The Diary of a Farmer

4.25"

2008-08-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

Yep, that is the amount of rain we have received in the past 2 weeks. Pretty stinkin awesome. All of our irrigated pastures had been holding up well with the whopping 2" we had had since the start of May. It had been dry bones.

Now everything is green and the cracks have come together. Our grasses are thicker than ever with new growth popping up everywhere. Water is life on a farm, and without it, nothing can live. Helps you to understand why Christ is the Living Water for us and apart from Him, we too will perish.

Farming teaches you so much about creation. How smart God truly is and will be even after we are gone. He designed animals perfectly, along with the symbiotic relationship between the animals and land. When left simple, the way it was intended, things just work out better.

We seem to think that we can do things better but all that gets us to is M&M and potato chip beef along with pop tart fed pork. (See my wifes blog)

Just thought I would give some pictures from this week of the pastures and cows.

New Additions

2008-08-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

This week, we added what we hope to be the last of our breeding sows for at least a couple years. Our goal is to produce 120-150 finished pastured hogs a year. To do this, we figure we will need 8 sows to get the job done. We breed Hampshires, Yorkshires, and Blue Butts. We had four sows, 2 Yorkshires, 1 Blue Butt, and 1 Hampshire. We added 1 Yorkshire, and 3 Blue Butts. The Yorkshire will be ready to breed in a month, and the Blue Butts will be ready in about 2-3.

Nothin like pig butts

Dirt under the feet

I buy my breeding stock from a breeder of show pigs. Unfortunately, his pigs are confinement pigs and I hate going there every time. It is so sad looking at the eyes in the poor pigs, beat down, tired, broken. The joy it gives to bring these girls home and allowing them to be on dirt for the first time. To let them root around, using their noses, to waller in the mud, and run around with lots of room. For the next few days, they will be in a pen letting them get use to the other sows through a hog panel and plus they will be very sore from walking in the dirt, using their neck muscles. This gives them a place to lay around and get use to the true happy farm life without the other girls picking on them while they are sore. Then they will move out into the pastures with the other sows.

First time they had ever been allowed to roll in the mud

Lucy our veteran sow laying in the mud

2 of our newly bred sows. We raised these two from piglets and were suppose to butcher them but we decided to keep them for breeding stock.

Getting acquainted through the fence. The older sows are pretty dominant over the new younger ones if introduced into the same pen right off.

Smooch, thanks for the new home out of confinement.

Since we now have so many sows, feeding has been a bit challenging. You can only imagine going inside the pen with these girls, and boys and trying to get bowls on the ground without them clobbering you. Plus for some reason, they will just go back and forth from bowl to bowl running the younger sows off from their food.

So I had to come up with a system for feeding them where we won't have to get in there with them until they are actually eating. In came the stalls. So far, they work great. Each gets to eat their own food without someone else coming over and knocking them away from it.

Could you put some food in here please?

My bud the Dud chillin out of the rain. (If new to the blog, his name is Dudley.)

The egg trailer is done and up and running. Although they aren't laying yet, they are at least starting to get in it and roost. I'm hoping that by the time the cows rotate back around, they will all have found their way into it. Happy hoping I think.

Tropical Storm Edouardud....I mean Edouard

2008-08-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

What does it take to get a bit of rain here. You would think that with a hurricane passing south of you 2 weeks ago and a tropical storm passing just to the north of you, one might pick up a couple of inches of rain.

Well, apparently not. Between these two glorious storms, we managed to get a total of 6/10" of rain. Not even an inch.

The cracks in our pasture are still there. Looking like they could blow molten hot lava out of them at any time they are so big.

I use to laugh when I would hear people saying to pray for rain but now that we are farming, you begin to understand their concerns. It is pretty dry here, but in Austin Co, one county to the west of us, it is bone dry. I do think they may have picked up a bit of rain but I'm not sure. They need about 12" to do any good there.

The day was cloudy and cooler though. It only got to about 84 degrees. Two days ago, it was 104. The cows really appreciated the break from the steaming heat. I think the pigs stayed out of the woods most the day and foraged about the pastures doing what they do best....tearing the ground up.

I don't want it to seem like I am complaining, just feeling a little bamboozalled (sp?) at this time.

Magic Poo

2008-07-29T20:22:00.001-07:00

Was going through to move the cows this evening when I noticed this nice pile of poo. Yep, I said nice pile of poo.

The perfect poo looks like pumpkin pie filling with a little dimple in the center of it. That means the cows diet is just right in protein. If it is too runny, and you are not suspecting worms or parasites, then your protein levels are too high.

Anyways, kicked it around a bit and low and behold. Dung beetles. Lots of them. Hoooray. If you look at this pile of poo, you can see him in his tunnel (the hole in the center) taking the miracle food straight into the ground and to my grasses roots. Awesome.

You won't see these guys if you use chemical wormer's; this tantalizing pile of food this fellow desires to play in, would then be a pile of toxic death. Makes you think.

Egg Mobile Progress 2

2008-07-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

Today I got to work on the Egg Mobile for a few hours. It really does go faster when you have someone to help but when by yourself, you find all kinds of ways to use arms, legs, feet, hands, elbows, hips, foreheads, you get the picture. Especially when hanging sheet metal for siding while standing on a Little Giant Ladder.

I feel it is about 60% finished. The inside is done I just have to finish exterior things.

I still have to put sheet metal on the roof, put doors on the front and back for the chickens to enter and exit, and put doors to open behind the nesting boxes.

I may have to add more roosts but I will have to see once they all get in there. This is only half of the roosts.

I want to paint something funny at the top of both the entrances.

Still need to put doors on the backs of the boxes to lift up when collecting eggs.

Working Pens

2008-07-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

For the last year, we have been raising 30 stocker steers for the first of our grass fed beef. In some posts ago, I pointed out that our initial vision was to be a producer of fine grass fed beef using stocker steers from a breeder who raised his calves only on grass up until weaning. Then we would get them at weaning time, he would wean them for us using hay, and then we would finish them out on our pastures.

Well, our beliefs in sustainability grew more and more. Land management became the core of our beliefs along with herd management. I quickly learned that if you don't have complete control of your heard, from birth, you will always be inheriting someone elses poor land and herd management problems. Hence the reason we decided to convert over to a closed herd of Red Brangus cows.

We got ourselves into the egg business, thinking that 100 layers would be good, then decided that we would want to finish out 20-40 hogs a year. Well, now we have about 400 layers that will start laying end of August, we are set up to finish out 120-150 hogs a year, we are converting from stocker beeves to a closed herd of Red Brangus, and are in the works of getting an on farm outside poultry processing area built.

So in the next year, a lot of new things will be taking place here as we go from production phase to actually having product to sell. This has finally led us to getting our official set of working pens.

Over the last year, I have learned that cows simply allow us to control them but at anytime, could actually leave the property and never come back if they so desired. No fence, be it an 8' game fence with welded panels on 4' centers, could actually keep a full grown cow in if it really wanted out. Hence the reason for a good set of pens. Plus, my cows haven't yet been trained to simply walk up to a trailer in the middle of the pasture as I point them out and tell them to load up, its time to walk the final leg of your journey. I think they would look at me like I was a bit loony and continue to eat grass.

Naturally, as a cow gets moved to a new environment, they begin to get anxious, stressed, and act a bit whiley (sp?). I know this. And I know that the first time I introduce them to the pens, it will be a bit of a shock for them. But my remedy for that will be through routine and familiarization.

I have found that just like kids enjoy, and need structure, ( you may feel that your kids do not feel that way but that may be the problem, they lack structure) cows are the same way. They like to know things will be the same over and over. Things just go better when it happens this way. You explain the rules and guidelines, and they do their best to follow them. They know what to expect day in and day out. Soon they learn that the handle side of the rope is where they go to move from paddock to paddock. A lead cow immerges and leads the cows each and every time. It makes them comfortable. After a while, they know the system up and down and will perform like clockwork if the time is invested early on.

So my plan is to always allow the cows to rotate through the pens even if I don't intend on working them. Just to let them get use to the routine of going in and out of them. That means that every 30-40 days, they will walk in and out of them. We will gather weights and data, every 90 days, so that we will be able to tell what type of Average Daily Gains (ADG) we are getting. By rotating them through each time, they get use to the gates, the tub, the alley, and the chute. Hearing the sound of the metal rattle and echoes of the moos. Without structure and routine, there is mass confusion, and when working cattle by yourself, you just can't allow that.

We will be getting a pole barn built over the top so that they will be out of the sun and it will be a great place for when we go to wean our calves next year.
****Note to all who have never weaned calves----you really need to have a good set of high panel pens for weaning your calves. If not, they will jump over them or go through them and be back to their mamas by day end.

Here is a little tour of the new set up. From a cows perspective. MOOOOOOO

This is the gate where the cows will enter

Once inside, the will be in a catch pen

They will walk around in a clockwise motion around the partition

Once around the partition, they will go towards the tub

The tub has a gate that comes out and allows the cows to walk in a half moon shape.

As the cows enter the tub, a swing gate is closed behind them and it locks each time they move forward so they cant reverse back.

At the end of the tub, they go into the Alley. You can adjust the width for bulls, cows, or calves so that they cant turn around once inside.

The alley leads to the chute. I like that they are closed panels because it helps the cattle not get scared by movement on the outside of the alley.

This is the chute where we will have our scale so that we can weigh the beeves every 90 days or so. We don't vaccinate, use chemical dewormers, fly repellents, or antibiotics, so the main reason will be for weighing the animals.

This is the work area that can also be used as an alternate pen

Once out of the chute, they will either go to the going to processor side.

Or through this next gate

Where they will go into this next pen to be turned back out to pasture.

The holding pens are pretty good size, 20'x40'

Whether loading in the trailer or going back out to pasture, this will be the gate you leave out.

I really like the idea of semi permanent portable pens because they really are easy to set up and move around.

I was at the fire station when they came out and put them up where I told them to over the phone. Well, when I got home and started to look at them, I realized where I told them to put them was underneath the power lines. I can't put a pole barn in the easement so right away, I got to take them apart and move them. I moved the whole set of pens about 150' away by myself using a tractor of course in about 6 hrs. So I highly recommend them.

So this is the new addition to the farm which I am so excited to get to use. I have about 2 weeks till they rotate around to them. Come on guys, hurry up and eat already.

Egg Mobile Progress

2008-07-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

Well we worked on the egg mobile for a bit today and finally got all the framing done by this evening. You don't realize how hard that old steel gets over the years. Now that all the framing is up, putting all the tin on should go pretty fast. Should, but you know how that goes.

We got to get a little bit of the tin on before night time so after seeing it coming together, I think it may actually work. We live right off the highway so we want to get a mural painted on the side for farm fresh eggs. It will be like having a 24' billboard moving around.

The cows are doing amazing. There is a tremendous difference in moving them 2-3 times a day vs 1 like we were usually doing it. They are wiping it clean, weeds and all, in a matter of about 6 hrs per 3/4 acre. It will be interesting to see how the grasses recover with the amounts of urea and manure that are being put into each paddock.

The paddock on the right will get 30-40 days of rest before the cows rotate around to it again.

Tomorrows grass

I thought we might get a bit of a small shower to end the day but that too passed. It was very pretty though I thought.

I get to be a fireman tomorrow so the farm chores will have to be done by Aunt Debbie and my amazing wife. What a pair they are.

New Project

2008-07-17T20:17:00.001-07:00

I'm a firm believer of not having to have it all figured out before getting your feet wet in farming.

We bought 300 chicks before I had a brooder house set up, but you know what, when you have 300 chicks coming in the next couple days, you tend to figure out a brooder house pretty quick.

We bought two sows, and some feeder pigs before I had a pasture fully designated for them, but as they get bigger, then your motivation comes for getting things further in line for them.

You can try and learn all you want from a book, and try to have things set up absolutely perfect but sometimes I want to write a book, and right when you open the cover, bam, a big wrench flies up and hits you in the face and says, "Now whatcha gonna do?"

The best training is OJT (on-the-job-training) so my advice is if you want to do something, do it. Then learn together and figure out how to fine tune things as you go. The great thing is you should never be satisfied with how you have things because there is always going to be improvements you will see can be done.

So that being said, I have about 375 pullets or so that are going to need a place to lay eggs in the coming weeks, so........

Today is the day for converting this old cotton trailer I picked up a couple of months ago into the first of our full fledge mobile egg machines. I found two at one place and brought one home but the other needed some work before I could haul it the 50 miles at 30 mph. So Old Man Scarmado is suppose to be fixing it for me. These things are old as Mathusila (sp?) but will be great for what we are doing.

So Aunt Debbie and I started our project after I finally got all the materials gathered up. I know a guy that had some old tin that he sold me for cheap so I bought about 600 linear foot of it or so. You can never have enough old tin, especially when it is the good stuff from long ago and not the cheap gauged stuff you have to buy at the local hardware store.

Its so fun when I get to do projects with Aunt Debbie because of her personality. She is the most positive person I know who is constantly uplifting you even when you really feel like you don't know what you are doing. I can hear her now, "Thats okay," as I break the 6th drill bit.

Plus I am always putting her in a bind because I am 6'1" and she is 4'11". Honestly. So out of habit, I tend to put things where they are just right for me but way out of reach for her. I don't do it on purpose but you would think that I could figure it out by now. So that is something I have been trying to get better at doing.

So tomorrow, we hope to be close to done with all the exterior work on the trailer. Then comes setting up the inside for roosts, boxes, etc.

On the sides of the trailer I will paint in neat letters, FARM FRESH EGGs. We have over 3000' of highway 105 frontage so surely people will see it and be interested.

This was the sunset as I was moving the irrigation for the night water. The cows moved a couple hours earlier and were loving the cooler evening as some clouds rolled in.

It makes you realize at the end of each day how blessed you were to have gotten that day and be prayerful that you get to experience another when you lay down to sleep.

Same Song Different Verse

2008-07-16T19:28:00.000-07:00

I know I have said it before, I'm still alive, just not blogging right now. Well, I'm still alive and I can only say that I am going to try and do better. Things are magnificently great right now and there is a lot to update, but baby steps, right?

Other than not having rain, everything else seems to be going full steam ahead. Rain is a huge part of farming so I will get to that topic in a bit.

We currently have 61 head of cattle grazing on our pastures. As stated in a post long ago, we are moving to a closed herd of Red Brangus cattle. We currently have 25 Red Brangus heifers who should all be about bred now, we hope. We have one bull currently, Pete, who is a frame score 5 bull that we hope we can breed down with. Eventually, we will be down to a frame score 4 or 3.

We have 3 black baldy heifers we are going to keep so that we can see what kind of calves they throw. They are kinda long legged gals though so they may not get to stick around as long as everyone else. It will be worth a shot though.

We have 32 stocker steers we are feeding out for meat until we begin to butcher our own calves in a couple of years.

I thought I loved the black baldy breed but after getting into the Texas summer, I realize, I don't much care for them. Actually, I don't much care for any black cattle. I will try to take a picture tomorrow to show the proof, but after about 11:00 in the morning, they are looking for shade. I actually had to put a water sprinkler out for them because I felt like they were getting too hot. When you do Managed Intensive Grazing, lots of times, there aren't any trees because you are managing where the cattle graze. So in came the sprinkler. The Red Brangus eat all day and even lay in the sun. Not the black ones. They lay under the sprinkler for hours at a time cooling off. Such the reason why we will never, on purpose, own any more black cattle. We're going RED.

Our first hogs are set to go to the butcher on August 1. This is very exciting for us. We have 3 that we are going to get processed so let us know if you would like to purchase some retail cuts.
After that, we will have 3 more then we will be into our Born on Yonder Way Farm Piglets.

I love this hogs blue eyes

Our two sows gave us 20 piglets, of which 18 made it to pasture. One of the runts got laid on, and after castrating our boys, one had a hidden hernia and it popped out shortly after castration. We lost him. My thoughts on castration in a future post. Just say it wasn't pleasant.

So of the 18, we will probably have 15 that will make it to finishing weight. Three somehow had hip problems and they slowly are getting worse. They will probably get butchered at an early age for our personal consumption. I don't know if the hip problems were genetically obtained or what but if we have the same problem on the next litters, we will have to maybe think about culling the sow from the program.

We are up to 4 sows now with 2-4 more in the future. I think we would like to keep 6-8 breeding so that we can produce somewhere between 120-150 hogs a year. Sounds like a large number, but after you start having piglets and seeing them on pasture, you wish you could do 1,000 pigs a year. They are by far the easiest animals on the farm.

"How You's Doin?"

Our pullet count is up to about 375 or so. I don't know, we have chicks, and chickens everywhere. Right now, I just let the ones that are setting outside of the houses hatch them out. This week we will probably get 15-20 more chicks hatching. I figure the more the better. We currently sell out of eggs every week so that is good.

We are in the process of getting a store front built with a kill room attached. We want to process all of our own poultry so until it gets finished, we can only count the days till we get to start raising and processing chicken and next year, turkeys.

We currently have 45 paddocks for rotating. These are approximately 2 acre paddocks. To get a better graze, I have been cutting each paddock into 3 pads and rather than moving the cows 1 time daily, I went to 2-3 moves daily. What a difference it makes.
You would think I had mowed the grass. Saves diesel and who needs commercial fertilizer. When you pack them in this close, they give a pretty good bit in each pad. Cows are such efficient animals its amazing to think how they can turn that grass into pounds.

As stated before, we have been lacking in the rain department. Water is life, and without it, everything living will die. How evident that is when you are farming. We had 18 acres of irrigated pasture put in last year and just last week added 17 more. Now we are up to 35 acres which has been a huge blessing this year. We are looking to be fully irrigated by end of the summer which will allow us to do many great things at Yonder Way.

We use the K-Line system which is a bunch of sprinkler pods that are attached by a poly tubing and pulled around your 4 wheeler or buggy. (Thats what we call the Polaris Ranger.) I really enjoy how it works and you can move them any where you want, as long as they reach, and water only specific paddocks if you like.

So for now, you have been caught up. My wife does an awesome job at updating our family blog, which lots of times flows into farming, so if mine gets stuck for a month or so, check her's out. Hopefully I will do a better job.

Piglets, Chicks & Hogs oh My!

2008-05-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

As stated in the previous post, Lucy our sow, had a litter of 10 piglets on Saturday. Well, four days after her, Ethel had her a litter of 10 piglets. Now all would be great if all 20 piglets make it but in Ethel's litter, 2 were extremely small. I mean small. Lucy actually had 12 piglets, but 2 of them didn't make it and the two that we think might have been still born were much larger than these 2 runts. We try to allow things to be as nature would have them here so I unfortunately have to go by the way of "survival of the fittest." It is hard seeing these two little guys fight for their positions. I tell you what though, if they make it, they will be some bad some guns. Pigs with attitudes. My wife has a neat little story on our family blog about them.

Lucy and her 10 piglets

Some of Ethel's new piglets...You can see the pink runt in the front.

So yesterday was the big day of moving our laying pullets out of the brooder house and onto pasture. I have never in my life had to move 300+ chickens but Lynsey and I devised a plan. So to the side door we moved the cattle trailer and we were going to herd them in and load them on the trailer. Well, they didn't want to go out the door so they just went to flying and packing into the corners. Not good. I thought for sure they were going to either crush or sufficate each other. So to plan B which we didn't have. We got a net and started rounding the pullets to the door just keeping them in a semi circle so that I could get in and start putting them on the trailer. Eureka, it worked. Just took much longer handling each bird rather than them just loading themselves on the trailer. So out to the pasture they went and boy do they look more at peace now. I can't imagine confining a bird for all its life and not allowing it to do what its natural instincts tell it to do.

The new pens....Eventually will be used mostly for our broilers.

Roaming from the pen

Roamed right out of the pen and to the barn...I moved them back that night to their new house and they did great staying in there today.

This hen came out of some bushes the other day and had 14 chicks following her. She is down to 11 now due to some stray cats. I have to get rid of them. She is the best mom ever.

This is just a plug for kittens. We are kitten rich and I mean these are some fine kittens. True barn kittens that are nice. Is that an oxymoron? In the next couple weeks, we will have 19 kittens to give away. Please take one or two, maybe three.

7 of the orange and white

4 of these...more long haired

I got our new 12 door hog feeders in this week. The lady told me at the feed store that they come in 2 sections and you just assemble the top to the bottom. Simple enough, so I ordered 2 because I would only have to pay freight once and in a couple months, we will be able to use 2.
However, in this area, nobody finishes hogs anymore so they thought I was absolutely crazy for even buying these things. Sounds great for us from a business stand point because no competition. Especially when you are producing pastured pork supplemented with certified organic grain.

These are 40 bushel feeders but I have the extra bands to make them 60 bushels if need be. I like the size of the 40 bushel though because I can use the small tractor and dump feed directly from the bucket to the bin. Plus I check the pigs everyday so I don't mind bringing feed a few times.

So when I went to pick up the feeders, they were not in 2 sections, but in about 10 pieces, with 4 bags of about 300 bolts and nuts and pins and washers all mixed together. So then I open the instructions and in there is a diagram that looks like it was drawn with a pencil. I'm not going to get any deeper because I am happy with the feeders now but after about 18 hours to assemble one, I was a little unhappy. So I called the manufacturer and they were very helpful. But this is what it looks like with the hogs happily eating out of it.

Putting together was terrible, you really need 2 people, but other than that, they are great feeders. Very durable.

The last two days have been great rain days. The first day we got 1.1" and the second 1.3". So I hope the seed really begins to come in. We are still real thick with rye grass right now but I only think I will get one more rotation on it before it goes to mostly seed head. Thats good though because I am hoping it will reseed itself pretty good this year.

Thats about it for now. I have a little bit of seed to get put out next week and then I'm tapping out on that. That will be a huge weight off my shoulders.

Still Here Busy as Ever

2008-05-13T20:25:00.000-07:00

Yep, you probably thought I had fell off the face of the earth but not the case. You see, I don't know what happened.... There was the baby goat, BIB, then came the second kid, Bambi, and then I just got so busy out here that I didn't really want to blog about all the little things that were going on. I don't know why, I just really wanted to come in and spend time away from the computer at night. So thats what I did. But I will catch you up on the great things that are going on here.

First things first. Once again, I hate the goats. Yep, I'm a fair weather goat fan and right now I just wish they would run away... But they are so dang cute roaming around the place...They just keep roaming into places that they have no business going in and eating seed, dried molasses, and getting into the pig and chicken feed. They are relentless. However, when all the spring seeding and spreading is done, they will have nothing to get into. But I still wish they would run away.

The cows are doing great. I am particularly pleased with the Red Brangus we purchased almost 2 months ago. They are extremely efficient and looking better and better each week. Even crazy #707 is in full swing. They are currently rotating on our 40-45 paddocks. Pete the bull is very laid back but I haven't seen him working his magic yet. Maybe he waits till no one is watching. I look to have 5-10 beeves ready by end of the summer so that is exciting.

Pigs are really enjoying life and getting bigger and bigger. Lucy and Ethel were pregnant, Lucy had 10 piglets last Saturday night, and Ethel's rolls are still in the oven. She looks miserable. Her heat cycle falls 4 days after Lucy so I figure she should have her piglets in the next couple of days. Lucy is a great mother, just overbearing to Ethel now but I guess that is expected by sows. I remember walking up on some feral hogs when I was a land surveyor and the mother of the piglets chased us up a fence. We had to sit there for 2 hours. So I figure letting them live in their natural environment brings out nature in them. Our stocker pigs are really filling out. They look awesome. I have 3 that will be ready in about 4-6 weeks I think and then I have 3-4 others that will be ready by end of summer. One of the stockers, I am going to keep for a breeder sow, she looks great and has converted feed much better than any of the others. We'll see.

We officially have chickens coming out everywhere. We are currently getting about 30 eggs daily but that will change in the coming months. Of my 300 layers we purchased, 9 have died, only 4 were natural deaths. (I had a rampant mother hen get inside the brooder ring and she went to killing my other chicks looking for her lost one that got in there. I was pretty mad at her for that.) I have been very pleased with Ideal Hatcheries chicks. However, I have hatched about 60 of our own chicks and have 3 hens setting right now. I figure we have the room, why not let them do it. I mostly allow my bantams to set since they are such great mothers and I am the only one that usually eats their eggs. They are pretty small. I am going to be moving about 325 layers onto pasture tomorrow so they will officially be out of the brooder house. To think confinement chicken never get to look forward to roaming on pasture. (Next we get our broilers and turkeys)

Our pastures are looking great. Its amazing in just one year the difference. Not only have we put out seed for our cool and warm season grasses, but implementing Managed Intensive Grazing has changed everything. By rotating each day, aggressively grazing then allowing to rest for approximately 40-45 days, our grasses are awesome looking. This is kinda funny, but in one week, we had someone from Conroe TX send a letter saying that they wanted to buy our property and soon after that, someone called from Houston TX and said they wanted to lease it for their cattle. If they only knew how much has went into this place. It is nice to know though that people are beginning to notice the place when they drive by.

Plans are in motion for our new office building equipped with a fully operational kill room for our poultry. More on this in the near future.

So this is what is going on. I can't promise posts everyday like before because right now, it is so busy, that at night, I just want to relax at home with my girls. However, I will be more diligent in keeping this blog updated. I love farming, its my passion, but I don't really love typing on a computer... but it is a great way for me to document the things going on at the farm. More pics will be on the way. Thanks for checking in and reading about our lives.

New Kid On the Block

2008-04-02T18:54:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a great day on the farm. We had two chickens that hatched two batches of eggs. All in all, we got 18 new chicks. Then while doing the morning rounds, I noticed that Thelma, one of the brown pygmy goats, was off by herself in their old pen. They never go in there by themselves so that seemed kinda strange that she was even in there.

Well later in the day around lunch, I went back out to feed the animals when I noticed her in there again but this time she was in her little house. I got to thinking that she was due anytime so I went to go check on her. Sure enough, there was BIB. The cutest little kid I have ever seen.

Today was her first day to really get about. Its crazy that they come out walking right away for the most part. She keeps her near the barn for the most part, but I had to get the pigs out of there. I was worried that they might accidentally step on the little girl, or even worse, nip her or something. Pigs do like meat and all although we have never fed ours meat. I think that is why we haven't lost any chickens to them yet.

Louise the other brown goat is due anytime. Her bag is full and she looks like she is getting very uncomfortable. Hopefully in the next couple of days, we will get our second kid, or kids.

This morning was the big morning for our laying chicks. The post office called at 06:00 and said they had a bunch of chicks in there. So off I went to pick them up. I stayed up till midnight last night getting the final touches of their house done. I was concerned about it being too drafty, so I made a border around where they were going to be. I hope it works. It looks like something off of ET.

We got 300. 100 Black Australorps, 100 Rhode Island Reds, and 100 Americanas. All 300 arrived alive, but within 30 minutes, one looked sick. So I separated it and put it in a small brooder. It died shortly after. So now we are down to 299. As of 9:00 pm, no more casualties. They seem to be doing good up to this point. These are going to be our 100% organically fed, free range layers. It is amazing the difference in the look of the feed in the organic grains vs. commercial grain. I don't know if it has anything to do with it being non-genetically modified.

I have 4 chickens on the outside of the brooder border, they know how to take care of those babies so much better than us. They just walk around the outside, with their chicks following. I think I have about 36 chicks with them. I still have one hen setting so in 10 days, she should be hatching. I love spring.

Update....

2008-03-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

As of right now, #707 is back in the pasture. We were coming back from Round Top when I got the call about 6:00 pm. We were about 30 min from the house so I had to book it to get home, changed, hook the trailer up, and get down the road, before it got dark.

I was amazed that they caught that cow in only a day. Boy was she still crazy. He said he would just take her straight to the sale barn if it were him. I figured I will give her one more chance. She is very pretty.

So we got her loaded up and I brought her home. I backed her into the pasture where all the other cows were and opened the door. Out she went into the herd. I thought score......point for Yonder Way.... but then she took off toward the back of the pasture. Still in the same fence but trotting like a horse. I thought for sure she was going to jump out again. But she didn't. She came back and got in the middle of the herd. Hopefully tonight and tomorrow, she will calm down and settle in.

I have to work in Houston tomorrow so prayerfully she will be ok and Lynsey won't have to do anything major. If so, I might be coming back home. That is one of the perks of being a Fire Fighter, we all tend to help each other out.

Pete and his girls

2008-03-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

Today, possibility became reality. We officially purchased our first 10 heifers and bull for the beginning of our closed herd. But that statement in itself sounds so simple, for the easiest part of the day by far was the writing of the check. Lets start from the beginning.

These are Red Brangus. I love Red Brangus and all the characteristics they possess so that is what we went with. We are 100% grass-fed, grass-finished so long lanky legged cows that finish out at 1300-1400#'s is not for us. So I want smaller framed, easy fleshing cows. These 10 heifers I have will probably max out at 1000-1100#'s. The bull is a 5.2 for frame size which is considered really short. However, his ribeye area and ultra sound info was pretty good. I feel really good about Pete being our starter bull. He is registered Red Brangus so he even gets some fancy papers with him. But then the craziness began.....

Loading them was a breeze. Got on the road, they are only 20 miles from the house, and got to the pasture. Well, the first load, I brought 7 heifers. I backed the trailer in and opened it up and off they went like white lightning. I mean, gone. There was one that was especially whiley. She got to the fence and just jumped over it. Like a show pony or something. The other six didn't know what to do so they took off the opposite direction.

Well our other herd of cows waiting to be moved were all the way across the pasture waiting patiently. The whiley one took off towards them running all the way. She got to them and jumped the poly wire that was keeping them in. They didn't know what to do. They knew I didn't open the gate so it seemed they were confused on whether to leave or follow this strange new trick cow.

I figured she would stay with the herd now knowing where she is probably suppose to be. So after the other six I went. Well they successfully ran through all my poly wire that was dividing the eight paddocks in the pasture they were in then proceeded to the pig pasture. Over that fence they go. I mean these girls can jump. I figured at least they can stay in there and calm down. So I divert my focus back on the main herd and the whiley heifer.

Lynsey and I go down the alley way that is suppose to bring the cows to the new paddocks. This always works but with this new creature in play it seemed like it was going to be disastrous. We finally make it to the top of the hill, which is pretty far away, and our herd starts lining up. It seems this is the order they were looking for. At this time, 5 of our original herd are out of the paddock, but they are next to the others wanting to get in the alley. Then all heck broke loose.

Whiley heifer just took off to the corner of the pasture and over the electric fence she went. Then over the barbed wire fence after that. Yep, she is officially rogue. Down the road she goes with everyones dog's barking. I wanted to throw up. I jump the fences and she is already about 200 yards down the middle of the road, sprinting.

So I holler to Lynsey, but it was windy and I guess all she could hear was wind. So I keep hollering. Then the cows think I am telling them to come to me so they start leaving Lynsey and coming towards me. Well, I at this time am running as fast as my worn out boots will go. I can't much say it was sprinting cause I bet it didn't look that way. Lynsey took off across the other two pastures towards the highway just in case she might try and come back towards that way. I headed back towards the Ranger to get in it to chase. However, the Ranger was all the way back at the end of the alley. I ran fast down the hill and then thought I was going to die going up the hill. Really, once again I almost barfed, just not the what am I going to do barf like above but rather the my body thinks I have lost my mind and knows I will have to stop if it throws up. But I made it.

So in the Ranger I go, flying in the grass along the highway, and out pops Lynsey. Man she was fast. Rubber boots and all. So now we are like Luke and Bo Duke driving down Waesapape Rd looking for this rogue heifer.

We go and go. Looking in all the pastures just to see if maybe she went over again. Then eureka, we notice a herd of cows all starring in the same direction. Yep, there she is in someones front yard. So we pull in and think maybe we can get them to close their gate to keep her in. After all, they had a mesh fence with 2 strands of wire on top. Surely she wouldn't try and get over that. Ha, think again. Over she went but this time, she caught her foot and it flipped here over. Her foot was caught for a moment in it but she quickly freed it. Then she was off across this guys pasture. She finally went to the corner of his place and chilled out.

So what to do when your new heifer jumps every type of fence possible other than 8' game fence? I guess you just leave it there. I called a friend and he said the best thing to do is just let her calm down there and get use to that herd. Then in a week or so, maybe she will come up with their cows and then we can pen her and bring her back. So I talked to the owner later in the day and he said that would be fine. He was such a nice person.

Well I went back and got my other 3 heifers and a bull. My original herd came down the alley way and went into their new paddocks. This time, when I unloaded them, they saw the other cows and stayed where they were suppose to go. The other 6 actually felt left out I guess and got in the paddock with them. So now 9 of the heifers and the bull are in with the original herd. I went out there several times and they really seemed to have calmed down. My original herd is use to us so I think they put them at ease not being skiddish.

I drove back by the other mans pasture and our heifer was lying down in there. She got up when I drove by so I guess she knows I was inquiring about her. Then I noticed that he had a Black Angus bull so who knows, she may end up bred. Wouldn't that be fitting. I don't even get to breed her to my new bull.

Oh what a day. I am pooped.

Goats, at it again!!!!

2008-03-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I had these little boogers contained, but boy was I fooled. They cooperated for a while, leading me to feel like I was in control. Then they all at once decided to show me that at any moment, they could have gotten out. And boy did they ever.

Not only did they escape, they began destroying the chicken wire that had kept them in for so long. They would stick their horns in the mesh and begin to jerk making bigger holes in it. Then they would stick their heads through and push their way through until there was this perfect hole about 10" in diameter. So day after day, I would round them up (more like chase them around) and repair the holes, wiring them back together. They would stay in for a bit, then do it again. Finally, I gave in.

The whole reason I can't stand them being out roaming where they want to go is the chicken feed. These four would sit and run the chickens off and literally eat a couple pounds of food twice a day. This is not very cost effective. Plus, they use to try and eat the pig food. Well, I quickly devised a plan to foil their efforts. At least for the chickens, the pigs are big enough to handle their own battles.

With two stock panels, their appetites would have to be filled with grass and other browsey things because, "No chicken food for them!!!"

Now the goats can be the free spirits that they so long to be. They are so cute, roaming in their little group all around our central area. When they get real excited, they bounce instead of run, kinda like the skunk on Bugs Bunny. (Pepe Le Pugh) sp?

However, they have really been doing some really funny things lately. I knew they had some funny personalities, but this has taken it to a new level.

Yesterday, I go out to the barn in the morning, and Billy is standing on the cows back. This cow is separate because he is not doing so well right now. But in an effort to help him out, Billy decided to get on his back and scratch it. Yep, he stands on his back and paws at his back. The cow loves it. Then, the cow would stand up and Billy would face him. Billy would put his horns under the cows neck, and go to town, scratching the underside of his neck. And who said animals couldn't communicate.

And today, I was doing my morning routine when I notice Billy staring up at the bottom of the chicken coop. I could see stuff falling from the floor to the ground, but I figured maybe the cat had gotten in there. Boy was I surprised. Inside, no other than Anna Belle. As you can tell, she is back to her mischief. I have to admit though it was very cute. She is really doing great after losing her kid a few weeks ago.

I have chickens setting everywhere. If they are setting when I go to collect eggs, I usually get the eggs out from under them each time. If they continue to try and set after several days of doing this, I will put about 14 eggs under them and let them go at it. Currently, I have three setting on about 42 eggs total. Who knows how many will hatch. I have two bantam hens setting on eggs but they set in the same box. I don't know how many eggs are under them, but it is a bunch. They are suppose to hatch next Monday. We'll see.

The cows are doing great in their rotation. Our native spring grasses are coming in great. The cows really enjoy all the tender weeds and wild flowers right now. If you make your cows eat these things, they really will eat them and enjoy them. At least they look like they do. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be putting out our warm season seed, Texas Tough, and Crabgrass. I can't wait to see how they do. Rain baby Rain.

Our 300 chicks that were suppose to come in the morning have been delayed. I was so aggravated. Their house is fully set up and ready to go and then I get the dreaded phone call. They were going to be short 27 Americanaus so I could either be short those and get the order tomorrow or wait till next week and get them all. So I chose the latter. I love the green and blue eggs and so do our customers so I want to have them available.

Thats it for now but a lot has happened this week so I will have lots to write about. Peace out from Yonder Way

Possibility

2008-03-19T19:08:00.001-07:00

I have been searching for Red Brangus everywhere. Most people around here run Black Angus or Brangus. We are looking to establish a closed herd, using our calves for replacement heifers for ourselves or feed out our steers and heifers for 100% grass fed beef.

When it comes to grass fed beef, you don't want what almost all commercial or registered breeders are genetically looking for. In a time when size is everything, genetics is allowing for taller, longer legged cows that are large boned and weighing in excess of 1500#'s. Thats for cows while bulls are weighing in excess of 2000#'s. Well, we don't want that. I'm looking for a medium to short frame cow, smaller boned, wide body with easy fleshing. I think I finally found the place that will start us off close, but it will take us years of breeding down before we get where we need to be.

The farm we are looking at is Triangle K Farm located in Chappell Hill TX. This is awesome because it is only 25 minutes from our farm. These cows are living in the exact conditions as our farm with summers of high temperatures and high humidity. Conditions that really keep the Black Angus/Brangus from doing well. Also, another benefit of buying from this farm is that they have daily contact with the animals because they do rotational grazing, they are use to electric fencing, and they predominately produce forage based cattle. Meaning that these cows very rarely ever eat grain. Our calves of course will not be allowed to consume grain at any time so they will truly be grass fed, grass finished beeves.

Here is a few picks of the prospective cattle. They have two smaller, compact, full bodied bulls that I think may be a possibility, and then they have 50 commercial Brangus heifers to choose from. These are all 3/8 Brahman, 5/8 Angus.

My favorite bull...You can see how much shorter he is than the same age bull next to him. I liked his fullness, coat, and color.

This guy is like a pit bull. I liked him too, he was even shorter legged than the top bull but his birthing weights were on the heavy side which makes me worry about ease of calving for the heifers.

She is about 12 mos old...Medium framed.

I like them because the have heifer/cow heads on them. Some of the cows I was looking at you couldn't tell if they were steers or heifers.

These cows have been supplemented with very little through the winter. They are all full bodied. Granted this place has awesome winter grasses

Its going to be hard picking 10 out of the 50.

I like the darker red color...

I may try some light colored and dark colored to see which perform better.

Please pick me...

We are looking at getting around 10 or so with a bull. That way we can start breeding in May, June. Then that will give us spring calves, born in March, April, giving them good milk from the spring grasses. I can't wait.

Spring Hatchings

2008-03-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Today was the 21st day of setting. I guess its that time of year, the warmer temps, the greener forage, I really don't know. I have so many chickens that are getting broody and trying to set. Well being the lover of life, and enjoying some of my mutt type chickens running around, I picked out a few and let them have a go of it. A couple of weeks ago, I had one hatch 4, but only 3 made it. I never found the 4th chick but I think it fell through a space in the ceiling where they hatched and probably got snatched up by a cat. Who knows. So this gal began to set and I could tell she was serious. She has some bantam in her which makes her a great mother. Initially she had three eggs under her so I added 11 more making it 14. I put a mixture of all kinds but mainly bantam eggs and a few other types. Who knows. Well who would have guessed she would hatch 13 out of 14 eggs. Thats a whopping 93% hatch rate. The bantam chicks are so small it is hilarious. But what an amazing mother she is.

Next Monday, this gal will be hatching her eggs. I think there is 10-12 under her. She is the sister of the first chicken that hatched the 4 chicks. They look identical except this chicken doesn't have as big a red thing on her head. Then the next Monday after that, I have another bantam chicken that is setting on 10-12 eggs. It will be nice having chicks hatching each week and with my new brooder house, I have room for about 600 chicks. Good thing since next Thursday, I will be getting my shipment of 300 in. Excitement.

I got my warm season seed ordered and it should be in any time this week. I am going to be seeding a Texas Tuff Bermuda mix along with Crabgrass. Tonight and tomorrow it is suppose to rain so that will help prepare my seed bed. I am going to be broadcasting over existing native grasses and allow the cows to press them into the soil. Our rye grass and Clovers, Durana and Bur, are coming up more and more with the warm weather. I need to get out and take pictures of that. I am experimenting with some new pasture applications so more on that later.

This week I plan to finish building our paddocks weather pending. I went to the NRCS Friday and got Mr. Dan Wilson to draw them up for me. Its so much easier to get approximate acreage sizes on their computer programs than for me to go out and estimate. Not only that, but at our NRCS office, I try to really push Mr. Wilson to see what all he can do. When I got ready to leave, I realized that I had locked my keys in the car. I have a Honda Civic that I use to drive to Houston and to putz around doing errands. It gets 35 mpg vs. 12 mpg in Big Red. But back to Mr. Wilson. We quickly put our heads together and rounded up the necessary tools to keep us from calling Pop-A-Lock. Some High Tensile Wire and a Flat Head Screw Driver. I held the door pried open and he worked his magic with the wire. Since it doesn't have power locks, we had to pull the trunk release so I could go in through the trunk. Within a few minutes, eureka, we were in. Thanks Mr. Wilson for all your help. If I had a pic of you, I would put it on here. (Lucky you, your daughter, Sarah Shalley, hooked me up.) He does smile though.

But this is what the remaining 8 paddocks will look like which will give us 40 paddocks total. I may try to get him to print a printout of how all my paddocks are situated. It looks like one pig puzzle.

What a wonderful week it will be. We always need the rain, lets just hope it doesn't get too soupy.

Awe Man....

2008-03-08T19:41:00.001-08:00

....Annabelle is the goat on the right side....

Today was extremely sad for us out here on the farm. We've been anticipating the birth of our first kid (baby goat) for a while now.

We thought that last week Annabelle, the momma goat, was ready to deliver. I was so sure that I sent KK running to the house to get her momma and her camera. Lynsey came running out of the house and we were all sure we were about to witness a goat deliver her first baby. We waited, and waited, and waited......nothing.

So time went by- four days to be exact. These four days have included many trips to the goat pen to check on her progress.

I worked in Houston yesterday at the Fire Dept. When I get home in the mornings from my shift, I make the rounds on the farm to check on all of the animals. I went over to the goat pen and noticed that Annabelle looked littler. But, I didn't see a baby goat walking around anywhere.

As I approached their shed I built for them to lay under, I saw the baby goat laying there on the ground in the hay lifeless. My heart sunk. I felt so bad for the baby and Annabelle. The worst part about being a farmer is seeing things like this happen. I know it is inevitable on a farm where there is so much life, because where there is life death is also a reality.

The momma seems to be doing alright. She has been crying for the most part of the day. I think she is looking for her baby.

I don't know exactly what went wrong. I think the baby goat was stillborn. When I found it, the goat still had afterbirth all over it and looked as if it hadn't even moved.

Man, this was a rough day. But, I learn and grow each time something like this happens because I dread it happening again. We were so excited and had been looking forward for this day to come for a long time.

KK asked me today at lunch time if Annabelle had had her baby yet. I told her that she did, but the baby didn't make it.

"Awe man, I wanted to hold it," she exclaimed cupping her hands together. That made my heart sink even more.

We have 3 female goats and 1 male. The other two females appear to be pregnant as well. So, hopefully we will get to experience another kid being born soon. We already have a name picked out for the little one......"Bib." Bib means- Born in Brenham. It seems to be a theme around this town. You are either a 'bib' or a 'bob', which means born out of Brenham.

Some Thinking

2008-03-06T07:58:00.000-08:00

This week I have been doing some serious thinking and evaluating. When you start sustainable farming, teaching the land to be self sufficient and have your animals work for you, there are many trials and experiments that go on. One thing I have noticed and learned is that in this wet season we have had, you are going to battle parasite problems. By choosing not to use commercial dewormers, the battle you will face initially is a tough one. So here is where different experiments and techniques come into play.

We currently use apple cider vinegar (ACV) to help with the problem. After going to the TOFGA conference, we learned that ACV is so much more than a dewormer, it has lots of other internal benefits to the animals. However, ACV cannot come in and take out an already established infestation. It will however, keep an infestation from happening.

When we started, we planned on doing a stocker operation, buying only cows from one source. The individual I buy from has really good cows and has a closed herd himself. All his replacement heifers are from his seed so he doesn't go out and purchase sale barn cows. We get these steers/heifers (we were going to feed out both), when they were weaned and they typically weighed anywhere from 550# sometimes up to 800#. This seemed like a good route to go but then I began to get a little more educated on these things. Yes, if we go the stocker route, we will be able to produce more grass fed, grass finished beef for our customers, but at what cost to us. We do have to purchase each animal so that is a an initial hit but you can make up the cost because the turnaround on the animal is faster than coming from raising the animal calf to finish. But.....

After having the steers/heifers for several months now, I am quickly realizing that though they may all look good initially when they come off their mama's, not all cows are created equally. Just as people I suppose. In the Stockman Grassfarmer, I read that anytime you buy stocker steers, you will usually have 15-20% that are tail-ender cattle. These are cattle that are perfectly healthy animals, but just don't have the genetics and capability of converting forages and energy into the same results as the other 80-85%. How true they are. Then on top of that, these animals are going to be your animals that are more prone to sickness, parasite infestation, and inconsistent weight gains usually a direct cause of the other two. I can't truly try to teach my land to be sustainable if I am always bringing in and inheriting poor herd management and land management from someone elses farm. Essentially that is what I am doing each time I buy a set of cattle for stocker purposes. So what to do?

We have decided to go to a closed herd. Yes this will take more time but after doing research, it is undoubtedly the correct path to take for us. This way, we can control genetics. If they don't match our standards, don't keep them as breeders. We can keep cows that are more fly resistant, shorter, wide bodied, and flesh easier. Keep cows that have good maternal instincts, that have good nipples that aren't too large for the calves to nurse. We will be in complete control of what we keep on the farm and get rid of. In New Zealand, they cull 25% of their cows each year. Is that what we will do, probably not, but that is why they have some of the best genetics in the world for grass fed beef. We want to be able to produce the best possible beef we can on the most consistent basis as possible.

After much research, I think we are going to go to the Red Brangus. I initially was leaning towards Red Angus heifers, sired by a Devon bull, but then I found a local farm just 15 min from our farm that sells Red Angus and Red Brangus. The owner allowed me to come out and look at his operation and boy was it big. 1800 acres, 700-800 head of cattle. Their main product is producing great bulls for breeding stock. I think he said they produce 300+ DNA tested registered bulls on their place. This is where he started talking to me about the benefits of the Red Brangus over the Red Angus, especially for our area.

It is hot and humid here most of the time. We have great early falls and springs, mild winters, and usually hot summers. The Black Angus/Brangus is used extensively in this area. But why? I don't know and he didn't know either. He has been producing great cattle for over 40 yrs in this area and still didn't know why people used them so much. He produces them as well, but only because so many people around here buy them from him. Smart business. But back to the Red Brangus. He feels these are going to be the new movement in the future if people would wisen up. They are red, of course, which makes them much more comfortable, tolerant, and efficient in the hot summers here. Yet handle our mild winters exceptionally well. By having the Brahma in them, they get more heat resistance and better parasite and fly control through natural genetics. By purchasing through him, who puts out lots of heifers and bulls a year, he is constantly working on his genetics. He understands grass fed beef and rotational grazing. He currently rotates all his cows weekly on much bigger tracts and really relies on the forage aspect of the cattle. Very rarely does he feed grain unless his heifers have twins, which he has had 8 sets this last month. He has cattle that are shorter legged, smaller boned, wide bodied, smooth haired, and more fleshing than any I have seen. Great for me, I just have to get him to sell me about 10 of them now along with a great Red Brangus bull built good for grass fed operations. He doesn't want to let any of them go but I hope I can budge ol' Stone Wall. They have a large auction in Oct. so hopefully then, we will be able to purchase a good number of our starter heifers for the beginning of our new herd. Then the fun begins.

But back to the thinking. I know this post is long, but I haven't done one in a while. I also am really wanting to use companion animals more. (ie) chickens and goats.

I ordered 300 layers yesterday so they will be in the end of the month. I have my house ready to use as a brooder for a while until I can get them big enough to go out on grass. They will still stay in that house though for a while with it being open for them to roam around freely. While they are in there, I will hopefully get a good size mobile house built that I can move around in the pastures with the cows. So I have about 2 months there. This will help spread manure and for horn flies and face flies.

The goats I want to help with browsing weeds and other unwanted forage, but also for parasite control. Cattle, goats, chickens, pigs, dogs, pretty much all animals have parasites, just as humans do. In our healthy state, our bodies know how to keep these numbers in balance and we are virtually unaware that we have them. However, in my case with the tail-ender cattle, these guys aren't growing as fast as my good looking healthy thick beeves. So these parasites know that and really vamp things up in their systems. Now I am fighting a battle that is very hard to fight naturally but it can be done. So this is the route we are going to try:

1.) Brix test. This tells you how sweet your forage is and is a good indicator of the parasite loads your pastures naturally have. If you brix is around 3-4, you will have a bad parasite problem. Brix of 7-8, things are much better and the parasites will have a hard chance of survival. Once your Brix gets to 11-12, you will virtually be parasite free. I have no idea where we are but I am going to get a refractometer to do a test. Very important.

2.) Never allow our animals to graze below the two inch height of forage. Currently we don't have this problem because our rye grass is up pretty good and they move daily. But this area has high parasite loads.

3.) Plant more forage so that the animals are able to keep their systems constantly going. We are way understocked at this time but in the summer, this will be big for us. I want them to always have more than enough forage so that when they move, there will be around 20% residual.

4.) Goats. These guys are a deadend host to cattle parasites so what enters them, dies there. No eggs layed, no larvae hatching, drastic drop in numbers quickly almost to the point of extinction over time.

5.) Continue on ACV. This keeps healthy cows healthy and can help turn your slightly infested back on the right track. I will continue to give this 3 days out of the month.

So this is what I will be working on here in the next 2 months or so. Sorry this is so long but maybe this will help others out. Good thing, is that I have 30 or so grass fed beeves that are doing great. I can't wait to be able to finish them out on our good spring grasses and see how the results are.

The Nomad

2008-03-01T05:40:00.001-08:00

"Yee Haw"

So we have this rooster. I didn't know he was a rooster for the longest time but there was always something strange about him. Our chickens on the farm are divided up into three houses and the barn. Down in the pasture, are a bunch of roosters. I know that is mean but too many roosters equal unhappy hens. So they are down there waiting their slaughter date. Then I have a main house, one behind our house and then about 8 chickens roost in the barn. But there is this rooster. He was originally part of the chicks that we moved behind the house and there he stayed for the longest. Fitting in and socializing like everyone else. Then something happened. It was like he lost his way. Hence the name Nomad. This poor guy is always by himself. All day. He pretty much does nothing right. His crow sounds like he is saying," Yee Haw." The only time he gets a hen is if he sneaks up on her and then he really doesn't know what to do very gracefully. When he finishes, you can almost tell that the hen is disappointed with herself that she let herself get caught. He doesn't bother anybody, he just doesn't know where his place is.

The cows are on their final two rotations this weekend. We have had a couple of glitches but nothing major. Most of them were from careless mistakes I made that either confused them or allowed them to break rank. Cows may look dumb and lethargic but at nights, I think they turn into ninja panthers and find ways to get out. I suggest to always have a couple paddocks up ahead of the one being grazed so that if they do get out, they don't take off to the other side of the pasture. Usually the only reason they bust through the rope is if they are chased. I think some coyotes or maybe some deer spooked them the other night and they broke loose. This is part of the new pasture we purchased last year. I seeded it in almost pure rye grass in late October just to see how it did. Not too bad. Mid March I will be putting some warm season grasses on it. I think once it is cleaned up a bit, I have about 6 burn piles to burn and 2 trees to cut up, it is going to be very pretty.

This pasture has lots of huge trees on it. Something our main pastures lack

They eat as close to fence as they can. No fence line weeds anymore

"Love that green"

The pads divided with the reels. I go through Powerflex Fence Co.

These are new pictures of our hen that snuck and hatched some eggs. She had layed 5 but only hatched out 4. Aren't they cute. Its amazing how good these hens can take care of their young chicks.

Showing the chicks their food. All she does is keep tumping it over.

Leading the chicks off to scratch around

We now use only organic grains for our pigs. It is amazing the difference of it vs. commercial feed. The pigs also highly prefer it. They use to pick at their food, now they take huge bites out of it. This is what the grain looks like inside of the feeder. I put about 200#'s in at a time. We will go to all organic grain for our chickens but I am waiting to get my new chicks in so that they will be organic from birth to death. Can't wait

Around the Farm 2

2008-02-25T19:59:00.001-08:00

The pigs are all finally in their new pasture. There has been some serious squelling with them testing out the fence and their boundaries. I actually had one that got shocked, went through the fence, then didn't know what to do so he came back in. Worked out pretty good. This is some more pictues of them in their new home. They finally got the nerve to go into the woods, which now I can't get them to ever come out.

I decided to build them a covered shelter for when it rains and just in case we get another little cold spell. I think we will probably be in the clear, but in this part of Texas, sometimes you get a late freeze before April 1st. Who knows. At least if they want to they can go under it. Makes me feel better I guess.

I went to check the chicken that was setting on the eggs. Well, if you read previous posts, there originally ended up being 16 eggs. She is a new layer, and I really don't think she knew what to do with them. So she went off and hid, laying all her eggs here. This is fine, but she didn't want to set on them. So now these 16 eggs were here and no one to hatch them. I decided to put them in plain site of all the chickens hoping that someone would pick up her slack and set. No one. There was just way too many eggs. I think they were a little intimidated. So I fed them to the pigs. They loved them.

Well, the next week I could find her and lo and behold, she was back up in the same spot. This time, she was broody and I knew she decided that this time, her eggs wouldn't be taken. So now she decided to set. Finally I caught her out eating and I was able to do an egg count. Five. A bit easier for a first time setter. Today I noticed some chirping and there they were. At least 2 that I could see. We'll see tomorrow. I put some chick starter and water up there so she can show them the ropes.

Then while building the pig shelter, I noticed that one of my favorite bantam hens was sneaking around in the barn. Then all of a sudden, she bypassed the normal laying box and snuck around the back of one I have in storage. So I see her go in and inside is 10 eggs. So today she decided to set. In 21 days we'll see how many we get. I love bantams. They are so motherly. I probably could have gave her the original 16 eggs and she would have tried to set on them. Her whole body would have been off the ground. Just a bunch of eggs under her.

Love that Green

2008-02-24T12:20:00.001-08:00

We are now through paddock 15 of our 23 shifts. At first when I decided to begin rotating the cows through the new rye grass, there was a bit of uncertainty in doing it. However, after being half way through the rotations, I am glad I did it. The cows are looking great, and the pastures are really changing.

This is one of my favorite steers

Along with rotating them through, I have been applying compost in behind them to help with some nutrient issues and also begin to build organic matter. As I stated before, if pastures were equivalent to hands in poker, we were holding a 7-2 off-suit. But through proper land management and a little help being applied in terms of organic matter, natural fertilizers, and forages, we are going to be in good shape. Man, in just under a year you wouldn't recognize the place from what it was to now.

In a day this will be pretty much gone.

So with the dawn of spring officially around the bend, many things will be happening here on Yonder Way Farm

The PIT

Last night we had a relaxing time of family time. Not that we don't usually have family time at night but this time we were going to sit outside around the FIRE PIT. We made this thing this year as a "togetherness project," as my dad would say, just the wife and me. It started off very simple but in time began to get bigger and bigger. Eventually, it was about 2 foot deep and about 8' in diameter. The pit turned out way better than expected.

I could sit and watch a fire all night long. Ironic I put them out for a living.

So our tradition for these nights is burn a lot of wood, drink hot chocolate, and on occasion, eat God knows whats in them, full of nitrite, hot dogs. Only around a fire that is big enough to burn the exterior off your face off and make you feel like your clothes are about to spontaneously combust can you forget what your putting in your mouths. But we usually do it on these nights.
But this night, we just drank hot chocolate.

Boy thats a lot of hot chocolate

Then today was a good ole relaxing day. KK has been wanting to go out in the canoe ever since I brought this thing home. So I told her yesterday that today would be today. Wouldn't you guess that today is the most beautiful day in the world but also the most windy. But try backing out on a 3 yr old. These guys you have to show that it won't work very well. So out we set. I think her favorite part was riding in the canoe while being pulled by the Ranger.

So we get to the water and right off the bat I know this isn't going to work very well. I am in the back and she is just in front of me leaving no weight in the front. So now I look like a speed boat doing a hundred mph across the lake except I am in a canoe going maybe 1/2. Needless to say, we just kept getting blown in circles, up onto the bank, and try paddling while fishing with your little girl. I got all twisted up in the line. Within 5 minutes she said, "I think it is too windy, maybe we should try another day." Thats my girl. The good that came from this though, besides just getting to hang out, was that her verse for the week was "Even the wind and the waves obey Him" Matt 8:27. No better visual aid than this because lo as we tried, they weren't obeying us. What a mighty God we serve in deed.

New Pigs

2008-02-22T17:55:00.001-08:00

Now that I have the new pig pasture complete, the 8 door feeder in the pasture, and 3 feeder pigs currently, I figured I should go ahead and get 5 more heads for the remaining 5 doors. The Pig Man, thats what I call him, called me last week and said that he would have some ready end of this week. So today was the day. I am hoping that this is the last few I have to purchase from him because now, both my breeder pigs are indeed pregnant, so we will have our own litters in the coming month. More on that.

In this litter, I thought I would try a couple of different breeds this time just to see how they fair. I got 3 Yorkshires, 1 Hampshire/Yorkshire cross (that is what we will be having in our litters), and a Duroc. I really like the Duroc's. So now, I have 8 feeder pigs, 2 Breeders, and a big Stud named Dudley.

It always fascinates me seeing pigs that would have been in confinement getting to be free and raised the way nature intended them. To see them come out and touch dirt for the first time, and start trying their noses, and nipping at all the different vegetation. Its quite sad to think that the pigs most eat in a grocery store never get to experience this. They live in concrete boxes, with hard floors, that when their feed gets on the ground, it cuts into their skin because it is so coarse. Once you get pigs on your farm, you will realize that they are the life of it. They love doing what they do best, tearing the ground up. But when you walk out there, they stop what they are doing and run as fast as their funny bodies will take them and then fall over in front of you for some petting. They are very emotional animals who in confinement, continually stay depressed. Very sad.

This guy wouldn't quit rubbing his body in the soft dirt.

In the newly sprouting rescue grass. Probably feels like carpet

Look what I found to play with.

While at the TOFGA conference, I found a feed mill that sells only 100% certified organic feed. It is called Coyote Creek Farms. They specialize in chicken feed but I got to thinking that pigs eat pretty much the same things are chickens. So I asked the lady, named Sue, if they would be interested in doing this. She was very excited and called a nutritionist and got a recommendation. The even better part, is that the mill is only 75 miles from our farm. Can't beat that. Now the feed is way higher than if you were to buy normal feed but the benefits are well worth it. No GMO products in this stuff, Redmond Natural Trace mineral is used, no chemicals of any sort in the grain. They milled it for me the morning I went to pick it up. It was so yellow and fresh smelling. Probably could make some great cornbread with it. Maybe. No we aren't looking to get certified organic, but we always want to be feeding our animals the best products that are out there.

This is 1000# of pig feed. It smells so good.

Needless to say, I will be getting a price list together for our products because pretty soon we will be in the product selling business. It takes time to build things up so that you can be able to produce over a sustainable amount of time. With such a huge demand for pastured pork, non the less, pastured pork fed only organic grain, I feel these things will get reserved quite fast.

Happy 27th

2008-02-20T04:22:00.000-08:00

Today is my amazing wifes 27th Birthday. We got married when she was 19 so I feel like I have seen her grow so much. She is the best wife and mother the Lord could have ever blessed me with. She is my best friend and the love of my life. Thank you babe for wowing me all the time and I hope you have a great day. Sorry I have to be at work. It is 6:15 in the morning and the guys have already tore into the cake you made like a pack of coyotes. For those of you who don't know last week was my birthday and the tradition in the Houston Fire Dept is that on your birthday, you have to bring cake and ice cream. So my wife made a Godiva chocolate pound cake for the guys. They always get excited about her baking goods. Thanks babe and "Love you bunches."

Why Support Your Local Farmer?

2008-02-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

Well if you felt all safe and cozy knowing that the government is keeping the commercial food business in check then I hope you threw up yesterday morning. If you don't know what I am taking about then here is the link to the full story. I first saw the videos that were aired on the television about a month ago. I could not believe what I saw. These animals that were so sick that they were unable to stand were being carried into this processing plant and being butchered, and sold to the public. But not just the public, but our children through school lunch programs. Yack. And to think that when I was in school, I always got 2 lunches because I just liked food that much. I wish I knew then what I knew now.

The great thing is there is a new movement coming on and if this is not evidence as to why then your blinders are welded on over your eyes rather than the side. I urge you please support your local farmers. I don't mean that you have to buy all your fruits and vegetables along with your meat but at least your meat. Animals are living things that can harbor some awful things, and if you have ever been to a sale barn, you will see that the majority of these animals are being sold because something is wrong with them. Not newly weined calves but I'm talking your full grown older cows. You know who buys them? Commercial slaughter houses. These animals are allowed to be slaughtered under USDA rules as long as they are breathing and able to stand prior to slaughter. Thats it. I don't know about you but I don't want to consume a sick animal. Nope, not me.

There are many farms around everyone, whether you know it or not, that offer locally raised products. Now I'm not saying just go grass-fed, though I don't know why you wouldn't if you had someone producing around you, but go locally raised. Buy from a place where you can go and see the animals and how they are treated. What are they eating? Do they look stress free? I know that sounds weird but a stress free cow produces better and tastes better. Animals were made for a purpose. To work the land, keep other species in check, whether it be other animals or vegetation, and to be eaten by things bigger and smarter than them. But just because we get to eat them doesn't mean you don't let them fulfill their purpose while on that path. I heard it best one time that "God made beef perfect then man came along and screwed it up." That is so true. We somehow feel that we can take an animal that functions perfectly in its natural environment, on its natural diet, and somehow make it work better by forcing it to eat alien things and be confined on a dirt pad. Well, this is what we have come to. A country allowing our kids to eat manure caked, almost dead yet living, abused meat in our tax payed schools. Wow.

So please take the time to invest in yours and your kids health. You can no longer plead ignorance on the issues anymore. You have been shown the evidence so make the wise choice. Support your local farmers and invest in products that are the way they were meant to be.

Video of Commercial Packing Plant