Farming: More Than Just Crops and Cows

So far in this blog I have talked about the major types of farming and ranching in my area, I have mentioned beef cattle farms, dairies, the production of corn, wheat, canola, and hay but there is a type of farming that does not fit into these categories.  This is wind farming. Wind farming is the gathering of wind turbines in one location to produce large amounts of energy. Right now wind farming supplies about 2% of Canada’s total electricity (this is still enough to power over 1 million households) but is a growing industry. Because of their large size (see the video below, note how small the truck is beside it!)  there needs to be many acres to put up a wind farm, this is why wind farms are usually put up on farms or ranches.



There is a large upfront cost of putting up a wind turbine, but once it is up the main cost is maintenance, unlike crops it does not have to be replaced every year, and unlike animals it does not require daily attention. Wind Turbines use no water or fuel and produce no air pollution. One of the main concerns about wind farming is the high mortality rate of birds due to them flying into the blades. Although birds do die because of this more die by running into the windows of buildings!



some of the wind turbines around
our pasture



So here is just the basics on wind farming, I was intrigued when windmills started popping up all around our pasture so decided to check out more about them, for more info you can look at:

http://www.canwea.ca/farms/index_e.php

http://www.whatiswindfarming.com/

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/04/common_misconce.php





The Boy Scouts Are Coming!

If you have been driving through the country side lately you might have seen something strange out in the fields.  You may be seeing many orange and blue tarp tents. No, these are not (as my best friend and I once convinced her then 7 year old sister) boy scouts. They are actually bees! These bees are moved onto crop land (especially hybrid canola in this area) to pollinate the plants. According to the Canadian Honey Council over 80,000 colonies are needed to pollinate all the hybrid canola seeds in Alberta.  They also say that plants that are pollinated with bees have a 3-8 times increased production and this increased production is valued at over 2 billion dollars a year. So as you can see these bees are very profitable to have around. And although the ‘boy scout’ tents may look awkward and out of place on a big, open field, they are actually housing the busiest workers on the place!
info from: http://www.honeycouncil.ca/index.php/honey_industry_overview

The Cow Calf Producer

The other day when I was browsing the internet I found this nifty little website that I would share with you. It is a website put out by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association that basically covers everything you would ever need to know about The Cow-calf producer. Since I myself am a Cow Calf producer I know firsthand of our commitment to animal welfare, the environment, and many of the programs that are in place. But for those of you who don’t know, here is a great place to give you some of the basic information. (There are also some super cute pictures in the photo gallery section!)
check it out at: http://cowcalf.cattle.ca/

Show me your ID!

As Cattle breeders there are many different ways that we identify our cattle, and since I spent the last two days using many of these tools I thought I would take some time to share some of them that we use with you. Some types of identification are individual to the animal, and some are used just to identify the owner:



RFID button
(image from: http://www.canadianbeef.info/)



Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags: there are 6 types of these tags that are approved by the CCIA (Canadian Cattle Identification Agency) but most people I know use the button type. These tags are like a barcode for each individual animal and it is mandatory for cattle to have them before they can be moved to a different location. These buttons are 15 digits long with the numbers 124 at the beginning to show that the cattle are from Canada. These can be read with an electronic reader which relates them to a database to show where the animal came from, and about the time that it was born. These are to insure traceability in the Canadian food industry.  

Tattoos: I have mentioned before that we tattoo our calves. And no, it’s not some cool design but just a series of numbers and letters that goes in the inside of their ears. All purebred breeders are given an individual prefix. This is a serious of letters that represents your farm (mine is SJO) next comes the number of the calf and then the letter to represent the year (this year’s letter is Y, next will be Z then we start again at A) these tattoos are done using ink and a set of letters, numbers and tattooers (shown left)



our families brand shortly
after it was applied



 Brand: a brand is a way to identify who owns cattle. Each brand is registered with the government of Canada and is individual to the owner. A brand is the most permanent form of identification as ear tags can rip and fall out, and even tattoos are not 100% permanent if the cow’s ear is damaged. The brand is applied using heat and an iron that burns the animals hide



from:
http://southshadow.homestead.com/files

Dangle tags: on our farm we used green Angus tags. To use these, an animal must be at least 50% Angus. On these tags we put the calves number (same as what is on its tattoo) and in smaller letters we put its mom’s number and who its sire is. Our commercial calves that do not have to use a letter to represent the year that they are born just have their mother’s number on their tag so that we can easily pair the two up.  This is our system, but there are lots of ways to do it.

 (info from: http://www.canadaid.com/index.html )

Online Farmer

So today I will be spending the day volunteering at my sisters 4-H show and sale, but of coarse I wouldnt leave you hanging! So I have found this super cool website that alows you to take a virtual tour of a farm!! check it out to learn all sorts of stuff about many of the different types of farming we have in Canada!
http://www.farmissues.com/virtualTour/en/index.html

My favourite Animal

The other day at work we were having a conversation on our favourite animals (yes, we are very interesting people!) One person said a blue whale because of their size, another said some kind of bug that is bright pink and can produce cyanide. I said Cattle. And although I got made fun of for this answer animal I still think they are really amazing, and although they may not produce any poisons or be particularly large in size they do have some very cool traits, here are just a few:

-          They have 4 stomachs (not all like ours, there are actually 4 digestive compartments that help them to utilize food that they eat)

-           They have legs that bend in only 1 direction (meaning they could walk up stairs, but not down them)

-          A dairy cow can produce 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime

-          They can detect smells in the air from over 6 miles away!

-          According to my grandpa you can use them to predict if a rain storm is going to last or not (if the storm is going to be a long one cattle will continue to graze, if it is going to be a short one they will all huddle together)

-          They are basically giant machines that turn things like grass and hay that we can’t use into edible materials like milk and meat.

-          Dairy cows can produce up to 125 pounds of saliva a day!

-          They can see almost completely around them, they only have one small blind spot directly behind them

http://www.ehow.com/about_5183366_amazing-cow.html

http://www.funshun.com/amazing-facts/cow-animal-facts.html

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/facts-about-cow-1564.html

Why Angus?

Being that my family raises Angus cattle I have often been asked what makes it so special, why does everywhere have an ‘Angus burger’ or an “Angus Steak’?
First of all for those of you who don’t know, Angus is a breed of cattle, it has nothing to do with how it is fed, prepared, or cooked. Angus cattle are either solid red or black and polled (no horns)



McDonalds Angus Burger



Angus meat is generally more tender and flavorful than other breeds. It also has superior ‘marbling’. Marbling is a term used to describe the intramuscular fat in an animal. This fat is not like the stuff that you cut off the outside of your steak, but when cooked it melts into the meat to give it more flavor and make it more tender.
for more information about Angus beef check out:
http://www.rancherendorsed.com/info.htm