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Posts tagged as “Polyface Farm”

Confessions of a Steward — Chicken Familiarity

Confessions of a Steward — Chicken Familiarity

By Guest Post on November 3, 2023
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By Joel Salatin, Plain Values

Thinking like an animal is not always easy, especially if you’re trying to think like a chicken. In this article, I want to dive into one of the single biggest tensions in raising farmstead egg-laying chickens, and it all stems from chicken psychology.

Like all animals, chickens love routine. Temple Grandin, maven of animal psychology, points out that animals live only in the moment. Yes, they have memory, but they have no datebook. They never think about what they need to do tomorrow.

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Water: Part 1 — Confessions of a Steward

Water: Part 1 — Confessions of a Steward

By Guest Post on September 5, 2023
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By Joel Salatin, Plain Values

Water is the prerequisite to life. Some living things don’t need sunlight, some don’t even need soil, but all living things need water. Certainly, when we think about water, the first source that comes to mind is rain. But rain is not consistent, and most plants need water routinely. Indeed, some plants need more water than others, but scarcity is often the limiting factor in farm and garden production.

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Start-Up Farm — Confessions of a Steward

Start-Up Farm — Confessions of a Steward

By Guest Post on July 27, 2023
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By Joel Salatin, Plain Values

The single biggest cost—and hurdle—in starting a farm of any size is the land cost. Our own nation has gone from free land to extremely expensive land. Old farmers today who acquired their land in the 1960s often have a hard time appreciating the land cost issue for aspiring new farmers.

When my mom and dad bought our place in 1961, it was $90 an acre, and feeder calves sold for $180; one acre would grow half a calf per year, which means the land and production were in a 1:1 ratio ($90:$90). Today, the land is $7,000 an acre, and that calf is worth $700; the land receives no more sunlight or rain and still grows half a calf worth $350. That means today’s land:production ratio is 20:1 ($7,000:$350), which is a far cry from the 1:1 in 1961.

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Confessions of a Steward — Carbon Development on the Farm

Confessions of a Steward — Carbon Development on the Farm

By Guest Post on May 3, 2023
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by Joel Salatin, Plain Values

Last month I introduced the concept of the carbon economy for soil fertility and the numerous ways God designed soil fertility and development to run on sunbeams converted to biomass. From bison on the prairie to wildebeests on the Serengeti, perennial prairie polycultures pruned by herbivores chased by predators built the deepest and most fertile soils on the planet.

That’s the big picture, but how do we apply it to our gardens and farms? How do we catalyze on-site carbon development and utilization to build the organic matter by cycling biomass into the soil?

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Confessions of a Steward

Confessions of a Steward

By Guest Post on February 27, 2023
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The Creator’s Pattern

By Joel Salatin, Plain Values

In 1961 as our family looked out over this newly-acquired farm property with its rocks, gullies, and weeds, we needed a roadmap to healing. In our imagination, we could see fertile fields, filled-in gullies, and soil-covered rocks, but how to get there was intimidating. Our redemption project seemed impossible.

My dad contacted both private and public (government) agriculture experts to receive as broad a range of counsel as possible. Every advisor recommended borrowing more money, planting corn, building silos, grazing the woods, and feeding the soil chemical fertilizers.

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Confessions of a Steward—Beginnings

Confessions of a Steward—Beginnings

By Guest Post on February 6, 2023
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By Joel Salatin, Plain Values

Does God Care How I Farm? That question defines my life’s work and vision because it moves the visceral, practical decisions I make in my farming vocation to a place of sacredness and godly living. If God cares about physical and practical things in my life, then my theology and belief structure are more than academic pursuits.

They are not just discussion groups and conversations. If God cares how I farm, then I should enthusiastically embrace searching for techniques and protocols that please Him. After all, it’s all His stuff. The courthouse may say I own this land, but ultimately I don’t. Legally and culturally, I may advocate for property rights, but really it’s all God’s property. Does He care how it’s handled? Does He care how I leave it? Does He care what I do with it?

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