What I Wish People Knew About Raising Cattle

            Most people have a romanticized idea of what farming looks like.  I think it probably looks a lot like Old McDonald’s farm, with the cattle and sheep roaming through green pastures, the pigs in their sty, and chickens, dogs and cats wandering around the yard.  However, after spending my entire life living and working on a farm, I can tell you that I have never seen a set-up like Old McDonald’s.

Don’t get me wrong,  I think our cows are definitely content and happy, but Old McDonald’s farm is a fantasy.  We live in reality, because we experience day in and day out, the highs and lows of raising livestock for a living.  The general public has an idealized version, because they don’t get to see what it takes to keep a farm operating daily.  

What I wish people knew about raising cattle is that there are no vacations.  I can count a total of two family vacations that we took when I was growing up.  Taking time off meant finding someone we trusted to care for our animals.  It meant leaving our livelihood in someone else’s hands for a week at the most.  Even when you’re at the waterpark in the Wisconsin Dells, you’re constantly wondering if you told your replacement for the week everything they needed to know.  You want to make sure that they keep an eye on that one calf that you thought was sounding weezy the last time you were in the pasture.  It doesn’t matter if you’re physically in another state, because mentally your mind is always thinking of what is happening on the farm.  

There are no sick days either, because when that one cow, that always gets out, ends up in your yard, yet again, and you’re the only one home you have to get her back in.  Nevermind the fact that you were too sick to go to school and it’s raining so hard that you’ll eventually end up with pneumonia, you go outside, put her where she belongs, and fix the fence.  

What I wish people knew about raising cattle, is that life is never fair and death is just another part of the circle of life.  When you stay up all night trying to get the bull calf that was born in the middle of a blizzard warmed up in your laundry room and he finally starts to liven up, you count your blessings.  When he dies the next afternoon, you wipe away the tears and move on, knowing you’ll get the next one.  Nobody sees your frustration when three perfectly healthy calves suddenly go down in the barn lot and the vet tells you there’s nothing he can do to treat hypothermia.  That he’s already talked to several of your neighbors and everybody is losing livestock as the polar vortex starts to move in.  When the weatherman forecasts a windchill of -40 degrees and tells everybody it’s too dangerous to be outside for longer than 5 minutes, most people get to spend their days curled up on their couch or toasty warm in their offices.  Farmers, however, are pulling on Carhartt’s and 15 different layers, getting ready to spend an hour breaking up ice in water tanks because the water heaters can’t keep up with the wind.  Then, they get to go inside for a bit, just to repeat the process all over again, a couple hours later.      

Yes, there are days that seem like nothing else can go wrong, but if I had not grown up on a farm, I would never have seen a newborn calf walk for the very first time or know exactly where a cow likes to be scratched.  I wish I could describe what I felt the first time I was able to get the premature calf living in our laundry room to take a bottle on his own, after spending 3 days tube feeding him because his jaw just wasn’t strong enough yet.  I wish they could be there every time a new calf is born or get to watch the calves play in the barnyard on a sunny, warm day.  

I like to think that my farm is better than the idealized version that most people have in their heads, mostly because it’s real.  We aren’t stuck in the past, and we’re constantly looking for new technology and ways to update our methods.  We believe there is always room for improvement.  The cattle in my barn aren’t just dollar signs, they’re living beings for which I am responsible.  What I wish people knew about raising cattle is that it’s not just a job, it’s a way of life.  

An Open Letter to the Future Wife of Prince Farming

An Open Letter to the Future Wife of Prince Farming

I want to begin this letter acknowledging the fact that I know you have received a lot of criticism from Iowans, specifically those of us involved in agriculture.  Quite honestly, at the beginning of this season, I was a skeptic.  Iowa’s agricultural community put a lot of faith in The Bachelor, hoping that for once a major reality TV show might realistically depict our lifestyles.  However, the first few episodes showed scenes of women in bikinis racing what are considered giant lawnmowers here in Iowa (a real green and yellow tractor is about five times bigger) and what seemed to be some alcoholic tendencies.  One contestant commented during the premiere that “there are more women here than there are in Iowa” when the room contained about 20 other contestants.  For future reference, I grew up in a house with four women and have two roommates who are also female, which means I know almost a third of the women in Iowa.  Apparently, we are a dying breed here in the Midwest.  The Iowa Data Center might disagree though.  According to them, women make up over 50 percent of Iowa’s population.  The ignorance displayed by many of the contestants was disheartening.

 

Regardless, I’m not writing this to pile on more disapproval, but to welcome you.  Iowa sits dead center in the middle of America.  We have a long, rich agricultural history and your future husband is part of a long list of others who have dedicated their lives to the land.   Eventually, this list will include you and your children, because as someone whose entire life revolves around agriculture, I can tell you that once you get drawn in, you will never leave.  However, many of us will never be as lucky as Chris and make it back to the farm after we earn our college degrees.  

Right now, the most important question within our industry is: who will take over and be the next generation of producers?  As of 2012, over 62 percent of U.S. farmers were 55 years old or older.  This means that over half of our farmers are reaching or have reached retirement age.  Many will never retire, farming well into their golden years, either because they refuse to stop, or because there is no one to take over cultivating their life’s work.  Quite frankly, it is hard for many young farmers to get started.  Less than 22 percent can turn a profit in their first year because of the financial demand for equipment, land and supplies.  Many will look at a farmer’s financial documents and see the large amounts of money flowing into the operation, and assume that farmers make hundreds of thousands of dollars. Few will keep looking and realize that the money is already spent before the farmer even cashes the check.     

The USDA has taken steps to help offset the cost for young farmers, allotting over 18 million dollars for continued extension and education for young people looking to begin a career in production agriculture.  Many cite land prices as the most daunting obstacle, especially in a country where more corn than ever is being demanded for food and for fuel.  Here in Iowa, we see anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 dollars per acre.  That means that a farm with about 100 acres of good farmland with decent corn yields, can be sold for upwards of a million dollars.  To put that into perspective, the average Iowa farm has about 331 acres.

 

 
Quite frankly, we need the next generation of farmers like Chris Soules, which means we also need you.  I know that a town like Arlington with about 500 residents looks like a ghost town compared to places like Chicago and Los Angeles, but that does not mean that you would be any less important.

On both sides of my family, I am the 5th generation that plans to dedicate my life to agriculture.  However, there are many in my family whose background is not as deeply rooted in Iowa farmland.  Both of my grandmothers were city girls.  One had a full scholarship to business school when she graduated high school, both were students in the top of their class and both ended up married to Iowa farmboys.  They never planned to be farmwives, but eventually they became farmers working alongside their husbands and raising their children.  We have to be willing to accept those who may not have the same background, but aspire to accomplish the same goal.  Honestly, we need to welcome you, rather than judge you.

I write this knowing that even though you did not grow up in Arlington, there is a good chance that you will fall in love with Iowa and her people.  There is a good chance that you will also end up putting in more than 40 hours a week helping your husband run a productive farm.  There is a good chance that you will be asked to do things you never imagined, like sticking your arm up a cow’s rear end or power washing a pig pen.  You will experience the ups and downs of farm life.  You will cry on the bad days, smile on the good days and hopefully you will feel blessed everyday that you get to be a part of something much bigger than yourself.

You and I are not so different.  There was a point in my life that I did not have the knowledge and experience I do now at 22 years old, but I learned just like you will.  The only difference is that I learned at a younger age.  I will admit, in the beginning I did not understand how a bunch of “city girls” would adapt to small town living, but I am living proof that it can be done.  Welcome home.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Well since this Wordless Wednesday happens to be my birthday, I thought I'd share a few pictures from my birthday celebration tonight.  I have officially survived 21and this is the last birthday I'll celebrate as a college student!

 

New Zealand Pt. 6: Cattle & Deer & Food, Oh My!

Friday, November 21, 2014

On Friday, we took off for the hills to see Mike and Sharon Barton.  Mike and Sharon are former educators from Auckland, who left the city for a simpler life in Taupo.  They chose their farm because of Mike’s love of hunting and fishing and the amazing views of Lake Taupo. This was definitely one of the most beautiful farms that I had ever seen.  However, they bought their farm in the middle of the Nitrogen controversy in 2004.  

            The urine of livestock contains high levels of nitrogen, which causes hot spots, or concentrated levels of nitrogen in one small area, when they urinate.  In the Taupo area, they have pumice soils that are free draining, which means that within the next 80 years the nitrogen from an animal that urinates today will eventually leach through the soil into the lake.  Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in the Southern Hemisphere and the fourth cleanest lake in the world, so it is very nitrogen sensitive.  High levels of nitrogen and phosphorus cause algae growth which clouds up the lake.  

            Therefore to prevent a problem, in 2005, the Waikato Regional Council initiated constraints on the amount of nitrogen that can be applied to the ground within the catchment.  A catchment is the entire area of land that eventually drains into the lake, known as a watershed here in Iowa.  The Lake Taupo catchment is about 80% native vegetation with only about 20% of it used for agricultural purposes.   

           One of the solutions was to cap the stocking levels for livestock farmers, which means to put a limit on the number of livestock they can own.  Each farmer is not allowed to own more animals than what they owned when the cap was put in place.  This means that it is impossible for livestock farmers to ever grow or expand, so the Barton’s figured out a way to add value to their beef, by branding their product.  

            They created Taupo Beef, which they market to higher-end restaurants in the Taupo area, as grass-fed, antibiotic free meat.  This allows them to charge a premium for their beef (about $20/kg for prime cuts) and has allowed them to make more money within the same stocking rate.  They also switched to using market heifers that can reach market weight in about 18-22 months, much quicker than the 24 months it takes a grassfed steer to make weight.  They also market their cattle at about 800 pounds, so they can finish them quicker, and give their clients, the gourmet chefs, the smaller cuts that they prefer.

             Mike commented that in Taupo, they were not really in farming to feed the starving million, which I thought was interesting.  They can’t really compete with larger markets, mainly because they will never produce much more beef than they are producing now.  They have to be able to make more money with the resources they currently have.  

The Bartons' farm is located in the hills just above Lake Taupo

             There were also comments made about antibiotics in U.S. agriculture and grass-fed beef versus conventionally raised, that once again made me wonder where these perceptions originated.  I do not necessarily have a problem with someone’s preferences as far as organic or grass-fed, because the way I see it, we all have essentially the same goal, we just have different methods of reaching it. What I have an issue with is the misinformation and the fear mongering that is happening.  The Barton’s believed that grass-fed beef tastes better than grain fed, probably because they are used to it and it is what available to them.  I prefer grain fed, but that is what I was raised on and what is currently in my freezer.  I’m not really sure if one way is healthier than the other, since currently there are no conclusive studies on the issue. It is all a matter of opinion really, and using your resources in the best possible way. 

            Next, we stopped at the Maori-owned Rangiatea Station where they raise deer, milk sheep and harvest their forests on about 1600 hectares, with 1700 more hectares in native brush for conservation purposes.  They are completely family owned with over 900 shareholders that span about 3-4 generations of the family.  They are also in the Taupo catchment so they have to adhere to the capped stocking rates.  Maori actually happen to own about 75% of the Lake Taupo catchment.  

Deer happen to take up less stocking units than beef cattle, however they are also flighty and still not very domesticated so they can be more difficult to wrangle.  They take many safety precautions when handling the deer, because of their tendency to spook easily.  The way their barn is set up, to the methods that they described, it is obvious that every situation has been thought of and prepared for.  Also, because of they are still being domesticated, they selectively breed mostly based on temperament and growth. Most of their venison products, about 50%, are shipped to Europe around Christmas, when venison consumption is on the rise.  

            A trust council made up of 6 members of the family is responsible for most of the decisions made about the land.  They usually have a 3 year rotation, but if the family elders feel as if they are effective at their job, they may be asked to stay on longer.  The way things were set up is very interesting.  Obviously, here in Iowa we have family-owned farms, but I don’t know of any that have 900 family members.  It sounds very complicated to me and I’m not entirely sure how they keep everything straight, especially with how much involvement the government has, since they were legally required to develop this side of the lake, after the government returned the land to their family.  Maoris have a different view of the land, than the average Kiwi, because Kiwis see the land as a stepping stone.  They do not get very attached and will sell if a they have a chance at a better opportunity.  The Maori will never sell the land they own.  I think it stems from their desire to conquer. They want to feel as though they belong somewhere, and the land will always provide an income for their family.
          I am a very opinionated person.  I like to think I have an open mind, but at the same time I'm pretty stubborn so it's usually pretty hard to change my mind.  So I took off for New Zealand, expecting to learn all about their methods, but I went with the mindset that my way was still the best way.  An amazing thing happened though.  I realized that my way might be the best way for my family, but it would not work for New Zealand's farmers, just like raising our cattle entirely on grass would never work for my family.  No one was right, no one was wrong.  Everybody was just doing the best they could for their livestock, and really, what more could you ask from a farmer? 
    

New Zealand Pt. 5: Off to Lake Taupo We Go!

After an very long, extended holiday break, here's part 5!

Thursday, November 20th, 2014

This was the day we left the Waikato for the Bay of Plenty, as we headed for Te Puke, the kiwi fruit capital of New Zealand.  This entailed traveling through: Tamahere, Cambridge, Karapiro, Te Poi, the Kaimai Mountains (which separates the Waikato region from the Bay of Plenty region), Tauranga, and Papmoa.  

Te Puke is the best place in the world to grow kiwifruit, mostly because of its climate.  It  is cold enough in the winter to get rid of most of the pests during their winter.  However, it rarely frosts over and because of the hills, most of the  super cold air funnels into the gullys between orchards that are full of the natural brush.  Fun Fact: Kiwifruit vines are actually considered an invasive species in the Bay of Plenty region, because birds eat the seeds from the bad fruit.  This causes the seeds to be spread where it eventually takes over the native vegetation.

Tauranga was Wayne, our bus driver's hometown.  It is currently home to New Zealand's biggest and busiest port, Mt. Maunganui Port, named for the mountain that sits at the entrance of the port.  In the almost 2 hour drive to Te Puke, I was once again reminded about the Kiwis' love for roundabouts.  You  could not travel more than 5 miles without going through a roundabout.  

Once we were in Te Puke, we headed for Trevalyn's Pack and Cool, where we met Daniel Brinie, Trevalyn's avocado manager.  We arrived just in time to see them pack avocados. Trevalyn's has been around Te Puke for about 35 years.  Back in the beginning most orchards had their own packing houses on site, but as the years progressed packing houses moved to central locations so they could serve several different locations.  Trevalyn's, itself, has its own orchards.
                                    

In New Zealand, all kiwifruit producers are required to supply one marketer, called Zespri.  This means that all of the kiwi fruit produced in New Zealand is shipped to packing houses where it is packed, then Zespri is responsible for shipping it around the country and overseas.  Next time you buy kiwifruit at your local grocery store, check out the little sticker.  If it says Zespri, then it was grown in New Zealand!  As a farmkid, I think it's pretty cool to know where your food was produced.

One of the coolest things we saw at Trevalyn's was the pollen mill.  For one reason or another, kiwifruit does not pollinate as efficiently as some producers would prefer.  Some kiwifruit growers rent beehives to  be placed in their orchards while others spray pollen on their female vines. Trevalyn's picks male flowers just before they open and dries the pollen.  It is then mixed into a solution which is sprayed directly onto the female flowers when they open.  This has been shown to increase the fruit size and their seed number.  It is a very profitable venture for Trevalyn's and can cost up to $2000 per kilogram.
                                 
                          

From Trevalyn's we headed to Kiwi360, a kiwifruit orchard that also serves as a tourist attraction, giving tours of their orchards and educating foreigners on New Zealand's kiwifruit industry.  

New Zealand's average kiwifruit orchard is 4-10 hectares.  Last May, Kiwi360 harvested around 100 million trays producing 350,000 tonnes of kiwi, which roughly translates to about $1.5 billion (about 22% of New Zealand's GDP).  About 75% of the national harvest is of the Hayward Green Flesh variety while about 25% is the fairly new gold flesh variety.  However, a bacteria called Pseudomonas syringae (PSA) was discovered in kiwifruit orchards in Bay of Plenty in November of 2010.  The gold variety happened to be very susceptible to the bacteria, causing most of the vines to be wiped out.  They have just now started to recover and have begun their breeding programs over again.

                                       
                                       

I could write a whole blog post solely about the origins of New Zealand's kiwifruit industry so I should probably keep moving.  

We ate our lunch on Maketu Beach where we made some new friends and took a lot of pictures.
                                                 

We would be spending the next few nights Taupo at the Taupo Urban Retreat (which happened to have its own bar).  Fun Fact: Taupo is the coldest city in New Zealand and is usually the only area that sees snow in the winter.  

We were able to eat our supper at Victoria's Cafe Kitchen Bar where we were served burgers made with beef from LakeTaupo Beef, which is owned by Mike and Sharon Barton.  The Barton's farm would be our first stop the next day.

We spent our night bonding with the other foreigners at our hostel and yes, that bonding included beer.  Alcohol, in my limited experience seems to break the international language barrier.  

Megan and I ended up in a room with 2 other roommates who were not a part of our group.  The best part of my night had to be when I was headed back to the room with an armful of laundry and ended up behind a tall, blonde guy who turnedout to be from the Netherlands on the stairs.  It was just my  luck, that he happened to be going the same direction I was heading so I got to be the creepy girl that seemed to be following him to his room at 2 in the morning, and wouldn't you know he ends up being one of my roommates.  He ended up checking out the next day, hopefully it wasn't because of the weird  girl who stalked him through the hostel (pretty sure that's a horror movie).

Alright, that's it for this one.  If you aren't sick of me yet, stay tuned for Part 6!