Getting Beyond Buzz Words...

Sustainable, Local, Natural, Organic, and all those other "label" words are pretty big right now. And I have to admit that I have used them quite a bit here on the blog and in conversation with people all over the place. Sometimes I think that they are best thing we have to describe what we are doing and what we are striving to do, but there are other times when I think that words just can't say enough or even that certain words are losing their meaning. Words are important to me ... so, this is the kind of stuff that I think of from time to time.

But, as I read Allan Nation's July, 2nd blog post about Horizon Brands new "natural dairy" line of products the idea of word labels and categories really started bouncing around in my mind. Check out this quote from Mr. Nation's blog post:

"Dean Foods’ Horizon Brands plans to create a 'natural dairy' line to profit from consumers’ increasing disillusionment with Certified organic dairy products. Sales growth from organic products has flattened as consumers have learned that much of today’s organic milk did not come from pristine little pastoral farms in Vermont as they had supposed but from large-scale feedlot dairies in the West."

Basically it is time to change the label because the "organic secret" got out. The word "organic" no longer gets milk out of the fridge case quick enough and at a high enough volume so the powers that be in the marketing department have decided that "natural" must be the new thing on the label. I suppose they are hoping that this will bring back all their old organic customers and add some new natural customers.

Of course if this quote is to be trusted it also seems that it will make life easier for the Horizon company:

"Deans new Horizon "natural dairy" line will only claim that the milk is from cows who have not been given bovine growth hormones. This frees them to access all of their milk from industrial dairies without fear of media exposure or chastisement."

I understand our need for labels and descriptive words, but I do have a hard time understanding how easily we let those words influence our purchasing and thought process. Oh well, I guess I'll just invent a word or phrase for our farm ... kind of like Joel Salatin has done!

Joel Salatin Goes to Washington

I have seen this kicking around on a few different blogs and thought it would be good to draw attention to it again because I think it says a lot about the current state of our political class and of course agriculture. On June, 17th Joel Salatin was invited to Washington D.C. to be a part of the Green Jobs Leadership Summit. The event didn't turn out exactly as it was advertised, but what would you expect. By the end of the meeting Mr. Salatin had not been asked to say or do anything when he happened upon a comment line. Here is what he had to say (as best as he can remember):

"I'm amazed that after half a day of talk about green jobs and energy, I have not heard the word food, the word farm, or the word agriculture. I represent the local food movement and the pastured livestock movement, and we are tried of being marginalized, criminalized, and demonized by the USDA and this government. I'm a bioterrorist for letting my chickens run in the pasture. What good is it to have the freedom to own a gun, assemble, or worship if I can't choose the fuel to feed my internal 3 trillion member community of bacteria to give me the energy to go shoot, pray, or preach? I propose that we have a Constitutional Amendment that allows every American citizen the right to choose their food. Government bureaucrats should not come between my mouth and my 3 trillion member internal community."

I guess it is not exactly what they wanted to hear at the meeting (you can read Mr. Salatin's post here), and he was eventually cut off. But, since they invited him and told him that he would have a chance to speak I think they should have listened. I do love the passion with which Mr. Salatin speaks. He does not mince words and he likes to paint a pretty impressive picture of this very important topic.

I agree with him that we want to be talking about "green jobs" (I have a feeling "green jobs" are kind of a feel good term more than anything else) we need to start with our agricultural industry because you can't get much closer to "green" things than that. At the end of his post Mr. Salatin says, "Thus endeth Mr. Salatin going to Washington." While that may be true for a time, I think he can continue to grow his voice in the agricultural world and that he will be more and more influential as time passes by.

Think on This...

"Visitors to our farm are often amazed when I tell them we haven't planted a seed in 50 years. No plow, no disk, no planter, no nothing. And yet 50 years ago we could walk the entire farm without stepping on a plant -- that much dirt was between the pasture plants. We grew thistle like a crop, picked buckets of dewberries, and could have cultivated broom sedge seeds as a cash crop. None of those plants can be found today in our pastures."
-Joel Salatin

That is a quote in an article by Mr. Salatin from my sample issue of "Acres U.S.A.". I'm pretty sure I have read the article (and posted on it) before, but I'm not sure if it was just on the Acres website or if "Stockman Grassfarmer" also ran the same article. Either way it is an interesting article about the move that Polyface farm has made towards high density mob grazing of taller pasture swards.

When I read the article this time though this particular quote jumped out at me. I know the reason that it did is because I have thought, and discussed with different people, about the possibilities of seeding in clovers or other things this spring to add to our pastures. But, I think Mr. Salatin would advocate just going with what we have, and by the sounds of it we have more than he did starting out.

What we have now is a mixture of native prairie grasses and switch grasses along with plenty of other invasives in the form of thorny bushes and weeds. Most of these things are warm season grasses and I am a little worried about how they would hold up under a managed intensive grazing system through the year. On the flip side, there was an area that we mowed and in that area I found a few plants of both red and white clover.

Anyone have thoughts on Mr. Salatin's quote and the way they built their pastures?

More Thoughts On "The Ominvore's Dilemma"

Since this is such a late post today ... and probably a short post ... I thought I would just take a few seconds to share some more thoughts from my reading of Michael Pollan's book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma". I am about half way through right now and and reading through his chapters about his time at Joel Salatins Polyface Farm. It is pretty interesting to see his take on Polyface and the way Mr. Salatin farms.

• Mr. Pollan's investigation and writing about current industrial farms was very interesting. I feel like he was conflicted, just like the folks he interviewed, on whether or not industrial organic agriculture was a departure from the ideals of organic. My simple assessment ... money does have a way of changing things!
• I have never been in a Whole Foods, but after reading about them in this book and online at the Epi-Log I'm pretty interested to check one out. Seeing organic microwaveable food is something I just have to check out. But, if what Mr. Pollan writes is true they have industrialized just as much as the industrial organic farms.
• Mr. Salatin is a pretty cool farmer ... but, I wonder if he tells the same stories over and over and over! The quotes from this book are the same as I've heard him say in speeches, interviews, and his own books. This isn't a judgment on him ... rather just an observation that I have heard or read him a lot!
• This book is a pretty good read, but I'm glad I started out reading a lot of more practical application books that contained a little philosophy. While this book does a good job of painting the overall picture I really appreciate being able to look at it somewhat objectively ... at least I hope that is the way I can look at it.

So, there are just a few thoughts on "The Omnivore's Dilemma" ... sorry for the late post, but we are having a great Thanksgiving Weekend!

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...

Just Asking the Question...

First of all I am not really coming to a conclusion on this one, but I am asking the question. Now that I have that out of the way here is the question: Is Polyface Farm (and Joel Salatin) still the small family farm that was written about in You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise and Mr. Salatin's other books? I the September issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer" Mr. Salatin writes about the abattoir that he along with a couple others recently purchased ... for something like one million dollars. If you add to that the interns and employees now working at Polyface is it still the samething that he wrote about?

On one hand they still only sell locally and the additon of the employees free up Mr. Salatin and his son for speaking engagements to encourage and teach others. On the other hand it does have the appeance of getting pretty pig. Then of course I can see their great reasoning and business planning behind buying the abattoir that they use so they wouldn't lose it, but it does seem like they are going against some of things he has written about (although there may not have been any other good option).

I guess I just wanted to throw the question out there because it was one of the first things that popped into my head when I read that Polyface had purchased this abattoir. I would love to hear what some of you think. Is it a good idea/following with the Polyface ideals to make such a large purchase? It is food for thought if nothing else...

Joel Salatin Heals the Planet

Okay, I know there are a few folks that read this blog that like to listen to Joel Salatin from time to time (either to love it or hate it). I just came across this series of videos on YouTube and since I don't have much time for a post today I just thought I would throw them up for you. Part one is above and you can check out the other parts below. If you watch any of it let me know what you think.

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Joel Salatin Inspires...

This morning I came across this video about the Jondle family of Abundant Life Farm. He was a computer programmer for something like 25 years before his wife came across Joel Salatin's book, "You Can Farm". So, they talked it over and decided farming was something they were interested in making a change. The whole family ended up moving to Polyface Farm for almost half a year in order to learn from Mr. Salatin himself.

They started with no farming experience and now they are going strong. I guess if anything it is encouraging to see what is possible if you really focus and sell yourself out to the goal. One thing that I should probably admit though is that I wonder who much capital they went into their new farm with. I suppose they probably had more money to work with than a young beginning farmer, but I'll just look at the glass half-full and believe that it can be done!

So, enjoy this video and let me know what you think.

Saturday Morning Video

This is a crazy weekend for me because the churches in our town are hosting a seven hour music festival. We had to set up a huge stage last night, we are about to go set up the sound and lights, and then we will be tearing down until who knows when ...

With that in mind, here is a video with a few words from Joel Salatin. Enjoy...

Conventional vs. Organic ... An Article and a Debate

Recently on the Homesteading Today message board there was a THREAD debating (or possibly arguing about) an article titled, "Africa: Organic Agriculture Can Contribute to Fighting Hunger, But Chemical Fertilizers Needed to Feed the World." It appears the article comes from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and discusses exactly what the title implies (pretty creative title huh?). I'm not sure how many of the posters over on the forum took time to read the article or if they just jumped into to the debate/arguing because it is such a hot button issue.

One quote that was mentioned in the original post is this one from Dr. Diouf, "We should use organic agriculture and promote it. It produces wholesome, nutritious food and represents a growing source of income for developed and developing countries. But you cannot feed six billion people today and nine billion in 2050 without judicious use of chemical fertilizers." It is an interesting paradox that he throws out there. Basically it seems that organic is good for those that can afford to do it because you can possibly make more money, but for feeding the world chemicals are the key. I'm sure scholars, farmers, and wanna-be scholar/farmers (like myself) will be going round and round on this issue for quite a while. But, after reading the article and the comments on the message board there are a few thoughts that I had that didn't really come up. I will readily admit that I don't have much of a dog in this fight right now ... I don't have much knowledge ... and to be perfectly honest I don't really care from a moral standpoint whether people choose to use chemicals or not.

#1. One thing that Joel Salatin has mentioned in his books is that part of the research used to justify comments such as those from Dr. Diouf is flawed. Mr. Salatin asserts that their organic research means planting one field conventionally and then one field near it organically and comparing the results. There are two main problems with this type of experiment. First of all, most organic farmers will admit that it takes time to condition the soil and bring it back from all the chemical inputs it has become dependent upon so my just taking a conventional field and planting it "organically" you won't have taken the time to rebuild the needed organic matter in the soil. And secondly, sometimes organic farming is seen as leave alone farming and that just won't work. You still need to work the crops and do creative farming in order to produce your crop. So, there is one thought I had.

#2. In the debate/argument nobody seems to be citing real world examples. If you are a regular reader of my blog you may remember a post titled, "A Quick Saturday Morning Post..." from December, 1st. In that post I linked to an article about and gave a quick summary of Goldmine Farm which is a 2,000 acre organic farm in Illinois. Maybe that is the guy that we should be talking to?

#3. Now, I don't want to get in over my head here because I eat grain fed beef almost every week, eat lots of corn products, and fill up my vehicles with ethanol (because the word contains my name) every time they need gas ... But, could the problem be that we are trying to use grains like corn and soybeans for to many things that they aren't needed for? Would we need to farm with chemicals in order to get higher yields if we weren't feeding our ruminants corn and we weren't feeding our cars corn? I don't really want to go too deep in this subject because I could easily be shouted down by my own family ... but what if the only grain we grew was for human use? Not cattle use, not car use... Maybe the guy from King Corn who commented earlier on my blog will find this post and chime in on the subject.

Let me point out again ... I'm not saying I'm right, I'm not saying I have answers, I'm not saying I have experience, I'm not saying much at all ... What I am doing is throwing out a few thoughts for myself and other readers...

What if?

Organic Farmers Share Tips...

This past week at a Thanksgiving party I picked up an article from the Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman (November 7, 2007 issue) that my father-in-law had been saving for me. It was just a short article about a conference that took place in Sioux City, IA, but it did give me some encouragement to see what is happening in my state when it comes to unconventional farmers.

The speaker at the conference was Kim Alexander who currently lives in Texas. An interesting thing about his story is that he had previously lived in Iowa and his family owned farm land. He was not able to farm on the family land because the family decided to put it into the Conservation Reserve Program (new at the time). I don't know all the details, but the article says that he then learned of Joel Salatin and his principals on "growing food people want to eat and how to direct market our farm products" so he decided to grab hold of those ideas and put them to use on his Texas farm. I wonder to myself why he wasn't able to stick around here in Iowa ... maybe this is an illustration of why it is so difficult for young farmers (even those that have farming in the family) to get started in farming. Oh well, he is a making a go of it in Texas (although I'm glad I'm up here in Iowa!).

It sounds like he is doing the Salatin thing all the way around. They have a 40-head cow/calf herd, 2,000 broiler chickens, 1,400 laying hens, 300 turkeys, and a custom poultry-processing operation (that is a good value added option). It is pretty exciting that his family (mom, dad, and eight children) are making a go of it on the farm, but it is even more exciting and impressive that they are doing it on 300 acres of land ... that they don't own! Check out what Mr. Alexander has to say about that: "We rent and lease, for $100 a year, from the city people who go out and buy this expensive $7000 an acre land and then haven't a clue as what to do with it."

That is pretty exciting. The one hurdle that most people always point to is the high cost of land and the lack of availability. I have heard lots of people criticize Mr. Salatin because they believe his ideas don't translate to other farmers because he started out with a serious amount of land. But, the Alexander family started out with nothing ... in fact they might have had a chance at family land, but ended up doing it on their own. Mr. Alexander said in the article, "The shortage here isn't land, it's the shortage of warm bodies who know how to husband the land."

They market their chickens and eggs to local grocery stores and white table-cloth restaurants, but they do other things to make their farm profitable that are slightly more "outside-of-the-box". They collect used vegetable oils to fuel their trucks and build their own equipment for the farm. What an encouraging article for me. Sometimes I wonder if the farming idea is even possible, but when I read articles like this I get another burst of energy and continue to push on.

Scalability in Farming

Allan Nation's editorial in the November, 2007 issue of The Stockman Grass Farmer was rather interesting. The article dealt with the issue of "scalability", something I have never heard of, regarding business and farms ... or the business of farming. In the beginning of the article Mr. Nation says, "Currently, in the USA the top one percent of income earners earn almost 70% of the total taxable income." I found that statistic very interesting. Not that I'm opposed to it, I think it is just the way things work out, but it was interesting nonetheless. He goes on to write that, "the difference between the top and the rest is that the high income people are all in "scalable" professions.

Basically, with all of the technological and social advances we have had you can reach masses of people with no more effort than it takes to reach a smaller amount (Mr. Nation draws this example from Nassim Nicholas Taleb who wrote, "The Black Swan"). That is what scalable can look like ... reaching masses with the same work of reaching less than masses, but more money involved. I believe the idea of scalability really got going with technology companies because they are all about reaching the masses. But, according to Mr. Nation's editorial most of those technology companies only last 10 years because of the intense competition they face. You may come up with an idea, but that doesn't mean you will be the one to profit most from it. Just take my beloved iPod from Apple ... they weren't the first on the scene with an MP3 players, but they are the ones who are profiting.

Okay, so that is the gist of scalable business (or at least as much as I can comprehend and explain without making my brain work on overload at this time). But, what does scalability have to do with farming and why in the world is Allan Nation writing about it in "The Stockman Grassfarmer"? Well, he took this concept and compared it to farming, specifically he compared it to Management Intensive Grazing (MiG).

MiG has been bouncing around the agricultural circles for many years (Mr. Nation says for over 25 years in fact), yet has never really found broad acceptance. According to Michael Porter, a Harvard professor, businesses that have long profit runs (like MiG examples have) are often the most difficult to get into but very easy to get out of. Mr. Nation believes that the thing that makes it so difficult to get into MiG isn't the cost of land or the cost of cattle or the cost of anything ... in reality it is the negativity associated with trying new ideas!

He mentions a survey by the University of Missouri that states that most farmers agree with the soundness of MiG in principle, but they can't change the way that they are already doing things. I believe it is just human nature because you see that in every profession ... even in the church.

Mr. Nation proposes that we should be developing farms that are, "a 'hybrid' production model that will allow us to minimize labor per unit of production (be scalable) while remaining in a non-scalable industry (minimal competition)". He brings up a great example from an article by Joel Salatin in the September issue of the magazine. Mr. Salatin wrote about expanding his grassfed beef and pastured pork operations because they were more "scalable" than his pastured poultry side of the farm. Think about it, it takes only a little more time to move 100 steers through a gate than it does to move 10 through the same gate ... but each carton of eggs he sells takes the same amount of time to package regardless of whether it is 10 dozen or 10,000 dozen eggs.

So, according to Mr. Nation what does this look like in a practical sense to someone running, or thinking about running, a MiG system. First of all, make the animals do the work for you. Let them self-harvest the forage and have them self-feed throughout the year (see post below). Secondly, manage as few herds as possible. Try to get your cattle in to one or two places so your time isn't used moving from place to place or setting up fence in multiple pastures. Make your time work in your favor. And finally, as Mr. Nation puts it, "stop buying Band-aids"! Fly problems, pinkeye, worm susceptibility can be eliminated through genetic selection according to Mr. Nation, so do that instead of spending all of your time running cattle through the head gate.

He concludes with a few other thoughts from the business world that I found interesting, but I think I'll save those for another post.

What about you readers? What do you think of this scalability issue? Any business folks out there that would like to speak to this, because it is obvious that business is not my strong suit...

Salatin vs. Avery Debate

**Bloggers Note: I write my blogs ahead of time now so I can post them first thing in the morning, but yesterday I posted a blog that was meant to be posted today so that's why the titles and writing seem out of sync. Just so you know.**

Okay... I realize I'm going a little heavy on the Joel Salatin information lately. I don't want you to think that he is the only guy out there and that I'm totally locked in to his systems and mindset, but he does write a lot and put a lot of information out there. I promise ... this post and the next one will be regarding Mr. Salatin, but after that I will hit some other sources or talk a little bit about some things happening around Stoneyfield.

I came across this DEBATE between Joel Salatin and Dennis Avery who was the director of the Center for Global Food Issues when this interview occurred in July of 1999. By clicking on the link you can read the debate between Mr. Salatin and Mr. Avery as the answer questions from callers on a radio show. It is a very interesting read because they come from two very different view points. Mr. Avery is a supporter of high yield chemical farming while Mr. Salatin is all about locally based farming providing for the area surrounding the farms.

I think the biggest thing I saw while reading this debate was the huge difference of world view between the two men. Mr. Avery believes that we need to rely on science and high production models in order to feed the word while Mr. Salatin believes we need to change our production models and mind sets. I believe we need to change our world views in general so I did find myself siding with Mr. Salatin on many points. I think this is the greatest exchange in the entire article and really speaks to the difference between the two view points:

Host Jeff Ishee: Dennis and Joel, it’s certainly been an entertaining two hours and a fascinating conversation. I had four pages of questions, and I haven’t gotten to a single one yet, and I’m bound and determined to ask at least one question. What role do you think that government should play, both on the farm, and in agriculture overall?


Avery: I think government should be a player in the research game, and I think that the government needs to be very aggressive in making sure that American farmers get the opportunity to help contribute to feeding a larger, more affluent population that we are going to have in the year 2040. That means eliminating the trade barriers and opening the playing field to everybody.


Salatin: Well, I don’t believe that we should have a USDA. Period. All it is, is collusion with the multi-national corporations, and they stack the deck and create all this scientific information that’s biased and prejudiced. We don’t get good research. I’ve watched it for forty years come out of the cow colleges, the land grant universities. Virginia Tech figures out how to kill a bug, and the environmental scientist group at the University of Virginia figures out what else it killed. That’s basically the type of research we have. So, I don’t think there is any place for the USDA. We’d be a lot better without it at all. Turn it into a free market . . .


Avery: But then you’d have only the companies.


Salatin: Ah! But I can compete with the company. But I can’t compete with all the academic fraternization that occurs with the collusion between the bureaucrats and the companies themselves. On equal footing, we’ll compete fine. Privatize it, and we’re in business.

If you read the debate let me know what you think. I really enjoy reading these sorts of things. While I completely believe that doing is better than reading there is only so much doing I can do when I live over an hour from the farm ... so, for the rest of the time I'm trying to prepare myself for the marketing of the farm and part of that is knowing why I do the things I want to do.

Last of Joel Salatin for now...

Okay, I know that I've hit Joel Salatin a lot here lately (to be fair, I did have a lot of Allan Nation posts lately!), but this will be my last ... for a little while. If you click on this LINK you will download or be taken to a PDF of an article from the November 2002 issue of Acres USA. The article by Mr. Salatin is titled, "Balance Sheet Switcheroo :: Assests Become Liabilities in Industrial Ag." This is another, "shape my viewpoint," article that I found interesting to read. He talks about the culture shift in agriculture that has turned the historical assets of agriculture into liabilities.

In the article he lists 10 specific cultural shifts from assets to liabilities. Here are a few that I found especially interesting:

#1. Feeding ourselves used to be a matter of national pride.
Being a part of the farmers who feed the people in my area is definitely something I would be proud of! But, our agribusiness now likes to buy beef from South America rather than from our own back yard.

#6. Once upon a time, farmers and related agribusinesses hired their neighbors.
My favorite place to shop in town is our local Coast Hardware store. It is owned and run by an older couple that have made that business their life. When I go in looking for a part and I don't know exactly the size I need, they load me up with three or four and tell me to bring back the ones that don't work when I get a chance. That is the type of community that will make our country and our families strong!

#7. During most of America's history, farmers peddled their wares in town.
This is all about cutting out the middle man and bringing the profits back to the farmers. Think about those Cheerios you buy at the store ... how much do you think the farmer gets of that $3.00 box of food?

#10. The early American ideal of the gentleman farmer, the noble, landed yeoman, was once revered as a cornerstone of the true wealth in this nation.
We need to restore the cultural view of farmers, and the only way by doing that is creating relationships between the farmers and the buyers. Again, think about those Cheerios ... do you have a relationship with that farmer?

Another quote I especially enjoyed is this one:

One of the greatest assets on a farm, in my view, is the sheer ecstasy of life. The priceless enjoyment of life's spontaneity must now bow to the unrelenting predictability of mechanized life. What an unfortunate change on the balance sheet.

I encourage you to check out this article. Like the last couple I have posted it speaks to shaping your world view and why we do the things we do (or in my case ... what I want to do). But, I will tell you that it makes me want to farm and farm differently...

Farming and Business Week

Check out "A New Push to Make Farming Profitable". This is an article written about Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm from August 10, 2007. I know it is a few weeks old, but this is the first time that I have come across it. It is a pretty interesting article where he tells about some of the financial basics of his farm. I was pretty impressed that he makes $700,000 per year on his 550-acre farm. The one question I would have is whether or not that includes his book sales and speaking engagements. According to his website he charges $3,000 plus expenses for each speaking engagement ... that being said, I would listen to him whenever I had the chance!

I don't have the need to desire to gain $700,000 on the farm, but I do think that it shows what is possible. It is great to see his business plan getting publicity in a business magazine. His popularity is growing every year and there are quite a few people who are beginning to duplicate his model, but I still believe there is room for more people willing to do something different. I would like to know some more about his e-mail buying club. That seems like it would be something to pursue if we ended up on land near my dad's farm which is about 100 miles from a big city.

I will leave you with this quote from the article. I think it best describes some of my fears when it comes to farming and the land a family needs to farm...

"The growing demand from legions of direct customers has led Polyface to lease an additional 700 acres of pasture over the last three years. Salatin says the profits from the weekend-farmer seminars as well as sales from instructional books he's written "are allowing us to make the investment without having to resort to loans," which are another bugaboo of traditional farming."

The original 550-acres he started out with was in his family so he didn't have go out and buy land ... now he can expand his operation with money from speaking engagements. Hmmm... maybe I can turn this blog into my money maker to finance my land!

I would love to hear any of your thoughts on this article or experiences you have had hearing Mr. Salatin in person. Thanks for reading!

Family Farming...

There are family farms, and then there are family farms... There are 1,000 acre plus operations run by a group of siblings in the form of corporation, and then there are 200 acre or less farms that are run by grandparents, parents, and children. They are both "family farms", but they are not alike. One is run like a corporation, while the other is run like a family. One may not include children because everything is done on such a large and grand scale, while the other may not survive without the children. One may be full of dangers around every corner from big machinery, grain bins, and more ... while the other just might be family friendly.

I realize that I may have just over-generalized things there, but I also know many people my age that grew up on the large "family farms" who never did anything farm related and couldn't wait to get off the farm so they could live in town and be closer to the things they enjoyed. And, in some senses their "farm" life was no different than a life of kid in the city. One of the many appealing things of farming to me is the family aspect. Again, I may be romanticizing things a little, but I envision our family working, playing, and growing together on a small sustainable farm. A safe place to raise our children where they will be surrounded by healthy hard work, the beauty of God's creation, and the family that loves them. I found an article by Joel Salatin from the June 2000 issue of "Acres USA" that speaks specifically to family farming. The article is entitled, "Creating a Farm Life Your Children Will Treasure :: Family Friendly Farming". You can read the entire article by clicking on the title.

It is a great article full of what I believe are very insightful thoughts. Here is one quote that really resonated with me and my desire to farm with my family:

"People kept telling me when Daniel was little, 'Oh, he's great now, but you wait, he'll be a pistol, you won't be able to control him, and all kids go through rebellion.' But they were all wrong; it doesn't get any better than this. And it's not because I'm a great dad, it's because we have time. People who say it doesn't matter how much time you spend with your children, it is just the quality -- it isn't true. All we have is time. If we can invest it in these kids and allow them to have projects that provide opportunities to praise them, they will develop team spirit and involvement in the enterprise."

I can't tell you how many times my wife and I have heard this same type of quote from people all around us ... at the store, among family, and at church ... instead of arguing we just shrug it off now, but hearing first hand experiences like that of Mr. Salatin just increase my desire to move to a farming life.

If you are thinking of farming or are farming right now with your family I encourage you to check the article out. Also, if the book is anything like the article I suggest looking at Joel Salatin's book, "Family Friendly Farming :: A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament".


**Just so you know, the picture was taken by Pete Wettach. You can check out an amazing book of his photo's by clicking here ==> "A Bountiful Harvest"**

Quality Pasture :: Chapter 14 Book Report

The final chapter of "Quality Pasture" by Allan Nation is titled "The Next Big Thing." This chapter is just a culmination of the thoughts throughout the entire book and gives one last example of a farmer that is doing things different from the conventional farming structure. Mr. Nation does realize that there are risks in going out and doing something different than the masses, but there is also a great reward. Also, there is a great comparison list of indicators for traditional farm success and quality pasture success. Things like traditional equals big tractors and monocultures while quality pasture equals no tractor and diversity. Or traditional is about producing beef and production per cow while quality pasture is about harvesting grass and profit per acre.

All in all it is a good wrap up for the book and acts as an encouragement for people to get out there and become grass farmers instead of cattle farmers or other livestock farmers. Also, you need to remember that this book was printed in 1995, so twelve years later we are probably further down the road to wide scale grass farming which means there will be more information out there to help beginners and seasoned veterans get started. I have really enjoyed reading this book because of the very technical details that Mr. Nation provides about growing very high quality grass. I would have no problem recommending this book to anyone interested in become a grass based farmer (remember how much I loved the last chapter), but would be especially helpful for someone living in the south or wanting to run a grass and grass silage based dairy operation. While I'm sure that it doesn't go to the complete depths of information, it is a great overview of the ideas and source of specific pasture management plans.

Now, I don't know what I'm going to read! At the moment I am re-reading Joel Salatin's book, You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise. And highlighting some of the most interesting parts for my own encouragement, planning, and learning. But, I'm also finally sending in my subscription to the "Stockman Grass Farmer" magazine which is edited by Mr. Nation. I think that will give me a new source of information each month and I'm really looking forward to receiving my first issue.

Don't forget, you can pick up your own copy of "Quality Pasture : How to create it, manage it, and profit from it" by surfing over to the Stockman Grassfarmer Bookshelf.

Quality Pasture :: Chapter 10 Book Report

I just finished up reading chapter 10 of "Quality Pasture" by Allan Nation. This chapter was titled, "Seasonal Grass Dairying". I knew from the title that there wasn't going to be a lot of specific information in this chapter that would be useful for any operation that I was thinking about at the time, but it was still a good read. Dairying seems to a be an art, kind of like baling or just about all farming, that takes a good amount of knowledge about animals, health, forages, and more. I'm not about ready to tackle that right off (did you read my post about the farmer who hit the end), but I did find a lot of interesting nuggets in this chapter.

The most encouraging thing I read was the examples from real life farmers who are making grass based seasonal dairies work. So often when you mention some ideas you find from sources such as Joel Salatin, Allan Nation, the Stockman Grass Farmer, and other books/periodicals you get the standard Iowa farming tradition answer, "well, that won't work for you or here". But, this chapter proved that there are plenty of guys out there that are feeding forages for their main feed and running a seasonal dairy for a decent profit. Plus, the get the benefit of a few months off!

Another interesting thing is how America seems to be lagging behind in terms of thinking outside of the grain box (or should I say bushel basket). One interesting piece of information comes from Carl Pulvermacher a Holstein grazier from Wisconsin.

"He said his 68 acres of pasture land currently grosses #1430.70 per acre ($1305.20 from milk and $125.50 from meat) compared to only $402 from his corn ground (162 bushels at $2.50 - grain is higher now - per bushel)." -Quality Pasture by Allan Nation (pg. 186)

It seems like sometime our farmers would catch on to things like that ... but, maybe I'm just missing something? Please let me know if I am!

The last thing that I found really interesting in this chapter was a list of cost cutters for most dairy producers. While it is geared for the dairymen I thought it would be just as important for a beef cattle producer:

1. Get Your Breeding Season In Sync With the Pasture


2. Stop Grain Farming


3. Concentrate On Cutting Feed Costs


4. Minimize Machinery Costs


5. Increase Stocking Rate


6. Be Realistic About Animal Genetics


7. Don't Blame The Animals For Lack Of Profits


8. Change As Fast As Possible

If you have any thoughts on these things I would love to hear them!

Hog Tractors or Hog Dozers?

One of the reasons that Dexter cattle were so appealing to us was that they were great foragers and browsers. In fact I think I had my dad sold on the breed when he talked to a breeder in our area of the state that said they will even eat multiflora rose. Well, our farm is over run with multiflora rose so my did really liked that idea. One of the goals of our farm is to reopen many of the places that have been over taken by brush, junk trees, and cedar trees. In one section of the farm we have what we call fingers ... these are little grass ridges with very small valleys (20 yards wide maybe) full of brush and trees. When we first moved there these areas weren't especially overrun, but now they are a tangled mess that you can barely walk through. The thought of clearing them and keeping them clear of the brush and ground cover is very daunting.

But, I have come across a couple of interesting articles that talk about using pigs as clearing instruments. It is not like we can just let the pigs come in and clear it all up, but it seems that if we went in and did some manual clearing, selecting some trees to harvest and some to leave and knocking down some brush, we could then send in the troops ... err ... pigs to finish up the job and help turn those messes into savannah type ares.

In an article titled, "Virginia grazier Joel Salatin finds pigs can profitably create pasture from cut-over forest lands" from The Stockman Grass Farmer Joel Salatin is doing just this sort of thing to reclaim some areas that he has logged. The article says that Mr. Salatin's, "oldest pig pastures have volunteered into a mixture of perennial ryegrass and crabgrass. He doesn’t know where the seed came from and said the pig pastures are the only paddocks on his farm with perennial ryegrass." There is another upside to his pastured pig model ... he profits about $3,000 per acre selling this hogs directly to his customers. His pig pastures are about two acres in size and are split up into eight smaller paddocks with around 40 pigs in each pasture. The paddocks are divided by two strands of electric fence powered by solar fencers.

Another article I ran across the other day as I was reading the Homesteading Today Forums was an article by Joel Orcutt titled, "Hog Tractor (How To)". This is an interesting article that speaks to these "hog dozers" on a smaller level than Mr. Salatin. In this article Mr. Orcutt talks about using movable pens to eradicate weeds or prepare areas for gardens or other types of plantings. Again, the principle is the same ... the pigs will root up the area, spread manure, and prepare a seed bed.

This is something I am going to be discussing with my dad. Maybe we can get hogs on the farm a little more quickly with a model like this rather than waiting until I am out in the country. I do like to eat pork you know!

Sissy Farmer ... aka ... Joel Salatin

Here is an interesting video featuring Joel Salatin of "Pastured Poultry Profits" and "Salad Bar Beef" fame. There is some pretty good stuff in this little clip (8:28 long) about building forgiveness into your farming system (or flex). I hope you enjoy it and can grab some kernels of interesting information from it!