Over the years, Russet House Farm has been home to cows, horses, pigs, ducks, chickens, innumerable cats and two dogs. Even though we consider large mammals to be an important part of a permaculture ecosystem, at the moment we are taking a break from horses and cows, while we formulate our plans for silvopasture. We still have a fluctuating number of ducks, chickens and cats, all kept in order by our two border collies.

Herons Blue Heron Ducks/Geese Mallard Blue-winged Teal Wood Duck Canada Goose Terns Black Tern Bitterns American Bittern Vultures Turkey Vulture Hawks/Eagles Northern Harrier Red Tailed Hawk Bald Eagle Falcons American Kestral Merlin Grouse/Turkeys Ruffed Grouse Wild Turkey Sandpipers Uplands Sandpiper Cranes Sandhill Crane Doves Mourning Dove Rock Dove Owls Barn Owl

Kingfishers Belted Kingfisher Woodpeckers Pilleated Downy Hairy Northern Flicker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Flycatchers Great Crested Eastern Wood Peewee Eastern Phoebe Eastern Kingbird Vireos Red-eyed Jays/Crows Blue Jay American Crow Larks Horned Lark Swallows Barn Swallow Chickadees Black-capped Creepers Brown Creeper Nuthatches White Breasted Red Breasted Wrens House Wren

Gnatcatchers Blue-Gray Thrushes Eastern Bluebird American Robin Thrashers Brown Thrasher Gray Catbird Starlings European Starling Waxwings Cedar Waxwing Warblers Black and White Nashville Yellow Common Yellow Throated Black-throated Green Warbler Magnolia Yellow-rumped Kinglets Golden-crowned Kinglet Tanagers Scarlett Towhees Rufous-sided Towhee

Sparrows Savanaugh White Crowned Chipping American Tree Song Fox White Throated Juncos Dark-eyed Cardinals Rose-breasted Grosbeak Northern Cardinal Buntings Indigo Bunting Blackbirds Eastern Meadowlard Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Bobolink Orioles Baltimore Finches Purple Finch American Goldfinch Hummingbirds Rufous-throated

 

Muscovy ducks live on the farm year round; their straw bale duck house extends out of the east side of the barn. In most years the three hens and one drake produce around 40 ducklings, usually born in June.

The ducks are an important part of the farm ecosystem, consuming the flies that normally plague barnyards. One duck can eat as many as 300 flies a day. On occasion the ducks will eat the flies directly off the cows.

The ducklings produced each summer are raised for meat and eggs are collected throughout the summer for consumption. Muscovies are originally from South America and are technically neither duck nor goose, but their own bird.

Poultry on the farm varies from a regular flock of laying hens to pastured poultry during the summer months. The pastured poultry graze in moveable pens on the pasture, thus assisting in maintaining pasture fertility.

The chickens free-range in the spring and the fall when the garden is able to benefit from their attention. In the summer they tend to damage the vegetables and are confined to the chicken coop where they are frequently given weeds to pick through. They live for the entire year in the straw-bale henhouse, where their body heat provides enough warmth to keep them comfortable even in the coldest weather.

Until the summer of 2015 the farm was home to a number of Kerry Cattle, a rare breed from Ireland. Kerry cows are known for their easily digested milk, and their good quality meat. They are also quite hardy and able to graze rougher pasture.

Although we have loved having our cows, our pastures needed a rest as we planned out our next steps toward silvopasture. We sold our cows to friends who were looking to begin a Kerry herd.

Since 2014 we have welcomed cattle from one of our organic farming neighbours to graze our pastures. In keeping with the holistic management methods of Alan Savoury and mimicking the way that cattle would graze in the wild, we move the cattle daily onto new pasture. This means that fertility is spread evenly over the fields, as well as ensuring that the pasture has adequate rest between grazing periods. The cows also enjoy having fresh grass daily, and will wait eagerly for the fence to be moved over. The cows are also fed burdock leaves and windfall apples by hand when available.