rocky mountain oysters

I can't say I can tell you what they taste like. I've had them but it's been a REALLY long time. It's not that I don't want to try them again, I just haven't sought them out... Anyway, I digress.

Farmer Jon here blogging for you on this beautiful (almost) spring day. I wanted to update you on some of this week's events. I recently talked about balance, mainly in regard to the humane treatment of farm animals and how to find that balance of keeping the farm animals happy without getting too carried away at the expense of your farm business. Because, at the end of the day, it's still a business and if we can't make money then we can't afford to provide those animals with the happy, healthy lives they deserve.

As part of that, we decided that we needed to have our 8-9 month old bull calves castrated.  We had considered finishing them as intact bulls but that would require two separate herds for half the year (which means a lot less grass growth) and then we would have to find demand for the very niche market of bull meat in the U.S. Plus, bulls are generally more aggressive then steers (castrated bulls) so there's a chance for unnecessary added danger. So, we decided to haul all of our bull calves, heifers and cows into the vet to be preg-checked, aged and/or castrated. We had to take them to the vet because we don't have a handling facility set up yet (pens and cattle chute). I figured that would be a 3-4 hour process. As usual, my naivety caused me to greatly underestimate how long it would take but even now, I'm surprised that it took about 10 hours before everything was said and done! I'll spare you all the details but you can imagine that there was a bit of cow chasing and some swearing involved. It has definitely helped me to re-prioritize the Farm To Do List. And guess what's now at the top of my list. Yep, a handling facility. Luckily, my family still has some equipment left from the days when they had cattle. They have been kind enough to let us use the old cattle chute and a bunch of other things, including the livestock trailer I used to take the cattle into town with. We've said it many times but I'll say it again - we are very grateful to have such supportive family and friends!

Now that it's done, though, we have a ton of great information. We now know that 11 out of 12 cows were bred back and 5 out of 6 heifers are bred. All of which are approximately 6-7 months along. We also now know that our cows are mostly 4-5 years old. We also got weights on all of them, which we can use to help us decide which cows we want to keep and which cows need to go. And it will help me develop an eye for estimating the weights of cattle. So, all in all, we are very glad we did it. For beginners like us, that information is invaluable. I still have heartburn about taking our medication free animals to a place where many other (sick and/or heavily medicated) animals have been but we needed to get it done and everyone seems OK so far. 

By the way, who's up for a rocky mountain oyster fry?! I may or may not have forgotten them in the truck for 6 hours... Normally that wouldn't be a problem but with the 80 degree weather, I'm not so sure. Or should I say that Jamie's not so sure. I threw them in the freezer anyway in case someone still wanted them.

I also wanted to mention that Open Sky Farm is putting together an email list for anyone who wants to be the first to know of new things we have available. We will also offer email list only specials! Shoot us an email or give us a call if you'd like to be included.

Read more...

balance

It's not my intent to have deep, soul searching type posts every week but it sure seems like we find ourselves in that position quite often. As beginning farmers we are trying to create an identity for our farm. But what do we want that identity to say about our farm (and us)? It sounds great to say that we want to be a farm that is 100% certified organic and Step 5+ GAP certified practicing some of the most humane treatment of farm animals possible. But then you take a closer look and see how unpractical a lot of that really is. For a farm our size, it's hard to make money paying for those kinds of certifications and jumping through all the hoops required to earn those designations. It's equally difficult to get the premium you need to make it pencil out on paper but consumers face a similar conundrum in that ideally they would buy nothing but 100% organic and ultra humane products. But guess what, the majority of folks don't because they feel it costs too much. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying that we are experiencing the same thing from the farmer/producer side. It's what we would love to do, in a perfect world, but it's not a perfect world so we have to decide whether we would rather do something a little more profitable and more enjoyable.

I've been asked to be on a council that will promote the humane treatment of farm animals. This council will bring criticism from both sides. Farmers who say we're trying to take away their livelihood and animals rights folks that   say no animal should be raised for the purpose of slaughter. That's where all these questions started. I thought to myself - "Self, how do I feel about all this? What will I say to all these critics from each extreme?". And that's when I began to realize that's exactly what they were - extremes. Just because we won't be in the top tier of some organization's definition of humane doesn't mean that I'm a terrible person and it doesn't mean that my animals aren't happy and healthy. Just because I feel that all animals should be raised in a humane manner doesn't mean I want to put your feedlot/hog confinement facility out of business. Instead, I want to show you how you can raise your animals in a way that is better for them and more profitable for you. We feel like we can raise our animals in a very humane fashion, using organic and sustainable practices in a way that we can make a profit, enjoy what we're doing and feel good about the way we're doing it. Will everything be 100% certified organic? Probably not. Will we be operating in the top tier of some organizations humane standards? Probably not. But guess what, I'm OK with that.

This will not be the last time we re-evaluate our practices, our farm's direction and our ideals and I don't want it to be. But for now, I feel pretty good about it.

Read more...

things to think about - Crop Insurance Subsidies

 Just a few snippets I wanted to share. You can click on the titles to go to the full articles.

Pressure Builds to End Crop Insurance Subsidies

by Matthew Glans
Heartland Institute Vice President Eli Lehrer argues America’s crop insurance program is “a $6.5 billion annual waste of taxpayers’ money” and “one of the most egregious examples of welfare for business in the nation’s vastly overweight federal budget.
“Eliminating the crop insurance program should be an easy decision. The program is much more than a waste of money — it is also bad for the agricultural economy it is supposed to support and dreadful for the environment.”

The Trouble with Subsidized Crop Insurance

 Tanner Ehmke 

On one side of the road sits a field of corn baking in the heat with the leaves shriveling into a semblance of yellow crepe paper. On the other side of the road is a fantastic field of milo that looks like it just got a 5-inch rain. The stand is impeccable and couldn't look greener or healthier – even with a heat index as high as 113 degrees.
  
 So why plant a crop that struggles in the heat when another crop does perfectly well? The answer probably isn't much of a surprise: subsidized crop insurance.
Thanks to the government's generous crop insurance subsidies – crop insurance companies received $3.8 billion last year from the government while posting a profit of 26.4% – farmers are defying Mother Nature and planting crops that otherwise wouldn't pay.  
On the surface, the concept of government support sounds great: They help keep the business of crop insurance profitable so we farmers can easily reduce our risk. After all, in such a high-risk business as ours, how many of us could farm without insurance?
But here's where it gets turned on its head. Subsidizing a risk management tool only results in one thing: taking on more risk. If the penalty for failure is reduced or eliminated, what's the point of making conservative or smart decisions?

Misguided Farm Bill Shortchanges Rural America

 CFRA
Here is the bottom line. If one corporation farmed your entire state, the federal government would pay 60 percent of its crop insurance premiums on every acre in every year – the better the year, the bigger the subsidy.


 


 

Read more...

Weekend Report

Greetings Everyone,
Well we didn't get as much done as we hoped but Jamie's little sister stayed with us, so it's ok. She's a bit of a city girl so it was good for her to experience the joys of country living. And of course we threw in some chores, for good measure.

The first poultry shelter is finished and in operation. We put the Pekin ducks in it, rather than move them back into the "coop" for the night. Which worked out perfectly because my cousin had just finished cleaning the nasty bedding out of the coop and those ducks like to splash and make a mess.

Which brings me to a "soap box moment". My youngest cousin lives nearby and will be a senior in high school next year. He wanted to help on the farm and a gladly agreed. A big part of "sustainable agriculture" is minimizing the money spent on big machinery and expensive equipment. However, in turn, it is often much more labor intensive. I'm not here to debate which is better for a successful farm but I would like to point out how it can benefit rural communities. If a fourth of the farmers in a rural county/area embraced this strategy, there's a good chance it would increase the population by a good 25-50%. A farmer with a thousand acres could easily (I use the term loosely) support 2-5 employees. 20+ would be on the conservative end for more intensive operations (such as large scale produce production). With numbers like that, it wouldn't take long for nearby towns to flourish to past heights of prosperity. As long as everyone wasn't farming the same thing, there would be unseen stability for the community. It's a much healthier population influx, as opposed to one large employer coming into town and then possibly going bankrupt or moving out in 10 years.
(stepping off soap box)

Lawn mowing troubles took up a good part of my weekend AGAIN. But I'll spare you the details. We have a Grazing Conference in Tecumseh Thursday and Friday and we are very excited. The speaker is Greg Judy and he is a very good speaker and quite the expert in Holistic Grazing. I went to Junction City, KS earlier in the year to hear him speak and I look forward to a two-day event to get even more information.

FYI, we will be butchering some 7-8 week old Pekin ducks this weekend. These are the ducks that we have been taking out to a pen to hang out in the grass and sunshine all day, so they are "pastured". What they don't get from the grass and bugs we make up with organic feed that we have made for us, so they are also "organically raised". The carcass weights should be between 4-6 lbs and the price is $5.50 per pound. If anyone would like some, please let one of us know.

Read more...