Your Farm is an Ecosystem

posted in: Farm as ecosystem | 0

 

SHARING AN EXCITING COLLABORATIVE EVENT

 

Sponsored by Knox-Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District, Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Midcoast Farmers Alliance. 

 

Whole Farm Biodiversity: Co-existing with Carnivores ~

An ecosystem is defined as “a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment,” yet the term is rarely used to describe a farm! A farm is indeed an ecosystem and one of the key elements in any healthy ecological system is a healthy predator-prey balance. However, carnivores are often viewed as a problem for livestock farmers and their role in herbivore control may be underappreciated by veggie growers.  

 

On Saturday, September 29 from 1-4pm at Pumpkin Vine Family Farm in Somerville, join farmers, foresters and wildlife professionals to gain critical insights into how your farm functions as an ecosystem and how you can actively promote biodiversity to keep that ecosystem healthy and productive.

Presenters Andy Schultz and Morten Moesswilde, Maine Forest Service; Deborah Perkins, wildlife ecologist; Geri Vistein, carnivore biologist; and Pumpkin Vine farmers Kelly and Anil Roopchand will each explore this subject from their own professional background and experience. Following the presentations, Kelly and Anil will lead a tour to demonstrate how they are putting these principles into practice.

This free program is the seventh in the 2018 Farmer & Gardener Workshop Series presented by Knox-Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District, Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Midcoast Farmers Alliance. Pumpkin Vine Family Farm is located at 217 Hewett Rd in Somerville, ME. From Rt 17, turn north on Hewitt Rd (Jones Corner). The farm is at the end of Hewitt Rd (about one mile).

For more information or to register: www.knox-lincoln.org/beginning-farmer, hildy@knox-lincoln.org or 596-2040.

 

Excellent Great Pyrenees Puppies Available

posted in: Guardian Dogs | 0

WHEN IT COMES TO THE MOST OUTSTANDING, CARING, AND ETHICAL BREEDER OF GREAT PYRENEES

IT IS PETER SANNICANDRO IN MILLBURY MASSACHUSETTS

Shown here are two of his beautiful 7 month old girls, whose blood line is 75% European and 25% American.  The raising of these special dogs is a complete labor of love for him & his commitment to supporting our farmers who wish to coexist with the carnivores on their land. He gives them a very happy and socialized life that also includes living with goats and chickens. Right now he has three of these girls available.  Oh the lucky farmer who gets to have one of them as a farming partner. You can contact Peter via email at : guardthehive@gmail.com  or phone him at (508) 740-8643.

*** You can read more about Peter in our Meet the Farmers section of our website here.

Vanishing Insects & Ecosystem of your Farm

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YOUR FARM IS AN ECOSYSTEM ~ ITS NEEDS TO HAVE ALL THE PLAYERS PRESENT

Insects play a vital role on our planet ~ they are the essential pollinators, and without them there would be no plant life on our planet. They are also the essential prey….. the food for birds that require them to feed protein to their growing young. Without them there is nest failure….

BUT INSECT NUMBERS ARE DECLINING SIGNIFICANTLY WORLD WIDE.

And why ……. by the widespread use of poisons and habitat loss for them.

This is why it is so important for you to see your farm as an ECOSYSTEM. When you treat it as such, poisons are out of the question, and your land becomes a diverse habitat that supports all the members of that system.

See the link below that details this significant situation: https://e360.yale.edu/features/insect_numbers_declining_why_it_matters

Raccoons: Break in Artists

posted in: Living with Carnivores | 0

CARNIVORES ARE VERY INTELLIGENT…..THEIR KIND OF INTELLIGENCE

IF THEY ARE NOT, THEY WOULD NOT SURVIVE

YES ~ large carnivores live on our farms, the medium size ones do too. Like the Raccoon! They know how to survive, and it is valuable for the farmer to get to know them. When you get to know them, you then are able to institute animal husbandry practices that work. Sharing here a great link about this native carnivore~  https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/raccoons-hands

Carnivores control Lyme Disease

posted in: Farm as ecosystem | 0

LYME DISEASE IS AN EPIDEMIC IN THE UNTIED STATES

And our farmers and their farm animals are increasingly being exposed to it. ENTER CARNIVORES!  Carnivores like Coyotes especially,  and foxes offer you the service of rodent patrol. And rodents (white footed mice) are the carriers of the Lyme disease bacterium and other life threatening bacterium.  Below is a link regarding the serious need to treat your farm as an ecosystem that needs all it parts.

ALSO… THE OPOSSUM! You may not think they are cute, but they do serious work in tick control. They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. In one season, a opossum can kill 5,000 ticks. They literally vacuum the landscape as they move along.

http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/humans_have_paved_way_for_global_lyme_disease_epidemic/

Raising a Guardian Dog Puppy

posted in: Guardian Dogs | 0

 

GUARDIAN DOGS ARE LIKE A NEW PHD PROFESSOR AT A UNIVERSITY

They come to you with all the genetic know how that has been passed down for many generations in their breed. BUT….. like a new professor at a university, they have to learn everything about this new place where they will be working: the rules, getting to know the ones they will nurture, safety, relationships with their fellow humans and others, and the limits of their environment.

SO IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO RAISE A NEW PUPPY WELL.

 

Getting ready for Guardian Dog Puppies

posted in: Guardian Dogs | 0

WE ARE ALL ABOUT SHARING! TOGETHER WE ARE TRANSITIONING TO THE FUTURE OF FARMING.

Here Abby and Jake from the Applecreek Farm in Bowdoinham, Maine share  ~

We’re adding a new member of our farm team for this season. In the job description you’ll find requirements such as an attention to detail, a big bark, a thick coat and an ability to work from 6 pm to 5 am daily.

Who is this new employee? A Great Pyrennes pup! She’s been raised alongside goats and chickens at a farmstead in Massachusetts and will be joining us in March. This photo of the whole litter (below) may give you the same sense of excitement we have!

Our new girl will have her work cut out for her. Our latest blog post entitled, Who Else Lives on the Farm is about some of the other critters that call Apple Creek home and the recent uninvited guests who have been calling up on our hens! We have plenty of land and it can support an abundance of wildlife, but we’re finding it more and more challenging to ensure our animals stay safe while enjoying the great outdoors.

As you know our broilers, laying hens and turkeys are outside every day and while this is critical to our farming philosophy and their innate desires — it makes them susceptible to predation. Our new pup will be trained as an LGD or Livestock Guardian Dog in order to spend her days (and nights) patrolling the fields and deterring owls, hawks and other would-be predators. In doing so we’ll have happy, healthy animals that thrive outdoors and we’ll sleep better at night knowing everyone is safe.

This is the case we made to Food Animal Concerns Trust, FACT as part of our application for their Fund-A-Farmer grant. I’m happy to report they agreed! The grant award will offset the purchase and first year “start-up” expenses of our new canine. This is our second grant award, our first helped us install water lines in two of our fields ensuring clean, fresh water for all animals.

www.applecreekfarm.me

 

 

Aldo Leopold ~Thinking like a Mountain

posted in: Living with Carnivores | 0
photo by Shreve Stockton

 

SHARING WITH YOU A BLOG POST WRITTEN BY FELLOW WILDLIFE ECOLOGIST DEB PERKINS.

The Maine Agricultural Trade Show this January hosted our collaborative presentation titled Nurturing Carnivore Coexistence and Biodiversity on your Farm.  Four of us ~ Geri Vistein a carnivore conservation biologist, Mort Weiswilde a forester of our Maine Forest service, Deb Perkins a wildlife ecologist and Abby Sadaukas a leading farmer here in Maine ~shared a holistic understanding of the larger community of life that Aldo Leopold spoke of so well. Here is Deb’s link ~

https://www.firstlighthabitats.com/blog/carnivore-coexistence-leopolds-wise-words-part-1

Coyote Research and our Farmers

posted in: Living with Carnivores | 0

THE FUTURE OF SUCCESSFUL FARMING

Farming with intelligent, complex and important carnivores like Coyote requires that we practice the animal husbandry practices shared with you on this website.

BUT THAT IS NOT ALL!

You need to learn about their ecology, their social life, and their lives from their point of view. When you get to that point, you know how to live well with them, your farm animals will be safe, and your farm will be a healthy ecological system…that will serve you well.

 

Below is a link very worth reading. We respect what our farmers do for all of us, and want to inform you of important knowledge ~

https://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/coyote-control-based-on-scientific-house-of-cards.html