KRIEMHILD DAIRY FARMS
  • Home
  • Shop
    • Online Store >
      • e-Gift Cards
      • Bakers' Butter
      • Meadow Butter
      • Creme Fraiche
      • Creamery Merch
    • Farmers Markets
    • Kriemhild Kupboard
    • Locations
  • Wholesale
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Recipe of the Month

Sacred Spring: The Beginning of Your Meadow Butter

3/27/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Cow & Calf at Red Gate Farm -- Kriemhild's Farm Partner for Meadow Butter

We’re having a Cow! It’s Calving Season at Red Gate Farm…

Spring is a sacred season on any farm. Produce farms can finally put their seeds in the warm ground, chicks are hatching from eggs, and livestock graze on lush spring pastures. At Red Gate Farm, spring arrives with a hundreds of babies mooing.

Located down the road from Kriemhild Dairy in Hamilton, NY, Red Gate Farm is our sole milk supplier for our seasonal Meadow Butter. It is the second-largest grazing dairy in New York State and is owned and run by the Rivington family who practice holistic grazing management for over more than 1,500 acres of land.

The typical dairy farm produces milk year-round, meaning that calves are born throughout the year on a staggered schedule. Being a seasonal dairy, Red Gate Farm goes about breeding and parturition differently. All the cows at Red Gate are bred in the same span of time and therefore give birth in one short period at the beginning of spring. As you can imagine, it is the busiest time of the year on the farm.

The dairy farm lingo for a cow that has given birth is “fresh”.  At Red Gate Farm over 350 cows freshen over a two month period. At this time, the farm transitions to a maternity ward. It is the birth of  the calves that begins the cows’ natural lactation which will peak through the bountiful grazing season and continue until December.
Picture
Some of Red Gate's Calves From Past Seasons Gather for a Group Portrait.
But for as busy and hectic as it is, the season specifically set aside for calving is also reverent. Its suddenness and newness is the ultimate acknowledgement of the fertility and abundance of new life that comes with the spring season.
Picture
Meet Ava. She's our first calf of the season!
As we all look forward to another season of fresh grass-fed Meadow Butter, we’re also just as excited to receive the newest additions to the herd. About 140 of the calves born this spring will be the future milking cows of Red Gate Farm, known by the term “heifers”, which is a pretty good gig as cow-jobs go.
So far, more 100 calves have been born this season. As the calf barn fills up with brand new bouncing baby bovines, we’re gearing up to introduce you to them. 
Picture

On Saturday, April 29th, Red Gate Farm is hosting Calving Day. Whether or not you have visited the farm before, Calving Day will be a great time to make a trip. It will be a special event highlighting the natural cycle and processes that surround seasonal grass-fed dairy farming. We encourage anyone who wants to know more about where their food comes from to join us at the farm to celebrate the start of the season.

Until then, we’ll be keeping you abreast with our Calving Day COW-ntdown (we couldn’t help ourselves). As our Calving Day event approaches, we’ll be counting-down the days and adding-up the number calves we’ve welcomed to the farm.  Stay tuned on social media & here on our website for the running total of fresh baby calves!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    As the Butter Churns 

      Use your Butter Judgement...

    Subscribe to our Blog

     Author: Ellen Fagan and Victoria Peila

    Categories

    All
    Calving
    Camp Fiver
    Carbon Sequestration
    Certification
    Community
    Cows
    #cremefast
    Crème Fraîche
    Environment
    Farm Store
    Grass
    Grazing
    History
    Honor System
    How It's Made
    Kriemhild Kupboard
    Labeling
    Meadow Butter
    Nutrition
    Recipes
    Red Gate Farm
    Science
    Seasonal
    Soil
    Values

    Archives

    November 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    March 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017

    RSS Feed

Where our HEart is

​1093 State Route 12B
​Hamilton, NY 13346
(315) 333-2336
kriemhilddairy@gmail.com
Kupboard is open daily from dawn to dusk

FOLLOW US

Click here to sign up for our Newsletter.

what our customers are saying

"Thank you! Even though I'm 5 hours away...I can't live without you. Got my shipment today.
​
#kriemhildbutterlove" -- Jennifer in Mystic, Connecticut
Copyright 2020 © Kriemhild Dairy Farms, LLC
  • Home
  • Shop
    • Online Store >
      • e-Gift Cards
      • Bakers' Butter
      • Meadow Butter
      • Creme Fraiche
      • Creamery Merch
    • Farmers Markets
    • Kriemhild Kupboard
    • Locations
  • Wholesale
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Recipe of the Month