It’s been a while since I’ve written. It’s been very busy here on the farm. We finally got to get a lot of our hay done this weekend. The rains have been something else to deal with. It has delayed our hay making by a month. The cows have tore up a couple off smaller fields because of the constant saturated ground. The last batch of chickens got moved 2X per day the last week to keep them clean and out of the mud. some of our grass has done very well from the moisture, some of it has not. One thing about farming, there are no constants or guarantees. Every year is different, but we adapt and adjust to what the good Lord has given us.

We butchered our third batch of chickens last week. We fed this group a few extra days and had a LOT of sausage and brats made. We now have the sage sausage flavor in 1lb bulk bags and in 1/4 lb patties, as well as the brat links. They are all delicious. Because we fed them a little longer we also have a few bigger whole birds. We will discount them by 50 cents/lb for any birds over 5 lbs. These are still great tasting birds and are best for putting in a roaster or smoking.

I’ve also been busy off and on breeding the spring calving cows. We breed most of them artificially. This gives us the opportunity to use the very best bulls in the country. I kinda consider it my hobby to select and breed for the very best genetics. Raising the best grass fed beef truly takes some very special genetics to get the cattle to perform well. Those genetics are kind of rare, considering less than 5% of the cattle in this country are grass fed. My dream is that one day other cattlemen are coming to me, looking for those genetics that perform well on grass.

For those of you that saw us at the market may have noticed that we have a trailer now. Thanks to all of you customers we were able to purchase a small box trailer outfitted with a couple freezers in it. this has simplified our market days. Gone are the days of loading up the truck, and unloading everything when we get home. When we first started the market 4 years ago, we used 1 cooler, we then graduated to a small freezer and a cooler. Then we moved to a bigger freezer when we started doing chickens. With the trailer, we can carry a full supply of beef and chicken products, and it saves us at least an hour on each market day.

We are still taking orders for Thanksgiving turkeys. We have about a dozen more we can take orders for. We almost decided not to raise any, our supplier called a couple weeks ago to let all the small independent producers know that they were cancelling everyone’s orders. Because of the bird flu, they are giving all available poults to the big companies. Fortunately our friend who we ordered our birds with, was able to locate some from another supplier. The only problem is they are costing us more. If you have already paid a deposit and I haven’t talked to you about it yet, I will be soon.

One last note. Since we started selling our products on a ‘retail’ basis, I have learned a lot. In many parts of this great country, there is great support for local food. Thank You for supporting us and the other small farmers that put a lot of effort into marketing their product directly to the consumer. Please search for others that do the same, spread the word to your friends, explain to them how the money they spend on locally raised products, stays in the community, to support the local economy. That money isn’t going to some men in suits, in offices thousands of miles away. For example, most calves in this area get sold at weaning, shipped to Kansas or some other western state. They are fed grain from hundreds of miles away, slaughtered, and sent back to Ohio in boxes to the store. Beef we sell was born on our farm, raised on our farm or one we rent, they are hauled to slaughter 2 miles away to the locally owned butcher shop which employees 7 or 8 local people. We then pick up our product and sell it to you. For every beef we sell, there is an extra $1000 or more that stays in the local economy.  I was thinking today while at the market, my new goal is to sell at least one lb. of meat for every person in Gallia county each year. That’s between 35-40,000 lbs. Sounds like a lot, but that’s only about 10,000 chickens.  Still sounds like a lot, but I estimate that is still less than 1% of the meat eaten in Gallia county in a year.  Very doable.

Phil