The Beginning Farmer

Well, I guess it is official … our very own Stoneyfield Farm is somewhat newsworthy! Or at least our crazy journey towards farming without much to begin with is newsworthy… Whatever the case may be we have been blessed with a two-page spread in yesterdays Sunday Des Moines Register, and as you can see from the picture above we even made the front of their homepage. If you are interested in reading what they wrote about (after three separate visits to the farm) you can find the article HERE.

It was a long process because of the many hold-ups we have had on the farm, but it was very enjoyable and exciting to see what the picked out of many hours of chatting with us. I love the way Mr. Kilen wrote the article and I think he did a good job of portraying our farm and our journey. Hopefully it will be received well by those that read it, or at least cause them to think … which is one thing I love to do when it comes to farming and agriculture.

Another big development for us is the new website we have (click on the image below for the link). Becca’s cousin was the one that put it all together for us which was really a blessing. I knew that he knew his computer stuff, but I didn’t realize he knew it so well! I think we are still in the beginning stages of the website, but it does get our farm out there for people to see. Plus, we are going to do a little bartering with him … he does the website and helps build our house and we will give him a couple hamburgers or what ever he feels his work is worth – that is a joke 🙂 (By the way thank you so much for all those that offered help)So, that is kind of our big news for the moment. I plan on continuing some of my reflections on how we have gotten to this point tomorrow (check back a few days if you don’t know what I’m talking about) and hopefully will be able to update on some work being done inside our house!

If you are a new reader of the blog after seeing the Register article I just want to say thanks for checking it out and don’t be afraid to join in the discussion!

I realize that when it comes to beginning a farm from scratch and jumping into the world of farming money seems to be one of the largest hurdle (I know it sure is on my mind a lot). But, as we have spent these last couple of years on our journey towards farming I think we have realized that there are three things that are probably just as important or even more important. I think those three are communication, strength, and sacrifice. I’m not saying that we have nailed each one of those, but they really are key to farming … and in our case beginning a farm.

Communication: I think this one is both about communication and about our entire family having a willingness to reach a goal (although the little ones don’t really comprehend it all). Through out the dream stage, the planning stage, the making it come together stage, and now the making it happen stage one of the biggest things that my wife and I have been able to do is communicate with each other what our feelings/fears/excitements are. This communication has really helped us come up with our dream and not just my dream or her dream. It has effected everything from where we want to farm to what we want to do on the farm and what our house will look like. This one is huge!

Strength: Unfortunately I’m not talking about physical strength because I don’t have a lot of that, although it does come in handy… What I am specifically talking about is the strength to keep pressing on. I will be the first to admit that my strength has wavered often, but I know that I have been able to keep on going because of the help of my wife (communication) and because of our strong desire to reach our goals. There have been times when it seemed like everything would fall apart in the farming, the planning, and now in the building. But, throughout all of those times it continues to be our collective strength, desire, and calling that has helped us push on.

Sacrifice: This one does directly touch on the financial topic again, but it isn’t only about pinching pennies or lagging behind the Jones’. There has also been sacrifice in of our time and some of the other pursuits that we have in our lives. But, we really believe that if we feel led to farming and desire to pursue it there are going to be sacrifices … sacrifices that we are willing to take. I know this is important though because as you look back throughout history you see much strength and joy in the midst of great sacrifice.

Like I said, I know that the finances will always play a role in whether or not the farm is able to get off of the ground. On the other hand if you have all the money in the world but you are lacking these things (and others) it probably won’t matter. At least these are just my thoughts for the moment as I reflect on the journey so far…

For the past few days I have been blogging about some of the details of our journey towards farming. I am going to continue with that theme, but today I would like to take a moment to remember a great family farmer, Lester F. Rittgers, my wife’s grandfather. He spent his life farming some of the greatest black dirt in the whole Midwest and worked with his family on a truly diversified family farm for much of that time.

Grandpa Rittgers and his wife, Alice, raised their five children on their farm in rural Iowa and raised everything from dairy cattle, hogs, and chickens to hay, corn, and beans … along with everything in between. As their children grew up they were all instilled with a wonderful work ethic and all five of them have continued in their agricultural heritage in some way or another.

From the short amount of time that I got to know Grandpa Rittgers and through the legacy he has left in his children I can tell that he was a great farmer that took pride and joy in the work that he was able to do. Even when I met him in his late 80’s he was still helping the boys with farm work as often as possible and loved every minute of it.

I am very thankful for farmers like him and the families that they brought up. It is my prayer that their dedication, knowledge, and love for all things farming will be passed on to future generations of small family farms in our country. They are not just a quaint image of our country, but rather a very important part of our ideals and values!

Okay, it isn’t exactly like buying a house, but that is one of the ways that we looked at our farm purchase and it is probably the only way that we could make it possible. As most of you know we have made the jump to farming (I think we are still mid-jump) without any family land. Although we have been able to get our cattle herd together with my Dad’s farm we won’t be farming any of that land because on a consistent basis because of distance. So, if we are going to move towards full-time farming we knew we were going to need some sort of land base.

We realized that we had three basic options:

1. Leave my job at the church and find a job near my Dad’s so we could farm with him. That was an idea that we pursued for a while, but we really do feel called to this are for both our ministry and our farming.
2. Buy a smaller acreage with an existing house and buildings. The reality is that if we did that we would be looking at 10 acres or less with 20 acres being the top possibility. While that would be enough for some operations we thought we would like more to begin with.
3. Buy bare land and build as inexpensively as possible. Our idea with this one is that we will have a larger land base and then we can expand as money is available.

Of course we chose the third option and I think it was the best for us. But, as I mentioned the only way it was possible is because we considered or farm the same as a house. What I mean by this is that we knew that we would have to take out a mortgage no matter if we wanted to buy in town or in the country. What we would need to do is only buy within the limits of what we could expect to spend in town.

What that meant for us is that we would only buy something that my job would pay for, not something that would require farming income. That way when the farm took a little while to get going we would not be overly pinched. Yes, it meant some sacrifices and laying out a large down payment, but I think it is a practical way to get started … which was our goal.

That is where the “buying a farm is like buying a house” analogy breaks down though. Because when you are buying a farm there is plenty of other infrastructure that needs to be put into place no matter how basic your operation is at the beginning and we have resolved to only pay cash for those things. If we started putting all of those farming expenses into a loan I think we would run into trouble.

Speaking of loans … don’t try to get some of those “beginning farmer” loans if you are a true beginning farmer. The ones we were pointed to all required three years of farm management experience or at least 50% of your income coming from the farm in the first year. But, the loan stuff is really a touch subject with me so I will just point you to my wife’s blog because she has posted about the loan stuff in more detail (HERE … HERE … HERE … HERE). The other day she also wrote down some of her thoughts on the money issue.

I do not think the dream of becoming a farmer is really that rare. I believe that at some point many people have desired to head to the land and have what the see as the “simple” life on the farm, but not to many people ever get to that point for various reasons. One of those reasons can easily be summed up in one word, MONEY. It takes a lot of money to farm because of the land needed, the livestock needed, the equipment needed, and the time needed (which can pull a person away from another job). So, if it takes so much money to get started in farming and continue in farming how can you do it if you aren’t independently wealthy? That is the question we immediately began asking ourselves and researching.

The short answer to the question above is really simple, SAVE. I know that seems over simplified, but the only reason that we are able to have the land, the livestock, the equipment, and the impending house is because we have spent the last seven years of our life concentrated on saving as much as we can. In some years we have been able to save as much as two-thirds of my cash salary and live off of the one-third left over and money we picked up from odd jobs and being frugal (and tax returns from our broken tax system). Compared to our peers our life has been very sparse and it will continue to be that way for quite some time, but we are also reaching our goals.

I have mentioned on here several times that people have money for what they want to have money for. I can’t count how many times in my ministry I have had requests for money from people to help with their water bill when the had satellite T.V. In fact just last week on our mission trip we saw homeless men with next to nothing, but at least they always had their cell phone with them! Seven years ago our dream wasn’t to farm but we did want to be able to put a large down-payment down when were were able to buy a house. So, we decided that we were going to have money to save and we sacrificed in other areas.

If I could sum up the things that have allowed us to follow our dream to the farm I think I would just say two things. First of all you have to live below your means. If we had lived like we were able to financially or in the way that our peers were living we would not be financially able to do what we are doing. Secondly, it takes two to tango. Farming would not be a financial possibility unless my wife was behind the idea 100%. She has had to make many sacrifices along the way and has been the main bookkeeper keeping everything in line.

Sometimes the process is slow and the sacrifices are large, but I believe the only way to become a viable sustainable farmer and begin a farm from scratch is to save, save, save… And somehow acquire a lot of patience!

Tomorrow I’ll write a bit more about the finances of beginning and how we are surviving…

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to take some time over the next few blog posts to write specifically about the nuts and bolts of how we came to farming and how we are trying to make it work while starting from scratch. I suppose you could say that my desire to farm really started a long time ago as a child. Before I wanted to be a youth pastor I wanted to be a farmer because even though I had grown up in town I had spent a lot of time on the family farms. In fact I really have only had two jobs that I really wanted to do … youth work and farming.

But, the road to making it a reality actually started with life insurance. If you have ever signed up for life insurance you know that they like to send out a nurse to find out if you are healthy. Our insurance company did that and they found that I was relatively healthy except for one thing … I had cholesterol through the roof, especially considering my age.

Since they didn’t want to put me on medicine for the rest of my life we began looking for ways to lower my cholesterol without drugs. Of course we started watching my intake of certain foods and exercise became a slightly larger priority (I do coach soccer so I have to be kind of in shape). But, we (especially my wife) wanted to do more. She started reaching apple cider vinegar which has many uses (just ask Mrs. Yonder Way Farm or This Abode) and I started to drink the tonic. But, we also began learning about grassfed beef and its beneficial properties.

Many of you know that the benefits of grassfed beef include: more antioxidents, more vitamins, extra “good” fat, less “bad” fat, and elevated Omega-3 levels. You can read more about the benefits at this link on EatWild.com. Needless to say the idea of eating healthy beef really sounded good to me and the farming seed that had been planted all those years ago started to sprout.

We began reading and talking to as many people as we could about grassfed beef and different cattle breeds, and even about the possibility of starting a farm from scratch. It was at this point that our dreams of a place in the country to live began to morph into a desire to farm and even pick up steam. It was through the research, discussion, and questioning that we started to look at what was possible.

A few months later the first Dexter cow and steer showed up on my dad’s farm and we began looking at the pieces that we need to put together to farm. More on those pieces tomorrow.

It seems like it has taken forever … and it certainly has taken longer than we were hoping (thank you rain), but the shell of our house is just about done. The only things left to be done by our contractor are a door knob and some trim on the outside. It is a relief to have this building up on so many levels. First of all we have been accumulating a lot of materials and haven’t had a good place to put them. Secondly, it would be helpful to have some shade out there for the kids to hang out in when we are working. And finally, it is very important to have the building done because we just sold my house (check out this link for more details).

As you can tell from the picture above it is really starting to look like a barn … err … house. Actually, we really love the look and are excited to get out there and look out those big windows every morning. The barn look is something that may come in handy in the future. There is a possibility that we will build a stick-built house in the future with a walkout basement. If that happens then we will turn this pole building into storage and an on-farm store.

I know I have kicked this around a little bit on the blog from time to time, but since we are getting close to beginning work on the inside I thought I would throw out some of our reasons for choosing the pole building style.

1. We just plain like the look. There are many pole building homes in the area and they all look okay, but we feel like it is a style that just begs for red and white colors. I like the fact that it is simple house with a little bit of character.
2. In theory it is a little less expensive to build. We will have to see how this plays out, but so far it looks to be holding true. It doesn’t take any plywood sheeting for the building and the posts help form the foundation. And even though it took a long time to build ours if you just look the work days it went up pretty quick. That is a bit of savings.
3. That steel roof may come in handy when burning wood. With our wood burning stove inside it might be a nice thing to have a fire resistant roof. But, a well controlled fire will also help.
4. Since it is a pole building it is easy to finish inside. Because of they way pole buildings are put together we don’t have to worry about any load bearing walls inside and can put them wherever we want. That helps with our design because we have gone through many changes.
5. It will work great as storage and will convert easily. Remember, this is basically the same thing that you see as machine sheds on farms and acreages. Because of that we can easily convert it into a variety of things.

Yep, we are pretty encouraged about the progress and even more excited because we have to be living in it in about six weeks (or the camper if all else fails). Also, if you have been wondering about some of the nuts and bolts of how we have gotten into farming and are making things work I encourage you to check out this weeks posts. I am going to kind of run a series looking back at how this all is coming about and hopefully encourage some people like so many readers and commenters have encouraged me!

There is another article in the Stockman Grass Farmer this mouth touting the benefits of grazing goats and cattle in combination. The article by Dave Sparks (a DVM) is titled, “Goats and Cattle Together Complement Each Other and Reduce the Need for Worming”. As usual in this publication the title really spells out the entire article, but the research from a field test in Oklahoma gives graziers one more reason to look at diversified grazing.

The field study in Oklahoma is using a 200 acre plot of land divided into three tracts that have similar forage quantity and quality. All three of these areas were stocked by live weight according to the estimated amount of forage in them. One plot was stocked with just goats, another with just cattle, and the final one with cattle and goats together. The article doesn’t say how the livestock was managed, but I would assume a rotation with goats following might be the best management method.

Results from the study were very much in favor of combining the two animals. The goats alone group had several deaths because of parasite infection (goats have a problem with worms because most breeds come from desert areas much different from the Midwest). The cattle alone group were fine, but here pasture had a much taller growth of the browse type plants the goats ate in the other plots. In the combination group there was no death in the goat herd and they goats required 23% less individual worming.

Information like this does make goats look pretty appealing. I believe the biggest barrier to farmers getting into the growing goat market is the fact that as Americans we don’t know much about goats. We don’t know much about cooking them, eating them, or marketing them to the various ethnic groups. But, if the benefits for the cattle, the goats, and the pastures are this great it might be time ot figure this thing out.

My busy week is just about over. For the past four days I have been traveling all around central Iowa with 22 students on a mission trip. We worked at two camps, served at a homeless shelter, swam in two different pools, went shopping at Iowa’s largest mall, stayed in a hotel one night, slept in a cabin two nights, and do I need to remind you again that we did this with TWENTY-TWO MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS! Needless to say I’m a bit tired and haven’t been out on the farm or even thinking about the farm much lately.

With all of that craziness in mind I don’t have much to say today. I did run across a short article from the Penn State Extension titled, “Penn State Study Shows Consumers Find Grass-fed Beef Acceptable”. I don’t really know much about the study other than what is in the article (check out the link above), but it seems pretty promising.

Here are a few quotes from the article that are especially interesting and even somewhat surprising:

• “The study showed that most consumers find the taste and tenderness of grass-fed beef acceptable in blind taste tests. Penn State researcher recommends that producers look for ways to interest more potential customers in grass-fed beef.”
• “The results of the study showed that most consumer evaluations of the cooked meat were not influenced by frame sizes of the cattle, weight at harvest, range of grazing period from 120-180 days, and final fat composition of the carcass,” Comerford explained. “However, all of the cattle must have plenty of high-quality forage to consume daily plus be harvested at 18 months of age or less.”
• “In fact, we found cattle that had the fattest final carcasses actually had lower scores from the consumer panels because of the influence of fat on beef flavor,” Comerford said.

Let me know what you think…