Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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hundred miles of me raising it. And it works well in a drought, which was
great for last year.” He continues to grow oats, wheat, barley, and flax. “I
started the flax in 1999. We raise the golden for human consumption, and
my livestock is fed all of the brown.”
The livestock have become an increasingly important component of their
farming operation. “We had 1,200 chickens last year and we are probably
going to do 3,500 this year.We sell to one restaurant that wants eighty a year.”
In addition, “We started the year with sixty-something head of cattle.”Their
organic cattle “are not getting all of the growth hormones, feed conversion
additives, and all of those other chemicals. When you look at all of the
chemicals, beef is probably one of the worse things that you can eat because
of the contamination. It's a shame for me to say that as a beef producer,
but it is the truth. I've got a topic by this health guy. The first thing he says
is get off all your beef, unless you can find a clean source. Then you can
eat all you want. Because the grain they eat has chemicals in it, and then
the growth hormones and chemicals. It is terrible. Do you know how they
handle conventional cattle? It's terrible. They are constantly being fed drugs
their whole life.” He explains where he gets the livestock. “With the feeder
cattle, well, the ones we currently have are from northeastern Iowa. They
are organic. They came from an organic producer. They have to in order to
be certified. Cows and calves have to be certified. And then to finish them
out, everything I do has to qualify as organic.” And there have been no
problems with illness. “Not a one. I have never treated an organic animal
ever.” This contrasts with his past experience in conventional production.
“Now conventional . . . oh, you don't even want to know how much money
I spent treating them, and then they die on you.”
And their chickens: “All of that is organic, too. We don't feed them any
drugs. From day one, they get all organic feed.” He describes their pasture-
raised poultry: “We put twelve hundred chickens on two acres with the
turkeys, too. We had about a hundred turkeys. They are inside for three
weeks. You have to let them feather. Once they are feathered out, you can put
them out to pasture. And then maybe another five to six weeks on pasture.
Yes, we have a pasture seeded here. They are all on pasture. I think with
the grain sorghum they will do better than with the corn.” The logistics of
processing and delivering the chickens has been challenging. “Well, the one
restaurant wants fifty chickens aweek,”plus Joel needs packaged chickens for
local sales and a farmers' market. “For processing, this year we will probably
take these down by Kankakee or over to Trackside. He does processing
of chicken, about a half hour away. I am hoping he can do it because the
restaurant wants them fresh. Last year we took them to the Amish in Arthur.
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