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Kevin Cunningham
ParticipantWe sell our chickens from standard igloo coolers from Costco. I know of other farmers that get super expensive coolers, like the Yeti, and maybe some day we’ll have the cash for that. But ours work relatively well. The frozen solid whole chickens keep great without ice but the cryo’d (I thought I’d give that one a try) cuts tend to thaw. Our signs displays the parts and we get the chicken. I agree that this is best rather than who knows what getting into the coolers. I also like the laminated picture idea and a local beef rancher here uses that way to sell her beef. It works well for her. Perhaps the best thing is informed customers. The ones who walk up and ask for exactly what they want, and they know all the different parts and how to cook them. Can you imagine how easy it would be if everybody was like that!
ParticipantI have seen other potato plows with the fingers and it makes a lot of sense. I guess it would be simple enough to add some to this plow but I think I will use it first to see how it performs before modifying it. It is good to know that yours is offset as well.
ParticipantI think this is all a great idea and I am fully in support of this organization making a way to fund bigger and better projects. I myself was lurker on the sight for a while before finally jumping into the discussion, and what I have gotten out of it is worth more than any amount of money than I could donate, and so I joined up. I wonder if having to input a credit card number will discourage more lurkers from joining. It is a big step to go from watching, to writting, and then into paying. I am glad that everybody is putting in the nessecary time and energy to make this work because the information and community here is invaluable. Keep up the good work.
Participant@PeytonM 39121 wrote:
I honestly dont really know what to expect to make, cause every year weather is different.
This really is the crux of the issue isn’t it. That is why farming doesn’t fit well into the business tax mode that everybody else uses. We can’t rely on dependable variables and nice easy profit predictions. We, trust our tax guy to figure all this out in the most reasonable way. My recommendation is to find a tax accountant that is familiar with farm related taxes, not all of them understand this aspect. It quickly gets too complicated for a farmer to figure out the tax quagmire.
ParticipantI was on a Great Pyrenese list for a while and somebody there said that they just cut a hole in the woven wire fence, this is assuming the standard four foot high sheep fence. Then the hole was covered with a slightly larger piece of wire. The effect was a large doggie door in the fence. It was one way, and the way back in was a bale of straw set out so the dog could jump back into the pen. Now, I have no experience with this but she claimed that the dog would pass through and goats wouldn’t because they didn’t like the wire banging in there faces. I think I can trust her experience too as she has been raising goats and pyrs for a long time, so this is time tested, at least on her property.
Participant@Droverone 38958 wrote:
By “using” your cattle and utilizing their power, you will naturally evolve in your team work, and the ability to metamorphasize your experiences into tools for future task, is what makes great teams and better teamsters.
This seems to sum up very well the process of learning that seems unclear to me at times. I am using my cattle daily, but I wonder if I am “using” my steers? My main teachers of oxen driving are the members here, the few books and videos I have, and more importantly my animals themselves. Of course it is easier for me to look to my human teachers for answers but maybe I need to look more to my animals. I am learning to read them better, but sometimes I am stubornly following some path and inadvertently ignoring what they are telling me.
I am excited about being able to move more to the front, not as a fixed position but as it has the ability to expand where I can work them from. So maybe there is no ideal place, but rather there is ideal work from all positions. And I am finding that currently working from the front is really helping my leadership abilities with a steer that is questioning my authority.
Participant@dominiquer60 38894 wrote:
When I feed my animals (steers, horses, even dogs) I am the one in charge. I make my dogs sit and wait until they are released with an “OK.” I make the horses walk out of the barnyard to the feeder in front of me, then I make sure that they are not crowding me before I pour the grain out. With the steers, no matter inside or out, I make them yield the right of way to me
Erika, it is nice to know that someone else out there does this as well. I often feel like people judge me for “torturing” my dogs by making them wait for food till they drool, or that I am just some overly authoritarian figure. I have always believed that absolute control is necessary, maybe to a fault, as I can be hard on myself and my animals, but I know from experience that it is easier to let up control that take it back. Control of food seems to be one of the best ways to establish dominance over animals that we need to control. It is reassuring that I am doing the right thing even if most people don’t seem to approve.
ParticipantI totally agree!! this is probably one of the biggest mistakes that I made when training my boys. I too did not know how important it was to have them not be apart of the herd. Most of my issues can be traced back to them being herd sour. I now have them tied in the barn and I am working them daily in order to break them of this and I can say that this has been a hard, hard lesson to learn. You can’t keep a working animal with the rest of the animals. For me it was lack of facilities that I needed to house them properly and at first, my un-willingness to fully commit to this brand new, un-proven venture. Trust me this is a very worthy endevour. Commit fully and get them out of the herd now! You won’t regret doing it and it will save you a lot of headache and time in the future.
ParticipantDave,
I worked both of my boys singly and together in halters before I put a yoke on. It was awhile mainly because I hadn’t made the yoke yet, but when I did put the yoke on they didn’t hardly react at all. I think a lot of ground work before the yoke makes it an easy transition but then again I am no expert.
ParticipantDave, Welcome! It is nice to have another west coast ox teamster in the group. I am in far north CA, Humboldt County, State of Jefferson. I am a fairly new teamster myself, my boys (holsteinXjersey) are about a year and a half now. My only advice is to use the butt end of the stick as a point to keep him from coming in, although with dexters they will be shorter at five months. My other suggestion is that if that steer continues to veer in when they are leading together to think about putting him in the off position. My team has a tendency to wander away from me and as a team, I would rather they came into me. It is easier to keep the near steer over than to bring the off steer closer when they get larger, but with dexters again it may not be a problem. It is important that they learn to respect you personal space, because they will get bigger and stronger, so start early.
ParticipantThe donkey technique seems very interesting and who nows maybe I can find one around here to give it a whirl. My issue isn’t so much leading as bolting. The heifer wants to run, out of fear, and there is no way I can physically stop her from doing that. The best thing I was able to find online came from Gene Logsdon’s blog: http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/training-cows/
I think I will try this technique next time I try and take her out, plus I am going to have some other people close by in case it gets out of hand.
ParticipantWell I wouldn’t say that this film shows the most humane or well treated ox in the world, but instead what comes through is the admiration of ox and teamster together. The director says himself that he did not want to show only the picturesque country side, and romanticize the farmer, but rather show how the rural lifestyle is degrading and sometimes it looks a little shabby. You see this in the video there are some amazing shots of beautiful scenery and then there are some seriously sad looking farmstead realities. So I guess all this is to say that I might not do anything in particular different from seeing this but rather I am going to keep doing what I am and maybe someday I can be an eighty year old farmer and have an old partner to help.
ParticipantMy advice, and I am not sure I am even qualified to offer it, is to not set your expectations too high. I have learned that with my steers this year. I had high hopes for them and I was often asking too much of them, and it caused some problems. I think that I have turned this around as I have now recognized that my expectations were too high, and this winter I have gotten back to the basics with them. That being said I think you can do a lot with a single. I can easily pull a two or three string bale with a single on a sled (my steers are just over a year), but a round bale would need a lot of conditioning and wheels for mechanical advantage. Chicken tractors should be easy and the repetitive hitching and moving and unhitching (with daily or frequent moves) would be great training. Small diameter logs should be no problem even with a simple chain set up. I can only speak from my own experience and keep it nice and slow. I rushed head long into it and my steers often balked because I want to do too much too fast.
ParticipantI ordered the DVD with subtitles because there is no way I could stream that with my satellite internet. We watched it last night with family and it was amazing! The dialouge may or may not help understand the film but the human animal connection was apparent. Even my in-laws who have no connection to farming, other than knowing us, loved it. Everybody was amazed at how such slow moving characters could keep the audience so enthralled. It was a slow paced movie (by modern standards) but nobody got bored. We all lingered after the film and watched all the extras and talked about the film for a while, like no one wanted to let it go. The DVD has an interview with the director as an extra and his reasons for making the film were to honor our parents and the oxen that have brought us to where we are. It was a good reminder that in most of the world even the affluent city folk (like the director of the film) have a direct connection to farming and animals, he talks about the ox his father had when he was growing up. This film is a gem and I do suggest getting the DVD version because it does enhance the visual experience to understand the dialouge. Thank you Andrew for sharing this as it is one of the most incredible videos I have ever seen.
ParticipantI am curious about the donkey idea as well. That is not something I have ever seen our heard about.
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