News From the Farm: Our First Farm Blog Post

Well here we are, one day before April! Time has flown! So here is alittle info about Heritage Kirk Farm. Tyler, is dad and head farmer. Currently he is in the Air Force but we found out yesterday his application for voluntary separation was approved!!!!! So that means Tyler will be home full time the beginning of September  2014. We are so excited about this as the farm will run a lot smoother when he is home! Val is mom to our 5 kiddos, homeschool teacher, chicken and pig lady, and maid. And honestly, she wouldn't change a thing about that! Hunter is our farmer in training, who thinks it is neat to be the farms first "employee", and hopes to have a rabbitry soon to provide rabbit meat for our customers. Our youngest 4 kiddos are little farm helpers, sometimes messers! But we will keep working with them as one day, God willing, this will be their farm! 

Picture: Almost 2 week old layer pullets enjoying their sprouts. They all jump in a pile to get their! I think that means they like them:)

First and formost we want you to know that this is God's farm, we are just stewards of it. This truth has really impacted our vision for the farm. We have 5 acres. To some that may seem like a lot, to many I am sure it sounds like too little. But 5 acres is what God has given us! So that is what we will farm. Many think "farm", as in corn or wheat fields. But our farm is and will be made up of mostly livestock. We have 248 layer chicks and 12 pigs already started and we plan on doing pastured meat chickens, or broilers, throughout the year. Also if financially we are able to we will be raising heritage turkeys that will be ready in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

 Websters 1828 Dictionary states "HUS'BANDRY, noun The business of a farmer, comprehending agriculture or tillage of the ground, the raising, managing and fattening of cattle and other domestic animals, the management of the dairy and whatever the land produces.

1. Frugality; domestic economy; good management; thrift. But in this sense we generally prefix good; as good husbandry.  2. Care of domestic affairs."

Picture: Heritake Kirk Farm piggies enjoying their Fodder! These are our future hams and bacon.

Our goal at Heritage Kirk Farm is to honor God by good animal and land Husbandry. What exactly does that look like? Well, what we see is instead of confining animals in a tiny space where they never see the light of day, we will raise them outside, in manageable numbers. They will have constant supply of fresh air and sunlight, and clean water. Pigs will be used for their natural rooting instinct to create our pasture. Their home is a moveable pig tractor that will be moved daily to provide new soil each day as well as break up the parasite cycle. The pigs will be followed by the Layer Hoop Coop, a special moveable hoop house that our layer chickens will enjoy their time in. In history, birds always follow ruminants and mammals. As the pigs leave their manure, the chickens will break them apart and consume any parasites larvae and any fly larvae that may take hold. The chickens become our pasture pest control as well as manure spreader! And instead of having to have to feed a big tractor fuel, we will instead receive daily eggs!!! That sounds like a good deal to me!!! As when we get the broiler chicks, we will pasture them aswell in moveable shelters similar to the Salatin style broiler pens.  

What will our animals consume for food?? As we know, you are what you eat. So if we consume conventionally raised meats and eggs we will be consuming high amounts of GMO corn and soy. I can attest to that as my health has deteriorated greatly from eating cheap, processed, conventional foods! We learned about sprouting grains for animals a few yeas ago and attempted to sprout all of our goats, dairy cow and chickens feed last year in our greenhouse. Well it worked great until the temps went above 75 degrees! We live in South Carolina, that's 3/4ths of the year!!!! But the short time we sprouted grains for our luvestock we saw the merit in the method. So we invested a lot of time researching aswell as labor and money building our "Fodder System". We also drove all the way to Virginia to get almost 3 tons of Certified organic grains and supplements. I will do a separate post on the Fodder System and how that works. Instead of a commercial feed made of byproducts laden with GMO corn and soy, as well as chemical vitamins and minerals we are following a whole foods approach. For our grains we are using all organic: wheat, oats, barley, field peas and corn. For the supplements we are using organic kelp, Sea 90 mineral salt, organic alfalfa, organic fish meal, and organic brewers yeast. The sprouting of the grains themselves increases protein, calcium, magnesium and other important vitamins, as well as breaking down the phytic acid. As we should always sprout or ferment any grains we eat to get the full nutrients from it, we should do the same for our animals. As the pigs and chickens go through tilling the pasture, we will also be planting an herbal ley that is full of nourishing clovers, plantain, comfrey and other grasses and herbs. As the animals graze these areas again, they will harvest nourishing food that they helped plant themselves. In the end the animals are eating a diet that not only meets their nutritional needs but creates nourishing, healthy food for you and I to eat! We would say that is a win for all of us!

Our vision for our farm goes beyond just eggs, chicken and pork. We hope to raise heritage turkeys this year but that really depends if we have enough money to build their pens. As we said, our goal is to honor God with this farm, and so debt is something we are not willing to take on. We have been slaves long enough, and this farm is how we plan to provide for our family and never take on debt again. So we have to start somewhere. We see our farm being able to offer wool from a few sheep, rabbit meat, small fruits like blackberries and strawberries, classes on homesteading and self sufficiency and hopefully even raw dairy products. Obviously, since we have only 5 acres we are limited, but we invision a menagerie of livestock and plants. We do not want to be "big", or even rich for that matter. We want to provide nourishing food for our own family and our local community all for the Glory of God!