27
Feb
What’s new at Nadig Family Farm? Right now our farm is in the get through the winter mode until nice weather comes so we can do stuff again phase. Very soon though we will have our feeder hogs back out on our wooded pasture. Baby calves will be born. Our broiler chicks and egg layer chicks will be in the brooder, growing. Our sheep will be having lambs. Cats will be having kittens, etc. The best thing will be mud drying up and grass starting to grow.
Gosh, you might ask, what makes grass so special? We can’t eat it. If it grows too tall where I come from, the local micro-managers, I mean code enforcers, will drive by and give you a hefty fine for not mowing it. Excellent question I say. Animals like cattle and sheep just love to eat the, what we call worthless grass, and turn it into the most healthy and delicious meat and milk available to man. In so doing, with the farmers help, the animals convert the pasture into ever increasingly higher productivity. When the cattle eat the grass, we move them to another area of grass, giving the last spot plenty of rest. As the grass rests, the root grow deeper, and the grass actually thickens. The cattle’s manure fertilizes the soil, along with any grass that is trampled. The combination of thicker growing grass and trampled grass provides an excellent cover for both micro-organisms living in the soil and for greater rain water retention/less run-off. Micro-organisms in the soil actually unleash the soils healthy nutrients and minerals, making them available to the grass, making the grass really, really nutrient-dense. This all carries over into the meat. It’s what I like to call a win, win, win situation. I mean, who doesn’t like winning?
Well that’s neat, but you can’t get something from nothing. Don’t the cattle deplete the soil and grass over time by eating it? I’m glad you asked! Actually, if you remember from everyone’s favorite high school class, Biology, the leaves on grass absorb solar energy and through photosynthesis, covert free sunlight into nutrients that are stored in the plant. As we improve the pastures thickness and vibrancy, through managed grazing, we have much more leaf area to absorb more and more FREE sunlight. It’s like a self-generating solar panel that isn’t just a few hundred square feet, but several acres. Did I mention that sunshine, for the moment until the micromanagers that none of us elected figure out how to charge us a tax for sunshine, is currently still FREE!
So what’s new? As you can see, not much now. But very soon our farm will be bursting with life and energy. (Thank the Good Lord for seasons.) In the mean-time, we hope that you can enjoy some of our healthy, delicious products as your order them on our website.
Thank You,
- John