Chicka-Boom!

The following article was written by my favorite grass farmer, Alan Nation. Full credit goes to him. You can read more farm related information at Alan's blog.



Backyard Chicken Boom

Tuesday, 23 June 2009
According to The Economist magazine, backyard chickens are "having a moment" in the USA. Hatcheries that deliver chicks by mail have reported backlogs. Rob Ludlow, the owner of BackyardChickens.com, told the magazine that his forum has 35,000 members and have 100 new people sign up everyday. Currently, backyard chicken enthusiasts meet in at least two dozen cities, from Seattle to Tallahassee to discuss the how-to’s of small-scale poultry production. Recently, Austin, Texas, had 637 people go on its first Funky Chicken Coop Tour. Due to public pressure, many cities are relaxing their ordinances against backyard hens as long as no crowing roosters are included. Some cities that haven’t yet relaxed regulations are finding protesters on their City Hall steps wearing "I Love Chickens" T-shirts. The Economist credits this new interest in chicken raising to the poor economy. Currently, more Americans are growing gardens than anytime since World War II due to today’s economic pressures.

The World's First Mini Black Baldie? I Doubt It, But We're Excited Anyway.

I thought I'd share some pics of our new little calf. He was born Saturday morning around 7:00 a.m. He is the product of our minature Hereford bull and our Dexter cow. We usually breed the cow to the Dexter bull (which, by the way, we may be interested in selling. Contact us if you're interested at sppowers@iglide.net . You can view him here. ) but I got the idea to see if we could get a black baldie out of the mini Hereford and it worked. I doubt that this is the first calf of this kind but it is quite unique and a pleasure to us.

Here are some pics of the little critter.

Lessons Gained Through Grass Management

While out walking the property the last few days, I made an interesting discovery. Well, it was more like a realization than a discovery. Anyway, it was eye opening, to say the least.

I was looking around at the grass in the paddocks, and I am feeling really good about them this year. The grass is taking over where there had once been weeds. Don't get me wrong, we still have plenty of weeds, but I am beginning to see a noticeable difference now. I am no expert, by any means, I am simply a student trying to apply what I've learned and I have a long way to go.

However, as I was looking around, the thing that stood out to me and opened my eyes to the fact that mob grazing and managed grazing really work, is that this new grass is not just taking the pasture back, but it is getting quite thick.

This is good. As I thought about it, I looked at the toes of my shoes. They were wet. This is significant for two reasons. First, it is in the early evening when I am walking around (usually doing chores), and, second, we have had a dry spell with very hot temps for over two weeks now.

It is then that I noticed how thick the grass was getting and it dawned on me. I realized that the thicker grass was helping to maintain moisture. This is an important milestone because with the kind of hot, dry weather we have been having lately, the grass growth slows to almost a stop. Thus far, praise God, it is still growing.

The next goal, then, is to get it up to eight inches, or so. This is where my discipline fails me. Just call me captain impatient. I see the lush green stuff and I want the cows to have it. Of course, it doesn't help when they stare, longingly, with their big, brown eyes at it.

All in all, I am making progress. I have begun to fence another piece of property that will open up a new direction for us. Pray about that, if you will.

I will keep plugging away and reading. In the mean time, feel free to offer your insight with a comment, or two. I love to hear homestead wisdom, so let me have it. Thanks for stopping by.

A New Book!

My wife picked up a great book from our church yard sale. It is entitled "600 More Things To Make For The Farm And Home".

The beauty of this book is that it is just a bunch of plans to build things, ranging from out buildings to water delivery systems. All done by hand. It is also great because it is old school wisdom that was published in 1952. In my opinion, so much knowledge and wisdom has been lost since those days. You know, the days before the giant agribusinesses and commodity farming. Much farming was local, in those days, so the wisdom is applicable to what we want to accomplish on our homestead.

The plans are strait forward and easy to read and provide a full materials list. I looked on Amazon and quantities are extremely limited on this volume as it is out of print, but if you come across a copy, I recommend picking it up. Good luck.

All I Can Say Is- WOOOHOOO! NAIS Takes A Hit

No Money For Livestock Tracking

Thursday, 18 June 2009
Cattle-Fax reports that the US House Appropriations subcommittee voted to eliminate funding for a livestock tracking system that has so far cost $142 million but would be totally ineffective in case of a disease outbreak. Proposed as a voluntary system, producer participation has been far below the point needed for effective disease control. Government livestock tracking has been highly controversial among farmers and there has been organized resistance. None of the subcommittee members spoke in support of the program. Currently the USDA is scheduling town hall meetings to get a feel for current producer sentiment.

Voice Your Opinion On The NAIS

Beef Magazine is runing a NAIS poll and asking producers to vote for Mandatory/ Voluntary/ or Scrap NAIS. Lets take the time to show them a real anti NAIS movement. Please log on and vote at: http://beefmagazine.com/ .

Go vote, you may be glad you did. I will leave this up top for a few days, for new posts and really cool info and funny stories from your all-around favorite homesteader, scroll down.

Mob Grazing To Healthy Land

Tell me if this sounds like a good plan to you. I was talking to a gentleman about some land he has that has gone wild. He was wondering how it might be cleaned up without all the usual, expensive inputs. The following is what I suggested, though, I am no expert.

First, brush hog it. Knocking it down and leaving the cut vegetation will only enhance the microbial action of the soil. It would also create dead plants for decomposition to add to the soil and encourage the spread of earth worms and other insects while increasing the carbon count.

Then, after a bit of re-growth, strip graze it in mob fashion, leaving mass amounts of manure in a concentrated area. The manure would fertilize, obviously, but the high concentration of it would help retain moisture, which, the soil needs. The cattle would also trample a certain amount of the plant life (about 20% is optimal) accomplishing the same things stated above with the brush hogging.

Let it grow again until seed heads are prominent, then mob graze it again, achieving the same results. Only this time, the cattle would ingest the seeds and spread them a bit through the manure, plus, knock a bunch down and, thus, plant them through trampling.

I believe this would go a long way to major improvements. What do you think? Sound off on this, I want to know. Thanks for stopping by.

Food Freedom Or Food Fascism?

Food FreedomJune 17, 2009

A new food safety bill is on the fast track in Congress-HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. The bill needs to be stopped.

HR 2749 gives FDA tremendous power while significantly diminishing existing judicial restraints on actions taken by the agency. The bill would impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme on small farms and local artisanal producers; and it would disproportionately impact their operations for the worse.

HR 2749 does not address underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply. The industrial food system and food imports are badly in need of effective regulation, but the bill does not specifically direct regulation or resources to these areas.

To read a detailed account of the bill, go to: http://www.ftcldf.org/news/news-15june2009.htm
(Read the section on tracing. That is NAIS, isn’t it? – highly disguised yet triggered by the word “trace.” )
Alarming Provisions:
Some of the more alarming provisions in the bill are:

* HR 2749 would impose an annual registration fee of $500 on any “facility” that holds, processes, or manufactures food. [isn't this every home in the US, every garden?] Although “farms” are exempt, the agency has defined “farm” narrowly. [What is the definition?] And people making foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, cheeses, or breads would be required to register and pay the fee, which could drive beginning and small producers out of business during difficult economic times. [Yes. There are laws against this corporate-size-destroys-the-little-guy policy, aren't there? Are home bread or cheese or lacto-fermented vegetable makers who make for their own families included in this?]

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested. It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers. [This astounding control opens the door to CODEX. WTO "good farming practices" will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms but into the forced purchase of industry's products. They will be slaves on the land, doing the work they are ordered to do - against their own best wisdom - and paying out to industry against their will. There will be no way to be frugal, to grow one’s own grain to feed the animals, to raise healthy animals without GMO grains or drugs, to work with nature at all. Grassfed cattle and poultry and hogs will be finished. So, it’s obvious where control will take us. And weren’t these the “rumors on the internet” that were dismissed but are clearly the case?]

* HR 2749 would give FDA the power to order a quarantine of a geographic area, including “prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area.” [This - "that has been used to transport or hold such food" - would mean all cars that have ever brought groceries home so this means ALL TRANSPORTATION can be shut down under this. This is using food as a cover for martial law.] Under this provision, farmers markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. The agency can halt all movement of all food in a geographic area. [This is also a means of total control over the population under the cover of food, and at any time.]

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to make random warrantless searches of the business records of small farmers and local food producers, without any evidence whatsoever that there has been a violation. [If these bills cover all who "hold food" then this allows for taking of records of anyone at any time on no basis at all.] Even farmers selling direct to consumers would have to provide the federal government with records on where they buy supplies, how they raise their crops, and a list of customers.
[NAIS for animals and all other foods?]

* HR 2749 charges the Secretary of Health and Human Services with establishing a tracing system for food. Each “person who produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds such food” [Is this not every home in the US?] would have to “maintain the full pedigree of the origin and previous distribution history of the food,” and “establish and maintain a system for tracing the food that is interoperable with the systems established and maintained by other such persons.” The bill does not explain how far the traceback will extend or how it will be done for multi-ingredient foods. With all these ambiguities, [with all these ambiguities, it is dangerous, period, separate from the money] it’s far from clear how much it will cost either the farmers or the taxpayers. [It is massive and absurd and burdensome beyond the capacity of people to comply - is this not fascism? - so it is a set up for being used to impose penalties endlessly and/or to eliminate anyone at will.]

* HR 2749 creates severe criminal and civil penalties, including prison terms of up to 10 years and/or fines of up to $100,000 for each violation for individuals. [Does it include judicial review, Congressional oversight, a defined and limited set of penalties and punishments for a defined set of “crimes”? Or is it entirely ambiguous and left to the whim and sole power of “the Administrator”? Who is that person set to be? Is it Michael Taylor, Monsanto lawyer and executive, as Food Democracy has said? That is, do these bills set up an agency by which the entire US food supply will be turned over to the control of a multinational corporation under WTO regulations (and not to US farmers and not to US laws under the Constitution), with boundless freedom to do what it wants, and one infamous for harm to farmers and lack of safety of food?

If it was not clear before how frightening these bills were, this small section of provisions, should make their actual fascism clear now. It goes way beyond “food safety” to absolute control over farms, animals, food, and us, including our movements and access to food at all.

Action to Take:
Contact your Representative now! Ask to speak with the staffer who handles food issues. Tell them you are opposed to the bill. Some points to make in telling your Representative why you oppose HR 2749 include:

1. The bill imposes burdensome requirements while not specifically targeting the industrial food system and food imports, where the real food safety problems lie.
2. Small farms and local food processors are part of the solution to food safety; lessening the regulatory burden on them will improve food safety.
3. The bill gives FDA much more power than it has had in the past while making the agency less accountable for its actions.

HR 2749 needs to be defeated!! Please take action NOW.
To contact your Representative, use the finder tool at www.Congress.org or send a message through the petition system (the petition will be on our website this evening) athttp://www.ftcldf.org/petitions_new.htm. Or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
To check the status of HR 2749, go to www.Thomas.gov and type “HR 2749″ in the bill search field.

The Truth About Saturated Fats

My wife and I spend a good deal of time studying health and healthy food. It is interesting how we each have developed a passion for this topic, yet, have different bents, as well. My wife is the herbalist. She studies how herbs are used in healing and nutrition and often concocts home, herbal remedies. She literally devours information on that.

Me, I tend to spend more time on nutritional, whole, or real, foods. I enjoy learning all I can in regard to grass and grass fed animals, knowing that the grass is the key to it all. Often, we come together with the two and they seem to meld quite nicely together. In fact, it just goes to prove to me, even further, that God's creation is perfect. That He gave us all we need to survive and remain healthy. The biggest lesson we have learned together is that the more man kind tinkers with creation, the worse it seems to get. It could be said that man has a tendency to think too much, things are not always as complicated as we make them to be. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

With this in mind, I wanted to share a list I came across that shares the real facts about saturated fats found in good food. Facts that the modern medical establishment will not share, nor even knows. If you try to share them with a doctor or scientist, you are labeled as crazy and told that those "natural" things don't really work, your healing was simply a miracle. (Funny how they can readily believe in a miracle before they can believe that an herb or healthy food helped you heal.) So, here is the list.

• Saturated fatty acids make up over half of the cell membrane of every cell in the body.
• We need at least 50% of our dietary fats to be saturated, otherwise we can't get calcium into our bones.
• They actually lower lipoprotien-1. A substance that is now known to be the best marker of risk of heart disease.
• They protect our liver from alcohol and other toxins such as Tylenol.
• They enhance our immune system.
• They enable us to utilize the essential fatty acids such as Omega 3 fat.
• These fats are the preferred food of the heart muscle itself, giving this vital organ reserves of energy during times of stress.
• Specific fats have important antimicrobial properties and protect us from harmful organisms in the digestive tract.
• When arteries are clogged it's only 26% saturated fat, over half is polyunsaturated.

These saturated fats come only from animal fats. Vegetarians are missing out on this vital fat. Of course, grass fed is the best source. One hundred years ago, Americans did not suffer from heart disease and cancer the way we do now. I believe this is why. We have been fed from our government faulty information based on questionable and faulty research that produced less than definitive results.

Are There Any Thomas Jeffersons Out There?

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity.

Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address.

The Every Once In A While Fertrell Highlight

Fertrell Udder-sol is made from oregano oil and will take care of mastitis problems common in dairy cows.

For more information on this and other great Fertrell products, check out their website .

If you are looking for natural and organic certified products for the health of your animals and land, feel free to drop us a line. We may not be the dealer nearest you, but we can sure try to answer your questions and point you in the right direction. E-mail to: sppowers@iglide.net

Omega 3 Fatty Acids Reduce Methane Gas?

According to a new study, cows fed on a diet of fast growing, green pasture intake a substantial amount of Omega 3's that are found in green, leafy grass. These Omega 3's are shown to reduce the cows methane emissions. Hmmm, how will this news bode for environmentalists? Read More here.

We have been offering up for sale our meager farm produce (eggs) and peddling Fertrell, among some miscellaneous things, at a local farmer/flea market. I have been having a blast, meeting new people. We have been averaging around forty dollars each day, one day per week. I know, this doesn't sound like much money, but it is money we didn't have before.

This brings up an old question I once heard, would you rather make a million dollars one time, or one dollar a million times?

I think that there is a lot to be said for the later option. I would rather make one dollar a million times. With a diversification in you homestead, you can create a whole bunch of "salaries" from varying enterprises. For us, going to the market one day a week is just one aspect of our homestead income. Forty dollars per day equals $160 per month. That pays for the wife's monthly trip to Aldi. Do you see the point? That now frees up other monies that would have been spent at Aldi, for other things. Perhaps we can now put some money aside for the week long camping trip my family and I would like to take to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.

The key to it all is to make sure that each enterprise you add to your homestead income completely compliments what you already do. In other words, you don't want to add more labor, material costs and maintenance costs along with another enterprise. Rather, add something that fits in with what you already do, you know, create and look for holons. Read the linked articles for more on this, but, simply put, a holon would be selling rabbit manure for fertilizer that is produced from the rabbits you already have. No added machinery, labor or costs, relatively speaking.

If you do this and put the money aside (out of sight, out of mind), the next thing you know, you might be able to invest in something else, or take your wife out for a nice evening together (that's one of my goals).

So, out some thought to it and ask yourself, how can I generate one dollar a million times?

A Stimulating Ice Cream Cone?

In honor of the 44th President of the United States,
Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream has introduced a new
flavor: "Barocky Road."
Barocky Road is a blend of half vanilla, half chocolate,
and surrounded by nuts and flakes. The vanilla
portion of the mix is not openly advertised and
usually denied as an ingredient. The nuts and
flakes are all very bitter and hard to swallow.

The cost is $100.00 per scoop.

When purchased it will be presented to you in a
large beautiful cone, but then the ice cream is
taken away and given to the person in line behind
you.

You are left with an empty wallet and no change,
holding an empty cone with no hope of getting
any ice cream.

Are you stimulated?

Put That Roundup Down! Weeds Are good for you-Not To Mention Your Cattle

The following post is copied from Alan Nation's blog, found at the Stockman GrassFarmer's website. I take no credit for this information, all credit goes to the author, Mr Alan Nation. For more news on farming and farm related topics, please visit Mr. Nation's blog .

I get a kick out of info like this, so, please enjoy.


Eating Weeds Is Latest Health Food Trend

Monday, 01 June 2009

Those weeds in your pasture could be a valuable new source of cash flow reports The Wall Street Journal. Greens are "trendy items" in haute cuisine these days and edible weeds are what has gourmands really excited. Edible weeds currently sell for $3 per six ounce bunch and their prices have been rising by 20% each year. Until the mid-20th Century, weeds such as wild onion, pokeweed and sorrel were widely eaten in the USA. Burdock is useful in soups and stews and the stalk is said to similar in taste and appearance to celery. Chickweed is mild flavored and is readily used in salads. Dandelion greens lose their bitterness if soaked in cold water and can be used in salads or cooked like spinach. Kudzu leaves can be battered and fried. In Asia, kudzu roots are made into a valuable flour. Lamb’s quarters’ leaves can be cooked as an alternative to spinach, which belongs to the same plant family. Purslane leaves, stems and flowers may be stewed or eaten raw. The succulent stems can be pickled and the purslane ashes can be used as a salt substitute. Shepherd’s purse adds a peppery kick to salads or can be added to a cooked ‘mess of greens.’ Dawn Jackson Blatner of the American Dietetic Association said that eating weeds is healthy because it taps you into the plants’ matrix of immune systems that protect weeds from the sun, the wind and the bugs. "One man’s weed is another man’s wonder food," she said.

More Life Truths

Once again, Joel Salatin (my favorite grass farmer/chicken guy) has shared some wisdom he heard at a conference that he attended. This is more of it, quoted from Joel's article in the May issue of the stockman grass farmer.

Joel says that life truth number three (I skipped number 2) is this: Bigger IS better-in ideas. "Don't be afraid to have big ideas that revolutionize your farm. What if you quit filling silos? What if you quit milking in the winter? What if you added pastured poultry?"

All questions that could take us over the top. For us, a small time gig, it is a matter of what can best compliment the enterprises we already have. We don't farm full time and I see it a long way off, if ever. But, we do earn extra, supplementary income from our homestead. Thinking out side the box can effect even the smallest of the small, in my opinion.

So, how about your small farm or homestead?