UVM Blogs

After blogging independently through Blogger for several years, we’ve decided to join our UVM brethren here, and spread the word of well-managed livestock through the UVM community and beyond.

If you’d like to […]

Recently the Rutland Herald included an article about the Westminster, VT selectboard hearing a request for public support in favor of a state grant application to renovate the former Coastal Seafood building as a slaughterhouse serving southeastern VT and nearby Massachusetts and New Hampshire. <a …[Read more]

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have found evidence of a novel pathway for potential human exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria from intensively raised poultry—driving behind the trucks transporting broiler chickens from farm to slaughterhouse. A study by the Hopkins researchers found increased levels of…

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It’s been a busy fall for the Pasture Program, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m behind on posting the many pictures and notes taken on pasture walks and workshops this summer. I look forward to sharing those summer experiences with you as the cold weather draws on. We also have some great [...]

No, this article isn’t *quite* what I expected from the title, but it had a really educational diagram showing how to tell where your eggs are coming from, and some references to web sites for trackable products. In VT, we debate the merits of labeling food origins through National Animal ID, but at the same [...]

I was reading an article on Grist.org about new efforts in the dairy industry to incorporate more sustainable practices, and a recent Dairy Sustainability summit. The article wasn’t terribly detailed, but did make a statement that “Numerous studies have demonstrated that organic dairy production produces between one-half to one-third fewer…[Read more]

This is posted on the NOFA-VT website, with a list of actions local farmers and consumers may take to support VT Compost Company. While this may not seem to directly affect livestock farmers, many of the farmers within the Pasture Network and VT Grass Farmers Association are diversified producers as well as appreciating the sustainable [...]

The Leopold Center at Iowa State has collected a series of peer-reviewed studies regarding various aspects of organic agriculture. This project was developed in response to claims that there are no significant differences in products produced under organic standards than products produced conventionally. Included in the articles cited are findings…[Read more]

Now that the VT limitation on advertising raw milk has been removed (please note that there is still a limitation of on-farm sales to less than 50 quarts per day), the internet has become one more tool to connect local farms with prospective customers.

http://burlington.craigslist.org/grd/749339260.html

While looking around for Pasture Calendar events this month, I came across this article titled, “Meat, ‘free trade’ and democracy” by corporate anthropologist Jane Anne Morris. Not only does the article note the rejection by other countries of US imported beef, but also US state control taken away over 100 years ago in the name [...]

It’s amazing the lengths that farmers must go to be able to farm. While this example from Randolph, VT, written by VGFA member Lisa McCrory of Earthwise Farm & Forest, shares the story of beginning farmers, the truth is that many long time farmers go to these lengths to keep the family farm afloat.

http://www.organicmilk.org/ff_May_2008.shtml

The Comstock House Bed & Breakfast hosts numerous visitors every year, and a small flock of primarily Dorset sheep. Owners Ross Sneyd and Warren Hathaway started farming with sheep two years ago, and spent a great deal of time in 2007 establishing perimeter fence. Spring of 2008 was the first year lambing with their 18 ewes. [...]

Here’s a Neat Thing We just received this little gizmo in the mail the other day, and wanted to pass it along. It’s a fence flag to mark electric wire. Just clip the flag onto the electric wire (a red wire piece illustrates it in the picture), and the flag will wave around. You squeeze on [...]

I attended a pasture walk coordinated by NOFA-VT at Malcolm Sumner’s dairy farm in West Halifax earlier this week. For those of us who don’t get to southern VT very often, the drive down alone was a treat. Two topics of conversation that came up: buttercups, and manure. Buttercups growing in a field look very impressive, [...]

Greetings to everyone in the VPN/grass-based universe. As you probably know, VT Pasture Network is a group of farmers (VGFA), agricultural service providers (UVM Center), and federal agency folks (NRCS) dedicated to sharing the benefits of and providing technical assistance for grass-based agriculture far and wide. We’ve seen illustrations over…[Read more]