By the time this is over, the rattled farmhands would have their hands full.heheheheheheeheh
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Inspection
By the time this is over, the rattled farmhands would have their hands full.heheheheheheeheh
Boss of the Farm
The essence of fun is having fun. Right there at Patty's Farm, nature is a source of joy and laughter, banterings and food. Our comfort zone, our relaxing time.Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Coconuts!!!
harvesting the coconuts every three monthsis now routine. But rains do affect the harvest volume and weights.
GOATS NAPPING
The midday sun brings the goats back to the goathouse for that midday napping. Then, by mid afternoon
off again to their grazing areas. Look at the size of these
babies.
BANANA HARVEST
Banana harvest for the chickens and pigs.We don't sell them now, just use these for
feeds. It costs more to buy
the regular feeds.
Monday, May 25, 2009
CHICKEN ON MY SHOULDER MAKES ME HAPPY
As i walked along the paths to the chicken paddocks, one of them met and flew onto my shoulder. It just perked there for a few minutes, and i didnt try to get it off. One of the fun and perks of having a chicken farm. Had it been bigger i would have thought it was looking for a place to lay its egg on.Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The Chicken Paddocks
Chicken paddocks now separate each batches from each other. That allows the chickens to grow with less animosities among them, or else the smaller ones suffer from the constant pecking by the bully bigger ones. Confined in them bamboo fences, they forage among the grasses within without undue interference from the bigger ones.
The bigger ones have began laying golden brown eggs on their old brooder houses, building their nests within. Each morning we find new eggs on the nest, smaller at first, but gradually becoming bigger day by day.
Bananas are grown as well within the paddocks, contributing feeds by way of fruits and the inner white core of the pseudo-stem, loved by the chickens. A whole pseudostem is finished in a day!
those verdant palay and napier growths
Farm growths like Palay and Napier provide for soothing sights and welcoming ambiance.
MOTHER HEN
Mother Hen on prowl for more earth feeds, including earthworms. Today a score of hens have started laying many eggs daily. We like the golden brown eggs so much, we would carry them back to Manila, even if we pay for extra baggage freights on the plane!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
BOOBA
Our goats have began kidding. Three in a row in the last 3 days!!! and more are coming....
This is "Booba".
Saturday, March 28, 2009
SUSTAINABLE FARMING
SELF SUSTAINING. Those words meant nothing initially to my farm manager when i got him to work there. During my last visit a week ago, he was using it more in his talks with me.
What do we mean?
We cultivate the growing of earthworms, which are feeds for the chickens, hito, and ducks. The compost fertilizers they produce are meant for fertilizing the farm lands, including the coconuts, the rice and corn, and all the forages that abound and are being planted for future use. The grasses and legumes are meant to be feeds for the goats and the pigs.
Their manures goes back to the earthworms as we continue to increase the earthworm beds.
The chickens when sold as dressed, would produce much innards that we would cook and have the pigs and the hito eat.
The pigs' manure would also be used for the earthworms, and fertilize the fishpond next to the pens too, where the hitos thrive. The ducks' manure goes into the pond as well, providing for algae and other microorganisms that the ducks feed on. It fertilizes the kangkongs and duckweeds too, that goes to the pigs for feeds.
The goats manure fertilizes the earth where they are, the chicken feces too on the grasses where they now graze and feed. We are now practising EM(essential microbes) or what others would call IMO, and finding it effective for the animals and the produce. We use Microbial Fertilizers for our corn and rice.
With all these happening who needs chemical fertilizers and pesticides?
The day we have fully succeeded in doing sustainable organic and natural farming I am going to be sporting a big big grin.
What do we mean?
We cultivate the growing of earthworms, which are feeds for the chickens, hito, and ducks. The compost fertilizers they produce are meant for fertilizing the farm lands, including the coconuts, the rice and corn, and all the forages that abound and are being planted for future use. The grasses and legumes are meant to be feeds for the goats and the pigs.
Their manures goes back to the earthworms as we continue to increase the earthworm beds.
The chickens when sold as dressed, would produce much innards that we would cook and have the pigs and the hito eat.
The pigs' manure would also be used for the earthworms, and fertilize the fishpond next to the pens too, where the hitos thrive. The ducks' manure goes into the pond as well, providing for algae and other microorganisms that the ducks feed on. It fertilizes the kangkongs and duckweeds too, that goes to the pigs for feeds.
The goats manure fertilizes the earth where they are, the chicken feces too on the grasses where they now graze and feed. We are now practising EM(essential microbes) or what others would call IMO, and finding it effective for the animals and the produce. We use Microbial Fertilizers for our corn and rice.
With all these happening who needs chemical fertilizers and pesticides?
The day we have fully succeeded in doing sustainable organic and natural farming I am going to be sporting a big big grin.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
MORE GOATS!!!
In the last 3 days we have had two batches of goat herds delivered to the Farm. Today, our total goat herd number has reached 45. There are two bucks among the herd, one a Boer and the other an Anglo Nuvian. We intend to improve the stocks using these two bucks, as most of the does are either percentage Boers or Anglo Nuvians, and a sprinkling of Saanens. Maybe we should get a Saanen buck too soon. The new arrivals of 17 among these are Anglo Nuvians, and they are BIG.
The additional numbers though are creating new problems: we need new housings, more forages for feeds, and those eartags must now be had soonest. This time around we shall build more and bigger goat houses for the future increase of the herd number. With two kiddings per year, the number should hit our desired 300 by next year.
We could then do our Dairying operations soonest. For now the idea is to increase the herds.
The additional numbers though are creating new problems: we need new housings, more forages for feeds, and those eartags must now be had soonest. This time around we shall build more and bigger goat houses for the future increase of the herd number. With two kiddings per year, the number should hit our desired 300 by next year.
We could then do our Dairying operations soonest. For now the idea is to increase the herds.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The First Paddock
Building and maintaining paddocks is an idea that I got from our visits to UPLB Animal Husbandry schools last month.
With Sunshine Sassoo Chickens all over our farm, it has become unmanageable to have more coming every two weeks and yet we could not properly contain them.
So, the idea of a paddock for these chickens(and goats too) came into being.
The first one has just been completed, with Ipil ipil and Bamboo materials. As we released 200 young chicks on the grasses within the enclosed paddock, the chicks simply took over running here and there, picking the grass flowers as they go. I think we are saving many kilos of feeds as they happily work their way around the whole 200 sq.m. enclosure. I think these chickens will become fatter faster here then when we had them next to the staff house by the down end of the farm.
That should solve the problem of having more one-day old chicks arriving every two weeks. We just need to build more of these fenced off paddocks with nipa hut brooder house astride two paddocks. Beneath the brooder house, perching poles have been laid out for them, with water containers. I think since this is such a good shaded area, the earthworm beds (in our new plastic containers) should be best here too(that i will start doing soon). If they are positioned here, feeding them to the chickens is easier for our farm hands to do.
Around the brooder and within the fenced off paddock are many banana shrubs that not only provide cool shades for the chickens, the fruits and core of the trunk are also good picking for the chickens. I wont be surprised that we could now sell them even ahead of schedule as quicker fattening is the normal consequence of their happier environment.
With Sunshine Sassoo Chickens all over our farm, it has become unmanageable to have more coming every two weeks and yet we could not properly contain them.
So, the idea of a paddock for these chickens(and goats too) came into being.
The first one has just been completed, with Ipil ipil and Bamboo materials. As we released 200 young chicks on the grasses within the enclosed paddock, the chicks simply took over running here and there, picking the grass flowers as they go. I think we are saving many kilos of feeds as they happily work their way around the whole 200 sq.m. enclosure. I think these chickens will become fatter faster here then when we had them next to the staff house by the down end of the farm.
That should solve the problem of having more one-day old chicks arriving every two weeks. We just need to build more of these fenced off paddocks with nipa hut brooder house astride two paddocks. Beneath the brooder house, perching poles have been laid out for them, with water containers. I think since this is such a good shaded area, the earthworm beds (in our new plastic containers) should be best here too(that i will start doing soon). If they are positioned here, feeding them to the chickens is easier for our farm hands to do.
Around the brooder and within the fenced off paddock are many banana shrubs that not only provide cool shades for the chickens, the fruits and core of the trunk are also good picking for the chickens. I wont be surprised that we could now sell them even ahead of schedule as quicker fattening is the normal consequence of their happier environment.
Monday, March 23, 2009
NAPIER GRASSES and GOATS
Napier is a wonderful grass indeed. Not only is it very easy to propagate, it is also a strong weed that last even during dry seasons.
We are planting more of this for our goats. We hardly feed them commercial feeds, and have to do with natural forages like Napier, and now Madre de Agua. Legumes like Ipil-ipil, Madre de Cacao(kakawate), manimani are just some of those naturally growing in the farm.
Today our goats are heavier, and those that have suffered in months before with loose and watery bowels are now recuperating well. Deworming them has done them good. We are expecting some kid deliveries from our pregnant does this month, and i hope multiple kidding from pregnant does(not just single births). Lets see.
Feeding with naturally growing and locally found grasses legumes and forages is our thing. During our goating seminar we were told to feed them commercial feeds too, but knowing the cost of these, I am more inclined to work them around local and native forages without having to scoop up precious funds for their upkeep. We should be buying more goats soon from our neighbors to beef up our herds and improve the genetics soon.
If it can be done with local forages without the need for commercial feeds, natural farming is the way to go!
We are planting more of this for our goats. We hardly feed them commercial feeds, and have to do with natural forages like Napier, and now Madre de Agua. Legumes like Ipil-ipil, Madre de Cacao(kakawate), manimani are just some of those naturally growing in the farm.
Today our goats are heavier, and those that have suffered in months before with loose and watery bowels are now recuperating well. Deworming them has done them good. We are expecting some kid deliveries from our pregnant does this month, and i hope multiple kidding from pregnant does(not just single births). Lets see.
Feeding with naturally growing and locally found grasses legumes and forages is our thing. During our goating seminar we were told to feed them commercial feeds too, but knowing the cost of these, I am more inclined to work them around local and native forages without having to scoop up precious funds for their upkeep. We should be buying more goats soon from our neighbors to beef up our herds and improve the genetics soon.
If it can be done with local forages without the need for commercial feeds, natural farming is the way to go!
PLANTING TREES
I am trying to view our farm operations on day to day basis, as strategically as possible. Corn and palays are good seasonal crops that we can rotate on quarterly basis, but the amount of work and sustaining capitals needed are just too much too. These produce revenues quarterly, but since we have to replant all over again, are sunk in again over and over into the operations.
Tree planting for long term gain is something i have in my mind. We have a farm that is for longterm use, its availability will always be there. Fruit trees will always have markets, and the management does not seem to be as heavy and hurried as managing quarterly crops such as palays and corn. With our penchant for husbanding animals today like our free range chickens, mestiso goats, ducks, and more animals in the future, the land beneath the trees may be ideal for our operations more than the palays and corns. The fruit trees must complement our existing coconut trees, and we are replanting more of these too. We are now trying to produce in greater volumes earthworms for feeds and compost making, and the shades beneath the trees are ideal for these.
The direction by which the farm is to move is just out there. We shall consider this well.
Tree planting for long term gain is something i have in my mind. We have a farm that is for longterm use, its availability will always be there. Fruit trees will always have markets, and the management does not seem to be as heavy and hurried as managing quarterly crops such as palays and corn. With our penchant for husbanding animals today like our free range chickens, mestiso goats, ducks, and more animals in the future, the land beneath the trees may be ideal for our operations more than the palays and corns. The fruit trees must complement our existing coconut trees, and we are replanting more of these too. We are now trying to produce in greater volumes earthworms for feeds and compost making, and the shades beneath the trees are ideal for these.
The direction by which the farm is to move is just out there. We shall consider this well.
AGRI CONNECTIONS
In our ardent desire to find ways and means to really develop Patty's Farm, we go around meeting people of consequence. Specially those who knows anything and everything about farming.
I haven't touched the end of a harrow or plow for more than 30 years(and that was when i was just a teenager trying to help the family survive) so there is virtual lack of experience and knowhow. But what i do not have and know, i try to make up for it with internet surfing, researching and asking.
Today we asked for help at the city agriculture office. I was given some information that are useful indeed, but more importantly i was asked to go and see FITS (Farmers Information Training Services) here.
Not only is the office head a schoolmate in highschool, she too is into vermiculture! I finally found one expert who is doing it herself, and we managed to find common grounds with endless hours of information exchanging. Time flies when one shares common interests indeed.
FITS also provided us with cuttings of Madre de Agua, which i have been searching for a long time. Now we can reproduce and plant these in Patty's Farm together with our collections of many other legumes and plants for our animals. This plant is a known high nutrient legume that the ruminants like goats like so much.
She too provided us with compost boosters trichonderia for our compost making in Tinagacan. Our desire and goal for natural farming is moving forward.
It has been a good productive day!!!
I haven't touched the end of a harrow or plow for more than 30 years(and that was when i was just a teenager trying to help the family survive) so there is virtual lack of experience and knowhow. But what i do not have and know, i try to make up for it with internet surfing, researching and asking.
Today we asked for help at the city agriculture office. I was given some information that are useful indeed, but more importantly i was asked to go and see FITS (Farmers Information Training Services) here.
Not only is the office head a schoolmate in highschool, she too is into vermiculture! I finally found one expert who is doing it herself, and we managed to find common grounds with endless hours of information exchanging. Time flies when one shares common interests indeed.
FITS also provided us with cuttings of Madre de Agua, which i have been searching for a long time. Now we can reproduce and plant these in Patty's Farm together with our collections of many other legumes and plants for our animals. This plant is a known high nutrient legume that the ruminants like goats like so much.
She too provided us with compost boosters trichonderia for our compost making in Tinagacan. Our desire and goal for natural farming is moving forward.
It has been a good productive day!!!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
THOSE WONDERFUL BANANAS
Bananas grow in multiple clusters at the East side of Patty's farm.
There beneath the banana shrubs we have allowed the Sunshine Chickens to roam and catch their worms and forage in the grasses. The soil there is cooler, moist and better for grasses and vegetables and grasses. It is also better for earthworm growing, the shade providing excellent environment for many creatures that sustain one another. Cooler temperature manifests itself in this area, much better and cooler than the open areas around it.
We have discovered recently that the Banana fruits, once ripened well, are good feeds too to the chickens, that is, if the black crows constantly flying in the blue skies, do not get to these bananas ahead of us. Cardavas(sabas in Luzon), lacatans, and smaller senorita breeds abound here. Today we do not sell them commercially, and use them as feeds for the chickens.
To our better surprise, even the banana shrub trunk is good feed for the foraging chickens. Sliced into two, the trunk's core is a wonderful desert for these animals, constantly picking on it with their beaks, until the core is consumed. The remaining covers, still moist, are then thrown into the pig areas where the hogs devour this too with glee. What happy animals!
There beneath the banana shrubs we have allowed the Sunshine Chickens to roam and catch their worms and forage in the grasses. The soil there is cooler, moist and better for grasses and vegetables and grasses. It is also better for earthworm growing, the shade providing excellent environment for many creatures that sustain one another. Cooler temperature manifests itself in this area, much better and cooler than the open areas around it.
We have discovered recently that the Banana fruits, once ripened well, are good feeds too to the chickens, that is, if the black crows constantly flying in the blue skies, do not get to these bananas ahead of us. Cardavas(sabas in Luzon), lacatans, and smaller senorita breeds abound here. Today we do not sell them commercially, and use them as feeds for the chickens.
To our better surprise, even the banana shrub trunk is good feed for the foraging chickens. Sliced into two, the trunk's core is a wonderful desert for these animals, constantly picking on it with their beaks, until the core is consumed. The remaining covers, still moist, are then thrown into the pig areas where the hogs devour this too with glee. What happy animals!
EARTHWORMS GALORE
Earthworms are wonderful creatures. They cultivate the soil around them, fertilize them too and allow precious oxygen and nitrogen into it. The continuous consumption of organic wastes turns this into compost that is used for soil improvement and fertilization.
Earthworms are also used for Hito farming. Protein rich, it can be a wonderful food for those catfish in lieau of fishmeal. Chickens are known to forage in grasslands, and with their claws would open up the earth beneath them searching for and partaking of those slicky creatures trying to escape from these monster chickens. Ducks too love the earthworms.
With all those users of earthworms we know it would become one of our revenue centers soon.
Feeds for chickens, ducks, hito and compost for organic fertilizers and soil conditioners.
These then would become one of our main revenue producers soon.
You may email or call us for African Knight Crawlers soon to be in the market, and so with the compost fertilizers.
Earthworms are also used for Hito farming. Protein rich, it can be a wonderful food for those catfish in lieau of fishmeal. Chickens are known to forage in grasslands, and with their claws would open up the earth beneath them searching for and partaking of those slicky creatures trying to escape from these monster chickens. Ducks too love the earthworms.
With all those users of earthworms we know it would become one of our revenue centers soon.
Feeds for chickens, ducks, hito and compost for organic fertilizers and soil conditioners.
These then would become one of our main revenue producers soon.
You may email or call us for African Knight Crawlers soon to be in the market, and so with the compost fertilizers.
BARBED WIRE FENCE
One of the better resource here in this farm is the extent of the fencing all around its perimeter.
Cement posted barbed wires on 4 levels!!!
There is still space for chickens and goats to pass through though, and we are now trying to close the gaps by planting Ipil-Ipil, Kakawate, and Malunggay through out too, and i figure it would take us months just to complete the plantings. Will all these grow? I hope so. Let the rains wet the fertile grounds around, and all these should provide us enough legume forages for our 19 goats these coming days. A metal and wire swing gate opens inward too, but i am not happy with its being at the center of the front of the farm.
I am going to build another gate(without taking out this existing one) at the right corner, so that it will continue with a farm road all through till end of the farm at the back, then turn left to the next corner. That should be a good road, without having to traverse the center as the existing dirt road does now, taking over precious lands that should have been planted productively before.
I am raring to do these!!!
Cement posted barbed wires on 4 levels!!!
There is still space for chickens and goats to pass through though, and we are now trying to close the gaps by planting Ipil-Ipil, Kakawate, and Malunggay through out too, and i figure it would take us months just to complete the plantings. Will all these grow? I hope so. Let the rains wet the fertile grounds around, and all these should provide us enough legume forages for our 19 goats these coming days. A metal and wire swing gate opens inward too, but i am not happy with its being at the center of the front of the farm.
I am going to build another gate(without taking out this existing one) at the right corner, so that it will continue with a farm road all through till end of the farm at the back, then turn left to the next corner. That should be a good road, without having to traverse the center as the existing dirt road does now, taking over precious lands that should have been planted productively before.
I am raring to do these!!!
WATER THAT GREAT RESOURCE
First time i've been to our Patty's Farm, my eyes caught the presence of flowing water from springs cascading down from 2 hills nearby. Clean and fresh water is irrigating the palay and corn plantings, the ditches are full of kangkong around, and the abundance of tilapia is evident.
I immediately climbed one of the smaller hills to check on the source. It is a gushing spout of spring water from just the boundary of the farm, and this has been the lifesource of all plants and animals here.
The palays were green and proudly standing as i allowed my gaze to view the horizon. The corn were just turning golden, almost ready for the harvest.
Traversing longitudinally at the left orientation, this flowing water is not government irrigation program, but one that nature has generously given to the 2 farms it is allowed to traverse, and one of them is mine, before it is allowed to join the ditch leading out to the road and onwards to other farms. It is ideal not just for irrigating the grounds and plantings there, but may also be suitable for fishponds(specifically Pangasius Catfish variety). Now that would be another project worthy of studying soon!
I immediately climbed one of the smaller hills to check on the source. It is a gushing spout of spring water from just the boundary of the farm, and this has been the lifesource of all plants and animals here.
The palays were green and proudly standing as i allowed my gaze to view the horizon. The corn were just turning golden, almost ready for the harvest.
Traversing longitudinally at the left orientation, this flowing water is not government irrigation program, but one that nature has generously given to the 2 farms it is allowed to traverse, and one of them is mine, before it is allowed to join the ditch leading out to the road and onwards to other farms. It is ideal not just for irrigating the grounds and plantings there, but may also be suitable for fishponds(specifically Pangasius Catfish variety). Now that would be another project worthy of studying soon!
PATTY's FARM On the Go
Today we not just pikniked on Patty's Farm, we also set out to execute our Development Plans on it. The paddocks for the goats and chickens continue to be built, and the chicken brooder is turning out to be nice and good. Made of Ipil-Ipil which is abundant around the farm, each brooder house is astride two paddocks and only the Ipil-Ipil fence separates each house back to back. Capable of handling 200 one-day old chicks each, the brooder house therefore can do 400 simultaneously.
We figure we can build another paddock with the same brooder house design in two weeks time, before the next batch of 200 one-day olds arrive.
We figure we can build another paddock with the same brooder house design in two weeks time, before the next batch of 200 one-day olds arrive.
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