My earlier post is so full of information that your eyes may have glazed over quickly, so here is a shorter version.
This is not so much about your digestion as that of the cows and why it is important to us humans.
I was a vegetarian for 15 years. Continued slips in overall health finally got my attention and I started reading something besides books that supported my views. At some time, we have to be brave enough to examine opposing views. My poor health pushed me to be brave. If you are a vegetarian, I hope you are brave enough to continue reading this post.
Let's start with the biggest myth and the one I am focusing on today - that it takes sixteen pounds of grain to make one pound of beef. In truth, it takes ZERO pounds of grain to make a pound of beef. Cows and steers live on grass if allowed to do what nature intended. They can live quite comfortably on marginal land that could only support cultivation of row crops through the use of fossil fuel fertilizers, or massive amounts of compost that will only work over time if it is mixed with animal manure. And remember that worm castings are worm manure and the dead bodies of the worms. Worms are not vegetables.
While the cow or steer is grazing on this marginal land, it is defecating and urinating copiously, adding nutrients to the soil and actually creating more topsoil than the grass it's eating will utilize. The myth about how much water a cow needs completely ignores the fact that the cow puts the large majority of the water back on the ground, but now it is full of nutrients. And the gas from cow belches pales when measured against the gas produced by wetlands.
Let me add that I am not talking about factory farming in which animals are cramped together, fed grain, and live in filth. I am talking about small family farms that use rotational grazing and take care of the land. But there are factory farms that are not raising meat animals; there are factory farms that are stripping the land of nutrients to grow lettuce, tomatoes, corn, oats and wheat, then replacing them with fossil fuel fertilizers. They are using heavy machinery that runs on diesel fuel, and their farming methods kill hundreds of animals in the process of plowing, cultivating and harvesting. Factory farming feeds a lot of people cheaply, but it is not healthy for our planet. And please do remember that factory farming undoubtedly produced your soy burger.
I'm going to stop there regarding digestion. If you want to read the nuts and bolts of how ruminants operate, and more about vegetable farming vs. animal farming, then go to my previous post. Healthy Eating - long version But I hope that by reading even this shorter version, I have give you some food for thought.
I have come to believe that it is some innate fear of death in our culture that leads us to poor decisions in land management and food production. We are part of a circle of life. At some time, we will be predators and we will be fodder. We will eat living things, whether it is a carrot or a steer. And we will eventually be eaten by the microbes that comprise a good percentage of our soil. Our acceptance of this circle will help us to accept that something must die so that we might live. To say that the carrot's life is less important than the steer's, that the weed's life is less important than the carrot's, to create some hierarchy of life that is linear, implies that we are on top, that our lives are the MOST important. Remembering the circle, whether it is the circle of life or the circle of the seasons, will help us to live better, and to accept death as part of life.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Healthy eating - a lesson on digestion
This is not so much about your digestion as that of the cows and why it is important to us humans.
I was a vegetarian for 15 years. Continued slips in overall health finally got my attention and I started reading something besides Vegetarian Times and books that supported my views. At some time, we have to be brave enough to examine opposing views. My poor health pushed me to be brave.
In part, I was a vegetarian for ethical reasons, believing that vegetarianism led to best use of the soil (it doesn't), that it was a sin to kill animals to eat them (it isn't), and that raising animals was "factory farming" and raising spinach wasn't (wrong in part on both counts).
If you are a vegetarian, you may be ready to quit reading right now, but vegetarians especially need to read this. Be brave; read this opposing view.
Let's start with the biggest myth and the one I am focusing on today - that it takes sixteen pounds (or four pounds or six pounds, depending on which vegetarian publication you are reading) of grain to make one pound of beef. I even got a letter published in Times or Newsweek, can't remember which, spouting this "fact" during my vegetarian days. And they published it. No fact checking there!
Here is the truth. It takes zero pounds of grain to make one pound of beef. Yes, that is right, ZERO pounds! And now I get to my lesson on digestion.
Ruminants include bovines (often referred to as cows, but technically, "cow" only refers to the female bovine), goats and sheep, to name the three that most are familiar with. Their systems are designed to process grass, which is cellulose. I can't digest cellulose, you can't digest cellulose, but the female ruminant can, and then she very efficiently turns it into milk, which I CAN digest, and her brothers (meat producing bovines are steers, meat producing goats and lambs are wethers), efficiently turn cellulose into meat, which I CAN eat.
Here is how their digestion works. Ruminants have four stomachs, the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum. The last in line, the abomasum, is pretty much like our stomachs, lined with glands similar to ours, and secretions of hydrocholic acid and digestive enzymes, same as ours. The three stomachs that precede it are the factories that turn the cellulose into something the final stomach can digest.
The first of these, the rumen, can hold up to 25 pounds of grasses. Conditions are right for the growth of microbes that promote fermentation. It is also the stomach that provides the "cud" that the cow will chew while resting. Grain fed cows will not chew the cud as much, if at all, since the grain is small and not in need of further processing. However, it is believed that cud chewing releases nutrients. I don't think it is out of line to say that grain fed animals will not extract the nutrients from their feed that their grass fed sisters and brothers will. And this may have something to do with CLAs (conjugated linoleic acids) being four to five times higher in ruminants fed grass only, CLAs that we need to boost our immune systems against cancer, diabetes and heart trouble.
On to the next stomach. The reticulum hopefully gets a very small workout in our animals here on my farm. It is where nails and other indigestible sharp objects will drop out. Heavy or dense feed would fall into this stomach; our cows don't get any of that, being strictly grass and hay fed. I think it is significant that the stomach that deals with nails also has to deal with grain. There is a message there.
The next stomach, the omasum, absorbs water and feed material - the hay and grass that has proceeded through the first two stomachs. The feed material between the leaves of tissue that line this stomach will be drier than that found in the other compartments.
Then it is on to the abomasum, the one that closely resembles our stomachs. By the time the fodder reaches this stomach, it has been converted by the actions of the previous ones into something that would be digestible even by non-ruminant stomachs.
If cows are fed grain, then this optimum system is put out of whack. The grain will decrease rumination (cud chewing), and aside from the nutrient issues, I can tell you that a cow chewing her cud is a happy cow. When the cows come into the barn to be milked, if they are chewing their cuds, they are calmer and much easier to handle.
Eating grain affects the pH of the stomach, decreasing acidity levels of its natural state into higher pH levels that can support the growth of E. coli 0157:H7, or E. coli 57 for short. Let me elaborate a little here and explain that there are many strains of E. coli, most of which are of no concern to humans. But E. coli 57 that flourishes in the digestive tracts of ruminants that are fed grain is the one we definitely do not want in our diets. While there are naysayers out there who dispute this claim, I have not found one study that looked at strictly grass fed animals with no contact with grain fed animals vs. grain fed animals. The studies have looked at organic vs. non-organic (organic animals are often fed grain), or at grass fed animals that were mixed with grain fed animals and so were exposed to their feces. Neither is useful in ascertaining the levels of E. coli 57 in grass fed animals. To my knowledge, there have been no incidences of E. coli 57 from animals on small rotational grazing operations where animals are never fed grain and are not mixed at any time during their lives with grain fed animals.
Back to digestion. This marvel of ruminant digestion works hand in hand in the circle of life of which we are a part. Here we have an animal that can live on land that is not fit for cultivation, eating the grasses that we could not eat, spreading manure and urine on the ground while she eats, and over time, improving the soil and increasing our precious topsoil. And do not overlook the fact that grazing cows can move without diesel fuel.
Bovines need about an acre of grasses and legumes on which to subsist, and they provide enough fertilizer for three acres, a pretty good return, don't you think? They will increase the depth of the top soil, rather than decrease it as row crops (corn, beans, wheat, spinach, tomatoes, i.e. vegetation) do. Polyface Farms in Virginia lays claim to increasing the depth of topsoil by inches per year, through intense animal rotation. Lest you think this is a ho-hum statistic, be aware that vegetation eats top soil. When you put a seed in the ground, it must eat nutrients out of the soil in order to grow. It is not some magic; remember that matter may neither be created nor destroyed. And so the plant builds itself through the absorption of the nutrients in the top soil. Those nutrients must be replaced or the depth of the topsoil shrinks. In the Midwest, where I live, the topsoil when the buffalo were running free was about twelve feet deep. Today average depth of topsoil here is about four inches. When it is gone, what will we do? We must farm using methods that increase rather than decrease topsoil. Enter the cow, with that 3:1 ratio. Without animals in our circle of life, eventually there will be no life. If you are dead set against killing animals for food, then partake of milk, cheese, eggs and honey in abundance. Bees, goats, cows and sheep are all workhorses that improve our land. Let them be part of it; don't elevate them to some holy realm where the product of their labors must not pass our human lips!
If these marginal lands that are ideal for grazing were to be farmed for grain or vegetables, they would have to be heavily fertilized. If the land is not organic, it will be fossil fuel fertilizers that are used. If organic, it will have to be fertilized with complete compost that includes animal manure or it will wear out. Pure vegetative compost does not contain enough nutrients to feed the soil. When I pointed this out to a vegetarian, she told me that she didn't use manure and her soil was fine. I asked what she used, and she said she used worm castings. I gently pointed out that worms are not vegetables, that she was in fact using worm manure. And whether organic or not, it will be farmed with machinery that is powered by fossil fuels. Hundreds of small animals will die as the farm equipment plows, cultivates and harvests.
I have come to believe that it is some innate fear of death in our culture that leads us to poor decisions in land management and food production. We are part of a circle of life. At some time, we will be predators and we will be fodder. We will eat living things, whether it is a carrot or a steer. And we will eventually be eaten by the microbes that comprise a good percentage of our soil. Our acceptance of this circle will help us to accept that something must die so that we might live. To say that the carrot's life is less important than the steer's, that the weed's life is less important than the carrot's, to create some hierarchy of life that is linear, implies that we are on top, that our lives are the MOST important. Remembering the circle, whether it is the circle of life or the circle of the seasons, will help us to live better, and to accept death as part of life.
I was a vegetarian for 15 years. Continued slips in overall health finally got my attention and I started reading something besides Vegetarian Times and books that supported my views. At some time, we have to be brave enough to examine opposing views. My poor health pushed me to be brave.
In part, I was a vegetarian for ethical reasons, believing that vegetarianism led to best use of the soil (it doesn't), that it was a sin to kill animals to eat them (it isn't), and that raising animals was "factory farming" and raising spinach wasn't (wrong in part on both counts).
If you are a vegetarian, you may be ready to quit reading right now, but vegetarians especially need to read this. Be brave; read this opposing view.
Let's start with the biggest myth and the one I am focusing on today - that it takes sixteen pounds (or four pounds or six pounds, depending on which vegetarian publication you are reading) of grain to make one pound of beef. I even got a letter published in Times or Newsweek, can't remember which, spouting this "fact" during my vegetarian days. And they published it. No fact checking there!
Here is the truth. It takes zero pounds of grain to make one pound of beef. Yes, that is right, ZERO pounds! And now I get to my lesson on digestion.
Ruminants include bovines (often referred to as cows, but technically, "cow" only refers to the female bovine), goats and sheep, to name the three that most are familiar with. Their systems are designed to process grass, which is cellulose. I can't digest cellulose, you can't digest cellulose, but the female ruminant can, and then she very efficiently turns it into milk, which I CAN digest, and her brothers (meat producing bovines are steers, meat producing goats and lambs are wethers), efficiently turn cellulose into meat, which I CAN eat.
Here is how their digestion works. Ruminants have four stomachs, the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum. The last in line, the abomasum, is pretty much like our stomachs, lined with glands similar to ours, and secretions of hydrocholic acid and digestive enzymes, same as ours. The three stomachs that precede it are the factories that turn the cellulose into something the final stomach can digest.
The first of these, the rumen, can hold up to 25 pounds of grasses. Conditions are right for the growth of microbes that promote fermentation. It is also the stomach that provides the "cud" that the cow will chew while resting. Grain fed cows will not chew the cud as much, if at all, since the grain is small and not in need of further processing. However, it is believed that cud chewing releases nutrients. I don't think it is out of line to say that grain fed animals will not extract the nutrients from their feed that their grass fed sisters and brothers will. And this may have something to do with CLAs (conjugated linoleic acids) being four to five times higher in ruminants fed grass only, CLAs that we need to boost our immune systems against cancer, diabetes and heart trouble.
On to the next stomach. The reticulum hopefully gets a very small workout in our animals here on my farm. It is where nails and other indigestible sharp objects will drop out. Heavy or dense feed would fall into this stomach; our cows don't get any of that, being strictly grass and hay fed. I think it is significant that the stomach that deals with nails also has to deal with grain. There is a message there.
The next stomach, the omasum, absorbs water and feed material - the hay and grass that has proceeded through the first two stomachs. The feed material between the leaves of tissue that line this stomach will be drier than that found in the other compartments.
Then it is on to the abomasum, the one that closely resembles our stomachs. By the time the fodder reaches this stomach, it has been converted by the actions of the previous ones into something that would be digestible even by non-ruminant stomachs.
If cows are fed grain, then this optimum system is put out of whack. The grain will decrease rumination (cud chewing), and aside from the nutrient issues, I can tell you that a cow chewing her cud is a happy cow. When the cows come into the barn to be milked, if they are chewing their cuds, they are calmer and much easier to handle.
Eating grain affects the pH of the stomach, decreasing acidity levels of its natural state into higher pH levels that can support the growth of E. coli 0157:H7, or E. coli 57 for short. Let me elaborate a little here and explain that there are many strains of E. coli, most of which are of no concern to humans. But E. coli 57 that flourishes in the digestive tracts of ruminants that are fed grain is the one we definitely do not want in our diets. While there are naysayers out there who dispute this claim, I have not found one study that looked at strictly grass fed animals with no contact with grain fed animals vs. grain fed animals. The studies have looked at organic vs. non-organic (organic animals are often fed grain), or at grass fed animals that were mixed with grain fed animals and so were exposed to their feces. Neither is useful in ascertaining the levels of E. coli 57 in grass fed animals. To my knowledge, there have been no incidences of E. coli 57 from animals on small rotational grazing operations where animals are never fed grain and are not mixed at any time during their lives with grain fed animals.
Back to digestion. This marvel of ruminant digestion works hand in hand in the circle of life of which we are a part. Here we have an animal that can live on land that is not fit for cultivation, eating the grasses that we could not eat, spreading manure and urine on the ground while she eats, and over time, improving the soil and increasing our precious topsoil. And do not overlook the fact that grazing cows can move without diesel fuel.
Bovines need about an acre of grasses and legumes on which to subsist, and they provide enough fertilizer for three acres, a pretty good return, don't you think? They will increase the depth of the top soil, rather than decrease it as row crops (corn, beans, wheat, spinach, tomatoes, i.e. vegetation) do. Polyface Farms in Virginia lays claim to increasing the depth of topsoil by inches per year, through intense animal rotation. Lest you think this is a ho-hum statistic, be aware that vegetation eats top soil. When you put a seed in the ground, it must eat nutrients out of the soil in order to grow. It is not some magic; remember that matter may neither be created nor destroyed. And so the plant builds itself through the absorption of the nutrients in the top soil. Those nutrients must be replaced or the depth of the topsoil shrinks. In the Midwest, where I live, the topsoil when the buffalo were running free was about twelve feet deep. Today average depth of topsoil here is about four inches. When it is gone, what will we do? We must farm using methods that increase rather than decrease topsoil. Enter the cow, with that 3:1 ratio. Without animals in our circle of life, eventually there will be no life. If you are dead set against killing animals for food, then partake of milk, cheese, eggs and honey in abundance. Bees, goats, cows and sheep are all workhorses that improve our land. Let them be part of it; don't elevate them to some holy realm where the product of their labors must not pass our human lips!
If these marginal lands that are ideal for grazing were to be farmed for grain or vegetables, they would have to be heavily fertilized. If the land is not organic, it will be fossil fuel fertilizers that are used. If organic, it will have to be fertilized with complete compost that includes animal manure or it will wear out. Pure vegetative compost does not contain enough nutrients to feed the soil. When I pointed this out to a vegetarian, she told me that she didn't use manure and her soil was fine. I asked what she used, and she said she used worm castings. I gently pointed out that worms are not vegetables, that she was in fact using worm manure. And whether organic or not, it will be farmed with machinery that is powered by fossil fuels. Hundreds of small animals will die as the farm equipment plows, cultivates and harvests.
I have come to believe that it is some innate fear of death in our culture that leads us to poor decisions in land management and food production. We are part of a circle of life. At some time, we will be predators and we will be fodder. We will eat living things, whether it is a carrot or a steer. And we will eventually be eaten by the microbes that comprise a good percentage of our soil. Our acceptance of this circle will help us to accept that something must die so that we might live. To say that the carrot's life is less important than the steer's, that the weed's life is less important than the carrot's, to create some hierarchy of life that is linear, implies that we are on top, that our lives are the MOST important. Remembering the circle, whether it is the circle of life or the circle of the seasons, will help us to live better, and to accept death as part of life.
Friday, November 27, 2009
My $3,500 breakfast
Here is a rundown of my investment.
- The truck, retail value at time of conversion, $2,500
- Materials to convert it, $200
- Chicks, $75
- Organic starter feed and laying mash, $136.50
- Fencing and posts, $60
- Feeders and waterers, $35 (used)
- Payment to shareholders who helped with conversion (in eggs), $425
- Shotgun shells to scare off the hawk (didn't work), $15
- Monofilament fishing line to keep the hawks out of the pen (did work), $3.50
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Another kind of harvest - saving seeds
I have been drying some seeds on a plate, tomatillo seeds and beans. The beans are Aunt Ida's Italian Pole Beans, and they are my favorite bean ever! When I see ads that talk about the "beany" flavor of beans, I think to myself, "Well, what are they supposed to taste like? Beans are beans!" While there are differences between Italian flat beans, French mini filets and the ubiquitous Blue Lake beans, they are all good and they all taste like beans.
And then there is Aunt Ida's Italian pole beans. Oh, yes, now that is beany! I just can't get enough of them. Frozen beans - ugh! Canned beans, tolerable but a whole different animal, in my humble opinion. So the joy of those few weeks in the summer when I can gorge on Aunt Ida's is appreciated, remembered and anticipated as the wheel of the year rolls around.
I save my seeds. Beans are so easy to save - just let the pods dry on the plant, bring them inside, shell and store. A few years ago I discovered instructions for making seed packets, a sort of origami type envelope that you can make out of scraps of paper. I usually find myself rooting through the waste basket in my office when I need another envelope. The instructions were quite clear, I realized, once I had finally succeeded in making one envelope. Talk about trial and error!! This pic shows the left hand side finished, the right hand side still open so that I can insert the beans.
Then once the beans are safely inside, the right hand side is secured and the beans are tucked in until next June, when they will travel back down to my garden. Here is a pic of the beans going into the envelope.
You can see the tiny tomatillo seeds on the top of the plate, kind of behind the envelope. Aunt Ida's seeds are the big fat tan ones on the plate. And that reminds me - most beans don't taste all that great boiled or steamed once the seeds start to expand - if you can see the outline of the seed in the bean, then they are past their prime. Not so with Aunt Ida's. The seeds lend their own spectacular flavor to the beans. They are still good to steam when they are fat with seeds!
And here is the picture of the finished envelope of bean seeds, along with my Thanksgiving Day greeting to you. There will be no time for blogging tomorrow. I'm cooking up a storm already, and it will be frantic tomorrow. I hope everyone has a wonderful day, filled with family, laughter, minimal family tension, and pumpkin pie!
Happy Thanksgiving from the chickens, three dogs, one cat, eight milk cows, one happy bull, three heifers, three calves, and me, the Accidental Farmer.
And then there is Aunt Ida's Italian pole beans. Oh, yes, now that is beany! I just can't get enough of them. Frozen beans - ugh! Canned beans, tolerable but a whole different animal, in my humble opinion. So the joy of those few weeks in the summer when I can gorge on Aunt Ida's is appreciated, remembered and anticipated as the wheel of the year rolls around.
You can see the tiny tomatillo seeds on the top of the plate, kind of behind the envelope. Aunt Ida's seeds are the big fat tan ones on the plate. And that reminds me - most beans don't taste all that great boiled or steamed once the seeds start to expand - if you can see the outline of the seed in the bean, then they are past their prime. Not so with Aunt Ida's. The seeds lend their own spectacular flavor to the beans. They are still good to steam when they are fat with seeds!
Happy Thanksgiving from the chickens, three dogs, one cat, eight milk cows, one happy bull, three heifers, three calves, and me, the Accidental Farmer.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Asparagus, atriums and chickens
What do these three things have to do with one another? Absolutely nothing. They just represent three things that caught my attention today.
The Dark Side of Asparagus . . . Do you love the look of spring asparagus on your plate? Maybe with some Hollandaise sauce, or perhaps just some butter and lemon? Or how about raw, with a good mayonnaise based dipping sauce? It is such a fleeting treat, those few weeks in spring when the new shoots pop up overnight. Sometimes it seems that if we look closely, we will see them growing! And then, poof! they are gone. Well, not really gone, but the spears get thinner and thinner until it is time to let them go. What happens to the plant then? If you have never seen it, it is hard to believe. The asparagus makes a big plant as tall as me, with fern-like branches, and some with small red berries. They need to be allowed to grow to provide nourishment for the roots. Properly cared for (or maybe even ignored), asparagus beds can live for 50 years; however, the average life of a plant is about 15 years. Sometimes spears will reappear in the fall, but if you cut them, you risk decreasing the life span of the plant, so just leave them alone. The plants are actually pretty when they first rise up, especially on a foggy morning. But in general, they are leggy, dry, full of prickly bits, and ugly. I leave mine until spring, when I clear them off and weed around the roots to make room for the spears in the spring. And so the cycle begins anew.
My Beautiful Atrium . . . It may have been foolish to build a passive solar house on the east side of Lake Michigan, but I am far enough south that I get more than the 65 insolation days per year that South Bend gets. Today was one of those days when it earned its keep. It was only 32º this morning. My house was pretty nippy - I keep the thermostat on 62º - but it wasn't cool enough to warrant building a fire in the stove. I turned up the furnace for just a bit while I enjoyed my morning espresso. By 9 am, the sun was pouring into the atrium, and I opened the doors and windows between it and my main living space. There wasn't a lot of heat to start with, but before long I could feel it rising into the living room.
It's a good room. I don't use it often, but sometimes on a very sunny winter day, with the snow bouncing the light into the atrium, I haul my chaise lounge out there and take a sun bath. And today, it brought the house to a comfortable 72º, with the only expense being the effort it took to open and close the doors and windows.
Chickens - They are Driving Me NUTS! . . . The chickens think the garage is their second home. They find my Prius to be a suitable roost. Chickens poop while they are roosting. I have had to put the bird seed in a tote to keep them out of it. They hang around the bird feeder in the hopes of getting the scraps. Since Campines are such good fliers, I fully expect to find them hanging on the feeder helping themselves one of these days.
Tashi keeps them out of the garage when she is outdoors. She lies on the concrete pad outside the garage, and that is enough to keep them at bay. However, she was in the house for a good bit of the morning, and when I went out, they were all sitting on some cartons of canning jars stacked in a corner. They did NOT want to leave. I have mentioned a couple of times that these are flighty birds that will not let you touch them unless it is dark. However, one of them just sat there defiantly, looking me right in the eye and refusing to budge from the seat of my bicycle. I finally picked her up - in broad daylight! - and carried her fat little body outside.
Tonight, there are still 15 chickens, in the Moop where they belong, and all other animals are accounted for.
It's a good room. I don't use it often, but sometimes on a very sunny winter day, with the snow bouncing the light into the atrium, I haul my chaise lounge out there and take a sun bath. And today, it brought the house to a comfortable 72º, with the only expense being the effort it took to open and close the doors and windows.
Chickens - They are Driving Me NUTS! . . . The chickens think the garage is their second home. They find my Prius to be a suitable roost. Chickens poop while they are roosting. I have had to put the bird seed in a tote to keep them out of it. They hang around the bird feeder in the hopes of getting the scraps. Since Campines are such good fliers, I fully expect to find them hanging on the feeder helping themselves one of these days.
Tashi keeps them out of the garage when she is outdoors. She lies on the concrete pad outside the garage, and that is enough to keep them at bay. However, she was in the house for a good bit of the morning, and when I went out, they were all sitting on some cartons of canning jars stacked in a corner. They did NOT want to leave. I have mentioned a couple of times that these are flighty birds that will not let you touch them unless it is dark. However, one of them just sat there defiantly, looking me right in the eye and refusing to budge from the seat of my bicycle. I finally picked her up - in broad daylight! - and carried her fat little body outside.
Tonight, there are still 15 chickens, in the Moop where they belong, and all other animals are accounted for.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Our milk association - the nuts and bolts of it
Let me tell you a little about how our milk association runs. I have touched on some of this in previous posts, but it's time for a refresher. (To that end, I will remind you that when a cow has a calf, she "freshens.")
Indiana does not allow the sale of raw milk. I will not get into what they imagine they are saving us from by depriving us of this wonderful food. The law is the law. Fortunately the law does not prohibit imbibing in this white magic if one owns the cow. Many farmers have devised a way to accommodate potential customers by allowing them to buy a "cow share," which entitles them to come to the farm to pick up their milk and pay a boarding fee for their piece of some cow in the amount of so much per gallon for the milk, the assumption being that if you need more milk that week, then you need to pay higher boarding fees for your chunk of a cow because you need a bigger chunk of it that week. Okay, it works.
I participated in three such cow share programs over three or so years. Each one was an improvement over the last - first one had a problem with freshness, fresher milk at the second farm because of state of the art cooling system, glass jars at the third farm instead of the ubiquitous plastic. But none of the three were certified organic, and they all fed grain. Grain boosts production. Never mind that it also reduces conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) dramatically, by as much as 80%. Sorry if I am repeating myself, but we are sorely in need of those CLAs. They boost our immune system to help us fight heart disease, cancer and diabetes. So I wanted milk from grass fed cows. I just couldn't find it.
When I did find it right in my own neighborhood, the farmer didn't want to do these "loophole" cow shares, especially since he was shipping to Organic Valley and didn't want to compromise that relationship in any way. In the end, we bought two organic cows from him and rented his milking parlor to get our own milk.
One would think that there are not that many people willing to make such an effort to get those three things - organic milk from grass fed cows packaged in glass jars. I didn't think there would be. But in no time all of the shares were sold, and we had seven shareholders lined up to milk. Eventually we moved the cows to my farm.
We are unique. Steve suggested that we put together a contract that was on the lines of one he had with his former partner, so we used that for a springboard. Then we called the Weston A. Price Foundation to get some legal advice. They pointed us to their lawyer, and after many phone calls and emails with him, we had an agreement that met the law in both letter and spirit. We are wholly owned and operated by the shareholders. All of the milk is distributed to the shareholders each day, each shareholder receiving milk one day a week. To make the math a little easier, we chose to sell seven shares per cow - as we add a cow and sell seven more shares on her, we can keep the number we fill each day equal on all seven days of the week. This is plenty of milk in the spring and summer. However, in the fall, when the cows are all pregnant again, a lot of the fodder they are taking in is going to grow a baby instead of making milk. Production drops, and rather precipitously once the cold sets in and the pastures are providing no grass at all. Hard to graze on a paddock covered in snow!
So we have this huge variance in production - more milk than we know what to do with in the summer, and not nearly enough by January and February. We have dried them up on February 15 the last two years. They need a two month rest before freshening again, and since most of the herd freshens in April, it makes no sense to keep milking only a couple of cows that may not be due until June or July.
During the good months, shareholders make and freeze butter, mozzarella and ricotta. If you leave some headroom in the jar, the milk freezes quite well, and it is sure better than store bought milk, come February. We have gotten used to this rhythm in production and no one complains. That is just how it works.
This year, Steve butchered two young cows and asked me if I knew of anyone who wanted to buy some of the meat. I posted a note on our e-board and was able to help him sell quite a bit of it.
Steve called me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I wanted to take in one of his cows because she freshened late (August 31) and he was going to dry up his whole herd mid-November. Would we milk her all winter and then send her back in the spring? I reminded him that we quit milking in February, so I thought that would be that. Then he called back and asked again if I wanted the cow. I said, "Since we will dry her up in February, what's in it for you?" He said he wanted to say thank you for my having helped him sell so much meat. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather! I jumped all over that one. It would cost us about $500 for hay, and $2.50 a day to milk her. So down she came. She is a great milker, producing nearly 50% of what our whole herd was doing. Then Steve called again. One of his cows just freshened, is just as good a milker as Phyllis, would we take her, too? Would we? Forgive me for waxing poetic.
Does a pig oink?
Does a cow moo?
Is ice cold?
Is the sky blue?
I posted a poll to our e-board and asked if the shareholders were willing to pay a one time hay assessment to feed these two girls in exchange for getting a lot more milk. Then I asked the milkers if they were willing to give up their two months off in the February to April dry time. Everyone is on board! Milkers are lined up. Delilah came down with her calf in tow, and even with the calf taking his six to eight quarts a day, we are swimming in milk again! Rosie, Buttercup and Lucy freshened late, so we can milk them through those two months. It is certainly worth it to keep milking when there will be five cows still giving milk.
These shareholders are hardy souls, willing to go along with whatever the cows give, showing delight when their totes are chock full of milk in July, and giving thanks for the extra cream they get when the fluid milk production goes down in late fall. They deserve this wonderful gift! Make hay while the sun shines, and make butter while Phyllis and Delilah are here.
There are 15 chickens in the Moop tonight, one snoring old black dog beside me, one yappy little one, one young black one, a white cat purring on my lap, three heifers in their proper paddock, three calves in their pen, one bull, and not seven but NINE cows! Oh, yes, and one little five day old bull calf, hanging out with his mom, Delilah.
Indiana does not allow the sale of raw milk. I will not get into what they imagine they are saving us from by depriving us of this wonderful food. The law is the law. Fortunately the law does not prohibit imbibing in this white magic if one owns the cow. Many farmers have devised a way to accommodate potential customers by allowing them to buy a "cow share," which entitles them to come to the farm to pick up their milk and pay a boarding fee for their piece of some cow in the amount of so much per gallon for the milk, the assumption being that if you need more milk that week, then you need to pay higher boarding fees for your chunk of a cow because you need a bigger chunk of it that week. Okay, it works.
I participated in three such cow share programs over three or so years. Each one was an improvement over the last - first one had a problem with freshness, fresher milk at the second farm because of state of the art cooling system, glass jars at the third farm instead of the ubiquitous plastic. But none of the three were certified organic, and they all fed grain. Grain boosts production. Never mind that it also reduces conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) dramatically, by as much as 80%. Sorry if I am repeating myself, but we are sorely in need of those CLAs. They boost our immune system to help us fight heart disease, cancer and diabetes. So I wanted milk from grass fed cows. I just couldn't find it.
When I did find it right in my own neighborhood, the farmer didn't want to do these "loophole" cow shares, especially since he was shipping to Organic Valley and didn't want to compromise that relationship in any way. In the end, we bought two organic cows from him and rented his milking parlor to get our own milk.
One would think that there are not that many people willing to make such an effort to get those three things - organic milk from grass fed cows packaged in glass jars. I didn't think there would be. But in no time all of the shares were sold, and we had seven shareholders lined up to milk. Eventually we moved the cows to my farm.
We are unique. Steve suggested that we put together a contract that was on the lines of one he had with his former partner, so we used that for a springboard. Then we called the Weston A. Price Foundation to get some legal advice. They pointed us to their lawyer, and after many phone calls and emails with him, we had an agreement that met the law in both letter and spirit. We are wholly owned and operated by the shareholders. All of the milk is distributed to the shareholders each day, each shareholder receiving milk one day a week. To make the math a little easier, we chose to sell seven shares per cow - as we add a cow and sell seven more shares on her, we can keep the number we fill each day equal on all seven days of the week. This is plenty of milk in the spring and summer. However, in the fall, when the cows are all pregnant again, a lot of the fodder they are taking in is going to grow a baby instead of making milk. Production drops, and rather precipitously once the cold sets in and the pastures are providing no grass at all. Hard to graze on a paddock covered in snow!
So we have this huge variance in production - more milk than we know what to do with in the summer, and not nearly enough by January and February. We have dried them up on February 15 the last two years. They need a two month rest before freshening again, and since most of the herd freshens in April, it makes no sense to keep milking only a couple of cows that may not be due until June or July.
During the good months, shareholders make and freeze butter, mozzarella and ricotta. If you leave some headroom in the jar, the milk freezes quite well, and it is sure better than store bought milk, come February. We have gotten used to this rhythm in production and no one complains. That is just how it works.
This year, Steve butchered two young cows and asked me if I knew of anyone who wanted to buy some of the meat. I posted a note on our e-board and was able to help him sell quite a bit of it.
Steve called me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I wanted to take in one of his cows because she freshened late (August 31) and he was going to dry up his whole herd mid-November. Would we milk her all winter and then send her back in the spring? I reminded him that we quit milking in February, so I thought that would be that. Then he called back and asked again if I wanted the cow. I said, "Since we will dry her up in February, what's in it for you?" He said he wanted to say thank you for my having helped him sell so much meat. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather! I jumped all over that one. It would cost us about $500 for hay, and $2.50 a day to milk her. So down she came. She is a great milker, producing nearly 50% of what our whole herd was doing. Then Steve called again. One of his cows just freshened, is just as good a milker as Phyllis, would we take her, too? Would we? Forgive me for waxing poetic.
Does a pig oink?
Does a cow moo?
Is ice cold?
Is the sky blue?
I posted a poll to our e-board and asked if the shareholders were willing to pay a one time hay assessment to feed these two girls in exchange for getting a lot more milk. Then I asked the milkers if they were willing to give up their two months off in the February to April dry time. Everyone is on board! Milkers are lined up. Delilah came down with her calf in tow, and even with the calf taking his six to eight quarts a day, we are swimming in milk again! Rosie, Buttercup and Lucy freshened late, so we can milk them through those two months. It is certainly worth it to keep milking when there will be five cows still giving milk.
These shareholders are hardy souls, willing to go along with whatever the cows give, showing delight when their totes are chock full of milk in July, and giving thanks for the extra cream they get when the fluid milk production goes down in late fall. They deserve this wonderful gift! Make hay while the sun shines, and make butter while Phyllis and Delilah are here.
There are 15 chickens in the Moop tonight, one snoring old black dog beside me, one yappy little one, one young black one, a white cat purring on my lap, three heifers in their proper paddock, three calves in their pen, one bull, and not seven but NINE cows! Oh, yes, and one little five day old bull calf, hanging out with his mom, Delilah.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Busy day . . .
Today we brought another cow down from Steve's place. Her name is Delilah. Steve never names his cows, and when we had our first three cows down at his place, he would scoff about the names. I would say something about Rosie, and he would say, "You mean 930."
The other day I left him a message and told him we had named the first cow he sent Phyllis. I expected to take some heat for it, but when he came down today after Delilah was delivered, he actually referred to Phyllis as . . . Phyllis! When I told him the one we got today was Delilah, he just chuckled.
Delilah came down with her calf. That is good. It is a strong little bull. He will stay here for a few weeks, until he goes to the sale barn.
Steve is not easy to get to know. He has always seemed pretty removed from the emotional end of farming, as evidenced by "930." But he told me that he didn't want to ship the bull calf to the sale barn just yet, please keep him with the cow for three weeks or so. It surprised me. He actually said that he hated to part them too soon. It is not what I would have expected from him.
I don't mind keeping the calf for awhile. It is bothersome to me as well. When we separate our calves from mom, the calves are in a pen near the barn, and the mothers can stop and talk to their young 'uns on the way in to the milking parlor. It does seem to be a good thing. There is much lowing, and often some nose touching through the fence.
Steve said we needed to keep the cows on rotation in the pastures, even though I didn't think there was any decent forage in them. He said that wasn't true, there was plenty and it would make serve as a catalyst to help them absorb the nutrition in the balage they are now getting every day. So I went to #12 and #13 to set up the gates for tonight. I knew the electric fence wasn't sending out much current, but the animals were staying in, so I hadn't gone looking for any problems. Well, there were problems in #13! The fence had gotten completely knocked off a corner post. That had to be deer. The cows haven't been in that pasture for weeks, and I would have noticed it. The fence was touching metal in at least three places. I got that taken care of, used the fence checker and found a heavy draw on another piece of fence. It was a long walk, but I found a broken insulator, and on another post the fence had popped out of both insulators. In all cases, there was electrified wire against metal. The insulator problem meant walking back to the barn to unplug the fence, pick up tools and replacement parts, than another walk out to the fence - almost at the far end of the pastures, of course. I got everything fixed, then hiked back to the barn with the tools and broken parts.
I'm making sauerkraut and ribs tonight. It smells divine. So do the four loaves I baked for market. But I still need to make a batch of lip gloss and some organic yarrow cream for market so I can't quit just yet. By the time I get to those ribs, which are in a very slow oven, they will melt in my mouth!
Well, back to the Moop. Henny Penny didn't want to go in yet, so I have to make another trip. Oh, and Buster is doing his thing. Gosh, that is a violent act with chickens! There may be some little Campines running around here in the future. Wasn't in the plan, there weren't even supposed to be any roosters when I ordered the chicks, but who am I to mess with Mother Nature? I got what I got, and they're doin' what they're doin'!
The other day I left him a message and told him we had named the first cow he sent Phyllis. I expected to take some heat for it, but when he came down today after Delilah was delivered, he actually referred to Phyllis as . . . Phyllis! When I told him the one we got today was Delilah, he just chuckled.
Delilah came down with her calf. That is good. It is a strong little bull. He will stay here for a few weeks, until he goes to the sale barn.
Steve is not easy to get to know. He has always seemed pretty removed from the emotional end of farming, as evidenced by "930." But he told me that he didn't want to ship the bull calf to the sale barn just yet, please keep him with the cow for three weeks or so. It surprised me. He actually said that he hated to part them too soon. It is not what I would have expected from him.
I don't mind keeping the calf for awhile. It is bothersome to me as well. When we separate our calves from mom, the calves are in a pen near the barn, and the mothers can stop and talk to their young 'uns on the way in to the milking parlor. It does seem to be a good thing. There is much lowing, and often some nose touching through the fence.
Steve said we needed to keep the cows on rotation in the pastures, even though I didn't think there was any decent forage in them. He said that wasn't true, there was plenty and it would make serve as a catalyst to help them absorb the nutrition in the balage they are now getting every day. So I went to #12 and #13 to set up the gates for tonight. I knew the electric fence wasn't sending out much current, but the animals were staying in, so I hadn't gone looking for any problems. Well, there were problems in #13! The fence had gotten completely knocked off a corner post. That had to be deer. The cows haven't been in that pasture for weeks, and I would have noticed it. The fence was touching metal in at least three places. I got that taken care of, used the fence checker and found a heavy draw on another piece of fence. It was a long walk, but I found a broken insulator, and on another post the fence had popped out of both insulators. In all cases, there was electrified wire against metal. The insulator problem meant walking back to the barn to unplug the fence, pick up tools and replacement parts, than another walk out to the fence - almost at the far end of the pastures, of course. I got everything fixed, then hiked back to the barn with the tools and broken parts.
I'm making sauerkraut and ribs tonight. It smells divine. So do the four loaves I baked for market. But I still need to make a batch of lip gloss and some organic yarrow cream for market so I can't quit just yet. By the time I get to those ribs, which are in a very slow oven, they will melt in my mouth!
Well, back to the Moop. Henny Penny didn't want to go in yet, so I have to make another trip. Oh, and Buster is doing his thing. Gosh, that is a violent act with chickens! There may be some little Campines running around here in the future. Wasn't in the plan, there weren't even supposed to be any roosters when I ordered the chicks, but who am I to mess with Mother Nature? I got what I got, and they're doin' what they're doin'!
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