Happy Friday!
It's
been a long, busy year and with 2013 coming to a close we're making our plans
for 2014. As with any growing business we've recently made a few changes
to our operating procedure to improve our production. While some may have
the attitude that "don't worry about it, what the customer doesn't know
won't hurt them", we believe that complete transparency so that you know
exactly what you are getting from us. With that said, here are a few
updates. Please feel free to visit, call, or email us anytime you have a
question about what we do.
Our
Beef Is No Longer 100% Grass Fed & Finished Up until the
last beef we killed we were totally grass fed & finished. Starting with the
last beef we supplemented with some all natural crackers that we get to feed
the pigs. The crackers consist of wheat, olive oil, and spices (mainly salt)
without all the preservatives. No corn or soy in any part of the diet. The
main reason for the switch is that with all the rain this summer we had plenty
if grass but not much nutritional value to it and needed something to help
boost the protein and energy. They receive about a couple lbs of crackers per
animal about 2 out of every 3 days to give them that little boost.
Antibiotic
use-
We have always been against the regular use of antibiotics in our animals but
we're not going to withhold treatment from a sick animal for marketing
purposes. Up until now we've not had any issues with sick animals but
with the recent weather fluctuations and rain this fall we've had a time with
pneumonia in some of our young animals. This has required treatment to
prevent large losses. These animals still have another 5 months before
they are ready for their farmers market debut so that is more 5 times the
required withdrawal period for the antibiotics. We don't plan to make
this a regular habit but we will treat an animal when needed to maintain a
healthy, happy herd. WE DO NOT USE ADDED HORMONES FOR INCREASED
GROWTH IN ANY OF OUR ANIMALS
Chicken/
Egg Updates for 2014- We have been in the process of upgrading our
chicken production this fall to allow us to do about twice as many in 2014.
We've been slowly increasing production but demand this summer outpaced our
supply, which honestly, caught us by surprise. I am out of whole birds
until early march which is when our next batch should be ready. We have a
pretty good stock of parts in the freezer which should last most of the winter.
With the eggs,
we've had the regular up and downs with seasonal production with the occasional
hawk and owl thrown in. We had ramped up production last winter/ spring to meet
demand but then so did everyone else at the markets and we were bringing 50 of
the 70 dozen back home. So we picked up a few restaurants to handle the excess.
Now we try really hard to balance between the two customer bases with emphasis
on our market customers. When bad luck (ie a hawk) coincides with high demand
it stresses the supply for everyone.
Since Davidson is
a growers only market we must produce everything we sell, so we don't have any
flexibility in being able to network with other like-minded growers that could
help us fill these lulls no matter how transparent we are about it. That's fine
by us since we've participated in other markets where vendors we're allowed to
resale just about anything and that takes away from the overall quality.of
the.market for vendors and customers.
The lag time for
production is also a challenge since it takes about 4-6 weeks to ramp up egg
production by increasing the flock size, and 12+weeks to have bird ready to
kill for meat from the time the baby chicks are ordered.
This year has been
a good one in the amount of product that we've sold so we're making investments
now to increase the amount we're able to do next year. We hope that you'll be
patient with us while we work through these occasional bump and continue
working to get things smoother.
We
will not be at the farmers markets tomorrow. - Sorry for the confusion on
some of the December dates.
Here's
our market schedule through Christmas
DFM-Dec
14, Dec 21
SFM-
Dec 14, Dec 21
Don't
forget to check out our Wild Turkey Farms Facebook page and
"like" us to get the most up to date info.
We
hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that
support us & other local farmers.
Customshop-
Charlotte
Greeneman
Farms @ 7th Street Market- Charlotte
The
Prickly Pear- Mooresville
Whiskey
Warehouse- Charlotte
Fork-
Cornelius
Napa
On Providence - Charlotte
Thanks
for your support, have a great weekend, and we'll see you at the market.
Lee,
Domisty, Rosty, & Charlie
Wild
Turkey Farms LLC
China
Grove, NC
