Lau Family Farm Grass-fed meats available on June 11
Lori Anne Lau
LAU FAMILY FARM, LLC
Grass-Fed and Finished * No Antibiotics * No Hormone Implants
We are planning to be at the Idaho Falls Farmers Market this Saturday, June 11th. Our next trip will be on June 25th, and then on July 9th.
· We have a good supply of most every cut of lamb and beef, with the exception of marrow bones.
· We have a lots of sausage to choose from. Our current flavors include beef andouille, bratwurst, frankfurter, polish and sweet Italian. Lamb flavors include lamb and apple, merguez and Italian lamb with sun dried tomato.
The last couple of months have been quite busy. All but a couple of the cows have now calved. Most lambs came in the first 21 days but a few have come in the last few days. The ewes gave us many sets of twins and triplets and we even had two sets of twins in the cattle. We have one full time bottle calf and one full time bottle lamb, and a handful of twins and triplets that are being supplemented with formula while living with their mom. We’ve got all the animals out on pasture, which has made them VERY happy. John got Mrs. P’s grain planted, and some of our pasture planted several weeks ago. We got the ewes and lambs vaccinated a while back, but have about 2/3 of the ewes feet still to trim. We started the sheep and meat steers grazing on an area that was getting quite a bit of cheat grass in hopes that they’d graze the weed while getting the alfalfa and grasses, since the seed heads are immature.
Last week Becca graduated from 8th grade and was installed as her bethel’s honored queen on the 21st. Tom took his finals last week, and was considering taking an online class this summer so he can have more flexibility in his next couple of years of schooling. Tom and Becca had their first student council meeting in their new positions last week. Becca has started softball practice, and is about to start HS cheer practice. Tom is trying to squeeze weight lifting into his schedule in anticipation of being on the football team again in August.
Now that all of our babies are here, for the most part, we are settling into the familiar routine of building and moving temporary fence to keep them all fed. John and Tom are also in the process of getting all the fences throughout the Meadow farm checked and activated, and soon will be getting the solar water pumps running to fill the troughs. Currently, there are still low spots filled with water, a couple of ponds and the creeks that are providing the water needed. John got the last of our planting done yesterday-putting in some alfalfa seed. Even with our non-aggressive harvest schedule the density of alfalfa plants declines over time and we find it beneficial to tear out and replant our hay fields. Since we don’t have irrigation our hay typically is only mown once, possibly twice a year, which is quite different from fields under irrigation that are yielding 3 to 4 crops a year.
The gal who rents pasture from us will be bringing her animals this week, so that has provided a major prod to the system. She was telling us that one of the fields she has rented for early spring pasture was sold recently and she has not found a replacement field to move her animals to before coming to us. Her own property is quite marshy this time of year and she is desperate to get her animals to dry ground before they get sick.
We enjoyed having John’s sister’s family here for Memorial Day. We seemed to finally make some headway on clearing stuff out of Grant’s house. Many of the projects that were begun at spring break were finally completed, and the boxes moved out of the house. We are sitting on a small mountain of documents to proof/go over so the settling of Grant’s estate can make some headway. I’ve finally caught up on the filing, so now I need to get the sales and deposits all sorted and turn my attention to this pile of documents. It will feel so good to be caught up!
We appreciate your going with us on this journey. Finding a path for our small herd of cattle and sheep and the land we steward to support our family has not been easy. This path still has its inherent challenges, but knowing you are all going along for the ride with us helps so much.
Many thanks for your business,
John, Lori Anne, Tom and Becca Lau
Lau Family Farm, LLC
Grass Fed Beef, Lamb & Wool...A Natural Choice
PO Box 337
Soda Springs, ID 83276
208-709-4981 (cell)
Figure 1 One of the first weekends in May got in help to plant new tree rows for windbreaks at both properties.
Figure 2 The meat steers & heifers and all of the sheep are enjoying grazing this alfalfa and grass that is up to their bellies.
Figure 1 John and Tom have gone to A LOT of work to fix the plumbing to this water trough. Project is in the final stages now. Should be able to put water in it soon.