March has arrived!

The groundhog was kind to us this year and seems to have told the truth when he announced the imminent arrival of spring.  Of course we are still having some temperature drops (it froze this morning), but all in all, this farmer is grateful to be experiencing this mild weather that makes it pleasant to be out of doors.

The most wonderful part of the weather change is that the cows have made it out onto the good pasture!  The grass is growing, albeit a little slowly.  The ladies are appreciating being moved into a fresh patch of grass every morning, and I must admit that I love this time of year when they finally return to being visible from my kitchen window.

Be sure to check out the test results for the milk this month.  The numbers we are seeing in the milk quality tests are indicators that the milk you are taking home is fresh and clean!  I do hope that you enjoy your milk every week, as I think kindly of each of you when I write your name on the top of each jar.

The RAWMI listing process has been completed, and at this point, we are only waiting for it to actually show up on the website.  I am excited to be a member of the group that is proving raw milk to be a safe and healthy option.

We did some more work this month on the cow barn and it now has good lighting.  What a difference it makes to turn on the lights and actually be able to see!

We are expecting some little goats this month, so keep your eyes out for those happy, bouncing souls as you pick up your milk.  The goats and the sheep will transition slowly onto the sheep pasture over the course of the next 4 weeks.  On that note, we will be shearing the goats and the sheep this month and have some beautiful coated fleeces still available.  The fleeces will be the best I have ever produced and I can’t wait to start processing and spinning my chosen fleeces.  I plan to make many pairs of socks to keep my feet warm during next winter’s milking and barn cleaning.

I am going to order chicks this next week, so you have the chance to get in on that still.  They will get to take advantage of the green spring grass, and I am looking forward to having chicken in my freezer.

Enjoy your milk and the arrival of spring this month!

Happy February!

We’ve been having some nicer weather lately.  It feels to me like it is the calm before the storm, as I know we have more freezes and more rain ahead of us, but the cows and I have nonetheless been enjoying the weather.  They’ve been out to pasture for almost a week straight which has given me a break from barn cleaning.  They’ve been kicking up their heels on the way out to the pasture every day, which always makes me smile.

Lots happened in January!  Our adorable Fritz (Daisee’s bull calf) finally joined us 14 days late.  He is a troublemaker, and he is simply gorgeous.  I’ve really been enjoying having him around the farm.

We took advantage of a short lull to add fully automatic water plumbing in the barn and in the pasture.  The system works wonderfully and is already saving me a lot of work and time.   We also completed some plumbing projects in the creamery.  We now have plentiful hot water in the sink, and the dishwasher is working diligently sanitizing those jars brought back.  Oh! We have also installed an ice machine!  You are welcome to throw a few scoops of ice into your cooler on  your way out to keep your milk cold.  We have been using the ice to chill the milk in record time!  Our milk is down to 36 degrees within 30 minutes of leaving the cow!

Our RAWMI listing should be made final in February!  Our January test results sealed the deal and we were officially invited to complete our listing.  We are just now fine tuning some paperwork, but you should see Cast Iron Farm listed on the RAWMI site soon.

Spring will soon be upon us.  We have decided to do 1 batch each of spring poultry for sale.  We are going to do a batch of heritage Freedom Ranger chickens for $5 per pound as well as a batch of ducks for $6 per pound.  We will start them in late March, early April.  They will be fed non GMO feed and will be heavily pastured (the ducks even have a pond). We are currently taking reservations on these guys.  I will require a deposit to hold your spot.  Space will be somewhat limited, so if you have interest, let me know sooner than later as there will be no extras, I am going to order based on reservations.  They will be available in mid to late June.  Also, we will have a limited number of rabbits available for $22 each, ready throughout the spring and summer months.

The cows will gradually transition to more and more pasture this month.  May your butter become more and more yellow!

Enjoy your milk!

Happy New Year!

May 2013 bring you lots of smiles and many delicious meals!  I know I have a long list of things we’d like to see done around the farm.  I’ve already started working on many of them.  I also hope to spend lots of time participating in the growth of my kids.

December was a big month for Cast Iron Farm.  As you have no doubt noticed, the milk pick up has now moved to the new creamery space. I am loving this new arrangement.  I spent many hours over 2012 designing the perfect production spaces, and the creamery is the culmination of many hours of careful thought.  We should have hot water and a dedicated dishwasher in there by the end of next week, which will complete the space!  Remember to put the empty jars back into the yellow fridge for cleaning.  The jars I have sitting out on the granite countertop are the clean, sterile jars ready for the next milking.  Additionally, I have stocked the space with some basic office supplies for writing a note or a check, etc.  Please put any payments in an envelope and put them in the metal wire basket next to the office supplies.  I will pick them up on one of my many daily trips through the creamery.  If you are paying in cash, please use the receipt book to write yourself a receipt so that I can credit to your account.  Ask me if you have any questions about this.

In other news, on December 19th, Mark Macafee flew up here from California to do an inspection of the farm.  He was here while I milked, and we went into excruciating detail about my milking practices.  He was very pleased with the set up here and he extended an invitation to me to become the 2nd nationally listed farmer with the Raw Milk Institute.  This is a very exciting opportunity for Cast Iron Farm to be a part of proving that with careful practices, raw milk can be produced safely.

I am also working as a technical advisor to the Oregon Raw Milk Producers Association to help develop standards for all raw milk producers in Oregon!  I am a big advocate of testing.  As such, you will now find our test results posted in the creamery space.  I test the first non holiday Monday of each month.  If you have questions about interpreting the results, I would be happy to direct you.  Last month’s results showed VERY clean milk with no coliforms detected (!) and only 8000 colony forming units on the standard plate count.  We are meeting the standards required to milk after it has been pasteurized!

Lastly, we are expecting a calf VERY soon from Daisee (the white roan cow) any day (she was due December 24th.  Feel free to ask to check in on her and see the soon to be born new baby!

Enjoy your milk

July!?!?  REALLY!?!?  Though the years seem to go by so fast, it is hard for me to get used to the idea that it is July already, and July 6th at that!  I’ve been meaning to write more notes here, so I’m just going to start writing notes, and not make any promises about what I plan to do in the future.

Exciting things are going on around here.  The crew showed up at 7am this morning to put the very long posts in the ground for our new barn.  The ground work to get to this point has been long and exciting, and I bet that the building goes up very quickly from this point, but it is hard to believe that the posts I see NOW will be barn in a few short weeks.  The view around the farm will change a lot, but this new barn means so many exciting things for the farm.

We are now on day 2 of rather warm weather.  I’m a true Oregonian in that I really can’t stand the sun.  I am happy for the 9 months a year that it is cold and rains and is mucky, but the days it tops 80 degrees, I just can’t take it.  I guess that’s why I’m not running a veggie farm here, I’d rather be in the barn with the livestock!

Speaking of livestock, I got a call today from someone asking if I would take in her 9 angora rabbits and help find homes for them.  I begrudgingly agreed to help.  I’ve had some unfortunate turns in my breeding this year that has left me wondering where to go next, this rescue might just lead the way for me.

The kids’ Papa is in town for the visit.  He surprised us all by bringing a play structure for the kids.  They are so excited they just can’t bear it, and I have a feeling that I won’t be seeing much of Cyprus in the next week or so.  He’s just climbing the slide and going down over and over again.

With the chores all done now for the day and the cows out happily munching their dinner. I’m going to head off and celebrate the 4th of July weekend with a good old fashioned visit to the St. Paul Rodeo.  Yep, even farmers take a break to go have fun, even if it is by going and looking at more animals!

It has been a very busy past couple of weeks. I am a very happy farmer with babies of all types running around. Though we have been busy, the craziness has been cut with moments of watching the goat kids jumping around full of new life. And so, I EXPECTED to start milking again on March 1, come hell or high water. Of course, we experienced both hell and high water. This crazy early spring has reinforced my belief that the only constant in this farming gig is that things never happen as you expect them to. I apologize deeply for the lack of communication, but I’ve got some good news.

I have decided to reorganize our milking stock to more exactly meet our dairy goals. After careful examination, it was decided that our cow Daisee does not fit into our program. This was a tough decision. Hand milking the cows means that I spend a lot of time with them, and I like to think that I have a special relationship with them. Deciding to sell a cow feels a little bit like deciding to sell one of my children. However, we are limited to three cows in our dairy, and no matter how I look at it, Daisee just can’t stay. She is going to make someone a very nice milk cow, and in fact, it looks like she’ll be going to California to do just that. She will be missed.

With that decision made, we have moved on and have purchased two more cows for our dairy program. I am over the moon with excitement about this decision for many reasons. We are committed to working with the heritage breeds of livestock. This is why the Milking Shorthorns have been so appealing to me. I raised beef Shorthorns as a kid, and I had always wanted a Milking Shorthorn. It made sense to use this breed to start out our milking program, as there are only 3000 cows left in the American Registry. Due to the wonders of AI, I have been breeding and raising registered, Native Bred Milking Shorthorns. What does this mean? Well over the past several years, the Milking Shorthorn registry decided to open it’s herd books to cross breeding with Holsteins. This was done to up the milk production of the Milking Shorthorns so that they would again start to look appealing to commercial dairies so that the breed would not completely disappear. While I have nothing against Holsteins, they are not Milking Shorthorns. Luckily, the registry decided to track those lines that were not mixed with outside blood. My cows are of the pure line, which means that they go back to the first dairy cows brought over from England used by small farmers as triple purpose breeds. I love working with this breed and plan to continue to. Our Milking Shorthorn cow, Fancee, is staying in our program.

Enter, our new cows. These cows are both heritage breeds, but the kicker is that they are not the same breed! We are getting a beautiful golden Guernsey named Tillie and a beautiful Brown Swiss named Clover. I am over the moon with excitement about these girls because we are now not only working with one heritage breed, but three! These are the three breeds of cows that are slowly dying and falling out of favor with commercial dairies because they often can’t compete with the high production rates of the Holesteins or the butterfat content of the Jerseys. I was lucky enough to find two cows with good production level and decent butterfat. My first milk cow years and years ago was a Guernsey named Bridget. Bridget and I did well in the show ring, and she has always been in the back of my mind. Guernseys have become rare and hard to find. The people that own them know how valuable they are and are not selling them. It has taken me 3 years to find a Guernsey and convince it’s owner to let her go! Brown Swiss are graceful cows with high production. Clover will be my first Brown Swiss cows, but I cannot wait to get to know this cow.

Purchasing these cows does two important things for our dairy. Firstly, we will now be milking a high quantity of quality milk. This will allows us to raise our calves on real milk without outside supplementation. It also allows us to take on enough milk customers to make this endeavour financially viable. Secondly, we are transitioning our herd over into an A2 herd. Haven’t heard of A2 milk? Here is a small bit of info to get you caught up. http://www.a2milk.com/ Basically, milk used to all be A2 milk, after a genetic mutation, cows started producing A1 milk, and these cows happened to also be high producers. Dairymen caught on and started selecting out those cows/bulls for breeding, and the milk with the A1 mutation became overwhelmingly the norm. Luckily, our decision to work with heritage breeds also leads us down the path of getting good, quality A2 milk. Keeping our ancient genetic lines true means that we are headed down the path of having unique and healthy A2 milk. While some call the A2 milk a marketing trend, none refute the benefits of having milk that is more nutritionally available to those who consume it.

And so, this is all a very long winded method of apologizing for the delay in milk but that the wait is going to be worth it!

We will have milk available starting on Sunday morning. Plan to pick up on your regular day starting this Sunday. You might want to plan a few extra moments to see all the new babies around (we will be expecting Fancee’s calf mid April, so there is that to look forward to as well. Oh.. and since we have a lot of milk available now, tell your friends. You get two free gallons of milk for everyone you bring into our CSA. Feel free to email or call with any questions!