Northern Farmer

Kind of the August dull drums around here. Hot for the last few days and getting drier by the day. Pastures are burned off pretty much,any hay growth is stopped. But its a hundred times better than the last couple years! One good rain in July made the corn go for it and as far as height goes, it made it. Now if’n I was farming corn for grain I’d be worried the way things are, our is for silage though and some pickin to fill corn cribs. None to particular as long as its good enough. Unlike the last few years the corn is so lush and tall that I have to do some figuring and allot of work shortly on what to do with it all. That’s a problem I can live with. IN a month from now everything should be done, (Lord willing), except the pickin and that’s a job I just love in later October. Sit out on an open tractor and pull that New Idea two row behind and watch the cobs fill the wagon! I just love corn pickin! Don’t see all to much of that around here unless a person looks closely. Quite a few farmers still fill a crib or two around here, but just as in other parts of the Midwest, the GMOs and combines are the rule. I’m happy doing what we’re doing though, no regrets at all. Just farming the old fashioned way and enjoying every minute of it. Well, except in the extreme heat that is, then I lay low if the day allows!

I gotta get my annual four hillbilly hogs pretty durn quick. I sure can tell there ain’t none around the place because we don’t have our regular garbage disposals for the garden leftovers and stuff. Miss them hogs so I’d better get some quick and take care of that problem. Feed em up on some good old Minnesota 13 corn this fall and all the garden produce we can’t handle. Now i have to say, upon inspecting all the different varieties of corn we planted the Minnesota 13 is just awesome! It don’t take a backseat to the hybrids and it produces heavy with very little fertilizer. It excels on plowed down sod, that’s what the oldtimers always told me and I can see it so very true. A wonderful corn and as the dust settles here after these years of experimenting with different Open Pollinated varieties the answer is clear on this farm, Minnesota 13 will be this farm’s corn till I cross the River Jordan. And a while back we had a wind storm that rattled up all the different varieties except Minnesota 13, its still standing straight and strong. I stand amazed at such a true find! Every area is different and I’m sure other varieties excel in other places more than here, but I’ll stay with that corn my ancestors grew until the hybrid hype came along and made serfs out of the farmers. And knowing that we ain’t taking a backseat to anyones hybrid production with this wonderful corn makes it so much the better. Not one problem have I ever seen in that corn, not one. No insect problems, stands strong, is drought resistant, does well in cool weather. A total package of good reasons to make it our family’s corn for generations. And with a little wisdom that only God can give, always improve it so it remains the corn of choice for this family.

Its to the point that I know I could never go back to how we did farm up to a few years ago. This is just too good! The hard part is finding folks doing the same thing, kinda gives a person a “lone wolf” syndrome! But there are folks out there, probably more than I think that are getting the same ideas and visions. The most amazing thing for me, and I thank the Lord every day for this is our little church. The awakening that has taken place as far as raising up good foods for our families. The distrust of the industrial food complex. But even more amazing is the fact that so many of our farm customers are from different churches in Minnesota and they have the same view. Its hard for me not to notice this. And I think it would be a safe bet that even a few years ago most of these folks didn’t think all to much about this subject. That is changing though and I believe with everything I got that God is behind it all. Gently nudging His redeemed to go back to the ways that He wants us to. Nothing earth shattering, but a steady nudging that seems to be growing and growing.

I think I could safely say that at this point seventy five percent of our on farm sales are to folks from different churches. Now remember, there has never been any advertising, this has happened without any help from me advertising. The word gets around and I know that with the beef alone that we sell more beef privately than most farms raise. And this will grow and grow in the next few years so that everything will go private sale. I’m not even scared of that option anymore, its already happening. In fact shortly we will be sold out of steers, down to seven left with most halves spoken for well in advance. Plus all cull cows that are in decent shape are being marketed privately for ground beef cows. This enables us to make about double of what we’d get selling to the slaughter plant, but the customer gets a superior ground beef for right around the average store price. Only the middle man didn’t make a cut here. No sense supplying the culture of death with hard earned family money from both ends. Our way of marketing makes us allot more money, plus the customer gets their beef cheaper than buying the same cuts from the store where everyone else is making money on the deal so they can live the high life. No, I like direct, plus the farmer gets to know the customers, the customers know the farmer. There’s a certain trust built that I will never break with the customers, they will always get the best beef possible and it won’t break their budget. We don’t go for the high end prices here, just the fair prices and the customers and myself seem to be well satisfied with it all.

Such drastic changes over the last few years here and now a person can start assessing what has all happened as the time marches on. There is allot of hope in farming, but one must be wary. A person has to totally stay away from big ag’s propaganda, no doubt about that. The only thing that will happen following them is sure destruction of both the farm and family. On the flip side, we stay away from the high, high end selling. It ain’t worth it to me. I don’t want to supply such high quality food to only the really well off financially folks. First of all, we don’t see eye to eye, secondly I’d rather spend my life with regular families coming to the farm that appreciate the quality and the fact that their families are getting a better deal that if they bought all the different cuts in the store, not knowing where in the world the meat came from, what condition the animal was in before slaughtering, not knowing how it was raised.

This is how I want to see the farm continue. I don’t know what a person would label us. I know many in the so called Christian Agrarian community probably don’t like farming talk, but that don’t matter much to me. Never did. If this ain’t Christian Agrarian so be it. But its Christian and there ain’t know blood bought believer that could say otherwise. So labels have absolutely no importance to me. Serving the Lord daily does. Doing an honest living, helping families get the highest quality food possible at a fair price for both parties. Are we on easy street from all of this, the answer is no. IN fact we’re almost dirt poor if you compare us to society’s standards today. But I don’t care to much about what society says so that makes life a whole lot better. I ask the Lord daily if what I’m doing is good, or should it be changed, but so far all is well. And the blessings are huge. The crops are beautiful and healthy this year. Plus my saying of I only raise crops that people can eat holds true. A corn crib of our corn is edible for humans, can’t do that with the modern varieties. Our oats is edible, in fact we could sell it for milling outs if we so desired. This way of life has opened doors for serving the Lord that I could not have imagined a few short years ago. The farming way of life has become a ministry in itself. And in the slow months from fall through spring there is time to go all around doing the Lord’s service in the region. There is no chasing the modern dream of getting stuff to satisfy our desires. Serving the Lord is number one and will stay that way.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.