Ever have a day like this?

Rachel's learning to graze. She still takes 2 bottles a day, but we tie her out for a few hours by whatever tasty patch of clover is nearby. She hasn't quite gotten the hang of maximizing her freedom. By the way, if we let her loose, she follows us in the house!

Moonrise

Take a few minutes to howl at the moon tonight. Just 4 more until deer season begins!

Keeping our fingers crossed!

We are hoping that last night's frost didn't kill off the pasture grass. Michael's still feeding hay to all the cows, but they are beginning to have some green pasture. If the frost didn't get it, our estimated date for Cordray Farms Beef is still on track, hopefully just a few more weeks! If you'd like notification for when it's available, visit our beef page and sign up for the email list. Don't worry! I don't have time to send out a bunch of spam, so we'll just contact you to let you know when beef sides or shares are available.

Processing Wild Hogs?

Are you hunting wild hogs during springtime? If you get one, we can process the meat for you. We don't have a skinning crew on hand, but if you can skin and clean them, we'll process them into pork chops, ribs, sausage - whatever you like! Be sure to call (843.766.7922) to arrange to have someone here to meet you when you check in. Taxidermy on wild hogs is also available.

A bucket of chicken?

I left the chicks at their new endeavor, scratching for corn scraps, just a little late one day last week. The warm spring day slid into a cool evening and the chicks found a feed dish. Facing the cold winds? Hunker down with a few of your friends!

They've got feathers!

The baby chicks are still growing and growing. They jump up and flap like crazy!

Apply for the 2009 Alligator Season

The online registration for SCDNR's drawhunt for alligators starts May 1 and ends June 15th. Alligator season will be Sept. 12 to Oct. 10th. Send in some of your pictures from last year's season and I'll share them here!

Rachel is about a month old.

She's an orphan calf that we've been trying to introduce to a bottle for about a week. After much slobber and sore toes, it worked!

Meet Rachel!

Rachel's finally learned to drink from a bottle!

Cows love ground corn!

We make our own feed from locally grown corn and hay we bale on Wadmalaw Island.

You can almost see them grow!

Every one of the eggs hatched, so with any luck we should have farm fresh eggs by Opening Day! I put this can in to give perspective. You'll be amazed how fast the grow!

Bill McKinnon picks up the winning shotgun!

Bill won the 2008 Big Buck Contest! His buck was the biggest for the year! It weighed 253 pounds live weight!

They've all hatched, but one

I've had incubators of eggs probably a dozen times, but have never had quite such a good result! Of 24 eggs, there's only one egg left and it has a few cracks and so still might just hatch. They hatched on the weekend my grandchildren were visiting so I've had lots of help!

And more...

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First one!

We hear peeps!

Lots of cracks in the eggs, too!

Ready for hatching!

I've candled all the eggs with my trusty wildlife watching spotlight and all the eggs are growing! Couldn't get a photo of it but each has an air sac at the end. No peeping noise yet, but should hear that by tomorrow.
For the last 2 days you have to not turn them, increase the humidity, and let them sit on their side. So this is how we wait out the last 48 hours. Keep your fingers crossed!

Spring has sprung at Cordray's!

Or at least it seems so. The warm temperatures are great for our real crop - GRASS! This time of year we move the cows often. It's technically called rotational grazing.

See, I really do read "Progressive Farmer"! They get moved from pasture to pasture so the grass has time to recover and the cows get new healthy tender shoots. They seem to love the change of scenery and usually only take 2 or three steps into a new pasture before putting their heads down to munch. All this eating gives us hope that we'll be able to honor our April beef promise! Stay tuned for updates!
Claudia