Oak Hollow Livestock

Entries for the 2024 Heath Fair are open!
The fair runs from August 16-18th.
New this year: ABGA Sanctioned Boer & Market Goat shows on Friday afternoon, judged by Kathy Daves-Carr.
ADGA Sanctioned Junior & Senior Dairy Goat shows on Sunday, judged by Barbara Norcross.
Saturday is 4-H Day and 4-H members get in free! All 4-H entries will also receive double premiums, thanks to the Franklin County 4-H Advisory Council.
https://www.heathfair.org

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a Tri-State SARE Project field workshop at our farm as part of their series on Pasture Based Systems for Sustainable Livestock Production. We welcomed over three dozen farmers and technical advisors from many different organizations, including Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education American Farmland Trust USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service UMass Food Science Extension UConn Extension URI Cooperative Extension
I was too busy to get many pictures, but we had a photographer at the event who should be sharing some photos soon! In the meantime, the one picture I took included about half of the group! Good thing we built such a big barn! 😳 😂
As an added bonus, one of the attendees kept a list of the birds observed during the morning and confirmed 37 species of birds on the property! That didn’t even include the pair of piliated woodpeckers, the kestrels, or the bald eagles we see quite frequently.

We’ll be there (not with animals)! Hope you can join us!

June 29, 2024: Working Oxen Demonstration - Fabric of Life Family-friendly day of working steer and oxen demonstrations. Learn about this traditional form of draft power, meet some amazing animals, and find out why working oxen are making a comeback in New England.

2024 SARE MA Field Workshop
Join the Tri-State SARE project team on Wednesday, June 26 from 9am-12pm for a tour of our farm. Oak Hollow Livestock is a pasture based diversified livestock farm. Learn about the economic analysis and decision-making processes, as well as strategies we implement that are crucial for the long-term success of our farm business.
Oak Hollow Livestock
4 Gould Rd
Shelburne, MA 01370
For more information, contact Rachel Bespuda, Project Director at [email protected]
To register, visit:
https://forms.office.com/r/A21G2Uyk6Q

Check out this article about our family and farm in today’s Greenfield Recorder!
One minor clarification from what was written: we do raise pigs and reservations for our December 2024 pork shares are open on our website!

Check out this article about our family and farm in the Recorder!

One minor clarification from what was written: we do raise pork and reservations for our December 2024 pork shares are open on our website!

From homesteading to homeschooling: The Davis family of Oak Hollow Livestock all lend a hand Sara and Carl Davis moved in 2019 to their 25-acre farm on Gould Road in Shelburne. They are the parents of five children and the proprietors of Oak Hollow Livestock, which is more than just a business; it’s a thriving homestead where humans live...

We had a great time at the Southern Vermont Dairy Goat Association Show today! We had the only Saanens, but enjoyed a lovely show at a beautiful location. Here are a few pictures of the kids with their goats.
In the senior show, Davis OHL SA Missed Me was Champion AOP and Best of Breed and Montgomery-Park Gem was Reserve Champion AOP. In the junior show, Davis OHL NG Diamond was Reserve Champion AOP.
The kids had a great time and are excited for the rest of the show season!

I needed a picture of myself and realized there are very few recent ones in existence. So Madison helped me by taking a few photos yesterday. I think she did alright. And now there’s proof I exist. That should do it for another 10 years or so. 😂

Just some boys enjoying a fresh paddock with lots of weedy snacks. A few of these yearling bucks are looking for employment and have prior job experience with excellent results.

Sure beats a desk job (most days). Just some of the things I stopped to admire today while I was moving fence for the animals.
1 & 2. Multiflora rose - invasive plant that has beautiful flowers and unpleasant prickers. Bonus: goats love it!
3. Forget-me-nots - toxic flowers but their striking blue color always catches my eye.
4. Mountain Laurel - pretty flowers, very toxic to goats.
5. The start of a white face hornet nest. As long as they aren’t disturbed or defending the nest, they are *usually* not a problem for us. They eat lots of flies and their stings hurt. A lot.

2024 MA 4-H Goat Tour: June 2, 2024

JOIN IN THE FUN!!

4-H youth and their families are invited to join the MA 4-H Goat Advisory to tour two goat farms in Western Massachusetts! Thomas Farm in Sunderland (thomasfarmstand.com) and Oak Hollow Livestock (oakhollowlivestock.com) in Shelburne will be providing learning walks about their businesses.

Here are few items for you to know about this event:
1. The tour will start at Thomas Farm, 64 Hadley Rd., Sunderland, MA at 10 AM.
2. At 11:30 we will move to our next stop, Oak Hollow Livestock, 4 Gould Rd., Shelburne, MA.
3. Upon arrival, we will enjoy a picnic lunch. (Please bring your own lunch.)
4. Our tour will begin between 12:30-1:00PM and should wrap up around 2:30-3:00 PM

For biosecurity purposes, please do not wear footwear that you wear around your own animals. Plastic boots will be available if needed.

Please register on 4-honline.com before June 1, 2024. If you have any questions, please reach out to Andrew at [email protected].

More baby ducks are hatching today! These little cuties are runner crosses that we affectionately refer to as Madison’s blue ducks. They’re great layers and excellent foragers. Second picture is our adult flock.

It’s baby duck season! We have a few Muscovy ducklings available now and more on the way!

Moms. Embarrassing their kids since the beginning of time. Happy early Mother’s Day!

Goofy heifers are happy to be out of the barn and on pasture!

These three doe kids aren’t littermates but were born within a few hours of each other and are fast friends at less than a week old..

My first and last babies. ❤️

Just a pile of baby Saanens taking an afternoon nap. 😴

We have one pair of Muscovy ducks still available from our 2023 hatch. This silver drake is one Madison showed at the Northeast Poultry Congress, but she has decided we have one drake too many. The blue hen is laying and ready to hatch ducklings. Muscovies are great homestead ducks, hatching multiple clutches of fast-growing ducklings. They make excellent table birds in as little as 8 weeks. They don’t quack and the females fly. PM for details.

The puppies are getting big and will be ready to move to their own farms soon. I have a male pup still looking for employment protecting livestock and/or poultry from predators. If you are interested, please send a message or visit our website for more info.

It was a busy weekend for Madison! Her Saanen does both kidded within 12 hours of each other. Saturday evening, Misty shocked us all with QUADS! Then, Sunday morning, Gem had triplets. All are doing great and Madison is thrilled - she even ended up with a few doe kids this year!

The puppies are getting big, and all that growing requires lots of naps!

The puppies are doing great with their sheep friends. Learning a lot about appropriate behavior and respecting boundaries. I woke these two up from a nap when I clumsily knocked something over near their pen trying to get a picture. 😂

We have a litter of purebred MSCA registered Maremma puppies in Shelburne, MA. These pups are from working parents and have full siblings excelling on farms with all sorts of livestock and poultry to protect.
We do our best to ensure the development of resilient, adaptable dogs by incorporating many principles of puppy culture, early neurological stimulation, daily handling, and early exposure to livestock and poultry.
We have had a few reservations open up due to personal circumstances, so are taking applications. These pups are available to working homes and we offer lifetime support to their new owners. Parents have had hips and elbows x-rayed and are excellent livestock guardians with amazing personalities.
Pups will be available the first weekend in May and will have their first shots, appropriate deworming, permanent microchip identification, and limited MSCA registration. For more info, please visit our website or send us an email.
www.oakhollowlivestock.com

When the food coma hits… 😴

These boys are looking for employment. One year old this month, registered Fullbloods. PM for details.
Located in Shelburne, MA.

We’re just about through the first kidding season in the new barn. I have enjoyed having plenty of space to separate groups of does and set up individual kidding pens with everything under one roof. And although it’s a melty mess outside the barn, inside the animals are dry and comfortable. The overhead lights for late nights and early mornings are an added bonus!
Just one doe left to kid in this group, then we’ll have a bit of a break before the Saanens kid in March and then the rest of the Boers are due in April.
Our kidding pens are made with 5’ panels from D-S Livestock Equipment that we added to our operation with a grant from in 2022.
1: A baby goat plays in the foreground as other does prepare to deliver their babies.
2: Moms and babies enjoy private birthing pens to facilitate bonding.
3: A two day old doe kid and her dam hang out near the moms and new babies.
4: A two year old doe cleans off her new baby before delivering its twin.

When you need to get a bottle ready, it’s handy to have a babysitter. ❤️

Just a sleeping one day old Maremma puppy to brighten your day.

When you attend a conference off the farm, of course your momma dog decides to go into labor just before the talk you were waiting for. Four pups so far and all is going well!