What is really behind food names??

What is really behind food names??

Why buy local? Isn’t organic even better? These are questions we hear from many people, especially at farmers markets. As farmers we like to support local businesses and certainly encourage our friends and family to buy from local farms. It is good for the economy, good for the environment and we believe, good for your health. However, a recent email from our oldest daughter Marlisa, convinced us that knowing where your food comes from and how it is raised is critical in today’s world.

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Mom:
Here's another thing - the reason why buying locally is SO much more important and meaningful than simply "organic." It's a chart of the huge agro-businesses that own popular "natural" brands, made by some Brown students who just started a magazine called GOOD.
Check it out!

Marlisa

http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/features/009/009buyingorganic.html

Rich and I are very cognizant of the origin of everything we feed our animals. We try to transfer this care to ourselves and our children; we grow much of what we eat and when we shop we look for goods that are produced by companies with missions and goals similar to ours. We buy local when possible and organic – thus we were really surprised to review the above chart.

The Organic Cow of Vermont sounds like such a great company – and full of farmers like ourselves trying to make a living and moving cows through fields and hills in Vermont. The reality that the company is simply an entity owned by Dean Foods, the seventh largest agri-business in the entire country. Dean Foods doesn’t even own land in Vermont let alone house any dairies; so the real question becomes what is behind a name.

Heinz Foods out of Pennsylvania has been on an acquisition roll; the brand names that they own look like the Food Co-op catalogue of fifteen years ago. Kashi Cereal is all about healthy living or so I thought – it was really interesting to learn that it is owned by Kellogg.

Hope you are having a warm and dry day : )

I am off to do evening chores.

Fall time for Construction

It has been a busy, busy fall on the farm. We all (animals included) enjoyed a warmer than usual October. The sun is great for all – the pigs grow well and the cattle continue to roam through the woods and pastures. The lack of a frost is great for our poultry as well (we did not have a serious frost until the 25^th of October!!) – They all eat bugs and worms and green grass which diminish significantly after the frost. Our hens continue to lay, meat birds and turkeys are growing and the turkeys are monsters.

This fall has also been a time of construction. As many of you know, we purchased a former dairy farm that had fallen on hard times. In addition to cleaning up, we have many, many repairs and several construction projects ahead of us. The first of these was to replace the roof on the livestock barn. We are in the process of sawing and milling boards from our forest land (using a sustainable-harvest forest management plan) to side our barn. Much of the siding has been cut and is drying. This will be a winter project.

We are also constructing a heavy use pad and a manure pit to deal in an environmentally appropriate and sustainable manner with our animal waste. The heavy use pad is a large area outside the barn that has been used by the cows for generations. We feed our cows in the barn in a hay crib in the winter – they have free access to the barn to get out of snow, wind and cold. Our cows will often spend the night inside and go out during the day – but they stay much closer to the barn than they do in the summer. And they poop. Over the years this builds up and is very difficult to remove. We have excavated an area that is 20 feet wide and the length of the barn of over 4 feet deep of cow manure. This is from years and years of cows. We have then filled in with bank run gravel and will be topping with 6 inches of gravel and finally a concrete pad. Thus, we can clean it off with a bobcat and our cows will be assured of safe and clean footing when they are coming in and out of the barn – whether to eat, drink or sleep.

As part of the project we are also installing a wastewater treatment strip to treat the runoff from the barn area. The barn roof is a large area and when rain and snow hit the clean water is mixed with cow waste and becomes full of nitrogen. Currently it runs downhill (literally). While some is good, we don’t want it all washing down into the stream untreated (as it has done for decades), rather we want to direct the water to be treated before it flows into a tributary for a local watershed. Our wastewater treatment strip can be thought of as a septic system for cows.

Please check our website for photos of all of this exciting construction. In addition to fully understanding the difference between an excavator, bulldozer, loader, and bobcat; I have come to really appreciate the necessity of some heavy machinery. When I initially purchased the farm, I thought I would do all the work with horses. While I would love to plow and harrow with horses, I am really grateful not to have to manually shovel 4800 cubic feet of manure.

Next spring we will construct a manure pit to contain all of our manure between the time in comes out of the barn and the time we spread it on the fields. It is exciting to think that after 100 years of farming, we are making significant strides in making our farm a friend of the environment. For decades, many farmers didn’t really think about the impact of the animal waste on the environment. As our understanding has progressed, we are pleased to be part of the solution – a truly sustainable farm.

Thank you again for your part in helping to make us a sustainable agricultural venture. As a member of our farm you are an important component of preserving farms for future generations here in MA. Many thanks.

Making Hay

As the summer heat begins in earnest we are all struggling to get hay in - get it made and under cover to feed our animals through the long winter. Making hay while the sunshines is not just an old saying - it is grounded in stark reality. Making hay involves a lot of work and back and forth across the fields. It is critical that the sun shine during the process.

Making hay is a challenging and unsung task. The grass must be long enough to provide good food - but not too long. The tops should be slightly open, but it should not have "gone to seed" yet. If the grass has started to re-seed there is a loss of protein - Protein is key for animals. The hay must then be cut - usually with a tractor. When it is lying on the ground, it must begin to dry on one side - the sun is critical here. If it rains after the hay is cut and before it is fully dry then it is ruined for animals and becomes mulch hay. This year has seen a mix of sun and rain that has been great for vegetable gardners but very frustrating for haying. Farmers usually look for a string of at least three and preferable four to five days of sunshine to be able to cut, dry bale and store a cutting of hay. Many times this year four days of sunshine have been predicted only to be interrupted by a strong rainstorm late in the afternoon.

After the hay dries on one side (usually about 24 hours of no rain) it is raked turned over lying in the field to dry on the other side. Then it is teddered into rows - a machine attached to the tractor acts like a big rake and pulls the hay into long rows - again it is critical that there is no rain while this is going on. Finally the baler - either the square baler or a larger round baler machine rolls the hay up and ties it with the string automatically. The bales must then be moved into the barn or stored under cover. Some farmers use bale wrapping machines which place a large roll of white plastic around the round bales in order to be able to store them outside. This looks like giant marshmellows lining the side of a field. The plastic adds $3 to $5 to the cost of each round bale and the machine itself (the bale wrapper) is about $20,000 new - making it prohibitive for many farmers.

A cutting refers to how many times a field can be cut in a year. In New England, almost everyone gets at least two cuts per year - one in June and one in late August or early September. A really good year will provide three cuttings - mid June, mid August and late September. Large fields might provide a thousand bales (small square ones) in a cutting and sell them for $4 a bale in the winter - providing a big part of their income. It also reduces the feed costs for livestock producers to make their own hay. Yesterday, we were coming home from Goshen and noticed a group of five men who had just cut a very large field. They were getting ready to rake the hay into rows when the downpour came. There is nothing more frustrating than being about to bale and realizing that the field work had just ended for the day.

Our frend and hay supplier Bernie Gaudreau is a former dairy farmer who now makes a living selling hay. He makes both square and round bales on his 265 acre farm in New Braintree. In a good year he fills barns and has many customers (like us) who pickup directly from the field. This has been a very frustrating year - Bernie began cutting in mid June and quickly had a field of beautiful hay - just as quickly the rains came and the 800 square bales became mulch. Last week he was able to cut 60 round bales and get them tied, but we were unable to get them moved under cover before the rain. Because they are tightly wrapped, we will still use them for feed for our beef cattle this winter.

I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about making hay.

Chestnut Farms Open House

We had a wonderful first open house today. It was great to see so many of our members and be able to tour them on our work in progress. To those who came – thank you! Your interest and support is what motivates us to shovel each day! I hope you enjoyed our new baby pigs, our cows, our piglets, chickens and to those who were early – the baby lambs in the pen, Later they escaped and went back to their mothers in the upper field.

We were thrilled that one of our mama pigs complied nicely and delivered 11 (eleven!) babies on Thursday – just in time for the open house! They were a wonderful addition and she is doing great.We also added two calves this week – both heifers in search of names- and both leaped gracefully through the fields for visitors. They even played out in the rain!

To those who didn’t make it today – we will have another open house in the fall – we plan to do this twice a year and have learned from today –FOOD will be part of our next open house – we did have drinks today, but that was it – last night after cleaning the barn and mowing lawns Rich said “How about food?” We looked at each other – we had been so busy moving pens and setup up fences that we completely forgot about our human guests’ comfort! I said next time – Sausage sandwiches and burgers!!!

We are tentatively planning our next open house for the first Sunday in October. Please join us then for a great fall day in the country picking pumpkins, visiting our animals and enjoying the farms in our area.

Why Meat Prices are Rising or the Real Cost of Energy

Why Meat Prices are Rising or the Real Cost of Energy

Many of you have asked about the costs associated with meat production, specifically the increase in our grain. As you know, we purchase all of our grain from the family owned Poulin grain company out of Vermont. They make specialized pellets for our pigs, poultry and sheep – while the components vary from species to species, they all include corn as a main part of the grain. Hence the change in the demand for corn has a significant impact on our costs as well. I thought I would provide a bit more information based on what we are learning.

Our corn prices are skyrocketing due to the demand for oil and gas in the US and in China. As we all know prices at the pump continue to rise and there seems to be no satiating the world’s energy demand. Gas and oil are finite resources. Recent advances in technology have allowed ethanol (an gas-like liquid derived from corn) to be mixed with petroleum based gas to power engines. Some engines can be driven on 100% ethanol. Currenly, most gas sold in the US contains 10% ethanol. The demand for gas is strongly affecting the demand for corn which in turn impacts livestock production in the US.

A recent UDSA repot indicates that the ethanol industry’s strong demand for corn is having a big impact on the cost of livestock and will hike the price for beef, pork and chicken. According to the USDA, ethanol production is consuming a full 20 percent of last year’s corn crop and is expected to use 25 percent of this year’s harvest driving up the price of corn. The average price of corn as I write this is $3.20 per bushel, up from $2 last year – a 62.5 percent increase!

These higher prices will reduce meat and poultry production and increase prices according to a slew of experts. As a local farmer, I am just concerned about careful monitoring of our production costs. The National Chicken Council reported that the price of corn resulted in a 40 percent increase in the cost of feeding chickens in the last three months alone.

In classic Washington- speak, the Deputy Agriculture Secretary states that the USDA is closely monitoring corn supply and demand and the result will likely force farmers to plant more of the crop. “We do have confidence in the marketplace’s ablity to react” Conner stated. “We believe that producer are seeing the market and saying ‘I need more corn, not only for ethanol, but for our feed needs in this country’.

While Conner states his faith in the farmers, the USDA continues to pay farmers NOT to grow corn. The CRP program pays landowners to take land out of production that is highly erodible or otherwise environmentally sensitive and this land is often used for hunting preserves. It is unclear whether Dick Cheney was on land formerly known as a corn field when he shot his friend last year.

While Washington is trying to figure out who is on first - here is what we know according to the Miner institute:

1. Ethanol Plants are proliferating. In December 2006 there were 110 ethanol plants with 73 more under construction and 200 additional plants in the planning stages.
2. Corn based ethonla production is expected to grow by at least 1 billion gallons each year to reach 8 to 10 BILLION gallons by 2008 -09 and 31.5 Billion gallons by 2015 comprising a full 20 percent of the US fuels consumption.
3. There will be less corn for livestock. Depending on assumptions, experts predict between 20 and 50 percent of the US corn crop will be used for ethanol production by 2008 (next year). The Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (The CARD group) predicts the cost of production for hogs to increase 31 percent.
4. Corn prices will increase. On April 4, 2007 corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade shot up to $4.39 a bushel for May.

The demand for energy is hitting everyone. Iowan, the number 1 state for corn, hogs, eggs and now ethanol is projected to become a net importer of corn to feed both the livestock and ethanol plants. Nebraska will need to import corn if only ½ of the proposed ethanol plants come on line. Land value in the Midwest is being fueled by the ethanol industry with an average increase of 12.7 percent from 2005 to 2006 and no end in sight.

The demand for energy continues to drive all other aspects of the economy. The ethanol boom is not going away any time soon – some countries in Central and South America get up to 50% of their energy from ethanol. As farmers, we will likely see many impacts on how we do business. We have already seen a dramatic increase in crop process and will likely see shifting use in crops, different crop systems evolve and lots of opportunities for those who understand the the issues and economics driving the bio-fuel industry.

The upshot for small family farms is a continued diversification and focus on the bottom line. We compete with feedlot operations, grass-fed beef from Central and South America and hogs raised in barns where people need to don protective gear to simply enter. The economies of scale drive the lower costs of commercially raised meat. Our family-farm raised animals have happy, healthy lives. They are fed high quality grass and grain, live as nature intended and taste great!

Busy April Weekend

Hello All,
Our weekend was very busy - with the weather this week many of our piglets had turned their pastures into mud pits extrodinaire - we decided to move everyone into the barn to keep them dry and healthy during the week of the monsoon. There is nothing worse for animals than being wet and cold -it is a sure mixture for coughing and worse - we are in the process of relocating everyone to summer pastures, but right now they are all in the barn - the stable is full!! We will be moving them to spring and summer pastures over the next couple of weeks, so it is a short time to make sure all stay dry and healthy.

If you visit our website, you may notice we have changed our prices. This does NOT affect current members. We will be honoring all prices throughout the life of your membership - it is our agreement with you. However, corn prices have skyrocketed over $100 a ton in the last month and show no signs of abating. We use grain for our laying hens, meat birds and pork, so this has had a significant impact on our business. We are competeing with ethanol producers and midwest farmers who have been paid for years to NOT grow corn unde federal farm policy. Now that the demand is rising rapidly, the supplies are not there. There have been a number of articles in various publications in the last month about the concern for world food supply, particularly third world nations with the competition for corn.

As we continue and learn the farming business, we are becoming acutely aware of the dynamics and economics of livestock farming in New England. We will always continue to price our product as reasonably as possible. We hope that by continuing to share what we learn as we go, you will have a better understanding of farming in New England.

Thank you to all of you who have signed petitions, called your represenatives and offered support for the diary farms. The diary hearings have been held regarding support for the remaining 169 dairy farmers in MA - two of whom are my neighbors and five are in Hardwick. MA farmers are competing in a global economy - much of the milk that is distributed in MA now comes from NY and the midwest with some coming from as far away as California. Shipping milk from areas in the US where land is cheap and plentiful is cheaper than raising cattle in the northeast. There are very few 1000 acre farms and larger left in New England and that is the economies of scale that many of the midwestern farms work with. Farm policy in general are made at the national level and it is a difficult thing for states to become involved in - As farmers, we certainly hope that the governement will look at the full public good offered by our dairy farmers and consider the open space and protection of the land as part of what they offer. To date there is no resolution. If you have note yet voiced your support for our dairy farmers, please send a quick word to our governor to show support, as he has been somewhat neutral.

Our spring births continue. Last Sunday Bam-bam gave birth to her second calf Panda. Panda is a little girl (hiefer) with a face that looks just like a Panda. She is our fifth generation from Maggie, our original cow. Maggie gave birth to Allie who had Bandit who then gave birth to Bam-Bam who gave birth to Panda. I feel like I know my cows family tree better than my own! Please check our website out for pictures of Panda : ) She isincredibly friendly and a great girl : )

Sam's egg birds are in full force. He has plenty of eggs for sale and I will have them with me tonght. They are local, healthy and organic. Sam and his sister Caroline worked to paint his own sign last weekend. While the tie-dye color scheme was more indicative of the leanings of the sixteen year old, we appreciated the sign and did not explain about branding or farm colors - that will come later : )

Our pigs are continuing to grow - also fifth generation of only Poulin grain fed pigs. We have a barn full of 30 piglets right now plus moms and all of our growers - it is Hog Heavan down there - I am not sure our sheep agree!!

We will be having a farm OPEN HOUSE on Sunday April 29 - we are hoping to be a bit past mud season at that point and welcome you at any time from 12 to 4 to come over, enjoy hiking through our fields, pet a baby animal or collect your own eggs. We welcome visitors any time we are here - but you may end up talking to us as we put up fencing or finding we are not home which is a disappointment for all - so please join us on our open house or call to set up an appointment. One of our favorite parts of the farm is geting to know our CSA members : )!

Take care, thank you again for your support of Chestnut Farms and for your support of locally
grown, locally harvested food. It really makes a difference.

Kim Denney
Chestnut Farms
404 Turkey St. PO 545
Hardwick, MA 01037
413-477-6656
http://www.Chestnutfarms.org

Life on the farm is exciting!! We have had a second litter of piglets - all are doing well and our future bacon looks great!! Our last litter should emerge near the end of April - At that point we will have over 100 piglets on our farm - the sows are wonderful moms - we build pens for them to give birth in or we use stalls rather than metal farrowing crates favored by commercial growers. The farrowing crates do not allow the mother to roll over or move under the theor that she will be less likely to roll onto her piglets. We belive that playing with and patting our pigs, rubbing bellies during labor and making sure they have a comfortable bed of hay or straw is more effective. While we have had an occasional mortality either in birth or shortly after, the vast majority of our piglets grow up healthy, happy and like their mothers able to move around at will.

We have also had a number of sheep being born - they are doing well with their moms - we are working toward having birthing stalls for the sheep, but right now they give birth in the pens with the mothers - the future of our lamb chops also looks great. The sheep are clearly all ready for spring and would love to be out on the pasture eating fresh green grass. Unfortunately, they must make do with the hay that we feed from a local farm. We do offer our sheep a bit of grain to make sure they remember the grain bucket (great for moving them from pasture to pasture) and to provide essential vitamins and minerals. Like our pigs we use only Poulin grain - 100% natural grain - NO animal by-products

We are excited to have been featured on the front page of the Springfield Repbublican last Monday. We are thrilled to be part of the growing buy local movement. We are also thrilled to be part of a community that connects people to local agriculutre and supports and celebrates our New England agricultural heritage.

In addition, we would like to make you aware of the plight of our neighbors. We live on probably the last street in MA with two dairy farms - one at each end of the road. Our neighbors struggle to afford to continue to farm. One of our neighbors will be going out of business this spring. We have learned that farming in general and dairy farming in particular is economically difficult - it is the only industry where people take off farm jobs to be able to continute to practice farming. No one would ever expect a lawyer to make burgers to be able to afford to practice law nor a doctor to drive a truck in order to have enough money to keep a medical office open, yet in New England we expect this of our dairy farmers. Current milk prices are where they were in 1973, yet nothing else remains the same price. Our dairy farmers are competing with factory farms that milk 3000 to 10,000 cows - economies of scale that are just not possible in New England. Interstingly, every other state in New England has offered a direct payment to dairy farmers this year to compensate for the low milk prices. The MA government has made some noises about supporting dairy farms, yet nothing has been forthcoming. My friends and neighbors who preserve hundreds of acres of open space through their efforts as dairy farmers are unable to afford to buy corn for spring planting. The economic situation is dire. Please, contact your state Senator and Representative to let them know how very important this is.

Once a farmer plants houses in the field, it can never be tilled again.

On another interesting public policy note, Time magazine ran an article on buying local. The article is entitled Eating Better than Organic - for some fascinating reading. We certainly agree with the points in the article, but do belive it is possible to raise local food in the northeast without chemicals. We certainly do with our animals and we plant a large family garden each spring using all organic methods. It is labor intensive, though and that goes back to some of the challenges facing my neighbors the dairy farmers.

I cannot emphasize what a difference your support of local farms like ours makes. You help preserve land and the traditions of farming each month.

Thanks again for supporting local farms.

Kim Denney
Chestnut Farms