The snow is still flying, but Spring is here and soon the snow will be replaced by vibrantly growing forages and beautiful flowers and insects abound! The new chicks are hatching and lots of people are getting piglets this spring. I'm getting more optimistic and excited about the local food opportunities all the time. Each year more and more people are raising their own livestock and selling direct to consumers, thus skipping the middle man. This improves transparency, which increases customer confidence and builds a stronger, more independent community. I love it! Especially with the ever increasing amount of chemicals and bioengineered products in conventional feed, such as medications, GMO's, and mono-cropped ingredients. More consumers are looking for meat, eggs and milk products, which are produced with feed that doesn't come from the big feed mills who are encouraged through regulation to make feeds using these unnatural methods and suspicious ingredients. Our feed membership is going strong with many new members all the time. People keep telling us how great our feed is and how well their animals are doing as a result. Thanks for the feedback! In addition to our regular hog, hen and dairy cow feed - we are offering chick starter this year which contains wild caught fish meal, fine grind organic forages and grains, Fertrell minerals and vitamins, organic black strap molasses and sprouted and roasted barley. For membership information please click here "our chickens just love the feed! Thank you "We've been using rick's hen feed for two years and can attest to the quality of this feed. Our eggs have improved in texture and color and it's great knowing there are no chemical residues in the feed like you find with all the conventional feed you purchase in the feed stores."
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We had a great year in 2023. The Spring season started out dry and hot with temperatures in May eclipsing 30 Degrees C. The rain didn't start until late June, but it was enough to grow some pretty nice grain crops. They hay suffered because of the dry spring for sure. The gardens and the fruit trees did really well. Our pastures were suffering in the Spring, but the cattle did well on the grass, especially after some timely summer rains. Overall we were pleased with the year. We're so grateful for everyone supporting us and the amazing community we call home.
Above is a crop of Red Fife Wheat. This beautiful crop stands tall at about 5 feet and effortlessly waves in the breeze like a prairie ocean. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia: “Red Fife is Canada’s oldest wheat. One legend states that a load of wheat grown in Ukraine was on a ship in the Glasgow harbour. A friend of Farmer Fife dropped his hat into the red-coloured wheat, collecting a few seeds in the hatband, which he then shipped off to Farmer Fife in Canada. The wheat grew. The family cow managed to eat all the wheat heads except for one, which Mrs. Fife salvaged. This was the beginning of Red Fife wheat in Canada.” Above is a crop of Spelt. This crop is was difficult to harvest as the hull isn't removed through the combine threshing process. It needs to be removed after harvest through a "de-hulling" process. It is a beautiful crop and makes the tastiest bread ever! Some of our beef steers grazing on a crop of mixed brassica species in front of a beautiful sunset. These forage finished steers are ready for slaughter in November and December. We had a very nice crop of Organic Copeland Barley (Two Row Malting Variety), which we later clean and sell to Hogarth Malt from Olds, Alberta.
Last year we added a new Great Plains No Till Drill to our operation. It allows us to plant virtually all of our crops with the same seeder directly into stubble without any tillage of the soil. From cereal crops, intercrops, and even forages and cover crops. It has a liquid fertilizer kit which allows us to apply organic fertilizers such as worm casting extracts, liquid humic and fulvic acids and a variety of other biology enhancing organic additions to the soil.
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March 2024
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