TBF 012 :: Balancing Family, Farm, and a Job; Pig Corrals; Hard Lesson Learned

Family, farm, and the job in town ... that is the balancing act that many farmers have to juggle these days whether you are just starting your farm or you have been farming for years. According to this document from the USDA (which has lots of interesting data) 60% of todays 2.1 million family farms had less than $10,000 gross sales and 30% of the farms had between $10,001 and $249,999 of gross sales. If you dig a little deeper you will find that nearly all of those "60%" farms lost money on their farming business, and of those farms in the "30%" while they did make a farm profit it was less than $10,000. Plus, they still received the vast majority of their income off farm. I can't wrap my mind around all of those numbers and I'm sure there is much I'm missing ... what I do know though is that the majority of farmers in the United States are balancing a job in town and the job of the farm.

By no means have I mastered the balancing act! It feels like I'm always dropping a ball somewhere, but there are a few things I have learned over the past five years that are important to keep in mind when you are mixing your family ... your farm ... and your job in town.

Six Keys to the Balancing Act

1. Work Just Needs to Be Done - Having a job in town and a farm job is having two full-time jobs in most cases and that means the work of two full-time jobs.
2. There are Some Things You Can't Do - Sacrifices are part of the game when it comes to starting your farm and you have to be able to say no to certain things.
3. Involve Everyone in as Much as Possible - When you are working together you can not only get things accomplished, but you can also have some great family time with lots of teachable moments.
4. Let Get Aways Happen - Maybe you all can't get away for a day or two, but make sure that you don't miss out on everything because you may regret it in the future.
5. Some Projects Need to Be Done Now and Others Can Wait - There are things that need to be done daily regardless of what is going on, but allow yourself to stop and focus on more important things.
6. Be Sure Everyone is 100% On Board With the Farm - If the whole family isn't 100% invested in making the farm happen there will be an underlying stress that is just not worth creating ... no matter how badly you want to farm.

In the farm update section of the episode a spend a little bit of time sharing about how awesome our customers are that brave the rain and cold to come to the farmer's market! If you have a customer base you need to make sure that you are continually thanking them for the support (financially and emotionally) that they give you. We really couldn't do this farm without their help in more ways than one!

Do you have any keys to balancing family, farm, and the job in town? I would love to be able to make this "Top Six List" into a "Top Ten List". If you have any advice for me (and the other listeners) on how you balance everything and accomplish the the projects that need to be done please leave a comment below or e-mail me.

As always, I want to thank you so much for listening and supporting the show with your encouragement and reviews on iTunes! I am continually working to produce a better show, and I'm thankful for all of the listeners sticking with me as I learn. If you do enjoy the show, don't forget that you can subscribe on iTunes and leave a five start rating and review (by clicking the link or the image on the left). If you are an Android phone user you can also subscribe on the free Stitcher App. It is so very encouraging to know that people are listening and enjoying the show! 

I would love to hear your questions, show ideas, or comments about the show. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail! As always you can follow along with The Beginning Farmer and Crooked Gap Farm by checking out these links ... 

• Crooked Gap Farm
• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook
• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter

TBF Show 012 :: Play in a New Window | Right Click to Download

**Special Note :: Because iTunes and Blogger were not playing nicely I now have a different feed for the podcast episodes. You can find a The Beginning Farmer Show specific feed at this link if you use an rss reader. I hope this also helps with some download problems others had been having as well.**

(if you are interested in the music in this episode check out my brother's record label, Historic Records) 

TBF 011 :: Selecting Breeding Stock, Woodlot Pigs, and Wayward Hogs

Today's topic for The Beginning Farmer Show is one of those subjects that is way over my head, but it is something that all beginning livestock farmers will have to deal with much sooner rather than later! I hope that there is something that you can take away from my thoughts, but more importantly I hope you join in the discussion and share your experience.

Whether you are raising cattle, hogs, sheep, chickens, rabbits, or any other livestock on your farm the breeding animals you keep and choose will have a huge impact on your business. They are the foundation of what you produce and they can have an impact (good or bad) that lasts for generations. So, it is very important that you select the right replacement heifers, gilts, ewes, hens, does, and so on and so forth! On this episode of The Beginning Farmer Show I will talk about how I go about selecting replacement animals from and for my farm in a very unscientific manner, and I will also share a few tips from people that really know what they are doing.

When it comes to selecting replacement breeding stock (heifers, gilts, bulls, boars, etc.) my biggest and first piece of advice is to consult someone with experience, knowledge, and results. I have none of those things (remember I'm a beginning farmer), but I have tried to learn as much as I can in a short while. Way back in 2008 I attended a Practical Farmers of Iowa field day feature Gearld Fry ... a very well known and respected cattleman. Obviously he speaks specifically to cattle, but I think the importance he placed on selecting breeding stock has helped me with all of the different animals we have. You can learn more about Mr. Fry and his thoughts on cattle (including linebreeding) by checking out Bovine Engineering. If you'd like to read about the bullet point take-aways from a beginning farmer listening to Mr. Fry speak you can check out my blog post about the field day.

There are a few things that I look for though when selecting replacement gilts for the Hereford pig herd ...

• Priority number one is that I select gilts from sows that are good mothers who protect and take care of the litters.
• I like to choose gilts that grow faster than the other gilts in their litter, and that have nice muscling and no physical deformities.
• The bigger the litter the better! Ideally we keep back gilts from sows that consistently have larger litters.
• Finally, it is important to me that the gilts are from sows that do a good job with the farrowing process (they go into a hut or build a great nest for farrowing).

All of that selection criteria though can be summed up in two points that I learned from a farmer that has been farrowing out on pasture for years ...

• Select gilts with down ears (floppy) as opposed to up ears (ears that stand up). I realize this won't be true in all cases because there are some great heritage breeds out there with "up ears", but it worked for him and I saw the success he was having!
• Select gilts that lay down slowly. He said he watched his potential replacement gilts lay down and that he liked to see them get down on their front knees first, before settling down their backside. His reasoning is that if they lay down slowly the won't just flop down on their litter of pigs and crush them.

That seems like very simple advice, but I saw the results of those two pieces of selection criteria and it was a sow herd that I would be more than proud to have on my farm. Also, it illustrates the most important thing that I can say on this subject ... find people that raise livestock like you raise them or raise the same breeds you raise and pick their brain on the subject.

There is more to this show though than Farmer Ethan's ramblings on subjects that he knows nothing about! As you can see from the picture on the right the pigs are loving their new woodlot paddock, and this image is exactly why I love raising pigs so much. Most of the time they get a bad rap for being dirty and stinky, but our woodlot raised pigs are just a joy to raise and be around. All is not always well though when it comes to pastured pigs ... at least when they don't know about electric fence yet. If you want to know what not to do with pigs and electric fencing then you need to listen to the "Hard Lesson Learned" this week!

As always, I want to thank you so much for listening and supporting the show with your encouragement and reviews on iTunes! I am continually working to produce a better show, and I'm thankful for all of the listeners sticking with me as I learn. If you do enjoy the show, don't forget that you can subscribe on iTunes and leave a five start rating and review (by clicking the link or the image on the right). If you are an Android phone user you can also subscribe on the free Stitcher App. It is so very encouraging to know that people are listening and enjoying the show! 

I would love to hear your questions, show ideas, or comments about the show. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail! As always you can follow along with The Beginning Farmer and Crooked Gap Farm by checking out these links ... 

• Crooked Gap Farm
• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook
• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter

TBF Show 011 :: Play in a New Window | Right Click to Download

(if you are interested in the music in this episode check out my brother's record label, Historic Records) 

TBF 010 :: Setting Prices, Building Pig Fence, and Gambling With Hay

I mentioned in the previous episode that we had to sit down and take a hard look at product prices a few weeks ago. This was something that I knew we needed to do, but I did not want any thing to do with it for a variety of reasons. First of all, I love doing many things on the farm (even some things that aren't especially fun), but I do not love doing the "business" aspects sometimes. And secondly, I am always worried that people will think my prices are to high and that we will lose all of our customers. The reality is though that the farm is a business and if we are going to run it like a business we need to be continually keeping tabs on our pricing, our inputs, our marketing, and all of that business'y stuff.

With all of that in mind, on today's episode of The Beginning Farmer Show I am going to spend some time talking about how we eventually came around to setting our prices (and recently raising them). There was a lot of thought and research that went into setting those prices, but there are also "pricing values" that we follow when it comes to our product prices. Here are a few of the values that we follow ...

• We do not want to have high priced products just because some think that we can.
• We believe that we should receive a decent wage for the work that we do on the farm raising great tasting pork, poultry, lamb, eggs, and beef.
• There is a defined amount that we feel we need to make in profit for each animal.
• We will be "price makers" instead of "price takers", but at the same time if our input costs lower for a sustained amount of time we would like to lower our prices to reflect that (as long as we still make our defined amount per animal).
• Our pricing will be transparent because we are not trying to sneak anything by anyone. Our customers are not just nameless/faceless cogs in a system, they are our friends!

The biggest piece of advice that I can give to anyone though when it comes to setting your prices is to not set them too low! I think the natural tendency for most of us is to undervalue our products because we are fearful of seeming overpriced. The reality is that it costs money to run any business and you must set your prices based on those inputs ... not on what a few people may think! If you do that then you can have a financially sustainable farm.

There is more to this episode though than the big pricing talk (because I do not like only talking about something I don't like). I will also spend some time talking about the latest happenings on Crooked Gap Farm, which this week includes building some new fence through the woods for a pig paddock. Then before the end of the show I share my "Hard Lesson Learned" for the week. This weeks hard lesson has to do with hay and my gamble that the prices would go down over the winter. That was a gamble that cost me big time and I'm already taking action to not let it happen again this year!

As always, I want to thank you so much for listening and supporting the show with your encouragement and reviews on iTunes! I am continually working to produce a better show, and I'm thankful for all of the listeners sticking with me as I learn. If you do enjoy the show, don't forget that you can subscribe on iTunes and leave a five start rating and review (by clicking the link or the image on the right). If you are an Android phone user you can also subscribe on the free Stitcher App. It is so very encouraging to know that people are listening and enjoying the show!

I would love to hear your questions, show ideas, or comments about the show. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail! As always you can follow along with The Beginning Farmer and Crooked Gap Farm by checking out these links ...

• Crooked Gap Farm
• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook
• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter

TBF Show 010 :: Play in a New Window | Right Click to Download

(if you are interested in the music in this episode check out my brother's record label, Historic Records)

Stay Off the Grass!

Here we are on May 14th, 2013 and, as you can see from the picture above, the only animals on my farm enjoying the bounty of the pasture are the chickens and the rabbits. In fact it is all that I can do to stop myself from turning the cows and sheep out on the pasture ... especially since I'm purchasing small square bales of hay about every 10 or 12 days! But, I know that it is for the best because my pastures are just not to the point they need to be for them to be grazed.

I believe there are a combination of factors that have my pastures lagging behind a little bit this spring. First of all it has been a cool spring (we had 9 inches of snow on May 4th). That has kept everybody's pastures growing slowly, but especially mine that still have a large amount of warm season grasses as the main forage (even after 4 years of intensive rotational grazing). On top of the cool spring combined with the warm season grasses there is the whole issue of the drought of 2012. I ran my pastures pretty hard last year, and if I am going to be truthful with myself I used them up a little more than I should have. So, even though as you can see from the picture below that we are statistically out of the drought I'm still paying the price.

All of this has led to me having to make the painfully tough choice of keeping my cattle and sheep off the pastures and up at the house still eating hay. Each day as I drive to town for work I see what seems like every other farmers cattle out grazing while mine are still eating expensive (still have drought prices here) hay. And, each time I see those cows grazing I try to tell myself that I could put them out on the pasture and just give them bigger paddocks while feeding a little hay still. In my "want to get grazing" mind that seems like the perfect solution, but in my "need to do what is best for the longevity of the pastures" mind I know that I need to just hold off and let them heal as we keep getting some decent moisture this spring.

How are your pastures? Has the cool spring kept them from taking off? Did you do a better job managing them last summer than I did (most likely you did)? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

TBF 009 :: Becoming Our Own Hatchery, Snow in May, and Hard Lessons Learned

One thing that we have learned on our farm over the last five years is that animals that are born on our farm, from stock raised on our farm, do much better in our farming model than others that we purchase and bring to the farm. We have found even when we bring them from farms that have similar farming models or farms that we really respect, there are some animals that just aren't as hardy or don't grow quite as well on the pasture and in the woodlots. Over the last two seasons of raising meat chickens, we have found the same to be true. In the case of the chickens though, all of our meat birds come from off the farm ... and that is something that I would like to change.

Up until this point, it was something that I was interested in doing but not really in a hurry to do. That changed when our source for naked neck Poulet Rouge chicks (which come from a farming friend) was not able to provide chicks for us this year. If you have followed along with the blog for awhile you will remember my frantic call for help and our solutions (which included ordering chicks from the hatchery). But, the long-term solution is that we are going to begin hatching our own meat chickens and keeping a flock for breeding stock. This means that we need to research all sorts of things from incubators and incubation to various heritage breeds that we can raise!

At this time I am leaning towards the Mottled Java as a bird to try out, but I think I would like to have a few other options that we are working with at the same time so I'm open to suggestions! As far as incubators/hatchers go, we have been doing a lot of research and reading about the various styles and brands and prices ... it can be exhausting! If you would like to check out some of the models we have been looking at for cabinet incubators just take a look at these links:

• G.Q.F. Incubators/Hatchers
• Dickey's Incubators/Hatchers
• Red Rooster Incubators
• Brinsea Incubators

As always, I want to thank you so much for listening and supporting the show with your encouragement and reviews on iTunes! I am continually working to produce a better show, and I'm thankful for all of the listeners sticking with me as I learn. If you do enjoy the show, don't forget that you can subscribe on iTunes and leave a five start rating and review (by clicking the link or the image on the right) or on the Stitcher App on your smartphone. It is so very encouraging to know that people are listening and enjoying the show!

I would love to hear your questions, show ideas, or comments about the show. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail! As always you can follow along with The Beginning Farmer and Crooked Gap Farm by checking out these links ...

• Crooked Gap Farm
• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook
• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter

TBF Show 009 :: Play in a New Window | Right Click to Download

(if you are interested in the music in this episode check out my brother's record label, Historic Records)

TBF 008 :: 6 Steps to Farm Success, Farm News, and a Hard Lesson Learned

Have you ever wanted to raise your own livestock? Have you ever wanted to work for yourself? Have you ever wanted to become a marketing genius? Have you ever wanted to farm (which is a combination of all of those things)!?! Well, today is your day if you answered "yes" to those questions because today we are excited to introduce "The Beginning Farmers Guide to Becoming a Beginning Farmer In Six Easy Steps". All you have to do is follow these six simple steps and you will find yourself well on the way to becoming the most successful farmer on the block. It get's better though! If you order this six step program today you will also receive, at no extra charge, the companion series, "What You Wish You Would Have Done When You Were Starting Your Farm With Six Easy Steps". Don't delay and order today!

Don't you wish that it was that easy? I know that when I was in the beginning stages of my farm dream I was looking for the perfect/easy formula that would get me well on the way at making my living on the farm. I searched many websites, I read lots of books, and I attended agricultural conferences. The reality is though that there is no six step (or ten or twenty or ... well you get the idea) plan for starting a farm. It's not just something that you can create a formula for, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to try and make a six step plan for beginning a farm anyways!

On today's episode I've put together six basic steps that I would take if I were starting a farm from scratch (using the benefit of hindsight). This isn't the end all list (it doesn't even come close to covering everything you need to consider), but I believe it is a good basic plan for getting a beginning farm started out on the right foot. There is one thing though that would make this list better ... your input! If you have a step you would like to add or modify or even if you would like to tell how completely wrong I was I would love to hear your thoughts!

"The Beginning Farmers Guide to Becoming 

a Beginning Farmer In Six Easy Steps"

Step #1 :: Farm Location
Renting is the key on this one. I would look for a rural house with 2-7 acres and maybe even some buildings.

Step #2 :: Farm Enterprises
I've said it before, many people have done it/are doing it, and Joel Salatin has been saying it for years ... I would begin with chickens! Both laying hens and meat birds because I'm too impatient to only do one or the other.

Step #3 :: Farm Marketing
Know your story, share your story, get all interneted up (social media, website, etc.), partner with a local vegetable CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and attend a smaller farmers market.

Step #4 :: Farm Learning
Find a farmer ... any farmer ... and offer to work for them (and learn) for free! Oh yeah, and raise three pigs as well.

Step #5 :: Farm Goals
Do I need to say anything more than survive and then want to do it again next year?

Step #6 :: Farm Moving Forward
Year number one was great, but now it is time to think about moving forward so we will expand the poultry business and move into marketing pork.

Finally, this weeks "Hard Lesson Learned" has to do with ... well it has to do with "Hard Lessons". Farming in general is basically just one big lesson followed by more lessons and if you aren't ready to be kicked around by the farm a little bit then you better think twice about following that six step plan. Each one of those steps is easily related to a hard lesson that I have learned on my beginning farm.

As always, thank you so much to all of you who have taken the time to subscribe and listen to the show each week. I hope that I'm growing as a podcast producer and that as time goes along the show just gets better and better. If you do enjoy the show don't forget that you can subscribe on iTunes and leave a five start rating and review (by clicking the link or the image on the left) or on the Stitcher App on your smartphone. For those of you that have taken the time to leave a review on iTunes ... thank you, thank you, thank you! It is so very encouraging to know that people are listening and enjoying the show!

I would love to hear your questions, show ideas, or comments about the show. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail! As always you can follow along with The Beginning Farmer and Crooked Gap Farm by checking out these links ...

• Crooked Gap Farm
• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook
• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter

TBF Show 008 :: Play in a New Window | Right Click to Download

(if you are interested in the music in this episode check out my brother's record label, Historic Records)