TBF 104 :: Farming Questions & Answers, Finding the Mix, 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.**

"The Beginning Farmer Video" Kickstarter Campaign

Why in the world would you shave your beard in the middle of winter when snow is coming? What are a few of your farming tricks of the trade? How do you decide when you need to make price increases? Those are just a sampling of the questions that I'm going to attempt to address on this weeks episode. Notice that I was very clear there and I did not say I would "answer" them, but rather I'll just do my best to share my thoughts. Below you'll find a list of the questions that came in over on the Facebook page and the links that relate to those questions. One of my most favorite things about farming is the exchange of knowledge, so if you have any thoughts on these subjects please comment below!

Farming Questions From Listeners:

• Guinea Recipes and Thoughts:
  • Guinea Fowl with Sage, Celery, and Blood Orange
  • One-Pot Roast Guinea Fowl
• What Happened to the Beard:
  • The Art of Growing a Beard -- Maybe I should have read this first
• Managing Manure:
  • Composting Hoophouse Manure: Is it Worth It? -- From PFI
  • Manure and Compost -- Also from PFI
• Insurance for Farm Sales:
  • We use Farm Bureau, but check with other vendors in your area.
• The Infrastructure for Eight Pigs:
  • Small-Scale Pig Raising by Dirk Van Loon -- My most referenced book for beginning pig people. I can't believe I didn't mention it in the episode!
• Tricks of the Trade:
  • Expandable Hose -- I purchased the purple one because it was the least expensive!
  • Simple Green Spray -- My go to for deep cleaning the chainsaws.
• The Three B's - Balance, Budgeting, and the Business Plan
  • FINPACK -- I'm working to get everything together so I can go through this with someone.
• Determining Product Pricing:
  • "Meat Pricing" Farminar from Practical Farmers of Iowa on March 1oth, 2015. Again, I can't believe I forgot to mention this in the episode.

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 ...

• Crooked Gap Farm

• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook

• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter

TBF 103 :: Let's Be Positive About Farming, No Chicks Yet, 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.**

"The Beginning Farmer Video" Kickstarter Campaign

It seems like lately there have been a rash of articles about farming and about how you just can't be a successful beginning farmer. Okay ... "a rash of articles" may be a little bit of an overstatement on my part, but there have been a couple over the last year or so. The first one that really grabbed my attention was, "Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers" by Bren Smith and published in the New York Times. I really appreciated Joel Salatin's response in a "Letter to the Editor" (although I will admit not everyone agreed with Mr. Salatin). Most recently the article that is making the rounds is titled, "What nobody told me about small farming: I can't make a living" by Jaclyn Moyer. I have lots of thoughts on both of these articles, but in someways I don't feel qualified to respond because I'm not making my full-time living on the farm.

The biggest thing I took away after reading both of those articles though is that I just want to be positive about the possibilities of farming. The work and business of farming will always be difficult and the margins will always have the possibility of being tight because there are so many variables that you can't control. Nevertheless I want to be positive and encouraging when it comes to the beginning farming journey ... all while telling the whole story (including the hard lessons learned).

Three Encouraging Books for Your Farming Journey:

• You Can Farm by Joel Salatin
• The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon
• Gaining Ground by Forrest Pritchard

Other Links Mentioned In This Episode:

• Start2Farm.gov (Great links to help with your beginning farmer journey)
• 12 Month Farmer Finance Challenge
• Non-GMO vs. GMO Feed :: Episode 50

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 ...

• Crooked Gap Farm

• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook

• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter

TBF 102 :: Plans for Chickens, Non-GMO Feed is Happening, 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.**

"The Beginning Farmer Video" Kickstarter Campaign

Our "farm" began with six egg-laying backyard chickens before moving out to the 40 acres that is now Crooked Gap Farm. Somewhere and somehow along this farming journey though the poultry operation was pushed to the back ... and eventually to the way back! Once we began adding pigs, cattle, and eventually sheep to the farm I became less focused on the plans and managing of our poultry flocks. It's not that I didn't keep upgrading infrastructure or that we quit having birds, but rather it was just a part of our farm that I didn't put much thought into. That is going to change this year though because I have a plan for both our meat chickens and our egg-laying flock!

The Ultimate Crooked Gap Farm Chicken Plan for 2015

Our Egg-Laying Chicken Plans (Ordered ASAP):

• Buff Orpington (15-25) - brown eggs
• Black Astralorp (15-25) - brown eggs
• Delaware (15-25) - brown eggs
• Barred Rock (50-75 including roosters) - brown eggs
• Araucana (at least 25) - blue/green eggs
• Pearl-White Leghorns (at least 25) - white eggs

Our Meat Chicken Plans (Chicks arrive at the end of February)

• Dominiques (25 cockerels)
• New Hampshire Reds (25 cockerels)
• Nacked Necks (25 cockerels)
• White Rocks (25 cockerels)
• Pioneers (25 straight run)
• Freedom Ranger Black Broiler (100 straight run)

All total that means there will be a bit over 300 chicks coming to the farm in the span of a few weeks which does cause some issues when it comes to brooder space, especially when keeping them warm will be more difficult with winter still hanging on. My plan is to brood the meat chicks in my two 4x8 brooders that have lids and 2 inch styrofoam insulation that I put on top to keep the heat in. That means that I will be building a quick hover to put in the laying chicken wagon I built last year. Something along the lines of this maybe.

What I can tell you is that I'm excited to have a plan! I'm sure there will be some bumps along the way still and I know there will be some "hard lessons learned" to share, but at least I have something to start with. Do you have chick plans for this spring? If you're ordering chicks what will you be ordering? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

One More Kickstarter Support Option!

From now until February 12th at noon you can get nearly 50% off of John's eBook, "Stress Free Chicken Tractor Plans" just by using the code "kickstart" when you check out. That is a great deal, but equally as cool is that John will also be backing "The Beginning Farmer Video" Kickstarter Campaign with the proceeds from the sales. Not only can you choose to support the campaign and receive some cool rewards, but for the next two weeks you can also get a cool eBook and support the campaign at the same time!

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 ...

• Crooked Gap Farm

• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook

• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter

TBF 101 :: Our Meat CSA, Beginning Farmer Videos, 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.**

"The Beginning Farmer Video" Kickstarter Campaign

We just need to get this out of the way ... I am super excited about the awesome and amazing kick-off to "The Beginning Farmer Show" Kickstarter Campaign! We have blown past the original goal and are well on our way to stretch goal number one. All of that means two things ... Thing number one: You all rock! Thing number two: My excitement is pretty much overflowing and that means what begins as discussion of our Meat CSA pretty much turns into a "Beginning Farmer" ramble session!

But, it also shows how excited I am about our Meat CSA. We began our Meat CSA in January 2014 as we transitioned out of doing a farmer's market for half of the year. The biggest reason for this was because of time, not that the Meat CSA takes less time than the market (although it does take slightly less), but rather because the time is spread out more evenly. After experiencing the ups and downs of this marketing avenue for a year though I have come to love it. Although that doesn't mean that it is the perfect fit for every farm.

One More Kickstarter Support Option!

From now until February 12th at noon you can get nearly 50% off of John's eBook, "Stress Free Chicken Tractor Plans" just by using the code "kickstart" when you check out. That is a great deal, but equally as cool is that John will also be backing "The Beginning Farmer Video" Kickstarter Campaign with the proceeds from the sales. Not only can you choose to support the campaign and receive some cool rewards, but for the next two weeks you can also get a cool eBook and support the campaign at the same time!

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 ...

• Crooked Gap Farm

• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook

• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter