Farm Animal Fun Facts

From eliminating weeds and pests in the Garden to producing the delicious eggs and cheese you enjoy on your plate, our farm animals play a crucial role in maintaining a functional and sustainable working farm. Get to know a bit more about our herd with these fun facts from Blackberry Farm Farmstead Director Christen Waddell!
 

• Our dairy sheep are a cross between East Friesian, Lacaune and some Assaf, which are all high producing dairy breeds. The East Friesian sheep originated in the Friesland region of Germany and the Netherlands, and Lacaune dairy sheep originated in France.
• Only female ducks make the traditional “quack.” Male ducks make a rasp sound.
• Lagotti Romagnoli (the plural form of Lagotto Romangolo) originate in the marshlands of Italy. They were developed from being a water retriever into a specialized truffle hunter.
• Our two donkeys, Sally and Daphne, love scratches inside of their ears from people they trust. Sally is 14 years old, and Daphne is 7 years old.
• Hyssop the cat is named after the hyssop that we grow in the Garden.
• Lambs wag their tails while they nurse, and some of them continue wagging their tails while getting cheek scratches even into adulthood.
• Our male turkey, Tom, has a beard. Both the male and female turkeys can fly.
• One of the favorite snacks of our chickens is sunflower seeds.
• Our sheep dog Neza moves the sheep with a combination of instinct and directions given by her handler, including “come bye,” meaning go around the sheep to the left, “away to me,” meaning go around the sheep to the right, and many more terms detailing directions like speeding up, slowing down and stopping.
   

This time of year on the Farmstead is especially busy with the birth of new lambs and the beginning of the milking season. Here are some additional fun facts about our sheep!

• This year, we have had 143 lambs born with three ewes left to lamb.
• 56% of our lambs this year were twins, 25% were triplets and 19% were singles. This averages out to be 1.8 lambs born per ewe for this year.
• Our ewes average almost 6 pounds of milk each per day over the course of their lactation. Our highest producers give an average of almost 11 pounds of milk each per day over the course of their lactation. For reference, about 8.73 pounds of sheep milk is equal to a gallon.
• The ewes' lactation lasts for seven to eight months.
• This year, we will produce around 70,000 pounds of sheep milk that will be made into cheese and other milk products.