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Frequently Asked Questions
1) "Are you organic?"
2) "No, what I mean is, is your farm organic?"
3) "Ok, wise guy.....are you certified organic by the USDA?"
4) "Why not????"
5) What steps are you taking towards becoming a natural foods farm?
6) Is your farm open for tours?
7) Do you use antibiotics or artificial hormones?
8) Do you sell goat or cows milk?
9) What do you do that is not "organic"?
10) What are you doing that is organic / sustainable?
1) "Are you organic?"
This is the most common question asked by consumers at the farmers markets. Yes, indeed, based on the text book definition, I am organic, I am a carbon based life form.
2) "No, what I mean is, is your farm organic?"
Again, yes, the cows, goats, plants, and wild animals are all carbon based.
3) "Ok, wise guy.....are you certified organic by the USDA?"
Now you have asked a question that I can answer. The short answer is no.
4) "Why not????"
That is actually fairly simple. The fact that we are not certified organic by the USDA is not because we don't believe in organic farming, but rather that we do not believe that the USDA certification program is an adequate baseline to measure if a farm is a sustainable natural farming operation. Not only is the USDA certification program rather expensive, its regulations are written in such a way that large agri-businesses can exploit loop holes that are not sustainable or natural and still sell their products as "organic." Egg ranchers are a good example. Furthermore, we are not interested in working with a federal agency that has spent most of the past 50 years trying to destroy small family farms that are seeking to produce high quality products for consumers who care about the environment and about their own health. See Joel Salitan's book, "Everything I want to do is illegal, war stories from the local food front."
5) What steps are you taking towards becoming a natural foods farm?
2009 will be our second year in operation. Our current goal is to transition from grain feeding of our dairy cows to all grass feeding in the spring of 2009. As 2008 passed, we slowing reduced the amount of dairy feed given to the cows from 25 lbs per day to 6 lbs per day. We plan to eliminate grain and replace it with locally produced alfalfa. The goats will still get grain, but we plan to replace that with organic feeds supplied by Countyside Organics in Fishersville, VA. We are also working to become certified naturally grown. Checkout their website: www.naturallygrown.org/
6) Is your farm open for tours?
Yes, send us an e-mail to arrange a visit and I will be happy to show you around.
7) Do you use antibiotics or artificial hormones?
As a matter of course, I only use antibiotics for medical purposes and under the advice and consent of a physician/vet, whether it is for myself or one of our animals. We do not feed antibiotics as has been common in the poultry and hog industry. Also, you the consumer should know that antibiotics use in dairy livestock requires withdrawal periods (milk dumping) that must be strictly followed. Our milk is tested monthly by the State of VA. Antibiotics are not tolerated in the milk supply and violation of this regulation can be very expensive! Typically, cows and goats run on a rotating pasture have fewer health problems than animals in comfinment. Our feed (pasture) is all natural, the animals are not in confinement, they have access to clean water, are not over crowded and get lots of sunshine. They live a low stress life and as such don't need a lot of health care intervention. As to artificial hormones used to boost milk production, we don't use them and don't need to. Our cows produce plenty of milk on the lush pastures.
8) Do you sell goat or cows milk?
No, it is illegal in VA to sell raw milk, so please don't ask us to. Further, all of our milk goes into cheese making. In fact we have sought to optimize our milk production to match our grazing land (it takes 3 acres of lush grass to graze one cow for 9 months), our market demand and our equipment size. Consequently, we do not operate a cow share program. It is just not sustainable for us (meaning it is not as profitable as cheese making and is more work).
9) What do you do that is not "organic"
a) Our fence posts are green treated just like your deck at home is. Yes, that is a violation of the USDA organic plan. You can get organic fence posts, but they are expensive and can be hard to find (locust or oak works).
b) We have in the past used commercial feeds (organic feeds are twice as expensive and I don't have the land to grow them), but are planning to eliminate feed for the cows all together and use alfalfa instead.
c) We use chemical wormers in the goats at dry off time in the fall. Parasites are one of the greatest problems for dairy goats and sheep. Pasture rotation does help if you have enough paddocks to rotate the goats for 14 days before returning to the first pasture. Another thing that helps is running the cows ahead of the goats. The cows "clean" the grass of eggs and larva and since cows don't share the same set of parasites as goats do, it reduces the number of parasite eggs the goats come into contact with. Finally, chickens can be used as the third pasture group to pick through the manure and eat the parasites and their eggs which again reduces the parasite load on the goats. Herbal wormers can be used during the milking season to keep parasites in check.
d) To be "Certified Naturally Grown" your animals must have grown up under naturally grown conditions and managed as naturally grown. That means no antibiotics use at all, and it takes two years to grow a heifer calf into a producing cow. That will take us several years to reach that goal.
10) What are you doing that is organic / sustainable?
a) Our land has been "organic" for at least ten years. We do not use synthetic chemicals or fertilizers on our pasture.
b) Our hay ground is also organic, we produce our own hay.
c) We are a grazing operation which reduces our environmental impact, not only here but also in the grain producing state of Ohio.
d) We keep our animals on pasture which reduces their stress and the need for medical intervention.
e) We are moving to all grass feed for the dairy cows. The goats will be getting organic goat feed in 2009 (when they freshen).
f) We cut our own firewood and use the wood ash to improve our soils.
g) We grow as much of our own food as we can.
h) We just don't talk about living green, we do it.
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