Thoughts on farming for today

With this wonderful warm weather we have been having I have been thinking about getting my fingers in the dirt again, these thoughts being strongly encouraged by the arrival of a good supply of my favorite seed catalogs in the mail in the last few days. Anyone recognize the symptoms? This year is going to be extra special (or extra work) because I have a new garden spot to get ready, actually, everything new to get ready and growing! I’ll still be doing everything with the tiny little family farm about 10 miles away, which consists of 80 acres, some in grass/alfalfa hay, some is seeded to winter rye which will be harvested and burned in the grain stoves, it works extremely well for those who are interested. The rest of the ground is waiting to be taken out of a two year clover crop, the first year was hayed along with the nurse crop of oats and peas, the second cutting was shredded in place to leave a mulch over the winter. The second year (last summer) I shredded 6-7 foot clover three times in a row! With all of that great nitrogen giving mulch, habitat for worms and other good micro things as well as the great root system that comes with the yellow sweet clover I expect a very good crop this summer. This place is another matter entirely! I have a 2 acre patch that is completely enclosed by a hedge and shelterbelt which I intend to use half for berries (strawberries and raspberries) and the other half for a seed garden since it is quite well protected from pollen drift, any area that is not seed garden will probably be set aside for other major garden crops and cover crop for next year. The trial is going to be keeping ahead of the grass that is there now and has been there for eternity most likely. The second and most likely more troublesome problem than the grass will be the deer, I am hoping to plant quite a few more fruit trees along the edge but now it is host to innumerable deer that are thoroughly enjoying the crabapples, of which there are a lot of mature and very large trees just loaded with apples. Good fencing is in order I think!
One of the best parts of it all is just going out and standing at the top of the hill looking down at each field and thinking over what would be the best thing to do for each field and for each crop that I am wanting to grow there. Some areas need something extra special to combat a particular weed growing there, like using winter rye to get rid of grass weeds or perhaps opening the soil deep and oxygenating it to get rid of Canada thistle. Other areas need more nitrogen for the planned crop so I have to come up with a way to get that on. I should be getting the organic certification this year so of course commercial fertilizers and herbicides are out of the question. There is a buffalo feedlot about a mile from here that has enough manure piled up (partially if not entirely composted) to cover this place with a thick blanket so as long as I can get it hauled I should have plenty of fertilizer, at least in that form. I probably will need a good application of calcium if I want to really grow much of anything, gypsum would have been my preferred method of applying that but it needs to be put on in the winter and I haven’t gotten to it so I may have to put that on next year and just rely on a foliar application of calcium for this summer. I am also seriously contemplating building a compost tea brewer (do an internet search if you want to know more about that) I tried a makeshift method of it last summer and was so pleased with the results that I want to do it on a larger scale this year if I can get around to it!
I do all of the heavy tillage with a Caterpillar D4 and use used crankcase oil and hydraulic fluid (properly filtered of course) instead of the increasingly expensive diesel, the problem is I have failed to collect up much used oil this winter so I had better get on track and start collecting! Another big project that I am already gearing up for is fencing everything in sight. I’ve only got 5 cows left after selling a few, some burning in the barn fire and others being given to my sister and her husband (they need a milk cow much more than I do) but regardless of the number they still need fencing and I intend to buy as many more cows as I can afford this summer along with 20 or 25 ewes to replace (a little more than) the sheep that died in the barn fire. I’ve always liked sheep though I know plenty of people that hate them! I’ve got about 20 acres under trees that would be perfect grazing for sheep and why waste that when I can make good use of it doing something that I like and is profitable? Fencing is the expensive part of having animals so I am trying to cut costs a little by cutting my own fence posts from the woods here, peeling them one at a time with an old draw knife that belongs in a museum, soaking them in oil for the winter and praying that they will last more than 10 years. I have barrels of flax seed oil (better known to most as linseed oil) sludge which is a byproduct of the oil pressing business as well as canola sludge, both of which seem to work well for treating the posts without being poison, we will see how it really works down the road a few years!
Farming is an interesting thing. I see and hear of quite a few people that work at it like mad, sacrificing so much and living with very little income, doing their best but rarely if ever getting rich in the modern meaning of the word, which basically means a huge bank balance, a nice car and a nice house. They don’t seem to mind very much, preferring the farm with it’s mud, manure, dust, grease, late nights and early mornings, low income and low prestige to what they could get say as a banker or a lawyer. My grandfather thinks it must be a disease, if it is then I am badly afflicted with it! I won’t lie, I really have a good time on the rare winter occasion when I take off somewhere south of here where it is warm. The last trip I took I flew down to southern California, bought a car and spent a week down there among the rich and selfish, marveling at the beach (which everyone was avoiding because it was too cold at 70 degrees!) everything perfectly clean and the blooming flowers everywhere. It was like a little taste of heaven but I drove home as fast as I possibly could to the place where I could sit down and eat a whole meal of heaven instead of just a taste. Right here where home is, along with the cold and the expectations of spring when I can finally get out in the fields and gardens and really LIVE! I would rather have what I’ve got even without the big paycheck and huge end of the year bonus, than what those rich and selfish guys have any day. For them to experience what I do every day they have to pay a fortune and use up their two week allotment of vacation time, then it is back to slavery for another year.
So I don’t have a million dollar house. Who cares. My cousin who does have one has been in debt for it for many years and will be paying that outrageous payment for the rest of her life. Besides, in a couple of years when I will hopefully have finished my house I’ll have one that is just as comfortable if not more so, and without the payment! On the same train of thought, I didn’t notice much that I liked better about any of the $50,000 cars or pickups that I have driven, in fact, my 20 year old car has been more comfortable and reliable than all of them, of course without the payment!
The problem is, I still want money sometimes, I haven’t yet gotten past desperately wanting a $40,000 Steinway piano. Yes it is a ridiculous extravagance for someone like me but I still want one! I would also like to have my house not only finished but finished nicely before I ever get married, though at the rate I am going, both on the house and the getting married, that will be a while! The question in my mind at this point is, what way to I best make this farm profitable? How can I best expand the oil market and how do I keep up with the demand with the equipment I have while not selling my soul to a banker? Marketing has always been one of my weak areas. Not the only weak area I assure you! So this winter I am devoting a portion of time to work on marketing and markets for what I do have. It will be interesting to see what I come up with, and I would really appreciate any ideas or suggestions anyone who reads this may come up with as well.
I guess I’m leaving something out! I don’t think anyone knows what I am talking about in regards to oil so I had better explain in a little detail for those who may be interested. This is getting long so I’ll do it in another post.