Belted Galloway Beef Cow Compared to Belted English Dairy Cow
Perfection: Belted Galloway, dairy sheep and cheese
Award winning Belted Galloway cattle and award-winning sheep's milk cheese can be establish on the aforementioned farm in Cazenovia, NY. But in that location'south no competition on the farm: both the sheep and cattle are thriving, providing milk, meat and superior genetics in a finely-tuned, integrated system. The farm, endemic by Marc Shappell and Tom Anderson, is managed past Fiona Harrar and Seth Hanauer.
Meadowood Farms direct markets lamb, beefiness and cheese via the local farmers' market, offers freezer lambs, and sells to restaurants. Nigh half-dozen cattle, 150 marketplace lambs and several sheep are slaughtered for meat each season. The cheeses are sold in specialty cheese shops across the nation. The animals are all pastured and intensively rotationally grazed 24 hours/day from May-November, enjoying lush orchard grass, timothy, perennial rye and clover. Pastures are rested a minimum of three days. Most 35 acres of pasture are typically taken equally a kickoff hay cutting before being pastured. No herbicides or pesticides are used on the pastures, which are maintained via controlled grazing and mowing.
"We do a lot of clipping in the spring and summer after grazing, and then the clover does not become out-competed by the grass," Harrar said. "We frost seed in late wintertime, early jump."
The animals graze in four grazing groups: dairy sheep; lambs for market and replacement; breed cows; and calves, heifers and steers. The prized dairy sheep flock is kept on prime pastures. The pastures closest to the befouled are dedicated to the flock, for ease milking. The dairy flock is moved into a new paddock following each milking, and lambs and calves are also moved daily. Brood cows are moved every 2-3 days. Sheep are guarded by Great Pyrenees and Maremma dogs, who continue predators abroad. Edge collies herd both sheep and cows.
"Grazing cows behind sheep actually helps to break up the parasite cycles," Harrar said. "We do not take a lot of parasite problems with the sheep."
During the wintertime months, animals are barn housed. They use straw bedding, creating a bedded pack which is composted in the spring. The compost is then spread on the fields. Hay is fed, primarily purchased from off-subcontract, during the wintertime.
Cattle breeding
The farm takes pride in its convenance program. Their Belted Galloway genetics are beginning-rate, and recognized equally such by the industry. Breeding cows were get-go purchased in 2002, and the farm has developed honour-winning heifers and bulls over the past decade.
"We chose Belted Galloway because they are a heritage breed, and entreatment to the grass-fed marketplace," Kay Weaber, Meadowood Farms cattle consultant said. "They are as well hardy and do well in our central New York climate."
In fact, they do very well. With a cattle breeding strategy designed for the real world, Meadowood Farms Belted Galloway genetics has resulted in numerous awards over the past years. They recently won the award for 2012 Show Bull of the Year for the Belted Galloway Society, and that bull besides was recognized equally the 2012 National Champion. And that's just the beginning. The farm has won Premier Breeder and Premier Exhibitor at the Big East, as well every bit at the Belted Galloway Show, several times over the years. But their animals aren't just pretty. They are bred for completeness, with an eye towards maximizing positive traits, while minimizing negative ones.
"Nosotros believe firmly in the theory that nosotros 'show our breeding cattle, not breed for show cattle'," Weaber said.
The subcontract volition breed near xx cows for 2014 calving. They've been breeding with leased natural service sires, and this year'due south National Champion Female, Meadowood Yona, was 1 such offspring. She won Yard Champion Heifer at The Large E, World Beef Expo and the National Show. They've recently started to purchase some embryos and semen as well. Calves are creep fed until weaning, then put on pasture, with a very small grain supplement Calves will get through several sorting sessions until the show string animals are selected.
The prove herd stays on the farm until September, when they are housed in Kentucky for the autumn show season. This also provides the opportunity for them to remain on pasture. It's easier to prepare cattle for showing in a milder climate, as well, and they are close to the remaining shows of the season. But dorsum at Meadowood Farms, the work continues, as fall calving is in full swing, and the ewes are drying off and being bred.
Dairy sheep
The dairy sheep produce milk used to craft the farm'due south award-winning pasteurized cheeses. They recently took home second place in the 2013 Farmstead Cheese, anile over 60 days, category at the American Cheese Society Contest in Madison, WI.
Head cheesemaker Veronica Pedraza makes three cheeses based on recipes from the Piedmont region of Italy. The cheeses are named after people or places in Cazenovia history. The Rippleton is rind-washed, the Ledyard is soft-ripened and the Lorenzo is a cooked and pressed curd cheese.
The sheep are a mix of European dairy sheep, primarily East Friesian, with some Lacaune genetics recently introduced, Harrar said. "European dairy sheep are known for higher milk production and lactation persistence." The sheep are naturally bred, with low producers bred back to Texel and Tunis lambs to produce amend quality meat.
"We take between 250 and 300 lambs during a iii week menses in March and April," Harrar said. "Nosotros take a lot of triplets and quads."
A large business organisation during lambing is pneumonia, and East Friesian sheep are particularly susceptible. They lamb in the befouled, with adequate ventilation and dry bedding, which are of primary importance in preventing the disease.
"We wean them at thirty days sometime and so we can start milking the ewes one time they exit on pasture," Harrar explained. "A lot of sheep dairies take the lambs off immediately simply like cow dairies, and raise the lambs on milk replacer. Since we practise all of our lambing in a three calendar week menstruum, with almost 300 lamb, nosotros find leaving them on the ewes works best for united states of america." Lambs are creep fed until weaning, when they are put on pasture.
Milk production
Sheep are milked from May until mid-Oct, when they showtime to dry up. Early in lactation, the milk production is at about 6-7 pounds per day for the best producers, and near 4 pounds on average. Six pounds of sheep's milk volition brand a pound of cheese, compared to the x pounds needed of cow's milk, Harrar said.
"With sheep, it's all about the butterfat," she said. "We produce nigh 50,000 pounds of milk in a season. Maintaining the components of the milk is a priority."
The sheep receive a pocket-size corporeality of hay and corn in the milking parlor, virtually one pound per milking. They are milked on a small low line milking platform, with 12 milking units, all of which are automated. Milk is pumped and stored in a 300 gallon bulk tank. The farm plans to add about xx more than sheep to the milking flock this upcoming year.
Meadowood Farms strives ever to fulfill its mission: "to accept pride in our well-cared-for and productive animals; to accept pride in our well-managed and vigorous pastures; and to produce food that reflects the pride we accept in our state and our livestock." With award-winning animals and products, they must exist doing something correct.
Source: https://countryfolks.com/perfection-belted-galloway-dairy-sheep-and-cheese/
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