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I was honored to be asked to be a tour site for the Farm Bureau District 9 Women’s Summit this summer. It was a great opportunity to share with fellow Farm Bureau members about raising meat goats, rotational grazing practices and pasture-raised turkeys.
It was also the first time I hosted a farm tour. Here’s what I learned in the process:
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Today has been a productive day, which I’m thankful. Work on the farm doesn’t always go as planned or takes a lot longer than anticipated. Since we have company coming later today, I wanted to cross a few items off the to do list right away: Set up portable fence for a new paddock and move the turkey pen. Regardless of my productivity, I managed to learn a few lessons while working out in the pasture.
Here are a few things I might do a little differently next time:
And, these are few tasks I’ll keep doing:
 It’s official. I will now be adding turkey grower to my ever-growing skills as a farmer. Yesterday I placed an order for pullets (baby turkeys) and scheduled the butchering with an area processor that’s now a USDA federally inspected facility. Talk about planning the cycle of life in just a few short minutes!
While I wait for the pullets to arrive in mid-April, I need to start getting busy for their arrival. I do have a brooder on hand. But, I’ll need to start planning their feed rations and work on a number of building projects: a portable pen for use when they just start on pasture, a portable roost shelter when they are big enough to not need their pen on pasture, a water line and feeder, both for pasture. The pullets will be pastured-raised and supplemented with grains. However, before they are old enough to go out on pasture, they’ll live in a brooder, a baby-turkey nursery pen. Once ready, they’ll head out to pasture, living in portable pens that will be moved daily with access to fresh grass. After sometime they’ll be able to live in their own paddock (section of the pasture) without the pen. Since I also raise meat goats, the turkeys will “follow” the goats as they are rotationally grazed. This means every few days the goats move to a new paddock. Then the turkeys will move into goat’s old paddock. This will allow the turkeys to eat grasses and other greens, and even bugs, the goats don’t eat. It also is a way to naturally distribute fertilizer in a fairly even manner throughout the pasture. After the summer on pasture, the turkeys will be processed and ready for sale this fall, just in time for the holidays. Now it’s time to get busy building before the little fuzzy pullets arrive. |
About LeslieI own and manage Cylon Rolling Acres in northwestern Wisconsin. On my farm I raise Boer - Kiko meat goats on pasture. Why Cylon?
Cylon (pronounced Si-lon) is the name of our township in St. Croix County, Wisconsin. Sorry fans, our farm is not named after the robots of Battlestar Galactica.
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