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In an ideal world….
….this would provoke a national discussion and a “new” approach to farming. In an ideal world. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack is quoted as saying in a speech recently that rural America is fast becoming irrelevant. Now what Vlasick wants is for farmers to “get with the program” and stop bickering. Here’s the AP report: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_VILSACK_RURAL_AMERICA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-12-08-08-24-10 In short, Vilsack apparently wants farmers to quit whining and stop resisting all those regulations that are good for them. Where to start? First, farmers are right to be suspicious of government regulations because government programs is what got them into trouble in the first place. They took the “candy” to buy tractors, and silos and…
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Waiting for 422….
….patiently. When you call the herd into the pen, generally a few of the senior cows start the move and the others tag along. That’s the way they’re built. But when the senior cows all have brand new babies, they’re not going to leave them unguarded and, by themselves, the steers in the group don’t seem to get the message very well. And that can be a problem when you want one of those steers….422, in this case…to come in for his ride to the abattoir. After waiting awhile, I took the Gator and found him in the midst of the calves, helping babysit. It’s easy (sometimes) to wrangle an animal…
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Yes, Virginia there will be Thistle Hill pork again….
…though not in time for Christmas. But after considerable searching we have found a source for our favorite Tamworth breed at a price that makes sense. These four little ones are growing faster than any we have ever raised and we think it is probably because they are “pigging out” on all the acorns in their pasture. If I were going to guess, I’d say they’ll be ready in May but, as anyone who has tasted Thistle Hill pork, it is worth waiting for.
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We’ve been busy….
…both on and off the farm. But here’s our pre-occupation right now at Thistle Hill: welcoming new calves to our world. It’s the most special time of the year. This is our seventeenth calf so far, a heifer, by one of our best cows. The sire is U2, which means she has Rotokawa 974 in her blood. The calf is still wet and a bit wobbly. Wobbly is good when you have to tag a new-born. A few more hours and she would have been too “mobile” to catch and we would have had to wait to catch her sleeping. A tag snapped into your ear comes under the heading…
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It’s come to this….
….it’s easy to forget, here in Virginia, just how much our fellow farmers are suffering in most of the rest of the country. The drought most places has taken on “Dust Bowl” proportions and that’s triggered a predictable reaction: We hope they’re not fellow farmers, but some people have been engaging in the lucrative crime of “hay rustling”. http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2012/12/03/missouri-farmers-fight-rise-in-hay-thefts/