My bucket list

I often talk about my "bucket list", the things I want to do in my lifetime. The problem is I can never seem to keep a bucket empty long enough to fill it with a few dreams.

Shrinking the Herd.

16 more days and dairy life as we have known it will change. The milk truck from Foremost will pick up their last load of milk from us on May 15. We are nervous about the loss of income, excited about the potential for increased income (as more customers are coming directly to the farm,) worried we will have too much milk, worried we won't have enough milk, etc...etc...

Mostly, we are optimistic. Except for the pessimistic moments. Hey ! You don't have to be a Gemini to have constant internal conflicts (Yes Jay, Allana, and too many others in our family, I speaketh to you) We solid Taurus folk are subject to roller coaster emotions as well.

One action we are taking is the decreasing of our milk herd by about 50%. To meet the milk needs of ourselves, our customers (current and future) as well as the needs of our rapidly expanding swine community, we predict we can do well with a herd of 10. For me , the downsizing of our herd  was just a matter of walking out in the field and taking a few pics, but for Keith...its a much bigger deal. These cows are a huge part of his daily life. Oh sure, I spent time with them when they were calves, feeding them their bottles, bedding their little yurts (that's Yiddish for House) and when they first left the comfort and security of their little poly hutches, we would write and make the occasional phone call but as time went by the calls were less and less. It happens to the best of friends.

They grew up, got bred, had babies and then got milked, and therefore bonded to Keith. He is the one who cared for them every cold icy morning and every searing hot summer night. They are far more than just cows with ear tags to him and selling them will not be easy.  Which is why we are focusing on the family farm websites and word of mouth to get them into good homes.

All have been born and raised on our Certified Organic farm.  All have been fed only hay and pasture (laced with a little organic molasses) since April 2009. So no grain in these cows for over a year. They are gentle and easy to milk and very used to daily human contact. They have never been given any hormones.  I have only posted four of our eight  cows currently looking for new homes. So if you or someone you know is looking for a great family milk cow or addition to your family farm or you want more pictures or you'd just like to see our cows up close and personal, please give us a call at 815-635-3414 or email us at opies99@gmail.com. We'd love to show you our special girls

Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You

Two words that seem quite inadequate even when I wrote them over and over. So I'll explain more now. Today our thanks go out to Frontera Farmer Foundation as they have so graciously chosen our farm (along with several others) as a recipient of some of their grant monies for 2010. The following is taken directly from their web site:

The Frontera Farmer Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to promoting small, sustainable farms serving the Chicago area by providing them with capital development grants. The Foundation envisions a year-round interchange between sustainable farmers and consumers, including farmers’market patrons and chefs, in which seasonal local agriculture provides the foundation for sustainable regional cuisine.

"Great food, like all art, enhances and reflects a community’s vitality, growth and solidarity. Yet history bears witness that great cuisines spring only from healthy local agriculture." —Rick Bayless, Proprietor of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo

The Frontera Farmer Foundation was established in 2003 to attract support for small Midwestern farms. Rick and Deann Bayless, founders of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, along with the restaurants’ staff, created the Foundation out of their concern for struggling farmers and the importance of local produce to the vitality of Chicago’s culinary culture. Small local farms promote biodiversity by planting a wide range of produce, are more likely to operate using organic practices, and add immeasurably to the fabric of their communities. By their artisanal approach to agriculture, these farmers insure the highest quality of food.
Nonprofit organizations devoted to the growth of sustainable farming are becoming more prevalent and necessary due to the increasing dominance of large corporations in the agricultural sector. Without small sustainable farmers, great local cuisine is unreachable.

Keith and I are truly humbled and terrifically grateful to have received grant money funding  for our "Save the Red Wattle Project."  Purchasing a livestock trailer was the most capital of our capital expenses approved by the foundation in our grant application. For the past 15 years we have borrowed livestock trailers from two generous friends and neighbors, Ken Kurtenbaugh and Merv Kaeding. What a blessing those two were over the years and I'll bet they are as happy about the trailer purchase as we are !

                                 The trailer was purchased from a local dealer in Piper City, Illinois.
                 The mini-me farm hand  in the Spider Man hat was extra and paid for out of our own private funds.


The grant came in the nick of time as grant money has a tendency to do. We had 15 piglets that needed to be weaned a few yesterdays ago. Once we acquired the trailer we went to work. Keith called the pigs. (Yes, they have cell phones) Spot , a crossbred whose entire litter died due to premature births, responded first. She has been a fantastic step-mom to our Red Wattle and Cross Bred piglets, nursing them when their "real" moms were tired of the critters.

After the babies were in site of the trailer, Keith lured them inside with feed. He made the venture easy with a nice walk up ramp. Bigger mama sows were kept from entering the trailer by a low wire that babies could walk under and sows would not go through.

 The piglets are 8 weeks old and big for their size most probably due to the fact they were nursing THREE mother sows. What a buffet they had !

The babies, each weighing between 30-40 pounds followed each other into the trailer without issue while the sows seemed only mildly interested.

After all 15 were loaded and allowed to wave good bye one more time to their mamas we drove them around the farm a bit, let them settle for about an hour inside the trailer, then Keith unloaded them easily into another large pasture of cross bred feeder pigs about the same size.

So thanks again Frontera Farmer Foundation. If we had not had the trailer we would've had to carry those big porkers across the lawn and into the other pasture. Which would've taken several hours or days or weeks.

For more information about the Foundation please click on this link
http://www.rickbayless.com/foundation/about.html

The Rest of the Story

If you are regular reader of my blog, skip to paragraph 2. If you are new to my blog or just have short term memory issues like your truly, start here.

Our small diversified farm has a Grade A Dairy which is also Certified Organic by MOSA. For the last 11 years we have sold the majority of our milk to Foremost Farms USA in Baraboo, Wisconsin. We have never signed any written contract with them other than the one that said we would not use growth hormones on our cows. That was easy to sign. We have never used hormones. All those 11 years we sold a small portion of our milk direct to the consumer who came to our farm. About 10% of total milk produced the first 5 years. Fact: It is legal to sell raw milk off the farm in Illinois. Over the last few years the amount of milk we sell direct to consumers who come to our farm with their own containers, has gradually increased to about 30% of our total milk produced. Fact: There is no state law in Illinois limiting the amount of raw milk sold. The field man who is an employee of Foremost but also is supposed to be the farmer liasson,  has known for many years that we sell raw milk. He in fact told us to "tread lightly" in late March and warned us that if  Foremost discovered our milk sales to private customers we'd probably get a 30 day notice to quit. No one from the main office of Foremost in ELEVEN years has ever contacted us about our off farm milk sales, until earlier this month.

On April 14 we received a letter from Foremost telling us "Foremost Farms cannot condone the practice of selling raw milk for direct consumption due to the very real risk of food-borne illness. These sales also put Foremost Farms at risk for actions by the various regulatory agencies should food-borne illness be traced to your farm as a result of your raw milk distribution and/or sales. For these reason, please verify in writing by April 20, 2010, that you are not selling and will not sell or provide raw milk directly to consumers or small artisan processors." 

So there you have it. Stop doing what the State of Illinois says you can do. I called Dan Belk Director of Procurement at Foremost on April 15. He was polite and cordial. I wanted to know why our selling milk direct to consumers was suddenly a problem after 11 years. He said "It was not brought to our attention until recently". I asked where I could find the written policy from Foremost regarding this issue. He said "There is a policy our there but not about raw milk. Our bylaws say you cannot sell your milk to anyone but Foremost." I asked him where those bylaws could be found. He said he would send me a copy. He did. Under the section of Membership , this sentence was highlighted (By Mr Belk ? His staff ? ) They must be currently delivering their milk to or through the cooperative.  

Please note blog readers, the bylaw DOES NOT state that the member (farmer) cannot sell their milk to anyone but Foremost. Hmmmm I'll bet someone in that corporate office will get that changed real soon. Be warned fellow Foremost Farmer Members. That milk you've been providing to your elderly aunt to save her a trip to the store might just not be "allowed" by Foremost in the near future. And hey !, what about that milk you "deliver" to your own kids in your own kitchen.?  No, I don't think I'm being overly dramatic or paranoid. I think I'm being very realistic about the possibility of losing even more control over what belongs to you and your family. The loss of basic rights never starts with a big parade and loud sirens, it comes in through YOUR back door and oozes up your back steps and into your own kitchen before you even hear the screen door creak.

Now about the 6 day warning we were given, in all fairness when I told Mr Belk that our fieldman verbally told us we'd probably get a 30 day warning, Mr Belk agreed to extend the deadline from April 20 to May 15th. We appreciated that. It gave us 30 WHOLE days to downsize our herd by 50% and find good homes for  good cows. 30 Days to figure out how to replace our monthly income from Foremost which averages about $2500 a month. 30 days to find an independent lab to test our milk so we can maintain our standards of low somatic cell counts and high percentages of butterfat.30 days to tell our story (Special Thanks to Tim Jones and Chris Walker from the Chicago Tribune for the excellent story they did about raw milk and our farm which is in todays edition. One side note. That Chris Walker did a fab job of running backwards in out pasture over rocks, holes and cow piles just to get good video of Keith who happens to walk very fast.
 http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-raw-milk-20100422,0,2185455.story

We also have just 30 days to double our raw milk customer base to make up for the lost revenue from Foremost. That task has to be done without formal advertising since the State of Illinois says it is legal to sell raw milk but illegal to advertise it .( Don't ask. Don't tell. Our government is so good at that little mantra aren't they ?)

But enough whining ! 30 days is better than 6 days. Keith and I have a diversified farm so our revenue is not limited to the dairy. I have an off farm job for which I am extremely grateful.We have tons of meat in our freezers, dozens of eggs and gallons of milk in our frig.We have the support of family and friends Our situation does not even begin to compare to the pain that the State of Wisconsin has slathered all over hard working Farmers Max Kane ,Scott Trautman and their families

But, be warned fellow dairy farmers. If you sell milk to another company and all you have is a verbal agreement , be careful. Ask for a copy of those bylaws.READ THEM. Ask for clarification of them. Become a member of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Touch base with your attorney and your farm insurance agent. Dig into those Illinois State Laws. Education is the best defense. And when you are done with all that, grab a big tall glass of cold fresh raw milk , sit down for a spell on your back porch and enjoy the labors of your very hard work.Don't forget to thank the cows.

One Mean Mother

The Chicago Tribune sent National Correspondent Tim Jones  to our humble little pig/cow/nutcake farm this afternoon to interview us about raw milk issues in Illinois. While he is compiling his notes and we are waiting for the Tribunes photographer to arrive, I thought I would post some new pics of Lady Anne, the MEANEST mother in town.

Now, if you know my kids, you have probably heard that I was the meanest mother on earth. But one look into Lady Annes eyes and it becomes clear who is meanest.

 Would you try to get this little babies away from her ? Me neither. Not without a good suit of armor.

We do not sell pasteurized or homogenized milk.

Yeah. I think that says it all. Our milk is not homogenized* Our milk is not pasteurized**. Our milk is in its most natural and nutritious state and the picture above is not just a shot of our milking herd. It is also an ingredient list. The ingredient list is as follows...Grass.  Well, to be fair, there is also water in that grass.

So there you have it. We do not sell pasteurized or homogenized milk. If you would like to know what we do sell please call us at 815-635-3414



* Homogenized: Milk with fat particles broken up so that the cream will not rise
* Pasteurized: Milk that is heated to control microorganisms

Running on Empty

I've been in an accident. Yesterday afternnoon about 5 pm I ran head head on into a brick wall. I did not see it coming. There were no flashing warning lights. I had worked an extra shift last Wed night then my 12 hour weekend night shifts. I slept a little Sunday morning and gotten up about 1:30. Visited with two sons, and one daughter in law, checked on new baby pigs and then Keith and I went for a walk west of our house where this picture above was taken. That is when I hit the brick wall. Don't see it ? Look harder, its right there.

I very suddenly felt so bone weary I thought I would lie right down in the cow pasture in which we were standing and take a nap. I was Dorothy in the poppy field. Unable to resist the pull of heavy sleep. I turned to Keith , mumbled something about "goodnight", crawled back under the electric fence and stumbled upstairs back to bed. I slept 13 hours. This left Keith with all the evening chores. THIRTEEN HOURS ! What a waste of time.

What happened ? Well, the answer is simple. I work much harder than most women and I don't work near as hard as the majority. I juggle work and farm and a little grand kid care and some elder care. I handle paperwork and deadlines, family events and yardwork. I have even been known to go to church, on occasion.  I do laundry, dishes, make lots of  farm related phone calls to folks like the Illinois Department of Health and I fake a lot of meals but I'll be honest, I haven't dusted in weeks and the toilets are completely on their own.

I am woman hear me snore. THATS what happened yesterday.