FARM NEWS
Fall/Winter 2021
My favorite time of the year is upon us. I absolutely love the Fall. I enjoy being able to go outside in the crisp chilly air, warm myself by evening fires and enjoy the festivities the fall season has to offer. I also really love winter. I enjoy things slowing down a bit, weather getting colder, more excuses to spend time inside with the family, roaring fires in the fireplace. While wintertime can make caring for the animals a bit more challenging, I still think they enjoy the cold more then the heat of summer.
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During this time I start thinking forward to spring for plans I have for this farm. I start planning my spring garden. I plan our spring breedings. We have just a few selective breedings each year and I like to carefully time them out.
I plan on having an adorable litter of Holland Lop bunnies that will be ready for new homes come April.
I plan on a few spring pig litters. One should be due January 26, 2022. I am planning on another to be due late February and 2 more due late spring/early summer.
We also have significantly increased the size of our chicken flock this year with a variety of egg colors to be expected. I'm excited to see what we get and plan on incubating spring chicks. My heart is happy as I watch life flourish on the farm. We hope that your Fall, Winter and Holiday season will be magical this year.
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With Love,
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The McGuire Family
May/June 2021
Life seems to be flourishing on the farm lately! And for this I am so very grateful. Recently we had a hard freeze and I was worried we lost several vegetables and plants, but after some pruning they are all vigorous and healthy! Hoping for some yummy summer veggies soon.
We have a Kune Kune litter due mid June. This is from a prized pairing of my favorite sow and boar. The last time they mated they produced the most gorgeous litter and I anticipate another prized litter this time. Likely several banded and Tapeka trait piglets.
We also have 2 young Kune's added to the farm! One is a sweet gal we named Pepper who came from a Sire we previously had on the farm, so it was great getting that line back to our program. The other is about 95% high white with some Tapeka trait features and I look forward to one day seeing how her future offspring appears.
We also just had a litter of 6 Holland Lop bunnies delivered on the farm! I am personally so excited about this. We mated our beautiful lop named Snowball to a gorgeous buck that belongs to a dear friend of mine and I couldn't be happier with the results! Being this was Snowball's first litter I was pretty nervous on how it would go, but she did fantastic! I'm very impressed with the nest she constructed, super soft and warm for her babies. She is tending to them nicely.
We also recently added an Easter Egger Roo to our flock. After swearing off roosters from the last attack I received, this one was promised to be a good gentle boy and so far I am greatly enjoying him plus all the eggs in the incubator of soon to be chicks.
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This is a season where I feel inspired and start dreaming of the farm's future. My goal is to have at least 50% of our food supplied from the farm this time next year. My goal is also to add several more Kune's to our program. Our field is a gorgeous green meadow that is begging to have more piggies frolicking in the grass grazing away. I hope to see this happen soon. Wishing you all the best and hoping your season is as fruitful as ours!
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With Love,
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The McGuire Family
Feb/March 2020
It seems lately the only thing that has been plentiful are eggs. We have improvements we want to make to our Kune Kune area, but we seem to have record setting rain lately, which has greatly delayed our enhancements. Due to this we haven't had as many litters as usual. We have May and June litters planned. We have fingers crossed things will dry out in the near future so we can go full force forward with our farm plans.
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We are also in weird scary times with this Corona Virus going on. Nearly everything is shut down around us and the weather has us cooped inside so we are praying things will go back to normal soon.
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We are sorry we don't have more fun baby piggy pictures to share! But hopefully come summer, things will be back on track. In the meantime everyone stay safe & healthy!
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With Love,
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The McGuire Family
Nov/Dec 2019
It's that time of the year when things start slowing down on the farm a bit and we start planning for next year.
I have tons of ideas in my mind for growth to really make our farm a time honored success that will be able to be passed down from generation to generation.
I do have to be reminded to not get too far ahead of myself so I'm setting out a plan for gradual but steady growth.
Next year I plan on trying my hand at Straw Bale gardening, it looks promising and with our terrible thick clay soil, I hope it brings more success! I plan on offering various rare speciality vegetables that will eventually be introduced into a CSA program, veggies you can only find locally with us!
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I plan on adding more Kune Kune sows next year and switching up our breeding lines a little to freshen things up.
I also want to introduce sheep to our farm as I've ready many studies on how sheep along with cattle combined with rotational grazing can really do wonders in the pasture and how they increase productivity up to 25% when combined together.
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Sounds like next year will be busy but promising! Continue to check in on our progress and don't hesitate to reach out for any of your farm or pet pig needs.
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With Love,
The McGuire Family
Aug/Sept 2019
It's a busy time on the farm right now!
We have several adorable piglets running around.
The remaining few piglets from our Tapeka gilt will be going to their new home in September. The rest have already gone off to their wonderful new families!
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We have 2 new litters. One which I am very excited about is from our Kereopa Gilt. She gave birth to two beautiful sweet girls. We also have a litter of Kune Kune/American Guinea mix. These piglets are a combination of 2 breeds known for their very docile nature and prized for their amazing pork quality. We have 3 of these piglets available.
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We've added several additions of the poultry kind. We have 2 Pekin ducks, I'm interested to see the addition they make to our homestead. We also added some Jersey Giants and Rhode Island Reds. We had a few Black Ameraucana's hatch from our incubator in August. We hear the happy chirping coming from the brooder each day.
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We are trying to phase out our last few mini rex rabbits. We really want to put our focus on the pigs and poultry and hope to find new homes for our sweet bunnies.
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That pretty much sums it up on the home front! Feel free to reach out or visit any time!
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With Love,
The McGuire Family