Ninja Cow Farm LLC

June 7, 2015June 7, 2015

We are back in town, and the cows get a treat

if you’ve been wondering where we were this past week, the family and I went to Myrtle Beach, SC for a vacation. While I’m very fortunate to have been able to take vacations in the past, I honestly cannot recall taking a whole week off. Even as a kid we went from Wednesday to Saturday. We left on Monday and by about Thursday I was finally starting to calm down a bit, something my wife pointed out to me. By Saturday I was in the groove of the beach and finally had some vacation. It was wonderful. Now we are back home and it’s back to farming.

Once per rotation of the farm, the cows get a special treat. They are “flash grazed” through the lower pond where they have access to water, trees, and the forbidden. By contract with NRCS, we can only allow cows into our excluded areas one day. That’s fine we us because we only graze each area one day anyway. The cows love being in this area though. They are currently rubbing all the bark off the trees scratching every itch they ever had. Well some of them are. Some others jumped in the pond, a few are eating. When I turned them in it was like kids being let out for recess with everyone running to their favorite part of the playground. After about 30 mins they settle down and begin to graze but I’m lucky I got to see them go in this paddock. It was a nice treat to see them so happy.

Now it’s time to get Spork up and go feed the pigs. Thanks to Miguel’s wheeling and dealing, we have plenty of food, maybe too much. He has another wholesaler now, so we are up to two different farmers markets and three wholesalers. We are swimming in fresh produce, which the animals are happily disposing of for us.

June 2, 2015

A hard working boy

On Sundays Spork and I have the farm to ourselves. Both Miguel and Vicente have the day off so we do all the farm work that normally these guys do, or at lest our version of it. Sunday is our lightest day on the farm so it’s not nearly as much as a normal day but it’s a chance for Spork and I to spend the day together working. Spork always jumps right up with me and is ready to work, however by the end of the day, he’s dragging a bit. At 11 years old, I know he’s getting to the end of the time where I can outdo him and soon I’ll be looking up at him and asking him to slow down a bit for his old man. But right now, I’ve still got him.

Boy drinking coconut milk — Spork, taking a break

The picture above was yesterday. We’d worked most of the day and Spork had been there with me the whole way through. His rear end was getting pretty close to the ground so I gave him a few minutes to catch his breath. Being industrious, he found a coconut in the food we hadn’t fed and had me open it. Here he is taking 5 and chugging some sweet coconut milk during his break like it’s completely normal, which on our farm, it is.

May 31, 2015May 31, 2015

We have even more bees!

Bees on the landing board — Our new bees, hanging out on the porch of their new home

I already wrote about how we had a native swarm of bees move into one of our old empty hives this spring. I was super excited to get a native swarm and these girls are really kicking butt. They already have capped honey and are out working well before the other bees every morning. I’m glad to have all my bees but the native swarm is extra special because I’ve never successfully kept a native swarm before.

The way this whole thing happened was a result of me being lazy. When I took the old hives down, I simply sat them on the ground and made room on the stands for the new hives. I figured I’d get back to them sooner or later. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to keep them since it is a best practice not to reuse hive material from a failed hive since you never really know what killed the hive and whatever it is could still be in there.

Since being lazy and leaving old hives sitting around had paid off, I’d gotten even lazier and left the remaining hives on the ground. Last week I was checking on the bees, which are mesmerizing to watch, and I noted some bees robbing one of the old hives still on the ground. But then I noted what you see above, some bees hanging out on the porch. Odd. I watched for a while and they sure did look like they were staying which robbers don’t do. I stayed a while and noted a good number of bees going in and none had any pollen with them, indicating that were not taking anything into the hive. Must just be robber bees.

The next day I again checked on the bees and wow! There were bees taking pollen in which was better than seeing a moving truck back up to the hive and them start unloading boxes! This weekend I finally popped the hive up on a hive stand and cracked it open to see what is what. Well developed larvae were already in he comb and there was uncapped honey already in several combs. It really looks like lighting has struck twice and we have two native swarms who have moved into old hives!

I put out some food for them yesterday and I’ll pull the feeder off tomorrow. These guys don’t seem as vibrant as the first swarm hive, but they did just move in. I’ll keep an eye on them.

If anyone is looking for that last dead hive I was supposed to clean up, it’s sitting on the ground hoping the third time is the charm!

May 28, 2015May 25, 2015

Progress on the sales room

Farm meat storage — Where we store and sell our meat. Finally with some drywall.

As you know if you’ve been to the farm this year, our meat storage room flooded this winter and ruined the walls and ceiling. Luckily the water ran out the door before it could affect our freezers, only wetting their adjustment feet and not the freezers themselves. However the room needed a total remodel to get things back right. We were planning on remodeling anyway so it wasn’t a big deal but since February we’ve operated with a room that has no overhead lights and has all the walls and ceiling exposed. With Vicente back, we have finally started making a bit of progress on getting our sales room back in shape. He had about 1/2 of the drywall up, which doesn’t seem like much, but he had to replace some studs that had water damage. He also is putting new insulation up behind each piece of drywall, plus he had to run the offending water line around the other side of the room to keep any new lines from freezing. Now the line doesn’t touch any exterior walls.

We are only working on this room when there is bad weather. I always try to keep sunny day projects and rainy day projects going at the same time so there is always something to do. Plus Miguel and Vicente will work in any weather if I don’t stop them so I try to look out for them as best as I can. We have a window to add which may take a bit of time, then another day or two for the rest of the drywall. Then a day for the ceiling going in and then we can hang our lights finally. Once we have drywall, electricity, lights, and the freezers back against the walls again, it will feel like a real room, FINALLY. Then it will be tape, mud, sand, paint, and build out the counter. Maybe another month or so, depending on the rain or lack thereof.

May 27, 2015May 23, 2015

We have Kielbasa in the freezer

Kielbasa with spicy salsa and brussels sprouts with pork belly

15 minutes in boiling water. Slap the wiener on the grill or griddle, your choice, and pull it when it’s brown. Plate and serve with whatever topping you want, and something green so you can tell mom you ate healthy. And do like Drew did here, throw some bacon on the green stuff, because mom won’t know.

Thanks to Drew and Cat for sharing how they cooked our Kielbasa

May 26, 2015May 23, 2015

New pigs come to the farm

Large black hogs — Breeding stock of registered Large Black hogs

On May 12th, I went to Clemmons, NC to visit No Goats, No Glory farm and to look at some hogs that they had for sale. Kim, the owner of the farm, and I reached an agreement and I bought three Large Black sows, and one Large Black boar. Note these are Large Blacks, not just big black hogs. Large Blacks are a breed we’ve looked at in the past and Kim was a registered breeder for these hogs, of which there are only a few in NC. The idea with these new hogs is, we’ll start raising on own piglets on purpose, as opposed to the immaculate conception pigs we’ve had in the past. We’ll supplement when we need to with other breeders, utilizing ones that we prefer as opposed to the random ones we come across as we search for feeder pigs. And when we get too many pigs we can sell off some feeder pigs rather than buying all the time. Hopefully by having a surplus of pigs, we can be more selective on what we do and have better throughput with our feeding system and the seasons.

Pigs in a trailer — The rest of the gaggle of pigs

In addition to the breeding stock, we purchased a good sized group of pigs that we can add into our system. Buying pigs this big isn’t a money maker for us, but it allows us to meet demand and say yes to our customers, which we desperately prefer to do. In this mix are some Chester White/Large Black crosses, some Hampshires, and some Large Blacks. All the pigs have settled in nicely and soon will be regular Joes on the pig tour.

All the pigs were dewormed and ear tagged when they arrived. No more repeats of the sicknesses we had before.

May 25, 2015

The bees are doing fine

Yesterday we took a look again at our honey bees. Spork and I took some time after doing all the other farm chores to check in and see if the queens were doing their jobs. This was especially important because on one of the hives I had to go in an open up the queen cage.

The bees had chewed through the candy that the cage is capped with. That’s the white stuff you see on the left. However once the bees could physically access the queen, they’d stopped chewing. The queen is bigger than the regular bees and while they could get in, she couldn’t get out. I couldn’t reach the candy with my knife so I thought I’d just pop open the wire screen and let her out. Unfortunately it sorta ripped open suddenly and bees went everywhere. I wasn’t entirely sure if she’d gone into the hive or flown away. After a few minutes of careful searching, I was relieved to see eggs in the comb that the bees had drawn, meaning she was at work in the hive. I also noted that there was honey and pollen being stored by the bees and new comb continuing to be drawn. In other words, all was well.

Then I decided to check the other hive for the same activity. A bit of smoke and a few minutes work and yes, there were eggs in the other hive we’d placed and all was well.

Finally I decided to check on the swarm hive. Not only was there plenty of activity, the bees have quite a bit of capped honey already. Since they started with honey already in the hive that wasn’t quite the same hill to climb as the other bees. They also had properly swarmed rather than being sucked into a box in a bee yard with no warning. But having this much capped honey means these guys have it going on. Since Spork had worked so hard with me all day, I cut out a small section of capped honey and handed it to him. After getting sticky from his eyebrows to his chin, he went and shared it with his sisters. There was much happiness on the farm.

May 24, 2015May 23, 2015

The Tiffany Blue farm truck has been sold

Tiffany blue Chevy step side c10 — The truck, as we left it for the buyer

I covered the restoration of our farm truck extensively on the website back when we did the work. We restored the truck in preparation for Cassia’s wedding and were awful proud to be a small part of a beautiful ceremony.

Once the wedding was over, we were left with a gorgeous truck, in top condition. And I didn’t have the heart to scratch it or use it for anything other than going to get ice cream. Also, when I bought the truck, my kids had to ride in the back seat of the car, something they very much detested. With the old truck and only one bench seat, that rule didn’t apply. Now the kids are old enough to ride in the front seat and the truck was just sitting in the barn wasting away. I don’t have time to go to car shows, which is about all this truck was good for anymore so I decided that I needed to sell it. A post on Craigslist and a fair price and it was gone in about 30 days. The interesting thing is that everyone who was serious about buying it was a woman. What did the like the most about it? The color! It’s not a factory color, it is the color of Cassia’s wedding. I’d never have thought to paint it that color without her influence and boy did the girls like that color on a truck. The final buyer was a lady and after about 5 minutes of looking at it, she wanted it. Here is a picture of it after we delivered it to her. It was a fun project and I’m glad we did it however life moves on. Now it’s time for the next project.

Giant cardboard baler. — Our giant cardboard baler, going into position.

Maybe I’ll paint it Tiffany blue after we’re done.

May 23, 2015May 23, 2015

What do I do with Chorizo?

We’ve been carrying Chorizo for a few months now. It’s a sausage that we sell by the pound in 1″ round links. I know it’s a mainstay with the Latino community, to the point that I had Miguel test it when we got the first batch in. I always try to point it out when we have customers in. There are two reactions generally.

1. “Wow!! Chorizo! Let me have 5 pounds.”

2. “Uh, what do you do with Chorizo?”

Thanks to one of our great customers, Drew and Cat, I have at least one answer for you.

Leftover chorizo, made with farm fresh local eggs and salsa

Drew is responsible for our food porn posts, and he’s always inventing something, or whipping up something AWESOME with our products. He’s kind enough to send me pictures both to help me show what’s possible, and to torture me with the meal I missed.

Pictured above was his breakfast recently. Chorizo left over from dinner, cooked up with scrambled eggs and home-made salsa. For people like me who eat eggs for breakfast every day, day in and day out, over, and over, and over, and over again. Changing up eggs with some pork products is the way to go. If you don’t have any idea what else to do with chorizo, at least try it with your eggs in the morning. You’ll be glad you did.

Chorizo tacos with home made salsa and fries.

Here is dinner the night before. How simple is breakfast when you have all this fresh goodness left over.

Chorizo and scallops. It could have been lobster as well. Salsa roja to compliment

If you have no idea what to do with chorizo, or you’ve been intimidated to try it, I think the lesson here is clear. Find our where Drew lives and show up at his house for dinner. Barring that, try some chorizo yourself. It makes everything better.

May 23, 2015

Grazing update

On May 16th, we grazed our monitored paddock on the South side of the farm closest to the golf course. With our 32 acres of grazing pastures, and our neighbors addition of 13 acres we have a total of 45 acres of grazing. On that 45 acres, we have about 750 pounds per acre of cattle. That means total we have 33,750 pounds of cattle grazing currently. That’s based on a weight estimate I did back in late February. Since then we’ve lost a cow to death, had some births, and overall changed the ratio somewhat but for now that is our grazing pressure per acre. The grass is standing up very well to this setup, in fact I think we could use some management to increase the pressure but we’ve been so busy with other things we haven’t played with the management much this season. Once we catch up, we’ll try moving the cows every few hours vs. once per day and see what that does to our grazing.

Grazing measurement stick and grass — Before grazing, the grass is a bit thin still coming out of winter but where it’s there it’s doing well.

Here is how the grass looked before grazing. The seed heads of the grass were off the top of the measuring stick which makes them about 35″ tall. That makes sense because they are coming over the hood of the Gator as we drive through the fields. Underneath the seed heads, the actual grass was about 15″ tall.

It looks like in this picture that the grass is significantly shorter. However it is a deception. In reality there is still a lot of grass in this picture.

Here is a pre and post grazing comparison. Grazed on the left, not grazed on the right.

With the rain and mild weather, the fescue is doing well. We don’t have any thatch to speak of as what was there decomposed over the winter. However post grazing we have clipped all the pastures putting all this material on the ground. We need to get that organic material on the ground and build the thatch in preparation for the summer to come so we can hold moisture in the ground and give the warm season grasses a chance to thrive. Plus we’re supposed to be building topsoil, something that needs to start again in earnest. I hate winter when the soil is muddy and unprotected.