The old milk bucket story

photo: De Ann Paulsrud

There was my old classmate and farmer friend standing at the front of the church, fighting back tears, and pulling a small piece of paper from his pocket to read from. Next to him at the lectern he had placed a rusty old bucket.

He composed himself and told the “old milk bucket story,” a eulogy to his father, who had passed away three days ago. His dad, Fred Paulsrud, was a farmer who lived out his 85 years in good standing with the land, his family, neighbors and friends.

Ted recalled his dad milking cows many years ago with that old bucket, how many he could fill with his big strong hands, a cat or two coming by to lick up the frothy overflow. That rusty old bucket was once all shiny new, he said.

And, Fred, in ill health for a number of years before his death was once a hardy and innovative farmer. He was part of a generation of farmers who progressed from buckets and pitchforks to technologies like embryo transplants and global positioning systems.

I remembered interviewing him for a farm magazine story I wrote back in the early eighties. It was a little intimidating. We called him “Big Fred,” not so much for his size as for his gravity. He was a no-nonsense fellow who I figured could spot a wrong word a mile away, like a broadleaf weed in a bean field.

Ted spent the morning of the day of the funeral pondering what he was going to say in tribute to his father. While feeding cattle, fixing fence, and moving hay, he thought about his dad and what words would work to do him justice. They came a little at a time, like the years in a lifetime.

It all came down to that rusty bucket, once new, and a prayer he wrote for his dad while doing chores.

When we’re gone, it’s good to remembered for when we were young and strong—and with a prayer.

Putting a face on our food

Daphne Holterman speaks out for agriculture

Can modern farmers make themselves heard in a world in which ag is increasingly defined by food activists, organic advocates, and back-to-the-land trekkers? Daphne Holterman, owner of Rosy-Lane Holsteins, Watertown, Wisconsin, believes we must try.

I introduced Holterman as part of a panel session at the Trends in Agriculture conference in Kansas City, Missouri this week. Holterman, whose operation includes an 850 milk cows, and 1,200 acres of crop, told the group that we must be willing to “put a face on our food,” to interact with consumers, students, activists and others. “People want to know where their food comes from,” she said.

In part as a reaction to Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, which was distributed to all freshmen at the University of Wisconsin and was chosen as the focus of a statewide reading program, she has hosted tours of her farm for various groups. She is working with local, state and national media to counter some of Pollan’s much-quoted criticisms of modern agriculture.

David Kohl, a retired Virginia Tech professor and keynote speaker on Tuesday, agrees that individual farmers must be proactive, saying “consumers want to hear directly from producers, not from trade associations.”

David Cleavinger, a Texas crop producer on our panel, is doing his share, even if as trade group member. For example, he was part of a wheat industry project that grew wheat in the middle of New York City and demonstrated to school kids how flour and bread are made. Next, they’re taking the show to Washington, D.C.

Cleavinger is optimistic about the prospects for polishing up the image of modern farmers. “Farmers are Mother Earth and cherry pie,” he said. “People look at farmers in a good light.”

Karen Ross, president of the California Association of Winegrape growers, and another member of the panel, says the image of the grower is central to her work, too. Ross has helped lead an effort to improve the sustainability of production practices used by growers and communicate that message to the public.

“I will retire when the grape grower [not the winery] is the ‘rock star,'"she said.

It was good to hear optimistic, authentic voices representing modern farming in the ongoing debate with its detractors. Holterman, Cleavinger and Ross are the kinds of people who can help change and improve the public perception of production agriculture.

A second job

Custom farming is just one of many of the other enterprises farmers choose

A good majority of farmers have a second ag-related enterprise, and there’s little limit on the imagination people bring to these enterprises, according to a recent Agriculture Online poll. Only 21% of the nearly 300 farmers taking the survey said they don’t have another enterprise besides the farm.

The most popular selections were seed production and sales (15%) and custom farming (12%). Other enterprises on the list included trucking, machinery repair, land contracting, and farm management.

In farmer comments in the poll, the rainbow of ventures possible for people farming the land is seen to be even more diverse, ranging from parting out combines to selling crop insurance.

Many of these second jobs are highly entrepreneurial. A Michigan farmer has set up home-based, USDA inspected meat processing business (http://www.johnhenrys.net/). A Nebraskan has used his past experience in the financial management industry to develop a successful business specializing in agricultural software for farmers (http://www.agmis.com). A Maryland farmer is an hunting outfitter. “Pays better than crops per acre, but you have to deal with the public,” he writes.

Probably my favorite enterprise that turned up in the survey: Operating a mini donut trailer. "Feeding the world in more ways than one,” says the Minnesota farmer. Yum to that.

World's worst weeds

Giant ragweed in soybean field (Purdue University photo)

I read a story recently about cogongrass, which is being compared to kudzu for its invasiveness and is called one of the ten worst weeds in the world. Alabama has created a Cogongrass Control Center to try to contain the weed in the state, but it will be a challenge to keep it from moving north, according to the project coordinator. "Left unchecked, 'it could spread all the way to Michigan,' " Ernest Lovett told The New York Times.

The piece reminded me of a 2001 Agriculture.com story in which Indiana farmers were surveyed to name their ten worst weeds. At that time, they were:

1. Giant ragweed
2. Canada thistle
3. Johnsongrass
4. Common lambsquarters
5. Shattercane
6. Hemp dogbane
7. Burcucumber
8. Velvetleaf
9. Common ragweed
10. Common cocklebur

Glen Nice, a Purdue University weed scientist, says that although the farmer survey has not been repeated since then, many of the weeds on that list would remain there today. "A few weeds come and go, but the big ones are always there," he says. An Extension joke in the state is that Indiana is the 'giant ragweed national forest,'" he added.

In recent years, while many of the grasses have disappeared from the "most-wanted" list, others, like the herbicide-resistant marestail, have cropped up due to take their place, Nice says.

Farmers discussing the issue of the toughest weeds in Agriculture.com Crop Talk agree. Said one: "Marestail or horseweed is getting to be a real problem in KS."

Other bad-boy weeds, according to farmers joining the discussion, are field bindweed, kochia, cheatgrass, fall panicum, tall waterhemp, and dandelion.

"The list of noxious and herbicide-resistant weeds gets longer every year," said one farmer.

Using all our tools

Controlling the world's worst weeds require the grower to take a long view, says Nice.

"These weeds can be controlled but it takes persistence and, unfortunately, inputs in the way of rotations and herbicides," he says. "Growers have wrangled giant ragweed and velvetleaf seed beds down to acceptable levels by gearing their weed control programs to controlling these pests over the long haul. The use of effective residuals and timely post applications can reduce populations over time."

Perennials like Canada thistle require a "more localized approach," Nice says. "In many cases spot treatments in the spring or fall are required. Applications in the heat of summer can inhibit flowering, but generally are not effective at controlling the underground roots," he says.

"Weeds have always been a problem from the days of conventional tillage, to the adoption of no-till and herbicide tolerant crops," Nice says. "We have to use all of the tools available to us and be able to adapt to the problem as it adapts to our strategies."

Norman Borlaug: sweet music of wheat

Norman Borlaug
(Texas A&M AgriLife photo)

Word of Norman Borlaug’s death was a sad surprise. I was hoping that somehow the man would live forever. The world could have used that.

There is much yet to be written about the “father of the Green Revolution” and Nobel Prize winner. I just want to add my own little note of tribute, and that's to celebrate his ear for language.

No one in production agriculture spoke more straight about the need for new technology, which too seldom has had effective voices. I think Borlaug reminded a lot of us of our fathers and grandfathers, of our mothers and grandmothers, who tended the soil, were humble, and saw true purpose in their labor. When Borlaug and these men and women of the land spoke out, it really meant something.

One thing I guess I didn’t expect to find in Borlaug was an ear for poetic language. He had this to say to one of his biographers, the New York Times reported today: “When wheat is ripening properly, when the wind is blowing across the field, you can hear the beards of the wheat rubbing together. They sound like pine needles in a forest. It is a sweet whispering music that once you hear, you never forget.”

Norman Borlaug is someone we in agriculture likely will never forget either.

Here's a collection of YouTube videos that let you hear Dr. Borlaug in his own voice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nACAyq0WScY&feature=PlayList&p=93EA3145F56ADD86&index=0