Monthly Archives: April 2010

Patty’s Second Birth

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Our cow Patty gave birth on Monday. Our day started at 2:30am and ended at 8:30pm. The birth did not go well. There was no vet available but it was likely too late anyway. We had to intervene in the birth. Patty was in labor for over three hours which is too long for a cow. The vet worker at Kamloops Large Animal Veterinary Clinic gave Shaen a five minute lecture on how to pull a calf.

We tied Patty up and tried to hold her as still as we could. I held Patty’s tail up, which helps control the cow, and Elizabeth tried to calm her with ear scratching and soft talking. Shaen prepared an 8 foot long rope with two quick splices and slip knots on each end. Shaen entered Patty’s birth canal with the end of the rope and tightened the slip knot around one of the front hooves of the calf. The second slip knot was much harder to do. It took a number of tries. I was surprised that Patty didn’t kick my knee out from under me as I held her tail. After the second hoof was tied off, both Shaen and I grabbed hold of the rope and pulled the calf out during contractions. It was heavy work. I got down in the manure and gave artificial respiration to the calf. We hung the calf upside down. Tons of fluid came out. We did artificial respiration again and tried massaging the heart. The calf was a perfectly formed heifer stillbirth. She was a beautiful, totally black Jersey Dexter cross.

We intervened too late. If we had been more experienced, we would have known to intervene sooner. The woman who takes care of our cow asked us to get a calf for Patty. Some cows will adopt other calves, most will not. We were pretty sure Patty would being very maternal. I phoned around to about ten places and found twins. The male and female are a Shorthorn Brown Swiss cross. Male and female twins makes the female a freemartin with a 90% chance of being sterile. I got the pair for almost nothing at $20. A normal calf would be $150-200. The breeds I’m looking for could not be found for sale anywhere. Dairy cows are almost impossible to find now. Government regulation has almost completely eliminated all small family dairies.

We drove to Salmon Arm and picked up the twins from Gort’s Gouda Cheese Farm. We introduced the calves to Patty. The two calves ran around the yard leaping and jumping for joy. It was the first time the calves had been outside in their lives. Patty was very interested in the calves especially the little female. We tied up Patty and tried to milk her down because her udder was tight and hard with milk. A calf would not be able to latch on. Her udder is about three times the size of last year when she had her first calf.

The calves did not know how to suckle. They had been bottle fed from birth. For the twins, food comes from humans not cows. Shaen and I would start the milk flowing, then try to get the calf to suckle on Patty’s teat. We had to do this over and over. The little female caught on quickly but the male seemed to have trouble assuming the correct feeding position and his tongue action was ineffective. In the correct feeding position the calf has a bent neck which causes the milk to be directed into the esophageal groove which goes directly into the fourth stomach of the calf. We got them both fed and left for the night.

In the morning the male was on his side and cold to the touch. He was almost too weak to feed. Shaen and Elizabeth got what they could into him and covered him with blankets. The little female was fine. Patty seems to have totally accepted her.

I called the farmer and said the male wasn’t doing very well and asked if he had any problems. I found out he had been on antibiotics for scour but had been near the end of the course. I went down to the Kamloops Large Animal Veterinary Clinic to get antibiotics and the staff were incredibly helpful. The antibiotics are injected so the drug will not negatively affect the calf’s gut. I was given detailed instruction on how to save the calf. I was told to cover up the calf and use a hot water bottle to increase his temperature. They gave me some electrolyte mix to help with dehydration.

Elizabeth and I heated up water for the electrolyte mixture and hot water bottle. We got the bottle under the calf’s core area and fed the calf the mixture. We tried to feed the calf a small amount of fresh green grass which he ate with relish. After we made the calf as comfortable as possible, I gave the calf an intramuscular injection. This was the first time I have ever given an injection. Elizabeth said to inject in the neck area towards the body. The calf decided if we were going to stick things into him, he was going to get up. Elizabeth was very happy to see him get up because this would improve his circulation. He stood unsteadily for a few minutes. Elizabeth told me to rub him from the front of his body to his back end. She told me mother cows lick their calves in this way to get the calf to pass stool. After a few minutes of massage the calf passed a small amount of stool. We helped the calf down and placed the hot water bottle under the calf’s core and covered the calf with warm blankets.

By the evening visit the calf was looking a lot better. He had a really good feed with Shaen assisting him. He still doesn’t have a very good position to feed and his tongue doesn’t seem to know what to do. He walked around with a little help and touched noses with the Dexter bull in the adjacent pen. Patty still seems a bit wary of him. Patty follows and licks the little female, a good sign of acceptance.

We have five days of injections to do. The vet worker warned us the calf may die if he did not get enough colostrum in the first 24 hours after birth. The calves were four days old when I got them so I have no idea if he got enough colostrum. If he didn’t get enough colostrum, after the course of antibiotics is stopped, he will pick up an infection and die.

We have been enjoying our first raw milk of the season. Patty is easily producing 8L a day plus feeding the twins.

When the calf is born, the rumen is small and the fourth stomach is by far the largest of the compartments. Thus, digestion in the young calf is more like that of a simple-stomached animal than that of a ruminant. The milk which the calf normally consumes by-passes the first two compartments by way of the esophageal groove and goes almost directly to the fourth stomach in which the rennin and other compounds for the digestion of milk are produced. If the calf gulps too rapidly, or gorges itself, the milk may go into the rumen where it is not digested properly and may cause upsets of the calf’s digestive system. As the calf nibbles at hay, small amounts of material get into the rumen. When certain bacteria become established, the rumen develops and the calf gradually becomes a full-fledged ruminant.
Dairy Cattle Science by M. E. Ensminger

Updated May 4, 2010: By Thursday last week the male calf had recovered from his scour. Patty has totally accepted both calves. Unfortunately, the little female came down with scour on Friday. We started electrolyte solution and antibiotics to deal with secondary infection, but we never stopped all her milk consumption. The female calf has not improved over the weekend. Her scour is worse. She has fluid bowel movements that are white with a slight greenish tinge. She is developing a hemorrhoid from all the straining. Shaen and I have been feeling ambivalent about the antibiotic treatment and decided to use Newman Turner’s method of curing scour. His method involves fasting the animal on water for 24 hours or until the scour stops. We are using electrolyte solution in place of plain water. When the scour stops, the calf is given short, controlled feeds of 3 minutes, four times a day to avoid over indulging. Newman Turner considers scour a condition of over consumption with bacterial infection as a totally secondary condition of over-eating.

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick

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A community that can feed itself is free. A community that cannot feed itself is not. It’s that simple.
Joel Salatin

Some people wonder why we go to such trouble to find local producers for our food. I have had people be surprised that we now want to grow our own food. Over the last few years, I have realized that it is getting harder and harder to get quality, unadulterated food. Part of the reason is our population is aging and farmers are retiring. Their children are not taking up farming and the farms and ranches are being sold as ranchettes to the rich. In the farming community this is called “the final harvest”.

Farm land is also being bought up and consolidated into the hands of a small number of food conglomerates. Here is a chart by Dr Philip Howard on the Organic Processing Industrial Structure, just in case you thought your favourite organic brand was safe from this restructuring. Probably the root of why it is getting difficult to get local food is increasing government regulation. Many farmers actually recommend to their sons and daughters not to farm because these rules are becoming so onerous.

As I have been researching this issue, I have found the rules and regulations regarding food production, processing and distribution are, in fact, very onerous and not always sensible. For example, we have the same rules for industrial chicken producers that are slaughtering 10,000 chickens a day as for your neighbour who is killing one chicken in her kitchen and wants to sell it to you. She can sell it to you but she becomes a criminal for doing so. Superficially this appears fair. One set of rules for everyone, regardless of scale. But many of the safety concerns that have made these regulations necessary have been caused by the Industrial Food System itself.

Another example is raw milk in BC. According to the judgment by The Honourable Madam Justice Gropper between Fraser Health Authority v. Jongerden, “there is no provision in British Columbia’s Public Health Act which creates a rebuttable presumption like that contained in s.25 of the Ontario Milk Act… Raw milk is deemed to be a health hazard by regulation… The Transitional Regulation, on the other hand, is quite clear that milk for human consumption which has not been pasteurized at a licensed dairy plant in accordance with the Milk Industry Act, is a health hazard.”

A health hazard. It is written in our laws that raw milk is a health hazard. No proof is required. It is assumed. This is bad news for anyone in BC who feeds raw milk to their children. This case should be appealed to the British Columbia Court of Appeal to get a ruling about whether the Fraser Health Authority has jurisdiction over a private, contractual agreement. If they do, Heaven help us. The arms of government are indeed long.

There has been talk at The Weston A Price Foundation about drafting a Family Farm Bill of Rights. This legislation would allow farmers and their families to grow and consume their own food and sell their products to their community without onerous government interference.

In some areas, this is known as farm gate sales. Here is an example of Legislation in BC called Food Safety Amendment (Farm Gate Sales) Act 2009 which appears to have died during the first reading. Legislation like this might save the family farm from extinction and ensure a healthy local food supply for our children. Unfortunately, history teaches us that the ruling class rarely give up their power without a fight.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
The Declaration of Independence

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.
24. (1) Anyone whose rights or freedoms, as guaranteed by this Charter, have been infringed or denied may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction to obtain such remedy as the court considers appropriate and just in the circumstances.
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

February 22, 2011: Here is some essays from Kimberly Hartke. She is the Weston A Price Foundation Publicist. She has posted a number of articles called Raw Milk Around the World. I particularly like the article by Sir Julian Rose, a vocal supporter of raw milk, which states: “If you are still in doubt about the benefits of real, fresh milk, you might be reassured to know that the Queen of England drinks nothing less.”

Terracing a Slope and Planning a Pasture

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Last winter we put away meat, vegetables, fruit and dairy in freezers. For more information please read Winter Storage Part I and Part II. We lived off our cold stores and dried goods until the middle of March this year before having to go to the grocery store for fresh vegetables and fruits. Living off winter stores was a very educational experience for my family. We had some problems with our root cellar freezing at one point during the winter. We lost some carrots, potatoes and parsnips due to freezing. We lost a few squash to rot, but for the most part, everything made it through the winter in very good condition.

The one thing I would change for next year would be to grow greens under indoor lights. I would like to grow Chinese greens, parsley, cilantro and try to over winter some tomatoes and peppers. For the hens, growing flats of spelt grass is a wonderful winter supplement. I would like to have a lemon, lime and avocado tree. I don’t think this is very practical, but I’m thinking about it.

This spring we are ready to increase the challenge. We have decided to try producing as much food as we can on our property. On the back of our property we have about an acre of unused land. Unfortunately, the area has a steep slope and faces north. There is a gully on the west side filled with small fir and alder trees. The rest of the hill has tiny fir trees trying to get a start on the steep, rocky slope. The parent material is clay and cobble. There is a small skidder trail at the top of the property which could become a garden after we build some soil with chickens.

Shaen has started to terrace the slope. There are a few weeks every year after the snow melts when the soil is not hard as rock. In a few weeks this window will close and the soil will refuse the pick. He has started a main path to the upper area at about a 25 degree angle. He needs the path to be large enough to get a wheel barrel up the hill to where we will have chickens in a hoop house on deep litter. This deep litter will take up the nitrogen from the chicken droppings. After the chickens are finished, we will grow heavy-feeding, heat-loving plants such as squash, peppers and tomatoes in the hoop house.

After Shaen finishes the main path to the upper area, he plans to run smaller horizontal paths off the main path. We will be planting the slope using permaculture principles. We will be using a drip system for watering to get the plants going. We are trying to decide what type of plants we want on the slope. Blueberries, currents, hazelnuts, black walnut, fruit trees, and other edible perennials will make up the base planting. We will plant Russian olives, honey locust, and other plants for wild animal, bird and insect consumption. We want a place for the wild in our garden.

We have also leased four acres from a local farmer, which we are hoping to develop into pasture for cows, pigs and chickens. The four acres are covered with mature pine and alder trees. There is native sage, sedges and forbs. The area is covered with bunch grass. The land has well water at the top of the property that we can gravity feed to the area we want to convert to pasture. We have done a lot of reading about pasture development and management. We would like to put some of that theory into practice, if we can.

We will have access to the leased property later in the summer. We will move Patty, our Jersey cow, to the new property after we have built a hay shed and shelter for her. We have plans to try out Joel Salatin’s intensive pasturing system using electric fencing and controlled grazing. We can run the hens or broilers after the cow to eat the maggots out of the cow’s patties and spread the patties, fertilizing and improving the pasture. This sanitizes the pasture for the cow’s later return. We have dreams of hogs digging up the gully and doing the heavy work of turning compost for us.

I will continue to update through the summer about the progress of these two research projects.

My Mother’s Dutch Oven

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Over the winter I have found my Mother’s Dutch oven to be indispensable. This bare cast iron pot has a wire bail handle. On one side of the pot is a coiled wire handle which helps lift this heavy pot when full. With the help of a tightly fitted lid this pot is useful for many types of cooking. It can be used on top of the stove for frying or boiling or in the oven like a covered casserole dish for slow roasting. I have never used it for baking, but the pot and lid can be used over an open fire as an “oven” for baking biscuits, breads and cakes. It is a wonderful, versatile kitchen implement. I cannot remember a time when this pot was not in my Mother’s kitchen. It may have been a wedding present which would make it almost sixty years old. It is in perfect condition after years of heavy use. I will be giving this pot to my children.

In my vegetarian days, I found I didn’t like cast iron because I found seasoning with vegetable oils produced a gluey residue on the fry pans or pots. (I didn’t know that if I had used traditional fats like lard, schmaltz, or tallow, I would never have had problems with my Mother’s cast iron pots and pans. Of course, I wouldn’t have used animal fats because I was a vegetarian.) So, I moved away from my Mother’s cast iron pots for two decades and became a consumer of non-stick fry pans and stainless steel pots.

In the last few years, as I have learned more about nourishing traditional foods, I have removed all the non-stick pans from my kitchen. I still use my stainless steel pots and pans, but they don’t do a great job in the oven. I started using glassware for the oven which works well for quick baking but doesn’t do a good job at slow roasting. I still had my bias against cast iron from my vegetarian days and heard that enameled cast iron did not stick as much as cast iron. So I bought a number of Le Creuset enameled Dutch ovens. These are very nice pots but they are very expensive. I bought them as seconds so the price wasn’t as bad but most people would find the price excessive.

This winter my sister brought out our Mother’s old iron pots and pans. Since we do not have vegetable oils in the house, the old cast iron was seasoned with lard, schmaltz, and tallow from my grease bucket. Lo and behold the bare cast iron did not stick. A few of the old cast iron pots still had the sticky residue from old vegetable oils which took some time to remove. Once the old vegetable oil was removed, the old iron fry pan would became slick and easy to clean from the animal fats.

It is funny how our actions can have unintended results. Becoming a vegetarian made my Mother’s iron pots and pans not work for me. I became a consumer of Teflon pots, pans and baking trays which I needed to throw out every few years as they got scratched up. Many people discard grandma’s iron pots and pans because of sticking, not knowing that this modern problem is caused by industrial vegetable oils. In the end, the Vegetable Oil Companies created a new industry for non-stick pots and pans. This started our society’s love affair with Teflon with all its related health problems. Do as your grandmother did and her iron pots and pans will last a lifetime. Maybe even several lifetimes. For more information about collecting your own animal fats please read The Great Grease Bucket – Something from Nothing.
“Something from Nothing” is what a frugal housewife would get when she went to the trouble to save drippings from roasted meats, sausages and bacon. “Something from Nothing” is what the Vegetable Oil Companies created when they convinced everyone that the grease bucket was unhealthy and would cause disease or possibly death.

So, if you are interested in nourishing traditional foods and saving money, go to your local garage sale and pick up a load of dusty old cast iron pots and pans that someone is throwing out. Save your drippings from roasted meats, sausages and bacon and use your grease bucket to season your cast iron pots. You will be shocked at how slick your cast iron will become. Here are instructions for seasoning your pans. Just remember, use animal fat. NEVER use industrial vegetable oils.