2000-2006
Happy Holidays from Sandy, Jessica & Ralph
Reserve Grand Champion Market Goat at Cumberland County 4-H Roundup
Bucks on Performance Test
Twin Purebred Boer bucks from
Painted Hand Farm have been sent to two different performance tests--the
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture in conjunction with the Penn State
University Department of Dairy and Animal Science Meat Goat Testing Program at
the Samuel E. Hayes Livestock Evaluation Center and the University
of Maryland's Western
Maryland Pasture-Based
Meat Goat Performance Test.
Although the Maryland test is still taking place, at the Penn State test, our buck placed eighth out of 23 participants in his age/breed class with a daily rate of gain of 0.57 pounds per day.
CALVES!
So I asked friends of mine who own a dairy and creamery if I could get a bull calf to raise up for beef and ended up with FOUR! Walking into a pen with four hungry calves and one bottle, I quickly found out why calves are housed in separate pens until weaning. Talk about a mugging!
The mugging got out of control. I was losing the skin on my knuckles, my legs are covered in bruises and I would have required steel-toed boots had I continued feeding four calves with one bottle. These contraptions, interestingly referred to as "mommy buckets" were inexpensive to make and get the job done. The calves push them around quite a bit so the lids really help keep the milk in the the pail
TURKEYS!
The last few years, turkeys have been hit or miss here at the farm thanks to natural disasters such as hurricanes and heat waves. This year, we've got a batch of heritage poults out on grass in a wind-proof, predator-proof hoop portable hoop house.
PUpdate as of June 19, 2006. Click on the puppy to see the latest images of the Great Pyrenees puppies born April 25, 2006.
Guess what Dora, our Great Pyrenees Livestock Guardian Dog is hiding around the corner. Click on her picture to find out.
Update on the kids. Click on the image to see more!
And so it begins......
The 2006 kidding season has begun. Click HERE to see picture of our kids as they arrive.
All kids this season are out of Concho, a Powell-Holman buck owned by Julie & Dave Maxwell, owners of MAX Boer Goats, in Lykens, Pennsylvania.
Jessica, Sandra, Ralph and the rest of the herd send you our best wishes for the coming year.
Holy Cow! Yes, that's our daughter's latest 4-H project--a Jersey heifer. After a successful 4-H & fair season with her market goats & lamb last year, Jessica decided to add a long-term project to her 4-H activities. "This way I don't have to sell her at the end of the year."
Sandra was interviewed about
Heritage Turkeys for the 2005 holiday issue of Bucks Magazine. Her recipe for
Heritage Turkey with Rosemary Maple Butter was included. 
2004
Kidding season has begun
The fall crop of kids have started to arrive here at the farm. Our first pair of twins, both does, were born on October 7th. There are several more expectant does so we should be having babies until Thanksgiving. You can see more pictures of the kids on the Goat Page.
Third Annual Labor Day Goat Roast
Mother Nature spared us from her normal rainy day for our annual goat roast. Lots of friends, family and customers showed up to spend a day enjoying the bountiful fruits of the farm. Read all about it in the Sentinel newspaper's coverage.
Our Pastured Heritage Turkeys are featured at LocalHarvest.org
LocalHarvest is a public nationwide directory of small farms, farmers markets, and other local food sources. Painted Hand Farm is their Featured Turkey Grower. Additionally, we also provided an article on cooking heritage turkeys and a recipe.
Welcome Dora, a female AKC Great Pyrenees
This is El Jefe's new girlfriend, Dora. They will be breeding this fall for an early spring 2005 litter. As the number of goats and pastures increase on the farm, so must our Livestock Guardian Dogs. Click on Dora's picture to learn more about these working dogs.
Shippensburg Fair 4H Reserve Grand Champion Market Goat
Congratulations to Jamie Gump who purchased her market wether from Painted Hand Farm. "Sebastian" won first place in the Open and 4H mid-weight division and went on to place Reserve Grand Champion in the 4H Market Wether Division.
Painted Hand Farm in the Wall Street Journal
On July 2, 2004, the Wall Street Journal did a story called Getting in Touch With Your Inner Caveman which was about popularity of whole carcass roasting. They covered pigs, lambs and goats...and we were mentioned under the goats. The story ran on page D1 which is the Personal Finance, Health & Family and Leisure & Arts section.
Recently introduced to the farm is a yearling Tibetan Royal Yak heifer. We have been working on artisan cheeses for the last three years and recently decided to add a cow to increase milk production. We seasonally milks the goats when the kids are removed from the does, however, the Boers are not heavy milk producers. Look for rich cheeses and butter in the spring of 2005 made from yak milk.
Congratulations to Julie & Dave Maxwell of MAX Boer Goats
Congratulations on their buck achieving the status of Top Indexing Buck and Top Gaining Buck at the Penn State Buck Performance Evaluation. Their submission had an ADG of .97 and an index of 136. The next closest goat was .79 and 114. He is the highest scoring buck ever tested by Penn State and the second highest scoring buck in the nation. The buck was delivered to Penn State at 70 pounds with a two-week acclimation period and begun the performance test at 94 pounds. He finished the test with a weight of 155 pounds.
"What a thrill, we figured he'd do ok but never imagined he'd be exceptional."--Julie Maxwell
The Maxwells are breeding outstanding Boer goats at their farm in Lykens, PA. We have purchased both dogs and one of our herd sires from them and are extremely pleased with the quality, temperament and performance of the animals they produce. For anyone considering raising Boer goats, the Maxwells offer starter packages containing the same genetics of their champion stock.
