Farming the Harder Way

This week we finally got 2" of rain and the ground was soft enough to try out my tree sprout puller.  I rent 20 acres of pasture across the road and it has an infestation of Honey Locust sprouts.  These trees have 3" thorns and are generally considered undesirable in a pasture. There are a very few contrarians who encourage their growth because the seed pods are great livestock feed and to promote a savanna, but I am not there yet mentally. In addition to the long thorns, these trees reproduce very quickly, similar to the Baobab trees from the book The Little Prince.  The normal way to keep these trees in check is to cut the tree and apply Tordon herbicide to the stump.  Since we do not use herbicides I use the tree puller.  This is more work, farming the harder way.

You may have read or heard that Chick Fil A is going back to using chickens that were given antibiotics after a 10 year period in which
they only sourced antibiotic free chicken.  This time they are going to source chicken with No Antibiotics Important to Human Medicine. NAIHM.  

It is not impossible to raise chickens without antibiotics, just harder.  You have to reduce the stock density, prevent wet or caked litter, enforce strict bio-security and generally be more observant of the chicken's behavior with the goal of being proactive and not reactive to a health issue.  Once our birds get put on pasture we seldom have any
health issues because they are going to fresh grass every 24 hours.  It is a more labor intensive way to farm, a harder way, but the end result
is a healthier bird.  As you know, farming the harder way is more expensive.  I suspect cost savings influenced Chick Fil A's decision to source NAIHM chicken.

Pulled Honey Locust sprouts in a pile