-
Nobody told me….
….seems like I’m always the last to know. Apparently the Peterson Brothers, who farm in central Kansas, have been “hot” in Ag (and not-so-ag) circles for a couple of years. Their parodies of life on the farm have been big not only on YouTube but college campuses. They’ve even taken their “act” overseas. Thanks to Barbara Matthews, our daughter-in-law, for catching us up!
-
If everything else fails….
….maybe we can sell the view. Our chief-of-everything around here—Duane Ard—snapped this picture from his porch the other evening. That’s the Rappahannock down there in the haze….nearer us, a pasture we’re stockpiling for winter. Now that I really look at the picture, I’m thinking we’ll move in with Duane. He’s got “The View”!
-
Looking ahead….
….most farms (not the big corporate ones) are a mix of a number of small enterprises. In our case, that includes selling heifers and cows to those starting out or upgrading their herds, selling bulls to the commercial cattlemen, meat to our own customers, and steers (pictured here) to other meat operations. And all have to be kept in balance. We have several very good steer customers. Sometimes we deliver to their farms….sometimes straight to the butcher for their own label. But since steers take just over two years to reach “finish” weight, we have to track a number of things, including keeping enough in the pipeline for almost three years….enough…
-
Because it’s mine….
….on rare occasion I post something that has nothing to do with the usual topics of this website….not about food or cows or even our English partners….but…. This is not one of those times! This is about Food and England…..and Music! Opera, which I enjoy almost as much as Bacon! (thanks to Don Kunnard for the link)
-
The perfect storm….
An old CBS News colleague, Bill Kurtis, is a mover-and-shaker in grass fed beef circles….his Tall Grass Beef company marketing nationally. But Bill thinks those of us operating at a smaller scale better not be making any big, and particularly long-range, plans. Guest Blog August 2014 By Bill Kurtis Dry Age Beef and the grass-fed dilemma I much admire Tom Johnston’s Meatingplace “Dry Age Beef” series on the state of the beef business in America. I would add yet another segment that as a grass-fed beef rancher and distributor is just as dark. The perfect storm of drought, historic market prices and food safety pressures that have hit us…
-
GMO foods…the extra ingredient…
….it’s never mentioned by supporters of GMO products….it’s not only the “food of the future” but “the wonder food”….perfectly. Never said is that the only way these GMO foods get raised is with ever-increasing applications of herbicides. As the saying goes, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”. Here’s Dr. Joseph Mercola’s take: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/08/19/gm-crops-pesticides-herbicides.aspx And just like humans, animals are what they eat. That GMO grain is in the meat and poultry you eat, too. Thistle Hill makes sure that our pigs eat only non-GMO feed; our cows eat no grain, just alfalfa.
-
Gearld Fry stricken….
….we have received word through a family member that Gearld Fry, who has played a key role in the revival of the Devon breed, has been diagnosed with cancer. Fry has a farm in Rose Bud, Arkansas and was one of the founders of the North American Devon Association and is currently on the board of the successor organization, Red Devon USA. Only recently Fry re-married after losing his wife, Margie, to cancer following a long illness. This would seem to be an unbearable twist of fate and we pray Gearld will fight his way through this.
-
A fussy eater….
….not a phrase you associate with pigs. But this one wants things just so. First, she likes company when she eats. And she does not want her milk on top of her cereal….separately please. Most pigs could care less but this one’s mother taught her proper etiquette. She eats even more if grandson, Church, stays with her and talks to her for the whole meal!
-
Mama…don’t let your kids grow up….
….to be farmers. It’s still a no-win game despite all the publicity about the Locavore movement, farm-to-fork, food hubs, CSAs. “blah-blah” stuff. The dirty little secret is the Big Guys are killing us….and they’re the ones getting the subsidies and grants that enable them to further squash the idealists. The New York Times had the story this past weekend. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/opinion/sunday/dont-let-your-children-grow-up-to-be-farmers.html?_r=1 Thanks to Dr. Sue Beal for the link.
-
Letters, we get letters (cont’d)….
….and often the unexpected. Recently we posted an item about one of our English heifers, Essington Park Buttercup. Within hours we heard from a breeder in England we haven’t met—Martyn Heard—who farms near Exeter in Devon. Martyn told us he had purchased Buttercup’s dam in the Essington Park dispersal sale and he wondered about the identity of Buttercup’s sire. Well first, thanks for reading and thanks for writing. If you have a chance, tell us more about how you’re doing with your new cows. We AI-ed your cow at Bovine Genetics near Bishops Itchington to Ashott Barton’s Millennium Falcon. He was bred by Shiamala Comer, still an excellent source for…