2012 national drought and rising grain costs

During this early planning part of the year, we have been taking a hard look at all the pieces of the farm.  We’ve been crunching numbers and planning to ensure that we can grow the best possible product while keeping prices as affordable as possible and ensure that we can earn a living from the hard work of farming.

Bluebird Farm hogs and broilers will continue to be raised with certified organic grains, outside rotating through pastures, forests, and garden.  The layer hens will also live free range and on pasture; however, the layer hens will no longer receive organic grain.  We will use a non-medicated, all-grain feed that we’ve used in previous years to feed our pastured laying hens.

The 2012 drought in most of the United States caused a poor national crop of grains that are important to raise chickens and pigs. All grains prices, organic and non- organic, went up in price by 30%, and left farmers across the nation without a way to afford to feed their animals.  While many farmers and farms across the nation are still reeling from the devastating effects from the 2012 drought, we at Bluebird Farm are optimistically finding creative ways to make 2013 successful.

As we make our plans for the 2013 growing season, we’ve found that the high grain prices affected our various livestock in different ways.   Some areas of the farm have fared better than others.  The pigs look good (and taste good too!) and we are excited for another great year of vegetables.  But chickens proved to be a sticky issue.

Broilers- Tasty Pastured Chicken

Broilers are fast growing meat chickens that need very specific conditions to grow well.  We have made a variety of changes to our system to help them grow more efficiently.  However, no matter how efficiently the birds grow there is no escaping the fact that they eat lots of food!  We continue to strive to use organic feed for the broilers to ensure a pure product.  Certified organic feed is 100% chemical free and GMO-free.  We use this feed for both the hogs and broilers.  Unfortunately, upon close examination of all the costs to produce organic broilers we have had to raise our price.  The new price of $6/lb will ensure that we can continue to produce organic broilers while earning a modest income for ourselves (we discovered that in the past we were volunteering our time to raise the broilers).

We are confident that you will love our organic fed, pasture raised, free range broilers!

Layers- Fresh Pastured Eggs

We have decided to come to a compromise on the layer hens.  After looking at the numbers for the layer hens we found that in order to cover all of our costs, including organic grains, our organic eggs would cost $6.90/dozen.  While we want to use organic grains for all of our livestock we felt that almost $7/dozen is not affordable for eggs.

In order to keep our eggs at their current price we have made the difficult choice of switching to non-organic feed for our hens only.  The other option was to not raise any hens on our farm.  We will continue to use top quality, non-medicated, vegetarian feed for the pastured hens.  And of course all Bluebird Farm hens live on fresh green pasture rotated with sheep and pigs.  These hens live outdoors in the sunshine and fresh air with plenty to scratch and peck.  Our chicken wagon coop provides the hens with a mobile house around the pastures and fields of the farm. 

Bluebird Farm hogs and broilers will continue to be raised with certified organic grains, outside rotating through pastures, forests, and garden.  The layer hens will also live free range and on pasture; however, the layer hens will no longer receive organic grain. 

Each season we work hard to continue to raise the highest quality animals and vegetables at affordable prices that will ensure that Bluebird Farm continues into the future.  Above all we want to work with you, our customers, to build an open and honest food system that produces healthy food for us all.

We’re growing for you,

William and Marie

The month of May

Happy May Day from Bluebird Farm! While the spring solstice is an important marker of the end of winter, May 1st (or thereabouts, calendars have changed so many times) has been celebrated as the true beginning of the warm growing season. The weather this spring chose not to break with tradition and celebrated May Day with our first night that did not drop below 70 followed by our first truly hot and sticky day with fireflies flashing in the darkness of the evening.

Of course we didn’t have to wait for the warm weather to begin growing food at Bluebird Farm. As many of you are aware of by now we have been harvesting lettuce, salad mix, spinach, kale, and radishes for several weeks now. The warm weather has also helped many of the crops that take a little longer, like broccoli and cabbage, put on new growth. Our hard work is displaying itself as the garden fills up with luscious shades of green.
In the vegetable field-William recording the planting dates for carrots
Unfortunately, not all of the green growing in the garden is delicious fresh vegetables. Garden beds are perfect weed habitat. Most plants we typically call weeds are annuals that are very good at rapidly colonizing bare ground. In a natural setting they provide a valuable ecosystem service, preventing erosion and holding nutrients. As they die and decay other plants are able to grow. Eventually another disturbance occurs and the cycle continues. From a weeds’ eye view a garden is a freshly disturbed area perfect to move in to. Many vegetable crops are in fact highly bred versions of weeds. However, as we selected over the centuries for high yields and good taste we sacrificed some of the original weedy tenacity. So vegetables need a little (sometimes more than a little) help from us to compete with their weed cousins.
Cover Crop flowers- We plant a mix of cover crops to improve the condition of the soil and prevent weeds from sprouting up after vegetables are harvested

On the animal side of the farm we have been busy trying as hard as we can to grow grass without much help from spring showers. Grass is our most basic resource for our animals. Our grass management has two main components-grazing and fertilizing. We are using sheep and Misty, the horse, in a rotational grazing system to improve our pastures and produce quality, healthy, grass-finished meat at the same time (more on that next). As any of you who have mowed your lawn know grass grows extremely quickly after being mowed. Well, sheep do just about the same thing as a mower. After the sheep have mowed an area some of the grass roots die back leaving behind organic matter. Next the grass begins regrowing, drawing in CO2 from the air, water from rain and using energy from the sun to create more grass. Then, just as the grass growth begins to slow down, we mow again with the sheep. In between mowings we use the chickens to apply fertilizer (chicken manure). Over time this will improve the fertility and organic matter of our soil allowing us to grow more grass and more food.
The flock grazing happily

More grass means more grass finished meat. Grass finished means animals that eat only grass from birth to butcher. Keep in mind this is only possible with ruminants and other strict herbivores (sheep, cattle, goats, rabbits. Pigs and chickens are omnivores and rely on insects and grains to lead a healthy life). We are beginning our grass finished sheep enterprise this year. The emphasis on grass finished is so important because of the health benefits of the meat. When sheep (or cattle) eat strictly grass their meat is lower in fat than grain finished meat. Additionally, the fat that is present is lower in cholesterol, has a correct ratio of omega-3 (important for brain development) to omega-6 (not particularly healthy) fatty acids, and is high in Conjugated Linoleic acids CLAs (an important anti-cancer agent). None of these benefits are fully present in ruminant livestock fed grain.

Even if the animal being fed grain has access to pasture the meat will not be as healthy. You can think of it sort of like two people, both with access to excellent exercise programs. The first eats vegetables, brown rice, beans, small amounts of meat, and no deserts. The second eats the same diet, but snacks all the time on candy and cake. Who will be healthier? In the animal’s case the pasture is like the healthy diet and exercise while the grain is like feeding them giant desserts.

So May is a great month for growing food on the farm. And for you it is a great month because you can find our food near you! Farmers markets all over the region are opening up for the year. You can find us at the

Hickory Downtown Farmers Market Wednesdays 12-5:30 pm, April 28th- October 30, 2010


Morganton Downtown Farmers Market Saturdays 8 am -noon, May 8th-October
Located at 300 Beach St. in downtown Morganton, behind Geppeto's
Look for the Farmers Market sign on Green St.

Conover Farmers Market Saturdays 8-12:30, April 24th- October.

See you there!
William and Marie

Jeepers Sheepers!

Well, our pasture mowers have arrived!
Thanks to our neighbor Leanne for these beautiful pictures!
Our flock of sheep are waiting a few days in the corral, 'til they accustomed to the place. Misty, the horse, must be thinking "Jeepers, Sheepers!" She's not quite sure about these creatures that have landed in her world. But- she decided she would stand near them and meet them in exchange for some grain and alfalfa treats. Misty will be hopefully grazing in the same paddocks as the sheep. We'll see if she decides that they are NOT aliens.

They are a great addition to the farm, since they are the only animals besides Misty, the old grey mare, who can eat grass exclusively for their feed. Of course sheep can eat grains, but just like cattle, it isn't very good for them. Sheep, cattle, and other animals like goats,alpacas, and camels are ruminants with a multi-chambered stomach (aka "4 stomachs") Ruminants have this wonderful place in their stomach called...the rumen! This is a special place to digest the tough, fibrous lignins in grasses and forbs, but it's not meant to digest grains. Ruminants' natural diet is 100% greens...grasses, sedges, and forbs- maybe a mouthful of woody shrubs thrown in here and a mouthful of fresh oak leaves there.


So for lamb, beef and chevon (goat) "grain-finished" is not a good thing for the animal's health or the health of the humans that eat the "grain-finished" lamb and beef. Haven't you heard to cut back on red meat? Well, that's because it's "grain-finished" not "100% grass fed" or "grass-finished." But, that's a different story!

For those of you who are noticing how delightfully cute the lambs are- don't worry! Bluebird Farm's lamb is not "spring lamb" or "Easter lamb." Spring and Easter lamb are those babies in the pictures. Don't worry! Bluebird Farm's lamb is older- young animals that aren't babies anymore!

And for those of you that have heard that lamb is tough and chewy or strange- there was a time when "lamb" was really "old sheep." That is what hamburger in the grocery store is- "old cow" and 1 hamburger patty from the grocery store these days contains pieces of meat from hundreds of cows. How about that for food safety?