It’s the age ol’ question that continues to perplex us – which came first? The chicken or the egg? Most days, eggs are far more likely to be part of the breakfast mix than that may mean they come first for a lot of us. But for egg farmers like Dianne McComb it’s the care of hens that deliver the incredible, edible egg! So both stay front and center!  (Podcast transcript available here — Talking with an Egg Farmer)

Getting to Know Dianne

McComb’s farm is in Ontario, Canada, just two short hours from downtown Detroit Michigan. She says the area still offers all the benefits of that country, rarified fresh air experience when it comes to growing resources and rearing livestock. The farm’s rolling hills are nestled in among other farms and small cities making for an excellent sense of community, interdependency and life that helps to foster the legacy she and now four generations have crafted.

Currently, Dianne and her brother operate the farm. They took it over from their parents a few years ago. And although Dianne’s children have chosen not continue on with the family farm legacy, the farm is in transition as new family of owners.

At 400 acres, her farm is average, and at one time featured beef cattle, crops and egg-laying hens at one time, but now eggs, corn, wheat and soybeans make up the main compliment of resources that Dianne and her farm provide. Believe it or not, the corn makes for an incredibly recyclable resource as they feed the egg-laying hens the grain to make them healthy and strong, then when the hens eliminate, their manure is used as a fertilizer to help make the corn (and wheat and soybeans) grow strong and fine, just like the hens and their tasty bounty!

Taking Care of the Hens

For some context, Dianne’s farm features 25,000 hens currently which make it an average-sized hen operation in Canada. When we compare it to the hen farms in the United States however, the number of hens increase to a  million on average. That’s a lot of eggs!

What also comes with the hens, is the ongoing, evolving relationship of care. When you walk into the barn, they know you’re there and interact appropriately. In a smaller operation like Dianne’s, that’s incredibly valuable. That top level of animal care results in hen health, regular laying activity and standard of quality.

Although a backyard chicken coop may take a few minutes a day to take care of, a flock like the McCombs are more like a regular business day. After starting her day at 8 am, Dianne walks through tending to the hens needs,  collecting eggs and the detailed cleaning needed to preserve biosecurity in her farm. She says most days, she’s done in the barn by 3:30 pm, which was especially nice when her kids were school aged. It’s a lot of work, but it’s truly a labor of love.

While the grind of a farm IS a daily activity, Dianne has a number of helping hands come in on the weekends to help round out all of the duties to take care of the farm. The housing system they used is called “enriched housing” for hens.  Hens are inside all the time, have a perching area, a nesting area, and dedicated feed lines that run inside the living quarters. When the hens lay their eggs, they roll out onto a belt that collects them. Their manure is also managed to help keep both the hens and their general environment clear and healthy.

Dianne is active with a program called Farm & Food Care and pointed us to some videos that would help us see what the farm is like.

Focusing on the Eggs

The post For Egg Farmers, Both Chickens and Eggs Have to Come First! appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Trish & Brian McKeighen both have full-time jobs, but as they were planning a wedding, they also knew they wanted to farm. They kept their eyes open for something near Brian’s hometown of Saint David, Arizona. The place they found had about a dozen pecan trees so that is what they started their farm — Belenus Farms LLC — with.

The scenario of starting to farm is one that lots of young people are interested in, but it’s a hard proposition and that certainly was the case for the McKeighens. Both Trish and Brian have full-time jobs and joke that they work to pay for their farming habit. At the same time, they are looking at who to do more with what the farm offers.

Their small farm in the southeastern corner of the state looked heavenly as they showed me around it as the sunset. Trish took the role of tour guide while Brian got the dogs a bit of fun playing fetch. We take a look at the chickens getting a lesson in naked neck and other breeds, egg colors and more. Then we take a look at the pecan trees and hear a bit about how the McKeighens are making things work. The sun setting over a pasture with mountains in the distance really is something that would captivate crowds. I certainly fell hard for it.

A dozen pecan trees isn’t much when you realize farmers in that area could have hundreds, even thousands of trees. But as Trish & Brian showed me around the place, I could see why they chose to do it and expect you will too.

So how do you make the most of a dozen pecan trees? That’s the primary discussion of podcast episode 105 that goes live on Wednesday. Trish & Brian McKeighen talk to us a lot more about the how they leveraged Brian’s part time job experience from high school to make the farm’s candied pecans worth a premium.

The post Young & Wanting to Farm, Trish & Brian McKeighen Pick Pecans appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.