Does Anyone Else See the Irony in This? Animal Welfare Reform, Really?

 The Irony of Those Living Stacked in Crates and Boxes in the City, Trying to Tell Farmers and Ranchers that their animals should not be kept in such a similar way???

So, I have to say that after reading of another of HSUS's big wins for Animal Reform, I have to come out and comment on what I feel is a pretty ironic situation.  So, go to the link, read about what Bon Apetit is doing to make the world a better place for animals in commercial farming, and then think about this--

Just a few minutes ago I took my preschooler in to school, I then turned around and drove almost three miles home, most of it on a dirt road with either pastures or sagebrush surrounding me.  I looked at my home sitting out by itself, with an alfalfa field directly in front of it, pasture and corrals to the side and open land, hills and fields for acres and acres.  And, I thought, yes, I love, love, love that this is where and how I live.  And as I though about the cows in the fields and corrals of my grandpa's ranch all around me, I thought--well, some people would see them out here in the winter and think, "Poor cows, they need to be in shelter."  "Then, when put in shelter or barns, those same people would say, "Poor cows, they need to be free to roam and range."  Ahhh, the irony, and I am just getting started.

This is the alfalfa field directly in front of our house,
looking down the valley towards town.

So, as I looked out at my house and all our open area I thought, "And those are the SAME people that are stacked story after story high, crammed in to apartments and condos, homes without yards, surround by fences and walls and security systems."  How is it that it is perfectly okay for them to live stacked in crates and boxes, but it is not for these animals?  To many of them the thought of living on a stinky, smelly farm, away from the smog of the city, the constant hum of traffic and sirens, is as undesirable as just about anything.  They might want to take a drive in the country a walk through a park, but to actual live there--in the fresh air???  (I apologize for my sarcasm, it tends to get a little thick sometimes and it isn't always easy for readers to discern emotions when they are reading.)

Vaccinating calves every year at spring branding
helps keep our cows healthier and more
productive--Anyone out there think it's ironic
that we will vaccinate our kids for just about everything
but it's now acceptable to vaccinate our
food source??

So, yes, I think it is a little ironic, that it is okay for people to rush to the doctor at the slightest hint of a sore throat for a fill-up on antibiotics, the mere hint of cold weather sends them out in droves to get a flu shot, but yet they don't realize that animals are just as susceptible to their own illnesses whether out in the open or in temperature monitored, sanitary barns--and would probably like a little bit of antibiotics to get over what ails them as much as these people do.  And, yes, I think it even more ironic that people will cram into buildings hundreds of feet high, wall to wall, loving that they don't have a yard to care for, perfectly content in their concrete jungle, but it is definitely NOT okay for animals to do so.  In my personal opinion, if I had to live like they do, away from the country, the openness, the sunsets, the fields, the hills, I think that I would think it inhumane.  But, do they know any better?  Have they lived any other way?  Have these commercially produced animals??
The Reality of the Care that Farmers and Ranchers have for their Animals......
In all reality, Farmers and Ranchers care for their animals in ways that most consumers and 'city folk' can't imagine.  Yes, when my sister is done raising a few calves they go to auction and then she takes the money to buy beef--she won't eat the ones she has raised because of the tie she has to them.  We recently sold the first calves my kids bottle raised, and though there was heartache and sadness in saying good-bye, there are more there waiting to be fed and the cycle continues.  I think I cried almost every time I was done showing my lambs at the livestock show and it was time to load them up and say good-bye after the sell was over.  My Grandpa knows his cows, at any time he generally has about 300 head on his ranch, he knows their temperaments, he knows their bloodlines, he knows them.  Just the other day he said he had a hard time selling some of his culls to another rancher because he doesn't really like their feeding methods and he wants to know that his cows are taken care of even if they are headed for slaughter.

My Grandpa and son.  Grandpa turned 83
last month and is still cattle-ranching full-time.
He has been working cows his whole life,
and started his Angus herd in 1954.  It is his
product, and if he doesn't keep them healthy
and productive then what does he have??

So, if you really want to know where your food is coming from and how it is being treated, talk to the source, meet real people
doing what they really love.

 At 83 years-old my grandpa doesn't ranch full time because it's fun or easy, but because it is something that is in his blood, something that keeps him alive, and something that America should be proud to say exists in a vast majority of those providing them with the healthiest and most cost efficient food source in the world.

Read the Latest Story and then Decide whether or not you think that HSUS really has the right agenda at hand or not....
Here is the link to the article about BON APETIT and their welfare reforms in conjunction with HSUS--

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-we-can-eat/post/bon-appetit-announces-animal-welfare-reforms/2012/02/17/gIQACPPARR_blog.html

Returning to the FARM?

I liked this article and since I am little out of blogging during the holiday season, this gave me a good article to share and not a lot of time to do it!! 
More young people see opportunity in farming

By DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press
Wednesday, December 21, 2011.

A Wisconsin factory worker worried about layoffs became a dairy farmer. An employee at a Minnesota nonprofit found an escape from her cubicle by buying a vegetable farm. A nuclear engineer tired of office bureaucracy decided to get into cattle ranching in Texas.

While fresh demographic information on U.S. farmers won't be available until after the next agricultural census is done next year, there are signs more people in their 20s and 30s are going into farming: Enrollment in university agriculture programs has increased, as has interest in farmer-training programs.

Young people are turning up at farmers markets and are blogging, tweeting and promoting their agricultural endeavors through other social media.

The young entrepreneurs typically cite two reasons for going into farming: Many find the corporate world stifling and see no point in sticking it out when there's little job security; and demand for locally grown and organic foods has been strong enough that even in the downturn they feel confident they can sell their products.

Laura Frerichs, 31, of Hutchinson, Minn., discovered her passion for farming about a year after she graduated from college with an anthropology degree. She planned to work in economic development in Latin America and thought she ought to get some experience working on a farm.

She did stints on five farms, mostly vegetable farms, and fell in love with the work. Frerichs and her husband now have their own organic farm, and while she doesn't expect it to make them rich, she's confident they'll be able to earn a living.

"There's just this growing consciousness around locally grown foods, around organic foods," she said. "Where we are in the Twin Cities there's been great demand for that."
Farming is inherently risky: Drought, flooding, wind and other weather extremes can all destroy a year's work. And with farmland averaging $2,140 per acre across the U.S. but two to four times that much in the Midwest and California, the start-up costs can be daunting.

Still, agriculture fared better than many parts of the economy during the recession, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts record profits for farmers as a whole this year.

"People are looking at farm income, especially the increase in asset values, and seeing a really positive story about our economy," said USDA senior economist Mary Clare Ahearn, citing preliminary statistics. "Young people are viewing agriculture as a great opportunity and saying they want to be a part of it."

That's welcome news to the government. More than 60 percent of farmers are over the age of 55, and without young farmers to replace them when they retire the nation's food supply would depend on fewer and fewer people.

"We'd be vulnerable to local economic disruptions, tariffs, attacks on the food supply, really, any disaster you can think of," said Poppy Davis, who coordinates the USDA's programs for beginning farmers and ranchers.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has called for 100,000 new farmers within the next few years, and Congress has responded with proposals that would provide young farmers with improved access to USDA support and loan programs.

One beginning farmer is Gabrielle Rojas, 34, from the central Wisconsin town of Hewitt. As a rebellious teen all she wanted to do was leave her family's farm and find a career that didn't involve cows. But she changed her mind after spending years in dead-end jobs in a factory and restaurant.

"In those jobs I'm just a number, just a time-clock number," Rojas said. "But now I'm doing what I love to do. If I'm having a rough day or I'm a little sad because the sun's not shining or my tractor's broken, I can always go out and be by the cattle. That always makes me feel better."

Rojas got help in changing careers from an apprenticeship program paid for by the USDA, which began giving money in 2009 to universities and nonprofit groups that help train beginning farmers. The grants helped train about 5,000 people the first year. This year, the USDA estimates more than twice as many benefited.
One of the groups that received a grant is Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, or MOSES. The Spring Valley, Wis., chapter teaches farming entrepreneurs how to cope with price swings and what to do in cases of catastrophic weather.

MOSES also organizes field days, where would-be farmers tour the operations of successful farms to learn and share tips. Attendance is up 20 percent this year, director Faye Jones said, and some outings that used to attract 30 or 40 people have drawn as many as 100, most between the ages of 18 and 30.

"I think for many people, farming has been a lifelong dream, and now the timing is right," she said. Among the reasons she cited: the lifestyle, working in the fresh air and being one's own boss.

If farming is beginning to sound like an appealing career, there are downsides. The work involves tough physical labor, and vacations create problems when there are crops to be harvested and cows to be milked.

In addition, many farmers need second jobs to get health insurance or make ends meet. As the USDA notes, three-fifths of farms have sales of less than $10,000 a year, although some may be growing fruit trees or other crops that take a few years to develop.
None of those factors dissuaded 27-year-old Paul Mews. He left a high-paying job as a nuclear engineer last year to become a cattle rancher in Menard, Texas. His wife's family has been ranching for generations, and Mews decided he'd much rather join his in-laws and be his own boss than continue shuffling paperwork at the plant.
"When you're self-employed it's so much more fulfilling. You get paid what you're worth," he said. "It's really nice that what you put into it is what you're going to get back out."

Dinesh Ramde can be reached at dramde(at)ap.org.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/21/national/a000148S62.DTL&ao=2#ixzz1hHb3h2tM

Nevada Farm Bureau's 2011 Annual Meeting (Part 1)

For those involved with the planning and preparation for this year’s Nevada Farm Bureau Annual Meeting, you should be giving yourselves a big pat on the back for a great meeting! The Annual meeting, held the 16-19th of November, in Fallon, brought together Farmers and Ranchers and Agriculturists from across the state to tour various operations in Churchill County, to attend workshops, and to finalize our state Farm Bureau’s policy for the coming year.

This year we started out with Board training and dinner at the Slanted Porch in Fallon. Of course, I was too busy looking for my keys to have a chance to get my camera out and take any pictures, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. It was a great dinner and the training put on by Doug Busselman was also very well done. And, in the end, I also found my keys—and was not the only one to lose them that week—though I did receive the most ribbing for it.

Farm Bureau Members headed to the Desert Oasis Teff Plant.

The following day we began with more training from Doug. We then broke for lunch and then began the planned tours. Our first stop was at Desert Oasis Teff.   Instead of telling you all about it myself, I found this article online, which does a much better job:

http://www.unce.unr.edu/news/article.asp?ID=1499

  You really need to read that article to understand the basics of Teff, what it is used for and why it is becoming such an important crop in a world of increasing numbers with celiac's disease.



Jay Davison, UNCE Agent that helped introduce Teff to Nevada
growers.

Teff is harvested with a few manipulations to regular machinery.  The swather has been adapted to have as large as a swath as possible to dry the teff qucikly.  A combine is sealed as much as possible, even using duct tape to cover any minor holes to keep the tiny seed from being lost. 


This is what they use to spread the tiny seed with,
and have had success in flood and sprinkler irrigation systems.

 

Teff before cleaning.

 

This is just the chaff left after the first cleaning.



Dave Eckert and John Getto, owners of Desert Teff.

The seed as it prepares for further cleaning and processing.

Here it is again processed, and the different sizes of seeds and
colors of seed are separated.



The darker seeds are more preferred in the Ethiopian Market
 because they can mix them with regualr flour and it is not as noticeable.



The final sorting of the Teff.



The final cleaned seed, like grains of sand.

  

Gluten-free Teff flour, ready for use.

So, stop one of our tour and I had already learned so much more than I had known before I got there.  Nevada and Idaho vie for the spot of top-producing state, with Nevada's production valuing around 1 million a year in 2010 with 1,200 acres of Teff in production. 

And, that is all you gert for this post, which I am pretty proud of myself for even having gotten out during this crazy week!  Tune in for the rest of the tour to Liberty Dairy and Churchill Vineyards, hopefully next week.  But, for now: HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!!

Global Demand for Food Booms

This was a really interesting article to me, and since November is a CrAzY month for me, I tried to make it a little easier by cutting a bit of my blogging down....so take time to read it, I  liked the quote in the second paragraph--you know, sometimes in the Ag business you can really use a positive outlook or two! ;) But what do you think?  I know there is definitely some debate over whether America should worry ab out feeding the world or feeding America.  I think the information in this article is really interesting, and I think that if there is anyway for America to keep a hold over China, then our Agriculture is one of our best resources to do so. Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the post and share what you think!  Anyway, here's what he had to say in case you need a reason to read the article:

"In my 30-year career, I’ve never seen a better environment and outlook for American agriculture," says Mike Dwyer, director and chief economist for USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS).

Global Demand for Food Booms Top Producer Magazine