Wild Weather on the Palouse

The one thing that  farmers try to control is to keep our precious top soil from eroding away by utilizing pro-active conservation efforts, but sometimes our best efforts are cancelled out by the weather.  Our winter has been one extreme to another with bitter cold temperatures, then 3 days later the temperatures are in the mid-40's and raining.   This past week has been no exception and we have lost almost all of our snow, we have had heavy rains and the temperatures today were in the low 50's which have caused many fields to flood and run off into the small creeks.  This is not our field, but one that borders next to us.

   

Large chucks of ice are being
carried downstream along with our top soil 

Hard to tell where the field stops and
where the creek starts

A view of the "lake" which one week ago was
a field planted with winter wheat

 This is part of the cycle of farmers, some things we can control and do our best, others we do our best to accept and cope with events beyond our control.

The Science of Farming

Snow covered field that has been
planted with winter wheat

I never really know exactly what I will write when sitting down in front of the computer, the blog sort of takes on a life of its own! =)

The Farmer (Joe) and I returned yesterday from Boise, Idaho where we attended the Idaho Governor’s Dinner and Ball. It was our first time and it was an honor being there. Joe is the Vice President for the Idaho Grain Producers Association (IGPA) and also attending with us was the IGPA  President, Clark Kaufman and wife, Debbie.   It is crucial for producers to keep a good rapport with our Governor, Senators and Representatives.  Good legislation and laws not only help us, but it helps you, the consumer.  America has the cheapest, safest, most abundant food supply in the world, we spend only 9.8% of our income on food, less than any other country.  So when we work together with our elected officials to help craft regulations or laws that do not hinder the agriculture industry, it benefits the farmers as well as you, the consumer.

Joe in front of the Idaho capitol

Standing beside the sign for the headquarters of
Idaho Grain Producers Assoc & other
Agriculture Commissions

During the governor’s dinner, we sat next to a very interesting couple from Southern Idaho who were dairy farmers. While visiting, the topic came up about how few of us there were and that farmers make about 2% of the population. That figure includes the “hobby farmers” who have an income of $1,000 or more, but it is not their main source of income, but rather a small side business, thereby acquiring the title of hobby farmer. The farmers that make their living full-time are around .5%! That is a sobering fact, that .5% of the USA’s population feeds and cloths America as well as much of the world. With so many people removed from where their food comes from and not having the face-to-face contact with those of us who produce the food they eat and the cotton for the clothes they wear, it’s no wonder many urban dwellers do not know where their food comes from.


Farming is a precise science and if we make a mistake or if nature doesn’t cooperate, your food source suffers or fails altogether. From conversations with our urban friends, many just think a farmer plops a seed in the ground “ta da” you have an instant crop…. But in all reality much more goes into the process. First the decision of what crop to plant, the variety (as many have different genetics, for instance some wheat varieties are bred to be more drought resistant than others), protecting your crop from pests and weeds, getting it harvested, and whatever mother nature throws at you too, now you get the picture. It’s sort of like raising a child each year; you are there from early infancy and you carefully tend them to maturity. I love this quote, "Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field." - President Dwight D. Eisenhower

In today’s newspaper there was an article about a Purdue University study that shows no-till farming, cuts greenhouse gases and thus, combats global warming. No-till farming is a practice (which is what we do) whereby a farmer does not plow under their crop residue (the part that is not harvested), instead we seed directly into the soil to plant seeds and inject fertilizers with a minimal disruption of the ground, thereby releasing less nitrous oxide than the conventional plowing of the ground (i.e. a better carbon footprint). I think the no-till practice could be another blog just on that topic, but for those of you wanting to read more, click on the above link as it was an excellent article.

Anyway, my point is that we, as farmers, protect our resources and strive to provide the best and safest food source for you and us too. Remember, if you have questions, comments, concerns, email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com and I promise I will respond.

I’m still working on future blogs that will focus on how local garbanzos are made into hummus, where the wheat goes when it gets taken to the grain terminals, and how do our local universities help the farmer with their research. Till then my friends, take care, stay warm and when you sit down to your next meal, remember, you have our commitment to giving you the best, safest product anywhere on the face of this earth.  Yours truly, Gayle, the Idaho Farm Wife

Farmers love their big boy toys

One thing about living on the farm, we don't lack having serious snow removal equipment to keep us plowed out when the snow storms hit.  Once Joe gets our driveway cleared, he will then plow out his folks, my mom and several neighbors along the way as well.  Farmers with their tractors and snow removal equipment are very popular with the neighbors.  =)

Interesting snow patterns on the antique seed box

Unusual snow patterns in the field in front of our house

Now that the whirlwind of Christmas and New Year's has come and gone, it's time to get back into blogging more again.  I have a new camera,  so I am looking forward to having better pictures and videos on the blog.  One of my goals for 2011 is to improve the blog site and do more with it.  So thank you for following it and I hope you come back often.  As always, please email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have thoughts, ideas or questions.

Merry Christmas from the Anderson Farm

Whew! What a busy month it has been.  December seems to fly by just like the month of August when we are in harvest.  Life on the farm has slowed to a snail's pace, but in our personal lives, this is the time we get to reconnect with family and friends as most of the year is devoted to raising crops.  I love Christmas and start preparing for the big day right after Thanksgiving. The pace is hectic, just like harvest, but the focus is purely social, such as an annual Christmas party hosted at our house, gathering the women of our family  to bake cookies, plus everything else associated with the holiday season. 

After Christmas I plan on blogging about where the crops go after they are harvested. You will get a behind the scenes look at how hummus is made, where the wheat goes after it is taken to the grain terminals and how the wheat labs at the University of Idaho and Washington State University help the farmers to  raise better crops.   So stay tuned!

Late last night,  I received a call from Kaitlyn, our youngest daughter, telling us that  her new boyfriend (whom we have not met yet) can't get home for Christmas, so she is bringing him with her.... well a quick dash to town to grab a gift card!



With that, we wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas,

Joe and Gayle Anderson

 



Farmers are a Rare Commodity

With the arrival of winter, life on the farm slows way down.  This is the time when we are working in the shop and repairing equipment.  It is also the time that farmers, like us, attend meetings, workshops or conferences to learn about the newest products, procedures or attend seminars that focus on anything from succession planning to giving input on the upcoming farm bill or just plain networking with like minded individuals. 

The Oregon/Idaho Grains Conference hosted in beautiful Portland, Oregon was attended by many of the best and brightest farmers who are working to continue to help the Ag industry.  At this conference, Joe officially became the Vice President of the Idaho Grain Producers Association (IGPA), an obligation that he wholeheartedly embraces and devotes a great deal of his personal time to.


One of the dedicated farmers who was recognized and honored for his hard work in the wheat industry was a man named Mark Darrington. After receiving the award, Mark told the story that out of his 4 sons, only one as willing to follow in his dad's footsteps and become a farmer. Farming is a year to year risk and as Mark explained, all of our resources go into putting the crop in the ground and hope for a good harvest. Not many people can or want to take financial risks of that nature. Farmers are a strong breed of men and women who share a love of the land and the desire to put food on every one's table, and I feel very privileged to be a part of this group. 

At this conference, I had an interesting experience which again reinforced my views that farmers are thought to be somewhat of a novelty as the bulk of the population rarely has any interaction with those of us involved in agriculture. Case in point: while making a purchase in a department store, a sweet young clerk dutifully asked what brought me to her city (which I am sure she asks that question hundreds of times), so I explained we were here for a farm conference. Once she realized I was an actual farmer, she became quite animated and wanted to know what we grew on our farm, plus she wanted to share her story about her friend who traded her corporate life for one that entailed a foray into some kind of organic farm related venture. The clerk truly was excited to meet a real authentic farmwife and the thought hit me that we are such a minority  we are a novelty! This has happened to me many times and each time it does, I come away feeling amazed and blessed that I am part of this industry  but also recognize that we, as farmers, must tell our story again and again.  What other industry can make the claim that “Today's farmer provides food and fiber for about 140 people—up from just 19 people in 1940” per the Farm Policy Facts website. 


In case you were wondering why I don't have pictures of this event... I have to confess I left my camera at home in my haste trying to get to the airport via the snowstorm that was going on at the time. =) So I'll post pictures of winter scenes from our farm like this....


Winter in our area of the country (Northern Idaho) is beautiful and here is a what we enjoy everyday.

Windmill outside our kitchen window as the sun is setting



A view from the back of our house overlooking
some of our fields

Also at the conference, I met a young woman named Sarah who was attending her first farm conference with her farmer-boyfriend. Sarah was sharing that she didn’t know much about farm life but found it interesting and questioned me and Brenda, another farmwife about our lives and asked if she would ever learn everything there was to know about farming. We both told her farm life is great, but what people don't understand is that it isn't just a job, it's a lifestyle, so be sure you are ready for that adventure.  We told her about our lives and admitted that we were still learning about farming too, even after 25+ years on the farm.  So Sarah if you are reading this, I know you will make a great farm wife, you have the passion.

During the banquet, a striking young woman holding a friend’s baby came up to me to tell me she was a fan of this blog. Now that really made my day and I was quite humbled to have someone else in the Ag field seek me out. I never did get her name, but if you are reading this, thank you for the ultimate compliment. =)

As always, I  hope you enjoy the blog, email me if you have comments, thoughts, questions and I promise to respond.  I also just received permission to document and photograph how Bronzestone Hummus  is made, which uses locally grown garbanzo beans.  So stayed tuned for more on that! 

Fuel Containment Project Completed

From my earlier blog (July 15, 2010)
http://www.idahofarmwife.net/2010/07/farm-projects.html  I showed a couple of pictures about dismantling an old grain silo to make way for the new fuel containment site.  Well,we are happy to announce that project is done and one more thing to cross off of the "to do list".   The fuel containment is part of the necessary components of a Spill Prevention Countermeasures and Control (SPCC) plan.

Getting the site ready to pour the pad

A break in the weather helped the pouring along.

The big tank is for red-dyed off road diesel.
The two smaller tanks, the top one is for road diesel,
the bottom one is for gasoline

Shown here is the security fencing being installed.

Outside work on the farm has come to an end for the year, the wheat crops are safely in the ground, equipment is cleaned and stored - winter on the farm  is our down time.  Now until March, we will be busy working on inside shop projects, sometimes it is fabricating some kind of small item that will help with making our farm work easier or just regular maintenance on the equipment. 

For the next few months Joe will be traveling to meetings on behalf of the Idaho Grain Producers Association and Jay is recovering from a recent knee surgery.

For me, I thought I would focus and report on some different kinds of things such as:

* how local garbanzos are made into humus at the Bronzestone Humus Company.
* UI & WSU Wheat Labs
* Where does the grain go once it leaves the field

So stayed tuned and watch for these blogs.  =)  As always, thanks for reading and come by often.

P.S.  If you want to see how to make a cool ornament Christmas wreath, check out the At Home on the Farm page.  Also I've updated the Diary of a Crop page that shows the winter.  Keeping watching for more on some yummy new recipes on the Recipe page as well.

Field Maintenance on the Farm

After the winter wheat has been seeded (if you listen closely enough I am sure you can still hear the collective sigh of relief not only from us, but other area farmers as well), we try to get as much field maintenance work done and often have to work around the Fall rains.  Sometimes we don't get very much accomplished due to the wet weather. 

Believe it or not, fields like anything else, require continued maintenance every year.  Each Fall we try to put in drain tile so excessive ground water can be carried out of the field and keep it from getting swampy. By not having these mud holes in the spring when we are trying to seed can speed up the time frame of getting the crop planted sometimes by a week or more. Timing is everything when it comes to getting the crop in the ground. 

Here are pictures and  videos of the actual process for putting in the tile.   On this particular field, it is rented ground and we are incurring the expense of putting in the tile. We own this tiler so this helps bring the cost down by not having to hire a company to do this task.  Some landlords will pay for the upgrade, some will not, so we feel incurring the cost of this project is worthwhile.  By installing tile it will improve the ground and allows for better crop yields and of course, this makes the landlord happy (so come lease renewal time, they are willing to renew the leases).




The roles of tile on the trailer



Jay & Cody unrolling the tile

Tile being laid in the ground

Tile being laid in the field, this is a labor intensive process

.

Fall Work on the Palouse

Fall work has begun in the "Palouse" and here are some videos that I took of the winter wheat being planted on our Genesee farm.  At the time of this blog (Tuesday, 10/12/10) we have now moved down to the Tammany farm, which is about an hour away from our home and we hope to be done seeding in a couple of days. 

Our rotational crops on our farm are winter wheat, spring wheat and then a legume (usually garbanzo beans).  As mentioned in earlier blogs, this is to help soil health, weed control and pest control by rotating crops. Winter wheat is planted now in the fall and will be harvested next August.

In these videos I had just come home from work and saw the tractor and seeding drill working around our house.  We live on the Palouse, which is a rich farming area that encompasses parts of Washington and Idaho.  Our rolling hills mainly grow wheat, pea, lentils and garbanzos.  Anyway, I hurriedly changed clothes and literally ran up the steep hillside to capture the videos and pictures as this was the very last patch to be done on our farm before moving down South to the Tammany farm.  I was standing on the hill behind our house and this is my brother-in-law, Jay in the tractor which is both seeding the wheat as well as fertilizing it at the same time.  We can plant about 200 acres a day if one person is in the tractor and one is on hand to keep the drills filled with seed and fertilizer.



Here is a  video clip of Joe in the tractor pulling a spike tooth harrow implement in the same field .  The purpose of this piece of equipment is to ensure the soil has covered the wheat seed and  to spread out the crop residue from the recent garbanzo harvest.  It is sort of like using a rake to cover the seeds when you plant them in your garden and smooth out the soil, only of course, on a much larger scale. =)



This is what a freshly seeded  field looks like up close.  The  red seeds

are  treated wheat kernels. Note the crop residue from the previous

garbanzo crop.  This is like "composting" and  it helps the ground to

keep moisture in the soil and reduce erosion.

 

The seed truck and fertilizer truck on hand in the field to fill the drill

A view of the harrow implement

A view of the rolling hills of some of our farm ground 



A view of our house from the top of the hill that I climbed when
I shot the footage of the tractor seeding wheat.
It's a great hill for sledding  =)

The weather forecast is great, sun and no rain for the rest of the week.  This means we will finish seeding the winter wheat this week.  It's a relief to get the seed in the ground as in this part of the country, it can start raining and not stop until the snow flies.  So everyone hurries to get the fall crop planted as "Mother Nature" can be somewhat unpredictable.  Procrastination is not in a farmer's  vocabulary when it comes to getting the crops planted or harvested, as our livelihood depends on timely work to be accomplished.  When the snow flies, then we can relax! =)

Urban Wheat Field - Washington, DC

A view of the Capitol from the Urban Wheat Field site



The Urban Wheat Field hosted by National Association of Wheat Growers in partnership with the Wheat Foods Council in Washington DC was amazing, to say the least.  My blog will have lots of pictures and I will show you what the visitors saw, so it may be long, but  it is worth the read! =)  This event was designed for the urban consumer to see, from start to finish,  the journey of a wheat plant from its young green grass looking stage to the golden wheat head stage.   The stations were set up to educate the consumer about milling the product, exporting it to other countries, a baking station, and a mock-up of a grocery store isle that showed an assortment of products such as cookies, crackers, bread or flour.  The space for this event was on a quarter-acre field. 

On Wednesday, September 22, there was lots of activity going on as the wheat arrived via semi trucks as shown below.  As mentioned in an earlier blog, the wheat was grown at the University of  Maryland.

Golden ripe wheat  arrives and awaits to be unloaded

The wheat was unloaded from the semis by the forklift as shown above

Shown here is the wheat in its green grass looking stage

The combine arrives amid lots of traffic on a semi

We had been told the combine would arrive on location around 3:00a.m. to avoid traffic, but that was not the case and it arrived mid-afternoon amidst a busy street.  It was quite a sight to be seen.

The header for the combine was following on a lowboy trailer

Each step of the way through the wheat field was a sign like this that
explained the process



More information on what happens to the
wheat after it is harvested



Explaining that we also not only feed America
but export crops to feed  the world



The baking station



The baking station's tantalizing  smells automatically drew the crowd to their trailer with samples of  cinnamon rolls, bread and cookies.  Guests also received a small bag of flour as well.

The milling station showed how wheat is made into flour

 The milling station was a fun one as people got to see how wheat seeds were ground up into flour, plus there was a hand grinder there too.

A master chef was on hand to give demos on making
homemade goodies. Sample cupcakes were a hit with everyone

The master chef  gave short demos through out the day on how easy it is to make things from scratch. 

Left to right, Travis, Jerry, Robyn, Scott, me, and Joe

Many volunteers like us from the wheat producing states,were on hand to visit with people, give tours,and answer questions.  It was a great opportunity to give our urban friends a glimpse of what we get to do and see every year.  The temperature during this event was in the mid to high 90's complete with humidity, which us Idahoans are not used to. =)

A representative from Case IH (the brand of  the combine) and Joe visit.
Note the cinnamon roll in the reps hand.

Collin Peterson, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee

 We were honored to have Congressmen Collin Peterson be our keynote speaker for the ceremony.  He is a farmer himself and knows the importance that agriculture plays in the American economy.

Ribbon cutting ceremony with Collin Peterson doing the honors

Joe Anderson, Travis Jones  and Scott Brown during the open ceremony

Idaho Grain Producers Association is lucky to have Travis Jones as their Executive Director, not only for his great work in this organization, but for his vast knowledge of the inner workings on Capitol Hill.  Prior to being hired as director, Travis was a legislative aid  to Senator Craig.  Thus he knew how to navigate around Capitol Hill, the proper protocol required, plus Travis still has many friends and contacts on the hill, what an asset to our organization.

Ms. Dana Peterson to the left in the black pants suit during
the opening ceremony

Ms Dana Peterson, CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers, who has been on the job for less than a year, is also an asset to those of us in agriculture.  Dana and Travis spend countless hours behind the scenes to assure a better future for our industry.

Joe talking to a guest in front of the mock-up grocery store isle

Guests wandering through the exhibit 

A view from the end of the wheat field that shows the milling
station, baking station and grocery store isle

The day before, many of us went to Capitol Hill to visit with our congressmen as shown below.

On our way to Walt Minnick's office

For more pictures of this event from the National Association of Wheat Growers, click this link: http://www.wheatworld.org/newsroom/photo-gallery/