Where's Waldo Been?

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posted on

March 29, 2025

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

Raw Life or Sterile Death?

Good morning! I go way back – thousands of years actually. I was a huge part in the success of society; making the youth grow strong with my rich nutrition, helping digestion with my enzymes, boosting people's immune systems, and preventing allergies with my special compounds. People even let me sit at room temperature so I could work with other good guys to make probiotic rich superfoods like kefir, yogurt, clabbered milk, cultured buttermilk, cultured cream, and raw cheese. Everyone who interacted with me came away better because of our relationship!💪 But then something happened... In the mid 1800's some dairies were moving into big cities. The problem was that the cities didn't have pastures or clean water. The cows were kept in deplorable conditions and also fed byproducts from alcohol distilleries that made the cows sick. People started getting sick from me - some even died.😔 Their solution? KILL EVERYTHING in me by pasteurizing! And it has continued to this day... Now, when you set me out at room temperature, I rot instead of fermenting. Without enzymes, absorption of my nutrients is like trying to eat saltines without water. People's bodies react to me because my proteins are unrecognizable. It's demoralizing being rejected.😢 BUT I HAVE HOPE! People are starting to come around to the idea that RAW LIFE is better than STERILE DEATH. That what has nourished them for thousands of years might be a good idea. That maybe I do have something to offer them! I feel like I'm becoming a celebrity with the number of people that are finding out about the raw me!🥳 GO RAW MILK! Raw Milk - Nature’s Superfood According to the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) "In many ways, raw milk is similar to breastmilk: both are completely natural, fresh, and unprocessed milks. They both contain a wide variety of essential nutrients, fats, proteins, anti-inflammatory and digestive enzymes, bioavailable vitamins, and minerals, all in a natural form which is most easily utilized by the body." Raw Milk Helps Lactose Intolerance "In addition, raw milk facilitates production of lactase enzyme in the intestinal tract, allowing many people who are lactose intolerant to digest raw milk with no problems." Conventional medicine will tell you that raw milk does not help with lactose intolerance. However, one of their often cited studies is based on a very small sample size of 16 people as well as using a testing method that is questionable in its accuracy. Personally, we've had numerous people report that while they are unable to drink pasteurized milk, they are able to drink our raw milk just fine without any discomfort or reaction! For ones who have been off of dairy for years, this is a major breakthrough! In one survey of 155 raw milk drinkers who had been diagnosed with lactose intolerance by a healthcare professional, 76% reported that they did not have any symptoms when drinking raw milk! In addition to our milk being raw, we've also chosen to select cows that have the A2A2 gene. The difference between A2A2 and A1A1 is a gene mutation that some cows carry that developed several thousand years ago. When A1 milk is broken down in your gut, it releases a potentially harmful opiode BCM-7. A2A2 milk on the other hand does not release BCM-7 and is the original milk that humans have consumed for thousands of years. Many people who struggle with the A1 gene in milk handle A2A2 milk much better. Dr. Sina McCullough also notes that for people with gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, A1 milk can elicit a immune response similar to eating gluten due to A1 milk looking similar to gluten to the body. As a final comment, I wanted to mention that while many people do have success with our A2A2 raw milk, there are some people whose bodies are still not able to handle even our milk. Raw Milk Reduces Asthma, Allergies, & Fevers Numerous studies have shown benefits to drinking raw milk in reducing Asthma, Allergies, and Fevers. According to RAWMI: "One study of over 8,000 children showed that raw milk consumption is associated with significantly lower rates of asthma and allergies. Another study of over 4,000 children found that consumption of raw milk was associated with a strong protective effect against eczema. And finally, a study of over 900 children concluded that, "Early life consumption of raw cow's milk reduced the risk of manifest respiratory infections and fever by about 30%"." Our customers have also shared first hand experience of allergies improving when they start drinking our raw milk! Regeneratively Pastured = Nutrient Dense Raw Milk I recently attended a presentation by Dr. Allen Williams – a leading researcher and practitioner in regenerative farming. He presented some mind blowing numbers comparing the nutrient density of milk from regeneratively pastured cows to conventional confinement cow milk. In the slides below, the center column is the best regenerative dairy's numbers, while the column to the right is the mean (average) of all the regenerative milk samples. This is as compared to conventional confinement milk. I don't know about you, but I am impressed! You are getting many times the nutrients in your milk when you get it from a farm that practices regenerative grazing like we do! It gets even better when you keep the milk raw instead of pasteurizing it. Raw milk contains compounds that encourage the growth of large numbers of lactobacillus and bifidobacterial in the gut. These help to build a balanced gut microbiome as well as increasing the absorption of essential nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, folate, and B12. Sign me up!🙋‍♂️ Safety of Raw Milk It is important to note that there is no such thing as a perfectly safe food. According to RAWMI, "An analysis of foodborne illnesses from 2009-2015 showed that the top food categories commonly linked to illnesses were chicken, pork, and seeded vegetables. Pasteurized milk is not perfectly safe, either, and is implicated in foodborne illnesses and outbreaks every year." An independent assessment of raw milk risks from 2000-2007, showed that there was a 1 in 94,000 chance of becoming ill from drinking raw milk, and a 1 in 6 million chance of being hospitalized. In 2007 there were around 9.4 million people drinking raw milk in the U.S., and despite increasing legal distribution and an explosion in consumer interest and consumption, the outbreak rate per capita has come down significantly since then. The best way to verify the safety of your milk is to make sure that you are getting it from a farm that has a high standard of cleanliness! As a verification of our milk's safety, we follow a routine testing protocol that verifies that we are continuing to produce clean, safe milk. Finally, at the end of milk bottling, the crew will often drink some of the milk - not as a test of safety - but because they love it and trust it completely! Raw Milk as Medicine Interestingly, raw milk has been used as a cure for many diseases by reputable doctors in the past. Dr J.E. Crewe MD, one of the founders of the Mayo Foundation, successfully used raw milk in his medical practice for over 15 years. I also recently learned from RAWMI that, "From 1893-1999, the American Association of Medical Milk Commissions (AAMMC) certified clean, safe raw milk for human consumption and even medical therapeutic use. This certified raw milk was recognized to be of therapeutic benefit for infants, children, and adults. This milk was used effectively in hospitals around the United States and was used to treat a wide variety of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, renal disease, liver disease, hypertension, edema, asthma, arthritis, tuberculosis, and diabetes." Wow, wouldn't that be amazing if hospitals treated patients with raw milk again!💥 So there you have it! My story going back thousands of years and how I'm making a comeback again today. Which version of me will you choose? My RAW LIFE amazing self that has nourished your ancestors for thousands of years? Or my unrecognizable STERILE version that has been pushed for the last hundred plus years because of dirty farming practices in the 1800's? If you are ready to give me a try you're at the right place! Click the link below and let's meet up. I don't think you'll be sorry!😀🥛 Shop Raw Milk!Sincerely, Your FarmerCorbinPrairie Creek Pastures

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