Where's Waldo Been?

Good morning! 

Wow, I can hardly believe that it's been a month already since I sent out the last newsletter! It's high time I gave you an update on what's been going on here at the farm! 

It's been quite the scurry for me lately, with attending a two-day conference or class each of the last three weeks. Learning from others in the industry is a favorite thing of mine to do, so I thought you would enjoy a quick recap of where all I've been and what I've been learning!

Week #1 Grazing Conference (Springfield IL)

The first event I attended was the IL Grazing Lands Coalition conference in Springfield IL. I was blessed to have my wife Esther come along on the first day as well as our daughter Ellen (7mo)!

The conference was great, with opportunities for networking with other local grazers, as well as learning more fascinating things about soil health and how we can drastically improve it with proper grazing!

Two of the speakers were from Understanding Ag (the organization that Gabe Brown co-founded for those of you who have watched the documentaries "Kiss The Ground" and "Common Ground"). 

Here are a couple of their quotes about soil health that stood out to me:

"Soil is like the gut of the environment - If you don't keep their house up, the microbiology won't live there"

"Livestock turbocharge the system!"
 

A slide showing how many bugs are in the rumen of a cow and how all of that biology inoculates and boosts soil health so much faster.

This only happens if the livestock are grazing on the land, rather than separating the livestock from the land with the conventional production model of row crops and feed lots!
 

I especially appreciate point three in this slide. As a farmer, I need to work with the amazing system that God created, and not abuse or exploit it!
 

This slide shares one of the reasons I love interacting with you! Having so many amazing customers that are passionate about healthy food infuses energy into me!🥰
 

Week #2 Marketing Workshop (Fort Wayne IN) 

The next week Philip and I attended a two day marketing workshop hosted by Seven Sons Farm near Ft. Wayne Indiana.

The Hitzfields have been a inspiration to us for many years as pioneers in the farm to fork movement. They also developed the website platform we use, so needless to say we were very excited to have the opportunity to get to meet them in person and learn from their team!

It was great learning from people who have "been there and done that". Philip and I really appreciated their humility in relating to us as a much smaller business than theirs (they are around 50 times larger than us!). 

It was really neat to have access to their whole team. Everybody from the marketing team, to the CFO, to the order fulfilment team, to the partner farm relations guy! A couple of the brothers' wives and kids joined us as well.

Their farm is around a half hour away from where Esther's family lives, so she and the girls came along and spent time with family while I was at class and I was able to join them for the evenings.

 Chad, the email marketing guru talking about making emails easy to read.

I'd love to know how you read my emails? Are you a skimmer or do you read everything? Hit reply to let me know!🙏
 

They took us out to eat for supper and Blaine shared about mindset and how limiting beliefs can really hold us back. It was really neat to hear about some of their hard times and how they were able to recognize and overcome their limiting beliefs with liberating truths! 

It was very powerful to think about taking ownership of my limiting beliefs!

Saying goodbye to Blaine, the CEO of Seven Sons at the end of an amazing experience!

Week #3 Stockmanship Clinic (Beardstown IL) 

And finally, this past week my brothers Joshua, Timothy, Micah, and I attended a class on proper stockmanship at a fellow farmer's place down by Beardstown.

Dawn is an amazing instructor and teaches all over Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. We felt really privileged to have her here in Illinois!

Conventional methods of handling animals focus on fear, force, or coercion. I love the method that Dawn teaches of working together with your livestock and understanding their instincts to get the desired results!

Stockmanship can be defined as "the way in which we interact physically, mentally, and emotionally with our animals" It is absolutely amazing what can be accomplished when you understand the animal's needs and how to work inside that context. 

We came away inspired with ideas on how to make our handling even more low stress for our animals!

Drone footage of 1200 cows being moved to a new pasture. Now that is a LOT of cows!

Joshua and I saying goodbye to Dawn. We learned a ton from her and had a great time together!

Well, that is some of what I've been up to lately. Taking time to learn from others is so important but it's definitely kept me on the run!

As always, if you have something that you think would be beneficial for us as your farmers to know about — send it over! I'd love to learn something from you as well!

On the note of sending something over, I'd love it if you replied to this email and let me know if you generally skim my emails or if you read them?

The reason I'm interested to know is because some my emails can get a bit on the long side so I'm thinking I should maybe make them more brief if most people are skimming them.😃


Thanks in advance and have a blessed weekend!

Your Farmer,
Corbin
Prairie Creek Pastures