Triform Farm: Winter on the Farm

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Winter on the Farm

This is David Wallace and Mandy Connor coming to you from the Triform Farm on a cold and wintery day. So many things are happening this winter. Lets take a look at some of them. David and a few other farmers worked very hard on cleaning out a pig pen where the Copake pigs lived. From what we have seen, they did a good job. Now the pen is standing ready for new pigs in the springtime.
We moved the cows that were in the field into the shed where we store our tractors and other farm machines. From what we have seen they are living like monarchs in their own pen. One of the cows that were born in the autumn was sold and the owner who got her has decided to keep her name. She was Smokeys calf and her name is Suki. She now lives at Blue Star Farm.
The prices of the meat shop have been lowered for our holiday sale. So if you want to buy some meat from us, now is the time to do it!
The piglets from the last batch are being sold today. Soon we will move the next litter of piglets into that pen so they can wean. We hope that we can sell them. If you want any piglets on your farm, come on down before they get sold like hot cakes.
Well, that is all from us so have a safe and happy holiday. This is David Wallace and Mandy Connor signing off until next year. If you want any more meat and information on what we do and how we run check out our website.
-David Wallace and Mandy Connor

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About Triform Farm

Triform Farm is part of Triform Camphill Community. Triform, founded in 1979, is a residential and therapeutic community for young adults with special needs, located on 125 acres in New York's rural Columbia County. The mission of Triform is to build a vital community life that provides each person the possibility for healing, self-development and fulfillment of potential.

Triform Farm is a USDA Certified Organic and Demeter Certified Bio-dynamic farm. The farm consists of a hand-milked dairy herd, grass-fed beef herd, and heritage breed pigs. On the farm the young adults have an opportunity to gain practical work skills. Students come to the farm to experience working with the animals. They feed the cows, steers and pigs, muck out the barn, clean pens and provide bedding for the animals. They learn to use different tools and how to work as a team with the other members of the farm crew.

Some students go on to become farm apprentices. The apprentices work more full time on the farm and carry many of the daily responsibilities of running a small dairy. They learn how to milk the cows by hand, maintain the machinery, do building projects and repair work to the barn and animal pens, drive the farm golf cart, identify when animals are sick or in heat, and much, much, more. The apprentice program is about four years in length. In that time the young people gain a very broad knowledge of farming. Some go on to work on other farms. Even if they do not, the sense of responsibility, independence and empowerment they gain through land work carries over into other aspects of their lives.

The same can be said of many young co-workers who have come to Triform to volunteer for one year or many. They come with an interest in land work and leave with a very thorough training in biodynamic agriculture. Triform Farm is an exciting place to learn and gain strength and confidence through trying new things. Everyone soon finds that they not only know how to do a new task but have taken on the responsibility of making sure that job is maintained. They can each see that their contribution is vital to the running of the farm. In that way everyone shares in the ownership of Triform Farm.