Almost the middle of November already. The fall has gone by as quickly as the summer did!
Keith is looking forward to next week. He’s been working on raising his turkeys since the beginning of July. It’s quite a project for a 7/8 year old boy to invest in. He’s managed to have a 100% survival rate–a first on the Baker farm. Keith has a goal of raising a calf and a pig next year as well as turkeys so that he can eventually buy his own land and have his own farm. One never knows….! He does have a few more unspoken for. We plan to process them just before Thanksgiving so that you can have a fresh Thanksgiving Day turkey. Butterball can’t compete!
We had all the chickens off the field and celebrated the end of the season. That celebration turned out to be a bit premature. We had to make room in the clearspan building, so the guys set up about 5 tractors and moved the biggest birds back out last week. They were at the point of maturity where we didn’t need them to grow much. They could handle the cold (heat is more deadly at maturity than cold), but don’t particularly grow because they just hunker down and eat enough to maintain. Hopefully this week we can take care of quite a few of them, since maintainance isn’t very productive.
We got a friend for Rosie. Actually, he’s more of a boyfriend. We added a waygu bull to the farm recently. Waygu is the Japanese breed of beef cow used to produce “kobe beef.” Technically kobe beef is produced exclusively in Kobe, Japan. However, certain techniques can be applied to waygu cattle anywhere to produce the exceptional flavor, tenderness, and marbelling in a beef. This isn’t a grass-fed meat, typically. We’ll see how it works out in a rotationally grazed system. Waygu reportedly crosses well with Holstein, so that’s a bonus for us in black & white dairy country. It’ll be a few years before we’ll have any conclusive results, but Kimifuku presents an interesting opportunity!
One of the things keeping us busy this month is driver’s education. Joe wanted to do the fall class though he’s barely old enough, so he’s taking the class. As is true of most farm boys, he’s been driving for several years now–tractors, the jeep, the big Ford pick-up. He proposes a proficiency test rather than age requirement for a license. The class is easy, but I think we’ll all be glad for the instruction.
That’s the latest! Remember to let us know if you’d like a fresh turkey!