Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 14 June 2023…
Hey Y’all!
Good afternoon and happy Wednesday! We started the day with a light rain shower, over by the time we started rounds. I can’t think of a more perfect start to the day! The animals are doing well, with the exception of Stella the Jersey calf. Today is the day that Stella starts her weaning process. She isn’t particularly happy with our decision and is going to get less and less happy about it in the coming hours and days. I’ve discussed a bit about cows' amazing digestive abilities. Those amazing abilities are a result of the rumen bacteria and they are quite finicky. Over the past few days, maybe even a couple of weeks, we noticed Stella spent the day grazing with the other dairy cows. Then, not long before we would call them in for the evening milking and to put Stella away for the night, Stella would drain Betty dry—consuming probably close to 2 gallons of milk at once. Then she would go in the loafing pen for the night. She had hay and water, neither of which she would consume. By morning, she was having milk-based diarrhea, days in a row. We are pretty sure it is due to an imbalance in her stomach ph as a result of the large intake of milk with no follow-on grass. The bacteria that digests cellulose needs a near neutral ph (6-6.8) to thrive, while the bacteria that digest carbohydrates need a more acidic environment (4-4.5). The bacteria’s lifecycle is very short and the rumen ph can change multiple times a day. We think the extremes of her diet were upsetting her stomach, effectively meaning she wasn’t getting all of the nutrients from the grass or milk as her stomach bacteria was constantly changing. Thus, we decided to remove the milk from her diet. She will get hay, grass, and a bit of GMO-free dairy ration. The other animals are good. The pigs got about 3 gallons of clabbered milk this morning. They absolutely loved it! The lambs are growing and are doing very well. We are going to work them this week, boosting vaccinations and castrating the ram-lambs, and are considering reforming the flerd now that the lambs are able to keep up with the ewes.
The first resource I would like to share is a website called Eatwild. https://www.eatwild.com/products/index.html . Eatwild's Directory of Farms lists more than 1,400 pasture-based farms, with more farms being added each week. It is the most comprehensive list in the United States and Canada for grass-fed or pastured meat and dairy products, including: Beef, Pork, Lamb, Veal, Goat, Elk, Venison, Yak, Chickens, Ducks, Rabbits, Turkeys, Eggs, Milk, Cheeses, and more!
Your local farm, Air2Ground Farms, is listed on Eatwild! I pasted our listing from Eatwild immediately below:
Air2Ground Farms, LLC was founded with one goal in mind: producing high-quality meat for ourselves, family, friends, and community. In the process, we are dedicated to healing our land through regenerative farming practices. This results in not only healthy soil, but healthy animals, providing you and your family health from within.
After nearly 25 years in the US Air Force, we left our busy city life behind. We transitioned our dedication to mission and attention to detail learned while flying F-15Es to a new mission: health, from the inside out.
We humanely raise small-batch, forested, GMO-free pork; pastured GMO-free poultry; grass-only beef and lamb; and raw GMO-free A2/A2 Jersey milk. It's not just food, it's a mission!
Chickens: Pasture raised with fresh grass daily. Only GMO-free feed, fermented and hand-fed twice daily. Processed on-farm—as local as you can get!
Pork: Raised in our forest. Only GMO-free feed, fermented and hand-fed twice daily. Locally processed and USDA inspected. Available by the whole, half, and cuts.
Beef: Grass-only their entire life. Locally processed and USDA inspected. Available by the whole, half, quarter, and cuts.
Lamb: Grass-only their entire life. Locally processed and USDA inspected. Available by the whole and cuts.
We also offer raw A2/A2 whole Jersey milk on a limited basis.
We'd love to show you around the farm! Give us a shout and stop by for a visit.
Certified Veteran Owned by Farmer Veteran Coalition, Homegrown by Heroes.
Air2Ground Farms, LLC, Richard McGlamory, 3127 Co Rd 949, Squires, MO 65755.
(417) 543-7901E-mail: a2gfarms@gmail.com. Website: https://www.air2groundfarms.com. Facebook: Air2GroundFarms. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@air2groundfarms
The next resource I would like to share is called Real Milk, A Campaign for Real Milk, a project of the Weston A. Price Foundation. https://www.realmilk.com/ . “A Campaign for Real Milk was founded by raw milk activists in 1998 and launched as a website in 1999. The Weston A. Price Foundation adopted A Campaign for Real Milk as a project in January 2000. In those days, sources of real milk were few, and it was difficult to find. The idea was to use the new technology of the Internet to help people find raw milk in their area—many states allowed the sale of raw milk at the farm but had laws against advertising. When we began, the website listed a mere thirty-seven sources of raw milk—today there are over two thousand—ranging from small, on-farm stores to four-hundred-cow dairies to long-distance delivery services. Real, raw milk comes from pasture-fed cows, it contains all the fat that nature intended, and it has not been subject to processing—it is not pasteurized, ultra-pasteurized, homogenized, powdered, or condensed. It is milk as it comes from the cow (or goat or sheep or water buffalo or camel)—just as nature intended.”
Your local farm, Air2Ground Farms, is listed on Real Milk! I pasted our listing from Real Milk immediately below:
Air2Ground Farms, LLC
Type of location: On Farm Retail
Street Address:
3127 County Road 949
Squires, Missouri 65755
USA
Phone Number: 417-543-7844
Website: https://www.air2groundfarms.com
Description: We milk 2 A2/A2 Jersey cows and sell the raw milk by the half gallon.
These resources provide you the opportunity to find local alternatives to the CAFO operations I've been discussing the past few days.
Local Farm Report for 13 June 2023:
Harvest:
28 Chicken eggs
3 Duck eggs
0 Goose eggs
6 Gallons of milk
Cucumbers
Cheers!
Psycho & Shelley
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