Happenings on the Ranch

We hear it all the time.  We see it as posts on Facebook.  We see commercials about it.  It’s the “Monday Blues.”  This would seem to be more pertinent to those who work outside the home, forced to go back to the workplace and face another five days of madness, and for those parents who are committed to running children from school to soccer practices and music lessons during another crazy week-long marathon of events.  After a two-day respite over the weekend, Monday just always seems to be a lousy day for many folks.  Now, farmers are never really ever off the clock.  The busy season may have passed but there are still chores to do, animals to feed and water and preparations for winter and next season to finish.  Throw the upcoming holidays into the mix and I am still very busy, regardless of what day of the week it is.  Weekends don’t really mean respite around here but, apparantly, farmers have Mondays too.

Mine this morning started with checking on our sow, Lucy, who had a medical emergency over the weekend.  I won’t go into the details but let’s just say it wasn’t pretty and involved some hog anatomy and actions on my part not really fit for conversation.  She will be okay, thankfully, but I needed to check her status this morning anyway.  Coming back to the front of the house covered in mud and muck, I fully intended on heading in for a quick shower before loading up to make a delivery to Nature’s Own Health Market.  My animals had other ideas.

Our horses, Gem and Lacy, generally run in the back pasture most of the year.  This is mostly because the front part of the property is being used for crops and 1,000 pound hungry beasts and fresh veggies just don’t mix … if you want to eat any of the veggies, anyway.  But once the season is over the girls have free rein of the front part of the property, too.  This gives them more grazing area as the grasses die off for the winter and extends the amount of time we have before having to feed them hay.

If you’ve ever visited our farm (if not, we hope you do) you’ve seen there is no front yard, per se.  There is no fenced area that is designated just for yard.  Everything is wide open and the chickens frequently visit us right up to the front steps.  Technically the horses could do the same at this time of the year.  They generally don’t, though, because there’s usually nothing that interests them.  All the goodies are out in the now bare fields.  They spend their days grazing through the leftovers of greens, beets and whatever else tickles their fancy.

So imagine my surprise as I round the front of the house to find both my girls standing in the front “yard” at our patio table, LICKING the table top.  Huh?  It was amusing at first.  They would both use their lips to push things out of the way to get to whatever was on that table that was so yummy.  And they were licking very enthusiastically.  My only thought is that someone spilled a soda (or a beer – yes, horses and hogs like beer.  It’s nothing but grain, afterall) and they were licking the sugary sweetness from the table.  Cute.  Until they started to get aggressive about it, knocking things off the table and pushing each other out of the way to get to the next spot on the surface.  Lacy even put her front foot up like she was about to walk up on my GLASS table!  Okay, enough was enough.  I spent the next who-knows-how-long trying to persuade them to find something else to do.  I tried handfuls of feed, little horsey treats, even spraying the table off with water to get rid of whatever was soooo delicious.  Nothing worked.  Both girls stood their ground and actually got a bit ornery with me.  I finally had to push them both out of the way and flip the table on it’s side.  No way they could get to the tabletop now unless they bent down on their knees … not something horses are in the habit of doing very often.

I finally thought I had the situation under control and turned to head to the house.   I suddently heard a loud crash of glass, but not in the direction of the horses.  I checked to be sure my table was still intact and both girls were just staring at me like, “Not me, mom.”  I then realized the glass crashing had come from the largest chicken coop.  I looked over in time to see a small chicken running from the scene of the crime.

We have (um, had) one glass window in the front of that coop.  It serves to let in light in the early morning hours of the summer so the girls will get the sun even before we let them out to roam (important for keeping the eggs coming).  One of the birds either saw another one through the window or saw their own reflection and flew up at the glass, shattering the window.  This was one of our younger birds so they really must have taken a running leap to hit the glass that hard.  Thankfully the bird wasn’t injured, only startled, and she just shook it off and went running away leaving me to come over and pick up the shards of glass.  After removing the remaining glass from the frame, and making a mental note to cover the now gaping hole with chicken wire tonight, I made my way back to the porch.  Upon seeing the horses still hovering near the upended patio table, curiously licking at the seat cushions now, I simply rolled my eyes, sighed deeply and walked into the house for my shower.

The delivery I had to make was intended to be at the store by 10am.  I didn’t get there until almost 2pm.  Thankfully Monica, the produce manager, understood that farmers have “Mondays” too.

‘Tis the season!  Two of our markets open tomorrow for the first time this sseason.  We are so ready!

Devon running our market stand in Lee's Summit at age 13.

Lee’s Summit Farmer’s Market:  Wednesdays and Saturdays, 7am to sellout.  Lots of vendors with a wide variety of produce, plants, baked goods, jams and more.

Peculiar Farmers’ & Artisans’ Market: Saturdays, 7:30 a.m. to noon.  This is the first year for this market which will be featuring local, sustainably produced fruits and veggies, baked goods, art, and fine crafts.  Plans include entertainment, demos and workshops.

Tomorrow we will have jams, chicken, beef, eggs, spring crafts, veggie and flower plants for your gardens, green onions and maybe some greens.  The weather has us a little bit behind on our planting/growing but as the weeks go on, we will have more and more fresh produce available.  Come on out and say, “hi!”

Well, it’s official.  Just a few days after Whole Foods and several other companies announced they thought we should try to co-exist with GMO (genetically modified organism) planting, the USDA approved the unrestricted planting of GE (genetically engineered) alfalfa created and sold by Monsanto.

Despite comments and arguments from proponents of sustainable, organic agriculture, health organizations and the general public, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and the Obama administration have shown whose side they are really on – and it’s not ours.  No surprise, really, but still frustrating.

The GMO seeds that Monsanto sells are engineered to withstand multiple heavy applications of their herbicide, RoundUp.  The problem is that it’s been proven these applications create superweeds which are resistent to the herbicide.  This causes Monsanto to modify their RoundUp to be stronger to battle these new weeds.  It’s a vicious cycle.  And these seeds are truly genetic freaks … you can never grow your own seed for planting from these crops.  Farmers that use them have to go back each year to Monsanto to get fresh seed for their next crop.  They are Frankenseeds.

The biggest problem for organic growers is the proliferation of these GE seeds.  Reports are continually coming in from organic farmers whose fields have been contaminated with genetically modified organisms.  This happens naturally by the wind, bees and other pollen carrying insects that carry the pollen from one field to another, thereby contaminating the crop.  Sometimes the organic farmer can win a lawsuit against the producer using the GMOs; in most cases, there is no recourse.  And the farmer, in any instance, loses his USDA Organic certification since no GMOs are allowed in organic production.  Even worse, Monsanto has been known to sue wheat producers who have been found to have GMOs on their fields without purchasing them, claiming trade infringment, even though the farmer never wanted the darn things in his soil to begin with.  And Monsanto has won these suits every time.  No doubt the same will now happen with alfalfa farmers.

The biggest problem with GE alfalfa will be for organic dairy and meat producers.  Alfalfa is the largest source of hay for cattle in this country.  We at NV Ranch use ground alfalfa in our winter feed rations for our chickens and hogs as a good source of protein when there is no fresh grass available in the fields.  It is the fourth largest crop grown in the U.S., behind corn, soy and wheat.  Alfalfa is also notorious for it’s widespread proliferation habit.  It has been shown to spread at least up to five miles from it’s original source.  Funny, that was one of the things the USDA was considering in it’s decision about Monsanto’s alfalfa. 

The USDA had said the only options they were considering were to either completely deregulate GE alfalfa, require a five-mile distance between non-GMO and GMO planted fields, or not allow GMOs to be planted in areas where seeds were grown so as to avoid contamination.  The second two options would have been preferable (since the USDA was going to allow some form of planting no matter what) but the USDA went full-force in favor of Big Ag.  GE alfalfa can now be planted with NO restrictions.

This is a matter of life or death now for organic growers.  Organic farmers in general will have to worry even more now about contamination of their crops from neighboring farms.  Organic dairy and meat growers who use alfalfa to feed their animals will now have to carefully source their feed.  There can be no chance of contamination from GMO fields or they will lose their certification.  This is going to make the cost for organic alfalfa soar even higher than they already are (and, believe me, it’s high if you don’t grow it yourself).  In turn, consumers will have to pay much more to get healthy, organically raised dairy, eggs and meat.

Thanks, USDA, Vilsack and Obama.  You’ve officially begun the decline of the organic movement just when it had really taken a foothold with a larger percentage of consumers.  You will now be making it virtually impossible for even a middle-class family to afford to eat a large portion of their diet in a way that is natural, healthy and friendly to the environment.  It’s already been a struggle thus far to eat in a truly organic, natural way.  You’ve just sunk us.  Congratulations, I hope you’re happy.