CAFO Approved

Today was a major milestone in the development of Catesby Farms. We recieved notification that are CAFO application has been approved and that as of today we are now CAFO certified by the state of Oregon. Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) is one of the most important steps required in establishing a cheese facility (if you milk your own animals) and also one of those that tends to get glossed over or forgotten because there is traditionally no fanfare, or physical 'change' to anything that a picture could illustrate.

Still, it enables us to keep up to 200 sheep on our property and defines the parameters within which we can operate our cheese facility. The next certification is the cheese facility itself and once that happens we are fully registered, licensed and certified by the state of Oregon to start producing cheese. Next week we will be confirming the plans with our engineer for the construction of the waste lagoon which will begin construction this Autumn (Fall). We have not yet secured a general contractor to oversee the operation but once we have one they will take charge of both the lagoon and the milk barn refit.

So, this was the first major hurdle. From here on in the actual construction begins.

On a side note, we have sourced some East Friesian / Lacaune rams for our breeding program, down in Klamath Falls. We are still going to do some experimentation with the Katahdin's, but the aim initially will be to increase the size of the milking flock. This year we will only have 12 East Friesian ewes to breed, next year we will have 25 unless we acquire more. On the plus side we do have 10 Dorset ewes that we can breed either the Katahdin's or the East Friesian rams to depending on what else we are looking for. As I mentioned, the meat from the Katahdin's is good quality, so perhaps we will investigate specialist meat cuts locally as a side business.

Chicken Coop 301

We have now completed our third chicken coop. The first two were conceived and built while we were living in Arizona - the first was an enormous construction that was impossible to move once finished and the second was too light and flimsy and eventually broken into by one of the huskies, with dire results. While the first was truly a work of art, its design proved too over-engineered for our current requirements.

This third model is a hybrid, built for pasture feeding and sturdy enough that it shouldn't prove a lure for foxes or raccoons. It's mobile and will likely be all we need, as the chicks get older and we begin to thin them out there will be plenty of room for a dozen fully grown birds. In 3-4 months time I'll build a small laying box attachment that we can afix to the rear.

We have now begun the quest for a general contractor to begin work on our cheese facility!

Some Semblance of Sanity Returns

Now that the irrigation is working in the front fields, our new pump has arrived and awaits installation of the electrical panel, and half of our guests have returned home, things are slowly returning to normal. The haying is all but done, neatly stacked in the barn and likely going to be sold as all our pasture is still green and healthy and the neighbour has allowed us to graze the sheep in his pastures as well. The actual haying exercise has been problematic but we have learnt enough to be able to manage it all ourselves next time around, as long as all of our ancient equipment is up to the task and the modifications we need can be made to the bailer (converting it from wire to string tie).

We're hopefully coming to the end of 30+ days of 90 degree weather as well. Just a small dose of rain would be a welcome change. In the last couple of days we have been gathering soil and hay samples to determine the nutrient uptake ability of the ground and the nourishment value of the hay. One thing we have quickly learnt is that what cows and horses will eat is much different to sheep as sheep are much more fussy. Unless its still green they won't touch it, much to our annoyance. We're hoping that in the winter months this fussiness goes.

Our flock has in the last couple of days unexpectedly grown as well. Several weeks ago we noticed that a 'stray' ram had appeared amidst our ewes. It's not breeding season yet so we let him be thinking his owner would eventually come by (even after we scoured the neighbourhood asking who owned him). Well nobody wanted him apparently so we figured when the time came he'd be off to the scales as an extra few dollars in our pocket. Well one sheep might have been fine but yesterday afternoon we discovered 5 more in one of our fields. Same breed, same age roughly (yearlings). Again we did the drive around asking the neighbours, and again nobody knows who owns them. It's not like they're the same as all the other sheep around either, they're quite likely either Katahdin's or Damara's, hair sheep usually reddish in colour. They're also all male, undocked and unweathered.

So, we have a dilemma. What to do with 6 young rams. There are essentially 2 options and both have their merits. Both breeds of sheep are bred to have less fatty meat than traditional meat sheep and are much hardier, able to survive on very low quality scrub feed, so either we could pocket a few hundred dollars by selling them to the scales, or we could slaughter them ourselves for the meat. The second (or is that third) option is to use them as male breeding stock with our East Friesians. Say what? Well they are a similar build, are extremely hardy to sheep parasites (which will do well with the rather frail East Friesians), actually produce above average quantities of milk, and are aggressive toward predators such as coyotes.


I'd just add in here at this point that we are unsure of the 'wandering livestock' rules in Oregon, but these sheep are untagged and apparently not carrying any identifiable marks (I even checked for tattoos in the ears).

Perhaps its not such a dilemma after all, but my initial thought was "We'll contaminate our breeding plan!". We will need to have the sheep fully checked by a local vet to ensure they are OK, but maybe a Damara or Katahdin / East Friesian cross is breaking new ground in the sheep / cheese industry and the possible advantages are extremely interesting. Stay tuned on this one!