Who Resides at Riverdale Farm ?

According to the farms living alarm clock, Chanticleer the rooster, it is time for everyone to start the day. Hi, I'm Seven and this is Smokey. We would like to take you for a walk around and introduce you to some of the other animals that call this home. Oh, wait here comes Bekka with fresh milk and food, mind if we eat first? Dig in Smokey.......

Now, let's go past the barn and through the gate to visit the cows and their babies. Breakfast must just be over because "Junior" still has his milk mustache, guess mom didn't get to wash his face before he went out to play.

Hey, over there is Annabelle the goat...she gets to hang out in the pasture with all the ewes and lambs. Mike and Keith are putting some fence up, it looks like the ewes and lambs will be moved today. The Berven's use rotational grazing in the management of their flock. This type of grazing is used to make sure the sheep have plenty of fresh pasture to eat throughout the summer months.

I see the chickens are busy being chickens. They are picking up the feed that Keith spilled while doing chores this morning. The chickens in this picture are raised for meat. As baby chicks they live outside in portable pens that are moved to fresh grass every day. Once they get a bit bigger they are taken out of the cages and allowed to roam and graze as they want. They don't like it though when Smokey and I try to sneak some of their feed, they can sure run FAST! The laying hens also are raised this way but they lay their eggs in an "eggmobile". Keith picks the eggs, mom cleans them up and puts them away for later use.

Look Seven, Clyde is being his nosey self. The family's llama is curious to see who our visitors are. You know llamas have a reputation for spitting at people. The only thing Clyde has spit at is one of the bulls that he was sharing his pen with, and that was because the bull was trying to eat Clyde's feed. Mike did get in the way once and instead of spitting in the bulls face Mike got it instead.

Look Smokey, there's the family's quarter horse, Shanda. Mike must have taken her for a ride to check the soybean field. Shanda's pretty tall so just look how tall those soybeans are. I bet she's going to want to go visit the cows on the way back to the barn, you know how she loves to help move them from one pasture to another.

YAWN....I don't know about everyone else but after that walk I'm ready for a little cat nap. Thank you for letting Smokey and myself be your tour guides and showing you around Riverdale Farm. It was a treat for us to have you here and I hope you enjoyed meeting all the animals. Stop again anytime, we love to have company.

Dedicated to:
A natural organic lifestyle
and co-existing with, rather than dominating nature's ecosystem
we offer you the opportunity to purchase the following products

Naturally fed Hormone-Free Chicken, Lamb & Beef
Organic Soybeans, Corn & Alfalfa
Honey, Eggs, Fleece for Spinning

Riverdale Farm
Mike & Jen Berven
Milan, MN 56262
320-269-8749

Please feel free to contact us at our e-mail address riverdale@maxminn.com

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