M.I.G. with ONE COW & CALF?

Most people who are trying  to live in a more agrarian organic lifestyle have heard of M.I.G. (Management Intensive Grazing) when it comes to cattle, sheep, or goats.  But, when your just starting out, can you accomplish MIG with just one or two cows?  I decided that I would find out and see how it affected my pasture and cow & calf.

I still don't understand everything behind MIG, it seems like there's a lifetimes worth of knowledge to learn about it, but the basics of it just make good sense.  The oposite to MIG is continouous grazing.  The two systems work like this:

Continuous Grazing - This is what is generally practiced by just about all cattle farmers that you will see because it's the easiest.  You just turn the cows into a pasture and let them graze.  The downside to continuous grazing (just letting them roam free) is that the cow can pick and choose what they want to eat.  The result of this is that they don't eat the weeds at all and generally skip over all of the more mature forage and just eat all of the young tender grasses.  This will eventually leave "holes" in the grass where the cow keeps the grass eaten down while allowing the weeds and other not so palatable grasses to grow uncontrolled.  Here is a picture of what I call a "hole" in your forage where the cow keeps the forage eaten down so she can just have the tender forage while the grass around it grows up.

Also, the cows will have their favorite places to shade, lay down, and go when it rains which will lead to those areas being impacted much higher than anywhere else and usually turning to dirt with no forage at all.

The alternative is:
Management Intensive Grazing - M.I.G. is where you split your pasture into small sections and keep the cows together in very tight areas moving them often to fresh grass, preferably  moving them every day.  There are many benefits to M.I.G.  that I have read about and seen work myself:
1)  Instead of the cows being able to pick and chose what they eat they will have to eat everything in their small pasture and the forage will be harvested much more evenly.  This in turn will discourage the growth of weeds and encourage the growth of good grasses and legumes.
2)  The stock should get better nutrition as they are getting a much better variety of forage.
3)  Ideally, the cows will be confined close enough so that they trample down about 40-50% of the grass so that when they are moved the forage that was trampled will mulch into the soil greatly enriching it and in turn causing it to be of better quality as well.
4)  The manure of the cows will be much more concentrated and evenly spread.  I think this is one of the greatest benefits as it fertilizes your grass wonderfully and reduces one of most farmer's greatest costs; fertilizer. 
5)  The pasture that does not have cows on it will have a chance to grow to maturity and grow to a seed head which will give you more and thicker forage as well as you will have more seeds hitting the ground.

There are a great many more things that are beneficial about MIG and many great books written on the subject.  Everything I have read however, is always in reference to a "herd" of cattle.  Well, I'm just starting out and don't have a herd of cattle or even room to have more than 2-3 cattle.  So can it still work for me with just one cow & a calf?

I decided I would give it a try and have been experimenting with MIG for about 3 weeks now.  I bought a 10 mile solar powered electric fence charger,

1/2 mile of electric fencing wire, and about 20 electric fence poles.  I have been making large rectangles with metal t-posts at the corners about 20'x300'.  I run a wire across the width of the rectangle which confines the cow and I move the wire every day so she has access to new grass.  As I am working with a milk cow I have to keep the calf away so I just put him on the other side of the wire that keeps her in a tight space.  There is no need to put a wire across the back behind where the cow has eaten as the cow isn't interested in eating what she has already eaten down.  I move the entire rectangle about once every 7-10 days as it takes the cow about that long to work her way through.

Here you can see the rectangle, and the pole in the middle of the rectangle behind the cow is where the wire that keeps her from getting to the new grass is. 

I must say, I have been very happy with the results so far.  The pasture had been staying about 6-10 inches high and there were many "holes" in the forage with the cow just running free but now with her confined in the electric fence the remainder of the pasture has all grown up to about 1&1/2-2&1/2 feet and the grass has gone to seed heads.  The grass has also gotten much thicker in a few places and the few rectangles that I have already moved her off of have started to grow back nicely.  Also, even with one cow the manure has been much more concentrated (a cow drops 50 pounds of fertilizer ;) per day).

Here are some photos of how it has been working:

Here you can see the difference of where the cow has eaten down the forage on the right, while on the left the forage has been left to grow. 

Here you can see where the cow was for about one week working her way down the 20'x'300' rectangle.  She has been moved to another rectangle on the right now.  Notice that the forage was harvested pretty evenly. 

Here you can see all the manure that was left behind after just one week.  Black gold!

The forage that has not been harvested and left to grow has really taken off in other sections of the pasture.

Here is what the forage looked like after the cow had been on it for one day.  She wasn't able to eat it all down but she did trample a small amount of it.  I think the trampling would occur much better with more cows.

Here is a section where the cow has not been on at all and it has been growing up for about 2 weeks. 

 I had wanted to do like Joel Salatin advocates and run chickens behind where the cows move off of as the chickens will go through all of the cow patties and spread them out so that the manure fertilizes much more evenly.  However, I don't have any chickens right now so I drag a cattle panel behind the four wheeler and spread out the patties.  It works pretty well but I try to make sure I do it before a rain so that the nutrients won't be baked by the sun when I spread them out.  If you've never been plowing for cow patties your missing out.

All in all, I am enjoying M.I.G. so far and I think it will be very good for our land.  I am hoping it will cut down on hay consumption this winter and will let you know how that goes.  If you are already using M.I.G. let me know how it has worked for you.  If anyone has any advice on this system I would love to hear it!

As a side note, we also got a new puppy recently.  Marshall loves him and he has affectionately named him "Buppy".  I think the name will stick.

"Buppy".  Our little Golden Retriever puppy. 

Happy stewarding!

-The Farmer

Farmer #4 Coming Soon!!!

Yes, you have read the title correctly! The Farmer and his wife (me) are expecting another wonderful little blessing, due to arrive in May! I can't tell you the thrill in my heart to be carrying such a precious gift from the Lord for a whole nine months. A gift that is depending on me to make wise healthful decisions that can and will effect this child's health for the rest of his or her life! Talk about pressure!

 My pregnancy with Marshall was an overall good experience and recovery. However looking back, there was so much more I should have been doing to be healthy and "at my best". Thank God for grace in that he allows us to learn more about all subjects we are to take dominion of, at all stages, ages, and seasons of life. Including our health and pregnancy! What we put into our bodies will affect us; whether the effect is good or bad is up to you. 

As I begin this new pregnancy journey, here is a vague list of things I will be doing to stay healthy. First is drinking my recommended eight glasses of water a day. I put this first on my list, because I have to work really hard at actually REMEMBERING to do this! Don't laugh, I truly forget I am thirsty throughout the day when I am busy on projects, cleaning, being a mommy and wife and all the hundreds of tasks that go along with my glorious job description. It helps if I drink two quarts of water when I first get up in the morning. This seems to get my mind motivated to want to drink enough water.  I also am incorporating Red Raspberry tea. If you visit bulkherbstore.com , Shoshanna has a great article on the benefits of red raspberry and other herbs during pregnancy.  You can read it here.

  Ok, now here is the tough one, *gulp*.........

Besides for an occasional treat, and I do mean occasional, there is no need to pollute my body with something that is going to give me a sugar-high then an energy crash! With the exception of condiments ( because I love me some ketchup ;) ), I am excluding desserts (unless made with honey), yummy smooth delicious coffee creamer,  those scrumptious pies, cookies and cakes my wonderful sisters in Christ brings to the church every Sunday, and to my dismay that beautiful Southern tradition...... sweet tea. You may need to keep me accountable on that last one.  I have already excluded all these things in the first five weeks of pregnancy and would you know, I have felt the BEST I have felt since before I had Marshall! Just by eliminating sugar. I haven't had a mid-day crash, but have actually had energy to burn, Praise the Lord!

  Protein is next on my list. For all you anti-fish and egg eaters like me this is yet another hurdle to jump. Lets begin with eggs, I am eating them every morning. I am learning though that there are many different ways to "disguise" the taste of the egg. Such as smoothies, quiches, veggie and cheddar cheese omelets, and if all else fails, smother scrambled eggs in salsa like me (much to the gagging of my husbands family haha). I have learned to love salmon patties! I look forward to them these days. I will also be experimenting with tuna and other types as well. I wonder if you can hide the taste of tuna in a smoothie... doubt it : /.

  Now onto something more delicious.... smoothies! I have been making green smoothies from the yogurt I make from our fresh raw cow milk. My favorite so far is a banana spice smoothie. I have been buying bananas in bulk and freezing them, already peeled and sliced to be smoothie ready. I either use organic spinach leaves or I put in  my "Five Alive" barley grass powder to make it green. I am eating lots of spinach in salads as well. I will keep you posted as try new recipes for good nutrient dense smoothies.

   Unfortunately, we can't get all the good vitamins and minerals from the food we eat today ( Lord willing we can change that through our farming practices!) . Hence I  am taking Magnesium and Calcium every day along with my SuperMom multi. And I can't stress enough the importance of B vitamins. Magnesium and B vitamins are supposed to aid in morning sickness. As I haven't dealt with that thus far in my pregnancy, I haven't "put it to the test" so to speak. Here is list of websites I have enjoyed reading through about these topics, The Weston A. Price Foundation, The Mommypotamus, and Dr. Brewer Pregnancy Diet.

  Thankfully we won't have as much to prepare for in the lines of baby items this time around. Little Marshall is going to have to get used to some changes around the house when the baby comes.  However, I do think he is going to make a most excellent big brother!

                                                                                         

                                                                                        Christ's Blessings
                                                                               ~The Farmer's Wife~

Are you really living?

What are you living for?  The more I see the "men" of our day wasting their lives on useless things the more I am condemned for the time that I have wasted.  My son and my wife are depending on my labor for their well being, for their future, and for their spiritual growth.  How selfish to waste my time on things that only please me and have no value when I should be teaching, studying, working, LIVING the life God intended for me to live.

I recently saw a father teaching his son.  It was a perfect example of the correct method of how to teach your children as you "walk by the way".  He and his son had just sat down after playing a game and he started quizzing him.  However, he was not quizzing him in the things of God, he was testing his knowledge of professional sports!  I was amazed and saddened at the vast knowledge that this little boy had of all different players and teams of these games!  Amazed because of how much a child can remember and learn at a young age and saddened because I knew how many precious moments were wasted in filling his head with these useless things when it could have been filled with the knowledge of God and a zeal for his kingdom.   When we understand what the goal is, we realize we don't have time to waste our lives on things that don't move towards that goal.

I found this video by Paul Washer on a blog I follow, http://sonsoftheremnant.blogspot.com, and it stirred me afresh to be a man of God.  As the Romonowitz brothers said on their blog, if this doesn't stir you, nothing will.

I am so thankful that God has given us a task to do, a life to live, and a WAR to fight! 

"This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;"  - 1 Timothy 1:18

Even in farming we have to ask, "Why are we doing this?"  If it is for any other reason that to advance the kingdom of God and bring glory to him then it is for the wrong reasons.

Every area of life, including farming, is to be brought under his kingship.  And our farms should be staging grounds for our children to learn how to fight this war, refreshing places to come after fighting battles, and even battle grounds for the souls men when we have unbelievers into our homes to witness to them through hospitality.

May God give us the courage to be strong and play the part of men.  May he give us the grace to lead our families and work his earth in a way that would please him and advance his kingdom!

To Christ be the glory!

--The Farmer

Coming Full Circle

Well time has flown by this summer.  It has been a very busy and blessed few months since my last post here and much has transpired and developed since then.  We have had some set backs, encouragements, discouragements, unexpected blessings, and some new determination in the weeks that have passed.

A lot of thoughts and ideas have been brewing as well....

A farmer....that's what I wanted to be....I thought.  I wanted to see my family working beside me in the fields, see my son learning to be a man doing real work, see my daughters (future tense, hopefully) becoming wonderful women of God learning how to run a household from their mother, and be the most hospitable family this side of the Mason Dixon line. :)  However, my shortsighted doubtful self has a hard time staying focused on those things sometimes.

Is being a farmer really God's plan for my life?  It will take years to get to where I want to be and I don't have enough to do anything now.  Wouldn't God want me to do something that I could accomplish now and not have to take half of my life to work towards? 

These thoughts have been running through my mind and frankly, they have kept me so preoccupied, along with discussing them with my wife, that is has kept me from writing any posts for the past few months.

We have taken several trips this summer and one of them was to the Vision Forum Reformation of Food and The Family Conference.  We had a wonderful time.  The speakers and vendors were excellent but I must admit that these thoughts were running weighing on my mind heavily at the time and it probably deterred me from making all of the conference that I could.

What is God's plan?  How do we know what he would have us do when there seem to be so many options as to what path you can take.

I have also recovered a long lost interest that I have somewhat had in the past which is videography/cinematography. 

Does God want me to make documentaries that will bring glory to Him?  Should I advance the cause of Biblical food awareness through being a producer of God glorifying food or through showing His wisdom through film?  Does he want me to be a part of on of the most fundamental reconstruction works of our time which is reforming how the people of God and the country think about food and their relationship to it and the world?

 Questions, questions.  In the midst of asking these questions I realized that there was a common factor in all of them that was really why I didn't think I could decide on any of them, that factor was discontentment.  I was not content to wait on the Lord's timing for my businesses.  In my finite mind, if I can't do it now, then God must want me to do something else; when the truth of the matter is that He is trying to teach me to trust in Him and be faithful with what I have.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."  Matthew 6:33

This verse has come to mind many times in the past few weeks and I believe it has a new hold in my life.  Whether I'm a farmer, cinematographer, or insurance adjuster (which has been my full time occupation for a while now), I have to seek to do it for the purpose of building the kingdom of God, not for myself.   It's not about doing whichever job will bring me what I want the fastest, it's about HIM.   

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."  1Corinthians 10:31

It wasn't that I didn't know these things, or that I have just discovered them; but in my hustle and bustle trying to get the right start, and figure out what I needed to do before I get any older, I think I lost sight of them and they weren't my staying power in making my decisions.  I am ever grateful to our heavenly father who brings us back to His word by His grace and forgives us (ME) in our shortcomings towards him.  

So.....this still didn't solve the problem of WHAT to do.  But it did get my attitude back to where it needed to be in making the decision. 

One thing that helped me in deciding what to do was reading Noah Sander's book Born Again Dirt
(buy the book, it's worth it). I had spoke with him about it before and his thoughts were very helpful in that he talks about not getting in the mindset of "just being a farmer" only.  Farming may be what you want to do but if you can't do it right now, then do whatever God has given you now, and farming on the side.

It was in doing what God has given me now that I realized that what I want to be IS A FARMER!  I am very thankful for the occupation that God has given me as a property insurance adjuster, but I have realized that I do not want to spend my years sitting behind a computer looking at a screen. I believe that God has put in me the desire to be a husbandman of His creation and that He would not have given me that desire if He had not wanted me to pursue it.  Does he use different occupations to mold my character to be more Christ-like before He gives me my hearts desire in an occupation?  Yes, but that doesn't mean that I do not still strive for the ultimate goal of being a Christian farmer.

And cinematography, use it to promote farming!  I have learned that in a family economy God gifts each person with different strengths and talents that they can channel to promote and help the family business.  Just because they have an interest that is "different" from what the family business is doesn't mean that they have to strike out on their own and pursue that one thing.  That may be appropriate at some time but they should use that interest to help promote the family business as long as they are a part of that family.  SO....if God gives me different interests besides farming that I want to pursue, why not use them to promote the business that I believe He has called me to. 

So in short, my family and I have a much stronger determination than ever to be Christ-honoring farmers after these few months of questioning.  I believe my wife and I have grown closer and we are getting a better plan for the future as a result.  Isn't God wonderful.  What I thought was a season of trouble and anxiety, was actually a tool he was using for growth and shaping us more after Himself.  Praise HIM!

In all of these questions and thoughts my wonderful wife has been nothing but encouraging through these past few months of me wrestling with what God's plan for our lives is and I am ever so grateful to my creator for giving me a help-meet that fits me so well.
 

So, we are back on track and headed for a farming future.  Or farm is a little downsized right now with only a milk cow, calf, and garden due to how busy my adjusting job has been, but I hope to have some posts even about these things and what we are learning with them in the near future.

 
We are having a problem with flies on Truly (the milk cow) right now and are experimenting with some garlic/vinegar sprays to keep them off.  I'll let you know how it goes, seems to be working so far.   :)


In conclusion,
It feels good to be back,

Signed,
The Farmer

Southern Summer

Things have been pretty busy around here lately with some non-farm business so I haven't been able to post anything recently.  However, I had the urge today to shoot some footage of the farm and share it with everyone today.  Everything is very relaxed right now.  Here is a 15 minute video session walking around the farm and enjoying God's creation.  Enjoy.

Update on the Farm

Our empty chicken pens. 

Well, we are now chicken-less.  We had a very successful batch of broiler chickens this year thanks to the goodness of our Lord. We had minimal loss and the cluckers turned out really big!  They averaged between 4 & 5 pounds this time.  Much larger than last time which I believe is due to ordering them much earlier in the season and them not having to deal with the heat of Alabama summer.

God was so good to us and taught us much through this batch.  The new hoop-house pens were a blessing beyond compare as we didn't have to crawl around with the chickens.  And my favorite thing about them is that you can see the chickens when you move the pen so you don't run over them.  Heh...yeah, that happened a few times last year.  So far everyone is very pleased with our product and we had a few new customers this time as well.

Something God has really been showing me this year with the chickens is that there is an interesting relationship between farmer and livestock.  We order them knowing that our purpose is to kill and eat them.  Some people would think that that is cruel and that you have a mean spirit towards animals but this could not be further from the truth.  I find that when I know that an animal is going to be used to sustain life by being part of the groceries, I have a special respect for it and want to make it's life as good as it can be.  I don't want it to have stress and difficulties as the sacrifice of it's life is for my family to survive.  There is an amazing principle in life that it takes sacrifice for life to continue.  We have to kill animals and eat them, we have to pull plants out of the ground and eat them, even in growing trees it is in pruning the trees, which is taking away from them, that they produce the most fruit to sustain us.  It took killing animals to cover the sins of Israel and it took the shedding of Christ's blood to give us life.  Without sacrifice, there is no life.  God is so good and I love the principles that he teaches us in his creation. 

Aside from the chickens now being gone, Truly (our milk cow) has almost become a top notch milker.  We had our bouts in the beginning with that leg of hers that always wanted to connect with my arm, but she has calmed down and has the routine down pat.  Granted it took a few training sesssions to accomplish this i.e. *cow kicks....I "tap" cows leg with stick*.  :)  But she is quite the milk cow now.  I can walk up to her and milk her in the pasture...while keeping an eye on her horns.  heh.

We were able to build a nice stanchion that REALLY helped too.  It only cost about $100 to build and took about a half a day working by myself.  Here are a few pictures of it.

Truly walks into the stanchion...sticks her head through the head catch to get to the feed on the other side, and we lock her head in so she can't go backwards. 

Next the right side, which is on hinges, gets swung around so she can't move side to side.

Then the chain that is attached to the right swinging side is latched to the stationary side.  This not only helps keep her from backing up...but keeps her tail pinned down so you don't get a face full of cockleburs! 

With this system we have been very successful with her.  Taking her from straight off the pasture never being touched to hand milking was a little challenging but she is worth it now.  Below is a picture of one day's worth of milk.  Those are 1/2 gallon jars and we get that everyday.  2&1/2 gallons and sometimes 3 gallons per day.  Needless to say we drink a lot of milk and have found many interesting things that you can do with it.

Our cup overfloweth with milk!  And next year we should hopefully be Biblical and overflow with milk and honey.

One thing I have noticed with having different people come over and milk with us is that most people don't have a clue how to milk a cow.  Not that that's a bad thing...it's not common practice anymore.  So I decided to make a really short video on how to milk a Bessy cow.  You'll have to forgive the quality...my cinematography is still in training.  I thought the music was appropriate.  :)

May God bless you in you farming ventures!

The Farmer

You might be a start up farm if...

As my beautiful wife pulled into the yard the other day, after going to pick up more feed for the chickens, it made me laugh as I saw our little 4 cylinder car pulling in, fenders almost touching the tires, and the back almost dragging the ground as it strained to carry the 1,500 pounds of broiler feed that was in it!



I was hoping to be able to get 20 bags of feed, 50 lbs each = 1,000 lbs, but I did not expect the feed company to be able to pack 30 bags into that car. When your starting out you don't have all the equipment that would make things easier, like a truck, so you work with what you have.

I find myself so many times forgetting our Lords command, Luke 16:10 "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."

It is very easy for me to always want the biggest and best thing that comes out. The newest electric poultry netting, the newest brix reading refractometer, a big truck to haul things in, more land, more this, more that.....after all aren't we supposed to take dominion?

It always my tendency to say, "well if I had "that" then I could really take care of things". But the fact is, if I can't be faithful with the 5-10 acres I'm on right now, then why should God give me any more land to work with? If I can't be a good steward for the chickens he has given me now...why should he let me have the equipment to handle more? If I'm not doing my best to raise my little boy to be a warrior for Him....why should he give me more children? I must be faithful in the least of things as much as I would be in the greatest of things.

I have just read a book about Stonewall Jackson in which his character and career were described and was greatly encouraged and convicted. Jackson was a man that was faithful in the least of things and God granted him the opportunity to be faithful in monumental things. In his daily life he was scheduled, punctual, orderly, regimented, disciplined, and followed the commands of God's word. It was the fact that he had already practiced all these qualities, with God's grace, that he was able to be the great military commander that he was. It was his lifetime before the war of disciplining himself that he was able to discipline other men and have the fortitude and faith to stand at the battle of First Manassas like a "Stone Wall".

Joel Salatin and his wife lived in their parents attic above the garage for 7 years when they first started farming. They were committed to excellence in what they produced and using the methods that were God honoring in their farming. Through their faithfulness in the little things, God gave them a national platform to be a spokesperson for the natural foods movement. But it started with them being faithful with little money, little infrastructure, little equipment, and a lot of faithfulness.





If we view things that we "have" as belonging to God, as we should, it doesn't matter if we have 1 cow, or 200 cows. It doesn't matter if we have 10 chickens, or raise 5,000 per year. It all belongs to GOD. It is the property of our Lord and we have been intrusted to take care of and be a husbandman for. We will have to give an account of how we have used every resource that the Lord has given us one day, and may we be found to have been faithful with little....whether or not God ever gives us much.

New life on the farm

This week on Friday the 16th our first calf, Brisket, was born!  (Brittney named him Brisket as he will one day be dinner, we didn't want to get to attached)  We had expected our milk cow, Truly, to have her calf for a few weeks now and didn't think she would wait this long but she did and God blessed us with a healthy bouncing calf. 

We have two of our sisters from Texas with us this week.  You can imagine their excitement to see a baby calf be born.  Aside from the usual "that's gross" or two they really enjoyed being here for it.  They are getting to play with little "brisket  and having a good time. 

Truly did great though the birth and I think she is going to be a very good momma cow.  We have run into a slight hiccup with milking her though.  In order for her to produce a lot of milk in the future we have to milk her utter all the way out every day from the start even when the calf can't drink it all.  If we don't she will adjust her milk production down to what the calf needs and there won't be much excess in the future when we get to drink it.  (you can't drink the milk until 7 days after the calf is born in order to get all the colostrum out)  Well, Truly was always very gentle when being fed in her head catch before she had the calf but she is not being so placid now, if you catch my drift.  We have had quite a few "kicking" episodes but she is starting to calm down.  A lot of it has to do with me not being gentle and fast enough as I am a newbie milker.   For those of you who have never milked...you will never need to work out your forearms again if you do.  Popeye....look out!  :)

The hardest thing now is getting her into the stall as she knows she will be locked in the head catch when she gets in.  I think part of it has to do with her utter being sore and swollen from just having the calf and we are hoping with a few days of milking she will calm down and realize that we aren't trying to hurt her.  So if you think of it....say a prayer that God will give Truly a heavenly Ritalin pill when she's in the head catch.  We like our arms in the non-broken position.  heh....heh. 

Little sleeping Brisket.

The more we farm....the more we love it!  God is good and we are so grateful that he has allowed us the desire of our hearts this far.  To him be the glory!

Arrival of the little cluckers

 The spring season is upon us! We just received our first batch of broiler chicks. Raising these little pecking, chirping, scratching birds is a real joy that we love to be able to do. This year we have the privilege of raising 160 broilers from chick to chow. It is amazing to see them grow. The speed with which they develop is incredible. We received them 5 days ago and they are already so much large than when they arrived.

This time I decided to go with a slightly different breed of broiler instead of the classic Cornish Cross. The Cornish Cross breed is the standard chicken house breed that most fecal contamination confinement house operations use to produce their antibiotic-ed , arsenic-ed, steroid-ed, hemorrhoid-ed (just though that one in to see if you were paying attention) factory, assembly line chicken product. Fortunately if you get rid of the confinement model this breed does pretty well on a movable pen pastured model with a daily move or with a free range model. But you still have problems with them every now and them since they were bred specifically for the chicken house model. They were developed to be lethargic, fast growing, birds that eat a lot of feed. The problem with this in the chicken house model, in which they are denied any exercise, is that if you let them grow to be two old, with the ration that they receive that has steroids and the like in it, they will not be able to walk because their body weight gain in meet will be so prolific that their bone structure can't keep up with it and they will either develop severe leg problems or die of a heart attack.

The way we combat this problem in the pastured poultry world is, first of all, to not feed the birds hunger inducing poisons such as arsenic; obviously. We give them plenty of room to exercise so they aren't just being fast growing couch potatoes that can't move around but we also have to limit their feed intake towards the end of their lives when they are gaining a lot of weight. The chickens do much, much better on the pastured model and have great lives but they are still not really developed to be foraging chickens; which is what historically normal chickens have been.

The reason that we still raise this breed of chickens is because they give the large double breast that everyone is used to seeing. The more normal chickens have much smaller more narrow breasts. As Joel Salatin says, in our day and age, people are used to seeing big chickens and they are automatically turned off by a narrow breasted bird. I mean, I myself like that big breast on a chicken because that's my favorite part to eat. So trying to sell weird looking chickens on top of already being classified as a "weird" farmer is just a little too much. Joel Salatin's saying is, "You can be a nudist, and you can be a Buddhist. But a nudist Buddhist is just too much for people".

Thankfully there is a movement now to develop a breed of chicken that is a high meat yielding bird but also has the foraging ability to be a good pastured poultry product.

The birds we ordered this year are a slightly different breed that has been developed for this purpose. They are called Heavy White Cornish Chickens. They still grow fast like the confinement house chickens do but the difference is in the first week of development. They are developed to grow slow for the first week which gives their bone structure time to develop preventing leg problems in the future. Also they have been bred so that you do not have to restrict feed intake.

So far we have been very impressed with these birds. We have had them for 5 days now and have not lost a single chick. (2-3% loss in the first few weeks is normal due to some chicks just being runts, sick from the hatchery, and such) But, we have also been much more vigilant with keeping a clean environment in our brooder this year as well, more than last year. So I'm not exactly sure if the zero loss of chickens so far is due to the improved breed, or improving the care of the chicks. Time will tell, but I have noticed that these chicks scratch around much more than the regular Cornish Cross chickens did last year. We'll keep you posted and see how this breed does.

Marshall has really enjoyed watching the chicks. Unfortunately he thinks that the way to hold a chicks is around the neck and then swinging it around while screaming, "AAAAHHH BLAAAHH YEEEEE!!!". He gets a little excited. :) He'll learn. (the chick survived the ordeal just so you know).

It is so exciting to see the natural, I believe Biblical, industry of husbandry developing in a very big way in our country. I thank the Lord that he has allowed me and my family to participate in raising his animals and meeting the needs of our friends and families as far as he has.

The Necessity of the Law

I gave a small devotion at our church meeting this Sunday and since I wrote it out I thought I would share it. We have been studying the law recently reading through Biblical Institutes Vol. 1, so it has been on my mind.

The Necessity of the law

Psalms 119:97 “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.”

Psalms 119:113 “I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.”

Psalms 119:163 “I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.”

By what standard will we govern our lives? This is, I believe, the greatest battle of our day in the Christian circles. From the passages just read we can see that David knew what would govern his life. Will we be like David and govern our lives by the Word of God and his law? Or will we govern our lives based on what man believes and says?

If we ask any Christian what their answer to those two questions we will almost always be given the first response. But in reality, when that is professed is it really being acted out in the lives of the people that say that. Are we living by every Word of God? Do we really believe that the Bible speaks to every area of life? Or is the Bible simply a set of spiritual maxims that teach us how to commune with God and be “saved” but does not deal with the whole man in how we deal with people in our lives and conduct our everyday actions, how government is run, how the church is run, and how the family should be set up and functions? I would have us consider that God’s word does speak to every area of our lives and that he has given us in his word his law that we are to obey.