Anybody want to buy some cows?

[cuervo72]

Seriously, with the composition and lighting of these pictures you should put together a calendar.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Great! Congrats! Goo thing they didnt test your private stock. Im kidding if the DEA is monitoring this board.

I would be interested in it for pain relief. Get away from ibuprofen. Tell me when you want to sell.

I'm about 6 weeks out from getting my extraction equipment but that should coincide well with my harvest/dry/cure timeline.

Originally Posted by thesloppy

That is a lovely cola, lungs. Was that done entirely with LEDs through veg and flower, or are you using some other supplemental lighting? Are you guys sending all of your harvest out to a 3rd party extractor for oil, or are you going to do any processing yourself?

I think these cuttings were started in a greenhouse in Colorado. Once I got them (they were in rough shape) they went under LEDs. Waaaaaay too many plants (90) for six lights that cover 4x4. I culled a few out and pruned all but a few good branches and lifted them all to create a canopy. Moderate success, but I will do better next time.

I've got an ethanol extractor on order. If I learned one thing from being a dairy farmer, the person producing the commodity does not get near the value that the processors and retailers get. My goal is to be proficient at growing and processing while my sister does the marketing/retailing. A local retailer told me that he buys flower for $2-300/lb. I can add so much value myself by making something that doesn't need to be smoked. Recreational market is different.

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Seriously, with the composition and lighting of these pictures you should put together a calendar.

Not a bad idea. I know putting some of these pics on Instagram are the start of building a social media following.

[claphamsa]

can you break this down for me? you have THC less plants, but they are good for pain relief? do you test positive if you use it? is that picture in your place, WOA!

[claphamsa]

what does one of those huge flowers cost...have you thought of doing bouquets?

[claphamsa]

does it smell like Christmas?

[lungs]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

can you break this down for me? you have THC less plants, but they are good for pain relief? do you test positive if you use it? is that picture in your place, WOA!

The picture is from a grow room I set up what used to be my farm's repair shop

In order to be classified as industrial hemp, my plants have to test below 0.3% THC. This stuff tested at 0.2%. For the technically minded, the state tested for Delta-9 THC. THC-A is not included in the test, but I figure my plants would test around 0.8% total THC. Still pretty negligible. The good stuff in legal states can test 25%+ THC. You'd still fail a urine test by using anything I am making.

The compound I'm going for is cannabadiol (CBD). High CBD low THC plants were originally created to help children with epilepsy as it has been shown to reduce seizures. Right now, I believe that's the only rigorously proven health benefit but it's shown promise as providing relief to mild or moderate pain. I've seen some older folks able to ditch their opioid prescriptions and use this for pain relief.

[Edward64]

Sorry if these are ignorant questions.

1) Who will you sell to?
2) Is the price fixed or dictated to you? If not, how do you compete with the big boys who have lower costs and can mass produce?
3) What determines the "quality" of the weed? Dirt, chemicals, lighting etc.?

And

4) Do you track the marijuana stocks (primarily Canadian companies I think) and, if so, which one would you buy?

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by lungs

I'm about 6 weeks out from getting my extraction equipment but that should coincide well with my harvest/dry/cure timeline.

As a (retired) hobby closet grower, drying and curing were absolutely always the things I was worst at, but I'd imagine that's something that might actually be easier to deal with on a larger scale, and it's likely not as much of a concern with CBD plants that you know are going to get processed.

Originally Posted by lungs

I think these cuttings were started in a greenhouse in Colorado. Once I got them (they were in rough shape) they went under LEDs. Waaaaaay too many plants (90) for six lights that cover 4x4. I culled a few out and pruned all but a few good branches and lifted them all to create a canopy. Moderate success, but I will do better next time.

90 plants is a lot of plants! If even half of them look that good you're kicking ass. I switched to LEDs for probably the last year I was growing and liked them a lot in terms of heat/efficiency and ease of use, but the flower bulk and density dropped off a bit....doesn't look like you're having that issue at all.

Originally Posted by lungs

I've got an ethanol extractor on order. If I learned one thing from being a dairy farmer, the person producing the commodity does not get near the value that the processors and retailers get. My goal is to be proficient at growing and processing while my sister does the marketing/retailing. A local retailer told me that he buys flower for $2-300/lb. I can add so much value myself by making something that doesn't need to be smoked. Recreational market is different.

Recreational, high-thc market is a bit of a different animal of course, but the growers in Oregon are getting killed on prices as there's a huge flower surplus in the state system currently (I want to say three years worth of surplus?), and prices have supposedly just been dropping year after year (on the customer side as well), whereas it seems like stuff like edibles/topicals/oils seem to start at & maintain a much higher price point per gram (even more so for the CBD products), so I can totally see why you'd want to start processing product yourself ASAP.

I'm excited to see how you things progress for you, looks awesome so far!

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Edward64

3) What determines the "quality" of the weed? Dirt, chemicals, lighting etc.?

This is an age-old question that I can answer at least part of....first off: yes all of those environmental factors you mentioned to some degree. Some folks grow entirely in hydroponic systems that is just water and chemical nutrients, and some folks grow in dirt with complicated organic nutrient regiments. Regardless of what you feed it, the power/quality of the lighting is probably the most crucial indoor environmental factor, and will largely dictate the yield as well as potency/quality.

....all that said, the biggest factor in determining any of one particular plant's qualities is its genetics. Cannabis plants can be cloned relatively easily, so most crops will be multiple plants with the exact same, cloned genetics, and seed-grown plants can also be relatively controlled if they were bred effectively. Getting good genetics isn't much of an issue at all these days, yet there are also always some high-hype strains of the moment that demand top prices.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Sorry if these are ignorant questions.

1) Who will you sell to?
2) Is the price fixed or dictated to you? If not, how do you compete with the big boys who have lower costs and can mass produce?
3) What determines the "quality" of the weed? Dirt, chemicals, lighting etc.?

And

4) Do you track the marijuana stocks (primarily Canadian companies I think) and, if so, which one would you buy?

1) Direct to consumer along with other retailers
2) Since we are direct to consumer, we'll set the price. Of course the market will dictate what we charge.
3) For extraction purposes, it's mostly about the cannabanoid content (CBD is the important one in my case). Lots of different theories on how to get the best flowers. Nutrients, lighting, soil medium. For my indoor, I used a pretty heavy soil that had composted cow manure in it, and I cut it with peat moss and added some other nutrients (bone meal) as we went along. My outdoor patch I spread compost over the patch about a month beforehand and worked it in.
4) Not really, I did own some India Globalization Capital or something like that a while back. But I liquidated my stock portfolio to get this venture going.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

As a (retired) hobby closet grower, drying and curing were absolutely always the things I was worst at, but I'd imagine that's something that might actually be easier to deal with on a larger scale, and it's likely not as much of a concern with CBD plants that you know are going to get processed.

I'm hoping to get the drying/curing part right. I've had some disasters over the years myself. Now that I'm actually a commercial operation and can afford to buy some nicer equipment, I'm getting a bunch of CVaults for the curing part. And I've also got a moisture meter thingy on the way so I know I have a pretty good idea when it hits that 12% moisture instead of just going by when the stems break. Not as much of a concern with CBD flower, no. But I want a good cure so I'll get a smaller amount of chlorophyll when I extract.

90 plants is a lot of plants! If even half of them look that good you're kicking ass. I switched to LEDs for probably the last year I was growing and liked them a lot in terms of heat/efficiency and ease of use, but the flower bulk and density dropped off a bit....doesn't look like you're having that issue at all.

That was easily the best flower in the indoor grow and the state chopped off the top for testing . I actually have quite the aphid problem at the moment so I'm thinking about cutting things down very soon even though they aren't done. Another lesson learned, release the ladybugs before the aphids take over!

Recreational, high-thc market is a bit of a different animal of course, but the growers in Oregon are getting killed on prices as there's a huge flower surplus in the state system currently (I want to say three years worth of surplus?), and prices have supposedly just been dropping year after year (on the customer side as well), whereas it seems like stuff like edibles/topicals/oils seem to start at & maintain a much higher price point per gram (even more so for the CBD products), so I can totally see why you'd want to start processing product yourself ASAP.

I'm excited to see how you things progress for you, looks awesome so far!

I was just out in Portland at the end of August. I'd heard the recreational flower market was pretty saturated and people were even switching to growing hemp for CBD. I saw some pretty high quality stuff going for $4/gram at the dispensary, up to about $14/gram. If Wisconsin ever legalizes true medical or recreational, I'll definitely get into it, but the CBD market is very intriguing. Lots of old folks don't necessarily want to get high or smoke it. I've actually found for myself that super high THC/low CBD stuff tends to bring out more anxiety while a 1:1 ratio is just right.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

what does one of those huge flowers cost...have you thought of doing bouquets?

Depends how much it weighs and what I do with it

A little math:
Let's say it weighs 14 grams and has a CBD content of 10%.

CBD usually retails from $0.05 to $0.10 per mg and wholesales at $0.005 per mg. That flower would be 14,000 mg of biomass and at 10% CBD, it would have 1400 mg of CBD. Let's figure we lose about 200 mg in the extraction process, giving us 1200 mg CBD. So $60 on the low end, $120 on the high end for retail after processing.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by lungs

I actually have quite the aphid problem at the moment so I'm thinking about cutting things down very soon even though they aren't done. Another lesson learned, release the ladybugs before the aphids take over!

Oh noooo! I had a battle with root aphids that literally ruined my whole operation. I tried nematodes and ladybugs and Azamax and Azatrol and all that shit, but I eventually had to stop growing entirely, bleach everything down and blast the room with ozone before they went away. Hopefully you've got everything under control.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Oh noooo! I had a battle with root aphids that literally ruined my whole operation. I tried nematodes and ladybugs and Azamax and Azatrol and all that shit, but I eventually had to stop growing entirely, bleach everything down and blast the room with ozone before they went away. Hopefully you've got everything under control.

I'm going to go ahead and harvest tomorrow. That cola I posted a picture of is the exception, not the rule. But I think the aphids kind of stopped the rest from progressing so I'm going to chop tomorrow. Got myself a Twister T6 to make chopping down 90 plants a one day job rather than a one month job!

I probably won't do another grow in this location as we should begin retrofitting another building soon. I do have some new seedlings going, hoping to find a few nice phenotypes to use next year both outdoor and indoor.

[Drake]

I really need you to get an online store up and running ASAP.

My wife ran out of her regular CBD oil and hasn't gotten to the store to pick more up in three days. (She goes to a specific place that sells "pure" oil.) So instead she's supplementing with...er, not CBD oil from the same plant family.

She has not shut up for the last three fucking hours. She just decided to polish the tile floors in the kitchen with furniture polish. If I don't break my neck, it'll be a miracle. But if I do break my neck, at least I'll get some peace and quiet.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by Drake

I really need you to get an online store up and running ASAP.

My wife ran out of her regular CBD oil and hasn't gotten to the store to pick more up in three days. (She goes to a specific place that sells "pure" oil.) So instead she's supplementing with...er, not CBD oil from the same plant family.

She has not shut up for the last three fucking hours. She just decided to polish the tile floors in the kitchen with furniture polish. If I don't break my neck, it'll be a miracle. But if I do break my neck, at least I'll get some peace and quiet.

And you can join her, you know, to relieve the pain.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by lungs

1) Direct to consumer along with other retailers
2) Since we are direct to consumer, we'll set the price. Of course the market will dictate what we charge.
3) For extraction purposes, it's mostly about the cannabanoid content (CBD is the important one in my case). Lots of different theories on how to get the best flowers. Nutrients, lighting, soil medium. For my indoor, I used a pretty heavy soil that had composted cow manure in it, and I cut it with peat moss and added some other nutrients (bone meal) as we went along. My outdoor patch I spread compost over the patch about a month beforehand and worked it in.
4) Not really, I did own some India Globalization Capital or something like that a while back. But I liquidated my stock portfolio to get this venture going.

Thank you for your responses.

In my fantasy world, I would be doing what you are doing in retirement!

[Drake]

Originally Posted by tarcone

And you can join her, you know, to relieve the pain.

Not sure I could handle more than one of us reading the *entire* sales circular in the paper to the entire house.

[VersNaturals]

Awesome

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by VersNaturals

Awesome

eXtreme!

[lungs]

Time for a bump

On one hand.... I sent out 230 head of cattle today. One more trailer load headed to Michigan and then I'll send my Wagyu steers to a neighbor to be finished off for another 6-8 months. My dad got a formal offer to purchase the farm last night, price has been agreed. Just going through the fine print. The industry continues to suffer from low prices. Next year's futures contracts are not showing any promise. For an industry that exports 15% of its output, this trade war has been a disaster that has turned a routine down cycle into a five year depression of prices. Simple supply and demand, there is still too much milk out there. I'd like to pat myself on the back for making a smart move but I still have a lot of friends and former colleagues struggling right now. But....

On the other hand, today we received our own branded CBD oil to get our retail going. I've harvested my crop, a pretty weak first effort in terms of yield but lots of valuable lessons learned. My extraction equipment has been on backorder for a few months so I'm still waiting on that and giving my bud a nice cure while I wait for that. I know there's been some interest here on FOFC so here is a link. Not up and running yet but should be soon.

Thanks FOFC for being a sounding board through all of this!

[Drake]

Originally Posted by lungs

I know there's been some interest here on FOFC so here is a link. Not up and running yet but should be soon.

Hell, yes! Thanks for letting us know that you're getting closer to the marketplace.

[molson]

I wish all the fun FOFC businesses weren't places I'm unlikely to be anytime soon.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by lungs

I know there's been some interest here on FOFC so here is a link. Not up and running yet but should be soon.

Will you have online ordering here once its all finalized?

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Radii

Will you have online ordering here once its all finalized?

Yes. Biggest hurdle we've had is finding a credit card payment processor that was reputable, didn't charge ridiculous rates, and was willing to deal with the gray area of the law that is hemp sales. They are still busy fighting over food stamps in the now expired Farm Bill, but hemp will be rescheduled whenever they finally settle that and all will be golden. We're pretty sure we've found a company we are comfortable working with so it shouldn't be too long and we'll at least have a limited offering of products.

[thesloppy]

Good luck, lungs, keep it up! Sounds like a hell of a lot of stress, if only there were something you could take for that.....

[JPhillips]

https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/s...82584436461570

lungs: Any thoughts on this twitter thread about farms and land use?

[lungs]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/s...82584436461570

lungs: Any thoughts on this twitter thread about farms and land use?

I'd say that's a pretty accurate assessment. Though I think location will change some of the details. I take some issue with the whole 'land baron' and 'serf' characterization. A lot of the landlords around here are the remnants of family farms that go back to the homesteading days of the 1800s. Farms remained pretty small through the 1970s and 80s but even as these family farms went out of production, the land stayed in the family. We rented about 600 acres before we pulled the plug. The average age of the landlords was probably close to 80. Mostly retirement income for old widows that had husbands farm back in the day. Not exactly land barons with two or three people owning all the land in the county.

But the overall sense that land is the financial driving force behind operations (and government subsidies) is absolutely true. I only own four acres that my house is on. I'm surrounded by 100 acres of cropland and 40 swamp land. You can damn well bet that I'm looking to purchase those 140 of my dad and I'll continue renting it out rather than grow cannabis. I can grow cannabis on our shitty sandy soiled field that the corn guys hate

[JPhillips]

I grew up in rural southern Ohio, and I knew some family farmers that were also renting land, but I wouldn't call them barons. I'm not sure if that's true today.

[lungs]

If anything, the guy that now rents our land would be considered the local baron. He does own a fair amount of land, but if I'm not mistaken he rents more than he owns. Regardless, the amount of land he runs allows him to run some of the largest equipment around which is all that counts to the peanut gallery. Very good businessman, not in it for the pride as when he signed the contract for our land (which is very close to his home base farm), he gave up land further off.

Other people will rent land just to be the be the biggest farmer around. If you want some insight into how this can go terribly wrong and put some major banks in bad positions, just google Stamp Farms.

[lungs]

Shameless plug....

Our web store is now online. https://www.euthymichealth.com

Still building up inventory. Nothing I grew is ready yet but we've been working with a company in Colorado on some private label products.

I'll be doing my first extraction run next week, hopefully. I've got a local chef that I've been collaborating with on some product ideas and another lady that makes some pretty awesome pain creams that we are going to incorporate our CBD into.

If anybody has questions, feel free to PM me or e-mail me: [email protected]

Shameless plug over

[Drake]

I'll have to have my wife check dosage vs. her current brand, but by my estimate, your capsule cost is like a 50% savings over what she's paying now for pure CBD.

(I say "like 50%" because the market here seems to be weird. The 60 count bottle she buys varies between $80 and $100 from month to month.)

Edit: What the hell. I'll just order some and she can tell me if she likes it after she's tried it. Congrats of getting your store open, lungs.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Drake

I'll have to have my wife check dosage vs. her current brand, but by my estimate, your capsule cost is like a 50% savings over what she's paying now for pure CBD.

(I say "like 50%" because the market here seems to be weird. The 60 count bottle she buys varies between $80 and $100 from month to month.)

Edit: What the hell. I'll just order some and she can tell me if she likes it after she's tried it. Congrats of getting your store open, lungs.

Lazarus Naturals seems to be the most reputable low cost brand. I end up sending low income people that need high doses directly to them as they can get a further 50-60% off from them after they prove their status.

[Honolulu_Blue]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlo...=.7950bc02450f

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlo...=.7950bc02450f

Stupid paywall, would be interested in reading it.

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by lungs

Shameless plug....

Our web store is now online. https://www.euthymichealth.com

Still building up inventory. Nothing I grew is ready yet but we've been working with a company in Colorado on some private label products.

I'll be doing my first extraction run next week, hopefully. I've got a local chef that I've been collaborating with on some product ideas and another lady that makes some pretty awesome pain creams that we are going to incorporate our CBD into.

If anybody has questions, feel free to PM me or e-mail me: [email protected]

Shameless plug over

I just got my first bottle from Blue Bird? anyways, was on your site and found two misspellings:

"In the 1990s, scientists discovered the endocannabinoid system. The human body produces its own chemicals, called endocannabinoids, which regulate the nervious system, immune system, and organs. The endocannanabinoid system is involved in the modulation of pain and inflamation."

nervous and inflammation

just trying to help out

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlo...=.7950bc02450f

A few weekends ago I know of two dairy farmers that killed themselves. I also picked a fellow local farmer off the sidewalk drunk and passed out before the cops hauled him away as he’s been drinking away his sorrows. It’s not fun.

The guy who bought the majority of my cows called me last week and said he wishes he would have just sold out like I did. And this guy milks over 2000 cows so it’s not like it’s just small farmers feeling the pain.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

I just got my first bottle from Blue Bird? anyways, was on your site and found two misspellings:

"In the 1990s, scientists discovered the endocannabinoid system. The human body produces its own chemicals, called endocannabinoids, which regulate the nervious system, immune system, and organs. The endocannanabinoid system is involved in the modulation of pain and inflamation."

nervous and inflammation

just trying to help out

Thanks! I’ve been proofreading the site but those two slipped through the cracks!

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Stupid paywall, would be interested in reading it.

Here you go!

After 40 years of dairy farming, I sold my herd of cows this summer. The herd had been in my family since 1904; I know all 45 cows by name. I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to take over our farm — who would? Dairy farming is little more than hard work and possible economic suicide.

A grass-based organic dairy farm bought my cows. I couldn’t watch them go. In June, I milked them for the last time, left the barn and let the truckers load them. A cop-out on my part? Perhaps, but being able to remember them as I last saw them, in my barn, chewing their cuds and waiting for pasture, is all I have left.

My retirement was mostly voluntary. Premature, but there is some solace in having a choice. Unlike many dairy farmers, I didn’t retire bankrupt. But for my wife and me, having to sell our herd was a sign — of the economic death not just of rural America but also of a way of life. It is nothing short of heartbreaking to walk through our barn and know that those stalls will remain empty. Knowing that our losses reflect the greater damage inflicted on entire regions is worse.

When I started farming in 1979, the milk from 45 cows could pay the bills, cover new machinery and buildings, and allow us to live a decent life and start a family. My father had farmed through the Great Depression, and his advice — “don’t borrow any more than you have to” — stuck with me and probably saved the farm many times over.

We survived the 1980s, when debt loads became impossible for many farmers and merely incredibly onerous for the lucky ones. Interest rates went up , export markets plummeted after a wheat embargo against the Soviet Union, oil prices soared, inflation skyrocketed and land prices began to collapse. More than 250,000 farms died that decade, and more than 900 farmers committed suicide in the upper Midwest alone.

Farmers felt the impact most directly, but there were few in rural communities who were untouched. All the businesses that depended on farm dollars watched as their incomes dried up and the tax base shrank. Farm foreclosures meant fewer families and fewer kids, so schools were forced to close . The Main Street cafes and coffee shops — where farmers talked prices, the weather and politics — shut down as well.

As devastating as the 1980s were for farmers, today’s crisis is worse. Ineffective government subsidies and insurance programs are worthless in the face of plummeting prices and oversupply (and tariffs certainly aren’t helping). The current glut of organic milk has caused a 30 percent decrease in the price I was paid for my milk over the past two years. The new farm bill, signed by President Trump on Thursday, provides modest relief for larger dairy farmers (it expands some subsidies, and farmers will be able to pay lower premiums to participate in a federal program that offers compensation when milk prices drop below a certain level), but farmers don’t want subsidies; all we ever asked for were fair prices. So for many, this is little more than another PR stunt, and the loss of family farms will continue. This year, Wisconsin, where I live, had lost 382 dairy farms by August; last year, the number at the same point was 283. The despair is palpable; suicide is a fact of life, though many farm suicides are listed as accidents.

A farmer I knew for many years came home from town, folded his good clothes for the last time and killed himself. I saw no warning, though maybe others did.

When family farms go under, the people leave and the buildings are often abandoned, but the land remains, often sold to the nearest land baron. Hillsides and meadows that were once grasslands for pasturing cattle become acre upon acre of corn-soybean agriculture. Farming becomes a business where it used to be a way of life. With acreages so large, owners use pesticides and chemical fertilizers to ensure that the soil can hold an unsustainable rotation of plants upright, rather than caring for the soil as a living biotic community.

Those dairy farms that remain milk hundreds or thousands of cows, keeping them in huge barns and on concrete lots. The animals seldom, if ever, get the chance to set their hooves on what little grass is there. Pigs are raised indoors for their entire lives, never feeling the sun or rain or what it’s like to roll in mud.

All the machinery has become bigger, noisier, and some days it runs around the clock. Manure from the mega-farms is hauled for miles in huge tanker trucks or pumped through irrigation lines onto crop fields. The smell, the flies and the airborne pathogens that go with it have effectively done away with much of the peaceful countryside I used to know.

What kind of determination does it take for someone young and hopeful to begin a life of farming in times like these? Getting credit as a small farmer is more difficult today. As prices continue to fall, increasing production and farm size is often the only way to survive. But there is just too much — too much milk, too much grain, too much livestock — thanks to tightening export markets and declining domestic demand for dairy products. The situation is great for the processors who buy from the farmers, but it will never give the farmers a fair price.

With fewer farms, there are fewer foreclosures than in the 1980s. But watching your neighbor’s farm and possessions being auctioned off is no more pleasant today than it was 30 years ago. Seeing a farm family look on as their life’s work is sold off piece by piece; the cattle run through a corral, parading for the highest bid; tools, household goods and toys piled as “boxes of junk” and sold for a few dollars while the kids hide in the haymow crying — auctions are still too painful for me.

As I end my career as a farmer, I feel fortunate it lasted as long as it did. Some choices made long ago did keep me ahead of the curve, at least for a while. I always told people that 45 cows were enough for me, and being able to give them names rather than numbers and appreciate each one’s unique nature was important. I remember Adel, who always found her way across the pasture for a good head scratch, and Lara, whose sandpaper tongue always found my face as I milked her.

Cows like these didn’t fit into the “get big or get out ” theory of farming that took over during the 1980s, so over the years, we needed to get better ideas or get out. By switching to organic production and direct marketing, we managed to make a decent living. We also found that this method of farming required good environmental stewardship and direct involvement with our rural community. And, for almost 20 years, it worked.

But organic dairying has become a victim of its own success. It was profitable and thus fell victim to the “get big” model. Now, our business is dominated by large organic operations that are more factory than farm. It seems obvious that they simply cannot be following the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s strict organic production standards (like pasturing cattle), rules that we smaller farmers see as common sense.

Although small organic farms pioneered the concept, organic certification has become something not meant for us — and a label that mega-farms co-opted and used to break us. When six dairy farms in Texas feed their thousands of cows a diet of organic grain and stored forage, with no discernible access to a blade of grass, they end up producing more milk than all 453 organic dairy farms in Wisconsin combined. Then they ship it north, undercutting our price. We can’t make ends meet and are forced out of the business. We played by the rules, but we no longer have a level playing field.

Despite this, I hung on, but I couldn’t continue milking cows indefinitely. Perhaps it’s for the best. A few years before we sold our herd, we had to install huge fans in our barn — the summers were getting too hot for the cows to be out during the heat of the day. Climate change would have made our future in farming that much harder. We could have adapted, I think, but we ran out of time.

They say a farmer gets 40 chances. For 40 years, each spring brings another shot at getting it right, at succeeding or failing or something in between. If that were ever true, it isn’t now. That’s why, after my 40 chances, I’m done.

[Flasch186]

Ah when the big guys get to go around the rules while regulations are gutted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Stupid paywall, would be interested in reading it.

Open link in incognito window.

[lungs]

The last three cows left today. Water lines are shut off. My folks have their RV loaded up and are headed to Arizona tomorrow.

Looks like I started this thread not quite a year ago. Not the easiest year of my life, but here I am not even a year later and ready to tackle a new venture that I can truly say I enjoy.

On that note, got lab results on my first indoor crop I grew this year. Although aphids hurt my yields immensely, what I did manage to harvest is some extremely powerful stuff. 28% total CBD. I've never seen anything over 24%. Quite an outlier, so we are doing the due diligence with the lab to make sure this is correct. But damn, if I grew stuff this strong without knowing what I was doing......

Total THC was 1.04%. Our state goes by Delta 9 THC (active), which was 0.12% so it's legal. Smoke enough of it, you might get a little bit of a buzz.

[Drake]

Your store saved my wife from seizures at our family holiday gathering last week, since she'd let herself run out of pills and the shipment we ordered from you arrived on Xmas eve.

So, there's a bright spot, if you need one.

[Lathum]

OK. So I have a cousin getting in to CBD business, and he is always posting on Facebook about it. From what he posts you would think it is a magic cure all for everything from Autism to ADHD to PArkinsons.

Lungs- can you please explain to me the purpose of it?

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by lungs

On that note, got lab results on my first indoor crop I grew this year. Although aphids hurt my yields immensely, what I did manage to harvest is some extremely powerful stuff. 28% total CBD. I've never seen anything over 24%. Quite an outlier, so we are doing the due diligence with the lab to make sure this is correct. But damn, if I grew stuff this strong without knowing what I was doing......

Nice job!

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Lathum

OK. So I have a cousin getting in to CBD business, and he is always posting on Facebook about it. From what he posts you would think it is a magic cure all for everything from Autism to ADHD to PArkinsons.

Lungs- can you please explain to me the purpose of it?

I can't speak for your cousin's end, but I occasionally check into local Cannabis based job-searches and there does seem to be quite a few sketchy CBD-based MLM, Ask-Me-About-Herbalife businesses popping up these days with "Unlimited Commission Opportunities" and all the usual promises that appeal to the kind of folks who typically take up those unpaid "positions".

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I can't speak for your cousin's end, but I occasionally check into local Cannabis based job-searches and there does seem to be quite a few sketchy CBD-based MLM, Ask-Me-About-Herbalife businesses popping up these days with "Unlimited Commission Opportunities" and all the usual promises that appeal to the kind of folks who typically take up those unpaid "positions".

I get the sense it's something like that.

He is always trying to send our kids gummy bears with CBD.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Drake

Your store saved my wife from seizures at our family holiday gathering last week, since she'd let herself run out of pills and the shipment we ordered from you arrived on Xmas eve.

So, there's a bright spot, if you need one.

Wow, that's great

Originally Posted by Lathum

OK. So I have a cousin getting in to CBD business, and he is always posting on Facebook about it. From what he posts you would think it is a magic cure all for everything from Autism to ADHD to PArkinsons.

Lungs- can you please explain to me the purpose of it?

Here is a bit of a primer on how it works. FDA doesn't allow us to make claims for specific ailments and I'd be wary of anybody that is making big claims. It annoys me when people want to portray it as a miracle for anything and everything.

That said, I can give you a few examples starting with myself. I've been on Zoloft for a few years now for anxiety/depression. It's worked well but I'd like to see if it's necessary now that I've eliminated some major stress inducers in my life. I started tapering off of it and went completely off a few weeks ago. Still had some pretty intense withdrawal effects like dizziness and lightheadedness. Seemingly, after I take CBD, the withdrawal effects I'm experiencing are less pronounced. I can get up and move around without losing my balance.

In another case, an active older woman I know (in her 60s) was having trouble recovering from activities. She loves being active at her age but her body really complains afterwards. I sold her a bottle and a week later she came back for more and squatted down like a catcher in baseball and told me she hasn't been able to do that in years. She went downhill skiing and played volleyball on the same day and wasn't bedridden the next day.

Acute pain is a different animal. For me, eating sushi is like playing with fire. I may or may not get a gout outbreak from it. About a month ago I lost that game of Russian roulette and had a pretty awful case of the gout. My toe was swollen badly and I could barely walk for a few days. Ibuprofen was my only relief. If CBD helped, it didn't help enough to make me not scream in agony for a few days.

My own assessment is that it's not snake oil, but it's also not a miracle cure.

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I can't speak for your cousin's end, but I occasionally check into local Cannabis based job-searches and there does seem to be quite a few sketchy CBD-based MLM, Ask-Me-About-Herbalife businesses popping up these days with "Unlimited Commission Opportunities" and all the usual promises that appeal to the kind of folks who typically take up those unpaid "positions".

Lots of sketchy people getting into this. We must be doing a decent job with what minimal marketing we've done so far because a fair amount of people have come to our store because it's the first one they've felt comfortable going into. We're trying to make people comfortable with cannabis who otherwise wouldn't be comfortable walking into a place covered in Bob Marley posters and such things.

Also... Diamond CBD. Stay away! I've seen several stories now where their products have been found to have synthetic cannabinoids in them.

[Lathum]

Thanks for the info, I need to look in to the link when I have time.

How do you determine the dosage, etc...?

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Thanks for the info, I need to look in to the link when I have time.

How do you determine the dosage, etc...?

I always suggest starting low and working up from there if necessary.

Our brand of oil comes in a 30 ml bottle with 1000 mg of CBD. The dropper that comes with the bottle is 1 ml and we have the droppers labeled in .25 ml increments. One full dropper is 33.3 mg. Lots of people seem to settle around 30 mg/day, which would be a half dropper twice per day or one full dropper once per day. 30 day supply at that dosage.

I take about ~60 mg/day