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The Ins & Outs of Feeding Our Cows Hay

written by

Ben Simmons

posted on

December 14, 2019

Hello from the farm,

Today, I want to take you out to the pasture as I feed hay to our cows.

Our process is a modified "bale grazing" technique used by regenerative farms out west. For us, setting a whole bale out in the pasture for the cows to break into and eat caused to much hoof action and destroyed the perennial sod because our winters are much wetter.

So, we simply break the bale apart into 8-10 mini piles per feeding. This way all the cows have a place "at the table" and are not crowded into a small area.

This impact and distributing the cows manure & urine tightly across the pasture is great for building soil health.

My favorite thing about feeding the cows is the opportunity to interact with them.

They can be so funny at times, like the other day when the temperature dropped in the afternoon. They were running and bucking like children.

Many of the cows will come up to me so I can rub their back or scratch behind their ears. Each one has a personality all their own.

Hope you enjoy the video and be sure to send us your comments.

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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.