The animals
We love animals!
During the summer months, the animals move to Aspö gård give more people the chance to meet our most common farm animals and even some pets. The animals are at the farm from Easter week until the last weekend in September. Skövdebostäder collaborates with local organizations and a farmer who has his farm in Binneberg—and the animals spend the winter there.
Collaboration with local farmers
The cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens at Aspö gård by a local farmer. Anders lives at Gästgivaregården in Binneberg, where he runs a small organic farm focused on livestock, forestry, and grain production.
The animals living at Aspö gård farm animals and are therefore intended to either become our food or, in some way, produce food for us. This is one of the reasons why you are not allowed to feed the animals on your own initiative. Always ask the staff before giving the animals anything to eat!
There is a hiking trail that runs through the cows and sheep pasture. You are welcome to use this trail, but we ask that you do not stray from the path to greet the animals. If the animals are on the trail and do not move away, it is okay to greet them.
There are a few things to keep in mind when walking through the pasture:
- Cows can defend their calves
- There are bulls in the pasture that can be dangerous.
- When the rams have grown up, they can butt heads quite hard.
You simply enter at your own risk!
Cows
On the farm, you can see Hereford cows, a breed that originally comes from England. Hereford is the most common beef breed in Sweden, and on Aspö we have cows with calves as well as a bull. They graze in a large pasture together with the sheep, which stretches from the farm all the way to our residential area, Frostaliden.
The cows here on Aspö graze for most of the season. At the beginning of the season, before the grass has started to grow properly, and at the end, when the grazing becomes poor, they are fed haylage. In addition to grazing and haylage, they are given salt and mineral blocks. They get their water from two water troughs at their shelter.
Cows and sheep are ruminants and have four stomachs. When they eat, the food is first processed in the first two stomachs, where it is chewed roughly and begins to be broken down by microorganisms. After this, the food is regurgitated and chewed again. This is what the animals do when you see them lying down and chewing but not taking any new bites of grass or hay. When the food is swallowed after being chewed a second time, it is processed in the other two stomachs. This is to extract as much nutrition as possible from the grass and hay.
The bull stays with the cows to mate with them so that they can calve again the following year. A cow is pregnant for nine months. The bull usually leaves Aspö before the cows and calves so that he can mate with more cows during the summer. The calves are allowed to grow until they are 14-16 months old, when they are large enough to be slaughtered.
Sheep
On the farm, we have about six ewes with lambs.
Ewes usually give birth to two lambs in early spring. An ewe is pregnant for five months. When the sheep arrive at Aspö gård , the lambs Aspö gård two to four weeks old.
The sheep graze in the same pasture as the cows, which works well as they prefer to eat different types of grass and plants. Sheep like to graze on short grass and cows on longer grass. They have access to their own section of the pasture and have their own resting area inside what we call the sheep house.
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Pigs
This year, we have two mini pigs named Jenny and Verner.
Chickens
The chickens on the farm are of the brown Lohmann breed and live here with their rooster. The rooster guards and defends his hens.
Chickens eat seeds, worms, insects, and grass, which they find by scratching the ground with their feet and pecking at it. On Aspö, the chickens have free access to pellets, which are a complete feed for laying hens. In addition, they are given grass since it does not grow inside their enclosure. The environmental stewards at the farm and the Aspö Eko-logi residential area Aspö Eko-logi clear the weeds from the flower beds and give them to the chickens. The chlorophyll in the grass gives the yolk a darker yellow color. Since chickens have no teeth, they peck at grains of gravel, which help them process their food in their gizzard. They also have free access to seashells to ensure they get enough calcium for egg-laying.
To keep themselves clean and free from parasites, chickens take sand baths. They roll around in the sand and flap their wings to get sand between their feathers. At night, chickens fly up onto their perches to sleep. In the wild, they would have flown up into a tree to avoid predators on the ground.
Rabbits
In addition to the farm animals, you can also see rabbits at Aspö gård.
The rabbits are owned by 4H Västra Götaland.
Our rabbits always have free access to hay, which rabbits should have. Rabbits' teeth grow throughout their lives because they eat grass, which wears down their teeth. They appreciate having branches to gnaw on, and they eat the bark. They are given grass, leaves, or leafy vegetables and herbs every day, depending on the season. The rabbits are also given pellets in the afternoon, about 1 tablespoon per rabbit. This is not something a rabbit normally needs, but it is a good way to motivate the rabbits to go inside.
As a visitor, you are welcome to feed the rabbits with:
- Grass
- Leaves such as dandelion leaves and clover. Be sure to pick the right leaves and do not pick from our plantings, for example. They may be poisonous to rabbits.
As an accompanying adult, you need to keep an eye on what your children feed the rabbits.
Avoid giving our rabbits carrots, vegetables, and fruit. These should be considered treats as they contain a lot of sugar and not enough fiber. If you have brought such food for the rabbits, you can give it to the pigs instead after asking the staff.
Bees
Beyond the rabbit hutch, there are several beehives. These are maintained by the Skövde Beekeepers' Association, which is based on the farm. They are one of our partner associations. The hives are strategically placed adjacent to the Aspö allotment area, where they help pollinate the crops. If the flowers are not pollinated, there will be no fruit or berries – so bees and other insects are absolutely essential for there to be anything to harvest. In the display hive, you can see how the bees work and read more about bees.
At Aspö Farm Café, you can buy honey from the bees on the farm, sometimes even freshly extracted.
Wild animals
In addition to the animals on the farm, you can encounter many wild animals in the Karstorp area.
There is a rich bird life here. We have a goshawk that regularly snatches a pigeon when they drink water at the cattle shed. It is not often that you see the goshawk, but you often see traces of feathers where it has struck its prey.
In winter, when there is snow on the ground, you can see how the fox moves around the farm. Hares, deer, and sometimes even moose have been spotted in the forest. Around the lake, you can see traces of beavers felling trees and building dams. If you are out early in the morning, you may even see the beavers themselves, not just their traces.
