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  • Hen vs Barn Cat + Retained Placenta + Equipment Repairs + More Rugby + Off-Farm Work + All Is Well Knock On Wood

    Hen vs Barn Cat + Retained Placenta + Equipment Repairs + More Rugby + Off-Farm Work + All Is Well Knock On Wood
    2026/04/08
    I've never seen a chicken break up a cat fight, until now. While Peter and I are busy welding and repairing equipment, a cow decides to have her calf. How I dealt with her retained placenta. I am starting to think about all kinds of spring activities including chainsaw work in the field edges, fence repairs, planting equipment, helping to coach boys and girls rugby at the high school, and off-farm contracting work. Busy days ahead!

    Find your place in the world. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. - Gary Snyder

    Please contact me with your own stories.
    greatbigfarmer@gmail.com
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    28 分
  • The Bull Gets Nosy + A Spring Drive Through Mennonite Country + Wendell Berry's 1992 iv

    The Bull Gets Nosy + A Spring Drive Through Mennonite Country + Wendell Berry's 1992 iv
    2026/03/30
    The bull and a nest of bees
    The importance of manure as fertilizer
    The skidsteer's time to shine
    Rugby is my volunteer work
    I am an idiot and wrecked my chainsaw
    A chill drive through Mennonite country
    My fence chargers can be repaired
    Mennonite and Amish farms look very different from English farms
    Our farm doesn't have any bare soil
    Today I can feel spring coming on!!
    Wendell Berry's 1992 iv @ 18 min 49 sec


    Find your place in the world. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. - Gary Snyder

    Please contact me with your own stories.
    greatbigfarmer@gmail.com
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    22 分
  • Larry Kraemer And The Path To Organic Agriculture

    Larry Kraemer And The Path To Organic Agriculture
    2026/03/21
    Are you thinking about making a move to organic agriculture? Larry Kraemer shares the details of his path from a life in Toronto to his organic farm near Kincardine. This is a great episode if you are thinking about transitioning from conventional farming to certified organic.
    Contents:
    Raised in Toronto
    Great memories of summers in Bruce County
    The joy of hard work
    Operating a conventional dairy farm
    The challenges of high interest rates in the 1980's
    Running a business and raising a family while also farming
    Raising beef cattle
    The circumstances that lead to growing organic row crops
    Record keeping for organic certification can be easy!
    Grain storage
    Crop rotations
    Growing organic soybeans to illustrate what it takes to raise a crop organically
    Equipment and strategies to keep weeds at bay
    Marketing organic crops
    Farming as part of a rewarding life!


    Find your place in the world. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. - Gary Snyder

    Please contact me with your own stories.
    greatbigfarmer@gmail.com
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    1 時間 6 分
  • Celebrating Life

    Celebrating Life
    2026/03/06
    This afternoon I travelled to Southampton to celebrate the life of a teaching colleague, Pat Joynt. This episode was recorded in the bank barn while sitting with the calves.

    The Present...until the 6:45 min mark. Noticing the small stuff in life. Calves, a barn cat, and hockey on the radio.

    The Past...from 6:45 to 16:47 min. Thinking about the joyous life of Pat Joynt and the unique community that existed in the high school where I taught.

    The Future...from the 16:47 min mark. It's time to start thinking about tomorrow. I call what I do each day the essential-ordinary. There is a lot to be said for finding joy in thoughts of tomorrow. As we all know tomorrow will be the new present, before living again as the next memory in the new past.

    Find your place in the world. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. - Gary Snyder

    Please contact me with your own stories.
    greatbigfarmer@gmail.com
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    19 分
  • Mouse Attack + Marketing Wheat + Getting The Bull Outside

    Mouse Attack + Marketing Wheat + Getting The Bull Outside
    2026/03/04
    We get the sugar maple seeds planted, and a mouse helps to make things interesting in the seeding room. I worked on marketing my hard red winter wheat using an "everybody needs to win" approach. Teddy the bull sees the great outdoors for the first time since he got here.

    Find your place in the world. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. - Gary Snyder

    Please contact me with your own stories.
    greatbigfarmer@gmail.com
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    13 分
  • Flint The Cow Suddenly Goes Psycho + The Organic History Of One Field Including Cover Crops

    Flint The Cow Suddenly Goes Psycho + The Organic History Of One Field Including Cover Crops
    2026/02/27
    I learned some lessons when Flint the cow suddenly became maximally aggressive when a strange person entered the bank barn.
    Also, it is a requirement of organic certification to maintain field histories. The added bonus is you can look back on a field and really get a sense what worked and what didn't. I discuss the challenges presented when cropping this field and some of the steps I have taken so far with crop rotations and cover crops.

    Find your place in the world. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. - Gary Snyder

    Please contact me with your own stories.
    greatbigfarmer@gmail.com
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    38 分
  • Dead Calf? Plus, Checking On The Tree Seeds In The Fridge

    Dead Calf? Plus, Checking On The Tree Seeds In The Fridge
    2026/02/25
    As they say, if you have livestock you're going to have deadstock. That's always in the back of my mind when I check on the cattle and the calf I noticed today didn't look right. Also, I have a few minutes to check on the tree seeds that I put in the fridge.
    Jan 11 - tree seeds placed in damp paper towel then stored in ziploc bags in the fridge
    Feb 25 - checking the seeds 46 days later

    Walnut, birch, silver maple, sugar maple, oak.

    Conclusions? Some of the sugar maple seeds have germinated, so I should transplant them to soil right away. The silver maple seeds just don't look good, and it was probably a mistake to vernalize them in the fridge. I should have just planted them last spring when they fell. Too early to tell with the walnut, birch and oak.

    Send me questions, comments, or advice about growing trees from seed.

    Find your place in the world. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. - Gary Snyder

    Please contact me with your own stories.
    greatbigfarmer@gmail.com
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    18 分
  • Would anyone benefit from an open house "field day" on this farm?

    Would anyone benefit from an open house "field day" on this farm?
    2026/02/24
    If I hosted a field day, would anyone even come? Do I have any useful knowledge or experience to share? These are some of the questions that come to mind as I entertain the idea of hosting an open house "field day". As this episode was recorded I arrived at a few tentative conclusions. I think I have some experience to share when it comes to rotationally grazing cattle because I've been doing it for a long time. Likewise for anyone interested in organic row cropping, I might have interesting things to offer because I am relatively new to it. If someone likes to experiment, they might be interested in my attempt at organic no-till soybeans using rye and roller crimping. There is also the equipment! I farm in 2026 using equipment from 1970 and could set all of it out for people to see. The agroecological practices that I've been doing over the years, and the new things like starting trees from seed all might appeal to someone who attends. Who knows? I'm tempted to host the field day and see what happens...there is only one way to find out if it would help someone.

    Find your place in the world. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. - Gary Snyder

    Please contact me with your own stories.
    greatbigfarmer@gmail.com
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    39 分