It's so busy around here right now. I guess that's why I have been having a hard time getting the email out in a timely manner. I promise I'll try to do better. Here is a little of what's been keeping us so busy.
Hay harvest is underway. We are trying to harvest and preserve this spring grass to utilize later in the year. It can be time-consuming and hard to make high-quality hay, but it makes all the difference in the world during the winter to be able to have excellent quality nutritious hay to feed.
The chicken growing season is running at 100%. I just hauled the first batch of our pasture-raised chickens to the processor very early Monday morning. We now have a batch at the processed, two batches growing on pasture, and a batch in the brooder. Each of these aspects of our little "supply chain" will be full till December.
School Field Trips are going great. Each morning throughout the week we'll have one or two hundred school children arrive at the farm for their spring field trip. We feel a great responsibility to provide a positive experience around agriculture. For many of these kids, this will be some of the only farm time they will ever get. This year we have reinvented the milking demonstration in a new open-air barn so the kids can get the best view and gain full knowledge of the cow milking process.
Even with all this going on we have a few things we need to talk about with yall. I'm not sure what would be the best way to create a good dialog around these subjects, but ill be thinking about that and I'd welcome your input.
Avian Flu - I know this has been in the news a lot lately, so I wanted to address it. I don't have any better knowledge of this virus than anyone else, but I have a few opinions that I can share.
I think our birds, that are raised outdoors and not tightly confined, are more healthy in general. Making them stronger and less susceptible to a variety of diseases.
Our birds eat a diverse diet which includes grass and insects. I believe this aids overall health, including a strong immune system and a full complement of vitamins and minerals.
The Ventilation of an outdoor environment, combined with low density is advantageous.
Hot weather will naturally weaken the virus (from what I've read), and we all know the hot weather is coming soon.
None of these items mentioned above make us invincible. We will continue to be cautious. Supremely healthy birds and a cautious attitude are the only things we can control.
The new Georgia Raw Milk Law - This is the one that deserves a lot more conversation. Like most government initiatives, I'm not confident that it was done with the truest of intentions. (I apologize if I damaged anyone's notion that politicians always act as altruistic servants of the citizenship.) However, we are not gonna declare defeat. The bill has passed, but the rules will need to be written by the department of agriculture. The bill (now law) gives the high-level guidelines, but the DoA rules will be where the details are. As always the devil will be in the details. If the rules are written in a reasonable fashion, this could work out to be a positive change. Please notice the *LARGE* IF in the previous sentence. But hey, let's remain positive right. Ultimately, there will be a way to have raw milk in Georgia that is legal to sell for human consumption. That could be a good thing. It will be more regulated, we know that. Again, IF that regulation is reasonable, there is no problem. A cynic might say that legalizing raw milk would be a good way to kill it. They could just write the rules so strict that no one could abide. (ok, I am the cynic, I have literally said this for years). I mean, that is possible, but let's let this process play out. With current Agriculture Commissioner, Gary Black, running for US Senate, we will have new leadership in that office. With the deadline for implementing the new law next July (2023), I assume the new leadership will end up writing the rules. That is unless Gary Black's office wants to write them before they leave office. I'm not sure about that. I'll try to reach out to some friends and see what the plan is there. If yall would like to do a Facebook live or something to further this conversation, just let me know.
