Good Breeding, But No Manners

Our new Berkshire weaner pigs have only been on the farm for a week or so, but they've already become quite content in their new surroundings.  Of course, who wouldn't be happy with an all-you-can-eat buffet of chopped mangels, grain and table scraps?  We'll keep these two in the barn for a few weeks, and then move them outside to the portable pig house where they can get serious about rooting and digging.  The Berkshires are an old and rare breed, and today's animals are supposedly descended from a herd owned by the House of Windsor more than three-hundred years ago.

Cutting and Binding

Now that the hay is in the barn (finally), and summer is fast slipping away, we've started harvesting here on the farm. In these photos we have Ryan, along with Clark and Fred, finishing up the wheat. There is also an adjacent field in oats that we will cut today.  If the weather cooperates, we should have all the threshing done by the end of the week. 

Norwegian Fjord Power

Sven and Ole provide the horsepower that gets the hay off  the wagon and into the barn.  We're into our second week of haying, and have one more field of cut grass to rake and pick up before Ryan starts mowing again.  Thanks to Ed for the photo.

Loading Up the Barn

We have a great way for getting the loose hay into the loft which allows us to move a substantial amount of hay from field to barn each day with only one wagon and a team. The system uses a set of hay harpoons which are attached to a pulley and ropes (above).  The harpoons are driven into the haystack atop the wagon, and the resulting load is slowly raised upwards to a trolley and track which runs the length of the loft.  

When everything is set, a team of fjords on the opposite side of the barn begin to pull the load off the wagon and up to the trolley.

As the load goes up, one person keeps a hand on the trip-line that releases the hay from the harpoons and makes sure that the ropes lifting the load and the trip-line don't get tangled together.

If the wagon was stacked correctly as it was being loaded out in the field, very little hay drops off on the way up, and most of what does falls right back on the wagon.

As soon as the harpoons latch on to the trolley, the load is quickly pulled inside and along the rail.

As the trolley zips along the rail, a person stationed inside the loft waits to give the signal to pull the trip-rope.

A big advantage to this system is that the hay can be dropped in different spots in the loft, and minimal spreading is needed.

It takes five or six loads to move all the hay from a fully stacked wagon into the barn...or about thirty minutes...which sure beats hauling bales.

When the load has reached the right spot, the person stationed in the barn shouts out the signal, and the trip-rope is pulled releasing the hay from the harpoons.  The trolley is then pulled back into position for another load...and another...and another.  

Thanks to Ed for the photos.

'Tis the Season

The first spell of dry weather in June can mean only one thing...it's haying time again.  Ryan started cutting about a week ago, and after curing and tedding, we started bringing the hay to the barn yesterday.  Here Ryan loads the wagon while Igor picks up the small piles in the corners of the field that the loader can't reach.  Ed has taken lots of great photos of the whole process - from field to barn loft -  that we'll share in the next few posts.  So far, we've put up seven wagon loads, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that the weather continues to cooperate...at least for another day or two.

Not Impressed

Poor Tom.  He's tried all his best moves, and still Peahen ignores him. She's been hanging around the coop for a week or so, but I think she's more interested in the grain we feed the chickens and turkeys than in Mr. Big Stuff's dashing good looks.

Preening Owl

For those of you who like the bird photos more than a discussion about compost...thanks to Laura for this great shot.

Compost

Here are our two compost piles that sit on a concrete slab near the barn. As all farmers and weekend gardeners know, compost is organic material that has broken-down through aerobic decomposition. In addition to providing a fertilizer, compost also conditions the soil and acts as a natural pesticide. Obviously, with six horses and a pony in the barn, we get plenty of organic material on a daily basis. To this we add (when possible) green organic material from the garden…weeds, clippings, plants that have gone to seed, and anything else that isn’t fed to the chickens or pigs. For the microorganisms in a compost pile to work effectively, four ingredients are necessary: oxygen, water, nitrogen and carbon. The carbon and nitrogen are supplied by the organic matter; green and wet materials are high in nitrogen while dry and brown materials contain higher carbon concentrations. According to the experts, ideal composting occurs with a carbon to nitrogen ration of about 30 to 1, which, by volume, means just about equal parts green and brown materials. And since the microorganisms also require oxygen, the compost pile has to be stirred on a regular basis. The heat generated is a result of the microbes oxidizing the carbon, and water is produced and released as steam. The heat also kills the unwanted weed seeds and any pathogens in the manure.

We use the compost as an ingredient in the soil blocks, mixed directly into the planting beds, and as a compost tea. The pile in the rear of the photo is currently being used, and with the garden (and weeds) really starting to grow in earnest now, we have started the new pile in the foreground.

Threshing 3.0

One of the casualties of the centralization and industrialization of agriculture over the last 60 or 70 years is that of small, diversified farms growing small acreages of grains. Time was when nearly all farms grew a few acres of oats, wheat and barley. The farmer's family and his livestock were fed from the grain grown right on the farm. Now the growing of grains has, for the most part, been concentrated into certain favorable geographic regions, and has adopted the use of giant machines and mountains of chemicals.

The small farm resurgence that the country is currently enjoying is an exciting thing to witness, with its' invigoration of local food economies. One thing missing from this new farm momentum, however, is the growing of small grains. A lack of small scale harvesting and threshing equipment is partly to blame. There are simply very few options for the small farmer to efficiently and economically harvest and thresh grain. One must look oversees, to Asia for example, where there is still a strong culture of small scale grain growing; or one must look to the past and try to find and restore the machines which formed the backbone of the American farm economy from the 1850's to the late 1940's.

I realized years ago that to truly create self sustaining operation a farm must grow it's own grains rather than buying them at the local feed store. It has been a long time coming, but finally this last month we threshed the grain we grew and harvested last summer.

We harvested the oats and rye using a McCormick-Deering 7' binder, which cuts the grain and ties it in sheaves which are in turn stacked by hand into shocks in the field. We acquired a very fine 28"x 48" McCormick stationary threshing machine and a beautiful Farmall Super M to power it with. After meticulously evaluating and rejuvinating every function of the thresher we were finally able to fire it up and feed it some bundles of grain last month. The result, after much trial and error, was 36 bags of grain stored in the loft of the barn ready to feed to ourselves and our stock.

Just last weekend we used our new hand cranked roller from Lehman's to roll our own oats. Honestly, I was shocked at the incredibly rich taste of the homegrown oats- almost as much difference as a carrot or tomato from the store when compared to those fresh from the garden.

Threshing 2.0

Grains were one of the first crops to be domesticated some 10,000 years ago, and since that time have remained the centerpiece of almost every cultures' food supply: wheat in the Western World, rice in Asia, corn in the Southwest and Mexico, barley in parts of South America and mountainous regions of Asia. Unlike fresh vegetables, grain can be stored with relative ease, easily transported, and feeds livestock as well as people. It has a nice balance of protein and carbohydrates making it a natural choice for a staple crop..."give us now our daily bread."

The challenge has always been figuring out efficient ways to extract the tiny kernels of grain from the seed heads. Also, once separated, the loose grain still had to be separated from the remaining straw and chaff. One time-honored way involved the use of the flail: two sticks connected by a piece of leather. Beating the grain out with a flail, and then tossing the loose grain and straw up in a stiff breeze allowed the chaff to fly away and the heavier grain to fall to the ground to be collected. An alternate method was to drive livestock round and round on a threshing barn floor. The hooves of the cattle or horses did an admirable, if sometimes messy job of beating the kernels out of the grain heads.

In the middle of the nineteenth century mechanical threshing machines began to be developed. Most relied on a revolving drum with fingers which removed the grain. Gradually a series of fans and screens were added so as to accomplish the threshing and winnowing in the same operation. Hand-cranked and horse-powered versions eventually gave way to steam and gasoline powered tractor driven machines. All threshing machines at this point were stationary, with power being transfered from the power source to the thresher via belts and pulleys. In the 1950's the modern combine put nearly all the old stationary threshing machines out of business. The combine, as the name implies, combines the reaping and threshing operations into one. It is basically a threshing machine which powers itself and cuts and separates the crop in one operation.

Our machine is a 1950 McCormick-Deering stationary thresher, operated for the first time at Littlefield Farm just last week. More to come on our threshing adventure. Stay tuned.