What did you do in the garden today?

[Sally PB]

Today will be an inside day. It's raining, will be for several hours. I'm not complaining, as the ground could use it. Water my multiplier onions and garlic, Mother Nature! Thank you!

 

[jerryse]

Rainy morning. We can use the rain. Turkey is thawing in the fridge.

 

[Sueby]

Rain is coming. Just spitting a little. I have squash and pumpkin seed I can share. Summer squash Boer resistant project, Dickinson pumpkin. pink banana, and cushaw. Message me if interested.

That's so nice of you. Because of my back my garden is in a state of flux & I don't know where I'll be with it next year. Otherwise I'd take you up on your offer & try those seeds!

So cold here today. Over the weekend I put up most of the plastic on the run & put out the heated waterers but didn't plug them in - of course they're all frozen this am. Sometimes I pain myself.

 

[WthrLady]

Last year, for a HS assignment, the teens needed to create a new product…present and market it… one group created “Diet Water” …still makes me laugh bc water has no calories …but we all know people would actually buy it if such a thing existed.

A couple years ago I bought grit for the girls. A 25lb bag. It’s crushed granite. But sold by a big brand from TSC, so it was a colorful labeled bag. Had to laugh bc there were several marketing items on the bag, such as “100% Natural” and a few others, all of which made me laugh. I wondered if they set the marketing intern on the job of package redesign and what can one say about rock?

I like the expiration date on the bag.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Thinking about the best way to winterize my vertical strawberry beds. These are way too heavy to move anywhere. Our winter night time temps are regularly in the 20s and 30s with occasional dips into single digits. Rarely, and I mean very rarely, does it get below zero although it did last year.

Laying out some options -

1. Do nothing and see if they survive.

2. Cover all 3 beds with a single tarp.

3. Wrap each bed individually with an insulation blanket (like you put around a water heater) and cover with a tarp.

4. Use tree covers individually over each barrel.

5. Cover/wrap the beds with visqueen.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[CedarLane]

Antibiotics are very regulated. With chickens, it would not make sense anyway. But, animals with antibiotics have strict rules about getting back into the food chain.

Many years ago I worked at a cheese factory. This was of modest production and several things still done by hand. They only produced 5lb blocks of a couple types of cheese for restaurant type use. Milk came in via tanker trucks. The milk was from a variety of farmers and one tanker could hold milk from 1,2,5,7 (you get the idea) farms. When it arrived, the milk was tested for a variety of things before being unloaded, including antibiotics. If antibiotics were found, then individual farm samples were tested (that arrived with the load of milk) to determine the farm that would have to pay for all the milk -as the entire load would have to be dumped as it was unuseable. This only happened 2 times, maybe 3, in the time I worked there. And was typically accidental. But various rules for various antibiotics.

My husband grew up on a dairy farm, some of his siblings are still involved in dairy, and he worked in the dairy industry for over 25 years.
When the truck driver picks up the milk at each farm, a milk sample is taken. Dairy farmers are very careful to avoid milking a "treated" cow into the milk tank (each medication will have a certain withhold period that will require a "treated" cow to be milked into a separate milk can, etc. for so many days). Failure to do so is very expensive as that whole truck load of milk must be dumped (sad enough if the truck carried only your milk...even worse if it carried milk from other farms.) The farm sample that shows contaminated milk then pays for that entire load of milk. This is not a mistake any dairy producer wants to make...or will make again.

 

[CedarLane]

That would make you want to be reeeeaaaallly careful, wouldn't it?

Absolutely!!!! Very expensive mistake!

 

[WthrLady]

My husband grew up on a dairy farm, some of his siblings are still involved in dairy, and he worked in the dairy industry for over 25 years.
When the truck driver picks up the milk at each farm, a milk sample is taken. Dairy farmers are very careful to avoid milking a "treated" cow into the milk tank (each medication will have a certain withhold period that will require a "treated" cow to be milked into a separate milk can, etc. for so many days). Failure to do so is very expensive as that whole truck load of milk must be dumped (sad enough if the truck carried only your milk...even worse if it carried milk from other farms.) The farm sample that shows contaminated milk then pays for that entire load of milk. This is not a mistake any dairy producer wants to make...or will make again.

Our robotic dairy farms track which bessie has had meds and her milk it automatically separated. It's a cool system.

 

[CedarLane]

Our robotic dairy farms track which bessie has had meds and her milk it automatically separated. It's a cool system.

Yes, the robotic dairy farms do a great job with this at separating treated cows (as long as the farmer accurately records info in the computer!!) My husband would have liked to milk his own cows again someday, but finally decided it wasn't in our future although my daughter would much rather milk cows and feed calves (things she helps her cousins do) than take care of chickens!
Some of the accidental milking of treated cows on smaller family farms can happen with multiple people milking... or when younger members of a family are milking, but it is certainly something that all milkers and beginner milkers are cautioned about! It always made me nervous to help milk. I never wanted to be the one to make that mistake!
Big "mega" farms are big enough to have a "treated group" that separates all cows that have been treated, but this can be harder for smaller farms to implement.

 

[WthrLady]

yep.