Big Boy Time
Fall is here on the farm, and it has been a very welcome transition at Alden Hills! Right now, we have just our last batch of 2,000 meat chickens left on the farm and our Thanksgiving turkeys running around. It feels really great to cut the morning chores down to only about 2 hours as opposed to 4 hours it normally would take us when we are running at full production with chicken. Raising chicken in the Midwest always feels like a sprint against Mother Nature and the cold that we know is coming soon enough. We’ve had a strong finish to our poultry growing season… I feel like I always learn something new or better each season with poultry and that was definitely the case this year. Our beef herd is in breeding season right now, so we have our young bull and an older bull we rented in doing their job. We’re letting them breed a little longer than usual this year but that’s a newsletter for next week! We’re also on our last batch of hogs and it’s close to THEIR favorite time of year… the acorns and walnuts will soon be falling in the forests, and they love that autumn snack.
There have always been a few moments where we are able to upgrade to the “big boy option” and it feels like we’ve “arrived” in some way as a farm. I can think of a few purchases (always the large ones, right?) that fit that category for me. Building our chicken brooder, buying a larger cattle trailer (which we’ve outgrown already by now), or completing new fence lines. I don’t want that to sound arrogant but it does always feel good to upgrade something to real-farmer status aha.
Last month we purchased a (much needed and expensive) handling corral for our cattle. Right now, we have 3 farm locations (spread out about 15-20 minutes apart) and we only have a reliable corral at the main farm. This became a very apparent issue this summer when we went to run our herd through to sort steers out… the tallest steer in the herd took one look at the old fence and with a running start cleared the fence with one jump. As soon as that happened, and the rest of the herd saw the possibilities he was soon followed by 3 or 4 more. That was not a fun day for the livestock crew! So once that happened we realized that needed an escape-proof corral that can move between the different properties as needed… Ethan (Livestock Manager) came up with a plan and we got the new system installed and it worked like a charm. Safe and efficient handling facilities are a crucial part of running cattle because when it’s needed… it’s really needed! There’s not much worse than trying to fill the trailer for processing day only to have cows get out!
Half the fun and headache of farming is solving problems as they come so it always feels extra good to put a permanent solution in place.