Guard Geese
Maybe not a great idea
Tall Grass Carbon Capture
In recent years I’ve come to appreciate the value of grazing chickens and turkeys on taller grass. My old thinking was that shorter grass would be more digestible and more accessible to the birds. But now I prefer more mature pastures. With our chicken shelters, we find that the rubber conveyor belt flaps on the …
Riding Herd
This week we moved the cattle from the front of the farm to the back end, about a half mile. Rachel does most of the summer day-to-day cowgirl work and I help with the big moves and roundups. Moving the cattle doesn’t involve much of the TV tropes of whip-cracking and shouting. Not even a …
Shelter
Our chickens shelter, but not in place. The idea of putting large numbers of animals in the same place for long periods of time is what drove agriculture into its dependency on pharmaceuticals. So our chickens move, and we need to make sure their shelter can move with them. The need for shelter changes for …
No More Balls
This spring one of my farm efficiency projects has been the standardization of all trailer hitches on field equipment. We have five little utility trailers we constantly move on pasture for water and feed buggies for the poultry, plus another trailer frame that holds the turkey shelter. Four of them used four different types of …
Heaters on Pasture
Today we brought this group of little chickens out of the brooder and set them up in the pasture. Between the strong cold wind and the nightly freezes, we had to give them some help. To block the wind we tarped the end wall. Our chickens get exposure to American consumer culture, with a Blade …
Greenhouse Demolition
We bought an old greenhouse from a farm in town. Over the last week we’ve taken it all apart and brought all the hoops back here. Having the project site close by was convenient, allowing us to peck away at the job as we found time in breaks in the weather and between other tasks. …
Aprilish
April is such a strange month. The weather simply reaches blindly into the grab bag and pulls out whatever comes to hand. Lately the selections have favored snow, rain, and howling winds. We and the rest of the farm are tensed up, ready for the explosion of activity that characterizes May through November. But in …
