Tall Spruce Farm
Box 463 R0J 1B0 McCreary, MB, Canada

A rare glimpse into lambing life. The lamb is in pain because he has just had rings put on his testicles and tail. He is acting like he's dying. Watch what the mom does, sheep are amazing. You can almost hear her saying, "Come on. Suck it up."

The hungry crew, just before we FINALLY got everyone tagged, docked, and castrated! I don't who they all are, but at least now we can ID them going forward. And mostly, we do know their history...just not the one we found trying to down in a puddle. And 1 or 2 others.

This is shaping up to be a bottle lamb year! 8 now...hopefully things turn around.

We're always so tired after our shearer works hard all day shearing our sheep!

It's SHEARING DAY!

Hi there! I realize I haven't posted in a LONG time! Finally, there is news. Tomorrow is shearing day, The weather will co operate, barely! I'll try to post pics!

We have a lot of vegans paying attention to our page right now so we will burst another of their myth bubbles. All the grain, soy corn is feeding farm animals... BS. Sure blame ‘innocent’ farm animals for your crappy diet, life and agricultural choices. While we do our utmost to personally never support the Industrial agriculture paradigm, we also try not to support it when it comes to our food animals as well. Let’s get to the truth of how these crops are distributed shall we. One often hears that livestock are consuming 85% of the cereals grown. This is only partly true - it is certainly not what MOST livestock on the planet get to eat. It is only in industrial factory farms, and even then, most of the cereal is soya or feed-grade maize. The truth is that most livestock on the planet still are on pasture and generally consume foods people can't - like grass and cereal-processing by-products. Vegan diets are often adopted as a rebellion against the way animals are kept and treated in the industrial, factory-farm context. But the position that it is MEAT that should be rejected, rather than this industrial agriculture system - is a cheat. Industrial production of vegan staples in western countries is just another industry now: meeting a "niche" market, causing continuing deforestation, pesticide pollution, soil erosion, and costing billions of small animal deaths. Worldwide, however, most (86%) livestock consume grasses and cereal by-products, and contribute to the regeneration of grassland through their concentrated grazing and their manure. This article from the CGIAR reports on the findings of an FAO report on this subject. In summary, it is not livestock or meat consumption that is harmful to the planet: it is an relatively limited but still growing industrial food production system done solely for profit. This is what is driving forest clearance for soya in Brazil; just as it is what is driving clearing for palm oil. It is this industry that is also doing family farms extinct in rural parts of the industrial world. I often hear people say that we cannot hope to feed the worlds growing population without the industrial food systems - this is what many people have been taught to believe, but it is nonsense.Most people, and most livestock, are not being fed by the industrial food system NOW. The only people who would be inconvenienced by the curtailment of industrial agriculture are those working within the heavily industrial sectors. These are the farmers whose incomes regenerated by huge animal factories/feedlots; the giant land-holding corporations who gather together the meat and cereal/soy/oil produced as mono-crops on land cleared using herbicides, cultivated and harvested with enormous machines, and - often after transporting it to places with cheaper labour - turn it into monstrous amounts of cheap processed food, and plastic-encased meat, that floods giant supermarkets every day. The container shipping industry, the trucking industry, giant supermarket chains, and factory farms are NOT FEEDING THE WORLD right now.. only urban consumers in the industrialized world. And this is making a few tiny handful of investors in this integrated mass food production system very very wealthy. For people in these vast urban centres to go vegan is not the solution. A return to less chemically-dependent food production by small family owned farms, distributed and eaten locally, along with local handling and minimal processing, is the answer. Support your local farmer markets. FAO sets the record straight86% of livestock feed is inedible by humans https://www.cgiar.org//fao-sets-the-record-straight-86-of/ From our website: Are Farm Animals Starving the Planet of Food Humans Can’t Even Eat? https://www.ethicalomnivore.org/are-farm-animals-starving-/ And a great little video from TDF Honest Farming What do Cows Eat https://youtu.be/yL0BxliRv48 ~Lana Joe Salant

We are in that lovely time of year when pictures like this show up on my phone...for me to send to whatever machining place, or parts place, that my hubby has been talking to. Because we are HAYING. Or should I say, fixing our haying equipment then taking it for a test run, until the next thing breaks! At least, that's how it feels right now. But hey, at least the sheep aren't out...

Drop by today and say hi! I'd love to see you!

Here's what's going on at our house!

This is true of wool in general, not just Australian merino

Sheep are weird.(there is grain on the ground, in case you were wondering. )

This is Adam showing off one of his lambs. He is very happy with her. The Roman nose, and rabbit ears - exactly what he was aiming for! She is North Country Cheviot X BFL/Border Cheviot.

This is so important!

We have a weak lamb. He'll need supplemental feeding. For now, he's enjoying our front lawn. Notice that he has his own guardian?

Our newest lambs.