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Farm Improvements

written by

Ben Simmons

posted on

May 19, 2018

Farm Update –

Today (Saturday) has been devoted to Beth's honey do list. Many home & yard task have been accomplished with several more to come. I'm very thankful for her efforts to update our landscape and home. 

We are always on the lookout for opportunities to learn and improve our operations. Today I want to share a few improvements toward ensuring we only provide a safe product.

After the defeat of SB2060 On-Farm Poultry Bill I called and talked with several farms in states that operate under the 20,000 bird Federal limit. One of the things Indiana required was ServSafe Certification. The ServSafe® program is developed by the National Restaurant Association with the help of foodservice industry experts. Their materials help define food safety best practices and involve specialists from regulatory agencies, academia, and the foodservice industry to create them. ServSafe materials reflect the latest science, research and FDA Food Code. Last Monday Beth completed the 8-hour Manager Course and received her Certification.

This week North Carolina (through NCChoices) offed 25-Free HACCP online training courses. This is a 20-hour course with a $500 value. I responed and received one of the free slots. Thank you NCChoices! 

We are also in the process of making some major improvements to our processing area. We will seperate the kill/scald/pluck steps from the evisceration/wash/inspect/cool down steps. We hope to also replace ice (we use about 5-600 pounds per batch) with a cool room. Additionally, we want to improve the "comfort" for folks who help with this major task!

Customer Feedback- 

Hi Ben.  Still out in Oregon and will be in Colorado for a year starting August.  We really, really miss your grass fed beef!!!! It’s much more available out here but the taste, quality is not like yours.  We are coming home for a few weeks and I contemplated buying another 1/2 cow but we can’t figure out a way to ship/ transport it out to Colorado.  L Parker

Quote Worth Re-Quoting –  “I do not want to be sustainable, why would I want to sustain a degraded resource? I want to be regenerative! That is the only way to leave the farm better then I found it.” Gabe Brown – voted top 25 most influential farmers in 2016.

As always, thank you for supporting our regenerative, local farm.

Ben & Beth

More from the blog

Beef Pricing Update & Sausage

Beef Pricing Update – Beef prices continue to increase and hit a new All-Time high AGAIN last week. This week, the Chief Production Officer (CPO) for JBS Meats (one of the four largest beef packers) stated that prices will remain high for at least the next two years. His rationale was the low cow herd numbers, little to no indication farmers/ranchers are retaining females to grow their herds (at these high prices they are taking the money now while it is there); when females are being retained it will take over 2.5 years before a calf will be ready for harvest (9-month gestation + about 24 months old at harvest). Lastly, consumer demand remains strong.

Taste Test

Greetings Ben and Beth, I'm really looking forward to my next order pick up. I'm trying to improve my cholesterol numbers, thus eating more chicken, and ran out of your chicken products. I ended up buying some industrially produced chicken, and man was that a mistake! It smelled terrible raw, also while it was being sauteed, and also later when I reheated it to put into an otherwise healthy salad. I have enough of this subpar stuff to last until I pick my order, but I don't think I can ever buy this CAFO stuff again.

Beef Update & A New Product

Beef Update – Typically this time of year folks are hesitant to buy bulk beef for their freezer due to hurricane risk. That is why we have delayed our next custom half & whole beef processing until September. If you are interested, our next harvest will be September 2nd with pickup on September 22nd. If you want to be included then please email me your name, email, and cell number to be added to our wait list - and be the first folks contacted and guaranteed to receive an order. Beef prices continue to increase and hit a new All-Time high this week fueled by strong demand and limited supply. For example, based on what a 700 pound steer sold for at the Hattiesburg Stockyard Monday, I could make more than feeding him till he weighs 1100 pounds and sell as packaged beef - but our mission is to provide nutrient-dense, clean food to our customers. Effective immediately custom beef half and whole prices will increase $0.50 to $6.25 per pound based on the hanging weight. Retail cuts will increase for September deliveries as well.