Colonel's Blog, Earthdate 6 Jan 2023...
Hey Ya'll!! Happy Friday!!
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Good morning and Happy Friday from Free Missouri! Yesterday we were able to refresh the straw and get some tax prep work done. The milk cows were excited for the new straw and began munching on it as well as lounging. When we started to cover the garden, we found that of the two options of plastic we had to cover our 30ftx50ft garden, one was 4ft wide and the other was 6ft long. So, we put that project on hold until we get the correct materials. Which leads to today's major farm projects, continuing tax prep and a trip to Springfield (about an hour and a half) to get supplies that we can't pick up locally.
We are using a modified version of what Will Harris of White Oak Pastures in Georgia calls 'Hay Bombing' in order to regenerate our overused pastures. He has described this in quite a few interviews and here is a link to one of his youtube interviews where he discusses his thoughts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgyHIyXchc4 . In the top picture above Shelley and I are standing in front of the sheep who are happily breakfasting on hay we unrolled this morning. Between us and the sheep, you can see the hay virtually blanketing the ground from previous unrollings. The bottom pic is the beef cows this morning enjoying the hay we unrolled for them. The process of unrolling sends clouds of seed into the air. The cows and sheep then walk on the seed, effectively planting it for us. They then pee and poop on it, fertilizing it. Finally, the small amount of hay they do not eat becomes a ground cover protecting the seed and as it decays adding to the carbon content of the soil. The higher the carbon content, the better water-holding properties the soil has. So the land we purchased was mostly made up of overused hay fields and we are in the process of regenerating it into fertile grass pastures.
Local Farm Report from 5 Jan 2023
Harvest:
18 Chicken eggs
7 Duck eggs
2 3/4 gallons of milk
Sales:
N/A
Cheers!
Rich & Shelley
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