FARM HAPPENINGS
We finally had a string of five rain-free days (up until yesterday) which gave us a chance to make some dry hay. We prefer to make the large square bales for the dairy herd as we can store an entire winter's worth of feed in the old Brunner barn hay loft - about 200 bales that weigh on average 800 pounds each. A lactating dairy cow will eat about 40 pounds of hay daily so our little herd of 30ish Guernseys will go through 1000-1200 pounds every day, more when it gets really cold. its always a great feeling when we get that hayloft filled with stacks of aromatic fresh hay in the summer knowing the cows are in good shape for winter feeding.
We finally had a string of five rain-free days (up until yesterday) which gave us a chance to make some dry hay. We prefer to make the large square bales for the dairy herd as we can store an entire winter's worth of feed in the old Brunner barn hay loft - about 200 bales that weigh on average 800 pounds each. A lactating dairy cow will eat about 40 pounds of hay daily so our little herd of 30ish Guernseys will go through 1000-1200 pounds every day, more when it gets really cold. its always a great feeling when we get that hayloft filled with stacks of aromatic fresh hay in the summer knowing the cows are in good shape for winter feeding.
This past Wednesday we processed another batch of 504 pasture-raised chickens, so again we will have fresh whole and cutup chickens available in the store this weekend. This batch was good sized averaging a 4 lb. carcass weight which is about where we like to see them. We also have chicken parts back in the store - boneless/skinless breasts, thighs, wings, and even some feet and hearts/livers. Plus we have a couple of new chicken products we are trying out - leg quarters (leg and thigh together) and airline breasts (bone in breast and wing together). Stop in and try them while they last, if there is good demand we can try to bring them back in future chicken processing runs.
We also took in the first batch of summer turkeys for processing - they were big averaging 20 lbs. Almost all of those are currently being cut into parts at Hometown Sausage Kitchen - so we should have turkey breasts, wings, and ground back in the store by next weekend.
Fresh local and organic produce in the farm store this weekend includes slicing tomatoes from Karolina's garden, as well as more carrot bunches and early season Zestar organic apples from Michigan. And from Crystal Lake mushrooms we have the fresh lions mane variety.
Other store items of note - the hens are slowing down their egg production so we have removed the egg bundle sale pricing, however all the hens are back eating the no soy/no corn organic feed as of a few weeks ago. We have a good supply of organic banana bread from Alex at El Hornito, and a restock of the Bushel and Pecks hot sauce varieties all made in nearby Beloit, WI.
Don't forget to bring us your paper and plastic bags to reuse, and join us for the weekly Saturday farm tour at 1:00 pm to see all the animals up close in their pasture rotations. This week I will be guiding the tour. Reserve your spots online or purchase tickets in the farm store.
Graze On…
Cliff, Anna, and the Farm Team
1 comment
Looking forward to visiting your farm that I have probably passed dozens of times over the years. My daughter-in-law, Jennifer, who is a Nurse Practitioner and use to teach nursing at Loyola in Chicago, wrote a book on healthy eating and organic foods. Good luck with your fall harvest!!!