Moving Day for Cows and Chickens

Moving day is always fun. The cows are excited to move into fresh pasture, and the chickens are eager to get onto the pasture and follow the cows.

The cows get their water, shade structures, and minerals moved into the fresh pasture. Chickens get their mobile coop, water and outdoor roost moved. Notice Emmett skillfully towing the mobile coop into position! As a team, we can get everyone moved in about 30 mins.

After the move is completed, our reward is to sit back and watch the animals have fun!

Intensive Rotational Grazing

We practice intensive rotational grazing where we divide up our pastures into smaller blocks (or paddocks) for our cattle to graze. We size the paddocks so that the herd moves every 2-3 days into a new paddock. Soil and pasture health are improved naturally with our controlled grazing. 

Michael makes setting up our movable cross-fencing easy and fast with his invention of a stake holder bag (my old golf bag) and colorful harness to hold the spool of wire.
 

The Many Ways We Use Our Beef

Our beef customers are coming up with great ways to prepare their beef...like making stir fry, tacos, fajitas, roasts, burgers, and steaks cooked sous vide.

We simmer the beef bones over several days to make our flavorful beef stock that we use to make gravy, sauces, and soups.

For me, I like starting with one of our well-marbled steaks and season with salt.

Right before searing and slowly cooking on the grill, I will also add some thyme. 

Haylage Season Begins!

Haylage harvest has begun! Over the next 2 months, we will be harvesting enough feed for our cattle to thrive during the winter months. For those who don't know, haylage is pickled forage. You can find out more about our haylage here.

Today was the first step...all the equipment was prepared and the grass and clover has been cut. More tomorrow... we will bale the cut forage and wrap the bales. Cutting grass under a blue sky with fluffy white clouds and a sweet scent in the air...what's not to love!

A Weeknight Meal

One of the perks of our diversified farm is that we eat really well. We are still pulling out pre-cut frozen green beans, bell peppers and zukes that Emmett and I harvested and prepped from our summer garden last year. The grass-fed beef comes from our farm of course. This is our quick weeknight dinner. 

RooRoo Recovers!

The other day RooRoo, my Barred Rock chicken, got "loved" a little too much by Rudy and was injured really badly. Thankfully, my dads knew this chicken was important to me, and my Daddy brought her to the vet. For almost a week RooRoo lived inside our house with us until she was well enough to go outside again. She's back with her flock now and is growing her feathers back at a rapid pace. The hole Rudy made in her neck is now healed, and she enjoys the company of her flock.

Thank you to our loyal egg customers for buying my eggs.