Can you believe this weather? It's the best we could hope for, and we have seriously seized the opportunity. We spent the week preparing the ground, forming beds, laying plastic, and getting as many things in the ground as we could.

Im putting a strong focus on perfecting our herb production this year. Some herbs take a considerable amount of time to provide a harvest, particularly the perennial herbs: rosemary, thyme, and sage. I couldn't source organic rosemary seed this year, so I ordered organic plugs several months ago (the process takes 15 weeks). Plugs are cuttings that have been taken from a larger plant, and rooted in nursery flats.

Sage (above), and thyme (below), were started from seed about 20 weeks ago, in the dead of winter. We are planning to plant around 250 of each of these 3 varieties.

This week I also started rotational grazing. Before we moved onto the farm it was managed on an open pasture system, which is where cattle are given a large swath of land to graze. It may sound idyllic for the cow, but a cow was never designed to live in one place. Cows are migratory creatures, and have a natural tendency to want to move away from where they have been. This keeps distance between stalking predators, keeps them healthy by keeping them away from their manure, prevents a build up of waste products in a small area (which changes soil biology and balance), and prevents soil erosion and pasture degradation.

MIRG (managed intensive rotational grazing) is designed to mimick this migratory behavior. Using a solar powered fence energizer, I can section off their large pasture into smaller paddocks, which I will frequently move them from.

The fence works by sending a positive charge down the wire fence from the energizer, which is then connected to a set of grounding rods (above). Like it is, it is an incomplete circuit. When an animal touches the hot wire (the fence), it completes the circuit, by connecting wire to earth, and delivers a small shock. Don't worry! I've now been shocked 4 times by the fence, and it's not as bad as it seems. It's scary, but not painful...in fact, it's a lot like when we were kids and would dare each other to stick our tongues to 9 volt batteries!

The idea of MIRG is to help the animals manage their pasture more effectively, and that involves a lot of math and plant biology. To make the process a little easier, I decided to create a spreadsheet that would auto calculate everything for me. I plug in the variables (yellow fields), and the formulas perform all of the calculations (green fields). This lets me play with the numbers without much effort, so that I can quickly see how a small change will effect the bigger picture.

I can then take those calculations and head to google earth. Using the gps coordinates of our fields, I am able to map out the required paddocks, which can get quite challenging. Trying to make sure that there is adequate shade and water in each and every paddock requires an abstract look at the fields. Your natural tendency to want to follow hills, valleys, treelines, and roadways makes this part just a bit aggravating.

​Nevertheless, all of this extra work will not only help our land and our animals, but it will also solve a $40,000 problem. By grazing the animals in a single pasture for so many years, the soil nutrients are way out of whack, and $40,000 is what the fertilizer bill would have come to to correct things. What they don't tell you is that if you don't change your management style, you'll have to shell out that exorbitant amount of cash every few years to keep "fixing things". Sounds like a clever ruse, to me 🤔. No thanks, Mr. Fertlizer Salesman...you'll not fool us. I'll take the extra work!

See you next week.

Anytime I think we may get a few minutes to get off the farm , I am quickly reminded otherwise. We had planned to take the Easter weekend to spend time catching up with family, and getting chores around the house taken care of. However, on Friday, a little calf decided she had some better plans. She decided to try to cross the creek in a muddy spot, and got all four of her legs stuck. We were re-seeding the pasture that night, so we spotted her fairly quickly. It just wasn't fast enough. It was hot that day, and the sun wasted no time taking its toll on her. She was pretty dehydrated when we found her, and she had completely exhausted herself trying to wriggle loose from the mud. Even after we freed her, she still couldn't stand or walk. She could hardly even lift her head. It's common for a cows legs to go numb if she hasn't moved in a while. It can actually be very dangerous, especially for larger cows, who can stumble, fall, and break something. Or worse yet, the numbness never goes away, and they can never stand again. That's why it is very important to get them up fast. We gave the vet a call, decided on a game plan, and went to work. We gave her an NSAID to reduce the inflammation and relieve any pain, and to encourage her to stand, as it causes them to just overall feel better. It had also been a while since she had eaten, and she was dehydrated from the sun, so we also gave her concentrated electrolytes.

You can see at the end of the video that she can't even upright herself. She is so tired that she struggles to even keep her head off the ground. We got 1 pint of electrolytes in her, and we had to leave for the first of the Easter celebrations. When we returned she seemed to be doing even worse, not even able to lift her head to suck her bottle. Luckily, with a little help, she was able to nurse another pint. In this video you can see that I have to actually open her mouth and insert the nipple for her to suck. I use my left hand to hold her head up, and to feel her throat with my fingers. It is easy for a sick calf to get choked on liquids when they are ill, so I use my fingers to feel if/when she begins to have trouble swallowing, and give her breaks as needed. Her mother also required some convincing that I wasn't up to no good! After a quick taste test, she gives her approval for me to take care of her baby.

When we went back to check on her the following day, she had improved greatly, and was attempting to stand. We stood her up, and helped her to get her balance. We hoped she would go to her mother to nurse, so we headed back to the truck to wait out the rainstorm. After a few minutes, she stumbled and fell right on her face. We stood her back up, and made our retreat once more. After several long minutes, she wobbled towards her mother, and was able to nurse. What a glorious sight to see.

We backed away slowly, being careful not to disturb them. The calf was shaking from her attempts at standing...but she was still upright. We left them for the night. This morning I caught them in their same spot, down by the creek. The calf was standing, but not moving. As I got closer to her, she started to walk after her mother. It was obvious she was feeling much better, and for the first time I thought she was in the clear.

650 lbs of seed potatoes also arrived last week. Seed potatoes are generally graded under a wide range of sizes, so they often require cutting before planting. We generally try to keep 2-3 eyes per seed piece, which makes some of the cuts rather tricky.

After we have finished, they go into a warm area with lots of bright light. This allows the cut side to dry out and heal over, protecting the seed piece from disease and rot after it is planted. The bright light causes the eyes to begin to grow, giving us a little head start...this process is called "chitting". Here they are after a few days, nearly ready to be planted.

In other news, the strawberries we recently planted are doing awesome. The red plastic seems to really make a difference.

We also managed to get our early tomatoes and cabbage transplanted.

The berry bushes I wrote about last week are also leafing out, and doing great.

Remember the hardening process I talked about last week? I told you the process was done to prevent sunburn. Here is a photo of a table that we tried to harden off too fast, and did the one thing we were trying to prevent. Luckily it was a mild burn, and did relatively little damage to the plants. If anything, it just added a couple of days to the hardening process.

You have to love the busy season. It will be over before we know it, and we will be left wishing for its return. I hope you all get to enjoy this beautiful weather while it is here.
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Until next week,
Robert

This week has been a whirlwind. Raspberry and blackberry bushes needed planting, tomatoes needed hardening, and our cattle needed moved from their winter pasture (but first they would need sorted).

Last week I talked about planting the strawberries for the berry patch addition. The berry patch will not only contain strawberries, but it also has Yellow Raspberries, Red Raspberries, and Blackberries. These ship to us as freshly dug 1-2 year old plants, and are highly perishable. They also have to be hand planted due to the size and nature of their roots. All in all, we planted 450 raspberry and blackberry bushes. They may produce a small crop this year, but we expect it to be next year before we get a decent harvest.

This week we have been happy to have the help of Tara, who is taking part in the WWOOF program. WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities On Organic Farms) aims to connect people interested in farming with actual farmers. It is a worldwide based educational program that is rich with culture. Tara is originally from Guam, so we have been able to enjoy some pretty awesome Chamorro treats, like kadu (chicken stew with coconut milk), and latiya (a delicious cake/custard desert). We'll be sad to see her go at the end of the week!

We also managed to start hardening our tomatoes this week. Hardening is a process of slowly introducing plants to the harsh outside environment that they will be grown in. Up until now they have been in a warm and comfy nursery...temperatures carefully maintained at exactly 70-80 degrees, bright lights for exactly 16 hours/day, and a watering schedule designed to keep them disease free and healthy. Now they must acclimate themselves to the reality of growing outside: spring storms, fluctuating temperatures, and varying degrees of light and water. If we were to pluck them straight from the nursery and put them in the field, most would die and the rest would languish. So, we introduce them to their new environment slowly, over a period of 5 days. Each day they spend longer and longer outside, until they are finally "hardened", and ready to be planted in the field.

Lots of other things happened as well: we discovered beetles in our beehive which will need trapping, the storm blew the plastic off of several raised beds and will need to be repaired, and we had our first meeting with the Organic Association of Kentucky to begin navigating the waters of USDA Organic certification.

Until next week,
​Robert

Berries and onions...that's been the focus on the farm this week. Strawberries are only productive for 3-4 years before they need to be removed and replaced, and ours turned 4 this spring. When we initially started our berry patch, we planted 500 strawberries. As we've grown over the years, they've become a favorite amongst our CSA members and restaurants in town. To keep up with demand we decided to plant around 1 acre of berries: 6,000 strawberries, 200 red raspberries, 100 yellow raspberries, and 100 blackberries. We've learned several things over the past 3 years of growing strawberries, and thus made several changes to our berry production method. The biggest change is the use of a red plastic film over our beds. This will keep the strawberries off of the soil, and thus improves food safety, confuses birds by camouflaging the ripe berry, and reflects specific light waves (IR), which produces a larger berry and overall greater yield.

We also selected several different varieties so that we can have and extend harvest season. An ever bearing type was added...this should give give us strawberries at other times of the year than just early summer.

We finished up the onions just before the big storm hit. This year it will take 15,000 onions to keep our CSA members happy. We managed to get them all planted in 2 days, an amount of time that I am quite happy with considering they all had to be hand transplanted.

Onions went into metallized mulch. Research has shown that silver mulch reduces the incidence of center rot, which claims about 20% of our onion crop each year. Center rot is a difficult disease to manage because there are no signs of infection until the onion has matured, has been harvested, and then cured. Only then does it show you evidence of infection. Last year the number of cull onions seemed to increase, and consequently, we didn't have as many onions for our CSA members as we wanted to have. So, this year we are trialling the metallized mulch, as well as just planting 20% more onions than what we actually need. Who knows, maybe this will be the year for an onion bumper crop 😊.

Until next week,
Robert