Dear Michelle, The way you are re-thinking your farm operation is beautiful. Here's a couple of thoughts. Can you buy yearling cattle that have been raised without all the wormers and hormone implants? Or can you raise two year olds for slaughter if you have a cow/calf operation where you don't have to do all the conventional vaccinations, de-horning, castration, drugs, wormers and hormones? I know of one beef raiser in Tennessee who subscribes his beef on the hoof by the side or quarter so it is owned by the people who will take it home for their freezer before it is slaughtered. Though he takes it to his local slaughter house where it is cut and wrapped according to the owners' preferences, he doesn't have to jump through all the hoops of USDA law for him to sell it as beef because he has sold it as a live animal, and the new owners have their receipts before it goes on the truck. And it is sold for a premium price as well. (I think he's getting the equivalent of something like $3 or $3.50 per pound, cut and wrapped, and the buyers get everything from hamburger and soup bones to steaks and roasts. If they want chuck roasts and rib steaks, they buy a front quarter, and if they want T-bones and rump roasts they buy a hind quarter. And best of all, the livers are wonderful tasting and safe to eat.) I know Joel Salatin sells beef direct from the freezer, and I'm not sure what his legal situation is on that. I deal out beef to my CSA folks and could handle about 500 pounds a month if I only had that much. I'm working on it, because I can take an animal that I would get $500 for at the auction and get more like $1,600 to $1,700. And there is a wonderful flavor and quality to it. I'd be interested in knowing what biodynamic growers like Ken Soda in Wisconsin and Fred Kirschenman in North Dakota do with their beef. They are good growers with large farms with a mixture of grain and cattle. Surely they are getting a premium on their beef, and they also tend to get a premium on their grain crops.
Best, Hugh > >Hi Hugh- > >Just a couple comments from your earlier reply. We know that sand is a >difficult soil to work with and very easy to destroy. We've done that. But >it also seems to be soil that really responds fast with some better >treatment. As far as production on this soil it has really responded and we >do feel that the production is better quality-excellent test weights, good >storability, etc, and yes it is frustrating that the market does not care. >That has led us back to bringing cattle on the farm. We intend to learn to >put as much standing feed through our animals as we can. That includes >planting oats as a green manure crop early in March and grazing before corn >planting in May, grazing on cover crops planted behind wheat harvest, >grazing some standing corn etc, etc. This system looks like it combines >many good things. It can utilize green manure crops for both weed control >and soil improvement as well as providing feed for cattle while they in turn >are providing manure for the soils. And we are tending to view this place >as a feed farm instead of a cash grain operation. Our conventional system >in place of growing the grain, harvesting it, hauling to bins, storing, >putting back into a truck, hauling to cattle feedlots, putting in their bin, >putting into feed truck and feeding it, going in and scraping up the poor >quality feedlot manure and adding more energy to compost it (in the rare few >feedlots that try and do something with their manure) then putting it back >into a truck and taking back to the farm to put into a spreader to put back >on the field is totally insane. We are slow learners in this process of >changing our thinking but it has become glaringly obvious that the cattle >are a necessarey tool and hopefully if done right a profit center here. I >know big money has a hold on the cattle market as well, but the numbers we >run show us it can have potential if pursued carefully and is a huge asset >in the soil builing process. We plant no GMO varieties, and have focused on >running age pregnant cows that were very thin and destined for the hamburger >market. Easy to do this year due to the drought-many folks were culling >cows that would never been culled because they had no feed. These girls >have lots of "experience" in calving and have come here onto our scrap feed >(cornstalks, triticale in wheat stubble, alfalfa fields after freeze, etc) >and look terrific. And they have left us the blessing of much manure. So >we can't just focus on what the market does or doesn't offer. There is >always always opportunity. > As far as the rainmaking part, we are very intrigued. We have talked >very seriously about getting it worked out to have you come out. Our area >is very very dry. It is drier now than in the 30's dustbowl. Just wanted >you to know we are thinking of it. We are off to visit Lloyd Charles in >Australia (how exciting!) and will be gone for alot of December. Just >wanted you to know we are considering ways to have you out. > >Thanks for your thoughts. >Michelle Wendell Visit our website at: www.unionag.org
