The Future is Sheep
The Blackshirt Feeders cattle yard currently holds 50,000 head at full capacity, but when fully built out it will house four times that, which will make it the largest feedlot...
Garth Brown |
Blog
The Future is Sheep
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Spring in February
A February thaw on the farm usually consists of hammering rain, howling wind, and temperatures in the high thirties or maybe forty. In other words, it gets rid of the...
Garth Brown |
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In the Hops Barn
A century ago our "hops barn" was in fact used to dry and store hops. Hops have long since passed from the agricultural scene of upstate New York but the...
Garth Brown |
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Strong as a Hog
Most people are familiar with the simile "he's strong as an ox," meaning someone with great physical strength or a vigorous constitution. Ruminating on this topic it seems to me...
Garth Brown |
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How Not to Survive Doomsday
If Evan Osnos, writing in the latest issue of The New Yorker, is to be believed, a significant portion of the wealthiest among us are preparing for the apocalypse by...
Garth Brown |
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Winter Grazing (Browsing)
What you're looking at here is a small stand of bamboo bent down with snow. I snapped this photo back in late November when we got about a foot of...
Garth Brown |
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Cold Comfort
It's my impression that pigs feel the cold in a way sheep and cows don't. The way they jockey for position in the sleeping pile and their diminished interest in...
Garth Brown |
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Snow-fed Beef
This is a few days old now, the snow has melted since I put this post together. I thought I better upload it before it's even more dated than it...
Garth Brown |
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A Muddy Problem
For the third year in a row, fall has been a time of great mud for me. In the usual course of most people’s lives rainy days and time spent...
Garth Brown |
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Dressed for Work
Three point hitches and PTOs are marvelous things. Some tractors can put to good use a wider array of implements than I have changes of clothing. I know almost nothing...
Garth Brown |
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Fall Waterfall
The weather turned towards the end of last week. A few snowflakes fell amidst the rain, but it stayed above freezing, which really wasn’t much of a blessing. There’s a...
Garth Brown |
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The Bird of Nightmares
Yesterday I saw a blue heron out stalking through a hay field, which reminded me of last year, when we had one haunting our pastures into October. When I think...
Garth Brown |
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Farrowing Hoops
I built some 12 x 16 foot hoop houses with internal divisions so my pigs could give birth in a shelter if the wanted to. The hoops are skidable with...
Garth Brown |
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Annuals
Grass-fed beef has a patina of good enviro-ethic stewardship to it. Without grains there is little or no need to turn soil and with it cause problems like of erosion...
Garth Brown |