Fertilizer for the Mind

Yesterday my husband and I had the opportunity to attend another small farm conference and trade show.  This time it was held in Massillon, OH.  It was only about an hour and a half from our house this time.  That meant no overnight stay and getting up at the crack of dawn.  Well, 6:00 is early for a Saturday morning!  Once again we signed up for seperate seminars.  There was a large group session for everyone, then 4 sessions that were broken down into smaller groups.  The one topic that I was looking forward to was about goats and sure enough it was cancelled!  The others that I attended were pretty interesting though. 

The large group session was using social media to market the farm.  K.C. and I both were pretty amazed how the internet and social media has become the most useful marketing tool.  Luckily for me the presenters talked about the usefulness of smart phones!!!  Maybe I will actually get one before something even smarter comes out.  The neatest thing I learned about are QR codes.  They are sort of like a barcode, only these codes can be scanned using a smart phone.  By scanning the code, the phone user is taken directly to a website.  This can be used for advertisements, information related to a product, or many other things!  This may be something that will become much more popular and useful to our farm in the future.  We learned how to use social media to connect with and build relationships with our customers...such a great idea! 

The second session I attended was about agritourism, which is travel that combines agricultural or rural settings with products of agricultural operations as a tourism experience.  This is the direction that I would like to take our farm in.  One day I would like to have a bed & breakfast or lodge with farm related activities for the customers.  In this seminar, the presenter talked about his own farm and how his business has developed and grown, along with the benefits and concerns of agritourism.  After listening to this seminar, I was ready to start building the lodge...but then I remembered I've never built a building before hmmmm.

The third session was cancelled for me, so I got to attend one with K.C..  We learned about operating a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) enterprise.  In this business model, customers sign up for a "subscription" for foods from a farmer or group of farmers.  The customer gets a share of food grown or produced on the farm for an upfront fee.  This could be weekly, biweekly, or monthly.  It can also be by the season or throughout the whole year.  This model can look different for many farmers, but operates on the same general idea: The consumer buys a share of the food produced at the farm(s) and either picks it up on the farm, at a local business, or has it delivered to their home.  It seems we might look further into this as well.

The fourth session for me was about grant money.  This is not my area of expertise, but I did my best to write down all the information and give it to K.C..  Hopefully he can sort through it all!

K.C. learned about soils, wind energy, CSAs, and leasing farm land. At the end of the 4th session, my class was dismissed early.  I waited in the auditorium for K.C..  He came out of the room very calmly and asked me if I had the car keys.  Of course I didn't...he always drives.  Well, the keys were lost and a search ensued.  We looked everywhere.  Luckily for K.C., we found them laying on the registration table.  Let's just say, I will be taking the keys from now on : )

From two Saturday sessions, we gained a lot of information related to farming and are now working to sift through all the information and apply what we learned!  We start another series of classes soon.  We will be learning about rotational grazing..should be interesting!

Spring is here!

We have had some pretty warm weather the last few days.  Today it was pretty cold, but I keep saying it will be summer before we know it.  Since the grass is getting greener, the cow's are moving around in the pasture a lot more.  When they are close to the road and hear a big truck go by, they take off running to get away!  It is really funny to see them all run, but unfortunately they are starting to get it used to it. 

Since we are on they way to summer, it is time to start thinking about getting some new friends to add to the collection.  With more friends, comes adding places to put them.  So starts our quest of fixing fences.  We have plenty of land to keep these animals, but a lot of work needs to be done to make sure they can't get away, are sheltered, and watered.  Not only are we thinking about getting new animals, we also have to decide what to do with the ones that we already have.  Of course it would be awesome to keep them forever, since most of them have names.  I know we can't keep them.  The day Whitey, Butterscotch, and Number 42 leave will be heartbreaking to say the least.  We have sold 5 cows so far and have had 1 die.  I keep getting attached to the furry big animals.  Hopefully, the husband will finally learn that I need 2 baby pygmy goats, a mini cow, a llama, and a pig to keep on the farm. 

What kind of truck does a pig drive?

A "pig-up" truck, of course!  Just a little farm humor, since nothing else is really going on around here.  The cows are enjoying their daily feed and doing some grazing on the little bit of green grass showing in their pasture.  It seems they are always ready for some feed, whether they have been fed or not.  Today when I pulled in the driveway, I was greeted by 18 happy cows running down the hill toward me.  Sometimes I wonder if the fence will stop them before my car does!  Unfortunately for them, I was not the one doing the feeding.  Their dad, aka my husband, was not home yet and I was not about to try carrying over 50 lbs of feed up the hill with hungry cows on my heels.  I decided they could wait a few minutes!  Once KC got home, he brought in the mail. Much to my delight my seeds for the garden arrived today.  I had pretty much forgot what I had ordered.  Now if it would just stay warm, I could start planting...

Chick Days

Well, Thursday was the last night of farm college.  That night we were given certificates for completing the classes.  Of course my name was spelled incorrectly.  Lucky for them I filled out the evaluation prior to receiving the certificate.  I figure I will just white out the extra e, frame it, and hang it on my wall.  The next big farm things to look forward to is a 3 night rotational grazing workshop and a small farm tour. 

Now that I have all kinds of information and some farming experience under my belt, you would think that I could make some executive decisions around the farm. No way.  Yesterday on my way home from work the husband asked me to stop at Tractor Supply to pick up some stuff for the cows.  When I walked in the door, I realized it's chick days there.  Oh, I thought about buying two.  I knew that would not go over well.  With tears in my eyes, I decided to go pick out a shirt just because I couldn't get the chicks.  Later I asked the husband if I could have two and what I needed.  He told me if I get them I have to take care of them and figure out was is needed....no help.  How fair is that?   Don't worry, I will have my chicks before long and some pygmy goats and a pig....oh yea a llama too!

Curious Cows

Before having cattle, I would have thought that cows are oblivious and only care about eating grass, chewing cud, drinking water, and pooping.  Much to my surprise, they are intrigued by many things.  If the four- wheeler is sitting in the field with or without me on it, they like to lick the fenders, seat, and handlebars, while also pulling materials out of the box on the back. There is also an old, run down building sitting in their pasture.  It never fails...they are always in it looking for new treasures. Sure the building needs cleaned out and torn down, but the cows should wait for us humans to do it!  The first thing they ever pulled out was an old orange plastic flag.  Once the flag was outside on the ground, all of them surrounded the foreign object checking it out.  What they wanted with it, I have no idea.  Since that time, they have pulled the door off and random things keep appearing outside the building, such as green caution tape and other odd items.  Just today, the husband went to add mineral to the feeder for the rascals and found an empty feeder with only part of a weedeater string laying in the bottom.  Obviously, the string didn't jump in there itself and we didn't put it there.  It could only be the cows...

Getting the Farm Education

During be past two months, the husband and I have been enrolled in Farm College.  Yes, I said Farm College.  It is for new and small farms in Ohio.  Each week we learn about a new aspect of running a farm.  The best part- They provide food, so I don't have to cook!  A coworker and her family is also enrolled, so each week we try to guess what we will be eating that night.  Never did we guess that one night it would be goat stew and leg of lamb.  I have to say, it was quite tasty.  Besides eating good food, we learn about insurance, marketing, raising livestock, growing veggies, taxes, business planning, and resource management.  Since beginning farm college, we have attended a class on timber management.  Last weekend we spent some time in Southern Ohio at a small farm conference and trade show.  Armed with all of this knowlege, I might prove to be quite dangerous in our new venture working on the farm!