Colonel's Blog, Earthdate 21 March 2023...
Hey Y'all! Check out our newest YouTube video about Beef Chickens. The top pic is a capture from our conversation in the video.
Good morning and happy Tuesday! It's gray and drizzling this morning with rain forecast through mid-afternoon. At least the temps are above freezing. We may have seen the last of the sub-freezing temps this year...sure hope so! The farm animals are doing very well. The 5 hogs remaining on the farm were snugly tucked in their hut when we fed them this morning. They still had food in their troughs, a sure sign their bellies are full. We hope they add 40-50 pounds before going to the processor next month which should put most of them between 275-300 pounds. The 2nd and 3rd pics are the Beef Chickens, two weeks old today. They are getting more feathers and are growing like crazy. Now that the coldest days are in the rearview, we will slowly reduce the temps in the brooder. They should be getting down to 85 degrees this week. Our goal is to have them ready to be outside in 2 more weeks. Over the summer, we will probably be able to get the chicks outside closer to 3 weeks instead of 4 but it's still a bit too cool for these guys. We are learning more about YouTube and are becoming a bit fascinated. One thing seems certain and that is you can't do YouTube half-heartedly. You succeed or fail in the YouTube arena based on the Artificial Intelligence behind the searches, up next, and you might also like. The algorithms that drive the AI use your previously viewed history to determine what you most likely want to see next. If you have viewed a video from our channel in the past, you might like to view another so it will offer it. Thus, viewing success breeds viewing success from a creator's perspective. The more views you have, the more the AI will offer your videos as a possibility for more viewers. One of the best ways to break into the AI's consciousness is creating more videos. So, we're at a bit of a crossroads. Do we keep making videos, possibly at an even faster rate, or do we stop altogether due to the time commitment necessary to create content? We are leaning toward continuing. Yesterday, we finished up a couple of house projects and made yogurt after taking the hogs to the processor. Today we will do things with milk (yogurt and cheese) and work on the next video.
I've still been thinking about food freedom, but from a different perspective. The question in my brain is "To whom are you beholden to feed your family?" Whoever that is controls you. Without that entity, you can't eat. The bottom pic is an infographic showing that there are 10 companies that own the majority of the food found in grocery stores. In 2019, those 10 companies posted combined sales of $316,757,000,000. That's almost 317 billion dollars of sales. The top company is Nestle with over $80 billion and is based in Switzerland. Not on this infographic due to their narrow focus is Tyson but they were #5 in sales with over $40 billion. We've already discussed Chinese owned Smithfield but in this context they came in at #12 with over $21 billion. My concern with this situation is the fragility of the entire system. As things screeched to a halt in March 2020, how did you feel about your food situation? Were you free or were you restricted by the grocery stores as to how much you could buy? In the Washington DC area, even at the Commissaries we were restricted to 2 packages of meat and the offerings on the shelves were sparse. For months, there just wasn't much there. It didn't matter the size of your family. In Washington state, my daughter stood in the store and cried because there was no food other than dried beans and grits. Luckily, she grew up in our southern household and knew how to cook both but the fact was that she was scared not free. Our current situation is precariously teetering due to the price and availability of grain and fertilizer. Organic certainly isn't the answer as over 60% of the organic grain ships here from Turkey--what could possibly go wrong? My sincerest recommendation is to find a local food producer, get to know them, buy some stuff from them, ensure they know you. I think that is your best chance to feed yourself if anything were to happen to the Food Giants on which you currently rely.
Shelley's YouTube Short today is: Lovin some New Holland HYDRAULICS today!
Local Farm Report for 20 March 2023:
Harvest:
25 Chicken eggs
11 Duck eggs
3 Goose eggs
4 Gallons of milk
Sales:
N/A
Cheers! Psycho & Shelley
I’ve been meaning to ask you about where you found locally to get your non-gmo feed. I had looked into that here and even asked about locally produced non-gmo products or certified organic produce and it’s just not a hot thing here in the southeast. We’ve tried to focus our pasture growth by getting the chicken out onto the pasture to spread their fertilizer and the cows. Local is the way to go for sure on this and other things. When things breakdown the focus goes to take care of around you first and those large companies will do the same first.
Y’all should definitely keep doing the videos!
It's terrifying to have so much of the food "we" eat coming from so few providers. It makes it that much more important to support your local farmers!