The Beginning Farmer

Just in case you didn’t notice, my wife, Becca, is back from blogging vacation. You can click here to head over to her blog or click on the link to the right.

Nothing says “party” like a nice October day and some quality time spent doing manual labor, at least that is what I’m hoping! This coming Friday and Saturday we are going to try and get a good start on siding our shed and we are offering up an open invitation for anyone that would like to come a work for a while. If anyone would like to come on out and help on either day you are welcome to come out around 10:00 AM or so each day and work as little or as long as you would like. Of course we will be offering plenty of food and drinks and as many thank yous as we can get out in a day! If you are interested in coming out for some work (and some fun I’m sure) just shoot me an e-mail.

The shed is a very important piece of the puzzle, but it is just one of the first pieces to get everything squared away for winter. Once the siding gets up there are a few other “shed related” projects that we need to tackle. In no particular order: 1.) Trench water and electricity out to the shed (both are coming from roughly the same spot so only one trench); 2.) Install frost-free water and hydrant in shed; 3.) Install electrical panel and some outlets in the shed; 4.) Finish the high-tensile fence around the shed and yard; 5.) Construct cattle working area with chute.

Of course there are plenty of other projects to do related to the cattle, the pigs, and the house to get ready for winter, but I think I’ll just focus on those right now! It sure seems like Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family got their farm set up more quickly than us … but I guess they didn’t have a town job either. Plus, they were smart and usually built a smaller house … out of dirt!

Yesterday was the third year that I have been able to take a tour on the Farm Crawl (I can’t remember exactly how many years this event has been going on). It is really great to get out and see so many farms close by that are working in so many diverse farming pursuits. But, it was especially great to see how many people there were out there crawling from farm to farm and supporting local agriculture. I don’t know how many people there were, but there was a crowd at each farm we stopped at.

This year we stopped at Blue Gate Farm, Schneider’s Orchard, Coyote Run Farm, and Reichert’s Dairy Air. It was nice to get out and see these farms and the farmers (especially since I have had a chance to chat with them from time to time as we have started the farm). Each farm has a little different niche, although they do overlap in some areas. But, what is really neat is to see the farms operating in their own unique way … and outside of the “conventional box”.

We took quite a few mental notes this year and hope to have a chance to be on the Farm Crawl ourselves in the future. Luckily we right about on their loop and very close to Reichert’s so it wouldn’t be too difficult to join in if there is room for one more. This kind of thing is right up my alley … people coming to the farm and checking out what we have going on!

I’m beginning to wonder if I can do anything right when it comes to farming. Thursday I purchased three bred gilts. These were pasture farrowed outdoor raised gilts from a herd that has been going strong from 20 years. Needless to say I was very excited about these additions to the farm. But, now I only have two of them. That afternoon one of them escaped and is long gone. I have spent about four hours combing the pasture and the woods looking for this lost gilt … and she is gone.

Needless to say I’m a little less than pleased with myself and the way things have worked out. I am spreading the word around the neighborhood and keeping my eyes peeled (along with driving different roads to town each time), but so far I haven’t found anything.

The other two gilts are settling in just fine and are probably getting close to farrowing. I big thing now is to get them into separate huts. Right now the two girls have both decided to take up residence in the same hut even though there are two others available … that is today’s chore!

Well, so do I … Today the steel (and all the other stuff to put it up) is set to show up at the farm finally. We placed our order just a few days before a price increase that was coming and it seems that everyone else did as well, so we have had to wait awhile. But, now that our steel is arriving on the farm we need to get it up on the shed so that we can move on to other shed related projects (winter lot fencing, hay manger construction, water in the shed, electricity in the shed, etc.). So, I guess we (with the help of family) are going to learn how to side the shed.

The project shouldn’t be too complex, just a bit time consuming as we get everything figured out and put up. One big portion of the work that needs to be done is the sliding door on the west end of the lean-to. The east side of the lean-to will be open to allow the cows to come in to feed, but the west end will have a sliding door in order to block the cold winter winds yet still allow a tractor to drive through when the deep bedding needs to be cleaned out in the summer.

Other than that project it should be fairly straight forward as we do the sides and the back side (it will be open along the entire front). The easiest part will be the back side because those pieces of steel will already be cut to length, but I have faith that we can get the rest done. Now, we just need to pray for some light winds so we don’t have to fight a breeze putting up thirteen foot pieces of steel!

If you are in the area and would like to learn (ha ha) how to put steel on a shed drop me an e-mail and I’ll see if I can help you out 😉

I’m not even going to look down and see how long it has been since I last posted … I’m sorry to those of you that read regularly and those of you that have been wondering where I have been. I’m especially sorry because I thought I was going to get going again after that last break. Nonetheless, here I am writing a blog post again. I haven’t stopped farming, but I have been plenty busy on the farm and at the church and trying to figure out all the puzzle pieces that need to get put together before the ground freezes and the snow flies. To get the “blog ball” rolling again I think I’ll just start out with an easy post…

As you may or may not remember I have been using a springtooth harrow and a drag harrow to bust up the anthills on the farm. Doing this has brought into sharp focus the need (or my desire) to reseed a few areas of the pasture. There are some areas that are so over grown with brush and prickly elms that once all that is removed I’ll pretty much have bare ground (or weeds only). So, I would like to do some pasture seeding on maybe a third of our pastures. And, maybe broadcast some seed on a few other areas.

My question, and I realize this is a very location specific question, is what type of pasture mixes would you recommend if you were going to be drilling in some seed? And, when you would you suggest doing it (this fall or in the spring)? I would love to hear any thoughts people have on this subject and I’ll be doing a bit of research myself, so I’ll report back.

As always, thanks for reading and I’m sorry for such incredibly sporadic posts 😉

Earlier this week I was able to get the haybine up and running and cut about 4 acres (more or less) of grass. It was nice to know that the haybine we purchased last year was in good working condition. I knew the rake would work fine because I used it last year, so the last piece of the puzzle that needed to be put together was whether or not I had a working baler. I knew that there was a spring underneath that was broken, but since I do not have a manual (or a lot of baler knowledge) we didn’t get the correct part ordered.

Good thing there was a plan B, or C, or D … I don’t really remember which plan it was, but I do know that we were able to borrow the families New Holland baler. With a working baler in hand we were able to finally put up the hay that I cut. Needless to say, it was plenty dry and ready to be baled.

The grass in that area of the farm is mostly a mixture of warm season grasses. As Rich mentioned in an earlier comment we have some Bluesteam, Indian Grass, and Switchgrass which actually covers most of our farm. It is a nice stand in some parts and a bit thin in most of the farm. I would say our bales averaged about 40 or 50 each and we have right around 130. Not a real good cutting, but at least it is a start.

It is very nice to look into the shed and see hay piling up!

I’m sure this video and story is making the rounds now, but I’ve been waiting to put it up because of the guest post. Also, it gave me some time to think about my thoughts on the subject … and after much reflection I realized I’m not sure where I land on this subject. Actually I guess I have an idea of where I land, but the answer is fairly complicated. I’ll get to that, but first the video in case you haven’t seen it yet (and an article from Fox News).

Here is where it gets complicated. I think there would be a fairly large segment of Americans (maybe even a majority?) outraged at the idea of the chicks being ground up alive because they aren’t needed. On the other hand I am completely convinced that a large portion of those that were outraged woudn’t not be very excited about the prospect of paying substantially more for eggs or or poultry products (because one of the reason of getting rid of these chicks is because they will be slow growing for the meat market).

So really, I believe it is a catch-22. I do not believe it is very good stewardship to waste so much potential and that is why I think more dual-purpose (both meat and egg layers) chickens are the way to go. But, the average consumer in American wants eggs cheap and on demand and to get that high capacity output our large commercial farms need super birds. And I guess the super egg laying breed boys aren’t quite as super as the girls.

What are your thoughts on the subject … no big deal … over zealous hidden camera guy … or something to think about?

Last year we bought a line of hay equipment, all from the same farmer. But, as of yesterday morning the only piece of equipment that I had used was the rake. Last night that all changed after I finally got the gumption to get the haybine ready to go and cut some hay. I spent some time in the morning crawling around underneath and on top of the haybine looking for all of the grease zerks and then I oiled all the moving parts that didn’t have zerks. After all that I began working on the big problem … getting the hydraulic cylinder to lower. I don’t know exactly what the deal is (it’s a fairly involved story, so I won’t get into it), but lets just say I am able to lower and raise the haybine … just not as easily as I should be able to!

Once all of that was done I was ready to go. The area I cut wasn’t very big (probably 5-7 acres), but I really enjoyed the process. Partially because it was a beautiful night and partially because I was doing some productive work on the farm and things were mostly working out. As you can see from the picture the sunset was pretty amazing and it was only made more amazing by the fact that I saw it from the tractor seat as I was making rounds cutting hay.

Now, I just have to see how long it takes to dry, rake it up, and then figure out a baling plan. I may have gotten a little ahead of myself, but I have at least four different plans to get it baled. I’m not too worried about it … yet!