The Beginning Farmer

Yesterday I reviewed last years goals and how well I did on accomplishing them. All in all I would say that I did a pretty fair job on last years goals, and I know for sure that we are further along the farming path now than we were a year before (buying a farm and all). But, as you look over my goals for this year and compare them with last years goals you will see a bit of a difference … basically this years goals are bigger! And, I guess they are a bit more physical in nature. I still plan on reading as much as I can and consuming all the information possible, but there is just a lot of physical work that needs to be done on the farm. So, here are my goals.

1. Fence in the Farm: This one has to be done there is no way around it. And, it needs to be done as soon as possible. Once we start moving into spring I’m going to get a jump on the exterior fencing because I know that it will take awhile with soccer coaching going on. But, hopefully with the help of some friends and neighbors we can knock out about 3/4 of a mile of fence in no time.
2. Put up a Shed: I’m about “this” close to getting this one done. Really, we just need to pull the trigger and go ahead with it because I have the plans picked out and the location picked out. If we can just make sure we have the money picked out we are good to go. In case you don’t remember, my plan is to put up a 24×32 (or something) building with 10 ft. side walls. It will have clear span trusses and will be open on the front. Off the back we will be a 14-16 foot lean-to in order to have some extra room. Hopefully we can use a building like this for a little bit of everything.
3. Become a Better Mechanic: I can vividly remember my dad encouraging me to sign-up for auto mechanics class in high school. Unfortunetly I can also vividly remember not doing it because none of my friends took that class. Now that I have an old tractor I’m beginning to wish I had those skills! So, this year I would like to learn my way around the tractor a little more and get that girl really working on the farm.
4. Become a Builder: During 2008 (with a LOT of help from friends and family) I became a house builder. And while a bit of the house stuff is spilling over into 2009 I hope to become a builder of many things this year. I would like to build a rolling hen house, a woodshed, a water wagon, and so much more. I’m actually looking forward to this type of building though because their will be a little more tolerance for things that come out crooked.
5. Share Farming With My Family: The greatest thing about our farm is that it isn’t just my dream, it is actually something that we have all grown to love and appreciate. This year I want to continue to share the farm with my family (extended family also) and help instill the values and joy that can come with farm life. It is my prayer that our farm is a blessing for all of our family and all that come and check it out.

There you have it, goals for 2009. As I glance back over them I see a lot of work and learning, but really … I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Last year on the first day of 2008 I took some time to write out some goals for the farm. You can check the link to see what was on my mind last year, but all in all I think I did fairly well considering our circumstances changed drastically when we decided to buy 40 acres and build a house! Today I thought as we take the first step into 2009 I thought I would take a look back at my 2008 goals and see how I did. Then tomorrow I’ll share with you the goals that have been kicking around in my head for 2009 … they are quite a bit different than last years!

2008 Goal #1 – Read Six Farming Related Books: I’m not sure that I made it through six complete books, but I did come pretty close this year in the reading department and I’m sure if you counted in all of the magazine articles I read that it would exceed my goal. This was a good goal for me though because I broadened my reading a bit this year and I feel that I really started to develop my ideas on many subjects.

2008 Goal #2 – Begin Rotational Grazing: Yep, I probably failed miserably at this one, but it mostly has to do with the fact that most of the cattle spent the year at my dad’s still. We did end up make five different pastures that they rotated through, but the results weren’t that great. Once the fence gets up at the new place it will happen this year.

2008 Goal #3 – Add Another Dimension to the Stoneyfield Livestock Operation: I can easily check this one off of the list because we added the pigs. Everything hasn’t gone as smoothly as we would have liked, but what does? In this coming year I wouldn’t mind adding some hair sheep, but we really need to focus on getting everything else up and running first.

2008 Goal #4 – Expand Our Backyard Laying Operation: Thanks to the city of Knoxville this one was nixed very early on in 2008. But, then we moved so it was all good. We haven’t actually added any birds yet, but we are thinking about getting some laying hens from an Amish egg guy. He is rotating out the flock and you can get them for 75¢ each. I can’t argue with the price on that one.

2008 Goal #5 – Build a Stoneyfield Website and Expand the Blog: I think I can say check and check on this one. Thanks to the help of my wife’s cousin we now have a website and in a way I expanded the blogging by writing over at the Epi-Log (even though my time there is done).

Check back tomorrow to see what goals I have on the brain for 2009, and I pray you have a blessed and wonderful beginning of the year with friends and family!

It is about time that I actually take a few moments to throw out some ideas of what I would do if I was the incoming Agricultural Secretary. It is safe to say that many of these things have been mentioned in prior comments, but I think that says a lot about the similarities I have with a lot of this blogs readers when it comes to agriculture. Oh, and as your incoming Ag Secretary I would like this photo to be my official picture for all press releases 🙂

1. One of the first things I would try to do would be to make a major over-haul of the current farm bill. By major I mean that I would cut out the “social programs” from the farm bill and allow it to focus completely on the nuts and bolts of farming, not the distribution of food (and other peoples money) to others. If this were done I would hope that people could look more objectively at some of the things in the farm bill that actually apply to farming instead of focusing on the social components.
2. After that was taken care of I would take a major look at the current subsidy system and the incentive programs. Not only do I believe that we need to phase out our current love of paying people to own crop land, but I also think we need to look at the ramifications of paying people not to farm. There are lots of good programs that have a lot that can be beneficial (see the Conservation Securities Program), but there are too many loopholes in the programs that we have. For example, our land had been in CRP for 14 years. At the beginning it was seeded down with native grasses, which was great, but in the subsequent 14 years nothing has been done and because of that it has even begun to suffer a little.
3. Here is the big pipe dream, but I would not allow larger seed companies and packers to influence policy. They are going to only be looking out for themselves (as they probably should), but we need a government that hears and sees all sides of the story. Like I said, this is a bit unlikely, but it is what I would do.
4. I would build a program for agricultural education to be taught in schools. I know that our schools have enough to worry about already, but at some point our students need to learn where food comes from and how it is produced. If we can again have educated food consumers (I believe we did at one time) than agricultural policy and support will probably change for the better.
5. I would require staff to have a intimate knowledge of life on the farm, not just fiscal principles. I wouldn’t go so far as saying that they had to be farmers (I don’t want to be closed minded), but I do think it wouldn’t be too much to ask that they at least spend some time with farmers and get to know their needs, wants, and desires.
6. Oh, and one more thing… I would give all of you guys positions in my office so that I would know that I at least had some people willing to think, and think outside of the box!

Life on the farm has been crazy for the past few weeks (it’s been crazy for my blogging also). Between the super cold temperatures, the unseasonably warm temperatures, the time spent driving back and forth from the hospital to visit my friend/pastor, the Christmas season, and everything else going on it seems like we have had little time to come up for air (or consistently make a blog post). So, I just thought I would share “A Busy and Broken Down Update”.

• First of all, thanks for all of you who have been praying for my friend/pastor/boss and his family. He is doing amazingly well and is so far beyond where the doctors thought he would be that it is almost unbelievable … almost …
• Because, of all the time that I spent at the hospital, at work, and in between my wood pile has slowly dwindled over the past three weeks. I have been going out and cutting a couple of hours at a time just to keep enough wood around to get by, but my stack hasn’t exactly been growing. But, thanks to a great church friend and his buddy we now have two nice pickup loads of wood! That is a big relief.
• As I mentioned we have had some extremely cold snaps and even a couple of really warm days over the past few weeks. That is kept us on our toes making sure all the livestock are comfortable and we didn’t make it through completely unscathed, but they all have plenty of shelter/water/food. It does seem like there is never enough time though.
• Because of everything that came crashing down all at once my shed plans kind of came to a grinding halt, but it is still in my mind and I am encouraged to see steel prices making their way down. In fact in a recent Menard’s flyer you could get steel for $69 a square. Hopefully we can make a decision in the near future one way or another.
• Now for the broken down part … besides my body lately … As I took the tractor out across the pasture on Friday to cut enough wood to get us through a night I slowly watched my loader bucket drop to the ground and hydraulic fluid stream out of the fitting on the cylinder. It was not what I wanted to see (especially sense this is the second set of cylinders I’ve had), but I put the tractor in reverse and started backing to the house. Until I ran out of gas! So, I quick hooked up a hay rack to the SUV, cut up couple logs along the fence row, threw a bucket over the tractors muffler and left (we had to get away for Christmas parties). The tractor is still sitting there and I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet… Anyone know of a cheap cylinder repair guy in my area 🙂
• Oh, and one more thing. On Christmas day my dad brought up one of my round bale feeders to put in with the Dexters. This was a great thing because it makes feeding out the round bales so much easier (and less wasteful). Of course there is only one problem now … I need a tractor to put in another bale! Hopefully I can get something figured out tomorrow.

Such is life on this beginning farm … at least for the moment.

That is the question that Yeoman posed in the comments of my “A New Secretary” blog post. I think it is a great question … such a great question in fact that I wanted to move it to the front page so that everyone would be sure to see it. I would love to hear all things, from just a little thought to something that may have been kicking around in your head for awhile. It is one thing to know that there is a problem, but if we can come up with some workable (or even pipe dream) solutions we are better off.

So, here is Yeoman’s question:

If you (dear reader, and Ethan) were appointed Ag Sec, what would you do.

We’ll presume (a big presumption) actual support from the President, and Congress.

So, if you had the reins of power, in ag, what would you do?

There you have it. The question has been posed and now I’m sure we would all love to hear some thoughts. I’ll kick in with mine pretty soon.

I can’t really come up with anything better than this for Christmas day. I love the story and I love the way Lee Kline tells it. So, here is last years Christmas day post…

In my neck of the woods there is a “50,000 watt blow torch” of a radio station called 1040 WHO. Well, at least that is what their commercials say! You can here this station beyond the boundaries of Iowa and it carries local programming that I can only call, “pure Iowan” (and I say that with pride). One of the shows on that station that I grew up listening to is “The Big Show” which is the 90 minute farm show on from 11:30 AM until 1:00 PM and is hosted by Mark Pearson, Ken Root, and sometimes others … but, on Friday is the real treat. On Fridays farm broadcaster emeritus, Lee Kline, makes an appearance at the end of the show to tell a story. Mr. Kline has one of those voices that just seems to sooth the soul and his stories often remind us of the days on the farm from years ago.

This past Friday he read a story by Clarence Hill who was a farmer from Minburn, IA. The story, titled “The Christmas Pony“, was submitted to Farm Journal Magazine and was printed in December, 1954. It is a great Christmas story that really tugs on the heart. You must click on the title above to hear the story … or CLICK HERE.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Just a quick little update from the farm today, and then I’m off to get things prepared for our Christmas Eve Service. But, I’m glad to report that we have made it … well I guess if I wanted to be technical I should say that we have almost made it, but the end is in sight. It has been a crazy couple of weekends (and a bit more), but by the grace of God all of us have come through unscathed. And what is this “it” that I’m talking about you ask? Well, I’m talking about…

DEER HUNTING SEASON

Here in Iowa, as well as plenty of other places I’m sure, deer season is a pretty popular occasion (especially shotgun season). And, if you drive around the state of Iowa for any amount of time you will realize that it is pretty much needed because we have quite a few deer that like to live the good life and get fat on all of the corn in our fields. But, when they open up the shotgun seasons hunters come out of the woodwork.

Some hunt solo, some hunt in with a buddy, and quite a few like to join up in big ol’ groups and tromp through the woods blasting any little deer that moves. Actually I guess I should say that they plant a few guys at one end of the piece of ground their are hunting then everyone else goes to the other end and starts walking though (and making as much noise as possible) to scare the deer towards the waiting shotguns at the other end.

If that is the way people want to hunt, that is perfectly fine … when I go deer hunting I like to hunker down under a tree near a spot I know they will come, but then again I always miss them when I shoot (I have other excuses … like the fact I use a flintlock smoothbore). The thing that makes deer season interesting on our farm is that we own a little 40 acre chunk in the middle of a ton of land owned by one guy. This means there is a large group hunting every which way all around us.

I stayed close to home during both the first and second shotgun seasons, except for once when I needed to cut a little wood because I knew some cold was coming. And, like I said we made it safe and sound … although there were times when it sounded like a battle outside! So, now that everyone is done with their shotguns, I’m going to go and take my somewhat-trusty flintlock fowler out there and sit under a tree (hopefully on a day when it snows).

I don’t really care if I get a deer, I just want to experience the relaxation of hanging out in our very own little piece of woods.

With a new president comes all sorts of new things … including a new Secretary of Agriculture. And, just this past week we found out that Mr. Obama’s choice would be ex-governor Tom Vilsack of my own state (the great state of Iowa). I didn’t catch much of the farm news this week, but from what I did hear it seems that they were fairly pleased with the choice if for no other reason than the fact that he is from Iowa and so he would be intimately concerned with the “needs” of today’s Iowa farmer. On the other hand, there are plenty of people out there that are less that pleased with the pick.

Michael Pollan said, “a good day for corn. Less good for eaters.” And, Allan Nation (editor of The Stockman Grassfarmer) wrote, “This ends the speculation that a ‘sustainable ag‘ candidate might get the nod and the appointment is a major coup for Big Corn and the ethanol industry.” In fact you can read more of what Mr. Nation had to say by checking out his blog.

What I know about Mr. Vilsack is that he was a two-term governor in our state who only ran for two terms … after that he had a short lived run for the presidency. I also know that he actually isn’t a native Iowan (he was born in Pittsburgh) and that he spent his time most recently as a lawyer among other things. I do know though that he is probably acutely aware of the workings of big agriculture and the ethanol industry in Iowa and beyond and seems to be a helper in the cause of bio-fuels.

It seems that some of the organic organizations aren’t very pleased either because of the way he has reached out to the GMO crowd and the ethanol industry. In fact after a little wiki search I found out that the Organic Consumers Organization (never heard of it) thought that Mr. Vilsack was a poor choice, “particularly as energy and environmental reforms were a key point of the Obama campaign.”

If we have any sense of history we know that the Secretary of Agriculture does have a lot of power to shape our country (see Earl Butz) if they are allowed to do so. I’m not quite sure what Mr. Vilsack has in mind, but it should be interesting … at least he is an Iowan … well, sort of.

Wednesday I posed the question to you that Michael Pollan asked in his book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. I think that is a very interesting question and like I said, one that could go many ways, but the way that I like to think about it is this … what would our country (or any country for that matter) look like without farms?

If we ever got to the point where we imported all of our food (not going to happen, but let us just be hypothetical for the moment) just take a second to think about what the countryside would look like. I bet we would probably see sprawling cities, McMansion’s for the wealthy, slum areas for the not wealthy, and lots and lots of pavement. Of course we would still have our “wild areas” that we go and visit to get away from it all, but most Americans probably wouldn’t have much connection at all with the land … and none with the food they eat.

But, go beyond what things would “look” like and think about how an import only food system would effect our society at large. Actually, I don’t think we have to do much imagination on this one, just check out how Americans have gone up and down with the price of gas and oil the past few years. If our food was mostly imported just as our fuel is than think of the drastic price swings that could hit everyone.

And one more thing… Think of the basis of this country. Like it or not our country was founded as an agrarian society with strong ties to the land and all that it could produce for the people here and those to come. I really believe that those ties to the farm (or plantation or whatever) that our founding fathers had is one of the many things that drove this country to success. If we just began importing it all … well, then I think we would be forgetting what got us this far.