A lesson in surrender... and hand washing

We are overdue for a pig photo but pretty sure what you all need is some baby cow medicine. If you don’t happen to follow along in our stories, you missed out on the birth and death drama when our first calves ever born at the farm arrived in -11 degree weather. We won’t be making that mistake again, but also as usual most lessons in farming come down to the fact that you can’t control things like the weather, and it’s often quite difficult to control the birds and the bees. Had they been born three days later it would have been 40 degrees and sunny. We’re grateful to have two surviving heifer calves, and are expecting around ten more calves to be born in May and June (when we actually planned to have them) and hopefully the weather will be more accommodating.

Every day on the farm can be a lesson in surrender and hand washing. There are a number of zoonotic diseases—meaning transferable between animals and humans—that a farmer can get from livestock. I was once sick to my stomach for a week from something that I caught from a lamb that ultimately died. There are also dangerous viral diseases that can put your whole herd or flock in peril like BVD, OPP, and PED. I won’t go into detail but BVD often spreads undetected among cows, OPP causes pneumonia in sheep, and PED is a pig coronavirus. They are usually brought to the farm by a new animal or dirty boot from another farm. You can see the parallels. 

Farming is quick to teach you both the fragility and resiliency of life. The wolves are often actually at our door, but we trust the guard dogs will keep doing their job. And livestock farming in particular can sometimes feel like a chosen self-quarantined life. It’s difficult to ever leave when every day there are a hundred mouths to feed and water. There is surrender in that kind of community caretaking too.

These are strange times to be certain. The beauty of animals it seems is that they see things as they are—no better or worse. They don’t think themselves into extra anxiety and don’t delude themselves when danger is near. May we all surrender to the weather but face the wolves head on.

Winter is Coming

Winter is coming and I have all these photos I never got around to posting. Let’s relive the wonder of long days and green grass, while my hoses all freeze and I finish chores in the dark, continuing on in denial. 

Grazing Sequesters Carbon

The grass has been slow to grow up in northern Minnesota but the cattle are grazing and enjoying a feast of dandelions. We now have a respectable herd of 46 cattle, mostly Shorthorn and Hereford/Red Angus crosses.

I have been doing a lot of grass monitoring to determine what size paddock this many cattle need. We already know the biology in our soil is not super active as it had never been grazed before our arrival. But now that we have a real herd, we can reach more of our pastures with rotational grazing.

The more we graze, allowing the proper rest time, the more the soil biology will be stimulated to wake up and do the work of feeding the grass. The more the grass is eaten and regrows, the more it pulls carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and stores it in the soil. 

The more cattle we can get rotationally grazing the land, the more carbon is sequestered. The more YOU eat grass fed beef and lamb, the more we both fight climate change.