Union City Farm

04/16/2023

One of my favorite spots and views on the farm and obviously our animals love it too! 🥰💜 I love the Redbud Trees in the Spring with the new bright green leaves budding out on the trees! Beautiful contrasts! 💜💚

04/16/2023

A walk outside with the dogs in the cool weather left from last night's storm so I can say "Goodnight" to the cows. Momma, Smoke, Kubota, Bubba and the rest of the herd are all doing well. All of them are slowly losing their fuzzy winter coats and starting to show their shiny summer coats! ❤️
Smoke and his Momma are doing Amazing! 💙 5 days old and he is already hot-lapping around the pasture and just as spunky as his older brothers and sisters. 😄
Pastures are definitely greening up and making for happier cows! They LOVE their fresh Spring grass! 🌱🌾
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the sunshine and warmer weather coming tomorrow! 🌞

04/16/2023

18 thousand dairy cows died in a fire in the Texas panhandle. It's the biggest single incident death in cattle in America since farm and barn fires have been tracked, starting in 2013. 18 thousand cows perished. The cows were in a holding area waiting to be milked, trapped with no outlet. They think a malfunction in a piece of equipment caused the fire. They arent sure if the cows burned or died of smoked inhalation, more likely inhalation as the barn was cross ventilated. This one single incident of mass casualty effects almost 3% of the nation's milk supply (estimated 625,000 cows produce almost 16.5 billion pounds of milk according to the Texas Association of Dairymen). 

Last year it was 10,000 head of beef cattle in feedlots. Now this? 

Our food system continues to get more and more centralized and concentrated. Dairy cows in a facility like this spend their lives on dirt, never knowing what it's like to be on pasture - ever. A fire of 400 cows would be tragic enough, let alone 18,000. 

In the 80s, there was 300,000 diary farms. Today their is 30,000. 

Like Big Meat, the four largest dairy coops control 50% of the market. 

I'm legitimately concerned that it's too late for impactful change, unless someone steps in and forces these oligopolies to sell off assets or go through some sort of dissolution process. But with antitrust laws being an afterthought, and how heavily Big Ag is lobbied, it will likely never happen. 

Its up to us, the consumers. Please visit eatwild.com for a list of small farms. 

Also, I'm launching a series soon where we go though the history of Agriculture in America and how we have gotten into the conundrum as a country today, so stay tuned. It's very educative, and makes everything we are going through today make complete since. 

Please take a moment of silence to recognize the 18,000 cows that lost their lives so tragically 🙏

04/16/2023

Good thing I have a farmer that likes to play firefighter once in awhile even when he's off duty still! ❤️
We spent the first part of this last week doing some of our Spring cleaning and working on making better pasture for the Girls, Bubba and Babies! 🌱🌾
We got the West half burnt off and with the rain last night it's already looking greener and more beautiful for our herd!
In the middle of burning and looking down through the smoke, my husband called out and said "Calf on the ground!" Yep, we added another bull Calf to our herd this week as well! 💙 It was just natural to name him "Smoke". ☺️ He is doing really well as is his Momma. ❤️
Farm Life is Good! We Are Blessed! 🙏🏻❤️

02/27/2023

❤️ LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their story, mission and all they are doing!!! Absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! 🥰

Small butchers are few and far between, and it truly saddens me. Tanner and I live in the country, surrounded by about 4 towns spaced roughly 15-30 miles distance. Driving through each one, you can see dilapidated buildings that once thrived with common, localized businesses. Many small buildings full of character that were once bustling with local meats, dry goods, ice, bottling, leather goods, and groceries now sit vacant, used as storage with once appreciated possessions. In its place are national branded fast food chains, national branded gas stations, and national branded hardware stores. Part of me wonders - how did this happen? Centralization of industry is a large contributor. There is a well known term in agriculture, "get big or get out", where farmers are forced to grow their business on slim margins and a large amount of debt if they want to stay in business. For first generational ones like myself, it's not even an option as the initial investment is the biggest barrier to entry. As far as I see it, the only benefit to centralization is price, as it lowers the cost of meat. But what about access? What about security? What if another world event like 2020 happens, and the grocery stores run out of meat, again? Or when the largest beef packer gets hacked (again), disrupting the supply chain like it did in the summer of 2021? What about all the little towns that once thrived? Luckily, we have the capability to bring localized business back to small towns, thanks to the invention of the internet and ecommerce. For businesses like 1915 Farm, while the majority of our meats are shipped directly to your doorstep (bulk of our revenue), it allows us to open a little boutique butcher shop for the locals. I hope other makers based out of small towns get the opportunity to do the same! We are shipping our meats from our farm today and tomorrow, let us know if we can get you anything 😉 1915farm.com

02/21/2023

Well, today has been bittersweet. Loaded up and hauled the calves to the vet today to have them all checked out and the bull calves are all now steers. 😥 But, everything went well and all have a clean bill of health! ❤️💙

Momma's and Daddy Bubba were welcoming of the few hours vacation they got away from the kids. But, boy were they all ready to get back together when we got them home and sorted back out to pastures!

Sad and relieved at the same time it's done and glad it went well!!!

02/19/2023

Local hatchery overwhelmed as people look to raise own chickens as egg prices soar

Local hatchery overwhelmed as people look to raise own chickens as egg prices soar

The high cost of eggs is driving people straight to the source.

02/19/2023

02/19/2023

🤣

Anyone else have big plans tonight?! 😃😃

01/21/2023

01/08/2023

01/02/2023

it doesn't have to be perfect :)

01/02/2023

There's a big difference between grass finished genetics and feedlot genetics.

We don't want big framed cattle.

We want small to medium framed cattle. Old genetics. Angus influence, preferably red.

Short legs, short necks. Big barrel.

Why? Because we don't have the crutch of grain to fatten them. Copious amounts of grains and feed can get cattle fat, no matter their conformation. We don't have that luxury in the grassfed space. Big b***d, big framed cattle don't do anything for us besides kill our yield.

We depend on forage. We depend on seasons. We depend on mother nature.

Is it more difficult? No doubt. Is it worth it? 100%

We love the flavor. We love the environmental impact. We love the health aspects. And lastly, we love the challenge ❤️

12/31/2022

12/31/2022

🤣🤣🤣

Some sound advice to take us into the new year 😇

12/31/2022

Good to know!!! 👍

For anyone facing the extreme temps this week, here’s a pro tip… warm molasses water can really help recharge the rumen and make for some happy livestock.

Molasses isn’t something our cows normally have access to, but this is an extreme weather condition. Moments after this, the cows were bucking and rip snorting around gleefully 🤣.

Sometimes they don’t like to drink water when it gets this cold, especially if the water source isn’t heated. When dehydrated, the rumen shuts down, and they will no longer feel the need to eat.

We have around 40 head in this pasture, and they drank 80 gallons of the mixture, heated to about 80*, with 14 oz of molasses. Although not necessary, all species of ruminants can benefit, and will thank you for it!

12/31/2022

This is Awesome!!! ❤️

11/21/2022

Nothing like looking out the back door and seeing Kubota digging right in! 🤣 Apparently the grass is better at the top of the bale! 😂😂😂 Love our Dexter's! 🥰

11/21/2022

Dolly, Kubota, Red Rock and the other calves are all happy to have another new face on the ranch! Especially Kubota as he was over keeping her company when she got separated from her momma before I showed up and carried her back to her Mom. We will give her time to see what name she earns and keep you all posted! 😀

11/21/2022

Nothing like being woken up way too early by Noelle carrying on crazy at the back door because her cows are mooing and going crazy too. 😴😳
Cold early morning surprise! New Baby Calf on The Ranch! 🥰 I will take it!!! ❤️
Babies all definitely have their own time clock whether 2-legged or 4-legged, but all of them are blessings for sure! 🥰
Momma and Baby are all doing well and the rest of the herd is now calmed down too after they all made their birth announcements to the whole neighborhood in the early morning hours.🤭 Bellies are full of some alfalfa pellets and everyone's off back to lounging around and munching on their bales of hay.
Happy Monday All!!!☺️ Stay warm and be safe!🥰

11/19/2022

Love watching their inspirational story unfold! 🥰

Regenerative agriculture is the buzz word now, and has been over these past couple of years. When we first started it was "sustainable". It will likely change in the next five years again, as the corporate guys are beginning to catch on trying to emulate something you can't at scale. It's defined in different ways - by different farms, organizations, or corporate companies. In our case, I'll let the picture do the talking, as I prefer to show rather than say. On the right is where the hogs were a few months ago, rooting and fertilizing the soil. We let it rest. We planted our winter annual forage of winter ryegrass and turnips. The cattle will graze the grass and turnip tops, then we will put the hogs back on the pasture to root up the bulbs. It's a beautiful process to watch, with very little assistance from us allowing mother nature to do her finest work. We prefer to work with her as stewards, using the livestock as tools to create optimal nourishment for them, the soil and ultimately the families we feed ❤️

11/12/2022

Bundle up and get ready to stay 🔥 warm, the cold 🥶 is here!