Archive for June, 2010

Just came across this video about Joel Salatin, entitled “Grass is King”.  He was talking about farming grass and I thought it was timely.  Enjoy!

Jill

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Grass is our biggest commodity.  It’s what we turn into top quality chicken and pork.  It makes all the difference in eggs and beef, too.  It always amazes us how the grass behind the chicken tractors is enriched. 

This photo shows the tractor tracks nicely.  You can see the beaten down areas immediately behind the pens.  You can see two moves there.  The lighter green is the third move back, and it goes from there.  I am taking the photo about 6-7 days worth of moves behind the tractors in bright, clean, green grass.  In the spring and fall, the tracks are clear because the grass is green when the surrounding areas are brown. 

These photos are days 1, 4, and 7 behind a tractor.

What else can I say?  The pictures are worth a thousand words!

Jill

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It’s a little known fact, but, to quote a little boy’s confession to Grandma, “Chickys really do like to swim.” 

At least, one might think so when they get the opportunity so often.  Whether it’s a “pouring buckets” rainstorm, a broken water line, or a faucet forgotten “on”, the chickens seem to get lots of opportunities to try their aquatic skills.  Let it be known, chickens don’t swim well. 

As I was on my way to town one evening this week to get bedding after the most recent flood, I thought about what it takes to make a farm work.  I was running for needed supplies, Joe and Sam were manning shovels with Mark, Rachel was helping me by entertaining Jim in the back seat, and Grandma was taking Dorothy to her evening activity.  Team.  Everyone pitching in when needed.  Sometimes it’s an emergency, sometimes it’s a get-it-done-quick situation, most often it’s just more-to-do-than-time-to-do-it-in that pulls everyone together. 

I have to say, biased though I am, that we have a good team.  There aren’t really any jobs on the farm that any given person won’t do.  Some are better suited to certain jobs than others, but that’s the nature of “Team.”  We know a couple of other small farm families and they operate the same way: Team.  Of all the books about farm families through time, it’s the same component that makes a family farm work: Team. 

It isn’t easy to be a Team always.  Sometimes we’re tired and would like the night shift to take over (wishful thinking).  Sometimes we’re tired of each other and would prefer a little more space.  Sometimes we think if we never see another chick again it’d be too soon.  But at the end of the job, we step back together and say, “Job well done.”  We did it together.  We are a Team.

I think large farms miss out on that.  There are so many employees that the family doesn’t operate the farm.  They may or may not even live on the farm.  Certainly the children aren’t called on to rise above to meet a challenge that could be crucial to the family’s well-being in some way.  There’s something inspiring about that, whether it involves a plant crop or an animal.  It has potential to bring out the best in us, or at least offer a significant learning opportunity.  Another reason to stay away from industrial farming, in my mind. 

So, we saved the chicks.  We stepped back and looked at each other.  We nodded our tired heads and said, “Good job everyone.  Thanks for the help.”  Go Team!!

Jill

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Kevin Costner built a baseball diamond.  Mark Baker is building chicken tractors.  This is what a field of 27 tractors filled with about 2000 chickens looks like.  It’s a lot of chickens, make no mistake.  Mark commented this week, “We aren’t in Kansas anymore.”  Some of those Munchkins would be helpful around here, but we’re making it with our own labor force plus a few other helpers.  This week the processing starts as we begin harvesting the larger groups.  The calves and dairy goats play a big role in keeping the grass eaten down in front of the chickens.  The birds aren’t as efficient on grass longer than 6 inches, and the grazers shouldn’t graze the grass lower than 6 inches.  It’s a good system. 

SPEAKING OF WHICH…

Joe has developed the “half pint” chicken tractor.  It is a half size version of the field tractors we use.  It is for sale.  He equips it with an automatic waterer that you hook up to your garden hose and includes a wooden trough feeder.  It will hold 20-30 broiler chickens.  Keith, our 6 year old, can move it, so it’s not extremely heavy.  When you’re done, the tarp rolls up on one side so that next year everything will be ready to use again.  Joe can custom build the tractor smaller, too, to accommodate the space and number of birds you have.  He’s working on an adaptation for layer hens that will have the nesting boxes in the back  for easy access.  The kits come fully equiped and ready to use.  We can supply broiler chicks as well.  Contact Joe at 231-825-0293 if he can help you get started raising your own pastured poultry.

Jill

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The University of Chicago can boast of some bright students.  If the gentlemen from the Culinary Club who visited us last week are any measure, it’s a fine institution.  Eight members of the club drove up from Chicago to spend the weekend in Northern Michigan on a foodie excursion.  They chose to begin their tour with a day on a sustainably focussed working farm.  They participated in pastured poultry production from moving chicks from brooder to pasture, to shovelling out pens, to building a completed chicken tractor and filling it with chicks, to helping plant the garden.  We enjoyed conversations about farming, politics, law, the environment, as well as where everyone was from (all over the U.S.), majors, plans for the future, and how their foodie interests complimented their plans.  The young men tried a lot of new things, including catching chicks (“they won’t peck you!”) and gutting chickens.  It was a learning experience for us all. 

Who wants to be next?!

Jill

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If you couldn’t sweat, how would you stay cool when the temperature reads 90 degrees?  If you were a pig, you’d do something like this:

Pigs cool off by taking a mud bath, much like rhinos and elephants.  The water slowly evaporates, cooling them like your sweat cools you.  With their wooly coats, the Mangalitsas seem to benefit even more from their mud than their bristley counterparts–the wool collects and holds even more mud.  That works out great as long as you don’t mind looking like this:

Mark sometimes puts a sprinkler on so the fellas can cool off (not unlike children), but they’ve also perfected the art of holding the drinking spouts open to create a wallow.  The biggest Mangalitsas can even disconnect the hose from the water station so that it makes a great mud hole.  And lots of excitement.

Jill

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