New arrivals!! We took delivery on six pregnant gilts (female pigs) for breeding purposes last week. This will give us somewhere in the 85 to 90 pigs per year. The boar (male breeding pig) will arrive sometime this summer.

Predators can be a problem on any ranch including ours. We shot a coyote the middle of this month which was very close to our birthing shed where we are keeping the goats. Coyotes are extremely intelligent animals which I like having around for the diversity they offer to the ecology food chain; we just can't have them so close to our animals. This episode along with previous encounters has prompted us to get an Anatolian guard dog as a puppy which will be on the Ranch in the next couple weeks. It will be raised with the sheep and goats and will protect them. The alpacas have done a very credible job of watching out for the sheep and goats when any intruder, including our house dog Friday, but the Anatolian will offer some added protection.

Next arrivals will be in February when the birthing process starts.