March Farm Production Report

March Farm Production Report

Well, a big change this month was the addition of Fiona, our Jersey dairy cow. So I felt it was appropriate to report on what we're able to produce every month in 2023.

January and February were effectively squat, with only a handful of eggs the entire month. I'm working on plans for a stationary winter coop that will allow for better winter quarters, better wind protection, lighting control (the biggest factor in egg production), and proximity to the house.

March wise, here's how we did. Fiona arrived on Sunday 05 March, so there's a few days we didn't have her here.

Type Production
Milk 50.5 Gallons
Eggs 98

There are four families involved, so of that production we keep/consume ~ three days of milk out of seven. Most of it was drunk fresh, but the remainder was converted into:

Mozzarella (1g milk)
Yogurt (1g milk)
8 Sticks of Butter (from skimmed cream)
1/2g of Buttermilk (remainder of butter production)

We did not cover our butter usage for the month, but we're also towards the end of her milk cycle (Fiona is due in July with her next calf). We will have no dairy production for most of May and June and we'll see when the colostrum switches over to milk and we can start calf sharing.

Eggs were low, as most of the ~45 new pullets had not started laying yet. That should explode in the next two months as they come online and we start rotating them around the cow pasture.