Grazing Management

I went out and helped Kim move the cattle yesterday. It was good, as I haven't been out in the paddock for a while. There is so much feed around after the rain and it all looks just fantastic. We practice a form of grazing management called cell grazing or time controlled grazing. It's based on the growth rate of the plant and the cattle graze the pasture when the grass is actively growing and therefore at it's most nutritious. The grass has more sugars at this time and therefore has more chlorophyll. Therefore it has a good balance of Omega 3's and Omega 6's. The cattle are only in each paddock for a short while and then moved to another paddock, before they eat the grass down too short. The paddock then has a long rest, giving the pasture a chance to re grow.

Apart from being more nutritious for the stock, this is also very beneficial to the environment, as it stores carbon. During the process of photosynthesis, the plant takes carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atomosphere, releases oxygen (O2)  back into the atmosphere and puts the carbon (C) into the soil, where an exchange process happens between the soil microbes and the plant roots. The microbes convert the nutrients in the soil into an available form for the plants to use. Cell grazing is ideal as it keeps the plant actively growing, thus photosynthesising.

New Additions

Dixie had 8 piglets over the weekend, 4 boys and 4 girls. They are all very similar, except one that doesn't have a stripe over it's back. The pig breeds we have chosen are heritage breeds and are considered quite rare. It may seem strange, but by breeding them to eat, we can do our bit to preserve the breeds. We only have the one pair the same - the Boar and one Gilt are Berkshires. The idea is to get started this way and then as we build up, we can get more and breed the individual breeds. The Berkshires will be sold as pure breds for other breeders and the cross breeds will be sold for eating. So these piglets we have now will be the start of our Pasture raised pork business. I'll post some photos of them, they are very cute.

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants

The title of this Blog is the first sentence in a book I'm currently reading by Michael Pollen - "In Defence of Food". He wanted to write about the need to eat Food. It may seem strange, because we only eat food - right? Well, no some of what we eat is not food, it's "food-like substances". Food is grown and it is not grown in a packet. The "food" that most people eat on a regular basis is killing us. Most of the diseases today can be directly linked to the "food" that is eaten. Watching the news over the last couple of months, I've been horrified by the amount of overweight people (adults and children) that I've seen. I'm not a skinny thing by any stretch of the imagination, but neither am I overweight (well not much anyway!). The reason that I'm not skinny is that I LOVE food - and I eat too much of it. It's good food, but even good food needs to be eaten in moderation, which when it tastes really nice is hard! Taste - that's also something that real food has. When you compare a freshly cooked meal which includes really fresh garden vegetables, there is absolutely no comparison to the taste of Junk Food! Unfortunately junk food seems to be addictive and when you eat it regularly you actually don't notice that it's disgusting. I know this, because my children eat it too often! They won't be happy with me saying that, but they don't read my blog (much) so it doesn't matter. I am changing that mindset slowly and in fact have spent some fantastic times cooking real food with my kids.

Piglets

We moved Latesha closer to the house,  into a pen that has water laid on and a decent shelter and a floor above the ground if it rains. We thought that she may have been a little bit protective, as sows can be quite agressive if someone comes between her and her babies. Not Latesha. We loaded the 3 little pigs (sounds like a good title to a rhyme!) into a carry box on the quad and thought she'd either follow or we might have to lead her up with a bucket of feed. Well, she was so happy to be out and able to eat some fresh grass, roll in her favourite mud wallow, eat some more fresh grass, have another roll and just generally enjoy being unconfined for a little while. She obviously trusted us completely to look after her little ones. In the end, when we couldn't persaude her to follow us, even with us holding onto the piglets so that they would squeal, we left her and put the piglets in their new home. An hour or so later, she waddles up to the shed and you could almost understand her pig talk, mumbling "well, I suppose you better show me where they are". Have a look at the photos of them if you like.

Trust is an interesting thing when you consider it in relation to farm animals. Latesha trusted us to look after her piglets, which makes it a little uncomfortable to think about the fact that one day we will take them off her for good to wean them, and then eventually when they are big enough, we will take them away to be slaughtered. But, that is just part of eating meat. If we want to eat meat, we must kill the animal first. One of the advantages in raising meat like this, is that at least you know that they have been raised humanely and in a healthy environment. This is what farm friendly food is all about - healthy nutritious food, and where there is a connection between the farmer and the consumer. I like to know where my food has been grown and I think that the more people that want to know this too, then we will see a shift in the way food is grown and produced.

Life and Death

Our farm now has 3 new additions. Our beautiful Large Black has just had 3 piglets - 2 gilts (girls) and 1 boar. I will post some photos soon. She had 4, but one died at birth. This is a very small litter and so I was a little dissappointed. It may have been because she is a bit young. She escaped down the paddock to have them, so we've built a pen around her and set up water down there for her, luckily it's a nice shady spot. We will bring her back up and probably put her back with the others soon I think. We are a bit new to pig farming, so are learning as we go.

My daughter turned up over the weekend with her dogs, and a friends dog. We are now short two game/rhode island red cross chickens! I was so upset yesterday when I discovered it. We had left them locked in their cage while the dogs were here, but they managed to get the gate open. What really annoyed me, was that it was done mostly for sport. I couldn't find one of them, but one was virtually undamaged. I buried this one in the chook yard and planted a Jack Fruit Tree on top of it. They were ear marked for eating, but not by dogs - by me! They were about half grown and growing really well too.

One of the Rhode Island hens is sitting, but I don't think that she has a clue what she is doing! I found one chicken half hatched yesterday - and dead! I could have given up raising chickens yesterday, but I suppose that unfortunately life on a farm is all about life and death. Actually all food growing is. Everything we eat is living and must die for us to eat it. This applies to fruits, vegetables and meat products. It's all a cycle. What we must be aware of is, that it's important that nothing gets wasted in the process. Which is why I've planted the fruit tree on top of my dead chicken. As the chicken rots down, this will fertilise my tree and it will grow strong and healthy. It will also act as a reminder of my first attempt at chicken breeding and ...... that chicken pens need to be VERY dog proof.

Chicken and Pork

There is such a huge taste difference between Pasture Raised Chicken and Pork and the conventional product that is available, that it could be considered a different meat product. I have read and heard different opinions - like you can't taste the difference or that people prefer the conventional product. The only comment I would make is that they must be too used to the conventional product. I think that conventionally raised chicken meat is very tasteless and has no texture - it's like a paste! Free range, pasture raised chicken will have more flavour and will be moist and juicy. Pasture raised Pork will also be juicer, however I think it actually tastes LESS porky, but more tasty than conventional pork. That may sound strange, but conventional pork is stronger flavoured and I believe that's probably due to the fact that they have to live in their own filth! Apart from the taste, the nutrient value of the meat is far superior with the pasture raised product. And if those reasons aren't enough to make you consider changing from conventional to pasture raised, think about the animal welfare issue. The animals are housed in sheds where they can't experience the sunshine and fresh air and to live the way nature intended. They love grass and it would surprise you how much grass chickens and pigs actually eat.

We rotate our pigs around and also let them out to graze around the house and sheds. At this stage we only have 4 sows and a boar, but when they start reproducing, we will install more paddocks so that they can be rotated, ensuring that they always have fresh grass to graze. We have one sow due to give birth in the next few weeks, so this will be the beginning of our Pork enterprise. These pigs are all heritage pigs and some of the breeds are quite rare. They are breeds that naturally free range well. Conventional Pork comes from pigs that have been bred to grow fast to ensure a quicker turnover for the producer. They are pink and therefore can't handle being raised free range very well, as they get sunburnt too easy. We have had them here and they do get a little sunburnt, but they usually rest under a shady tree in the heat of the day anyway. Our pigs are real characters! They all seem to have a unique personality and love a scratch and a bit of attention. They can also be a nuisance - you can't leave a houseyard gate open, or they head straight for the vegetable patch.

More Mangoes

I made a lovely Mango Ice to go with homemade icecream last night for dinner. See the recipe on the recipe tab. I stole the recipe off Jamie Oliver after watching a bit of his show the other night. Served with the icecream, it was just really nice and very refreshing. The weather has been so hot the last couple of days, and no let up for a little longer yet.

Sorry, forgot to do a picture!