sutton023

A comment from the previous post- my answer started getting long, and it dawned on me it would work best as a post- "Hello, my name is Elinor . I am a farmer from MN and today I read this article. http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/chestnuts-for-cattle-feed-12326.html "This story fascinated me! I wanted to learn more about chesnuts and see if there were any growers in Minnesota. "What do you folks do with leftover chesnuts? Hello Elinor, and welcome. Many thanks for the link to the chestnut fed beef story, we'd missed that. After googling it, I can see why; as far as I can tell there's only one farm selling it right now- and they're in Australia. The farm in Florida is just feeling their way into it. Reading as much as I could on the Titania Farm beef; they mention having to learn how to feed it to the cows, which concerns me slightly. The well known problem of cattle eating acorns is a major reason we have not tried it; while acorn poisoning in cattle ...

Hazel grower Don Price called us this morning to let us know that he will be bringing a harvest processing tool he's been working on with him; and we'll set it up and run it. Don's been working with rebuilding and adapting what used to be a standard tool for all farms, a fanning mill . He started working with one at least 3 years ago, and provided one for us to play with here at Badgersett, too. We haven't had the time we've wanted, to work with the really excellent machine he brought us; but he's done some tinkering with his, and has been using it to clean (at least) his hazel nuts. It's likely that with a bit of remodeling, these things can be made to size nuts, also; and remove blanks and lightweights. It'll be here, set up and demonstrating, for the Field Day. Item 2; Sue Wiegrefe has been systematically collecting data on soil pH in a variety of our hazel plantings, with known fertilization/lime treatments. And- we've got results t...

The 4th of July is exceptionally appropriate for this development. We're hoping to become a little more independent of fossil fuels. After decades of mowing grass between nut bushes and trees, and paying for endless and increasingly expensive (now to the point of ruinous) gas and diesel fuel; we've acquired sheep. The hope: we can make it actually pay. Not this year; of course. But we've chosen two breeds to try out at first, and both are versatile in their produce. Sue wanted Babydoll Southdowns , which she'd been studying about for some time; and I wanted Icelandics ; likewise. Both breeds bring high prices for their meat and fleece, and the Icelandics have also been selected for milk production, for hundreds of years. In case we ever want to go there. Two of the Babydoll lambs; we have 3 lambs and one ewe. And; Three of the Icelandics; we have one ram lamb, 4 ewes, and a wether. Today, for the first time; we really put them to work. We've had them f...