The Beginning Farmer

**The post is late today … if you didn’t notice. Our pastor has again decided that he needed some time in a hospital bed and so I have been spending time in Des Moines and doing a bit more at the church. He is having internal bleeding in his left leg and it has swollen to almost twice the size of normal. They are going to take him off of the blood thinners, but that also brings up a couple other problems … we are praying God will continue to work.**

Back to the farm… One of the main outcomes of our class that we are currently taking is that we will hopefully end up with a business plan (if we do our work). Part of the plan is a mission statement and vision statement. I thought it would be a good idea to get some more feedback on those, so I’m posting them today for your critique and thought.

Mission Statement:

To raise grass-fed livestock outdoors on pasture to provide anti-biotic and hormone-free meats to our customers, while at the same time, building strong relationships between our family and community.

Vision Statement:

The three most important areas of focus that directly impact our farm is our:

• Faith
• Family
• Friends

We strive to raise our animals in a way that reflects how they were created and to manage our land in a way that benefits nature. We desire to work together as a family while cultivating strong family ties and values in our children. Because of this, we plan on remaining a small family farm and do not wish to become a large producer. And finally, we value friendships and building community and hope our customers will come out to our farm and many new friendships will be formed.

A little over a week ago we brought home our first pig from the locker. The thing I loved most about bringing it home (at the time) was that it was so much easier to load for this trip than the trip the pig took to the locker! This time I just threw some boxes of white paper wrapped piggy into the back of the Expedition and off I went. No pushing, no mud, no mess, and no problems! But, the actual best thing about bringing the pork home has been eating it. Here is what we have had so far.

• Pork Chops – We had to start with the Iowa gold standard first, so we started with a couple nice red butterfly pork chops. The color was amazing and the taste was even better. Two chops was enough for the entire family at supper and then I had the leftovers for lunch the next day. I can’t wait until we have pork chops again, but I do need to make sure I save some for the grill.
• Cottage Bacon and Regular Bacon – Next we had a breakfast night at supper so along with our scrambled eggs and fresh bread we had bacon … of the regular variety and the cottage variety which comes from the shoulder instead of the side. Both were wonderful and it was great to have bacon that tasted like something! Later on we had some cottage bacon on our pizza … that was amazing!
• Ham Steak – On another night we had one of my farm meal favorites. Ham, corn, baked potatoes, and bread. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the ham because a lot of that taste has to do with the cure, but this was some great ham. In fact we have had a few different people comment on how good the ham was. I loved the taste and I loved the tenderness.
• Pork Tacos and Pork Spaghetti – We didn’t have any beef in the house, but that wasn’t a problem because we had nice little packages of ground pork. In both cases we friend them up in a pan and then made our meal. The first night it was spaghetti sauce and the next night it was taco meat. I suppose this was a little out of the ordinary, but it actually was pretty good. The biggest plus was that I didn’t have to go to the store for ground meat though!
• Sliced Sandwich Ham – Just about like the ham steaks, but just smaller slices. We had this for lunch after our class up in Ames. My Grandma just steamed it for a bit and then we put it on some toasted buns. This will be a great meal for a quick lunch.
• Pork Shoulder Roast – Sunday morning my wife put a three pound roast in the crock pot before we headed to church. When we came home a few hours later we were greeted to a very pleasant smell and some tender and juicy pork roast. The whole family enjoyed this meal and we still have some in the fridge for later.
• Chocolate Chip Cookies – You are probably thinking I’m crazy now, but it is true. Just last night we made chocolate chip cookies with pork lard instead of Crisco. Thanks to one of my wife’s friends (and a pork customer) we had a jar of freshly rendered lard to add to the recipe. I will admit that it seemed a little odd, but they taste great. In fact these are almost healthy chocolate chip cookies because we have some our nice outdoor/pastured pig lard in them, oatmeal in them, and freshly ground wheat instead of white flour. Of course the key word there is almost…

There you have it. We still haven’t had a chance to try the Italian sausage or the breakfast sausage yet, but they will get their chance soon enough. In fact, I think there may even be a couple of other cuts we need to test out. All in all there has been some great eating at Stoneyfield Farm lately!

As you may know, if you follow the blog semi-regularly, we are currently taking the “Grow Your Small Market Farm” class up in Ames. So far we have had four classes (I had to miss one, but I was able to listen to a recording) and each one has been a treasure trove of information. But, besides the classes each week we have homework that deals with creating a business plan for your farm and so much more. I have found the homework thought provoking, interesting, and even difficult at times … and I love it! But, I do need some help (that is nothing new when it comes to me and homework).

In a session coming up pretty soon we are going to have a guest speaker focusing on things like brochures, advertising things, and farm logos. That is where I could use some help. Above is a what I guess is our “text logo”. It is something that my wife’s cousin did for us when he made the website and I think it is great. But, what I would like to have in conjunction with that is some sort of “image” logo. Something like the one for Sugar Creek Farm, Caw Caw Creek, the grass for Prairie Lakes Church, Nature’s Harmony Farm’s circle logo, or even Polyface Farm’s tree to an extent.

You know … I want something fun, fresh, and hip that reflects our pasture raised beef, pork, and poultry. A pretty tall order huh!?!

Of course we are fooling around with a few things, but I’m always open for suggestions. If you have any ideas no matter how silly you think they are I would love to hear them. All I know is that if we just rely on my artistic ability we are in trouble…

Here I go once again … I’m looking for some advice or some first had experience when it comes to farming. This time I am specifically looking for information regarding outdoor farrowing in portable huts. I’m interested in everything from portable huts for sale to building plans for portable huts. I just want something that is good at keeping everyone snug as a bug in a rug … If you know what I mean!

But, before I hear your thoughts on the subject I will share a few plans that I have come across through a bit of online research:

• E-Hut Plans: This one is number one on my list because it is from a Practical Farmers of Iowa member and they are using it in my home state. The link includes building plans and pictures of them out in the “wild”.
• Niche Pork Production: This is a .pdf file of a publication that may or may not be from Iowa State. It has some more permanent structures, but if you scroll down it includes some more plans very similar to the E-Hut.
• Port-A-Hut: These metal structures are made right here in Iowa and we have been using one of their huts since we got our first pigs. They are nice little huts, but some might like the flexibility of building their own.
• Raising Pigs on Pasture: This is a nice little publication from SARE that includes some on farm research from folks that pasture farrow. No building plans really, but some good information.
• Outdoor Pig Production: Another good article that has information and pictures of various types of huts. Everything from homemade to plastic to metal.
• Portable Farrowing Houses: The last link here is from the Midwest Plan Service (online) and includes some basic plans for a few different types of houses.

I can’t say that this is surprising, but I do feel for the farmers and the families…

“A chicken housing crisis has cropped up in the U.S., and it’s producing some of the same bleak results as the human one — foreclosures, lawsuits and devastated homeowners.

In the wake of last year’s bankruptcy filing by poultry giant Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., hundreds of farmers suddenly find themselves unable to make mortgage payments on their pricey chicken coops.

To cut costs, Pilgrim’s, the nation’s second-largest chicken company, has terminated contracts with at least 300 farms in Arkansas, Florida and North Carolina. Under these contracts, farmers receive a set price per pound for raising chicks supplied by Pilgrim’s until they are ready for slaughter. The company turns the birds into nuggets, wings and other food.”

Those are the opening paragraphs from, “Farmers Face Empty-Nest Syndrome Amid Chicken Housing Crisis,” in Thursdays edition of “The Wall Street Journal”. The article by Lauren Etter looks at the situation that a few families are currently facing after losing their production contracts with Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. Their contracts gave them birds, feed, and a buyer if they built chicken houses to the companies specifications.

The draw of course to this sort of production is the fact that you know that you will have birds (not all the time I guess) and that you receive an agreed upon price (if they give you birds of course). The downside though is that most people that jump on these deals have to throw all their eggs in one basket (no pun intended) in order to get the financing to build the big buildings needed.

Once you lose your contract though you are left with a really expensive building (they cost more than $200,000 according to the article) that doesn’t offer much resale value you or even income generating potential. And, as far as I know there are not many markets for an independent commercial chicken producer to sell at these days because Perdue, Tyson, and Pilgrim’s own most of the commercial chickens in the country.

The thing is that the chicken industry probably isn’t the only place that sees this “housing crisis” from time to time. I’m sure it exists in the commercial hog world where huge confinement houses are built when prices are high and then are hard to keep going when prices drop. I’m sure the same thing happens in dairy and crops as well.

I see at least two problems working here. The first problem is the fact that the poultry industry in the U.S. has become vertical. Farmers are growing someone’s birds and they don’t have much say in the operation. The second problem is diversification. If you are a chicken farmer and you lose all of your chickens … well, I think you lose all of your income.

No, I’m not putting any fence up just yet (and my plans may take a step back if we get the snow they are calling for on Friday), but we have settled on a bit of a fencing plan. We are in need of about 1/2 mile of exterior fence along two sides of our property that borders the road and then a diagonal line of fence along the woods. Of course we could have just put up straight shots around the entire property, but that would have taken to many hours on a bulldozer so we are going to just fence along the woods.

Thanks to Gary at PowerFlex we now have a plan that goes something like this… On the exterior fence we will have six strands of hi-tensile wire. There will be wood hedge posts at the corners, around the turn of the property, and anywhere there is big terrain change. For line posts we are going to go with 1 1/4″ x 66″ PowerFlex posts (we could and we might go with the 1 5/8″ bull posts) spaced at about 30 feet. I’m not exactly sure on the spacing of the wires, but will check with Gary to see what he recommends for the livestock that we have/will have.

Along the woods we are going to use three wires (and some gates most likely so I can do some flash grazing in the brush) and the 1 1/4″ x 60″ PowerFlex posts. There will probably be some hedge posts thrown in along the line at the major bends and such. I like the idea of the three wires because it allows us to be a bit flexible down there.

As far as interior fencing goes I think we are going to go with some of the Management Intensive Grazing basics. We will have some tread-in posts, wire or polybraid, and some reels for quick setup and tear down. At this point we aren’t going to do much in the way of permanent interior fencing so we have some time to really understand our pastures.

This bad boy of a system will be powered by a 6 Joule fencer (most likely a Stafix brand) that ought to provide a shocking mental barrier to our livestock.

I’ve got to tell you that I am very thankful for the help that they have been at PowerFlex and I really get the feeling that their product is as good as their service. This spring (if it ever completely comes) I’ll have a good series of posts on the process and lots of pictures. So, stay tuned!

…And I Won! Yesterday you might remember that the Expedition and the stock trailer were stuck in the mud. But, it was more than just that because inside the stock trailer were three new Dexters for Stoneyfield Farm. It was getting late and we were too far from where they were supposed to be to rig something up, so I just threw a bunch of hay in the trailer and bedded them down for the night. But, today I finally scored a point against the mud!

When I came home from work today I decided I was just going to try and get the truck and trailer on the gravel. I figured if I could do that I could figure something out. So, after a little slow going I was on firmish ground and I thought maybe I could make it to the pen if I took a run at it driving towards it instead of backing up to it. My plan worked and with the help of a cattle panel and a 16 foot gate all three of the new Dexters are in place.

So, you may be wondering why three new Dexters and why now? Well, we are going to need a bull this summer and if I have learned anything over the past couple of years I have learned that it is somewhat difficult to find a decent bull when you need one. So, when I saw this group for sale at a good price I jumped at the opportunity. I figured it was best to at least have something.

This was a package deal though, so I came home Monday (after about 7 hours of driving) with an almost three-year-old bull and cow along with their 7-month old heifer. While he isn’t the greatest Dexter bull ever he is a decent looking bull and will work for our herd. The cow and the heifer also have added something to the herd.

I am beginning to think that I want to focus mostly on the dun or red cows mostly for heat resistance and the way they look. So, this summer (maybe after calving) I’m going to sell two black cows and keep these two dun cows. This will help with the money we just spent and will also bring us closer to the dun/red herd I’m looking for.

One more thing … none of these three are registered yet. That means they don’t have names! Do you have any good suggestions?

Some of you may remember reading about the total destruction of our chicken coop (my wife wrote about it also). That was a time when the weather got the best of me. I am sorry to say that good ol’ Mr. Iowa Weather is at it again and is trying to pitch a shutout. The destruction of our first coop was point number one. Now I will recount the next three points that Mr. Iowa Weather has scored on me lately…

• Point #2: A couple of weeks ago I had to drive the church van out here because I had no vehicle in town. It was no big deal really and since the ground was frozen solid I decided to park in by the pig pen in the grass so that it wasn’t in the way. Well, when it came time to load pigs I needed to move it … there was only one problem with that idea. The temperatures had decided to come up and the frost had decided to leave the ground. That all lead to the big blue van being stuck in the mud … and it is still there!
• Point #3: ‘Ol Mother Southwind (not to be confused with ‘Ol Mother Westwind or the Merry Little Breezes) has decided to rear her ugly head again. So far the newly built chicken coop is still standing, I built this one lower to the ground, but I did end up having to screw down the top in hopes of keeping it connected to the structure. The biggest thing the winds have done this time is spread our stuff ALL over creation. What fun!
• Point #4: Did I mention that it was muddy and that the big blue church van is stuck. Well, you can now add our big green Expedition and the really old stock trailer to the “stuck in the mud” list. The worst part … there are three new Dexters living in the back of the trailer at the moment (more on them tomorrow … hopefully). It was getting dark so I didn’t have too much time to assess the situation, but from the looks of it she may be stuck until I can get some help. For the time being I took lots of hay and water to them and made that old trailer as comfortable as possible. On the bright side, they have a spot out of the wind.

As for me … I have zero points. Everytime I go outside it seems like I come back in muddy, frustrated, tired, and stinky. Hopefully I can score a point or two pretty soon. Even if the weather beats me this time around I would like to score some points for team moral.

**By the way, that isn’t my tractor picture above. I just found it on the web and thought it fit the topic … although I kind of wish my tractor was “stuck” like that one instead of being “stuck” the way it is 🙁

I don’t have much time today, but thanks to a blog that I follow quite a bit (Take Your Vitamin Z) I have a neat little link for you … “24 Things About to Disappear in America“

Here is the most interesting thing that they say is on the way out,
1. The Family Farm
Since the 1930s, the number of family farms has been declining
rapidly. According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the nation in
1950, but this number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm
census (data from the 2007 census hasn’t yet been published).
Ninety-one percent of the U.S. farms are small family farms.

There are still a lot of family farms percentage wise, they are just bigger. At least that is what I get out of this. One other thing though … I think they just released the census data. I may even have a link if I dig around.