|
Agenda
A major break from your
average field day, a day at Polyface Farm is action packed, with
plenty to see, plenty to learn, and plenty to eat. Here’s an
overview of the day’s events . . .
6-7:30 a.m. — Early-Bird
Chore Time
Go with family members or apprentices for an early start seeing
the farm and enjoying some hands-on learning.
7:30-9 a.m. — Registration
|
Whole
Farm Tour
with Joel Salatin
8-10:30 a.m. or 1:30-4:00 p.m.
|
|
Rabbit
Production & Chick Brooding
with Daniel Salatin
9:30-11 a.m. or 2-3:30 p.m.
|
11 a.m. - 12 noon
Relationship Marketing
Polyface uses a multifaceted marketing approach: farmgate sales,
metropolitan
buying clubs, restaurants, and a value-added broker. Learn about
strategies,
pricing, customers, and transportation logistics.
12 noon – 1:30 p.m.
Lunch
Enjoy this farm-grown, farm-cooked
meal (all grown to order just for you).
|
Lunch
Menu
Barbequed pastured chicken
Pigaerator pork
Salad bar beef
Sliced tomatoes
Sliced cucumbers
Chocolate buttermilk cake
|
4–5:30 p.m.
Q & A
Joel will be available for questions on any and all aspects of
the Polyface Farm.
4:30–6 p.m.
Evening Chores
You’re welcome to stay late and enjoy more hands-on learning.
|
Polyface Interns
— past and present — will be stationed at all key
areas to answer in-depth questions about various topics. Look
for the blue Polyface shirts.
Hay Shed &
Pigaerator Composting
In the winter, cattle eat hay through a special feeder gate
that can raise four feet
to accomodate deep bedding. Pigs turn the bedding pack to
produce aerobic compost.
Raken House
Rabbit enthusiasts gain an inside perspective on a symbiotic
multi-species production model: rabbits above chickens. Breeding,
bedding, handling, and production techniques will be discussed.
Blackberries,
Chick Brooding, Hoophouse
A walk around the homestead. Diversity and integration are
the bywords.
|
What you’ll see
firsthand and learn about on this special day . . .
Pastured Broilers
Raised in moveable, floorless shelters, these meat birds net $1,500
per acre and
cycle every 8 weeks. The ultimate alternative to vertically integrated,
inhumane,
industrial factory chickens.
Salad Bar Beef
Mimicking the natural mobbing, movement, and munching of native
herbivores, cows receive a fresh pasture paddock of perennial polycultures
every day. Beeves finish on grass rather than grain, eliminating
feedlots and enhancing the environment.
Eggmobiles
Portable housing for laying hens, this production model utilizes
birds as pasture sanitizers behind herbivores. An ideal stacking
enterprise that creates income and high-quality eggs from salvage
operations.
Feathernet
Commercial pastured egg production utilizing high-tech electrified
poultry netting and portable hoop structures — ultimately marrying
the heritage “chickenness” of the chicken with the latest
technological innovation for symbiosis.
Pastured Turkeys
A portable Gobbledygo provides shelter for turkeys, an especially
aggressive poultry grazer.
Pastured Rabbit
Harepens give weanlings all the forage they want but with enough
movement flexibility to stay ahead of pathogens. This model cuts
feed costs dramatically and produces a rabbit in constant demand
by the best gourmet chefs.
Pastured Pork
See pigs on pasture, slowly converting wooded areas into savannahs.
Portable feeders and electric fences provide hygienic and aesthetically
pleasing outdoor production models. It’s truly hog heaven.
Along the Way . .
.
Water — A low-cost, low-tech pond and gravity
piping system supplies pressurized water to every corner of the
farm. In addition, a 3,500-gallon-per-hour 12-volt portable submersible
bilge pump can augment the piping system.
Keylines
— Defining topographical points for riparian, forestal and
field areas, these identify where permanent fences run.
Fencing
— Do-it-yourself portable electric fencing to reduce costs
and improve function will offer brand-new ideas for controlling
animals.
|
