Helping the Neighbor

Shown above is Joe in his tractor on a side hill.   The recent rainy weeks have kept many of the other farmers out of their fields.  While we finished seeding before the rain, many did not and it's critical in getting the crops in the fields.  So Joe is helping out a neighbor to get his soft white wheat in the field. 

This is what a freshly seeded field looks like when you plant it with a special "no till drill"implement.  Notice the wheat straw from last years harvest, the wheat stubble will help catch rain water as well help reduce erosion  when it does rain and the stubble also helps keep moisture in the ground for the crops (think of using compost material in your gardens to reduce weeds and lock in moisture) but only a much larger scale.  Plus by not plowing in the fall and by seeding directly into last year's stubble, it saves fossil fuel and is better for the soil health. 

An Upcoming Visit with the Japan Trade Team

It's official, the Japan Trade Team is coming to the Palouse and our farm next month!  This is exciting news. In visiting with Theresa from the Idaho Wheat Commission, my first response was great! Then I asked, what do I feed them and how many are coming?   The guests are 5 men who range from being the director of the U.S. Wheat Associates to managers from various flour mills in Japan.   Theresa's ever calming presence assured me they will eat whatever I prepare, but did offer some suggestions. They like red meat as it is very expensive in their home country and considered a rare treat.  So the menu will consist of good quality USA steaks, most likely potato salad as well as other local items produced on the Palouse.  Their visit  will be very short and packed with lots of activity such as visiting the Lewis/Clark grain terminal, the WSU Wheat labs,  the UI greenhouse & seed processing plant, the Palouse Northwest Farmers Coop (in Genesee) then onto our farm.  They will be ready for a cold beer and dinner after all that.  

By inviting those who use our products is not just a good business practice, but  a way to allow them to see first hand where their wheat comes from and who grows it.  They actually get to see "farm to processing" so they can be assured what we send them is the best product for their noodles, crackers, etc.   Visits like these allow time for questions, discussions as well as developing a special rapport with our buyers.

Most likely we will invite a couple of other wheat growers to dinner so the trade team can ask us all sorts of questions. I will definitely get lots of pictures to post.

Meanwhile,  farming is at a standstill for now due to crazy weather.  Yesterday we had 50 mph winds, today it was still windy but not nearly the extent of yesterday plus it's snowing... yuck.  No spraying for weeds today and we will see what tomorrow brings- although the forecast is for rain. So the guys check fields on both farms to see what is needed in the way of tending the crops and will have a plan of action when "Mother Nature" gives them the go ahead to get back in the field.

Spring Seeding Accomplished (well almost)

It's Tuesday evening as I'm writing this and we finished seeding the garbanzo beans last night around 7:00pm on Monday.  We are done seeding for the most part.  Whew.....

The weather forecast was showing rain for the rest of the week  so we really wanted to get finished.   The last few days around the Palouse have been very busy with seed trucks and tractors out in the fields racing against the weather.  I'm not sure about the neighbors, but we finished are are very thankful for the 1/2 " of rain received today.  This is perfect and we could not have ordered a better weather forecast.  We do have about 12 acres left to seed with sunflowers, but that is not critical.

One Monday, I was working around our home place, spraying Round-up for weed control, so I grabbed my camera to take a few pictures of brother-in-law Jay who was doing the seeding on the Genesee farm.  As I mentioned in the last blog about the "nurse truck" , well I was able to snap some pictures of this event. Here they are as shown above.  The nurse truck is equipped with  an auger that dumps the seed into the seed box.

Joe was at the Tammany farm spraying the garbs planted down there.  Garbs require some special attention in that you have one shot and one shot only to control weeds.  If weather conditions are not right, sometimes the weed application is not optimal and the end result is a weedy field (farmers don't like messy weedy fields - and Murphy's law seems that if you have something go wrong, it is ALWAYS by the highway and visible...   =)  I would compare it to having a nosy relative drop in unexpectedly and your house was really messy)  =(    A clean weed free field is a source of pride to those of us that farm, it means we try to carefully tend and take care of  our ground in the best manner we can.   So the process is like this: the farmer tries to time spraying a "pre-emergent" on the garb ground just before the garb plants are set to pop up out of the ground to control the known pesky weeds that will plague this plant.  Once the plants are out of the ground, there is not an  FDA approved product that can be sprayed to control the weeds, so it is a gamble on whether or not the farmer will have a nice clean, weed free field to harvest or a weed infested field which will yield lower and the farmer most likely will get docked for the less than optimum product. 

So that's all for now folks!  I'll also be photographing this crop on my "Diary of a Crop" as well.

Garbanzo Seeding at the Tammany Farm

Joe and I went down this afternoon (Sunday) to get "my tractor" from the Tammany farm.  I like playing out doors and want to work more on the yard.  So when Joe asked if I wanted to go with him to go get the little blue tractor, I said yes! (to read more on that, see the At Home on the Farm page).  Once on our Tammany farm, we passed one of our fields that was being seeded to garbanzo beans and I thought I would share the process, sort of a Garbanzo Seeding 101 lesson.  I still find it interesting as well as amazing at how we constantly must change to work better, faster, more efficiently not only to keep our farm financially healthy, but to leverage the farmers time in the field in a better manner.  In esssence we have to do more with less, just like the rest of the businesses (Ag or non Ag) related.

Garbanzo Seeding 101

Step 1: The garb seeds arrive at the farm via one of our semi's and if you look at this picture, you will see that they are dumped from the bottom of the semi onto a conveyor called a belt-a-vator (sp?) 

The belt-a-vator then transports the seeds up into a smaller seed truck (called a nurse truck) that will go out into the field where the tractor and seeding drill are.

This is what the garb seeds look like.  They are pretreated to help protect the seed against soil borne diseases.  (They look sort of like Trix cereal and are very colorful). 

Step 2:  Next comes the cute farmer to drive the tractor.

Step 3:  The cute farmer then drives the tractor and seeding drill around and around the fields to plant the seeds.

Step 4:  This part is up to "Mother Nature" to help us farmers out with warm weather and adequate moisture.

Step 5:  Assuming "Step 4" is sucessrfully followed by Mother Nature, the farmer will carefully tend the crops and protect them against weeds and insects.   Watch for Step 5 (harvesting) in a September blog!  Maybe I'll even have a new camera (hint to the farmer hubby - there is a model at Costco that I like) that can take small movie clips.  So there, now you have learned how garbanzos are planted, go celebrate and buy some "Hummus" at your local store! =)

We're ready to go, but the tractor had other ideas...

As I was driving home from work last Friday, I saw the tractor, the seed truck and the anhydrous ammonia truck in the field.  Oh boy, it looks like we're able to get back into the field again!  The snow was gone and the ground was dry enough to begin seeding spring wheat.  So I parked my car and hopped out to snap a few pictures for the blog when I spot brother in law, Jay walking to the tractor and then I saw....

a repair truck!  Ugh, this is not what you want to see in the field as a breakdown is the bane of all farmers.   There is never a good time for repairs,  but the worst possible day is, you guessed it, a Friday afternoon because there is a very good chance that nothing will get done until parts arrive, which usually is Monday, maybe Tuesday.   So with 40 acres left of spring wheat to get in the ground, we are waiting for the parts to arrive.   Now as I'm writing this, it has also started raining, so it appears there is now plenty of time to get the repairs done.

Joe headed down to the Tammany farm  first thing this morning with a semi loaded with garbanzo bean seed to hopefully get started seeding.   So if you like hummas, you will be happy we are planting quite a few acres of garbanzo beans. =)    The one thing I've learned about farmers is they are patient and can take the unexpected in stride. Breakdowns and weather are just two of the things they encounter trying to do their job, but that is okay, this breed has perseverance.

P.S. - in case you are new to this blog, the Home page is what we are doing on the farm, the At Home on the Farm page is about our lives as farmers - sort of an up close & personal peek into our personal lives, the Recipe section, a Diary of a Crop, and a the Ag view with facts/figures about the inconsistancies from Food, Inc.  So as always, please email me if you have questions or leave a comment and glad you stopped by.  I hope you will come back soon.

Springwork Temporarily Interupted by Snow

Weather on the Palouse is a fickle thing, especially in Spring.  So with that being said, we are patiently waiting for drier, nicer weather in hopes that we can get back in the fields again.  The spring wheat  has been planted on the Tammany farm, we moved up to the Genesee farm and were able to get some more wheat planted, but have more to go.  We also have garbanzo beans to get seeded on both farms and those plants need much warmer weather to germinate, so I'm thinking warm spring, warm sunny weather thoughts (so is our granddaughter pictured above).  We are probably about 40% done, so we're not panicking about being out of the fields right now due to weather related conditions and will hope the ground will dry out enough very soon. =)

Farmers have a "feel good job"

Last night I attended a board meeting for a foundation non-profit group that I belong to.  One of the members, Annette, who works at the local Farm Service Agency was saying how she loved her job and that it was a "feel good" job.  She knew that what she did each day helped farmers and that in turn then helped the farmers to go out and do their job of feeding the world.  What a great perspective!  Thank you Annette and to all the other people who work in the government agencies that help our farmers with the farm programs.  Here are some interesting farm facts about the Farm Bill:

• More than 70% of farm bill-related spending goes to food and nutrition programs like food stamps, not to farmers.
• The farm bill invests $406 billion over 10 years in nutrition programs, helping more than 38 million Americans afford healthy meals and updating the Food Stamp Program to reflect today’s challenges.
• The farm safety net was cut by $3.5 billion in the 2008 farm bill. Factor in cuts to crop insurance and farmers’ funding fell $7.4 billion

Her statement got me to thinking back to the conference we attended earlier this month and that was exactly the very same sentiment expressed by the farmers and ranchers that we met.  The stories were varied, but the common theme was the same, we love what we do, it is a  "feel good job".  

So the next time you grocery shop or prepare a meal, remember all of the people who work really hard and make it possible to enjoy this fact:  "America has the cheapest, safest, most abundant food supply in the world."  Yup, it is a feel good job.

Feeding America, 1st day of Spring Work, March, 2010

Today Joe headed down to the Tammany farm which is located 37 miles South of our Genesee farm to spray out the weeds in preparation for the spring wheat to be planted. It is an important step, as with anything, to have the proper foundation bed to get optimal productivity. If you garden, you know how pesky weeds can be and you do not want them to compete with the what you want to grow and we are the same, we do not want the weeds to compete with the wheat for water and nutrients. So farmers try to give their crops the best start they can and will continue to monitor the various crop stages to help eliminate weeds and insects that will harm the wheat plant. "Farmers strive to be agronomicially sound, economically smart and environmentally safe." This quote says it all, just wish I'd thought of it, instead it came from Frank Lussetto from a publication called "The Furrow" published by the John Deere company.

Brother in law, Jay stayed around the home place to do odds and ends before he will head down and begin helping Joe.

The location of this farm allows us the opportunity to get into the field about a couple weeks earlier so logistically it is a good fit for our farming operations. Our days will now start early as the drive time from the home shop to the Tammany shop is close to an hour each way.

This morning as I packed Joe's lunch I could feel his excitement as it is the beginning of the official "farming season". The farming season for us is usually mid - March through the end of October. It encompasses prepping of the ground for seeding it, planting (seeding) the crops, tending the crops throughout the growing season, harvest, Fall work and ending again with seeding winter wheat. Once the fields are ready to be seeded and weather permitting, we will work 7 days a week and the our guys will head out the door around 6:30am and return after dark, which in PDT is around 7:30pm ish.

The spoiled pooch named Josie is also excited that lunchbox season is here. She likes to sample the lunch meat and her job is quality control to ensure that the contents of the sandwich is of the best for her "dad".

While I was making Joe's lunch, it sort of reminded me of the times when I would pack our daughters lunches for their first day of school when they were little and how eagerly they were to begin the school year. So heading out the door with a big grin, he says, "I'm off to feed America!" With that my friends, this farmer and all the rest of the hardworking farmers will continue to provide everyone with safe and economical sources of food.

If you want to read more about the personal commitment of this farmer, go to the next page on the At Home on the Farm titled "The Commitment of a Farmer".

The Value of Perception, Farmers vs Urbanites

As I was driving to work this beautiful almost Spring morning, I saw a cow outside of a barn and remembered a comment and discussion from last week's Ag conference. It was during a break out session conducted by Michele Payn-Knoper an advocate for agriculture. It went something like this, one man said during a group discussion, "it's just common sense that if you mistreat an animal that you are not going to get optimal performance out of them. Why would we mistreat our animals when our livelihood depends on them? Common sense dictates that you don't abuse your source of income. The happier the animals are, the better they produce" ...... I replied yes that is true and it is common sense to you and I, but it is not to many of the people who have never lived on a farm. The non-Ag sector of the population do not have that frame of reference and rely on the propaganda from PETA, HSUS and the other 25 anti -Ag groups out there. That was when one woman joined in and confirmed my comment by saying "I recently married a farmer, but I grew up in an urban setting, so what may seem like common sense to a farmer, isn't what urbanites believe to be true." Another woman said, yes as a nursing mom, "if I am stressed, it affects my breast feeding! I never thought of it that way before."

Anyway, my point is that every one's point of reference and what they think is just plain ole common sense is not that way at all. So one more reason to just talk to people, explain what we do, why we do things in a particular way and get a conversation going. Otherwise these very same people have no one to tell them that these anti-Ag groups are full of the "end product from a cow"... =)

The Farmers go to the Big City

Many dedicated farmers/ranchers took time out of their busy schedules to attend a Nat'l Agriculture conference. Joe & I along with several other Idaho producers also attended this event. In this picture is my husband Joe Anderson (in the green shirt), myself and our other farmer friend, also named Joe Anderson (in the sport coat). Both Joe Andersons farm about 30 miles from each other and both are active in the wheat industry. Many who know these guys often refer to them as "Genesee Joe" and "Potlatch Joe" to avoid confusion. My husband is the secretary on the Idaho Grain Producers Association and "Potlatch Joe" is a Commissioner on the Idaho Wheat Commission so we see each other frequently at meetings.

Within the Vendor Exhibit hall, there was this great booth by Monsanto and these bill boards say it all. I stopped by their booth to request permission to print some of these, and it was granted. The reps told me these were real farm families, not models.

These are the faces of some of the people who feed you. 99% of us live on our farms and produce 94% of the food. For tax purposes we may structure our farms as "corporations" but we are still family owned and operated. We are not the big faceless corporations that the anti Ag groups try to make us out to be.

This caption says, "American Farmers Grow America. Ag helps feed our economy with nearly 100 billion in exports and over 24 million American jobs here at home." With these figures, why are the anti Ag groups trying to put us out of business?

If people don't like being dependant on foreign oil imports, can you imagine what it would be like to depend on foreign countries for our food? If you don't think it can't happen here, take a look at the United Kingdom. They were exporters, now they are importers for their food. To read more, click on the above link.


Do you realize there are 27 dedicated anti Ag groups out there? 27 !!! All trying to put the family farmer out of business with their actions and attempts to implement unnecessary and costly regulations on the family farmer. These groups prey upon consumer ignorance of where their food comes from as well as using emotional scare tactics to garner voter support. Again, this is listed in my earlier blog of a court ruling (so click on the above high-lighted sentence). The HSUS is not the same humane society that we get our dogs and cats from, this is a very convenient and well thought out ruse on their part.

By the actions of these anti Ag groups, they are trying to take away food choices of the consumer and force their views upon everyone. Let the consumer choose organic vs conventional farming, let them choose to pay more for organic if they want.

Below, Secretary of AG, Tom Vilsack addressed our conference and urged farmers to take action and be proactive. Did you know in 1950 15% of the population were farmers? Today, it is 1%. In 1950 an average farmer fed 20 people. Todays farmer feeds about 120 people. We can't go back to that era, unless of course you want to be one of those that goes to bed hungry. What was stressed over and over not only from the Secretary of Ag, but by other speakers was, we need to reach out and begin telling our story. Farmers by nature are modest and we assumed (wrongly) that people knew that we were trying to provide the best food possible at the lowest price for them, we feed the world. Now if we do not heed this warning, our way of life and your food source is in danger. Please support your American Farmer. If you have questions about food practices, call or write your State's Ag groups, they will give you the facts and info. Do not believe the food extremists as they are trying to take your food choices away.
















On a lighter side, it was eye candy for the farmers with all sorts of new bright shiny equipment. You should have seen all of these guys crawling all over the equipment.

So as you are reading this, if your tummy is full and you have clothes to wear, thank a farmer. Please ask us questions and please support us, do not be duped into enacting laws that will harm your food producers.


All in all it was a great conference, the seminars and meetings were informational as well as educational.