Ask a Farmer: Welcome spring babies and new sheep to East Hill Farm

Every spring we welcome many lambs, kids, chicks, and ducklings into the world at East Hill Farm. This year is no different, we have already had about 15 lambs and 9 kids with expectations of at least a handful more kids to be born. Along with all the excitement young critters bring, we are also excited to tell you about the new sheep, goats and a cow we have acquired this winter.

Earlier this winter we added to our already existing Boer goat herd. We found six very nice Boer goats and they are fitting in nicely in our barn. Boer goats generally present with a brown head and a white body. Our Boers produce lots of kids and meat for us. One of these new goats is crossed with a Saanen which is the breed of goat we typically use for milking at East Hill Farm. We will potentially be milking this goat in the future as she shows a lot of the dairy goat characteristics.

A unique addition was made to our sheep flock with two sheep who stand out from the rest in the barn! They are Icelandic sheep. This breed is well known for their high quality of fiber or wool. Crocket and Tubs, as they are referred to, have become quite cozy in our flock. Crocket has black wool and Tubs has white wool. They will add some nice quality to our wool production and they are a breed you don’t see a lot of in New England.

My personal favorite addition to the barn this winter was Olivia. Olivia is a Holstein, which is the most popular breed of dairy cow. She will likely be our milking cow for most of the summer this year. She has a super sweet personality and produces a good amount of milk. Holsteins generally tower over Jersey cows (who are the tan breed you are probably used to milking at EHF). With the size increase, there is also a large increase in milk production in comparison to the Jersey cows. Be sure to swing by milking at 9:00 AM each day during your stay for a chance to meet Olivia.

Farmer Dan