Learn about the Animals at Autumn Harvest Farm
We believe animals are an integral part of any small farms life.
They serve many purposes from pets to protection to food and
fertilizer. We love our animals and raise them humanely with
lots of fresh air and good food. Here’s a run down of them all.
BELLE – our 30 year old Standard bred Mare, she was a former sulky racer, but is with us now in her retirement. Ornery and loveable she provides lots of fertilizer and some protection from intruders and of course affection when there is an apple involved.
SARGE – our 2 year old German Shepard/Golden
Retriever mix. He is the Farm mascot as anyone will tell you. He
is a great dog with a good nature but at the same time he
provides excellent protection for our garden and other free
range critters. We had no rabbit damage this past year and we
also did not put up the electric fence around the garden to keep
the deer out and we never saw a one!
LAYING HENS – we keep about 150 hens year
round, replacing them once a year with stock we raise from day
old chicks, so as to keep our egg production steady. We have a
mixed flock with about half Aruncanas, because of their
beautiful blue & green eggs, and half assorted breed brown egg
layers. All are free range, fed natural grain and lots of
veggies. Did you know you can tell what color eggs your chicken
will lay by the color of their ear lobe? True Fact, we be happy
to show you anytime – just ask.
MEAT CHICKEN – we raise about 400 jumbo Cornish
Broilers per year. They are raised free range, natural grain
with no animal by-products added and also no hormones or
antibiotics. We use Cabin View Farms portable slaughterhouse for
our processing on farm. They are open at any time to USDA
inspection. We sell our chickens as whole, halves, leg quarters
and breast quarters.
TURKEY – we raise both Heritage Turkeys and
Broad Breasted Whites. We mainly raise them as fresh birds for
Thanksgiving. What is left is frozen for Christmas sales. Any
Heritage birds left over are sold as whole birds. The whites,
which are much larger birds, we cut up and freeze as parts,
breast cutlets, tenderloins, legs, and wings. We sell these
throughout the year as long as they last. They are raised the
same as our meat chickens and are also processed by Cabin View
Farm.
LAMB – we raised 6 Oxford cross lambs this past
year. They were very tame and beautiful. We raised them on
pasture, grain and hay. We’d like to increase our pasture space
so we can do away with grain feeding and are working towards
that. They were processed USDA by Over the Hill Slaughterhouse
in Benson, VT. We have all kinds of retail cuts available
frozen, from 3 kinds of chops, stew. Racks and legs. We also
have Chorizo and Sweet Italian Sausages. Very tender and
delicious.
GOOSE – we plan on raising geese this year for Christmas sales. We have had requests and have always wanted to try them out and think they would do well on and add beauty to our small pond. If you’d like a Christmas Goose let us know ASAP as we will be buying only a set amount this year.
CORNISH GAME HENS – we will be giving them another try this year, the demand is there and we will be processing them ourselves to keep the cost down. They were so good and everyone missed them last year. They are raised the same as our other poultry, but need special care and warmth as they are so small, so going outside is monitored on a daily basis. We don’t want any pneumonia to develop in them.
PIGS – with added help this year we will once
again get back to raising pork. The stand took over our pigpen
area last year so we need to put up a new area this year. But
with the addition of the stand and its added waste we should be
able to feed pigs with great food for little money and hopefully
produce great pork! They will be ready sometime in the fall and
will be processed USDA and into retail cuts, both fresh and
smoked.
Autumn Harvest Farm
77 Johnson Lane, Grafton, NH 03240
Phone: 603-632-9144 E-mail:
info@autumnharvestfarm.com