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Beer and BBQ festival at the farm, the results

Last night we had the BBQ dinner we’ve been talking about for a few weeks. I don’t think it could have gone any better. The weather was warm but not too hot with a light breeze and no rain. The bugs weren’t too much of a problem, at least till we turned the lights on which was just when we were cleaning up. Everyone who showed up was very nice and seemed to have a good time. We had enough room for parking, which was a concern originally and people seemed to enjoy the food and the beer.

It wouldn’t be an event without some drama and we had the right amount mixed in. Wil with Beltline Brew Tour’s showed up but running late because of an earlier event and to make matters worse his help did not show at all. Fortunately Wil had already been out multiple times to set up so his stuff was pretty much ready to go, except for his beer dispenser which had somehow lost both of the washers that make it work. Miguel grabbed me and handed me an oversized washer that needed to be modified to fit. A few minutes in the shop and we had new custom washers for Wil and the beer was flowing. Mike with Mike’s BBQ was MIA, but he had a very nice and capable lady handling the event for him. Unfortunately her help quit at the last moment so she was by herself. All this was happening as guests were arriving because what’s drama without witnesses. Needless to say there was some scrambling going on. Fortunately, Miguel had elected to stay and “see a white people party” so he jumped in and helped things flow smoothly. Mike’s lovely wife showed up and made everything perfect with the table setup. Also Alice, The FOG, and Bar-B-Jew were on hand and they helped park cars and whatever else needed doing. The end result was nobody in attendance had any idea we had issues, which is exactly what you want, to look like a duck. Calm on the surface, and paddling your butt off underneath.

Cassia and Johnathan also showed up and Cassia began to tutor me in the modern world of marketing and websites that I don’t use, which I need. She grabbed my phone and put me on Instagram and then proceeded to take fantastic pictures and upload them for me, all while sporting her Ninja Cow Farm shirt showing her support for our farm. Here are some of the pics from our event. You can click on the picture to get it full size.

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SWMBO was also taking pictures. Once she downloads them I’ll post them in a later post.

Thanks to everyone for coming out. There was talk of doing another version of this at a later date. I’ll let Wil do the legwork on that one.

 

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The Ninja Cow, immortalized in song.

I know we don’t have the only “Ninja Cow” in existence. There have been ones before, and there will be ones again (that’s sort of a zen/Battle Star Galactica thing). However, I do believe we are the only farm to take it on as our moniker. With that being said, I’m glad to see that the Ninja Cow has been written to song so we have a sound track to go with our little farming adventure. You can see the video of the song here.

I think I’ll reach out to the guys and see if we can adopt this song as our own.

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Shocker! Ninja cows are actually grain fed.

We get a lot of questions on what we feed our animals.

GMO? No.

Corn? No, except sweet corn husks from the farmers market.

Grain? Eh, well, actually yes. But not what you think.

In the video above you can see our cows, having just been turned out onto a new paddock, eating the seed heads from fescue grass. They will eat about 80% of the seed heads, mixed in with the grass they normally eat. These grains are only available for a few weeks in the spring and the cows make full use of the opportunity scarfing all they can while they can. Does this mean our cows are grain fed? I can hear you saying now, “I thought cows weren’t supposed to eat grain. It’s bad for the stomachs or something.” Cows eat whatever they can get naturally. If there is grain available, they will get into it and it will put on fat, just like they do in the feed lots. The difference on our farm is that the cows only get grain when it’s in season (spring) and it’s only a small part of their diet, just like if they were roaming wild.

The plus side for us is we can finish grass-fed cows in June, process in July, and have some marbling in our meat and fat on the hide. Despite what the dietitians would have us believe, fat is what it’s all about. That’s how steaks are graded, based on the marbling of fat.

So don’t worry, our cows are still grass-fed and grass finished, and even the grain they get is grass.

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A new arrival, Dottie the milk cow has her baby, Lightning.

Jersey milk cow and new born calf
Dottie and her new baby calf, Lightning. This picture is from today, when the calf was a day old.

Normally a birth on the farm is a blessing but not a big deal. However with Dottie we had a lot of concern as she carried her baby to term. A few weeks ago we had the vet out to check all of our cows. Dottie was pregnant we knew but why not check her anyway and make sure things are progressing well. The vet checks, and says that the baby is dead and Dottie has to have emergency surgery to remove the dead fetus or Dottie will die as well. Yikes!

We finish our other cows and rush Dottie to the vet hospital to have surgery. Dottie is our only milk cow, and is the replacement for Maggie who we had to put down due to a broken back. Loosing her baby is pretty much a death sentence for Dottie as well so this whole event wasn’t one of our better days. So I get Dottie to the vet and he checks her one more time to make sure everything is the same and low and behold, the baby is now fine. The vet says she’s due any day, take her home and keep an eye on her. Talk about mixed emotions.

Well some weeks go by and no baby. Dottie’s bag swells to humongous proportions and still no baby. I woke up Saturday thinking I may have to take her back to the vet to find out what is going on. What if the baby really is dead. What if she can’t have the baby. Her bag is huge, that has to be hurting her. I walk out to the paddock to move the cows and see Dottie off away from the other cows in the distance, with a little calf circling her. This is what I saw.

The baby was only hours old, maybe hour old, just getting her feet under her and still wet from birth. She was very friendly, wobbly, and hungry. I checked on her all I could without interfering, and make arrangements to come back and bottle feed the calf that afternoon if she wasn’t able to nurse because for the time I was there, she wasn’t able to latch on. Like I said, Dottie’s bag was huge and it was tough for the little calf to lean down so low to nurse. Thankfully when I got home that afternoon, the little calf was nursing just fine and was dry and healthy. She was cavorting around the pasture and having a large time.

The Princess and I talked about the new calf and worked out a name. You see, the night the calf was born, we had a major thunderstorm here on the farm. Lightning knocked out our internet (as in burnt to a crisp components) and blew up our fence charger. The Princess decided that this little girl calf was to be named Lightning in honor of the storm on her birthday.

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Too much of the vet lately

We’ve had a bad run lately with the vet. I elected to have the vet out a few weeks ago and check over the cows and the pigs. Apparently having the vet out here caused the cows to decide they like having doctors around and now I seem to have the vet out once a week. First a little bull calf, #28 started having issues and eventually bloated with gas till he was dangerously sick. The name for this condition is simply enough, called bloat. If you are curious, here is more information on bloat than you ever wanted to know.

We took the calf, who was none to keen on getting to the barnyard or on the trailer, to the vet hospital where they tubed him and put medicine directly into his rumen to help with the bloat. Unfortunately the medicine wasn’t enough and later that night the vet had to introduce a trocar directly into his rumen to directly vent the gas through his side.

Cow held in a head gate at a veterinarian
#28, in the head gate at the vet, waiting for the vet to begin working on him.

Despite the medicine from the tube, the trocar, and everything else that was done, #28 didn’t recover well and the next day the vet called and said he wasn’t going to recover and needed to be put down. So off I go to the vet with the trailer to get this cow, take him home, and put him down. He’s a young bull, about 1 year old and all we can do is bury him because we’ve given him medicine and now he cannot be used for beef. However when I pull up he’s standing there looking at me, ready to get in the trailer and go. The vet says that he suddenly started feeling better and to take him home and see if he lives although no promises.

So Miguel and I set up a convalescent stall in the barn complete with a fan for cooling and fresh food and water. #28 recovers well and as of Sunday is just about ready to go back to pasture.

Then Saturday, after more than a full day, I receive a call from a visitor who wants to take a tour. I’ve been going hard since about 5am. I’ve been covered in about every disgusting thing you can think of all day, I’ve just taken a shower and finally have on clean clothes for the first time since I got out of bed and frankly I’m beat. Not to mention I’m supposed to cook dinner that night for SWMBO and the kids. But they are here and want to see the cows. Ok, back to the barn for a quick tour. And thank God I did, because I find that #15, Love, has a huge case of bloat and won’t last long. I call the vet again, and have them start heading towards the farm. While they are coming I conduct an abbreviated tour for the family who was very nice. As soon as they leave, the vet shows and I wrangle Love to the barn and into the head gate where she gets her own trocar after a many failed attempts to get a tube down her throat.

Cow being treated for bloat
Love getting more attention than she wanted in the head gate.

Love was so bloated she barely fit through the corral. The vet had to get the gas off of her quickly so he used three needles directly into her rumen and it sounded like he’d stuck a needle into a basketball. Many psi were bled off of Love, who was thankful for the relief from the pressure and pain. She wasn’t long for this world if we hadn’t found her and treated her immediately. Thankfully I got up and gave that tour rather than being lazy. It just goes to show that getting up and doing what needs doing, especially when you don’t want to, is what it takes to keep your animals healthy and alive.

Cows in barn stall
The Hilton, where both of our cows are getting room service daily.

So we’ll keep an eye on both of these cows for the next few days and hopefully reintroduce them to the pasture with no problems. And while we’re hoping, let’s hope no more vet for a very long time.

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Getting ready for the BBQ and Beer fest on June 28th

Old time hog scalding tank
Getting the fire going for the scalding tank

When you come on the 28th to have beer and BBQ, you’ll be having an Ossabaw hog that was born and raised here on our farm. He never had one ounce of commercial feed and has lived in the open in our woods since birth. He was born here, and died here, having never ridden in a truck, been in a cage, or had a bad day. On his last day he had a breakfast of farmers market sweet corn and never knew what happened.

This is as good of pork as we can produce and we’re excited to have Mike of Mike’s BBQ try his hand at our pork.

Hog going into old time scalding tank
Ossabaw hog going into the scalding tank, 140 degrees.

If you don’t have your tickets yet, better get them soon. The 28th is coming.

I’ll be delivering this hog to Mike on Monday so he’ll have all week to do his magic with brines and rubs.

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Greek yogurt, and the whey surplus that it is creating

I read the following article on greek yogurt and whey, and some of the uses for whey. It was a good article with lots of nice tips. It was interesting to see that the rise in Greek yogurt has caused such a rise in whey production which is a problem for the dairy industry. However industry’s problem is a small operations bonus. If you are making yogurt or cheese and find yourself with too much whey left over, there are some good tips on what to do with it.

Making mozzarella cheese
Making mozzarella cheese
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Brews and BBQ menu published for dinner at Ninja Cow Farm

At least I have pork in the picture this time.

The menu has been published for the dinner we have coming up on June 28th.

We will be processing one of our large Ossabaw hogs this coming Friday and delivering it to Chef Mike early next week so he can get to work on it. I have lots of friends telling me they are coming so if you are sitting on the fence, now is the time to get your tickets before they are sold out. There are only 50 spots available total so don’t get caught short.

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A post script on the truck restoration

Farm kids pictures
All of my kids, Spork, The Princess, Bok Bok, and Aussie. Nobody around here goes by their given name.

For Father’s Day, Cassia came by and delivered a framed picture of my favorite picture from the wedding. This was after just about everything was done with the wedding and just before I drove her and Johnathan off to start their new life. Of course the truck is in the picture but what I really love is the beautiful lady who’s been a weekly part of our lives since she was 12. Of course this new picture had to go on my desk at work (yes, I have a day job, don’t all farmers?) right next to the picture of the rest of the kids.

Now it feels like I have ALL my kids on my desk. Thank you Cassia for the great picture.