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Milk & Chickens

Today was the first day that the new milk parlour was fully operational, the cows are now firmly established on the new farm.  Milking went well, and the cows were comfortable with the new system, milk production is still only about 90% of what it was two weeks ago, but we anticipated that stressed cows produce less milk.  Our foreman is confident that within a few days, everything will be back to normal.  The new space was purpose-built and therefore easier to manage.  Our herd is growing to meet our butter needs, as I indicated before, we easily sell out our butter production, and our objective is to meet between 90% and 95% of demand, as we expect that percentage to rise a bit this year as the economy slows down.  In addition, our subsidiaries can easily use more buttermilk in the pie crust.

Our staff likes the new setup, the weekend crew, which operates today and tomorrow, got some training on Thursday, and they all said that it is far more efficient, and the cows seem to find the new milking equipment better because it is much quieter.  The milking equipment manufacturer said we needed no more than 24 stations, and they were right, we processed all 150 cows in record time, The space is more than large enough to accommodate another 100 cows so that will be our aim for this next year, it will take about 24 months to grow the herd to that level.  Also at any one time, about 20% of the cows are dry, as they are removed from the milking cycle for breeding purposes.  

The first batch of chicks was delivered yesterday afternoon.  They are in small enclosures with heating lamps, it is the availability of heating lamps that defines the number of chicks we get.  The chicks are between two and four days old when we get them, as they age they still need heat lamps for 3/5 weeks, but it declines quickly, after two weeks we cut the number of lamps in half.   Therefore we will receive the next batch of chicks in the week of April 1.  We had no losses this year, all 200 hundred were still alive this morning.  This has to do with us collecting the chicks directly from the hatchery and keeping them warm.  Until their feathers are out, they have to be kept inside, unless it's above 30c.  At two months, the chickens will be moved to their permanent forest enclosure, where they forage for their own food (we also provide waste fruits, vegetables and plants), at night we leave some grain in the roost house.  This is all new to us in 2024, in the past, the chickens would be in tractors, but this is far more convenient.  We purchased movable electric fencing (to keep predators out during the daytime), and the roost house is a simple covered area with strong metal fencing to protect them from foxes, stoats and buzzards.  Chicken learn to come to the roost house every night, for their safety.  A few will try to roost in the trees, but it rarely ends well for them...

Our chicken expert told us that we should expect losses of 4/5% to predators.  However, our cost of chicken feed has dropped by 90%.  This summer 100% of the waste we produce in the high tunnels will go either to the pigs or to the chickens.  A far better use than the biodigesters...

Note:  our spread of chicken has changed, in the past, we were 90% female chicks now it's nearly 50/50, in the forest its less of a problem to have more males, and they grow larger.

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