farmfacts

I just returned from signing a petition against the National Animal Identification System, which could be implemented across the entire United States. I must stress the importance of fighting against this program if you have the opportunity. It will cause the vast majority of family farmers to go out of business, and right now you need them to keep hormones and steroids out of the foods you eat.

Let me start by explaining what the NAIS is. It is a government-controlled program that will require livestock owners to document everything that happens with their animals. Each animal will be microchipped and assigned a 15-digit number. The first 3 numbers will be the premise number for your farm and the remaining 12 will be the animal’s number. This may not sound too bad considering that the animal’s history will be known, but it’s a horrible program.

Here’s why: If, for example, you have 5 horses and you want to take them to a nature trail, the rodeo, a livestock show, or something of the like, you will be required to go online within 24 hours and document in detail the reason why your animal left your property and provide each 15-digit number. Or, let’s say you have 500 calves and you are going to sell 100 of them. In 24-hours time, you will have to provide the 100 15-digit identification numbers, provide the name of the sale barn, and give a detailed explanation. If you inoculate your herd, you will have to provide all the information complete with a detailed explanation.

The other issue is the cost. Each animal will cost approximately $15. Not only do you have the initial cost for all of your animals, but you will have the added cost of each animal that is born under your care. On the flip side, places such as Premium Standard and Cargill will not be required to microchip each one of their animals. Instead, they will have one number designated for each of their barns, requiring only a one-time cost. If 5 of their sows die, they will simply report that 5 sows died. They will not have to provide 5 different numbers because their animals will not have individual numbers.

We really need to think about this. It will be devastating to those of us who are trying to make a living. The next time you’re eating a $20 steak, make an effort to call your representative and tell them that you are against NAIS.

I will have more information shortly that will further explain this destructive program. In the meantime, look to see who packages the meat you eat. You will be surprised to find that much of it comes from the same place. These places are detrimental to you, your children, your friends and relatives, and everyone else who eats them.

Until next time, Happy Farming (at least for awhile).

I was thinking today that I would talk about some of the things that people have asked. So, here are the questions with the answers that I have.

1. What do farmers wear?

Well, this is a question with many answers. We mostly wear overalls, yes, overalls.  That’s not just a saying, you know. If we run out of those, we wear jeans. We—meaning not me because I hate being hot—always wear long-sleeved, button-down shirts because we’re in the sun all day long. It is actually cooler and it prevents burning. My father-in-law has several spots of skin cancer on his face, hands, and the back of his neck where he is not covered by clothing. We have to have ball caps on to prevent face burns, and during the hottest months they wear straw hats. We wear ropers instead of tennis shoes to protect our feet from cows stepping on them or hogs biting through tennis shoes.

In the winter it’s basically the same, except we have full-body coveralls and they usually wear ball caps that have wool covers to go over the ears and neck and t-shirts under the long-sleeved shirts. Our winter coat of choice is a Carhartt. They’re usually the warmest and easiest to move in.

Then, on top of all that, we have to have mud boots that go to our knees. It gets deep around here. We also have wool gloves, leather gloves, leather gloves lined with wool, thick cotton work gloves that we buy at the co-op, and gloves that fit inside of gloves.

That’s basically it in the clothing department, but it’s enough. Just to buy coveralls for all of us for the winter costs $300 or so. Overalls cost $40 a piece and we wear them out like crazy. Coats are around $70 and each of us usually goes through at least 1 a year. We use gloves like water and the 3 of us probably spend $100-$200 each year. Mud boots, which last about a year each, cost $75 a piece. Ropers are $130 and luckily they last about 2 years. Shirts were costing $15, but we started going to the Goodwill store and we can usually find them for about $4 each. That’s helped a lot. Hats last several years and they’re like $10-$15 each, but we have numerous hats. The wool hats are around $30 and straw hats are $25 or so.

One important thing is that you don’t want to wear baggy clothes. They get caught in the machinery and we know many, many people who have lost fingers and limbs that way. My father-in-law had to have 44 inches grafted from his leg to the upper part of his arm because he got caught in the grinder gears.

2. How much does it cost to buy a farm?

            The cost of a farm depends on the seller and location. Land around here is around $2,000-$2,500 an acre, but I’ve also seen it sell for $3,500 an acre. If you want 200 acres, which is a very small farm, you would expect to pay $400,000 plus interest for the loan. Most land comes in tracts of 80 acres, and usually comes in 2 tracts that are together. 160 acres would cost $320,000. Then you have the taxes associated with it, which also all depends on the county. I found land for sale in Nebraska, 160 acres, for $556,000, which is almost $3,500 an acre. If you are looking for a farm, expect to pay at least $2,000 per acre.

3. How many acres can you plant an hour?

            You can plant an average of 6 acres per hour.

4. How much do farmers make per year?

            I have had this question a lot. The answer is simply nothing. The money we make goes toward corn, mineral, loan payments, and so on. I will be putting up an income and expense list after the first of the year if you are really interested in knowing the ins and outs, but I have to finish our books for the year and I can’t do that yet. Look back in a month or a little longer and I will generate a somewhat itemized list and post it.

5. Cost of tractors then and now…

            Oh, I like this question! How interesting! Well, I can tell you that I can get this answer. I’ll talk to my father-in-law and get some costs from the 40s, 50s, and so on. He likes to talk about this stuff anyway. Look for this in the near future. I’ll try to do it this weekend and get some info together. Kudos to whoever did a search for this!

6. Deductions for farm equipment, including pickups

            I have all of the calculations for this stuff but I’ll have to get it all together. I’ll post this in the next couple of weeks.

            Those are the questions I have had so far. I hope it’s helpful. I will get the stuff together for those few questions I couldn’t answer right away and post them shortly. Please keep checking back for new information. I have so much that I could tell everyone but it will just take awhile to get to each topic. If you have something pressing that you really need to know right away, just let me know.

HAPPY FARMING!

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            Hey Y’all! I must first apologize for my short hiatus. Things have been super crazy here on the farm. We’re trying to get everything ready for the quickly approaching winter and it seems like the list is never-ending. We hate winter. It is really hard on the animals and the equipment…and us.

            So, today I want to talk about something that’s a little off subject, but still applies to farming in a way. I had always heard people talking about the Bible and that it says that the rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer. Well, I had not found this passage myself, so I was just thinking that this was one of those things that people had interpreted and that it probably didn’t say those words exactly. However, I was wrong! We were in church a couple of Sundays ago and the gospel was from Matthew. It was that story that I had heard so much about that the priest began to read. I couldn’t believe it. How could greed be so overpowering that it was even in the Bible? I’m still thinking on the subject, but here is the passage from the Book of Matthew.

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one—to each according to his ability. Then he went away. After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came forward bringing an additional five. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.’ His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter? Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

            ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I know that most people do not believe every word of the Bible. I know that the stories and parables are supposed to be teaching tools. I understand that these are lessons that we are to heed so that we can become better people. BUT, there it is in black and white. Do you really think that people who are poor have the ability to invest their money? I know we can’t spare a cent to put in a CD or the stock market. Even my savings account only earns ½% of interest. Honestly, I’m not making any money off of it.

            Now, the other point I want to make is that we work hard every day. Just today I fed my pigs, ground corn in the mill, fed the cows, helped fix the tractor tire, made dinner and supper, washed dishes and laundry, worked on my presentation for class, took care of the puppies, checked 2 ½ miles of fence, helped my husband put a new starter on the pickup, cleaned the grass off of the Brush Hog, fed the bulls, loaded sows that are about to pig and moved them to separate pens, fed hay, and I think that’s it. I’ve done so much that I can’t remember it all. And when I say I ground corn in the mill, that means I shoveled it out one shovelful at a time into the mill. Plus, when I say I fed the cows and pigs, that means I hauled 5-gallon buckets (somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 buckets) to them one at a time. I’m not talking about easy labor here. And to say that since I’m poor I’m going to become poorer, then I say we have probably the best work ethic of anyone I know. We work hard, don’t bother anyone, and really believe in what we do. We know that our job comes with demanding work and we enjoy doing it. However, don’t tell me that I’m going to become poorer because it’s people that work hard that should be rewarded for their effort. We (and you know if you work hard or not) should be the ones who are rich.

            This is just my opinion. Feel free to disagree with me. But, one last point I want to make is that the rich have corrupted our world. The greed that I see in people every day has caused the economy to go to pot. Life isn’t all about money, and you can’t take it with you so why do you need it so badly? You’re not a better person, you don’t impress me, and I think it’s the people who have less that are better people characteristically. They don’t strive to stab people in the back and they would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. I grew up with money. My father is a lawyer. I know how money changes people. They forget who their friends are and they conveniently overlook the fact that those were the people that made them who they are and got them where they are today. Money ruins people! It’s not worth it and I would rather be poor and a good person and a hard worker than be greedy and a person who walks all over others.

And FYI: For those of you who were waiting for the information about the CAFOs and how many there are in each state, I am still working on a understandable format to post it in. I have it done and just want to make sure that it will be easily read. If it’s not decipherable, it means nothing to you.

Hope you had a HAPPY EATING Thanksgiving!

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