Monday, August 3, 2009

Alfheim au naturale


Written to Led Zeppelin 1 by Led Zeppelin

Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.
- Yoda (from The Empire Strikes Back)

It's official: Fazenda Alfheim has been certified IBD/IFOAM Accredited.

Almost a year to the date of the first visit (July 25th, 2008) by Rui Manuel Marques Martins Martins, a consultant from Associação Brasileira de Agricultura Biodinâmica, we received word of our organic certification.

It has been a hard -and at times frustrating- road, but for the moment our arrival feels terrific. We can now sell our piglets in Brazil as organic, and all of our crop fields, minus one (not including our fruit orchards, which will be certified in January 2010), have been certified. There are still a handful of minor non-conformities that have to be addressed during the second inspection by IBD later this year, but nothing that should derail us.

A similar characterization could be applied to the construction of the new house at Fazenda Alfheim...nothing seems to be able to stop its relentless forward march. After three weeks, comprising a total of only 12 work days, Marcos and his crew are ready to raise the roof this week. There is, of course, still much work to do, but it seems reasonable to assume that Marcos will meet his initial estimate of a ten-week build.

In hog-related news, our piglet count increased to approx. 69 with the addition of another nine piglets from gilt 14. Moreover, Chico, the piglet with the head trauma, is recovering nicely together with Chiquina in the auxiliary garden next to the kitchen. The two seem to enjoy one another's company, and Chico is back on his feet and moving without any impediment whatsoever. Interestingly, on close examination, it is possible to discern a slightly higher percentage of Duroc in Chico, who is redder, than in Chiquina. Rounding out the latest in hog news, Clair sold his hog, Miss Massey, and her 10 piglets to the owner of one of the two local supermarkets, so he is a happy man.

On the cattle front, we lost two more heifers, bringing our total losses to five, one to Cascavel, commonly known as the South American rattlesnake, two more to either poisonous plants or Cascavel and two to pneumonia. The remaining 15 look healthy, so 7-9-13. In hindsight: I was penny wise and pound foolish, i.e. I bought the cattle too cheaply. Unlike the 20 F1 gilts, the cattle were probably not the best of stock to begin with...clearly a shame, but live and learn. On a positive note, we officially inaugurated our pasture rotation on August 1st. Initially we will rotate the cattle every day after 16:00...to acclimatize them to the new routine, and also to begin adhering to the law of the second bite, a key tenet of management-intensive grazing (MiG).
Basically in a nutshell, to graze your stock rotationally you need to only allot what they will eat in a 24 hour period. The key to building soil, and good grass/forage, and having healthy livestock is the rest period. To achieve this rest period you have to contain your animals, and portable electric fencing is what helps you do this. Just as important as moving the cows forward to fresh grass, you need to keep them from going back to the grazed area that needs to recover from the animal impact. In grazing lingo, that is called the law of the second bite. If the stock is allowed to regraze the tender young growth, you will set back that plant about 40%. The plant needs to recover before being grazed again. And when you have to start buying feed, 40% adds up quick! Much easier to keep that back fence in place, than it is to buy hay or grain.
Finally, Esben and Brian returned to UK on Friday, after spending four wonderful days in Rio de Janeiro, where they stayed with our very good friends, Artur and Alessandra. Thankfully, Pelle returned to Alfheim today from a week plus in São Paulo visiting friends, so things won't be too quiet.

6 comments:

Sofie said...

Hi Lone and Rance,

big congratulations on your certification! Great to hear you made it!

Hugs from sunny Denmark, Fie

Johannes said...

Hey guys,

tillykke med certification!!! det er smadder flot. Mom, you're living by your principles which I admire and dad, you are not strangling the certification people, which I equally admire lol!!! seriously guys, mad respects.

Esben said...

Well done!!! Awesome news on the certification! Soon I expect to see Fazenda Alfheim organic bacon in my local supermarket!

Love

Esben

Pelle said...

Hey congrats and yes it will be quite cause im a little ill lol. Cool blog but i think the pictures might be a little confused or it might have been my internet
hugs and love

Vivian said...

Lone and Rance,

Many Congratulation on the certification!!!!!!!!!!!

Vivian

Anthony Matan said...

I thought you might be going for the Brazilian supermodel look with your cows. They are on the skinny side.
Any way to fatten them up?
Maybe you should cut your losses and feed them to your pigs...
Just a thought.