For the last year, our area has been in a severe to exceptional drought. In the spring of 2022, the wind blew fiercely most days and the rain didn’t seem to want to fall. I had a feeling it was going to be a dry summer and that we should cut down on our animals, but I kept seeing chances for rain on the weather and the little that did come had us hopeful. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive much rain and ended up selling off a lot of sheep and cows in the fall after we had overgrazed some of our pastures. We have learned a lot from this, and I believe we will look back at this with thankful hearts.
The first several years on the farm we were blessed with abundant rains. We were able to expand everything very quickly, and it was fun to be able to help more people acquire truly pasture raised, clean meats. We kept the animals moving and the grass quickly returned. The last two years have been completely opposite with the drought, and it’s been concerning. As the drought has persisted Cory and I have spent a lot of time praying about this, and the one Bible verse that keeps coming to my heart is from Romans 8:28, And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. I can definitely see so much good coming from this.
As soon as I started planting my plants this spring, I was spending a lot of time watering. I didn’t get the breaks that I was used to when the Lord was blessing us with abundant rains. My husband noticed that I was always headed out to move water, and I felt like I was spending half my day trying to keep up with massive gardens, fields, orchards, and new trees. At a homeschool group my husband was sharing this with another organic farmer, and he was able to share some ideas with us about planting, watering, and harvesting more efficiently. Although we are not selling any of this produce, since we have so much, we need to think more on a commercial level for efficiency. What started as a small garden for me many years ago has morphed into a large amount of work, because I just kept doing what I have always done and not thinking through better options. It was working, but the drought helped us to see it really wasn’t. Do you ever do this?
Since we didn’t think that we would have much for pasture this summer we sold off our sows and boar several months ago. We only raised a few pigs this year and continue to pray for wisdom on this. We will let you know as soon as we decide what this looks like. So far this year, we have been moving our meat birds, layers, goats, and first round of pigs for us on pasture. The cows and sheep have been on pasture since early spring, but we have had to supplement some hay with them the last two weeks. Through a lot of prayer and observation we decided to keep our number of animals down for now and allow more rest on the pastures. We plan to continue to add as much organic matter as we can to the soil to help us be more drought resistant and have more nutrient-dense plants. We are also planting native species that are more drought tolerant as well as being better for the pollinators and us. With all this being said, when we take care of the soil, you and our family will reap more nutrient dense products.
In the last week we have been blessed with abundant rain. Imagine the excitement in our house and the praises that went up to the Lord for His blessing. It’s helping me to catch up on so many things that I was falling behind on. The pastures are looking better, and Lord willing, we will be grazing our cows and sheep again soon. Our family does a lot of reading, and one common theme as we read history is that we as humans tend to take too much from the land, but if we would allow more rest and diversification it would actually produce more. Cory and I were guilty of this with the drought, and we are committed to doing a better job now that we have learned so much from these hard times. You don’t know what you don’t know, and we are so thankful for the lessons we have learned.
What’s a recent lesson you have learned the hard way? We love to hear from you!!