Similar 'trip' here, FW, but lurking in the background is the 'haunting'
question---what's next?? Grazing has made this farm a beautiful place. Loads
of people and a couple of companies want to buy parts or all of the farm.
Our herd of Jerseys(126) would average $1200/head if sold today. But, what
do you and I do when the alarm doesn't go off at 5AM for the morning
milking?
Dick Conklin
Amity Farm
Ft.Ann,NY
----- Original Message -----
From: "FW Owen" <fwo@bright.net>
To: <graze-l@witt.ac.nz>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 5:41 PM
Subject: [Graze-l] Owenlea farm update
> Hi Folks,
>
> We are still here.
>
> But the cows are gone except those that were 12 years old or older when we
> ceased milking operations.
>
> Nobody wanted those, and I wouldn't sell them for beef, so they are still
> here. The youngest one is now 14 years old.
>
> We have had a very busy growing and auction season. For us that starts in
> early march with flowers, and ended, for the yea,r just last week with an
> auction of mostly apples and potatoes.
>
> We had 90+ auctions here this year with an increase in gross sales of 29%
over
> last year. 988 people participated as produce buyers and 433 participated
as
> grower/sellers. All the money went into the pockets of local family
farmers.
>
> But that is now over for the year.
>
> I'll have plenty of time for graze-l discussion for a few months starting
now.
> I hope there is something to discuss.
>
> In the meantime, I'll be in the greenhouse painting my rusty old farm
> machinery. I just discovered that a greenhouse is an ideal place to paint
> farm equipment. It's hot and sunny in there, regardless of tha fact that
> there is six inches of snow outside today.
>
> So far, in less than a week, I have painted my old Allis-Chalmers CA and
the
> 180. I also have painted 2 Allis-Chalmers forklifts and my old New
Holland
> L425 skidloader. It's lots of fun
>
> The paddocks and lane system here is intact. There are 60 permanent
paddocks.
> It did utilize about 1/3 of the acerage by planting no-till vegetable
> transplants directly into pasture sod.
>
> The rest of the paddocks are unfortunately grown up in tall grass and
weeds.
> With the price of gasoline, it doesn't make sense to mow it, so part of it
> looks pretty bad.
>
> Urban blight has continued to expand into the local community. This was
very
> dramatic during the past 12 months. Most of the fields that I rented and
> farmed all my life have filling up with new houses. Very sad.
>
> It seems remarkable that when I joined graze-l, I had described Homerville
as
> an "isolated" rural community. Now it's the fastest growing school
district
> in Ohio. Amazing and scary.
>
> --
> Kindest regards,
>
> =======================
> F. W. Owen
> Owenlea Holsteins
> 9430 Spencer Road
> Homerville, Ohio 44235
> e-mail fwo@bright.net
> home page http://www.bright.net/~fwo
> voice & fax 330.625.2369
> =======================
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