Category: farming

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Pizza Farms: A Delicious Blend of Agriculture and Education

Have you ever heard of pizza farms? These are unique establishments that either sell pizzas made from ingredients grown on-site, or they function as educational farms that cultivate pizza ingredients, often on a circular piece of land divided into pizza slice-like segments. Some of these farms primarily focus on selling pizzas. They have gained significant popularity in regions like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. These farms typically cultivate or rear many of their ingredients, akin to the demonstration pizza farms. Additionally, there are farms dedicated to other foods, such as a farm that specializes in “burgers and fries.”

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Borden Dairy Declared Bankruptcy and Is the Second Milk Seller to do so in Two Months

Two of the most recognized names in milk and dairy have recently declared bankruptcy: Dean Foods declared bankruptcy back in November, and Borden Dairy, one of the oldest milk processors in America, just recently did the same.

The rising cost of raw milk and a drop in consumer demand have been cited as reasons for both companies to take this drastic action. Borden will remain in business while it goes through its bankruptcy proceedings, which is a bit of good news for the 3,300 employees of the company that is based in Dallas, Texas.

Tony Sarsam, the CEO of Borden, said, “Despite our numerous achievements during the past 18 months, the Company continues to be impacted by the rising cost of raw milk and market challenges facing the dairy industry. These challenges have contributed to making our current level of debt unsustainable.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that Americans drank 18.4% less milk from 2008 to 2018. At the same time, there has been a dramatic increase in sales in nut and plant-based milk. It may seem hard to imagine, but in 2019 alone, 2,700 dairy farms went out of business. There’s no denying that the entire American dairy industry is struggling mightily.

Vallotton's Dairy Farm

Borden was founded all the way back in 1857. It was the first company to use glass bottles for milk and was also the first company that developed a patent for condensing milk.

The times sure do seem to be changing, don’t they?

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Cows in Russia Are Wearing Virtual Reality Headsets Showing ‘Summer Fields’ to Combat Their Winter Depression

In Russia, cows are getting a new tool to help fight the winter blues that a lot of us deal with. A dairy farm in that country is outfitting its cows with virtual reality headsets to help the animals tone down their anxiety and to fight their winter depression. The moooooove (see what I did there?) is also intended to boost milk production from the farm animals.

The headsets display green fields and pastures to the cows in order to make them feel more relaxed. The project is taking place at RusMoloko farm, outside of Moscow.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region said that the virtual reality headsets have achieved “a decrease in anxiety and an increase in the overall emotional mood of the herd.”

The plan is to monitor the cows wearing the headsets to see if their milk production increases throughout the winter. The ministry said that “technology improvements should impact the industry as a whole.”

In addition to the look of green fields and pastures, the developers of the virtual reality headsets gave the design a predominantly red color scheme because studies have shown that cows see red better than other colors of the spectrum.

Is this the wave of the future in farming? Will the results show that the impact of these VR headsets is positive among the cattle and this technology become commonplace for animals?

Time will tell…

But I think I might need to get my hands on one of these for myself this winter.

The post Cows in Russia Are Wearing Virtual Reality Headsets Showing ‘Summer Fields’ to Combat Their Winter Depression appeared first on UberFacts.

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Coconut farmers in Thailand…

Coconut farmers in Thailand train pigtailed macaques to harvest their coconuts. A trained macaque can pick up to 1600 coconuts a day, while a human can harvest around a 100.

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Behold the “Avozilla:” a Giant Avocado That’ll Make Millennials Go Berserk

The world’s recent obsession with avocados, possibly fueled by the millennial love for avocado toast, might have you thinking they’re a newcomer to the culinary scene, but they’ve actually been around for a long, long time. Avocados are heart-healthy, jam-packed with nutrients, and they pretty much go great with anything.

Basically, the only thing that could make an avocado better is if it were bigger, smoother, or more easily spreadable.

If only…

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

But, hang on. Agriculture heard our wails and has acted benevolently. Giant avocados – called “avozillas” – actually do exist. According to The Guardian Australia, a farm in Queensland is cultivating enormous avocados “as big as your head.” They are, in fact, about four times larger than a normal avocado.

Photo Credit: Peaches Fresh Food

Holy guacamole.

A company in South Africa owns the rights to the variety, which was produced via cross-breeding. Anyone interested in growing their own avozillas must pay to obtain permission and then pay royalties. Currently one farmer in Australia has the lock on a few hundred trees, so the giant fruit (it’s a fruit) is available in a few cities there. They have also exported them to England.

What’s keeping the avozilla from taking over? Ian Groves, the first to have grown them on his Australian farm, believes they may be too niche.

He also told The Guardian, “There is a nursery we buy different trees off, and when we were planting a bunch of avocados 10 years ago, they gave us one as a trial. And after about four or five years, we tried a few of the fruit and thought we’d give them a go. So we planted a small block of about just under 400 trees. They’re coming up to about four years and this is their first production.”

Clearly it takes some forethought to get from idea to table.

Avozillas may not be available everywhere guac fans are, but that hasn’t stopped the internet from falling head over pit for them.

Photo Credit: Instagram

The avozilla’s majesty is inspiring.

Photo Credit: Twitter

And brunch is served.

Photo Credit: Instagram

So, how about it, California and Mexico? Let’s have some avozillas!

We’ll wait.

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