A-Z Farm Offers a Great Country Experience
News Editor
A "Time in the Country" experience has been a highlight for many Oregon area preschoolers, daycare classes and kindergartners this Spring.
That country experience has taken place at the A-Z Farm of Ray and Alice Antoniewicz at 1820 Schuster Road, just northeast of Oregon. This is the third year the lambing barn at A-Z Farm has been open for tours and visitors.
For three successive Sundays in March, ending on Easter, A-Z Farm has an open lambing barn. Altogether, more than 1,500 people came to view the lambs, rabbits, chicks and ducklings, with 686 of them showing up on Easter Sunday.
"Six cars were parked out in front waiting for us to open at 11 a.m. It kept going like that ‘til 5 p.m.," Ray says. "We had pizza that night for our Easter dinner," he adds.
Ray and Alice met through a mutual friend and also a love of horses. They owned a horse together before they were married, and their first acquaintance with the 37-acre farm they now call home came about when they were seeking a place to board their horse.
After their marriage, the couple continued their horse boarding arrangement. "One day the couple who owned the farm told us it was for sale and we were able to buy it," Ray says.
"We've been here 35 years," Ray says. "We've always had sheep but at one time we were breeding horses, too."
Ray, who only recently retired as extension horse specialist at UW-Madison, pointed out that the current lambing barn was once the horse arena. Alice is a nursing supervisor at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison.
The three horses that remain are for family use–pleasure and trail riding, Ray says.
"The horse industry is the only livestock industry in the state that's growing," he pointed out.
"We've gotten into intensive grazing and have been able to expand our flock of ewes. Right now we have 105 ewes and we had a 200 percent lamb crop," Ray says. Their flock includes many different breeds of sheep including Dorset, Targhee, Hampshire and Texel. "We raise all our own ewes, but bring in rams for traits we want to infuse into the flock," Ray says.
After his Extension career, Ray couldn't just drop his interest in agricultural education. "Education is a big reason we're doing this today," he says.
The couple's four grown children help out with the chores and tours whenever they can. The day of AgriView's visit, son Tony, a fireman in the village of Oregon, had gone to pick up a load of straw. Daughter Sara had stopped by with three of her four children. Four-year-old Mikala (called KK), three-year-old Brienna and baby Emily, four months, love to be around all the baby animals. An older sister, Amber, 7, was at school. Sons Troy and Todd also try to help out whenever they're needed.
Ray says he enjoys answering the many questions people ask when they're visiting the farm.
"More and more, people want to know how their food is produced. We get a lot of comments about how clean the barn is. People really seem to be very appreciative of what we're doing.
"On those Sundays when we've had an open barn, we get a lot of people who've never been on a farm before. Things that are normal to us, they'll tell us they had no idea about," Ray adds.
A Precious Armful
Ray Antoniewicz loves sharing baby farm animals with children - but especially with his granddaughters. Here, he's holding Mikala and her favorite little lamb. During lambing season, A-Z farm has an open barn on several Sundays. This year the open barns were on the last three Sundays in March.
"The Antoniewiczs like to show and share their assortment of baby animals with others. This spring they took a bunny, two chicks, two ducklings, a lamb and a very tame chicken down to the nursing home in Oregon. "The residents–many of them came from farms–just love it," Ray says.
During February, A-Z Farm has a "Sheep Shearing for Spectators." Visitors often ask questions about the sheep and what happens to the fleeces.
"We tell them wool is one of the oldest fibers used by mankind," Ray says, adding "we sell wool to a wholesaler but last year we sold lots of fleeces to individuals who do spinning."
Early spring visits are all in the indoor facility. But from late April on, visits are primarily outdoors. Tours are prescheduled and they vary as the season progresses.
Fees are $3 per person, or $10 per family. For more information, contact Ray or Alice Antoniewicz at 608-835-5553 or rayatoz@merr.com.
Reprinted with permission of Agri-View
