Aquilla Hill Happenings

Back at the Market

noreply@blogger.com (Blaine Morgan) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:13:00 +0000

After missing the first half of the 2008 farmer's market season, we are back at it. For those that don't know, Bill (my dad) had an accident back in April. He was thrown from his horse and broke his pelvis in 2 places and fractured his shoulder blade. He was flown by care flight to the hospital and went thru surgery. Under doctor's orders he had to remain in bed or wheel chair for about 12 weeks. Gratefully he is out of the wheel chair, off the walker and back to doing what he loves to do (mainly work!). Having him back on the "payroll" has allowed me time to devote back to the market. So be sure to come see us every saturday at the Mansfield Farmer's Market. Sign up for our newsletter to make sure you are kept current on any new specials we may be offering at the market.

Distiller's Grain Increases E Coli 0157:h7

noreply@blogger.com (Blaine Morgan) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:18:00 +0000

You may wonder what the significance is of this? Well in our push for environmentally friendly fuel and to lessen our dependence on foreign oil we have come up with Ethanol as an alternative fuel source. Ethanol is made from corn and distiller's grains are what is left over after the processing of the corn into Ethanol. So what to do with all of this by product? Feed it to cattle of course! The problem is that doing this seems to be no better than feeding straight corn and possible even worse. Researchers at Kansas State have found that cattle fed distiller's grain have twice as much E Coli 0157:h7 as cattle fed regular feedlot rations. Now we know that feedlot cattle already have a high occurence of E Coli 0157 h:7. This is pretty disturbing. With the increase of Ethanol production forcast to 2ouble by 2010 there will be a huge amount of distiller's grain that needs to be disposed of and it will be fed to cattle. Feedlots are already moving their base of operations from current locations (panhandle of texas, New Mexico) to places like Nebraska and Kansas to be closer to the source of the distiller's grain. You see distiller's grain doesn't trasport very well, it is heavy, usually wet and hard to handle. Since current distribution channels can not be utilized efficiently to handle this cheap by product, it makes more sense to move the cattle closer to the distiller's grain. Did anyone ever think to just let the cattle eat grass and solve all these problems? We did.

New "Single Delivery Point Program"

noreply@blogger.com (Blaine Morgan) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:46:00 +0000

We are about to embark on a new delivery program. I have referred to this a a CSA in the past. After more thought I prefer the term "Single Delivery Point Program". Where a true CSA requires a membership our program only requires participation.
We sent out our newsletter announcing the first delivery this week. The request went out for all of our newsletter members who live in the Mansfield Texas area to submit orders via our website and then we will be making a delivery to the local Walmart parking lot where they can pick up their orders. This Mansfield delivery point is scheduled to be delivered to about every 4 weeks. The hope is to add additional delivery points to other communities as we grow our customer base. I hope to have a good report after Saturday on the success of this program. If all goes well we will try expanding it this spring. If you would like to get involved in this, simply sign up for our newsletter then place your order when we announce the next delivery. Hope to see you there!
Blaine Morgan

King Corn

noreply@blogger.com (Blaine Morgan) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 02:53:00 +0000

I came across this movie trailer for a new documentary that I thought looked interesting. Seems to be along the same lines as Michael Pollan's best seller "Omnivore's Dilemma" which among other things chronicles the journey that America's corn takes from field to feedlot to plate. Pretty amazing how one commodity can dominate a society so completely. Enjoy the trailer.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

noreply@blogger.com (Blaine Morgan) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 01:06:00 +0000

A real buzz word recently has been Community Supported Agriculture or more commonly known as CSA. If you havn't heard, a CSA is a way for local folks to get their meat and or produce directly from the farmer who grows the food. The way it works can vary from one producer to another but we would like to try it with our customers. The general idea is for you to join the CSA (this will be as simple as letting us know you want to be on our email list) and we will send out a newsletter letting everyone know what we have available and when and where we can schedule a meeting spot in your area. If you are in need of product then let us know by email or phone and we can get your order ready. When delivery day rolls around you simply come to the designated meeting spot and pick up your order.
With the good response we have received from the farmer's market attendees, we would like to continue servicing our customers even after the market ends on October 13th. If you are interested in this please let us know. If you create an account in the shopping section of our site then you will have the option of getting our newsletter and we will utilize that to inform our customers of the details when the time comes.

Summer Update

noreply@blogger.com (Blaine Morgan) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:22:00 +0000

The summer is going by quickly and we have much to report. So far we have enjoyed an abundance of rain and moderate temperatures which has produced an overflow of grass. The destocking we did last summer due to the draught has left us with fewer animals to eat all the grass that we have been blessed with. The Mansfield Farmer's Market has been a modest success with many repeat customers who continually praise our beef. We are truly thankful to those who keep coming back, without you we wouldn't be able to do what we are doing. We hope the farmer's market will grow and become a popular place for people of the Mansfield area to attend, so please tell your friends about it and us.
We have been busy adding cross fencing to enhance our MIG (management intensive grazing) capabilities. By creating smaller paddocks we are able to use the land much more efficiently, keep animals moving to fresh clean pasture daily, and reduce winter feeding costs. The benefits of this are numerous but due to recent events, the more efficient use of land will be the biggest asset. The event I am referring to is the loss of our lease land which comprises about 2/3 of our operation. Leasing land is a cost effective way of running cattle but unfortunately you are subject to the whims of the land owner. We hope to be able to maintain our current level of inventory and maybe expand a little, even with this setback, by using what we have more efficiently. Being able to rely solely on the main farm has been the goal from the start so we are not too disappointed in the turn of events.

1st day at the Mansfield Farmer's Market

noreply@blogger.com (Blaine Morgan) — Tue, 08 May 2007 01:53:00 +0000

This past saturday we ventured into new territory by attending our first farmer's market. My morning started at about 5:00 to do some last minute loading and just usual getting around stuff. Mansfield is about 35 minutes from Cleburne. The market opens at 7:30 and I wanted to get there by 6:45 to have plenty of time to set up and to avoid any unforseen mishaps. The weather was fairly nice. We had a bit of mist in the early morning and it threatened to rain all day but except for an occasional drizzle we were spared any major wet spells. It did keep it nice and cool though. Being the first weekend in May and not too much produce available yet, the market was a bit slim on farmers. There were only about 10 booths set up counting us. The traffic was light but steady. I don't have an official count of the day but there were probably not many more than 50 people who showed up. Luckily the Mansfield News Mirror had a little write up about the market and mentioned Aquilla Hill being in attendance and that brought some people by to see what we were about. I would like to thank those folks that came out as it made us feel like we were really providing a needed product. I also want to thank my wife Belen and son Rex (2 1/2 yrs old) for coming out to keep me company for part of the day. All in all it was a great first day and I look forward to many more saturdays this season. See ya at the market!

Continual Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Blaine Morgan) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 22:34:00 +0000

I firmly believe that continued education is essential, not only for self improvement but also as an act of social improvement. If we all could learn a little more everyday then the world would be a better place in my opinion. I like to read. Some people don't! There are several ways to learn but if you don't read I think you will greatly hinder your abilities to progress. In the absence of reading, listening and active participation is another great way to learn. The prompting for this blog was a clover field day held in Iola, TX that my father and I attended wednesday May 25, 2007. We left the farm at 5:00 in the morning and arrived in Iola at 7:45. The object of this trek was to listen to a man named Gene Sollock speak who is said by some to be Texas' premier management intensive grazier (MIG). Mr. Sollock has been practicing MIG for over 20 years on his own place and been a proponent for many more years. This was a very informative day. It was encouraging to see so many attendants who were interested in this very sustainable practice that is so essential to the quality of our (the worlds) pasturelands and meat animals. The basic concept is fairly simple and there is much literature available (Management Intensive Grazing by Jim Gerrish comes to mind) but the implemetation takes dedication and to become good at it takes time. We are committed to this learning curve and find the benefits of what we are doing to be extremely rewarding for us personally and to our customer's cullinary sensations.

From Water Cometh All Things

noreply@blogger.com (Blaine Morgan) — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:29:00 +0000

During the last year or so we have been in the grips of a drought unlike anything I have seen in my life and from what I have been told we haven't seen anything like it since the 50's. If you have never experienced a drought you may not appreciate the importance of water. Well, we all "know" the importance of water from an academic stand point but until you have access to it limited then you don't really understand the importance, at least I didn't. Well now I do. We actually had some rain during March so things didn't look too bad for the first part of spring. Then the long hot summer hit and it was dry like it was during the winter and previous fall. Luckily at Aquilla Hill Angus Farm we had begun to implement a water distribution system back in the spring. This system allowed us to provide fresh water from a 200' well to most of our paddocks with about 2400' of underground pipe and allowed us to make new paddocks that other wise wouldn't have had water for our cattle. This is a big improvement over watering out of stock tanks which was our main source of water prior to this new system. As an after thought the system has also been able to provide some irrigation for us that allowed us to actually grow green grass when all around us pasture was dying. With the success of this irrigation we are now in the process of doubling the system to provide even more paddocks with fresh water and the capacity to irrigate more pasture. We are appreciative to our customers for their patronage that allows us to improve our processes to provide consistent quality meat to them.
Regards,
Blaine Morgan