April showers

Our neighbor's cattle and ours stand at the fence and stare at each other.  The grass is always greener.

And just like that ... it's spring!  It's green, it's rainy, and the flowers are poking up.  The alfalfa fields are green as far as you can see.  My mom is landscaping the barnyard to make it look beautiful.  Kris and the guys are hauling manure.  You can smell spring (and manure) in the air!

It is still meeting season.  In January, I began working as a communication specialist for U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance.  Their headquarters are in St. Louis, and we had the annual meeting this last week.  I love my coworkers, so it's always fun seeing them (including heading to Ballpark Village for a Cardinals game and going to Three Sixty, which gives a rooftop view of the arch).  The communication people from all the different affiliates across the country were there, trying to plan how USFRA can best bring agriculture and consumers together.

                                   

                                   

I also had a Dairy Communicator meeting, where United Dairy Industry of Michigan trained us on how best to talk about farming.  Kris is now on the board of Michigan Milk Producers Association as well as United Dairy Industry of Michigan, so he had board meetings for both of those!  The UDIM meeting ended with taking in a Pistons game at the Palace because player Andre Drummond is a milk ambassador for us. In a huge surprise to us, we got to sit courtside! (Anytime Andre did well I would chalk it up to milk.  Anytime he did poorly I would blame it on lack of milk.)

                                     

Meanwhile on the farm ... work, work, work!  There's so much to be done in spring.  We're drying up cows (meaning we don't milk them for a few months before they calve, but we have to prepare them for it). We're trying to haul as much manure as possible to get the fields ready for planting.  We have to reseed pastures.  We're planning on possibly changing to sand bedding and putting in some maternity pens.  It's all a lot.  Kris is usually sprinting from the truck to our house and back again in order to make it everywhere he needs to go - including singing in choir three days this week!

I hope your spring is going wonderfully, I hope you have sunshine wherever you are, and I hope you eat a ton of milk chocolate candy on Easter.  I know I'll do my part.


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Whether weather

My goodness - we got RAIN!  Tons of rain.  Rain upon rain.

After an amazingly dry summer, we got about 6 inches of rain this week.

The AgroExpo (put on by AgroLiquid in St Johns) even had to cancel the last day because while the first two days went really well ... it was hard to fight against that much rain.  Everyone joked that they should've held it in July when we were desperate.  We were happy we got to go the first two days, aynThe picture below is from the AgroExpo Facebook page:

                                        

CEO of U.S. Farmers & Rancher Alliance Randy Krotz and USFRA staff Katie Foster were coming to it, and also came to tour the farm!  It was great to be able to talk with them and show them around.

                                      

                                      

We welcomed heifer #171.  The weaned ones (above picture) are outside on pasture.

        

       



And, we talk a lot about technology and how things have changed.  Here's a change that delights us. We have a weather station on our property and you can CHECK IT BY PHONE!  For instance, today we were gone, and I asked Kris if it was raining at home.  He checked his little phone app and it told us everything at home - how much it had rained in the last 12 hours, the last 24 hours, the rainfall rate in the last month and year ... Oh, the joy this phone app brings!  The science, the technology, the knowledge of it all!



There were also puddles when we got home.  So that was a pretty good clue, too.

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Monsanto, pigs, and dietitians

U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance hosted a training for people in the digital community to reach a broader audience with information about food and farming.

The group, made up of USFRA staff, marketing people, dietitians, and writers, was as outgoing and fun as you would expect.

First, we went on a tour at the Monsanto headquarters in St Louis.  A side note - I thought everyone knew what Monsanto was, but this isn't the case.  You definitely know it if you're in ag, you know it if you're anti-technology ... but not everyone knows this company.  In short, they are an agricultural Fortune 500 company that sells seeds and crop protection chemicals.  They have a long history - for instance, when I was at the Smithsonian I saw an exhibition that features "Monsanto’s Dr. Robert Fraley, chief technology officer, for his contributions to agriculture biotechnology, as well as the economic benefits of genetically modified crops... Monsanto donated several items for the exhibit, including a photograph of Fraley with the world’s first genetically modified petunia and a souvenir connected to agriculture’s widely planted and adopted Roundup Ready® soybean."

They had an entire room of machines that extracted DNA from plant samples.  They had growing closets that mimicked the conditions of different places in the world - this was the Brazil room.  Hot, humid, and so bright!  We couldn't open the doors to the cooler rooms because they didn't want us to bring down the temperature, so we just looked through the windows.

Our guide, Lara, was very entertaining.  In the beginning of the tour she said, "We can't have alcohol at work, but we do have cheese and ice cream!"

(Of course, as a dairy farmer I found this especially funny.  Eat up, people.)

She also said, "Sometimes you see something on Pinterest like, we share 99.9 of our genetic material with BLANK.  And you know there's some scientist reading that saying, "That 0.1 makes a huge difference!" and crying over his PhD."

"Is 'crying over your PhD' a common phrase around here?" I asked.

"Yes, but I just have my masters, so I say 'crying over my masters," she answered.

(Best tour guide ever!)

She showed us a display with genetically engineered soybeans, bred to be resistant to the soybean looper larvae, and ones that were not.  We looked at different types of corn in greenhouses.  They walked us through how biotechnology works on a plant.  They introduced us to scientists and we got to ask them about their work.

The HQ with their 1700 employees and their dedication to farming was very interesting, and I hope they all continue to work hard, crying over their various degrees.
 
***

We continued on to the Deppe hog farm.  Why do I say hogs instead of pigs?  Because that's what they said, and they're the farmers.

This is only the second time I've been on a (pig) farm, and it was the first time for many of the attendees.

We saw them at every age, from birth to sows to pregnant sows to right before they're sold.

I held a piglet, then the older one in the next barn, and planned to try until I couldn't lift them any more ... but that was the third stop.  They are huge!

 

We learned about their 90% conception rate, rode the pig trailer, checked out their corn, and enjoyed talking to the Deppe family and team.  Thanks for the tour!

***

The next day I had the chance to speak to the group about dairy farming and the issues I get asked about - specifically how there are no antibiotics in milk, no added hormones, and how organic and conventional milk are the same nutritionally and differ only in process, not product.

                             

Randy Krotz (CEO) and Nancy Kavazanjian (chair) were also there - it was great hearing them as well.  Darrell Glaser, another Faces of Farming & Ranching, and dietitian Charlotte Rommereim also spoke.

We had a lively discussion, and I think we all enjoyed the tours and the conversation.

***

Meanwhile, back on the farm ... it's been two weeks since we started calving and we're up to 40 heifers.  That means we've had lots of bulls, too, who also need bottle feeding.  The boys and I have been trying to help out where we can, since it's a lot of work no matter how many people are helping.

             

Through all of us - seed companies, individual farmers, educators - we're all trying to produce, market, and sell food ... because we all like to eat.  There is so much that goes into all of this, from education to bottle feeding a calf.  I celebrated my return with ice cream, and the only way I'd cry into my masters would be from happiness that these are my coworkers.

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Confused season

This is the creek from one side:

Oh!  Just a little snow on the bank ... the grass ... it looks definitely spring-like!  But if you look in the other direction, here's the creek from the other side:

Giant chunks of ice, too frozen to make their way under the road.  Yesterday it was fun to watch, because every once in awhile, a chunk would break free and all the ice would groan and shift.  I kept hoping I'd see it break through all at once!

While the season is changing, we're getting everything ready at the farm before it becomes BUSY ALL THE TIME!  We're cutting down dead trees along the fence line on our pasture, building fencing on pasture, and Kris is trying to do a new payroll and a new summer schedule while he still has time to be inside.

We're dealing with other cow issues, trying to make sure they're all healthy, (sometimes the change in weather is hard for them), but so far they're doing fine.

It's just a generally good feeling in the air - all the neighbors are outside talking, everyone at the barn has time to stand outside to see each other ... even though we're all still wearing winter clothes. Well, about half of the winter clothes, anyway.

Doesn't this picture say 'spring?'  Tigers shirt, shorts, tricycle AND sled.

But soon that ice will break through.  We're ready for it!

***

U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance asked me to write an article about how farmers keep antibiotics out of milk, and it's generating a lot of interesting conversation.  Check out the comments on the article here: Food Dialogues.

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Asking for your vote! Up for Faces of Farming & Ranching

I’m honored to be one of eight finalists in the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance® Faces of Farming & Ranching nationwide search!  (I don’t like asking for votes.)

So what does that mean?  It means that to help put a real face on agriculture, USFRA selected people who are proud of what they do, eager to share their stories, and are actively involved in sharing their experiences in public and on social media.  (But I’m going to anyway.)

If I’m selected, I’ll spend the next year representing farmers at different events around the country. (Here it comes.)

From today until Nov 2, you can vote for me on USFRA’s Facebook page:

• http://faces.pgtb.me/w2Sg4d

Scroll down until you see my name and video and select the Place My Vote button.  You must have a Facebook account to vote.  If you don't, you can register for one right there.  Votes will be factored into the final decision to pick the next Faces of Farming & Ranching. (That’s ten days, and you can vote once a day.)

If you think I’ll do a good job representing Michigan and agriculture, please take the time to vote for me once a day.  (If you want to share this with others, that’d be great, too.)

So far ... there was an extensive application process.  Essay questions, a video, recommendation letters, and references - it was sort of like applying to college!  

Then, a video crew came out to do the video you're going to see on the USFRA page.  They told me they would be there from 8:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. to shoot the video.  I thought, it can't possibly take that long.  They were there exactly those minutes!  They did a great job.  (I loved how the crew was always trying to make my hair not stand straight up, or tell me to fix my shirt because it was crooked.  I need people like that in regular life.)   

After that, I had a phone interview with the four Faces of Farming & Ranching from last year, plus USFRA staff.  Now, it's the online voting!  The winners will be announced on Nov 12.  Thank you for taking the time to vote - I appreciate it.  If you see my hair sticking up straight in the video, it wasn't the crew's fault.  They did all they could.

For the next ten days of voting, I'm going to highlight ten of my favorite (and most popular) blog posts. 

Number 10:  

Five myths about farmers: a tongue-in-cheek look at our industry.

Please take the time to vote (today and for the next 10 days!) HERE.  Thank you!  

Faces of Farming & Ranching

Today the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance announced the eight finalists for their Faces of Farming and Ranching ... and I'm one of them!

They wrote, "To help put a real face on agriculture, USFRA has selected these standout farmers and ranchers who are proud of what they do, eager to share their stories of continuous improvement and who are actively involved in sharing those stories in public and on social media." The article is here.

This is the second year that they've held the nationwide competition, and the four winners last year spent the year representing agriculture at various events around the country.

This year, there was an extensive application process, a video requirement, references, and even letters of recommendation from agricultural organizations of which I'm a member - it was like college all over again!  They're coming in a few weeks to film me on our farm.  They'll then take that video ... and this is where my dear readers come in.

Yes, there's an online vote!  A quarter of the judging counts on how many votes our videos garner.  So on Oct 24-Nov 2, you'll be able to help me win the chance to represent agriculture at a national level.  I'll post the details then!

Thank you, as always, for reading about our farm.  I'm so happy to be able to share what we do on this little farm with the neighbors, the township, the country, and the world.  That's fun stuff for a farmer's daughter, farmer's wife, and dairy farmer like me.