Making Bedding

We just made large bales of cornstalks out of the stubble left on the fields after the fall harvest. It provides nice bedding for the cattle to lay on. It acts as insulation to keep them warm & dry. Darrell loads all of the bales onto the wagon and then we drive them out of the field and down the road to the various barns & sheds we store them in until we need them. Once there, one of our guys unloads and carefully stacks the bales using a skidsteer. Meanwhile, another person is tilling the fields that were already baled to get ready for spring planting.

Just because you see it in the paper...

Eating can be energy-efficient, too
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

With Americans looking to reduce their "carbon footprints," food seems an obvious place to start.
Choosing a diet with a smaller carbon footprint means choosing foods that are processed in ways that emit less carbon dioxide — a heat-trapping "greenhouse" gas — into the atmosphere. In general, experts say, it breaks down to these guidelines:

Cut down on meat. "That doesn't mean never eat meat, it means eat less of it," says Gail Feenstra, a food systems analyst at the University of California-Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute.

Meat is less efficient because we eat the animal that eats the grain instead of eating the grain ourselves. It takes about 15 pounds of feed to make 1 pound of beef, 6 pounds of feed for 1 pound of pork and 5 pounds of feed for 1 pound of chicken, the Department of Agriculture estimates. For catfish, it's about 2 pounds of feed per pound of fish.

Add to the feed the cost of raising, transporting and producing cattle, and beef is by far the least energy-efficient meat. Nathan Fiala, a doctoral candidate in environmental economics at the University of California-Irvine, estimates it requires about 15 pounds of carbon dioxide to produce 1 pound of beef.

"A family of four that gives up eating beef one day a week has basically traded in their pickup for a Prius," he says.

You will probably see articles like this in several places today. Unfortunately, the numbers they are using to try to make their point are wrong. For example, they are saying that eating beef leaves a large carbon footprint. The author claims that it takes 15 lbs of feed to make a pound of beef. If that was the feed conversion rate for cattle in this country, no one could afford to feed them. Cattle will normally convert between 6 and 7 pounds of feed into a pound of beef. Also, if you want to reduce the carbon footprint left by transporting beef - BUY & EAT LOCALLY! In order to make informed decisions, consumers need accurate information. It’s the job of producers to make sure that happens.

Earth Day

For a farmer, every day is Earth Day.

All Righty Then...

We were at an agricultural workshop (I won't say which one), but at the registration table there were two lines - one for "Farmers" and one for "Non-farmers". The lady in front of me turned to me and said, "well, I'm not sure which line I should be in, ya know - whether we're considered "farmers" or not." I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "Well, we just bought 35 acres of land to build a house on, but don't actually work it." I couldn't help but laugh out loud, while a few other people inched in closer - grinning & mumbling under their breath (they were in the "farmer" line). I said, "Ahhh...well, I'd say unless you have sworn at a tractor a time-or-two, picked rocks for days & and lose sleep when your crops are flooded out & you're not sure if you'll have enough feed put up for the winter...you are NOT a farmer." She looked a bit shamed (which was not my intention), but got the point. She quickly moved over to the "Non-farmer" line. The old man behind me (wearing an old seed cap) let out a chuckle, raised an eyebrow at the lady and said, "All righty then..." which in old farmer lingo translates into, "Seriously....right???"

Best Song of the Year

Technology

Years ago, farm women used to call the men in for their meals by ringing the dinner bell. I just sent Darrell a text message on his cell:

"Clang, clang, clang clang...DINNER!"

Oh, how times have changed...

Why the chicken crossed the road

Of our 7 hens, one (a buff orpington named "Paris") keeps crossing the road to wander around in the woods.

Usually, all 8 chickens trot around the farm in a giant flock - until lately. At early dawn, Paris likes to slink across the road like a moonshiner running whiskey. She's constantly on watch to see if anyone spies her, as she makes her run for the first stand of trees. Then she'll stay hidden in the woods all day. By evening, we go after her to lead her back to the coop (we have some coyotes around here that would love a chicken dinner). If she is "uncooperative" we sic our four year old, Grady, on her. He's quick and fearless. Last week, when I was driving straight into the woods, he flanked left - came around from due West, slid under a low-hanging white pine and tackled her. All you could see were feet and feathers, until he emerged from the underbrush - scratched up, but grinning. Yesterday, when it was about time to go and fetch her again...she came back to the farm, trotting low & cautious along the feed bunk. She zigzagged her way to the coop, and was just about to round the corner when the rooster caught site of her. He came out flapping and pecking at her furiously. She managed to dodge him (I think all that practice trying to evade Grady helped) and she made it to the feeder. Alas, we now know why the chicken crossed the road... to get away from that bully rooster. I don't think we'll be seeing that much of him in the future.