Friday and Saturday I attended the 7th Annual Winter Greenup Conference in Latham, NY. I’ve made a point of attending each year ever since I first heard of it five years ago. In fact, it is the only farm related conference I regularly attend. The main focus of the conference is grassfed beef, but other pastured …
“…another instance of the untoward fate which so often attends dogs and other philosophers who follow out a train of reasoning to its logical conclusion, and attempt perfectly consistent conduct in a world made up so largely of compromise.” Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd In a passage full of poignance to anyone with …
This is our third winter bale grazing the cattle on pasture. The idea is simple — fence off hay bales with portable electric fences and as the cattle eat through bales, roll fences back every few days to expose new feed. There are different ways of looking at the economics of bale grazing versus winter …
Keeping whey liquid during winter is a constant challenge. The greenhouse we use for the storage tanks has been a huge improvement in keeping the tanks and valves working, but on the coldest days there’s still a lot of work defrosting valves. Even trying to position the 2″ hoses and making up the connectors is a task, …
Young animals have a joie de vivre that can’t be matched. As they age, they settle into their routines, eat their meals with purposeful solemnity, and nod disapprovingly at the antics of the younguns. Occasionally you’ll find an old cow kick up her heels and then look around to make sure nobody noticed, but calves will turn …
This morning we were treated to a prominent and long lasting sun pillar. It became visible about ten minutes before sunrise and remained in place a few minutes after the sun had fully cleared the horizon. Driving along Route 162, there were a number of other people pulled over to get a picture. Too bad none of us had anything …
When the weather dips below zero, even the protection of the greenhouse is insufficient to prevent the valves on the whey tanks from freezing up. We’ve tried different techniques to fix this, including propane heaters (least efficient method), heat lamps (OK, but still expensive to run), low temperature defroster heat patches (fast and effective, but …
“You can’t make a race horse of a pig.” “No,” said Samuel, “but you can make a very fast pig.” John Steinbeck, East of Eden
A stream flows out of the cattail marsh next door bisecting our land. There have always been signs of muskrat activity in the marsh, but never on our side. This year we have two new muskrat structures built in our part of the stream. Muskrats aren’t true rats, although they look like swollen, long haired rats. They …
