It is cold at the farm, and tonight is supposed to be even colder.  With highs of 0 and lows of -24 its hard to get equipment running to do the basic chores of feeding cows etc.  We've been working on our goals so that we can finalize our 2010 farm plans.  I think we know what we are going to do this coming year, but it will be nice to have a draft of our family farm goals in writing that we can run our plans against.  One of the goals in essence is to continue to improve the farm environment.  We were talking this morning about the condition of the farm when we bought it and how much we've improved it.  There was a tremendous amount of erosion and over grazing on the farm which led to deep ruts, major soil runoff, and weeds that we still struggle with today.  When we planted alfalfa, put in 3 wetlands, and started rotational grazing, we tried to attack the roots of what we saw as problems.  Now we need to move it farther and really strive for better.  That's part of the goal setting - to define more.

Christmas Blizzard

The snow has finally stopped, but the wind hasn't.  The tractor and snow blower have been working over time the past week.  We were without power Christmas eve, most of Christmas day and the morning of the day after Christmas.  I had dropped a bale to the cows Christmas eve which was good because without power I couldn't keep the tractor plugged in and warm enough to start to clear the snow with the blower.  Once the storm died down and electric was back on they were ready for another bale so after clearing the lane we cleared a path to and through the paddock.  Then dropped them a bale.  The snow is so deep that the round bales are covered nearly to the tops.  I'm glad we spent the time to move all of the bales that we need up to the yard.  It's a lot easier this year to keep the area around the house clear than it was last year to keep digging out the the bales every time the wind blows.  This week I'll start equipment maintenance.  It should keep me busy for the next couple of months with some breaks in between.  The family is also putting our farm goals down on paper starting this week so that we can ensure that our farm enterprises are in step with our goals.  The goals will also allow us to make sure that our short term planning that we're also starting, will be in step as well.  More to follow on the planning and the goals.

White Christmas

We don't need to worry about a white Christmas at Mulberry Grove Family Farm.  This time of year we are blessed with snow, and more snow is what we are about to get too.  We are running low on chicken feed so we had to run to get some more feed before Christmas and another bout of bad winter weather.  The bad weather was supposed to start yesterday but didn't so we made a break for it first thing in the morning.  We only use certified chemical free chicken feed, so we have to run about 60 miles for it.  Since we split our fuel costs with one of our friends who also uses the feed, 60 miles isn't too bad for good feed.  But as we traveled we started to run into freezing drizzle and icy roads.  Once we got over a ton of feed in the pickup we had more traction, but driving on ice is still nerve racking.  We dropped off half the feed at our friends and made it back to the farm in time for lunch.  After lunch we'll unload the feed and move it to the barn for the chickens and then we'll hunker down until the snow storm is over sometime right after Christmas.   The farm is beautiful this time of year with everything dressed in snow, but doing chores in it can be a challenge.  Our lane is about 1/4 miles long, so just keeping the lane passable can be a challenge as well.  One of our customers came by for eggs yesterday evening - just before I cleared the lane - and got stuck right in front of the house.  Some minor shoveling (done by the son in law or our customer) and a little pushing and they were free.  We really enjoy seeing our customers out at the farm.  Hopefully they didn't mind the full country experience...

Food Inc

We watched the movie Food Inc recently and we highly recommend it. Here is a link to the trailer. If as a food consumer you’ve ever wondered about food production or modern agriculture, or if you’re a farmer and have heard agriculture representatives and pundits decry the food elitists’ view of modern US ag, then this movie will fill in the gaps for either side. To be fair, this movie has its flaws. Not all agriculture is strictly “industrial” agriculture. To a large extent beef, and to a much, much smaller extent pork can be found being raised on small farms and smaller feedlots or hog houses and even hoop facilities and in old barns and in pens. Also as a “whole foods” producer we at Mulberry Grove Family Farm do not believe that capitalism and business are the root of all evil, nor do we think that organic will save the world (conservation and environmentally sound and biodiverse ecosystems probably will, but more on that some other time). We really enjoyed the last couple of segments of the movie that featured Polyface Farms in Virginia (for obvious reasons we hope you do too). Finally, the recommendations that are given at the end of the film we do feel were unnecessary and do smack of elitism. We believe that the consumer needs to know more about their food and the businesses that provide that food/product, but once that information is given, we feel the consumer is smart enough to choose what’s right for them and to push their representatives in local, state, and national government to make any changes that they see as necessary. We appreciated that the movie provided information that is otherwise not easily accessible. So check out the movie, see for yourself, and make up your own mind. Then, please, let us know what you thought about it. We’d love to hear from you.

After a lot of time spent in the skid loader we finally have the bales I think we'll need for feed for the winter moved from around the farm to around the house, which is where the winter area for the cows is located.  Running bales with the skid loader is not the most rewarding or exciting job, but it's not that bad either.  Sharon would disagree, she ran the skid loader to move the corral and hated it.

I was getting dressed this morning and looked out the window to watch the cows and steers feeding.  I noticed an odd movement so I watched longer.  Then I noticed the motion was that of a calf hitting a cows udder to get the cow to drop its milk!  I grabbed my binoculars to get a closer look at the ear tag number and sure enough cow 55 was standing there for her calf to try to nurse.  The calves had been moved off to Phil's for six weeks for weaning.  A month and a half later and now we have a steer who wants to try again!?!  All I can hope for is that the cow is dry and the steer will give up.  It's too cold for a cow to be trying to provide milk and keep her weight on at the same time.  We'll have to keep an eye on this new development.

Winter weather has come to Mulberry Grove Family Farm and it has hit hard and fast.  November was mild and relatively precipitation free which allowed most everyone in our area to wrap-up their field work and winter prep.  I'm still working on my winter prep because I was working for others getting their field work done.  Little did we know that the weather switch would be thrown from mild to harsh over night.  I've been working on moving hay and corn stalk bales from around the farm to around the paddock so that the cows have a wind break and also to make sure that the bales are close enough to the paddock that I don't have to dig to the bales every time I need to take one to the cows.  We've been getting snow for the past 2 days in the form of a blizzard and I'm only about halfway done moving the bales.  We have a nice drift that's running down the lane by the house that's about 3' high.  It should only take me a couple of hours to clear that with the skid loader since my tractor won't start.  Another winter prep item on the list that was to get done before bad weather hits!  On a more somber note, we lost a calf last night.  Sara found the calf laying with the other cows in the paddock.  The calf had been walked on.  She was one of the sickly twins that had survived her bout with a bad fever right after birth and had to also survive bad mothering from a first time mama.  We're not sure exactly what happened to the calf yesterday but when George and I came back from deer hunting on the back of the farm yesterday evening Sharon and Sara were trying to get the calf out of the paddock.  We brought the calf into the barn, cleaned her up, dried and warmed her, but the outcome was not positive.  Sara had become so attached to this little calf we called "Baby".  Sara's chore was to bottle feed the calf everyday and the calf would run to Sara when ever she called Baby!  Some tears were shed by Sharon and Sara but these are the lessons that we hope will give our kids added strength in later years.  The boys helped me with the final details of the calf.  This too we hope gives them added strength.

We woke to snow yesterday when Sara and I took the heifer calves to the Sheldon Livestock sale barn.  Everything went pretty well.  Didn't get the high $ for the calves but they did okay.  Somebody ended up with some very good replacement calves for a very good price.  It's a very different perspective to see them in the sale ring compared to out in the field.  They look so much smaller inside when you're sitting up in the seats.  Our twin calves sold by the head, which meant that they were too small to sell by the lb, and the others averaged a little over 300lbs each.
Once our calves had sold we stayed to see what some of the other small replacements went for, then we headed for the door and picked up our check.
We then headed further west to pickup Sara's milk goats.  Sara was happy to see her goats, but it was a quick load into the trailer and headed east back home.  Sara's goats are now in their winter area up by the barn and near the house.  Sharon and Sara had piled the raspberry pruning in their winter area this fall, so the goats have been very happy to fight the thorny branches to get to the old dried up leaves.  They are even eating the branches!
Today will be a day of moving bales around the cattle winter paddock up by the house so that the hay and corn stalk are close enough for easy access when the snow gets deep.  It was in the mid teens today when we got up so it is a wake-up call to get things finalized for winter's heavy snow and cold.

The heifer calves are going to the sale barn tomorrow.  I went over to Phil's to pick them up tonight.  It was dark by the time I got over to his place, so we had to sort the steers from the heifers with a flashlight as we brought them into the trailer.  I split the trailer and put the heifers in the front and the steers in the back.  One of the heifer calves is a kicker but luckily she was one of the first calves into the trailer.  The rest went without too much trouble.  The steers were loaded last and were let out into the pasture with the cows and the bull when I got them home.  The inside trailer door was opened up and the heifer calves were given the full trailer for the night.  Tomorrow morning Sara and I will take the heifers to Sheldon Livestock first thing in the morning and then we'll go to Rock Valley to pickup her milk goats.  Sara's goats were in Rock Valley to be bred and since Sheldon is on the way we'll make it all in one trip and kill 2 birds with one stone.  I spent today chisel plowing for a neighbor.  No problems with the field work.  Probably the last day of that for the year.  This was the last field to be done and he took over from me when I left to sort the calves.  It was enjoyable and I look forward to helping with harvest and field work next fall.