What do farmers do in a blizzard?
We’re often asked what the winter is like on a farm. Well…it has varied a lot over the years. We used to spend hours delivering water to animals, breaking ice on water troughs, hauling feed, unrolling hay, spreading new bedding materials, etc. 4 years ago, daily chores took about 6 hours.
Today, we have narrowed our focus so that we can more effectively pursue our mission of Healthy Land, Healthy Animals, and Healthy People. We have spent years identifying areas where we could improve.
Now nearly all of our animal production takes place between April and October when the grass is growing, and the land can absorb all of the wonderful goodness that our animals leave behind. This has improved the health of our land, animals, and people (both us, the workers, and you, the consumers).
Daily chores this winter take about 30 minutes, and we focus the rest of our time on continuing to improve our processes, our products, and our people. We improve our processes by pouring over spreadsheets, meeting to discuss what went well last year and what can be improved, and analyzing the efficacy of each task that we do.
We improve our products by learning ways to increase the health and diversity of our soil and forages, by seeking out superior genetics of livestock, by studying the systems of other farms whom we hold in high esteem, by discussions with regenerative livestock consultants, and by improving the quality of life for our livestock; i.e. having the pigs spend the winter under a roof in deep, clean, dry bedding, rather than in the woods.
We improve our people with continuing education workshops and conferences for our employees. And, we aim to improve your life by making our website more user-friendly, analyzing your feedback to raise the quality of our service to you, and identifying ways to keep prices down amidst this ever-inflating economy.
So maybe it’s not what you thought. While we do spend some time out in the field and with the pigs, most of our winter time nowadays is spent inside. But piglets will be arriving in 3 short weeks, so we’ll be back out in full swing before you know it.
Enjoy these last few weeks of winter,
Farmer Ben
P.S. Milo and I tapped a few maple trees, too. If you have any, tap them now or you’ll miss your chance!