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Building Some Flex into the Farm
This fall we constructed a mud-season feeding area for the cattle, in the hope that we would be able to prevent our herd from degrading the land during the spring mud season when the fields always turn to goo. Two …
Wizards, Prophets, and Farmers
This week I finished reading Charles Mann’s The Wizard and the Prophet (published 2018) and I thought it might be a worthwhile topic for discussion. The book centers on the ideological struggle to understand the best way to feed and …
Bark Fed Beef
Regular readers will know that I have always maintained an uncomfortable position on the term “grass fed beef.” It’s not that I’m against it; I’m all for it and firmly believe that it is one of the healthiest and most …
Learning to Use Solar in Winter
I mentioned a few weeks ago that we’re wintering our cattle in a field with the poorest soil on the farm. The cattle have been doing well, and I’m pleased to see how we’ve been able to get all that …
Taking the Tractor to the Auction
This week I hauled my tractor to a local consignment auction. The machine was eight years old, and still running well. But issues were starting to surface at an increasing rate, so I made the decision to bring in a …
Calf Week, Partnerships, and Rethinking Small Farming
This was calf week on the farm. On Saturday our neighbor Mike brought twenty-four newly weaned calves across to our side of the fenceline. And then on Friday, Josh, another cattle farmer in the area, brought six more calves and …
Looking for Silver Linings to Drought
This year’s drought has laid additional stresses on the farm. Everything is harder without water. The well for our house has been completely dry for two months. The pasture plants didn’t produce anywhere close to normal growth, so our grazing …
What is Healthy Anyway?
I enjoy leafing through discolored and spotted old magazines, studying the advertisements. There’s something special about old ads, because ads are only effective during a narrow temporal context. They don’t age well. Cultural signifiers change. Time tempers the urgency of …
Potions for Pastures
Foliar sprays. Biochar. Compost tea. Kelp. Apple cider vinegar. Good luck amulets. Chances are, if you’ve spent any time at any organic farming event, you’ve been hounded by hucksters, all eager to impress upon you the transformative power of the …
How We Use Chickens as No-Till Seed Planters
This year we’ve been running an on-farm research project, and I’m excited to share results. Just to set expectations: no, this isn’t the kind of research with clipboards, double blind controls, and all the rigor necessary for peer review. This …