Meet the Family

This is how our family of animals contribute to the organic farm operation.
Our two milking goats, Phyllis and Elsie, are responsible for an array of duties including weed control, brush trimming, lawn mowing, fertilizing and chewing the trailer connections off of my trailer AND my car. They are allowed to range on a movable leash system that allows them to choose the type of pasture they feel they need for their diet. In return they supply us with an abundance of organic milk which allows us to produce feta cheese, chevre, yogurt, soaps and hand creams. Phyllis and Elsie are Alpine Nubian crosses with Phyllis being the only one sporting a set of horns. Phyllis, aka the tazmanian devil, uses these horns to control Elsie, head butt our dog Bud and put holes in my garage and barn. Now, in her defence, she did rescue one of our laying hens from the clutches of a huge hawk. Our laying hens, instead of running for cover, now run to Phyllis when ever they see predators in the sky. I think the hens are taunting the hawks to come on down and try to take a piece of this.

Our laying hens and free range chickens are responsible for pest control and fertilizing. During the summer they make their rounds in the fields picking off bugs and if we have an outbreak of a certain pest, for example the colorado potato beatle, as long as you show it too them and give them a taste, they will in short order eliminate them.

Our pigs are natural roto-tillers. If you have rough pasture that you want turned and all roots destroyed just put a few pigs on it. They will even throw down some fertilizer while they're enjoying themselves.

Pollination of our fruits and vegetables is achieved by our bees. They guarantee us a higher yield of vegetables and fruits plus there have been studies done that suggest that they also reduce some species of caterpillars.

So this is how all our family of animals interact and contribute to the successful operation of our all natural organic farm. Now that being said, I still find it hard to believe that our predator control dogs can keep the wild animals away from our stock from inside the house.