[Kevin Cunningham]

We are gearing up for this next season, doing apprentice interviews and such. This year I am going to start the season with a little talk about how to act and respond around working animals as nobody has any experience being around them. I think that by stating the ground rules early I can stop any problems early. With humans clear communication often requires more noise. 🙂

[Kevin Cunningham]

@Countymouse 39752 wrote:

It seems they have gotten split into two groups, one that got larger and larger and deals with spread sheets, amortization tables, and commodity market prices and hires people to take care of the “day to day” farming. The other that has gotten small and niche. These small niche farmers are, let’s face it, salesmen to a some extent.

I agree that there are essentially two groups of farmers and I certainly fit into the salesman niche marketing type but I also am an owner operator. We were talking about this with the crew at lunch the other day. I think what is decieving about the add is the idea that the “farmer” is also the one who is doing the “farm work.” I have also seen some video response by farm worker organizations that show who is really the face of agricultural work in America. It is immigrant workers, Mexican, and Latino, men and women doing the work of farming. What this add is portraying is that the farmer who owns the farm is out there doing the dirty as well as makng the business decisions. This is certainly the case on our farm, but this is not the way it is for most of American agriculture. I like to remind people this even within there specialty, niche, organic crops. I have a good friend who is a great farmer and still does the dirty work, but he has a contract to grow organic kale for some Whole Foods in the Bay Area. He is not a huge operator, he grows 5-7 acres of kale, his farm is also diversified with other crops, and he still sells at farmers markets. But he is not the one doing the harvesting of all that kale. He has a small dedicated crew of 3 Mexican guys, that work their butts off for him and they paid well. So is my friend a big timer no, but he spends most of his time in the office and the truck. This is all such a hard area to define.

@Carl Russell 39764 wrote:

Of course, I think we lose ground when faced by ads like this one…… well maybe not lose ground, but this cultural phenomenon of advertising messages and market share is pretty complex for sure…

Any way I guess what I am trying to say is that it is not clear cut and I think most people recognize that. They saw that in the ad when it aired. The best thing, the most wonderful thing about that Super Bowl ad was how much conversation it has sparked. That is a good thing. It still left some of us conflicted as it should because I think that if the farmer was out there more than maybe just maybe the face of agriculture would be a little bit different today. Just some ramblings….

[Kevin Cunningham]

@Carl Russell 39741 wrote:

I recognize that finances pose serious considerations, but I feel that it really comes down to people placing value on community. We have been convinced that financial security, like affordable food, or farm profitability, are more important than a secure and nurturing relationship with the land that sustains us. Food is fundamental to human community, and the relationship to food through land is provided by the stewards of that land-base.

I agree that the more important aspect is community and perhaps since I am still essentially in the start up phase of our farm, finances are of the utmost concern for us. I hope to find some way to stimulate the sense of community while at the same time and, maybe because of, a meaningful monetary transaction. I hope that the money our customers give us represents a type of trust that we can rely on when we steward this piece of ground. Money seems to have a dirty connotation and for good reasons, certainly more harm has been done in the name of money than just about anything else, except maybe religion, but I won’t get into that here. So how do we make our financial support systems and monetary transactions have deeper connections and pure intentions. For me the simplest way to feel good about my use of money is to give it to someone I know. If I trust someone for other reasons it make sense for me top help them out with the necessities of modern living. Help them pay their taxes, insurance, fuel bill, education, and maybe even some simple luxuries. These days most of our money leaves our hands without really ever being in them. It is a lot harder to give your neighbor some cash when most money is tied up in the bank. That is not community building at all. We have to devise clever ways to have these simple transactions and make money work for our community. Because while I would like everybody to have a deep sense of our interconnected sustaining biological, ecological, and social community, the taxes still need to get paid.

[Kevin Cunningham]

@Tim Harrigan 39744 wrote:

These things you mention are why I really do not enjoy being in public with my animals. You really do not realize how focused on them you are until someone is distracting you with these kind of questions. The team can get use to it but they notice the inattentiveness and will take advantage of it if you are not careful.

This is what I am struggling with as our farm is a very public place sometimes. Often there are shareholders, or other customers, families with children, our interns, or neighbors around. You just never know when somebody might stop by for better or worse. I know that I have to focus when I am working them but I also have to have a public persona when dealing with customers especially. People love to see the animals and I think this is a great learning/marketing oppurtunity, but the skill that it requires as a teamster might be a bit over my level sometimes. I am working on it and my boys are usually good, and I think often times the best thing for me to do is find a way to gracefully exit. The hardest examples are when an intern runs over with a seemingly super pressing problem, which it sometimes is most of the times not, and they need something addressed right away. I am working at my ability to calm them down, keep control of the animals and start problem solving a solution. I never thought that farming would require so much multi tasking.

[Kevin Cunningham]

@Eli 39731 wrote:

Sorry Dodge I’m a Ford man

Me too, all Fords, one chevy, but I am not loyal to any of them as they all seem to break down equally.

[Kevin Cunningham]

@grey 39723 wrote:

People who don’t work animals don’t understand about nonverbal communication bandwith requirements.

Well put, I am amazed at how much of my communication with the steers is body position, and other non verbal cues. If you think about it all but the most vocal animals don’t make half as much sound as we do. Humans can really make a lot of noise in comparison. Maybe we would do better if we didn’t make so much noise all the time.

[Kevin Cunningham]

@J-L 39728 wrote:

How can this change?

My opinion is that in order for the current trend of agriculture to change we need people who are wiling to support small-medium sized local farms and farmers financially. No government subsidies, or grants, or non-profits, or that organization, or this organization, just simple monetary transactions, money for goods. If people demand that their food, fiber, timber, or small goods come from someone they know personally and are willing to pay for it, not necessarily pay more it, just simply give the money to the producer. Then maybe we can change the face of the agricultural and business landscape. The only reason the sons and daughters of last generations farmers decided not to farm was because the money wasn’t in it. It simply made more sense to get a job in town, because then they could feed their families, and I can’t blame them for that. As farmers here in a small community we get asked all the time “What do farmers need in our county?” We need people to buy our produce; support us in all of our endevours, and demand of us the highest quality at the best price point. Keep us honest and working and we will keep farming, because most of us would do it even if we had to have a job in town.

[Kevin Cunningham]

I was not annoyed by the ad per se, and the speech by Paul Harvey alone is very moving, I felt it in my bones. I think it struck a chord with so many people because we all have a connection to that style of farming somewhere. I just wanted it to be put in perspective like Carl said. I am one of the those farmers and the other farmers here are those farmers. What we need more of are those farmers. Unfortunately that is not the direction our agriculture has gone in and my hope is that if people know more of the facts then they might start to make different choices that will get us back on track. I wanted to paint the picture in which Paul Harvey gave that speech. That point in history was at an important cross roads and I feel that we took the wrong road. I think Paul Harvey would have thought it was the wrong direction as well. I find it especially poignant that he gave the speech at a FFA convention. I hope this generations future farmers will make some different choices.

[Kevin Cunningham]

It was a definite trend because at least three people asked “Are they trained?” in the same day. I wasn’t really expecting that question yet alone it coming up again and again. I like the childhood analogy and I have used that example. I mainly tell my apprentices that when I am working the steers I am not fully paying attention to them, because it is like having a kid around you always have to be watching them. I actually want to make that a little clearer to our workers this year, because it became a problem when they were asking about things when I was yoking or hitching or just working the steers. I found it kinda annoying that they did not wait until a better moment to ask a question or tell me something. Any advice from teamsters that work around apprentices, interns, or other workers? How do you handle working animal etiquette? Obviously there are times you can talk to others and then there are times you cannot. I wonder how others handle these situations?

[Kevin Cunningham]

I might cause a squabble here but I have to state that I do not like aquaponics. I am getting a lot of people coming to me to talk about it as it seems to be the latest rage, but I am not a fan. In my mind it seems energy intensive and extremely tillage dependent. The elephant in the room is that these systems are based on commercial fish feed, all of which are soy based. To me this just doesn’t make sense. I guess there are some situations where it might make sense because of limited space, but resource intensive systems don’t make sense when it is relatively easy to grow vegetables, in the ground, almost anywhere. And I just cannot justify growing more soy to feed fish. Just like for cows, pigs, chickens or just about anybody else, soy isn’t a natural feed. I have never seen fish grazing on wild soy plants! Anyhow that is my little aquaponic rant, but that is part of the reason I am hesitant to start growing the fodder in a more intensive system. Our low tech set up does at least allow for complete utilization of the grain feed, but all it seems to be lacking is the chloropyhl component. This isn’t such an issue for us because all of our animals have access to green growing grass and they are pretty efficient at harvesting it themselves. In my opinion the grain is a supplement for the pasturage except the for the chickens who need more grain and supplement with the grass. Unless it can be proven that sprouting the grain to the green stage has that much more benefit it seem to me that the best thing to do is to keep it low tech and resource limited. I am open minded about the use of such systems in areas that are arid, cold, or of limited space, but I still feel we should be using our resources wisely.

[Kevin Cunningham]

Looks like a decent yoke. Yes, all the hardware on top was added to hang the yoke. I kinda like the old timey effect. This use isn’t so bad as the lawn ornament craze. I agree, it is sad to have good equipment being ruined out in the rain on someones lawn. I saved an amazing manure spreader from its fate this year.

[Kevin Cunningham]

I guess the best thing to do would be to have the feed tested. I come across a lot of material that says it is better but not how much better. I am bias and I know it is better but what I want to find are numbers. What is the energy, protein, mineral differences between the different types of grains and sprouts. I have never sent any of my grains away for testing but that might be what I have to do to get some real numbers. I started doing it because the grain would pass right through the goats, but when sprouted none came out. So I would at least assume that I am getting full use of what is in the grain at the very least. But apparently this stuff is some serious super food, but I just don’t know in which way.

[Kevin Cunningham]

We have been sprouting barley and oats for both our poultry and goats for several years now. I wonder what the advantages of sprouting the grain all the way to green shoot stage? We use a simple four day bucket set up that allows us to germinate the grain but not grow grass. Are there any resources out there that could give any information. Right now our system is pretty low tech no lights or pumps, or anything. I am wondering if the benefits out way the expense.

Here is a picture of our bucket setup:

And the bucket itself is a smaller 4 gal bucket with holes set inside a five gal bucket to catch the runoff (pigs love to drink this by the way)

The grain a few days into it. These are oats that we grow here on the farm and it allows us to feed the grain without investing in some sort of roller mill or the like.

The animals seem to do great on this level of sprouted grain. I would consider making a more sophisticated setup up if there was a good reason to. So does anybody know why is it better at the green sprout stage?

[Kevin Cunningham]

Joseph is trying to tell me something and I am struggling to figure out what it is. He is my “problem child” and I have always struggled with him. I am second guessing my decision to choose him for the team. I know I can work on my understanding and communication and in that way he will teach me more than if he had just been an easy steer like Tex, but he has a personality that I will try to avoid in any future teams I train. I am not giving up on him, but just recognizing how hard he is to train. He will ultimately make me a teamster. I have tried many different things with him and we are getting by but it is not excellent. He still hangs his head low. I have addressed all that I can on the yoke to make it fit properly. I am probably due to make another yoke as the one I have just doesn’t seem to be working like it should, and the one I am using now has developed a crack that doesn’t affect the neck seats but does prevent me from removing any more wood without compromising the structural integrity.
Joseph is also very skittish. He will shy at the littlest things and often. I know this about him and I have learned to anticipate when he might get scared but I cannot stop him from being skittish, he always will be. He is always looking around at anything when in the yoke, he is innately curious, but his inability to focus makes him hard to deal with. Because he hangs his head low and is always trying the look at everything, I have thought a head yoke that offers more control might be a good thing to try with them and I still would like to.
Joseph also seems to be the more intelligent of the two and is always trying to find a way to slack off the work. He knows that there is an easier life out there. And this is mostly my fault because I have let them run with other steers in the field too much. I now have them in tie stalls in the barn and my control of them seems to be improving greatly. I will do my initial training differently in the future. I have learned so much from my mistakes with these two.
These guy keep teaching me and I keep stumbling along making mistakes and also doing something right because they are getting some work done and do seem to be improving. Maybe my expectation need to be lowered a bit as well.

[Kevin Cunningham]

here is the Yeti cooler site:

http://store.yeticoolers.com/?gclid=CO-y5aDDgbUCFWrZQgodZBcAaQ

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