WEBSITE: Prairies Edge Organic Dairy

In our latest farm update, the cows have been enjoying the fresh spring grass since May 11, resulting in fantastic cream for making butter. However, due to Minnesota regulations, we can't sell butter directly. Instead, we suggest buying their cream and making your own butter at home.

The update also includes information about Holly, a cow with an infected hoof. The vet treated her and the infection is gradually improving with the use of iodine, sugar, and homeopathic remedies. Holly is healing well, although she still limps. Emma, another cow, is carrying a calf and due soon. We will be posting updates on our Facebook page about calving signs and what to look for.

We are selling half a hog and have feeder pigs available for those interested in raising their own pork. We work with a local butcher for processing. Our farm is awaiting the finalization of contracts for herd shares. Thistle and Shasta calves are doing well. Shasta's bull calf will be up for sale and can be steered and have its horns removed upon request.

The focus currently is on butter production, and were happy to supply raw milk and cream to interested customers. It's not hard to make butter and we're more than happy to help you with the process. Overall, while things are quiet now, the farm anticipates more activity in the coming weeks with calving and other farm endeavors.

Transcript

Intro

Welcome to the Prairies Edge Farm website and podcast. You can find us online at PrairiesEdgeFarm.com and on social media at facebook.com/prairiesedgedairy. If you are in the Wilmer, Minnesota area and would like to try some certified organic, whole raw milk, farm fresh cream, or skim milk, be sure to check out our website's contact page for contact information. We we also sell grass fed, grass, finished highland beef, and soy free pork. Here is Carol's latest update.

Carol

Hello. And this is our latest farm update. And this is for the third week of May 2023. Not a whole lot is going on out here right now. The cows went out on pasture on May 11, and so they've been out there for what, 1012 days, something like that. And we are now seeing the results of that fresh spring grass that the girls are on. We have some fantastic looking cream that is making some marvelous butter. I don't know if you're following our Facebook page or Instagram, but we have been posting some pictures of the butter that we have been making. It it is just a beautiful, beautiful golden color. I do have people inquiring about butter, and we cannot sell butter out here. Minnesota does not allow that as an off or an on the farm sale. So my suggestion is that you contact me if you want some of this luscious butter, contact me and you get yourself some cream, cream I can sell you. It's not a problem. And you can go to your own kitchen and make your own butter. And if you need help or you want me to teach you how to do it, it's very simple and I can certainly walk you through that. Other things that are going on. So an update on Holly. Last time I talked, I believe I told you that we had a vet out here to check her Hoof, and she did remove some tissue and clean that all up for us and made it so that her hoof would drain because she has some infection in there. And the vet asked us to pack it with sugar. And that's what we've been doing. I've been treating it with iodine and sugar, and then I have been using a couple of different homeopathic treatments on her, along with soaking her foot once a day in Epson salt with some essential oils in it. She is healing well. She's still limping, but her hoof is filling in. And I have been taking pictures at least every couple of days of what exactly is happening with her hoof. And I have now got her hoof down to where it's warm, but it's not hot. And I think our infection is going away. There's still a lot of drainage coming out of there, but it is starting to not smell quite so bad. If that sounds okay, it's definitely improving. The swelling is going down. We were told because we're not using antibiotics, that it's going to take a little while for all of that to drain out of there and so we are doing our best and she's doing well. The other news is that when I check house for calves out here to see if they're carrying or not, I bump them. I did find one on her and so she is due here sometime before July 1, so I'm hoping her hoof is fairly healed before she starts carrying any more extra weight with that calf. Does concern me a bit, but I think we're on the right track and she's doing well. She's perky, she seems happy, she's keeping up with the rest of the herd, so I think she's doing very well. We do have several dry cows out here now. Holly is now a dry cow because I found that calf. I did also find a calf on Emma and so she is also due here but she's due earlier. We actually AIED her and so she's due here at the end of May, so she's getting very close. And watch our Facebook page. I haven't quite posted it as of the time of this recording, but I will be putting up a little information about finding ligaments on a cow when they're getting close to calving and what it means when those ligaments disappear. And I am following Emma on that and I will be trying to post about that so you guys can kind of learn along about what to look for when your cow is getting close to calving. See the other things. If you are local to us, we do have a half a hog that's for sale. I've got one half sold and I'm waiting to sell the other half. So if you're interested in soy free pork, I would have one available. We do use the local butcher. We use KNS Poultry and Meats, which is about three and a half miles from us. They're just outside of Kirkhoven. And the other thing we have is we have, I'm not sure if it's ten or twelve. We have some feeder pigs available. I believe they weigh about 30, 35 pounds. So if you're interested in raising your own pork, give me, text me, send me a message, contact us on Facebook or whatever and I can set you up with some feeder pigs. Nothing's been going on with the herd shares right now. We're just kind of waiting for Farm to Consumer legal defense fund to get back to us and they're working on putting together some contracts on us. Our two calves are doing well. Thistle has a little heifer calf and Shasta has a bull calf. Both of them are doing very well. They're still both on mom because right now I don't need the milk and so I'm going to just leave those calves on there. Shasta's calf will go up for sale. That's the bull calf and we are happy to steer him and do horn removal for you if you are interested in raising a bottle calf, and I will get him trained to a bottle for you, as well. Anything else going on? Honestly, there's just not a whole lot. We've been just really focused right now on butter, just trying to use up the cream that we have. And spring butter is just wonderful. I want to fill my freezer with it, and so that's kind of where our focus is right now. Rich has been working at his other job, and so we're kind of squeezing in butter whenever we can. And little extra here and little extra there. And hopefully we'll have enough stocked up. So we won't have to make so much next fall. Sales are going well. I have room for more customers. If you're interested in trying raw milk or raw cream, I'm happy to supply you with that. You can text me or email me, message me on facebook or instagram. I'm more than happy to supply you with delicious raw cow milk, and I think that is about it. This is really short and sweet, but there's just not a whole lot going on yet. But, boy, in a couple of weeks, we're going to probably have calves and all kinds of good stuff going on, so I think I'll end it there. See you later. Bye.

Outro

Thank you for listening. Again, if you would like to try some certified organic whole raw milk, farm fresh cream, or skim milk, let carol know. We also offer grassfed, grass finished premium highland ground beef, as well as soy free pork.