Farming Talk
December 17th, 2005 by Northern FarmerThe end of the week approaches and it was different with the weather snowing for so many days straight, but it’s calming down to some Minnesota nice weather. There was blue skies today, finally, and we were splitting wood this morning, working up a sweat with the temp at five above zero. It might get to ten below tonight but over the years we set up this place to run rather smoothly at these temps. So the main thing is to keep the people, (me), from freezing. The cows are thriving back in the heavy brush and the calves at home are growing good. One thing that should be mentioned is that our 1920s chicken coop is the greatest thing since the wheel. Wow, what engineering! At these temps the water doesn’t even freeze on the floor, and no heat in the place, just our fifty hens and four roosters. Pick the eggs in late afternoon and don’t worry about them freezing. Sometimes I wonder about all the new fangled things that are just problems waiting to happen, when the people eighty years ago around here had things figured out so well. A small building eighty years old still going strong with no problems. The coop was designed for 300 laying hens but works good with the fifty.
Another thing around here that works good is our little local farmers co-op. This isn’t the other one that big ag took over by force a couple of months ago, this one is smaller and much more independent. They are a creamery, feed supplier, some hardware, farm supplies, and do meat processing. Throw in some simple groceries, tobacco, pop, etc. There is no checkout lane, just an old counter top where patrons can sit on bar stools and shoot the bull, do business or whatever. Notice the word patron, us farmers are owners of the place and it still is unaffected by big ag, and also prospering I might add. Now when citified folk drive through town, Pop 120, I don’t think many give it a second glance, an old brick building with some storage sheds out back. It’s not exactly eye appealing. But it is the heart of the local farming territory.
This week I was there listing a cow for butchering and I mentioned in a post earlier this week that thanks to a reader I was pointed in the right direction for purchasing some open pollinated corn varieties. Who’da ever thought that our local little co-op was a dealer for OP corn seed! Not me. Well, they are and I’m sitting in high cotton now. When a person is sitting at the counter talking farming the co-op has a pail full of salted peanuts in the shell settin there, all you can eat. That alone makes the two and a half mile trip worth it. But there’s not much more that I like to do in life than shoot the bull with the locals. Believe me, it’s not really a tourist attraction. Lately it’s been pretty uplifting listening, I’ve mentioned this before and this week I sure got an ear full at the co-op.
The general mood is the locals are moving away from big name seed companies, not as radical as we are but they’re cheapening down a lot. The GMO seeds are starting to get looked at rather badly to my surprise. The gal working there even pitched in saying that GMO sales are way down from the past few years and farmers are buying some cheaper, simpler hybrids. And when I asked about open pollinated corn that they carried no one even blinked. One guy said he thought that it was illegal, but we got that straightened out in a hurry. Then the gal working there pointed to the sign on the wall with different hay seed varieties. She said “do you notice we’ve dropped the big name expensive seeds?†She went on to say that farmers are noticing and complaining that the expensive big name seeds can’t compare to the local traditional varieties. And I’ve been noticing that myself the last decade or so. Amazing all a person can learn while eating salted peanuts in the shell.
All I can say about this is, what goes around comes around. Farmers are not dumb, if they were they wouldn’t have the farm to long, and it warms my heart to see this happening in the countryside. There’s a quiet shift in the mood out here in the frozen north. No matter how much propaganda the ag magazines throw at the family farmers it’s not taking a deep root. Even yesterday, I went to a neighbors to get our grain moister tester that he had borrowed, it was still in one piece, and he told me point blank that he was never going to plant GMO’s again. That floored me coming from him. So many folks around here that I’ve heard the same thing from. Something’s happening out here in the country and it looks to me like it’s good.
December 17th, 2005 at 5:00 pm
I would luv 2 leave the city and live u’r life!
December 17th, 2005 at 8:07 pm
Tom,
Minnesota is so far ahead in the return to the right way. Down here, in the heart of the corn belt, the farmers complain, but they can’t push away from the big ag trough!
BTW, I know you know all about drying corn. Forgive my for my admonishment a while back! My excitement about your project got me all excited…
You see, I tried to tell them at BIG ag company I worked for, that they needed to address this need for OP corn, and was laughed out of the room! I can’t tell you how exciting it is to see it come around!
Stay warm!
JM
December 18th, 2005 at 5:39 am
Starbender,
I used to feel that way many years ago until I finally took the plunge and just did it. Let’s see, it’s going to be 19 years full time farming come this May, boy where does time go. I used to live in the city a little bit, but we mixed like oil and water, never again. Thanks for stopping by!
JM,
Don’t stop the admonishment!! I do a lot more things right when led a little.Or should I say, pushed? But whatever, I know where your coming from when you give me helpful info and am very thankful for it. This blog is definitly a two way blog and the feedback is so important to us here.
Tom
December 18th, 2005 at 6:57 pm
This is off the topic but, I was wondering if any of you have heard anything about a new law that says you have to register all livestock by Jan.1. Having something to do with the bird flu virus scare.
At present I don’t know if it’s just a Wisconsin thing or if it is at the federal level. Our friends around here have caught wind of it and we are all kind of upset about it. There is supposedly a stiff fine for anyone caught in non-compliance.
I plan to call our local extension office and I’m sure they can tell me something but, I was wondering if anyone else has heard about it. I have a hunch it is at the State level as Wisconsin was pretty aggressive at dealing with the cronic wasting disease in the Whitetail Deer.
Russ
December 18th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
Russ,
There are a couple of things in the works, but I think that what you are referring to must be a Wisconsin thing. The USDA is going to require all animals to be tracked eventually. At first, it will be voluntary, and most will be sold on the idea, that it’s a safety, health thing. After the voluntary compliance doesn’t get everybody, then they will offer you a higher price for your animals at market. After that doesn’t work, you’ll be forced to get the “Chip” for your livestock…
All the more reason to be sustainable, and to have a little community of likeminded folks with which to trade!!
JM
December 18th, 2005 at 8:35 pm
Russ,
I’ll have to look into it. We got a premise registration card here a couple of weeks ago from the state of MN but I can’t find it right off hand, pretty good bookeeping huh. I could be wrong but here I think it’s just going on their original schedual for animal ID, which I’m very leary about by the way. But when and if I find the registration info I’ll let you know if there’s anything different than what I wrote. Or if anyone out there in computerland knows give a holler.
Tom
December 18th, 2005 at 8:38 pm
JM,
I didn’t even see your reply until after I posted the last one.Well said!
Tom
December 19th, 2005 at 11:59 am
NF, I sure would like to see the design for your chicken coop. How does it work?
December 19th, 2005 at 5:35 pm
Steve,
There was enough interest generated in my chicken coop statement that I might have to sometime draw up a simple plan just as a base to give people the idea. But here I’ll give you a few details just to get the general idea. The dimensions are 16 by 32 for the whole building. It does have a 8 by 16 room that we use for a brooder. So the hen house itself would be 24 by 16. The building is facing south with it’s length. The hen house has five south facing windows and on on the east side near the south corner. It’s standard two by four construction with an attic. Cement floor. It was insulated with tar paper and a really oldfashion soft partical board then covered with tonge and groove to protect the insulative materials. There is no moister buildup because running lengthways down the center of the building is a four foot opening in the ceiling. They then put a mesh wire across the opening and covered it with straw and wood chips. The moister flows out into the attic and out the vents but the heat is retained in the building.Also there is about three or four inches of wood chip litter on the floor. And the only heat is the chickens body heat.Today it was 15 below and I watered them at seven in the morning and the water was good yet at sundown. It will freeze at night when they roost, so that’s when I take the waterer out and just put it in bright and early in the morning again. I’ve only ever had one egg freeze this winter, that was today, but it doesn’t count I guess because it was laid in the evening yesterday. Once the hens get off the roost for the morning they heat the place right up, or at least above freezing for their entire working day. I hope this helps with your question. The only improvement I can see from what we have is I would nowadays build it with a block foundation to stop rats. They didn’t have blocks then around here so I forgive them:)
December 20th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
Tom,
So glad to see you share the details of your hen house. We have a similar building on our new place. Only this one is a double decker, the hens upstairs. I’m not sure of the structural integrity of that barn, we always put hogs in it, and I know some of the foundation is punched out in areas. Maybe a little cement can patch it up?!!
How many hens can you safely carry through the winter in that size of a building? Also, would you mind sharing with out your preferred breed of chicken for your temperate winter climate? We have been very happy with the winter production of our Buff Orpingtons, this is the first winter however that we have had Brown Leghorns and they seem to be holding thier own in the 10 degree evenings we’ve had here…
Just curious, I’m planning to order some chicks in the spring!
Thanks
JM
December 20th, 2005 at 5:56 pm
JM,
I tell you, cementing up them bad foundations on farm buidings does work well sometimes, it’s almost a yearly chore around here on our old barn.But it holds er together.
I don’t know what the experts figure for carrying capacity of the coop but the people that farmed here before us always had between 250 and 300 hens in the coop, successfully.
Buffs do good here from what I hear at church, we raise Barred Rocks and Silver Laced Wyondotes,(spelling?). Both do excellent in the deep winter here. I’m not experienced with too many other breeds to make any recomendations, oh, I used to raise them reddish production hens, I forget their name, brown egg layers, and they were pretty good too.
October 4th, 2008 at 5:24 am
Just heard of Willie Mclarens wedding cake and the decoration of cow and bull - just hope they don’t want any happy events - or they might need the ropes.
October 4th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Only joking, hope the day was lovely and the family enjoyed.