Summer is almost over!

Well that went by very quickly.  It is already August.  That means it is time to start thinking about going to the FAIR!!!

Just to recap events for this year.  We started calving on January 10th and still have one cow to calve.  We have had 4 bull calves and 4 heifer calves this year.  What a big year for us.  Unfortunately we lost one bull calf.  But all of the others are thriving out on pasture.

Here are some of the curious faces of our Herd.  They seem to think we are bringing them treats.  We decided to go with a theme for naming the calves this year.  All of the calves names have to start with the letter K for 2022.  So we opted to try to come up with names of places.

We have:

  • Kentucky (his dam is Lexi (Lexington))
  • Kansas
  • Kirkland (Kirk)
  • Kelowna (his dam is Leona... it rhymes sort of)
  • Kissing Bridge (Kiss)
  • Kakabeka (Bec)
  • Kapuskasing (Kap)
  • Keady (a fun place to watch livestock sales in Ontario)
We have always tried to rotate our pastures at 2 Bridges Farm but the last 2 years we started really paying attention to our rotational grazing.  We have been attending information sessions on line and doing plenty of reading on the benefits and different techniques to optimize our land use.  All i can say is WOW what a difference.  The cattle are moved almost every single day and they look forward to Pete coming to move their fence line.  They look like that picture!  They occasionally have to stay in the same spot for a day or two but we try to minimize that.  The pasture looks so much better even when we have periods of little rain.

We were fortunate to be able to attend a few shows last year and had 2 entries to the Spring Forward Junior Beef show.  There was even a Galloway class at the event.  There was such a lively feeling in the barns as the competitors got to work.  We are all so happy to be getting back to some sense of normal.  There will be 2 2Bridges Belted Galloway heifers on the fair show circuit this year.  We hope you get to see them in action as they compete at local fairs in hopes of earning a spot at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto in November.  The juniors have been spending quite a bit of time working with their heifers.  We may even get the opportunity to exhibit the outside of Ontario this year.

Well now on to the business of lambing!  Lambing started on the 18th of February and concluded on the 14th of JUNE!!!

That wasn't what we were expecting.  We ended up with 27 lambs being born. 17 were are ewes and 10 ram lambs.  We did lose a couple in the past 4 months.  They say if you have livestock you have deadstock.  It is so true.  It is still difficult to accept.  We constantly try to improve our methods and operations to minimize any losses.  

One such addition to the flock is our livestock guardian dog.  She is an exceptional addition.  We couldn't be happier.  I have to admit that training her has been quite different to training other dogs.  We have quite a bit of experience with dog training but this one thinks on her own.  It has been a real challenge trying to develop a cooperative relationship.  She definitely takes her job seriously.  All of our neighbours can attest to that!  She lets us know if there are any visitors to the pasture that shouldn't be there.


The chicks will be arriving any day now.  We didn't raise any of our typical early batch of chicks in April / May because we were concerned with the Avian flu.  All of our animals are raised on pasture so it is next to impossible to implement the recommended safety protocols to prevent the spread.  So we opted to wait.  The threat has lessened so we will now have some delicious pasture raised chicken available in October.

We only had 1 steer to process this year and quite a big waiting list so we don't have any beef available.  If you would like to be put on a waiting list or to have a recommendation of someone local to provide you with beef please just ask.  We will have a limited amount of lamb available in October just about the same time as the chicken will be ready.  Send us a message at 2bridgesfarm@gmail.com to inquire.

See you soon!


Location: Fisherville, ON N0A 1G0, Canada

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