From The Web This Week

Found a few interesting things on the web this week.

Switchel looks like it might be an alternative to Kombucha if you use vinegar that still contains the mother.

I enjoyed this post from Becoming Minimalist

Here is a tool for successional planting

I often feel we are starting our farm late but I liked this article and I think it never really is too late to do anything you want.

A good introduction to Permaculture

Raw Milk Petition - Please Send The Below Email To The Local Ministers

You may or may not have an interest in consuming raw milk but if you support our right to choose what we eat please take part in this email petition.

It will not require any more effort than a quick copy and paste and even if you cannot send this email at the requested time please take the time to send it.

We need to show our support for farmers and to make sure the government knows we want the right to choose for ourselves what we eat.

The email list includes that federal and SA government ministers and I will be including the QLD minister for agriculture too agriculture@ministerial.qld.gov.au

If you want to know more about raw milk in Australia Liz over at Eight Acres wrote a great post about it that you can read here which also includes a lot of other links to related articles.

Here is all the information you need to participate in the timed, email protest in support of the Tyler Family (Moo View Dairy in SA), who are returning to court on March 23rd to defend criminal charges for 'selling' raw milk via herd share. 

Please save the below template email into an email ready to send on Monday, and re-post and share within your networks. To be effective we need participation.

If you want to tell the government that we don't accept our farmers being turned into criminals and that we don't accept our government making arbitrary rules about our food system then please help the cause by doing the following:

ACTION: send the below email to the below Federal and State Ministers.

WHEN: 10 am, 23 March (the coming Monday)

WHO: minister@maff.gov.au, farrer@aph.gov.au,mawson@parliament.sa.gov.au, playford@parliament.sa.gov.au,cheltenham@parliament.sa.gov.au, enfield@parliament.sa.gov.au,

EMAIL SUBJECT LINE: Our farmers are not criminals

EMAIL: 

Dear Sir/Madam
With today's court appearance of Mark Tyler in SA as a result of his herd share, raw cow's milk is firmly back in the headlines. We have heard it being decried and demonised in the media. But the reality is raw drinking milk can be and is produced safely under appropriate legislation world-wide. Prohibiting it, as is done in Australia, merely turns farmers into criminals.

Only Australia, Canada and Scotland prohibit the production and sale of raw milk for human consumption. Every other country in the world has enacted legislation to protect herd shares, put guidelines in place to ensure safe production of raw milk, and even to oversee the commercial sale of this milk (including most States in the USA). Although Scotland prohibits the sale and production of raw milk, it is still available to purchase via mail order.

Australia, on the other hand, has not only prohibited the sale of raw milk for human consumption, the State of Victoria has also gone to the as yet unheard of step of insisting that a bittering agent be added to raw milk, with other States indicating they may follow suit.

It has also been strongly indicated that this will include milk produced as part of herd shares, i.e. milk consumers obtain from cows they legally own. In one foul swoop, Victoria has managed to alienate many small dairy producers and make these farmers criminals overnight...for no other reason than milking their cows and providing a safe and nutritious product, or allowing herd share owners access to milk from the cows they (the consumer) own.

Several raw milk producers within Australia have already developed a framework for safe raw milk production, which they utilise in their own dairies. These steps towards reducing risk include regular testing, routines around cleaning and inspecting cows prior to milking, stocking densities, distribution chains, feed requirements, etc. These measures mirror legislation in place in other countries, including New Zealand, England, USA, and others.

Despite this, raw milk continues to be prohibited in Australia. To add insult to injury, raw goat's milk (a substance FSANZ has deemed a high risk product and similar in risk assessment to raw cow's milk) is legal to produce under license in all States except Victoria. Raw cheese production is slated to become legal this year. Yet raw cow's milk continues to be targeted and prohibited.

The truth is, yes...all raw food carries inherent risk. No raw product can be 100% safe, 100% of the time. One only has to look to the recent Hepatitis A outbreak from frozen berries to see an excellent example of this. Pasteurised dairy products are also not without risk. Take, for example, a listeria outbreak in 2013 linked to soft cheeses produced by Jindi Cheese company that caused two deaths, numerous illnesses and one miscarriage. There is risk associated with many foods. However, by working with producers, guidelines can be put in place to minimise risk to consumers from raw milk.

Both local producers and those world-wide have clearly demonstrated that raw milk can be safely produced. Prohibiting raw milk merely serves to drive its availability underground and creates a raw milk black market. Consumer safety is compromised in this situation because safety comes second to avoiding intervention by authorities. By putting appropriate legislation in place that regulates the production and distribution of raw milk, safety levels are maintained, consumers are protected, and small farmers are able to earn a living without being branded criminals. The rest of the world has demonstrated this can be achieved. Surely it is time Australia steps in line with the rest of the world?

Our farmers are not criminals. Please support your local farmers by supporting a rethink over raw milk legislation. Please do not buy into media hype over raw milk safety. The rest of the world produces this product safely and Australia can too. 

Please help bring this issue to light in a positive, constructive fashion, so legislation can be developed and Australia can move forward with raw milk production.

Voters are demanding that raw milk be legalised. We hope we can count on your support to start this process.

Insert: Your name, State, Postcode

Extending Our Native Tree Strip

Just recently we have had some good rain so we have taken advantage of adding a few more trees to our nature strip on the rear boundary of our property.  It just happened to coincide with the free tree giveaway form our local council where we were allowed 10 free trees.

Looking back down the boundary you can see that the ones we planted 4 years ago are now over 2 metres tall.
We know that we will never be the ones who will get to see these trees fully grown but we are still committed to planting out native trees that attract birds, insects, koalas and other native animals.
Our block of land had been cleared of almost every tree which is a real shame which I think is a real shame as established trees add a lot to a property.

Here's hoping whoever buys our pace will appreciate our efforts.

Have you had to plant lots of trees at your place?  Do you get free trees fro your council?

A Latchy Link Up

The other day Linda posted about all the different latches at her place and I thought it was such a great thing to post about.
Like Linda we have cone up with a few free, recycled and creative latches.

There are the chicken pen gates
Gate 1

The bolt on this came from something else and we bent it then added it to our home made gate

Gate 2

This is an actual gate chain but we have modified the top if a star picket (metal fence post)
to make it so it can latch over

Gate 3

The rope latch

Gate 4

Another rope latch on another home made gate

The gate into the back paddock which is also where we bring in the fire wood after driving through the paddocks.

Another home made gate and an old gate chain that is wired to the gate and held
in place by a carabina

The gate into the neighbours paddock

This is just a wire loop that holds a wire gate to the post by looping over the top

The gates between the paddocks
Gate 1

Another gate chain that has a carabina attached.  For a quick shut of the gate it is loop over the wire loop
but you can also lock the carabina through the chain.

Gate 2

This is what is called a cocky gate latch

The side gate

A simple s hook and a bit of chain does the trick here

There are also a few gates with proper gate latches on them but over all very few of our gate latches have been purchased and they all do the job just fine.

When doing this I also noticed that we have a lot of home made gates but I think that is a whole different post.

What sort of locks and latches do you have at your place?

Farms With A Future - A Book Review

I recently came across this book Farms With A Future - Creating and growing a Sustainable Farm Business by Rebecca Thistlethwaite and I was immediately intrigued.  One of the thoughts we have had for our land in New Zealand when we move there is to grow food for sale so I thought I would start to get some more knowledge under my belt about farming as a business.

Right off the bat I want to say that this book is a fantastic read, and even if you have no interest in farming as a business yourself, but are interested in learning how farms can be run in a sustainable manner and sharing personal stories about innovative farmers making a difference in their communities, then this is a book you should look out for or request at your local library.

This book does not focus on agricultural side of managing and running a farm but instead focuses on the specifics of running a farm as a business.  Rebecca has been a farmer herself and in this book she shares all of the wisdom she has learnt over the years through trial and error and the knowledge she has gained for the many books, websites and other farmers she has met along the way.

The book is set out in the order you need to be doing things as you consider setting up you farming business. Each chapter provides detailed information about the things you need to be considering, plans you need to making and considerations before moving on to the next phase in the businesses evolution.  There are plenty of tips, creative solutions and plenty of excellent advice.
The chapters are concluded with take home messages of the key points covered in the chapter which makes for easy reference if you want to go back and check anything.  Linking back to the topic in each chapter as a case study is also a personal story from a farmer who shares their advice, key tips for success and shows how it all gets put into practice.

The farmers interviewed throughout the book run a variety of businesses including orchards, dairy cows, goats, poultry, market gardens and everything in between.  There are big farms, small farms, people who have farmed on land they owned, leased or borrowed.  All of these farmers are innovative and constantly looking for efficiency in both their production models and finances while not causing degradation to the land on which they depend for their livelihoods.

The chapters are titles as follows:

1. For the Beginner
2. Identifying Your Market Niche
3. Finding and Securing Land
4. Financing the Dream
5. Farm Planning for Success
6. Equipment and Infrastructure
7. Soil and Water Management
8. Harvest and Processing
9. Marketing and Relationship Building
10. Record-Keeping and Regulatory Compliance
11. Accounting and Financial Management
12. Human resources and Family
13. Add-On Enterprises and Value-Added Products
14. References and Resources

This book is written and based in America, so there are a few things discussed (such as tax forms) that will not apply to farms in other parts of the world, but this is such a small part that I would still encourage anyone contemplating a farming enterprise to read this book.
There were so many things that I took away from this book that I think I would apply to a farming business. I feel that it really arms the new farmer and the farmer who wants to to make some changes, with practical steps they need to take and consider to turn their farming dreams into a successful and sustainable reality.

Overall I think this is one of the best books I have read related to the practical considerations of running any sort of farming enterprise and would recommend it as a great read to any one looking to farm them selves or be inspired by farmers doing a great job or running their business while caring for the land.

QCG Stop bullying Wandoan farmers

I signed this petition today and thought I would share this as I think farmers should have more rights that what our laws allow.

Click here if you want to support our farmers too.

QGC: Stop bullying Queensland’s Wandoan farmers.  Treat them with the ‘fairness, respect and decency’ they deserve by giving them more than 21 days to prove their strategic cropping land status.  

The Wandoan farming community, who thought its farmland was protected as ‘strategic cropping land’, has been served with a notice from coal seam gas (CSG) company QGC proposing to strip 175 farms of their strategic cropping land status.

QCG has given these farmers just 21 days to complete farm surveys and collate evidence of farming history in order to prevent the foreign-owned  resource company from removing 125,000 hectares from  the Queensland strategic cropping land trigger map. 

The timing of QGC’s application has only deepened the community’s distrust of and disillusionment with the CSG industry.  By lodging the application just before the repeal of the Strategic Cropping Land Act 2011, QGC may negate the need to comply with more stringent environmental protection measures set under new legislation (the  Regional Planning Interests Act 2014) if wanting to pursue CSG developments in the area.

It is a completely unrealistic for QGC to expect that 175 field surveys can be commissioned and completed over 125,000 hectares within just 21 days.   

To do so is completely out of line with QGC’s ‘purported’ corporate principles of treating people ‘with fairness, respect and decency.’  

Such conduct, though legal due to a poorly constructed section of the strategic cropping land legislation, simply serves to further distress farmers already at their ‘wit’s end’ from dealing with CSG companies. Community depression is already endemic. 

Such conduct may also result in significant areas of valuable cropping land being afforded virtually no protection from the negative environmental impacts of CSG developments.

 Please sign to tell QGC to stop bullying Wandoan farmers and to treat them with fairness, respect and decency by allowing them at least 45 days to prepare submissions to prove their strategic cropping land status.

Back To Life On The Farm

It seems like forever that I have blogged and I guess that a month away from blog land is quite a while.  And it is not just that I have not been blogging myself but I have not even been keeping up to date with what you have all been doing either.  I hope to spend some time catching up with it all this week.

Our holiday to NZ was not much of a rest so we have also had a few days away camping since being back.
I will post more about NZ later this week.

Off for a walk when camping

Posing for a photo

Jessie loves to chase sticks especially it that involves swimming

We have been straight back into life here since returning.  The days are cooler and finally drying out after months of rain.  As we are in a subtropical area from April to November should be our dry season.  But here we are half way through June and we have only just had the first 2 days of typical dry season weather.  In fact it is still so wet underfoot that the ground squelches underfoot and when you push a full wheel barrow over it you leave a muddy track in your wake.

The muddy track left by the wheelbarrow

We have been doing a lot of mulching over the last 2 days. We are creating new garden beds where it is inconvenient to mow and mulching old ones.  We have also gotten rid of our above ground pool and are creating a fire pit and seating area.

A new Garden bed under the bottle brush.

The fire pit.
We are using the break drum from a Mac truck to contain the fire

 Hubby has been busy too building a new arbor at the back of our shade house.  He and my dad built one a couple of years ago at the front of the shade house so now we have a matching (well almost) pair.
It is made from posts and slabs that he milled himself.  He is a arborist so these were made from some trees he cut down a few years ago.

Phase 1

Trying to get the other side to match on a sloping site.

The finished product

I now get to decide what to plant around it.

 Hubby has also spent a few hours dealing with the piles of wood in our paddock.  They have been cut into disks and drying out for the past 12 months.  I think they look really unsightly in the paddock and will be glad to see them gone.  So it was time to split them and get them in the wood shed or at least out of the paddock and against the back of the wood shed once it is full.
For this we organised a wood splitter from one of the locals who sells fire wood.  This was such a good idea and now it is all split and just has to be moved.

One pile done 2 more to go.

On to pile number 2 

 Well I better get going we are going out to lunch to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary

What's going on at your place?.

Pasture Management

Back in February I attended a Joel Salatin Masterclass and it was a really informative and entertaining.

I came away with some great information and ideas.  One of the topics discussed was mob stocking.  This is basically a system of providing cattle with a limited grazing area which creates a small amount of soil disturbance and ensures sufficient pruning of the pasture.  The idea is to mimic the behaviour and result of large herds in the wild (buffalo, wilder beast etc).  In the wild these animals naturally bunch together to protect themselves against danger so this is just about replicating this behaviour and it's results in domestic animals.
Each day a fresh area is provided and access to the previous days area is cut off.  The area provided should be just enough for the cattle to eat all of the fodder available without wasting any.
You see cattle will not eat what they have pee'd on, pooped on, sat on or trodden on.  So if you give them only as much as they will eat in one day they are so busy eating that less becomes in-edible for the above reasons.

In New Zealand this grazing practice is is widely used and is know as strip grazing so since I grew up in a dairy farming community over there it is something I am familiar with.
However I was not aware of how this also helps to build soil fertility.  Basically as grass grows it balances out it's leaf growth with root growth, so the taller the grass the deeper the roots.

You can see in my fancy picture that after the grass has been eaten
the roots break away self pruning.

Then as the grass is pruned off by the cattle the roots self prune them selves to keep above and below the soil balanced.  The roots that have self pruned then break down and help build the organic matter along with the manure that gets trodden into the soil.

So we have been implementing the system with our cow (Freezer 2) and her borrowed buddy (Bozo).  In the photo below you can see where the grass on the left has been grazed down and the temporary electric fence on the right.

We move the cows at the same time each afternoon so there tends to be a bit of mooing when they think it is time.  And when we do move the fence they get very excited and run from one patch of new grass to another.  You have to be on your game or they give you a heck of a fright as they rush up behind you.

To set us this system we needed to buy the electric fence wire, a reel to put it on and some fencing standards (the upright sticks that hold the wire).  But that was going to set us back quite a bit on money so we decided that we would make our own standards from recycled materials.

Hubby had a piece of power line from one of the main trunk line wires from when he worked clearing trees from the power lines.  It is made of a twisted bunch of thick aluminium wires which he un twisted and straightened.  It is quite thick (about 4 ml) but still flexible so he was able to bend one end into a loop and cover the loop with some old irrigation pipe.

The piece of powerline

The irrigation pipe

And this is the finished result.

We now have about 30 of these home made standards and they cost us nothing compared to the $5 each we would have paid to buy them.  Because they are flexible you have to hold them at the base to push them into the ground.  And while this works fine while the ground is soft from all the rain we have been having they may not work so well when the ground hardens up.

But until then we will stick with these and save some money to buy some proper ones for if/when we actually need them.

Have you made any equipment instead of buying it?

A Sea Of Grass

I know many people out there are just praying for some rain but here we are praying the rain will stop.  To give you an idea of how wet it has been since the start of the year (65 days) we have had 47 inches/770mls of rain.  And most of that fell since January 24th (the last 41 days).
All that rain combined with the warm summer temperatures has meant the grass has gone crazy.

In the paddock the cows are up to their chests in grass.

The grass is thick and lush.  When the win blows and the sun is shinning it is like a sea of green with waves moving across the land.

 And our lawn that was mowed 10 days ago during a break in the weather is threatening to swallow up the pets.  The toys are long gone which should make mowing interesting on the weekend (if it is fine enough).

Joel Salatin Polyface Farming Masterclass

On Saturday I attended a day long course all about Pastured Beef and Pork presented by Joel Salatin who is is internationally respected for his farm's innovative, integrated animal systems.  And what a great day it was.

Joel Salatin is a world-leading example of how a small family farm can become an extremely diverse and profitable Local Food producer, and how the benefits of Local Food Systems can create resilience, stability and abundance for both local farmers and the wider community.  You can visit his farm Polyface here.

During the day we learnt about:

• Polyface's 'Salad Bar Beef' systems, which improve the land while producing great 'beyond organic' beef
• Polyface's pigearator systems, using pigs as compost turners over winter
• Polyface's forested pig systems, and how they are regenerating the landscape while producing great pork
• Polyface's innovative direct marketing and buying club systems for getting the above products to market.

It was a big day with over 200 attendees but Joel was a generous and entertaining host.  Hubby was working so it was just me who attended and I am so glad I did.  I learnt a lot and it will really help when it comes to planning our new property in New Zealand.

Joel presenting on Saturday

In the mean time we have decided to implement at least one idea here on the farm straight away which I will expand on in another post as I want to tell the whole story.

The day was supported by a number of groups including Food Connect.  They had set up a number of displays at the venue.  Food Connect are all about connecting the farmers with the customers and are currently available in both Brisbane and Sydney.  It is really worth checking out the service they offer if you live in one of these cities.

I met some great people on the day and would really have liked to have attended the other 2 days but I had work commitments   The day really re-energized me in my beliefs about the importance of knowing where my food is sourced, how it is produced and buying locally.  So you can probably expect a bit of that to flow into my posts in the near future.

Into The Freezer For Freezer 1

Things have been busy here, really busy.  I had my work Christmas Party, we had a birthday lunch a few days in Brisbane catching up with friends and the general bustle that is the festive season.
We have also taken the next step in our farming journey and gone through the process of having Freezer 1 (that is the name of one of our cows the other is called Freezer 2.  This way we remember that they are not pets) killed and butchered for our use.

We have had some fun learning to be farmers and dealing with our 2 cows which you can read about here.  But for the most part they ate the grass in the paddock and other than making sure they had grass, hay, water and mineral supplements we have not done anything else to interfere with them being cows.  They were cows and we watched them being cows.

Before you read further I will warn you that there are photos of a dead cow (it is a distance photo so not gory) and the carcass as it was processed.  I will also be talking about the process.  If this is not for you pop back tomorrow for the last installment of A Home Made Christmas.

Freezer 1 spent the morning eating grass and doing what cows do.  This was what she was doing when she died.  She did not even get up.  The guy who did our home kill shot her from his car so she had no stress before she died.  If we had sent her away to be processed she would have been rounded into a pen. loaded on a truck, driven to an abattoir, unloaded with other animals and sent into a noisy factory to meet her fate.  For us having it all done at home was the best option.

Her last morning spent eating grass.

Once she was dead the butcher proceeded to remove the feet and hide.  We decided not to keep the hide as we were not sure we had the time or inclination to process it, or if we would be able to take it to NZ when we move.

Freezer 1 upside down feet removed and the butcher beginning to
remove the hide.

Once the hide had been removed from the belly and legs the carcass was strung up and hoisted into the air.  At this stage the hide was pulled off the carcass entirely and the head and innards were removed.  We we were left with what your local butcher would buy in to cut into all the different cuts of meat you see in the shop.  I also requested the tongue and the inner and outer cheeks before the head was discarded.  I am not sure about tongue but I am sure there are some good recipes out there.  If you have one let me know.

 The carcass was divided in half and then into quarters and then hung in the cool room that the butcher left with us for 5 days.

Cut in half

Hoisting them higher so they can be
swung into the back of the cool room.

In go the 4 pieces

 Freezer 1 weighed in at 232 kg which is the dressed carcass as you see above.

Five days later the butcher cam back to cut it into all of the portions we wanted.  As he cut it up I took it inside and used our cryovac machine to pack it all and put it in the freezer.  We asked to keep all of the bones and kept a lot for our selves for Jessie and to make stock with, and we gave some to our neighbors.

The butcher charges $1.75 kg plus $25 to get rid of the intestines, head and hide.  It is a lot of meat to get through so the family will be getting some too.  The butcher made us our sausages, mince rolled roasts and corned meats all on the spot too so we have a good variety in the freezer.

We have sampled some sausages and steak so far and both were a hit.  Over the Christmas break I want to do a cost comparison to take into account the cost of the cow and any hay purchased etc to see what the real cost is.

Overall we are happy with how things went and are looking forward to some eye fillet over Christmas.

Hot Hot Hot

It has been getting very hot here lately and yesterday was no exception.
It has also been extremely dry.  The last time it rained was mid July.  I have raised a lot of seeds and have potted them on into indervidual pots but all this hot dry weather is making it hard to keep them from suffering.
Yesterday we had a scorcher of a day with the below temperature of 37 degrees registering at 2 pm.  It was one of those days that you pray for rain.  People often talk about the heat being oppressive and the air feeling heavy.   Today I knew exactly what they mean.

The dry heat has been a bonus in drying my Pak Choy seed pods and all going well I will have plenty to give away soon so stay tuned.

And it turns out my prayers for rain were to be answered.  A storm rolled in late afternoon, and although there was not a lot of rain(only 4 mls), it was enough to cool everything down and water the garden and paddocks.

A few weeks ago one of our neighbours kindly came and slashed our back paddock to get rid of all the dead grass and thatch.  Since then we have watering it from our bore and it has been greening up nicely.  So this rain just topped it up.

Sprinkler watering the paddock (A bit hard to see but look for the jet of water)

The paddock starting to green up

Weather reports suggest that we are in for a long hot summer so I am sure we can expect plenty more days like this to come.