Hello from NY’s Capital District

[dominiquer60]

Hello my name is Erika. I have spent the last 6 years working and living on a couple of diverse organic farms. I spent a couple years as an assistant manager and enjoyed it greatly. I have a lot of chicken and veggie experience, mostly with tractors. I went to school for equine and animal sciences (draft classes at SUNY Morrisville) and have worked with horses for 16 years. I have my own business that helps me work towards my goal of owning a small farm of my own someday. My working dog and I travel to many different parts of the country and have a good deal of time off now and then. I feel capable of running my own farm with a tractor and could certainly maintain workhorses, but I need a lot more experience when it comes to combining farming with horse power, as it should be anyway. I am hoping to network with people that would want me to work on their farm in exchange for some experience with horses in harness. It is good to see so many great people sharing thoughts and knowledge in one place. Thanks Carl and Lisa, see you in September.

[Carl Russell]

Greetings Erika, so good to have you here, hope you find the connections you seek (we seek). Looking forward to seeing you, and many others, in Sept. Carl

[Carl Russell]

dominiquer60;1840 wrote:

……. My working dog and I travel to many different parts of the country and have a good deal of time off now and then. ……

Erika, I got to thinking, what work do you do with the dog? We are exploring ideas at NEAPFD about “other” working animals. Carl

[cherprit]

Hello Erika,

You must know Scott Seymour, who teaches at Morrisville in the draft horse program, right? We’re having him out to California in August to do a clinic. Welcome.

[dominiquer60]

Yes of course I know Scott and I was able to experience Higby before he retired and handed the lines to Scott. I last saw him two winters ago in Florida, I hear the old round pen is covered now, how nice, I remember skiing around it on a sheet of ice in the middle of the pen.

My Australian Shepherd has a non traditional role for a herding dog, he works two species that don’t herd, hens and hogs. He is wonderful with the hens, he will pin a loose hen down until I can get to him and put her back on her side of the fence, if there is an elusive escaped hen he will track her down and flush her back towards me. When there is a massive breakout and there are 200 loose hens to find he works every crack and cranny of the ravine, brush, buildings, every clump of grass, he flushes them out or goes on point if he finds one that won’t move, is dead, or sometimes he will point at a nest of eggs. He will work at this until every hen is found. If there is a predator problem he will sometimes track it back to the direction of which it entered the field, very helpful to know where to hide and wait with the 22.
He is also trust worthy to tie out to the broiler pens at night and could even babysit the day old chicks.

His favorite jobs is working the hogs. If we are moving hogs to a new pasture often they don’t want to cross where the electric used to be. He makes sure that they cross in a timely fashion. If we are working on the fence or the hog shelter he will push the hogs away from us, this is very nice when food aggressive mouthy hogs are present. Once a piglet got out and he managed to turn it away from the open gate to the road and into a corner where we were able to catch it.

His job on the road is to be friendly and polite to my customers and to guard and protect me when I am working alone, or we are camping in the truck or tent.

[dominiquer60]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

[gunslinger598]

Welcome aboard

Very interesting about the dog.

[dominiquer60]

If anyone is interested in how roosters can be put to work, check out the two photos that I posted under other working animals. This stunt works much better with roosters, they crow and attract crowds from afar, but hens want to leave and lay an egg in the middle of the morning so they don’t make very good market birds. You can also see photos of some of the roosters that I have been involved with at troymarket.org, the rooster there was banned a one point. The public was so upset, for many the only way that they can get their kids interested in letting them shop at the farmers market was because they could pet/feed the rooster. So now the market embraces their lively little mascot.

[dominiquer60]

didn’t know where to put this..

A couple of people tried to pm me today, I just emptied my mailbox, so you can try again or just email me at marczake@hotmail.com.

Thanks,

[Robert MoonShadow]

@dominiquer60 29578 wrote:

didn’t know where to put this..

A couple of people tried to pm me today, I just emptied my mailbox, so you can try again or just email me at marczake@hotmail.com.

Thanks,

Had me confused there, lady! “Joined in ’08 and just now getting around to introducing herself…?” until I got to this post…:p

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