Feeding America Day 2 of Harvest 2011

Day 2 of the winter wheat harvest went better for our crew and we were able to get into the field after lunch.  Above is actual video that Farmer Joe took on his camera.  The yields look good, some parts of the fields are yielding better than others, so until we harvest the entire field, we will not know what the average bushel to acre is, but we anticipate it being good.

Here is another video that showing Farmer Joe unloading the combine into the grain cart.  As the farmer said in the video, he is unloading the grain from the combine into the grain cart which is pulled by a tractor (and driven by Ryan) of which it will then be unloaded into a waiting semi-truck.  Once the semi is full it will head to the grain terminals which are located on the Port of Lewiston.

Ryan (sitting) and Cody on hand to help the mechanic if needed
while repairs are being made to one of the combines



The semi-trucks in the field waiting to be loaded

 As I've said before in my blogs, it takes a lot of equipment to feed America.

Farmer Joe and his big red combine

Thanks for stopping by and please email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have questions, or post a comment.  Thanks and keep watching for more updates on the wheat harvest.  All my best, Gayle

Feeding America, Day 1 of Harvest 2011

It’s harvest time and there is a certain smell in the air that I can’t explain, but it is fresh and earthy.  Farmer Joe was excited to get into the field and begin cutting, (it’s a lot like the first day of school as for excitement level), and so as I packed his lunch, the dog and I sent him off with well wishes..... 

Josie, the spoiled dog, is the "tester" of the lunch meat, her favorite job!
She likes to make sure it is the best & tastiest for her beloved  master

Lunch box in hand, sipping the last cup of coffee
Farmer Joe is ready to head out for the day

The harvest crew that I will be talking about are, Farmers Joe & Jay along with Cody
(our hired-man), Ryan (our seasonal help who drives the tractor & load-out wagon) and Kirk, who drives his own semi-truck, along with our fleet to take the grain into the terminals.   Around noon I called to check to see how things were going and found out, the job of feeding America got off to a slow start.  After cutting our first semi-truck load of winter wheat, the moisture testing came in at 13% which is the highest amount that the grain elevator will take.  This is not a good thing to be at the highest level right at the beginning.  Moisture samples indicated the rest of the field was measuring at 14% so we had to shut the operations down for the day. =(  We were experiencing a few mechanical issues, so the combine repairman was called out to our field to fix an issue with Farmer’s Jay combine.  Farmer Joe was fixing some other minor mechanical issues on his machine as well so we will hope to get into the field later on today (Tuesday, August 9^th).  The forecast is for sunny and hot temps, which can mean that the moisture percentage will decrease and be in the acceptable range for the warehouse to take the wheat.  Farmer Joe took his camera and plans on getting pictures and videos that I can upload for you, so stay tuned.   As always, thanks for stopping by and if you have question or comments, please feel free to email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or post a comment as well.  All my best, Gayle

Waiting for Harvest

Good Morning everyone!  All is quiet on the home front for now....

A view of my lavender and the wheat field that starts just
inches from where our yard stops and the fields start

Farmers understand the art of patience…. as everything we do depends on the weather, and we all know - you can't hurry it up or make it do what you want.  The late cold spring delayed the planting of the crops and the cool summer weather has meant that harvesting the crops is also late by about 2 weeks.  So here it is the 1^st of August and not a combine in the field.  We are hoping to move our combines down to the Tammany farm which is 37 miles away from our main farm here in Genesee.  In normal years we would be about ½ way through harvest down there and gearing up to move up to Genesee to begin harvesting the home place around August 10.  But this year we are hoping to begin on Monday, August 8^th.  But as Farmer Joe says, a late harvest usually means better crops, so he is patiently waiting for the crops to ripen.  So the combines are out of the machine sheds, have had a good checking over and are ready to go once the crops ripen.  Before the combines roll out, I wanted to take a few pictures,  so last night I took out my trusty 1950’s bike with its fat tires that makes navigating the wash-boardy gravel roads easier and rode the ¾ of a mile over to the farm shop.



The crops are starting to ripen, here you can see the parts of the
field are starting to turn golden, but lots of green can be seen



Here is Farmer Jay's combine parked by the shop

A view from underneath the "header", the tines shown help gather
up the wheat as it is cut  by the row of shears on the bottom of the header

Farmer Joe's combine in the forefront and Farmer Jay's combine in the back

One of the Anderson farm semi trucks parked by the farm shop and
waiting to be called into action once harvest can begin

Another view of Farmer Joe's combine by the barn and
shown in front of the garbanzo field. This field will be ready
for harvest mid to late September

So as I peddled home, I stopped to take a picture of our house from the road (below). This is our neighbor's field and again you can see the gold and green colors of the wheat.   I love harvest, but I know once it begins the days fly by in a flurry of activity and before I know it, Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  On our farm, once harvest begins, we will harvest wheat in August, then the garbanzo bean harvest is on its heals and harvested in September.  In October is when the Fall seeding takes place and usually takes the entire month.  Then once all the equipment is put away, it seems like it is almost time for Thanksgiving.... whew!

Our house in the middle of the wheat fields

When I looked the opposite way, here is the entrance to the church that we attend and were married in, where our daughters were baptized,  where oldest daughter Jen was married and where  the youngest daughter  Kaitlyn hopes to be married as well.  As you can see this beautiful church has very special ties to our family. 

My bike parked at the entrance of our beloved church

Genesee Valley Lutheran Church, a very photographed
church with it's picturesque setting

As always, glad you stopped by and if you have questions or comments, feel free to email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or leave a comment.  Stay tuned as I'll be posting more pictures of harvest once it arrives.  All my best, Gayle

The Farmer, An American Icon

“He has never planted seeds or brought in a harvest.  He doesn’t even own overalls” was the first line in last week’s Ag section of the newspaper.  Excuse me? Overalls?? My first thought was, I think the Associated Press reporter has been watching too many “Green Acres” reruns on TV & he thinks we are bumpkins.  The article was talking about wealthy investors buying farm land at huge prices for investment purposes.  While that is problematic in and of itself because it drives up land prices and makes it hard for the farmer compete with the ultra rich in order to buy more land to farm, the article seemed to insinuate that we are uneducated people who wear overalls and who don’t seem to know what our land is worth.  Yes, it was insulting to those of us who raise the food that reporter eats, but then I thought, America loves the icon of the American Farmer and that we represent, the wholesomeness & goodness of our trade. 

This tractor used in our parent's generation is now a beloved
"yard ornament" in my flower bed

 So however America views us, let me share some facts about the farmers in our area.
• Most of the farmers have college degrees.

• Farming in today’s world is not what our parent’s generation did as the average farmer grows twice as much food as his parents did – using less land, energy, water and fewer emissions.

• Today, the average U.S. farmer feeds 155 people. In 1960, a farmer fed just 26 people.

• We love our technology and are very “techie”, we have GPS units in our tractors to help us apply fertilizer and other applications only where it’s needed, as much as needed, and no more. See the 2nd video as Farmer Joe explains more on that.

• We care about our land and are good stewards, after all this is how we make our living

o We go to “combine school” to learn how to run our combines better

o We have continuing education on best practices to apply the products that help our crops &have to pass the certification standards in order to have a license to use these products

• We care about raising the safest, best and most economical food, not only for us but for you, the consumer

o We live on our land, we raise our families here, we eat the foods we grow and those are the same one that you eat too

o We are not the bad “corporate farms” that media tries to imply, if we are incorporated, it is simply for tax purposes. 97% of farms are run by farm families

o Weather and markets as well as anti Ag groups can be unkind to us, but we take it in stride and continue to get up every day to do our best, after all you depend on us

• We love what we do and want to continue living this life style, as well as pass it onto future generations to grow the food the world eats



A future farmerette, she loves combines and tractors

We understand that not everyone is a farmer, but everyone eats –and if some view us as a bumpkin, well so be it, but we feel we are living the life that dreams are made of. So I’ll get off my soapbox and hope this blog leaves you will a smile and a better understanding from our perspective.
As always, if you have comments or questions, please feel free to email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or leave a comment. Starting next week, we will be harvesting our winter wheat, so I’ll be blogging on what the Anderson Farm is up to, with pictures and videos. As always, thanks for stopping by and come back soon. All my best, Gayle

If you could see what I see on the farm

Sometimes writing a blog is like marinating a tough cut of meat.... the proper elements and time are needed to create a good end product.... so while my thoughts are sitting and stewing over an article I read in this week's Ag section of the paper & trying to formulate what I'm wanting to blog - I thought I'd at least share with you what I saw on my bike ride from a few days ago.  These scenes are just a short distance from my farmhouse.....
We are fortunate enough to be close to two land grant universities whose research is instrumental in the development of better crops for our area.  Better crops are good for us (and you,the consumer).


Here is the U of I research farm, their research helps farmers and ranchers



Here are "test plots" of various kinds of wheat

From an earlier blog about my tour at WSU's wheat research facility, often times the wheat breeders like to grow the wheat in real time conditions as shown above in the many "test plots".  

The UI facility also has cattle too

Here is a test plot of blooming peas - which I think looks like a field of "popcorn"

After leaving the UI Research Center, I continued down the highway and saw the yellow field & thought you might like to see it too.  This crop is probably mustard (yes, the seed is used for the mustard you buy in the store) or it is a canola plant and that crop is used for the canola oil. It is so pretty when blooming, as pictured below.

Whether this is a mustard plant or a canola plant, the yellow is eye catching

Loading up hay bales from a field

Next I passed a hay field that had recently been cut & baled.  Note the round bales in the field just above this one.  Depending on the kind of hay baler the farmer owns determines what kind of size and shape of the hay bale. 

Here is a garbanzo plant with a pod. This is from our field along the highway

A view of the garbanzo field, very green and lush at this stage

Our garb field in the forefront, and a different color of green crop is our
spring wheat.

So now you got to see what I see on almost on a daily basis and hope you enjoyed it.  As always, please feel free to email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have questions or comments or leave me a comment ( I love those too).  All my best, Gayle

A View of Farming from the Backseat of a Cycle & Tales from the Road

Joe posing besides a "wheat" sculpture

No matter where our travels lead us, our interest in Agriculture is always present. Whether traveling within the USA or abroad, our attention is always drawn to how other people farm. The Farmer and I just crossed off one item on our shared “bucket list” by celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary (a year late) on a motorcycle tour through Germany and Austria.

Angela, our guide, in the orange helmet along
with Joe when we encountered a dairy cow along our travels

In viewing the crops from the rural roads of Germany, we saw fields of wheat and barley in about in the same growing stage as on our farm as both Idaho and Germany are pretty close to the 45th parallel with similar climates. Plus we also saw fields of potato plants and corn and the fields as well as tractors are much smaller in size than in the States. It was interesting to see wheat fields and corn fields next to each other as this does not occur in Northern Idaho, where our rain fall usually cannot support the moisture level needed for corn (that is a Southern Idaho crop that utilizes irrigation). We also saw many small dairy operations in these beautiful and picturesque countries. Quite often we could smell and see the manure spread on the fields, and many times dairies were next to towns or sometimes within the town itself. It seemed very commonplace to have the aroma of manure in the air and while we didn’t mind the smell, I wondered how urban Americans would embrace this ordinary fact of farming if it was in their backyard. (Just this topic alone could & will probably be another blog later on)



The other interesting practice that we saw was how every available section of ground was harvested for hay. Seeing men cutting grass on steep hillsides down to ditches next to the road, it seemed no blade of grass was left uncut. The grass was either cut by hand or someone would be walking behind a piece of equipment that looked like an overgrown lawn mower. Then the family would hand rake the grass into rows, followed by it either being loaded into carts loosely or if the ground was somewhat level, then baled up. It was almost like stepping back into time and you could imagine their ancestors doing it the same way. (sorry no pictures tho)

Riding through the charming villages

From the neatly mowed countryside to the red tiled roofs of the houses that all seemed to sport window planter-boxes with cascading flowers, it was like driving through a movie set of a Bavarian village - only real. Truly a once in a lifetime adventure for this farm-wife! Click here (or visit the "At Home" page) to read more about “Tales From The Road” and to see more pictures as well as hear about the crazy characters that we rode with.

Our house amidst the sea of green rolling hills
that are planted with winter wheat

As for what is happening on the Anderson farm, it is still a sea of green rolling hills here in North Idaho and the crops are growing nicely. The wheat was sprayed again for rust disease and aphids, the garbanzo plants are starting to flower, so all is well.

Here you can see the rust stripe

Checking the winter wheat heads, which are filling out

As always, please feel free to email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have questions. I love comments on the blog too. =) Thanks for stopping by and come back soon. All my best, Gayle

Your Food- Made in America

What does the food you eat, the wise words your mom bestowed on you in your youth, and bathing suits made in China have to do with farming?  Sounds crazy but keep reading……

Here is a short video of a crop duster flying on a treatment

to help the wheat crop against the disease called Rust

If you were like me when growing up, your mom probably said this, “if _____ (fill in your own friend’s name) told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it? No, well I thought so! So no you can’t go _____ (again, fill in your own answer) & don't believe everything you hear.” Tonight I was watching ABC news and it had segment from a lady in her bathing suit, saying she couldn’t find any clothes made in the USA, they all came from China, India or other foreign countries and she wanted America made clothes! So here is my rationale and it’s because I want you to know that hyped up media sells stories. Think about it. It’s because of the media hype on “corporate factory farms being evil, farmers hurting their animals, and farmers poisoning their land & you with bad chemicals” gets your attention and sells newspapers. It also lures people into going to the Food, Inc kind of movies (which made $71Million) and donating their hard earned money to organizations thinking they are helping poor animals (see Humanewatch.org). Basically it gets down to this, farmers are highly regulated by the FDA in what we use on our crops, no other country has these kinds of regulations, which is why I try not to buy food produced in other countries – who knows what is used in their food production and I want safe food just like you do. I am a mom and farmwife whose livelihood depends on growing the best and safest products for human consumption. I am the farmer who would not poison her kids, grand-kids, family, or you with bad chemicals or unsafe farming practices. I am the person who cares about what my family eats and what you eat.  Really, it is that simple.

A picture of the plane and our wheat fields

This is a marker the plane puts down as he makes a pass when flying on a treatment
so he knows where he has been 

Here is the deal, when you hear about new books or movies telling you that we can “repair our relationship with animals” or “buy organic if you don’t want to be poisoned” blah, blah, blah…. It’s because if  they scare you, it sells and they make money. Then the downside is the scare tactics are used to have new laws & regulations passed that hinder the farmer and make production costs go up. What does that mean for you? More of your hard earned money buying food and then if production costs are too high, then the farmer goes out of business. Currently, the USA enjoys the lowest cost of food than anywhere else in the world. 

*According to the FDA, no signicant differences
has been shown between milk deried from rbST
treated and non-rbST treated cows

The ending to this blog is…. just like your mom says, use your God given brain to sort fact from fiction and think about what you read, hear and see in the news - then ask the true source from those of us who produce your food (ask Farmer, Inc), as we are the experts who have science, logic and facts on our side. If the American public doesn’t want to buy their clothes from China, then do you really want your food coming from a foreign land because regulations and anti-Ag groups make it hard for farmers to put food on your table? No, well that’s what I thought.

As always, thanks for reading this, stop by again and email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have questions.  Also be sure to check in to the combined farm blog site, http://www.farmerinc.net/ for more good blogs. As a side note, I will be working on a book that will showcase the farm blogs from all over the USA... so I'll keep you posted on that new project.  All my best, Gayle

Call to Action! Farm Bloggers Unite!

Our children are our future.
Even the littlest sleeping angel
loves her tractor and who knows,
may want to join the farm when she grows up. 
We need to protect our heritage
to pass on this legacy to our kids and grand-kids

I opened my book club packet today and saw, to my dismay, a new book out from the CEO of H$U$ on animal welfare. OMG, the blurb about it says “it is an important investigation into how we can repair our relationship with the animal kingdom.” I sat down for a moment and thought, the Ag community needs to do something!! But what??? Then I got an idea, if a blogger writing about her cooking from a Julia Child’s cookbook (i.e. Julie & Julia) could have it made into a movie, then what about the “Best Farm Blogs” all showcased into one book? A book that would capture a glimpse into the life of farm families all over the USA complete with stories and pictures. So now I’m off on yet another mission, and it is to contact all the farm bloggers on my Farmer Inc, The Real Story website and request they send me their best blog along with a picture or two. Call me crazy, but we in the Ag community need to do something and now! So to all you farm bloggers out there, please email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com with your best farm blog in Word format, along with a great picture or two, plus info on yourself. Let’s see where this journey takes us.

All my best, Gayle.

Seeing a Farm Makes it to Being on a "Bucket List"

"Farming  looks idyllic and seems easy, but there is real precision, logic
and science behind everything we do"

If you receive the Parade Magazine in the Sunday paper, you may have seen last week’s edition, wherein it contained a “bucket list of things to do before you die”…. And one of them was to visit a farm and meet the people who grow your food.  While that did amaze me, it did not surprise me as the public has sent a very clear message that they are interested in where their food comes from and want to know what farmers do.  Thus, the intense interest from the public in our farm blogs, Twitter and Facebook postings.   In case you haven’t seen my newest project, Farmer Inc, The Real Story (my labor of love) I have begun the task of compiling great farm blogs from all over the USA, so the consumer can get an up close and personal view  on the lives of producers, from animal production to grains.  They will get to read about our farms, our stories, and our families, and I invite you to check it out and tell everyone, please. 

To help educate the public, we post signs in our fields that border the divided highway and identifies what crop is being grown. 

Farmer Joe putting the sign into the field 

Now for what is going on the Anderson Farm... well from now until harvest, Farmers Joe and Jay along with our hired man, Cody will be busy keeping the crops weed and bug free.  With all the moisture that this area has received, we have had to give the wheat plants an extra dose of medicine to protect them from a disease called rust.  We also routinely check the crops for bugs as they can do a heck of a lot of damage to the plant and decrease the yields.  That is why I say we treat our crops like our kids; we oversee their well being and do what is necessary to keep them healthy and strong.  Lots of ongoing care and maintenance and about the only thing we don't do for the crops that we do for our kids is read them a bedtime story.....  but this farm-wife will sit on her deck in the evening  with a glass of wine and contently watch the crops & tell them to grow strong and big. =) 

As always, thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy this blog and please check out my other site too as there are so many more amazing farm blogs.  If you have ideas, questions, comments, please email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com.  All my best, Gayle 

Care & Maintenance of our Paycheck

Wheat maintenance?  In past blogs, I’ve told you that Farmers Joe & Jay care for their crops like their own kids. It is a continual maintenance as once  the crops go into the ground, no matter what is planted - weeds will sprout up. And  let's face it, America doesn't like weeds in their cereal, they expect quality products.... We don't like weeds in our "Wheaties" either, plus we  want the best end product because that is our paycheck out there – so you can be darn sure we are going to take good care of it. While we can do everything we can to ensure a good crop, there are two wild cards that can create havoc with our crops and they are the weather and the market.


Pictured here is Farmer Joe checking the Spring wheat crop for signs of weeds.

Weeds don't go on vacation, so this is an ongoing task



This is a picture of wheat at our Tammany Farm



Notice the straw residue? It helps keep weeds down & keeps
moisture in the soil to help the plant

Here is a weed, so now we will spray for them. It's a lot like
gardening only on a much larger scale

AS always, hope you enjoy the blog, email if you have questions at idahofarmwife@gmail.com and come back soon as there is always lots going on during our growing season.   Remember to take a peek at the other pages too.  Thanks for stopping by.  All my best, Gayle