The calves are outside!

The calves left their winter abode and headed out to pasture today.

Throughout the rainy winter months, the cows stay sheltered in the barn and the loafing shed, where they eat haylage; the ground is simply too wet for them to be outside during the winter, and the cool weather keeps the grass from growing fast enough to provide sufficient nutrition for them (flooding is also a winter problem, of course).  During this past winter season, the calves (born last summer) were moved into the loafing shed behind the big white barn in order to separate them from the rest of the herd.

Spring has brought a series of warmer, drier days (despite that out-of-the-blue snowstorm), so we were able to move the calves out into the grass today - as you can imagine, they were super excited to taste some fresh grass!

Munching on green grass...

The grass is still quite short, so they'll need to be moved to new pasture once or twice a day for awhile.  The rest of the herd will be heading outside soon.

Piglets with their mama

Arabia's piglets are growing quickly and are becoming more adventurous - they've been leaving their elevated "nursery" area and have been scampering around the rest of the pen, rooting, oinking, and chasing each other.

I know that a lot of folks are excited to see the piglets and lambs in person...we'll be having our annual May Day gathering on Saturday, May 4th this year - hopefully you can come join in the May Pole celebration, greet the animals, and help us to usher in the spring season!  More details will be posted soon, so keep an eye on the blog and be sure to sign up for our newsletter.