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Kevin Cunningham
ParticipantI quickly learned not to train before feeding. As suggested it is best if they have their needs met before you try to do a session. That said I often mix it up and try to be routinely different. Most animals like routine but can also get trapped in the routine, this can be a problem if you need to do some thing out of order for some varied reason. Here is our current routine: We move fence for the cattle in the am(they get moved everyday). Then once everybody is settle in I get the boys out on halters individually (I think this is good training for driving single. We do a few turns and stops, and then they get to go to the primo pasture in another small moveable paddock for the day. I will bring water out mid day and sometimes yoke them sometimes not. In the evening I brush thouroughly and yoke the boys for chores. They haul a bale of hay out to other animals, then we do some other training; walk to the river, or the road, drive from behind, haul some rocks, or just starts and stops. They spend the night out with the sheep and cattle and get some extra brushing in the evening. That is what we are doing right now, but it will probably change soon as it always does.
ParticipantIndeed, we never really had winter this year, at least not yet, and I haven’t really stopped to get my winter rest. It has allowed us to complete some much needed building projects though. Great to see all the photos.
ParticipantImpressive old boy! What breed/ cross is he? He looks a little ayrshire but I’m not certain.
ParticipantWhat size/type of plow do you prefer for your oxen? I am a long way off from plowing with my boys but I might as well keep my eyes open in case I find a good working piece. I have been looking into small walk behind plows recently, but I also see a lot of sulky style plows in use. I would assume it is so that you can drive from the front and not have another person behind. Is there another advantage in using a sulky with oxen?
ParticipantGreat use of the team! It is neat to see all the ways they can come in handy. Every body always asks if I am going to plow with my boys, maybe, but even if I don’t they’ll still pull there weight (and more) around the farm.
February 5, 2012 at 10:49 pm in reply to: Look who the keynote speaker is for Oregon small farmer’s conference. #71584ParticipantYes, I have heard of the group doing the grain CSA up there in BC. Through the site you posted I found another project that I had not heard about, http://www.islandgrains.com/. They seem to have just started a grain CSA on Vancouver island. Grain does seem to be a hot topic on the local food scene. So far not too many people have adopted a paleo diet and still eat grain on a daily basis. Unfortunaly most of us have to ressurect old AC’s and JD’s to do the harvest, and I know there is a place in Oregon that does “Horsepower Flour” I can get it at the Grange Coop in Central Point. I think the main thing we need to remember is to base the price of local grain on what it costs to produce. I can not compete with the big growers who get excited about 10 cents a pound. Even the bulk bin price at the natural foods store is not a good base for price. We keep track of the expenses and charge what it takes for us to make money on it. Like I said most of our grain is sold between 3-5 dollars a pound.
ParticipantI do have hopes of building a nice wooden ox cart. I might even want to go the route of the Costa Rican ox cart school and paint it bright and gaudy colors, but probably not. I think it would be nice to have something with nice wooden wheels and real showy for taking to parades and at the pumpkin patch, and something more utility with tires for work around the farm. I will probably start with the utility one first as I’ll probably use it sooner. Oh and my calves are jersey X holsteins.
February 5, 2012 at 4:17 am in reply to: Look who the keynote speaker is for Oregon small farmer’s conference. #71583ParticipantI am new to draft and I am training my first set of steers right now. I have never farmed with animals but I aspire to someday soon. I do have an Allis Chalmers All Crop 66B. The model I have is PTO driven but I know that AC made ones with a motor on board. I also think that most of the John Deere 12A combines, which are really similar to an All Crop have motors, these could easily be pulled with draft. They are not heavy machines, I can muscle mine around in the barn, they just need a slow steady pace.
I must say that the key to our success with a grain CSA is the community support we have in our area. I feel lucky to have such a willing base of customers that are ready to cook new foods, and pay a higher price for good food. Just for a reference most of our grain is sold for around $4.50/pound. Of course this is seed quality grain and I have paid higher prices for quality seed. Since we save all our own seed all of our grain is seed quality, which of course means more labor.
This hair brained idea of mine is still going after 5 years so I think it might actually work out. Still yet to be proven though.
ParticipantI do like the look of head yokes. I must say I am envious of the “bling”
February 4, 2012 at 5:28 am in reply to: Look who the keynote speaker is for Oregon small farmer’s conference. #71582ParticipantThank you for clarifying your positions and I think you make some real important points. I must say that any type of media can make something look like it is not. Heck even the pictures of our farm that go onto our website seem to misrepresent the reality of a working farm. I never post pictures of half completed projects or the ever present junk pile on the website.
I remember the first year I planted some grain on leased land in our area. I had goals of running a grain csa and had even aquired a small combine and had used it once the year prior. Well, the local newspaper got a hold of it and all the sudden I was celebrity. No one had planted any grain in our maritime climate for many, many years. In fact it must have been in the reaper binder days since there were literaly no combines in our county untill a couple of years ago. And in some ways it make sense, this is not an easy place to grow grain. So even before I made my first real harvest I was the local expert on grain production and I was being contacted by every baker, brewer, and resturaunt in our area wanting to have local grain. They even published my personal cell phone number in the paper. At 8 am on the day the paper came out I had seven messages on my phone of people who wanted into the grain csa. I was very grateful for the free advertising and I was able to fill up my csa that first year, but I had many failures and my grain csa that first year consisted on oats, and barley. Even I got tired of eating oats and barley. We still have some shareholders who have been with us since that first year, but it certainly wasn’t the picture that the media had portrayed.
This will be our fifth season of the grain csa and our last distribution had wheat flour, rye flour, whole barley, cracked oats, cornmeal, and buckwheat flour. Not too shabby considering I am the only grain producer in the area and I only grow 10 acres a year.
I guess I point this out to say that I understand that media portrayals can be misleading of the reality that we may secretly or not so secretly be wanting. In some ways the media is what our collective subconcious wants but it may not be the reality. We will be going to see Kristen speak later this month in Oregon. I cannot pass up the oppurtunity to go to a farm conference that is not a million miles away and costs an arm and a leg. And I can assure you that that there will be a list of some really pressing questions to be asked. I don’t just want to congratulate a farmer for starting a farm I want to share some of the realities that we all share to make it on the farm.
ParticipantI do not know if you have AG Credit type institutions out there but that is how we purchased our farm. It was a little different from a regular mortgage because I had to write a business plan to prove I could make money farming the land. This was the only way for us to get into “raw” land. Our place even had a house but because it was not permitted it didn’t count. I have been really happy with AG Credit here is California. Our interest is low and the people I worked with understood that I wanted to farm and not develop. I certainly did a serious crash course in financing when it came time to buy this place because nobody ever teaches you how to jump through all those hoops. Good Luck!
January 18, 2012 at 5:47 pm in reply to: Look who the keynote speaker is for Oregon small farmer’s conference. #71581ParticipantWe are planning on going to the conference this year. Kristen Kimball’s book has been very inspirational for both Melanie and I, when we read it it sounded a lot like our own experience. Our model could be very similar to theirs, but we have separate vegetable, and grain CSAs, plus meat products and some value added goods. I am very intrigued by the idea of combining them into one whole diet CSA. I am also very curious as to what was not very impressive about their farm.
ParticipantWell here is a picture from my area. It is in a museum in Fortuna, the closest town to our farm. I count seven teams of oxen. The log is smaller but I am sure there were more teams around. By the way I have seen mostly oxen in photos of logging the big’uns.
ParticipantHere is a picture with the boys in the new yoke. It fits so much better than the old one and there is still a bit of room to grow into it.
ParticipantMy old boss, a carpenter, has a steam box at his place. I know he has done a lot of bending for furniture, but I never got to learn from him. Luckily he still does electrical work for me so I am going to ask him about it next time he’s out here. Once again I am going to have to find some appropriate wood species on the west coast for bending bows. Any suggestions?
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