Moving On From Grassfed Beef

When we first moved to the farm we wanted to gain experience in lots of different farming endeavors and ultimately choose the ones that worked best for us and our land. We knew from the beginning that raising goats on our land would work. It was obvious just by looking at the pastures. Wild blackberry, multi-flora rose, lespedeza, ironweed, and many other "weeds" and "noxious" plants were growing everywhere. It happens that many of these plants are great forage for goats. Thus far we've been right. The goats are thriving, we've had almost zero illnesses, no losses and they're giving a bunch of milk on very minimal feed.

Pigs also make a lot of sense for us. We have about half of our acreage in woods, which provides an excellent habitat for the Ossabaw hogs. They can root, eat the mast, make wallows and be happy pigs. It's a great companion to the goat dairy as well. For every 10 pounds of milk used in cheesemaking, only about 1lb of milk soilds end up as cheese. The other 8-9 pounds would typically go down the drain as whey. Or in our case we'd need to build a lagoon for it. So instead we feed it to the pigs. This left over fluid is full of whey protein and other vitamins and minerals that are not captured during the cheesemaking process.

So pigs and goats fit perfectly. Unfortunately, the idea of raising grassfed beef just didn't make sense. Much of our forage base is not palatable to cows. Fattening up a beef on grass takes a very skilled grazier utilizing high quality forage. If the beef does not gain a certain amount of weight before finishing it won't be well-marbled. That's why so many consumers have had bad experiences with eating grassfed beef. It's very hard to do well, and the people that do it well are few and far between. Sure, we could grow out some beef cows and get them slaughtered, but would it be the best beef you've ever had? Probably not, and that's not what we're aiming for.

Over the past couple weeks we sold Joplin to a neighboring farm and processed Janis for beef. We miss them, but it was the right decision for the farm. Narrowing our focus also helps free up some time for when the baby arrives!

-James

 

Saving a Piglet


On Saturday I wrote about Bianca's farrowing and the fact that one of the piglets didn't survive. I learned from the piglet's death that piglets are extremely fragile when first born, highly susceptible to cold, and if not immediately cared for will most likely expire through no fault of their own. 

I wrote Saturday's post in a kind of stream of consciousness. It helped a lot to get it out on paper and force me to think about it. Immediately after I published the post I went back out to check on Bianca, who was still laboring and was expected to birth another 4-5 piglets over the course of the next hour or so. I wanted to bring more hay and food for her, and to check on the rest of the piglets to see if any of them needed help. 

Eileen had yet to see the piglets, so we jumped on the ATV and headed out to their paddock. First thing we saw upon arriving was a lone piglet covered in afterbirth under a tree. Bianca was with the rest of the litter in her nest. Five piglets were with Bianca. We knew that little piglet under the tree didn't stand a chance on its own and it was already on the brink of death, most likely unable to survive if we simply placed it back in the nest, as I had done with the last one.

So we took her inside and gave our best shot at nursing her back to health.

Here is what I learned:

 

Read More

The Economics of Small, Farm Products - Farm Flows

I haven't written one of those boring Farm Flows posts in a while, so I thought I better get back on it.

Actually, we've received a bunch of questions about the economics of soapmaking and whether it can sustain a small farm, such as ours. We love that so many people email us questions about leaving the rat-race and starting a small business. It's inspring, and I hope that some of what we share on our site will help them achieve their dreams. 

However, we don't know whether what we're doing will work. We're not yet paying the bills with farm income. What we do know is what it would take for items such as soap, lip salves, etc to provide a meaningful income for us. And that's what I think people really want to know. Can I move to the middle of nowhere and make soap (or other small, farm products) and live a happy life? The answer is my least favorite of all answers: it depends.

Our soaps and lip salves on display at OMG in Nashville

I am not going to give you all of our numbers because I want you to figure it out for yourself. Don't rely on other people's numbers. They aren't your own.

My goal in this article is to help walk you through the process that I use when I'm trying to answer this question for ourselves. At Little Seed our goal is NOT to create a giant business. We want to make an income sufficient to cover our bills and save a little for the future. We DO NOT want to sit in an office and manage employees. We want to be farmers. You should read this article with that standpoint in mind. 

Read More