out in the fields

[Anonymous]

@goodcompanion 329 wrote:

I have seen operations survive and lead by example without loudly proposing to save the world, fueled through the years by quiet satisfaction with a pleasant, balanced life.

THAT’s exactly what I am trying to attain!! What a lucky keystroke that brought me here.

[Carl Russell]

Mike, just curious what keystroke was it that brought you here? Just trying to figure out how people are reaching us. Thanx, Carl

[Kristin]

@goodcompanion 308 wrote:

There is a lot of energy centered around better grazing (thanks in part to the vital work of Lisa McCrory and others!) and also plenty of labor-intensive vegetable operations, but what about the intermediate scale crops? Particularly grains and roots–the real staff of life foods.

A few thoughts. We’ve been slow ramping up grain production for human consumption on our farm because the tools required are complex. To get from wheat to flour you need either specialized machinery or a heck of a lot of labor. (We are lucky to have a neighbor who is willing to combine small amounts of wheat for us.) We’d love to provide our members with rolled oats, but again we have been stumped by the machinery. Corn, though, has been a hit. We grew a quarter acre of Mandan Bride this year, and harvested it by hand. We run it through a hand-cranked antique sheller that someone loaned us, and grind it fresh every week in an electric mill. We can provide corn meal for 75 people this way without ridiculous amounts of labor. The members are crazy about it and I love the nutty taste of it so much that I think I’ve eaten johnnycake every day for the last two weeks.

On the marketing side of things, I think staple crops are underrepresented because they tend to be less visible to the consumer, and so there is less demand. Vegetables are the sexiest-looking things, and people associate them with healthy eating and organics, so they get all the attention, even though they provide only a tiny percentage of the calories for most people. I do think that will change.

Roots were less intimidating than grains for us and we’ve ramped up production over the last four years. We now have a horse-drawn potato planter, hiller and harvester in operation. We brought in six tons of potatoes this year. We also had record beet and carrot crops, and are feeding excess to the dairy herd and to the horses. This coming season we’re going to plant mangels for the first time.

all best,
Kristin

[Kristin]

Can any of the grazing experts here comment on stockpiled forage? We have a herd of 50 grade Scottish Highland cattle, and after learning a little about this method, we decided to try it this year. I was highly skeptical, but I have to say I’m a convert. Last year I believe we started feeding hay to the beef herd in November. It’s the end of January now, and we haven’t fed out a single bale yet, and the animals are in excellent condition – at least as good as this time last year. So we’ve been thumping our foreheads as to why we didn’t do this earlier. We have a few things going for us, like a lot of land for the number of animals we raise, plus a hardy breed, and all the cows are bred to calve in late spring, so they’re not in heavy lactation right now. Also it would be a different story if we had four feet of snow on the ground. Still, I’m kind of amazed at the amount of money and labor we’ve saved.

We’ve always hired out haymaking, so it’s been done mostly with tractors until now, with about 8,000 bales a year going into the mows. We have done some of the mowing and raking with our teams, and would love to eventually convert entirely to horse power and also improve the quality of the hay. Loose hay is a dearly held dream, if we can make it work. Feeding out less hay makes it seem more feasible.

I’d love to hear if others are stockpiling forage, or from anyone with expertise in this area, since as usual we’ve jumped into it without too much knowledge and are learning by the seat of our Carhartts.

All best,
Kristin

[goodcompanion]

@Kristin 548 wrote:

We’d love to provide our members with rolled oats, but again we have been stumped by the machinery.

I am going to attempt scotch oats this year. People use to eat oatmeal all the time without a lot of machinery. That’s how they did it. Rolled oats are a 20th century thing. Use your mill widely spaced to shear off the hulls, repass through a fan mill, and then crack your groats with the mill somewhat less widely spaced. I think the old-time analogy would be the miller’s stone and the winnowing basket.

Of course scotch oats demand more prep from the consumer (old time solution–put the pot on the coals the night before, hence the word “porridge,” previously spelled “pottage”–contemporary solution, the slow-cooker). I have noticed that scotch/irish oats are a premium item and sell for several dollars a pound, packaged. That gets me kind of interested.

As for the lack of visibility of staples, I’m banking that changing. But I have to say that I think my bread is as sexy as any dumb vegetable. Except maybe some of those those striped eggplants.

[Rod]

Does anyone know the reason why the old fashioned loose hay wagons had sides which sloped outward instead of straight up?

[Carl Russell]

Because as you stack loose hay on a rick like that it hangs over the edge, and the load is built up in a large sloping dome-shaped load. Then it can be unloaded by removing layers. With straight up sides you can’t put on as much, and the hay gets packed into the corners against the side, and it is very difficult to unload. Carl

[ngcmcn]

Eric,

Paul Birdsall of Penobscot Me. is growing and harvesting grain with horses.

Neal

[goodcompanion]

I hope to meet Paul someday. Thanks for mentioning that, I hadn’t noticed this thread is still active.

I guess then there are at least a few reaper-binders at work in the u.s. for commercial purposes.

[goodcompanion]

@Carl Russell 1895 wrote:

Because as you stack loose hay on a rick like that it hangs over the edge, and the load is built up in a large sloping dome-shaped load. Then it can be unloaded by removing layers. With straight up sides you can’t put on as much, and the hay gets packed into the corners against the side, and it is very difficult to unload. Carl

What about just loading loose on a conventional flatbed haywagon? Approximate time to unload without the benefit of a hay trolley?

I have a nice hayloader but no trolley. Of course it is raining buckets right now so all I can do is fantasize about more hay.

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