The farm #happychickens

Have you seen my friend Ulla's site

Check it out here 

Down on the Farm, an Endless Cycle of Waste - NYTimes

The proper handling of manure is among the most important tasks faced by a dairy operator and other farmers with large numbers of livestock.


By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: December 28, 2009


GUSTINE, Tex. — Day and night, a huge contraption prowls the grounds at Frank Volleman’s dairy in Central Texas. It has a 3,000-gallon tank, a heavy-duty vacuum pump and hoses and, underneath, adjustable blades that scrape the surface as it passes along.

In function it is something like a Zamboni, but one that has crossed over to the dark side. This is no hockey rink, and it’s not loose ice being scraped up. It’s cow manure.

Lots of cow manure. A typical lactating Holstein produces about 150 pounds of waste — by weight, about two-thirds wet feces, one-third urine — each day. Mr. Volleman has 3,000 lactating Holsteins and another 1,000 that are temporarily “dry.” Do the math: his Wildcat Dairy produces about 200 million pounds of manure every year.

Proper handling of this material is one of the most important tasks faced by a dairy operator, or by a cattle feedlot owner, hog producer or other farmer with large numbers of livestock. Manure has to be handled in an environmentally acceptable way and at an acceptable cost. In most cases, that means using it, fresh or composted, as fertilizer. “It’s a great resource, if used properly,” said Saqib Mukhtar, an associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at Texas A & M University and an expert on what is politely called manure management.

CLICK HERE FOR rest of the article

WWOOF the trailer

WWOOF: The Movie Trailer from Ashley Terry on Vimeo.

Ripe for Change - Movie Trailer

White House Garden

"Thomas Jefferson, more than any one man, changed the way we eat in this country and the way we grow food. When his ambassadors would go out all over the world, he would ask them to bring back seeds. He was the first person to start seasonal growing, and that is something people are coming back to now, and thinking about using a diversity of crops to keep growing throughout the year."

40 Farmers under 40

The following list features 40 American farmers under the age of 40, compiled with help from dozens of people in the farming industry

Truck Farm

TRUCK FARM - Episode 1 from Wicked Delicate Films on Vimeo.

Please come to the Farmer's Market - OPEINING DAY Sunday 14

Farmers' Market Opening Day
Sunday June 14th
10:00 - 2:00 rain or shine
Tannery Marketplace, Newburyport MA

• Fruits and Veggies farmed locally
• Savory and Sweet goodies to eat
• Artisanal hand made crafts

The farmer’s market is every Sunday,
June 14th – October 25th

Follow @civileats

I like these tweets.

Tour of our local farm - Tendercrop Farms

Farmer Matt spent an hour with me showing me around his farm. He was really helpful.


Healthcare prevention with the HazMat boots. I had just been in my coop and didn't want to bring any disease into his barn so we put on boots.


Each lane is a different age chick. They have plenty of room and lots of sunlight. The sides to the greenhouse even roll up and down to keep them the perfect temperature.

Making a living as a Poultry Farmer

A couple working six months per year for 50 hours per week on 20 acres can net $25,000-$30,000 per year with an investment equivalent to the price of one new medium-sized tractor. Seldom has agriculture held out such a plum. In a day when main-line farm experts predict the continued demise of the family farm, the pastured poultry opportunity shines like a beacon in the night, guiding the way to a brighter future.

Perhaps the most doable pastured-based livestock enterprise is poultry. The reasons are numerous: lowest up-front investment, quick cash turnaround, marketability, easily differentiated, child friendly, simple and portable infrastructure, and on-farm processing. In this mature Polyface model, Salatin walks you through broilers, egg layers, and turkeys. They all have distinctive needs for diet, shelter, marketing, and processing. This talk is hard core how-to, going into the intricate details from brooding to processing. This is still the centerpiece enterprise at Polyface Farm.

Apprentice at Green Gulch

My mom would like this
Green Gulch Farm, also known as Green Dragon Temple, was founded in 1972 as a branch of San Francisco Zen Center. Green Gulch is a thriving organic farm located just north of San Francisco, nestled in a valley bordered by Mount Tamalpais, the Golden Gate National Recreation area, and the Pacific Ocean. For twelve years, we have offered a residential apprenticeship program in organic gardening and farming.

An amazing farm - Polyface, Inc

I am doing a paper at school about how Factory Farms could raise their birds differently and still make money. Here is an example of a farm that is doing that. I also today went to our wonderful local farm Tendercrop and visited their bird houses, cattle barn and lettuce barn. Pastured Broilers We use 10 ft. X 12 ft. X 2 ft. high floorless, portable field shelters housing about 75 birds each to grow these 8-week meat birds. Moved daily to a fresh pasture paddock, these birds receive fresh air, exercise, sunshine, and all the genetically modified organism-free (GMO-Free) local grain they want. Integrating the cows to mow ahead of the shelters shortens the grass and encourages ingestion of tender, fresh sprouts. At Polyface, we want every animal to eat as much salad (green material) as its full genetic potential will allow.
Pastured Eggs An Eggmobile follows the cows in their rotation. The Eggmobile is a 12 ft. X 20 ft. portable henhouse and the laying hens free range from it, eating bugs and scratching through cattle droppings to sanitize the pasture just like birds in nature that always follow herbivores as biological cleansers. The Feathernet is similar, although the birds are secured inside a large electrified netting that is moved every three days to offer additional clean pasturage. Cows mow ahead of the chickens.

Everything He Wants to Do is Illegal

Interesting.

Joel Salatin raises pastured poultry and grass-fed beef at Polyface Farms in Swoope, Va.

Joel Salatin is a farmer at the forefront of the trend toward local food and grass-fed meat. Many people first became familiar with Salatin’s complex and eco-minded approach to farming when he was featured in Michael Pollan’s bestselling book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. But Salatin also is well known within pasture-based farming and libertarian circles. He’s especially vocal about government regulations that make life difficult for the small farmer — his most recent book is titled Everything I Want to Do is Illegal. He’s also the author of You Can Farm and Holy Cows and Hog Heaven (excerpted here in Mother Earth News). Salatin kindly agreed to answer some questions for us about Polyface Farms. Hold onto your hat! Here are Salatin’s candid thoughts on government regulations, high grain prices, vegetarians and making money at farming.

High Priest of the Pasture

The little dirt road is called Pure Meadows Lane, and to follow it across the slatted wooden cattle guard over the Middle River and into the 550 acres of Polyface farm in Swoope, Va., is to enter a peaceable kingdom, out of time and up-to-date. The oldest wing of the snug white clapboard farmhouse up ahead was built in 1750, and Polyface is just a newfangled name for an idea so old-fashioned as to be revolutionary. In fact, the man who owns and runs this farm may well be Virginia's most multifaceted agrarian since Thomas Jefferson. The big sign above his thrumming computer and cluttered desk reads, ''Joel Salatin: Lunatic Farmer,'' but he is crazy like a fox.

More..

Great tip from a local veteran farmer

Put a radio, turned on low so you don't bother your neighbor, near your chicken coop to scare Mr. Fox.

Victory Garden

The bean seeds I collected from last years harvest

Where have the bees gone?

I am really interested in bees. I think we need to protect and help them. Think I will start raising Happy Bees make Healthy Honey