For Sale: Used Sunshine

​For Sale: Used SunshineUsed sunshine, huh? What the heck am I talking about? 

Our farm philosophy is fairly simple: Use plants to capture solar energy.  Use livestock to turn human-inedible plants into tasty, nutrient dense, dairy & meat products.  Really, the stars of this system are the microbes that exist both in the soil and produce nitrogen, and in the cows' rumens (stomachs) that turn plant fibers into protein.   

Beyond this basic philosophy are a million logistical details that influence how the process is completed. Our management focuses on minimizing inputs onto the farm as much as possible.  For the cows, that's only salt and minerals including selenium, which our soil in the Northeast is deficient in.  We do need to harvest a good portion of our acres for winter feeding because of the layout of our farm, so there are inputs required to do that.  

Pigs are not ruminants; they have a simple stomach that functions the same as yours and mine.  They don't have the benefit of rumen bacteria and therefore need more essential amino acids supplied in their diet.  Their diet includes grain which is an input to our farm; we include excess milk & whey from our dairy which reduces the amount of grain required.  

Time on the tractor gives me a chance to catch up on podcasts, and lately I've been binge listening to "Working Cows", a podcast focused on all things related to regenerative farming & ranching with livestock.  I believe it was Steve Kenyon in episode 95 that said farmers and ranchers are one of two things: used sunshine salesmen, or earth miners.  

If you're not taking full advantage of soil and rumen biology, you're either depleting soil nutrient reserves or need to add nutrients in the form of fertilizers, most of which are petroleum derived.  We'd prefer to manage our soils, grass, and livestock in ways that allow us to focus on being used sunshine salesmen!  We think you can taste the difference, as well as reaping the health benefits of nutrient dense foods!