The Beginning Farmer: May 2014

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

TBF 065 :: How to Build a Chicken Wagon, 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.**

In just over five years of farming I have now built four variations of a chicken wagon and each one improved on the failures of the ones that came before. Of course it didn't take much to improve on my first wagon which was built out of a great find from a machinery auction. On today's episode I wanted to take some time to talk about the design for this chicken wagon and why I decided to build it the way that I did. Below you will find a series of pictures showing my chicken wagon build at various stages along the way.

Here are some helpful links from today's show ...

Here are all of the building supplies needed for building my 10x15 chicken wagon.

We laid out the floor with our 2x4 joists and then placed the 3/4" treated plywood on for the floor.

The walls were built with studs 2' on center. I actually attached my steel horizontal instead of vertical like it normally would be so I had less cutting to do.align="aligncenter" width="300"]

One of the best things about this wagon was that I borrowed an air nailer from a friend. That made the framing process much faster!

An important thing to work on as you are framing the building is trying to keep everything square. That doesn't happen often on my farm, but that's why I always say "it's good enough for who it's for."

Here my son is working on the frame of our hinged roost, this will be great for when he needs to clean it out ;)

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 ...

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

TBF 064 :: Farming Grants and Financing, Farm Updates, and a Hard Lesson Learned

First of all let me apologize ... somehow I got a little long winded in this episode. The subject of financing the farm is one that I'm passionate about and care about deeply because I not only want to see my farm succeed, but other beginning farms as well. So, when I talk about grants, loans, and other funding options I have a tendency to go on and on and on! What I do hope that you can take away from this episode though is a quick overview of some helpful resources when it comes to "finding money" and my passion for boot-strapping and saving like crazy to get the farm off the ground! As a little aside ... it seems to me that the farmers I interact with from day to day are the kings and queens of boot-strapping and getting by with less, so I would almost call it a required farming skill! Here are some helpful links from today's show ...

Practical Farmers of Iowa
Interview with Luke Gran of PFI (Part One and Part Two)
Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (Research Grants)
F.A.C.T. Fund-a-Farmer Grant
PFI Savings Incentive Program
USDA Beginning Farmers Grants
NRCS Funding Opportunities
Farm Credit Services of America (FCSA) Loans
FSA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Loans
The Beginning Farmer Blog Post "Why FARM?" from October 9th, 2006
You Can Farm by Joel Salatin (Great book about just going for it on the farm)

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

TBF 063 :: Overwhelmed and Farm Potpourri, Farm News, and a Hard Lesson Learned

Check out that picture on the left ... that's me ... and that's the huge tractor that I drove this past week pulling a big huge wide field cultivator. The good news is that I didn't even hit anything, and I helped get the field ready for organic corn (but I'm more excited about not hitting anything)! On today's episode I'll talk about how I helped prep the soil for the Non-GMO corn I'll be using later this fall and then I'll dig into a "potpourri" of farming subjects. This week I'll be discussing (not so much answering) questions from three different listeners that left comments on our Crooked Gap Farm Facebook page. The topics include: Pink-eye in Cattle, "Pasty Butt", Livestock Guardian Dogs, and Dexter Cattle. Here are some helpful links from today's show ...

Vetericyn Wound & Skin Care (affiliate link)
Vetericyn All Animal Pink Eye Spray (affiliate link)
Apple Cider Vinegar (With The 'Mother') (affiliate link)
Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery
Livestock Guardian Dogs Association

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

TBF 062 :: A Spring Farm Tour, Life on the Farm, and a Hard Lesson Learned

10269528_856719457689346_3736047296701996389_n

Fair warning ... this episode was recorded with minimal notes, no post production editing, and late at night (or early in the morning depending on how you look at it). I do believe though, that it will give you a good taste of what spring is like on Crooked Gap Farm these days. As you listen to the show you will hear about how I haven't finished the hoop building yet, how the pastures are quite where I want them to be, how the woodlots still need some seeding and fencing, how the chicken wagons aren't done, how the garden still needs work, and of course (as you can see from the picture above) how the sheep don't seem to care about my electric fence!

What I'm hoping you'll get out of this raw episode is a true picture of life on my beginning farm in the spring. This is a busy time of year on all farms and ours is no different, so we are just trying to keep our heads above water and accomplish as much as possible. And, if we can accomplish a little more than possible that would be nice too!

Pages