[dominiquer60]

I have been looking into the possibility of NEAPFD in Brooklyn, CT. I will know more after tonights fair board meeting.

My thought was that at some point maybe there should be a separate NEAPFD committee, we did this last year and it should work well to have some separation between the 2 committees . Once a venue is picked out the local members of this committee will present themselves. For instance if it works out for CT there is a lot that Sam, his mother Linda and I can contribute to planning this event, but none of us would want to be involved with the other p&e business for simplicity sake.

Regarding the Annual Gathering I think it is a place where funds can be raised, but I see it as a social get together and get your feet wet event and that the gate fee should reflect this. Raffles and other means can be utilized to raise funds while gate fees can cover the expenses, this way those that can afford to help more can and those that struggle to make the gate fee are not discouraged. just a thought.

[dominiquer60]

Jay,

Generally to attend most equine competitions or events, one must have each horse current on their rabies vaccination and have an up to date coggins test “The coggins test is a blood test used to diagnose the disease Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) sometimes called swamp fever. EIA is a viral disease of horses and other Equidae such as ponies, mules, and donkeys. Once infected, the animal is infected for life. There is no effective vaccine and no known cure.” Some states require a coggins test to be within 2 years of the event, but when going out of state it is generally required to be within one year. This test has done a lot to decrease the numbers of EIA cases, it used to be a huge problem. Often when going out of state, the state that you are traveling to will require you to have an interstate health certificate where the vet signs off that you are up to date on the rabies and coggins and that the animal(s) look to be in fine health. It is often required that these certificates be done within the 30 days prior to travel.

This may seem like a lot, but for larger competitions when you have hundreds or thousands of animals gathering you can see that such an event can be a great avenue to spread infectious diseases very fast, but it only takes 2 animals to spread disease to begin with.

[dominiquer60]

It is a new to us McCormick Deering week then!

She is a beauty have fun with it, I can’t wait to use my cultivator again. There is certainly something nice about using an old piece of equipment that is well made and has been well cared for. Enjoy and let us know how it works.

[dominiquer60]

I feel like voting should not be first thing. Perhaps it would be be best to do committee overviews and older business first then switch to voting new directors and future projects. Just a thought.

[dominiquer60]

I planted my Hickory King with out a germ test. I selected my 6 best ears from 24 saved from seed, as my plot was very small so I didn’t need much seed, just good seed. My first choice was easy, “the good ear” was uniform with straight rows of large white kernels and great tip fill. Ears 2-6 were a little of a choice, but I think I saved the best genetics from being ground into chicken feed. I shelled each ear by hand culling any kernels unfit for seed and sadly there were a lot of unfit seeds in ears 2-6. “The Good Ear” proved true to name, the kernels were well formed and lacked serious faults or mold.

I used my faithful Planet Jr. #4 to seed 4 40′ rows. I decided to plant 2 rows of the good ear and 2 rows of the careful selected seed from the other ears. The Jr. deposited 2-3 kernels every 8-12 inches and neatly covered them up. The good ear had very acceptable germination and I had to thin a few plants out to avoid overcrowding in those 2 rows. The other 2 rows germinated very poorly with only a few plants in each row with no thinning needed.

I was happy to learn that when I harvested the good ear last November my gut instinct was right, “save it and plant it” I thought. The bad news is that out of 1,000 plants only one ear was worthy of good seed stock. Hopefully this little plot will yield better results than last years, though I did plant these rather late for a 120 day, but my goal is to select for quality and faster maturity. With so few plants I was glad to have my cultivator up and running well, a couple were stepped on but I managed to miss hitting any with steel. Hopefully this fall I will have good ears instead of one.

Howe is your OP corn coming along Marshall?

[dominiquer60]

Many states follow the 1,000 bird exemption for on farm direct sales slaughter, in NY it is the article 5A exemption under the NYS Dept of Ag & Markets. If you contact Cornell extension they had a state wide video conference about this 2-3 years ago with one point in Albany, Gallagher may be the guy to contact in Albany County, anyway there was a DVD and packet available for $10 that they can mail to you if there are any copies left. The one thing that they don’t tell you is that in order to qualify for this exemption you need to file with the USDA for it and have a once annual facility inspection. They are looking for an washable indoor facility and a barrier between the killing/scalding/plucking room and the evisceration room. The exemption part of this deal is supposed to be that once your facility is approved for poultry slaughter and you sell 1,000 or less units (turkey= 4 chickens) directly to customers via farm or farmers’ marker, then you are exempt from requiring any on site USDA meat inspector to be present when slaughtering. In NY you are supposed to also register with the Dept of Ag & Markets that you are an article 5A exemption operation and they assume that you have been in contact with the USDA. I have never never heard of an instance where NY an the USDA have checked on each other about who has signed up to do what, it can stay that way as far as I am concerned.

There is also a 20,000 or less exemption, but in NYS your facility must also be approved by the Dept of Ag & Markets with an annual inspection and blueprints must be approved before building.

I have never known NY to ever check up on small (1,000 or less) scale producers whether they register or not. The only time I have ever dealt with the state inspectors was years ago when the health department came thought making sure that I had a thermometer to check the temp in my egg cooler and that I knew that it was supposed to be no warmer than 45. Since then I suspect that there just is not money in the budget to enforce many regulations in NY. Some of the poultry regulations are subject to interpretations, for instance when I started we were not allowed to fresh or sell parts, only whole frozen birds/rabbits, but the new top dog in the department now interprets the same wording to mean that we can sell fresh and can sell parts, nothing changed accept the guy at the top, go figure.

The way I see it, grow quality animals, familiarize yourself with the regulations (such as birds should be chilled to 40 cavity temp within 6 hours of kill) be clean and sell local. You will not be able to home slaughter and sell at a VT market, but you will be able to sell to Vermonters that come to you and you could get away with delivery. As long as we continue to sell quality clean products we can fly under the radar for sometime until a) gov’t gets more funding or b) someone gets sick and home processed chicken becomes the new FDA scapegoat like raw milk. I hope that this never happens.

Jared, Ben Shaw in Greenwich has a 20,000 exemption facility where he processes poultry and rabbits for others and his both at the GreenMarket in NYC, he could be another good resource to connect with about these matters.

Best of Luck!

[dominiquer60]

Welcome Ann!

It is great to have another drafty innovator on board, I can’t wait to hear more about your new tool.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Ed,
Sorry that you didn’t need that last bit of rain. The rocky sandy loam that I was cultivating certainly needed it, that was the first good rain event in a while and well timed for us. I will look into the single set up, I can see that it is a very easy pull for 2, it took a half acre of work yesterday before they started to sweat enough to notice.

The McCormick Deering cultivator is my new favorite garden tool. It is more adjustable, comfortable and responsive than the John Deer by far. The wooden pole is pleasant too, it makes for a much quieter and peaceful task. I started using it in some soddy potatoes in the garden, it was good but the old breaking down sod made steering a little dull and was difficult to hill with. When I got out to the field and the sweet corn that contained some rye debris the 6″ sweeps and shields shined, just skimming the soil enough to bring up a good deal of tiny white threaded weeds. I lined up to the newly planted strawberries, each with only 2-4 leaves, and took a deep breath, we started and ended with 200 plants, though one or two were stepped on, I am sure that they will survive. We then tended to the field corn until darkness reminded us that it is ok to take a break and rest up for the next day.

It was great to have a chance to compare 2 makes of riding cultivators in the same conditions. Though the JD does not make the grade for fine cultivation, it will be a great vehicle to attach a 7′ rod tine weeder onto for blind cultivation, especially with a few modifications for creature comforts.

I hope the weather cooperates for everyone for at least part of the year,

[dominiquer60]

Great to have more West Coast friends, welcome. Is the Virginia friend with the diary Randy? If so I met him in February, great guy! If not I am sure that they are great purely for having draft animals anyway.

Welcome to the forum.

[dominiquer60]

Can we add to the agenda?
It would be nice to make “Connecting Animal Powered Farms, Forests, People and Ideas” our official slogan if we can agree on it fast, otherwise we can table it until next time pending an online discussion.

[dominiquer60]

Here is a link to the latest Comm Comm minutes, we are working on the newsletter at the moment, just some more editing.
http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?5314-5-14-12

Sunday nights are hard for me period when I am working, they are at the end of a 24 hour day and are the equivalent of my Friday night, though I never “party” I just go to bed until I awake up 12 hours later. I will do my best to be pleasant and coherent

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I take pride in not receiving government funding. Many were tempted by the hoophouse funds here in the NE, but I told my extension agent I don’t want my tax money back in that manor, plus I hate paperwork and that was part of the deal. Diversity is key and if a farmer puts all his eggs in a 10,000 acre of corn basket, that is the risk that they take. It will be interesting to what happens if these subsidies are taken away.

I would like to see disaster aid continue, after the storms last fall it was nice to have help digging out and getting started rebuilding, something that most communities could not have survived without help. I do partake in one NYS government Farm Program, though there is some private and grant funding also, but I find the NYSFarmNet a most valuable program for farmers looking for legal, financial and emotional help. They help with business plans and generation transfers which has kept and strengthened many family farms in our state, and the program takes miniscule funding compared to most other programs and it gives back so much to the community by helping farms stay in business. This is the kind of support that farmers need not money in the pocket for growing or not growing crops.

[dominiquer60]

If I were a vendor at HPD and brought equipment to demo, I would do what I can to not bring any of it back home. Plus I have been in contact with Schipshe about bringing the unit I want to purchase to demo it, I would hopefully have first refusal. It is hard to buy some equipment site unseen and this is a great event to demonstrate and sell at, and as I buyer I appreciate the opportunity.

[dominiquer60]

Congratulations Chris! It is nice that they have an oxen division, I wouldn’t have thought of it that far south, great that there was competition as well.

[dominiquer60]

We have made something better, but it comes at a price, until they come up with something better and just as cheap Earthway it is for some folks. I am happy with my old Planet Jr. #4, not all that great but also not as frustrating as the Earthway.

check out this comparison, http://rethinkingagriculture.com/2011/04/19/jang-or-earthway-a-small-farm-vegetable-seeder-comparison/

And by “we” I mean the Korean government 🙂

[Author]

Posts