at kylefarmsnys@yahoo.com

Thanks. 

Anne

I wanted to share a picture some of our gorgeous new fall lambs.  These lambs are in a jug (small pen) with their mother to help her keep track of them for the first 2 days of life.

Moving a group of ewes down the road with a border collie herding and directing the flock and a handler in a truck following behind 

Well its officially the last day of summer, and our ewes have started lambing!

 About a third of the flock was officially bred to lamb this fall, however the ewes bred for late spring were run with clean up rams to catch any girls who didn't take.  This means more work for us, as there are multiple groups of ewes that may be getting ready to lamb, but it also means more lambs available for the winter holiday markets!

In the Genesee Valley the weather for our fall lambing season is so variable, that we bring our girls into barns to lamb, generally three weeks prior to them being due.  This means that every three weeks, all ewes that have the potential to be pregnant are sorted through our handling system and checked for udder development and other signs of late pregnancy.  They are then brought into the barns and fed ensiled summer hay supplemented with local grain for the ewes who may need some additional nutritional support.  However, after summer on our pastures, most of these ewes don't see any grain. 

Any ewes that aren't determined to be due within the next three weeks, are put back out on pasture and may be put in with the group that has the rams breeding for early spring lambs.  

This process will repeat itself until 2-3weeks after the last calculated lambing date, or until all ewes due to lamb have lambed, or are diagnosed as open.

New photo gallery for Kyle Farms!!

 We're getting more and more tech savy every day :-)

photos.kylefarmsnys.com 

Kyle Farms is..... 

Now taking orders for all natural fall finished lamb! Please visit www.kylefarmsnys.com for information on placing an order for all natural locally raised whole or half lamb. CSA subscriptions are available for purchase year around for Fall Lambs! 

Available in Whole ($300) or Half ($175) Shares! 

A Whole Share provides approx. 50-60lbs of freezer ready lamb 

A Half Share provides 25-30lbs of freezer ready lamb 

We believe that a healthy environment is essential for the growth and development of our all natural lamb. These lambs and their mothers are housed on grass with unlimited access to fresh, clean water to take advantage of the nutritious pastures of the Genesee Valley. Raising our lambs in open air on clean, dry pastures allows us to produce healthy lambs without the use of antibiotics or artificial hormones. This guarantees that there is no risk of antibiotic residues in the lamb you purchase from Kyle Farms. 

Thank You! 
www.kylefarmsnys.com 

The saying goes, "It takes a village...."  And for us I'd change it to, "It takes a community...."  

 (To raise adorable lambs like this)

This is going to be a thank you to all those who help us out throughout the year, and also a reminder for everyone else with farms (small or large) that making and keeping good relationships with your neighbors can be of immense importance.  

Its easy to overlook all the outside inputs to Kyle Farms when you're involved in a day to day basis and it becomes commonplace, but when we stop and think about it, there are very few large projects that aren't done with the help of friends and neighbors.  

The entire flock was shorn over the past three weeks, and at one point we had 3 shearing machines running.  The weather however was not as organized as we were.  In order to shear a dry flock in a dry location, a neighbor graciously let us use an empty barn adjacent to the pastures where the unshorn sheep were, saving us from having to haul the sheep to one of our barns or shearing outside in the rain.  In order to run three shearing machines, electricity had to be provided in the form of generators.  Being a relatively low input sheep farm we had no generators, and were able to borrow THREE generators from various local farms to power the shearing machines, wool baler, and various other electric equipment (lights, etc).  Just thinking back on that, I can't imagine how difficult it would have been to haul the ewes, load by load, to the shearing barn, and then back after being shorn to the pasture.  And the amount of fuel used by the generators....much less than the amount used by the farm truck to haul heavy trailer loads of sheep back and forth all weekend. 

To shear the sheep efficiently and quickly requires atleast 2-3 shearers and we are lucky to know many excellent shearers who are willing to come shear for us.  However, when running three shearing machines it triples the amount of work for whoever is assisting.  In our case, ATLEAST 2-3 people are needed to help keep up with the shearers.  Someone to haul sheep to the shearers, someone to sweep up the wool and do some basic skirting, and someone to run the wool baler.  So if one person falls sick, or is unable to work, it can really throw a wrench in things.

This is where the community really steps in.  The Saturday shearing goes great, they shear all day and get a good part of the flock done.  Sunday, a shearer and an assistant are unable to work, and after a few quick calls around, a visiting farmer who shears and some friends of the farm show up to get the shearing done.  

Sure it takes a bit longer, and for a farm with only a few employees to have everyone and their friends shearing or helping shear until 8 at night means everything else falls to the wayside until afterwards, but without those friends and neighbors, we'd have still been shearing Monday.  The same goes for our relationship with local farms.  Without their help we wouldn't have had generators or barn to shear in the most convenient and least stressful spot.

I could go on and on about the multitude of times Kyle Farms Saturday and Sunday projects have benefited from our friends and neighbors  help and availability.  Whether it be while vaccinating and processing lambs, or fixing the water pump for a barn full of pregnant ewes in July (and providing the portable water tank to supply them with water until it could be fixed).  This spring time we would like to thank the community for their help and friendship.

End of long ramble

Summary: Make and keep good relationships with your local farms and neighbors.  You never know when you might need their help or they might need yours. 

I'm trying to post an entry every Monday, and unfortunately the past week has been relatively uneventful.  Shearing of the ewes due to lamb in the next couple of weeks happened 2 weeks ago, and the rest of the flock is waiting patiently for the combination of nice weather and available shearers.  The late spring lambing ewes are starting to bag up and look closer to lambing, and everyone is starting to think about field and equipment preparation for planting and haying.  Its currently a waiting game.

 Since waiting games aren't very interesting to write about, or read for that matter, I thought I would introduce the backgrounds of the ewes at Kyle Farms.  

Dorset/Finn cross ewes are the basis of the flock with the ideal being a 3/4 Dorset, 1/4 Finn sheep.  The Dorset base is valued for producing a high quality meat lamb with good bone, muscling and growth rates.  They also are very good mothers and raise their lambs well with little assistance.  Crossing Dorset ewes with Finn sheep increases the number of lambs that a ewe has per lambing as the Finn sheep are renowned for their fertility and often have 4-5 lambs at a time.  Finn sheep are also smaller slighter sheep and this makes the ewes easier to handle and move (pick up) by one person.  

Suffolk rams may on occasion be used on ewes that did not lamb with their lambing group to produce meat lambs and occasionally a ewe lamb out of this cross is kept as a replacement.  Affectionately known as dirty faced ewes, there are a few black faced cross ewes in the flock.  

Our ram flock is made up of purebred Dorset, Finn, and Ile de France rams with some home bred cross rams kept every year to maximize the hybrid vigor provided by our Dorset/Finn crosses.  The Ile de France rams produce a lovely meat lamb with great hind quarter muscling and excellent growth on mother's milk and grass.  

Rare breeds at Kyle Farms

Kyle Farms was home for a time to a small flock of Romanov ewes and rams.  Romanov sheep are very fertile and are known for the large numbers of lambs they will have in litters.  Their crosses with traditional white faced sheep are generally very fertile, can lamb throughout the year and raise white, wooled lambs.  Unfortunately they are more susceptible to feet problems than the rest of our flock and require more attention at lambing than we expect to provide our ewes and so have been fazed out of the flock.