Factory farm

I am a small farmer through and through, none of this huge mega farming for me. I wouldn’t even like it if someone gave me a huge place and all of the equipment, I wouldn’t complain of course, but I would hire much of the work out because 5,000 acres of average wheat just doesn’t excite me like acre of garden or berries well managed does. The same thing goes for the animals. It’s nice if someone has 500 cows or a thousand sheep, but there is no way that man can know his stock like I know mine! I know how old they are and who is who without consulting a chart and I know exactly where each old cow has a favorite scratching spot. When we had sheep we could just call and all 23 would come running and follow us like they were waiting for treats (they were). I hope to have 30 ewes by next year, though I am really starting to wonder what I am going to do about this whole NAIS deal. I thought about just sticking with green growing things instead of branching off a little into the livestock but then I figured, after they get NAIS installed they’ll probably want to start tracking and registering the radishes and spinach I grow so I might as well deal with the system now. I may have to be really creative in marketing but it won’t be the first time a man has had to get really creative to duck out from under the bucket of tyranny dropping over his head. People wonder when all of this growing oppression will stop, and if they stop their treadmill a second and think about it instead of the TV they might figure out that it won’t stop at all until we do what scripture says “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Proverbs 16:7 as well as “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways and seek my face, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2^nd Chronicles 7:14. It’s not rocket science folks, we have the ability to turn things around but we’re ignoring it in favor of complaining and jumping up and down throwing a tantrum, which is more fun than repenting and changing.

Speaking of change and big farms, I have just learned that there is a huge pig factory going in at the end of Dad’s driveway. You know, one of those endless, lifeless steel buildings with nothing but semi trucks going in and pigs and putrid stink coming out. It will be a mile from the house directly downwind of the prevailing wind and the manure will be spread on the land around Dad’s place. That of course means the smell will be ever present, the water, which is really shallow there, has a good chance of becoming contaminated, and the land value will sink out of sight in a sea of liquid pig manure.

Now, I am a fanatic when it comes to personal property rights. I believe that if a piece of property is mine I can do whatever I please with that land and don’t you dare tell me what I can or cannot build, grow or raise. Unfortunately, that isn’t the way things work these days with eminent domain, permits, zoning and all of the rules and regulations pouring out of the halls of the legal system like a river of toxic waste. Even so, I believe in my right to private property and I believe others have that right as well as I so the pig farm man has every right to put as many pigs as he likes on that property without me interfering. I have one point though. If I do something on my land that hurts another man I am, or should be responsible. In these days of insurance, lawsuits and morons for judges we aren’t responsible for anything but paying taxes unfortunately. So with that in mind, even though I hate the idea of a pig farm going in, I don’t have any right (in my opinion) stopping the man from doing it. The other neighbors are just about in orbit with rage and are talking lawsuits and paperwork battles to the death but my strategy is to go pay a friendly visit to the owner and tell him that I am not worried about what he does on his own land at all, but he really needs to keep in mind that if his manure pipeline leaks and contaminates our water I will hold him responsible for taking care of getting a new water source to that place immediately. I’ll also see what I can do to help make sure he has the best system available for keeping the smell to the lowest possible level. I can’t do much about the lowering property value other than say it is a good thing and buy more land while the price is low!

With the perfect weather we have been having the snow is almost gone and the geese are flying over by the dozen. It is really spring! As of now my work load has just gone through the roof and I’ll be really busy doing all of the projects that have had to wait until spring. I don’t know how I am going to manage as it takes me 10 times as long to do a project by myself as it did when I had several brothers around to lend a hand. This year I have about 5 times more hay to do as I usually do and I have no idea how I am going to get it all in the barn by myself. I don’t know if I should try getting some machinery to do the work for me or if I should just hire some help. Probably machines since there is no help around that I can find even if I could pay some helpers. I have 5 brothers but they are either too small to help or not interested or live too far away. If you see a headline “Man falls over dead after stacking 25,000 bales of hay!” you will know it’s just me.

Still, I would rather stack the hay than spend my life chained to a miserable occupation that barely paid the taxes and where I had to go to the store to by the food I eat.

Say, does anyone out there get Farm Show magazine? If you don’t you should, it’s a great publication, that along with Small Farmer’s Journal are the two regular publications I shell out money for and they are both worth the cost. In the latest issue of Farm Show there is a story on a guy that put a Mercedes 2.2 diesel engine in a Farmall H tractor, which is exactly what I have wanted to do for a very long time. I really like the old letter series Farmall tractors though I don’t like the fact that they guzzle gasoline. I happen to be a big fan of Mercedes diesel engines so the combination is perfect for me. I am going to do a conversion for myself! I’ll have to get the shop a little more set up first, as well as shop the local sales for an H with a stuck engine. I really need a smaller diesel tractor so this ought to be a useful project. I can hardly wait to get the shop in order!