The Furnace vs. the Freezer

Here in Alberta, we are known for our cold temperatures, and expect it to be cold during winter.  The winter of 2013-14 hasn’t been an easy one for temperatures.  From November until the middle of January we saw very cold temperatures and wind chills.  We’ve had a bit of a reprieve for about 15 days here, that has brought us temperatures that are above zero, but when you normally deal with -37C (-34.6F) for lows and your daytime high of -21C (-5.8 F), a few days above zero feels like a Tropical breeze (not really, but it does feel nice)!  When we look on the other side of the globe and hear of people dealing with temperatures above +40C (104F) our deep freeze doesn’t sound too bad!

While reading other farm and ranch blogs, I’ve made friends with Mandy, a fellow cattle farmer from north-west New South Wales, Australia.  Mandy writes an amazing blog called Rocky Springs Rambles, and this week, Mandy and I have gotten together to do a comparison of what each other has to deal with working outside in extreme temperatures.(Numbers in brackets are Fahrenheit for the folks that don’t do metric).

Official temperature: Australia: 42.5 (108.5); Canada -18.2 (-0.76), add the wind chill factor and you get -27 (-16).  Honestly Mandy, I think the only time in my life when I felt the weather THAT hot was went I was in Phoenix, Arizona in June!  I complain when the weather gets above 28 (82.4) here!

Temperature on the top of your hat

-15.3 (4.4)was the temperature at the top of my hat

In Australia: 49.2 (120)

Temperature underneath your hat

-13.8 (7) was the temperature underneath my hat

In Australia: 42 (107)

Water in the cattle troughs

14.5 (58) The troughs (seen here) are heated

In Australia: 33.8 (93)

Sitting with the cattle

Behind the cattle windbreaks: -18.1 (-0.5)

Under a shade tree in Australia: 40.6 (105)

Soil Temperature:

In Canada our soil is buried under 120 cm of snow!  So I’m calling it frozen.

In Australia: 37 (98)

Dog Pool in Australia: 30 (86)

No dog pool in Alberta in January!

Kitchen: Canada 20.8 (69) and that’s with the furnace running!

Australia: 38.1 (100)

Cold water tap in bathroom:

Canada: 16 (60)

Australia: 37.3 (99)

The thought of 40+ (104) degrees in January is nice, for a few minutes.  Sorry, Mandy, I don’t think I could live in the “furnace”.  Just too warm for me!  But I do hope your temperatures moderate a bit & that you all get some much needed rain!

On the move...

I recently added a blog to my website for anyone who has been following me on this blog, in hopes of drawing more of an audience to my website.  To read the new blog click here.  In the meantime I'll still post here until I get everything 100% moved over there.

Cows and The Cold--What we do to Help.

With the somewhat extreme weather that we have been experiencing this fall and winter, a lot of people ask how to the cows deal with this weather?  While it's easy to bring the farm dog in to sleep on the porch in the winter, for us it's difficult and would be quite cost prohibitive to build an indoor area large enough for the cattle to go.

First, I always remind people that cattle have been living outside for thousands of years and have natural defences that helps them survive in the winter.  All summer long the cattle graze on lush, green pastures; gaining weight and putting on a nice layer of fat to help keep them warm throughout the winter.  As the days and nights cool off in the fall, the cattle also begin to develop their winter coat.  Thick, dense hair protects them from the winter elements.

Cow with her winter coat

Cow with her slick summer coat for comparison

Once they are off summer pastures, they are kept on a winter pasture here on our yard.  We have an open front barn they can go in to get out of the wind, as well as several areas of wind breaks set up.  The wind breaks serve as shelter areas for the cattle to go behind and get out of the wind.  To encourage them to "hang out" there, we also place their straw bed-pack on the leeward side (the side where there is no wind).  When it is very cold out, the cattle will naturally huddle together and they stay warm by doing so.

The bed pack with windbreaks

During the cold, the cattle require more feed to eat and we meet their needs by feeding high quality hay to them.  Our hay is sent to a lab and the nutritional content is evaluated.  From this data we can select the right feed for their dietary requirements.  We also will feed the hay near their bed pack so they don't have far to travel and can conserve energy and focus on staying warm.

Tractor and bale grinder

Hay Yard

Cattle also require fresh water all the time.  The cattle have waters that are heated so they don't freeze.  In the winter this can cause some issues as pipes freeze, elements go out of watering devices, etc.  We are always checking the waters making sure that the animals have fresh water at all times.

Steaming waters mean they are working

The cattle are our lively hood, and during the winter we spend lots of time checking on the cattle and caring for them.  By making sure they are warm and happy when the weather is inclement keeps them heathy and ensures our cattle herd is around for years to come!

A happy cow = a happy cowgirl!

How others are Supporting Local

I'm a huge advocate for supporting local whenever possible.  On our farm, we try to raise the majority of our food.  We have a very large garden which allows me to can or freeze it's bounty.  Besides our beef, we also have a few chickens that provide us with fresh eggs or I purchase them from a farmer's market when they aren't laying, and pork and chicken from our local butcher.  Because you can't buy all your food at a farmer's market in Alberta, we do weekly visits to our local grocer as well.  

In Staffordshire, England, some film students at Staffordshire University became huge advocates for supporting local, as well!  Their project was titled "Farmers on Film" and inspired by Sarah Gayton, a baker from Staffordshire Moorlands and Staffordshire Olympic Co-ordinator for the Women in Food & Farming Union.  Before the Olympics came to London in 2012, 120 students' researched farming attitude, tourism and identity for the Farmers on Film project, producing 23 three minute profile films on different farms and food producers in Staffordshire.  Students also aimed to persuade officials to use the films at Olympic venues and as part of an online marketing drive from Visit Britain to promote the region to foreign and domestic tourists.  The videos are linked by QR code onto their corresponding food product, so consumers can scan the code with their smartphones and view the video of the farmer behind the food.

I think this project is something that all local food movements should do!  This would be one way of advertising farmer markets through social media, for example.  The customers could go onto YouTube, click on the corresponding video, and find out more about the farm or farmer they are supporting.  As well as linking a QR code on food packaging with a video of the farm.  

These students have created quite a buzz in the local food movement of Staffordshire, and their films have won lots of recognition, including a bronze medal Podium Award at the Olympics.  In closing, hats off to the Film students at Staffordshire University!  This is a great way to get bring people onto the farm, and showcase farm life to others!

To view the videos click here 
If you are on Twitter please give @farmersonfilm a kind follow as well!

Looking back...

The presents are open, the kids are happily enjoying their new toys, and the turkey left-overs are finished.  As the new year is rapidly approaching, I've been doing a lot of looking back over the past year.  It has been quite the year for me and my husband at the farm.

First it was our first full year of farming exclusively (no outside income).  It's been a challenge some days, but we have managed to survive.  Second, it's been a year since I've started direct marketing our beef and selling freezer beef.  I have to admit, I didn't think it would go as well as it did.  The demand far exceeded my expectations, and I'm excited to see what the coming year has to offer!  This definitely would not have been possible without my customers...THANK YOU!  Third, it's also been a year since I started blogging about farm life.  Although, I'm not an avid blogger, I'm looking forward to the coming year and growing in my writing and blogging ability.  I am also looking at being more regular at blogging (although at times this is difficult with the unpredictability that farm life brings!). 

I have had a request for more pictures from the farm, so I would like to honor and fulfill that request.  At times it is hard to snap pictures while loading and working cattle, but I've tried over the past two months to take some pictures while we are working around the farm to share.  Since I'm looking back, I will also look back at the past two months and via pictures, fill you in on what has been happening on the farm.  Enjoy and a blessed and prosperous 2014 to all!

November--Visited Agri-Trade to view the new innovation in Agriculture.  Really enjoyed the show & free passes from a Twitter contest.

In November we had an outbreak of pneumonia in our herd.  Since we only use antibiotics on the cattle when they are sick, I'm checking a calf's temperature to see if he has a fever or not to see if he needs treated.

All of our cattle supplies that we keep on hand to deal with sick or injured animals.  In addition, the day-to-day supplies that we need for our herd.

My help and a very friendly steer!

While checking cows, my horse thought he needed a little loving too.

Even the Kubota has cup holders!  Great for a cup of coffee on a cold morning checking cows!

My orphan calf.  His mom died on pasture this fall.  He had a touch of pneumonia, but with a little medication and TLC is better again.

The cows know when it's feeding time!

Pre-conditioning calves.  Vaccinating them before they are weaned.  We vaccinate our herd for common ailments in hopes of keeping them healthy.

It was a very cold November & December.  You know it's cold out when the cow waters are steaming!

My first egg in over 2 months.  My chickens decided on Friday (December) 13th to begin laying again.  

We've had so much snow that we had to shovel out the corrals with the skid-steer before we could use them to wean calves.

My helper on weaning day 

"Niki" showing me that she is a real cow dog and can get a calf in the corrals herself.

The yearling's, open heifers & open cows loaded an on their way to the auction.

"Larry" the Christmas Bull

The kids enjoying themselves in Montana.  Not as much snow & much warmer temperatures were better for the young ones.

A very peaceful panoramic view from my parent's ranch.

The kids in Montana at my parents ranch, checking out Papa's cows in the corral.

Happy Homecoming!

While many people are celebrating homecoming at their school or alma mater, homecoming here has a slightly different meaning.  Every year I look forward to the day the cows go out to pasture in the early summer and I look forward even more to the day that we go and round them up and bring them home from pasture, a cow homecoming, per say!  A few weeks ago we picked up our first group of cows that we pasture on a Provincial Grazing Reserve an hour west of us. It is an action packed a busy day that starts very early in the morning and usually doesn't end until early evening.  Because of the busyness of that day I was able to get only one photo.  Yesterday, though, we trailed our dry cow herd home, and since it was a small herd I was able to get some photos and my husband got a short video clip.  Enjoy!

The cows know it's time to come home, this video clip shows them getting ready to come to the gate:

The only picture I took at take-out on PGR pasture.  Our daughter "moo'd" at all the cows that were loading into trucks while she sat there & watched.

Heading home

Following the quads down the road

Done trailing

A quick ride with dad before the horse gets put away

It's Time to Get Together and Support One Another

The recent restaurant ads depicting the conventional agriculture industry as "bad" has spawned a lot of social media attention both good and bad.  I have been reading numerous blogs, tweets, and posts from folks in the agriculture industry slamming these ads and these restaurants because they aren't in support of conventional agriculture.  Being a producer who supplies cattle to one of the ranches who in turn supplies one of the big named fast food restaurants with one of these ads, I took offence to many of these slams.

As a farmer that raises Grass-Fed, Hormone and Antibiotic-Free beef in a sustainable and holistic way, I don't see anything wrong with what we do.  We raise our beef this way because we believe it is more of a historic way for an ungulate (cow) to be raised.  This doesn't mean that we think conventional methods are bad; the way we raise our beef fits our lifestyle.

In my opinion, nothing is bad about conventional agriculture.  If we (the agriculture industry) are going to feed a very hungry planet of 7,183,057,300 and counting, we are going to need to rely on conventional agriculture practices to meet demand.  All the while, the consumer is demanding more choices.  Choices like organic, hormone-free, free-range, certified humane, antibiotic free, etc.  The agriculture industry is stepping up and meeting this demand.  As farmers, regardless of what consumer demand area we are filling, we all share one common theme, WE ARE FARMERS, and we are providing food that people eat.  We should not be slamming each others choices of how we raise our crops or livestock, but sticking up for each other because we are all in this together and producing the worlds' food.