The Beginning Farmer

“286,000 Pounds of Meat, Poultry Recalled by N.Y. Company” according to an Associated Press article that I read on FoxNews.com. This is just another recall in the American food industry and reinforces the fact that food recalls are becoming more and more common. Although there is one thing that makes this recall different than the recent Hallmark beef recall. The beef recall was because of handling of the cattle when they were still alive, while this one seems to be about contamination that could/did happen in processing.

The company Gourmet Boutique, that supplies a little food to Super Target stores, makes many different types of processed poultry foods (chicken salads, burritos, etc.) and it seems that the listeriosis bacteria that was found by the USDA entered the food in the processing step. Once again the USDA did help find the problem, but if 286,000 pounds have already made it to the stores one could say that it is a little too late. According to the article a recorded message that you get when calling Gourmet Boutique says that they have made “environmental changes” at their plants … ahh, good to know that they made changes after they got caught!

This article isn’t surprising, new, or even mind boggling because we have seen it all before, but it did make me think. Are we better off getting our food (particularly poultry in this case) from on farm processing or small abattoirs? This is a point that Joel Salatin has been arguing for quite some time now and he is probably on to something.

I am not sure how much poultry we are going to raise on the farm for selling because it seems like there are quite a few small farm/direct marketing poultry folks around here, but if I did I would seriously consider on farm processing. What do you think?

Oh yeah, I think I should point out that if you head of to the Gourmet Boutique website you will find that they advertise their food as the “natural choice” because they don’t use preservatives.

A busy week, followed by a busy weekend now, and a busy week coming up means a short blog posts. I just thought I would throw out a couple of quotes that I have heard recently and a few that I came across this week while doing some research. Living in the heart of Iowa means that I live in the heart of farm land so I am surrounded by friends, family, and neighbors who are farmers or are closely related to farmers. With that being said here are a few things that I have heard lately:

Friend – “You getting into farming?” Me – “Yep.” Friend – “I’ve got some advice for you then … DON’T!”

“You aren’t a farmer, farmers have lots of land, combines, huge tractors, and all that kind of stuff.” (Okay, this may be partly true … I’m more pastor than farmer)

“Do you know that there isn’t any money if farming? Remember the late 70’s and early 80’s”

“It’s not natural to only feed cattle grass.”

“You don’t give your cows corn … what are you, one of those organic freaks?”

I could go on and on with this sort of stuff, but I know many of you have heard the same lines before. This kind of stuff just roles off of me like rain on the roof and I’m even beginning to find it somewhat funny. It is like the people that always come up to us and say, “Wow, your kid is good now, but just wait a year.” They have been saying that for four years and so far their proclamations have not come to fruition. Remember, things don’t have to be the way they are for everyone else!

Here are some encouraging quotes to leave you with:

“Trade increases the wealth and glory of a country; but its real strength and stamina are to be looked for among the cultivators of the land.” -William Pitt

“I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s cares.” -George Washington

“When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” -Daniel Webster

“I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural.” -Thomas Jefferson

It is beginning to feel like wherever I turn I am reminded of the importance of diversified farming and the problems associated with the current specialization the industrial farm model. My latest affirmation came from an article titled, “Hog price pain is different this time around,” from the “Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman.” My father-in-law dropped off quite a few issues when he stopped by this week and I found a lot of interesting articles. But, this one caught my eye right away.

As you may know, if you read this blog regularly or semi-regularly, we are planning on getting some hogs this summer. Maybe not the breeding stock that I would like to eventually get, but at least some feeder pigs that we can finish for ourselves and a customer or two. We just want to get a feel for pastured pigs and finishing them. But, whenever I talk to local farmers about getting pigs (or farming in general) I get the same response … “There is no money in pigs (or farming for that matter).”

According to the article the pain that hog producers are feeling in this most recent price down swing is worse than they have felt in other down times (early 90’s and late 90’s). This is because there has been a huge shift in the hog farm structure even in just the last 10 years. In 1998 when prices dropped to the bottom it was tough on farmers, but they liquidated herds, tightened their belts, and made it through the short-lived down turn. The difference is that 10 years ago many of the hog farmers were at least slightly diversified and were growing their own corn for feed.

Now hog farmers are facing a double whammy even though they are again liquidating their herds. Most hog farmers have specialized to the point that they no longer grow their own feed and must buy in everything. This puts them in the position that they feel the pinch from low prices and from the high input costs (feed, fuel, and equipment).

I think the most interesting thing about this article article is the conclusion that it comes to. John Lawrence, who is a livestock economist at Iowa State University, concludes that there will be better times for hog farmers by the summer of 2009. Basically he notes that herds have been reduced and demand is seeing a slight up-tick, so things should get better eventually.

To me that shows a MAJOR flaw in the current agricultural mindset from the farm economists all the way to the farmers. If we look back throughout history and see that these price down-swings were not as tough on farmers when they were diversified as opposed to when they are specialized shouldn’t we learn something? Maybe we should learn that farm diversification is the key?

Well, we should probably learn that, but then it wouldn’t fit the “great” industrialized model we have now in agriculture! (That is my very sarcastic statement for the day)

…you forget to take your wide-brim hat on a sunny day! That is my story from Wednesday. Yesterday we needed to set up some new temporary fencing for the cows and give our steers/bull calves a little more room also. That meant getting up early and driving to the farm so I could get plenty of work in before I head to get to the soccer field for practice. It was a busy day to say the least, but we got the things done that we needed to get done.

Right now we are not doing the Managed Intensive grazing set up as I would like to to do, but we are doing a little bit of rotation with the cattle. This particular pasture is the fourth one that they have been on since the grass started to green up. The first area is looking really good, but that is the field we are going to save for hay this year. The second area is starting to come back, but we could use some warmer soil temperatures. The last pasture they were on is a little rough now, but that is part of the idea. Of course their new six acre spot is pretty nice right now.

These pastures that we are using now are a mix of fescue and a some other unknown grasses. The are actually pretty sparse and I think we plan on doing a little seeding and renovation after we move the Dexters to the new farm. The idea is to get them ready so we can use them for calving or finishing some of our cattle over the next few years. My dad’s farm has more acreage than ours so it is nice to have some expansion possibilities.

If our soil temperatures would actually come up to normal we would have some really good growing going on. Hopefully this will happen soon so we can take them back to the second pasture they were on. If we continue to have cool and cloudy weather we will just set up one more 5 or 6 acre pasture and then start to hit them again.

Thankfully it was a nice sunny day to work. My brother helped, my sister helped, my dad helped, and my step-mom helped. Hopefully next time the rest of my family can make it.

I found an encouraging article on the front page of the April issue of “The Stockman Grassfarmer.” The title is, “Local Foods Movement Provided A Way Into Universities for North Carolina Grassfed Beef Company.” That is one thing that I love about this publication … there is no wondering what the article is about because they lay it all out in the title! Anyways, the article was so encouraging because it was about a couple in North Carolina that started on crop ground and expanded in just a few years to the point that they were able to buy from other grass finishers in the area because the demand was so high.

Now, it is important that I point out that this farm is located in the triangle between Duke, the University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State o they have a good number of people close by. But, it was the students at those schools that really helped get Patrick and Amy Robinette’s beef on the market … or in the schools. Now their farm, Harris Acres Farms, provides grassfed beef to various markets and even those Universities.

The Robinette’s began with only 12 cows (starting small … I like that) and within just six months they had been asked to provide 100 grassfed beeves per month! That is a lot and obviously it was out of reach for them, but they did realize that it meant there was a lot of potential. So, over the next few years they began leasing land from Mrs. Robinette’s parents and coming up with a forage chain that worked from them and their climate. By renting land that had been used for tobacco and row crops the were definitely flying in the face of conventional wisdom, but it did work out for them.

Through their research, experimentation, grazing, marketing, and more they were able to slowly ramp up production to the point that they could start serving the colleges. I really was encouraged by the fact that they didn’t do this with a lot of capital in their pockets or a lot of borrowed money, but built it up as they could over three or four years (which is still pretty quick). Now they aren’t completely where they would like to be, but they are getting there. Mr. Robinette is also passing on the knowledge by teaching a class in agriculture at a local high school.

Cool stuff and very encouraging. You can check out Harris Acres Farms by clicking on the link.

I had an away soccer game yesterday so I had a chance to finish the third chapter of Julius Ruechel’s book “Grass-Fed Cattle”. The chapter is titled, “The Cattle Year on Grass,” and it was actually a pretty good read that gave me quite a bit to think about. The entire chapter is based around the different stages of development from calving, to nursing, to gaining, and finally to breeding back and even finishing. It is actually a pretty long chapter with a lot of information on many topics so I will just take some time to mention some of the things that really stuck in my mind as I read through the chapter.

There was a special inset “Lesson in Compensatory Gain” and more information on the subject spread throughout the chapter. This is something that usually keeps my attention because the idea of compensatory gain is not something that is talked about a lot in the grain belt of Iowa. Here folks like to see their steers and growing cattle gaining consistently throughout the year because quicker gains mean quicker money. The basic idea is that the cows metabolism slows down in the winter to conserve energy. Then in the spring when the grass comes on it takes a while for their metabolism to speed back up … so during that time they can make up for the winter. I think this is a big puzzle piece of the grass finishing idea and I’m interested in learning as much as I can.

One other thing that comes up a lot in this chapter is Body Condition Scoring (BCS). Mr. Ruechel relies heavily on BCS for breeding and managing the herd. Again, something I want to learn a lot more about and implement into my herd monitoring. It was nice that there was a BCS chart describing the different scores, 1 to 10.

As I said there was a lot of information in this chapter, but one last thing that I read about in this chapter and that I have been coming across a lot lately is the practice of summer calving and then spring weaning at around 10 months. This is an interesting concept and a little different than some of the other things I have heard and read about. Basically the idea is that you calve in the summer, keep the calf on the cow through the fall and winter, and then wean in the spring on the green grass and give the cow a couple of months of good eating and gaining before she calves. The thinking is that the calf will gain better over the fall and winter while still on their mother and if it comes to the mother losing body condition she will kick the calf off (if she doesn’t than maybe she should be culled?). Interesting idea and slightly different approach that the whole getting in tune with nature thing, but maybe something to think about. I know I would be interested in getting some better initial gains on some of my Dexters.

So, that is what I got on this third chapter. I would love to here some of your comments on my ramblings!

I would like to say that I have my tractor out sitting in the shed or at least that it is on the farm, but all that I can say is that my tractor is in the drive way. And, I’m glad it is there! As you can tell from the picture above (it looks like I’m going fast) I was pretty happy to have it home.

On Saturday afternoon my dad stopped by after spending a day working on a tractor at my uncles to unload some fence posts for us (nothing like getting hand me down posts!). Since he had to go South and could easily swing past my other Uncle’s farm where my tractor is I decided to hitch a ride and then bring home our new (to us) Farmall 450. The tractor was about 23 or 24 miles away from our home and it was getting late so we took off right away (only stopping to get some gas for the tractor).

Once we made it down there we cobbled up a holder for my slow moving vehicle sign and I took off. I was going to take some back roads home, but after the WET weather we have had lately the gravel roads are a bumpy mess. So, I ended up driving on the highway and enjoying a nice leisurely ride on a cool evening. I suppose in some parts of the country this would have been a weird sight, but in Iowa it is just par for the course. In fact our state hosts two major tractor rides (WHO and WMT) that are all about riding old tractors just for the fun of it.

Now that I have our tractor here in town I’m going to use it to clean up a couple of trees that need some limbs pulled out still from this past winters ice storms and then I will take it out to the farm to get to work mowing and pulling out the old fence. I will keep you updated on my tractor skills 🙂

This weather is absolutely killing me! Like many places across the Midwest this spring has been very wet and pretty chilly at times. I am thankful though that I live in “Southern” Iowa now because up in “Northern” Iowa they are talking below freezing at night as a possibility. That plus all of the rain just doesn’t seem fair! To help put this in perspective my soccer team has played two games so far this year, tonight was supposed to be our sixth of the season … but, it was postponed because the field was under water! We play soccer in all sorts of weather, but not under water. Also, they have been trying to do the perk test out at the farm, but the holes keep filling up with run-off water. Oh well…

So, after that rant I think it is time to get on with things. Since the readership of this blog is steadily picking up (thanks everyone!) I thought I would would try and use that for my own gain … and money spending habit. What I’m looking for is pigs. Specifically Tamworths, Gloucester Old Spots, Ossabaw Island, Red Wattle, or any other threatened or heritage breed. We are not going to go full bore on the pigs this year, but I would like to get a small start and at least some pork for our freezer. I would really like to have some heritage breeds to start with, but a cross of a heritage breed that is breed to live outside could work also. Oh yeah, in I would help … Southern or Central Iowa would be a plus … Northeast Iowa is okay … with gas prices the way they are the closer the better.

In other news, things are coming along slowly but surely with the building stuff. I have to give my wife 100% of the credit for the work getting done. Just today we put a down-payment down for our pole building and it looks like we have some of the other major contractors picked out. Next, we need to take a trip and go shopping for some appliances, flooring, and our wood burner. Also, we need to make sure our house that we are living in now is presentable for showing … it’s going on the market soon.

One last thing, I talked with my cousin for a bit today about the tractor. He fixed the brakes and a couple other minor things and we should be good to go in the next couple of days. Of course I would just get stuck if I tried to do anything now, but hopefully it will dry out soon … but not too dry!

It seems like a weird time to be thinking about winter gains for cattle, but that was the subject of an article titled, “A Good Winter of High Gains Next Year Starts Now,” in this months issue of the “The Stockman Grassfarmer”. The article is written by William Winter who is a herd health consultant for the producers of the Thousand Hills Cattle Company. The thing that really caught my attention was that this guy was from Minnesota and he was talking about folks in Wisconsin getting high gains in the winter. Anything about getting high gains in the winter snow is worth checking out in my book! They are even capable of having year-round Average Daily Gains (ADGs) of 2 pounds.

The advice of one of their best producers is to “fix the soil”. Before Karl Dallefeld even puts cattle out on to new ground he has the soil tested and adds some lime and other minerals (the article doesn’t mention what the other minerals are). The idea is that with soil that is in great shape you will be able to produce stored forages that are great, and with brix indexes of at least 10-12%. In addition to quality stored forages Mr. Dallefeld also, “supplements with kelp, Char-Cal (from MBA), a Gerald Fry-style mineral mix, a bit of dried molasses, and the direct-fed microbials from Bio-Vet.

Another key mentioned in the article is keeping the herd grazing as long as you can. Some forages mentioned were sorghum sudan, hybrid sudan, and grazing corn before it tassels (I want access to tropical corn!). I realize that bison are different than cattle, but the article mentions a bison herd in Wisconsin that only supplemented feed for 45 days last winter. And, don’t forget how much snow we had!

The last thing mentioned in the article is that the top producers of Thousand Hills wean their calves at 10 months and still have good looking cows. This idea is pretty foreign to me and I wish they would have written more about it, but the basic idea is that their soils and forages are so good that the cows stay in condition even with the long amount of time lactating. Interesting stuff…