Hello Dear Friends!
I so wish you could experience this amazing place! Life is so simple and
unpretentious here and yet God's creatures and the web of life He created is so complex and intriguing that I don't think we will ever really understand it all. A new day brings another glorious sunrise no less worthy of photographing than the previous one. I am endlessly entertained and challenged!
Since my last post a lot has happened. We have finished calving and have about 100 new calves that are healthy and kickin' up their heels!
My days have been very busy from keeping up with our free choice mineral system, to setting up temporary fences, to clearing miles of fence line of briars trees, and vines (yes, I got poison ivy!),
to "working" cows (we herd them up to the stockyard for things like sorting, weighing, vet checks, & loading them for market), to witnessing a cow giving birth out on the pasture, to fixing and cleaning water stations, to dealing with a flat tire out in the field, to helping switch out tractor implements, to making hundreds of hamburger patties for local events, to helping to split wood for winter warmth, to making runs to the processor, to help with hosting events and giving tours, to attending events and the recent CFSA conference in Durham, NC, to finding and joining a new church, to meeting tons of new, really great people... it's been a busy month... and I'm sure I'm leaving out quite a bit!
Usually, my day starts pretty early and sometimes before dawn. We gather at the shop and coordinate the day's tasks. Doc breeds in December so that all the calves are born the following fall in order to maximize grazing and minimize the impact of pest pressure
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| Calf kisses! Both calf & pup brave differences! |
on growing calves. With about 200 calves & mommas and our growing stock (over a year old) of about 80 steers and heifers I'm getting great experience with these amazing animals. The calves are so adorable and very curious. I could spend hours out in the pasture just watching them interact. They play in the pasture together like a bunch of children at the park with their mammas grazing contentedly nearby.
We use temporary fences for the day's grazing and let the cattle into a fresh piece of pasture everyday. When you are putting at least 100,000 pounds of animals per acre it is known as mob grazing, a term coined by Greg Judy and Ian Mitchell-Innes. There are so many benefits to grazing this way that I've dedicated my career path to this method! Because of adding a large number of cattle to the farm over the summer and not managing the pastures for this change, we don't have enough stock-pile (reserved grass) for this winter's grazing so we have been un-rolling hay for them every day. For the Spring, we will re-assess market needs, pasture condition (there are 40 pastures each with it's own plant diversity, geographical and other challenges, and varying states of vigor), and the animals we have in order to develop a grazing plan that will avoid having to feed hay again next winter. This is one of the main goals of mob-grazing and what I hope to be eventually good at!
I'm slowly learning my way around and getting my bearings. There is a niche of people here, like in Columbia, who are strong supporters of local businesses, environmental issues, and healthy, locally grown produce, meats, and eggs, so I'm fitting right in!
Most recently I was given the opportunity to attend the CFSA conference in Durham, NC (thank you Doc) where top sustainable agriculture experts sought to impart their vast experience on eager audiences... and I'm not just trying to be eloquent here... there was a tremendous amount of experience and wisdom shared... it really was an excellent conference! In one class, I was reminded that Adam
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| Ray Archuleta "The Soil Guy" |
means soil/earth and God created mankind from the soil. Really, all of our nutrition ultimately comes from the soil or the earth. God's charge to Adam was to cultivate and keep the land (Ge 2:15) and to take care of God's creation. I see that as a very important part of the job He has called me to do. And, as it turns out, soil itself is alive, teeming with micro-organisms that breakdown rocks, minerals, dead leaves and animals, to create nutrient rich soil for plants to grow and feed other creatures. So, soil health is EVERYTHING on this earth and EVERYTHING we humans do to try to control it (pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, fertilizers, tilling) only prevents the soil from performing it's vital role of ultimately keeping us healthy!
