Illinois Farm Families Blog

You may have heard that names of meat are getting an overhaul.  Pork products will see the most changes.  This came about by a lot of research by the pork producers, beef producers, and the USDA that showed that consumers were confused by names in the meat case.  I’d agree.  While most of the meat I buy comes from my freezer, I do sometimes meander through the meat case when there is a sale.  I have a trophy somewhere in my house that proves that I should be an expert at deciphering meats, but even I get confused, so let me give you the simple rundown.

The new labels will give:

1. A name – “Porterhouse Chop”
2. A species and area on the animal where the cut comes from
3. How to Cook it

To me, the names are still semi-confusing, but the part that should help consumers (myself included) are the area where the meat cut comes from and how to cook it.  If it comes from the loin, the muscles running along the spine of either a cow or pig, it is going to be a tender cut, and you can grill it.

Think about it – what muscles get the most use in any mammal?  Legs, shoulders – anything that moves.  Muscles that move a lot tend to get hard and therefore, as meat, are tough.  That is where your shoulder or chuck roasts and ham or round roasts come from.  These cuts should be cooked low and slow (crock-pot, roasting, etc.).  Anything that doesn’t get a lot of “work” (back and stomach), should be tender meats that can be grilled, broiled, etc.

 

Clear as mud?  

Maybe so, but check out the meat case, and if you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask the person behind the meat counter – they are usually pretty knowledgeable.  I do, and I was even on a Meats Judging Team! Tonite’s supper (as with a lot this time of year with everyone busy in the fields) is crockpot-fare:  Korean Beef Short Ribs

Carrie Pollard, Rockford

Your cat gets a scratching post.  Your dog probably loves getting scratched behind the ears.  Why not the cows?  

This is the equivalent of the cow's scratching post.  It has big brushes on the top & side (when this picture was taken, the side brush was needing replaced), and the top brush is mounted on a big spring, so as to allow it to fit a variety of different shaped cows.  The cows can walk under it or alongside it, and get a good scratch in.  The seem to enjoy getting their tails scratched, or scratching around their ears on their head.  

There are even fancy circular ones that actually operate on a motor that turns on when the cow touches it.  

Carrie Pollard Po-Cop Dairy Rockford, Ill. 

This blog was reposted with permission from the author. The original blog can be found at http://www.mycowsandpigs.blogspot.com. 

I’ve missed 114 milkings….in a row.  We knew this was coming, but counting them up just now makes me feel incredibly inadequate, and sad.  You see, I miss the cows.  I miss the smells (good and bad).  I miss talking to the cows.  I miss their mannerisms.  I miss knowing who is milking well, who is sick, and who calved.  I miss the schedule of it all.  I miss working with Brent.
Having a baby changes life.  Many people have laughed & giggled at me, when I tried to say, oh, they’ll just come along – I can still work.  This was true all throughout pregnancy.  I milked cows the night we went to the hospital, but now – someone else sets the schedule.  
There are benefits.  The house is fairly clean, I’m caught up on laundry, the farm books are up to date, and I’m able to prepare a real supper nearly every night.  A real supper – a main dish, vegetable, even the occasional dessert.  We still eat in the living room, but this is a good 1st step.  And, yes, I get to spend nearly all my time with our daughter. 
It’s November – the time of being thankful.  So, I’m thankful: 
For Family – those that are spending more hours in a barn, so I can spend more time with the newest member of our family
For Friends – those that come and help with milkings, and those that watch the baby while I go for X-rays
For Weather – that is fairly cooperative so that the harvest can be completed, and all the chores can get done, and allows for some excursions out around the farm
For Inspiration – Join us for 30 days: mycowsandpigs.blogspot.com, My Generation
For the Future – a beautiful, healthy baby girl that we can teach about farming, and will be milking cows with us soon.
This is why we farm!
Carrie Pollard Po-Cop Dairy Rockford, Ill.

When things calm down long enough to sit and reflect (and seeing as I am finally hitting the “uncomfortable point” with 7 weeks to go in my own pregnancy, sitting is the position of choice as of late), it reminds me how many things we do on the farm every day that are completely foreign to those that have never seen it.  I’ve been working in livestock barns since I was old enough to walk and talk.  Our families’ Christmas cards usually contain as many animals as people. 
 
When you are young on the farm, you are taught how to care for animals and you get to see the results of that care.  Working with animals every day, you learn what the signs are for sick, hungry, thirsty, and uncomfortable. I admit I typically take for granted knowing and understanding these signs, and knowing what to do to fix them the best I can everyday.  Just because an animal squeals, chews on something, or does something else “odd”, doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong.  Our cows chewed and removed all the insulation out of the garage doors in our new barn.  Weird, yes; inhumane, no.  Pigs will chew on anything near them.  We had to move the locations of the outside hog pens every spring break because the pigs would have destroyed nearly everything in them within a year.  I’ve said many times that I talk to the animals (a lot), and they have yet to answer me (thankfully).  Until they do, I have to use my knowledge and understanding of the “signs” to do the best I can.  I believe that all farmers do the best they can every day.  I have yet to meet one that doesn’t. 

And, then, one of these undercover videos showing suspected farm animal abuse comes out and I worry consumers aren’t getting the whole story. (see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/walmart-christensen-farms-mercy-for-animals-video_n_1683119.html - Farmers are encouraged to leave a comment behind.)  When someone abuses any animal, it makes my blood boil as much as the next person, and I’ll wholeheartedly support punishing abuse. Period.  But, some things are blown out of proportion.  When I step back and think about the things that we do with our animals on the farm, I realize that some of them may seem less than desirable through a different lens.  However, we (farmers and consumers alike) both want to provide the best care possible for animals. The same method or production practice may not be the best option for every animal or farm.   Each farmer needs to judge for themselves what works best for their farm and animals.  There are legitimate reasons for different farm methods  Maybe we as farmers don’t do the best job of sharing, showing, and explaining what these methods are, and why we do them.  But, that is the goal of the Field Mom program, so that they can see everything we do, ask questions, and get the information from the source of where their food comes from.  And, in turn, we as farmers, can see what we do through a different lens, and get a fresh perspective. 

Carrie Pollard, MS
Bethany Swine Health Services
Sycamore, IL

Let’s keep with cow’s milk (my favorite kind)!  First, “Vitamin D” milk is whole milk.  People think that whole milk is bad for you because it has all that fat in it, right?  Wrong!  Whole milk has a whopping fat content of 3.5% (the average fat content of milk right from the cow).  Look through your frig & pantry, and I bet you’d be hard pressed to find a lot of foods under 4% fat.  If you like the taste of whole milk, as dairy farmers, we thank you, but if not, you have lots of other options.  Reduced-fat milk (that being either 2%, 1%, or skim, 0%, fat) offers you the same nutrients with a little of the cream scraped off the top.  A good friend of mind once said, “Carrie, I’m desperately trying to drink the Vitamin D milk, because I know I need the Vitamin D, but I just can’t stand the taste!”  She was worried about maintaining her bone density, as should many young women, especially those who are busy professionals that don’t get a chance to sit down for supper with a glass of milk every night.  I had a giggle, as I told her ALL milk, whether it be chocolate or strawberry, whole, 2% or skim, has all the same vitamins and minerals (A, D, calcium and so on) in each glass!  

When an animal is sick, it is my responsibility to care for it.  Sometimes, the best way for me to do this is to use an antibiotic.  However, that animal product (be it milk, meat or eggs) is removed or withheld from the food supply until that antibiotic has cleared the animal’s body.  All milk is tested for antibiotics on the farm and at the processing plant. Any milk that tests positive for antibiotics cannot be sold to the public and is discarded. I won’t give anything to my animals that I do not feel is safe for them, my family, and yours.  Furthermore, all mammals (that includes you, me, as well as the cows and pigs) produce hormones in our bodies.  It is part of how our bodies work.  That means that things that come from those bodies will contain hormones.  They are broken down by our body, just like other things we eat.  Just remember to keep things in perspective, vegetables contain hormones too.

So, whatever your fancy, you will always get a nutritious, good-for-you glass no matter what jug it is out of.  The pick at our house is “Mixed Milk”, a white skim and chocolate (1 or 2%) mix, served alongside pork tenderloin!  

Carrie Pollard
Po-Cop Dairy
Rockford, Illinois

Visit Carrie's blog at http://www.mycowsandpigs.blogspot.com/

 The cows needed a new barn.  (I mean REALLY needed a new barn!)  After nearly 40 years, the existing barn had simply run its course.  And, of course, we couldn’t just rebuild what we had.  You see, we’ve learned a lot about cows in the last 40 years.  The cow of today is not the same cow of 40 years ago.  She produces more milk, she is bigger, she eats more, she gets hot easier.  However, we hope to make life easier for our cows.  Unlike our house (or most other farmhouses I know), the cows’ house has ceramic tile under the feed bunk for easy plate-lickin’.  They also have bigger bed frames (we call them stalls), and more comfortable mattresses in those beds than the old barn.  We also added almost twice as much of everything to keep the cows cool in the heat:  natural air flow (via higher sides and bigger curtains), forced air flow (fans), and water space.  

 I’m sure within a couple years we’ll come up with the next thing that we’ve learned that will make life easier for the cows, and we’ll implement whatever that next thing is as soon as possible, because we always want what is best for our animals.  We are always learning, and we have to change or adapt whenever we learn something new.  We hope the cows will forgive us for temporarily disrupting their lives while we were under construction this summer, and hope that they will appreciate all these improvements, and thank us in the form of more milk.  The old adage holds very true.  If we take care of the cows, they’ll take care of us. 

Check out the process on Carrie's blog, My Cows & Pigs.

Carrie Pollard
Po-Cop Dairy
Rockford, Ill. 

 

Additionally, we've learned more about what plants need in order to grow well; exactly what combination of nutrients and at what times help them grow. Some of this has been done through simple selective breeding techniques (breeding the best plants together to get the best hybrids), some by production practices (spacing of rows, tillage methods), some by bigger equipment that gets done faster (bigger planters allow us to plant more acres in a single day, and corn that is planted earlier tends to yield more, as well as GPS allows us to plant straighter and not waste seed), and, yes, some of this improvement comes from "GMOs" (Genetically-Modified Organisms). There has been a lot of bad publicity and concerns about the process of genetically modifying corn, which is a very simple way that genes from other plants are added to the corn. Our family feels that this is such a safe process that we eat products from our corn and feed it to our cows, and we have made a very strong commitment to only do what's best for our cows. All of these practices on our farm allow us to take care of our land, do more with less in this tight economy, and create the best environment for the crops that we grow.

We are well past knee-high right now!  We are always at the mercy of Mother Nature though.  We finally got some much-needed rain on Monday, and although it came with too much wind, our corn fields were not affected. Some of our farmer friends were not as lucky as their corn was damaged by the wind. With any luck, everything will work out for all of us and Mother Nature will give a nice rain as our corn starts to pollinate and make ears in the next few weeks.

Carrie Pollard
Po-Cop Dairy
Rockford, Ill.

 

We now live on Brent’s family dairy farm outside Rockford, where Brent farms full-time with his parents, milking 70 Holstein cows, and farming 600 acres of corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. Beyond helping on the farm when I can, I also work full-time for Bethany Animal Hospital, where I get to use my passion for pigs by helping pork producers across northern Illinois improve their farms.

I am excited to share with you where your food comes from, and hope you’ll ask us (those of us who spend each and every day raising food for your tables) all of the questions you have about where food comes from, and how it is grown. On this blog, there is no such thing as a stupid question! 

So, the other day, I called Brent while he was at the neighbor's to ask him to bring home a cup of milk for a recipe I was making for supper that night, as we were all out.  He laughingly replied, "You know we do have cows on our farm." We do have a dairy farm, with our own milk, but I still buy milk at the grocery store just like all of you. Why, you may ask?  We simply don’t like the taste of whole milk. Another reason is homogenization, the process of putting milk in solution, so that the cream does not rise to the top. This is simply a matter of preference, as Brent doesn't like the creamy stuff – and I have always had store-bought milk, so I don't know the difference!

I buy whatever milk happens to be on sale. I don't worry whether the milk comes from Holsteins or Jerseys, or whether it was produced on a farm with 16 cows or 16,000; I know that it is safe, full of essential vitamins and nutrients, and produced by farm families that care about their animals, just like the milk that is down the hill in our own bulk tank.

 So, I will remember to go to the store tomorrow to buy my own gallon (or two) of milk, and Pour One More! Read more about the day to day happenings at the Pollard Farm.

Carrie Pollard
Po-Cop Dairy
Rockford, Ill.