Ebert Farms Newsletter
June 14, 2007
A lot has happened this spring. Many of you know that Alicia Harrison, a former farmer at Guidestone, joined us in May. With her help, we have been blessed with some time for vacationing. We are feeling very refreshed and motivated to start a few new projects.
Our first big project was to prepare to raise chickens for meat. Since we failed miserably last year, we wanted to take a different approach this year. Alicia did most of the research on how to set up proper nurseries and we all brainstormed plans for mobile chicken tractors. Our chicks are now seven weeks old and they are thriving. We are hoping to harvest the chickens in about three weeks. We are still waiting to determine our final price, but we are estimating $12 per bird.
Our first batch of chickens was fed a starter ration for the first two weeks and then converted to organic cracked corn, organic millet screenings and fishmeal. Since three weeks of age, they have been on pasture and we move them in their chicken tractors to provide fresh pasture and bugs every third day. We just invested in a bulk grain grinder and hope to start the next two batches of chickens on an all organic, soy-free ration.
A second adventure this spring was to experiment with allowing our pigs access to 80 acres of farm ground. Most farmers don't pasture their pigs because they root in the dirt and tear up the grass. We are fortunate to have this piece of farm ground fenced for goats. We decided that which could hold a goat (most of you know our goats were never inside their fence!) should be able to hold a pig. It does! Watching our sunburned pigs graze green weeds and wheat has certainly been a highlight of working on the farm.
For those of you haven't made the journey to the farm recently, the lush grass our harsh winter and wet spring have provided would amaze you. The cows are going to have a long happy summer of grazing. Provided that the grass is not buried in snow again, they will have plenty of winter grazing as well.
I have very good intentions to begin regular e-mails again. For those of you who have wanted to know what is in stock, we have honey again. Our Byers beekeeper doesn't have any available yet, but we were able to get some from Dan, who used to supply Guidestone.
As for the rest of our products, here you go....
Happy Trails!
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