From the Pastures — Draper: Pastures waking up

Sheffield, Ill. ​​

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. The pastures are waking up, and the rye is off to a good start. Spring is here, even though interrupted by a little snow. With lambing over for the most part and the cows not due for two months, daily life consists mainly with keeping them fed. We always sell a few lambs direct to our Easter lamb customers and with Greek Easter being kind of late this year, we should have some good-size lamb available, as well as packaged lamb in the freezer. Some folks have butchered them here on the farm, as well, but usually we don’t take lambs to market on the Easter trade.

Lamb prices have been holding up well throughout the winter, but with the current COVID-19 crisis, anything goes. We had some really nice field conditions to get manure hauled, but that seems a little more challenging now with rain forecasted, but that’s what spring is about. While I did see a few farmers in the field earlier, it doesn’t look like an early spring for fieldwork.

It looks like now being here on the farm is the best place to be. I always knew that, but it has taken on a new significance. For all of us who grew up on the farm, we were blessed with the opportunity to eat some dirt and be around animals and build our immunities that will serve us well in these challenging days ahead. Since I don’t mind avoiding crowds, being isolated on the farm is no problem.

Most of us also gained in our natural defenses by wholesome foods that were so readily available to us like farm-raised beef, pork, chicken, eggs, vegetables and, yes, even some lamb for some of us. Let’s pray that a month from now at our next meeting we can look back on a crisis over with minimal cost. Take care of yourselves and remember we are in His hands. Happy trails.