Old friends and a new enterprise

This year, we added some new permanent family members to our farm. I work for a farm called Lamborn Mountain Farmstead, run by  James and Carol Schott. James had a career a large scale goat dairyman for many years, then retired with his wife to Paonia in 2008. While I was still interning, I would go up to the Schott's farm to irrigate and milk the goats early in the morning and take care of their 35 acres when they would go out of town. After my first year, James underwent shoulder surgery, which resulted in me milking and irrigating every day. Nearing the end of the season,James and Carol approached me about taking over their small goat herd enterprise. By then, I had stopped interning, and Sharon and I had purchased the farm already. The decision seemed like an easy one, and after a couple of meetings, we scheduled the move for February, 2016. As for the logistics of the transfer of ownership, we decided that I would purchase all the equipment (stanchion, pails, totes, supplies) and the goats would be traded for milk over the years.

In February, after building a barn, milking parlor and transforming our basement into a washroom and kitchen, we welcomed our herd of five does  and two bucks- Bert and Buck that we keep for breeding. They are quite the addition to our farm, and we are excited to see what they have in store for us this season.

Meet the Herd:

Gwen- an Alpine, the oldest, but the spunkiest. She is twelve years old, cunning and sneaky, but the most consistent milker. Age has had no effect on her energy, nor her plans for escape, so she definitely keeps things interesting.

Daisy- a five year old Saanen. She is the biggest goat in our herd and was the only goat that was not bottle fed as a kid. She can be flighty at times, but produces the most milk. She is my favorite to milk and will usually nibble at my hat or beanie if she's done eating.

Calamity- enough said, her name is pretty self explanatory. To say that she was vocal as a kid is quite an understatement, and she was a terror to train on the stanchion. Although, now that she has grown into maturity, her name-sake is almost ironic. She is a two year old Nubian, one of our sweetest, and will hopefully ramp up production this year.

Gertie and Duchess- they are the youngest, both yearlings. Gertie, the most curious and friendliest, is Gwen's kid and Duchess, who appears to follow slightly after her mother, Daisy's. This will be their first year of stanchion training and milking.

I've known these goats for some time, but all the decision making will be new to me. It's a pretty big step for us, especially since we haven't had any breeding livestock until now, but like I said, we're pretty excited.

From our pasture to your table

I am already writing another post to clarify how meat can be processed from being raised on pasture to ready in your fridge. This post will be in my point of view, as a farmer's wife and as a person that has little to no experience raising her own food. Ironically, I am the only person in my family that has not spent some of her early life on a farm in the Philippines, so naturally my parents never expected me to be their only child that has chosen to live on a small farm. Now that I am here there is a lot that I have learned from my husband, from other experienced farmers and  my own first hand experience. I will address some common questions about how chicken is labeled. The more options out there regarding chicken, the more questions are raised about what all those options mean.

Please keep in mind there are no absolutes when it comes to food and how it is raised, there is always more to the story than we know and I will do my best to describe Gray Acres Farm and our methods. This is not an end all, say all type of informational post, especially with how other individual farms may use these methods. 

First common question is: is there a difference between laying chickens and meat chickens? The answer is yes.

• Laying chickens are several different breeds that if raised from chicks, the hens will begin laying eggs around 6-7 months old. Examples include Barred Rock, Araucana,and Rhode Island Red.
• Laying chickens can live up to 5 or 6 years old
• Most laying chickens are solely raised for eggs, after several years some people may choose to process laying chickens for meat, but their meat may vary in taste and tenderness depending on how old they are.
• Broiler chickens (known as meat birds) can also be several different breeds, but there are not as many breeds as laying chickens. Examples include Freedom Rangers, Jersey Giant, and the breed we've chosen to use, the Cornish Rock Cross.
• Broilers are usually raised for 8-14 weeks and then processed for meat.
• Broilers naturally grow faster than laying chickens due to their breed, so they are processed before they lay eggs.
• Broilers are raised for meat, so they do not show the same characteristics as laying hens such as roosting, wandering, constant scratching for food. .

We are also often asked if our chickens are free-range. Here is a USDA definition of free range poultry:

In the United States, USDA free range regulations currently apply only to poultry and indicate that the animal has been allowed access to the outside. The USDA regulations do not specify the quality or size of the outside range nor the duration of time an animal must have access to the outside.

IMG954231 (3)

Our chickens are not free range, but they are ALWAYS outside. They are pasture raised:

HFAC’s (Humane Farm Animal Care) Certified Humane® “Pasture Raised” requirement is 1000 birds per 2.5 acres (108 sq. ft. per bird) and the fields must berotated. We are a 2.3 acre farm and we raised no more than 130 birds at a time last year. We raised a total of 300 birds, cycling through batches every 8 to 9 weeks.My husband built 8X8 ft. "chicken tractors" which housed 30 to 40 birds at a time, that he modeled after Joel Salatin's tractors in "Pastured Poultry Profits". We guarantee the birds have fresh grass and water, and supplement with a NON-GMO chicken feed from Sonrise feeds LLC, a local feed company. We are not certified pasture raised, but we think the numbers speak for themselves.

20151114_001302200_iOS (2).jpg

We can only tell you how our chickens are raised. When purchasing your own food it is important to do your research and understand the meaning behind the labels and certifications. We spend our summers (including our wedding day) prepared to protect our livestock. Before we found Chewy, our Great Pyrenees, my husband would sleep on the porch or near our window with our rifle to take care of any raccoon, fox, or skunk that may have taken a liking to our broilers.

As a teacher (on a teacher income), I understand that buying good food can come with a price. One that sometimes people refuse to pay. From staying up late nights to protect them, waking early to provide them their meal for the day, and spending full days butchering them in a humane manner, a lot of hours go into these chickens. Our farm has a story and so do our livestock. We are a small business out to support other small business as well, which also affects our costs- because we want to fairly pay for our NON-GMO feed that comes from good people that are also working hard to provide our valley a service. The going rate for a pound of Doritos is $4.11, maybe some chicken would be a tad healthier than a bag of chips?If we really stop to think about how we approach food, should we consider how food ends up at this price?