How's the Chicken?

Last Saturday was our first CSA Share delivery where we delivered to all of our customers. Preparing each 10lb share turned out to be a little more work than we had calculated. We tried to make sure that every share included both beef and pork as well as a variety of cuts. At first we second guessed our decision to limit CSA Shares. However, now we are glad that we did. Like everything else we have experienced, the first few tries require us to overcome a learning curve. Once we get into a good groove with our CSA Shares, we will reevaluate our ability to handle more CSA Shares.

Last Saturday was also our first chicken delivery. Aside from the chickens being a little smaller than we expected, we are very happy with the quality and flavor that our chicken offers. We have already had several emails from our customers who are thrilled with the superior meat quality and flavor. The chickens we delivered on Saturday were the New Hampshire Reds (Red Ranger). We found that the chickens that reached a 4lb dressed weight had considerably more breast meat than the 3-3.5lb chickens. Our next batch of New Hampshire Reds will be raised two weeks longer in order to get all of them into this 4 lb. range. We plan to have these ready the first weekend of August. In the meantime, our next group of chickens will be the Delaware and Plymouth Rock chickens. We expect that these chickens will be true to the heritage breeds with more slender dispositions and an abundance of flavor. We will harvest these chickens in June. For July we plan to harvest another type of chicken. This chicken will be the Slow Cornish Cross. These chickens have the heavy muscling and large breasts that many are used to. The difference is that they grow much slower allowing their skeletal system and organs to keep up with their growth rate. As a precaution, we are also feeding them a lower protein feed to ensure that they stay healthy and happy. This is simply an experiment, but so far we haven’t lost a single Slow Cornish Cross chicken which leaves us very optimistic.

Turkeys have been a bit more challenging than the chickens. Again, we blame ourselves for simply lacking the experience required to raise poultry on pasture on this level of production. However, how else can we learn unless we try? This past Friday we moved our 80 young turkeys from the brooder to the pasture. The forecast called for a little rain but in Vernon it decided to snow. Sadly, we found 17 turkeys that didn’t make it through the night. Had we known it would get cold enough to snow, we never would have moved them from the brooder. Interestingly, all but two of the 17 were Bourbon Reds. The Royal Palms seem to be much more hardy and cold tolerant. This is good for us to know as Vernon is rather cold. In fact, we run the furnace in our home from September to the first of June. This only leaves about three months of warm weather. Even during these three months, we have day/night temperature differences of 40-50 degrees. This kind of weather can be hard on certain breeds of animals which is partly why this year has been so challenging. Since, nobody in Vernon or Utah for that matter, has raised large numbers of heritage poultry, we really have no record to reference. We are learning as we go. We have helped several other small farms who are getting started in Utah by sharing our experiences so that they might avoid some of the problems we have incurred. We are learning (the hard way) which breeds are better suited for our climate. We are confident that by next year we will have a much better success rate.

As mentioned above, we have already heard back from several customers that the chicken is fantastic.  However, if anybody else has had a chance to try the chicken, we would love to hear your feedback.  What do you think of our idea to raise Slow Cornish Cross?  Do you like the idea of more breast meat or oppose the use of non heritage breeds?  Remember we we want to be your farmer.  This means we need to know what kind of food you want.  We look forward to hearing your ideas!

Chickens on Pasture

We finally got the chickens out on pasture, which turned out to be a lot more work than we thought.  They were getting a little crowded in the brooder.  First I grabbed a box and placed a few chicks inside it.  They immediately hopped out and started running around the shop.  After a few minutes of chasing, I was able to gather them back up.  I put them back in the brooder and began searching for another way to move them from the brooder to their fenced pasture area.  Soon I found some larger boxes with lids.  I began to place 2 chicks at at time in the box and then quickly pulled the lid back over the box.  This also meant that I had to uncover the box with my hands full of chickens squaking and fluttering about.  I was able to comfortably fit 50 chicks in each box.  By now each chick weighs close to 1 lb. which as I began to pick up the box, realized, adds up rather quickly.  I am not a wimp, 50 lbs is no big deal, but the box was large and akward.  The bottom of the box began to sag under the weight of the chicks.  As the chicks felt the motion of the box being lifted, they started scrambling inside the box which constantly shifted the weight.  I felt like a cartoon character running back and forth trying to balance this large box as the weight shifted from side to side.  I realized that I wasn't going to be able to walk the box out to the pasture without the likely chance of dropping the box and possibly hurting the chicks.

Immediately, I was able to justify yet another use for my new toy.  New is relative as this "toy" is actually 40 years old.  In anticipation of buying our bigger farm, I was checking out the classifieds for farm equipment.  I came across a 1970 International Harvester 656 tractor with a front loader.  The price was right and Hollie and I decided it would be a wise investment given the amount of work required to set up the new farm.  

My two boxes fit just perfectly inside the bucket of the tractor and allowed me to easily place the boxes over the fence of the chicken pasture.  We let the chickens out and after a few minutes of nervously looking around, the chickens began to relax and check out their new home.  I built a plywood box that they can access for shelter.  Their pasture is enclosed by a 4' tall electric net fence.  The fence is more for keeping predators out than keeping chickens in.  Because chickens are covered in feathers, they are insulated from the electric shock of the fence.  Predators that we have in the area include, foxes, racoons, skunks, bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, badgers, stray dogs and cats, and hawks/eagles/owls.  All of these animals are in abundance because of our remote location.  With the exception of the birds of prey, all of these animals will first try and find a way through the fence rather than dig under the fence.  During this process, they will touch the fence and receive a shock that has almost brought me to my knees at times. (The boys and Hollie find witnessing this hillarious.)  This shock will send any wild animal scrambling and they won't even think twice about trying to dig under.  Hopefully, we won't loose any chickens to the birds of prey as there is really no protection from them.  We may get a livestock guardian dog (LGD) to help us out if we start having problems.

With two trips of the tractor, I was able to get all 207 chickens out on pasture.  Later that evening, it starting getting cold and windy.  I went out to check on the chicks and about 80 of them hadn't been able to find the shelter.  They had all huddled together and were actually spreading their wings to help cover each other.  I was very impressed by this.  I scooped them up and moved them into the shelter with the other chicks.  The next day we woke up to 3" of snow.  I jumped out of bed and went to check out the chicks.     

They were all peeking out of the shelter trying to figure out if they liked this snow or not.  I reached my hand inside the shelter and found it surprisingly warm.  The feeders and waterers were covered in snow which is not good for actively growing birds.  I grabbed the shovel and grumbled to myself as I was shoveling snow for the spoiled chickens.  I then sprinkled a little feed on the ground which gave the chicks the courage to step out of the shelter.  I moved the feeders very close to the shelter and they soon started eating.  After a few minutes, I was able to scoot the feeders back which gave room for more chickens to come out.  Soon they were all out eating, drinking, scratching the ground and discovering the wonderful taste of fresh spring grass.

They are very entertaining almost hypnotizing to watch.  They are now 5 weeks old and thriving.  Contrast this to the commercial breed known as the Cornish Cross which are already reaching a harvest size (3-4 lbs) at this age.  Many of them are barely hanging on to life as they sit planted in front of a feeder and growing too heavy to walk on their own legs and on the verge of a heart attack.  It brings me great joy knowing that we are providing a healthy and happy environment for our chickens.  It is even neater that our customers are supporting this way of farming as this flock and the next two flocks of chickens are already all presold.  Remember, we vote for how our food is raised with our wallets.  The support we have received has us excited to continue raising premium meat, raised on pasture, treated humanely, and raised naturally.     

Busy Preparing for Winter

Will life ever slow down? Hollie and I ask ourselves this nearly every day. It seems like every time we get close to catching up on our projects a new one pops up that costs both time and money. Here is one of those extra projects we had last week.

We bought 12 tons of premium dairy grade alfalfa that is a staple ingredient of our All Natural, Humanely Treated, Pasture Raised Berkshire pigs’ diet. We purchased the alfalfa from our neighbor Scott or “Scooter” as us locals call him. Even though I learned how to judge alfalfa in college, I am sure that anybody could take one look at this alfalfa and recognize quality when they see it. Scooter, does many things well but he excels at putting up quality hay. Because he was so busy selling his hay this year, I arranged for another neighbor, Marlin or Vern as us locals call him to pick the bales up out of the field with his bale wagon. (Are you noticing a pattern here with nicknames? I don’t dare ask what they call me : ) ) A bale wagon is a nifty piece of equipment that picks up and stacks the hay 9 or 10 bales high. When Vern came to drop off the hay, I was prepared with a 16’ long steel section of pallet shelving to serve as a brace as his bale wagon slowly scooted the hay stack from the wagon to the ground. As I was bracing the hay, the 12’ high stack started to swagger and I dove out of the way as 4 tons of alfalfa came crashing down. Unfortunately, the next two loads didn’t go any better and when we were all done, I had a huge unstable mess with rain in the forecast. I quickly realized that I wouldn’t be able to restack this hay by myself before the rain came. So I called the biggest kid in town Melvin or Big Mel, and offered him a higher wage than he normally charges to come help me stack hay. Then I called Vern and asked him to come over with his tractor so that we could stack bales in the loader and lift them as we stacked higher and higher. For the next two nights we met after Vern and I got home from work and Melvin got home from baseball practice. My brother in law Stan and good friend and neighbor Rich were kind enough to stop by and help stack as well. We finally got the hay stacked and covered. When I woke up the next morning, it had rained all night and fortunately, the hay was dry.

Extra projects like our hay experience can quickly eat into our time and profits. We closely track our farm budget to help make sure we are staying profitable. However, when we forecast our budget it is difficult to anticipate these unforeseen expenses.

Once the hay was stacked, I was able to finish my watering station. This is my own invention consisting of a pressurized pipe with watering nipples lined with a heat cable and then heavily insulated. We will see if it keeps us from chopping ice all winter. Part of this project was pouring a concrete pad all around the watering station to prevent a mud hole. I decided to mix and pour my own concrete which ended up using 38 bags. It honestly was a little easier than I anticipated and I have some other projects I will attempt next spring using concrete. In order to power the heating cable, I needed to run electricity out to our pasture. So I bought lots of wire, conduit, fittings, and outlets and went to work. I decided to run the conduit on top of the ground along the fence lines. In this case the cost of the extra wire and conduit around the perimeter was cheaper and faster than trenching a line across the field. While I was at it, I ran a line up to the chicken coop so that we can heat the chicken waterer and provide extra light so we can have a few eggs through the winter. Once you have eaten fresh eggs, you just can’t go back to store bought eggs regardless of the bogus labels they put on their eggs.

In between these projects, we also decided to till up an acre and replant it with new pasture. It is coming up nicely and hopefully by spring it will really take off. Prior to tilling our field, I dug up and moved some fruit trees that we had planted a few years ago. They just haven’t done so well. When I dug them up, I saw why. The gophers have been eating the roots. On some trees the trunk was just a sharpened stick in the ground. So now it is World War III at our place. With the field plowed, it is easy to identify the new mounds that they dig. I have been digging their mounds until I find their tunnels and then set traps in the tunnels. With just one acre, I have already trapped 18 gophers; including one great big gopher that dug a huge mound right in the middle of our new lawn. It would be much easier and quicker to poison the gophers but we are committed to keeping our land free of chemicals and such. Besides, with chickens and pigs roaming the pasture, we don’t want to ever risk poisoning our animals and food.

As you can see, we have been busy, but we love (almost) every minute of it. : ) I hope we have made all the necessary preparations for winter.