Old Dogs, Old Tricks
Edmund went away for a long weekend, which meant I was on livestock duty and also that the animals weren’t on their best behavior. On Friday I was drinking my...
Garth Brown |
Blog
Old Dogs, Old Tricks
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The Size of a Farm and Money Matters
The list price for the above tractor and implements is probably more than your house unless you live in a very tony neighborhood. Every year more and more food in...
Garth Brown |
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New Blog for a New Year
When I quit eating only homegrown food I had no intention for my blogging to join the dodo and Tasmanian tiger in the land of nevermore. Alas, without a prescribed...
Garth Brown |
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The Goshawk and Other Birds
Our house sits on a leveled spot halfway down a small hill. Bounded by the base of this slope on one side and a stream on the other is a...
Garth Brown |
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Perception and Reality in Agricultural Marketing
A theme in the most recent issue of Graze (tagline: ‘by graziers, for graziers’) is what I view as the fundamental tension in the agricultural market. While the bulk of...
Garth Brown |
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Tick Hunt! 2017
I call this little beauty the Rope Actuated Tick Collection System, or RATCS. (The C is silent, or it's making the S sound extra long, so it's more like RATSSSSSS,...
Garth Brown |
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Our Ram Sparky is a Neurotic Mess
Our ram Sparky is deeply strange. He has a shaggy beard, and this time of year his thick winter coat is shedding out in uneven clumps that drift across the...
Garth Brown |
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On the Road Again. And Again. (And Again.)
When I was young there was a misery particular to a ride in our two tone, 1985 Ford Econoline. It was in part the conditions - as the youngest of...
Garth Brown |
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Country Folks Famous
"Hey look, it's a celebrity." This was how my vet addressed me as I stepped into his office to collect vaccination supplies for my pigs. I gave him a blank...
Garth Brown |
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Forage for Pigs
I'm on year three with my pigs. I started out copying Sugar Mtn Farm's pig feeding program pretty closely - pasture/hay + whey as the source for the vast majority...
Garth Brown |
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How Do You Eat Raw Meat?
The short answer is “don’t,” the longer answer is “very carefully.” Cooking meat has become a cultural norm for a variety of reasons. Cooked meat tastes good, and it is...
Garth Brown |
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Another Spring
One of the chief frustrations of farming is how often trying to do better must be deferred for a year. If you want to improve the farrowing structure or the...
Garth Brown |
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Late Winter Surprise
I fail constantly as a farmer. We got sheep a bit over a year ago. Last June when the lambs came Garth read about a supposedly common practice among shepherds....
Garth Brown |
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Cold Exposure
About six weeks ago Alanna and I watched a short documentary about Wim Hof. While it’s clear that Wim is considerably more open to scientific scrutiny than most people who...
Garth Brown |
