Episode 16

Our Farm's Herd Share Program: Unveiling the Availability of Unpasteurized Butter, Cheese & Other Products

Website: PrairiesEdgeFarm.com

Herd Share Email List: Herd Share Updates

Summary

This episode revolves around Carol and her friend Jamie's conversation about various topics related to Carol's homestead. The main focus is on the recent launch of Carol's herd share program for raw milk.

Carol discusses the overwhelming interest in her farm's new herd share program, particularly from the Twin Cities area, but explains the current limitations of not having drop sites and requiring customers to pick up their products at the farm.

Carol mentions the need for customers to purchase a herd share, which includes a gallon of milk, and pay a labor fee to have the milk turned into products like butter, cream cheese, ghee, and cheese curds.

She emphasizes the growing demand for raw milk and suggests that farmers near urban areas tap into this market. Carol acknowledges her inability to meet the high demand due to time constraints and the challenges of delivery. Despite the limitations, Carol expresses excitement about the herd share program and mentions the potential for future updates on its progress.

#forjars #cowsforlife #organicfarming #homesteaddiaries #HerdShareProgram #RawMilk #FarmToTable #SupportLocalFarmers #SustainableFarming #SmallFarmLife #HomesteadLife #FreshMilk #RealFoodMovement #LocallySourced #HealthyLiving #KnowYourFarmer #FarmFresh #CommunitySupportedAgriculture #FarmLife #NaturalDairy #OrganicFarming #FamilyFarm #GrassfedCows #FarmersMarket

Timestamps

  • [00:00:00] Introduction to Prairies Edge Farm Products
  • [00:00:49] We're using the timer we got from ForJars.shop
  • [00:02:27] Impact of Dry Weather on our 100% Grass-fed Dairy
  • [00:07:31] Carol Announces her New Herd Share Program
  • [00:11:11] Growing Demand for Raw Milk and Tips for Potential Dairy Owners

Links

Transcript

Intro: Welcome to the Prairies Edge Farm website and podcast. You can find us online at PrairiesEdgeFarm.com and on social media at facebook.com/prairiesedairy. If you are in the Willmar, Minnesota area and would like to try some certified organic, whole raw milk, farm fresh cream, or skim milk, be sure to check out our website's contact page for contact information. We we also sell grass fed, grass finished highland beef and soy free pork. Here is Carol's latest update.

Carol: Hello, Jamie.

Jamie: Hey, Carol.

Carol: So here we are. We don't really have a topic today. We're just going to talk a little bit about what's going on in my homestead. I'm not sure so much about yours.

Jamie: No, not a whole lot in mine.

Carol: We're going to try to keep this we've decided to use a timer to see if we can keep ourselves under control here. And actually, the timer we have here running I don't know if you can hear it or not. It's ticking away. I set it for 32 minutes, and we're always down to 29 because it started a little bit earlier. And this is a timer we got from forjars.shop. And it came in with our canning lids and rings and let's see what else did we got some towels in there. And was that it?

Jamie: It was a big box.

Carol: It was a big box. It was a heavy box. It was like 17 pounds.

Jamie: Yeah. So I did not know there was a company that made packs of 100 lids.

Carol: Yes. Isn't that awesome?

Jamie: I love that.

Carol: Yes, I love it.

Jamie: And so then the rings and we divvied it up.

Carol: Yes, we divided up. We actually gave some to Kelsey from Dfarmstead.com. And so she was going to make some jam. They were going to go strawberry picking, and her mother in law showed up the day they were going to go, and they spent the day with her instead. And I don't know if she actually got her strawberry thing done because strawberry season is almost over in this state. It's about three weeks in Minnesota, and I remember Browardberry saying that, too. It's like a three week. And they usually closed around July 4. They were about done right around July 4.

Jamie: Depending on the weather.

Carol: Yes, depending on the weather.

Jamie: And if they'd had where the last two years, three years plants got hit by frost and they lost.

Carol: Yeah, they lost a lot. And it was really dry and really dry year. Was that last year? Was that last year really dry in the summer?

Jamie: Last year was their decision to close.

Carol: Yeah, that's right. They closed last year. I think the year before we had a really dry year. Like we're kind of experiencing this year. I mean, it's truly affecting us here in our dairy, I can tell you that. Let's see, Rich was just saying that we do rotational grazing out here so the cows go on a pasture, and we prefer to let that pasture rest for 30 days before the cows go back on it. And we have pastures that have been resting for over 40 days now, and there is no growth on those pastures. There's not enough growing there for the cows to come and graze. So right now we're kind of grazing them on the low areas where we have a little bit more moisture and that type of thing and supplementing them with actual hay that we've harvested already. Just not enough for them.

Jamie: That digs into your winter?

Carol: Yes, it digs into our winter hay. So it's going to cost us more to keep the cows. And it also affects my milk production. The heat right now is so hot, and the cows, first of all, their pastures are not producing. Not producing. So they're not eating real lush grass to produce lots of milk. It's very hot, and we've got a lot of flies right now. And those three things combined affects the milk amount of milk that my cows do. And I'm also looking at going into fall calving. So I have cows who have been milking for close to a year because we didn't have a bowl and we weren't breeding quite the way we should have. And so my cows are now going past those cows that calved, say, last spring, not this past spring, but the year before are still milking. Okay. And they're bred back now, but they're not bred back to Cab until, like, September and October. And so those cows are really taking a hit because they've been in milk for long enough, and now their food quality isn't as high as it could be or should be.

Jamie: Have you dried them up?

Carol: I have dried up a couple, and I decided on a couple of our older cows that are really not taking this well, that we are going to be processing them and we're going to be making them into hamburger. I've probably talked to you about ground beef, and I have, like, three of them sold. In fact, we just had a butcher here, and he purchased a live pig from us for I don't know what he was doing with it, but he wanted a pig. And he mentioned that they actually have openings for processing beef right now. And, you know, it's Thomas. Oh, thomas from Kirklevin Country Butcher. And so I did talk to Georgia this morning about it, and so I'll be contacting my people on my list who are looking for ground beef. And we'll see that you have a spot. Yeah, that I have a spot, but I have to use a different butcher and see if people are ready for their burger. And they're okay with me using a different butcher.

Jamie: Because our normal butcher right now is in chicken mode.

Carol: Yes, he's in chicken mode. And he said unless he gets a cancellation, he can't put anything in for me until I think it was the 21. August is the first he can do a ground to grind a cow. Not cut, do cuts, but just to grind up a cow.

Jamie: Because mine is going in October.

Carol: Yours is going in in October? Yeah, stuff.

Jamie: And so I'm expecting at the middle of October. The end of October.

Carol: Yeah. Because she'll have to hang. It happens to be a heifer who is obviously a Free Martin. And if you don't know what a free Martin is, a Free Martin is a heifer who is sterile. Now, she was a single birth. Sage was a single birth. So I'm not sure why, but she absolutely will not breed. And we've tried different bulls on her. We have not tried to AI her, but if a bull can't get her, pretty sure AI isn't going to work. And so right now, she's cruising around with our dairy cows, and I'm trying to make sure she's still cycling. So we got a little bit of time before just in case. But everyone else her age has already calved at least once, and so I'm assuming that something is not correct for her as far as breeding goes. And that's what happens.

Jamie: That's farm life.

Carol: Yes, that's the way it is. And so, yeah, we're looking that far out for processing and stuff. And for some people, that's okay because it gives them a chance to clean out their freezer and whatever and get ready.

Jamie: Yeah, that's me, because probably about the same time, I'm like, I'm probably going to need pork at the same time.

Carol: Okay.

Jamie: Because I only bought a half a.

Carol: Pork from last time.

Jamie: So it's like, oh, yeah, probably about that time I'll probably need pork.

Carol: Well, we got piggies out there, too.

Jamie: You have piggies. Piggies all over the place.

Carol: But anyway, so that's kind of what we're doing to try to curb this a little bit, trying to keep if we have a few less cows that aren't producing what they should be or whatever, we can maybe cut down our numbers. And it doesn't cost us quite so much to feed them because really, I always figure summertime is kind of free feed, kind of, but not right now because we have to start feeding hay in order to keep the cows fed. We need to keep them fed. The only other thing that we did only other thing. Oh, my gosh, it's a huge thing.

Jamie: You've been working on this for a while.

week? In June. June, yeah, of:

Jamie: Two and a half.

Carol: Yeah, two and a half. That creates some problems as far as if people are looking for drop sites. Because the minute people think of herd chairs, they think of drop sites. And we are not set up for her. We're not set up to do drop sites. At the moment.

Jamie: You would have to either have a.

Carol: Freezer truck or ton of coolers. Yeah, a lot of coolers. And so people do it. There's lots of farms that do things like that. It's just that we're not there yet. And maybe this fall after all, my cows are calving and we've got all a lot more milk. We will maybe discuss that. But for right now, our herd chair involves you coming to the farm and picking up your product. And if you're only looking for milk, cream, skim milk, you do not need a herd chair. As long as you pick up at the farm, you only need the herd chair. For us, if you want butter, cream cheese, ghee cheese, curds, those things that.

Jamie: You change the milk.

Carol: Yeah, where we change the milk, how we do that to keep within the laws in Minnesota is you purchase your herd chair, which entitles you to a gallon of milk, and then you pay us a labor fee to turn that milk into something else. And so that's how that works. So for us now, I don't know how many people listen locally here because you really have to be local to take advantage of it at the moment. You should be surprised yeah, you might.

Jamie: Be surprised the number of people like, "I heard your podcast."

Carol: So if you're looking for a raw milk source and you live in the central Minnesota area round Willmar/Benson, you've.

Jamie: Had people from Marshall?

Carol: Yes, I have someone who comes from Miland. I have people come from Paynesville. So, Spicer, New London, those areas.

Jamie: Glenwood, I mean, Glenwood would be close enough.

Carol: Starbuck, I've had some interest from Alexandria.

Jamie: We're only an hour from South Dakota.

Carol: Yes. So we are here and we are more than happy to sly you with raw milk. But for the moment, our herd share, everything is limited to picking up at the farm. And there are ways to work around that. You can get to a group of your friends together and one of you can make a run for all of you and pick up the milk every other week, something like that. Those are all things that we can do.

Jamie: You already have people that do that?

Carol: Yes, I do have people who do.

Jamie: That in a family. I think you said you say a three week rotation. You see the whole family.

Carol: I had one family, and they had, like, ten kids, and I saw mom and dad and I think two or three of the children, and they just rotated through here. And that was from Howick. They were from no. Howick... Hancock? Hancock is west okay?

Jamie: Howick is north?

Carol: Okay? No, it was Hancock. I didn't think yeah.

Jamie: I used to love geography, but now my brain, I'm like, going, where is that town?

Carol: And so that's kind of how our herd share works. So we're just kind of feeling our way through it, and we're learning right along with everybody else.

Jamie: I'm sure there's going to be growing pain.

Carol: Yes. And if I could right now, I would probably pick my farm up and move it to the cities, because I would sell out every day. Honestly, there is such a demand in the cities.

Jamie: Wow.

Carol: So, honestly, if you are a raw milk farmer, you are not tapping into that market, and you're near the cities. You really need to, because I keep hearing everybody, all the herd shares in the cities are full. They're all full. I'm on a waiting list. I'm on a waiting list. I'm on a waiting list. I hear this all the time. And so if you were interested in starting up a raw milk dairy, I'd set it up down by the city somewhere, because there is definitely a demand. Demand is really growing for raw milk, which is awesome.

Jamie: Yeah, that's totally awesome.

Carol: I wish I could service everyone, but I can't. Yeah, poor girls.

Jamie: You can't sit up there with a whip and, like, do it. Girls.

Carol: I couldn't even do the time for delivering. Oh, yeah. I don't have the time.

Jamie: You don't have the time to leave the farm?

Carol: Yeah, I don't have the time right now, but we'll see. Maybe things will change. I don't know. But how it unfolds. That's great. How excited her chair saga goes on here.

Jamie: We'll update you. Yes.

Carol: That's probably the big thing that's happening out here right now. What else? Anyhow, I think that's about it. And we'll talk to you next time, guys. Yep, sounds good. Bye.

Outro: Thank you for listening. Again, if you would like to try some certified organic, whole raw milk, farm fresh cream, or skim milk, let Carol know. We also offer grass fed, grass finished premium highland ground beef, as well as soy free pork.

About the Podcast

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The Small Dairy Podcast
Learn about the life on a small, raw-milk dairy. If you want to make dairy products at home? We want to help teach you.

About your host

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Carol Radtke

Podcaster, mother, wife, herdsman & owner of Prairies Edge Dairy, a raw milk micro-dairy in West-central Minnesota.
Also, co-founder of 'The Small Farm & Micro-Dairy Page' on Facebook.