I talked with Kathy Dixon of the Virginia Farm Bureau last week. I think she did a great job of summarizing our conversation. You can read it here.
Meanwhile I’m busy putting together my talks and slides for this series. If you want to be sure I cover particular weeds of concern to you, do let me know and I’ll add them to what I’m preparing.
I love to see my pictures in such good company!
West Virginia University Extenstion staff, Chuck Talbott, Ed Rayburn and Rakesh Chandran, did a demonstration on Morgan Farm teaching cows to eat weeds. One of the results was that Chuck told me he found that cows were already eating a lot more weeds in pasture than he thought they were. I wrote earlier about how I helped them tweak their process a bit to make sure they were successful.
They put together a slide presentation called “Weeds, Monocultures and Monsanto…a time to embrace diversity.” They describe some of the benefits of cows eating weeds, and something about what they learned in the process. Check it out and you’ll find the protein values for ironweed, spiny pigweed, smartweed, common lambsquarters, curly dock, Canada thistle, buttercup and mustard species (brassica spp.). You’ll also find some good information about stocking rates and grazing.
I’m looking forward to 4 presentations that I’ll be doing for the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council. Here’s a link to an article in the Times-Virginian about the series. If you’re in the area and you’d like to attend, here’s a link to the brochure and registration information. The cost is $35 before January 1, 2012 and $50 after the first of the year.
I’ll be sharing what researchers have discovered in the last couple decades about how animals choose what to eat, and how we can use that knowledge along with some animal behavior tips to get cows to eat our weeds for us. I’ll also be talking about the benefits of weeds, and helping folks think about how they can adapt the training process to meet their own needs. I hope to see you there!
You can catch up with me in a lot of places this winter. Here’s a start on where I’ll be. Check back for updates as they come in.
My Voth ancestors after they arrived in Kansas
I come from a long line of Mennonite farmers.
In the mid 1700s, Katherine the Great of Russia recruited my ancestors to farm the Ukraine after she had taken it from the Turks. In return for turning the area into the Russian breadbasket, they were exempted from the draft, in acknowledgement of their status as Conscientious Objectors. When the political environment changed in the mid 1800s, and the draft exemption was eliminated, my ancestors packed up their belongings and some trunks of the winter wheat they’d developed, and they headed to the U.S. My great grandpa Voth arrived in Newton, Kansas as a teenager with 50¢ in his pocket and no parents.
My Grandpa Voth at one of our many picnics on the farm.
My Grandpa Voth had a dairy. He raised wheat and milo and chickens for eggs. I thought he hung the moon and I loved working with him. My favorite thing to do was chores with my grandpa, especially gathering eggs. We’d take them down in the cellar, wash them, pack them, and it felt like my special time with him.
When we were done, we’d drive back to the farm house, and sometimes he would just sit in the car in the garage and tell me how hard life as a farmer was. I’m not sure why he would tell a little 11 year old girl the sad things he told me. But I listened, and then I tried to think of ways that I could make things better for him. (more…)
