State Rep Visited the Farm!

Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 19 June 2023…

Hey Y’all!

Good evening and happy Monday from Free Missouri! It was a beautiful sunny warm day today. We had thunderstorms yesterday morning and afternoon, hooray for the rain! The garden is doing very well, the pics today. The first is south side looking north, then north side looking south, squash, cucumber, jalapeño, tomato, cherry tomato, watermelon, and pumpkin. We are picking cucumbers most every day and they are about to really start producing. The zucchini aren’t doing very well but the squash are just full. The peppers are starting to take off also. All in all, everything is looking way better than last year and we are so excited to be producing our own vegetables. The layers are doing ok, but the ducks still haven’t figured out their laying issues. They’ve got a couple of weeks to figure it out and if they haven’t, we will process a dozen or so of them. We’re most likely going to process a couple dozen of the layer chickens too. They are 18 months old and at that age, their production really begins to drop off so they eat the same amount of food but produce less eggs. The beef chickens are doing really well. They still love their fresh grass every day. We had such a great response on the beef chickens that I ordered another batch of 69 last night to be delivered this week. That puts us at 5 batches total this year instead of 4. We had planned for a couple of weeks break from the beef chickens but decided to cancel the chicken break and raise another batch. We want to build another brooder before they get here…in a couple of days. Hopefully we can get it done. The beef herd is doing well as are the sheep. The pigs are growing every day. They absolutely love their fermented GMO-free feed and then we pour milk on top, which makes them just go crazy. Stella is still not happy about this weaning process. We’ve gone from around 5 gallons of milk a day to around 7. Yes, almost 50 gallons a week. It’s a good thing we like cheese and we have new milk customers visiting the farm tomorrow! I made butter today and we worked on our new online store.

A while back, I shared the message I sent to my Missouri State Representative and then shared his response, which included an offer to visit the farm. Well, he visited today. Representative Travis Smith spent about an hour and a half with us this afternoon. After normal introductions, we hopped on the side-by-side and set off to see things. We started with the bottle lambs and layer birds. We then moved on to the rams and beef chickens. He was very interested in both of them and paused to take pics. We discussed the exemption that allows us to process the birds on farm and the outstanding response we received on our first batch. From there, we went to the beef herd where we discussed the Red Devon breed, why we chose them, and the amazing impact they are having on regenerating our pastures. The pigs were next. We discussed how they are making an awesome impact on our wooded areas clearing the underbrush which will allow us to eventually turn those unusable spots into grazing areas. We talked about the Berkshire breed and how they are one of only three breeds of pigs that have intramuscular fat which makes their meat taste amazing, especially paired with their forest life, fermented GMO-free feed, and fresh raw Jersey milk. He was impressed at their efforts and paused to take more pics of the great job they are doing clearing out the briars. Leaving the pigs, we went to the forest that the last 4 groups of pigs cleared for us and saw the grass that is now growing where there was only briars. While there, we looked at aerial photos of the property and discussed the infrastructure. Our last stop was with the ewe/lamb flock with Tank and TJ. As we finished the tour, back at his truck, Tozer stopped by to say hi and he was impressed at how large and docile he is. Overall, he was impressed with the operation, asked how in the world we ended up in this part of Missouri, and offered his assistance should we ever need it to get things unstuck in the state capital. Likewise, we offered our assistance should he need thoughts on defense, veterans, or agricultural affairs. Travis is a lifetime resident of this area and perfectly represents our thoughts and feelings on the major issues in our State. If you’re reading this, Travis, thanks again for stopping by; it was great to meet you!

Local Farm Report for 17 & 18 June 2023:

Harvest:

47 Chicken eggs

0 Duck eggs

0 Goose eggs

14 Gallons of milk

Cucumbers & 1 zucchini

Cheers!

Psycho & Shelley