Janie and I wanted to share some exciting news with y’all. We have 2 new members in our cow family that arrived on the farm last week.
Andras Champ 7094 will be our new herd bull and Andras Tamara 9097 will start a new line of mama cows for us. Both were bred by our friends Steve and Will at Andras Stock Farm in Manchester, IL.
Champ is one of the most evenly proportioned bulls I’ve seen. He has a great butt with even bigger shoulders. Champ will put the muscle (meat) on our calves we’ve been looking for. We turned Champ out with the “ladies” Saturday afternoon and trust me, he needed no instruction manual!
Tammy, a bred heifer, will have her first calf this spring. Tammy has the exact physical characteristics we are looking for to produce quality grass fed beef. She has moderate height, moderate length with depth and thickness. That’s cow talk for short and stocky, kind of like me.
We weaned our last litter of piggies for 2010 this weekend and I’m looking forward to a break from farrowing. At the high point this summer I was feeding 48 pigs which was no small task. We have a sow in with a boar now to start the process all over for 2011. We are hoping to produce enough feeder pigs next year to start offering pork in cuts as well as whole hog sausage. We will let you know when this happens.
With our new ground that hopefully will be growing grass by Spring, Janie has decided to rebuild the sheep flock. Therefore she does not plan on selling any breeding stock next year. The new lambs will either be held for our own breeding stock or meat production. With this goal in mind, this summer we purchased 2 new ewe lambs from David Maddox of Warm Springs Katahdins. Janie put the girls, Taffey and Caramel, in with our ram Maximiser a couple of weeks ago. Since Janie won’t be selling breeding stock next year, we would highly recommend David as a source.
There are a couple of new adventures for Dennis Farms that some of you are aware of but others are not, so I’ll mention them here. Thanks to the wizardry of Janie’s son Kris, we are now developing a kind of current events opening page on the web site. We also are now on Facebook which I know nothing about but Janie does. We are off to a slow start with this because I’ve been slow in giving stuff to Kris and Janie. But y’all may want to do whatever one does to know when we update Facebook.
Our biggest new adventure is our new partnership with our friends Daniel, Susan, David and Tina Hammond of “My Dad and Me Family Farm” in Powder Springs, GA. The Hammonds operate a raw milk (labeled for pet food) dairy. Janie and I can attest to how delicious the milk is from their Jersey cows. They also raise pastured broilers, free range laying hens and a wide assortment of seasonal fruit and vegetables. The Hammonds are making our beef, pork, and lamb available to folks in NW Atlanta. You can learn more about their farm at their website www.mydadandmefamilyfarm.com.
I know I’ve been terribly remiss in getting Updates out this year, but we have had an incredibly busy year and my mind is usually mush by the time I get into the house. If it wasn’t raining, I doubt I would have gotten this one out. I’m sure I’ll do better next year.
In closing, Janie and I want to express again how much we appreciate the support from all of you. Whether it is moral support from distant family, breeding stock purchases, or meat purchases, we couldn’t do what we do without YOU. Thank you!
Regards,
Greg & Janie Dennis
Dennis Farms
Ranburne, AL
