Rain and Paperwork
It Rained! It rained all night long, a good old slow soaking rain. Boy did we ever need it. The grass was getting mighty short but now the cows should have some regrowth pretty quick. The garden needed it to. I water the peas and spinich twice a day, but nothing beats a rain. I don’t know why but you can water the crap out plants and they never do as well as they do with water from the sky. I turned a bunch of younger heifers out to pasture today, to let them express their “cowness”. Everything but the little babies are eating grass now. No more hay and silage forking for Scott! The next few days will be pretty busy with paperwork. We have to have our application for organic certifaction done by June 1st. What a mess of paperwork, I never imagined anything like this. I’m not big on the USDA controling organic certifaction, but I’m kind of stuck going along with it. We are changing a lot of things around here, like doing more direct marketing and diversifing, but I am limited as to how much milk I can sell direct and I have to get a permit…which is a while off yet. For the forseeable future dairy cows will continue to be the biggest income generator here. I can’t afford to sell plain old comidity milk anymore, even if the raw milk selling becomes a reality I can’t afford to sell the extra at below the cost of production. It will take a year before I can sell my milk as organic, and it will be the hardest year we have ever faced as far as money goes. We are taking a leap, we will sink or swim….I don’t know which, but it beats standing still and getting hit by big ag over and over again.
May 12th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Hi Scott….I’m so glad you got the rain you’ve been needing and praying for. We must be getting hit with the same big slow weather system. It’s been drizzling, sprinkling, or showering here for days now with no end in sight. The ground is just soaking it all up. When the sun comes back out the gardens should really explode. I was wondering how you were doing with your new dairy venture. Hope all goes well with that and that you don’t lose your mind in the reams of paperwork. I’m happy to have found a farm that sells raw milk not too far from us. We have been buying organic for years but now we’ll be able to get the real unaltered stuff.
May 12th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
Scott,
Good to hear your finally getting a good soaker. It’s great to hear that your doing what your doing as far as marketing. I think your doing the right thing. To bad about all the paperwork, I know I could never do it. So here’s wishing you the best as you change over to a new market over the next year. You and your family are winners!
May 12th, 2006 at 7:48 pm
Scott,
We just completed what I think was the hardest year we have ever had, but looking back I see the hand of God in everything. We put almost everything into buying our land and it didn’t leave much left to live on, but I am constantly amazed at how the Lord has met us time and time again, and in very unexpected ways. He did it for us, and I know He will do it for your family as well. I am really enjoying your blog entries.
May 12th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Scott, the Lord has answered your prayers and we rejoice with you. May the Lord bless you in your way as you move out from under the bid ag.