Grower’s Meeting
Finally got some time away from the chickenhouses this week. Cobb had it’s quarterly growers meeting and we attended. They smoked baby back ribs for dinner and had a feed nutritionist and veterinarian on hand. The vet put on a presentation on “how a chicken lays an egg” and the feed nutritionist did a presentation on “how feed grows chickens”. I learned a lot, even some stuff I’m not sure I need to know. As always there was lots of discussion about grain prices, the economy, and disease prevention too. The apparent recession and grain prices have everyone in this business afraid of tommorrow.
We got part of the garden started this week too. I hope the recent light frosts didn’t hurt the 3 tomatoe plants we set out. I know the potatoes, onions, brocolli, and cabbage will be fine. I would have covered the tomatoes had I known it was going to frost, but I never seem to have time to watch the weather so I didn’t know it was coming. I’ve been really impressed with the power and agility of the 7010. Seems like the more I use it the more I like it. The low low range makes tilling a breeze. With the 6000 I need to make two passes lots of times, but with the lower gears of the 7010 it only takes one. It does great with the 7ft brush hog too.
The grass we planted on the land we cleared last fall is begining to come up in places. I can’t wait to look over there and see a good stand of grass. Hopefully a few years from now that land will serve double duty as both a pasture and a hay field. My long term goals include running 20-30 head of beef cows and calves. On top of that I hope to fence in some of the woodland that butts up to pasture and run about 50-75 Boer goats. With the litter from the poultry houses I should really be able to make grass grow.
The lights in the chickenhouses are staying on until 10:30 at night now. The lights really make the houses glow from outside. All the more reason I have got to find the time to get those trees planted. I have come to the conclusion that I have to hire more help. I can’t be at two places at the same time. I can either be outside on the farm getting that stuff done or inside taking care of the chickenhouse needs. The question is should I hire someone for inside or outside. I could sure use a break from the daily grind inside. So most likely it will be for inside.
As always there is a ton of stuff to do and not much time to do it in so I’ll close for now……………………make sure to check out the pics I’ve added and thanks for reading!
May 21st, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Hwy man Ic they fixed the comment problem.how have yall been been hoping to c a new update but I know you said you could not do one till they fixed the site.glad to hear thing are working out for ya also glad to see you got to get away from the farm some too. well Im still off work it dont look like ill be going back at all now though back is got a comp break and a compressed disk so probly done trucking for good but that will be ok Im getting the farm going good now so mabe its for the best I been thinking of getting comp to pay for me to go to school and take some ag classes they will have to retrain me for another job anyway so why not farming:].I also been doing some work on my blog trying to keep it up to date as well also have some new pics on the pic page. so stop by and check it out would love to hear from you as well as your readers.well got lots to do so hope alls well hope to hear from you soon later man.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:23 am
Very interesting. I grew up in Iowa, so I\’m quite familiar with farm culture. I live in Los Angeles now, so at the same time, I\’m quite a bit removed. Thanks for taking me back to my roots!
May 27th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Hi Joel!
Glad they got the comment’s section working again. I know I could e-mail you directly, but this is more like visiting at the small town coffee shop. It lets everyone know whats up.
Those grower meetings can be real helpful. The feed company we used to use (back when we had livestock) would hold them twice a year. Once in the winter, and once in the summer. They usually had information that we normally didn’t get from other sources, plus it was a good way to visit with other producers.
I guess the kids are just about ready to get out of school. Most of the schools around here have already held graduation, and the other kids are down to the last days of classes. I’m not sure of how far behind they became due to snow days. We had quite a bit of snow, but it didn’t seem to be as bad as it had been in previous years.
I went to the cemetary on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. There were a number of folks out visiting, and leaving flowers on the graves. I didn’t buy any flowers this year to leave at the section for the Civil War soldiers. They have a nice monument for them, along with a special section for them. I know that not all of the local Civil War veterans are buried there, but there are a number of them. One of my friends has made a project of locating the graves of Civil War soldiers, and getting markers from the VA for the ones without one. I don’t know how many David has put up over the years, but it has been several.
Jim, good idea about getting assistance for retraining. I know of many people who have had work related injuries, and then assume that they will never have to work another day in thier life. Most of them end up in a worse position than if they had gone for vocational rehabilitation and gone into a different career. Good luck with the rehab and classes.
Kevin
May 29th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Glad to see the comments section back up. I figure you are well into peak now and staying busy.
May 29th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Must be having a long hard month of May. I have missed your posts - hopefully you will have some time shortly to get us all caught back up with the happenings there on the farm.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Hi all hope everyone is well Joewl got the email i got the runs taken care of I bought some la200 it took a few days but it went away. Hay season is in full force here now been going to p.t. 3 times a week and trying to cut hay too i got about 45 acres to cut we picked up another field its about 20 acres the realitor who owns it is leting us cut it for free i finished our first field tonight got about 12000# not to bad we bought a used new holand haybine the other day it worked real niceits a 7 foot job. our sikel bit the dust.
Kevin, Im like you I know a few folks that got hurt and could not go back to there job but did not know how to do anything else so that put them in a bad way.I took a lot of biz. man. classes when i worked in the restraunt biz so i have that going for me and the farm is starting to make money in stead of spending it. so that helps to.well got to go for now hope to c you all on my blog as well at 7csfarm.com. well god bless you all and good luck in all your vintures.
May 30th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Just discovered your great blog and have added it to my bookmarks. Was thrilled to find a blog that gives nonfarmers an detailed and interesting account of life on a family farm today. As more consumers find corporate agribusiness unresponsive to their needs, the family farm has greater importance than ever.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Wow, I’m glad to see you all are well, and things going well. The pic of chicken houses at night is great but my DH likes the tractor best.
Good luck in everything, and thank you for getting them to fix the LINK and the comments problems.