Seeking Part-Time Grazing Apprentice

Medicine Creek Farm is seeking a part-time regenerative grazing apprentice for the 2024 summer season!

We are partnering with the Women, Food & Agriculture Network’s Harvesting Our Potential Program to offer an apprenticeship/mentoring program alongside part-time paid employment.

We are hoping to find someone available for 20 hours/week for 10-14 weeks between June and September.

This might look like 4 hours/week for 5 days a week, including 1 weekend a month; however, we can be flexible with your schedule to a certain degree. If you’re interested but have other things on your plate (days you can’t work, fewer hours available, scheduled vacations), go ahead and apply and we can discuss how we might make it work.

Pay will range between $12-14/hour depending on experience, plus a $750 stipend from WFAN upon successful completion of the program.

Meals will be included and on-farm housing may be available — let’s talk about your needs!

Tasks may include:

• Putting up and taking down a lot of temporary electric fence

• Moving sheep, cattle, and pigs between paddocks

• Filling pig feeders by hand with 5 gallon buckets of organic feed

• Moving equipment (water tanks, hoses, mobile shade, mineral feeders) by hand and with a UTV

• Feeding, brushing, and caring for 6 livestock guardian dogs

• Herding sheep with a border collie puppy-in-training

• Livestock husbandry; treating sick or injured animals

• Interacting with customers through agritourism; giving tours, making on-farm sales

• Garden watering, weeding, planting & harvesting should you be interested

Educational topics covered:

• soil health principles - water infiltration, soil tests, mineral profile

• adaptive grazing - principles in action, plant identification, livestock nutrition

• shepherding basics - parasites, common illnesses, veterinary care, herding dogs

• cattle health basics - parasites, common illnesses, veterinary care, low-stress handling

• pig health basics - parasites, common illnesses, veterinary care, non-ruminant management

• ecosystem health basics - insect and wildlife indicators, pasture diversity, birds, pollinators & predators

• livestock guardian dog management - veterinary care, pack dynamics, breed differences, training

• business management - record keeping, taxes, cash flow, business plans

• direct marketing basics - selling pastured products, website and sales, e-commerce, social media

• harvest basics - sorting & loading, working with a butcher, custom vs USDA considerations, regulations

• programs & grants - navigating beginning farmer resources (FSA, NRCS, SFA, LSP, MFU, FACT, WFAN…)

• agritourism - quality of life considerations, education, community building

Benefits:

• pastoral beauty

• bird song

• starry nights

• dog love

• eating like a King

Things to consider:

• you can’t control animals (they don’t always do what you want them to do)

• you can’t control the weather (it will be hot, it will be cold, it might be wet, it might be dry)

• there will be poop on your clothes (and you might get it on your hands)

• there will be uncertainty

• what is certain is that everything dies, eventually

How to apply:

Everybody is more than welcome to apply; we include every body in everybody.

Please poke around our website first to make sure you know what we’re up to here at Medicine Creek Farm. Also read Hannah’s mentor bio on the WFAN website to see if you like our style.

Then, please send an informal email introducing yourself and your interest in the position at hannah@medicinecreekfarm.com. No need for a cover letter; resumes are nice but only if you have it ready to go. Don’t stress about this part.

If it seems like a potential fit, we will ask you to fill out WFAN’s online application. WFAN will schedule a brief interview to explain how their program works. Don’t stress about this part either.

Then we’ll talk specifics about whether it’s going to work for both of us. This will also be informal so let’s just not stress.

If it’s not the right fit this time around, please try to come sometime for a Saturday morning tour and stay in touch. Who knows what the future might bring!

Winter is Coming

Winter is coming and I have all these photos I never got around to posting. Let’s relive the wonder of long days and green grass, while my hoses all freeze and I finish chores in the dark, continuing on in denial. 

Grazing Sequesters Carbon

The grass has been slow to grow up in northern Minnesota but the cattle are grazing and enjoying a feast of dandelions. We now have a respectable herd of 46 cattle, mostly Shorthorn and Hereford/Red Angus crosses.

I have been doing a lot of grass monitoring to determine what size paddock this many cattle need. We already know the biology in our soil is not super active as it had never been grazed before our arrival. But now that we have a real herd, we can reach more of our pastures with rotational grazing.

The more we graze, allowing the proper rest time, the more the soil biology will be stimulated to wake up and do the work of feeding the grass. The more the grass is eaten and regrows, the more it pulls carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and stores it in the soil. 

The more cattle we can get rotationally grazing the land, the more carbon is sequestered. The more YOU eat grass fed beef and lamb, the more we both fight climate change.