Be unique, be different, be wonderful...

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again  And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?
We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
- Henry David Thoreau

In this light one can examine our homesteads. Just because every neighbor on the road you live on is raising cattle does not mean you are going to make money in cattle. Just because everyone in your county raises white Kenebec potatoes doesn't mean you can't raise Yukon golds or Pontiac reds or Indigo blues. Mono-culture and doing the same thing everyone else is is not sustainable because...

If everyone in 50 miles is raising one particular variety of corn then the bugs that eat that kind of corn experience a population explosion and put a major dent in the profits however... if you are brave enough to be different and put in a different kind of corn you risk not having a market for it or have less of a output but you also stand to have the only healthy crop in the county and to be able to demand top dollar for it.

Diversity 

     Sustainability has already been proven in nature - how often do you see one type of grain covering.an entire field that has not been planted by people?

Battery cages on the homestead...

Most substanance farmers raise A few hens for eggs and meat and there are several methods and lines of thought associated with raising healthy productive poultry.

     On our farm we mostly practice free range poultry production the chickens range over woodland pasture yard and porch and clean up table scraps and supplemental feed not to mention any dog food they can steal. The eggs are left all over the farm and most are never collected but instead rot or are sit on and hatched to resupply the chicken population. The mortality rate of the chicks born on my farm is well over 70% due to predation and the road that runs all too close to my pastures and fields.

      However, hanging on the back of one of the outbuildings you will find three 12 foot long cages on top of one anther each separated into 12 smaller cages so room for 36 hens or more if bantam varieties are included. There are PVC pipes cut into troughs with elbows turned up on either side to hold fresh water and smaller troughs above them for feed. These are my battery cages. Battery cages are used in big chicken production farms to contain as many as 4 hens in each small cage they have a conveyor or auger that carries feed and water to chickens and they are kept under artificial light to force extra eggs out of them during their short productive lives before going to slaughter. 

Why you may ask would I need these cruel devices on my animal friendly free range farm?

       These cages are used once every 2-3 months to confine my entire laying flock so that they can be treated for intestinal worms, for leg mites, and to get a general idea of each individual chicken's overall health and productivity. Also if these is a significant predator problem I can pen all of them up for a few days until I can find and dispatch the offending predator.  Even the heaviest of my hens show no ill effects from up 7-10 days of confinement. After release, some chickens return to the cages at night and go back into the same compartments they were confined in to roost.

   Battery cages like any other tool on the farm are not inherently evil and can be a valuable tool in your livestock management toolbox.