This weeks updates include:

• Hermione's move to the pasture reuniting her with her piglets,
• Club station cool (what is it)... a shade cloth shelter for pigs when there is no other shade around,
• We are sold out of pork and share some lessons on ordering / selling pork halves,
• Chicken processing coming up next weekend,
• Weather has been hot and dry and the rain has come with a price,
• Shattered window and shredded turkey shelter.

A new segment called The Veggie Patch focuses on the vegetable gardens and gardening techniques we use (because you, the listeners asked for it!)

• Tomato planting, labels and harvesting,
• Basil planting techniques in northern climates

Farm U inspired by a listener comment on the use of antibiotics on the farm.

• Is the meat tainted?
• Why don't you want antibiotics used in livestock
• What constitutes safe or good use of antibiotics on a farm?

• It finally rained some,
• Turkeys enjoying life on the lawn / pasture,
• A successful pig move
• Building a holding paddock / corral in pasture,
• using the livestock trailer correctly,
• ready with food to distract and lure, 
• singing the praises of homemade sorting boards!

In the CoopCast Community:

• Dive_wombat - emailed a very interesting article along from down under about chicken prices as a result of the US drought
• Email and package from Steve in VA with a nifty system to monitor water bucket levels buckets
• The Stewart Homestead had a bit of their homesteading inspired by our talk of Cornish X chickens and pigs.

The Farmers Choice - We had a pig with a problem.  What do we do?

• Fertilizing the lawn with pastured turkeys,
• We have the barn back and are busy drying garlic,
• 9 weeks and less than .25" of rain, TOTAL,
• Nugget, Snowflake and nameless are growing up,
• Hermione is in heat again and piglets are ready for a move,
• We eat good: Bruschetta recipe
• 1 loaf fresh baguette or Italian bread
• 2-3 different fresh picked tomatoes
• 2-3 T good olive oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic (mashed)
• 3-4 springs each of fresh oregano, basil and parsley all chopped fine
• Fresh cracked black pepper and salt to taste
• (optional) fresh grated hard Italian cheese (your choice)

In a bowl combine all ingredients and stir together. Cut bread into slices. Spray with olive oil and place on a medium hot grill until grill marks appear. Spray exposed side of bread with more olive oil and flip.  Immediately place heaping spoonfuls of tomato mixture on the bread and close the grill cover for about 2-3 minutes.  Remove and consume with beer, wine or cold ice tea!

In the CoopCast community:

• Lisa asks about managing problems with raccoons in corn,
• Austin is interested in our methods of marketing and growing our small farm,
• Melanie has a BUNCH of farm business questions which we touch on but will cover more of in the future,
• Another question about starting a CSA.

On this episodes Farm U:

• Building your very own root cellar is a lot easier than you think
• Building
• Location, location, location
• Humidity
• Temperature
• Storage Options

This weeks Farm Updates:

• Endless heat and no rain at all,
• What's the impact of this weather on our gardens, our animals and the nations food supply.
• Pigs and turkeys,
• Kelli loves the greenhouse (and all the garden spiders)
• We had one of our big chicken processing days

Questions, Conversations and Ruminations

• Although it's one of the days of hardest work on the farm we find chicken processing days very rewarding.  In this segment we share some of our thoughts as we reflect back on the first chicken processing day of 2012

• Hermione's standing heat and hormones,
• Piglets are bigger than piglets now,
• Predator attack on the Cornish X birds in the pasture,
• Lost 3 birds and now the defense plan
• Preparing for 1st chicken processing event next weekend

Coopcast Community / Farm U:

• Susan I. asked: why wean piglets and not just let mama do it?
• Holly wanted to know what we feed our pigs?
• Scout wants to know about the low tunnels we use in the garden: Which type of Agribon do you use? Are you primarily using it for pest control or do you have the type that provides frost protection as well? Do you use the manufactured hoops to support it above your plants or are you using some other method? 

A very Happy 4th of July to all our listeners (or Canada Day), folks listening in the UK...  sorry :)

Around the farm:

• Not normal weather for sure.
• Very hot but the gardens are surviving
• Rabbits under hoop the hoop
• Chickens on pasture get processed in 2 weeks
• Chicks and turkeys in the brooders are doing well

Pigs - a very special weaning story

• What we did that was wrong in terms of setup, planning and moving large animals
• What we did that was right and that we would do again when weaning piglets
• What we did that was desperate and stupid
• What we would never do again because being smarter would let us avoid that

CoopCast Community:

• An iTunes review where a listener is going to make some simple changes for healthier chicks and pigs
• Stewart Homestead likes Andy's humor (and thinks this should be a comedy podcast, ok, not really, Andy added that) but they ARE going to try Cornish chickens and their own pigs
• Plants between the rocks said this podcast is a "Skillful blending of planning implementing and evaluating", and we decided they are listening to another podcast and accidentally commented on us!
• MikeE on Facebook posed a question about a rooster when his neighbors are not fans.
• A plea to remind us of topics we said we would talk about but have forgotten about!

Updates around the farm and gardens:

• How to keep cool weather crops happy when it's always over 90F,
• Keeping broilers cool in the pasture with box fans,
• Predators and pastured poultry,
• Still weaning the pigs,
• Thinking about moving the turkeys out sooner.

This weeks DOUBLE FEATURE Farmers Choice:

• Conventional farming isn't all bad so don't treat it that way,
• The difference between researching and just confirming your opinion.

This week’s updates around the farm and gardens:

• First batch of broiler chickens moved out to pasture,
• Pig updates,
• Turkey updates,
• The new garden shed,
• Summer heat in spring and its impact on the gardens and the CSA.

This weeks Rumination:

• Stress of the "uncontrolled" world of farming,
• How to manage the unexpected and being overwhelmed.

This week on Farm U:

• Moving broilers to the pasture,
• Getting the chicks comfortable in their new environment,
• Tips and tricks to making the move to pasture easier and less stressful on the chickens.

This week’s updates around the farm and gardens:

• CSA started and the veggies look great,
• More unexpected hot weather,
• Chicken-scaping the front pasture,
• Preparing to move the Cornish Cross (Cornish X) out to pasture this year,
• Weaning piglets,
• Enjoying strawberries pasture to plate.

In the Coopcast Community:

• A listener with guinea keets,
• Zach processed his first birds and Chad offers a tip on ice for processing,
• Someone listened to us and bought a geothermal system!
• Eddie is looking for tips on getting started.

This week on Farm U:

• The magic in preserving strawberries,
• General food preservation discussions (Kelli's favorite website for preserving food : http://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm)

This week’s updates around the farm and gardens:

• Piglets getting porked up;
• getting names and getting weaned,
• New layer chickens now in coop with the rest of the flock,
• Cornish X chicks in the brooder had some pecking issues,
• Managing hurt chickens and turkeys,
• New brooder for turkeys,
• Veggies planted, seeds planted, mulching has begun - the gardens are in,
• CSA starting this week!

In the News:

• Factory farm and its treatment of animals - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/21/humane-society-wyoming-premium_n_1528541.html
• Baby chicks made 300 people sick over 8 years - ohh the horror - http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/05/30/theyre-cute-but-baby-chicks-can-harbor-salmonella CDC Report on foodborne Salmonella numbers - http://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/2011-foodborne-estimates.html

This week on Farm U:

• Building a chicken brooder,
• What makes a good brooder,
• Differences between broiler chicken / egg laying chicken and turkey brooder design,
• Some tips for managing your brooder to make life easier for you.