I last blogged back in June of 2017, almost 4 years ago. I will admit that over those 4 years, the farm has struggled to be a high priority in my life. I ran for the Iowa State House in 2017 to 2018. I worked as the General Manager of the Iowa Food Cooperative in 2019 to early 2020, and I ran again for the Iowa House in 2020. Needless to say, the farm has taken a backseat for several years, but I am committed to get back on track .
2018 Iowa House Run
Working at the Iowa Food Cooperative
2020 Iowa House Run (Pandemic Broke Out 2 Weeks Later)
In late 2018, we added a farm we are managing. We have the home farm and down the road three miles we have a 50 acre badly run down farm that will be a prolonged work in progress. We started by installing a water system in November and got it operational just after Christmas 2018. This was the short window after the 2018 election and before I started working at the Iowa Food Cooperative.
For most of 2019 and 2020, little progress was made on that farm. New rock got laid down, the power system got updated, a short section of brand new fence go installed, and an old building or two got burned up but there is a lot to do that just did not happen.
Sinking Fence Posts
Burning Spent Hay Residue from Feeding Cattle All Winter
Hydrant Base Assembly 2018
Trenching into the Building 2018
Cobett Base Installation 2018
Open Trench Line 2018
Cobett System Install 2018
Spring 2020 Fence Install Looking North
Spring 2020 Fence Install Looking South
Burning Up Old Collapsed Buildings
This brings us to 2021. I have been cutting low quality trees right a left, clearing old fence lines and working on building new fence. I have six goals on this farm this year. I want to finish getting the west fence line cleared out and fully replaced, create a fenced repository for hay storage on that farm, fence the cattle lot, clear out around the old house site so I can bring in a concrete breaker and get rid on the foundation. Then we can use the foundation pieces to help make culvert crossings on the farm. Finally I want to continue to cut trees to increase the accessibility to parts of the farm that are hard to get to or inaccessible now.
Burning Lots of Brush Piles
Clearing Trees from Fence Lines
Lots of Trees in Fence Lines
Cleared Fence Line, On to the Next
On the home farm, we did get the barn fixed up after the hail damage of June 2017, created a permanent divider in the barn between the livestock and the equipment, replaced our livestock trailer, bought a tractor, sold the same tractor, and bought another tractor. We also got all of our tractor loaders swopped out to skid loader quick attach systems for a serious quality of life upgrade.
Replaced Hail Damaged Roof
Permanent Livestock Divider
Newer Livestock Trailer
Bought a White 2-55 & Sold It (Decided Cab > 15 HP)
Our Pair of New Holland 2120 Tractors
Quality of Life Improvement Skid Loader Quick Attach
One for Both Tractors
With the Pandemic we have seen insane demand that greatly exceeds what we can produce and what our local food system has evolved to handle. We sold more beef quarters in 2020 then we have in all of the 13 years we have farmed previously. We had to book all of our 2021locker dates back in August 2020 and ran out of ground beef in late November. In 2019, we struggled to sell our ground beef, now we can't keep it in inventory. Our poultry locker plant closed in late 2019, and in 2020 we were down to one last state inspected kill poultry locker running in all of Iowa. Because of that we can now only sell whole chickens and can no longer sell individual parts. A feed issue where our mineral got changed out for a diluted mix plagued us for most of 2020, but got cleared up in time for our turkeys to finish out fine. With the pandemic, we were conservative with the number of turkeys we raised, only to find demand strong there as well, despite limits on family gatherings. With the solid demand continuing into 2021, we are hoping for a good year. The first 2021 broilers are off to a great start and look really promising.
Last Operating Inspected Kill Poultry Locker in Iowa 2020
Picking Up Beef From the Locker 2020
Less Than a Week Old Broiler Chicks 2021
That is a quick summary of the past four years. We are a little run down by the toll 2020 took on us but making and seeing progress on the land and in the facility improvements is motivating. I look forward to seeing our customers again. Until then thanks for reading and supporting us, and keep your fingers crossed for rain.
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