Farm School - Science Class

written by

posted on

September 28, 2020

Typically when we welcome turkeys to the farm, we know that even
under the best of conditions, they can have a hard time surviving.
Turkeys have never been known as the most cunning of birds.

We always enjoy observing these birds, since their behavior can be
surprising, and their personality is one that can lift a farmers spirits
mid-way through the year. We’ve had a season spent chasing turkeys
around everyday because they just wouldn’t stay put, or watched the
aftermath when a predator took out an entire flock in one afternoon. We
simply never know what challenges the turkeys will or will not overcome.

This year, on their first day at the pasture, our overly zealous farm
dog scared a couple turkeys away from the flock while he was trying to
herd them together. I found one perched in a tree nearby, and another
resting within some tall weeds.

The next day visiting the turkeys, I noticed the entire gaggle was
seemingly hiding among those tall weeds. The kids and I were going to
herd them back to their water source, when we realized we did not want
to stroll through these particular weeds.

It was a patch of burrs and jimsonweed. Burrs are those spiny little
seed pods that get stuck to your clothing like Velcro while you are
hiking. If you’ve visited our farm and our farm dog Tig has greeted you,
you’ve seen these tiny little burrs tucked into his fluffy hair. Tig
will always have an interesting hair-cut due to his curiosity and this
familiar weed.

Jimsonweed, on the other hand, by sight is frightening. At first
glance you think to yourself, “yikes, I better stay away from that one,”
which is accurate. Jimsonweed is harmful to humans and most animals if
ingested. Since most animals leave jimsonweed alone, it can be very
invasive.

If ingested by humans it can manifest hallucinations, which has
caused humans to experiment with this weed. Most have found that it’s
not one to mess with as it causes more harmful and even deadly effects
to your body than you’d like to experience.

Jimsonweed produces a spiked pod that holds seeds, and as the Summer
fades into Autumn, the pod dries, opens and scatters the seeds. Once
dried, the pods are daggers to your skin and cause pain when touched.

Why are the turkeys gathering in these unpleasant surroundings? After
observation I noticed the birds are the perfect height to avoid the
dried seed pods, causing no harm to their bodies. However, an animal the
size of our farm dog Tig can’t avoid their discomfort.

Is this their natural instinct kicking in to protect themselves from
lurking predators? Have they found their safe place? Time will tell, but
I think it’s no coincidence that I see the gaggle of birds each morning
in this same patch of weeds.

Sometimes we need to sit back and observe behaviors of nature and
learn from them before implementing an effective role into the
ecosystem. This observation proved to us that turkeys may be more
intelligent than we anticipate. Also, jimsonweed is one that we now
understand has value to a turkey’s survival, yet carries a fatal risk if
ingested.

Should we remove all plants as we notice them? Is there a natural way
to rid them from this field through healthy pasture-growth? Is their
value to a turkey worth the risk?

Observational science begins, yet again, on the farm.

What 7 generations of Farming Teaches Us...

Earlier this month, we welcomed the Cass County Historical Society to our farm for their September event and meeting. We gathered together to talk about the history of our farm, seven generations of agriculture, and all the ways farming has changed along the way. Then we loaded everyone onto hay wagons and headed out to see what farming here looks like today. It was an evening about history, but the conversation felt just as relevant to the future. Because the story of how agriculture has changed is also part of the story of how we all buy food today. Walk through a grocery store and there are plenty of labels trying to help you decide what to buy. Natural. Local. Grass-fed. Pasture-raised. Sustainable. Premium. You can spend a lot of time reading packages and researching claims and still wonder what any of it actually looked like on the farm. That's one reason we believe knowing where your food comes from, and knowing the people who raised it, matters. Our Farm Changed, Too Generations ago, farms in this area were diversified because they needed to be. Livestock, crops, gardens and families existed together on the same piece of ground. Animals provided fertility for the soil, crops fed animals and people, and farms relied heavily on what they could produce themselves and on the communities surrounding them. As agriculture changed, farms became larger and more specialized. Livestock increasingly moved into confinement, and farmers became more dependent on commodity systems where they could be very efficient at raising something while having very little control over what they were paid for it. Our family lived that story. We raised hogs in confinement and sold into the commodity market. When hog prices collapsed in the late 1990s, our family had to take a hard look at whether that system could provide a future for our farm. Instead of getting bigger, we eventually chose a different direction: downsizing, diversifying and getting closer to the people actually eating the food we raised. Animals moved back outside. Pigs returned to pastures and woodlands. Cattle and sheep became part of our grazing system. Chickens and turkeys moved across pasture. We began thinking more intentionally about the relationship between soil, plants, animals and people, while building our own market to sell our food directly to you. What Does That Have to Do With Your Dinner? Quite a bit, actually. If you're trying to feed your family well, there's an overwhelming amount of information telling you what you should and shouldn't buy. One of the things a direct relationship with a farmer can offer is something much simpler: a source you can actually know. You can ask us what our pigs eat, how our cattle are raised, where our animals are processed or why we make a particular farming decision. You can visit the farm, see our animals and pastures, meet our family and employees, and follow along throughout the year. When you have questions, there's a real person on the other side of them. To us, that's one of the most valuable things about local food. "Local" shouldn't only mean that something traveled fewer miles. It can also mean accountability, transparency and a relationship with the people responsible for raising your food. We Aren't Trying to Farm in the Past After our talk, we headed outside to see some of these ideas in practice. We talked about grazing, livestock, soil and pasture, and we visited some baby pigs that held everyone's attention more than any story we could tell. Some of what we do today probably looks familiar to farmers from generations ago, but we're not trying to recreate the past. We use electric fencing, portable watering systems, tractors, refrigeration, USDA-inspected processing, delivery trucks, inventory software and online ordering. We're combining principles that have worked for generations with the tools and knowledge available to us today. That's part of agriculture. Farmers have to adapt. The question for us isn't how to make farming look like it did 100 years ago. It's how to take care of our land, raise animals well, produce really great food and build a farm economically strong enough to still be here 100 years from now. Strong Farms. Strong Communities. There's a lot of conversation about supporting the American farmer. When you choose to buy directly from us, you help create a market for farmers who want to do things differently. Those dollars help keep farmland in regenerative agriculture, employ local people, support processors and other small businesses. You help build strong communities, and maybe even more importantly with the average age of the American farmer on the rise each year, you give another generation a reason to believe farming can still provide a living. A Strong farm gives you an option. One that you trust to nourish you well. One that you trust to provide food that tastes incredible. One that you trust will consistently serve you. One that you trust to take care of the animals and land with respect. A strong farm gives its community a better way to feed itself, and a strong community gives its farms enough support to keep farming. Seven generations ago, our family couldn't have imagined what this farm would look like in 2026. We can't know what it will look like seven generations from now either. But we hope the people living here will still have the choice to know where some of their food comes from, to ask questions about how it was raised, and to know the farmer responsible for raising it. Thank you to the Cass County Historical Society for giving us an opportunity to look back at where agriculture has been and think about where it's headed. And thank you to every one of you who chooses to be part of what comes next. Strong Farms. Strong Communities.Real Food. Rooted Living. Renee & the Jake's Country Meats family

Beef In The News

There has been a lot of beef in the news lately. Beef prices are high, cattle numbers are low, and now there is talk about bringing in more imported beef at a discount to help combat prices for consumers. Then, almost in the same breath, there are announcements aimed at helping American farmers and ranchers by addressing some of the processing and market-access challenges we face. Despite what feels like whiplash, anything in the news today - will take it's effect on American farmers overtime, and the outcomes of these decisions will all be determined in due time. So what do these current events mean for our small family farm? And what can you actually do to help American farmers?

Create Your Own Job...

That’s exactly what my parents instilled in us kids growing up on the farm, among many other things. But this one…this one really stuck with me. And I bought into it a little too far, I’ll admit some days, and created a job with responsibility much bigger than I ever dreamed.

Farm School - Science Class

More from the blog

What 7 generations of Farming Teaches Us...

Beef In The News

Create Your Own Job...

Jake's Country Meats