First Slaughter and Processing - Chickens

Processed Freedom Rangers ready for cooling and packing

We had our first experience with slaughtering and processing animals yesterday. One of our friends raised about 85 pastured chickens (Freedom Rangers) and after 9 weeks it was time to feed them to the masses. His customer base in Queens, NY had been asking for chicken since he started selling at the market and today they got their wish.

It's his first year farming and processing livestock on his own, so this was a learning experience for everyone. About eight of us showed up for processing. Only one had processing experience, so it went a little bit slow at first, but then we got into a pretty good rhythm. We started around 8am getting set-up and walking through one batch very slowly. By 2:30pm we had processed all the birds, packed them up in plastic and stored them in the cooler. Weighing, pricing and labeling took place later that afternoon.

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5 Ways Beginning Farmers Can Get Started NOW

Beginning farmer Michael Robertson with his pastured laying hens in Red Hook, NY at Grady's Farm
I often think about the struggles young and beginning farmers face accessing the adequate land and capital required to farm. The recently released survey Building A Future With Farmers from the National Young Farmer's Coalition confirms that these are the two biggest hurdles to new farmer growth. “Lack of Capital” and “Land Access” (78% and 68% of respondents) are far and away the most limiting factors for aspiring farmers, with “Healthcare” coming in a distant third (47%).
 
The survey proposes a number of policy recommendations, which are very much needed, but will take substantial time and effort before making an impact on the current system. Young farmers faced with an increasingly dismal fiscal situation in the U.S. might not be able to hold their breath that long. So how do young and beginning farmers to take action NOW using the tools available today?

5 Ways to Start Farming NOW

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Going With The (Milk)Flow - Visualizing and Mapping Flow In Our Creamery Design

creamery design, work flow, cheesemakingMilk Flow in green + Work Flow in red = cheese for all at the end!As we get closer and closer to the next milestone of closing on our farm, we’ve been tailoring our to-do timeline (it’s a long one!) and sussing out what to focus our energy on next. One of the biggest projects on the horizon is planning and building our creamery. We dove in at the middle of September armed with books and photos from visits to actual small scale creameries. Since then we have tweaked the design several times as a result of learning of a better practice and additional knowledge of the land it may be built on.

I've learned that one of the most important concepts to keep in mind while planning any structure is flow. The two most important “flows” I’ve been focusing on for our creamery are Milk Flow and Work Flow. Visualizing and mapping flow is an easy (and free) tool anyone can use to aide in their creamery design, or any other building for that matter.
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