Chicken tractor
We have started a small pasture poultry enterprise, raising red rangers, a heritage broiler breed that is heartier and takes a while longer to mature. The commercial Cornish white chicken is bred to be processed at 6-8 weeks of age. Any longer than that and the chicken will break it’s legs with the weight it’s […]
Our newest additions
Out Alpine dairy goat had kids a week ago. Two healthy males. She was bred with a Boar goat so they have many of his characteristics. They are the cutest babies I have ever seen.
Getting the bugs out
It seems like every year when we start planting corn or harvesting soybeans, we need a day or two to get all the bugs out of our machines. It’s never easy as just hopping in the cab of the tractor and away we go. There are always glitches. Yesterday was one if those days. The […]
Farming Naked
Practical Farmers of Iowa has a slogan, “don’t farm naked”. Naked meaning bare soil. Today, I’m farming naked an I’m not too excited about it. They call this conservation tillage because it’s lightly tilled just one time and it’s done right before we plant corn, but still, it dried out the soil quickly and it […]
Cereal rye
We flew on 80 acres worth of cereal rye last September and this is how tall it has grown thus far this spring. We went out and took biomass samples before we terminated it to get the nitrogen and carbon levels. We decided to terminate at 6-8 inches. We didn’t want it to get away […]
Pulling feathers
I had my first chicken processing experience today! My poultry-loving friends who are also our neighbors let us bring our two roosters over to process along with their number of roosters. I never realized how easy the feathers come out after you dip them in hot water. I also never knew the figure of speech, […]