Family Fun Farm Tour ~ Windy Meadows

Windy Meadows Farm Tour

On September 15^th I was asked to join SIRCH Community Services for another one of their wonderful farm tours. This tour was of Windy Meadows and working farm that had Angus Beef Cows.

When we arrived to the farm is was such a nice fall day and perfect to be walking around a farm. We were greeted by Jean and Brian Neville. Jean was our tour leader for the day.
We started with some facts about the farm like it's 200 years old and they have 100 acres filled with cattle, a donkey, some chickens and turkeys and we can't forget the pigs.

Walking to the barn 

There is an old milk house that is located on the side of the barn which was once used to milk the cows in, but has since been changed into the chicken house. The old milk house once housed the cream separator and that was a hand operated machine.

The Chicken House 

In 2009 they renovated the barn because it was starting to sink and one wall was falling apart so they poured concrete to save the wall

The Barn was built low for the height of the people and back then people were a lot shorter it seems. This barn is still held together with the wooden pegs where the joists meet. There is even a wall in the lower part of the barn where you can see the boards that were original and that they were held together with straw.

There is a pulley system at the top of the barn where there is a few ropes attached so that they could move the loose hay that was brought into the barn by the horses on a wagon. They had a hay fork that was also attached to the pulley system and would pick up a quarter of the hay load and then the person controlling it would then move it across to the other side of the barn where they stored the hay.

The wooden pegs 

The Rope that attaches to the Pulley 

Pulley on the roof 

The Hay Fork 

She showed us the original way into the lower half of the barn down a home built in ladder. But lucky for us they now have built stairs to get to the lower half of the barn.

Walking down the stairs 

When we were down there we got to see the stable area for both the cows and the horse. We got to see what the cows eat from and it’s called a manger. The entrance to the chicken coop is also down in the lower half of the barn.

Entrance into Chicken House 

We were shown some really interesting Pigeons called Trumpeter Pigeons. What makes them interesting is the fact that they have feathers on their feet. They also mate for life and live for about 10 years.

Trumpeter Pigeons 

She told us an interesting fact about chickens and turkeys. They have to have little stones to eat so that they can grind up all the food that they eat. You can also buy special stones for them from feed stores.

She also said that they break up all the chicken eggs that they get from the chickens and feed them back to them so they get all the calcium that they need and if you don't break them up small enough then they will start to eat the eggs they lay, if they start doing that there is a little trick you can do to stop them. You take a broken egg fill it with bread mixed with water and pepper put it back in with the chicken and when they eat it the pepper will make it too hot for them and they will stop eating their eggs.

The Male Turkeys 

She told us the difference between Hay and Straw. Hay is used for feed for the cows and Straw is only used for their beds and it comes from wheat and barley.

She also told us that Hay can spontaneously con-bust if it is not fully dry when bailed. So they now have a special device to read the temperature of the middle of the bail. So the best climate would be a very dry July/August.As for Straw it is always dry long before the Hay is.

Hay

Straw

Showing us how the temp tool works 

One of my favorite parts of this tour was meeting the pigs but there is only one thing that these pigs are for. They are Spring to Fall pigs, but that doesn't change how cute they are. We all learned a very interesting facet about pigs: they come from the bear family. These kinds of pigs are called Brukshire Pigs and they always stay outside.

Brukshire Pigs 

Jean was nice enough to turn off the fence so that we could all get closer to the cows and feed them the special treat that they enjoy, bread.

Cows eating 

Feeding Cows Bread 

The cows were so friendly and enjoyed us being there. If you gave them the time to warm up to you they would let you touch them. I was lucky enough to get to rub ones nose. 

Me touching her nose 

Some interesting facts about cows....

- They have three stomachs
- If cows eat nails or other metal things they have to have a magnet placed in them to make sure the it doesn't move, this is called Hardware Disease.
- They gestate for nine months just like we do.
- If there is a set of twins that are male and female then she has a 6% chance of being able to reproduce. The hormones from the male cause this.
- This year they had two sets of twins and they came from mother and daughter.
- One set of twins this year was a male and female
- After the calf's a certain age they get separated from the rest of the cows so they can reproduce again.

The Donkey that they have is deaf, he is also albino. Donkeys are kept on farms because they will chase off dogs, wolves and anything else that is there to harm the sheep and goats and it will kill the predators.

Bringing the Donkey over 

We also were told that horses gestate for 11 months and very rarely had twins.

Once we were finished with the tour we were treated to a wonderful lunch of hamburgers and salads. The burgers were made from the meat that they produce from the farm and I must say it made me never want to buy beef from the store again. This was one of the best burgers that I have ever had.

The Homemade Burgers cooking 

This was so yummy 

I want to thank them again for having us there and providing such a wonderful lunch for everyone.

Quotes from this tour were pretty simple and understandable.

Mmmmmmmmm

                      -Amanda (Parent)

 Interesting learning about small farming

                                                    - Jennifer (parent)

If you would like to learn more about SIRCH Community Services or any of the programs they have to offer please visit their website 

  http://www.sirch.on.ca/