The Beginning Farmer

“Visitors to our farm are often amazed when I tell them we haven’t planted a seed in 50 years. No plow, no disk, no planter, no nothing. And yet 50 years ago we could walk the entire farm without stepping on a plant — that much dirt was between the pasture plants. We grew thistle like a crop, picked buckets of dewberries, and could have cultivated broom sedge seeds as a cash crop. None of those plants can be found today in our pastures.”
-Joel Salatin

That is a quote in an article by Mr. Salatin from my sample issue of “Acres U.S.A.”. I’m pretty sure I have read the article (and posted on it) before, but I’m not sure if it was just on the Acres website or if “Stockman Grassfarmer” also ran the same article. Either way it is an interesting article about the move that Polyface farm has made towards high density mob grazing of taller pasture swards.

When I read the article this time though this particular quote jumped out at me. I know the reason that it did is because I have thought, and discussed with different people, about the possibilities of seeding in clovers or other things this spring to add to our pastures. But, I think Mr. Salatin would advocate just going with what we have, and by the sounds of it we have more than he did starting out.

What we have now is a mixture of native prairie grasses and switch grasses along with plenty of other invasives in the form of thorny bushes and weeds. Most of these things are warm season grasses and I am a little worried about how they would hold up under a managed intensive grazing system through the year. On the flip side, there was an area that we mowed and in that area I found a few plants of both red and white clover.

Anyone have thoughts on Mr. Salatin’s quote and the way they built their pastures?

Life on the farm has been a bit busy around here lately. Between work at the church, family, and regular winter chores we are sure to keep busy, but when you add in all the spring/summer planning we are going through now and the homework from the GYSMF class there isn’t a lot of down time. Lately I have been able to finish our makeshift chicken coop that will get us buy until we are able to build an eggmobile type of structure, finalized some exterior fence plans with a ton of help from the guys at PowerFlex Fencing, and how can I not mention the fact that we are taking in three of our last four pigs to the processor tomorrow. The only piggy left is the boar … we are just going to try to sell him either to an individual or at the sale barn.

But, one of the most enjoyable things that I have been doing is splitting wood (you can see a bit of my stack in the picture above). Thanks to some great church friends we had a bit over 5 pickup loads of wood dropped off this winter and it was a big help because of everything that we had going on while our Senior Pastor was in the hospitial.

Mostly we have been burning the chunks that didn’t need to be split because they were they were on top of the pile and of course took the least amount of work. But, now we are down to the bigger stuff and I have been spending a little time each day out there chopping away with the splitting maul and axe. I don’t even know where the maul came from, but my wife found it in the wood pile one day. Someone must have felt sorry for me when the saw my little axe!

I do love cutting wood. I love being outside in the fresh air … I love smelling the wood all around me … I love the sounds of the cows, pigs, chickens, and more as I chop … I love the tired feeling I get as I’m working … and I love to see the wood fly apart in two pieces. Of course the wood doesn’t always fly apart in the picture perfect way. That is what happens when you have some elm mixed into the pile!

Pretty soon I’m going to hit the woods again and build up more of a supply for this year and next. I’m looking forward for those times again…

**Maybe you are wondering why there is a picture of C.S. Lewis on a farming blog. Keep reading and it will make sense.**

Hopefully I’ll have a chance to share a farm update tomorrow. But, really life has been kind of bland on the farm lately with winter chores and such. The most exciting thing I’m doing right now is whittling away the massive 5 truck loads of wood that we have been gifted with this winter. But, more on that tomorrow. Today I want to talk reading material…

I don’t remember if it was something Joel Salatin said, or if it was someone else. But, the gist of the quote was this, “I can tell everything I need to know about a farmer by looking at the books on their shelf and the magazines lying around”. I thought that was an interesting thought and since I’m a guy that loves to read I thought it was a pretty truthful quote. You know what they say, “You are what you eat,” and I think the same is true for what you read.

Here is what I’ve been reading:

“Acres U.S.A.” – I just received my sample copy of this publication in the mail yesterday and I have enjoyed it so far. They make a specific “sample issue” so some of the current events stuff is dated, but it seems to be a publication full of good information. Plus, it covers everything from organic crops to grazing. Hopefully there will be some money in the budget for this sometime soon … maybe after my birthday.

“Dirt Hog” by Kelly Klober – I’m still making my way through this book and I have to admit that it is a pretty good read. Maybe the only semi-bad thing (really it isn’t bad at all) that I have thought so far is that he seems to be a little more uppity when it comes to pigs than I am. I don’t really know how to express it, but maybe it is just a matter of scale thing since right now pigs are just a small part of our small operation. Nonetheless it is a book full of great information!

“The Future of Forestry” by C.S. Lewis – Yep … I’m reading poetry! Actually there is a band out there by the same name that I just ran across and while I was reading up about them I found out that they got their name from a C.S. Lewis poem. That meant I had to look up the poem! I think it is a pretty profound piece of writing really, and even very applicable to the small farm that we are starting and the reasons behind what we do. Just check out these two lines and then I hope you will read the rest … “Tarmac’s laid where farm as faded, Tramline flows where slept a hamlet.”

Now, I want to hear what you are reading! Give me some good ideas of what I should check out next, or let me know what you think of my latest selections.

A couple weeks ago I asked for your thoughts on getting some chicks … specifically some chicks that would eventually grow to be a new laying flock for the farm and at the same time do a bit of pasture sanitation for us. But, laying hens haven’t been the only kind of fowl running through our Stoneyfield Farm discussions lately because we have also been talking about guineas and, as today’s title suggests, broiler chickens. So, I thought I would throw the topic out there for discussion.

My biggest question is this: What do you raise for broilers? If we were to go ahead with some this were we are talking about doing a very small amount, mostly for ourselves and a few customers that are interested, but I’m not really sure what to get when it comes to ordering chicks.

I have read Joel Salatin’s book, “Pastured Poultry Profits”, and I know that he (and others) are successfully raising the Cornish X Rocks birds because they have found that that is what the consumers want. But, I’m just not totally convinced on this “franken-bird”. It almost looks like a chicken on steroids.

I was able to find this discussion over on the Homesteading Today message board dealing with just this question and I notice that there are quite a few people that raise things other than the “super bird”. Do you guys have any suggestions for breeds/crosses/specific places to order from? I would love to hear your thoughts!

That is a question that I asked on the Epi-Log a while ago. At the time I was just getting a tractor for our farm and I really didn’t ever have to find out what life on the farm would be like without a tractor. But, now I am going to find out … through personal experience! Yep, our tractor is officially broke and as of yesterday it is officially off of the farm. We are now going to assess the tractor and then figure out what step is next.

The worst of it all is that I was just really beginning to get the full winter potential out of the tractor because of the bale spear we bought. That spear really helped with the winter chores and would have been even more helpful as we transition from winter to spring. It is just so much easier to lift a bale off the ground and haul it rather than dragging it through the mud with our Expedition.

Anyways, this is what I know is wrong … the engine is stuck … really good. We have taken the pan off and checked underneath and now that the tractor is off the farm (it is at my cousin’s where we can work on it inside) we are going to be able to really tear into and hopefully find a problem. If all goes well it won’t be the worst case scenario and it will be something that can be fixed for less than $1,500. But, it could be really bad!

So, this is what I have come up with for possible solutions:

• The engine is stuck, but things are torn up so much that we can do a partial rebuild and not spend our lives away.
• The engine is stuck really bad and isn’t worth fixing so we find another Farmall 450 engine and put it in the tractor. There are a couple other engine options we could look for also (400, M, etc.)
• The engine is stuck really bad and isn’t worth fixing so we find another Farmall 450 tractor. Preferablly we find a narrow front tractor with a drawbar. That way it may cost a bit less and then we can swap over the wide front, three-point, and the loader. Eventually selling off our current tractor bit by bit.
• The engine is stuck really bad and isn’t worth fixing so we borrow my dad’s Minneapolis Moline M5 and pray that the loader and thee-point can be cobbled to fit it. I would have to swap the hydraulics ever time I wanted to use the three-point or loader, but it could work. There is a little bit of mechanical work still to do on the M5 though.
• And finally, the engine is stuck really bad and isn’t worth fixing so we cut bait and run … errr … we just by a completely different tractor. In buying a new tractor we piece out the current Farmall 450 and sell everything by the part. The wide front, three-point, and loader are all worth more by themselves than the complete tractor would be.

So, there you have it. Tractor problems abound on our farm. I will keep you updated on life without a tractor, but for now I have to jump in the SUV and go take a bale to the cows…

Well, we aren’t actually getting completely out of the pig business, but for the time being we may be taking a break (hopefully a short break). Thanks to a bunch of great people who were interested in our pork we are going to end up processing all of our pigs (minus the mister). Two will be going to customers freezers and one is going to be ground up into ground pork and ground Italian sausage for the End of Month Meals program that we have at our church (serves almost 200 meals each night during the last week of the month in the winter).

But, since we are going to be virtually pig-less pretty soon I am beginning to think about the next set of pigs. While I was mostly pleased with this batch (minus a few small things) the Hampshire in the cross isn’t something that I’m totally interested in having. Lately I have been going through phases where I was against purebred livestock and then I am for it. Right now I am for it to an extent…

Way back in 2007 I wrote about a couple of heritage breeds that I was reading about at the time and now I feel like I’m in the same boat again … not really know what to get. This is what I’m sure of at the moment. I would like to get purebred stock right now, maybe just a bred sow or two if possible, and possibly a few feeder pigs to have for the summer grilling season. I am not sold on any bred for sure, but I’m beginning to realize that it will have more to do with what is available rather than what I want the most.

Another thing that is a huge requirement right now is getting hogs that are currently being raised the way that I want to raise my hogs … outside on the pasture. I would like to buy from a farm that is practicing pasture farrowing and finishing so that I have a better chance of getting pigs that will work with my system. Since I want to start small I think I can go ahead with the purebred stock.

A few breds that are bouncing around in my head now are: 1.) Red Wattle – Somebody should probably convince me one these, 2.) Gloucester Old Spot – I have heard these are the ultimate pasture pig, 3.) Tamworth – This is probably one of my favorites right now, and 4.) Berkshire – Should I jump into the growing popularity of this bred?

I would love to hear your thoughts/votes/breeders close to me!

P.S. There is one half still available if you would like some pork. Just shoot us an e-mail if you would like more details.

Even though I’m mostly interested in “None’ce-A-Day” milking (I don’t really want to be a dairy farmer) I read the cover story of the February issue of “Graze” with great interest. The title of the article is, “The economics of once-a-day milking”, and it deals with the experiences of veteran dairyman Cliff Hawbaker and his transition not only to once-a-day milking, but also a little bit of no-grain dairying. That is what I love about “Graze” so far … they go straight to the source and it seems like the articles are just straight forward, “here is what is working and here is what isn’t working,” kind of stuff.

Like I said, I’m not really interested in running a dairy (or even having a milk cow at this time), but what I can respect and what I actually love to read about is someone who is going against the grain and against conventional wisdom. In a time when there are dairies moving to three-a-day milkings and souped up cows the fact that Mr. Hawbaker is transitioning to a seasonal, grass bassed, and once-a-day dairy farm is really against the grain.

But, from reading the article it doesn’t seem that he is doing it because he has a deep desire to have grass only cattle or because he is trying to reach a specialty market. The reason that he has changed and is in the process of changing is because he wants to make better use of his time and resources so that he can make more money! I guess maybe bigger isn’t always better. The other thing that Mr. Hawbaker said he liked about the seasonal/once-a-day milking is that he has time for family and his partners have time for family also. That isn’t to say that they aren’t plenty busy, but rather you can work your schedule a bit more when you only have to milk once.

Of course there were plenty of numbers and figures in the article that didn’t make a lot of sense to this non-dairy guy, but between and around all of that there were some great insights on making the transition from conventional dairy to un-conventional dairy and all the while continuing to sell to the conventional market. It hasn’t been easy for them and while he bought more land to begin an all new grass based herd he is also transitioning his old herd to the new system.

They have had trouble with dry weather and the lack of organic matter in their soil from the years of conventional farming, but even still he thinks this is the best fit for him and his farm. I love his attitude!

If you want to read a little bit about Mr. Hawbaker and his seasonal/once-a-day dairy farm I did find this online article. Any of you with dairy experience or thoughts want to comment on this?

Yesterday was a busy day and today proves to be equally as busy with lots of running around and some things that I really need/want to get done on the farm. So, with that in mind I thought I would just throw out a quick hit blog post today. Actually, what I thought I would do is share a website that I learned about on the first day of our “Grow Your Small Market Farm Workshop”. Our teacher said that she would try and pass along good sites and this one looks like a winner.

The site is called the, “Agricultural Marketing Resources Center“, or AgMRC for short. To steal a line from the website, “The Agricultural Marketing Resource Center is an electronic, national resource for producers interested in value-added agriculture”. I must admit that I have stumbled across this site in the past, but never spent much time exploring it. This week I have looked at it a little bit and it looks like a great place to go for information.

One cool link I found right away on the front page was to an article about conducting local market research. If you are direct marketing I suggest you check it out.

So, that is my contribution for the day … But, I would love to hear what some of your favorite ag related research sites are!

In yesterdays post I focused on some of the more difficult aspects of raising our first batch of Stoneyfield Farm pigs. Today I wanted to take a look at some of the better things that we learned/did/experienced. Overall this first batch of hogs was a pretty good experience all the way through finishing them out and even the sales (we still have two that we could market if you are interested). And, I can easily say that we learned A LOT! Here is just a small sampling of the good things and what we did right:

1. All though these crossbred pigs may not have been my first choice we did luck out in that we were able to find Tamworth x Hampshire pigs close to home. I was really excited to get the heritage Tamworth into this pigs and I was thrilled with the way they finished … well filled out, but longer and leaner like a Tamworth. Now if I could just find some purebred Tamworths (gilts and a boar) close by then I would be set!
2. Raising hogs out on dirt and in the grass really does work. With the use of a single strand of electric we were able to effectively strip graze our pigs from time to time and allow the access to all kinds of good things. They proved to be very hardy as long as they had shelter and made it through the coldest days (-20ºF) without any problems. Once our exterior fencing is all in place I look forward to really getting them out on the farm.
3. Thankfully we were able to find customers who were interested in our pork. Hopefully we can continue to work with them in the future and build on a customer base in our own area. I am excited to know that the pork is going from our local beginning farm to local families that we already know and those I’m sure that we will get to know. To me that just seems like a great system.
4. I think the biggest thing that we learned from these pigs though is that if you let them be pigs they are pretty good at being pigs. We made sure they had shelter, food, and clean water … they made sure they grew and stayed happy (and they did seem pretty happy).
5. Finally, if I were going to be completely honest I would have to say that raising our pigs outside is probably the one thing we have done best since we begun. We had the benefit of starting out with a very few and having things set up for them when they got here. Like I said, we made sure they had what the needed and we let them grow. That isn’t to say that there wasn’t problems or setbacks (see yesterdays post), but all in all I really enjoyed raising pigs on a small scale.

Those are some of the good things. Our biggest question now is where do we go from here. We have kept back two gilts that we could use for breeding stock. They were the best two of the bunch that seemed that have the best traits we were looking for (consistent gain, good health, intelligence, and more). But, on the other hand they are not purebred and from time to time I really buy into the benefits of purebreds. Also, I’m not sold on the Hampshire in their blood…

So, that is all to say that if you are interested in a half (or splitting a half with someone else) just let us know and we will set up a processing date 🙂