DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — Rotational Grazing Workshop with Widdershins LLC’s Wendy Russell. July 26th from 9:30AM-12PM, Law Farm, Dover-Foxcroft. Rain date 7/27/21. Hands-on!
Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) is very excited to announce that we will be collaborating with Widdershins Farm LLC again this summer! Widdershins is a local farm in Dover-Foxcroft offering a wide variety of services and products and includes a creamery and farm store that is open 7 days a week. They specialize in sustainable agriculture and caring for their livestock in the most natural way possible. Widdershins offers everything from raw milk, cheese and yogurt to grass fed beef, pasture raised pork, lamb and chicken. They breed and raise Katahdin sheep, a meat breed of sheep that were developed in Abbott, ME for their hair coat, hardiness and prolificacy.
PCSWCD has welcomed 16 working livestock animals consisting of Katahdin sheep, donkeys and goats to the Law Farm in Dover-Foxcroft. The livestock will stay for the summer where they will be moved between pastures as needed to increase soil fertility, implement permaculture practices and decrease the use of motorized mowing fuel and costs.
Want to see how it’s done? Would you like to learn more from an experienced farmer? We are pleased to announce that Wendy Russell from Widdershins Farm LLC will be presenting another Rotational Grazing Workshop on July 26th from 9:30-12pm at the Law Farm to demonstrate the general care and instruction of working livestock sustainably on your land. Wendy will be discussing types of equipment for grazing both cows and sheep, which includes maintaining, transportation and types of equipment that work best. She will also demonstrate how to train the animals, how to move the fence as well as what animals and age groups work best together. Topics will also include watering, shelter needs and the conditions of grass to browse and graze. Wendy will also discuss how often to move, awareness of poisonous plants, wet holes, predators, the public’s safety and insurance. She will give instruction on how to plan your paddock for consecutive moves, start and stop spots for moving animals in and out and containment for catching and loading the animals.
Register at the link above. Registration is required and space is limited for this workshop. For more information, please contact the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District by visiting our website www.piscataquisswcd.org, our Facebook page www.piscataquisswcd.org, by emailing us at info@piscataquisswcd.org.
–Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District