Baby Bovine Beauties

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posted on

June 8, 2026

Spring is a lively season because of all the new life bursting forth. Trees blossom, and the bees waste no time gathering nectar and pollinating. The silence of the incubator is pierced with shrill, deafening cheeps as the hatching chicks find their voice. The first flowers emerge, and the hills turn velvety green with tender grass.

The cattle have shed their winter coats, trading their shaggy appearance for a sleek, shiny, groomed look. If the breeding was timed just right, calving will occur when the weather is warm and the grass is abundant, providing mother with a smorgasbord of herbs to make milk for the calf, with plenty left over for the farmstead household. The extra milk will be used for cream, butter, yogurt, kefir, eggnog, custard, and cheese (yes, there really is that much extra!).

The tiny hooves are perfectly formed and pristine clean, but not for long. For the rest of it’s life they will be stained by the grass, muddied in manure, and powdered by trail dust.

The first steps are wobbly and uncertain. In a few days they will be running as fast as the wind from one end of the pasture to the other; then a sudden stop, a shake of the head, a snort, a change of direction, and another sprint back to where they began. It’s fun to observe them gaining strength and confidence, imitating mom by trying to eat grass even before their teeth grow out.

A cedar sapling as tall as the calf’s knees stirs in the breeze. The movement catches the calf’s attention. Planting it’s front hooves in front of the swaying branches, it dances around the fragile trunk with its hind legs. It encounters no resistance when it butts its head at it, as if in a challenge. The calf wins the contest of brawn, but not of wit. With help from the breeze, the tree outwits the calf every time.

The newborns will have all summer and fall to put on weight, both muscle and fat. Each will develop their own temperament and characteristics; one shy, another bold, some affectionate, some playful. If all goes well, they will make it through their first winter.

These calves will join in with the main Polyface herd before next year’s calving, where they will live a good life, hopefully free of injuries and illness. Then we welcome a new batch, and do it all over again.

Speaking the Unspeakable

All of us encounter taboo topics, going where angels fear to tread, and speaking the unspeakable. These cliches capture the dialogue land mines we tend to avoid because most of us have a bias toward self-preservation. Today, I'm going into that space because we've had a flurry of agriculture activity in the news. From President Trump's executive order in favor of regenerative agriculture to the opposite elevating the herbicide glyphosate to national security status to last week's decision to import below-market value lean ground beef product to then musing about reducing regulations on farmers processing their animals, we've seen all sorts of perceptions bandied about. Without getting into the politics of any of these things, here is the unspeakable truth: bad farming exists and good farming exists. There, I said it. The conventional cultural perspective is that farmers are farmers and farming is farming. It's an "all for one," and "one for all" Disney idea that all farming and farmers are in this together. To be fully transparent, as recently as a couple of months ago I used the term "bad farmers" and "good farmers." An astute and charitable friend pulled me aside to critique those phrases and suggest I only use "good farming" and "bad farming" in order to honor to not bag people. Fair enough. I'm now using only "bad farming" and "good farming." The reason this matters is because for decades now, nearly all government subsidies, grants, insurance, and incentives have gone to bad farming. This is why, for all the billions of annual federal expenditures, farms keep going downhill economically, ecologically, and emotionally. Of all the controversial things I've said about farming, by far and away the one that receives the most pushback is when I say bad farming exists. The conventional industrial complex hates the idea. Stink up the neighborhood? "We're just farmers." Pollute the groundwater? "We're just farmers." Dead zone the size of Rhode Island in the Gulf of Mexico due to chemical runoff in the Mississippi? "We're just farmers." With no distinction allowed in the discussion, farming that destroys soil, pollutes the water, desertifies the landscape, produces pathogen-laden food, and disrespects animal behavior gets to ride the emotional equity coat-tails of good farming. As a culture, we should defund bad farming, both publicly and privately. Farm protocols that destroy pollinators, view wildlife as inherently detrimental, and care not a whit about earthworm health are absolutely a national liability whether anyone wants to acknowledge it or not. What are the traits of good farming? Here are some: 1. Build healthy soil. 2. Honor and respect biology, both plants and animals. 3. Prohibit poisons. 4. Increase pollinators. 5. Build immunological function. 6. Increase landscape hydration. 7. Smell good. 8. Look beautiful. 9. Operated by happy people. 10. Interact positively with neighbors. These are principles we try to honor every day here at Polyface, and your patronage enables us to continue pursuing these objectives. The fact that our farm has a 24/7/365 open door policy for anyone to come at anytime from anywhere to see anything unannounced confirms a transparency persona that leads to trust. If you haven't taken us up on this visit invitation, please do. When you look at the above list and think about what most people think about a farm environment, you won't find a single one of those items at a conventional chemical industrial outfit. That's sad but it's also tragic. It matters how a farm operates. It matters how animals get treated. It matters whether the farmer is happy or frustrated. Farming protocols determine these elements; hence, bad farming and good farming. The term regenerative farming is long and hard and not comprehensive. Why don't we just change the verbiage and call it good farming? I'm not embarrassed or afraid to say I practice good farming. And you should not be afraid to say you patronize good farming. Our farm family is indeed in this together, and it's all about good farming, good food. Don't apologize for saying you buy food from good farming instead of bad farming. Talk about a conversation starter. Boy howdy. That'll turn some heads. But you might just educate someone. Speaking the unspeakable is often the first step to waking folks up who are asleep at the wheel. Look in your refrigerator. Look in the pantry. What items come from good farming and which ones come from bad farming? Go ahead; make the distinction. And dare bad farming to defend itself. Speaking the unspeakable often leads to someone trying to defend the indefensible. Thank you for being the change we all want to see.

Baby Bovine Beauties

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