Excellent Publication

This is a SARE "Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education" publication I ran across the other day. It's quite an interesting read. We aren't planning on selling beef, but it offers a lot of information regarding the slaughter of grass-fed cattle for personal consumption.

http://www.sare.org/publications/beef/beef.pdf

Tomato Time

You may not recognize me...I think I'm turning into a bacon and tomato sandwich. I've had enough in the last week to feed a small village.

School's Out for Summer

Plenty of time for horse-ridin' and hay jumpin'!

We baled our first cut of hay for the season. We had no choice but to do round ones because there was more winter trash than usual--no problem for cows.

We usually do square bales for horses, but the hay has to be extra dry and weed-free if it's to be fed to them safely (Johnsongrass is esp. dangerous.) Because of this, we usually fertilize and put out 2,4-D (organic nazis shudder now.) The combination really makes for beautiful, weed-free fields.

The only problem is that tractor diesel, fertilizer and most all chemical prices are through the roof right now. If we fertilize this year, I doubt we'll see a profit. A few of our customers would probably pay about $8 a bale, but most would resort to buying cheaper hay and take the risk of having weeds.

A lot of horse owners around here are complaining, and if they aren't complaining they are selling-- especially the ones who have multiple horses but don't own much pasture.

It will be interesting to see how the field does on its own this year. We've had a heckuva lot of rain, so maybe the Bahia will grow well and choke out some of the weeds. If not, I see more round bales in our future.

Dewberry Cobbler

Summer is officially here when you can pick enough dewberries to make cobbler every Saturday night for dessert!

New Hen House

I've been meaning to post this pic of the horse stall that hubby converted into a hen house. The only thing left to do is make some bahama-style shutters that can be lowered on cold winter nights. Thankfully, that's a project that can wait for the fall!

Spring Bunnies

Hubby mowed near some high grass and exposed a small nest of baby rabbits. One was so petrified that it didn't run, so hubby scooped it up to show the kids. I hope its mother doesn't mind that it was returned smelling like a people house, but hey, if it was so slow that it allowed hubby to pick it up, then it probably wouldn't have survived the hawks very long anyway.

Strawberries for All

We had a great time gorging ourselves on fresh, local organic strawberries courtesy of a neighboring farm. The baby would holler every time she realized it was time for another! Even the chickens enjoyed their fresh carrot and strawberry tops.