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Tuesday, August 30, 2016

TBF 140 :: Applying Farm Knowledge, Farm News, and a Hard Lesson Learned

**As I transition to www.TheBeginningFarmer.com I am quickly realizing I'm not as web savvy as I had hoped! In the meantime I will be posting here as well for those of you subscribed through RSS ... and hopefully will have that fixed soon.**



Subscribe to "The Beginning Farmer" YouTube Channel!

Earlier this month I was able to take a long drive to northwestern Iowa and visit Seven W Farm during their Practical Farmers of Iowa Field Day. This was the second field day at the Wilson's farm that I have been able to attend (along with watching their Niche Pork Webinar from 2009) and I am very thankful they are willing to open their farm, and share their experiences! Seven W Farm consists of 660 acres, seven Wilsons (plus kids), organic grains, hogs, organic dairy, pastured poultry, grassfed beef, and grassfed lamb. To say that there is a lot going on would be an understatement for sure. Behind the diversity of enterprises though is a great wealth of knowledge that comes from multi-generational family farm. In fact Dan has been pasture farrowing hogs for 50 years now!

What I'm trying to say with all of that background information is that I learned a lot. I mean I really learned A LOT!!! And, the great thing about some of the knowledge I picked up from their experiences is that it is stuff I think that I can still apply to this growing season. Here are four things that I hope to apply in the coming weeks and of course a bunch of links that I mention in the episode:

What I learned and will be (hopefully applying soon) ...
  1. Burst Proof Water Line for Pastured Pigs
  2. A-Fram Farrowing Sheds are the Bomb
  3. Premier1 Pig Fence is Worth a Try
  4. Three Words ... Apple. Cider. Vinegar.
The pile of links mentioned in this episode ...

:: Practical Farmers of Iowa Recap of 2016 Field Day ::

If you are interested in having a grassfed Dexter Cattle Herd of your own shoot me an e-mail because we have cows, heifers, and cow/calf pairs available right now!

Check out The Beginning Farmer Show on Facebook! 

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 star rating and review (by clicking the link). 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 ...
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Thursday, August 25, 2016

TBF 139 :: Field Day Follow-Up, Cattle Sale, and a Hard Lesson Learned

**As I transition to www.TheBeginningFarmer.com I am quickly realizing I'm not as web savvy as I had hoped! In the meantime I will be posting here as well for those of you subscribed through RSS ... and hopefully will have that fixed soon.**



Subscribe to "The Beginning Farmer" YouTube Channel!

More questions have rolled in from our Practical Farmers of Iowa Field Day, and the folks at PFI have even put up a blog post that recaps the day. The great thing about the blog post is that it contains a lot of audio from the event, so if you weren't able to make it to the field day you can at least listen (now that I mention that I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing). On today's episode I'll be fielding questions about recording video, using the vet, farm names/brands, beginning marketing, and even some of my thoughts on how we do our sheep. It is definitely a hodge-podge episode with plenty of rambling, but they are great questions so hopefully I'm up to the task with my answers!

:: Practical Farmers of Iowa Recap of 2016 Field Day ::

If you are interested in having a grassfed Dexter Cattle Herd of your own shoot me an e-mail because we have cows, heifers, and cow/calf pairs available right now!

Check out The Beginning Farmer Show on Facebook! 

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 star rating and review (by clicking the link). 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 ...
at No comments:

Thursday, August 11, 2016

TBF 138 :: Questions, Answers, Farm Tours, and a Hard Lesson Learned

**As I transition to www.TheBeginningFarmer.com I am quickly realizing I'm not as web savvy as I had hoped! In the meantime I will be posting here as well for those of you subscribed through RSS ... and hopefully will have that fixed soon.**

Subscribe to "The Beginning Farmer" YouTube Channel!



Over the past two weeks we have hosted well over 100 farmers and farm fans out to Crooked Gap Farm! That has meant a lot of time getting the farm ready, preparing food, and planning the tours and talks. In the end though we love the opportunity to share our farm with other farmers, and more importantly ... learn from other farmers! Even though I love to talk and I love these types of events they do make me a bit nervous right before they start and for a little while after. It's not talking in front of people that makes me nervous (I typically do that every Sunday), but rather it is that I'm worried about what people will think about our farm when they see it and hear what I have to say about it. I mean I'm just a beginning farmer! Hopefully over time that is something that I can grow out of, because there is a lot of benefit from having other farmers to the farm to share information and learn! 

In other news ... let's attempt to answer some questions! Here are the topics for this week:
  1. Now that we've done chickens, what is next?
  2. How do you handle watering systems with far away pastures?
  3. When do you suggest starting your laying chicks?
  4. Are you applying holistic management practices on your farm?
  5. What about WOTUS? Does it matter for beginning farmers?
If you are interested in having a grassfed Dexter Cattle Herd of your own shoot me an e-mail because we have cows, heifers, and cow/calf pairs available right now!

Check out The Beginning Farmer Show on Facebook! 

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 star rating and review (by clicking the link). 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 ...
at No comments: