Polyface Farm Field Day Door Prize Winner

We would like to congratulate Donna T. of North Carolina for winning a $100 gift card from Premier at the Polyface Farm Field Day.

Polyface Farms

Photo: Somewhere on the other side of this crowd is Sara McArtor and the Premier Booth.

 Sara McArtor (Premier Field Consultant) took a trip to the Polyface Farm Field Day hosted by the Salatin Family of Swoope, VA.

The field day entailed discussions on producing beef, pork, chicken, rabbit and eggs on pasture based systems. There were also talks on composting, on-farm processing and direct to consumer marketing. Folks from all over America came for the event. A few from Australia and Canada attended as well. For more information about the event visit www.acresuas.com.

Sara had a booth showcasing some of our products which included netting and a new line of poultry products from the UK (ChickBox™, Handy Feeder, Combination Drinkers, Cage Cups, Mini Cup Drinker, Emperor Feeder and much more). Folks came up and inquired about our netting. The main questions were: How does it work? Is it easy to use? To answer them, Sara held a hands on demonstration where those with questions could work with netting to gain first hand experience.

Photo: Field consultant Sara (right) discusses netting with some of the Field Day attendees.

She wasn't the only one demonstrating our netting. Joel Salatin (a long time Premier customer) uses it heavily with his pasture poultry. His net still has white horizontal twines and black vertical strings. We stopped producing this color of net 5 years ago, so his net has been in constant use for at least 5 years and some for almost 10!

Photo: Polyface Farm's produces "Pigerator Pork", pigs are used to tear up old bedding to help compost it. The compost is later used to fertilize the soils. The pigs spend the off season rotated through pastures in our netting.

The event is held once every three years but if you're interested in the Salatin Farm, see www.polyfacefarms.com.

Just how Tough is a PRS?

Recently a customer brought in a PRS 100. What was wrong with it? It was simply smashed. The case was crushed and the solar panel was shattered. What happened (we're sure it wasn't shipped out like this)? The owner was round baling and accidentally drove over the unit. He brought it in to see what could be saved, after all it's an excellent solar energizer.

We pried the unit open and found that the wiring harness, batteries and Patriot energizer were unharmed. The plastic insert and metal case absorbed the impact and protected what was inside. We rebuilt the unit (new case and a new panel) and the owner was back in the fields later that day.

The plastic insert absorbed the pressure that would have otherwise damaged the Patriot energizer and batteries.

We were pleasantly surprised how durable the PRS unit was, though we wouldn't recommend finding out for yourself.