Foothill Agrarian

Walking vs. Driving - what's a shepherd to do?!

2012-02-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

Actually, the answer to this question is pretty simple - a good shepherd will always choose to walk sheep to a new pasture if he (or she) has good dogs!

Red line - our walking route today.
Blue line - the walking route to our loading facilities.
Yellow line - the route we'd have had to drive to move the sheep.

Today, we moved a group of about 100 ewes onto a neighboring property. We walked about a third of a mile - through 4 gates and up a fairly steep hill - but not a bad walk. In the aerial photo above, our route is represented by the red line. The ewes nibbled on grass all the way to their new pasture, and the dogs (as well as the shepherd) enjoyed the work.

If we'd had to haul the sheep to this pasture, the day would have involved a longer walk (nearly a half a mile) - represented by the blue line on the map. Then we'd have had to put the ewes in the trailer - about 25 at a time in their current pregnant state - and drive about .9 miles to the new pasture (represented by the yellow line). Our 20 minute walk would have turned into a half-day worth of work!

Thank goodness for excellent border collies and helpful neighbors!

More Thoughts about Profitable Farms

2012-02-18T18:40:00.000-08:00

Last summer, I wrote a blog entry entitled "Is Profit a Dirty Word." This week, I was reminded of the conflict I feel about profitability and farming by a discussion during a local farm business planning class that I'm helping to teach. The word "profit," it seems, comes with lots of baggage!

Profit is a difficult thing for many of us small farmers toget our arms around. In some ways, we’vechosen farming as a rejection of the “normal” American aspiration for materialwealth. Profit, as such, is part of thisrejection – we farm because we value good food, good land and strongcommunities more than monetary gain.

Once we begin the work of farming, however, profit takes ona different meaning. Without profit, wecan’t produce food over the long term. Without profit, we can’t keep our land in farming. Without profit, our families cannot becontributing members of our communities.

Someone asked whether it is legitimate for a family with other sources of income to "subsidize" their love of farming with their off-farm income. I struggle with this - certainly our family has needed off-farm income to support our farming habit from time to time. I've come to the conclusion, however, that a profit motive is critical to our farm's place in our local agricultural community. Here's why:

If a business makes a profit (or a loss, for that matter), we can assume that some economic analysis has occurred - we can assume that the business knows how much money it's taken in and how much money has gone out in the way of expenses. After all, profit is the positive difference between income and expenses (both direct expenses and overhead). As a small-scale farmer who markets most of my production directly to consumers, I base my pricing decisions on these economic factors - my prices reflect my need for my farm production to pay my family's basic needs (like groceries, health care, college savings, our mortgage, our retirement, etc.).

I bristle when I hear someone say, "I just planted these trees so that the grandkids can learn about growing fruit - I don't really need to make money from my 'farm'." Without going through a rigorous economic analysis (and without determining what is required to make a profit), these "farmers" have a profound impact in my ability to make a living. If farm products are priced at a level that results in a loss (or even at a break-even), I feel pressure to reduce my own prices.

Profit has both an economic and a cultural meaning (as I've written before). The cultural definition of profit is problematic for me - I farm largely because I've rejected our culture's obsession with material wealth. In an economic sense, however, profit is vital to my existence as a small farmer - and to the existence of my fellow farmers.

The Finished Product

2012-02-13T18:54:00.000-08:00

When we shipped the last of our lambs for processing last fall, we kept the two lightest lambs to finish on grass and alfalfa for our own freezer - we always seem to run out of meat before the next year's "crop" is ready. We also wanted to teach Sami's 4-H Sheep Project kids about the end product - they usually don't see their lambs after the fair auction. A week ago, I took these two lambs to our regular processor (Superior Farms in Dixon). Last Friday, I picked up the whole lambs and took them to Roseville Meats - where we store the meat we sell at farmers' markets. Today, Dan (who has worked at Roseville Meats off and on for 20 years), showed us how to "fabricate" a lamb - how to cut it up into individual cuts of meat.

Getting started.

As Dan started showing us how to break down a lamb, it was clear that he'd been doing this for a long time. Like most of the applied arts, butchery takes lots of repetition, and Dan is a master. He took time to show the kids how to tell where to cut specific pieces of lamb. He even weighed the meat, the trim (which we'll have ground) and the waste (bones, fat, etc.). We found that we had significantly greater yield (the ratio of "sell-able" retail cuts of lamb and trim) that we usually get.

Watching Dan work, I was struck by the fact that that our livelihood relies on the skill of many folks - our own skill as farmers must be matched by the skill of our butchers. Roseville Meats is a throw-back of sorts - not many people know how to cut meat as skillfully as Dan and the other butchers there.

All done!

As I write this, I'm grilling some sirloin chops from these lambs. I can't wait to try them!

Fragmentation and Isolation

2012-02-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

Habitat fragmentation is known to be a significant threat to wildlife species in our part of California. As farms and ranches are split into smaller pieces to accommodate suburban sprawl and ranchette development, we lose migration corridors, foraging habitat and other critical habitat attributes.

This fragmentation can impact farming in similar ways. From the standpoint of physical geography, fragmentation reduces the size of properties available for farming or ranching. When a 160-acre orchard here in Placer County is split into 5-acre lots - even if the trees remain - the economic viability of farming is seriously diminished. The story is similar for all types of farming and ranching. The scale of an operation is directly related to it's economic viability - a farm needs to produce enough product (and profit) to cover direct costs and overhead costs. An acre of vegetables, or 100 acres of unirrigated pasture, does not produce enough revenue for a farm family to make a living.

Beyond these economic impacts, fragmentation has logistical impacts as well. Using our own operation as an example, fragmentation can increase costs. We lease 20 acres of irrigated pasture that is less than a mile from 100 acres of annual rangeland that we also lease. Despite this proximity, these ranches are separated by 6 to 8 separate smaller properties. Before the intervening properties were subdivided, we could have walked our sheep from the irrigated pasture to the rangeland - a trip that would have taken about 30 minutes (at most). Today, since the landowners between our leased pastures don't want sheep tromping through their yards, we have to haul them in our trailer (or hire a semi to move them). This less direct route requires us to drive about 5 miles each way. Given the capacity of our trailer, moving our 300 sheep from one property to the other requires 12 trips (120 miles), a 12-hour day, and a significant amount of fossil fuel.

The third impact of fragmentation is to isolate farmers and ranchers from one another. In an earlier age, our neighbors would also be farmers. Today, we rarely run our sheep next to someone else who is also making their living from any kind of farming (let alone from sheep production). This isolation takes a toll in several ways. At one time, farmers learned (at least in part) from the successes and failures of their neighbors - you could see what was happening on the other side of your fence. The farming infrastructure (fences, canals, roads, etc.) was maintained by neighbors. Today, for example, most of our neighbors don't have livestock, so fence maintenance is not a priority for them.

I'm not sure what the solution to these issues might be. The conservation community has been effective at conserving larger landscapes and migration corridors to help avoid habitat fragmentation. Perhaps we need a similar approach to agricultural land conservation - we need to conserve whole "foodsheds" as well as watersheds. We also need to be honest about the scale of operation necessary for a farm or ranch to be economically viable.

Carbon Cycles

2012-02-04T06:19:00.000-08:00

Proof that Roger and I were in Pacific Grove! With the
beautiful weather, it took great workshops to keep
us inside!

Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend my first EcoFarm conference. In its 32nd year, EcoFarm takes place at Asilomar in Pacific Grove - one of my favorite places in all of California. My friend Roger Ingram (a fellow sheepman and our local farm advisor) also went - we both spoke at different sessions.

Roger's session on grazing systems also included another friend - Joe Morris of TO Cattle Company. Joe spoke about using grazing (cattle in his case) to manage carbon cycles. Joe said that he'd heard that the first two weeks in January were the warmest in recorded weather history in the U.S. Regardless of one's perspective on what is causing these apparent climate changes, we are dealing with increasing levels of carbon in our atmosphere. Joe is using cattle to incorporate carbon deep in the soil.

Joe's presentation helped me look at our sheep grazing operation in a different light. In Joe's view, there are three ways that graziers can manage carbon - consumption (by livestock), trampling (also by livestock), and manure/urine deposition (hopefully by livestock!). Some carbon sources (like green grass) are best managed by grazing. Other carbon, like dry grass or weeds, is best consumed by fungi and bacteria. Grazing animals may not consume this material, but they will trample it. Accordingly, Joe calls these plants "trample" carbon.

Herding the sheep helps concentrate the trampling effect - the border
collies especially enjoy this technique!

At the moment, we're working with some homeowners near Auburn to control yellow starthistle. Last year's plants have set seed and died (starthistle is an annual plant, meaning it completes its life cycle in a year). Some new plants have germinated underneath the "carcasses" of last year's crop. This dead starthistle, by Joe's definition, is trample carbon - it doesn't have much nutritional value for our sheep (except for the seeds, which they love!), but the soil fungi and bacteria will consume it if it's in contact with the soil. We can enhance the carbon cycle, then, by trampling!

The after-effects of trampling.

We have several tools at our disposal to help manage this trample carbon. We can increase stock density - more animals per unit of area - and we can herd our animals. Prehistorically, the relationship between prey animals - coyotes, wolves, cougars, etc. - and herbivores - deer, tule elk, etc. - bunched animals to intensify and concentrate this herd impact. This morning, I used our border collies as a substitute for these predators and our sheep as a substitute for these native herbivores. Using herding, we trampled portions of last year's starthistle crop with the hope that the soil critters will thrive on this source of carbon.

Back to EcoFarm - I've been aware of this conference for many years, but have never attended (it's a pricey event that I've never been able to afford). After my experience yesterday, I hope I can go back! It was by far the most positive gathering of farmers I've ever been to. Of the approximately 1200 participants, I'd estimate that more than half were younger than I am (44 years) - hugely unusual in American agriculture (where the average age of a farmer is 57+). Even more impressive - there was a positive feeling about this gathering - little if any complaining about external forces (government, markets, etc.).

Most importantly, I felt renewed by the sense of community I felt at the conference. EcoFarm draws participants from all over North America (and beyond), and yet there was a spirit of camaraderie that was both remarkable and unusual. I came home with hope - both for our farm and for small farming in general!

Neighboring

2012-01-31T19:36:00.000-08:00

I've written previously about stockmanship and about what it means to be part of a farming community. So many times in our area, we're running our sheep or cows adjacent to land that has come out of agricultural production. The very characteristics that allow us to market our products directly to consumers - namely a growing population - often make the production of those products more challenging. Tonight, however, I was reminded of what it means to be in a community of stockmen, where the word "neighbor" is a verb.

Late this afternoon, I received a call from Patti Beard, who rents the ranch next to one of the properties we lease. Patti and I both sit on the Placer County Agricultural Commission, and Patti has ranched in Placer County most of her life. When she was young, her family operated a dairy north of Auburn (where she still lives) - she even took several cows to college with her at Chico State as a way to pay for her education. Patti called to say she was missing a heifer and asked if I'd keep an eye out for her.

A few hours later, I got a call from someone else indicating that we had a steer out at the same property. Figuring the two calls might be related, I loaded up my dogs and headed to the ranch. Sure enough, Patti's black heifer was not only out of her pasture - she'd gone through my fences too and was at a neighbor's property.

Pushing the steers (and Patti's heifer) back north to the gate.

My first priority was to get the heifer back to my pasture - she was lonely for our steers, so it wasn't too difficult. Next, I called Patti to let her know the heifer was safe (cell phones are pretty handy sometimes). Patti said they'd come to the gate between the two properties so we could get the heifer back where she belonged. As I herded the cows back towards the other end of the ranch, I encountered one of the biggest coyotes I've seen in some time, along with a number of deer and one of the prettiest sunsets ever. Just as it was getting dark, we arrived at the gate - where Patti and Steve were waiting for us.

Not a bad way to end the work day!

Sorting cattle in an open field is not a simple task. In my experience, slow and quiet always works better than fast and loud, but not every cattleman feels the same way. Patti and Steve, however, work cattle like I do, and we soon had the heifer back with Patti's cows - while our steers stayed on our side of the fence. After a few obligatory remarks about the lack of rain, the condition of our cattle, and the wildlife we'd seen in the last several days, we all headed home for the night.

Neighboring, I think, takes work. Being a good neighbor, in an ranching sense, means taking responsibility for the safety and well-being of your own animals as well as the animals of your neighbor. It means working until the job is done - even if it's dark, cold or wet. "Neighbor" is a verb when you live among a community of stockman. I'm comforted to know that such a community still exists in Auburn!

From Robert Burns' "The Twa Dogs"

2012-01-28T19:03:00.000-08:00

Here's a translation of one stanza from "The Twa Dogs" -

The other was a ploughman's collie,
A rhyming, ranting, raving rollicking young friend,
Who for his friend and comrade had him,
And in his youth had Luath named him,
After some dog in Highland song,
Was made long past - Lord knows how long.
He was a wise and faithful cur,
As ever leaped a ditch or stone fence.
His honest, pleasant, white streaked face
Always got him friends in every place;
His breast was white, his shaggy back
Well clad will coat of glossy black;
His joyous tail, with upward curl,
Hung over his buttocks with a swirl.

Burns could have been describing our dog, Mo!

Preparations

2012-01-27T18:50:00.000-08:00

Vaccination workshop participants learning how to tip the ewes and give injections.

This past week has marked the last of our major preparations for lambing. Last Sunday, we started vaccinating the ewe flock for enterotoxemia and tetanus - we hosted a workshop for folks interested in raising sheep. Some much needed rain on Sunday afternoon put a halt to our workshop, so we finished up with our vaccinations on Tuesday. While we were giving these injections, we also evaluated each ewe to determine if she needed to be "tagged" - that is, we looked at the amount of manure clinging to her wool on her backside, and the amount of wool on her udder, and decided whether to have this wool shorn. Of our 230 +/- ewes, we marked 93 ewes for tagging.

On Wednesday, I hauled the ewes that didn't need tagging onto fresh feed. Yesterday, everyone else was hauled home. Shortly after 1 p.m. today, our shearer (Derrick) arrived and tagging got underway.

Ewes awaiting tagging.

Tagging our ewes serves many purposes. First, by removing the soiled wool, we reduce the chance for infection or other problems in the lambs. Second, removing the soiled wool lessens the possibility of fly strike when the weather warms up in the spring. Third, by removing the wool from the belly and the udder, we increase the likelihood that the ewe's lambs will find a teat instead of a lock of wool.

Courtney and Josie - along with Matthew Shapero - part of
our tagging crew!

One of the things I enjoy about raising sheep is the ritual associated with our yearly tasks. Breeding, tagging, lambing, shearing and weaning are annual tasks - each associated with a certain type of work and with certain friends (like Derrick). I was reminded of this today when our friend Courtney joined us to help with tagging. Her daughter Josie, who just turned a year old, came with her - Josie also joined us for shearing last spring - by the time she's three, she'll be doing most of the work herself, I think! My oldest daughter, Lara, also joined us - keeping track of ear tag numbers as Derrick worked. Lara's been helping since she was not much older than Josie. These annual rituals become part of the fabric of our lives - I look forward to the transitions that each task represents.

Now we wait! The first ewes will lamb in the next several weeks. Before we know it, we'll be weaning lambs from their mothers and starting the irrigation water! The year marches on!

Waiting is tiresome work!

Likes and Dislikes: Social Media and Community

2012-01-26T16:03:00.000-08:00

Facebook's lower case "f" logo seems ubiquitous these days. Everywhere I look, I'm asked to "like" something on facebook. And I'll admit, I've used facebook both professionally and personally. Professionally, we've used facebook (and this blog) to help connect people to our farm - and our farm to our community. Personally, facebook gives me a chance to stay connected with friends and family who I don't get to see on a regular basis. In this sense, facebook and other social media can help create and strengthen community.

But these virtual communities have a negative side, as well. "Big Brother" isn't our government; rather, it's social media sites and corporations that record our interests (our "likes") in order to sell us more stuff. Indeed, when I logged into my blog this afternoon, Google informed me that it's changing the way it views my privacy. Beyond these concerns, however, I have a feeling that these social media websites (or virtual communities) have contributed significantly to the vitriol and polarization we see in our politics and our public discourse.

While I enjoy the funny stories and humorous photos my friends post on facebook, I find the absolutist statements about political affiliations, religious beliefs, and social outlooks increasingly disturbing. Because we can only "virtually" see our friends on facebook or other networking sites, we seem to feel free to say things we'd never say in person. I have "real-life" friends from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, countries and political points-of-view. I wouldn't think of purposely saying something that I thought might be insulting or hurtful to them in person. When we can't see our friends, however, we seem to think that denigrating a perspective different than ours, often in insulting language, is appropriate behavior.

I'm not sure if this on-line polarization is the cause of our real-life polarization or if it's the other way around - it probably works both ways. Part of my discomfort, I'm certain, stems from the fact that the world is not black and white for me - there's enough gray to make me question every extreme or fundamentalist position I hear or read. Ultimately, all effective communication (whether verbal, written or on-line) requires us to consider our audience. Social media has diminished this filter for many of us. Sometimes I wish facebook had a "dislike" option - but I guess that's too absolute!

Community

2012-01-21T18:41:00.000-08:00

My friend and fellow farmer Alan Haight spent the afternoon helping me move sheep today. Alan and his wife Jo own Riverhill Farm in Nevada City - they grow the most amazing vegetables! I've had the privilege of working with Alan on a variety of educational and other projects over the years, a relationship that has been solidified by our mutual admiration for the works of Wendell Berry.

Alan is one of the most community-minded farmers I know. Late last year, he asked if he could come work with me one day this winter - and today was that opportunity. Together, we moved our 220 ewes from Shanley Ranch back to Oak Hill Ranch (where our corrals are) so that we can vaccinate them tomorrow. This move entailed a walk of about one-and-a-half miles - moving the sheep with the border collies is less stressful and more cost effective than putting them in a trailer - along with moving water troughs, guard dogs and llamas, and fencing.

While the extra set of hands made the afternoon go much more quickly than it would have otherwise, it was also a pleasure to get to work with another farmer. We've made a commitment to help new farmers learn the skills necessary to raise sheep, an activity I love. However, I realized this afternoon how much I enjoy working with someone who already understands the work (and work in general).

I also realized today that a farming community must be intentional. In our region, farms are generally spread out geographically - the days of farming next to a neighbor who also farms are gone (thanks to development and economic trends). Those of us who still make our living farming must work to strengthen the community of farmers. Working together, more than anything, reinforces these connections. Alan is a model for all of us - we should all seek opportunities to work together. Alan jokingly told me that he'd call me in July (in the height of his vegetable season) for repayment. In all seriousness, though, that's what community means - we help each other when our help is needed - and we don't keep track of the balance of repayment. Thank you, Alan, for reminding me!

Rain - Finally

2012-01-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I delivered two of our livestock guardian puppies to Jeanne McCormack, a fellow sheep rancher from Rio Vista. We met in a parking lot in Dixon under cloudy skies, commiserating that it was not yet raining (the Weather Service had predicted the rain would start by 10 a.m.). Jeanne told me that her father had weather records on their ranch dating back to 1892, and that we'd just experienced the driest December and half of January in that 120 year period. Jeanne and her husband Al Medvitz also grow grain - they rely on fall and winter rains to germinate the crop and keep it going - so the lack of moisture was a double hit for them.

As the day went on, the weather remained cloudy and cold - and dry. I wondered if this storm was going to fizzle like the "storms" we had in November and December. Finally, as I hauled water to the ewes (which is an unusual task in January), I started to feel a few sprinkles. Driving home from the ranch, I finally got to turn on my windshield wipers!

Every time I awoke last night, I'd listen for rain (and was pleasantly reassured to hear it). This morning, we had a half-inch of rain in our rain gauge - not enough to get us caught up, but enough to get us started. There were no puddles - the ground had absorbed every drop. We'll need much more rain before we start to see any run off.

As I've written before, weather makes farming and ranching enjoyable and challenging - often all at the same time. The last 60 days have been mentally challenging for me - seeing the grass dry up and having to purchase extra feed for the sheep certainly impacts our bottom line. Seeing dust while I'm moving sheep in January is downright depressing. On the other hand, a long awaited rain feels like Christmas morning and my birthday all wrapped into one. As my friend Pat Shanley (who has seen lots of rain and lots of dry spells in his 92 years in Auburn) said yesterday - "Mother Nature doesn't consult with us about when we need the rain - we're on her schedule." Let's hope she has more rain on her calendar!

Waiting...

2012-01-18T17:58:00.000-08:00

Some of us farmers joke that we wish we were weather forecasters - we'd love to get paid for being right less than 50 percent of the time. In all seriousness, meteorology seems to involve as much art as science - the weather remains challenging to predict despite our collective knowledge and technology.

The mothers of future grass-fed beef - we're feeding hay
because of the dry weather.

The weather certainly seems to be changing. Sunday, as we were training dogs here in Auburn, a south wind blew and the weather grew colder. Monday morning, we awoke to 20 degree temperatures and broken pipes at home. Our high was 44F, significantly more winter-like than the 60+ degree days last week. The National Weather Service assures us that we'll get a bunch of rain over the next 5-7 days. Today's clouds suggest that moisture is on the way, as do the black-headed Juncos (also known as snow birds) I saw today for the first time this winter at Shanley Ranch.

"Red sky at night - sailors' delight" - I hope tonight's beautiful sunset doesn't
mean that the predicted rain is going to miss us again!

Since I'm somewhat of a techno-geek, I've been checking multiple weather websites over the last month in anticipation of the eventual onset of winter. I'll probably check these websites many times before heading for bed tonight, too. The proof of their accuracy will arrive later tonight, I hope - I can't wait to awaken to the sound of rain on our roof.

Progress - Part 2

2012-01-13T06:09:00.000-08:00

Last year during lambing we discovered the hard way that our sheep were deficient in selenium. At the beginning our lambing season, we had a number of apparently healthy lambs die after two or three days. Unable to discern the cause on our own, we took a dead lamb to the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory at UC Davis. The postmortem indicated that our lambs were selenium deficient. The soils in our part of California are low in selenium (and as a result, so is our grass). To counteract this, we had been giving the ewes and lambs a selenium drench, and we'd been providing a commercially available loose salt mix that has a small amount of selenium in it. Our system obviously wasn't working! At that point we started giving every newborn lamb a selenium/vitamin E injection. We didn't lose any more newborn lambs.

This summer, we again lost a few seemingly healthy lambs while they were on pasture. After another trip to the lab in Davis, we learned that we were contending with internal parasites - a condition made worse by an underlying selenium deficiency. In addition to causing weak lambs, uterine prolapses and other reproductive problems, selenium deficiency is also related to parasite and disease resistance.

We considered giving another injection to the lambs, but fortunately I called Dr. Nancy East first. Dr. East is a veterinarian and fellow sheep producer (she happens to be the president of the California Wool Growers Association at the moment). For many years, she worked with the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. She explained the complicated relationship between selenium and healthy sheep. She also explained that the mineral mix we'd been using didn't have enough selenium in it, partly because an adequate level of selenium would make the product taste bad to the sheep. Fortunately, she knew of a solution! Western Feed Supplements - a company in Silver Springs, Nevada (about a 45 minute drive southeast of Reno) - makes a mineral block that has adequate selenium AND is formulated to taste good to sheep. She suggested we try providing these blocks to our sheep before giving further injections. She also suggested that we blood test 10 of our ewes prior to giving our pre-lambing vaccinations this winter to determine if their selenium levels were adequate going into lambing.

In early September, we purchased 2.5 tons of 50 pound mineral blocks from Western Feed Supplement (unloading 100 mineral blocks by hand and stacking them in the barn made me long for a forklift!). We started offering blocks to all of the sheep, and they seemed to find them extremely palatable.

Last Friday, my wife Samia (who happens to be a large animal veterinarian herself) took blood samples from 10 of our ewes and sent the samples to the Davis lab. Late yesterday, we received the results - every ewe we tested had adequate selenium levels in her blood! Thanks to the new regime suggested by Dr. East, we won't have to go to the added expense of an injection (and we'll avoid stressing the ewes with another shot as well). We'll still give the newborn lambs an injection (adequate selenium levels in the ewes do not necessarily ensure adequate levels in the lambs), but it feels as if we've made another step towards raising healthy happy sheep.

Samia and I have raised sheep for about 20 years, and we've been doing this commercially now for 7 years - long enough to realize that there is always more to learn. One of the things I like most about farming in general (and sheep in particular) is this continuous learning process. As we accumulate (and apply) more knowledge and skill, we make progress in our business. Our improvement shows up as healthier ewes, more lambs and greater productivity - and ultimately greater profitability. While raising sheep is a way of life for us, it's also the way we try to make our living. Each lesson learned is another step along the path that will make (and keep) our business viable.

The Dogs of Flying Mule Farm

2012-01-08T17:48:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, Courtney McDonald and Roger Ingram joined Lara and me to train sheepdogs. Courtney brought Lucy, Roger brought Cait and Bella, Lara worked Mo, and I worked Taff and Ernie. We all decided that it was extremely helpful to train our dogs together - Roger brought an iPad to video tape our sessions, and we were all able to offer suggestions and insights. We're hoping to make it a monthly event.

Our afternoon together emphasized for me the attitude and investment necessary to work dogs successfully. Unlike a piece of equipment, a dog requires a system of communication and understanding to work effectively - working a dog is truly a partnership. Part of the attraction of raising sheep, for me, is this reliance on my dogs. Other sheep producers are very successful by relying primarily on equipment and facilities. I would rather invest my time and energy in learning to use my dogs more effectively!

Enjoy these photos:

Courtney's dog, Lucy.

Lucy again!

Roger and Cait.

Mo - very pleased with himself after working.

Roger and Bella (with Courtney doing the filming).

Confused by the Weather

2012-01-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

The continued dry weather seems to dominate my days and my thinking. At the risk of overdoing the discussion of this winter's weather in this space, I'll offer a few more observations about the strange phenomena we've experienced in the last 12 months.

Not much green grass for the sheep at the moment.
We're providing supplemental protein to help them
digest the dry grasses.

Yesterday, as I drove down Baxter Grade Road from Auburn to the Ophir/Newcastle area, I noticed a number of blue oaks that have put out fresh green leaves - in January! I'm not sure if these trees ever totally lost their leaves last fall, but the warm temperatures and lack of moisture seem to have made them "think" that their dormant period is over.

According to the National Weather Service, the low humidity and windy conditions this weekend have resulted in the issuance of a red flag warning. I cannot ever remember the threat of wildfire in January on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada.

As I drove up the road to 5 Mile Ranch (one of our leased ranches) yesterday afternoon, I was startled to see a 3-foot gopher snake sunning himself on the blacktop. Usually these snakes disappear during the winter months.

Normally, this gopher snake would be scarce until the warmer and drier months of spring. He was sunning himself (herself?) on the road into the ranch yesterday afternoon.

I grew up in Tuolumne County. Sonora Pass, by which Highway 108 crosses the Sierra crest, is still open. My sister and her family went over the pass on the day after Christmas - unheard of!

The grass that germinated at the Doty Ravine Preserve in Lincoln (where we graze cows) after our first October rainfall has now died - the forage is almost completely brown.

Last June, we received 2.88 inches of rain at our place in Auburn - more than twice as much as we received in November and December. On June 4, the day we weaned our lambs, we had a high of 63 degrees and a half-inch of rain. On January 3, 2012, the high temperature was also 63, but we received no precipitation.

I realize that a single season's weather doesn't tell us anything about climate change - we've had dry winters in the past (and wet summers, too). However, the "normal" weather patterns on the west slope of the Sierra do seem to have changed in the 44+ years I've lived here. Without checking the "official" records I can't be certain, but we seemed to have more summer thunderstorms and winter snow in Sonora when I was a kid than my parents experience today in the same location. We also seem to have more extreme events - extreme storms, extreme dry periods, extreme wind - than I remember as a kid. Based on what I've observed over the last several weeks, Mother Nature seems nearly as confused by the weather as I am!

Dealing with Winter Drought

2012-01-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

As noted in an earlier post, we're in the midst of one of the driest stretches of winter weather on record. Our rainfall for the season is about one-third of normal; more critically, we've received less than two inches of rain in the last 60+ days. I spoke with several farmers yesterday whose memories stretch back further than mine - this winter, it seems, is comparable with the drought year of 1975-76. One of our farm advisors said that she read about similar conditions in the 1940s.

With no rain in the forecast for the next seven days at least, we're starting to reach a critical point in our grazing operations. Even if we get some rain soon, day length and soil temperature are not yet sufficient to support significant grass growth. Furthermore, the soil profile will need to fill up with moisture before grass starts to grow again. I'm seeing much of the grass that germinated with the rain we received in early October start to wither.

We try to match our production system with the "normal" weather pattern in our area. Our sheep have their greatest demand for forage just before and just after they give birth. Typically, we start to see significant grass growth sometime in late February here in the Sierra foothills, so that is when we try to start lambing. Without rain in the next two weeks, we probably won't see much in the way of grass growth by the time the lambs start arriving next month.

To manage for this year's conditions, we're trying to save ungrazed pastures for the ewes to lamb on. We're also adding protein to the ewes' diet (protein feeds the bacteria in a ruminant's digestive tract that allow the animal to digest dry grass). In other words, by adding protein, we can increase the ewes' consumption of dry grass (which is about all we have at the moment).

We're also looking for opportunities to graze additional properties near our base of operations here in Auburn. Thanks to our border collies, we can walk the sheep from property to property and avoid the additional time, expense and stress of hauling the ewes in a trailer. At this stage in their gestation, we prefer not to haul the sheep if possible.

In the meantime, I find myself getting grumpier about the weather forecasters who predict "another beautiful day" of cloudless skies and warm temperatures. In January, beautiful weather (at least to a rancher) typically requires rain gear! Let's up we all need to break out the raincoats soon!

Shepherding Skills

2012-01-02T11:06:00.000-08:00

Much of the work involved in caring for sheep involves a blend of knowledge and skills. For example, knowledge about ruminant nutrition must be combined with the skill of moving electric fencing in our system. Knowledge about shearing sheep is meaningless without developing the skills necessary to safely operate a shearing machine or the skills to humanely restrain a sheep during the shearing process.

Knowledge can be gained in many ways - by reading books and websites, taking classes, or talking to other sheep producers. Skills, in my estimation, can only be gained by doing. The only way to get better at flipping and holding a ewe for shearing for example, is to do it many times.

New and aspiring shepherds have a tremendous amount of knowledge-building resources available. One of my favorite books on the subject of grass-based sheep production - More Sheep, More Grass, More Money by Peter Schroedter - offers a wealth of knowledge about everything from breed selection and pasture management to predator protection and lambing systems. Similarly, the Sheep 201 website (http://www.sheep101.info/201/) managed by Susan Schoenian from the University of Maryland is a tremendous resource for folks new to the business of caring for sheep.

Without developing hands-on skills, however, the knowledge contained in these and other resources is useless. The best vaccination program, for example, is worthless if a shepherd doesn't know how to give an injection safely. In previous years, Flying Mule Farm has offered an apprenticeship program to give 2-3 individuals an opportunity for intensive hands-on learning. While we feel that our apprenticeship program has been successful (at least three of our apprentices now raise their own sheep), we've decided to take our educational program in a new direction in 2012. This year, we're offering a series of Shepherding Skills Workshops, in which we'll combine knowledge transfer and hands-on skill building opportunities. Our first workshop, on January 22, will cover vaccination programs and preparations for lambing. Participants will have a chance to learn about our vaccination program while they are learning how to give injections. We'll also cover the types of supplies and equipment we'll have on hand once we start lambing in February. Future workshops will cover lambing, shearing and wool handling, vegetation management, grass finishing and stock handling. For a complete schedule, go to our website at http://www.flyingmulefarm.com/shepherding_skills_workshop_series.

At one time, most shepherds learned the skills of the trade by working in the family business. For many of us, these opportunities no longer exist. I hope that our Shepherding Skills Workshop Series will provide an opportunity for the type of hands-on learning and mentoring that used to be common in our industry. Stay tuned!

No such thing as average

2011-12-29T16:40:00.000-08:00

The ewes need supplemental protein and energy at the moment.

Starthistle seedheads contain some energy - even at this time of year. The sheep eat these seedheads despite the thorns.

On this date last year, we'd received 10.99 inches of rain for the month of December. Our average for December (at least in the ten Decembers we've lived in Auburn) is 8.13 inches. So far in 2011, we've received 0.10 inches. After getting just 1.12 inches in November, things are awfully dry here. One definition of average is that half of the data falls above the average, and half falls below. We're definitely on the "below" side this December!

Statistics may be boring, but the ramifications of such a drastically below average December (rainfall-wise) are anything but boring. We're scrambling to find enough feed for the sheep now, let alone in 8 weeks when we start lambing. While the cold weather and lack of moisture means that green grass is scarce right now, it also means that the forage we've already grazed isn't regrowing. We experience our greatest forage demand in the last 4-5 weeks of pregnancy and the first 4-6 weeks of lactation - in other words, from mid-January through mid-April. We bet on the averages - usually, we'll have enough rain to ensure the onset of spring grass growth by the third week of February. This year, I'm not certain we'll win our bet.

We have several courses of action. First, we're trying to save some forage that we haven't grazed for more than a year - this will hopefully get us through the first few weeks of lambing. Second, we're providing supplemental protein and energy to the ewes right now. The protein will help them digest the rougher, drier forage that we have available, and the energy will keep them going during these colder days. If our winter drought continues, we may need to consider additional supplemental feed. We may also need to consider selling some ewes to make sure our feed demand matches the quantity and quality of our supply.

In the meantime, we'd appreciate prayers for rain! Here's hoping for a wet start to 2012!

A Shepherd's Christmas Chores

2011-12-22T18:37:00.000-08:00

WhileChristmas Day is a special day for our family, it’s also a day like mostothers. We still need to check thesheep, feed the guard dogs, gather the eggs – in short, the chores still haveto get done. For me, my chores as ashepherd take on a different feeling – indeed, a different significance – onChristmas Day.

Generally,our chores get done a bit later on Christmas. We’re up just as early, but mostly because we’re all curious to see whatSanta Claus brought for us. Afteropening our gifts and enjoying a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, the girls and Ihead out to care for the animals. Ourhome chores – feeding and watering the horses and chickens (and any randomsheep that happen to be at home) – go quickly. Then we load the border collies into the truck and head off to check thesheep at our rented pastures.

Because it’s Christmas morning, we’re usually the onlyfolks on the road, which makes the drive enjoyable. I most notice the lack of traffic in thesolitude and quiet that greets us at the ranch. Usually, the only sounds we here are the birds, the livestock, and maybean occasional neighbor kid playing with a new toy (rather than the distanttraffic we usually hear). Since we tryto do most of the significant work in the days leading up to Christmas, ourChristmas chores generally consist of feeding the guard dogs and walkingthrough the sheep to make certain they’re all healthy.

Shepherdingis usually a solitary endeavor that provides time (if I’ll take it) forcontemplation. Perhaps the extraordinaryquiet of Christmas, combined with the significance of shepherds in theChristmas story, make Christmas chores an especially contemplative time forme. I find the quiet and slower pace ofChristmas Day comforting. On a normalday, I’m rushing to complete one task so that I can move onto the next one; onChristmas Day, I find that I get to enjoy the chores before me, rather thanworrying about the work to come. I alsofind myself thinking about the generations of shepherds that have lived beforemy time, and I wonder what they experienced and thought about on cold days nearthe winter solstice. Despite thechallenges of the life I’ve chosen, Christmas Day chores always remind me ofhow lucky I am to be working with animals, to be working outdoors, and to beworking with my family.

MerryChristmas!

Sheep Camp Beans

2011-12-16T19:31:00.000-08:00

I'm fixing this recipe to share with fellow vendors at tomorrow's Auburn Farmers' Market. It changes each time I make it (depending on what I have on hand), but here's what's in it this time:

1 lb Flying Mule Farm Basque Chorizo
1 TBS olive oil
About a half cup of onion
5 cloves garlic
Some red wine (not sure how much - pour till it looks good!)
Some water (same deal as above)
1 can pinto beans (drained)
1 can kidney beans (drained)
1 can stewed tomatoes (I like the Italian seasoned variety)
1 can diced green chilies
Dash of cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste

I like to make this recipe in a cast iron dutch oven over a camp fire, but it can be made indoors as well! A crock pot works great!

Remove the sausage from casings and brown in the dutch oven. Remove from pot. Add olive oil and saute onion and garlic. Add sausage, beans, wine, water and chilies. Season to taste. Cook low and slow for several hours (or all day, if possible). Have a taste of the red wine. Cook a bit longer. Serve with good bread!

Conflicted about Wolves

2011-12-14T18:51:00.000-08:00

The Sacramento Bee reported last Sunday that a single grey wolf has migrated from northeastern Oregon (go to http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/11/4114710/will-cry-of-the-wolf-return-to.html#storylink=misearch for the article). This wolf, which descended from wolves that were reintroduced to the Northern Rockies in 1995, "could be in Yreka in two days," according to a California Department of Fish and Game official quoted in the article. The last California wolf was killed in Trinity County in 1924.

I'm feeling conflicted about this development. On the one hand, I love what I do for a living in part because I get to part of the natural world - I get to work outside in relatively wild habitat nearly every day. I'm thrilled when I see wildlife - including the large predators that inhabit our area (mountain lions, black bears and coyotes). On the other hand, I have a responsibility to care for my livestock - they depend on me for safety. We use non-lethal methods of protecting our sheep from predators (electric fencing, livestock guardian dogs and llamas), which have so far proven very effective. Despite our commitment to living with the predators in our environment, I would not hesitate to protect my sheep if I observed an actual predator attack. (Note: the only sheep we've lost to predators were killed by a neighbor's dog - and we didn't have a guardian animal with the sheep at the time).

Wolves are a different matter entirely. I'll admit that I'd be thrilled to see one in the wild (from a distance!), but I'd also be extremely concerned for the safety of my animals. I know sheep producers in the Rockies who have had livestock guardian dogs killed by wolves - coyotes and mountain lions generally won't attack a guardian dog. I know other producers who have lost mature cows to wolves.

Wolves may also change the dynamic in terms of human relationships around ranching and rangelands in California. In the last 10 years, we've made tremendous strides in finding common ground between environmentalists and ranchers. The California Rangeland Conservation Coalition, for example, is a collection of ranchers, agency staff and environmentalists who are committed to protecting habitat by maintaining viable ranches on these lands. In other states, wolves have proven to be a polarizing force politically. I hope we have time to strengthen our relationships over the management of rangelands before for we must deal with the arrival of wolves in California.

Always More to Learn!

2011-12-09T14:27:00.001-08:00

I'm beginning to realize that raising sheep will involve a lifetime of learning. Each season - each day, in fact - offers new lessons (provided I'm paying attention). As first generation producers, we've learned some of these lessons the hard way; others we've learned from mentors throughout the sheep industry. In turn, we try to share the lessons we've learned with others (through workshops, writing and other avenues - including this blog!).

Sometime in the late fall every year, we bring the ewe flock into the corrals to trim their feet in preparation for winter. Usually, we've done this soon after we pull the rams from the flock in mid-November. This year, we waited several weeks - seems that any stress on the ewes in their first 16-18 days of pregnancy can cause them to lose their fetus(es). We're hoping that delaying this work by three weeks will increase our lamb production.

We've been battling footrot - a fungal infection of the foot - since we started in commercial sheep production 6 years ago. This disease can cause significant production losses. Sheep with sore feet don't move around much, sometimes barely grazing enough to maintain themselves. Since lambing rates are directly related to nutritional intake prior to and during the breeding season, ewes that aren't eating enough do not have as many lambs. In past years, we've relied on the FootVax vaccine to help reduce our footrot problems; however, the vaccine was pulled from the market about a year ago. Since then, we've relied on regular trips through a zinc sulfate footbath. We've also tried to remove the ewes with the worst problem (or the least resistance) from our flock - and we haven't kept the offspring from these ewes, either.

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, we trimmed the feet of all 230 ewes and ewe lambs. Our flock includes about 85 cross-bred "mule" ewes (a cross between a Bluefaced Leicester ram and a whitefaced female) and about 105 whitefaced ewes (including Border and North Country Cheviots, Dorper and Dorper crosses, Dorsets, Coopworths and about 35 yearling Columbia ewes we purchased last spring). The results were informative!

Of the mule ewes, we had fewer than 5 individuals with any sign of footrot. Most of these ewes didn't show symptoms of an active infection - they appeared to have fought it off. Of the whitefaced ewes, those that had been in our flock for more than a year were similarly healthy. We noticed that the whitefaced ewes with black feet (the Cheviots, primarily) were especially resistant to the strain of footrot we have. On the other hand, the new Columbia ewes were almost universally infected. We had purchased the Columbia ewes to evaluate their potential as the whitefaced breed in our three-tier breeding system. Based on their susceptibility to footrot, we've ruled out this breed. We did put all the ewes through the footbath, and we expect the foot problems to heal in the next week or so.

Waiting for the ultrasound machine!

Sami reading the ultrasound scan - this ewe is bred!

For the first time this year, we also used ultrasound to check on our conception rates. We selected 20 percent of our ewes at random and Sami scanned them. We had 8 "open" (or un-bred) ewes, which suggests a conception rate of about 80 percent (on the low side of normal). All but one of the open ewes was a maiden ewe (being bred for the first time). Three of the open ewes were in our Bluefaced Leicester breeding group, while five were in our terminal breeding group. If these percentages hold for the entire flock, we have about 35-40 ewes who are not bred. Based on this finding, we put three rams back with the flock. This will hopefully give us a higher conception rate and will provide us with some later born lambs. Since we want ewes that breed early in our breeding season, we won't keep any of the female lambs out of this late breeding. The fact that most of the open ewes where first-timers suggests that we may want to do something a bit different with our pre-breeding nutritional program next year. We also had a ewe-to-ram ratio of about 40:1 this year. We'll purchase more rams next year and reduce this ration to 25 or 30 to 1, which should also improve the conception rate.

This morning, the dogs and I moved the entire flock to a neighboring property about a mile away. I always look forward to this time of year - we get a brief break in our work around Christmas. We'll contemplate what we've learned this year and what we'll do differently next year!

Passing the persimmon trees.

Fresh grass!

Heading out for new pasture!

Water Hot!

2011-12-07T19:57:00.001-08:00

J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is among my favorite series of books - I'll admit, I've read the trilogy more than once. My favorite poem in the trilogy appears early in The Fellowship of the Ring:

Sing hey! For the bath at close of day
that washes the weary mud away
A loon is he that will not sing
O! Water Hot is a noble thing!

O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain,
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.

O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed
but better is beer if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.

O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet!

You may wonder what this has to do with sustainable agriculture - probably not much, but here's the connection for me. Today, we trimmed our ewes' feet and ultrasounded about 20 percent of the flock to determine whether the ewes were bred. We had beautiful weather - cool enough not to sweat, but warm enough not to freeze (at least until the sun went down). By the time I got home after 6 p.m., I was cold and sore. At least for me, there's nothing like a hot shower when I'm cold and sore - I immediately felt better!

We didn't quite finish the feet trimming, so I'm headed out for more physical work tomorrow morning. I'm sure I'll be ready for water hot at "close of day" again tomorrow evening!

Sharing Traditions

2011-11-30T18:40:00.001-08:00

Hoshigaki drying in Courtney's kitchen.

Our friend and fellow farmer Courtney McDonald lives in the midst of an old persimmon orchard near Ophir. Courtney is also a professional chef and the site manager of the Old Town Auburn Farmers' Market. Like our family, Courtney and her partner Eric value the farming traditions that make our part of Placer County so rich. Being blessed with and abundance of "free" persimmons, Courtney has taken it upon herself to learn from the older Japanese farmers who planted many of the persimmon trees that are so common in our part of the county.

Oak Hill Ranch in Auburn, which we've leased for going on 5 years now, has more than 100 old persimmon trees. In past years, we've anxiously awaited the time when the hachiya persimmons soften on the tree - only then are they ready to eat. I've tried them while they were still firm and have found them so astringent that my mouth feels dry for hours after taking a small bite. Usually the birds can tell they moment they're ripe - it's a race to try to pick them before the starlings, mocking birds and jays get them.

Sometimes persimmons come in odd shapes!

The Japanese farmers in our area have developed several methods for dealing with this problem. The most well-known method - hoshigaki - involves peeling the hard hachiya persimmons and hanging them to dry. These peeled persimmons are massaged daily, and eventually the natural sugars in the fruit concentrate. When they are finished, they taste almost like dates. They're wonderful. Last year, Courtney invited us to help peel a batch that she then dried in her kitchen.

A lesser known method - amagaki - involves dipping the petiole and stem of the persimmon briefly in 100 proof vodka and then sealing the fruit in an airtight container for 10-14 days. The alcohol cures and ripens the fruit. While the persimmon stays somewhat firm on the outside, it ripens and softens to a mango-like texture on the inside.

All this past summer, Courtney bugged Aki, a retired Japanese farmer, to teach her how to make amagaki. This fall, he finally told her how to do it. Courtney shared the method (and some of her first batch with us). Tonight, Emma and I sampled our first attempt.

Sliced amagaki - yum!

They were incredible! I think I like them better than hoshigaki! Being lazier than Courtney, I think I prefer the method, too - dip the persimmons in vodka, seal them up and forget about them for 10 days (and then drink the left over vodka).

Emma sampling our first batch.

Thanks to Aki for teaching Courtney how to make amagaki, and thanks to Courtney for sharing it with us!

Take Your Dog To Work Day

2011-11-30T13:38:00.001-08:00

The ewes just waiting for a border collie to tell them where to move next!

As a shepherd, I guess every day is "Take Your Dog to Work Day" for me - I'd be lost without my border collies, and my sheep would be coyote bait without my livestock guardian dogs. Lately, I've been taking two or three border collies to work with me, but today was Taff's turn to be the only dog to go to work!

Taff - ready for work!

Our dogs have sorted themselves into a hierarchy, which is most easily seen when we're on a walk away from the sheep. Taff, our oldest border collie (and my main dog), is the top dog - he's always closest to me. Ernie, the youngest, would like to be top dog, but he still looks to Taff for direction. Mo, who actually belongs to our daughter Lara, is in the middle age-wise. Mo is a free spirit. He ignores Ernie (his younger half-brother) and he looks up to Taff. When he's not working, however, he'd rather be chasing butterflies or bird shadows.

From the standpoint of work, Mo is easily the most talented dog of the bunch. As I've learned more about how to work in partnership with our dogs, Mo has excelled in all aspects of our daily work - from moving large groups to loading the trailer. Ernie, on the other hand, is the first dog that I intend on training myself. He'll be an outstanding dog if I don't mess him up. Currently, I try to train Ernie on sheep 5-6 times each week.

Taff is a complicated dog. He's easily the most loyal dog I've ever owned. We call him the Buddha collie - he's also the easiest going and most relaxed of any border collie I've been around. From a work standpoint, however, he has his faults (some of which he had when I got him; others of which I'm sure I've created). He works far too close to the sheep most of the time, which can create problems.

When I first got Taff four years ago (when he was four), I left him home one day when I didn't need a dog. He proceeded to destroy my rubber boots, which I'd left in the garage. Since that time, he's gone to work with me nearly everyday. Recently, however, as Mo and Ernie have come with us (and as they've taken on more of Taff's work), he's been grumpy. He pouts and sulks when another dog gets to work. So today, Taff was the only dog I took with me. He gathered our flock of 200+ ewes and helped me move them onto fresh pasture. When we finished, he was anything but grumpy - he bounced and skipped all the way back to the truck!

Speaking of working dogs, we continue to work with Vegas' puppies to prepare them for their lifetime of guarding livestock. At this stage, we're trying to socialize them with sheep. Their only interaction with humans is at feeding time (which our youngest daughter Emma handles) - we don't hold them or cuddle them at all (which is extremely difficult as cute as they are). We've kept a handful of gentle ewe lambs at the house to help us in this training - the sheep aren't afraid of the pups, but they aren't aggressive towards them either. We hope this interaction will prepare these puppies for their guardian responsibilities.

Weather Worries

2011-11-25T16:55:00.001-08:00

A little more than a week ago, the weather forecast in the Sacramento Bee said we would not need to worry - the weekend wouldn't be "ruined" by wet weather. While I've written on this theme in previous years, I never cease to be somewhat offended by the idea that rain during the rainy season is an inconvenience. Since our sheep rely on the grass that in turn relies on precipitation, rain doesn't ruin my weekend this time of year!

Since I rely on grass, and because I work outside nearly every day, I take a personal interest in the weather forecast. While this autumn started out with favorable rain in October, the storms that have been predicted over the last several weeks have fizzled. While we've just barely started into the wet season, I start to get nervous when predicted storms fail to deliver. We've reached the point in the year when the days are short and soil temperatures have dropped enough to where the grass won't grow much, even if we get rain. I think this year's new grass looks dry and stunted - never a welcome sight to a grass-farmer!

While it's much too early to panic, we do start thinking about drought strategies when weather systems fail to deliver. Our drought tool box includes selling ewes (especially those that are not bred), weaning the lambs early, and buying in extra feed. None of these strategies are pleasant, but they reflect the reality of our way of life.

In the meantime, I'm hoping for a few more "ruined" weekends in the near future - let it rain!

Thanks

2011-11-23T16:42:00.001-08:00

My daughters and I were discussing our favorite holidays this afternoon while we were hauling firewood to a customer in Meadow Vista. Lara, our oldest, said that Thanksgiving and Christmas were her favorite holidays, and I have to agree with her. I enjoy the short days, the cold weather, the sense of stocking up and settling in. I also enjoy the chance to think about those things that make me grateful. In many ways, this has been a difficult year for us. We experienced more problems during lambing than we've ever had. We found ourselves spread thin geographically and physically this summer. This fall, I've struggled with the realization that I'm missing some of my girls' growing up time in order to market our products at farmers' markets. Despite these challenges, I'm grateful for many things on this Thanksgiving eve.

I'm thankful for my family - Sami, Lara and Emma put up with my long hours, my frustration (at times) and my exhaustion. My extended family has always been supportive of my farming dreams. I'm thankful that I get to spend part of every day outdoors doing something physical. I'm grateful to my dogs - the border collies and guardian dogs make it possible to raise sheep - and I'm grateful to my sheep. I'm so fortunate to be able to do work that I love. I'm thankful for the customers that "vote" for our products and our production system with their dollars every week, and I'm thankful for the friends I've made because of our products. I'm grateful to my friends and colleagues who extend a helping hand without expecting anything in return. I'm thankful that I can heat my home and feed my family with my own labor and with the labor and skill of people I respect and enjoy.

Tomorrow afternoon, we'll sit down to a feast that features food grown by people I know - a turkey grown by the Diestel family in Sonora (where I grew up), stuffing that includes Basque chorizo that we produced, spaghetti squash from Melon Jolly Farm in Auburn, salad with lettuce from Natural Trading Company in Newcastle, and mashed potatoes from Twin Brooks Farm in Loomis. As we say our prayers of gratitude tomorrow, I'll remember Tim Diestel, Mike Holcomb, Shaun and Allison, Bryan Kaminsky, and Francis and Jan Thompson. I'll think about my friends Roger Ingram, Cindy Fake, Ann Vassar, Allen and Nancy Edwards, Ellen Skillings, Courtney McDonald, Paul Lambertson, Alice Woefle-Erskine, Callie Murphy, Pat Shanley, Bud and Jean Allender, Rich and Peggy Beltramo - all of whom helped make our sheep operation work this year. Thank you!

LGD Puppies and Sheep Work

2011-11-16T19:25:00.001-08:00

Vegas' puppies are now 3-1/2 weeks old - their eyes are open and they are becoming much more mobile! Vegas is proving to be a great mother, although I suspect she's looking forward to the day the puppies are weaned. The hardest part about rearing these pups is avoiding over-socializing them. Now that their eyes are open, we hold them and pet them as little as possible - we want them to bond with our sheep.

Vegas is a great mama - she's very concerned about what
Sami's doing to her puppy.

Puppy pile-up!

Daddy Boise - the ghost dog!

Last night, we de-wormed all of the pups and clipped their toenails. Our friend Kerry Williams, who raises working Pyrenees, suggested this. Their nails can grow long and sharp before they start to walk, which can injure their mother's teats. We clipped the sharp points off - it doesn't hurt them, but they don't like being held (which is probably a good thing, given their future occupations).

When the puppies are 10-12 weeks old, we'll begin selling them to other sheep and goat producers. Based on their parents' guarding abilities, we think they'll be outstanding guard dogs. In the meantime, they are awfully fun to be around!

Sheep Update

The first group of ewes in the footbath - the sheep enjoy a pedicure!

Today marks the end of breeding season for the sheep. After setting up our homemade portable corrals and footbath, we brought both breeding groups in and sorted off the rams. One of the groups went through the footbath (to prevent/cure foot scald and foot rot). The other group seemed to have a fairly heavy internal parasite load, so they were de-wormed. We combined both groups and turned them out together onto fresh pasture. We'll put them through the footbath 2-3 more times in the next 3-4 weeks, culminating with feet trimming and preg-checking in early December. Then we wait - the first lambs won't arrive until the third week of February 2012.

The reward for a long day's work!

Nothing like a Pendleton shirt!

2011-11-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

Last week, the weather finally stayed cool enough during the day to justify breaking out my woolen Pendleton shirts. My collection of Pendletons includes three or four shirts that I bought new or received as gifts. The rest I've inherited from my Dad and my uncle Doug as they "outgrew" them. I have at least one shirt (too small for me now) that dates from the late 1950s. Others I can remember my Dad buying from Baer's Clothing in Sonora before I started school, which makes them at least 40 years old. They may not be the most stylish garments, but then I'm not the most stylish person, either. My Pendleton shirts are far and away my favorite clothes.

That a garment can last for many decades is a testament to the quality of the fabric and the skill of the craftsmen (and women) who manufactured it. As a wool producer, I sometimes wonder if we'd be better served if wool didn't last so long - maybe folks would buy more wool if it wore out as quickly as cotton or synthetic fibers. In all seriousness, I like the fact that the wool we marketed this year will still be in use for years to come - the legacy of our sheep, so to speak.

Pendletons are part of the legacy of my family, too. I have a photograph of my Dad fishing on the beach in Southern California with his uncle Guy (who is wearing a silver Stetson and a Pendleton shirt) in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Uncle Guy and aunt Lois (my Granddad's sister) came to California in the early 1930s over the "corduroy road" through the California desert. They traveled in a caravan of cars that placed planks over the sand to make their journey. They'd reach the end of the planks, walk back, and carry the boards ahead to cover the next stretch of desert. Uncle Guy worked as a mechanic on the docks in Long Beach. My Dad remembers him wearing a Pendleton shirt at nearly every family function regardless of season. As my Dad says, they weren't "cool" shirts (literally or figuratively) - they were "just damn good shirts."

The oldest Pendleton I own is a board shirt that my Dad found in a pool hall in Redlands, California when he was going to college. Since it is a "small," my Dad gave it to me as soon as it fit me (as it no longer fit him). I might have been the only kid in my high school class to wear a shirt that was 25 years old. My oldest daughter has the shirt now.

Baers Clothing in Sonora was the type of men's store that no longer exists these days. I remember walking in the front door past the glass cases of Stetson hats and boxed Pendleton shirts. They had a sign over their dress shirts that said "Custer's Last Shirt was an Arrow." If you came in the back door, you entered on the second floor and walked past the dress shoes and work boots. They also carried Sonora High School lettermen's jackets. I specifically remember at least two Pendleton garments that my Dad purchased at Baers - a lightweight woolen western shirt (which I wore last week) and a beautiful western cut wool coat (which he still has).

Pendleton shirts have never been cheap, which I suppose can be interpreted several ways. They are expensive relative to other shirts, yes; but they are also of amazing quality. I'm happy that winter weather has arrived - I have an excuse to wear one nearly every day! I think of my great-uncle guy, and my uncle Doug, and my Dad, every time I put on a Pendleton shirt.

Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium Report - Volume 1

2011-11-08T07:39:00.000-08:00

Late last week, the 17th annual Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium was held in Petaluma, California. Two of our former interns - Courtney McDonald and Callie Murphy - attended the entire conference (including a great tour of several sheep dairies on Saturday). My friend Roger Ingram and I drove down for Friday. More than 140 folks attended the symposium, including dairy shepherds from Canada and Mexico.

Upon her return to Placer County, Courtney shared the following information with us:

"Recent research at Spooner Station (at the University of Wisconsin) shows that dairy ewes pastured on clover and orchard grass (or any 50% legume) and fed 2-3 pounds high energy grain ration (whole corn) on the milk stand had better milk production and fat/solids composition than traditionally managed ewes fed alfalfa and high-protein grain ration on stand. This study is included in the proceedeings booklet. Having just seeded my pasture with clover and ryegrass, I find this encouraging as I am pasturing my ewes and feeding whole corn and barley on the stand!

"Hand milking is legal for both grade A and grade B dairies!

"Both Bellwether and Haverton Hill dairy wean their lambs at 2 days and then feed Jersey cow milk mixed with 1 raw egg/3 lambs. They had both previously just used the cow milk or milk replacer and lost many lambs...the egg was a tip from an Italian dairy that has worked extremely well. Weirach Farm will leave lambs on for 30 days before weaning. Barinaga Ranch leaves lambs on for 30 days as well.

"Spooner research showed that ewes who kept their lambs on for 30 days but were separated at night and milked in the morning had almost no fat measured in their milk. After much research they found that since the ewes knew they would be reunited with their lambs after milking they "saved" the fat from their milk for the lambs. Bellwether used this method of weaning when they started and had the same problem - they couldn't make cheese from this milk and a local "old timer" explained why.

"Spooner research also shows that crossbreeding dairy ewes with other non-dairy ewes is ideal to promote hardier ewes but keep good milk production. This holds promise for our Blueface Leicester x East Friesian ewes.

"Everyone I talked to who is making cheese right now in California spent time in Europe learning the craft."

Courtney will share more notes and photos soon! Callie is starting a new intensive internship at a goat dairy in Marin County this week, but I'm hoping she'll find time to report on the conference on her blog at www.agandculture.blogspot.com. I'm excited about the prospects for a sheep dairy right here in Placer County!

My Favorite Season

2011-11-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

I love autumn. I love the scents - wood smoke, decaying leaves, moisture. I love the sense of slowing down - our work slows, the world seems to slow. I love the variety - sunny and comfortably warm one day, cold and wet the next. I've always enjoyed change, and the transition from summer to winter is particularly wonderful.

Today's time change allowed me to sleep in without feeling especially guilty - I slept for nearly 10 hours last night, but I still got up by 7 a.m.! My sister and her youngest daughter were visiting, and we had the most enjoyable and relaxing morning with them. At mid-day, we drove to one of our leased ranches and cut firewood for several hours. I then moved a group of sheep, fed the guard dogs, and herded one of our breeding groups back to our back pasture (they'd been grazing some grass for a neighbor who is selling their father's home). Daylight ended with our chores at home and with splitting kindling for the next week.

Part of what I love about my work is that I can see my accomplishments at the end of most days - unlike the office jobs I've had. Autumn represents the annual opportunity to observe these accomplishments. Our lambs are finished and sold, our woodshed and barn (hopefully) are full of wood and hay (respectively). Autumn, for a sheep farmer, is also a season of expectation. Our ewes are with the rams - in preparation for next year's lamb crop. Finally, autumn is the beginning of our rest - the decreasing daylight hours mean we can't work quite as long. In many ways, autumn is a three-month sigh of relief!

Progress

2011-11-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

I took a load of 37 lambs to our processor in Dixon this morning - the last of this year's lambs are finished. For us, this marks tremendous progress in our operation - two years ago, the last of our lambs didn't finish until February - at 11 months of age. We aim to finish our lambs at 95-100 pounds (lighter than conventionally finished grain-fed lambs). The oldest of this year's lambs were seven months of age. This may not seem like a big difference, until you realize that it costs about $5 per month to feed and care for a lamb - in other words, this year's lambs cost us at least $20 less per head to raise. As I think about our management system, our progress can be attributed to three factors: genetics, pasture and animal management and marketing sophistication.

This marks the third year of our use of the three-tier breeding system used in Great Britain to produce grass-fed lambs. We breed our white-faced ewes (Dorset, Dorper, North Country and Border Cheviot, and Coopworth) to Bluefaced Leicester rams. The ewe lambs from this cross-breeding (known as mules in England) are then bred to a terminal sire - this year's lambs were sired by a composite ram (British Suffolk, Texel and Columbia) from Hamilton Brothers in Rio Vista, and by an extremely thick Border Cheviot buck. This F2 cross maximizes something called hybrid vigor - the offspring of this breeding perform better than either parent, in essence. Some of this year's lambs gained more than a half pound per day on grass.

Our animal management systems have also improved. Most shepherds have had some experience with footrot - a debilitating bacterial infection of the foot that causes significant production losses. While our genetic program has selected for sheep with more resistance to this problem, our ability to put all of the sheep through a footbath on a regular basis has had a tremendous benefit. We've also improved our mineral supplementation - our region is extremely deficient in selenium - which has improved health and weight gain.

We have been so fortunate to lease pasture at Elster Ranch between Grass Valley and Auburn for the last two years. New owner George Nolte and cattle tenant Bill Boundy have invested incredible time and resources in improving the pastures at the ranch - we had 2 foot high clover to graze in October. We learned this year the benefit of leaving the pastures longer after grazing - if we left grass and clover at an 8-inch stubble height after grazing, we were able to regraze in 25-30 days. By leaving more, we were able to graze more. While we won't be grazing at Elster Ranch next year (George is expanding his cattle operation and needs more pasture), we hope to apply what we've learned these last two years to the irrigated pasture we're leasing next year.

Finally, the commodity price for lamb has created more opportunity for everyone in the sheep business. This year, we were able to market our lighter lambs at a profitable price, which allowed us to save our pasture for the better performing lambs. We've also added several new products to the things we market directly to our customers. Instead of only offering lamb at the farmers' market, we now offer sheep skins, yarn and wool roving.

Because all farming is tied to the rhythms of the seasons, progress can be slow sometimes. I learn something new everyday, but the accumulation of this knowledge may not show results for a year or more. At the age of 44, I hopefully have at least 30 more years to learn how to do this better - to make progress!

Turning the Page

2011-10-31T17:58:00.000-07:00

In our farming operation, there are tasks that seem to allow us to complete one season's work and turn our attention to the next season - to turn the page, so to speak. I especially look forward to the page that we turn in the autumn when we market the last of the current year's lambs. Up until this time, we're spread out - ewes with the rams on one or two properties, grass-finishing lambs on another. My days seem to be consumed with moving electric fence and driving. After this time, our flocks are more consolidated - things slow down and I find myself spending much less time on the road.

Ernie and Mo - ready to go to work!

Today, I weighed and evaluated our last 39 lambs. These lambs have been on the best grass/clover pastures that we have access to - this year, they've been at the Elster Ranch between Auburn and Grass Valley since early June. Tomorrow, I'll ship these lambs to our processor, and beginning next week, we'll begin to market the last of our lamb at the Auburn and Roseville farmers' markets. After weighing the lambs, I drove back to Auburn to move one of our groups of breeding ewes onto fresh feed. I ended the day by training my youngest border collie (Ernie) on a group of ewe lambs we've separated from the rest of the flock for just this purpose.

One of the most satisfying parts of farming, at least for me, is the opportunity to see what I've accomplished at the end of the day or at the end of the season. I've always enjoyed stacking wood for this reason. Today marked the culmination of a process that began just about 12 months ago when we put the rams with the ewes in the fall of 2010. While our lambing season was challenging this year (I just looked back at my blog entries for February and March), our lambs did exceptionally well this summer and fall. Looking at this last load of lambs, I'm extremely pleased with the progress we've made in our genetics and our management. We've started the cycle over again - the rams are currently with the ewes - and I'm excited about our prospects for next year.

Can you find the ram in this photo?

Boise's ready to lead the sheep onto
fresh pasture.

Autumn has always been my favorite time of year. The natural world seems to slow down - and if we're paying attention, so do we. My friend Eric Alexander remarked last night that things seem quieter in the fall. The logical side of my brain tells me that this is because there are fewer folks mowing their lawns and using other types of power yard equipment. The spiritual side of my brain tells me that this is because the earth is slowing down - things are going dormant and quiet. Sometime in the next 2 weeks, we'll get our first frost of the fall.

Other farmers and ranchers are marking similar turnings. As I gathered our lambs today, I could hear the cowbells on Dave and Barbara Gallino's cows more than a mile to the west. Dave and Barbara summer their cows in the mountains part way up Yuba Pass. They are gathering their cattle onto their home place before shipping them to the northern Sacramento Valley for the winter. The sound of cowbells is a marker for me - it denotes the transition from one season to the next. Shaun Clark, a young farmerwho grows summer vegetables finished, his clean-up and winter preparations today - the cover crop is planted and the crop residue is gone. I saw Tony Aguilar, who is a mandarin grower, last weekend - he's gearing up for harvest. The expected cold weather will sweeten this year's mandarins!

An autumn sunset behind Shanley Hill - one of my favorite places in all of Auburn!

After tomorrow, my work will take on a different feel. I won't be scrambling to check sheep at three different properties. I still have equipment and fencing to pick up at Elster Ranch, but I won't need to worry about any sheep there. I can turn my attention to getting ready for winter - splitting firewood, raking leaves, and repairing equipment. I can turn the page!

Dog Days (of Autumn)

2011-10-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we hosted a two-day sheep dog clinic with our friend Ellen Skillings. In the midst of the weekend (during which we learned a tremendous amount), our livestock guardian dog, Vegas, gave birth to 8 puppies. What a weekend!

I've written before about my amazement with abilities and intelligence of border collies. I find livestock guardian dogs to be equally amazing, but for different reasons. Vegas, who is an Akbash-Anatolian cross dog, is proving to be a wonderful mother. Our guardian dogs (we have four adult dogs) live with our sheep around the clock. Since we've had guard dogs, we've not lost a single animal to a predator (provided the sheep were with the dogs).

Guardian dogs use a strategy of escalating aggressiveness to ward off predators, which in our neighborhood include coyotes, mountain lions, black bears, and domestic dogs (the latter are often the biggest threat). Our guardian dogs will first bark to warn a predator not to come any closer. If the predator persists, the dogs will bristle and snarl. The third and final stage of defense is for the guardian dog to attack the predator. To my knowledge, none of our dogs has ever reached this third stage, probably because the first two are incredibly intimidating.

Guardian dogs must be bonded with the animals they are to protect. This means that puppies are socialized with sheep or goats rather than people. For me, this is the most difficult part of rearing guardian dog puppies - they are amazingly cute and cuddly, but cuddling spoils them for their life's work. Vegas' pups were whelped in our barn. We have a handful of ewe lambs at home, and while we haven't allowed them into the stall with the puppies, the pups will be able smell, hear and eventually see them from the start.

I joke with school kids that one of the best parts of my job is the fact that I get to go to work with my dogs everyday. The more I think about it, the less I believe it's a joke - I love to work with my dogs. I've always had dogs as pets, but working dogs - both herders and guardians - make incredible partners.

Can We Afford Cheap Food?

2011-10-25T14:03:00.000-07:00

The headline in the business section of last Friday's Sacramento Bee read "Farmers find U.S. workers wary of hard work in fields." The article described the challenges that Alabama farmers in particular are having in finding field workers. Thanks to Alabama's "tough immigration law," many Latino workers have left the state. One of the farmers in the article indicated that the U.S. workers he's tried to hire "show up late, work slower than seasoned farm hands and are ready to call it a day after lunch.... Some quit after a single day." Another farmer quoted in the article, Connie Horner, who grows 8-1/2 acres of organic blueberries in south Georgia, is considering letting her organic certification lapse because she can't get enough skilled workers.

The article does a good job of discussing the issues surrounding immigration law and labor. It fails, however, to ask the more important questions about our desire for cheap food and its impact on farming and farm labor. Yes, farm work is physically demanding. As a small-scale farmer, I've experienced both ends of the spectrum in terms of peoples' ability and desire to work hard. As a country, we spend less of our disposable income on food than just about any other developed nation. Perhaps this is the conversation we need to be having about farm labor - what is safe, nutritious and wholesome food really worth to us? Can we afford cheap food?

One of my favorite authors, Wendell Berry, in an editorial he wrote with Wes Jackson, puts it this way:

"For 50 or 60 years, we have let ourselves believe that as long as we have money we will have food. That is a mistake. If we continue our offenses against the land and the labor by which we are fed, the food supply will decline, and we will have a problem far more complex than the failure of our paper economy. The government will bring forth no food by providing hundreds of billons of dollars to the agribusiness corporations."

Why Grass-fed?

2011-10-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

When we started raising livestock to feed our community six years ago, we made the decision to go grass-fed. Six years ago, grass-fed meat was still on the fringe of acceptability - both from a consumer perspective and from a producer perspective. Grain-fed beef and lamb was the norm - the proponents of grain-feeding had done an amazing job of equating a grain-based diet with a quality product.

Over the last six years, we've tried to educate our customers about the benefits of grass-fed meats (mostly lamb, in our case). Unlike some "grass-fed" producers in our community, we've made the decision that for us, grass-fed means that we don't feed any grain - ever - to the animals we raise for market (for more information, go to our website: http://flyingmulefarm.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/FMF_grass-fed.241143727.pdf). One of the biggest changes in the local marketplace has been our customer's awareness of the benefits of truly grass-fed meat.

In an article in the most recent issue of the Small Farmer's Journal (http://smallfarmersjournal.com/), Chad Chriestenson of Lafayette, Colorado, summarizes current nutritional and production-focused research into grass-meat. According to the article, research conducted by USDA and Clemson University has found grass-fed meats (compared to grain-fed) to be:

1. Lower in total fat.
2. Higher in beta-carotene.
3. Higher in Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol).
4. Higher in B vitamins thiamin and riboflavin.
5. Higher in calcium, magnesium and potassium.
6. Higher in total omega-3's.
7. Healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65:1 versus 4.84:1).
8. Higher in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a potential cancer fighter.
9. Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA).
10. Lower in the saturated fats linked with hear disease.

These nutritional benefits are an important part of why we chose a grass-based production system, but they aren't the only reasons. We feel that pasture-based livestock production has a number of environmental benefits, as well. We don't need to import grain grown in another region (often in another state) - we grow plenty of grass right here. Well managed pastures develop and maintain soil organic matter and enhance the water cycle. Healthy pastures sequester atmospheric carbon, too. Finally, we like the idea that we're raising animals that evolved to live on grass entirely on a diet of grass. Sheep are ideally suited to convert grass into milk, meat and wool.

A commitment to 100% grass-fed production means that we have to be patient. We have to wait for our animals to reach a finished condition (that is, we have to wait for them to put on enough fat to be "finished."). We have to educate our customers about the seasonality and variation in grass-fed production - every year is different. We have to pay extremely close attention to the condition of our pastures - we've found that only the healthiest pastures allow us to finish our animals entirely on grass. Some producers take the short cut of feeding grain for the last 10 or 20 percent of an animal's life - we don't.

We realize that not every eater will prefer the flavor of grass-fed meat - there's room for variation in production systems. However, we are proud of our commitment to a 100% grass-fed system, and we appreciate our customers' support of our efforts! We all need to be more educated about the sources of our food!

Releasing the Pressure

2011-10-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we hosted a sheep dog clinic with our friend, Ellen Skillings. We had a great day - perfect weather, fun people, good dogs!

One of the principles of training a dog (or any animal, for that matter) is that of pressure and release from pressure. Animal behaviorists tell us that our training techniques should mimic the social interactions of the animals themselves. Mother dogs, for example, will train their pups by rewarding good behavior (through licks, etc.) and by correcting poor behavior (through growls and more aggressive actions). Training a dog, then, requires us to correct (not punish) improper behaviors and to reward desirable behaviors.

Ellen explained how tone and sound is the communication tool we can use to help our dogs understand what's expected of them in regards to working livestock. A harsh or low tone can communicate dissatisfaction. A neutral tone can convey a request. A happy or high tone communicates enthusiasm.

Sheep dogs have been an integral part of our sheep operation for five years now - thanks to Ellen. I'm still learning this system of communication. For the most part, our trained dogs (Taff and Mo) put up with my relative inexperience with canine communication. Our newest border collie - Ernie - is still figuring out his job (and my method of conveying what I want him to do).

Ernie's instincts are amazing - he wants to work. As Ellen has tried to tell me repeatedly, my job is to let him - to correct Ernie's poor decisions while giving him the space to try to do the right thing. I've found it easy (perhaps too easy) to correct mistakes - Ellen says I've nagged Ernie about these! I've found it much more difficult to take the pressure off of Ernie when he's doing the right things. It's this release from pressure that allows a dog to learn - I suspect it's the same with humans.

Working sheep with a dog, as I've written before, requires communication between human and dog, between human and sheep and between sheep and dog - it's incredibly complicated. The more I learn, the more I appreciate the complexity of this system. I've found that improving my relationship with my dogs and my sheep requires a sustained investment in learning how to communicate more effectively. I'll be learning this for the rest of my life, I believe!

Value-Added Without Adding Value

2011-10-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

For the last 6 or 7 years, we've marketed grass-fed lamb at our local farmers' markets. To do this legally, we must take our lambs to a USDA-inspected facility - our closest option is in Dixon (about 65 miles away) - and have them harvested and cut-and-wrapped. By converting our lambs into a meat product, we are attempting to "add value" to our production.

When the lamb market was low, this worked great! We'd take a lamb that was worth about $110 at an auction, spend $65to haul it to Dixon and have it converted into meat that we could sell at the farmers' market, and sell it retail for about $250. At this rate, we enjoyed a net profit of $75per lamb. Sure, I spent most every Saturday working (selling lamb at the farmers' market), but this system worked fairly well!

Today, our 100 pound lambs are worth about $1.90 per pound (for a total value of $190). Our processing costs have increased to $80-90 per lamb. Fuel prices have also increased - if I haul 20 lambs to Dixon, the transportation cost (for hauling live lambs and picking up meat) is about $10per head. While I've raised my prices somewhat, the retail value of the meat from one lamb is about $280. In other words, I could sell my lambs for $190, or I could spend an additional $90 to $100 per lamb. At current market prices, I am breaking even or even losing a small amount of money on each lamb - and still spending every Saturday working.

My dilemma is a micro-economic version of a macro-economic phenomenon. Live lamb prices have risen by 50% since last year (due to fewer Australian and New Zealand imports, the relative value of the U.S. dollar to other currencies, and the lack of domestic supply). Prices paid to processors (like Superior Farms, who processes my lambs) for wholesale meat have also risen about 50%. At the retail level, however, prices have only risen by about 16%. Retailers have been reluctant to raise prices more significantly because there is a price line over which consumers won't cross. Rather than buy lamb, the theory goes, consumers will buy a cheaper protein (beef, chicken or pork).

We see this in our farmers' market sales. While we've raised our prices slightly, we are reluctant to go much further. We feel like our customers will not buy a leg of lamb that is priced at more than $10 per pound. As I've indicated above, our current prices result in a total lamb value that results in a loss when compared with selling our lambs to our processor (and having our Saturdays free).

What would a rational business person do in this situation? The live lamb market will most certainly decline in the next 3-5 years. We've spent considerable time and effort in developing a genetic program and brand identification to meet our customers' needs and desires. If we pull out of the farmers' market, will our customers remain loyal to us when we come back? Surely other businesses face these questions!

Every business must balance short-term cash flow and profitability needs against long term marketing strategies. One of the reasons that we started Flying Mule Farm was to participate in the feeding of our community. We appreciate the direct feedback we receive from our customers, and we like to be part of an effort to localize our food production system. On the other hand, we also need to make a living. As a husband and a father, I also feel like I need to be part of my family - working every Saturday morning can limit my ability to do so.

I'm most interested in other perspectives on these questions - what am I missing? I hope others will offer insights and perspectives!

Giving and Receiving

2011-10-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

Exchanging help is part of living in a farming or ranching community. In previous eras, putting up hay or building a barn were community efforts - they still are in Amish country. Today's big jobs - branding calves or shearing sheep, for example - remain group efforts, for the most part. Sharing work is part necessity and part enjoyment. Farmers and ranchers can't afford to keep a large crew employed all year for the few times that extra hands are needed (nor are there enough skilled workers around, many times), so "volunteer" help is necessary for these big jobs. Equally important, these big jobs provide an excuse for families and friends to gather to share in the annual mileposts that mark the farming year. These days feature hard work, to be sure, but they also feature a great deal of fun!

Sometimes, we all need help in our more mundane tasks as well. I find that it is much easier for me to offer help than it is for me to ask for it (and I suspect the same is true for many ranchers). Part of this is because I know how busy my colleagues are - asking for help takes them away from their own work. Part of this is because of my own work ethic - I should be able to do these day-to-day jobs by myself. Sometimes, however, circumstances and physical limitations combine to make asking for help imperative. This week has marked one of those times.

Wednesday morning as I was stooping to tie two sections of electro-net fencing together, my lower back seized up. My back occasionally goes out, but this time it was especially debilitating - probably an accumulation of the physical work I've been doing lately. Following my injury, I sorted and loaded 20 ewes to take to Reno for processing and then spent 5 of the next 6 hours sitting behind the wheel of my truck - my back got worse as the day progressed. By the time I started home from Reno with 1500 pounds of beef and sausage, I realized that my body would not allow me to unload and store the meat. I swallowed my pride and called my friend Paul for help. He met me at Roseville Meat and proceeded to unload all 28 boxes of meat by himself.

The nature of my work is that I do some physical labor every day. This weekend, we're hosting a sheep dog training clinic. Today I had scheduled the set-up for the clinic - hauling and setting up a round pen and holding pens for the sheep. After a trip to the chiropractor confirmed that my back was messed up (and with strict instructions not to lift anything), I called my friend Courtney to help with this project. While I still have some set-up to complete, the heavy lifting is done, thanks to her help.

Despite my reluctance to ask for help, I find that my friends are nearly always able to provide assistance. I hope that I am able to return the favor. One of the best parts of living and working in a farming or ranching community is that this exchange of help proceeds without any accounting - Paul didn't keep track of his efforts so that he could ask for reciprocation. He and I both know that I'll help him at some point in the future - same with Courtney. Giving and, as importantly, receiving help graciously is integral to rural life. The receiving part is something I'm still learning.

Rain Delays

2011-10-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

When I left the house this morning, the National Weather Service website was predicting a 60 percent chance of rain after 11 a.m., with rainfall totals likely to be less than a tenth of an inch. It's now 11:24 a.m., and we've already measured close to four tenths of an inch - and it's still raining! That meteorology is such an inexact science is not a shock to me - I'm used to the weather folks being wrong. And I'm grateful for Mother Nature's irrigation services on the clover seed I planted last week. Fortunately, I was smart enough to take my rain gear with me to Elster Ranch this morning, so moving the lambs to a pasture a quarter mile away wasn't quite the soggy job it might have been! Now, I'm waiting for my rain gear to dry a bit before heading back out into the storm. While these autumn rains sometimes hamper our efforts to get outside work done (for example, I can't deliver firewood today), they are a welcome and needed break from the hectic pace of our summer work.

There are some tasks that require us to work through the rain. The lambs at Elster Ranch, for example, were out of grass in the field they'd been in for several weeks. Moving them required setting up new fence about a quarter mile away. Taff (my border collie) and I then walked the sheep up to their new pasture. Taff doesn't mind the rain - it keeps him much cooler while he's working. I think it has something to do with his Scottish heritage! As long as I'm prepared with the proper clothing and footwear, I don't mind it either. I love drying out in front of the woodstove after working in wet weather!

Other work, like loading and hauling firewood, is best left for drier weather. I was supposed to deliver a cord of oak to a customer later today, but the ground quickly became too wet and slippery for a loaded truck to navigate. While I don't mind working in the rain, I also don't enjoy getting stuck in the mud. While today's delay means I'll be busier the rest of this week, it's nice to have an excuse to rest this morning! Sometimes, Mother Nature reminds us to slow down and live in the moment!

Beginnings and Preparations

2011-10-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

Most people associate springtime with new life, but for me new life begins with the preparations I make in early autumn. Since we lamb in the later winter and early spring, ovine biology requires me to think at least 5 months in advance. Similarly, preparing our pastures for finishing lambs next spring and summer requires action during the fall months. In many ways, our sheep year started today.

This morning, we brought all of the breeding ewes into the corrals and sorted them into two groups. The first group, comprised of our our whitefaced ewes (mostly Border and North Country Cheviot, Dorper-cross, Coopworth and Columbia ewes, were joined by our Bluefaced Leicester rams. Their cross-bred lambs are the "mules" that are the maternal foundation of our flock. The second group, made up of our mule ewes, were joined by our "terminal" rams. All of the offspring of this mating are marketed - the hybrid vigor of this F2 cross results in fast growing lambs.

Two of the rams - waiting to be unloaded from the trailer.

"We can see the ewes - let's go!"

Ready to go to work!

The ewes were ready, too! Perfect!

After sorting the ewes, I overseeded clover into our largest irrigated pasture (about 20 acres). I put roughly 45 pounds of Ladino clover seed and 45 pounds of Renegade red clover onto the pasture. This planting is designed to take advantage of the fall's first rain storm (another beginning), due in tonight or tomorrow. In about a week, we'll also fertilize the pasture to encourage the clover to become well established prior to next year's grazing season. This 20-acre field will allow us to finish next year's lambs entirely on forage (grass and clover).

With the beginning of this year's rainy season, we're also enjoying our first fire in our woodstove this evening. The ladies in our house are somewhat cold-blooded - they wanted a fire tonight, so I obliged. We're still gathering this year's wood supply, but it's reassuring to know that we're the only people responsible for a warm house during the coming months!

My work today lays the foundation for the year to come. In 150 days (plus or minus), we'll see our first lambs. In about 180 days, we'll graze the clover I planted today for the first time. The rains that will start this week will germinate the grass that will sustain our sheep in the coming year. The wood that I split tonight is the first of lots of wood. I'm lucky to be so connected to the the rhythms of the year.

Knitting Sheepherder

2011-09-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, my sister taught me how to knit. As a sheep farmer, I thought it was important to know something about how to use all of the products my sheep produced. As someone recovering from two broken arms (that's right - two!), I hoped that learning to knit would help me recover some manual dexterity. On both accounts, learning to knit has been rewarding and enjoyable! My skills are very basic - I've knitted several scarves and one simple hat - but I do have a much greater appreciation for the skill involved and for the versatility of wool. Learning to knit also gave me the incentive to try to have finished products made from our own wool.

For the first time this autumn, we are attempting to market some of our wool directly to our customers, as yarn and roving (cleaned and carded wool that is not spun). When we sheared the sheep in May, we selected what we thought were the 30 or so best fleeces (based on cleanliness, lack of hair - we have some Dorper genetics, and and quality of the wool fibers themselves). In early June, I delivered 105 pounds of wool to Yolo Wool Mill in Woodland - about 45 miles from home. Jane Deamer, the owner of Yolo Wool Mill, and her crew scoured (washed) and carded the wool and spun some of it into yarn. Of the 105 pounds of "grease" wool I delivered, I received 54 pounds of back in the form of yarn and roving.

While the hard work of marketing is just beginning, this new enterprise looks promising from an economic perspective. This year, I would have received $111 for the 105 pounds of wool I had processed, had I sold it on the commodity market. While price this is better than that we received in past years, it just barely covers the cost of having the sheep shorn. We paid $4 per pound (grease wool) to have the wool scoured (plus a $25 "membership" fee). The roving cost an additional $12 per pound (clean wool), and the yarn cost $16 per pound (clean wool). If we're able to sell all of our yarn and roving, we'll net about $1,100 on our wool enterprise.

This year's wool is a blend of our best wool ewes - our Border and North Country Cheviots, our Bluefaces Leicester cross ewes, our Coopworth ewes, and our East Friesian dairy ewes. According to The Knitter's Book of Wool (by Clara Parkes), Cheviot wool is springy and dense, and suitable for outerwear. Bluefaced Leicester wool is softer and works well for knitting and felting. Coopworth wool is long-stapled and works for outerwear garments. Parkes doesn't include Friesian wool, but my observation suggests that it has similar qualities - it's long-stapled and fairly soft.

While I would like to be able to do everything from start to finish with our sheep (raising them, butchering them, shearing them, processing their wool, etc.), it simply isn't possible at the scale at which we operate (and in the case of meat, it's not possible legally, either). I also have realized that a viable community of small farms needs small-scale processing options - like Yolo Wool Mill. If we can make a profit with our woolen goods, we'll help Yolo Wool Mill stay in business, too - it's all interconnected.

On your next visit to the Auburn Farmers' Market, look for Flying Mule Farm - I'll be the sheepherder with the knitting needles!

The Cycle Starts Again

2011-09-28T06:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked the beginning of another cycle in our sheep production system. With help from my friend (and our local farm advisor) Roger Ingram, and intern Paul Lambertson, I went through all of our ewes in preparation for turning the rams in with them next Monday. "Going through" the ewes involves evaluating their body condition (the amount of fat cover they have), which gives us some idea of their nutritional status. We "flush" the ewes prior to breeding them, which means we increase the quality of their nutritional intake - this year we've had the ewes on green brush and irrigated pasture since the last part of August. We also evaluate each ewe's production records - how many lambs did she have last year? - was she a good mother? Finally, in our ongoing effort to eradicate footrot from our flock, we check out their feet.

Out of the 130 +/- ewes that we bred last year, we decided to cull 27. Most of these decisions were made on the basis of our EZ Care Lambing system - we score each ewe on the ease with which she had her lamb, the vigor of the lamb (a measure of milk production in the ewe), and ewe's mothering instincts. Some of the decisions were based on foot health, as well.

Sometimes these decisions are difficult. Roger decided to cull a ewe that had had a uterine prolapse shortly after giving birth. Once a ewe prolapses, she's likely to do so again. This particular ewe had outstanding confirmation, a nice fleece, and was in great body condition. It's tempting to keep a ewe like this in the flock, but doing so increases veterinary and labor costs.

Developing a rational culling policy - and sticking to it - signals the transition from a hobby (e.g., thinking of the sheep as pets) to a serious business. I enjoy all of our sheep, but I also need to make my living by raising them. A ewe that won't produce a healthy lamb (preferably two) each year can't be part of my business. Similarly, a ewe that won't take care of her lambs on her own adds to my labor costs.

Next week, the ewes will be sorted into breeding groups and the rams will be introduced to the flock. The rams will stay with the ewes for six weeks - we've used flushing and a "teaser" ram to help synchronize the ewes' estrus cycles. In mid-November, we'll trim every ewe's feet and start them on regular footbath treatments again. Finally, some time in the third week of February the first lambs will arrive. The cycle of our year starts with the work we did yesterday!

Heralds of Autumn

2011-09-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

As I was moving water at 5 Mile Ranch near Auburn this afternoon, I heard the distinctive sound of sandhill cranes passing overhead - on their way south for the winter. Scanning the cloudless sky, I finally matched the sound with the actual birds - two groups of them. I'd been looking in my weather diary lately, and I was expecting to see them soon.

Despite the hot weather, the migration of the cranes signals the onset of autumn. Even though the days are quite warm, the nights are cool - hinting of the even cooler weather to come. Once the cranes are flying, we feel like we can proceed with our fall work - sorting the ewes into breeding groups and turning in the rams. In many ways, the sheep year starts now - not on January 1. In about 5 months, we'll start seeing the first lambs (and we'll start looking for the sandhill cranes moving north again).

Telling Stories

2011-09-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

In his short story "A Friend of Mine," Wendell Berry writes of his character Elton Penn: "He was tired. He was forty-seven years old that summer ... and he was beginning to know what the older men meant when they told the young ones, 'you don't know what tired is.'" At the age of forty-four, I'm starting to get an inkling of what Berry is describing!

Yesterday, I helped my friend Bill Boundy work his cows and calves. We were joined by the crew at Elster Ranch - and we worked owner George Nolte's cattle, too. Working the calves involves giving vaccinations, putting Bill's brand on his calves, castrating the bull calves, and putting ear tags in. Working the cows and heifers involves boostering their inoculations, changing ear tags when necessary, and de-worming them. Even in cool weather, working cattle in the corrals can be a hot and dusty job; yesterday, we had hot weather!

As we were working, I realized that I was the second oldest man on the crew (after Bill). Seniority is a new experience for me. I think some of us have always been "old timers" because of our approach to life and work, but having my chronological age match my outlook was a revelation.

I've always enjoyed telling stories - recounting experiences I've had or stories that older (mostly) men have told me about work. Yesterday, I found myself telling funny stories about myself - things that I'd done wrong, mostly. Humor always makes hard work go faster (at least in my experience). As one of the senior members of the crew, however, I found that my stories seemed to have different significance. They were funny (mostly), but they also seemed to be instructive to the other, younger guys.

One of the things I enjoy most about ranching is the way in which friends and neighbors help each other out during the times of intense work. The Amish still have their barn raisings; cattle ranchers share their labor for things like branding and gathering. As a sheep rancher (primarily), I've benefited from the help and humor of my friends and family during shearing and lambing.

Another of my favorite authors, Wallace Stegner, writes about the paradox of the Westerner. We often think of the lone cowboy as the epitome of the Westerner. However, those who stuck in the West - those who stayed and succeeded - had to work together. Cooperation, in the West, means success. Part of cooperation is the stories we tell - humor makes the work go faster, and the lessons that we older guys have learned help the younger folks avoid our mistakes (sometimes)!

Reflections on the Fair

2011-09-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

As I understand the origins of 4-H and Future Farmers of America, these organizations were created in part to educate farmers and ranchers through their children. By teaching the latest production techniques to kids through the cooperative extension system, farmers and ranchers would adapt their production systems to apply modern scientific advances.

With the Gold Country Fair just completed, I'm reflecting on the modern role of 4-H and FFA. Our oldest daughter, Lara, showed a market lamb, a breeding ewe and her dog (Popcorn). Our youngest, Emma, showed her rabbit and her (our) dog, Taff. My wife, Sami, was the project leader for the Gold Country 4-H sheep group. I helped and supported where I could.

Over the years, 4-H and FFA have evolved from a system of extending knowledge to farmers and ranchers through their kids to a program of introducing youth to agriculture and other activities through hands-on learning. Our experience at the recently concluded fair highlighted this new purpose for me.

Many of the kids that show market animals at the fair do so in part to learn and in part to make money. A champion lamb, for example, might provide a child with a net income of more than $2,000. Youth exhibitors and their families often use these projects as a way to learn responsibility and to earn money for college. While I don't want to diminish these purposes, I think that 4-H and FFA have a higher calling - one which changes the methods we use to teach youth exhibitors at county fairs. I think the greater calling for these programs is to ignite a spark that can lead to a career in production agriculture. Some of the exhibitors at the Gold Country Fair will be the farmers and ranchers that feed us in the future.

Lara Macon and Rhian Brinskele showing meat goats during this year's Gold Country
Fair Master Showmanship competition.

Part of this year's Gold Country 4-H sheep group!

Jake Richardson - obviously very happy about exhibiting the reserve grand champion lamb - you should see the belt buckle he won!

Emma Macon and her rabbit, Jasper.

One of the kids in my wife's group, Jake Richardson, raised the lamb that was selected as the reserve supreme champion lamb at this year's fair. Jake's immediate family does not make its living from production agriculture, but his brothers and his parents are extremely supportive of Jake's interest in sheep production. Over the course of the last year, Jake has helped out on our ranch - processing new lambs, setting up fence, shearing sheep, etc.

Success in the show ring, for a kid like Jake, might be the spark I mentioned above. Perhaps Jake's educational and career plans will include production agriculture. If nothing else, Jake now has direct experience in, and deep appreciation for, the work that goes into producing food.

In California, our county fairs have lost state funding and are struggling to stay afloat. The Gold Country Fair, which reflects the agricultural roots and aspirations of our community, continues to play a critical role in the education of existing and future farmers and ranchers. While most producers are no longer introduced to the latest production systems by the 4-Hers in their family, many future producers are first introduced to the idea that farming and ranching can be a career through their fair projects. County fairs are too important to let them disappear!

Valley Trees

2011-09-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

On Friday morning, I drove from Yuba City to Dixon. For the first time in at least 10 years, I drove State Highway 113 north of Woodland - went through Robbins and Knights Landing. While I'm normally a foothills/mountains kind of guy, I realized how much I loved this part of the Sacramento Valley. Since I was driving by myself, I had plenty of time to contemplate as to why this was.

The crops that grow in this part of the valley are incredible, both in variety and in quantity. Between Yuba City and Woodland, I saw sunflowers, prunes (or dried plums, I guess), walnuts, canning tomatoes, field corn, almonds, rice, beans, melons, and alfalfa - and I'm sure I'm missing a few crops. For a foothill rancher who is used to 18 inches of topsoil being a luxury, the incredible productivity of these valley soils was humbling!

But the diversity of crops wasn't the only thing that made this part of the valley attractive. As I drove south, I realized that it was the trees - both native and agricultural - that gave the landscape its beauty. Every road, slough and river was lined with trees, mostly valley oaks and black walnuts. The trees marked field boundaries, too - there were even some in the midst of farm fields. Some were natural, others were obviously planted - some were old enough to have been planted by the original European settlers in this part of the world.

One thing I didn't see, however, were young trees. Virtually all of the oaks and walnuts I saw were huge "grandfather" trees - 3 feet or more in diameter at the trunk. Most were healthy, but some were decadent and decaying - slowly dying from mistletoe infestations or other diseases. I also saw stumps; remnants of trees that had once shaded the road. There were no saplings - no young trees to replace those that had been lost.

Driving by oneself (at least if one is a farmer) can make one philosophical. I started thinking about the men and women who planted these trees. They were probably, almost certainly, farmers. They were also probably long departed. No one (myself included) takes time to plant trees for the sake of shading roadways or field margins today.

I also found parallels between the state of these valley trees and the state of farming in the my part of the world. At 44, believe it or not, I'm younger than the average farmer. In Placer County, for example, two-thirds of our farmers are 65 years or older. The next 10-15 years are frighteningly critical to the future of our local farming community. There are many reasons that young people aren't farming - just as there are many reasons that there are no young trees along the roadways in northern Yolo County. As I drove, I found myself asking, "Who will plant new trees?" As I write this, I find myself asking, "Who will nurture new farmers?"

Lessons from Colfax (So Far)

2011-09-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading Foothill Agrarian lately, you'll know that we've moved all of our 300 ewes to the Edwards Family Farm in Colfax. The Edwards Family has owned 500+ acres of forest land on the north rim of the American River canyon for more than 60 years. After the Ponderosa fire in 2001, Allen and Nancy decided to introduce goats into their operation as a way to manage brush and diversify their production. Several years ago, they got out of the goat business, but they still want to use livestock to manage vegetation - enter our sheep!

We had hoped to utilize the existing medium-tensile electric fence to contain our sheep during the day. Our plan was to let them graze larger areas during the day and to pen them in smaller electro-net paddocks during the night (as added protection against predators). While the goats respected the fence, we soon learned that our sheep would need to be trained to respect it. Our inability to contain the sheep in the existing infrastructure has created some challenges. On the other hand, we had also hoped that the sheep would utilize the blackberries and other brush species. We will turn our rams in with the ewes in about a month, and we were hoping to flush the ewes (that is, put them on a higher nutritional plane to increase ovulation and thus twinning rates) on this forage. So far, this part of our plan has been encouraging.

While it is too soon to make any long-term decisions about whether our efforts will pay off (either for us or for the Edwards family), here's what we've learned so far:

Fencing
The sheep obviously don't respect the permanent fencing. The guard dogs don't either, which may be causing the sheep to go through it. If an animal has it's head through an electric fence before it feels a shock, it will continue through the fence, which seems to be happening. The dry conditions make this especially challenging - the fence is carrying 8,000 volts, but the dry ground limits the shock power on the sheep.

Our only alternative this year has been to use our electro-net fencing. On irrigated pasture, I can build a 6 net paddock (which contains about 1.5 acres of pasture) in 45 minutes. In brushy forestland, this job takes 4-5 hours. Pulling this fence through the brush wears out the fencing, too.

One solution may be to train the sheep to different types of electric fencing during more favorable conditions - we'll work on it this winter.

Forage Quality and Utilization
We're very pleased with the forage utilization we're seeing. The sheep have been as effective as goats on the blackberries, and they also seem to like the other brush species. Given the nutritional profile of these forages (which in some cases are similar to alfalfa hay), we're hopeful that the ewes will put on weight now and have more twins next spring - we'll see!

Labor and Herding
Part of our plan was to herd the sheep during the day. The terrain and vegetation have made this challenging. The sheep tend to spread out more than we expected, which adds to the challenge. The combination of fencing and herding basically requires someone on-site full time, which isn't possible for us this year (we have too many other things to do). In addition, 1,000 sheep might make a full-time herder/fence builder economically feasible. 300 sheep, while they're doing a great job, are not enough to justify hiring someone.

Our dogs have done an amazing job on this project. The steep slopes and brush make their work extremely difficult, but they are handling it. Herding the sheep on foot without dogs would be impossible. The only downside for the dogs are the stickers - there are sand burrs and other stickers which require us to spend close to an hour each evening brushing the dogs.

Conclusions (So Far)

Vegas has done a great job of protecting our flock from predators.
Unfortunately, she's also leading the sheep through the fencing.

Above and below: Sheep DO eat blackberries!

While, we're pleased with the utilization we're seeing on the targeted brush species, the labor involved in this project is overwhelming. If we can figure out how to train the sheep to the existing fencing, the project might work. Stay tuned....

A Shepherd's Perspective on Local Food Systems

2011-08-31T06:05:00.001-07:00

We recently received a request to supply 360 lamb rib chops for an event in Placer County. Seems the folks putting on the event love lamb chops and wanted to support local producers. While I appreciate the support, I find myself troubled by what this order implies about the state of our local food system. As a society, we have become accustomed to being able to purchase any type of food at any time of the year. We fail to consider the repercussions of this approach to buying food locally from small scale producers. The more I think about it, the more I believe that local food system means more than just eating in season and shopping at the farmers’ market. A successful local food system requires collaboration between eaters and farmers – between supply and demand.

Our “eat anything at any time” system of food distribution relies on commodity scale production – “You want lamb chops, we’ve got ‘em – how many do you need?” To fill an order for 360 rib chops, we would need to process 23 lambs. While the $1,100 this order would generate in income for me would be nice, I would need to market 46 legs of lamb, 368 loin chops, 92 boneless shoulder roasts, 46 sirloin roasts, 92 lamb shanks, 23 packages of riblets and 50 pounds of stew meat before I’d realize any profit from these 23 lambs. Furthermore, to fulfill this one-time order, I would be telling my loyal customers at the farmers’ market that they won’t be able to purchase rack of lamb or rib chops from me.

A local food system must ask its participants to work together – “I would like lamb, what do you have that might fit my needs?” Farmers and eaters, in this type of arrangement, are in constant communication. In addition, we must address storage needs – grass-fed lamb chos that are harvested in the fall can be consumed in the springtime if we have adequate frozen storage space (and if we overcome our aversion to frozen meat). Farmers must pay attention to what their customers want, too – we must adapt our products and our plantings to address our eaters’ desires.

Largely, we’ve become a society that makes its dining decisions in the moment – few of us plan our weekly menus anymore. The biological realities of farming require more planning – both on the part of the farmer and on the part of the eater. A local food system, if it is to succeed, must account for these longer term realities and the day-to-day needs we all have for fresh, nutritious food.