Tag: agriculture

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

Resources

The summer weather we have been receiving for the past couple of months is enough to make a northerner blush. We don’t know what to do with it. Some of us can just enjoy, others of us dread the ‘payment’ for sunny skies and 80 degree weather.

“Just you wait,” I can hear a part of my brain say.

The lack of moisture, of course, concerns a farmer more than most. After a wet, wet spring and just 3/4″ of rain since July 1st, the current trajectory is not a good one. Our stockpiled pasture will soon run out and we’ll have to start feeding hay months earlier than normal.

In years like this–3 of the last five–our thoughts turn to patterns and possibilities. Could we irrigate the pasture? What kind of infrastructure would that require? Where would we procure the water necessary? To reliably irrigate 25 acres of ground, one would need to be able to draw over 2,000,000 gallons of water for about 4″ of coverage. That would handle a seasonal drought only. We could have used that this year just since the middle of July alone to keep the pastures verdant and vigorous.

Aroostook County potato growers are in full irrigation mode. Potatoes planted in May add bulk to their tubers in August. Acquaintances of ours have spent untold thousands digging ponds and piping water underground to spigots that service their fields. They can now put an inch on an acre fairly quickly. That is over 27,000 gallons.

Alas, it is a pressing problem in the moment as the parched earth below our feet begs us for relief. For now, we can only watch and manage for the resources we do have.

In that vein, I’ve heard from some folks that humans are geo-engineering and can control the weather; if any of you know to whom I could address my concerns for immediate relief, I would appreciate that information.

Until then, I’ll try to turn this northerner’s anxious-for-rain brain to low and enjoy the gorgeous weather.

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Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

Continuing Education

The “University of YouTube” came along just in time.  Jacks of all trades are aging out and it is harder and costlier to hire tradespeople.  It is true, the folks of Maine have, more than not, aimed to solve their own minor problems with a, “can’t be that hard,” attitude.  But boy, if the internet had nothing else to recommend it, I’ll take professionals walking me through fixing what breaks around here every day.   

These last couple of weeks, we have had to troubleshoot and fix: refrigeration, a vacuum pump on the milking machine, the scalding machine’s gas regulator, lighting system, pilot and thermocouple.  Thankfully, none of the repairs turned out to be more than tune-ups or replacing readily found parts. 

I’m just extremely grateful to the folks who decide to film themselves explaining normal operation and common failures for just about everything under the sun, who then post it to YouTube.  It’s my very own, customized continuing education, such a great 21st century, accessible tool for anyone with a sensibility to try.  We did alright this time around and did not dig ourselves into a deeper hole. 

Besides troubleshooting equipment, we’ve been hauling and stacking hay.  One of our hay producers prefers if we can pick it up in the fields as he is 78 this year.  Loading bales onto the truck in the cool of the evening after all the chores are done and driving back in twilight makes for a nice end to the day.  We hope we can fill the hayloft.  It can hold about half of our winter needs.  Filling it in June would cut down on winter hauling, though stacking hay in the winter is nicer than in the summer.

The critters have all finished shedding winter and their coats are sleek and shiny as they graze in grass as tall as they are.  Ahh, early summer.  If you’re a cow at Quill’s End, it is easy living.  You can taste the sweetness in the milk.

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Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

The Intimacy of Eating

Here’s to letting our taste buds lead the way. Our pastures this week have me drooling a little at the capacity of our animals for converting this lush June fertility into delicious, nourishing food.

There are many reasons to support human-powered, small, ecologically friendly farms. We produce real food that is nutrient-dense and full of flavor. We care for our place by improving the soil and local ecosystem. We keep dollars circulating through our own communities. We strive to raise and train the next generations of stewards. Farms can add a common sense to our communities’ dialogue that comes from working closely with nature, recognizing our part in it, not apart from it. We provide a measure of comfort and security in case of supply chain breakdowns.

I could go on, but you get the point. I believe strongly that we need more farms and farmers on land to stem the tide of the last 80 years of adulteration from corporate chemicals that has occurred in our soil and to our food.

The number of dairy farms in Maine has dropped from 5,100 in 1945 to 145 in 2023. Ponder that.

In 1945, the entire dairy herd was pastured during the growing season and fed dry hay in the winter. In 2023, the majority of dairy cows in Maine eat a “total managed ration” and live most of their lives on a concrete slab.

As a rule, our culture has called this progress. The cows are more efficient. The tractors are more efficient than animal power. Economies of scale are more efficient than a decentralized, localized system. This same logic would result in a “total managed ration” for humans as well. It would be more efficient.

Oh, but the taste buds. The intimacy of eating. The culture and variety. The seasonality. The memories.

It gives me a great degree of pleasure to watch all the critters here at Quill’s End eat. Especially during the growing season when their ‘plates,’ like ours, have a wider diversity of foods.

Imagine the choices we abandon if we step only into the grocery store for our sustenance, where 85% of the products on the shelves did not exist before 1945: what farmer to patronize, what sustainable practices to encourage and support, what particular variety to request from one of your farmers. We leave behind a farm visit with a pasture or garden walk for aisles of bright packaging and fluorescent lights.

As blessed as we are here in western Hancock County, we shouldn’t rest until our places are filling up our plates daily, and more of our pastures are full of life and laughter, furthering a community-based model of food production that continues to spread to more rural places. Led by our taste buds and the intimacy of the act of eating from our place.

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Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

Know it Well

Joel and Theresa Salatin hold a special place in our hearts.  It was his books that started us on this grass-based farming path nearly 30 years ago.  He has continued writing as their farm, Polyface, has grown and transformed their area in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.  As their son Daniel has taken over the daily operations of Polyface, many others who served as interns now operate adjacent farms to supply food to their customers.

Joel and Theresa’s journey is catalogued in Joel’s “how-to” books, along with their philosophy on life, love, and legacy.  Of the best sentiments he expressed, in my view,  is one agreeing with Wendell Berry, “To steward a place well, you need to love it, and to love it well, you need to know it.” 

Such knowledge comes from experience bearing it out.  Stewardship and learning to love through knowing are concepts that grow deeper with each passing year and each passing generation.

Every day here at Quill’s End Farm, we get to study a little more,  learn a little more, know a little more, and love a little more deeply.  I hope that, like the Salatins’ Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley, our places and communities will thrive for what we learn, how we love it, and for our stewardship.

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Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

Winter Dairy Farming

Winter dairy farming makes for a horrible workout routine.  Short bursts of activity are often followed by longer bursts of “rest.”

Winter chore time includes twice-a-day cleaning of the main area of the barn that houses the cows.  We push the bedding and manure into a pile by the door and then shovel it into a pile outside the door where it can be accessed by a tractor.  All well and good–gets a body moving and warmed right up.

Then, we water and feed the cows.  While they are all bellied up to the feeders, we brush them clean.   You can imagine this takes a bit of doing in the winter.  Then we wash their udders and begin milking. 

All that activity before milking is enough to work up a sweat in the coldest weather.  The (lack of) activity during milking is enough of a slowdown to cool you off.

Hauling hay is an even worse workout.  Our hay suppliers are around half an hour away.  We drive the half hour, load a truck for half an hour, then sit and drive home for half an hour, and then unload for half an hour–a physical therapist’s nightmare.

This is all to say, by April, we are watching that sweet grass pretty closely.  The sooner we have 5 or 6 inches in the fields, the sooner we can liberate the cows, stop pushing manure, and stop hauling hay.  We can start just walking the cows about to do their jobs. 

We love cows of grass!  We love cows pooping on grass, where our labor is not needed for clean up.  We love cows eating grass where our hauling labor is not needed.  Here is to the coming of spring and retiring, well, seasonally retiring anyways, the winter shovel.

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Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

The Floodgates Are Open

Last winter, I was fighting chronic Lyme disease. Chronic Lyme disease presents differently for each individual affected by it. I thought that the symptom of brain fog had mostly skipped me, but early this morning, there was some evidence to the contrary.

Bonnie Three birthed a beautiful healthy heifer calf. Bonnie has a Three in her name because this farm always has a Bonnie. It is a tribute to our very first cow whose name was Bonnie. So…that out of the way, Bonnie Three calved this morning. She was not, according to my notes and memory, supposed to do that until the middle of May. Because her calving date was marked as May, she has only had a very abbreviated “vacation” from milking.

The cows usually are “dried off” for two months. This allows them a rest period and to put on some weight and grow a healthy calf. While Bonnie’s calving went well and she has a healthy heifer calf, she has only had a couple of weeks off. Apparently the herd is still having symptoms of my time with Lyme disease.

Case in point? We have ten milking cows. Given a two month vacation for each cow before calving, in order to keep a steady supply of milk, we should be milking 8-ish at any given time and have a calf every month-plus. Since February third, when Pippin freshened, we have had five calves. Five cows freshening in the span of a little more than one month is not an ideal dispersal of milk flow over time for a steady supply. A correction of this glut-scarcity cycle problem will require milking some of the cows longer and keeping them open (unbred) for a longer period. The repercussions of my Lyme brain fog will stretch out in the barn for another couple of years to get this all straightened out again.

As we are now milking all ten cows at once, the floodgates are open. Milk, cream, yogurt, and cheese are all available in abundance. Our pigs won’t consider a dry meal and even the hens are partaking in skim milk to wash down theirs.

Thankfully, the symptoms of Lyme have vacated my body. Hopefully, with time and proper bull control, they will leave my farm.

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Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Heather is Vice President of Halcyon Grange #345 and writes a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and has generously permitted us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.