Very interesting afternoon. Sarah and I went to hear Joel Salatin give a talk at the Culpeper library this afternoon. Was very interesting and nice to hear that someone of his farming stature has a lot of the same ideals about farming/raising livestock that we do. The talk was attended by around 40-50 people. Was rather surprised that there were so many people. Mostly farmers or those interested in farming but also people that are just interested or concerned about where their food comes from and believe in farm-to-consumer type of operations and getting away from industrial farming, This is just one more of those things that supports our vision of what we want to produce and provide to our customers and our community.

One thing that struck me was that Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm does not ship their products very farm. I believe he said that they only provide product to stores and farmers markets only within 15-20 miles from their operation. I found that very interesting. He also emphasized diversity of animals and produce. He stated that it greatly helps to cut down on a single type of pathogen decimating your livestock. I learned several years ago that some bugs, worms, virus' that may harm one animal wont hurt another that several are actually neutralized by some animals thus keeping infection in vulnerable animals down. Most worms, virus' do not cross species. We learned that when our pastures are grazed low by the goats or pigs, we move them onto another pasture and run the poultry through to get the worms and slugs that can harm the goats and pigs. Keeps infections down and thus I do not need to use chemical dewormer's near as often as when we over graze the pastures.