Probably 25% of my work is collecting data for research projects. Currently I’m in the field working on two projects (amongst my other work); one is classified pending and the other is monitoring milk composition of farms that switch from ‘conventional’ to organic. These farms are known as transitional dairies.
Tuesday morning I went to one of the transitional farms participating in the study. They are a 50 cow seasonal herd incorporating rotational pasture. As an aside, transitional dairies really bite the bullet (which is a good screening mechanism) in that they must produce (for the most part) organic milk while selling to a conventional market. The cows are to be managed using organic standards for 1 year before they become organic. In the same way, 3 years must pass for the land to be organic.
Being a congenial fella, after milking was done he took me on a tour of the place. He has a greenhouse that he raises calves in, and clear back in the corner were a few pigs. I’m always happy to see animals other than cows. It gets redundant seeing only bovines. So upon seeing the pigs I mentioned something about chickens fertilizing pasture, eating grubs, etc. Quickly he retorted back “have you heard of Joel Salatin?”
Saying to myself sarcastically “have I heard of Who!!!” I couldn’t believe my ears. I thought only wing nut Presbyterians were associated with that department of heresy.
After I picked myself up off the ground I said that I’m familiar with that name. I told him my friend just got back from Polyface last month.
This fella seems quite encouraged by Joel. He has several of his books and he is considering running chickens in the pasture next year. It made my week to know Joel’s stuff isn’t just in certain circles.
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