Buttermilk Drank Too Many Energy Drinks

Buttermilk the goat has taken the internet by storm. Took a Leap Farm posted a video on their blog showing their 5 week old Nigerian Dwarf goat named Buttermilk. He has too much energy and seems to enjoy jumping over and off of his fellow goats. If this doesn't make you want a goat, I don't know what will.

~Michael~

Chicken Saddles

Question:

Could you please help me, I would like to purchase a jacket for my hen moon. I am having trouble finding a place that sells them.

Thank you
 J Morton

Answer:

Louise's Country Closet sells what they call "hen saddles", I think it may be what you are looking for. They are to protect from aggressive roosters and from other hens that like to continuously peck other hens. I hope this helps!

~marisa

Signs of the Food Apocalypse: Burger King App

The food apocalypse is on the verge of overtaking us my friends. The time is near that we will only eat foods that we don't recognize, foods that have been so processed that we don't even know what animal or vegetable they came from. Todays food apocalypse example comes to us from Burger King.

Burger King is testing a new mobile app for android phone users. This app will allow people to add money to an electric account. Then when they go to their beloved local Burger King they don't have to get to their wallets or purses to pay. They simply pay with the app, and even gain points for future purchases.

I admit that I eat fast food at times, but I hope I never eat it enough that I will need an app for convenience. The next thing we will see is fast food credit cards where you can charge your fast food meals and not even have to pay for them. Can you imagine a future where fast food zombies go through a Burger King drive through (so they don't have to walk or talk to a person face to face) order their food and then just flash their phone as they pass the drive through window, grabbing their food from the Burger King robot? 

What are some of the signs you all have seen of the coming food apocalypse? Share them in the comments.

~Mike~

Urban Farming in Venezuela

Venezuela is having a hard time growing enough food to feed it's population. They have begun to allow the poor in urban areas to start gardening in unused urban spaces. Seems like a great idea. Some of the people in the video reduce their food bills by 50%. Hopefully they use heirlooms so they can harvest their own seeds. Think about what would happen to the world if everyone would start growing what they can, where they can. Check out the video. It always makes me happy to see people gardening.

~Mike~

Have You Seen This? I'm Farming and I Grow It

Hey there guys! Thanks to those of you who emailed to find out if anything was wrong because we haven't been posting. No, nothing is wrong, I guess we just needed a little break. Hopefully we will get back on track and will be posting often. We love to hear from you guys, so thanks for all your comments.

Backyard Flock Demonstration Part 1

Backyard poultry flocks are all the rage right now as people want to produce their own eggs and meat. In February, the University of Maryland organized the Mid-Atlantic Small Flock Poultry Expo. We expected 100-200 participants. Over 400 people showed up from 7 states. People are eager to learn about how to keep backyard poultry. So at the University of Maryland research farm, we are constructing demonstration facilities that people can visit and where we can conduct education programs. Below is a photograph of the complex. Our farm manager Dave Wyand, who stands in the middle, built these facilities for us.  At the right is a large layer coop that houses two free range layer flocks. It opens onto a large pasture at the rear where portable electric netting is used to optimize pasture grazing for the flocks. This demonstrates larger scale backyard production. At the left is portable pasture coop, a “chicken tractor” as some people call them. We can load it in a pickup and take to various education events to show people with small back yards how they can keep layers. In the next few days I will post more articles that describe these systems in more detail. I want to thank Dave Wyand for the work he put into building these facilities. 

 

Sustainable Landscapes