Our Trip to Polyface!

This last Thursday, Farmer Russ and I got up extra early. We ate breakfast (Eggs of course!), tended the over 300 animals that are now in our care, and then hit the road for Polyface Farm.

If you are following this blog, you may remember that last year when we first learned of the Polyface http://www.polyfacefarms.com/ method of raising chickens, we were hooked. Polyface offers several guided tours of their operation during the year. As soon as I saw the opportunity to purchase tickets, I did!

We had planned to leave at 7:00 am. Even then, we knew that it would be a tight timeline to make it to Swoope, VA by 1:00 pm. (360 miles!) We arrived just as the 4 hay wagons loaded with 98 other people pulled out of the barnyard. We were told by a nice young lady that they were headed up to the 'egg mobiles'. It was a nice walk to the group as we enjoyed stretching our legs. Six hours is a long time to sit!

When we caught up with group, Joel Salatin was telling the folks about the layers and the egg mobile. Russ was prepared with paper and pen to keep notes on anything that he wanted to remember.


The Egg Mobiles



Russ looked over the egg mobiles. He has a farm wagon that he is in the middle of tearing apart to remodel into his own version of layer mobile. Right now the layers at the farm are still living in the meat bird grazing pens. They forage and plunder the pasture during the day and then sleep in the pens. Unfortunately they are laying here and there as we still need a layer box setup for them. It was good to hear Joel say it was important to have two doors for the hens to go in and out. It has to do with 'pecking order'!

The Meat Birds on Pasture

The next stop was over to the meat bird pens. It was interesting to see the lay of the land. Much hillier than here in the foothills. I was wondering about moving the birds up a hill but they handle it fine. Google Earth makes things look flatter than they really are!


Meat bird chicks in the brooder house

They have 75 chicks in each pen. The chicks are in the brooder house for exactly 3 weeks and then moved to the pens. They are moved every morning, feed and watered. They do use hanging waterers. More birds can drink at once that way. Plus they stay level!

Russ has been doing the same basic things with his meat birds. But he got all excited when he saw the Polyface coop mover, it has bolts welded on for stops! As I don't move the coops, I didn't realize that he was missing such a handy addition to his coop mover. It will have stops welded on very soon!

Then we loaded back on the wagons and stopped to see the pigerator pork. During the winter, beef cows live and are feed hay in some of the barns. After the cows are out on pasture, pigs are then put in the barns to reap the leftovers from the cattle. When Joel asked the group what they smelled. (Russ said to me that it smelled like money!) There was no offensive odor to that much manure at all. The pigs keep it turned and plowed. Joel said that after the pigs are finished in the barns, they are walked up to the woods where they feast on acorns and such. The manure then is spread to enhance the soil even more.

Joel and his Pigerator Porkers!

Back on the wagon for a short trip to the beef cattle. They had just been out on pasture for a few days. Some of them had calfs and others looked like they were not too far from having their babies. They all looked happy and healthy! Polyface does no graining of their cattle. They are intensivly grazing all of the pastures and the cattle are moved every day. Joel calls it "salad bar beef". The ground is a mix of great grasses and plants. We have been trying to do this with the horses at the farm. Horses are very hard on the soil and grass. I have to say that after having our horses at the farm all winter, our hay bill is zero. I hate to think how much I had spent on hay last year, but then Russ didn't have the farm then. Our horses do not receive grain either and yet they look great! We do feed and hay the old Arabian that lives at the house but she needs the extra as she is old enough to order a beer.

Pastured Cattle watching the Pastured People!

Joel wished everyone that came safe travels and thanked everyone for coming. I couldn't help but to think how many lives this man has touched with his model of farming.

Daniel Salatin, Joel's son, who is now the farm manager, stayed at the wagons to answer more questions. I was very interested in his rabbits. Daniel has developed his own meat rabbit over 20 years of line breeding. He does have a closed rabbitry. So I had to peek in thru the doors of the raken house. They keep the breeding rabbits in hanging cages and then the chickens pick and scratch under the rabbits. They wean the rabbits at 6 weeks and then they go out into the "hare pens" until they are 12 weeks. Daniel can dress a rabbit in 3 minutes. He is a master at cutting up a chicken too!

The Raken House



The Raken House - about 50 holes for Rabbits



Rabbits with Hens & Roosters



Since Polyface has their own store, we just had to go in! Russ bought another of Joel's books, and we bought some of the products - bacon (delicious), hot dogs (who knew?!) and some 'salad bar' hamburger.

We then left Swoope and headed north to Winchester. I had arranged to purchase some Silver Fox rabbits from a breeder there. Skyview Acres http://skyviewacres.blogspot.com/ is also doing pastured meat birds, pigs and rabbits. We had a nice visit with Sharon and Greg. We loaded up my three new rabbits (I will do another post on the Silver Foxes soon.) and then we headed back to Tryon, NC in some of the worst driving conditions you can imagine. Rain, fog and crazy truck drivers going too fast. We arrived home at 4:00 am to our three dogs that were thrilled that we were back. 950 miles is a bit much to drive in one day!