I have always wanted to have a blog, and now I do.

 In 1983/1984 I was a member of the Purdue Livestock Judging team, in my senior year majoring in Animal Science.  That was the era of frantically trying to make cattle bigger.  To place cattle in a class,  you simply placed the largest framed one first.  Something about this always bothered me.  The ones that I gravitated to were considered to be the worst ones in the class.  The thick, heavy muscled ones were too "early maturing".   

I got into the sheep business after college and noticed that my most productive ewes were the whitefaced Finn cross ewes that would lay down and spit out 3 lambs and raise them.  The big stately Suffolks never came close to making me as much money as the more maternal ewes would do.  

I had a type set in my mind, for both cattle and sheep, a maternal female, that did what the breed was intended to do.  A centered animal, with natural thickness and volume, along with feminity, a problem free animal that did her job with minimum assistance from me and lasted.

Angus and Hereford cattle hale from the British Islands.  They are known to be a moderate sized, moderate growth type of cattle that produce good carcass quality and the ability to do well on forages.  The problem today is that breeders are trying to make these breeds be all things to all people.  That is simply impossible.  The smart thing to do is to use these breeds for what they are intended for.  They have already invented Charolais.  Just as I would use a Suffolk or Hamp ram on my finn ewes to promote growth, Using a continental breed on a good black baldy or straight angus or hereford cow is the key to success.   

In the future, we will have females for sale, moderate framed, good uddered, problem free, centered cows that will do the job and represent their breed as they were intended to be. All cattle will be produced with integrity and be able to provide value for the grassfed guy or the conventional cattlemen, as long as they are used as intended.  Not too big, not too small, just right! 

   It seems like these days everyone is talking about grassfed beef, and the opinions on the subject are very diverse.  Some of our customers would never even consider eating grassfed beef, while others want to try it or already know that is what they want.  The beef that we ourselves eat is grassfed and to be perfectly honest with you, we think that it is pretty good stuff.  

   There is a school of thought among nutritionists and the medical community that the American diet has become heavily oriented towards Omega 6 fatty acids.  Omega 6 fatty acids are thought to be present in the American diet at a rate 14-25% higher than Omega 3s.  This is thought to be a problem due to the fact that Omega 6 fatty acids tend to promote inflammation throughout the body, including the arteries.  Grainfed beef is thought to be higher in Omega 6 fatty acids.  Omega 3s are anti-inflammatory.   The proper diet should be equally balanced between 6s and 3s.  One excellent source of Omega 3 fatty acids is known to be grassfed and finished beef!

   Another good fat found in Grassfed beef is CLA, again it is thought to be found in higher amounts in Grassfed beef and is thought to help protect against cancer.  Some people go as far as to say that many of the medications and health problems that we seem to be taking and suffering from could be reduced or eliminated by eating the diet that we were intended to.

   Cattle, with their 4 stomachs, were certainly intended to eat grass and not corn, but there are other benefits that go along with this.

Grassfed beef is produced with less fossil fuel usage

Grassfed beef causes less soil erosion.

Grassfed beef is produced here without any chemicals.

Grassfed beef causes little or no water pollution

Grassfed beef is leaner, with no more cholesterol or fat than wild game.

Grassfed beef is usually a local product, reducing shipping and transportation and injecting money into local communities.

Grassfed beef comes from animals that spend their entire lives with freedom, not confined to pens so that they can be animals and are not treated like machines in a factory farm type of environment.

   At our farm, our product starts with the right genetics, cattle that are designed to flesh easily and to gain on grass.  It is followed by proper pasture management, keeping nutritious fresh grass or good hay in front of the animals at all times.  

   Our animals never receive hormones, antibiotics or any other chemicals.  They are fed only natural feeds, so the meat is clean.  Our animals are free to graze pastures, in the sun and most evenings they get to running and bucking, pushing back and forth and pretty much enjoying themselves as they live like cattle were intended to.  

   We are located midway between Lafayette, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois in Newton County, Indiana and our meat is processed at the Brook Locker plant, a small-town, family owned locker that does less than 10 per week, so that you can always be sure that close personal attention is payed to your beef.  

   Give us a call, or send an email, we would be proud to serve you, or better yet, come out and see the cows and spend a little time on the farm.

                                                        The Walkers 

This blog is more newsy than opinion.   We had our last calf in June, once again a successful season with no pulled calves and two sets of twins.  The 916S and 714T calves are born easy and jump up and nurse.  The disposition of the cows was great upon calving and tagging went like a dream,  I will tell you what though; you don't want to wait too long to tag these calves as they are pretty athletic.  

Haying has been very challenging, We got a lot of rain from Memorial day on and had some equipment problems, but to date we have baled over 500 round bales and have the barn filled... what a blessing. 

The pastures are excellent this year, with plenty of grass and the cows and calves are looking great.  This afternoon I took the bulls out to the cows and believe me the bulls were very happy to be back with the girls if you know what I mean.  :)  

On the pig front, we are the proud owners of 6 gilts.  They are crossbred gilts and are named:  Blackie, Gert, Evelyn, Cleo, Mathilda and Flicka.  They came from a confinement operation where they were kept in 8x8 pens, 3 to a pen.   When we got them home, they were frightened by standing on dirt.  It was very sad.  But, they soon learned how to be pigs and are now grazing, which they had to learn how to do, rooting things up and laying around in the mud.  In short they are being pigs.  We plan to breed them to a Berkshire boar in February and let them have their pigs on pasture, next May, so there will be some good pastured pork available in October or November of 2011.

We are also, now the proud owners of a feral Kitten.  The dogs treed it on the feeder near the woods.  I grabbed it and for about 24 hours we kept it in a dog kennel in the house.  It would hiss and run to the other end until day two.  By day three we were holding it and it was purring away.  Now she is into everything and attacks us when we move around and is an all around joy to have.  She has been rather hard on the house plants though.  

Our county fair was last week and Ian got grand champion angus steer.  It was, however the only angus steer there.  I told him not to let it go to his head.  :)  We are proud of him and his ability to bond with his animals in a short time.  We call him the cattle whisperer.  

That is about all of the news, for now, any of you that would like to come out and see the cows or walk the pastures are always welcome.  Nothing is too fancy, but it is functional and unlike the ads on tv for the California dairy cows we actually do have happy cows.  

                                               Greg

I haven't written here for quite a while... We were getting replies in computer code and that is why we removed the comment section.  So it is winter and it has been a pretty good one until last week... We received over 20 inches of snow along with 50 mile per hour winds.... All of the cattle were all snug in their barns and we double fed hay the day before it hit in case we couldn't get through the drifts.  But we could and did and we all survived in fine shape.  

We heat the house with a woodburning earth stove, so we were all snug inside during the storm.  The next morning I ventured out with the tractor and plowed out all of the neighbors and set out to check the heifers at the rented farms 5 miles south.  Our New Holland tractor has a cab and front-wheel assist, so I was able to make it down there in fine shape.  I took a gallon of hot water along, in case the cattle fountain was frozen up and it was.  In about 5 minutes I had it running again checked the heifers hay supply and went over to the other place and fed those cows there.  All in all a pretty full day!  

The grass-fed beef business has been wonderful this year, and I extend a heartfelt thanks from our family to all of our excellent customers.  We plan to expand the business this year in order to take care of all of your beef and pork needs.  Please let me know if you refer someone to us, so that I can give you a discount on your purchase.  As I have related before, the pork end of it will grow this spring, actually in about 3 weeks, the first babies should be born.  We are farrowing them in little huts and the girls have been running out in the woodlot all winter.  They seem to spend a lot of time sleeping and can get into the barn.  The straw in their pen is about 3 feet deep and they burrow into it at night.  

I hate to do this, but we are going to need to raise our prices slightly this year, as costs for fuel and minerals and everything we buy to maintain this operation have been going up.   We are priced well below what other pastured meats sell for and we are going to go from $2.50 per lb on the beef to $2.75.  I am sorry about this, but it is something we must do.  

That is all for now, but drop me an email and let me know ahead of time what you are considering for this upcoming year.  There will be beef available in late June, with the majority ready in October.  Pigs should also be ready in October.  So get on the list...  As is our policy, there is no deposit required and due to the great people we are dealing with, we haven't been burnt yet. 

Take care......   The Walkers of Meadow Oaks Farm..

Stopped in at the Brook Locker yesterday to pay Jeff for the processing on the grass-fed hamburger that we just had done and he laughed as we walked in the door and told us that we were going to have to get a bigger farm!  He had sold 100 lbs or so of our hamburger that morning.  At this rate we are going to have to step things up. 

This past year has been phenomenal, the reponse from people that want clean food that is grown by people who care about their animals and the health of their customers has just been tremendous.  We are truly blessed to be in the position that we are in.  We will continue to produce grassfed-beef and pastured-pork in a manner that gives the animals the best life that they can possibly have and produce grass-fed meats that not only promote a healthy lifestyle, but taste good as well.  

Our customers are from a very diverse areas coming from as far south as Bloomington Indiana and North and west of Chicago.  From Lafayette Indiana to Elkhart Indiana.   By selling the grass-fed products like we do, we are able to provide a superior product at a very reasonable cost and we love what we do.   Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity!  

The baby pigs will be coming the first week of March and this year's new calves will start the last week of April.  The grassfed steers will start to be ready in June and until then we will be doing more burger I guess.  You can call Brook Locker at 219-275-2611 to check availability, or call or drop us an email, but we plan to keep several hundred pounds on hand.  Drop us a line and let us know ahead of time what your grass-fed beef and pastured pork plans are for this year.  Thanks again.  The Walkers

Hello all:  I am trying to start a facebook page...  I am not too high tech, but Ian will probably be able to figure it out for me.  :)  It is Meadow Oaks farm Angus Grass-fed Beef if you want to go on there and be friends.  I need all the help I can get.  

   We are now on facebook, go to Meadow Oaks farm grass-fed beef on facebook and look to see what I have on there... I am trying to put more pictures on there and you can comment and send me messages on that page.  Sign on as a friend, I will be more than happy to have you.  I also have a page on there:  Gregory Walker.  

   We got  our feeders drug out of the mud yesterday and Lynn and I did it without yelling at each other once.    We were liberally coated with mud when we finished though.  We spent some time taking pictures of the new baby pigs when we were finished before starting the hay feeding.  Hope grass comes  on quick, as we are getting close  on our hay supply for this year.      Warm and rainy today, so that will help.  

   We sold two bred heifers to a young man down by Indianapolis and are going to rent him a yearling bull to rebreed them later this summer.  He is just starting out and we are happy to help him do it.  We may have several bred cows or cow-calf pairs to sell later this spring, so if you are interested in some, let me know.  

It is Memorial day weekend and we have been having some memorable weather.  A few days ago it was a high of 44 and today it is pushing 90, Not sure which I prefer... 

The pigs are sure growing, as is the waiting list for them, so if you haven't put your name in, don't wait.  Pork is the best bargain price wise, as you are getting the animal for around $1 per lb liveweight, which translates to around $2 per lb after processing.  We had some porkchops on the grill last week and it was so good...   The pigs will be roaming the woods all summer, eating mulberries, clover, grass and acorns, with a little supplemental corn.  They should have a great time laying in waterholes under the trees.   I will get some pictures up of them in their muddy splendor.  

We have 4 pigs available for June 10th, if you can't wait until fall.  First come first served, so let me know... 

Right now there are 39 people on the list for October beef... Thank you so much!  Same deal as the pork, we will soon be sold out for the fall as well, so get your name in if you want some, otherwise it may be gone. 

I tagged calf number 30 this morning, and our system of calving in sinc with nature at the same time the buffalo would calve is working beautifully.  Have not had to assist a single one, just put a tag in their ear, so we know who is who.  We are about halfway done and should finish by the end of June.  

That is all for now, I will try to get some pictures this week to put on.  Thank you for all of your support of what we are doing here... Greg

This comes from our friends at the American Grassfed Association:

   2011 is over, and 2012 has begun.  We had a great year in 2011, thanks to all of you.  I personally had a lot of fun raising cattle

to supply our growing list of customers.  We also had pastured hogs for the first time.  Now that was a challenge, but a tasty one.

Ian completed Army Infantry basic training and is set to start his first semester of college next week, majoring in Agribusiness 

Management, while being in Army National Guard ROTC.  Lauren is teaching at Wash U and researching genetic diseases that I can't 

even pronounce, and Lynn and I are here raising cattle and going to our other Jobs, but our hearts are here on the farm.  

   We have made a lot of great friends this year and managed to meet the needs of our customers.  A big Thank You to Brook Locker,

Jeff and Angie Laffoon, who worked very hard to meet the needs of our customers and did an excellent job.  Incidentally, we do have 

Hamburger back in at the locker, the price is $3.75 per lb for amounts less than 50 lbs.  50 lbs or more the price drops to $3.50  And there

is more on the way, so everyone that needs some should be taken care of.  Just leave a check with them made out to me when you

pick it up.  

   I am starting the list for beef and pork, so get your orders in early.  This year for the first time, we had a couple of people back out on us.

so... this upcoming year, we will need a deposit of $100 for your order after you place it.  Hopefully, that will help with this.  

   As always, if you want to come out to the farm and visit, let us know and we will do our best to accomodate you.  Probably won't be too

exciting, but you can see what we do.    

                                                                                                                 Thanks and God Bless you.

                                                                                                                           The Walkers

This is from one of our customers:

Hi Greg,

Joel McCosh and family here. We hope you and family had good holidays and a good winter with the stock so far.

Greg, We have spent 2 months eating your beef and have tried every cut except for heart and tongue.

I can honestly say that your product is top-notch in flavor, tenderness and juiciness. This beef is extremely good, no comparison to typical store bought. The flavor brought me back to when I was a kid in the 60's.

Put me on the 2012 fall list for a 1/4. Early fall if possible.

Thanks again,

Joel

When we get emails like this, it makes our day.  We hope we are serving our customers to the best of our God given ability.  

We thank you all for your support.