Grassfed Beef... Mmmmmmm!

Well, we know grass fed poultry is yummy (and according to Jeff, cures what ails you). Finally we have a half a grass fed beef in our freezer, from our own fields :) We're very excited about this and have already done a taste test. It's fantastic! Raising grass fed beef fits into our goals in a number of ways, but I have to admit that I was wondering what the taste would be. Even my parents grain finished their Hereford bulls for butchering, and I've considered them to have been pretty progressive farmers for their time - rotational grazing, direct marketing and staying small during the push to "get big or get out" in the 80s.

So yes, we could have/should have tried some grass fed beef before committing to it ourselves, but we figured no matter what it tasted like we were going to eat it because our overall goals were that important. We wanted a larger animal to graze the pasture ahead of the chickens (to make it a more desirable height for the birds), and we wanted to continue with returning nutrients to the soil without constant mechanical clipping - fossil fuels, you know? We still need to do that from time to time but the heifers do a great job of utilizing the taller grass that the birds have a hard time with. And then, of course, there's the idea of becoming a little more self sufficient and the very reassuring feeling of knowing where our red meat is coming from.

What a great treat that it's SO GOOD! The meat is pretty lean with very, very slight marbeling and FRESH! Yes, it's in our freezer, but there is that indescribable something that makes it stand out from meat at the grocery store. Even beyond that, I am optimistic that we have chosen one of the best breeds for pastured beef. The Shorthorns are historically known for their ability to efficiently convert grass to beef, bred and popular at a time in history when feeding grains was expensive and impractical.

Now, if we can only get our two remaining heifers bred we'll be on our way!

The Hen That Has It All

Much has been going on this summer, but I haven't had time or energy to keep up with posting, as usual. This year we haven't been working on so many big, visible projects but more on a large number of little things like perfecting our pasture rotation and modifying the fence, plus experimenting with free ranging hens with their hatched chicks (and what type of shelters would be best for that).

So on to the big news! My best hen, Dina, has just hatched five chicks. That's no record, especially if you've heard how many bantams can hatch, but it's the most we've gotten from any of the Dark Cornish hens. I've started each of the Dark Cornish with six eggs, which seems to be about the number they can adequately cover, but inevitably a few would be lost on the way, either the egg didn't develop, or in some cases they just didn't make it through hatching. Every time we've ended up with four chicks, but Dina managed to get five hatched. It's also exciting because now I refer to Dina as the hen that "has it all"... she's good looking, large, great personality, and also broody! She was the very last hen to go broody and I was convinced she wouldn't. Because one of our goals is sustainability we wanted our hens to have that instinct.

We did not do trap nests this year (catching the hen when she goes in to lay an egg so you can verify which eggs come from which hen) but I strongly suspect a few of the older chicks hatched under our hens are from Dina judging by appearance. In any event, the rooster we chose paired with our Dark Cornish hens have made some amazing birds - large and consistent, much more so than the "mail order" birds from the hatchery. It's made us believe even more in our direction of sustainability.