Tag: caldwell

Snow?  In June?

You wouldn’t think so, but my photos show a different story.  Actually what you have probably already surmised is that you are seeing “cotton” from all of the cottonwood trees along our creek.  

I wondered about whether or not to write a post a about this.  But after walking down to the creek twice a day for the past week while irrigating I decided that this is one of the things that makes our farm unique.  Not many people get to walk into this hidden world of white and green on a daily basis.

Is Cottonwood “Cotton” Pretty Or Annoying?

I guess the answer to that is in the eye of the beholder.  I honestly find the cotton to be kind of annoying.  We love the evening breezes and fresh air on our farm, so the windows are always open.  But with “cotton” blowing in the wind this means that we have it stuck to our screens.  

Really, the only time that I find it attractive is when I walk down to the creek and see it lining banks and settled on top of the water in the places that aren’t flowing that fast.  It can be like enjoying a freshly fallen snow without the cold.

Should We Be Proud?

Well, it turns out that the largest concentrations of Cottonwood trees in the United States happen to be in the Intermountain West.  So, they are something unique to us, and they are probably the trees that got Boise its name.  I would assume that when those French explorers came over the hill, looked down on the Boise River and exclaimeded “Le Bois!”, they were probably seeing cottonwood trees.  

What About Allergies?

I actually researched this a bit for this post.  Allergy experts say that cottonwood trees only irritate people’s allergies in the stage before the cotton starts falling.  I know, I figured that when it is “snowing in June” that people with allergies must really be suffering.  

And, I don’t want to tick anyone off here, but the allergy experts say that the allergic reaction to cottonwood trees is generally pretty mild.  Easy for them to say, right?

These trees grow fast and tall, but they only live about 50 years.  What they lack in length of life, they make up for in the ability to propagate.  Cottonwood seeds can float as far away as five miles, giving each individual tree the ability to find suitable habitat to start another 50 year legacy somewhere within a roughly 75 square mile area (doing the area equation in my head only).  

Is Oregon To Blame?

My experience in the Treasure Valley of Idaho is that the prevailing winds are almost always from the northwest.  So, if we have so many cottonwoods here, and if they spread by blowing on the breeze, they must come from Oregon.  Oregon is the last stop before you hit the Pacific Ocean, and there aren’t many cottonwoods out there that can have their seed blown east.

So, you may hate them, you may love them or you may never think of them and wonder why I have spent so much time writing about them.  Well, they are unique to our region of the world, and they provide a one of a kind experience on our farm.  I’ve decided to embrace this phenomena as part of the idyllic experience of living and farming in the West.  

Why Should You Buy Your Fall Beef In The Spring?

It takes so long to get cattle to the point that they are ready to be processed that the supply of available beef is actually set 18 months before you are ready to purchase it.  When you start getting into specialty markets like grass fed/finished, all natural, etc. that supply is even more difficult to come by.

You should be shopping for your beef right now, if you are hoping to have it in the fall.  

There is something innate in humans that makes them start thinking about putting red meat in the freezer in the fall.  Obviously it goes back to the days of surviving and preparing for the winter.  

While that type of preparation is no longer necessary, this instinct still impacts demand for beef.  There is a whole group of consumers out there, who are going to want farm raised beef, but they are not planning ahead.  Therefore, when the first signs of fall start to show up, something will click in their brain.  Right at that moment this group will start shopping for farm raised beef, and the demand will shoot through the roof.

This will create a seller’s market and very real possibility that you could miss out! 

So Who Orders Beef Six Months In Advance?

The short answer to the above question is – the people that actually put beef in their freezer for the winter!

As we all know, the Treasure Valley is growing faster than any place in the rest of the United States.  You can look at this however you like, but one thing is for sure – this creates a seller’s market when it comes to goods and services.  

Just try and get some sort of a home service booked these days and you will see just how long you will be on a waiting list.  I ordered something as simple as a screen door a few weeks ago, and it was not delivered and installed for about a month.  

Of course in a market like this, prices tend to rise.  I want to assure you that we have not raised our prices on beef or pork in three years, and I don’t have any plans to do so.  

My Inspiration To Keep Prices Where They Are

Just as a side note, I interviewed a gentleman named David Hancock on my podcast, Off-Farm Income, about a year ago.  David owns Hancock Family Farms in La Plata, Maryland and appeared on episode #498.

During the interview with David we talked about how he prices his beef and other products.  One of his goals was to offer really great food to people at reasonable prices.  So, while he saw room in the market to raise his prices, he was not going to do that.  I really liked what David had to say about his business model.  So, while I see room in our market to raise our prices, we are not going to do that either.  

We, like David, strive to be a great deal for folks looking for grass fed beef.  But, unlike David, we do not have a large enough farm to produce the volume of beef that he does in Maryland.  This means that even though we are not allowing the hot market to drive our prices up, there is nothing we can do about running out of supply!

MicroEconomics 101

Either in high school or college you probably took an entry level economics course.  So you understand the dynamics of supply vs. demand and how prices tend to rise when demand exceeds supply.  

What happens if there is high demand in a marketplace that is driving prices up, but there is a seller that ignores the pressure to raise prices?  Demand for that seller’s particular product rises even more.  Soon, they are out of inventory.  

That is our situation, and I don’t anticipate having beef for sale for much longer.

I am taking advantage of being the author of this post right here and letting you know that we have only 1.75 steers left to sell for 2019.  We are taking steers to the butcher on two separate dates this year (October of 2019 and January 2020).  We have 1/2 beef left to sell for October and 1 & 1/4 beef left to sell for January.  We would love to hear from you and get you on our list.

How To Source Farm Raised Beef Now

If you miss your chance with us, you should be looking elsewhere right now.  I would start with a Google search on grass fed beef in the Boise area.  I would also look at Craigslist under the Farm and Garden section for grass fed beef for sale.  Frequently you don’t see ads on here until an animal is ready to be processed.  However, you may find some farmers who are advertising beef for the fall.  

I would also look at local Facebook groups for farming and agriculture.  Here are few of the groups that I follow and post in:

• Idaho Heartland Homesteading Farm & Ranch
• Treasure Valley Farm And Garden
• Treasure Valley Buy/Sell/Trade Farm & Garden
• Emmet Farm And Garden
• Idaho Farm And Garden – that’s a picture of our goats from a couple years ago on there
• You might also check all the different Buy/Sell groups, but Facebook will frequently restrict the sale of animals for processing and you might not see those ads there

One Way Or Another, Get Your Beef Ordered Now

We hope to be your beef supplier.  But even if we are not, we hope you will buy your beef from a local producer right here in the Treasure Valley.  As advocates for farming and for small, local producers, we want to see everyone succeed.  So please start looking now, and find one of these great producers to help you fill your freezer when those instincts kick in this year.

What Is A Sheep Camp?:

Most of you reading this post will probably have seen a “sheep camp” before.  Even if you did not know what they were called, you will recognize them in the pictures in this post.  These are a very wonderful part of our Western Heritage that we are lucky enough to have at our farm.  

If you are not familiar with how these were, and still are used, here is an explanation:

Out here in the West sheep graze over long stretches of public land during the growing season.  For example, there is a sheep rancher that grazes his sheep all the way down the Boise front (the foothills on the eastern side of Boise) during the spring and early summer, and follows the sheep up into the higher elevations as the summer goes on.

South of the Idaho border, in the mountains of Northern Nevada, there are vast swathes of prairie that are at elevations of 7,000 to 10,000 feet.  Sheep ranchers follow their flock all across that terrain as well.  These areas are remote, so the nearest services are 50-75 miles away by dirt road.  And, the sheep need someone with them constantly.  So, what does the sheep herder do for housing?

This is where the “sheep camp” comes in.  Or really, the ‘mobile’ sheep camp.  All a sheep camp is, is a covered wagon with amenities needed for living built inside of it.  At one end there is a bed, or really a mattress set on top of a frame.  There is a bench seat, a fold down table, some shelves for holding flour, coffee, etc. and a “sheepherder’s stove” for baking, cooking and heating (if necessary).  The wagons were traditionally covered with canvass that needed to be waterproofed.  However, today there is an improved cover that lasts much longer and does not need the waterproofing.

Autumm and I spent the first night of our marriage in one of these sheep wagons that was built by her great uncle and great aunt and then purchased by her father.  We just brought it home from her father’s farm in Buhl, Idaho along with another one that he purchased from his aunt and uncle. We will be refurbishing these over the summer!

If you would like to know more about sheep camps, I suggest the website of these folks here: http://idahosheepcamp.com.

Also, the owners of this website were my guests on the D&B Supply Radio Show and Podcast and you can listen to that episode through this link.

We have never ventured into agritourism on our farm, but these sheep wagons might be the start of that.  On my podcast, Off-Farm Income, I interviewed a gentleman from San Jose, California who rents out a bedroom in house through Airbnb.  He advertises it as renting a bedroom on a farm because he has some chickens in his back yard in the middle of the city, and it draws people who want that experience. 

If he can advertise his San Jose back yard as a farm and get people to flock to it, we certainly could do the same with the sheep camps.  That is not actually our intention.  These are family heirlooms, and they were being stored in a barn.  However, they are falling into disrepair and we would like to return them to their prime.  Plus we have an awesome spot to put them by the creek on our farm.  Perhaps when they are completed and put into place by the creek I will write blog posts about our farm while sitting inside for inspiration.  

These wagons link us with our Western Heritage, and they are practical as well.  That is evidenced by seeing them still in use by sheep herders throughout the West.  They are also wonderful reminders of why this life is so special.  Being able to have the room to display a piece of history like this makes living on a farm all the more special.  

We hope that you will come see these wagons one day, especially when they are complete!

Today I Am Introducing You To An Important Member Of Our Team – Stryker The Cat (Nicknamed: Mascot)

Cats are an important addition to any farm.  There are mice, voles and pocket gophers that need to be kept under control.  Nothing can take care of this for you like a good cat.  We have two: Stryker and Snowflake.  Today is the story of Stryker.

Our History With Farm Cats

My wife Autumm grew up on a farm.  I actually did not.  They always had cats to catch the mice around their place, and ironically her family would later go on to demonstrate to the world just how important mouse control really can be.  

Autumm’s father actually was among  the first people in history to survive the Hanta Virus when it was spreading across the West and causing a lot of fatalities in the 1990’s.  This was so significant that he actually was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show to talk about what he had gone through.  

It turned out that the virus is spread by deer mice, which are very common in Idaho.  Her dad had a shed on the farm that had become infested with deer mice, and upon entering it he had breathed in enough of the contaminated air that he became infected.  He almost died in the process.  

So, when we bought our farm the first animal that Autumm was determined to put on the farm was a barn cat that would keep the mice at bay.  

Where To Find A Good Cat

When you go out looking for a good mouser, you are not worried about pedigree.  And you are not worried about cuteness or cuddling.  You are looking for a cat with the right combination of wildness and tameness.  You need it wild enough that it will go out and hunt but tame enough that it will stay around your property.  

So, when we moved to our property in Kuna, Autumm began the search.  One day, we were shopping at D&B Supply in Meridian.  When we walked into the store our prospective farm cat was right there in a nice kennel where we could view her.  

Why, you ask?  Well, there were several stray cats roaming around the back of the store by the loading dock.  The staff had managed to catch them, and they were nice enough to get all of the cats fixed.  However, there was one that they could not keep from sneaking into the store.  Even though they got it fixed, it was still coming into the warehouse area and urinating all over.  So, this particular cat had to go, and it was up for adoption right in the front.  

Now, there is some irony here.  To begin, I think that D&B no longer provides this service, and I am pretty sure that it is this incident that put a stop to it.  Also, D&B is now one of our biggest and longest standing broadcast clients (I have been hosting their radio show and podcast for over two years now), but we did not even have our own business when this happened.  And last, the gentleman that this incident happened to, was a featured guest on the show and interviewed by me years after this incident.  We never put this together, even during the interview.

Back To The Story

When we told the folks at D&B that we were there to collect this barn cat they warned us that she tended to be a little bit aggressive.  Autumm responded that, that was exactly what we were looking for.  But, she was a little too aggressive, as she paced around the kennel and hissed at anyone who got too close.  

Finally, a young man named Ryan came out to put her in a box for us so we could transport her home.  I cannot remember how she was collected out of the kennel, but I believe he had work gloves on.  As he was attempting to place her in the box she made her escape.  

This cat was now on the loose in the store and running all over.  The D&B employees all have radios to communicate with each other, and this incident reminded me of the work that I was doing at that time as a police officer.  A call went out on the radio, and everyone responded to try and catch this fugitive cat.  For a few moments, the entire staff was engaged in trying to help us control the mice on our farm.  

Soon, Ryan had the cat cornered and back in the box.  However, when he brought the box back up to the front of the store he was bleeding significantly out of his thumb and wrist.  This cat was not happy about being caught and had exacted its revenge.  The evidence was clear, right there on his hand.  

While someone found the first aid kit for Ryan, the cat was secured in the box with duct tape.  Air holes were poked in the sides.  If you have ever watched “Christmas Vacation” and remember when Aunt Bethany wraps up her cat as a gift for the Griswold’s, it was a lot like that.  Every 30 seconds or so the box would jerk wildly in my hands as this cat tried to escape.  

We took the box out the pickup and placed it in the back.  Now believe me, we love animals.  And under normal circumstances we would have been happy to have placed the box with the cat in the cab.  However, after what we had just seen?  No way!  This cat was not going to get loose in the cab of the pickup with all of us, while I was driving!

We headed home…. directly home.  And the spontaneous jerking in the box continued over and over to the point that I became nervous that the duct tape would not hold.  We were approaching the intersection of Lake Hazel and Cloverdale Roads when I caught some motion in the rear view mirror of the pickup.  

This cat had clawed at one the air holes long enough to open the hole up to a larger diameter.  It had got its head through and was squeezing the rest of its body through.  The motion that I saw was it trying to pull its hips through the hole by placing its paws on the bed rail of the pickup and pulling.  

I pulled over very quickly, thinking that I might be able to grab it and re-security it, before it escaped.  I don’t think I wanted to do this very bad as I didn’t really move that fast.  However fast I actually moved, the cat escaped the box before I could reach it.  It jumped out and ran into a neighborhood.  We searched for it, but it was never to be seen again.

About a week later we received a telephone call from D&B.  They asked us if we would be willing to bring the cat back in so it could be tested for rabies.  We were sad to report that it had been on the loose for a week and its whereabouts were unknown.  

Next Try

Our next try went better.  I don’t remember as much about this instance but we were able to get a cat home to our place.  This was a Tom cat, and he didn’t stick around for long.  When we got him home we locked him in the garage for a few days.  

Before you think this cruel, there is some rationale to this.  Whenever we get new chickens we will lock them in the coop for at least a 24-36 hour period.  We want them to identify the coop as home so they will come back to lay their eggs and to roost at night.  This works with the chickens, everytime.  So, why wouldn’t this same method work with a cat?  Well, within a few days of letting him out of the garage he was gone, never to be seen again.  

Vicious Cycle

Finally, Autumm’s Aunt Betty found out that we were looking for barn cats.  A female cat had a litter at her place, and she was looking for homes for the kittens.  So, she brought us two.  One of these kittens died, but the other grew up into a fine female cat that had the right combination of wild and tame.  Our only mistake?  We did not get her spayed.  

As soon as she was mature, this cat got pregnant.  The next thing we knew we had a litter of kittens to deal with.  At that point we were not ready to deal with kittens, and I think we gave all of them away.  But by the time we did that, the mother was pregnant again.  

We knew that we were not being responsible pet owners, and we needed to get her spayed.  However, we found out that the Idaho Humane Society would not spay her if she was pregnant or nursing.  But, she was always either pregnant or nursing!  We were in a real fix (pun intended). 

When she had the next litter we got a cage for her.  We figured if she could live in that cage until the kittens were weaned, we could haul her in to be fixed.  However, this became unbearable for she and for us.  She did not like the cage at all, and let us know by howling all night long.  We gave in and let her out….and yes, the cycle continued.  

I finally called the Humane Society in desperation and told them that their policy had trapped us into a repeating cycle that was going to result in hundreds of cats running around our place.  They agreed to break protocol for this case and said that we could bring her in with her next litter.  They would adopt her out with her kittens after spaying her.  

How We Got Stryker

This was upsetting to Hattie because she was five years old, and of course loved the cute little kittens.  So, in the second to last litter we actually kept four kittens.  Three were to be our farm cats, and one was picked by the neighbor’s daughter, Jade, to come home with them.  

Stryker was one of these kittens.  He had a brother that looked just like him and an all white sister named Snowflake.  All names were chosen by Hattie.  Ultimately we got all three of them spayed or neutered and the Humane Society took the rest of the cats.  This was a very significant victory for us.  

The three cats we kept ranged in their balance of tame vs. wild.  Stryker’s brother was the most wild and would not allow anyone to pet him.  This wildness ultimately led him to get run over, and he is no longer with us.  Snowflake was next, and she is still skittish.  However, she occasionally wants some affection and will allow herself to be held and petted.  Stryker loves people, and he would move into the house immediately if we allowed him.  

How We Almost Lost Stryker (And Why His Nickname Is Mascot)

By the time that Stryker was big enough to get into mischief, but still small enough to be considered a kitten we had started our first business; Idaho Gopher Control.  This was a gopher extermination business, and when I went out to exterminate gophers on customer’s property I pulled a 16′, flatbed trailer with a wooden deck to haul my equipment.  

I had a job scheduled one morning in Southwest Boise about 11 miles from our farm.  I did everything just like normal that morning.  I got all the farm chores done, checked that my equipment was fueled and strapped to the trailer appropriately and I headed out to the job.  

I drove for about 20 minutes to the job site which was located at the end of a culdesac off of Overland Road.  The culdesac was not quite big enough for me to just turn around in, so I had to make half of a u-turn and then jockey to get back around in a position to unload my equipment.  

While I was doing this I  could hear a very loud meowing coming from somewhere, and I remember thinking to myself that a neighbor had a cat in heat.  What was funny is that the volume level of this cat stayed the same, no matter if I was at the end of the road or turned around and pulled about 50 yards forward.  And, I  kind of recognized it.  

I got the pickup parked, got out and headed back to the trailer to start unstrapping everything.  The meowing got louder and louder.  I looked under the ATV that I used to pull my equipment around with, and I saw Stryker.  Every claw on every paw was dug deeply into the wooden deck of the trailer.  

He had obviously been on the trailer when I started the pickup and headed down the driveway, and he didn’t know what to do.  His cat instinct kicked in, and he dug in, going for the ride of his life.  For twenty minutes he had an experience that he neither wanted or understood.  

I picked him up, petted him to reassure him and put him in the camper shell of my pickup (which would have been good to have had on the pickup when we got the wild cat from D&B).  I called Autumm and before I could tell her what was going on she heard the meowing and asked me what that noise was.  

I was able to get she and Hattie to come straight down there and pick up Stryker.  I decided to rename him “Mascot” because he was definitely our companies new mascot after taking that ride.  However, it didn’t really take, and I am the only person that still refers to him with that name.  

I can’t remember if Stryker was affectionate or not prior to taking that ride.  However, he was after!  He was never happier to see a familiar face then when I picked him up off of that trailer.  He has been a great mouser and vole catcher ever since.  And, he occasionally deposits a pocket gopher in our back yard which I am very happy with since I sold that business and with it, all of my equipment.  

Bonus Content

You may be wondering what happened to the fourth kitten, the one we gave to our neighbor girl, Jade.  Well, those neighbors ended up selling their small farm and moving to Minnesota.  They decided to take the kitten (now cat) with them.

The mom and kids went out ahead of dad to Minnesota.  The dad, Leslie, was making the drive days later, hauling a lot of their possessions, including the cat.  He was doing the drive in two days, stopping for the night in Billings, Montana.  

Everything was set up for the cat to sleep for the night in comfort in their vehicle and be delivered to their little girl in Minnesota the next day.  However, cats get freaked out when you drive them somewhere, and especially when they have to sleep in a vehicle in a strange city with strange smells, overnight.  

So, the following morning when he went out to the vehicle to check on the cat, she promptly escaped and ran off.  He chased her around and called her, but she was too scared.  She disappeared, and there was no finding her.  

Leslie finally had to give up and get back on the road.  For the rest of the day he drove to Minnesota, only to arrive and deliver the sad news to his daughter.

Jade was understandably upset by this.  Between the move to Minnesota and the loss of her cat, this was a tough time.  So, her mom, Caty, joined a couple of Facebook groups based in Billings and put up posts about the lost cat with photos.  However, nothing happened.  

Well, winter set in, in both Billings and Minnesota, and they figured it was all over.  However, the next Spring, some 7 months after the cat had run off in Billings, Caty was contacted by someone who had seen her posting.  Miraculously the cat had survived the winter, been found by someone and that person had found the Facebook posting.  

Through conversations and photos they confirmed that it was in fact Jade’s cat.  A drive was made to retrieve this cat.  The good samaritan was so taken by the story that he drove and met Caty half way between Minneapolis and Billings.  This resilient, wayward cat, that was born on our farm during the vicious cycle, and Jade are enjoying each other’s company today in Minnesota!

Here Is A Link To One Of My Podcast Episodes Discussing Our New Pig As Well As Multi-Species Grazing:

Over 65% of the red meat consumed in the entire world is goat, but in the United States we mostly turn our noses up to this great meat.  

Why is this?  This is largely untrue for cultural groups only recently making their homes in the U.S. as well as folks with Latino roots.  However, I am of European ancestry, and I never ate goat until I raised one for myself.  I would venture to state that Idahoans with European ancestry eat more deer and elk than they do goat.  There has to be an answer to this riddle.  

Creating A Demand

We have a wonderful farm in Kuna that produces nicely for us.  And, it is a good size farm for the area in which we live.  Even with that being the case it does not provide enough income to support the farm payment and the household.  So, both my wife and I bring in income that is not generated directly from the soil on our 25 acres.  

The income I produce comes through entrepreneurship in the form of a couple  different business ventures.  One of those is a podcast that I created and host called “Off-Farm Income“.  This show is all about small business and entrepreneurship in agriculture.  As such, I study a lot about entrepreneurship. One of the hardest things to do in business, I have read, is to create demand for a product.  

Well, creating demand for goat is exactly what I am trying to do.  I am stubborn in that way.  You see, I never intended to raise goats.  But now that I am, I am determined to teach everyone else what I have learned and make customers out of all of you!

I have mentioned before that my degree in agriculture from Montana State University was focused on production agriculture in the United States.  There was no mention of goat in any of the classes that were available to me.  There was no “goat production” course for me to take.  And, with all of the cowboys and cowgirls that I had the honor of taking classes with, there was a stigma to goat.  Goat farming was looked down upon, or at least that is the impression that I got.  So, I never intended to raise these curious creatures.  However, this all changed when I finally was able to become a farmer.  

When we first purchased our farm it was completely undeveloped.  There was a house and 25 acres of weeds – that was it!  There were no fences, no irrigation was set up and no pasture was growing.  The question became, “what would eat the weeds”.  Of course, everyone knows the answer to that is goats.  Goats eat anything right?  Even tin cans?

(The answer to that is actually – they do not, but we did not know any better) 

My wife and daughter decided that they wanted goats for our place.  So, we purchased some temporary fencing and started looking for goats.  This was in 2011, and there were still a lot of foreclosures and short sales of homes going on the Treasure Valley.  As it turned out, people were losing their places and putting their goats on Craigslist “free to a good home”.  

We received our first two goats for free from a gentleman in Boise.  They were named “Lars” and “James” after the two frontmen of the metal band, Metallica.  We brought them home and put them to work on the weeds.  

After our friends found out that we had the two goats, they started telling us about other people who wanted to give away their goats.  Then it really started.  People began giving us goats.  Pretty soon we had a herd developing, and it was time to get serious about these animals.  

I found myself in the goat business, and I got a bit more serious about this.  This led me to four discoveries:

The Bible Does Not Prohibit You From Eating Goat – I don’t know if this matters to you or not, but if it makes a difference I have researched this.  Why did I research this?  Well, my step-grandfather (one of my earliest mentors in farming) was devout and would sing Christian Hymns all day and talk about the Bible.  For some reason he had a fondness to telling me that you were not supposed to eat goat, and I believed him.  Not wanting to break any rules, and being a Biblical novice, I researched this when we decided to raise our own.  It turns out that he was mistaken, and to my chagrin it was pork that was prohibited!  However, as long as you subscribe to the New Testament, you were alright with pigs too.  Even as a novice on these things, I was feeling pretty relieved.  

Multi-Species Grazing – Goats eat different things than cattle.  Since raising cattle was my primary goal, when I learned about multi-species grazing I was thrilled.  This meant a healthier pasture for the cattle, filled with more plants that cattle like to eat and less to no use of herbicides to eliminate the plants, forbs and shrubs that cattle did not like to eat.  There is a lot more information on multi-species grazing of goats with cattle in a previous blog post.  You can find it through this link if you would like to know more.  

Taste – Goat tastes very good!  I try very hard not to be a hypocrite.  I also try very hard to not convince people to do things that I would not do myself.  So, I figured that I had better eat some goat if I was going to sell goat to people for consumption.  I picked out what I thought looked like a tasty goat from our herd, and I butchered it.  It is delicious meat, and it was easy to butcher, just like a deer.  I was thrilled with what I had discovered.  

Nutritional Value – I also found out that goat is very good for you, especially in light of beef, pork and chicken.  Check out these statistics about goat meat:

• One, 4ounce serving of goat contains only:
  • 124 calories
  • 2.6 grams of fat
  • 0.8 grams of saturated fat
  • 64 mg of cholesterol
• That same 4 ounce serving contains 25 grams of protein!
• It is lower in fat than chicken
• It is higher in protein than beef
• It is lower in calories, total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol than traditional sources of meat in the U.S.
• It is high in iron
• It has large quantities of B-Group Vitamins
• It contains the healthy type of Omega-6 vitamins called “CLA’s” which:
  • Improve immunity
  • Improve inflammatory functions
  • Improve bone mass
  • Improve blood sugar regulation
  • Reduce body fat
  • Better maintains lean body mass
• It contains dietary potassium, which can help your blood pressure
• It contains low levels of dietary sodium

How To Buy Goat

This is a good news/bad news kind of topic.  One of the reasons we do not consume more goat in the U.S. is that it is not readily sold at major grocery store chains.  This a chicken and egg argument, because if the demand existed grocery chains would surely carry it.  However, if they carried it, I do believe that people would be more apt to try it and demand would rise.  

Goat is available in stores like the Boise Coop and Whole Foods as well as ethnically based meat markets.  However, it is going to be expensive!  That is kind of the bad news about buying goat.

The good news is that if how the livestock is raised is of importance to you, the lack of demand means that anyone raising goat is probably doing it in a way that you agree with.  Since the demand for goat is lower, you don’t see large goat feedlots or mass produced goat in different food items in the freezer aisle or at fast food restaurants.  

If you want to get serious about adding goat to your diet, you are going to wind up purchasing it from a producer like Grass Fed Boise.  I mentioned multi-species grazing before.  This is a bit of a misnomer because goats are browsers.  However, they get to exist as naturally as possible on our farm because we exclusively graze them.  We barely even give goats hay during the winter.  This is not to be cruel.  It is because they are so easy to raise and require so little compared to cattle (just 3-5 lbs of hay per day for a fully grown nanny).  

Goats also have great personalities which means that producers make their lives even more enjoyable.  If you are driving out in the country and you see goats in a pasture, and you see a children’s play set out there with them, that is for the goats to play on.  No kidding!

So, we strongly encourage you to try out this great meat and of course, we want you to buy local.  Buying from a local producer like us is going to be your best and easiest option.  We suggest reaching out to a local producer and asking if you can come see their operation.  You can set your eyes on the herd and see how cleanly goats live and how happy they are.  If a producer won’t allow this, we suggest moving on.  

Whomever you purchase the goat from should help you to get set up with a local butcher who will do a fantastic job of processing the goat for you.  Then you will pick up your goat meat, cut the way you want it, from that butcher and pay them their fee.  Between what you pay the producer and the butcher you won’t be out that much, and your savings compared to buying it at a specialty store will be significant!

How To Cook Goat

I am no chef or master of the barbecue, but I can manage to make goat taste very good.  Plus there a million recipes out there to do just this.  Remember that 65% of the world consumes goat as its main source of red meat.  There literally are millions of recipes from Middle Eastern to Asian to Jamaican to South American to African to Mexican.  Enjoy the adventure of trying all of these out!

Do you not have an Instant Pot Ultra 6 Qt 10-in-1 Multi- Use Programmable Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Yogurt Maker, Cake Maker, Egg Cooker, Sauté, Steamer, Warmer, and Sterilizer yet?  Well buy one and some goat!  Slow cooking or pressure cooking goat is delectable!  Just go to any taqueria and order a taco with “cabrito”.  You will find out exactly what I am talking about. 

Do you like to make stew?  Especially in the winter when the weather outside calls for hearty meals?  You can make an excellent stew with goat meat while cutting down on the calories, giving great flavor and adding all of the health benefits of this meat.  

Let’s talk barbecue’d goat for a moment.  I mean a plain old barbecue, not a luxury Traeger.  A lot of recipes call for slow cooking or stewing goat, but I am here to tell you that just a few minutes on a barbecue grill can yield delicious goat meat.  Let me do this through a story.

Two winters ago when we had below normal temperatures and above normal snow fall, I sold a lot of goat meat right off of our farm during the holiday season.  Several of our customers were refugees from Africa, and they wanted  goat meat to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.  

A lot of these folks are caught in a catch 22 when it comes to eating goat.  They do not have the funds to purchase the quantity of goat that they require for a holiday party from a specialty store.  And, they also do not want to pay to have a butcher shop process the goat.  Prior to coming to the United States they would do this themselves, and they don’t want to pay the extra expense.  However, they frequently live in an apartment and have nowhere to do this.

For the first few years we sold goat off of our farm I had several requests for people to butcher their goat here.  I was hesitant and refused for a long time.  However, I started to see it as a way of doing something good for our customers because they were really in a bind.  This was even more of a problem for our Muslim customers because the goat needed to be processed a certain way for religious reasons, and there are no butchers doing that.  So, I finally decided to allow customers to process their goat at our farm, and I felt great about doing that.

Back to the bad winter.  During Christmas break of that year I got a call from a woman with an accent asking about purchasing goat for a New Year’s celebration.  She wanted to buy four goats and butcher them on my property.  We made arrangements and she and her family were going to come out on the following Saturday.  

That Saturday was cold with a bitter wind.  I was wearing insulated bib overalls and a heavy jacket to do chores that morning, and there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground.  

At 10am, as scheduled, the woman and her husband arrived.  So, did three other men and their wives, and all of their children.  They were all from Africa originally and wanted to roast goats for the holiday party they were throwing.  They picked out four goats that they wanted, and proceeded to start butchering them at my place.  Nobody was dressed as warmly as me.  

Before I knew it they had pulled a small barbecue out of the trunk of one of the cars and had the charcoal flaming.  Then they put on some Swahili rap music and got out a six pack of Heineken beer.  They were having a butchering party, just like I would do in a hunting camp.  I was fine with this, and after I got them all set up I headed back to the house.  

About 30 minutes later I received a text message from the woman I had been speaking with on the telephone.  She asked me if I had any salt that they could have.  I poured some salt into a plastic baggy and walked it down to them.  There were several cutlets of goat meat on the grill, and of course they were very fresh.  

One of the husbands sprinkled some of the salt on one of the cutlets and handed it me.  I ate it down, and it was delicious.  It was so simple too!  Just flipped once on the grill, thoroughly cooked and sprinkled with salt.  So, goat can be barbecued to perfection.  I think the secret is to keep it simple!

Try Some Goat

We hope you will all give this great meat a chance.  And of course we hope you will source your locally farmed goat from us at Grass Fed Boise.  You will enjoy every bite!

Are you wiling to try this great source of protein recognized throughout the rest of the world?

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Today I Want To Tell You About Our Method Of Grazing And Why We Raise Goats With Our Cattle

We use a grazing method called “multi-species grazing”.  This is simply the combination of two different species of livestock grazing the same area.  Usually this is cattle combined with sheep or cattle combined with goats.  We use goats, and the story of why we have goats can be found at this link.

Frequently farmers will have the cattle graze an area first, and then they will follow with sheep or goats at the next grazing.  Our operation is not large enough for us to do this.  So we control where the cattle graze but allow the goats to graze openly, in any area of the pastures that they would like.  

There are many benefits to this.  The ones that I believe you will be the most interested in are the elimination or reduction in need for herbicides for weeds and the elimination or reduction in the need for medicine to control internal parasites (worms) in the cattle. 

Let’s Start With The Weeds

Of course a weed is in the eye of the beholder.  What is a weed to us, may not be a weed to a cow.  And what is a weed to a cow may not be a weed to a goat. It is precisely this difference in preference of foods that makes multi-species grazing so powerful.  

Cattle will eat mainly grasses, but they will also consume legumes and some broadleaf plants as well.  However, when it comes to certain woody shrubs or forbs they will pass them over because they are not palatable (they do not taste good) to the cattle.  

If only cattle are grazing a pasture this can have the opposite effect of what you are looking for.  If cattle only eat what tastes good to them and leave the rest of the plants untouched, those plants will thrive and out compete the grasses and other plants desired by the cattle.  Soon, you have a pasture dominated by plants that the cattle do not want to eat.  

The mitigation for this problem, without a multi-species grazing plan, is the use of herbicides to eliminate these other plants.  This is a valid strategy under certain circumstances.  However, in some cases it is not a good strategy because herbicides designed to not harm grasses frequently kill all the broadleaf plants.  So, you might be eliminating the good with the bad.  

I also subscribe to a “why spray chemicals” if you don’t have to philosophy.  I do not ban the use of chemicals on our farm, but I do prefer other methods if they are available and if they work.  

So, when we add goats to the pasture with cattle, they will eat almost everything that is passed over by the cattle.  This is great because the desirable grasses, legumes and broadleaves can continue to compete with the less desirable plants and have an even chance.  Or, they can gain the advantage under these circumstances.  

Goats are also very amazing in the way that they eat.  Cattle take large bites by wrapping their tongue around a large swath of grass and pulling it into their mouth.  Goats can feel and taste with the tip of their lips.  This allows them to consume the leaves off of a plant like a rose bush without biting into the thorns that would injure them.  Therefore, plants like wild rosebushes have no chance in our pastures because before they even get a start the goats will find them and strip off all of the leaves effectively killing the plant.  

This leaves just two plants in our pasture that occasionally have to be sprayed: thistle and mallow.  This really cuts down on the use of herbicide on our farm, which is preferable by everyone.  

What About Worms 

Internal parasites like worms in cattle are a real problem.  They impact the rate at which cattle gain weight, and that hurts the bottom line for the farmer.  However, they also can impact the cow or calf’s immune system, leaving it susceptible to other diseases.  And, they can harm the overall health of the animal by changing the ph of the ruminant digestive system.  They are bad in large quantities with an argument to be made for a small benefit in smaller quantities.  

Worms go through a distinct life cycle that allows them to get into the digestive system of cattle.  They are initially laid as eggs in the cattle’s digestive system and passed out of the cow in the manure.  They later go onto nearby blades of grass as larvae.  It is during this stage that cattle can consume the grass and thus the larvae where they enter the digestive system, attach and began to live off of their host the cow.  This completes the cycle.

When you use multi-species grazing, and if you control where your cattle graze you can significantly impact this cycle.  Internal parasites that impact cattle will not survive in the digestive system of goats, and vice versa.  So, if you graze cattle in an area for a limited time and then move them to another paddock they will have deposited worm eggs in the previous paddock.

By allowing the goats to roam wherever they want, they will consume the cattle parasites in the larvae stage off of the new blades of grass in the paddock the cattle have just left.  It may take a couple of weeks for this cycle to take place in which the goats can consume those larvae and thus kill them.  However, if you are rotating pasture and grazing goats with cattle the way that we do, you can interrupt this parasite life cycle.  

The other methods for reducing internal parasites is by worming the cattle.  This can be done through the feed, through an injection or a pour on dewormer (which is the most common method).  I again subscribe to the theory of why do it if you do not have to when it comes to non-natural methods.  I certainly will use these methods if necessary for the health of the livestock, but if I can avoid it with a non-chemical method, I will.

We just recently obtained a new gilt (female pig that has not had babies) to start producing some heritage pork.  Now, I am a sucker for a good story, and a good story about the ways things used to be done can get me almost any time.  

So, Let Me Tell You About This Pig:

To begin, the name of her breed is “Large Black”.  I like that.  It is simple, obvious and to the point.  She is considered a heritage breed.  Basically when a breed falls out of good favor with the industry and starts to slip away in numbers it becomes a heritage breed.  The most common breeds of pigs in production these days are Yorkshire (what she will be bred to), Hampshire, Berkshire; and there are several others.  

Here Is The Official Description Of What She Is And What Whe Is Supposed To Do:

“The Large Black was used in small scale production of both pork and bacon. It was also valued for commercial crossing, primarily with the Large White breed (called Yorkshire in the United States). This cross yielded great hybrid vigor, and it was well regarded commercially.

The breed’s popularity peaked during the 1920s, and the Large Black was exported to several other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. After World War II, however, the shift toward intensive husbandry of pigs led to the decline of outdoor breeds that were not competitive indoors. The Large Black nearly became extinct during the 1960s, and it remains one of the rarest British pig breeds. In 1973 the breed was put on Rare Breed Survival Trust’s critically endangered livestock list.

As its name implies, the breed is large framed and solid black. Lop ears fall forward over its face, and while they are an impediment to sight, they protect the eyes from damage while the pig is rooting and foraging. The Large Black is best known for its foraging abilities and its maternal qualities. Large Black sows are able to raise and wean large litters of piglets out of doors, and these survival characteristics give it genetic value.  Mature boars weigh 700-800 lbs (318-363 kg) and sows reach 600-700 lbs (272-318 kg) as an adult.”

So there you have it.  When I went to look at her and was considering the purchase the breeder told me all about these great characteristics.  We raise all of our pigs outdoors, so the heartiness of this breed appealed to me (even though she is not the most attractive pig I have ever seen).  Also, the breed’s reputation for great bacon really interested me.  Let’s face it, when you buy a pig from someone like me, the first thing you will taste is the bacon and it had better be good!

The breed is also know for being temperate and easy to work with.  This is really important on our small scale farm.  We use outdoor pens with no  significant equipment for holding in an angry sow (older and bigger female).  Just about a year ago Autumm and I were attempting to castrate some pigs, and saw our 600 lb sow defy the laws of physics to jump over two fences in an attempt to eat me. 

To this day I have flashbacks of barely escaping with my life as she came over the second fence where I was trying to castrate her baby.  Her huge mouth was wide open, she was growling, she was frothing and her teeth were huge.  I barely got out of there with all of my appendages.  

So, if a pig is easy to get along with, I am interested.  So far this girl lives up to the hype.  She comes up to me in the pen, and she lets me scratch her.  These are all good signs.   

We are eager to see her perform as a mother in the outdoors, and we are eager to find out of the reputation of this breed’s bacons is true!