4 Year Time Warp

 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. 

Hydrant Base Assembly 2018

Trenching into the Building 2018

Cobett Base Installation 2018

Open Trench Line 2018

Cobett System Install 2018

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. 

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

Sinking Fence Posts

Burning Spent Hay Residue from Feeding Cattle All Winter

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. 

Oh Hail and Other Stuff

A week ago, we got am unpleasant surprise of fifteen minutes of hail culminating in golfball sized balls of ice slamming into everything. We lost a large tree and chicken pen lid. Our garage doors, eave spouts, window sashes, and metal out buildings are all dented up, but we did not loose any windows. Luckly, the cattle were in a place where they could hunker down under the dense cover of hedge trees (they are rugged trees). We have not meet with our insurance adjuster yet because this storm dropped hail in a mile wide strip across the top of all of Madison County, including the entire town of Earlham. Since we did not loose any windows, we are lower on the priority list. 

Golfball Sized Hail

 Hail Drifting Against the Garage Door

All the Light Tree Debris Covering the Driveway 

Lost a Large Old Maple

My Uncle did not fair as well as we did. Two-thirds of the crops were hit, with a lot of it completly lost. We won't know the full effect for some time. The dry weather was already stressing the pastures and crops to begin with, so this is just compounding a difficult situation.

My Uncle & Father's Corn

The real victim was the home place. Of the seven windows on the west side of the house, all seven lost their storm windows, and five broke all the way through. Even the one in the attic under the overhang is broken (we had to board that one up from the inside). The siding is shot, the shingles seemed to hold, but that storm might have taken years off their life. Some of the cedar shingles on the barn came off and most of the windows were broken out. 

Starting to Board Up Windows at my Uncle's Place

Finished Boarding up the Broken Windows

Aside from the hail, we are plodding along. The first round of chickens have come and gone. We had a five day stretch of cold damp weather in mid-May, that got Phemonia started in the broilers and it killed of around twenty percent of them.  Those that survived turned out very well with nice larger weights. Luckily, the broilers finished out just as the scorching heat wave started. Mature broilers and heat don't mix well. Pastured poultry in the spring is such a risky venture in Iowa as the weather can go from cold a stretch to heat wave in the same week.

Spring Broiler Batch

The turkeys just arrived two days ago and are doing well. I have such a love hate relationship with turkeys. They are immensely cute, but they are also very fragile and are fond of smothering each other. They are a very risky enterprise that requires a lot of small adjustments.  They make it so I can't really travel in the summer. 

Brooder is All Set-up

Turkeys in the Mail

In their New Home

Yesterday, I took our first two beef to the locker this year. My trailer is really showing its age and I am increasingly concerned that it might need to be replaced sooner then later. The boy closest to the camera was very difficult to get off the trailer. We went back and forth for 40 minutes before I got him to back off the trailer. I then had to grab the alleyway rails and drive my chest into his head to get him to back up the remaining twenty feet into the holding pen. Thank goodness the other one was off the trailer and in the pen within five minutes. I will freely admit that I am a bit sore today. 

Two Beef to the Locker

The kids are doing well and Luna keeps getting bigger.  There is a lot of pressure from my daughter to build her a tree house this year. I do want to get a play structure built for the kids to encourage them to be outside and to make their outside activities increasingly self directed. Outside of the farm, our family has been pretty busy with Janice working 6 days a week, the kids at home for the summer, and me attending two to three functions a week. It is a pretty rare evening when I just get to see my wife. Stay tuned as we move into summer and hopefully we get some rain, get some projects done, and have some fun along the way. 

Tree House Plans

Kite Flying Again

Wrestling with Luna

Playing Robot Turtle (a programing game)

Revving Up for 2017 and Beyond

It has been way to long since my last blog post. With the mild winter, rampant sickness, tons of meetings, and Janice’s promotion, it has been very busy around here. Some of our lingering projects are almost complete. The new chicken house has been put into service despite a few finishing touches on the interior that needs completing. The building is located jetting out into the cattle winter lot, to hopefully help reduce fly levels and therefore reduce the risk of pink eye (which hit us hard in 2016).

Front of the Layer Building (recycled metal and all)

Southside of the Layer Building

Pulling 150 feet of wire through Conduit Sucks

Layers Moving In

I did get some of our frost seeding on late, but it got done. I put on a mix of 50 pounds of birdsfoot trefoil and 50 pounds of Haifa white clover. I use just a shoulder mounted bag seeder a manual spinner, so the process can take several days to get over the whole farm.

100 Pounds of Seed to Spread

Our first 2017 chicks got here two weeks ago. They are growing well and depending on the weather, should be outside in a week or two. They should be available to customers by mid-June. We are brooding in stock tanks like we have in the past, but I have constructed some smaller brooder hoods based on a design I was using on the old farm. This helps the chicks regulate their own temperature and should help avoid health issues like pneumonia. 

Checking Out the Brooder Set-up

Hamming it Up with the Chicks

They are cute when they are little

Crafted a smaller brooder hood based on the ones we used on the old farm

Other projects that are getting nudged along on the farm include some fencing and brush clearing. 

I started building a stretch of fence behind the house almost two years ago, but that got stopped when I realized I would have to put a gate in the middle of that expanse of fence because that was the best sledding site for the kids on the farm. I got the bracing for that gate finished last night, now I need to run the wires, hand the gates, and bury the connective wires. 

One Step closer to Finally Getting This Stretch of Fence Done

I did not get very much brush cut this winter, but what I did get cut still needs to be stack and burn. I started that process last night and for a few seconds that pile of brush went up like a candle. That should tell you that it is pretty dry on the farm (we have missed several good rains). 

I found a calm day to burn brush

One of the two things that have really been keeping me busy is my role as Board President of the Iowa Food Cooperative. I have been running meetings, trying to improve processes, and just trying to get everyone on the same page and pulling in the same direction. The Iowa Legislature in there 2018 fiscal year budget eliminated the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.  I made a trip up to the capital to give testimony at the house budget hearing. That testimony is available here. 

Heading up to the Capital

I have also been increasingly involved in my local political party and parallel organizations. With that in mind, I am considering running for public office in 2018. The groundwork for these things takes quite a bit of time, focus, and energy. I will keep you posted if and when I have anything to announce. 

The kids are doing well in there respective schools. Our Daughter, is increasingly reading on her own and is still a social butterfly. Our Son, is shockingly advanced at math and has matured so much in the past year.  I am trying to get them outside more and a bit more involved in farming. Luna (the big puppy), sometimes wants to playfully chase them around a bit and at 50 pounds she can at times be intimidating. I wish both Janice and I could devote more time to the kids, but I try to make the most of what I have to work with. 

Posing Next to Flowers Planted in Memory of my Mother

Kite Flying, Early Spring Winds are Good for That

Luna keeps Growing

Hopefully it won't be so long before the next blog update. Until next time, take care and I will keep you posted about any updates here and on the Facebook page.