Q & A Interview With Gary Duncan of Powerflex :: Part Five

This is the big week that the fence goes up on our place. I can honestly say that I can hardly wait for this project to be done, but at the same time I feel a bit overwhelmed. Oh well, I guess we are just going to start regardless! One thing that I am confident of is that we will be in good hands with Gary Duncan of Powerflex helping us out. Check out the last two questions from my little Q & A interview with him and then check back all week long for the fence building progress.

7.) Lightening can be an issue with an electric fence. How can you handle that and are there other things that need to be considered.

Lightning is a powerful force. But, we can do things on the fence to try to get it to go ground prior to getting to your fence charger. Most larger energizers have two fuses in them - one for the fence side and another for the power supply side. A surge protector on the power side is also a device that will help. Some farms are more prone to lightning than are others. If your farm has historically had a lot of lightning hits, then multiple devices on the fence may be in order. There are different types of lightning protection devices, but most work somewhat in the same way. Either there are contact points or a spark gap that will activate when a surge of lightning attacks it. Some have coils. The coil is a device that aids in defusing and slowing down the flow of lightning thus encouraging it to make the spark gap in the device. It is generally recommended that you install one more ground rod at your lightning protection than you did at the energizer. Ie: you have 4 ground rods at the energizer, you should have 5 at your lightning protection. This device should be installed 65 feet away from your energizer grounds. No device is guaranteed to stop lightning entirely but it is worth the effort to try.

8.) So, how does this whole process go together in a nutshell? Is it a fairly difficult process or something that someone can get the hang of as they work?

If you are just starting out with electric fence I would recommend that you read up as much as you can. There is much information on the internet about electric fencing. I don’t think that electric fencing is difficult, but you do need to think it out as you build your fence. Hi-tensile wire is relatively easy to work with. Wire usually comes in 4000’ coils (with a weight of 100#’s) and you’ll need a wire dispenser, also called a spinning jenny to roll out your wire. Never try it without one! You can either crimp your joints and connections or you can hand knot them. If you crimp, you will need a good crimp tool. Even if you hand knot, there are still places that you will need to crimp. Hand knotting is not really all that hard to learn, however, only practice makes perfect. Once you learn how to tie hand knots, you will not need to carry many tools around with you as you build fence.

Q & A Interview With Gary Duncan of Powerflex :: Part Four

We are getting closer and closer to actually beginning to put up the hi-tensile on our farm, but it has been lots of thought and preparation put into this project. Most of the prep work that we have been doing is researching, studying, and planning. Thanks to the help of Gary Duncan of Powerflex Fence the research and planning have been made a lot easier. I hope you are enjoying these Q & A posts and that you are learning as much as I am!

5.) I know for our perimeter fencing we have been discussing a six wire fence. How many wires do you usually suggest for the various applications that people use hi-tensile fencing for?

This will depend mainly on the type of livestock that you wish to contain. Additionally, perimeter fences will have more strands than interior ones will. For cattle we normally suggest 5 strands on the perimeter, but only 1 strand will work fine for interior cross fences. If you are concerned about calves going under this single strand then install a second or third strand.
With sheep or goats, perimeter fences usually have from 6 to 8 strands. I personally know people who get along with 5 strands for goats, but 6 to 8 is more common. Some of this will be dictated by your management practices also. If, for instance, you will be with your livestock daily or more and you are moving them to fresh forage regularly, then you can probably get by with less strands of wire. The animals wont be searching for forage and will be less likely to challenge a fence.

6.) In the past I have read about hi-tensile fences being set up with alternating hot and ground wires in the fence. What do you suggest in regards to a set-up like that and grounding in general?

Alternating hot and ground wires can be effective with dry soil conditions, especially in the case of goats or other lightweight livestock. With a all hot wire system, in order to receive a shock, you have to be grounded to the earth while touching the hot wire, thus completing the curcuit. In the case of a small goat, that might be standing on a dry thatch of grass, they may not be fully grounded and do not receive a shock or a full shock. When using alternating ground wires, if an animal touches a hot wire and a ground wire at the same time they will receive a full shock, regardless of wheather their feet are well grounded or not.

Q & A Interview With Gary Duncan of Powerflex :: Part Three

Again, a big thank you to Gary Duncan for taking the time to answer these questions and to chime in on the comments. Here are the next two questions I asked him along with his wonderful responses.

3.) What makes the PowerFlex post and the hi-tensile fencing system good option for the farm practicing Management Intensive Grazing.

I think that the answer to that is “flexibility”. This system offers a lot of benefits during installation and afterwards. It is an easy system to install and should you want to add a gate later it is very easy to accommodate that as well. As we become better graziers, we often need to modify our system to fit our needs and climatic conditions. With this system it is very easy to add portable fencing components to further subdivide larger paddocks and get better utilization of our resources. Besides that it is more economical to install and will last much longer.

4.) Obviously when you are dealing with electric fence the fence energizer is an important piece of the puzzle. What sort of advice do you generally give to someone when they are picking out an energizer?

First off, don’t necessarily believe everything that you read on the label of the box ! There is really no international standard in the way energizers are rated, so labeling can be very confusing. Some manufacturers state stored joules while others give you output joules. Most will give you mileage and some will give you acres. These claims will vary greatly depending on may factors. Most manufacturers will claim that one output joule will power about 10 miles of fence. They may with a clean fence with no vegetation on it. However, when you consider grass and vegetation load you would be better off using 3 miles per joule. This will give you adequate power under high vegetation periods. If a manufacturer only gives you the stored joule rating, then reduce that by about 30% to know what the output joule rating is. With electric fence energizers, more power is better than not enough power. Another aspect to be aware of is grounding the energizer. None of them will operate to optimum performance without adequate grounding. One suggestion is to install 3 feet of ground rod per output joule.

Q & A Interview With Gary Duncan of Powerflex :: Part Two

Here are the first two questions and answers from my interview with Gary Duncan of the Powerflex Fence company. Feel free to add questions of your own in the comments and I'll see if we can get some feedback from Mr. Duncan.

1.) Hi-Tensile fencing is something that is fairly new to me. Thanks to the readers of my blog I was turned onto this type of fencing and decided it would be a good fit for our fencing needs. Could you give a brief overview of the ins and outs of a hi-tensile fence?

Firstly, hi-tensile electric fencing is a physiological barrier rather than a physical one. Typically a traditional fence of barbed, woven or a board fence is a physical barrier and must be maintained taunt and tight to be effective. Electric fences work on the memory of the animal from a previous shock. Once properly trained, animals respect electric fences greatly. They simply learn not to challenge them. Hi-tensile wire itself is much stronger than the traditional low carbon wire used in agricultural fencing. 12.5 gauge hi-tensile wire has a breaking strength of 1300 pounds plus. Around 3X more than barbed wire. The finish on hi-tensile wire is also superior. It has at least a class III galvanized coating, which will last 3 to 4 times longer than class I traditional wires. Hi-tensile wire will also stretch up to about 2% of its initial tension, but once stretched, it will return to its initial tension. This feature reduces the maintenance that is normally required to keep other fencing tight and effective.

2.) Can you tell me more about the PowerFlex posts and all their benefits?

The PowerFlex Posts are an “oriented” composite. They are comprised of about 70% polypropylene and 30% wood fiber. The orientation process that they go thru during manufacture gives them grain vertically similar to woodgrain. This adds strength and flexibility. All material used is virgin and no recycled products are used. They are made of an insulative material, so do not require insulators. Only a cotter pin to hold the wire in place. I think that the greatest benefit that Powerflex Posts offer is that they are flexible. They will yield to pressure, then return to their upright position. Next is the fact that they are made of an insulative material. Anyone that has been around electric fencing very long soon realizes that much of their maintenance involves replacing broken insulators and finding shorts on conductive posts.

Make sure you check back tomorrow for more. Also, a big thanks goes out to Mr. Duncan for all of the time he as taken helping us figure out what we need and answering our questions!

Sugar Creek Farm Q&A Interview - Part 5

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!**

Sugar Creek Farm Q&A Interview - Part 4

I hope you are enjoying this weeks farm interview with Kelli of Sugar Creek Farm. I think she has given some great insight to their farm and into the possibilities and realities of sustainable farming in general. This will be something that I will do from time to time ... as long as farmers are willing to answer my questions! If you would like to participate or know of a farmer that you think would have helpful insight just let me know. Now, onto part four (make sure you check out Part One, Part Two, and Part Three).

The Beginning Farmer - What has been one of the most difficult things you have had to endure on your farm?

Sugar Creek Farm - Generally I'd have to say Matt & I working together has been a real challenge :) We have totally opposite personalities, and our brains don't seem to think in the same way. This leads to some rather animated discussions! But it's also strengthened our relationship and, I know it's cheesy, it's helped us grow as individuals and as a couple.

As for specific events, any time you lose animals on a small farm it's difficult. Because you're working with relatively small numbers of animals, losing any one of them is a big hit. By far the biggest of these hits was last spring. We had purchased 3 purebred Chester White gilts and a Berkshire boar. We were so excited about expanding our little herd from 1 sow to 3. When those gilts farrowed they were horrible mothers and we lost all but 5 pigs out of the three litters. It was a huge setback, financially and emotionally. Sometimes, when dealing with animals, you can do everything right and still things just happen. We kept 2 of those 3 gilts, and this time around we couldn't ask for better mothers. They weaned 9 pigs each.

The Beginning Farmer - Talk about the transition from treating the farm as a hobby to treating it as a business. How did things change in your mind and in real life?

Sugar Creek Farm - It was more fun when it was just a hobby ;) No, that was actually Matt's (joking) response. A hobby is something you do for fun, and it's largely self-serving. But as we started having to make choices about things, such as not using hormone implants or sourcing non-medicated feed, it started to feel like a calling. It came to be about more than just us and feeding our own family. We live in a very conventional, commodity-farming part of Iowa where the ideals of "local" and "sustainable" are just starting to make their way into the vernacular. So we felt a calling to use our farm to promote and further these ideals. The best way to do that was to grow from hobby to business.

In real life, making that transition has meant spending more time on things like accounting, marketing, and sales. I actually kind of enjoy these activities. Matt would rather just be outside taking care of his animals. But he's had to spend a lot of evenings at the computer figuring profit and loss and forecasting cash flow. I think the thing we both hate the most is setting prices.

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

**Remember to check back tomorrow for part five**

Sugar Creek Farm Q&A Interview - Part 3

Make sure you read Part One and Part Two if you haven't already had a chance. It is great that Kelli of Sugar Creek Farm was so willing to share! Remember if you have any questions go ahead and most them and I will pass them on ... oh, and don't forget to check out their farm blog. Kelli posts lots of great pictures and gives great insight into farming and family life on the farm.

The Beginning Farmer - How are you marketing your farms products and how did you get started with your direct marketing?

Sugar Creek Farm - We started out direct marketing because we had 3 finished steers and only needed 1/2 of one to feed our family. So we sold the remainder "on-the-hoof" to friends and co-workers. From there it just grew a little bit every year - we'd pick up a few new customers and raise a few more animals.

We have a listing on Local Harvest, and use our blog for occasional updates. At the beginning of each year we mail a newsletter to our customers with news from the farm and what will be available when in the coming year. The newsletter includes an order form. Otherwise our advertising is word of mouth.

Once we got chickens we made the leap to selling meat retail here at the farm. There are some hoops to jump through in order to be able to do that - insurance, health department, weights & measures, meat inspectors. The hardest part was figuring out who to talk to. Now that everything is in place it's no big deal. Having everything in place made it easy to start selling beef & pork retail, and took the pressure off of having to have every head sold on-the-hoof.

This past summer we decided to try selling at Farmers Market. (A couple more hoops to jump through to do that.) I don't think Matt thought it would amount to anything - he just thought it would get me out of the house a few hours a week :) But in retrospect it may have kept us from giving up this year. It provided cash flow at a time of year when we are usually short and brought us a number of new customers. It will be interesting to see how we do at it next summer, now that we have started to build a name and reputation for ourselves there.

We have one local bulk foods store carrying our beef & pork, Kountry Kupboard in Osage. It's been a challenge to figure out wholesale versus retail pricing, but overall it's been a very positive situation for us because it gets our name out to even more people within the community. Some people are more comfortable purchasing there because it's a Main Street store with set hours. And people feel good about purchasing there because with one purchase they are helping 3 local business - our farm, our local meat locker that does our beef & pork butchering for us, and Kountry Kupboard.

The Beginning Farmer - Which of your products has been the most popular or successful? Why do you think this is?

Sugar Creek Farm - I can't really say that any one thing is more popular than another, considering we sell out of everything! But I think the one that surprised us the most is chickens. They sell like hotcakes, which was a surprise because the price differential between our chickens and grocery store chickens is wider than it is for our other products. People are amazed at the difference in flavor and texture between our free-range chickens and what you get in most grocery stores.

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

**Remember to check back tomorrow for part four**

Sugar Creek Farm Q&A Interview - Part 2

If you missed part one of the interview with Kelli from Sugar Creek Farm you can check it out HERE.

The Beginning Farmer - Is the farm your families main income source? Does anybody work off farm? And, how would you characterize family life at Sugar Creek Farm? (I realize this a lot of questions ... but, I thought they fit together)

Sugar Creek Farm - Matt works full-time as a lineman for the local utility company. I work at home part-time as a software developer. So the farm at this point is a side business for us, and it has taken us a while to make the transition of it being a hobby to being a business. We wanted to grow the business without taking on debt. So our incomes have been both operating capital and investment for breeding stock and equipment. Our long-term goal would be to grow the farm to the point that it would replace my current part-time job. And down the road for Matt to have something to retire into at age 55.

The farm is definitely a family effort. Our daughter Madeline is 12, daughter Olivia is 10, and son Rafe is 5. Madeline has really found her niche on the farm with the pigs. She loves pigs, and is up at 6 a.m. every day to get them fed and watered before she goes to school - an especially challenging task this time of year, when ice has to be broke out of water troughs with a hammer! She has developed such a work ethic - something we see her carry over into her school work, sports, 4-H, and volunteer activities. At parent/teacher conferences I think every single teacher commented on what a hard worker she is. Olivia's favorite is bottle calves, but we didn't have the room to get any this year. A couple years ago she approached us to propose that she get some bottle calves in the spring, take care of them through the summer and sell them in the fall...all in order to prove that she was ready for the responsibility of a horse, and to earn some money with which to purchase one. She did just that and is now the proud owner of Star! Rafe just likes being outdoors and is already showing interest in gardening, and he also likes to help with the meat chickens when we have them.

So even if this farm never becomes a full-time occupation for us, it's worth it because our kids are getting the experiences we wanted for them. They know where their food comes from and the effort it takes to get it to the table. Even if they don't end up farming themselves, this knowledge will make them better food consumers as adults. And if they ever need to feed themselves, even if they're living in a city somewhere, they'll be able to do that with a garden and a handful of chickens.

The Beginning Farmer - Are there any organizations, conferences, or research materials you used as you got started?

Sugar Creek Farm - We joined Practical Farmers of Iowa and have attended their annual conference the past 2 years. The ATTRA website is a treasure trove of information, as are other farm bloggers.

In 2004 I took the "Grow Your Small Market Farm" class given by Penny Brown Huber. It was a turning point for us in treating the farm as a business.

I still feel like we're beginners at this! So I still read everything I can get my hands on, bounce ideas off other farmers that are already doing what I want to do, read lots of farming blogs, and attend conferences and workshops. I am always thinking about ways to diversify the farm, so there is always something to learn! We added Muscovy ducks to the farm last year, but so far we've not eaten (or sold) any. They just sort of free range about and we have a hard time getting near them. So right now I'm learning about ducks, trying to come up with a plan to actually manage them.

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

**Remember to check back tomorrow for part three**

Sugar Creek Farm Q&A Interview - Part 1

If you have been following the blog for a while you will remember that I recently did a question and answer interview with Tim of Nature's Harmony Farm (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). I found the interview very interesting and information and I know that others did as well ... so, we are going to take another stab at it! This time I have had the pleasure of conducting an interview with Kelli Miller of Sugar Creek Farm in Osage, IA. This was an especially interesting interview because they are from our state and because they have a pretty neat thing started. I will be posting two questions and answers each day this week (Monday - Friday) so make sure you check back each day.

The Beginning Farmer - Kelli, thanks so much for your willingness to tackle this. I'm pretty excited to hear from someone who has been working for a while and who lives in my general area! First of all could you give us a little background on how you came to Sugar Creek Farm? Why did it get started, how did it get started, and when did it get started?

Sugar Creek Farm - We both grew up on farms and always wanted to get back to it on some level. We wanted that experience for our own kids, of stewardship and responsibility for land and animals. In 2001 our oldest daughter was old enough to show a bottle calf at the county fair. My brother thought she ought to do that, so he bought 3 Holstein bottle calves and helped her break one to lead at the fair. After the fair they came to live at our house for the rest of the summer, since we had pasture not being used. That lit the fire under Matt and the next summer we bought 4 of our own Holstein bottle calves. Nevermind that our daughter didn't want to show one again (though she did show again another year.)

When it came time for vaccinations and castrating, I remember asking Matt if we had to implant them with hormones. I don't know if I thought it was a law, or what, but he said no we didn't have to. So we didn't. When you live in a very rural, traditional, commodity-farming community you have to be able to defend your ideals if you're doing something "different". So I started researching and thus began our journey into sustainable agriculture.

At first our only goal was to raise the kind of food we wanted to eat - animals raised on pasture without added hormones or unnecessary antibiotics, and organically grown vegetables. We figured we'd raise what we needed for our family and sell any surplus to cover costs. We started to build a beef breeding stock herd so that we would know how our animals were treated from birth to butchering. A year or so later we added pigs and chickens to our farm.

The Beginning Farmer - What does Sugar Creek Farm consist of (livestock, crops, etc.)? How did you end up with the combination of ventures you have on your farm?

Sugar Creek Farm - We have 12 acres and raise beef, pigs, and meat chickens. Up until this year we also rented 20 acres of hay ground. I think we ended up with those because that's what we like to eat! These are also the animals we enjoy raising. Matt has experience with sheep & goats and just doesn't enjoy raising them. Our farm is all in pasture, so we also purchase feed from our local elevator.
We also have a large organic vegetable garden but at this point it's just for our own family, not a business venture. Extra's are shared with friends and neighbors. But if one of our kids ever wants to try a vegetable business I'd sure let them!

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

**Remember to check back tomorrow for part two**

Nature's Harmony Farm Q&A - Part 4

Okay, here is the final installment of my four part question and answer interview with Tim of Nature's Harmony Farm. If you missed posts you can check them out here: Post One ... Post Two ... Post Three. These last three questions are a little bit longer, but I feel like they are pretty informational so just make your way through the whole thing, and don't forget to check out Tim's website for more details and to read his great blog. Also, these question and answer interviews are something I would like to have from time to time. If you are working as a farmer or on the way to that and wouldn't mind being interviewed please let me know.

The Beginning Farmer - Tim, again thank you so much for your willingness to answer these questions and share your experiences with us! Here we go with the questions... As you came to a realization that you wanted to begin farming what sort of resources (books, publications, websites, conference, etc.) did you use to get started?

Nature's Harmony Farm - What haven’t I read or watched. Liz and I have totally immersed ourselves. Here’s a sampling.

Podcasts – We listen ever week to Deconstructing Dinner (highly recommended), Geek Farm Life, Cooking up a Story and Gardenfork (very entertaining).

Magazines – We subscribe to Graze, Acres USA, Progressive Farmer, Stockman Grass Farmer, Backwoods Home, Countryside & Small Stock Journal and similar publications. And we read them, cover to cover.

Web Resources – We’ve extensively used ATTRA (what a great site!), I frequently read and post on Cattle Today, LocalHarvest, and Weston Price. I use the University of Georgia and other sites if I’m researching something...thank you Al Gore for inventing the internet!

Blogs – There are too many to list. We maintain our own blog to let people know what we’re doing, ask questions and stimulate conversation, much like Ethan’s doing here on his excellent blog. If you’re into pigs, visit Walter’s blog at Sugar Mountain Farm...a GREAT resource and he’s great at sharing! I subscribe to over 25 blogs and have developed online relationships/resources via Cattle Today and similar sites. Find blogs that speak to what you’re interested in and get involved.

Farm Visits – I visited farms in Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina and Joel Salatin’s farm (Polyface) in Virginia. We spoke to everyone we could, were obviously influenced by some, but infused our own values and let that set our course. And, like driving a car, you can make course corrections along the way. I definitely recommend visiting whatever farms you can, and we’ll always be open to visits and to help others. No purchase necessary.

Conferences – We went to the Georgia Organics conference last winter and are going again in 3 months. We’re going to the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Conference next month in Louisville. We attended the Georgia Grazing workshop, as well as a six week Sustainable Agriculture School put on at West Georgia College.

Books – Ah, books. Yes, well, I started with the Joel Salatin series from You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise to his latest which I just finished called “Everything I want to do is illegal”. Right now I’m reading Grass-Fed Cattle by Ruechel. I’ve red Gene Logsdon, Wendell Berry, Andre Voisin, Storey’s guides to sheep, pigs and cattle, 5 Acres and Independence, Making your Small Farm Profitable, Charcuterie, Pig Perfect, Small Scale Livestock Farming, Living with Sheep, Greener Pastures on Your Side of the Fence by Murphy, Omnivore’s Dilemma, Botany of Desire, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral and countless other books. Liz has read some of these, but has focused more on gardening/preservation books like Stocking Up, The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable, Harvest, Keeping the Harvest, Carrots love Tomatoes, etc.

In the beginning, if you’re new to this, it all seems overwhelming. Later, some of it still does, but you start to migrate toward what you’re interested in. For example, when I read Stockman Grass Farmer, an excellent publication, I skip over a lot of talk about dairy cows unless I have tons of time (not lately). It just doesn’t catch my attention. Now, the articles on teaching cows to eat weeds...now that’s a different story. It all starts to come together and get comfortable and the internet makes it great to have discussions like this where we can learn and share.

We find the time to do this by not watching TV. Maybe an occasional football game, but that’s it.

The Beginning Farmer - You mentioned in a few other answers that you have background in entrepreneurialism and business. How do you think that will help you in your farming ventures?

Nature's Harmony Farm - Well, I really like this way of life as I suspect a lot of people do. Yet farming has a reputation that it’s hard work and you can’t make money. Why is that? Largely because farmers are disconnected from their customers or, as we say in the high tech world, “end users”. So they get squeezed. Business isn’t overly complicated. You need to focus on a niche where you can have an advantage and deliver a great product to your customers. We’re lucky that there is a swelling demand for naturally raised, grass finished beef, pork and poultry products. We’re also lucky that there’s just not enough land for the growing demand to be met, so a sustainable farm model can be realized. What’s the catch? Well, for one, you have to be comfortable with customer and marketing issues. You do have to find the customers, meet with them and build lasting relationships. The bigger catch, however, is you’ll need perseverance, because our governmental friends won’t make it easy. Want to sell raw milk to meet the growing demand for that? Sorry...our government (in most cases) says your customer doesn’t have the right to make that decision. Want to process your poultry on farm, like we’re going to do? Don’t look for clear legislation on this and be prepared to fight. Georgia like many states is a “Big Ag” state and legislation is supportive of the loud voices of big agriculture. Want to find a processor for your animals so you can sell retail cuts to your customers? Good luck...they’re few and far between, and the growth in the sustainable farming segment will further stress this supply chain clog in the near future. What about liability insurance if you’re selling products to customers? The list goes on. But that’s where business experience comes in. These are all just obstacles. They’re not “the end”. They’re just barriers. You just have to go over, around or below to win. If you have the passion, it’s worth it.

The Beginning Farmer - This may be a pretty long answer, but you are starting to get livestock on your property. How did you choose the breeds that you already have and what are some livestock breeds or animals that you will add in the future?

Nature's Harmony Farm - We decided off the bat that we wanted to feed ourselves. That meant pork, beef, chicken, turkey, eggs and probably lamb. Since we would raise those for ourselves, we assumed others might want the same for their families so we committed to this approach. In some cases, breeds were important to us, and in others, not as much. Here’s an example. We really researched cattle and ended up with raising registered Murray Grey. Murray Grey because they are docile, have low birth weights, are fast growers, do very well on grass and in drought and have excellent tenderness and marbling qualities. The registered aspect gives us a second potential income stream as we can either sell the meat or sell the live animal to complement someone else’s herd. With pigs we researched the more rare breeds, because that felt right in the spirit of what Nature’s Harmony Farm is all about. We were very intrigued with the Ossabaw pigs, particularly after reading Pig Perfect and since they are from Ossabaw Island off the coast of Georgia, so we searched for and found breeding stock. The Ossabaw’s take twice as long to be ready for market as other breeds (about a year) so we’ll have to factor that into our pricing. We also selected Berkshires because of the excellent meat qualities. In both cases, there is virtually NO competition around raising those so it makes us unique. Differentiation is an important element of business planning. Finally, regarding turkeys, we opted to experiment with Bourbon Reds. We loved the story about them in Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and the growth in popularity of heritage breed turkeys makes this a sound choice.

With chickens, we’ll stick to breeds that exhibit great productivity in growth and egg production, as long as they do well in a natural environment. Right now, we’re researching sheep, and are looking mainly at Katahdin sheep, as they exhibit great meat qualities and do well in Georgia.

Nature's Harmony Farm Q&A - Part 3

Today we are going to tackle part three of my question and answer interview with Tim of Nature's Harmony Farm in Georgia. If you just stumbled across the blog today I encourage you to check out "Part One" and "Part Two" of the interview to get a basis for these questions and answers. Also, in this part of the interview Tim took some time to answer questions from a couple of readers. I hope you enjoy the interview, and come back tomorrow for the final part of "The Beginning Farmer" Blog Q&A with Tim.

The Beginning Farmer - Tim, first of all thank you so much for being so willing share with me and anyone who has a chance to stumble across the blog. I just hope it is as much of a benefit to others as it is for me. Here is a multi-part question from "The Beginning Farmer Blog" reader, John. Tim, you made a pretty big cultural change (or are making ... editor) from having a high-tech career and income to farming. Looks like this kicked off in earnest in 2007 and will be in full motion in 2009. What do you miss from that former way of life? What did you do right? What would you do differently if you had to do it again?

Nature's Harmony Farm - Hi John. It’s a great question, and it’s one that I’m wondering how my answer today will compare to the answer I might give you in 3-5 years. Honestly, I don’t miss anything at all. What’s there to miss? I used to travel a lot...coast to coast every 2-3 weeks, and to Europe every 6-8 weeks. Now, you can’t get me to even travel for vacation. I don’t miss the board meetings, the sales calls, the servers crashing, the difficulty recruiting in times of growth and the process of cutting back in times of decline. I don’t miss being “the guy”.

Now I’m outdoors, using my muscles and observing nature. Sure, I still have corporate projects that I consult on, but find myself on the farm trying to figure out how to sell a ten dollar chicken instead of devising a new market penetration strategy for a client like I’m supposed to.

What I did “right” was I found something that I was passionate about. That’s crucial. I’ve always done the same thing in business, and I suppose that’s why I don’t really miss business. I was never just into the technology or the growth. I always put myself behind something I was passionate about. At this stage of my life, I’m passionate about humanely raising healthy food for our family and our customers, and helping others to feed their families great food.

If I had it do again, what would I do differently? So far, I like the choices we’ve made. They were well thought out and I don’t believe in a “right decision”. I believe in making a decision and then making it right. People who know me know that I describe some people as “Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim...” instead of “Ready, aim, fire”. I’m a “Ready, FIRE, aim, FIRE” kind of guy. But I have learned a lot in the last year, and if I had to name one thing I would have liked to have done differently I’d say that I would have paid more attention to the soil of the property I was buying rather than the location or lay of the land. I would have done a soil test first, better understood the forage capacity and factored that into my decision. As it turned out, we got lucky in that regard, as we have a great sod of fescue and Bermuda, and no chemicals have been put on the soil in over a decade. But I get no credit for that...we just lucked into it. If you raise animals, you need good grass and an ability to hold moisture, particularly given our drought. So I’d recommend looking closely at that.

The Beginning Farmer - Now a question from reader, Devin Rose. I have read Joel Salatin's books as well, and I recall in You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise , he recommends first leasing land and gaining experience for some number of years, then after that buying a plot of land, that way you know what to look for better, have experience without having sunk a lot of money into land, etc. So why did Tim buy land right away instead of leasing it?

Nature's Harmony Farm - Yes, Joel does make a number of recommendations like that. Joel has been a great spokesperson for the industry and has inspired countless people. But my recommendation is to listen to the essence of what he’s saying and not follow everything he says. For example, he says lease it first. I didn’t. I jumped in and have had no problem learning what I needed to know. But I’ve committed myself. I’m sure that Joel would agree that if a person was fully committed and driven, they’d find a way to succeed. Joel also says not to get involved in farming if you’re over 45. That’s a ridiculous thing to say, but the essence of what he was saying is that farming is hard work requiring energy and stamina. So does starting and running a business, yet some CEO’s and entrepreneurs are going strong at 70 and beyond (right Sumner Redstone?).

To answer your question, I bought land right away because I was committed to this, and by buying the land, I solidified (forced) that commitment. As an entrepreneur I learned that you can commit yourself to a strategy if you burn the bridge behind you. Then you have to make it work. And don’t worry, you will. The animals know what they’re doing. We need to listen and get out of the way.

Nature's Harmony Farm Q&A - Part 2

Yesterday I posted the first part of my question and answer interview with Tim from Nature's Harmony Farm. Today is round two, so dig in and enjoy! Also, I'm going to ask a few follow up questions. If you have any you would like to ask, just comment in the post or shoot me an e-mail.

The Beginning Farmer - What are some of the sources you used when looking for your land?

Nature's Harmony Farm - Our criteria were to be within 2-3 hours of Atlanta and to have at least 50 acres. We used online resources extensively, such as landandfarm.com, etc. We knew that we would have to generate some income from home and not have traditional jobs, so we looked at income opportunities such as getting into real estate, etc. We looked into that because everyone says that you can’t make a living just in farming. In the end, we decided to commit ourselves to farming and to find a way to make a living in it once we’re up and running. That requires us to direct market to consumers and restaurants, handle the meat processing and retail cuts and run the farm like a business. That was something that I did understand.

The Beginning Farmer - Do you have an overall plan for your farm as far as livestock, products, or management systems? What are they?

Nature's Harmony Farm - Our plan is to mimic nature as closely as possible. That achieve that, there are three things I want to focus on. 1) a multi-species animal environment, 2) a multi-species grazing environment, and 3) no artificial inputs into those environments.

1) Nature doesn’t raise just one animal. To achieve our goals (which include improving nutrient cycling, increasing topsoil and decreasing parasite loads) we could not have just cows, even if we wanted to. We have to have chickens (or birds) to follow their grazing patterns. It’s nice that a lot of people want farm fresh free range eggs and pastured poultry, and we will attempt to fill this need. But, really, we don’t have a choice. We have to do this to accomplish our larger environmental goals.

2) In our part of the country, lots of people grow Coastal Bermuda or another mono-culture species of hay. Mainly this is for horses. Closer to us, most farmers grow another mono-culture crop, cotton. While I appreciate that and love cotton T-Shirts it’s not exactly the best thing for the soil and requires TREMENDOUS inputs. I’m not interested in advising others what to do, especially people who have far more farming experience than I. However, to meet our objectives, we needed to NATURALLY encourage the growth of a multi-species grazing environment. Largely, this is accomplished by frequently moving animals to fresh grazing areas after they’ve uniformly grazed down the previous area. This is accomplished via portable electric fencing. Before you ask “how is using an electric fence mimicking nature?”, I’d like to suggest that the electric fence plays the role of the predator in nature. It keeps the grazers mobbed together for protection, and keeps them moving. We mimic that behavior.

3) Grazers have thrived LONG before our celebrated chemical creations of the past 60 years. There is nothing that traditional farmers put on their crops that I want in my body. Is it easier to add chemicals? Sure...there are times I’d love to reach for RoundUp. But there are other ways. One way is to mix the animals. Just as we feel the need for chickens to follow the grazers, we feel the need to mix sheep with cattle, as they have different grazing preferences. We may even add goats, although I think we may not need to. Another way is to manage the rotations so that the weeds don’t have a chance to shade out grass and inhibit growth, but rather are mowed down (by the grazers) which stimulates their growth and thickens the sward. Over time, other plant species come back and the goal of a multiplicity of plants should be accomplished. When it is, the animals will be able to thrive, and we’ll all be happier. All it takes is some patience and the ability to get out of the way.

Another thing we believe in and that we think is sorely missing is complete transparency. Anyone is welcome to visit our farm and see exactly how their food is being raised and what they are eating. We have nothing to hide, everything to share and lots to learn.

The Beginning Farmer - What are some of your short term goals and do you plan to work off farm for a while?

Nature's Harmony Farm - We will work off farm some for one year. Actually, I’m not sure we have to, but agreed to get the farm going, market some products in 2008 and commit ourselves full-time to the farm thereafter. We have already had more requests for product than we will likely be able to fulfill in 2008. So, why aren’t we fully committing ourselves to the farm? Because we must resist the short-term temptation to just “sell product”. I could probably sell a lot of grass fed beef next year, but if I did and culled too many cows, then how would I establish the size herd that our land needs for the above mentioned goals, and to supply the demand that will come in 2009 and beyond? We have more flexibility with pork and chicken, given the size of litters and/or length of time to harvest, so we’ll probably emphasize those products more this year. But it is important to keep in mind our larger ecological goals and not give in to the temptation to make a buck. I mean, if we were all about “making a buck”, I would have stayed in the corporate world.

**If you would like to read part one of this interview click here. Also, don't forget to check back next week for some follow up questions.**

A Q&A With Nature's Harmony Farm

I've got something a little different for today's blog... Recently I contacted Tim from Nature's Harmony Farm to see if I could conduct a question and answer series with him to share here on The Beginning Farmer blog. Well, I'm excited to say that he agreed to do it so for the next couple of days and possibly more I'm going to post some of the questions I asked and Tim's answers.

You can check the link to their farm website and blog above for all the details, but let me give you the rough sketch. Tim and Liz have done the urban corporate life for a while now and decided that maybe they wanted a place in the country that they could enjoy. The more they thought about it and the more they thought about the lifestyle and culture around them the more they became interested in raising livestock, growing food, and running a small sustainable family farm. So, the jumped right in. I mean they really jumped in and now they are really starting to get some momentum going. I encourage you to check out their blog for all the details ... maybe even work your way through all the posts over time because it is a pretty interesting journey. I hope these questions and answers will shed a little more light on their whole process.

So, without further ado...

The Beginning Farmer - Alright Tim, thanks for agreeing to take some time and share with us a little bit about Nature's Harmony Farm. I hope this isn't too overwhelming for you, but I know that I, along with others are interested to learn about the steps you are taking and have taken in the beginning of your farm venture. I guess the first question is what led you to farming? And, do you already have a background in farming?

Nature's Harmony Farm - We started by not trying to farm, but rather we just wanted to “opt out”. Opt out of industrial food and not knowing where our food comes from or how it’s grown. Opt out of supporting inhumane treatment of animals. Opt out of contributing more than our fair share to carbon footprints by buying food (in restaurants and grocery stores) that had traveled 1,500 + miles to get to us. Opt out of forgetting our heritage and confronting the fact that, despite all of our glorious technological accomplishments, we did not possess basic survival skills that our grandparents had. Such as knowing what seeds to plant, how to raise and kill the chicken and how to can and preserve our food. We just became aware that we were part of the system and therefore part of the problem. We knew that we couldn’t change the system, but at least if we could change ourselves, maybe we could help others change as well.

At first we thought we’d have horses because we thought they were pretty, and in addition maybe raise enough food for ourselves. We were fortunate enough to buy 72 acres with 45 in pasture. We knew that we only needed maybe one cow and one pig for our food needs, but there was lots more land than we would need. We started reading voraciously, all of Joel Salatin’s works, but of course MANY other authors as well, in addition to reading the Stockman Grassfarmer, Acres, Progressive Farmer, etc. We visited farms in Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, North Carolina and Polyface farm in Virginia. We thought about the soil, how animals should be raised and our responsibilities, and all of a sudden, the idea of raising a few horses seemed pretty selfish to us. I mean, they would be there for our enjoyment and entertainment, but how would that benefit our community? In the end, we decided to have no horses, and to focus on more productive animals in the food chain.

So, we made the leap and decided to farm. And we approached this from a very different point of view from most farmers in the sense that neither my wife Liz or I have any farming experience. Nor did we grow up on a farm. I had spent the past 25 years in corporate America, founded an Inc. 500 international company and was a serial entrepreneur. The business world is one that I understand well, yet it was always impossible to explain to a 5 year old (or my mother) exactly what I did. We have all complicated the world too much. I longed to commit myself to something more fundamental AND more important. Farming felt good. Food was going in the wrong direction, in our opinion. And, Liz and I LOVE animals, and we wanted to know that any meat we ate came from animals that received GREAT treatment. Not just “humane”, but rather raised in a way that nature intended so that they, as Joel Salatin would say, could “express their physiological distinctiveness”.

The more conferences we attended and farms we visited, the more excited we got. And we committed to roughly emulating Polyface Farm (with some differences important to us) and bringing high quality food to our local communities. We knew this decision would not make us financially wealthy, but we sensed it would make us wealthy in every other way. So far, I think it has.

All of this has happened in only the past 12 months. A year ago, we didn’t even own the property. We’re moving fast because we are passionate and motivated.

The Beginning Farmer - What is the story behind your farm's name, Nature's Harmony Farm?

Nature's Harmony Farm - My wife Liz came up with the name, and it’s a good one. We discussed what we wanted to accomplish and we wanted our name to reflect that, rather than being named after a physical feature of the farm (such as Seven Maples Farm or something like that). More than anything, we care about the animals; how they are raised, what they eat, how they feel and how they are treated. However, I am adamant that we want to mimic nature. That means that if one of our animals, a pig, for example, gets a limp, I won’t call a vet. Neither would nature. Nature has a way of helping to make culling decisions, and our goal is to allow nature to happen to a great extent. But we have set the animals up in their natural environments. Pigs are in the woods with some pasture as well. Cows are on grass, and we are working hard to keep them on nothing but grass year round. We won’t even build a barn for them. Neither would nature. Chickens are free to roost, scratch, eat insects and wander.

When you get a mental image of this description, you may see why Liz thought of “Nature’s Harmony”. We just want to stimulate an environment where everything is working in harmony with nature.

We’re far from perfect at this, but are clear in our vision for what we want. We’re working hard to accomplish it, and have chosen this way of life over what we knew previously. I think it’s the best decision we’ve ever made.

**This is just part one of a multi-installment interview with Tim from Nature's Harmony Farm. In encourage you to check out our blog for more tomorrow!**