Never Thought of This...

I ran across this today while reading Allan Nation's blog (editor of the Stockman Grass Farmer) and it really hit me. Take the link above to read the post for yourself, but the title is what really grabbed me ... "Falling Car Sales Take Down World Beef Prices". I will admit that I read that and I thought ... "Huh?" But, after reading about it I can see how the slowing car sales (especially of cars with leather features) can have an impact on the cattle industry ... I just never would have made the connection.

The connection between the cars and the beef is the hide. According to Mr. Nation's post car interiors made up 12% of the world's leather use in 2007 and that percentage has dropped to 8% now. It may not seem like a lot, but I guess it makes a pretty big splash in the bucket and that splash gets passed down the line to producers and everyone else.

This all reminds me how interconnected our society really is with agriculture even if we don't realize it. As I have mentioned before, even here in Iowa there are less and less people that have a direct connection to farms or a particular farm family and that lack of connection can only hurt us (both farmers and consumers). In my mind it is just another reason to talk agriculture as much as you can and always be open and transparent about what you do and why you do it. A good reminder for me!

From Grain To Grass

I have often wondered what it would look like if a number of farmers in Iowa just began converting their row crop operations back into grass for pasture. It would be quite the site and I'm sure there would be many other farmers who would look at it like the farmers looked at Ray Kinsella when he made a baseball field in the middle of his corn field (yep, that is a "Field of Dreams" reference). But, what if it really did happen? What if some of those flat and fertile acres in central Iowa were taken back to pasture and managed with rotational or mob grazing? I bet they could support quite a few head per acre!

This is exactly what one farm family in South Dakota has done. I read the article quite awhile ago in the October issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer", but hadn't had a chance to write about it yet. The farm family in question had been raising conventional row crops and feedlot cattle on family land when the decided that the wanted to make the switch. So, the moved from away from their crops and machinery and planted wheatgrass, big bluestem, switchgrass, and other grasses ... oh, and now they only have one tractor that they try not to use very often.

Along with their switch to grass they also made a chance in the cattle genetics and moved their herd to smaller framed bovines of the Irish Black and Hereford breeds. They feel, just as many others feel, that genetics and frame size has a big impact on how well a beeve will finish on grass and they have been very pleased with their results (at least that is what the article indicated).

One other thing that was mentioned in the article was their use of windrow grazing. This is a technique that I have read about previously, but must admit that I don't know much about it. What they are doing is using three of what had been their hayfields and rotating through those. Each year they will use two to make hay for their calves after weaning and then use the third for windrow grazing (sort of like strip grazing). Each year the windrow graze a different field in the winter in order to spread around the fertilizer.

I'm not exactly sure this windrow grazing idea would work on a farm our size, but it is an interesting concept and something I would love to learn more about. Plus, the article encouraged me ... maybe in 20 or so years when our place is mostly paid off the row crop field across the road will come up for sale. Then I could see what the transition looks like first hand!

More On Salatin's Custom Abattoir

We are beginning the big move today, so I gotta let you know that things will be a bit brief this week because of all that we will be up to. But, I did want to follow up a little bit on the news that Joel Salatin and a couple of partners bought a custom abattoir. In fact they bought the abattoir that Polyface Farm has used for quite awhile. In part they bought it because they didn't want to lose such a good source so close to them, but also it seems because of an investment opportunity.

I wanted to follow up because a few weeks ago I asked the question, "Is Polyface farm still the small family farm that Mr. Salatin wrote about earlier on?" I purposefully did not offer an opinion either way because I really had none, but rather I asked the question because I figured it would be a question that would come up among those that disagree with his farming methods or that he really is "making" it on the farm (they argue he makes money off the farm).

Well, recently a fequent commenter, Mellifera, posted a link to a fairly long Mother Earth News question and answer article with Mr. Salatin that covers quite a few different topics. Also, Mr. Salatin wrote more about their new business endevor in the latest issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer". It seems that it is as much as an investment as it is an opportunity to save an abattoir that they use. He doesn't think he will be spending much time there himself (because he would blue up on the regulators!), but they do think it is business that can be profitable in and of itself.

Polyface Farm sure is growing...

Grass Finished in the Deep Snow

With all that has been going lately I have hardly had a chance to browse through my August issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer". But, after working on the house this evening I picked it up and found an interesting article titled, "Finishing Grassfed Cattle Year Around in Deep Snow Country". This is the type of article that interests a grassfarmer from Iowa, although I hope and pray that this winter isn't a "deep snow" winter in Sounthern Iowa!

The article is written by William G. Winter (DVM) who is a consultant for Thousand Hills Cattle Company, a grass finished cattle buyer, and contains ten great points for the grass finisher in snow country. I won't take time to expound on all ten of them, but I will mention a few that I really appreciated.

#2 - Prevent Heat Loss Stress With Wind Breaks: It seems that they advise against barns (I'm down with that), but do stress the importance of wind breaks if you want to maintain good winter gains. He says they mostly used stored forages (net wrapped or tubed), but of course any good wind break would work.

#5 - Prevent Parasites: I loved this quote, "Well-mineralized cattle, whether through the forages, supplementation, or both, do not get parasites. To my mind, there is never a case where poisons need to be used to control parasites." Mr. Winter (fitting name, huh) goes on to write about Basic-H and diatomaceous earth.

#9 - Use Correct Breed Selection: This article suggests English breeds (how about Irish?), smaller with lots of muscling, the ability to develop a think coat, and cattle that are from smart stock. By smart stock (my words) they are talking about cows that root around in the snow, find shelter in storms, and stick with their young through rough weather.

Every single point was great, but I don't want to copy the article word for word! I am encouraged with our Dexters after reading through this and experincing one winter with them.

Goats, Cattle, and Worms

There is another article in the Stockman Grass Farmer this mouth touting the benefits of grazing goats and cattle in combination. The article by Dave Sparks (a DVM) is titled, "Goats and Cattle Together Complement Each Other and Reduce the Need for Worming". As usual in this publication the title really spells out the entire article, but the research from a field test in Oklahoma gives graziers one more reason to look at diversified grazing.

The field study in Oklahoma is using a 200 acre plot of land divided into three tracts that have similar forage quantity and quality. All three of these areas were stocked by live weight according to the estimated amount of forage in them. One plot was stocked with just goats, another with just cattle, and the final one with cattle and goats together. The article doesn't say how the livestock was managed, but I would assume a rotation with goats following might be the best management method.

Results from the study were very much in favor of combining the two animals. The goats alone group had several deaths because of parasite infection (goats have a problem with worms because most breeds come from desert areas much different from the Midwest). The cattle alone group were fine, but here pasture had a much taller growth of the browse type plants the goats ate in the other plots. In the combination group there was no death in the goat herd and they goats required 23% less individual worming.

Information like this does make goats look pretty appealing. I believe the biggest barrier to farmers getting into the growing goat market is the fact that as Americans we don't know much about goats. We don't know much about cooking them, eating them, or marketing them to the various ethnic groups. But, if the benefits for the cattle, the goats, and the pastures are this great it might be time ot figure this thing out.

A High Failure Rate

A slightly late post today. We were at my Uncle's last night and my wife convinced me (not that difficult really) that since we were at the farm everyday now with the pigs and the building we should have some chickens. Sooo..... I spent extra time at the farm this morning fixing up our chicken pen and getting them sort of settled. I'll have to do a little more work to get everything in tip-top shape again (since we haven't used it for a while), but we should have eggs pretty soon. Also, we still have five chickens at my Dad's ... we will bring them back up once we are out there during the day and evening so we can let them roam during the day.

Now, back to the Allan Nation column that I began writing about on Monday...

"The start-from-scratch career path now has a failure rate similar to professional sports. Farming's problem with kids today is we don't tell them the truth."

That is what Mr. Nation reports John W. Phipps (of Top Producer Magazine) has to say about today's state of farming in the United States. But, Mr. Phipps doesn't believe that it is totally hopeless for the young farmers of today. He believes there is a place for them in "agrarian agriculture". That is the term he used, and I'm not too sure I like it ... but, oh well ...

Anyways, this agrarian agriculture that he is talking about is exactly what this blog and so many that read this blog are all about. Mr. Phipps defines agrarian agriculture as, "Producing for a market that values how a commodity is created (organic, local, free-range, etc.), is labor intensive and sensitive to public perception." Of course that is something that many who read this blog already know, but it is always great to hear this type of thinking from a "top producer".

Maybe the tide is turning? What are your thoughts?

Young Farmers Need Not Apply

This little snippet from Allan Nation's latest editorial (the one I referenced yesterday) really got my mind churning,

"The net result, he said [the 'he' in this case is John W. Phipps], will always be an ever-smaller need for replacement farmers. This huge implication for young people who would like to farm but aren't in line to inherit a large farm.

'Put bluntly, agriculture's problem with young people is we don't need them,' he said."

Here is what I think ... that statement is true ... that statement is scary ... that statement reiterates how difficult I think this farming thing can be ... and to top it all off it makes really feel for the students that I work with that have a desire to farm. Just a couple weekends ago I was chatting with a recently graduated high school student from my church who has a HUGE desire to come back and work on the family farm, but with only a few hundred acres does he even have much of a fighting chance (if he continues with what he knows).

Mr. Nation also relates this statement from Mr. Phipps,

"He said throughout his whole farming career he had heard that X percentage of farmers were 65 years old and would soon need replacing. And yet, due to the constant increase in scale there has never been a shortage of farmers."

Now, don't get me wrong I'm not advocating keeping farms small just because they are pretty and romantic. Or that we need to make sure there is a farm for everyone that wants to farm. As with all things I think there needs to be a high level of quality, but I believe there is something dangerous behind these "titan farms". As Mr. Phipps said, there is a problem when you have "ever-increasing productivity in an industry with a fixed land base."

So, do you think we can turn back the clock on this trend on a large scale? I think that those looking to grab a niche (maybe more on that tomorrow) can find a place, but will we just continue to have farms that are ever increasing in size or will the bubble burst? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Titan Farmers

As I read "Allan's Observations", the editorial column by Allan Nation in The Stockman Grassfarmer I was introduced to a term that I had never heard before, "Titan Farmer". The entire column was actually great and full of tons of little nuggets, but I think I'll tackle them one at a time over the next few days ... for now I just want to discuss this interesting term, "Titan Farmer".

So, what is a "Titan Farmer"? Well a "Titan Farmer" is a farmer who farms between 20,000 and 40,000 acres of land, and are even planning on getting bigger. Mr. Nation writes, "...thanks to super-sized machinery and resulting low labor costs per acre these farmers can afford to bid cash-lease land away from farmers in the thousand acre category..." And to tell you how serious these guys are there is even mention of a cash-lease on 2,700 acres right here in my home state of Iowa that went for $400 an acre ... UP FRONT!

There is the future of farming. One of these "Titan Farmers" even told Top Producer Magazine that he has two full-time marketing people that have the sole purpose of finding land to rent and keeping the land owners happy. They use these two marketers to find full-time farmers that are farming farms in the 1,000 acre range or so and then buy them out and hire them to work for the Ultra-Mega-Super-Duper Farm (maybe I just coined a new farming term).

With all of that in mind I believe one of the most interesting quotes from Mr. Nation's column, and subsequently from a column by 1,700 acre farmer John W. Phipps, is this:

"Phipps said in his spring column in Top Producer that there has been little discussion about the long-term impact of an ever-increasing productivity in an industry with a fixed land base."

There is a lot to think about there, and to tell you the truth there is a lot there that causes me to pause... As I said this months column was full of little nuggets, so the story does not stop here.

New Book From Greg Judy

I'm not sure what happened, but as I was picking up last night I noticed that I had the July issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer" sitting on my desk and I hadn't even leafed through it. I guess with the busyness of the house going up and work on the farm it was shuffled to the bottom of the pile. Anyways ... once I find it I started leafing through it and reading bits and pieces of the cover article by Greg Judy. At the end of the article it mentioned that Mr. Judy had come out with a new book titled, "Comeback Farms". Luckily (I believe it is published by them) there is a review of the book in this issue and it looks fairly interesting.

Mr. Judy is also the author of, "No Risk Ranching, Custom Grazing on Leased Land", (long title) and this book appears to be an extension of that book and examination of what he has learned since writing that book. Probably the most interesting topic included in the book are the sections on High Density Grazing (HDG). Mr. Judy has been a huge promoter of this and stocks his cattle at very high rates with multiple moves per day. But, not a lot has been written in books about HDG so it should be interesting to see what he has to say.

The book also looks at multi-species grazing (always a good thing), land leasing, and specific details about the fencing/water equipment that he likes to use. It sounds like it is full of useful information, but I think I should point out that the book is written (by the articles own admission) for people that are already familiar with Management Intensive Grazing. I'm not sure if/when I would tackle this book, but it does sound like it would be a pretty good read.

**As an aside, I just thought I would mention that this is the 300th post on The Beginning Farmer Blog. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read and comment, you all have been such a great encouragement and help!**

Making the Farm Pay

With the rising costs of just about everything farm related (land, fuel, feed, fencing, etc.) I think it is important to look for more ways for the farm to make money than just the livestock or produce. This is something that I have written about before on the Beginning Farmer Blog and it is also something that I have read as much about as possible. The latest little article comes from the June issue of the Stockman Grassfarmer. The main article is from the "Women's Work" column and deals with samples, but there is a small article on the same page titled, "Charge For Experiences, Give Away Your Products".

Of course they aren't talking about charging for a hay ride and then giving away a half of a pig. But, there may be an opportunity to charge for a fall festival and then serve up plenty of burgers, dogs, produce, and whatever else you have ... free of course. The idea is that you get people to come out to the farm for something else and then you expose them to the great food that you produce. I like the theory!

One thing that I have learned from my time writing for the Epi-Log is that there is a huge gap between the farmers and many consumers. As many statistics point out most people are quite a few generations removed from the farm and they don't have much understanding of farm life or farming in general. But, what I have also learned is that there is a desire by many people to get to know the farm better and the farmers also. Maybe this is an opportunity to charge for the experience and give away some product.

An idea that we have kicked around from time to time is Christmas trees. We love the experience of going and cutting down our own tree and have always thought it would be enjoyable to have a tree farm, but with only 40 acres I don't think we want to use much land for Christmas trees. So, my wife had the idea that we could have a small Christmas tree grove for ourselves and our customers/friends of customers. This way we could have one or two days during the holiday season where we invite the customers and their friends out for a winter day on the farm full of food, fun, and of course Christmas trees. We could charge for the trees, give away some food, and gain some new customers.

Diversifying your farm these days means more than just have a 7-year crop rotation or pigs, sheep, and cattle. Today I think it means you need to come up with more ways to make the farm pay.

Centralization of Cattle Finishing

Of course "The Stockman Grassfarmer" is a little biased when it comes beef finishing and The Food Institute for Food and Development Policy of Oakland, California may have an agenda (don't we all), but the article from them in the June issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer" does cause me to wonder. It makes me wonder if the small feedlots (which aren't very small) can survive, it even makes me wonder if the big ones can survive, it makes me wonder if feeding the ethanol byproducts is a good idea, and it makes me wonder what will happen to our food system in the future if we continue down the path of industrialization and centralization.

According to the article there are seven pounds of waste byproduct from each gallon of ethanol made, also 46% of the byproduct (they call it waste in the article) goes to dairy cattle and 42% goes to beef cattle. This is just anecdotal, but my uncle told me of his neighbor who only feeds eight bushels of corn in finishing with the rest be dried distillers grain (the byproduct/waste). The article reports that by the end of this year the ethanol byproducts will replace one billion bushels of corn in the livestock industry (they make sure to mention that they are tax-subsidized byproducts).

I guess the ethanol plants are feeling the pinch of high grain prices just like everyone else (even with their subsidies) and so are looking for more ways to make money. The newest thing is to combine feedlots with ethanol plants. A new plant in Nebraska has done just that by adding a 28,000 head feedlot and other new plants are planning on adding even larger feedlots.

If this trend continues the ethanol plants will not only be subsidized to produce gas, but also to finish cattle. This would be a major step in the continued centralization of the agricultural world and could effect generations of farmers to come. On the other hand it just may open up more opportunities for locally finished grass-fed beef...

Keeping Up Appearances

In each issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer" there is a column called, "Women's Work". I always take time to read it, and it is always full of good information (not just for women). But, I have never taken time to comment on the column on the blog. Today that is going to change because I just read the article from the May, 2008 issue by Carolyn Nation (Allan's wife). The article is simply titled "Appearance" (this could possibly be the shortest title ever in "The Stockman Grassfarmer") and was a pretty good read.

In this article Mrs. Nation was specifically talking about clothing appearances. Not when you are out doing the chores, but rather when you are marketing, working at a farmer's market, hosting farm tours, doing interviews, or any other public event. She relates many tips that she has picked up from other farmers and her own experience. Some of the things mentioned are ... dressing like your customers, making sure your clothes are clean and spotless (who wants to buy food for a dirty person is the idea I guess), if you have employees having them dress alike (even simply) is a good thing, and of course having simple clothes with your farm logo.

I am all about dressing for success. When I worked at the boarding school I was hugely in favor of the transition to uniforms for many reasons, one being that it seems that many people just plain take themselves more seriously when they are dressed neatly. So, I do think it pays to look professional (but still farmerish) when you are out promoting your farm.

But, as I read the article my mind also wandered over to the idea of keeping appearances on the farm in general. How important is it that your farm fits the mental image of our customers? I think it is very important, but that doesn't mean you need the white picket fence and big red barn. I believe the biggest thing is that things look neat, not that things look perfect.

I do not believe we need to have the perfect painted buildings and weed-free yard, but I don think that when a customer drives up to the farm they need to see something that makes the feel comfortable, that makes them feel safe. Remember, many of the things direct marketing farmers are using to market themselves relate to the relationships they can build with their customers. So, appearance does matter ... to an extent ...

Bud Williams on Grass Farming/Industrial Farming

**We are a little late because of the lack of power this morning...**

After the video I posted on Monday, my thoughts I posted yesterday, and the comments in both of the posts this article from the May, 2008 issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer" comes at a great time. The article by Bud Williams (he has a recently new column in the publication) is titled, "Grass Farming Must Grow By Giving People What They Want". Mr. Williams' basic premise is spelled out plainly in the title, but he also concludes that there will always be a need/desire for the factory farms because that is what the people want.

In the article Mr. Williams asks,

"As a nation, we went from small farm to family farm to factory farm. How did this happen? Was it because of... Evil corporations taking advantage of us? A government conspiracy to keep food prices low? Cheap oil or any of the other things blamed? No, it was none of these things. It was caused by more people and people wanting more."

I like the path that Mr. Williams is going down. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist or glass half empty kind of guy and I do agree to a point that if people want to do factory farming because that is what they want to do it is okay. And I do agree that growth in the grass farming world needs to come from public demand for grassfed beef. People need to want it because of the taste, because of the environmental concerns, and because it is just natural.

But, with that being said I don't think the answer is that simple. Evil corporations taking advantage of us … well, I might not go that far, but it is evident that big ag companies do work with the Universities to make sure their products get used. A government conspiracy to keep food prices low … not really a conspiracy, because it was totally out in the open, but keeping food prices low was the main thrust of what Earl Butts did. Cheap oil or any of the other things that are blamed … I'm all for cheap oil, bring it on! No really, sure that contributed to the industrialization of agriculture because now that oil is high we see things changing towards energy conservation.

One more thing, I don't think we went from small farm to family farm to factory farm. Because the small farms were family farms. I think we went from subsistence only family farms to family farms that because of advancements could sell the extras and then to factory farms. The factory farms came at a time when a lot of America's business was being ramped up so it isn't like they became factory farms on their own.

The article continues with more good information and thoughts from Mr. Williams, but ends with the thing that I probably agree with the most,

"If we can't change the factory farms at least we can supple the people who want grass-based products. Make a profit and enjoy what you do, then you can Smile and Mean it!"

Stacking Hay...

As you can see by the picture on the left I picked up our Massey Ferguson #10 baler yesterday. I've got the hood up on it because I spent the evening cleaning out 3 or 4 years of old hay, barn dust, and other dirties. I have a little more work to do cleaning and then we will go through and grease everything before we start work in the field. If the weather keeps on like it has been this past week I believe we will be baling in the early part of June down at my dad's farm. We probably won't be able to get any hay off of our new farm until late summer or early fall, but with the 20+ acres available at my dad's we should be good to go.

Speaking of hay, I ran across a pretty cool article in the May 2008 issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer". The article by editor Allan Nation is titled "Dead Apple Trees Can Help Make High Quality Hay". This article was so interesting to me on so many levels and if you have a chance to read it I highly recommend it.

The idea of the article comes from a steam train trip Mr. Nation took across Poland (cool thing #1 :: steam trains). On one particular trip Mr. Nation and his wife took was through the mountains were the Communists mostly ignored the people and they still continue on in the same way of life that they have lived for years and years. He commented on the fenceless farms, the freshly painted houses, the big families, the small size of the farm, and I guess basically the sustainability of these rural communities. I guess bigger and bigger doesn't always need to be done...

But, the thing the prompted the article was the number of dead apple trees that had been worn smooth stacked at the edges of fields. It wasn't until later in the trip that he found out that they were used for stacking hay. The trunk end had been sharpened so it could be driven into the ground and all but the main branches had been trimmed off of these 8 foot tall trees. What he saw was a large family working together in the field (cool thing #2 :: large families working together) to build a stack on this tree.

Mr. Nation goes on to write about the method of "tripoding" as described in a 1950 book that he had recently read (cool thing #3 :: Acres USA is going to republish this book). The "tripoding" method involves three poles, again about 8 feet high, set in a tripod with smooth wire ran on the outside. According to the book the hay is put up on the wires and a hut is made. It is import to leave three air holes, but the method is said to provide a very high quality green cured hay.

It probably won't happen this year and maybe not next year, but I could see a small farm like mine utilize this method. Especially if gas keeps going up!

Around Every Corner...

It seems like everywhere I turn these days I see more and more evidence for a roll back to the smaller family farm (not that they have to be as small as mine). This time the story comes from the May issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer". The article, titled "Small Feedlots Being Done In By High Priced Feeder Cattle", gives a glimpse into the state of the feedlot industry in the United States. A couple of things that really "hit" me after reading the short article were that small feedlots these days are for 10,000 to 15,000 head, just 200 feed lots (100,000 head or more capacity) finish most of the nations beef, and that it requires $12 million in capital to fill a 15,000 head feedlot.

Check out this quote from the article:

"Top Producer Magazine recently had an article chronicling the decline of "small" feedlots in the 10,000 to 15,000 head range in the Great Plains. This comes 30 years after those then-large feedyards eliminated the 200 to 1000 head Midwestern farmer feedlots."

So, following that logic (and I feel safe doing so) the next in line to go out of business is the 100,000 head feedlots that will be replaced by super feedlots that have a 200,000 head capacity. It would promoted as a step towards maintaining the cheap food that Americans love, but think of all the problems that would ensue.

But, above all the $12 million figure is the one that blows my mind. I totally understand why it takes that much, but it makes me wonder. It makes me wonder why more people aren't doing grass-finishing. It makes me wonder why more people aren't doing Managed Intensive Grazing. It makes me wonder why more people aren't High Stock Density Grazing.

In the "King Corn" movie the huge feedlot owner stated that they would grass-finish animals if that is what people wanted, but that it would cost more. I tend to disagree. But, I'm not out there doing it on a super-sized scale. Although I do know that there are people that do it...

An Encouraging Article...

I found an encouraging article on the front page of the April issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer." The title is, "Local Foods Movement Provided A Way Into Universities for North Carolina Grassfed Beef Company." That is one thing that I love about this publication ... there is no wondering what the article is about because they lay it all out in the title! Anyways, the article was so encouraging because it was about a couple in North Carolina that started on crop ground and expanded in just a few years to the point that they were able to buy from other grass finishers in the area because the demand was so high.

Now, it is important that I point out that this farm is located in the triangle between Duke, the University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State o they have a good number of people close by. But, it was the students at those schools that really helped get Patrick and Amy Robinette's beef on the market ... or in the schools. Now their farm, Harris Acres Farms, provides grassfed beef to various markets and even those Universities.

The Robinette's began with only 12 cows (starting small ... I like that) and within just six months they had been asked to provide 100 grassfed beeves per month! That is a lot and obviously it was out of reach for them, but they did realize that it meant there was a lot of potential. So, over the next few years they began leasing land from Mrs. Robinette's parents and coming up with a forage chain that worked from them and their climate. By renting land that had been used for tobacco and row crops the were definitely flying in the face of conventional wisdom, but it did work out for them.

Through their research, experimentation, grazing, marketing, and more they were able to slowly ramp up production to the point that they could start serving the colleges. I really was encouraged by the fact that they didn't do this with a lot of capital in their pockets or a lot of borrowed money, but built it up as they could over three or four years (which is still pretty quick). Now they aren't completely where they would like to be, but they are getting there. Mr. Robinette is also passing on the knowledge by teaching a class in agriculture at a local high school.

Cool stuff and very encouraging. You can check out Harris Acres Farms by clicking on the link.

High Winter Gains

It seems like a weird time to be thinking about winter gains for cattle, but that was the subject of an article titled, "A Good Winter of High Gains Next Year Starts Now," in this months issue of the "The Stockman Grassfarmer". The article is written by William Winter who is a herd health consultant for the producers of the Thousand Hills Cattle Company. The thing that really caught my attention was that this guy was from Minnesota and he was talking about folks in Wisconsin getting high gains in the winter. Anything about getting high gains in the winter snow is worth checking out in my book! They are even capable of having year-round Average Daily Gains (ADGs) of 2 pounds.

The advice of one of their best producers is to "fix the soil". Before Karl Dallefeld even puts cattle out on to new ground he has the soil tested and adds some lime and other minerals (the article doesn't mention what the other minerals are). The idea is that with soil that is in great shape you will be able to produce stored forages that are great, and with brix indexes of at least 10-12%. In addition to quality stored forages Mr. Dallefeld also, "supplements with kelp, Char-Cal (from MBA), a Gerald Fry-style mineral mix, a bit of dried molasses, and the direct-fed microbials from Bio-Vet.

Another key mentioned in the article is keeping the herd grazing as long as you can. Some forages mentioned were sorghum sudan, hybrid sudan, and grazing corn before it tassels (I want access to tropical corn!). I realize that bison are different than cattle, but the article mentions a bison herd in Wisconsin that only supplemented feed for 45 days last winter. And, don't forget how much snow we had!

The last thing mentioned in the article is that the top producers of Thousand Hills wean their calves at 10 months and still have good looking cows. This idea is pretty foreign to me and I wish they would have written more about it, but the basic idea is that their soils and forages are so good that the cows stay in condition even with the long amount of time lactating. Interesting stuff...

Using Those Weeds For Good...

For the past few months (since I began receiving "The Stockman Grassfarmer") I have been enjoying reading the "Weed Grazing" column. Grazing weeds instead of completely eliminating all weeds is something that hit my radar this past summer when I was on a pasture walk promoted by The Practical Farmers of Iowa. The host talked about one of the pasture seed mixes that he used and the fact that it included a weed (can't remember what for the life of me). Many people on the tour were surprised that he had intentionally seeded a weed, but they all did admit that they had seen their livestock eating it and even selecting it over some grasses.

I think that proves how much of a psychological thing our fight against weeds can be. Kathy Voth, in this months issue of The Stockman Grassfarmer, relates a quote from the 1934 Book of Knowledge. It said, "Agriculture is an eternal war against weeds." Also, in the book was this line about the 'only' benefit of weeds, "is that we add to our own strength by 'vanquishing these bitter foes'." Does this have to be the case?

Of course there will always be troublesome weeds that are no good and even dangerous to our livestock, but we can't paint all weeds with the same brush. Ms. Voth writes in the article that, "many weeds are as nutritious as alfalfa". During the droughts of the late 1930's the Russian Thistle weed helped sustain many small livestock farms. In California the weed distaff thistle is often green when other grasses have given up, and it's proteins can help cattle and other ruminants keep up good levels of rumen microbes.

The article talks about using a grazing management plan to help control the weeds on your land. Of course you will never completely win the battle, but with the help of your livestock you can control the battle and possibly even enhance your pasture by letting your livestock graze certain weeds that could help sustain them in a drought.

So, what weeds do you see your livestock munching on?

The Joy of Work...

"Work should be satisfying and enjoyable to us, then doing less or how hard it is will not be on our mind," writes Bud Williams in this months issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer". That is sound advice to live by, but I would say that most people believe that it is not attainable. The argument that most people have is that there are just too many jobs in this world that people plain don't want to do. Maybe that is true, but I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that it isn't true.

A few years back I attended a seminar about finding your strengths and then working within your strengths so that you will be most effective in what you do. It was a great week of study and personal reflection and I believe that it has really helped me in my youth ministry (that was the reason I went), but the leader for the week had also lead these courses all over the country at Fortune 500 companies and even for hotel workers. I think one thing that I took away from the week is that there are people passionate about doing many things that I would think isn't that exciting. One of the main problems is that as a society we stigmatize those jobs so that the best candidates do not want to take them. And yes, in his travels and presentations we met plenty of people that loved what they did when it came to cleaning toilets and picking up after people!

So, the idea is that when you work within your strengths you will have more joy in the work you do, be more productive for yourself or your boss, and strive to learn and grow in what you do. That growth may even lead to a change in your strengths that could shift or change what you desire to do. Mr. Williams writes in the article, and I agree, that the problem is that we have so many things that we could possibly want. Having the money isn't the problem because we will work ourselves silly at jobs we hate so we can get the things we want! The problem is that once we get those things we want then we either don't have time to use them or we find something else to want.

What if we enjoyed what we did so much that we didn't feel the need to escape all the time and get away from the work? What if we were satisfied with doing a job and doing it well because we truly enjoyed what we did? Well, those are both possibly (and I don't think it is just a pipe dream) but our society has placed so much importance on wanting things that we can't see that our wants are actually leading to our sadness or depression.

Here are a couple more quotes that I think need to be drilled into our thoughts and our minds:

"So many people have wants and goals that conflict with what they are doing or what they have. I have one goal, that is to try to do better today than yesterday, and to want what I have. Then life is always good and work is interesting and fun."

"Life can be simple and work can be interesting and enjoyable, or we can want too much and life gets complicated and work gets hard."

What does this have to do with farming? Well, don't farm just because you think it is the only thing you can do! Don't farm because you want to get away from people or the busyness! Don't farm just because you like the smell of fresh air! Farm because you enjoy the work, you love interacting with people and providing them with wholesome food, and because you desire to become a better farmer each day.

Farming is hard, long, dirty, and stressful work. But, if you enjoy it then it is not work at all.

Money ... Spending ... Saving ... And Farming

Last week I received my latest issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer". I've been a subscriber for a few months now and I enjoy receiving the issues. If you have never had a chance to check out this periodical I encourage you to do so (you can even receive a free sample issue). Many of the articles are based on large scale grazing operations and I have heard others say that once you have read it for a few years it all seems the same, but it seems like I always find stuff that applies to what we are doing and are interested in doing. Because last week was so busy and the fact that I was away this weekend I haven't had a chance to dig too deeply into the articles. But, as I skimmed through the pages looking at the titles one jumped out that I just had to read right away.

This month the introduced a new column titled, "A Grass Farmer's Guide to Finance", by Richard Parry. According to the introduction, "the purpose of this column is to help grass farmers to become better stewards of their financial resources and to open their eyes to investment opportunities outside of agriculture." Any time I see any article about finances and farming I am hooked, so I took some time to read this article right away.

Did you know that in 2005 household debt was 113 percent of the annual income, but before 1980 it was only 58 percent of the annual income? Or how about this tidbit, the national rate of savings in the United States is actually in the negative. On average we spend more and borrow more in a year than we make! Mr. Parry threw out a few more facts that are pretty depressing, but the main idea is that as a nation we are doing a bad job at saving our money.

With the current state of financial affairs (growing debt, rising consumer spending, etc.) Mr. Parry believes that now is the time to be contrarian, and not just in an agricultural sense. He writes, "Now is the time to build your cash reserves and pay off debt. In the coming years there will be once in a lifetime opportunities to purchase assets at fire sale prices."

Mr. Parry does admit that the prudent use of borrowed money is a good thing. He also adds that you don't have to save just cash, but building your equity is a good idea too so that you can borrow when those golden opportunities arise. Financial independence and intelligent savings are two huge keys to successful small scale farming ... or farming in general.

Towards the end of the article he briefly mentions the importance of investing ... this is something he says will be covered in future columns. I am really looking forward to those! Make smart decisions and contrary decisions with our money has long been a goal of my family. I think one of the keys to building a small scale farm that is sustainable and long-lasting is to build it without great debt. By only taking on moderate and truly needed debt you may have to build the farm slowly, but I think you will cut down on the possibility of disaster, fear, and stress. And all three of those things can ruin your farm and your family!