Our farm has been the beneficiary of the terrible weather; the carcasses of our two warehouses on the new farm are now complete, including the massive doors (the buildings are watertight). Jennifer, our farm manager, told me last night that the electricians and plumbers were on site, as were the refrigeration contractors. Electricity and gas have already been connected but the plumbers have not yet connected the boiler (for our heated floors). Part of the issue is that the electricians and plumbers required an inspection of the rough-in, which is scheduled for today (Friday). Especially, in a commercial building, you cannot skip inspection steps, for two reasons: permits and insurance.
Again, not to belabour the point, but because of weather delays on other construction sites, our two chillers and our two freezers are already under construction, ahead of schedule. Jennifer contacted them to tell them that our buildings were nearly weatherproof, almost three weeks ahead of schedule.
Jennifer was very busy as we had five cows give birth in the past week, as usual, this was done in the early morning. We knew the cows were very pregnant, so they were already segregated in what we call birthing pens, which have infrared cameras so that Jennifer can keep track of everything remotely. Of the five calves, three were heifer calves, and all five were born between 4 and 6 am. All five mothers were quick to clean their claves. It may sound cruel but you don't want to overheat the cow pens, otherwise, their protection fur will shed, which is far worse. Cows are perfectly comfortable at 2c or 5c. It's when it's below zero that cows are uncomfortable -- hence we provide wind protection.
In other news, Jennifer has ordered 12 new high tunnels and the milking equipment for the new shed we are building in February. Building milking sheds is somewhat of a specialized business, and that's when we were scheduled. Jennifer told me that the site had been levelled and the concrete contractor was already setting the forms.
Jennifer had the idea of splitting the bee hives into two groups, one for our farm and the other for third-party commercial work. The reason is that we move our bees almost every night from one high tunnel to the next, which could create hive stress, and could even kill the hive, but since we are moving the hives very short distances, and there is no " trucking involved" Jennifer things that the two impact will balance each other. We did buy the beehive business from Mr. O'Toole (what an Irishman is doing in Norfolk...no one understands) and he has already relocated all his operations. We have found five employees interested in beekeeping, Mr. O'Toole will teach them the business. In total, we have 45 beehives which means that we could produce between 20 and 30 kg of excess honey per hive. It is one of the things that Mr. O'Tool checks regularly, if a hive is stressed it will produce less honey. That means that we will produce over 1,000kg of honey per year (not too sure how to deal with that yet).
Our rule is that we don't sell anything directly, everything has to go via a wholesaler. It may sound stupid, but these guys provide a real and very important service for industrial farms like ours. First, their marketing department understands what demand exists (hotels and restaurants), and gives us feedback. That's how we knew our cherry tomatoes were a hit (despite being ridiculously fragile. They have the proper equipment and handling procedures for all our goods. Finally, they are responsible for their client relationship. They deal with payments, collection and risk provisions. It works for us, and we value their services.
Finally, as a funny, we had a call last week from one of the UK's largest wholesalers which deals with UK supermarkets, without discussing quantities they asked us to price our butter. We told them, for indication purposes only; we don't have any spare capacity to supply any new wholesaler and our price per kilogram was ￡7.75. Jennifer told me that she actually got a call from the wholesaler to double-check our prices because they were three times higher than other farms, and assumed we had made an error. Jennifer had to tell them that no that was the price of our butter. Jennifer told the wholesaler that our milk cow breed produces rather exceptional milk, which is prized by high-end restaurants. We could sell three times as much as we currently produce.
The thing about this story is that the supermarkets and the restaurant trade in the UK, have access to different produce quality (meat not so much), and restaurants are willing to pay a premium. Going to a high-end Greek restaurant in London, and ordering a tomato salad will bear no resemblance to a tomato salad you made at home. The tomatoes available to a restaurant are different.
Aside from that, it's cold and sunny in Vail. My batteries are fully charged (for my ski clothing). Apparently, there is a risk of avalanches today. So we will be using a guide today to reduce the risk. Our hosts and we are doing off-piste today.
Note: The buildings were spray foamed earlier this week so that they retain heat and protect the building and our staff from excess temperature during the summer months. That was done as soon as the carcases were done, and before the massive doors were installed (to help control the outgassing).
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