Eight (Not so Tiny) Reindeer

Reindeer were not something I expected to see in southeastern Indiana.

But this weekend, we attended the annual Mid-America Christmas Tree Association meeting, this year held near Cincinnati in Dearborn County. Neither of us had been to this part of the state, so we had especially looked forward to this trip.

The sessions on topics like pruning, weed control, regulations, and gift shop products were, as always, insightful. And the opportunities to visit and network with other farmers is invaluable. But what was really new and unexpected was the reindeer.

Learning about reindeer during an informational session was definitely a novelty. Some farms and stores will rent reindeer during the holiday season for promotional or value-add activities. At the end of the day, we had the opportunity to visit the presenter’s nearby farm for a behind-the-scenes tour to discover even more about these majestic beasts.

We arrived right as the eight reindeer were being fed. Donner and Dasher chowed down on their specially formulated feed. The three-month-old calves’ antlers were growing fast. The adults’ antlers curved seemingly at all angles, random yet graceful. A full set of antlers will spread three feet or more and weigh almost 60 pounds.

If you order a reindeer from Alaska, regardless of where your farm is, it gets flown directly into Indianapolis for you to pick up, go figure. Unfortunately, sheep and goats are carriers for a neurological disease fatal to reindeer, so we won’t be adding reindeer to our menagerie.

One of the next days’ sessions discussed wagon and sleigh rides with, wait for it…Clydesdale horses!! Tiger and Will visited in person (in horse?) with their owner. We pried every tidbit of information about logistics, venues, carriages, everything we could from him in the hope that soon we will be able to offer wagon rides with our Clydesdales.

So, true to form, since we showcased sheep and ducks during last week’s Sylvan Sundays about a horse event, we wrote about horses and reindeer for this week’s Sylvan Sundays about a Christmas tree meeting.

Thanks for Reading!

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This Week on the Farm

Our research project on grazing sheep in Christmas trees really came in handy last week when, first the tensioner, then the belt, then one of the pulleys, broke on our lawnmower broke. The machine has been in the shop for too many days, and with these recent thunderstorms, the grass has been growing robustly. Very robustly.

But we put the Shropshires in the Christmas trees, and within three days, they had eaten or laid on the vegetation enough to curb the grass growth.

Once they’d eaten down the weeds in the older trees, we moved them to this year’s planting of Korean-balsam firs and Canaan firs. They seem to be really comfortable among the trees, resting their heads in the shade of the trees.

Farm Shop

We have several lambs available for your flock, including Mirari, the ewe lamb pictured below. She is full sister to last year’s Indiana State Fair Grand Champion Shetland Ewe!

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