Fensoms Folly

December AM writing

2011-12-20T07:23:00.000-08:00

Keeping the Skills and Knowledge on the Land
Over the years it seems I have always been one of the younger farmers and ranchers in the room. The problem is, it is still the case, and I am not getting any younger. True there are younger ones coming along but for the most part many of us have children who are interested in many things but sadly none of them are agricultural in nature. The next generation today defines themselves by what they do in their life, not what they do for a living, as we do. Many of these sons and daughters of agriculture talk fondly of growing up on the ranch and would move back to it so long as they had weekends and holidays off. Like that will happen! So farms get bigger and bigger with fewer owners and people working on them. More and bigger machinery does the work and many of the old skills are lost.
I know of grain farmers in the Prairies who are told by the company who supplies their chemicals and fertilizers when to spray, feed and weed their crops, and which day the products are available for pick up. The company field agent drives around with the farmer checking his crops and “advises” him on what to do next and which is the best product. The same company has contracted the crop at a locked in price so the farmer has to sell to them even when the market changes and prices go up. Here was me thinking the days of Serfdom were over. Well I guess they are, as the farmer still owns his farm and he pays the mortgage and taxes, but with all his inputs and crops handled by the only company in a 50-100 mile radius one could hardly call it a free market. Similar things happen in the pork, chicken and dairy industries, vertical integration they call it. Much has been written about the above from Philosophical, Economic or Political perspectives, but the one issue I fear that has been over looked and in the long term is the most important, is the loss of the knowledge base and agricultural husbandry skills that has been passed from one generation to the next.
Many of these cannot be learned from a book, much less taught over the Internet, and even a University lecture would come up short. These things are learned by doing and working along side skilled men (or women) who act as mentors and teachers. Like an apprentice of old, over seen by a Guild of the specific trade. From the age of 3 till 16 I walked, talked and helped my father on the farm soaking up all his skills and those from before who had taught him. Along with Livestock Husbandry, crop and soil management skills I learnt about “cutting and laying” hedges, making dry stone walls, “Coppicing” trees to produce fence posts and pegs, weaving and making hurdles for sheep (a type of fencing panel). Latter while working on large estate farms I was the boy as the average age of the workers was 55 plus. There I learnt more than all my time at College from those wise and weather hardened farm labourers. All these skills teach self-reliance and sustainability ensuring the continuation of small and family farms. No wonder they were dropped from the curriculum of modern Colleges and Universities who receive large sums of money from the agribusiness companies, who’s profits are linked to a vertically integrated system with a weakened knowledge base at the farm gate.
With many small farms in the Southern Interior and nowhere to go for workshops and training or mentorship I felt there was a need for an agricultural training program. I started workshops in a small way two years ago and they were well received but with all my extra workload this year I let them slip. Now we have the Mt Ida Hall to teach in and lots of critters outside to work with I plan to teach sustainable agricultural skills again this coming spring. If you or someone you know has a particular topic you wish covered let me know on the email below and I will put a class together. If you or a group you represent needs a talk on a specific topic I can help with, the same applies. Heaven forbid that I am the last farmer/rancher in my family, but if so I hope to pass on my skills and knowledge to the next generation, if only to foil big business and keep small farms and farmers viable and local food tasty! Have a great Christmas and all the best in the New Year.
Rob farms in the city and can be reached at harmonioushomestead@live.ca

Nov Friday AM article

2011-11-09T13:04:00.000-08:00

Natural Capital

The term ‘Natural Capital’ is not something you hear often in the Shuswap, so I was pleasantly surprised to see one of our local gentlemen running for council mention it at a meeting in a local coffee house recently. Natural Capital is the stuff that gets in the way to spoil the view, you know mountains, lakes, flora and fauna, the stuff we seem to have plenty of and after a while of living here take for granted as we muddle along in our busy lives. It’s the stuff that made people move here in the first place and the reason folks still relocate to Salmon Arm and its surrounding area today. With development being touted as the lifeblood of a community, it seems that any development at any cost is a good thing and we should be grateful. Sadly development chips away at our Natural Capital and once that capital is spent or lost we cannot get it back. Don’t get me wrong I am not against development as many great things have happened here over the last 30 or so years. I, as does the above-mentioned Politician who rang a warning bell in the coffee house, feel we have reached a tipping point and need to better manage our Natural Capital. Not only to preserve it but to cash in on our assets and make them more a part of our economy. Bringing industry and jobs to Salmon Arm is popular but often is not sustainable due to logistics, lack of affordable housing for staff etc. Where as using imagination and hard work to create jobs from our Natural Capital can produce sustainable, eco and social friendly jobs and businesses making use of what we have.
It’s not just the lake folks, we are more than that. The City of Salmon Arm is big and two thirds of it is agricultural reserve, farmland that folks drive through every day on their way to work, passing through to somewhere else or casually touring around the Shuswap taking in the views. We all know that large scale modern agriculture can be hard on the eyes with lots of barns and livestock housed year round and little but crops in the field grown to feed the penned up critters. Due to modern economics this is the way most of agriculture has gone, the get bigger or get out syndrome. It meant that farmers could stay on the land, but only a few, and like an endangered species their numbers have dwindled from what they once were. This has changed our Natural Capital, fields are empty of critters and uninteresting for passers by and the only time livestock are noticeable is when their odor assaults your nostrils on barn cleanout days. I am not saying what has happened is wrong; it is what has developed due to shifting economics.
More barns will be built and more empty fields will appear with monoculture (single purpose crops with little rotation) and this will chip away at the two thirds of our cities Natural Capital. The checkerboard of fields with varied livestock and crops that tourists and we see and enjoy as eye candy will be a memory. It has happened else where in our country and is happening here and because it moves slowly we fail to notice it happening until it is too late. This is economics at work but that does not make it inevitable, it can be changed. What’s more it can be changed by economics, a different model. Farmers have to make a living and will change only if things make economic sense.
This is where you the consumer comes in. By buying local, that means from a local farmer not a local grocery store, you will pay no more for the product than at the store for an often-fresher superior product. It will probably be more nutrient dense as it has not travelled far and so will be better value for money. You will be able to take the family out for a ride in the country, get some fresh air and meet a local food producer on his farm or road side stand. Buying food could be a pleasure not a chore, at the same time you would be helping preserve our Natural Capital which in turn would help the tourist sector businesses. When a farmer sells retail (direct to you the customer) instead of commodity (wholesale) he can farm with less land and smaller livestock numbers to make a living. It is easier for him to be organic or farm old style with livestock out in the fields where they should be.
During the summer when our sheep and poultry are out in the fields we notice how many cars and motorcycles slow up or even stop to take photos of frolicking lambs and the mountain scenery we are surrounded by. By you buying local food, which allows farmers to farm sustainably, we improve our Natural Capital, which in turn brings tourists and helps enhance and diversify our economy. I have only touched on one part of Natural Capital, there is also forestry and crown land along with the rivers and lake and then there is downtown and Smart growth, but I think I will leave that to the politicians!
Rob Fensom farms in the city at Harmonious Homestead and ewe and can be reached at rancherdaddy@hotmail.com

My trip to find new rams

2011-10-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

A Shepherds Trip to the National Sheep Show and Sale

It all started last year when my friend Nev Eccles asked me if I would like to go to the National sheep show and sale at Drake Saskatchewan. It sounded like a great idea at the time. My wife offered to take care of the ranch while I was gone along with help from two of our children who would be home from University at that time. “It will be a good break for you, see old friends and flat land again, we know how much you miss it”. So it was settled, “count me in Nev” I said “it should be fun”.
When we got closer to the date I realized how much our operation had grown and was worried about taking time away. But I was quickly reminded I said I would go, so go I must. I began to think my going to Saskatchewan was more of a holiday for my wife than for me!
We set of at the appointed time and date, after loading up some of my wool for Carstairs woolen mill. We were driving right by so it would save me a large freight bill. We headed for Outlook Sask, I felt if we spent the night there and set off for Drake after breakfast we would arrive in plenty of time to book in the sheep and set up. We arrived earlier than expected in Outlook, but were glad of the break. The sheep, two rams and two ewe lambs seemed in better shape than us after the main leg of the trip.
Next morning after a hearty breakfast we set off to Drake via Nokomis. On the map the road is marked as red so one would assume it is a major road. But we are in the “Post Local Elevator age”, now large semi trucks and B trains haul farmers grain huge distances to a large terminals destroying the thin black top side roads on their way. Nev was beginning to wonder where I was taking him while he was fighting with potholes and gravel over large sections of a “black top” road!
I had hoped to learn a thing or two about showing sheep on this trip from Nev. Seems he was hoping for the same from me. Turns out we had both shown cattle and fat stock in England but both come up short on sheep. So we led the rams to the wash station and decided to watch the bloke next to us, and copy him! It worked out well as both rams came out several shades whiter than when they started and after a blow dry looked quite respectable. We felt that showing them “in the wool” was best for the sheep and us. We can both shear sheep, but the most I have ever left on is with a snow comb in February, so artistic clipping was defiantly out of the question.
This gave Nev more time to talk to prospective buyers and for me to look for some new rams. I needed a new Dorset flock sire, and a terminal sire, breed at that time undecided. The Classic is a great opportunity to compare breed sizes and styles all under one roof, which is really what the show and sale is all about for a commercial guy like me.
That night there was a wine and cheese event with great sheep’s cheese from The Cheesiry of Kitscoty Alberta, and there was me thinking it was only good for lambs! At this point I must say that the venue was great and the folks of Drake looked after us. Hats of to the ladies who made the Saskatoon pies, I now live in BC, the land of fruit but I really miss Saskatoons as they do not grow here. Yes I will admit to having two slices a day and three on Saturday.
The show had over 270 entries and with two rings and two judges it was a fast paced enjoyable event. No time to get bored and always some thing to watch. Nev did well with his North Country Cheviots and placed second with one of the rams. Although not trimmed and pretty, they were ready for the field, (having recently just left it) and did well on the sale day, generating a lot of interest in his stock. I spoke to Nev three weeks after the sale and he had sold all his rams since then, so showing and advertising pays. He seemed some what in shock with nothing left to sell, but was happy with his bank account. I will hazard a guess that what happened to Nev will happen to a lot of breeders of quality sheep this year. With higher lamb prices and the need to expand to keep markets the price of the sheep at the show was higher than in previous years and the bidding on good stock was fast and keen. There were the obvious high prices between breeders trading bloodlines, as some animals were priced well above the profitability threshold. The rams going to commercial flocks for either flock sires or terminal use sold well with many reaching or exceeding five times the market lamb price, which is the traditional guide line for pricing.
Its funny how you meet people, while collecting my bidding card the lady at the booth said “hi Rob, pleased to meet you”. It was Cathy Gallivan, the Editor and owner of Sheep Canada and although I have written for her we had never met, such is modern technology. It was good to meet Cathy and catch up with old friends from Manitoba to here all the latest from my old home. I would like to thank Clint Wiens for all his hard work and for our new Dorset flock sire, and Robin Herlinveaux for our new Texal terminal sire who will compliment our Dorset ewes.
So next time the classic is near you, or just a few provinces away, treat yourself and go to it. You will have a great time, meet great people and if you bid well bring home some great sheep!
Rob Fensom can be reached at rancherdaddy@hotmail.com

Summer Issue of Sheep Canada

2011-10-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

Market Wishes verses Farm and Ranch Practicalities

It’s nice to see lamb prices are on the way up and appear to be holding, there is more optimism out there and a level of confidence among producers not seen for some time. I do remember a time back in the mid 90s when we saw similar prices and that was when a dollar bought considerably more than it does now. So in reality we are still not at a good price yet, however one interprets ‘good’. Rising inputs and overheads have seen to a narrowing of margins even when the price is up. It is about this time in the cycle of any farm commodity, whether livestock or grain, that with the tease of higher prices the buyers and packers promise good times ahead and encourage producers to ramp up production. The farmers and ranchers oblige as the only way to make more money is sell more livestock or grain. So within 18 months to 2 years the market peaks and starts it’s downward price spiral due to over production, cheap imports etc. Charlie Gracie wrote a great little book about this and its effect on the cattle industry, track it down and read it. Much of what is there can be said about any commodity including the lamb industry. Although we are much smaller the same applies, though due to sheep lambing at a year of age the cycle can be shorter.
About 20 years ago, give or take, government and industry groups were pushing multi-birth breeds, Romanov, Finn and the four new Canadian made breeds of that time. This along with accelerated lambing in the form of 3 lambing’s in two years or even the Star system of 5 lambing’s in 2 plus years. This all looked good on paper but unless we treat the sheep like pigs (putting them in barns year round, common in Quebec and parts of Ontario) and pretend Canada doesn’t have winter along with high stored feed costs compared to returns, it just won’t work with all the extra costs and man hours required. If we had $3.00/lb live lamb prices it might! I can just see the buyer’s faces now. The fact is there was a time when I could buy a full breakfast for $3.00 and lambs were a$1.50/lb live. Now the lambs are the same price but breakfast is $8.00. The word is already out there to produce more lambs to fill an expanding market but as we can see producing more on a very narrow or none existent margin is a mugs game. Many of you have found profit in private farm gate sales but it’s very tough to get the volumes up to a living wage. I sell for $7 to $8 per pound to my customers. That’s cheap compared to the $10 to $14/lb they pay in a supermarket, also they meet me, see my farm and are happy with our pasture-raised product. I only need a quarter of the sized flock to generate the same income. For small producers this is acceptable, but for the industry as a whole it would be a deathblow.
A viable industry needs numbers to support the infrastructure, packing plants trucking and distribution. Most of these are still in place so they at least have workable margins unlike some of their suppliers who have sold off flocks or downsized. The down sizing of the national flock puts pressure on the packing side of things and I have been hearing the worries of BC processors who are having great difficulty finding lambs. It seems the players put too much emphasis on supply and demand assuming if there is a demand we will jump to the pump like we always have to supply it. The average producer is 50 plus years old and has seen this part of the cycle several times and is finally getting smarter. With 95% or more of producers earning income from off farm sources they have allowed lower prices to exist by continuing to produce lamb at unsustainable prices. In turn the buyers and packers have grown accustomed to these low prices and have got soft in their business practices and pricing beyond their door. Retailers in turn hold their prices knowing full well if they do the packer can stay in business by lowering the price to the producer. As mentioned early in this article even with present higher prices it is still not high enough due to higher input costs and the reduced buying power of the dollar over time. This mess has been 30 years in the making and with many producers exiting the game due to old age and very few youngsters taking over the industry as we know it may well be gone in the next few years, except for lucrative farm gate sales.
There is still time to turn this around however. The producer’s share of the retail price used to be around 45% to 55% 25 years ago in the red meat sector. With a $3/lb carcass weight it is now 25%. I will suggest to be sustainable it has to be around a 50% return. I always find it ironic that folks will pay $12 or more per pound for fair trade coffee to ease their conscience, but will mercilessly grind their own countrymen into bankruptcy for a cheap grocery bill.
Some how buyers and packers must ensure more money back to the producer, because if they actually make a few real dollars (not money saved buy cutting costs, as there isn’t nothing left to cut) they will ramp up production. The folks between the farm gate and the customers plate (read middlemen) need to accept narrower margins as we the producers have been forced to do for the last 30 years. Yes, it’s hard but if you want to stay at the table that is what it’s going to take. Remember most of your producers are of an age they can shut shop and walk away and you could be left with empty killing floors and mortgages to pay. But if you pay a “fair trade price” most of us aged producers would love to oblige and producer more lamb at a profitable price for many more years. Hey, if we can get profit back in the equation maybe we will get some young farmers back in the game so your
Children can follow in your footsteps as buyers and packers too!
Rob Fensom farms in BC and is a grazing mentor and agricultural educator. He has been active in the Canadian sheep industry since 1987.

Sheep Canada Writings

2011-10-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

Below are for of my articles I wrote for Sheep Canada a national shepherds magazine. Hope they are not too technical and that you may find them useful and enjoyable.

Ivomec Resistance and Worm Wars.

The title says it all. I had heard of resistance to Ivomec from several sources but it all seemed so distant and far away. It was occurring in areas of high sheep numbers and so I felt some what immune to it here in a of backwater BC. I have had sheep in Canada since 1989 and have only wormed once or twice a year, alternating between Ivomec and Valbazen. I had never had a major out break and will admit to some degree of complacency. Having spent time raising stock on the prairies I was used to dry land pasture, where often worms pose little or no problems. Worming once a year before putting the ewes on winter feed was often an economic rather than medical decision. Here in BC I have irrigated land, heavy morning dews and lush pasture, all great ground for harboring worm eggs and larva. With flocks being generally smaller here I ended up buying six flocks in to make a decent mob. When reading the last few lines you can see a ticking time bomb rearing its ugly head. Most of the flocks were fine but on reflection I realized one was wormed often and always with the same brand wormer. Sadly we only found this out during our battle with resistant worms and not the 18 months before when buying them.
During the summer of 2009 my combined flock was on lush irrigated pasture, which could best be described as rocket fuel. Every thing was going fine until July we started to notice mucky behinds which we first put down to too much clover and alphalpha as the grass was slowing up due to the heat. With the loss of condition we got out the wormer and did the flock. You guessed it we used Ivomec, but for the repeat dose we used Valbazen as that’s what we had on hand. Most got better, the few poor ones we put down to damaged stomach walls and we soldiered on. You will notice at this point no mention of the Vet. Mistake number one. A lot of the lambs went as feeders and we culled out the poor performing ewes and looked forward to the next season. At the onset we should have had the vet out and done some stool samples. This would have nipped it in the bud and saved the grief to follow in 2010.
Over winter we had culled and sold of the flock that we later suspected of bringing in our “super worms” as they were a breed that did not do well on our pasture. Sadly though they had left their little friends on the fields which were picked up by the remaining ewes and spread in the summer of this year. We rotationally graze but even with longer grazing intervals our moist lush grass seems to enable a better survival rate for the larva. We started seeing signs of worms in early July. I had a chat with our local vet. I mentioned I had read of Ivomec resistance and he said that he had too, but as he had heard of none in BC and to go ahead with Ivomec. This we did, as well as submitting fecal samples to the vet and then moved the flock onto some of our rented land where they had not been for a year. It was dry land and with no irrigation and harder grass I felt this would help. Mistake number two. When recovering from worms or in this case still carrying a heavy load of worms, lower octane feed only makes things worse as the lower plane of nutrition requires more feed intake. After ten days and two dead lambs we moved them to some irrigated ground, which also had not been grazed for a year. It was the toughest move I have ever witnessed as many of the lambs struggled with the short walk and several had to be carried. The Vet came out right away, took fecal samples and phoned me back with the results two hours later. The barber pole count had doubled and he admitted it looked as though we had a resistant strain. After conferring with his colleges and emailing veterinary practices that had dealt with resistance problems, he came back with a new medicine, Cydectin, a pour on for cattle that had been very successful in past cases. So a dose was calculated for drenching sheep and off to the field we went with our portable handling system. We were ready for a paddock shift so to get to fresh grass the flock had to first pass through the chute and have some grape coloured juice that smelt of gasoline. I was hoping I hadn’t just paid $150.00 per litre for farm gas! Within a couple of days the sheep seemed to be eating more and looking perky. We moved them every 24 hours to fresh grass to avoid re-contamination. The vet came after 5 days and tested samples again. He phoned back shortly afterwards with the sweetest news we could wish for. Clean poop. No critters of any kind to be found. On his advice we used Cydectin one more time 21 days after the first dose. From that point on the flock has not looked back. We are later finishing lambs this year and we did bring them home three weeks earlier to avoid grazing on contaminated pasture but it was worth the effort. I crutched (dagged) the dirty lambs to remove tags and dingers when we weaned them and am now marketing good looking lambs through the Auction yard and private sales. Next year we will be vigilant and check eyelids and body condition more closely. More to the point I will drop the “it can’t happen here” attitude, as it can and did. As for the Vet bills, the $100.00 a time lab work bills were hard to swallow but when you cost in the month longer to finish lambs and the dead lambs and one young ewe you realize going it alone was a false economy. Ivomec has been around for a while now and it was only a mater of time before the bugs caught on and learnt to beat it. Nature as they say bats last, and we now have roundup resistant weeds, bacteria that resists antibiotics, and worms that resist Ivomec. There is no doubt in my mind that the worms will one day resist Cydectin, but with good stockman ship and drug rotation we can hopefully prolong it’s use. Stockmen rarely talk about their wrecks, much less have them published in a national magazine, so I hope by sticking my neck out I will help some of you avoid the same mistake.

Matching Breed To Location

I have lived in Canada for thirty summers now, having spent roughly half my time on the Prairies and half in the Southern Interior of BC. Most of the time I have been ranching and one thing that is often glaringly obvious is the miss matching of livestock to location. Hailing from Britain as I do where every county or area has its specific breed of sheep, cow, pig, duck or chicken, I find it strange as folks here buy with the heart not the head. We tend to keep the breeds we like even if they are ill suited to the area we live. This seems to be a bigger problem with small farms rather than larger scale operations. Probably because it’s easier to ignore the financial lesson being doled out by owning tropical sheep on a bald prairie with 8 months winter when you only own 20 as opposed to 200 or 2000.
It’s always easier to spot our neighbours mistakes than our own so to begin with I will use Britain as an example. No shepherd there would dream of taking Dorset ewes up to the highlands of Scotland and swap them for some Scottish blackface ewes to take back to the rolling fertile pastures of Dorset County. The Black faced ewes would become overly fat, many not breeding and those that did would end up with more lambs than they knew what to do with, along with many foot problems and a few cases of bloat. The Dorset’s in Scotland would no doubt loose condition, some would not breed and many that normally have twins would only have singles. All of the above would make for stressed sheep, stressed shepherds and empty bank accounts.
Now to bring this closer to home and I will be the bad example. Remember you know nothing without experience and the man who didn’t make any mistakes probably didn’t do a lot either. The trick is to learn by others mistakes, it’s a lot cheaper! I used to ranch in southern Manitoba, we ran sheep, cattle and goats. The sheep were mostly Dorset/Suffolk crosses and suited for our area and management. Then one day I went and fell in love with Columbia’s, a huge wool breed with lambs that finish at 140lbs lovely fine wool and low lambing percentage which often goes hand in hand with easy care sheep. Not only did I pick a breed that was ill suited to our economic needs and our management style, but I hauled them in from Maple Creek, Saskatchewan which is a dry short grass area and we were in a moist park like setting with grass up to our under wear.
I thought our better grass would increase the lamb crop, needless to say our grass was like lettuce compared to Maple Creek’s granola like nutrient dense grass. No extra lambs appeared the next spring and over two years the wool clip value dropped as the wool became course, going from the fineness of silk to the thickness of bristles on a wire brush. It took four years of denial before I smartened up and got rid of the Columbia’s. As Tv’s 70s show Red would say, “what a dumbass”. Buying breeds with the heart instead of the head will do that to a fellow.
Now I’m not saying go sell off your sweet hearts and study up on climate, grass and livestock to get the winning combination. But if you want to improve your bottom line and after much tender loving care your gal’s are not coming up with the goods maybe its time to do a little investigating. Believe me, it’s quicker to destock and buy the right breed than try to upgrade a breed that is a poor fit.
These days we ranch in BC and rotationally graze irrigated pasture. This requires a high degree of management and needs a good return for all the labour of moving electric net fencing and irrigation pipes. In playing with breeds I bought in older ewes from small flocks that were being sold up. There was some disease risk but all worked out well. We have Dorsets, Romneys and Suffolks. Our pastures are lush green and are grazed 4-6 times a season, so we need a breed that can best utilise these conditions. The Dorsets and Romneys are coming up trumps as the conditions are similar to where their breeds originate from. The Suffolks are not doing so well unless their lambs are sired by the Dorset ram, the Dorset genetics make better use of the grass. Dorsets were originally a dairy sheep so they tend to milk better. Romneys are also a lush grass type animal with the added bonus of worm resistance as they originate from Romney Marsh a wet lowland in Kent England. The Suffolks who hail from a grain crop growing area of England and were used to clean up crop land in the fall and no doubt became accustomed to some grain will have to go, as they are poor milkers on grass and the lambs are not doing as well as the other two breeds. The Suffolks have been sold, not because they were bad sheep (they did 175%) but because they would not finish lambs on grass which is what we require.
For drier colder areas such as the Prairies, higher elevations in the Southern Interior of BC and the Peace region the wool type breeds such as Rambouillet, Columbia, Corriedale and Targhee do well especially when crossed with a Dorset or Suffolk terminal ram to gain some Hybrid vigour for the market lambs.
The Lower mainland, Vancouver Island, Ontario and the Maratimes should stick to the traditional English county breeds, Dorset, Suffolk, Leicester, Oxford, Hampshire, Romney, Southdown and some of the newer French varieties.
As for the new hair breeds I have to admit a some what sceptical bias as most are tropical sheep and do well in the warm and wet which is something we don’t do here. The money you save on shearing you will spend three fold on extra food to keep them warm in the winter with no woollen overcoat. The only exception I can see here is a Dorper ram to use as a terminal sire for market lambs on you’re already correctly chosen ewe breed. They are meat machines and with one per forty ewes you can afford to give him a bit extra feed in the winter as he will earn his keep.
So remember no rash moves, but take a closer look at where your breed originated from and do some looking at your pasture type and weather records. Just maybe its time to end that love affair and start shepherding with your head, your bank account will thank you for it.
Rob Fensom ranches in the Southern Interior of BC, is a grazing Mentor to those in need. He has been known to graze any type of critter for a buck.

Working with Nature, less stress, less bills.

I wrote in my previous article of matching breeds of sheep to geographic and climatic conditions that best suit them. The next move is to get in step with nature and let your sheep do what comes naturally. By this I mean you should first see when your local deer have their young. This is an excellent indicator as to when forage is available in your area for optimum milk production. Wildlife does what is the most efficient and effective when it comes to reproduction and feed. That is why often times we seem over run with them, especially on the highway and around the hay stack in winter!
I know you like the look of those Easter lamb prices and they sell for 50 cents to a dollar more per pound than those November lambs. But the question you have to ask yourself is what was the cost per pound to produce them? Remember those cold nights you stayed up lambing and all the hot lamps on to save those lambs from freezing. Also the extra feed and grain to “steam up” (pre lambing) the ewes and also after lambing to keep the milk flowing to feed those lambs. Next the expensive creep feed for the lambs to speed up their growth to hit that Easter market, because if they don’t make it the price drops after the Greek Easter and you still have all those high costs on the lambs that are left.
I have to confess to a fair bit of experience of the above as we used to lamb five flocks from Boxing Day till May, to hit the high spring prices and produce a cash flow. Our barn would also only accommodate 70 ewes at a time, so it helped make the best use of our barn. All of this was done in a Manitoba winter so you can imagine the man hours, feed and hydro that went into this labour of love. With some simple grade 4 math one can soon see that the deer and Mother Nature have it all figured out.
Easter lambs usually weigh from 50 to 70lbs; fall lambs are usually 100 to 130lbs, so they are roughly twice the weight. As Easter lambs are rarely twice the price per pound of fall lambs (except in the light weight classes), they often still sell for the same price or more per head than Easter lambs. That coupled with cheaper feed, grass in summer and only a maintenance ration for ewes in the winter, means there is no real advantage in those early lambs. When you then check flock health, vet bills and lambs marketed per ewes exposed to the ram, the ‘natural’ spring born lambs leap ahead in efficiency and effectiveness. The shepherd, due to the lower man hours per ewe can handle more sheep, thus improving income and making better use of the assets and lowering the fixed costs per ewe. He also seems to be less of a grouch, according to my wife.
I realise many who read this lamb in the winter due to off farm work in the summer season and this is understandable. I was in that situation when lambing the five flocks and know full well that the pay cheque is more powerful than the lamb cheque. Often it is thought easier to “dry lot” the flock and feed them as feed is cheap and the fields are best left unfenced for easier hay making. The simple fact is livestock can feed themselves while grazing cheaper than you can make, haul and fork that hay to them. This is not including all the manure that you have to haul and spread which they would have done for you while grazing, putting it back where it came from.
With the new style portable electric mesh fence the problem of grazing and permanent fences ruining hay fields is taken care of. In my own operation I have three hay fields with perimeter fences that are permanent. I can make hay of the whole field or graze any part or all of it with the use of portable fences. Those of you who are working off farm with a “sheep dependency” but have children who show an interest or a supportive wife can still graze. While I worked off farm my 12 year old son and 14 year old daughter managed to take down and set up this style of fence on their own with no supervision, moved sheep and goats with never a mishap. This not only helped us at the time but gave them self respect and a sense of responsibility that has served them well now they are in their twenties. One of the great advantages of small ruminants is the whole family can be involved with little danger from the livestock, unlike cattle, horses or bison.
Working with the natural cycle is not only the most economical but also more satisfying and a less stressful route to take. In the long run it means more time enjoying the work at hand and the surroundings you are in, and let’s face it, that’s why we do it. Which is far better than being a “materials mover” hauling hay in, and manure out while your animals watch you serve them on bended knee (or bended aching back), doing all the work while they have all the fun.
Rotational grazing, or the title I prefer MIG, Management Intensive Grazing is truly the only way to go. It sounds daunting almost scary, but actually is just general knowledge of plants and animals mixed with good old common sense and timing. All of which has been made easier by the electric fencing advances, modern plastics and the new style energisers available at just about any feed or farm supply store you walk into. So once you have your flock lambing to make the most of your seasonal grazing and in time with nature, the next step is to have pastures to allow them to work for you. An old Stockman I knew was asked what was the secret of his good calves and lambs, and top price he got at the market. His answer was to kick the grass he stood on and said “I just keep good grass under their noses.” So next visit I will explain pasture management, how to make it work, keep it simple and not be overwhelmed by all the jargon.

Lessons from a Shearer

We had our sheep sheared at the beginning of March, early by Provincial norms but I like my girls clean and slick for lambing. Our shearer Rod Allen came to do the job. He calls Keremeos home but originally he was a Kiwi so one assumes he should be a good shearer, and Rod does not disappoint. The job went smoothly, so much so, we had plenty of time to “chew the fat”. We can swap stories as I to use to shear nearly 20 years ago, although a different, century the stories have striking similarities.
Rod and his brothers were all taught to shear; his father knew none of the boys would go hungry in rural New Zealand or Australia with that skill mastered. Rod admits he had a 25 year break from it, so starting back several years ago was not all that easy. He says it’s like riding a bike, you don’t forget, but you have to get physically in shape, “bending like a rubber toy helps”! Even now during the off season he exercises knowing it he doesn’t, the start up will be even tougher. We are one of the first flocks he does and I wanted to know what made a good place to shear. As an ex shearer I try to make the job as easy as I can for Rod and myself. For the Shepherd shearing is often the most stressful time of the year, but the shearer does it every day so how does he cope?
Rod gave me a casual grin. “Do I look stressed mate?”
Of course it’s true, I have known a lot of shearers and all of them were laid back, easy going, quick to joke and laugh and most had not a care in the world. “OK, even temper is one thing but what do you need in the shed to make life easier?” I asked. He then gave me some of his needs and wishes as many are missing at some of the farms he goes to.
1) The number one thing all shearers need is no more then one or two steps to the holding pen, because he has to drag the sheep the same distance back to the shearing stand.
2) A level, solid shearing stand that is easy to sweep, two sheets of plywood work fine, placed next to the holding pen gate.
3) Plenty of natural light, artificial lights throw shadows and can make shearing a challenge, especially if the sheep are black.
4) Out of the wind and rain is nice! He seems to be real fussy about this; no doubt he has had a few bad experiences.
5) The sheep always have to be by the gate ready to go, he is not fond of leaving the shearing stand to chase the sheep up and then have them over excited to shear.
6) Good Tunes! Music at a moderate volume helps the day go and keeps tempers smooth.
7) Enough help to keep the holding pen full, the stand swept and the fleeces moved away so the shearer can do what he does best, shear sheep.
8) Sheep must be dry, if rain is threatened put them inside. Not only are they harder to shear and unpleasant for the shearer, wet wool will mould and rot in the wool sack, causing an even lower price for the wool.
9) Last but not least, in fact this is the most important. The sheep should be off feed for 18 hours or more. It is easier for the sheep and shearer if they have empty bellies even more so if they are heavily pregnant. We shear a moth before lambing and that’s about as close as you should get, or you may have prolapses and even abortions due to stress.
Shearing is now becoming a family occupation. Rod, his wife and their son were off to Montana for a week at shearing school after visiting us. His wife and son are doing the beginners course and Rod says he will do the advanced course to keep his hand in. I teased him and said soon he will just count the sheep and collect the money leaving the shearing to the family. “No way mate, I like shearing too much, I plan to shear till I’m 80”. That reply was music to my ears. We are about the same age and I want to Shepherd until my 80s, but I don’t want to shear the woolly b----s!

October Friday AM article

2011-10-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

Tax Inspectors and Harvest time.
Tax inspectors and farmers in the same sentence are a bit like talking about cricket and knitting, there does not seem to be a connection. Lets face it, farmers rarely make enough to pay taxes let alone need inspecting. The only truly money making crop I can think of that would warrant a tax inspector has never been declared as income and likely never will be! HST on the other hand has kept these inspectors busy visiting farms as their new rules mean they owe the farmers money. Seems they cannot believe it and are checking up on us to see why we are claiming such big refunds. Pre HST, farmers could only claim an exception of the Provincial sales tax on certain listed items, but with HST they had a full refund on all items spent in connection with their farming business. This meant an extra 20 million dollars per year to the provinces farmers. As every one knows if you give a farmer some money he or she will spend it in the local economy to keep right on farming. So really it was a tax refund to business from government via farmers. Several area farmers including ourselves took advantage of this and built new barns and buildings on their farms. Costs related to construction and building materials were taxable under the old system but refundable with HST. I am sure none of us did the building because of the refund but it was a nice bonus. We, as good citizens are spending it back into the local economy to finish landscaping around the hall, beats trudging through the mud. Now that extra 20 million dollars that farmers were going to have every year because of the HST will no longer be available, thanks to Billy wooden toes and his supporters. It would have helped out local communities, as it would have gone to local contractors and building supply stores. Was all that fuss really worth it to save a few bucks on a meal in the local dinner just to sit on the couch for 3 weeks with no wages because Farmer Fred is no longer going to build a new hay shed? Silly me, and I though Billy Vanderzam was all for business, big or small, I guess he was just missing the spot light in his retirement.
……………………………….

While writing this it is pouring with rain outside and while the land needs it, the caretakers of the land do not. We have a harvest to gather and wet muddy conditions do not help. The warm sunny fall though has been great until this recent downpour. Hay, vegetables, fruit and livestock have been gathered for marketing or storage. With such a cold poor start this spring things turned around and most crops seemed to be ok. Some of the sun loving crops were a bit late like sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers etc, but it was the best year I can remember for potatoes, carrots and beets. The lesson for those who talk about local food security after this years strange weather sounds eerily similar to something our grandparents would say. Don’t be picky, as the good Lord always provides, just not always what you like to eat!
Our livestock did well this year, as the cooler weather meant less stressed pasture and better weight gains on the lambs. The first batch of chickens struggled with the cool temperatures though giving lighter birds. With the more seasonal temperatures during the rest of the year the second batch did much better and will make excellent wintertime roasters.
The laying hens and young point of lay hens breathed a sigh of relief as they miss the pot this year, but only if they lay well this winter. Some are heritage birds and will be sold as starter flocks to other chicken fanciers.
The other day I saw my first salmon of the season making it’s way upstream reminding me it’s the start of a new year for the Salmon. November 5th is also the start of the New Year for our sheep, as the rams go a ‘courting and start off the whole cycle again. It is also the end of the previous year and we at Harmonious Homestead wish to celebrate a harvest “gathered in” with a traditional Harvest Supper at the Mount Ida Hall on the Homestead on the 5th November. Bring a friend or friends to a scrumptious country style meal in a 100 plus year old building that has seen many Harvest Suppers in this valley over the years. Watch this paper for ticket details or email me below.
Rob Fensom farms in the city at Harmonious Homestead and ewe and can be reached at harmonioushomestead@live.ca

September AM column

2011-09-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

Four Legged Beauty Contests are Business in Disguise

My adventure to Drake Saskatchewan for the National Sheep Show and Sale back in July has certainly given me (or at least my wife, who’s idea it was) a case of the show bug. Writing this I have just got back from a hectic week showing sheep at the IPE and am now busy getting ready to show at the Salmon Arm Fall Fair. I have not shown for over 30 years and its interesting to see how time and distance changes things.
Dress code is much more relaxed, black pants and white shirt is all that’s required here. In the 70s in England dress pants and shirt, with tie along with a pressed bright white laboratory coat and of course a county cap on your head. I also don’t remember too many women in the ring. It was male dominated, with women stepping in if men were sick but mostly they were relegated to showing goats as back then they were not considered farm animals by the male fraternity.
My, how things have changed. Now women dominate the show ring in sheep and goats and do a fair amount of work with the cattle. There is a much greater sense of camaraderie and less of competitive aggression. In fact for most it seems it’s a chance to get off the farm see some fellow farming friends and have some fun. If you pick up a few ribbons along the way all the better. Some things never change however; every one does their best to show the quality of their stock and to put their herd or flock in the best light for prospective buyers. Make no mistake these shows have always been about selling livestock. The fact the public at large have a fun day at the fair and get to see all the farm animals is a bonus. The farmers and stockmen are there to show their animals to other farmers and to see what else they can purchase to improve their own herd or flock. Although there is no auction at the end, deals are made, and visits to farms arranged to facilitate purchases. It is really a big promotion event much like a boat or home show, except its for barnyard critters.
One of the biggest changes over the years is the recognition of everyone else. By that I mean none farming folk who are not there to purchase animals. After all you are the consumers of our products and as you vastly outnumber us compared to days gone by we realize the need to bridge the rural/urban gap has never been greater. Many booths are set up by producer groups to inform and educate the public with neat interactive quizzes or even hands on opportunities like milking a cow or goat. The livestock exhibitors also do their part and spend time with their charges fielding questions from passers by helping to enhance the visitors experience and to bridge the gap from Gate to Plate. I really encourage you to get out to Salmon Arm Fall Fair and chat with the farmers and agribusinesses there to get a better understanding of what goes on between the Bush and the City limits.
As for the IPE we took our registered Coloured Romney’s and had a lot of fun meeting new faces and old friends. Our ram William, (of ‘back to back’ fame from last Februarys event in Piccadilly Mall) much to our surprise enjoyed himself allowing everyone to pet him and posed constantly for photo ops. No one believed that I had a fight to catch him four days before the show, as he had no intention of going! He wallowed in the attention, at times it was embarrassing but he was a hit and I suspect he will appear on a few computer desktops. Blackberry our ewe entry and Yale and Yates her two ram lambs also garnered attention but they kept their cool and were less apt to show off. There is no class for William at Salmon Arm so Blackberry and her boys will be able to shine without the ‘old man’ to steal the show. Try to make it to the fair and drop by to say hi to our sheep for a chat of things sheepish.
Rob farms in the city at Harmonious Homestead and ewe. Reach him at rancherdaddy@hotmail.com

August Friday AM article, My trip to Drake Saskatchewan

2011-08-09T07:39:00.000-07:00

Sheep sale and food deserts
I took a break from the homestead during the last week in July thanks to my wife, son and daughter who manned the place while I was gone. We needed new ram power (four legged not four wheeled) so I went to the National sheep show and sale at Drake Saskatchewan. My old friend Nev was going as he was showing some of his sheep there, so I rode with him and helped him at the show and sale. We arrived on Friday, washed the sheep and blow-dried them so they looked their best. We are “old school” and showed them “in the wool” as opposed to clipping them to make them look more chunky. “In the wool” shows the true picture of the animal and is less of a disappointment when it gets back to the new owners ranch than a clipped and preened beauty queen. As Nev placed second in the ram class and then reserve champion it proved our point. It also allowed us more time to visit and catch up with old friends.
Friday night was a wine and cheese evening, a chance to say hello to the other competitors and catch up on all the national shepherds gossip. The cheese was some of the best I have ever eaten. It was made with raw sheep’s milk and left to age it made a nice hard cheese that had some bite. We held off on the wine though as we needed to be at our best the next day.
The show had over a dozen different breeds and 270 entries. With two judges and two rings it took about six hours and was a great way to spend a day, if you like sheep that is! All animals at the show have to be sold the following day at the sale so I spent much of my spare time talking to breeders and eying up potential new mates for our flock.
I settled on a possible six rams and listed them in order; if prices went to high for me I had second and third choices, but hoped I would not need them.
Saturday night we all sat down to a lamb banquet. I guessed there were close to 280 people there and our numbers were slowly growing as many folks come for the evening get together and sale the following day. Commercial shepherds such as myself often go to these sales and buy purebred rams to improve our flocks. Several Hutterite Colonies were in attendance much to the pleasure of the breeder’s, as they tend to buy larger numbers of rams because many have flocks numbering in the thousands.
Sale day brought higher prices than have been seen for several years. This is a reflection of the higher lamb prices and a smaller national flock, due mainly to older shepherds retiring and several years of narrow margins. I needed two types of rams, one to produce more ewes for the flock and one to put more meat on our market lambs. I bought the flock sire of my choice, a Dorset yearling, oddly enough from a young shepherd who went to Ag College with my daughter. Judging by his sheep he paid attention to his lessons. The meat ram or ‘Terminal Sire’ as he is called was my second choice and he is a Texal coming from Vancouver Island, so he went along way to get to Salmon Arm via Saskatchewan.
Next year the event will be in Nova Scotia but I think I will give that a miss, as that would take too much time out of my summer schedule. The year after may well be in Chilliwack so I will mark that one on the calendar. We had a great few days away from work and got to see other farms and farmers. The rams are now safely back and for some reason the weeds grew bigger than the rest of the plants in my garden, though I understand from other holiday takers this is not at all unusual.
One thing I noticed on our journey was how blessed we are here with so much local food of all kinds. In the Prairies you are surrounded by crops and yet are in a virtual ‘Food Desert’. One comment I read recently in the Western Producer from a Saskatchewan Agricultural ministry chap was, “we don’t grow food here, we grow ingredients”. He was right, there were very little fresh fruit and vegetables and not much healthy food on offer. Yes there were exceptions but compared to here in BC it was quit a challenge. I had read of food deserts and that most were found in urban and less wealthy areas. Yet there amongst all the crops and livestock, because of a low population it was not profitable to ship fresh quality food in, hence the food desert. With the combination of harsh climate and sparse population few are willing to take on the risk of local food production. Although I miss the big prairie sky, the sunrise’s and sunsets, the wind in my face which ever way I turn and the sheer vast emptiness of it all I was glad to be home. Especially now the summer seems to be here and the fruit is arriving. So count your blessings and remember to support your local Farmers Markets and producers. If you need to talk sheep, food or farming in general, or some local food for supper I will be at the Saturday Farmers Market at Hannah’s or at the Homestead pulling weeds!

June Friday AM article

2011-06-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

Salmon Safe, Costs are not.
Spring is finally here and all our animals are out on pasture. It has been a very slow start but with the recent sunshine I feel the year is on its way. While writing this though there is still much to do in the garden, as we have not planted any thing out yet due to cold wet nights. That will change with this week’s sunshine and I hope to have the job finished by weeks end.
We officially became Certified Organic this May, the Homestead not me, I am still a nasty toxic mess. Our land and vegetables are now organic though not our livestock. I have kept them out of the system as we feed them grains from the Barley Station brewpub. After each batch of beer is made we pick up the mash that is discarded and recycle it through our critters. Although it does not meet the organic standards we felt the ‘greenness’ of it was more important. Our livestock are treated as organic in all other aspects and so we felt this was the right thing to do.
In April we received a letter from the Pacific Salmon Foundation to say we now are ‘Salmon Safe’. This is a new certification, which ensures best management practices are met in relation to farm management and waterways, in our case the Salmon River. It is a new program and has been adopted from Oregon where it has been running successfully for some years. We entered the program last fall and were processed by Jude a lady from Oregon who manages the program there. It took about 3 hours, many questions and a farm tour to verify my answers. As luck would have it we stopped at the bridge and looked at the river and there were the salmon busy spawning, I’m sure that helped with our application!
With Organic Certification, Salmon Safe and a Farm Environmental Plan in place we feel we are doing our best to ensure a tasty, healthy, safe local source of food for our customers. At the same time we are being easy on our land and waterways so as to make it a sustainable system for all concerned.
With all these things there is a cost and ultimately they are pasted on to the consumer. Interestingly it is consumer demand that has ensured we follow these protocols and this is why there is a so-called ‘price premium’ for specialty and niche products. There is though a sad disconnect where the “rubber meets the road” so to speak, with the pricing of products and customer acceptance. Many folk feel because they are buying direct from the farmer and cutting out all those middlemen the price in the Farmers market or at the farm gate should be lower than in the store. Sadly due to modern big scale agricultures size producing only one thing in large quantities, the product price is lower per unit than the same thing produced on a small local farm. Smaller scale mixed farming by its very nature is labour intensive but it is also more sustainable and easier on the environment. The hidden costs of large scale agriculture that are paid by you via the government such as environmental cleanups, legislation, inspecting, drug and chemical testing etc are often not needed or used by small scale organic farming. The saving on the price is in the down stream hidden costs not the upfront cost. The biggest benefit to you the customer is the fact the local food is FRESH. This means more flavour, more nutrients and the much sort after antioxidants. This produce often stores longer in your fridge, as it is not tired out from a 2000- 6000km journey! The money you spend stays in your community and is not spent else where on fuel, boardroom offices and shareholder dividends and the left over crumbs to the farmer who produced it. Money spent on local produce goes via that local farm family back into the community through local stores (many of them that you shop in), the arena, cinema, and towards the Library and Swimming Pool via property taxes. Buying from your local farmers at the Market or at their farms is an investment in your community and the Shuswap lifestyle.
With a cool start this spring produce may be slower coming to town than usual but knowing the skill of local growers it will only be a week or ten days slower than normal. I encourage you to visit an area farmers market this summer, treat your taste buds and body while investing in your community. If you have questions or want to chew the fat over food and farming issues I am at the Saturday Farmers Market from 9-12 noon at Hanna’s with what ever is fresh from our farm as well as Homestead baked goods.
Rob farms in the city at Harmonious Homestead and ewe. Check out what’s up on Facebook at Harmonious Homestead and ewe.

Friday AM may column

2011-05-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hot Air, Cool Spring
Well it’s over, and after all that hot air spreading out over the country from Ottawa we are still not much warmer than in mid March. Big shake-ups all around, and according to an opinion column in one of our illustrious national Daily’s we now have a “friendly dictatorship”. I am not sure whom he is friendly to though, as $35 billion on new jet fighter bombers, updating weaponry for the army and a new defense program for our Arctic real estate hardly sounds neighborly. Now if only they would spend that money on defense from the Arctic, some large portable heaters to at least get our early May temperatures above single digits over night would be a start. Then we farmers could get seeding and transplanting done on time, and then we could at least feed the troops some homegrown food!
Talking of growing food this is one of the slowest springs I have witnessed in many years. Back in the day in Manitoba on our old ranch spring was sometimes earlier than this, one year in particular I started grazing on 25th April, mind you, that was in the dry years before they had to teach the cows how to swim. I realize we should all count our blessings with the long list of natural disasters around the world, and be glad of the fact our biggest hard ship will be waiting and extra week or ten days for fresh sweet corn.
Here at the Homestead I have stuck my neck out and planted anyway. I did a truly green act on Earth Day and covered our Market Garden with well composted manure to ensure sweet carrots and corn. I worked it in over the next few days and then got out the seed packets. So far I have potatoes, carrots, beets, fennel, cilantro, parsley and wheat in the soil. Yes you read right, wheat. An old prairie boy like me has to grow some grain, else I’d get miserable, though I hear some do when they do grow it anyway, but they just love the frustration. Weather, future’s prices, grain contracts, CN strikes and dockyard shut downs, broken machinery etc. I was always jealous, seems they had so much more to gripe about at the coffee shop than us cattle ranchers. I used to grow feed grain by the quarter section so three seed packets of wheat seemed a little silly. This wheat though is very special, it is Red Fife an heirloom variety that was commonly grown from 1890 onwards and was latter used as a parent for the newer variety Marquise. This hard red spring wheat is great for bread making and I am looking forward to getting out my old mill this fall and trying some home grown, home baked bread. I will also save some seed and increase my amount grown for 2012. We have done this with corn and had some excellent corn bread recently so maybe I will plough up more of my precious pasture to become a grain farmer!
Our livestock have had a good time this year, lots of lambs and goat kids though with the slow growing grass we do not see turning them onto pasture till 8th or 12th May. The grass needs to be 6-10 inches high before grazing so it can recover for future grazing. We also have chicks for pasture poultry and a couple of piglets to help eat the weeds and scraps from the garden. If that’s not enough my son and I have been franticly building Chicken Tractors (movable pens) as we have more chickens arriving any day. They are layers and will supply our customers with pasture grown, free-range eggs which are high in omega 3s. I was conducting a tour of our farmyard the other day and a young Mom asked me where my “help” was, I pointed to the cat. She was shocked that I did it all by my self. She offered me lots of praise but beat a hasty retreat when I offered her a fork and pointed to a large pile of manure that was ready for turning.
The old Mount Ida hall is coming along nicely, the painters are busy and our commercial kitchen will be arriving in a few days. Now the Hall is moved and settling in at its new spot folks are telling us stories about the building and some of their experiences in it. One of the original doors has one white panel in it because after a break-in our neighbor Doug had no red paint. He showed me the repair he had done, nothing was missing, and so he patched it up with a piece of white plywood. When we repaint it we will make sure the white panel and the story stays. Its now called Doug’s door! If you have any tales to tell about the Mount Ida hall we would love to hear them and then we could keep up the history as well as the building. We are planning on a big Grand opening day some time in June, watch this column and adverts for details. This Saturday 7th May is another first, at Hannahs there will be a Saturday Farmers Market from 9.00 till 12 noon. All the vendors are from Salmon Arm City limits and all are farmers, so the produce will be truly local with a very light carbon footprint, hope to see you there.
Rob farms at Harmonious Homestead and ewe in the city.

April Friday AM article, election special!

2011-04-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

Seeds of Promise, Visions of Veggies.

My seeds arrived in the mail the same day the election was called. The sad part is we have new seeds every year and we have almost matched that with elections, 4 in 7 years and that doesn’t include provincial or municipal. If we could only weed out the nasty critters in the political landscape the way we do in our gardens and cast out those deep-rooted nutrient-sucking parasites. Then compost them into something useful, our country would then bloom and produce like our gardens and become something we could once again be proud of. Remember how we feel after weeding the garden? Loathing to do it but once the task is finished our sore backs and weary bodies are blessed with the promise of future abundance. Some how elections just don’t have the same effect, headaches and high blood pressure from endless TV debates and reports. Promises we know will be broken however sincerely given as soon as the election is won. Worse yet the utter helplessness of it all knowing who ever gets elected, taxes will go up, services will go down, and very little will change except the talking heads and the colour of the banners.
Remember the old saying, “ you can keep some of the people happy all of the time, and all of the people happy some of the time, but not all of the people happy all of the time”. Oh Canada, many of us question the need and the reason of voting when little seems to change, but if you don’t do it you can’t gripe afterwards. So get out and vote so you can hold you head high and complain later!
On a lighter note and still on elections go to the CBC website and try the Vote Compass, it’s a series of questions that show where you are compared to the five main political parties. The result is on a four axial graph much like a large crosshairs and much to my surprise (tongue firmly in cheek) I discovered I was equal distance from all major parties, about as far from them all as could be physically possible on this type of graph. I took great pleasure in printing the result off, as I shall frame it as proof positive of my Politically incorrect curmudgeonly ways. As to whom I should vote for it would appear I should form a new party for myself and the many other millions of disenfranchised voters across the country. With yet another party to choose from I doubt this nation would ever see a majority government again!
Now to the more important news, seeds, dirt and critters! The land is starting to stir with the warmer temperatures and the city farmers are busy planting in their greenhouses, or greasing up the machinery to go to the field as soon as it is dry enough. Newborn calves can be seen in barnyards and fields, some already several weeks old. Our goats have finished kidding and Xerox our new Billy goat did a great job of producing many copies of himself, half boys and half girls. The sheep will start lambing soon, around the first week in April, apart from one who visited one of our black rams before the breeding season and who has already produced a fine set of twins. The orchardists have been busy pruning, some thing that is still on my to do list, and the bee keepers are watching their hives and wishing for sunnier warm weather so they can stop feeding the bees. It is still too early to be out cultivating or rotor tilling but it is always interesting to see who can get on their fields first. Most of us are now armed with seed and I saw many of you at Seedy Saturday. I wish you ever success over the next few weeks getting dirt under your fingers and planting promises to fill your dinner plates.
On 16th April noon till 5.00pm Harmonious Homestead and ewe will host their 3rd annual Knee Deep in Spring event so folks can see the new born lambs, goat kids, piglets, chicks and baby rabbits. It’s a good chance to chase away the winter blues and celebrate spring and a fresh start. Politicians are most welcome so long as they kiss a piglet for the photo op!
Rob Fensom farms in the city at Harmonious Homestead and ewe.

Our Trip to Panama, I now know why I hate winter!

2011-03-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

Tropical Travels.

It’s the last week of February as I write this and the temperatures are quite seasonal, for Winnipeg! The shock to my system is even worse as we have recently returned from Panama where summer reigns eternal. My wife and I had a holiday 3 years after our last one. This does not sound bad, but when you realize that was our first one in 28 years and to follow it so soon with another one is a major accomplishment for my wife. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the ranch so close to my last departure 3 years before, hats off to her.
The above is somewhat tongue in cheek, though there was a time when I was that stubborn. These days the promise of a 30 degree Celsius jump in temperature and 20lbs less clothing on to keep warm is all I need to activate the traveling bug.
Panama is amazing and not at all like I imagined. With a canal between two large oceans I expected a flat swamp laden land, with endless jungle and every one living on a costal strip. Guess what, they have mountains and plenty of them, which is a good thing as they grow the best coffee I have ever tasted. Lots of ranch land, thousands of cattle, year round grazing and no hay to make or feed. I had to pinch myself to make sure I was not already in heaven!
In a country of 3 million people and a year round growing season agriculture plays a big role, with beef, pork, and chicken in the meat department, sugar cane, pineapples, bananas, coffee, papaya, mangoes and many vegetables in the field crops. The cattle seemed to be in the hilly regions where bush and terrain made cropping difficult. Most were cow calf operations, their calves are moved to lower greener pastures for finishing. We noticed fattening cattle on lush rotationally grazed pastures in the cropland areas and with no grain being grown I assumed all beef is grass fed. I only saw a few sheep and the only place I saw goats were on the large Indigenous reserves. Many of the ranches in the hills and bushier regions could have used goats to keep the scrub under control and that would improve the pastures for the cattle. (Maybe they need a Pasture consultant, a white-collar job and no winter, score!)
After all this about the production, lets talk consumption. Most higher end restaurants cook dishes from all over the world, and we wanted to eat Panamanian in Panama not Thai, Japanese or American. So we hunted out the Cantinas, which were busy serving locals and were treated to authentic, tasty and cheap meals. The best we found was on the main street in Bouquete a coffee growing town in the mountains. ‘Serasone’ had a large smorgasbord with at least 8 different meats, many different rice’s and vegetables, plantain being my personal favorite. Also several different deserts and cakes. All this, for only $5 per person. One of our fellow travelers received seniors rate and it was $1.50!
Panamanian food is flavourfull but not hot or spicy, in fact the only time I smelt garlic was at the airport on the breath of newly arriving Gringos.
When we were near or on the coast fish was plentiful and was a treat for us after lamb, pork and chicken from our farm. I had to try a steak and found steaks are cut thin and cooked fast to seal in the flavour, actually most meat is grilled or fried with sauces added afterwards. In those temperatures who needs to sweat over a hot stove, and eat roasts and stews. The grass fed steaks were great along with the fish, squid, octopus, crab and lobster.
We spent time on beaches and palm treed desert islands; snorkeled corral reefs and shipwrecks the usual tourist stuff so I won’t bore you. The neat thing to see, and one of our reasons for going was the Panama Canal. We had both learnt about in our geography lessons at high school, so a trip to the Miraflores Locks was one of the highlights of our trip. Luck was with us as the cruise ship “Queen Elizabeth” of the Cunard line from London England was passing through as we were there. The ships are towed through the locks by electrically powered trains, which act as brakes as well as providing forward motion. There was only two feet either side of the ship to spare, so accuracy is paramount. It takes about 8 hours to go from one ocean to the other and at any one time there are 40 to 50 boats waiting at either end to use the system. It runs 24 seven, every day of the year. The cruise ship paid $300,000 for the privilege, and the large container ships stacked high with truck sized boxes pays a cool $1 million for an 8 hour, 54 mile trip. What’s more, they won’t let you enter the system until your cheque has cleared. Who needs to deal in drugs when you have a canal!
Folks have asked me if I felt safe there and was security a concern. Well the police are all heavily armed, many with shotguns and machine guns, they are friendly and helpful and there seems no shortage of them. There was no sign of speed cop’s, the potholes do their job for free. The rest of the locals are very friendly and not armed, so to be honest I have felt more nervous on Canadian city streets at times than ever I did in Panama City or else where in Panama.
So I would give Panama a big “thumbs up”, go and check it out. I know two of you have as while walking around a coffee plantation in Bouquete I met a couple from Sorrento. What’s more we bumped into them in Old Panama City a week later, 400kms from the coffee farm. Small world or what!
Rob Fensom calls Harmonious Homestead and ewe home and farms in the city.

My January Column in the Friday AM.

2011-01-29T17:07:00.000-08:00

Endings and Beginnings.

Writing this so close to the calendar year change I will do my best to avoid boring recaps of the past year and offering my predictions for 2011 as seems so common among many writers in both print and electronic media. Here on the farm things not only change with the seasons but also with the economy. Every one has to eat, so every one is a potential customer for a farmer selling to a consumer. This is a new concept for me and constitutes one of the biggest changes I have encountered since coming to the metropolis of Salmon Arm.
“Salmon Arm, a metropolis” you say. Well, to a rancher from the Manitoba Prairie who drove 30 miles to pick up the mail this area sure has a lot of people, and the mailbox is right by my pasture just a short walk from the barn. The down side is I can’t go to the coffee shop to catch up on gossip and cattle prices while picking up the latest issue of the “Western Producer” and the inevitable bills. Every one there and in most of the Canadian Prairies were commodity farmers and ranchers. We had one pay cheque a year when we shipped a couple of semi loads of calves and never met or spoke to the folks who ate our product. Life was simple, but with out the feedback or interaction with our customers, I now realize it was dull and somewhat boring; with out knowing it, I needed a challenge.
We arrived here nearly six years ago and change it seems was the name of the game. We started out commodity farming, cow/calf, grazing stockers (yearlings) and lately sheep. With our fertile irrigated valley bottomland producing 4 times per acre more than our land on the old ranch I felt the smaller land base would work. Then economics reared its ugly head in the form of higher costs and lower livestock prices. It was time to jump into the “white water” of value added and farm diversification, get wet, cold and scared. A 180 degree turn from grass chewing rancher to rural businessman, who says you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.
Learning curves are always tough, sometimes brutal and always full of surprises, some good, some not so. Rather than jump in head first, we stepped into the water gently just up to our knees to check it out. Last year saw us grow a small market garden of mixed vegetables to sell at the farm gate and in the Farmers Market. We produced and sold pasture-raised meats, chicken, pork, lamb and rabbit. Well boy oh boy, did we have fun, sure it was hard work and long hours, with its share of problems, but the interaction with our customers was worth it. I am not sure who learnt more, them or us. I could have ended up one of those crusty old ranchers who preferred cattle to people, and sits in the coffee shop complaining about the weather, the government and cattle prices. Instead I now get to sell my produce to local consumers and share and talk with them and their children about how the food is grown, why its good for them and answer there varied questions about our operation. Farming and ranching is fun again, and now I can share my passion not only with my critters but also my customers.
Here at the threshold of 2011 I will make no predictions for me, or you, but I can safely say our farming operation will grow, as local raised and grown food seems very much on the minds of folks in the Shuswap. We will have a new outlet on our farm with the moving of Mount Ida hall to our farmyard. This will give us a farm store and meeting place, (maybe I can sit in the corner drink coffee and complain about the government and cattle prices as a tourist attraction, or may be not says the wife!) We will also start several new product lines, pasture raised beef and eggs and also grow more early sweet corn and potatoes. I sold so many potatoes we have none for our selves and are reduced to buying them in the store, I have been given strict instructions not to let this happen again by you know who!
The weather has been kind so far and the wood pile is not going down very fast which is a treat as I don’t spend as long being shaken to pieces by my trusty husky chain saw. On the farm it also means with the warmer weather less hay is consumed which is always a bonus. Things have calmed down and we can now plan for next year. My wife, the organizer of our team has had me install two large planning calendars, one for the year and one for the month on our office wall. All notations are colour coded for ease of recognition along with appointment times and destinations. All I have to do is decipher it and be at the right place at the right time, and I thought last years learning curve was tough!

2010-12-21T16:59:00.000-08:00

Wholes and Holes and Holism

Over the last few days I have been following the Globe and Mail’s food and agriculture debate. Rolling out of bed and getting all hot under the collar reading a bunch of opinions on my livelihood and how it is perceived by so called experts is just what I need to start my day. Yeah right! I posted comments to try to make me feel better, but ended up feeling much like a prophet of old, “a voice crying in the wilderness”. One though, managed to hit the mark, as it was 5th of 194 comments. I felt there was hope yet in this world full of corn fructose syrup, artificial flavorings and “Twinkie bars”.
The trouble is we are in the age of “experts” were those with knowledge on very specific topics are able to share their findings and more often their opinion, and it is swallowed hook, line and sinker by media, reader and viewer with out question. Science and knowledge has become very specialized and compartmentalized with very little over lap between areas. This in turn creates misunderstandings and conflicts between the different fields, experts and scientists theories become more important than the truth of the matter. Then add in the needed profits for the corporations who are funding the research and you have the narrow minded, blinkers on, vision of where we are today.
The “Big picture viewpoint”, or Holistic thinking seems to be a thing of the past. Sadly this leads to Common Sense becoming an endangered species and Wisdom a thing only found in classic books. South African statesman-scholar Jan Christian Smuts coined the word holism (from the Greek holos) in the 1920s in his book ‘Holism and Evolution’. He came to understand that the world was not bits and pieces of stuff, but flexible changing patterns. He states “If you take patterns as the ultimate structure of the world, it is arrangements and not stuff that make up the world.” Thus every thing is connected and dependent on every thing else. We need to look at the big picture before making big or little decisions.
This then brings me back to the Globe and Mail debate. Containing lots of facts and opinions from many experts and journalists, with each article and video clip dealing with specific items of the food industry. The best though was complaining that many Canadian farmers were too small to compete and too many were lifestyle farmers instead of commodity producers. Over 50% of the beef in this country comes from herds of 100 cows or less, and as the powers that be say it takes 400- 500 cows for a farm to be viable, it means 50% of our beef industry is supplied by hobby/small farmers and is subsidized by farmers wives working off farm to keep the farm afloat. (Makes you wonder who is subsidizing whom?) You don’t see that in the news, but the statistics with Stats Canada bear it out. The same is true of the sheep industry and often times the grain industry. Why the Globe and mail feels these Farmers should become obsolete is beyond me. With only half the cattle most killing plants in Canada would shut down, as they would be no longer viable. This is part of the big picture; looking at all farms not just the ones an expert thinks is viable, the holistic view we talked of earlier. To look at the even bigger picture, view the rest of the world. 75% of the world eats food from farms 20 acres or less, thank goodness the economists are not closing those farmers down for being too small! As Yoda from Star Wars said, “Size matters not”. Small farmers all over the world are feeding people and here in Canada they are producing a good portion of our food and in some cases adding a large portion to the export market. At the same time most qualify for very little or none of the subsidies that are available, and most subsidize the system by working off farm for their own income. No one from the Globe and Mail mentions that good deal for the folks in Canada.
There were however some good points made in a couple of the video clips. The latest figure for the average family has it that they spend 9% of their income on food and that includes eating out! Which could mean that many families only spend 5-7% of their income on groceries, and then they have the cheek to complain about the cost of food. Many pay more HST per month than for food. By comparison folks in Moscow Russia spend 50% of their wages on food and that does not include eating out. Even if you buy organic and pay a premium for quality food you are still only spending 10-12% on food items, an absolute bargain compared to the rest of the world.
My favorite quote and a sobering thought was from a lady chef who pointed out that “we eat our future”. What we put in our mouths becomes us in the future, so we best pay attention to our food and where it comes from. If folks looked at their food in this manner every time they raised a fork to their mouth I imagine there would be some changes demanded by consumers. Small Farmers generally do a better job of caring for the soil and its fertility and fertile soil makes nutrient dense food and therefore healthier people. This is never more poignantly explained than at a funeral by the grave with the words “ashes to ashes, dust to dust”. A harsh reminder of the fact we are really made up of the same stuff as the soil, therefore, plants, animals and ourselves are just different arrangements of the same stuff, holistically speaking.
A Merry Christmas to all readers and I challenge you to see how “close” you can keep your Christmas dinner, mileage wise that is. Mine will be local as it will be grown by myself, but I will have to admit I will let the side down with Bushmills Irish whiskey and some nice South African port!
Rob Fensom farms in the city at Harmonious Homestead and ewe.

Farmers opinions make national paper website.

2010-12-21T16:50:00.000-08:00

Below are a couple of my comments to The Globe and Mail, Canada's leading national newspaper. They had the cheek to do a week long series on food and agriculture by so called experts, most of whom have never worked for their "Daily Bread" much less know how to grow it!

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rancherrob wrote:
Dear Sir, I have been ranching/farming man and boy for 40 plus year. I have farmed organically ( the worlds term, not mine) and have worked within the bounds of the natural order, building soil and organic mater thus increasing my lands fertility and real worth over time and at the same time produced healthy crops and livestock to feed mankind.Modern agriculture revolves around an annual ledger so to keep banks and bean counters happy most farmers have turned to science and industrial farming practices. This works in the short term, but over time depletes that other bank account, the soils fertility. Poor soil produces low yields and worse, stressed crops or livestock which become diseased easier, causing the need for more inputs, chemical and medicinal, an expensive, harsh cycle. We humans are always after the quick fix, we lack vision but most of all understanding and patience.When we all accept we are part of nature and this planet and not the ones in control of it we will see we can feed and cloth ourselves with out all the chemical and scientific intervention deemed so important by none other than those that make profit from supplying them.

My comment on 1st November to opinion in Globe and Mail calling for the scraping of dairy and chicken quotas, by ‘wealthy bureaucrat’ Ray McLaren.

rancherrob
9:48 AM on November 1, 2010
As a red meat producer in this country for 25 years ( beef and lamb) it never stops amazing me how many 'experts' know so much about how farmers and ranchers could do better for them selves and the public by adopting free market ways. This while they have steady pay cheques and a good pension to collect. These experts have never had to make a living and feed their family by growing food. We are now getting the same price per pound for animals that we were 20 years ago, then by the time you factor in inflation we are getting half what we were 20 years ago. In fact Belize a young country in Central America is getting the same price we are for lambs and beef cattle with a third the production costs with year round grass and no winter. The free market farmers in this country are subsidizing your lunch Mr McLaren. We can all live with out cheap imported goods from factories, but food, much like water and oxygen is essential. Remember if you eat you are involved in Agriculture, so while you eat your meat today remember some one raised it for you who does not have an index linked salary or pension plan and would be glad of the chance to have a living wage supplied by the market place like the dairy and egg producers.

2010-12-03T19:03:00.000-08:00

Guy Fawkes, the man behind our farm family planning.

The 5th November is a big night in England, known as Guy Fawkes night. In 1603 Guy Fawkes a Catholic who was not happy with the new protestant way, wished to see his church free and made the national church once again. As things were not happening quick enough he and some friends decided to fill the basement of the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder and have a quick change of political direction, mainly upwards! History tells us he was caught in the act while lighting the fuse (just like in a Bond movie, saving the city from annihilation with 1 second to spare), poor fellow was tourtured and killed but did not give away his accomplices. So to rub salt in the whole Catholic /Protestant thing every 5th November all over England Guy Fawkes (like scare crows) are burnt on top of large open air bonfires. There are lots of fireworks and every one has a fun time. Most have forgotten the Religious and Political meanings behind it all unless they come from my old home county of Sussex. There it is serious business, many villages and towns have bonfire societies, which hold torch light processions (flaming wooden torches, not flash lights) with every one dressed up in fancy costumes, marching bands and walking jazz bands. Every one ending up at the village green or near by field to light a huge fire to burn the “Guy” and watch a fire work display. This goes on every weekend from mid October to December. The Glorious 5th though is reserved for the county town, Lewes. It has 5 bonfire societies of its own, the oldest and most notorious is the “Cliff”. Their fire and firework display is held against a huge sheer chalk cliff that towers above the fire and people reflecting the goings on.
This was where the real political statements were made. Many young student types would get on a soapbox and air their views, usually to be pelted with firecrackers. The main attraction though was the large paper Mache effigy of the Pope, which was blown up and burnt to remind every one what Guy Fawkes night was all about. So as not to be considered too inflammatory they also had a similar sized effigy of a political figure who every one despised that year and blew them up as well. I well remember in the early 70s they had one mounted on a lorry to parade through the streets along with the 50,000 people and flaming torches. It was a cage with a huge gorilla swinging to reach some bananas. The face though was that of Idi Amin the ruler of Uganda at the time. He was blown up to great cheering as we were inundated at that time with Ugandan refugees that he had thrown out of the country, (which was still considered part of the Empire). You can see from the preceding sentences that Political Correctness had not reached the shores of England in the 70s. Those days the closest any body came to it would be to abstain from passing wind whilst speaking in public!
After all this History and such what on earth does this have to do with farm family planning? Well over the years Shepherds worked out that if you put the rams in with the ewes on Guy Fawkes night you had lambs starting on April Fools day. By then there was plenty of grass in England and it was easy to remember these dates for illiterate farm folk. I am not so sure this worked near Lewes though as with all the fires and explosions the sheep were just too stressed for procreation until the next week when their nerves had settled down.
Here on our farm we keep up the tradition and this Friday 5th we will be sorting ewes and rams into their groups for 36 days of courting. With no fires and fireworks in sight all should go well. If you drive by though go easy on the throttle especially you two wheelers. May be I should make a new road sign, “Shh, rams working” with the obvious picture!

RETURN FROM THE WILDERNESS

2010-10-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hello to you all. I am now back on line with a computer that works. I am now an I Mac user and wished I had one years ago. They say they are hard to use, and it depends on how you problem solve and think. Well it allows you to find out and do stuff visually not with masses of bloody orders from popup boxes. More a ranchers tool. It also has a screen big enough to use as a life raft so at least I can now read whats on the screen!
I have kept up writing in our local newspaper plus several farm publications here in Canada and the USA. But with the farm and summer the blog was left out in the cold. Below are a couple of samples of recent articles.

2010-10-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

Interviewing Sheep

There is a nip in the air and the leaves are slowly going yellow as I write. We had our first frost here on the farm around the 22nd September; just enough to blacken the leaves of tomatoes, pumpkin and peppers, but not enough to stop the zucchini yet, darn it. With all the rain a week or two back there was no need to irrigate so I packed up all the pipes and hired an air compressor for the morning to blow out the lines in case we have a real winter which could crack water filled pipes. It’s the time of year where winter is still a way off but we know if we don’t start getting ready it will sweep down over the hill and catch us with our pants down. Not only is this a nasty sight but it does not slow the advance of winter in any way.
With the above in mind we have been slowly and reluctantly hunkering down for old man winter. (Talking of which why is spring and summer viewed in female terms along with Mother Nature but we guys get the blame for the cold and miserable weather.) Picking fruit and vegetables, putting things by in the form of freezing, drying and canning or storing in cool dark places is the order of the day right now. Typically, we have not had a frost since our first one two weeks ago, it was just a warm up to get us in gear, and Jack Frost is just sitting back chuckling at our antics.
On the animal side of the farm we brought the sheep home from the other side of the river and weaned them. This involves separating the lambs from their Mums as they are now teenagers and can look after themselves. Most two legged ones that I know would welcome the chance to separate from Mums watchful eye, but not these four legged woolly ones. We had them in the corrals and were serenaded by a sheep symphony twenty four hours a day for three days. Bleating and bawling constantly even though they could see each other and were all well fed. Thankfully it is now quiet; they have either got used to it or lost their voices! They now call to me as I am the new Mum, arriving twice a day with green hay and barley with their mothers a distant memory.
The ewes (mothers) are happy in the next pen free of their children, well fed and starting a new year in an old job after passing the interview. Interview? You ask. That’s right when we separate the flock they all come by the shepherds all knowing and all seeing eye. The ewes are checked and interviewed for the next years job. First of all, general appearance; fit not fat, and defiantely not too skinny. Twiggy’s rarely conceive let alone produce the twins we need. Next teeth, a full set are preferred, though a few short is ok so long as a svelte body condition shows adequate nutrition. Feet must be sound with no signs of lameness or stiffness. Lastly, the udder (mammary gland for those who remember biology, or boobs for those who slept through the class), there must be a minimum of two teats, no hard lumps, or cuts and scars as these can harbour mastitis and infections when feeding lambs. If she gets this far a quick check on the records to see she is giving us twins every year and if so she is hired on for another year. The only exception to this would be if she was wild and cranky, upsetting me when being handled and the rest of the flock around her due to her back to the wild behaviour. These particular cases make excellent sausage for the shepherd’s breakfast. ‘Revenge is best served cold’ as they say, but I prefer mine fried!
With the interviews over the girls that are hired are treated to a holiday until November when a tall woolly handsome stranger comes a courting and the whole cycle of life starts again.
Upon reading the article so far I wish to point out that the farms interview policy for hiring two legged staff is significantly different than that of four legged. I trust this will clear up any miss understandings.
On the world scene I see La Via Campesina (the Peasants way or road, the international organisation for peasants and small farmers, which our Farmers Union in Canada is a member) is declaring 16th October “International day of Action against Agribusiness and Monsanto”. They tell us that since 1900 we have lost 90% of the genetic diversity of our agricultural crops, which means loss of disease resistance and drought resistance in many cases. Monsanto now owns 25% of the worlds patented seed market and with the top ten seed companies controlling 70% off the worlds seed, Monsanto is eagerly buying them up to have full market control. Monsanto now also has the Bill Gates Foundation on side to help push the GMO seed onto African nations who have so far resisted it as a form of aid. I think this sound’s like the Haitian story I told you about earlier in the year, “we are from Monsanto and we’re here to help”, yeah right. To read more on this go to www.viacampesina.org . That’s it for this month; I’m off out side to prepare for those icy blasts, and build the wood pile so I can enjoy the cold weather whilst staying warm inside.
Rob Fensom farms in the city at Harmonious Homestead and Ewe and can be reached at

2010-10-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

Choice, waste, and customer service.

With all the new shopping centres springing up in town we shall certainly not be short on choices. In fact one wonders if with so many places to shop we just might be short of shoppers! When one considers 50% of us are male and if like me shopping is strictly a walk in, buy it, and go home again affair, with window shopping considered the occupation of teenage girls and folks with too much time on their hands, I truly wonder if they will all survive when we get back to normal population levels in November. As that’s when we start recognising people on the street and for the next six months needs rather than wants affect the shopping priorities of most folks, with the exception of Christmas.
Along with choices there is always waste. You can only sell what you have in stock, so shelves are stocked with everything the heart desires. The most obvious place to see this is the produce and meat section of any large grocery store. Piles of produce, enticing the customer, all fresh and prime. I do not know the percentages but one only has to go behind the store to see the large volume of over ripe produce, or just unsold, along with meats and baked goods gone past their due dates. A good store manager lives and dies by the management and control of those waste numbers. Of course its not all dumped, some ends up in soup kitchens and the like, and I know more than a few pigs in their time have enjoyed baked goods for breakfast.
It seems choice and wastes are linked, we can not have one with out the other. The key is to use the wastes in other ways so they are not waste. The other place in town where I ran into this was at the Farmers Market. It seems the market managers feel there should be no more choices, (read produce vendors) until the present produce vendors sell out. This would mean no more produce grown by different vendors who grow different varieties and hit the market at different times giving you the consumer more choice. The existing produce vendors must sell out and go home empty before any new ones are allowed entry into the market. ! The only produce I have seen sell out in a store is in Soviet Russia where a lack of produce was the issue not the abundance we have in this valley. This means that you the customer would have to buy things you did not want to ensure vendors sell out so that other vendors are allowed entry and only then can you have more choices. The only produce vendor you ever see sell out is “The Peach Lady” but hey, that is the crack cocaine of the produce world. The trouble is in a free market capitalist society where choice and sales are every thing, the market management are denying choice to the customers and sales to the vendors. In the long run this stagnates the market and does a disservice to the community it is supposed to be serving. It appears a few want market control much like Monsanto and Cargill before they are willing to share, if at all. Perhaps they have not figured out what to do with the waste and end up just dumping it. As for us, any thing that comes home from the market it is either preserved and stored for our own winter consumption or fed to our pigs who become the middle men in the process. I always preferred bacon over veggies!
Rob Fensom farms in the city at Harmonious Homestead and ewe

PPPPPPPPPPPPP

2010-07-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

Today’s lesson is brought to you by The letter P.
Believe it or not we farmers do a lot of thinking, chugging up and down the field driving our tractors, especially now while making hay. That along with the whole G8, G20 thing going on I was reminded of Sesame Street, not just because of the childish antics of the politicians, police and protesters. Though I do feel that’s an insult to many bright well behaved children I know. I was reminded how the letter P shows up in all things political and economical, and how the Sesame Street Show was always sponsored by a letter and a number each time, and that they featured heavily in all the skits and cartons my children watched. So today’s article is bought to you by the letter P, and myself, musing on my tractor making hay. It’s darned tough bouncing over the mole hills and balancing the laptop on you knee!

Profit: What every one wants, few get it, and when they do it stays in their bank
account instead of being spread around for the common good.

People: Used to produce the goods to make Profit, also to buy the same goods that make
Profit. None of them get the Profit, except the ones that get the Profit and they don’t produce or buy the products.

Pleasure: The feeling a few People get when collecting their Profit.

Pain: What most People feel when not getting a Profit.

Power: What those that have Profit want.

Progress: What was supposed to happen with the Profit to make People Placid.

Prosperity: What the People should have with sufficient Profit and Progress.

Poverty: What we always have, even with more and bigger Profits, it never disappears.

Propaganda: Used by Power and Profit to convince People that we have Progress and
Prosperity.

Proletariat: Those who Propaganda is aimed at and hopefully in the end Protest about it.

Powerless: How the Proletariat feel until they Protest.

Protest: Pastime of the Proletariat, when Peed off.

Pests: What Profit and Power call People that stir up the Proletariat.

Politics: The method by which change can come about Peacefully, or not.

Peace: What you get when we all learn to share and get along, you know like Play school.

Purge: A sometimes messy process to bring about a Paradigm change when Politics and
Peaceful methods fail.

Paradigm Change: Something the Proletariat want and Power and Profit fears the most.

Power to the People: Also Profit to the People.
Presented by the letter P.

Seeds; Weapons of Mass Destruction

2010-07-05T06:48:00.000-07:00

This is my latest offering in the Friday Am paper. Judging by the feedback on the street and folks talking to me at our farmers market stand it would appear it had the desired effect and got folks talking and thinking. I have had a lot of questions and was surprised how little folks understand of the issue, scary!

Seeds, weapons of mass destruction?

With the earth quake in Haiti but a distant memory for most of the world I noticed a small story in this week’s news which will be overlooked by most news syndicates and deliberately ignored by the larger politically sensitive ones. It concerns a series of protests by Haiti’s farmers and one in particular where 10,000 farmers gathered to protest the donation of seed from the American company Monsanto to the islands farmers. This seed, some 400 tons would be free and distributed to all the farmers to help them after the destructive quake.
Now at first glance these farmers may seem like an ungrateful bunch, as the world and relief agencies pour goods and money into the island, they seem to behave like a bunch of spoilt brats. Sadly this is no doubt the way main stream media will portray it, if they tell it at all. The truth, as always requires some digging in the dirt, much like looking for tasty sweet new potatoes.
The farmers should be congratulated for their stand as they set an example for us farming in North America. We should have done what they are now doing many years ago and perhaps Genetically Modified crops would have been left in the laboratory and forgotten about.
The seed, as Monsanto is quick to point out is not GM seed, but “regular hybrid” seed. They are not forcing any one into contracts or selling their seed, it’s just a friendly helpful donation of hybrid seed. To put this in simple terms remember the humble Mule, draught horse of share croppers, freed slaves and poor tenant farmers in the States. The mule kept these folks down, as when the mule was old and wore out you had to buy a new one. The mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey and cannot reproduce just like a John Deere tractor can’t make new little J D’s.
Hybrid seed is the same, a cross between two varieties which can not reproduce it’s self. Most corn and a large amount of vegetables are like this, the seed must be produced by the seed grower each year and the farmer has to buy fresh seed each spring. This has been the norm in main line agriculture for many years. Only the stubborn and old timers have used and saved open pollinated seed, which can reproduce year after year. This though is normal practice in many places in the so called “developing world” and ensures the survival of the farmer through easily accessible seed and varieties suitable to his area. In turn this gives a reliable food security to the nation as a whole. “Developing” my a__’ they are further along in their development than us! Huge tracts of land are seeded to hybrids and once the farmers were used to buying seed every year it was easy to sell them GM seed along with restrictive contracts and eventual draconian servitude to the one all powerful seed company that controls the seed, fertiliser, farmers, markets and end product at the retail level. This is the ultimate; you control all the land and the crops on it with out ever owning or paying taxes on the land. Coupled with monopoly in the markets and the backing of the most powerful nation on earth, it’s a dream come true for power hungry dictators, Genghis Khan would love it! To take it one step further and possibly into the realms of Science fiction. Once every one is eating GM food what’s to stop them putting “stuff” into the crop to make us sick so we buy medicine to help out the seed companies Pharmaceutical sister company with their profit margins. If elections are coming up and the populace seem to be unruly add a sedative in the corn to keep the masses subdued and manageable! It may sound crazy but sadly I can see this making “good business sense” to a group of ivory tower, profit hungry, bonus hunting CEO’s.
Back to the present in Haiti those protesting farmers know the score. After 200 years of outsiders controlling their island and its people, running off with the natural resources and easy money, leaving the locals perpetually poor and down trodden, they know the true nature of those seeds. They are weapons of Mass Destruction, a thin end of the wedge to pry away their freedom. They know that once they have lost the ability to grow their own food and save their own seed, they will be for ever at the mercy of the seed merchant and the country that backs him.
Here in Canada we are well down this road as government aids the “company” with confusing labelling laws, undisclosed ingredients and an almost open door policy to new GM crops. We farmers were slow to react when Hybrids showed up and are well down the dead end street of GM crop control. So what can you and I do?
I recently read Ernesto Che Guevara’s book Guerrilla Warfare, don’t panic, I am not heading to the hills with my shot gun to launch surprise attacks on the trains. It was interesting to see the heavy emphasis he places on getting along with the locals, helping them and forming community with them. It struck me we need to do more of this with consumers and producers of local food. Less talk and more walk so to speak at the local level. My last few weeks at the farmers market have been a great place to talk to consumers (as well as sell them some “freedom” food) about some of the issues and hear what they have to say. As for the walk, I produce natural grass fed meats and organically grow vegetables that are traditional open pollinated. I avoid corn and soy bean products in my animals feed and my own. The one thing my wife and I are doing more of is label reading in the grocery store. I strongly encourage you to read them and spend some time understanding what some of the “stuff” on the ingredient list is. True it’s scary and some times a little depressing, remember, knowledge is power and we are all in this together. Let’s work as a community of concerned consumers and become Guerrilla farmers and freedom fighter foodies!
So till next time, buy local as much as possible and read those labels, and remember to take your glasses shopping, that darned writing on the labels gets smaller every year!

Finaly!!

2010-06-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

Its been a while so I thought I would post some of my writings that kept me away from this blog. The first was published in The Canadian Friend a Quaker publication the rest were from my Farming Column in our local newspaper. There has also been an opinion article in The Western Producer and several sheep related articles in Canadian and American sheep publications.
Lambing went well and is now finished, all stock are out on pasture including sheep pigs chickens and rabbits. We attend our local farmers market which is going well seems we are selling chickens before they are hatched! They are proving popular and we will start a new batch soon.Pigs too, as we have had to buy more to fill orders. So the vegans are not left out I am also growing a market garden with a large planting of beans for drying. In effect we will be a "one stop protein shop"!

2010-06-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

Big Footprints Lead to Small Steps by Rob Fensom

One foot in front of the other, it’s the usual way to get around for most folks. Though many of us use cars, trucks, etc. which leave bigger footprints than a guy plodding along in his sneakers. Footprints are big news these days, at least carbon ones are, not my size nines. Our choices and lifestyles give most of us larger footprints than our feet need. Some time ago I answered a questionnaire and took a workshop on carbon prints. I was actually surprised how low I was compared to many of my classmates, even though my back yard is forty-five acres and my house is twice the size of most folks.

Yes, I am one of a disappearing breed, a farming, Christ-centred, conservative Friend. No, I do not wear braces, black wool pants and a straw hat. Blue jeans, western shirt and a cap do me fine. My horsepower is a diesel-burning tractor, and I love any machine that saves my back and is cost-effective on our farm. I run chainsaws, riding lawnmowers and a “Gator” (mini pickup) all of which burn fuel and give me black points on the carbon scale. So with some trepidation I set about working my way through the book at the workshop, calculating house size, heating system, car mileage for all vehicles, and air mileage per year. No stone was unturned.

When we had all finished I ‘drew the short straw’ and had to read mine out first. I read the totals in each column and felt shame and guilt. Finishing I looked up and was met with a circle of faces staring at me; many seemed to show disbelief and shock. Oh boy I must be a fuel hog. No one even offered a comment. I felt two inches tall.

We went around the circle and I started to realize that my footprint was the lowest, and maybe all those shocked faces were started checking my results, as surely I must have done something wrong. Panicking I reread the calculations and worried all the more because mine was so low compared to theirs. As we carried on around the group I started checking my results, as surely I must have done something wrong. Panicking I reread the calculations and worried all the more because I could not find my mistake. When we had reached the end of the sharing I could see I must appear to lead a boring life. I claimed no airline flights, no RV, boat or motorised toys, no holidays or weekend get-a-ways, no foreign wines; just some out of season fruit and vegetables in winter. This guy was beginning to sound like a-stay-at home bore!

The instructor began asking me questions, no doubt to see why I had the lowest score. Well yes I walk to work, its only twenty yards across the farmyard. I walk to pick up the mail; the mailbox is on the corner by our pasture. When I was asked about food I began to feel like a lowly peasant. We grow all our own vegetables and fruit in season; have chickens for eggs, lambs and pigs for meat; and fresh milk for some of the year when the goats are lactating. We heat with a large out-door woodstove and I felt sure this would give me extra points, as we burn a large volume of wood. Turns out the print from the woodstove, even with my large volume of wood was still well below that of hydro, natural gas or oil, for the square footage of our house.

On the farm we rotationally graze our pastures. This sequesters large amounts of carbon due to the generation of humus by the die back of roots each time the grass is grazed. We only run the tractor when haymaking and feeding. With permanent pasture we do no cultivating; and farming organically means even less passes over the field with our tractor. As for travel, because we do not commute to work, it frees up mileage for our trips out of the valley. Even with those trips we ended up below average in that category, as commuting is the elephant in the room so to speak. Most attending the workshop drove to work, often using two vehicles, one for husband and one for wife.

I am not boasting my Eco Saintliness. Going into the process I was worried that I would be the one to be tarred and feathered for carbon crimes. The big lesson was not big at all but little; it was all the little things that accumulate into a large carbon footprint. It’s not any one thing, which at first made it seem hard to give up anything and change our habits. Then on reflection, I realized if we turned it around it would be easier to change or even give up a few little things. Then if lots of us did the same, chipping away little by little we could make a big difference.

We are all called to be good stewards of God’s creation, not just the farmers and those close to the land and sea. Many can grow a small garden or support local farmer markets. Some could walk or cycle to work, even if it’s only when weather permits. Also, any time you can buy food or items made within that hundred-mile limit, you are cutting large pieces off the carbon footprint of those items, while at the same time supporting more favourable labour practices. Think of it as Fair Trade locally. As a farmer I often chuckle over the keenness to use and be seen using Fair Trade coffee, tea, or chocolate, but no one gives a thought to Fair Trade wheat, lamb, chicken, or pork, produced here in Canada.

When George Fox and the early Quakers were forming the first Meetings the whole economy was small and local, many never left their villages or bought products from out side their county. Today we have the technologies and the know-how to drastically reduce our footprints, and the stuff and clutter we accumulate, without giving up our standard of living and going back to the horse and cart. The problem is will power, and worse yet, the worry of what other people will think of us. I realize now that was the reason for my panic at the workshop. First: the fear of being the main carbon culprit in the room, then second: the fear of making a silly mistake and looking stupid in front of every one. These are silly fears and they are the main reason we are scared to take the first small steps in a new direction. Other people will think we are weird, or more politely, eccentric. Yet Early Friends were strong and fearless even though they often took steps backward before moving forward, despite public opinion, ridicule, and often persecution. Our fears by comparison are trivial. To make a difference is fashionable now (though maybe not with Shell or Exxon). These days you will not serve time in the stocks or have your tongue bored with a hot poker for trying to make a difference to your personal carbon footprint. To be eccentric is not all bad. Remember early Friends were known as the Peculiar People, a badge they wore with honour.

I encourage you all to take a few small steps and reduce that size fifteen carbon print to a more human size eight. The Quaker call to simplicity does not mean braces, straw hats, grey bonnets and long skirts, unless you feel called to wear them. It does however mean a life of less, which will give us more. Good husbandry and stewardship is not just for the farmer, it is a burden and a blessing for all of us to share.

2010-06-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

Names, Labels and Trust

As a food producer I like to keep up on all the food stores and retail flyers to see how my products are sold and marketed. It’s fascinating to see how a few knife cuts, different packaging, name changes and labels along with a few hundred or even thousand miles alters the image of a farm product and thus its profit margin. Image sells, and it’s no more obvious than at produce isles with fruit and vegetables symmetrically stacked and all blemish free. We expect the best and we want a deal, and the store delivers. I have no problem with this except the way in which many of the products are marketed. Name brands carry a lot of weight in the food industry, so does image and lately labelling. I don’t mean the ingredient list, but how a product is named.
Eggs are the classic example. “Free Range” or “Free Run” implies they are free to roam about and with the aid of a barn yard picture of loose hens on the egg box, or a video of chickens loose in a field much like the Real Mayonnaise ad, people think these chickens are free outdoors. In virtually ever case it means they are free to run about in a barn, but they will never step outside, see the sun or scratch for worms. Legally it is correct, but with our tricky language and suggestive pictures the truth is twisted significantly.

On my way to Kelowna the other day I passed a truck with the logo Sunshine Eggs, and chuckled as the only thing that came close to sunshine with the eggs would be the yolks. But only if the chickens were running outside with access to greens and bugs, then the yolk would be a nice orange and not the usually washy pale yellow one expects from regular barn eggs.
In a recent flyer I saw a classic, “Fresh Farm Fed Chicken”. Do they feed them somewhere else normally, and these ones were different because they were fed on a farm? Worse yet, if they are fresh are the rest of the products stale? OK, I know I’m playing with the words, but so were the guys selling you the eggs in the previous paragraph. With all the slick wording and imagery it is easy to be duped into buying something that is not all together what it seems.
Even in the organic produce section things can get tricky. With main stream agriculture entering the organic market, there are many feedlots feeding organic grain and receiving certification as all the rules are met. Also thousand acre lettuce and greens fields are now common down south and it arrives with the same carbon foot print as the commercially grown produce. We end up having to trust slick labels and cute pictures. Is this how you really want to buy the most essential thing you purchase, and your health and life depend on? When buying a new car, stereo, TV, or house we are encouraged to be informed consumers, researching, comparing and asking lots of questions. Yet when we go down the food isle all that goes out the window, price is everything, because there is no way of comparing products as there is no information about where it was grown or how, and if it has labels they are confusing, inadequate, or avoid answering what you need to know. They do not have to say if it is genetically engineered or even if it has been irradiated. It seems if it didn’t kill us last week we can keep buying it, trouble is these effects add up over along time and are difficult to prove. You have to eat, so you have to trust its ok, but people are starting to question and want to know more. Movies like “Fast Food Nation” and “Food Inc” are helping to lift the veil on our food supply and expose the true social cost of our food.
The farmers and people need to reconnect, to build the trust that has been lost. It would be great if you knew the names of the farmers that grew your meat, eggs, milk and produce, and where they lived. If you could ask them questions about how they grow your food and what they think about the food industry. The answers they give would help you decide if they are trustworthy to grow the food for you and your family. Maybe ask if you could visit their farm and see for yourself, chances are if they have nothing to hide the answer will be yes. Farmers also need this communication as the direct feed back from their customers helps them to produce what you want.
How and where can this happen you ask. Start at the Farmers Market, chat to the farmers on their stands, get to know them and ask the questions you wish answered. Learn about their products and why they are better for you and your family. Locally bought and consumed lowers the social costs of food and all the milage associated with most supermarket food.
Starting on the May long weekend I will be attending Salmon Arm Friday morning Farmers Market with our farm “Harmonious Homestead and Ewe”.
Come over and chew the fat about food, farming and feeding families, I’d love to meet you and tell you about us, and get to reconnect my gate to your plate.

2010-06-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

Old Ways, New Learning Curve,
Going Organic On The Farm.

With the recent visit of Percy Schmeiser and the movie ‘Food Inc’ many consumers are thinking about GM (Genetically Modified) food and food products in the things they eat. The truly annoying and scary thing is that there is no labelling so folks don’t know what they are eating; is it GM or not GM? There is a way to avoid the GM conundrum though. Organically certified foods are GM free as no GM crops are allowed in the certification rules for farmers. With this in mind I was interested when I heard of a local Dairy farmer who was converting to Organic. In Canada most organic dairy producers have smaller scale operations, and many make cheese, yogurt and bottle milk much like Gort’s Gouda here in Salmon Arm. They produce and market their product, which is a major undertaking and keeps them very busy, as milking is a year round, 24/7 occupation. So you can imagine, not a decision to take lightly.
The McLeods, Ken and son Jack farm next to Foothill Rd under Mount Ida and milk 125 cows which make’s them mid sized dairy farmers. As I sat at their kitchen table I learned of the changes and challenges of their new venture into Organic Farming. It takes three years to transition into Organic certification from regular farming, and Ken and Jack are well on the way with two years under their belts and one more to go. This ensures any chemical and artificial fertilizer residues are out of the soil and the animal’s environment, so as to avoid any contamination. During that time all organic rules are observed, use of organic seed and feed, only recognised cleaners and medications may be used. This means cost of production is increased while the price of the end product does not, the organic price premium does not come till the three years are completed.
The corn grown for silage is a major part of the cows ration and is now organic seed. It is planted later to ensure the maximum amount of weed seeds germinate so they can be cultivated under thus giving less competition to the corn. Ken and Jack were pleased with the yield as there was less of a drop than they had expected with the shorter growing time.
Timing as they are discovering is everything and attention to details very important. Making a mistake in regular farming can be cured with a spray or medication, but with organic management, prevention rather than cure is the goal. Ken and Jack realise they are now using knowledge that their father/grandfather used and wish they had more farming books of the 1930s 40s and 50s with tips and remedies to help them in their management practices. So you can see, it’s not just plastic and cans that get recycled.
Besides growing organic forages and sourcing organic grain for feed, bedding for the cows and calves also has to be organic. The milking cows lie on sand in individual stalls known as free stalls. This is actually very comfortable and during my visit most of the herd were comfortably snoozing and ‘cudding’ before afternoon milking. The cows that were soon to calve and the young calves were bedded with organic spelt straw; this is a kind of grain and was grown in Armstrong.
Probably the biggest change and by far the toughest learning curve will be adapting to summer grazing the milking herd while maintaining production. The organic rules insist that all stock receive four months grazing. Most all of the dairy herds in Canada never graze, you may see them out in an exercise area for a leg stretch, but never to earn their keep grazing, all are fed at a feed bunk. The McLeods need 70 acres of pasture and this was a worry until the neighbour, Ken’s brother John, agreed to rent them his land and buildings. Now you can see new fencing in fields adjacent to the road and next year there will be the photo opportunity of contented cows grazing and snoozing in the fields, making for a truly pastoral scene. This will require a new skill, that of rotational grazing one which Ken and Jack are keen to learn. The obvious advantage is healthier animals but also money saved as the animals harvest the crop and feed themselves, meaning a third less hay and silage making for the McLeod’s. In turn this means a smaller carbon footprint on the milk as less fuel is used to produce it. A win-win for everyone and the environment.
Once they are fully organic the milk will be handled separately to keep its organic status. The milk will be picked up by a truck that only handles organic milk, and will be added to milk from another organic producer from Mara, then sent to the coast for processing. It would be nice to see it stay here and be made into cheese, yogurt and fresh bottled milk, but Ken and Jack say they have enough on their plate for the moment. (Of course if you would like to start a dairy and process their milk I am sure they would be glad to talk to you.)
The big question I had to ask was why go organic? Especially with all this extra expense and three year transition period along with a mountain of stress and paper work. There was silence around the table, then some smiles and nods of heads. The main reason they both explained was they had come to a point when they realised there had to be a better way. All the expensive chemical inputs and fertilizers, none of which Ken’s father and grandfather had used and they farmed just fine. They were tired of the ‘agribusiness’ way and were wanting to do the right thing. With modern trends and consumer thinking they feel happy they have made the choice to go organic. With their obvious dedication, determination and enthusiasm I have no doubts they will reach their goals and I look forward to talking to them when they are fully certified.

2010-06-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

Robot Milker’s, Star Wars on the Farm.

Those of us who went to school in the 60s and 70s may well remember being told how grand life would be when we were older. Robots were to do most of the work and we would only work 3 or 4 days a week, our biggest job was going to be what to do with all the spare time. Yeah, right! Now we have less sleep and work more hours than we did 30 years ago and are lucky if we find time to put our feet up for a quick nap let alone pursue enjoyable pastimes and hobbies. The only robots I see are us being turned into them.
Then the other day over coffee I learnt that our neighbour Brad May who dairy farms down the road had installed a Robot milker in his barn and was now living the good life watching his clock turn 6.00am while still lying in his bed. This I had to see and so made an appointment to see this marvellous mechanical beast. “Come any time” Brad said as its always working.
Brad has a new barn for his operation and work crews are still there doing the finishing touches. The cows though have moved into their palace already and look happy and contented. It is a spacious, airy, light easy to clean barn and is bird proof so there are no pigeons (winged rats!) and no droppings to dodge! The robot milker is actually a stall at the end of the barn which cows can walk in to when ever they feel like it. While they are milked they receive a measured amount of grain which is controlled by a computer in the office. It reads the chip in the cow’s number tag around her neck, so it does not under or over feed her. The cows can go in as often as they like but are only milked 3 times a day with milking’s no closer than 4 hours apart .The stall is actually one wall of the milking parlour and the robot is on the parlour side of the stall. The robot is a large sensitive arm much like the mechanical welders in car factories. They have been around for 20 years but with all the bugs ironed out of them they are now gaining popularity with farmers building new barns and parlours. The cow’s teats are washed first with the aid of a laser eye which guides the arm. A suction cup with circulating water is placed on each teat to wash and dry it. Then four separate milk cups are put one on each teat. The udder has four quarters and they each milk at different speeds. The robot senses when each one is finished and then removes it leaving the others milking until they are finished. This eliminates the damage done by over milking that can happen with regular machines where all four quarters are milked at the same time, all on all off so to speak. The milk is held in a receiving jar and is pumped to a refrigerated holding tank where it is kept till the milk truck picks it up to haul it to the dairy. The computer tallies each cows milk yield daily which aids and simplifies the management of the herd.
Brad tells me the cows adapted to the new system quickly and only one or two of the old girls need help to use it. Like some of us older ones, they don’t do change! Many of the cows go to be milked in the middle of the night while Brad is asleep and because they are happy their milk yields are improving and Brad is happier with a more normal lifestyle. It means he has more time for his young family and for his other job, coaching a hockey team. He thinks the robot will pay for itself in 10 years, so as you see, they don’t come cheap. They also work all day without complaining, don’t need holidays, and don’t show up hung over! Brad grows all the herds feed on the farm and this means that the robot allows him to stay in the field to complete the job instead of stopping for milking half way through the afternoon. Sounds like a win- win to me.
Now for a little secret, Brads milking parlour is the only one I know of with a chesterfield in it so you can get comfortable while watching the work at hand. What a photo op. Brad watching hockey on the TV, supping beer lounging on the sofa while the cows are being milked. “No way” said Brad. “I would never live it down; folks would get the wrong impression and think we were all lazy out here.” Well Brad I could see you are not lazy and many of us are green with envy as you have found a way out of farming’s biggest “chore”. All the best with your robot, and as you farm in the city it’s good to see you living a more normal time table. I wonder if they make those robots ‘goat’ sized as I will soon have milking chores to do.
Good News.
For those of you who follow this column I have good news following our vet’s pregnancy check visit. Charles did his stuff! All the goats are bred. The rams did a good job too as all the ewes are bred with the exception of two old girls, which was no surprise as they remember the first George Bush presidency! So we are shearing in the first week in March and then its full steam ahead to April lambing.

Baby Rabbits

2010-03-22T16:54:00.001-07:00

We had our rabbits early as we wanted them weaned for Easter when we open up the farm. Two does obliged but the other Mopsie would not breed and so is about 2 weeks later. The top photo shows Mopsie's nest. We think there are 6 or more "kits " under the hair which the doe's pluck of their bellies to line the nest and keep their young warm.
They are born bald and blind but in 10 days have hair and by 2 weeks their eyes open . At that time they are warm and all the hair is tossed aside as shown in bottom two photos. Turns out the does only suckle once a day but look how fat those little bunnies are. Rabbits milk is 3 times richer than cows milk. At the time of writing the little ones are just starting to come out of the nest and explore their pen.

The latest thing, it must be from Europe.

2010-03-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

Yes you are seeing what you think you are! My wife taking our rescued rabbit Mr Whiskers for a walk. He showed up around Christmas time looking for groceries and judging by how friendly he was we felt sure he had been dumped as an unwanted pet.One of the hazards of living 5 miles from the concrete jungle. So to earn his keep we thought we would let kids take him for a walk on a cat lead during our open days. So Clare said she would train him ( just as well , you wouldnt catch me doing it) and he loves it. He likes to check out the sheep in the corrals and even the cats don't bother him as he likes to chase them.

Shearing done but Lambing starts in 12 days

2010-03-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

In the photo above you can see in the back ground I have been busy putting up the lambing "jugs" in the maternity ward. The girls are now "Bagging up" and looking rather wide. With our open days starting Easter weekend I have also made some people friendly "jugs" in the yard with easy access for children to say high and pet new born lambs.

We sheared the ewes back at the begining of March. The top three photos shows the crew , Clare skirting the fleece, and Rod shearing. Rod our shearer did a fine job and with less to do this year it was a pleasant days work and a good visit. His wife came along and went to shearing school the next week so may be next year we will be done twice as quick!

Same Day, Different Year

2010-02-06T17:21:00.000-08:00

24th January 2009 Approx 2 - 3 feet of snow, a normal winter.

24th January 2010 So you still dont believe this Climate Change thing?

My Latest Friday AM article

2010-02-06T17:12:00.000-08:00

The Secret Life of Goats

With goats on the silver screen thanks to Mr Clooney I thought it was time to bring them to print media. We have goats at our farm to supply fresh milk at lambing time to feed any orphan lambs or ones not getting enough from their mothers. This means the goats need to have their young three to four weeks before the sheep so they are in full production with enough milk for their kids as well as spare for any lambs in need. This requires knowledge of goat reproduction cycles and careful planning with a calendar to ensure timely arrival of kids and milk. With an October breeding the goats will birth in March and our sheep start in April, so all will be well.
We have Toggenburg goats, the oldest of the Swiss breeds. They are hardy milk producers who have good winter coats and do well here in Canada. Their downfall is they tend to mature later than other breeds. We were using a very young buck and I had some concerns he might be “firing blanks”. So thirty days after the last day the buck and does were together our Veterinarian came armed with an ultra sound scanner and pregnancy checked the does. They were all empty (not pregnant). What were we to do? We wanted to keep our Toggenburgs pure but there were no Togg bucks for sale, and the thought of using a Heinz 57 buck from the stock yards was totally out of the question.
It was time to get into the “oldest profession” and rent a buck if there was one available. After phoning around I found “Charles” was ready, willing and able as he had finished his work for the season and was ready to go freelance! I drove to Lumby where he lived to negotiate the deal and pick him up. The exchange was done under the barn light (white, not red) and we loaded him up in the back of the truck. $100 bucks for one buck seemed expensive, but divided over forty five days and six females I could see we had a bargain! Charles has had a good Holiday season, forty five days of good food and good company, but like all good things it comes to an end, and as the contract is up I will drive him back home to his owner. The girls all seem quiet and content so I hope Charles has done his thing. We will have to wait till early February when our Vet comes again with his scanner to check both the sheep and the goats to see who has been naughty and who has been nice (or maybe both). Even if the goats are pregnant the delay in the breeding date means they will birth after the sheep. Any orphan lambs will have to have milk powder until the goat milk arrives. To ensure we do not have a repeat of this fiasco I have a buck ordered for next Fall, kind of like a mail order groom.
With my experience in goat match making and seeing how the internet has gone maybe its time for me to launch Eharmony for goats, a one stop shop for caprine partners!

Cutting back and posting more!

2010-02-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

Yes it does actually make sense. I have four Blogs and lately they all seem to get little attention from me. So I have decided to shut two of them down and slip them in here at the Folly. Hence the following are my articles to date that I have written for the Friday AM. My apologies to those of you who have read them on the old site, and to those who are new enjoy, or surf on to something more to your liking! I will still update our happenings on the farm as well as give my unsolicited opinions and inner mental ruminations, political, religious and none of them correct!!

My Friday AM columns

2010-02-01T17:05:00.001-08:00

Farming in the City
My name is Rob Fensom and I am a resident of Salmon Arm. I have been here for the last four years living and working in this fair city. This is something I never dreamed of saying, as a country boy like me would never live in a village let alone a city. On our old ranch in Manitoba it was a thirty mile trip to get the mail and a lot further to find a city. I am a farmer you see, living in the city but thankfully this city is bigger than Vancouver in area. So although I am five miles from down town in the middle of a lovely valley filled with farms, I am a ‘city slicker’.
The title Farming in the City got me thinking of Sex in the City, though frankly the only time its hot and steamy around here is when I am working under a blazing sun moving irrigation hand lines. As for beautiful women, I am regularly surrounded by 100 ewes and their lambs along with a slim young thing called ‘Rosa’ who is their guardian dog keeping stray dogs and coyotes at bay.
Now with all this talk of eating locally and one hundred mile diets I hope to take this opportunity to bridge the ever widening gap between Urban and Rural folks. You need us for the milk, meat, eggs, fruit, and veggies we produce. We need you for gas bars, liquor stores, fishing tackle and gun shops, oh and of course ‘Tims’. All the usual stuff Hollywood depicts us local yokels coming to town for, along with curling rinks, ice arena’s, libraries, doctors clinics etc.
The farm we live on has the Salmon River flowing through the middle of it. This makes for a beautiful setting but with that comes responsibilities for Riparian areas and the plants and animals that call these areas their home. We have to farm wisely and profitably to be able to meet our responsibilities and stay on the farm. This day and age that is a major task with every one watching you over the fence to see its done right and you comply with the mountain of Provincial, National and City laws and regulations. It also seems to me that every one is an expert on the environment and has a point to make. With this in mind last Fall we completed an Environmental Farm Plan whose sign we now proudly display along with our farm sign. We also at the same time did a Biodiversity Farm Plan which catalogues the animal and plant life on our farm along with wild life corridors to and from the river. This gives us a snap shot of the farm and a starting point to monitor future improvements.
We have always farmed organically though at this time we are not certified. We produce lamb and wool from our flock of sheep along with breed stock. This year we opened to the public for the lambing season so folks could pet the lambs and watch and learn about a working sheep farm. This was very popular as one can rarely walk through a field of 260 lambs and ewes, stopping to pet sleepy lambs and friendly ewes. The big hit was watching them at feeding time, as once all the ewes have their noses in the trough the lambs form a large group and run up and down the field.
With our market close at hand and interest in local food production I have had to step back and take a long hard look in the mirror. No longer am I a rancher producing animals for feed lots and packing plants two provinces away. I am your neighbour producing food for you in your back yard. This has meant a paradigm shift in thinking and doing around our place. Not only do consumers need to connect to farmers but also farmers to consumers, something many of my kind are slow to do as we are naturally a shy bunch.
One way of doing this is keeping you the consumer up to date on happenings on the farms in your area to give you a better understanding of what all us guys are doing out there.
The year so far has been dry; no doubt your lawns are telling you this. Along with the cool spring it meant for a slow start for any new seeded crops and poor yields for the first cut of hay. In my vegetable garden I could not get carrots or parsnips to grow if my life depended on it. Our first cut of hay was half the usual size and pastures were slow growing and poor yielding. We irrigate from the river but can not pump water until June as the river is high and full of sand which can wreck the brass impellers on the pump. I switched the pump on the 4th June and could have sworn I heard a large Ahhh sound from the fields, not unlike me after a hot day and drinking a cold one. With steady watering our second cut of hay looks much better and we hope to make up for lost bales. The story is the same from many area farmers, those with newer ‘stands’ ( fields of two or tree years old) did better than the older thinner ‘stands’, much like my hair. Market gardeners that I spoke to had similar concerns, though mainly about the colder weather slowing up crop development.
Our lamb crop is doing well, with some lambs approaching 50-60 lbs this is putting pressure on the grass as the growing lambs eat almost as much as their mums. Instead of 100 ewes and 160 lambs, we have 260 ewes and the grass is disappearing fast. We move our sheep to fresh pasture every two days and use electric mesh fencing to keep them in. As the whole system is portable we move the sheep around in a box, building a new one for them to enter as the old one comes down. This gives them fresh tasty grass, and allows the pasture time to recover for the next grazing. Most pastures are grazed every 21-35 days, so I am busy taking down and erecting fence, moving sheep and irrigation pipe most of the summer. Keeps me out of trouble and you in lamb chops!

Local Food, Old Ways

2010-02-01T17:02:00.000-08:00

Back to the Future: The 100 Mile Diet.
I had the pleasure recently of attending a tea for past and present residents of the Mount Ida area. This is the area that was the old school district around Mount Ida Hall on the Salmon River Road. It starts at the first bridge south of Gort’s Gouda farm and continues south and west to Blanchflower road. I am a resident of the area so I hoped to learn more of the areas history and any snippets about our farm.
Many of the folks there were past retirement and could tell tales of the 1920s and 30s. Those with good memories could also recall tales of their parent’s younger days in the valley during the turn of the last century. It was interesting to see how close knit the community was. This changed after the Second World War, as people moved away and travel became more common.
The other significant change I noticed was how agriculture had shifted after the war and how the pace had quickened into the 50s and 60s. In the pre war days most of the produce from these local farms was eaten locally in Salmon Arm with the excess being put on train or truck to Kamloops or Vancouver. Today nearly all the product is shipped to Vancouver or out of province with only a small fraction staying in town. The area of farm land is about the same and the population of Salmon Arm is doubtless ten times what it was in 1930s, so in theory we should be eating all we produce and bringing in the extra we need. Instead nearly all we produce is shipped out and virtually every thing we eat is trucked in. So what went wrong?
We now have single purpose farms which are production orientated and one farm can produce more eggs or chicken than our town can consume. The same goes for milk and a lesser extent beef. Modern processing factories require more product than our bountiful valley can supply so our farm produce is trucked away to bigger centres, sometimes out of province. All of which has led to 1000 plus mile diets and huge carbon foot prints within the food system.
Back in the early part of the last century all the farms were mixed farms and the folks I was sipping tea with produced milk, eggs, chicken, pork, beef, lamb, fruits and vegetables, all or any combination of these. This provided a steady cash flow for the farmer (unlike today’s once a year pay cheque when you ship the calves) and with a variety of products a degree of security was in place because if one thing did poorly you had several other products and crops to pull you through. Many more folks would be living on the land and more folks would be employed in town to process the farm product if we went back to this style of rural economy. Our city would be more food secure and maybe more of our young folk would stay in the community if there were more employment opportunities due to a local food production, processing and consumption.
I know, you think I have my head in the clouds and I am dreaming, or you are beginning to wonder what was in the tea we were drinking, another home grown product! Seriously though, what I am proposing is all the rage and in the news most days, it’s the 100 mile diet. Actually it’s nothing new and was about for several thousand years but has been out of circulation for the last sixty or so, hence we think it’s sexy and new. In parts of the world where fuel is expensive or transport rare it is still the normal way of food production. With climate change, rising fuel prices and transportation costs it is the logical solution, especially in a climate such as ours. We can grow food in three out of four seasons, and some are breaking new ground and growing salads in winter in unheated greenhouses, ask Wild Flight Farms from Mara. In theory we should only be trucking in out of season fruit and vegetables along with tea, coffee, sugar and flour. (Oh, my wife just reminded me to add chocolate to that list!) The dollars would stay within the community from farm gate to your plate, and that would bring about security and sustainability for lot of people. A new leg on our wobbly economic stool which would help stabilise the seasonality of tourism and the ups and downs of lumber. This to me should go hand in hand with Smart Growth, sensible urban growth and local food production is a new paradigm that needs to be explored and acted on. It’s up to you the consumer, hunt out and buy the local product. Encourage the farmer, not just with your dollar but with a thank you for a job well done. Learn about your local food and feel proud that your actions are keeping your dollars circulating in the Shuswap as opposed to going out of province, or worse, off shore to a large corporate entity.
They say things go in cycles and after talking about days gone by with some locals I wonder if its time for them to come around again. I did learn that my barn is probably one hundred years old and in good shape for the next two hundred. Now if only I could find a hardy Cacao tree to make my own chocolate, I could eat lots because it was grown local, right!

Ready for Fall?

2010-02-01T17:00:00.001-08:00

4 seasons no better than 3.
Extra Season Does not Help
With cooler nights and shorter days we all think of winter. Like you folks with yards to clean up and leaves to rake we farmers are no different. Thankfully I don’t rake leaves as my pasture is usually knee deep in Black Cottonwood leaves, but I do have much preparation to do before we have our blanket of snow. The corrals need cleaning, manure spreading and barns made ready for winter guests. All items on the ground around the yard need to be stowed away so we can push snow into piles and not get a flat tire on the tractor, when we still have the yard and lane to clear. Been there, done that!
To top it all we have about fifteen cords of silver birch all in tree length waiting to be cut and split then hauled and stacked by the wood stove. My excuse is I am waiting for cooler weather as its hot work. I have often wondered which produces more BTUs, the burning wood or me working up a “muck sweat” cutting, splitting and stacking it.
On our old ranch in Manitoba, Fall was always a mad rush, we had many more animals and more wood to cut, yet we always got finished in the nick of time, just before the minus 20 and blowing snow. The prairies you see have 3 seasons, Snow, Mud and Dust, so we did well to get every thing done in a shorter year. Here in BC we have the traditional 4 seasons, Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, yet with the extra season how come its still a mad rush and I only just make it before the first cold snap.
You may well ask, is it just this guy, maybe he’s slow, or lazy. Well no, having talked with other ranchers and farmers and watched them from my pickup truck as I drive by, we all seem to be in the same hurry. So watch out for farm equipment on the road over the next while, and be safe. Trucks and tractors hauling hay, corn silage and manure to and from the field as well as livestock to market will all be about in greater numbers during the end of September and October. So if your commute to work or home is slowed up by one of our farm machines, just remember you had a good lunch and the guy in front is carrying your next one!

New Organic Dairy Farm

2010-02-01T16:58:00.001-08:00

Fair Trade

2010-02-01T16:55:00.000-08:00

Monday, December 7, 2009
Fair Trade

This is a little rant about politically correct coffee. You know fair trade coffee that costs 2 or 3 times the price of regular coffee and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside because you did the right thing. Here in British Columbia , 9 times out of 10 if you are at a public meeting on any community, church or environmental issue it’s a given the coffee is fair trade.
Every one knows Juan Valdez and his donkey need all the help they can get as they receive but a few cents on a pound of coffee. The fact that a family of four down there can live on $5 a day seems to escape the average person here. Stats Canada has a family of four in Canada needing about $45,000/year or $123.29 / day. I wonder if any one has worked out the return on investment for a Juan Valdez family coffee farm compared to the return on investment for a family ranch or grain farm in western Canada. I have the sneaky feeling that Juan see's a bigger return than our local boys. Of course it’s fewer dollars than ours, but compared to his over all investment, a 5% to 20% ROI would not surprise me. Having graduated from the Ranching for Profit School (yes, for real, I have the certificate) I know that the average ranch in North America runs at a loss even in good years and most run on a plus or minus 2% ROI. Seems to me like the guys keeping your country side looking nice and producing all that local food for your consumption, well maybe they are the charitable ones. We family farmers keep and protect the pastoral scenery you all enjoy and for some reason that does not show up in our wallets. So when you think of Juan Valdez and Fair Trade coffee think about John Smith and ask why there isn't Fair Trade beef, pork, lamb and wheat available too. Demand Fair Trade Food and watch rural Canada blossom, and put an end to farmers looking for supplementary income as greeters in big box stores!

New Year

2010-01-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

Yes I know, we are well into the new year and I haven't posted for ages. All my children and grand children came for Christmas and we all had too much fun to bore you with blog posts, so be glad of a rest from my waffle!
We now have our eldest daughter her with her two children as she needs rest and help with the children while she recovers from a recent bout of illness. Its been 18 years since I have had to worry about toddlers so I am trying to get back in my "Mr Mum" mode. Cooking the odd meal, mostly breakfast, reading bedtime stories (my favorite), washing more dishes, and having little helping hands tag along while doing chores.
The good thing is we are in a warm spell now with temps hovering around freezing but often in the pluses. That makes it easier for the children but does mean more mud about to get into!
It looks as though I will have to buy some hay as we will run out before green up. We sold down some ewes in the hope of not buying feed, but I refuse to sell any more as we now have a nice looking flock with no obvious culls to sell. Even feeding some barley didn't help as we will still need some hay. This will not happen again as with lower numbers we will be able to produce more hay. The good thing is it helped us in the decision making and we did not get soft hearted and keep ones that should be let go. Empty hay barns = Tough Love!
Our rabbit numbers increased by one after I spotted a small pet type Bunnie hopping around our yard. It went into the barn and let me pick it up, as it was a young female we popped into a pen and will breed it along with the others. It is very friendly and has been called Miss Whiskers, it will make a good addition to our petting area when we open in the spring.
I am now reading through seed catalogues deciding what to plant in our new market garden. We are some what limited as I wish to stick with Organic Heritage seed only. On our way back from returning our rented billy goat to his owners we stopped at the local machinery dealers and bought a rototiller. Although second hand it is in very good condition and an excellent make, a BCS from Italy powered by a Honda engine. It is a professional machine prized by market gardeners the world over. The tiller drops off and the tractor unit can power a huge list of attachments as well as run the plow that also came with it. I now cant wait till spring to play with it. Trouble is its still winter and there is a pile more paper work to do.
Our shearer is booked for the 3rd March and now I will have to get on and book the vet for pregnancy checking in mid February to make sure they are worth keeping and shearing. There is that Tough Love again!

Horses to Rabbits

2009-12-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

In our old barn we have a lovely stable area with two large box stalls and two individual stalls for standing horses. One box stall I use for storage the other as a milking parlour for the goats. These two areas are as old as the barn and we keep them in original condition. The standing stalls however are a recent addition and are only any good if you own horses. Well we don't do horses and the area had no use for us. I also did not want to rip it out until I found a worth while use for the area.
Then the rabbits arrived, and not long after that the cooler weather. So we ripped out the standing stalls and made a nice open room. Installed some water proof boarding on the walls(rabbits especially bucks have a nasty habit of spraying to mark territory).We now have our three does and our latest arrival, a New Zealand buck, installed and very happy according to their behavior.
Clare my wife and rabbit herdsman is also happy with the setup but now worries they may be getting too fat. Pellets, hay, carrots, apples, and willow sticks to keep the teeth in shape will no doubt do that. Yesterday she had them out of their cages one at a time doing laps around the rabbitry on a new weight watchers program!
As a stockman with experience of many farm animals I am out of my depth with rabbits. My only knowledge of rabbits is you need a ferret to flush them out the hole into a net so you can catch them for the pot! I will admit though I am enjoying this new addition to our farm and learning from my wife a lot more about these little furry critters than I ever knew before.

Preg Checking

2009-11-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

Jay the vet came the other day compleat with his Borg like ultra sound equipment to preg check the goats. Sadly they were all empty (not pregnant) but on reflection I was relieved and happy. Let me explain.
We could not find a Toggenberg buck any where and many breeders suggested we line breed by using one of this years buck kids. I knew this was a common practice with purebred breeders but to a commercial breeder like myself it was all a bit much. I felt very guilty turning him in with his relatives and a sence of guilt and shame came over me. though young he seemed to be doing his job and well, at least we would have kids born on time and a milk supply for orphan lambs. What you see is not always what you get, espesialy in this case. Although busy the buck was not mature and so was shooting blanks. A huge burden of guilt lifted of my Catholic consience, I felt much better, but where was I to find a buck this late.
Being late is what saved my bacon. The origional supplier of my doe's said she would rent me an unrelated Toggenburg buck who had finished his work and was keen for some overtime. So of to Lumby I went and brought home Charles who is now very busy with his new ladies. We will have the kids later and I may have to buy some milk powder to start the orphan lambs, but at least we will have Toggenberg kids with out the "goatie insence"!

New Arrivals

2009-11-24T13:27:00.001-08:00

Long before I met my wife she raised meat rabbits for the local butcher in England. Later when logging in BC in the 80s we had some for our own consumption. Its the other white meat, and it doesn't make a noise at first light so you can produce them in town without any one knowing!
With our Harmonious Homestead agritourism business we were looking for new forms of livestock that would earn their keep but still be fun for visitors to pet and see. After much web searching and phone calls Clare came back from visiting the grandchildren in Alberta with three beautiful Californian does. Then this coming weekend we will have delivered a New Zealand white buck from a rabbitary in the next valley. Needless to say they will not be getting closely acquainted until February so we can have little bunnies galore for our open days!

Rosa RIP

2009-11-24T13:11:00.000-08:00

After moving back to the farmyard side of the river and with access to the road our dog Rosa developed some annoying habits. It started with her collecting garbage from the road side and bringing it back into the field to chew on. Amazingly she could chew an aluminium beer can to shreds and not cut herself. Sadly it turned into vehicle chasing. Why any dog starts to chase 3 tons of Detroit steel never ceases to amaze me, I mean what do they think they will do with it when they catch it!Several neighbours said they had seen her in the act, but I had not caught her to tell her off.
One morning several weeks ago at first light I found her lying in the barn with major injuries all down one side. It was obvious she had been struck by a vehicle and had come back to the barn as it was her "safe place".The only choice was to put her down as she was in pain with no hope of recovery. I buried her next to our first guardian dog Emma in our pet cemetery who thankfully died at a much older age due to a stroke. Even though I view these types of dogs as livestock and members of the flock it is still tough and lonely doing chores when you loose one.

On Feed

2009-10-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

Our lambs were held up in their growth this year due to extremely hot weather and so they are a month behind their normal schedule. We usually have all the lambs sold before the grass runs out, but not this year. We sold about 70 lambs to feedlots to be finished by new owners. The remaining 90 or so we will feed and market finished ourselves. We do plan to keep back 15 to 20 of our best Dorset and Romney ewe lambs for replacement ewes as our flock is rather old. If we do this for the next two to three years we will end up with a strong young flock.

As you can see by the photos it does not take them long to learn what a feed trough is. Rosa now enjoys being around the yard as she can visit the different pens, wander out to the field to see the ewes, and terrorise the barn cats when ever she catches them by surprise!

Oreo cookie lambs

2009-10-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

Lambs are looking good.

2009-09-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

Our lambs are looking well now.With the grass drying out and more fibre to protein content than lush green grass, the lambs are getting more carbs in their diet and are starting to fatten out nicely. Just don't mention mint sauce or they start to get nervous!

Truck Tales

2009-09-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

We always had a pick up truck on our old ranch in Manitoba. First was the 'Brown Beast', a remnant of my logging days, a true three quarter ton Ford, passing everything on the road except a gas station. After many years of trusty, and towards the end, not so trusty service, we sold her to some local lads to play with on the sand dunes in the hills to north of us, after they put on a set of swather wheels and tires for traction. They wanted to pay $250, I wanted $500. As she had sat in the same spot for two Prairie winters, I made them a bet. If she started on the first long crank of the key, it was $500. They figured I was a fool and took the bet.

Doing my best to hide my smile I went to the shop for a battery and some gas. After hooking up the battery I took off the air cleaner pan and poured some gas into the carburetter. I then scratched around in the dirt until I found a pebble that was just the right size. I jammed it in the butterfly valve at the top of the carb so she would get lots of fresh air. Then sitting in the drivers seat I pumped the gas peddle three times, turned on the ignition and started to crank her over. in less than two seconds she exploded into life and sat there purring like a cat by the wood stove. The boys admitted defeat and handed over the $500. I said I couldn't guarantee that she would win for them, but so long as there was gas in the tank she would cross the finish line. Just don't expect her to pass a government safety inspection!

Next we had a nice tame grey half ton Ford that had been a grain farmers run about. Well we hauled every farm critter imaginable along with all other forms of vegetable and mineral connected to ranching. She did make it to our new place in British Columbia but we knew it would be throwing good money after bad to get her through the vehicle safety so we took her off the road. She was sold after three years in our barn to a fellow who put a snow plow on the front and used it to clean his yard. Old Fords never die, they just keep causing fuel shortages.

I have spent the last four years without a pick up truck. It's been tough but as we are only five miles from town I could use the farm tractor and trailer cheaper than I could buy and insure a truck. Lately though we have needed to go further afield and a truck seemed like a good idea. Trouble is North American models and for that matter imports are expensive and hard on fuel. They seem to be in league with the oil companies, even when they have fuel efficient diesels in other countries they will not sell them to us here. But there is a way to beat them and send them a message. We bought a 'Grey Market' Toyota Dyna at an auction in Japan and imported it, had it safetied and now we drive it here. It's a one and quarter ton truck with four doors and it does 30 miles to the gallon, more if you drive carefully. Although it is a 1992 model it only has 50,000 kms on the clock. We bought it from a reputable dealer who has running parts in stock and wait time for engines and clutches is a week. GM and Ford are no better on parts and a whole lot worse on price and fuel consumption.

The only down side is it is right hand drive. Having learnt to drive in England this is not a problem for me, and isn't for any one else so long as I am five feet from the curb in my drivers seat. The back is a cargo cage with the tarp over the top and with the smaller back tires (duals) there is no wheel wells to get in the way, just a nice big flat bed. My children's only comment was they expected to see men jump out the back dressed in para military uniforms with AK47s chanting, "power to the people"! They might well come in handy in the long line ups at the gas pumps with all the North American motors using up our fuel. Thankfully though, I only spend a third of the time there that I used to, a third less money too.

New Chick

2009-08-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

We came home from visiting our daughter and grand children in Alberta to find our Silkies, Jack and Jill had finaly had a chick. We are not sure of the sex yet but the name Junior works both ways!

Outstanding in my field

2009-08-03T14:38:00.001-07:00

Or should that be "Standing out in one of my fields"!

Pasture Shift

2009-08-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

How to move 260 sheep real fast, just shout "got grass". Note Rosa the dog was through first to make sure all is safe.

Hot !*%#! Hot.

2009-08-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

Very busy this last month and for the last two weeks its been super hot. Never less than 18c at night and often nudging 40c by mid afternoon. We have not had a shower of rain for a month, the air is smoky due to all the forest fires and I never stop irrigating and packing pipe.

Other than that its great! Just picked the bales from our second cut of hay as they say we will have cooler weather and rain over the next few days. As expected our second cut was bigger than our first. Now if the the third cut can top them both we might just have enough hay for the winter. Needless to say, us farmers spend a lot of time on our knees. Though lately it seems to have been worth it as after a poor start to the season things are slowly coming round.

I am looking forward to some cooler weather as my energy levels just aren't there in the heat. Yeah I know I'm getting older, but I can get more done in 20c weather than in 35c heatwaves.

The photos show how are lambs are comming along. The single born ones will soon be ready, so we will start marketing later this month.

Update

2009-07-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while. Since the last post we have made hay, started irrigating, had the Grand children for a visit and presently have my wife's parents with us.
The hay was a poor crop and typical of many of the older stands around, due to a cold dry spring and then a quick jump in temperatures the crop was light with only half the normal bales. This means we are watering and hoping for a good 2nd and 3rd cut or we will be short of winter feed. The pasture is doing well though and the lambs are starting to fill out. Rosa our Guardian dog is now very well adjusted, and is a great dog, doing all the right things for a change!
The garden is coming along but with the strange spring weather not all plants grew as they should. There will be few carrots and parsnips this year and very few cauliflowers and broccoli. Needless to say we shall still be up to our armpits in zucchini and beans!
I have always been a keen veg grower, but just for the house. With all this hundred mile diet and so many people in our area looking for local produce I have had to do some soul searching. So I hitched up the discs and chisel plow and ripped up half acre of pasture on the south side of the barns to prepare a market garden for next season. I know this is too small for a serious venture but I would like to start small, if it works I have 4 acres next to it to get serious with.
I plan to keep cultivating it and irrigating it till mid August, that should keep the weeds at bay and deplete some of the weed seed bank. Then sow fall rye as a cover crop and in mid October cover it all with sheep manure compost and work it all in ready for next springs planting.
We are presently checking out the area Farmers Markets to see what sells and if there are any niches open to us. The farmer that I am means that I like to plant big seeds into the dirt and stand back. Though I think I will have to get more technical and do the whole transplanting thing and may be at a later date a greenhouse. For now I will need a nice hoe to lean on instead of my shepherds crook, though the wife says I have to weed with it , whats with that?

Smart Dogs

2009-06-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago I took a day off and the wife and I went up into one of the side valleys near us to watch some sheepdog trials. It was a beautiful sunny day and being high up the mountain we caught the sun and came back glowing. Folks were there to compete from all over western Canada and north western US. Most of the dogs performed well, though the odd one had stage fright and was a 'no show'. One thing I noticed was that 80-90% of the handlers were women which suprised me , as while growing up in England it was the opposite, well done ladies.We watched for several hours and had a very enjoyable time watching other people work! We travelled in a circular route so we could explore some valleys we had not yet seen. We have tried to do that lately and the more we see the more we realize we bought our farm in the right location. Close to town on a black top road, plenty of water for irrigation and low elevation for more heat units.Now we just have to find a crop to utilize these attributes that is profitable and legal!!

Over the River

2009-06-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

The river running through our land is thankfully crossed on our property line by a nice walled goverment bridge which we use when moving stock from one side to the other. When we had cattle it involved more muscle power as steel panels were needeed to block off the road and steer the cattle. Now with sheep we find it so much easier and when they have done it once they know there is fresh pasture on the other side as the sequence of photos show. It was all I could do to stay ahead of them and they still beat me to the far side of the bridge. Note Rosa our guardian dog leads the way and is ahead in the pasture as well. We cross the river about eight times a year and it only takes a few minutes so we rarely hold up the traffic.

Raw Material Economics

2009-05-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

The opinion below appeared in the Globe and Mail newspaper today 25th May under the heading " We can't keep offering cheap calories to the consumers." It seems the business world is worried about profitability in the agri food sector along with the retailers, shippers and manufactures but not a word about sustainability of the farmers who are paid 1960s prices. We are the goose that lays the golden egg but we can't keep laying with out some feed!! Big food has made money by cutting costs at the farm gate for raw commodities so as to give cheap food to the masses thus ensuring continued disposable income for all the other stuff our society thinks it needs and big business makes to sell them at inflated profits. If we had to pay 20, 30 or 40% of our income on food like days gone by and the increase showed up at the farm gate I feel us farmers might smile a little more often and this one may well trade in his 17 year old Volvo for something a little newer! Raw materials are the fly wheel of any economy, pay the true value for them ( ie Parity, costs plus wages plus retirement contributions )and the rest will take care of its self. Any costs for food safty are passed down to the farmer in lower crop prices to cover the agrifood sectors costs.
The article in full below, there are good points but the farmer who makes it all happen seems to be left out!

Once again, the only price category that showed any signs of upward pressure in April was food. Although food prices in retail stores have gone up by 8.3 per cent in the past year, a broader perspective on global market conditions indicates Canada is actually in a good situation. Not only are we better positioned than most countries to absorb adverse economic developments, but higher prices become investments in food industries, local and global, that sorely need redevelopment to deal with problems such as food safety and production efficiency.
Food remains cheap in Canada and has been for decades. Canadian households barely spend 10 per cent on food every year. Thirty years ago, the figure was between 25 and 30 per cent. Food prices at retail in other industrialized countries are much higher than they are in Canada. Market conditions are even worse in developing countries. In a poll of developing countries published recently, a majority of people in nearly all of them say that rising food costs have negatively affected them.
Higher food prices are desirable for two reasons. The first is food safety. Because of food recalls of wide scope in recent years, safety is becoming a critical issue for governments and the private sector. We are asking agrifood companies to spend more on traceability systems, conduct more inspections and apply rigorous protocols. All these initiatives cost money.
It is increasingly challenging for the industry to focus on new safety initiatives when it does not have access to more wealth. For years, we have seen companies change their cost structure and develop centralized operations in order to offer cheap calories to consumers. In addition, global trade is making distribution systems highly complex. As consumers, if we want our food to be safeguarded, we should expect to pay more. The latest polls on this subject, however, suggest consumers are still not willing to do so. That will need to change before Canada gets hit by a food safety catastrophe.
The second reason for higher food prices is capital investments. After commodity price hikes last year, fertilizer companies embarked upon major expansion projects. Mosaic, Agrium and Potash Corp. all announced projects as a result of increasing potash prices, a major component for soil fertilizers.
Potash prices rose significantly last year for one reason: Demand for fertilizers was up because farmers wanted to grow more efficiently. At the same time, farmers naturally wanted higher yields because commodity prices were higher.
Rapid economic growth in developing economies such as China is creating a transitory imbalance: too much demand, not enough supply. With more fertilizers, world agriculture will be capable of producing more, and doing so will eventually stabilize commodity and food prices at retail for the longer term.
In Canada, if we want affordable food in the future, prices at retail need to increase at a reasonable pace in the present. This may seem counter intuitive, but higher prices will bring more investments and allow developing countries to build production capacity.
If this happens, an increase in supply will eventually force prices to decrease. Canada, the biggest producer of potash in the world, has a definite role to play in improving global food production.
In the recent past, low food prices at retail have compelled the industry to do more with less. As a result, we have had little or no innovation, more food-borne illnesses, more poor farmers and fewer capital investment projects.
Now, food is regularly in the headlines and paradigms are finally shifting toward food consciousness. More wealth within the industry will be beneficial for the common good. Organic and fair-trade products will become more attractive because the gap between retail prices of conventional food products and those of premium items is diminishing.
Canadian-based biotechnology firms may also find bigger footholds in world agricultural markets for which they can provide sound, genetically engineered products.
But higher prices alone are not the food industry's redemption. This shift in prices invites consumers to rethink how they consume food and how they perceive the meaning of nutrition in their lives. Higher prices may hurt some consumers at first, but we need to invest in the future of food in order to benefit both consumers and the agrifood industry.
Sylvain Charlebois is associate dean, Kenneth Levene Graduate School of Business at the University of Regina.
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NEW

2009-05-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

Our son came home from University and decided our Harmonious Homestead and Ewe blog site for our Agritourism venture needed an over haul. Link to it on the left hand side of this page and check it out. We think it looks great, with much new text and updated photos, puts the Folly to shame!

Update

2009-05-07T13:55:00.000-07:00

We have almost finished lambing now , just two more to go. We are still holding the sheep off pasture, at least till Sunday, then we will be out of hay and will start grazing. Our open days have been going well with two more left we will be glad of a rest. Folks really enjoy the interaction with the animals and "kids" of all ages enjoy bottle feeding and playing with the lambs. Answering the many questions is fun and sometimes challenging though as a life time farmer it scares me how big the urban rural gap has become. On the prairies many people have family that still farm so are at least familiar with land and livestock, but here in BC many folks are several generations removed from the land and it shows in the questions and misunderstandings that we heard. This makes us realise the important task at hand and ahead to not only entertain but also educate all ages so as to fill in the huge gap between their plate and our farm gate.
The chicks that were little fluff balls for our first open day are now ugly half feathered teenage chickens, and after making another "chicken tractor" for them they are now outside weeding the grass in our young orchard, moved once a day they are doing a nice weed and feed job. Our goats are doing well and producing milk for our orphan lambs as well as raising their own kids. At noon I shut the does up away from the kids till after supper then milk them before reuniting them, this means there is a good supply of milk and I only have to milk once a day.
The lambing went well as many of the ewes are old hands, we had 8 sets of triplets and one set of quads, many twins and only a few singles, either from first time lamber's or old ewes. With this many multiple births we only had 4 bottle fed lambs (thank goodness) and a first in all my years, several sets of premature lambs, all of which were born fine but with no wool until at least 2 weeks of age. We did loose a couple early on due to poorly developed lungs but the rest are out with the main flock and doing fine. This is the first year I did not inject the pregnant ewes with Selenium Vitamin E three weeks before lambing and I suspect this may be the cause of the premature births. Selenium increases the level of Oxygen in the blood in the ewe and unborn lambs making birthing and "cleansing " of after birth easier as well as producing more vigorous lambs. This may well have caused the early births, so next year I will not be so cheap and use the S and E again. Any other stock men or Vets out there with comments I would love to hear from you.
With grazing only a few days away I will be sorting out electric fencing equipment and setting up the first few paddocks. Thankfully last night we had our first decent rain since March so the grass should start growing quicker now. Her is to a green spring for all the graziers out there.

Not so young, not so old.

2009-05-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

The old owner of the Suffolk sheep we bought last year came for a visit during lambing to see how things were going. They still remembered his sheep call and looked up when they heard him speak Farsi, which could explain why they never pay any attention to me, I speak a foreign language to them! John showed that you did not have to be a kid to enjoy bottle feeding lambs and that proves our open days are for the young and young at heart.

Rosa

2009-04-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

Rosa finds all the lambs tiring as they never leave her alone in the field so she is often found "chilling" in peace ouside the fence. She has greatly improved during lambing and has realised why we allow her to have dog food and what her true vocation in life is. All in all she is turning into a very good guardian dog.

Breaking through to the other side ( of lambing)

2009-04-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Its been nearly 3 weeks since my last post and very busy for us as we now have about 160 lambs up and running and only 17 more ewes to lamb. with only 10 or so singles most are twins and so far 9 sets of triplets and one set of quads. Thankfully we only have 4 bottle fed lambs so I still have some patience and sanity left, allowing for the fact we keep sheep in the first place! Most of the ewes left are first time lambers so most will probably have singles. We have put them out on a sacrifice area so they have plenty of room . The ewes are still on hay and barley as it will be at least two weeks before we can start to graze.

No rest for me!

2009-04-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

In the pictures above it looks as though things are pretty laid back around here. Well for some maybe, but for us two legged critters lambing is heating up we had 9 ewes come in yesterday and they had 17 lambs between them. Also its now only 7 days to our grand opening and there seems to be way too much left to do and not enough day light to do it in. That said I may not blog this next week for obvious reasons!

Do any thing for milk.

2009-04-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

Our main mama cat Nappy is expecting again and is no doubt in need of calcium, so much so ,she is willing to tip over the dogs bucket to steal the dregs at the bottom at great risk to herself if Rosa spots her.

Signs

2009-03-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

We have now finished our farm sign complete with sheep underneath telling times and days. The sheep did get out the other night after an unusually heavy wind and after gathering them up and doing a better job of attaching them they now seem to be staying put. The sign is a total of 8ft by 8ft and is 12 ft high so if they can't see that I question whether they should be driving!

The other lower sign is for recognition of the farm environmental plan we completed last Fall and is proof we are doing it right. Though for us it was not tough as with a grazing operation and organic farming practices we are easy on the environment. At the same time we also completed a Biodiversity plan which catalogues our management practices and the natural fauna and flora that are on the farm and how we assist in there care and enhancement. Sadly we do not get a sign for that, but we have a nice printed portfolio with maps, text and photos as a keepsake. We are doing well in the biodiversity side of things as we only forage farm and do not disturb the soil and natural pathways of the wildlife going to and from the river.Non of this is profitable dollar wise but it gives a great feeling of satisfaction and a sense of being native to this place.

Heavy with expectation

2009-03-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

Most of our flock are due to start lambing in the next 10 to 12 days and are content to sit around like beached seals resting in the sun. A few black sheep which we bought in were bred earlier and so are already lambing.

Caprine Yoga

2009-03-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

Can any one out there scratch behind their ear with their big toe all done while standing?

Of course it takes plenty of minerals as shown by the top photo,even 4 legged kids eat dirt.

Kids !!

2009-03-18T12:05:00.001-07:00

Goats and fences are a tough mix , the only fence that is truly goat proof is also water tight! The kids offer entertainment for us through our kitchen window and I am wondering just how far they will wander, time will tell.

Who is guarding who?

2009-03-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

Shearing

2009-03-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

Last week we were busy shearing, well Rod our shearer was, my wife and I were busy skirting (cleaning) the fleece, rolling it up, keeping the "stand" clean and making sure there were always sheep ready to go in the race. The race is the blue system in the top picture. The uploading of the pictures are not quite in order but you get the idea! Its hard work and even the good guys resort to a cradle to help the back, its in the third picture and it goes around the chest giving support while attached to the roof.

Once the fleece is off the sheep leave, the fleece is cast onto the skirting table and any dirty wool and low quality or hay contaminated pieces are thrown out. the fleece is then rolled inside out and put on the pile in the back. We will put it into sacks for shiping later. As you can see it was cold while we sheared but got much colder for the next two days, the ewes did ok, though they ate more food than normal! The assistant shepherd did a great job of helping and feeding us and the three of us made short work of the flock, about eight hours over two days.

Rod is a good shearer and learned his trade in New Zealand so as he had the right accent I gave him the job!
I used to shear but after major back surgery my days with a hand piece are over. I do miss it, but not the stiff back.

With the fleece off the sheep are now nice and clean for lambing and we can see what is going on.

New Kids on the Block

2009-03-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

On yet another very cold day our first doe decided to kid down and we now have a set of twins, a doe and buck all though not from papered parents are non the less full blood Toggenbergs. Molly the mother already has more than enough milk so I am stealing a bottle a day from her and putting it in the freezer for any orphan lambs that we may have during lambing time.As it was cold we put the heat lamp on for the first few hours until the kids had dried off and had their first couple of feeds. The picture of all three with molly chewing red licorice is not what it seams. Most animals will eat their after birth as it is full of iron, vitamins and minerals, it is very beneficial but often folks get squeamish or grossed out and take it away from them. This is wrong as it is a completely natural thing to do. Along with all the goodness, in the wild it helps get rid of the smell and evidence of new born's and so helps protect the young from predators.

Take a look at my new milking stand that Molly is standing on, space age! Its is made of aluminium and folds up weighing 35 lbs, you only live once so I splurged and ordered it in from Sydell in South Dakota. My old ones at our other ranch were fixed to the wall made of wood and you needed a tractor to move them.

Sign of the Times

2009-03-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

As you can see by the photos above our new business sign went up by our field entrance along side the road. The new venture called Harmonious Homestead and Ewe will open Easter Saturday and the following 6 Saturdays till May long weekend.This will become the entrance to our parking lot and from there folks will walk to our farm yard and see all our new lambs during the up coming lambing season. My wife designed the sign using our barn as the main feature and our local sign shop did a great job of putting it all together. The first 10 inches of soil was frozen and took as long to auger as the other 6 feet!

Busy Busy Busy!!

2009-03-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

I hope to do some posting in the next few days, we have been busy at a conference, shearing and some new arrivals.Keep a look out. The Shepherd.

Just for Cat Lovers, and that ain't me.

2009-02-28T19:56:00.000-08:00

Cats are so photogenic so here are a few for feline lovers. Personally they are just another four legged pest, but marginally more desirable than mice and rats.

Crunchy Treats

2009-02-28T19:47:00.001-08:00

Cats are tough eatin', even for a goat!

Early Lambs

2009-02-28T19:32:00.000-08:00

We bought some black Romney ewes last Fall on the understanding that they had been bred to lamb 2 weeks ahead of our main flock. It was close enough not to worry so we bought them. Well I guess the guys ram got out at least one day in September as two of the ewes had lambs earlier this week both on the same day and one of the coldest so far! Both had just a singles so we now have two lambs ,one black and one white. Ewes and lambs are doing fine though Rosa the dog is so excited I'm sure one of the lambs will have a heart attack or die of exhaustion as she is always there watching them. If Rosa is this excited over two lambs wait till the other 200 show up in April she will be the one with exhaustion!

Keeping Watch

2009-02-08T14:41:00.000-08:00

Rosa's keen eyes spot me while I take a picture with my telephoto lens peeking around the side of the barn. Look out you predators!

Duck Poo and Water Pollution

2009-02-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of blame in our area about high coli-form counts and nutrient overloading of rivers and its often aimed at the farmers. This is sometimes warranted when certain farmers use bad management practices and I will post on this later. Often over looked is the natural causes from wildlife and run off during heavy rains or snow melt.

During the past few weeks I have had a flock of some 40 to 60 mallard ducks roosting on the ice on a bend in the river next to where our sheep are. The photos show the ducks and also the ice, look at the two of the ice only and you will see many brown marks and stains of the ducks calling cards. This of course all goes into the river and lake once the weather warms up.Over the last two years research has been done on several local rivers to see who or more to the point whats poo is the biggest culprit. A trapper was sent to collect the "scats" or poo of all the birds mammals and amphibians in the watershed. As each species has a different set of microbes in their scats these could then be used to test water at the rivers mouth before entering the lake to see who was the biggest polluter. Turns out that cattle came fourth much to the chagrin of local tree huggers, so I guess they don't all back up to the creek to do their thing! Third were dogs ,coyotes and foxes. Second were fish, no surprise as after the salmon spawn they all die and decompose in the river feeding all the insect and fingerling fish. The worst polluter was birds, ducks, geese, birds of prey and all the little twittery types. This came as a shock to many of us and a relief to us ranchers, for once we didn't get the lions share of the blame. So remember if your favorite swimming spot is closed due to high coli-form count, stop feeding the ducks!

Its easy to test for humans as we are the only animal to consume caffeine and it is easy to test for. Yet the test was not done, may be the truth is just to unpalatable and blame much to hard to lay.

A Ranchers thoughts on food.

2009-02-06T16:55:00.000-08:00

Although I wrote this last summer on a different Blog I feel it is valid today and so like the CBC I am offering quality repeats!

A Ranchers thoughts on Food
I was reading Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper web site a couple of days ago and came across an opinion column blasting the Dairy farming sectors Supply Management system. Now I won't get into the pros and cons of it in this article but what really got my interest was the comments section on the piece this morning on the web site. The total lack of understanding by people who think their opinion is right and with comments and thoughts that just blew me away. People, IF YOU EAT, YOU ARE INVOLVED IN AGRICULTURE, that is a simple fact that you can't argue with, whether you're an omnivore, carnivore , vegetarian or vegan.Stating that farmers need to get more efficient is ridiculous, we are the only group that has gone from feeding our family and a few extra people with our excess production, to feeding 100 to 200 people / farmer. All of that achieved when we had a huge drop in the number of farmers, approximately 40% of the population were farming 100 years ago compared to barely1% today. Industry only dreams of those kind of efficiencies.The real topper was suggesting if the farmer can't make a profit let him quit farming and we can buy our food from some one else. This works with cheap fuel and overseas agriculture, but did you see the price of gas lately. Shipping on the ocean, one of the cheapest forms of transportation went up 73% in the last three months! Airlines are laying of staff and parking planes, so all those fresh greens and salads that are flown in are going up in price for sure. If your gas went up at the pump it also went up for the farmer, here as well as abroad ,so did his cost of fertiliser and other inputs. Its OK though don't worry , you won't pay for his increases as the farmer will still get the same price and he will just have to swallow the cost (trust me,I know), the extra you pay will only go to the retailer , wholesaler and transportation costs as it always has. The farmers who can't make a profit will go the way of the Dodo and you will still have cheap food and disposable income left over for the important stuff like big screen TVs, DVDs,gas to run around in the second or third vehicle, all the good stuff that creates profits and jobs so every one is happy. OH the blissful joy, Bread and Circuses!!Unless you are one of the 850 million who goes hungry ever day and who's number is growing rapidly buy the minute. Hunger is something that happens "over there" and doesn't affect us so we can still complain about high prices and can still have the fridge full of food and some bagged snacks for the movies we are watching in front of the big screen. When it comes to prices and purchasing we all believe in free market economy so we get the lowest price but when it comes to our job security we want some protection. Say wait, that sounds like a subsidy to me, yet you tell me farmers should not get them, and yet you insist the world will come to an end if we don't save your job. Well it might do for you ,but that's OK because you could not compete or we just don't need you any more, just like those farmers. The Auto industry is suffering here in Canada due to poor decisions by management, resulting in inefficiencies, and GM wants to shut down plants. Well if you made cheap to run autos like the Europeans instead of big rigs that need a mortgage to purchase and a second one to put gas in the tank you might still be viable. The folks that will loose their jobs figure that they should keep those jobs and government should bail them out , but isn't that a subsidy the same thing those same people wish to deny the farmers?The big difference here is that we can live with out cars , though I admit it would take some major adjustments, but living without food is a short term thing, a week or two for most of us, a little longer for those with built in reserves. Food is the same as water and air, essential for human life, it should be respected and revered and yet we have debased and commercialised food to such a degree it is just another commodity to trade, make money on , and speculate with. I started my farming career many years ago in Agriculture ,now it is agribusiness, same as any other business, "dog eat dog and devil takes the hind most". Once mankind learnt how to produce more food than he could consume people could do other things and so villages , towns and cities grew, Guilds formed in the Middle Ages and then expansion into the New World, the industrial revolution came and today all the advances and technology we have all comes back to an abundant food supply ensuring people were free from growing there own food to pursue other ideas and occupations. Lately a cheap food policy has kept this in place to ensure our capitalistic/ consumer society continues ,providing jobs ,security and most of all profit to those who are in the position to collect it. When profits were tough to find costs were cut suppliers squeezed and life went on. Now though there appears to be cracks in the system and the hens are coming home to roost. Cheap food is going up in price as every thing used in its production has gone up considerably, and the law of Diminishing Returns is starting to bite, especially down on the farm and ranch( I have the teeth marks to prove it).Buy now you are probably wondering if the rancher writing this is getting some of all those big subsidies you read about in the corporate controlled newspapers. Truth is I have not signed on for any of the government programs offered over my farming career as most were worth less than the time it cost me to complete the reams of paper work involved in the application forms. It also often gave the government some control over my ranch management which I am totally opposed to. Most of all though I feel the money should come from the market place but until we can break the monopoly of a very few large corporations who control the price of farm commodities and farm inputs, much like a communist government ,which is strange for such a free market entity as a multi national corporation. I feel little will change until enough people are truly hungry and pick up a gun and allow history to repeat itself again, thus bringing about a new change. Or will it be as The Who sang, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss'.As G.K. Chesterton said. "Too much capitalism does not mean there are too many capitalists, but too few capitalists".
Posted by Rob Fensom at 6:19 AM 0 comments
Friday, June 13, 2008

See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil

2009-01-25T17:41:00.000-08:00

My Grandmother had a brass ornament of the three monkeys in the pose of the saying. But any one who knows their Bible and their goats know that these three will make noise, listen to noise and make trouble every chance they get. That's why I love goats!

Lucky Kitty

2009-01-25T17:28:00.000-08:00

Starting from the top you can see our dog Rosa is fascinated with cats. I don't think she would harm them but really just wants to play, and even the boss with a camera does not break her concentration when she sees one. Below it is a sequence of shots which show how brave the kitten has to be to get by her on it's way to the safety of the barn. Sadly it shows how slow I was with the camera as between frame 3 and 4 the kitten jumped up scratched Rosa on the nose and then side stepped her and made it safely to cover. As Rosa weighs 50 lbs and the kitten barley 2lbs I'm thinking that one is a survivor and will be around for a while!

Signs of winter work

2009-01-25T16:52:00.000-08:00

I went out and played with my camera the other day and set it for black and white. Yes I miss the old days of Ilford film 125asa and the 400asa you could push to 1600 for low light conditions and the best they ever made the 50asa which gave fantastic clear photos that could be blown up to huge sizes and still be clear. That was when it was an art form, now any idiot with $500 and a finger to press the button can do it. Thankfully composition is 80% of a good picture so it still takes a degree of artistic expression to get good shots. Not that the following fall in that category!

I just wanted to show you what I had been up to these wintry months. The top picture shows our barn which is now slowly emptying with the feeding of the flock, and the space will be used for pregnancy checking and shearing which will come in February and March respectively.

The second one shows some of the 60 panels I have recently made for use in the lambing pens in April when we start the annual ritual. They were made from used lumber given to me by a shepherd who was retiring, so my only expense was labour and some 600 3inch screws. Of course this does not include the Bushmills for pain relief after bending over all day to assemble them!

Critters enjoying the sun.

2009-01-14T09:26:00.000-08:00

More Snow Photos

2009-01-12T10:12:00.000-08:00

Note how deep it is on the top rail of the fence.

Frozen FYM.

2009-01-10T14:13:00.001-08:00

FYM, that's what we were taught to call it at Agricultural College, dung ,poop or sh-t was not acceptable even though it was easier to write. The Lecturers did allow us to shorten Farm Yard Manure to FYM and thus assist our poor spelling. With all animal agriculture and especially in the winter with the grazing types we seem to spend most of our time forking food in and forking FYM out. When you add in the 2 or 3 tons of barley we will feed close to lambing time, along with the hay we are feeding for the winter we will have fed approximately 200,000 lbs of feed which means that there is a fair amount of FYM out on the feeding grounds. We feed most of the winter on the fields and move the feed around so the manure is spread over a large area ,then in the Spring we harrow it to spread and break it down, a few weeks later all you can see is a lovely green pasture that has been well fed.
We have fed on the field now for 12 years and it really saves on work , both in the winter by not having to deal with barns and bedding,and in the spring or summer when you have to clean out and spread the manure. Feeding in the field eliminates two expensive operations and allows the livestock to do the work for you.
It is a pleasure to be back with sheep as it is a nice smooth ride over the frozen ground. Sheep poo you see is the size of fat smarties (they are all brown, no blue ones)and they are found in hand fulls of little round balls. Driving over them is no problem. At the old ranch in Manitoba we fed cattle out in the field and at that time we had a 50 horse power David Brown tractor and packed 1200 lb bales out to the cows. Now cows as most of you know don't deposit smarties, just lumps the size of curling rocks and about the same hardness as the Scottish granite they are made of,at least in the winter when frozen, (in the summer it just squelches up between your toes, don't ask). Negotiating the little and heavily laden tractor over a boulder field of poo was always hard on the front axles which were carrying the weight of the bale and over the years I had to replace 3 stub axles, which although annoying was cheaper than a new tractor. We finally had a new four wheel drive tractor which made feeding a breeze as it was tough enough for the bovine excrement obstacle course.
Now with a new ranch and sheep the problem only occurs when on foot. All those frozen sheep smarties are the same as trying to walk on ball bearings or marbles. Add to the picture a 5 gallon pail or two full of rolled barley in your hands and 150 ewes all pushing a shoving each other and you to get in the bucket.Its not long before the smarties underfoot do their thing and you are under the flock covered in barley and have become their dinning table.This I learned the hard way on our first ranch some 18 years ago. We now have a separate feeding area for grain, the troughs are filled minus sheep and then they are let in through a gate which is opened carefully as a woolly torrent roars through the opening to devour the goodies. Much like a firework rocket, light the blue touch paper and stand clear!

Plenty of Snow

2009-01-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

New Year New Bug

2009-01-03T10:59:00.001-08:00

First of all happy new year to all readers, you will notice I wrote that in small case as I'm not to sure about what it has install for us. I am nervous to give it too much respect as I have a feeling it will not be respecting us. Yes we will get a few more wrinkles and grey hairs as is to be expected, but the whole Financial/Economic happenings are another thing,(note I gave them capital letters). There are so many predictions in the media and on the web you can take your pick depending on your mood. So I will not be making any predictions and therefore no new year resolutions, so that way it will all be some one else's fault!
We had all the kids and grandchildren home for Christmas and had a great time. The house was full of noise and a busy place unlike this morning as they have now all gone and we are faced with the empty nest until April. Towards the end of their stay we one by one came down with the Mother of all Gastric Bugs(lots of capital letters = lots of respect). If was a hard and fast 36 hour special that opened the sluices at both ends and as one daughter said "this is like getting Cholera". This was a "bug" as opposed to food poisoning as we all received it at different times over 5 days.
The only way I can tie the first paragraph with the second is to say that I would not wish this bug on any one.Except of course the greedy brain dead idiots who caused this whole Financial/Economic mess and especially those who received golden hand shakes for doing so. A double dose is reserved the the clown who worked 3 weeks and got a $25 million handshake when he was fired. Also a triple dose for the idiots that signed and agreed to his contract clause!!

N ewes

2008-12-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

We put the rams into breed on 5th November, so we should have April Fools lambs, 1st April. As a breeding cycle is 17 days and we expose the ewes for two cycles lambing should be all over by 5th May or there abouts. Trouble is as we were breeding some Tegs (ewe lambs) I decided to hold them back a cycle, so giving them two cycles means lambing will not be over till around 22nd May. It will make for a busy spring with lambing, gardening and grazing. We split the flock into three groups and a ram for each. The Suffolks had a Suffolk ram as we hope to save some ewe lambs for breed stock and the rest went to Dorset terminal sires.
We have had a very mild fall and only just had snow so it has been great to catch up with out side work. Cooler weather is needed as it is starting to get muddy,so be careful what you ask for, next week is supposed to get down to -22c, oh well no more mud at least!
Two days ago we pulled two of the rams out from their girls and put both flocks together, that should ease the work load and give Rosa one less field to go to. Hope fully all the girls are breed, we will pregnancy scan in February and know for sure then.
One of the biggest expenses in the operation is milk powder for orphan lambs, back at our old ranch when we ran a big flock I always milked some goats as the milk was better than powdered milk and cheaper as the goats were also raising their own kids as well as a couple of lambs each. Finding milk goats in BC is another task altogether, we did find 3 bred Toggenbergs (my favorite dairy breed) about an hour away last week so we took the trusty Volvo station wagon and hauled them home. Molly,Mandy and Misty are due in March ahead of the ewes which should work out just nicely, giving their kids a good start before raising a lamb or two as well.

On the Chain Gang

2008-12-10T14:00:00.000-08:00

As you can see by the photos Rosa our dog is back on the chain. We took it of for a while due to improved behaviour but she has now learnt to travel from field to field to check her flock while they are in different breeding groups. This in its self is good and shows the making of a good dog, but the excitement of seeing everyone brought on the chasing as well as running away by the sheep. I put the chain back on, she still travels doing her pen checking but now without the chasing and every one is fine. If you look at the chain it is not too heavy, but long enough to trip on and slow her down with out hurting her. It does not seem to bother her and we can now hear her doing her rounds as she crawls through metal gates.
Rosa is much better at guarding now as she barks as well as watches, no one is allowed to pull to the side of the road on our property line and all eagles, ravens and magpies are hounded until they leave. All of these show signs of a promising dog as she is only seven months old.

Profit Prophet

2008-11-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

With all the doom and gloom that has followed the recent greed and gluttony in the financial markets I got a kick out of this picture. I can just image old Karl 6 feet under at High Gate cemetery shouting at the top of his lungs "I told you so." It does really make him the Prophet of Profit even if his timing was a bit off. Just goes to prove, " good things come to those who wait." Though I realise in this case that depends who's shoes you are standing in and your definition of "good".

Well Hello There!

2008-11-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

It is now 6th November and it is snowing/sleeting/and raining in no particular order. "Nesh" as we used to say, so miserable in fact that I can't find anything I would rather be doing outside so I guess I will have to sit down and do this Blog! I see its been 9 weeks since I last posted though quite frankly I don't know where the time went.
First of all we bundled the kids off back to University, then we were busy making a 3rd cut of hay. Next we bought in another two flocks, one of 39 head the other one 3 head. The large group were Dorset and Dorset cross and the 3 amigos as we call them were Coopworths, a Romney Leicester cross which makes a lovely ewe and I just wish we had 300 instead of 3.
This Thanksgiving we flew to Kingston Ontario to see our youngest two at University, my first time there and with the Fall colours it was a great trip. Kingston is an interesting historic place with a vibrant down town and if you ever go there visit "The Sleepless Goat" cafe, my wife says their 7 layer chocolate cake is heaven!! We did a tour on a boat through the Thousand Islands which was a riot of Fall colours and is the best way to see them and oh yeah we saw the kids!
We have also completed a Farm Environmental Plan and passed with flying colours so in due course we will be given a sign for our farm gate to say that we are doing it right. Personally I am not sure what all the fuss is about as we have always farmed this way, only now it is called sustainable and green, putting us on the map. I'm not to sure if it puts us on the extra profit map yet, time will tell. Next week the same fellow is coming to do a Bio-Diversity plan on the farm, but with all the worms, bugs, birds and four legged wildlife we have around along with lots of weeds and trees as well as a river with salmon in it, I'm hoping to get another colourful sign.
More recently we sorted the flock into breeding groups and put the rams into their respective groups. This should give us lambs starting around 1st April when Spring should start to be waking up in this valley.
Rosa our dog has been growing like a weed though not without problems. The Dorset flock we brought in do not like her and run when she gets near, so Rosa runs after them to say Hi and it never ends. We hoped the ewe's would settle, no luck, and scolding Rosa was difficult as I am not there all day watching. So I found a nice length of chain for her, attached around her neck it drags along the ground to her back feet. Its not very heavy so it doesn't hurt her but when she runs she treads on the chain and stumbles, after an afternoon of getting used to it the excess running has stopped and the Dorset ewes are much calmer and happy grazing. Rosa can still run to great me but can't turn corners while on the run or else she does a lip stand. I will leave this on for a couple of weeks and then remove it, this should be long enough to break the pattern and then we will see if she has learnt to behave.

IPE Sheep Show

2008-08-29T14:16:00.000-07:00

We took a day off this week and had a family outing to the Interior Provincial Exhibition in Armstrong. I went mainly to watch the sheep show and to see how our friend Jo was doing with her Dorset's and Romney's. As Jo shows on her own it is difficult for her to handle four animals at once so she press gangs any one she recognises in the stands to give a hand! So I helped out with the Dorset's and Jo won supreme champion flock with them, though I don't think it had any thing to do with my showmanship. This is good news as we buy our Dorset rams from Jo and know them to be good as they throw nice uniform lambs. We will see Jo again in a few days as she will be showing at our local Fall fair and at that time will bring my wife a much anticipated black Romney ewe, who's fleece she will spin, hopefully to make me a nice vest for the up coming chilly weather.

Market Day

2008-08-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

With the arrival of Twaal Creek Suffolk's we knew are pasture would be pushed to the limits unless we sold down some lambs or moved the sheep across the river. Moving across the river was not really an option as Rosa our guardian dog is still too small to handle coyotes and we need all the forage there for the expanding flock this winter. So the decision was made to sell as many lambs as we could to help the pasture out. They were sold to a local lamb buyer and most will end up down the coast in the lower mainland and Vancouver, have a nice BBQ you guys!

The lambs were ready for slaughter and had a nice finish on them which is good as all they ate was grass and Mums milk. This is thanks to their sire a Dorset ram who fleshes easily and does well on grass. We moved a trailer load and hope to move the rest in September with the tail end in October for freezer sales and our dinner plate.

Twaal Creek Suffolks

2008-08-16T14:02:00.001-07:00

One of my several jobs is that of the Southern Interiors Grazing Mentor, which means I get to visit and help area ranchers with their grazing plans and problems. This can involve watering and fencing, grazing plans and seeding needs, and sometimes stock management practices. The program is ran by the federal government and is a great help to those who use it. Sadly it seems many have not heard of it or are just too plain ornery to have some one offer some helpful ideas, we ranchers are funny like that!!!

Recently I visited John at Twaal Creek ranch to look at how to better make use of his irrigated pastures for grazing and in particular the grazing of his sheep flock. John is at the age of retirement and that's being kind as he pasted it 15 years ago, but don't be fooled as I was greeted by an enthusiastic gentleman with a keen interest in all things agricultural and as a retired University professor a well travelled and knowledgeable fellow. In fact he shocked me by saying he was fluent in Farsi ( he had worked in Iran back in the days of the Shah) and called the sheep in Farsi, even more amazing was that the sheep speak Farsi and came when he called!! The day went well and after a walk over the ground and talking over of possible problems we laid out a plan and time table for reseeding ,fencing and rotational grazing. I had taken my laptop along and had shown John photos of our operation and how we manage our flock and grazing. Near the end he admitted the ranch was for sale ( I had seen the sign on the way in) and if it didn't sell he would implement the plan and if it sold he would hand the plan on to the next owner. This was OK by me as my main concern was the land management not ownership.

By now John had decided I knew a little about what I had been talking about and a bit more about livestock and sheep in particular. So he asked me straight out if I would like to by his flock, as he wished them to stay together rather than take them down to the stock yards and disperse them. I had to agree as they were a superb flock of commercial Suffolk's and were a healthy closed flock it would be a shame to loose the genetics. At this point I must say that Suffolk's are not my favorite breed, I have always felt cows should be black and sheep should be white but even I could see these were a great set of sheep. John knew he had me hooked so he struck with a price that I could not refuse, my prejudices flew out the window and I became the owner of a fine looking flock of Suffolk's.

The icing on the cake came several days later when I was arranging to pick up the flock. John was over the moon with excitement as he had sold the ranch the evening before, he had sold his flock to me and was heading to our local town to retire and as we were only 4 miles down the road he could see his sheep from time to time! Well I could not wish for a better neighbour or a more interesting visitor, and I began to wonder who was mentoring who but it all seems to be working out well. John called in the other day for tea as he had been to sign up for his senior's flat in town. He walked into the corrals, bellowed in Farsi and all his sheep ran over to great him.

The cream on the icing came when we were chatting and discovered we were both Quakers so now we can have Meeting together and then wonder out to the pasture and brush up on our Farsi with the sheep.

Enclosed a few photos, John is the fellow looking menacing and waving the stick, the fellow on the left is Douwe our truck driver who we will use again as he did a good job for a fellow who normally works with cattle.

Update

2008-08-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

I see its been over three weeks since my last post and I have been so busy I am having trouble remembering what happened and in what order it happened in!!
The three little pigs are no longer little and no longer three as we sold one to a neighbour who plans to BBQ him whole to celebrate his 40th birthday. I hope I get an invite as I'd like to sample the end product.
We put up our second cut of hay, without any rain and although the yield was not high the quality was great, lovely soft high protein calf hay, if you know what I mean.
Rosa our young pup is doing well and is now part of the sheep flock, she is not such a porky puppy now and is just starting the gangaly, clumsy young teenage period.
The big news in our family is the arrival of our second grandchild Joseph Robert, a brother for Bronwyn. My wife was over for the birth and then helped out our daughter for the first few days, I of course was busy haymaking, but hope to make the trip over the mountains to see our new addition soon. At the same time I am to build a swing play set for Bronwyn as a birthday present, so it will be a working holiday, but I will have a fun help mate.
During this time we also bought a second flock of sheep to add to ours but I will write about this in the next post. Hope you are all having a happy safe summer.

Hi

2008-08-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

Well its very hot here and I promised myself that I would post on the blog when it rained. Trouble was it never rained but now it is so hot I still can't work so here goes.

Pig Update

2008-07-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

The pigs are growing well ,moving every two days to a fresh salad bar and cultivating my new garden as they go! They are on their second feed trough as they destroyed the first wooden one. The new one is a third of a plastic barrel and it seems indestructible.They are grazing over the area for a second time and you can see that now they are bigger they do a much better job rooting out the weeds and grass. I will soon be booking them up with a butcher and if all goes well they should be ready in September. So it's home grown ham for Thanksgiving followed by leg of lamb!

I know!

2008-07-22T06:51:00.000-07:00

Yes its been a while I know, its what mid summer and ranching is all about, busy busy busy. Hope to post soon.

Rosa

2008-07-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Things have been boring around her lately, moving irrigation ,chores, weeding etc. Until last Thursday, when we went to Agassiz and picked up Rosa our new guardian dog for our flock. Rosa is an eight week old Maremma bitch who was born on the ranch with a flock of sheep and goats. Maremmas are guardian dogs meaning they live with the flock at all times and deter coyotes stray dogs and all pests four and two legged. We have had a number of Maremmas over the years and know of their skills and lamb saving abilities. We wish to expand the flock this fall and that would mean grazing the flock on the other side of the river alongside the mountain where coyotes abound and the neighbours there have long dumped dead stock in the bush, in doing so training the coyotes to eat farm livestock, Duh !! So by having Rosa now she will bond with the flock and be big enough to do the job required of her next spring.

We stopped off at the vets on the way home so Rosa could have her shots before going to the pasture. Then it was off to the field to say hi to her new charges. She didn't enjoy the four hour car journey and following that with shots at the vets was a real bummer so we were not sure what to expect when we dropped her in the flock. Well we needn't have worried, she took one look at the sheep and trotted over to them and promptly started licking their faces. She was so happy she could hardly stand as her tail was wagging so furiously. The sheep were some what cautious though the lambs seemed excited to have a new playmate.

It has been three days now and all is well as I have to look really hard to find Rosa as she is in the middle of the flock most of the time or patrolling the fence checking things out. These are good signs as it shows the flock has accepted her and she instinctively knows what her job is.Although she is cute and cuddly I limit my contact with her to two or three times a day as I need her to bond with the sheep not me. So long as she comes when called and knows that its me who feeds her we will get along fine. Later once she is proficient in her job only then can we "pet" her in small doses.

Some people think this is cruel, but if they could see how happy she is in the field with her flock doing what she is born to do, they would understand, so hopefully the attached photos will help. Note the last picture, how proud and happy she is with her flock and she had only been there five minutes !!

Irrigation Trials

2008-06-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

With the hay safely gathered in and dry fields under my feet I knew it was time to fire up the irrigation pump and make it rain. We have had a cool dry spring and early summer but now it is starting to warm up, and get crunchy underfoot. So on Tuesday I greased the motor bearings and fired up the pump, all seemed well so I switched it off and set about laying out pipe and guns on both sides of the river. The sheep pasture is getting dry now too and they will be out of pasture unless I got the water on soon. Once it was all set out I went back to the pump house with my little portable pump which we use to prime the main electric pump, primed the main pump and fired her up. The water surged through the pipes and out the nozzles on to the parched fields ,it felt good to me but probably more so for the grass. I move the pipe every 12 hours as I wish to get all the fields wet quickly and will slow up to a 24 hour move on the second time across the fields, this should ensure a more even growth on the hay fields and will improve the second cut.

All was well until the third day and for no reason the pump lost pressure and then its prime and so quit pumping water. This happened while I was moving settings and again during the middle of a shift for no reason. Not only was it loosing its prime but while it ran a rumbling sound could be heard and a vibration in the pipe work near the pump. Not good, and to top it all the forecast called for dry hot temperatures for the next two weeks. Panic and frustration were setting in as I had visions of long waits for parts followed by a big bill and a small hay crop. Now the only way to cope with this was to start with the small cheap fixes and work your way up. The only reason a pump looses its prime ( so long as it still has power to run it) is when air leaks into the system between the pump intake in the river and the pump. I checked all the valves and pipes and could hear no hissing or feel no sucking. I even went over the whole set up with a mister bottle of water spraying it to see if any moisture was sucked in, and still no luck.

After several times of priming and restarting the pump to see if it would run for more than ten minutes I noticed that the thin rubber inlet pipe from the small pump used to prime the big one was collapsing and I could hear a faint sucking sound which pointed to a faulty valve where the water used to start the main pump entered the system. I returned after a quick trip to the hard ware store with $20 worth of one inch valve and some Teflon tape, and after replacing the old valve and firing up the system it all worked like a charm. My nightmares of big bills and small hay crops were washed away by fresh cold river water from the nozzle of the irrigation gun and it never felt so good!

So next time you are told "not to sweat the small stuff" just remember the amount of air it took to stop that whole irrigation system was less than a mouse would use on a quick dash for cheese. I for one will always "sweat the small stuff" as its cheaper that way and often less stressful.

Bale Hauling

2008-06-21T15:47:00.000-07:00

In the previous post I mentioned my hauling home the hay and stacking the bales in the barn so here are some photos thanks to my daughter (who likes playing with my new camera) who followed me around on her bicycle and snapped away. She took 70 photos, thank goodness for digital.

Although I have a grapple loader I prefer a single spike for speed and agility in our old barn with all its many beams and posts. I stack the bales three high and as close as I can squeeze them. I put in 185 bales and will have as many or more on the second cut so space is at a premium.

You may notice the dust mask on my face, well I suffer hay fever which isn't much fun if you are a grass farmer like me, which proves how dedicated I am and how much I love my occupation!!

Haymaking

2008-06-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

Although I have been moaning about the cool spring the grass once it had started growing has done very well. The weather conditions though have made for some strange happenings. The grass bolted to seed and the alfalfa which normally should be cut when there is between 10% and 20% bloom hardly had a bud let alone a single bloom. So we cut the grass a bit late and the alfalfa a bit early making for a fair quality and good production. We made hay on 32 acres and put up approximately 70 tons of hay. This is not a bad yield as we use no fertilizer and the fields were grazed for the last two years. We will get a second cut and possibly a third it the weather is kind, if not a third cut we will graze it till winter, using it as "foggage" or stockpiled pasture.

Our neighbours did some custom work for us one cutting the hay and the other baling. I turned it and raked it prior to baling and latter hauled it home and stacked it in the barn.

My Pasture

2008-06-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

The spring here was slow and cold so not only was the sheep pasture slow to get going and produce, my pasture was too.We have eaten lettuce, radish ,mint and chives so far but we should be eating far more by now. I think the vegetables are at least two or three weeks behind where they should be. This time last year we were eating mint with our own new potatoes, so we had to settle for mint with store bought Fraser Valley spuds which although they were tasty it just wasn't the same. These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago and at present it looks better with more growth and hopefully next week we can have some fresh peas and the odd strawberry. I almost forgot we also had rhubarb in a crisp fresh from the garden, a true prairie fruit and one of my favorites.