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All for one….
….one of the pleasures of being a part of the grass fed and sustainable farming community is the fellowship and cooperative spirit of people learning together. The process never stops and, like this small grazing meeting at Thistle Hill yesterday afternoon, people learn together and help each other improve their pastures. We like to think we’re doing pretty good but we still have “problem” areas….spots like this one where, unlike most farms, we have too much clover. Not a problem at all in the heat of the summer but not what we want for grazing and adding pounds right now. Click to enlarge….there are three generations in the picture learning together! You…
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Yes, it’s true….
….Greg and Jan Judy’s Green Pastures farm certainly lives up to its name. More than 50 would-be grazers attended Greg’s three-day program near Moberly, Missouri last week to study the power of mob grazing. It’s been a cold, wet spring but the proof was there as you drove down the road. Greg’s green pastures alongside neighbors who were still feeding hay! The featured speaker was Ian Mitchell-Innes who practices a version of what might be called “Mob Grazing for Dummies”. Ian’s approach is throw you in the shallow water so you don’t have to drown. He has become something of a missionary in the battle to save the microbe. There’s…
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Grass fed workshops….
….our friend Ridge Shinn will be holding a grass fed cattle workshop this Saturday, May 11th, at Hardwick, Massachusetts. The day-long session will includes a wide range of topics including selecting, breeding and managing cattle for the grass fed beef market. Here’s the registration form: http://www.nofamass.org/events/raising-100-grass-fed-beef#.UYi-oLVwrSh Sorry we can’t attend but we’ll be in Missouri for Greg Judy’s mob grazing workship with Ian Mitchell-Innes.
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Worth waiting for….
….the second pass over the new grass and we’re still moving them quickly. The plan is to cover every pasture (but one) within 21 days. The “one” is our Italian rye pasture, intended for the steers but they didn’t get the memo. We put the steers on the “special” grass earlier this week. By the end of the next day, they had found their way through to wire fences and across a creek to re-join the main herd. I can hear Ian saying: “Of course, dummy.” Maybe there’s a book in that: Grazing for Dummies. But I’m a fast learner, the next time the rotation takes the herd to the Italian rye,…
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Saving the planet….
….not exactly a humble goal, but that’s what is at stake. The earth’s surface has been turning into a vast desert, releasing more carbon into the atmosphere every year than all the fossil fuel engines combined. This “browning” of the planet is the cause of all the hunger, suffering and war than we can possibly deal with. Strangely, while largely blamed for all our environmental woes, it is the lowly cow that holds the key to the problem. (I wanted to write: “our survival”) As pollyanish as it may sound, we do believe that grass fed beef is the answer. Good for your personal health, a grazing cow is good for the…