The Beginning Farmer

“Livestock pollution turns off young Iowans” is the title of an article by Brian Depew from the Jan. 13th edition of the Des Moines Register. I was turned on to this article by Kelli of Sugar Creek Farm. Lately she has be doing some “Ag Speedlinking” with links to lots of interesting articles. In fact if you haven’t been over to her blog I encourage you to check it out just so you can keep up on some of the current issues in farming. But, back to this article…

Mr. Depew grew up in Laurens, IA and currently lives in Nebraska where he works for The Center For Rural Affairs. But, in this article he is writing about a recent trip back to the family farm in Iowa. His family farm will soon be within three miles 13 “industrial livestock” buildings and he points to that as one of the reasons that young Iowans are not staying in the state. He recounts some of the recent efforts by the state to keep young Iowans in Iowa (basically people like me) and offers that one of the reasons people around my age and younger are leaving is because they are looking for “places with vibrant natural resources, thriving communities and healthy economies”. He contends that they can’t find those things in Iowa because our state government has sat by as the Big-Agri Business has entrenched itself in the state. Also, this embracing of the big business agriculture has squeezed out the small farm families.

While I do agree with that last sentence to a point (I’m not sure I want to blame just the government, because I know a lot of people that have benefited from those big farms), I’m not sure if I fully appreciate or agree with his main idea … that young Iowas have left because confinement agriculture has ruined our natural resources, killed our small towns, and ruined our economy. I have lived my entire life in Iowa and have no desire to live anywhere else, but all my friends that have left have gone to larger cities or suburbs that offered a completely different lifestyle than Iowa. Not a better lifestyle, just different. I will admit that confinement agriculture does do its damage when it gets out of control and never will I support it as the right choice, but I’m also not going to legislate how people farm … if I want to change the opinions of people I will do it by providing a great alternative (I think I can).

As I mentioned I agree with much of the ideas behind this article, but I’m not sure if I can take the entire message. Besides, since when did Nebraska become so great 🙂 (really just kidding!!!). I do believe that the changing agricultural world has changed the life and economics of our small towns, but it will take more than legislative reform to change this. It will take people opting out of the “big systems” and beginning to buy locally. It will take farmers willing to do things differently and invite the cities out to their farms to experience, shop, and eat. It will take a cultural shift … and those always take time and effort, not government.

I appreciate what Mr. Depew wrote and I encourage you to click on the link to the article. It is a nice article with a lot to think about and the responses from readers at the bottom of the article bring out a lot of back and forth discussion. I will say that I hope Mr. Depew buys local food and supports the small farmers in his area … I do believe he has a genuine concern for rural America because of his job so he just might already be buying local.

Well, since our town decided that I shouldn’t have five chickens on my property I decided to make a quick trip down to the farm yesterday. I had to dismantle the the nest boxes (buckets), grab the feed/oyster shell/grit, gather up the hens, and load everything up into the back of the Expedition. You can scroll down to yesterdays post to see a picture of the chickens new digs. They are just fine, but I don’t think they will be as warm (and it is going to be very cold for the next couple days). Since I had a reason to go down I planned on doing a few other things that also needed to be done.

First of all I met my dad in town at the farm store to pick up 6 cattle panels to upgrade a little section of fence with the impending arrival of our bull, Hershey. The entire front lot (about 2 acres) is surrounded by cattle panels except for this one little section that just had the very old worn down woven wire/barbed wire fence. Considering our heifer Vicki can jump that fence at will we didn’t want to see what would happen when there was a bull on one side and cows in heat on the other side! So, I dropped a bit of money and we headed to the farm (with a short interlude to pull the mailman out of the ditch).

At the farm I set up the new chicken pen (corner of a shed that had been used for puppies) and mixed up a bunch of feed for my dad. They should be good to go for awhile and I don’t feel so bad about bringing the chickens down because at least they will get some eggs! In fact I think everyone (Dad, Stepmom, and brother) are excited about them … except for my sister.

Despite the cold air and the wind it was pretty easy to put up the panels. In fact we were able to drive in a few t-posts with no problem. After we had the panels set up we set about cutting out the bull calves from the herd in order to wean them. Now, I have heard lots of great things about Dexters … but, on Thursday I really experienced one. In the morning my dad put out the hay in a small pen we have in the corner of the front lot and then called the cows up (they do come when you call). They all walked in and started eating while my dad broke open the water tanks … then, six of the girls must have received the memo because they just decided to walk out! So, when I showed up there were just three cows/heifers in there with the four boys. Showing our cattle sorting prowess we both walked into the little pen and I announced that I was going to sort the bull calves over to one side. Just as I said that the bull calves did exactly that! Dad opened the gate … the girls walked out … we were done and we were speechless!

This weekend is going to be very cold and while they have some good wind breaks out in the pasture the bull calves in the small pen for the time being had none. With that in mind we build a barricade of hay bales around one corner and put up some old panels around it to keep them from eating all of the hay. I think the boys will be as snug as a bug in a rug … or at least as Dexters in a corner of hay.

It was nice to get out there and do some work that I had been meaning to do. It is just more difficult because it is such a long drive. After the afternoon of work and being informed that we couldn’t keep our chickens we are all the more ready to make a move … hopefully soon!

**I hope you enjoy the pictures of our cattle. From top to bottom: 1.) Ginger with her face all up in the camera; 2.) Vicki, who is staring to look very pregnant; 3.) Ginger looking longingly at her calf in the pen; 4.) The boys eating by their hay wall**

“As part of the City’s “Comprehensive Clean-Up Program,” city staff inspected property located in Knoxville at @%#$ North Seventh. It was determined that a violation(s) of City Code exists. More specifically, the violation(s) include the following listed items. These numbered items may be referenced to the coordinating numbered code sections on the attached page.

The City has recently received a complaint about this property: There is a violation of Section 9-6B-2:Farm animals are not allowed in the City. Please make other arrangements for them.“

So, that is the letter I received in the mail yesterday (along with a phone call on Wednesday). The letter goes on to say, “blah, blah, blah … you have 14 days to get rid of the chickens … blah, blah, blah … if you don’t get rid of them you are going to have to pay some serious fines … blah, blah, blah … Please remember the character of a neighborhood depends on everyone taking pride in their surroundings to maintain quality and beauty for the entire community of Knoxville.”

Okay, so above you can see the picture of our movable chicken pen if you have never seen it before. I know that it isn’t very pretty, but what about the house around the corner that has over 200 action figures and stuffed animals covering the yard! Or, the house up the street that looks like it is falling down and is for sale for only $20,000 dollars. Possibly we should consider doing something about our neighbors who moved out and only mowed their lawn ONCE this entire summer!

The law is the law, and I have already moved my chickens down to my dad’s (more on that visit tomorrow) because I don’t want to be in violation of city code. It just doesn’t look good for a pastor to be knowingly breaking the law! But, I guess I just don’t understand why it is the law. In West Des Moines (really fancy suburb of Des Moines) it is legal to have up to 30 chickens in your backyard! But, in Knoxville (a smaller rural community) we can’t have that kind of filth.

Oh well, I’m really not to concerned … I’m just disappointed because it was my one connection to the farm this winter. The chickens were my “doing” instead of just reading about it all of the time. We had been experimenting with feed rations, winter shelter, and other stuff and we had been having good results. But, now they are just down in the corner of a shed near my cows.

Just to show that I can be a “glass half full” kind of guy … earlier this week my church board approved a motion to sell the parsonage that I live in, now it has to go to the congregation. The sale of this house would do a lot to help get the church out of debt and that is my main concern, but it will also help us make a move to the country. If the house was going to be listed this spring we would have moved the chickens anyways, this just forced us to do it earlier.

So, the moral of the story … if your moving to Knoxville, IA don’t bring your chickens into town! 🙂

**By the way, the second picture in this post is of the chickens in their new shed home**

Soil quality is one of the most important things for a small scale beginning grass farmer. If you doubt me, then check out the great comment from Kramer in this post, or just browse through any small scale farming book or grazing magazine for a few minutes. You soil is the basis for your forages which makes it the basis for the entire farm (if grass farming is your thing). It is something you should take into consideration when purchasing a farm or planning you farm. So, with all of that in mind I was glad to see a chapter in Ron Macher’s book, “Making Your Small Farm Profitable”.

Here is some perspective from Mr. Macher on the importance of your soil on the farm, “The foundation of your farm and your most important production tool is a living, healthy soil.” With that in mind it is important that you know about your soil type, of which there are over 18,000 varieties in the United States. You can find that information from local agencies in your area, and I suggest that you do because there can even be multiple soil types on your small farm. It is just one of the puzzle pieces of knowledge when it comes to creating and maintaining good soil.

While soil type is important it is most important that you know what your soil contains according to this chapter. Three major soil contents in the US are sandy soils, clay soils, and loam soils. Your sandy soils are are going to be up to 70% sand and drain pretty well because the sand allows the water to pass through. The sandy soils don’t contain a lot of nutrients because the water washes them away most of the time. The clay soils will contain at least 35% clay and they aren’t very good at draining away water because they are so compacted. Just think of working with clay in art class … when it was wet it was slimy and sticky and when it was dry it was hard … that is like clay soils. Loam soils are the best to have in most situations. They contain a mixture of roughly 45% sand, 40% silt, and 15% clay particles which allows them to take some of the best characteristics of the other soils.

Another important aspect of soil management that Ron Macher touches in this chapter is the reality that our soils are full of living things … and they should be! The living stuff in soils (such as insects, earthworms, bacteria, and fungi) do tasks such as aeration, fertilization, nitrogen conversion (into something that is usable for plants), nitrogen-fixing, and they contribute in decomposition which all helps create better soil. If we desire to increase the quality of our soil we need to cultivate all of these living things in our soil instead of hindering them.

Crop rotation is something that I have touched on in other posts, but this chapter includes a good overview of the idea and some of the advantages. Ron Macher also throws out a few different 5-year rotation ideas. I think this idea of a crop rotation really fits well with Gene Logsdon’s idea of “cottage” farmers. Adding crops to the farm does add the need for more equipment, but it also adds a bit of diversity and provides the ability to be more self-sufficient in your farming ventures. It is something I think our family is going to look into, especially as we begin adding more poultry and pork.

Of course what conversation about soil quality would be complete without a short mention of the numerous benefits of rotational livestock grazing. Management Intensive Grazing or Ultra High Stock Density Grazing are all about creating quality soil and quality forages.

It is evident that Ron Macher knows his stuff, and while there is a lot of basic information that I find in this book that is covered in similar books I think his specific guiding principles that he mentions in each chapter really give the reader something to think about and process.

My brother ran across an interesting site the other day (don’t know how) and they called to tell me all about it. It seems that you can go to the Iowa Geographic Map Server to check out pictures from your are now … and back in time! It is really a pretty neat site, but it doesn’t look like all of Iowa is covered in all decades … nevertheless it was fun to check out. I assume some other states have a similar thing … if not I guess I just found another reason as to why Iowa is so great!

But, the greatest thing about seeing these images was seeing how much the farm has changed in just eighty years. The picture here on the right is what the farm looks like today (click the image for a slightly larger version). Our farm is outlined in red and you can see that we have about half or more of the are in forests and trees. That nice looking pasture on the Southern section of the farm is actually pretty nice pasture … except to get to it you must go down a hill, cross a creek that has no good crossing, and up a hill. Once you make it there is really no water (although there is a shallow pond that you could pump water from, but I don’t have much faith in it keeping water in even slightly dry times) and no electricity. In our dreams we would love to be able to make hay back there and graze cattle, but it will take some work. The Southern wooded area is very overgrown and full of brambles. On the other hand the woods in the Northeast section are fairly open and has some older trees (less than 80 years though!). The biggest problem is getting into the woods because of the multiflora rose on the Northeast section. The top left section is where the Dexters are right now and is also where we made one cutting of hay this year after the land came out of CRP. It is okay land, but needs a lot of work!

Now, check out this picture on the left (again, click to enlarge slightly). This picture is from sometime in the 1930’s and if it wasn’t for the roads I don’t know if I would even recognize it! When you zoom in on the farm at the website you can see all the buildings (most of which have fallen down) and areas that were used for pastures. It almost looks like a real working farm in this image! Of course you can see the beginnings of the wooded areas and what are probably some of the trees still on the farm, but for the most part it looks like a totally different place.

So, here is the question, and I would really love your opinions, which farm do you think is better? Is the 21st century land better or the 1930’s land? For me… I would love to have the land back to the way it was in the 30’s, maybe with a few more trees in the woodlot areas. I think it would be perfect for a diverse farm! It can be like that again … but it will take time and hard work. Maybe this is something to shoot for?

Chapter three of Ron Macher’s book, “Making Your Small Farm Profitable” isn’t a very long chapter, but it is chock full of good farming principles. That is probably why the chapter is titled, “Some Principles of Good Farming”! The whole chapter is only seven pages long, but I think these principles give the reader (in this case … me) a lot to think about and work through. As I thought about his post I just thought I would touch on a couple of them, but after skimming over them one more time I decided that I would just throw them all out there and give a couple of thoughts on each one.

So, here goes nothing…

• To be sustainable, a farm must be environmentally sound and socially acceptable. –Taking care of the environment not only keeps other people happy, but it provides longevity for your farm in future generations. It just makes sense! Also, by building a farm that is socially acceptable some of the generalizations and stereotypes about farmers can be busted.
• Avoid debt. –Do you want my entire financial knowledge … it is summed up in those two words! I don’t know much about money, investing, or creating wealth. But, I do know that being debt free seems like a good thing whether I’m farming or not.
• Keep costs down. –Kind of piggy backs on avoiding debt don’t you think? But really, if I desire to have a full-time farm I am going to have to lower my costs and create great products … it all goes back to thinking outside of the conventional realm of agriculture.
• Try for low inputs. –It’s all about sustainability, the less inputs the more the soil benefits and the more the bottom line is helped.
• Do things on time. –This may be the key to any successful business! If you are going to have livestock, crops, and a farm based business you need to do your things like baling, weaning, and harvesting on time and in time (with the seasons).
• Plan your farm to minimize work. –This principle is about the physical layout of your farm. Is your farm set up to maximize your effort without wasting it. I suppose I’m not going to tear everything down, but it is important to look at your entire farm with workload and a plan in mind.
• Develop a system of production that balances farm resources and available labor. –Let me sum it up for you … make sure you have enough time to run your farm! Don’t bring in 60 cow/calf pairs if you don’t have the time to work them, rotate them, or feed them in a timely manner. It does keep coming back to planning doesn’t it?
• Keep good records. –I’m going to lean on my wife for this one. She is the record queen, just take a look at her 4-H records someday! But seriously, it is important to know where you money is going and coming. What you are feeding your animals and what they are returning. How your rotations are working, and so much more.
• Learn basic veterinary skills and tasks. –If you can do it then you don’t have to pay someone else to do it. It is that simple!
• Learn carpentry, electrical, and machinery repair skills. –See above!
• Learn stockman skills, and keep gentle livestock. –Gentle livestock are not only easier to handle, but they gain faster, are more calm on the day you take them to be butchered, and generally make your farming life more enjoyable.
• Take good care of your buildings, machinery, and livestock. –One word … Stewardship! Be a good steward of the thins that you are entrusted with. You land, your family, your money, and you stuff … plain and simple.
• Have a good water system, and save ever drop of water that falls on your farm. –This doesn’t mean that you have rain collection troughs everywhere, but it does mean that you take care of your soils and build up the organic matter so that it can absorb that much more water. Oh, and think about a watering infrastructure for your farm instead of just buckets and hoses (at least it is something to aspire towards).
• Maintain or improve the soil fertility. –This one keeps popping up lately. I’m going to have to spend more time researching and learning about the topic.
• Let the animals do as much feed harvesting on their own as possible. –Make the farm work for you instead of you for the farm. There will still be plenty for you to do even if you pasture your animals and stockpile forages for winter, so let them do some work also.
• Use crop rotations. –They do so much to help that I can’t even cover it all. But, let me say that there is a reason that rotations have been done for centuries!
• Have 2 years’ worth of hay and grain in storage. –If weathermen can’t predict the weather what chance do I have of controlling it? It is a good idea to have stockpiled hay and feed. You might not have 2 years’ worth, but building up a years worth is a good place to be.

Remember, these are my principles … they are Ron Macher’s principles. But, I think they are great basics and get to the core of what small scale farming is about and how it can be done. Do any of those really stick out for you?

You may remember my previous post about building a winter home for our five laying hens. It was great because I had some good ideas from Walter Jeffries over at Sugar Mountain Farm and from the comments on this blog … but, to tell you the truth not much really happened. Life took over for a little while and the chickens seemed to be handling themselves just fine. So, I guess let’s just chalk this year up as experimentation!

But, really they have continued laying at what I would consider a good rate because we aren’t providing any artificial light. Our five layers have been giving us between 14 and 18 eggs per week (enough for us) through this winter. Most of the winter they have just been on the garden in the same pen that they were in all year. It is in a good spot so that they are pretty well protected from the wind, but it is still all open.

As you can see from the pictures my wife finally decided to take some initiative and went to Wal-Mart to get $2.00 worth of clear plastic. It’s not going to provide much insulation, but it does help some and keeps the wind out. Also, we have added some hay because we have been thawing a bit and they were getting pretty muddy. Besides providing a clean base and a little warmth the hay also provides a little food and insulation for the ground. Just today when I went to gather the eggs (three) I saw some bugs moving around, so I know that our combination is working.

So, here is our recipe … one $9.00 plastic blue tarp left over from our small boat we sold, two bales of grass hay (from the farm), a few bungee cords (also from boat), and $2.00 of clear plastic from the painting aisle at Wal-Mart. A little more insulation and some light would help, but this seems to be working for us in the snow of Southern Iowa. Plus, the eggs keep coming so these girls are earning their keep over the winter!

Boy, I really have some catching up to do. I’m actually way past chapter two right now, but I think it was worth it to take a break from my normal blogging drivel to have a great interview like we just had with Kelli of Sugar Creek Farm. But, I actually do have some thoughts on the second chapter of Ron Macher’s book, “Making Your Small Farm Profitable.” Overall it was a pretty interesting chapter that threw out some good basic information to consider when you are starting a farm.

It doesn’t matter if you come from a farming background or have never lived on a working farm in your life, if you are going to farm you need to attack it with a plan. Just as it is with any business you can’t just run out and start doing things without having an idea of your needs, skills, and goals. Much of this chapter deals with the evaluation of your resources. In the case of a farm resources means: capital, skills, labor, land, soils, water, location, climate, and equipment. I won’t take time to discuss each one of those resources, but I will hit on a few that were especially interesting.

Of course when it comes to beginning a farm you need a certain amount of capital and skills, but you can be creative with those. Yes you need money to buy land, equipment, and livestock and it is important to have some skills (but you can learn as you go if you go slow enough) … but, I thought Mr. Macher had some good things to say about the resource of labor. First of all, I believe it is important to realize that your labor is a resource. Mr. Macher wrote about thinking of labor in the terms of not just yourself, but also in the terms of your family. I believe one component of having a successful small scale farm, especially a full-time farm, is that it includes the entire family in the fun, livestock, and the work! If the family is going to be included in the labor “resource” than it is important that the whole family is on the same page. Also, in this section there was a very interesting table that gave average times of labor needed for different livestock and crops. The table comes from the University of Missouri and gives information such as: it takes 14.8 hours of labor per acre of alfalfa hay, 40 hours of labor for 100 laying hens, or 40 hours of labor for 1 sow producing 2 litters/year and to finish those hogs. I’m sure the numbers don’t reflect everyone’s experience, but it was interesting to see some averages. Looking at things like this will help you plan you labor and see what you are able to do.

Another resource that was interesting to read about was soil. I believe soil is something that the beginning farmer easily overlooks. Not that soil would be an end all of my land purchase, but that we need to be looking at our soil and seeing what it is all about and what it needs. In raising pastured animals you soil is really one of your most important ingredients. You need to the know the condition of your soils and the natural fertility that your soil has. If you stick with me through each one of my chapter reports I’ll talk a little more about soil when I report on chapter four of this book.

The last resource that I want to touch on from this chapter is equipment. Not so much because it had a lot of new information, but rather because it brings back to the surface one of the main keys to sustainable family farming … it is important that you don’t look at equipment as your only tool. In fact what we need to be doing is thinking about how we can replace pieces of equipment with animals or use smaller more efficient equipment to do our jobs. Things like rotating crops in order to build soil quality, using animals to harvest our pastures so we don’t have to make and feed hay all of the time, or use ponds as water sources for our livestock (I do agree with others that it is best to keep the animals out of the pond, but bring the pond water to them). Also, when you assess your resources don’t forget that equipment includes more than just your machinery, but also things like your fence and buildings.

So far so good with this book. I think it will be a good addition to my farming library and will give me plenty to think about as we do our farm work and plan for the future.

Well, unfortunately for us this is the final installment of my question and answer interview with Kelli of Sugar Creek Farm. I want to extend a big THANK YOU to Kelli for taking the time to answer all of these questions and share some honest insight. Her responses were very helpful and I think they can help beginning farmers (like myself) and experienced farmers alike. If you are just coming across the blog make sure you check out Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four. So, without further ado … here are the last two questions and answers…

The Beginning Farmer – How do you manage your pastures for your livestock and many animals do you have on the farm at any given time?

Sugar Creek Farm – We tried rotational grazing, but it didn’t work well for us because our pasture is a creek-bottom pasture and the fences were constantly getting washed out. Matt spreads manure in the late fall/early spring; mows for weeds – mainly just thistle at this point – at least twice during the year; winter seeds a horse pasture mix, because it has a nice mix of grasses and clovers which keeps a good ground cover during very wet and very dry conditions. We usually experience flooding in spring, and the last couple of years have experienced significant summer drought.

At the peak of the year, which would be about late August/early September, we have 9 cows with nursing calves, a bull, and 9-12 feeder calves (we sometimes purchase extra feeder calves to meet beef demand); the 2 sows and boar and 2 litters; 150 broiler chickens – we use a protected free-range setup on pasture; 40-some free-range laying hens and a couple dozen free-range Muscovy ducks. (The laying hens and ducks are not part of the farm business at this point.)

The Beginning Farmer – In the future how would you like to expand?

Sugar Creek Farm – We’d like to acquire enough pasture and tillable land to offer some fully grassfed beef, and grow and mix all of our own feed for all of the animals. However with current land prices and the stiff competition for land, it doesn’t look likely to happen anytime soon.

This coming summer we’ll be more than doubling our number of broiler chickens, and I’d like to continue to grow that operation each year. Last year was our first year at farmers market. We sold at one last year and will probably be at two markets this year. I’d like to expand the layer hen flock, and figure out a good setup for raising meat ducks, geese and turkeys.

The Beginning Farmer – I want to thank everyone who followed along with this question and answer interview. I hope that it was as informative and enjoyable for you as it was for me. If this week was the first time you have come across The Beginning Farmer blog I encourage you to stick around and add to the conversation!

**Today’s picture is copywritten image by Kelli Miller of Sugar Creek Farm**

**Remember to thank Kelli for this great information!**