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Why Brun Ko Farm Beef?

3/29/2017

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You might have seen that we are finally going to be offering our very own pasture raised Jersey Beef for sale! This is an exciting moment for us as it takes quite a while (18 months!) and a lot of work to raise steers for beef. And I’ll be brutally honest, it’s also hard to maintain cash flow for the time that you’re raising them. We’ve been feeding between 6 and 19 head of cattle for the last year and a half and this will be the first time money has come in instead of going out! We’ve loved every minute of it though and so it’s all very bittersweet.

But enough of that! Although our long term goal is to have individual cuts of meat available year round, we are currently selling our beef as wholes, halves, and quarters. What does that mean? Well, it means that instead of dropping by the farm and picking out just one or two steaks, you actually buy a whole steer, a half of a steer, or a quarter of a steer. When you buy meat this way, you get a variety of cuts including steaks, roasts, hamburger and stew meat. A whole beef yields about 300lbs of meat in your freezer. A half yields about 150lbs and a quarter of course yields about 75lbs of meat.
So, why would you want to buy this much meat at one time?! There are a number of reasons.

1. It’s cheaper

Who doesn’t like to save money? It’s a lot to bite off at one time and you have to have a bit of freezer space (for more info on freezer space head over to the FAQ section on our beef page) BUT the per lb price is very reasonable when you consider the number of steaks and roasts you end up with. Of course, that depends on your wants as well. If you want all of the meat ground into hamburger you can certainly have that done, but take advantage of the cheap steaks! Buying in bulk from us like this, you will end up paying about $6.97 per lb of meat. Compare that to the grocery store where steaks range from $7-$14 per lb depending on the specific cut and roasts run about $6/lb. You can get roughly 75% steaks/roasts and 25% hamburger out of a whole steer, which means you easily come out ahead by buying in bulk.

2. Quality

Jersey beef is well marbled and oh so tender! Also, because Jerseys are naturally more trim, you won’t end up with a ton of excess fat on the edges of your steaks. Great marbling for flavor within the meat but not a lot of waste on the edges. It’s a win-win!
In addition to the great characteristics of the meat itself, you can also be confident that our steers were treated well all the way until the end. They are raised on pasture in the summer and receive small amounts of grain and lots of quality hay in the winter. You can drive by the farm and see them lounging in the pasture almost any time of day and you can even visit us here at the farm and ask any questions you like!

3. Variety

When you buy a whole, half, or quarter beef, you get a wide variety of cuts. Including cuts you might not normally buy in the store whether it be because of price (it’s hard  to fork out $14 a lb for a t-bone!) or simply because it’s just too easy to buy the same old things all the time. I have linked to a nifty cut chart on our beef page that helps you decide how to cook ‘new to you’ cuts of meat! Also, over time, I will be building up our recipe arsenal on the blog. :)

4. Get it how you like it!

When you buy from us, you have the opportunity to tell the locker exactly how you want your meat cut! Want more steaks and fewer roasts? They can do that! Want more or less hamburger? Done. Prefer your steaks to be thicker? They can do that too!

*bear in mind that there are some limitations - for example: you can only get
so many roasts out of one critter ;)

5. You get to support a local farmer

Not only do you know exactly where and how your meat was raised, you also know WHO raised it. America was built on small farms and we are working hard to keep the tradition alive. Farming is more to us than just a paycheck. It’s giving the livestock the best quality of life possible. It’s taking care of the land entrusted to us and leaving it better than we found it. It’s providing nutrition for your family and ours. It’s also about helping people experience the farm and connect with the land that they otherwise might not get to. That’s why we offer tours and open houses and maintain the blog. We want to know you and we want you to know us! Because ultimately, we can’t do any of this without YOU!

Enjoy!
​Brun Ko Farm
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Farm Fashion - Pregnancy

3/10/2017

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Given the chilly temperature this morning (18 degrees), I decided that this farm fashion update would be appropriate! I still stand by all of my layering ‘rules’ from last year’s post which can be found here. .. but what happens when you throw a pregnant belly into the mix??

​ Well, 3 things
:
  1.The zipper on your coveralls becomes             functionless.
      Just embrace the top button that will now be       what keeps your coveralls from falling off            and give your belly the room it needs! Trust        me, both you and baby will be much happier.

  2. You will for the first time rejoice that most     decent brands of chore coats are designed      for men and extra roomy!
     
It doesn’t even matter that you can’t zip your      coveralls because that extra big bulky coat           that used to always get in the way now fully        and comfortable covers your ever expanding       belly. And between that and a sweater                (which is already a standard layer) you stay          plenty warm!

              
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    3.That shirt from 6th grade finally fits.
      
You know what I am talking about – that               Math Bee shirt (or baskestball, or                        cheerleading, or choir, or whatever) that your       mom bought you  3 sizes too big because            “You’ll grow into it someday”. Well, someday        is here folks! I finally 'grew into' that shirt             that I swam in on competition day and I am         grateful to have it! Love you mom ;)

Well, that’s all I have for now! I don’t know about you but I’ve been beyond grateful for the mild winter and I’m now anxious to get back to ‘normal’ March weather! In the words of my dad “March & February got confused this year!”


Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm
 

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Doors!

2/24/2017

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We finally found the perfect material to make "forever" doors for the calf hutches. And just in time for this shift in weather! Thanks FarmTek for the quick delivery! MUCH better than the 'one storm use' card board 'doors' we've been using. They are a durable plastic just like the hutches are made out of AND I love love love that I will be able to power wash and disinfect them just like everything else we use for the calves. The bottle calves are easily the most vulnerable critters that we have on the farm and I am a freak about disinfecting hutches, buckets, bottles, everything! The doors are removable and we only use them in the event of extreme cold, wind, rain, or snow.

At 29 degrees this morning, it was just a bit warm yet to have the doors on but it is supposed to drop to 15 degrees F by this afternoon which is a HUGE change from the 60 degrees we had just 2 days ago! That's where the black vents on top of each hutch come in. It's hard to see in the picture but they are wide open right now to let extra humidity out and I can adjust them down as the temp continues to cool off. The calves themselves put off a lot of body heat so we just have to help them contain the right amount of that heat inside of their hutch! We also made sure the calves had just a little extra milk this morning and will do the same tonight to give them some extra energy to get through the change in weather. That, providing plenty of dry bedding and constant vigilance is about all that we can do to make sure they stay healthy through this change!

Although, we people like to complain a lot when the temperature/weather makes a dramatic shift, we can do a lot more for ourselves than we think. We can add or subtract layers of clothes by the minute if we like. And most of us have the option of hanging out in a climate controlled building for much of the day. Animals on the other hand have to rely much more on their bodies to deal with those temperature changes. IF those changes happen gradually, they generally have little to no problem. Cows actually prefer cooler weather! A cow is most comfortable right around 40 degrees F and can easily adjust to below freezing temps. Again, IF those changes happen reasonably gradually. We, as farmers, can't completely shield our animals from the extremes BUT we can help them out by providing shelter, dry bedding, and adequate feed! And that is exactly what we try to do! I mean, who doesn't feel better when they are dry, out of the wind and have a full belly??

Stay warm, safe & ..
Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm


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Twins

2/15/2017

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As many of you know, Abby had twin heifers (two girls!) a few weeks ago. While we are ecstatic about adding 2 healthy heifer calves to the farm, most of the time twins are actually NOT considered a good thing on a dairy farm.

​Cows are really only meant to have 1 calf at a time and having multiples is hard on the mama! Cows that have twins generally have more difficulty giving birth and most of them end up needing assistance from their farmers and/or the vet. Abby luckily did not! Twins pull more resources from the mother throughout the pregnancy and so cows that give birth to twins often have more trouble recovering from the birth and during the time that they are giving milk.

As for the calves, calves that are born a twin tend to be smaller than normal and are more likely to be born early. You might remember the itsy bitsy teeny tiny bull calf we had born about this time last year. He was a twin (his twin brother was stillborn - another common problem with twins) and only about half as big as a normal calf. Twins are often less thrifty and have more health problems throughout their lives. The biggest concern with twin calves though is freemartinism. A free martin is a heifer calf that has a twin brother (bull). A free martin is almost ALWAYS infertile. Meaning they will never have a calf and become a milk cow. Freemartin calves are raised for beef just like a steer. Because of this we are especially happy that BOTH of the twins were HEIFERS!

​So, we were truly blessed with this set of twins. Abby carried them to term, did a great job delivering them AND she is recovering well! Furthermore, both twins are good sized and full of vigor. The fact that both twins are heifers is the absolute icing on the cake!!

Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm
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Meet Our Herd: Piper

1/27/2017

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If you have been following us on Facebook or Instagram,  you have probably seen photos of a cute little black and white cattle dog named Piper. Despite being a dog, Piper is still very much a part of our ‘herd.’ Piper is a ‘working dog in training.’ She is chock full of energy and wants to be helpful.

All of that energy is hard to channel though and when we don’t have enough work for Piper to do, her extra energy and inherent curiosity can really get her in trouble!

​I tend to be pretty hard on Piper, but as I am writing this, NP is gone on a business trip (he will be back before it is published) and I have to admit that Piper is kinda nice to have around …
​

She has been my ‘gate watcher’ & ‘steer-keeper-out-of-the-wayer’ and just plain companion as I wrestle hay bales, buckets of grain, and fresh bedding through gates and across pastures. NP’s patience and the time he has put into training Piper is really starting to pay off. It is nice to know that I can set Piper at an open gate and tell her to ‘watch it’ and not have to worry about the cattle getting out while I make multiple trips in and out with hay bales or wheel barrows full of bedding. She is also good at pushing the cattle back to give me space to work in the pasture. The cattle are a curious bunch and like to investigate anything and everything that is happening in the pasture which can make it hard to get a task accomplished! Piper particularly loves this ‘steer-keeper-out-of-the-wayer’ task! She can be a bit over zealous though and the next step in training is to reign in and channel her enthusiasm! Part of the problem is that she doesn’t get to do this task nearly often enough. This is compounded by the fact that the steers learn in pretty short order to back off when Piper shows up!

​
NP and Piper 'horsing around' on the hay pile :)
Piper keeping the steers out of the way as NP works on the waterer
#workingdoglessons
**click on each picture above to see the full image**
Come this Spring though, we will begin a more intensive rotational grazing program with the cattle and Piper will have more opportunities to ‘round up’ the herd and move them from pasture to pasture. I think Piper will really enjoy this job!

Piper also provides us with a great source of entertainment. She has really been enjoying this snow! When you watch her go bounding and jumping through it - you can see how much fun she is having! In the warmer months, she loves to play in the water. She also enjoys ‘herding’ chickens. Bear in mind, she would much rather be eating them but so long as we are around, she knows she mustn't! So, she contents herself with attempts at herding them and it is quite the show!

Piper is a young dog and I expect she will be with us for many years to come. Keep on following along here and on FB to see what she learns and how she continues to help us out on the farm!
​

Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm

​
To learn about more of our herd, check out the “Meet Our Herd” posts on our blog index!


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Abby had Twins!

1/26/2017

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If you've been following us on Facebook, you know that we have been preparing for our milk cow, Abby, to calve. What we weren't expecting was that Abby would have TWO calves! And both heifers at that! Talk about growing the herd ;)
Abby licking her calves clean after giving birth
Warm & Dry!
Abby had her calves early Wednesday morning during the snowstorm that we had. It is common for cows to calve during inclement weather - I've heard it's due to the atmospheric pressure changes but who knows for sure? Abby did a great job of cleaning her calves off and I helped her finish the drying process. Luckily, Abby did decide to have her calves in the shelter of the nicely bedded shed we provided her instead of the muddy pasture!!
After moving the calves safely to the side, I milked Abby to harvest the life giving colostrum. We then fed the calves each an overflowing half gallon of the liquid gold (read more about colostrum here) and moved them to the hutches that will be their homes for the next 2 months. Once the calves were good and dry we also put blankets on them. Between the blankets and the deep straw bedding in the hutches they should stay cozy and warm! You can read about why we use calf hutches here. I was thankful to have my dad on hand to help feed, bed, and move the calves! Between the snow and being pregnant, it would have been challenging to do by myself!
Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm
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Meet Our Herd: Lily

1/13/2017

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Isn't she cute?! Like I mention in the blog, Lily doesn't have a number yet. The orange tag in her ear in this picture was to help keep flies away during the Summer.
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In my blog post Numbers Vs. Names, I explained why all of our cows get numbers for names. Lily is the exception. Lily is over a year old and does not have a number yet.

Why?
​

Laziness.

For whatever reason, we opted not to tag Lily when she was born. To be honest, I dont think we had the proper tagger at the time and since she was the only heifer without a tag we didn’t worry about it. Luckily, Lily has not (yet) befallen any of the terrible things that I tend to believe will happen to animals with names. We have since acquired the appropriate tagger and Lily will soon be getting an eartag with a number to go with her name!

Lily got her name because she was due to be born on my birthday. She was a couple of days late but NP still dubbed her Lil-E which morphed into Lily.


The other unique thing about Lily is that she is 26147 (Abby)’s 3rd calf. And the 2nd heifer born at Brun Ko Farm. Lily is 15 months old and was featured in a FB post last week when I bred her following a dance NP and I attended. You can read more about breeding cows in this post). We will be watching Lily closely here this next week to get a feel for whether or not she ‘settled’ or got pregnant at that breeding. If she didn’t settle, Lily will show signs of heat and we will breed her again. If we don’t see signs of heat then we will wait a few more weeks and then check to see if she is pregnant. Fingers crossed for good news!


Lily spends most of her time with our older steer group as she is close in age to them. I imagine she experiences all of the same things as a girl with more brothers than sisters! She falls right in the middle of the command chain and certainly knows how to look after herself. She isn’t the boss of the group but she doesn’t let the boys get the best of her either! She is not nearly as friendly as her half sister 26160 was but she is getting used to being handled by NP and I.



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Lily "Ma! No pictures while I'm eating!" All of our cattle get a grain/protein mix and all the hay they can eat in the winter. In the summer they get a smaller portion of grain and 24 hour access to pasture.
Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm

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Preparing the Bees for Winter

1/3/2017

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This picture is from Spring when we first got the hive but it shows NP giving the bees protein patties and the chicken waterer to the right holds the sugar water. In the winter, NP uses either just plain sugar or a candied version instead of sugar water.
Soon after honey harvest, NP started preparing the bees for winter. Honey bees are not native to Iowa and our cold winters can be tough! Luckily honey bees adapt well and they do some of their own winter prep work too! Bees prep for winter by kicking out the drones, aka the male bees. The drones serve no other purpose than to fertilize the queen and so rather than feed the extra mouths through the winter, the workers bees kick the boys out! Bees are also really good at self regulating the temperature inside the hive. In the winter they keep the hive between 93 & 96 degrees Fahrenheit. They do this by forming a cluster and flapping their wings and shivering.  Because bees need to stay warm it is also important to not open the hive on cold days! NP uses a guideline of 50 degrees F or warmer.
​
Although bees are pretty good at taking care of themselves, honey bees are not native to Iowa and they need some help from us humans. We leave a good amount of honey with the bees as this is their food for the winter. However, NP also supplements the honey supply with sugar and protein patties. He also put a mouse guard in the opening of the hive. A mouse guard reduces the size of the hive opening so that mice can’t get through it. Mice are always looking for a warm place in the winter and what better place than a protected hive full of yummy honey?!  Bees can actually kill mice but they really need to conserve energy through the winter months so a mouse guard really helps!

​
The thin wooden strip underneath the white hive box is the mouse guard.
Close up of the mouse guard showing the tiny hole that the bees use to enter/exit
This tiny hole is at the top of the hive and acts both as an exit/entry for the bees and as a vent for excess moisture.
NP supplements the bees with sugar over the winter. The top box with cedar chips is for ventilation/moisture control.
NP tied thin insulation to 3 sides of the hive to provide extra protection from the cold
In this location, the trees and buildings protect the hive from the winter winds!
Remember all of that heat the bees generate by wriggling their bodies? Well, all that work also creates a lot of moisture inside of the hive. This can be a real problem if the moisture can’t escape. Beekeepers have several methods of helping the bees with this problem. NP and a neighboring beekeeper got together this fall and they constructed moisture control/ventilation boxes. These boxes have a screen on the bottom and are filled with cedar wood chips. The wood chips absorb the moisture from the hive and the moisture then escapes through holes drilled into the side of the box.

​
The screen on the bottom of the box allows the moisture to move from the hive into the cedar chips.
The boys showing off their hard work!
Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm

If you liked this blog - check out our previous post about honey harvest!
www.brunkofarm.weebly.com/blog/honey
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We are moooving ...

12/14/2016

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I know I’ve mentioned a couple of times recently how excited we are for 2017 and all of the changes and opportunities to come. Well, things are starting to shake out and take shape, giving us some solid facts to share!

The title already gave away one of Brun Ko Farm’s major upcoming changes.

We are moving - a short 9 miles down the road. Yes, we will still be farming next year and god willing for many many years into the future! The ability to continue farming and also to be able to expand our farm are the exact reasons we are moving.

So, where are we moving to? We will be moving to NP’s homeplace just a few miles south of our current location. We will still be right on Hwy 173 which is very important to us as we continue to build an on-farm market and maintain our policy of welcoming visitors to the farm!

Why are we moving? Currently we are landlocked, meaning that we have no opportunity to expand beyond the 6.5 acres that we currently own. While we have drawn elaborate plans and developed detailed schemes to absolutely maximize the potential on our little acreage, it would have been a struggle to make a living here. Maybe not impossible but we would have always had our eggs in one basket so to speak as opposed to being able to keep the farm diversified.

Our second reason is access to water. We have a well that works great for our own household use and even for watering a few head of livestock. However, the well is shallow and would never support the 15 head of milk cows and the extensive washing needs of a dairy and creamery. We also discovered this summer that installing rural water was not an option for us.

All in all it became clear to us that we needed to look for better opportunities elsewhere.

Our new place - NP’s homeplace - will allow us the opportunity to grow into the surrounding farm land and also is the home to a beautiful, plentiful, deep well.

The second big change for Brun Ko Farm will come in June of 2017 when we welcome home a brand new, itsy bitsy, teeny tiny addition to the family. Although Baby P will seem tiny at first, I am sure that his or her impact on the farm and our lives will be anything but small!

With these big changes and all of the little ones that accompany them, it is impossible to pin down exactly how 2017 will look for us. What I DO know is:
​
  1. We will continue to farm and sell vegetables, although possibly on a smaller scale during the transition
  2. We will maintain our beef steers, with our first beef being available late Spring/early Summer 2017 and we will continue to raise pork
  3. All baking is on hold - at least until we work through these times of transition! This is a tough one for me but we’ve had to choose where to focus time and energy this next year and the expected babe and the farm take priority
We are beyond thankful for all of the upcoming opportunities and all of the help and support that has been shown by our friends, family and community! We love this little community that we live in and are glad to be staying close by! We have had the most spectacular neighbors these past few years and thankfully by rural standards our ‘neighbor base’ really won’t be changing much at all!

We look forward to many more years of doing what we love!
Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm
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Honey!

12/1/2016

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A couple of weeks ago, we finally harvested honey from NP’s first hive of honey bees. The first thing we did after removing the 'super' from the hive was to allow the honey to dry down a bit. If the honey contains too much liquid it can actually ferment in the jar! Once NP was satisfied that the honey was dry enough, we began the extraction! 

​We borrowed a hand crank honey extractor from a friend and turned it into a family affair with my parents pitching in with supper and some arm muscles ;) Before we could put the frames in the extractor, NP had to 'uncap' the honey comb using a sharp knife. With that step complete we were ready to start spinning!


The extractor is basically just a centrifuge. It holds 3 frames at a time and as you crank on the handle, the frames spin and the honey flies out of the honeycomb and drains to the bottom of the canister. From there it flows into a bucket with a filter to help remove any bee’s wax or debris.  With just 1 super (8 frames) to harvest, it went pretty quick and I didn’t hear any complaints about sore arms the next day!

​
NP filtered the honey twice and filled the jars. Isn’t that beautiful?! Now to get some labels made up and we’ll be in the honey business ;)

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NP cranking the honey extractor!
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Honey!! The very first honey flowing out of the extractor! This bucket has a filter nestled in the top of it for the honey to pass through.
We didn’t have huge yields this year as the bees had to work hard building wax, making honeycomb, and growing the size of the colony in addition to collecting nectar and making honey. To be honest, with all of the extra work that a first year hive has to do, we were just happy that they survived. That we were able to harvest honey this year was truly the icing on the cake! Next year, this hive should be in good shape from a housekeeping stand point and the bees will be able to focus more on collecting nectar and making honey :)

Enjoy!
​Brun Ko Farm

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    Emily Paulsen

    Just a girl with a passion for the animals, the land, and feeding people!

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