Ten top ideas of '08

Kent Hubbert shows filtration system for subsurface drip irrigation

In my job at Successful Farming and Agriculture Online I have the privilege of being exposed to a lot of ideas from farmers, companies and colleagues. From my travels and desktop hopping, here are ten ideas that struck me as important this year. Please feel free to add your own ideas.

1. Tech clothes for farmers
I started wearing "active moisture management technology" t-shirts for exercise last summer, and found I stayed a lot drier and cooler. This type of clothing is made from material that draws sweat away from the skin and spreads it out over your body to evaporate better and keep you cooler. Same technology exists for socks, jackets and other work clothes for farmers.

http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1210799599376.xml

2. Auto shutoff on planter
It’s just one example of the new auto-everything technology for the field, but I visited a several farms this summer where farmers made a bit of a point telling me how much they liked these systems for shutting off the planter at the end rows.

http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1203976615298.xml&bcpid=1430551123&bclid=1432781673&bctid=1849009648

3. Subsurface drip irrigation
Irrigation tape is buried in field on 60 widths, 14 to 16 inches deep in the soil. A Nebraska farmer told me that he was figuring a five-to-seven year payback on the techonology and was seeing 60 percent fuel and water savings with the system.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1430551123/bclid1432781673/bctid1589586911

4. Shift up and throttle back
This is probably old hat to most farmers, but it was good reinforcement to see this practice demonstrated at the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory this summer, using the newest, biggest tractors and testing equipment. PTO and drawbar tests on tractors proved again that by shifting up and throttling back, you can maintain your power output and save fuel in the process, according to Dave Morgan, assistant director of the lab.

http://www.agriculture.com/AGOL-TV/?cid=507869917&lid=1387524744&tid=1589625225

5. Top Shops
Farmer ideas for designing and improving their farm shops are some of the most popular features on Agriculture Online. Results from a new Top Shops contest are being featured on the site currently. And, the Top Shops TV segment on the Machinery Show, hosted by Dave Mowitz, is the linchpin of the RFD cable network program.

http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1226510126138.xml

6. Ag Connect Expo
A new global farm machinery expo was announced this summer that could change the playing field in farm shows. The first show, slated for January 10-12 in Orlando, promises new, high-tech ways for farmers to connect with companies at the event. And, Ag Connect will appeal to the whole family. Sponsored by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the expo has a target of 700 exhibitors, 20,000 visitors in 250,000 square feet of space.

http://insideag.blogspot.com/2008/08/stealing-show.html


7. Cover crops on the rise
Cover crops, such as annual ryegrass, are making a comeback in the Corn Belt, according to Dan Towery, Ag Conservation Solutions, Lafayette, Indiana. At a visit to an Indiana farm using cover crops this summer, Towery told me that annual ryegrass is being grown on more than 400,000 acres in the Midwest. No-tillers are reporting increased corn yields from 20 to 50 bushels per acre, even in dry years, he said. Other cover crops demonstrating good potential include hairy vetch, crimson clover and red clover, according to Penn State research.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1430551123/bclid1432781673/bctid1849009648

8. Harvesting corn cobs
The ethanol maker, POET, announced in November it was gearing up to generate 25 million gallons of ethanol from corn cobs, starting in 2011. The Sioux Falls-based company wants to start contracting with farmers to harvest cobs as early as 2009 and expects it to be able to pay farmers between $30 and $60 per ton for the by-product. At a recent Iowa event, about a dozen farm equipment companies demonstrated the latest technology for harvesting corn cobs.

http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1226090131944.xml

9. Social networking
Social media sites like Facebook and MySpace are overhauling the Internet, as people continue to replace e-mail, TV, and portal Web sites with these networking experiences. The Farmers for the Future social network, launched only a couple months ago, already has more than 500 members who are doing a great job of sharing ideas, video, photos and friendship.

http://www.farmersforthefuture.com

10. Twitpic
People sometimes kind of snicker when I mention that I like to use the microblogging tool, Twitter. Twitpic is an application that enables you to post photos and text to Twitter. I used the app last summer to update my blog and Web site, needing only my cell phone’s camera and a phone call to Twitpic. Pretty cool to do that straight from a combine cab while talking to a farmer.

http://www.twitpic.com/f7it

Returning to the earth

Lane to the old Betke place

The wheel tracks captured in Linda Welsch’s painting once led to a busy farmstead in Buffalo County, Nebraska. What Linda painted this fall looks a lot more like the land before farmers plowed the plains, maybe a little like the wagon wheel tracks of the Oregon trail near here. (Click to see larger.)

At the height of its farm history, the Betke place featured a sturdy two-story farm house, a big red barn, a fleet of machinery, a large garden, and a thriving generation of German-stock farmers. The Betkes grew corn, milo, wheat and alfalfa. They kept a cow herd, pigs, poultry, and a small beef feedlot. The farmstead had a chicken house, a wash house, a duck house, a feed bin, a granary, a machine shop, a windmill, cattle pens, and a cow shed—all those fixtures of the mixed grain and livestock farm in the twentieth century.

A tornado about twenty years ago took most of buildings. The grinding of time changed the farm’s future. At one time, an Extension agent advised me to drill a well in the middle of this quarter section and irrigate it with a pivot. Another adviser, from the soil conservation agency, told me I should install better terraces.

Those two clumps of trees you see in the painting are about all that remains of my grandparents’ farm. The one on the left flanked the farmstead, the other is a windbreak they planted after the Dust Bowl.

Today, much of the quarter is enrolled in CRP, the rest is native pasture and dryland corn and beans. A young farmer from up the road keeps an eye on the place, plants the crops, and tends the cows.

As I look at how Linda saw the farm in this painting, it settles my heart. I miss the old folks and that bustling farm. But I also see more clearly what underlies our daily lives in agriculture: the land, the sky, and the path home.

About Linda Hotovy Welsch: Linda has been a friend to Successful Farming for years. We have long admired her paintings portraying the people and landscapes of the rural Midwest. She lives on a farm in central Nebraska with Roger Welsch, the acclaimed writer, folklorist, tractor collector and Native American expert. Linda issues an occasional e-mail newsletter, “field notes” to a few friends. I’ve assembled a few of her most recent works, along with some of her informal comments on the paintings, in a Flickr photo gallery, Linda's paintings. You can view a wider selection of her paintings on a Successful Farming Web page, Linda's Art Page.

The young lions of ag

Dustin Marolf

One of the things I noticed in several cross-country farm tours this year is that the generational transfer of the family farm is really starting to take hold. In a number of cases, you could see that the older farmer in the operation was stepping into the background and letting the younger member take the limelight. This was a little bit the case on the Marolf farm in eastern Iowa, for example. Jerry, the father, seemed plenty content to let Dustin give me a tour of their operation. Obviously, they were both plenty capable and articulate. But young Dustin did the talkin'.

I was at a Kansas farm in June to shoot video for our cable TV show of one of the winners of our All Around the Farm Idea of the Month. Cody Zabel, who had just graduated from high school (as valedictorian), was the winning inventor, and his mom and dad had just left the whole business for him to deal with. Earlier that day, he'd been putting up hay. When we arrived at the farm, he was tearing into a truck motor. Clearly, Cody was already stepping into some big shoes on this top-notch operation.

If you look at the new Farmers for the Future social network, you get a feel for the new faces that are emerging out on the land. They give off a kaleidoscope of impressions. The photography section shows scenes of farm work, favorite farm machinery, favored farm animals, young children, goofy scenes of guys doing guy things, and beautiful farmscapes. Check out the slideshow view, and I think you'll see what I mean. The sense I get is one of a strong, young people ready to take the reins of agriculture.

Who can't but welcome these young folks into the world's most important industry? And it's good to see the older folks letting them have at it.

In praise of barn cats

I started thinking about farm cats recently when our middle-aged house cat, Tuffy, was diagnosed with diabetes. Jeepers, where did that come from? Of course, we're going to try to take care of him, but there was a part of me that questioned whether I was going too far in intervening in nature. I wondered what would happen if old Tuff were a barn cat?

Well, he might get a little extra feed and water. But how likely is it that he would get insulin shots twice a day?

I don't know how this thing with our cat will pan out, but I have to admit that darn cat is part of the family, and we aren't going to stand by and do nothing.

The incident started me thinking about the place of farm cats on the farmstead totem pole. In a recent Agriculture Online poll, dogs were the run-away winner in the farmer's vote for most useful animal.

Seems like cats earn their keep, don't they? They patrol rodent populations, they bring a certain dignity to the place with their calm demeanor, and they can pretty much fend for themselves. What's a dog do to earn its elevated status? Bark at the moon and chase cars? Yet dogs get to ride in the pickup, appear in seed corn commercials, and maybe even pose in the family Christmas card photo.

By the way, check out that farm animal poll, and you'll see there are some other nominations for our appreciation. There's the horse, of course. But anybody keeping mules? Says one farmer, "If it weren't for the mules we wouldn't be farmin'." Or what about guineas? Great for tick control, as well as eggs, one farmer says.

What animal do you think is most useful around the farm?

The real hard times

My grandparents, Otto and Alma Betke

In a new Agriculture Online poll, farmers express major concern about the ag economy. Uncertain times it is out on the land as well as on Wall Street and Main Street.

The financial meltdown we've all been living through, drawing comparisons to the Great Depression and other worst-ever scenarios, has had me thinking about personal roots and old stories of hard times.

My greatest heroes are my grandparents, Otto and Alma Betke, who farmed through the Depression and the Dust Bowl in Buffalo County, Nebraska. Grandpa once told me what it was like during the Dust Bowl days, one year to have the entire wheat harvest be two sacks of grain. "That's all we took to town," he said, shaking his head.

In the picture above, taken in another tough year, Otto and Alma were pretty proud of their wagon load of corn. Their faces are wind burned, and they look dog tired, but they took the time to pose with an artistic touch, getting their German shepherd to hold an ear of corn in his mouth. Picking corn by hand was always one of the toughest jobs on the farm, I'm told. Here is what the real hard times look like, and the folks took some passing pleasure in their humble harvest.

I don't think the Betkes ever looked to town for a financial bailout. They planted windbreaks, tilled a bigger garden, and expanded their eggs-and-butter business. They faithfully planted their crops until the good times returned.

So when I start worrying about the current financial crisis, I try to remember to take a look over at this picture in my office and remind myself what real hard times look like. The Betkes got through it, and lived long, happy lives. So will we, I suspect.

Eternal search for land and cattle

Starting out in this business many years ago by writing for a purebred cattle magazine, I discovered early on how many cattle operations are based on outside money or inherited capital. Lots of the leading breeders were from other industries. I wrote stories about engineers, airplane pilots, and doctors who were raising cattle as a sideline, tax writeoff, or hobby. Prosperous farmers had purebred cattle, too.

So, now when I hear the questions from young and beginning farmers and ranchers about how to get more land, and get started in cattle, you think, well, maybe you just as well ask how do you get rich. Or what is the meaning of life?

Two discussion threads in Agriculture Online this week explore the knotty questions of how you rent more land and how you make money in cattle.

On the land question, well, the tips include:

* Marry a woman who owns 1,500 acres.
* Put an ad in the paper.

There is also this bit of advice:

"Other than offering more money for cash rent, there are some in our areas trying a base cash rent with a share in any excess bushels for the landlord when the yield per acre is above a set trigger number. Some of the local landowners in our area are renting for your choice of $375/A paid up front or 75 bushels of dry corn delivered to the elevator of the landlord's choice."

Add your two cents in Farm Business Talk

On the cattle question, "Is there money in cattle," a would-be cattleman is given a good range of advice:

* Base the operation of direct marketing to consumer.

* Take it slow while you learn the cattle business and figure out where your energy level is. The energy you have determines a lot about the size and type of your operation unless you're rich and can hire everything done.

* Watch your costs closely and feed byproducts when possible to cut those costs.

* Find someone who will let you work with them to learn cattle. You should find out real fast it that is the animal for you. Then if you're still interested, look into using rotational grazing for your operation.

* Start small. But be big enough to get your feet wet. Just don't be so big that if you screw up it will break you.

* Don't skimp on the quality of the cattle. Work with a reputable dealer or go to an auction where you can buy a straight load or half a load of good quality cattle from one owner. This will save you a lot of the headaches of health problems.

* Buy yearling cattle, not fresh weaned calves, again because of the health.

* Small operations need to lock in profitability via futures or option hedges. Otherwise, you are just playing chicken with the market, given the wide swings in prices from week to week.

Have anything to add? Join the discussion: Is there money in cattle?

Where pretty comes with a payoff

What's to learn from small farms in Austria and Slovenia, pretty as picture post cards, but seemingly not much more productive than a typical hobby farm in North America?

As a visitor to the Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists, which concluded in Portoroz, Slovenia, this week, I came away with several main impressions of Europe's smaller-scale agriculture. Take a tour and see if you agree.

* Farmers as "park rangers." Several top farms we visited were receiving at least half their revenue, one 70%, from government subsidies--mainly for taking care of the countryside. Europe wants its farms to remain picturesque and has put stewardship of the countryside on par with food production.

* Dual purpose cattle still rule the mountains. The dual purpose, meat and milk Simmental breed make up 80% of Austria's beef herd. Farms I visited demonstrated the demand for locally branded meat, sometimes with an organic label. An alpine farm we toured is getting 2,000 Euros for a 10- 12-month-old Simmental beefer sold direct to consumers. Exchange rate that day: 1.6 dollars. Do the math.

* Decoupling is liberating. In getting payments that aren't tied to a certain commodities, Euro farmers appear to be much more free than their U.S. counterparts to explore new crops and enterprises. Some are cashing in on the appeal of their farms for tourism and premium-priced products.

* Agritourism is a growing gold mine. In the tiny country of Slovenia alone, there are some 500 tourist farms. The ones we visited looked highly prosperous, propped up by subsidies and a growing desire by city folk to experience the authenticity of farm life. People are looking for "slow food" and a relaxing life, said one Slovenian.

* Authenticity is in high demand. Central Europeans appear to want their agriculture to weave the past with the present, the practical with the traditional. They want red-and-white cows, traditional fences, heritage fruits and vegetables, and unspoiled agricultural vistas. And, they're willing to pay for it through premium prices and federal funding.

* Small is beautiful. European Union ag leaders don't seem to see globalization as a get-big-or-get-out trend. Franz Fischler, former EU Commissioner for Agriculture, told me that "we don't all have to do everything the same under globalization. Small farms and environmental stewardship are desirable, too. We can have all kinds of farms in the world."

Farmers: The original social network

Frank Lechtenberg, Nebraska farmer, founder of Marketing Talk Meeting

The most fascinating corner of communications technology these days is social media --Web 2.0 community applications like Facebook, MySpace, Ning, and Twitter. These sites share the goal of enabling people to network on the Web through user profiles, friends lists, private messaging, discussion groups, photo/video sharing and other tools.

Farmers have been Web 2.0 guys since the plow broke the plains, though. Being far flung in their businesses, they've always found venues of interaction--threshing bees, barn dances, church socials, going to town on Saturday night and just talking across the fence.

Rachel Happe, an analyst with Mzinga, a Boston-based builder of Web comunities, told me on Twitter recently that she admires the way farmers always have developed social networks. "Farm communities were the original social networks and my grandmother [Elizabeth Koester, Batesville, Indiana] was one of the hubs. Although she doesn't know Twitter, it's a dynamic she would understand. Farming communities were the original social networks as everyone needed each other."

A twist on Web networking is the tie-in of an actual face-to-face meeting. That's what farmers on Agriculture Online did a year ago, when they called a meeting of folks who participate in the Marketing Talk discussion group. It was quite a deal to watch farmers from seven or eight states get together face to face who had only known each other through the Web. Agriculture Online hosted the meeting, but basically stood aside and let the farmers/marketers carry the agenda.

Marketing Talk members will be meeting again next week in Des Moines, after another farmer, Chris Weydert, an Iowan, raised the idea of a reunion last month.

Last year, you got the sense that these guys learned about as much from each other as they could have from all the marketing experts in the country. There's nothing like networking with one's peers to get a bigger picture of the world.

We're looking forward to Marketing Talk II next week, Wednesday, September 3.

Here's where you can get more details about the event. Marketing Talk Meeting. If you're interested, there's still room for a few more folks.

Farmers' close calls: A split second gone bad

SMV signs mean slow down

A farmer started a discussion thread in Machinery Talk last week that needs some attention--some bold attention, like flashing lights and an ambulance siren.

I found it downright scary to read some of the "war stories" these guys tell, but do go ahead and read them for yourself: Machinery Talk.

Maybe these messages will save your life, or at least a few fingers. There are stories of near-death experiences, broken bones, smashed fingers, crushed feet, etc. And remember, these are from the guys who have lived to tell their stories--and who can still type.

Here's one example:

"The first year I was making large square bales of corn fodder the pickup plugged and I got off the tractor with the PTO running and pushed the stalks with my foot. In a split second my foot was grabbed by the stalks and I was pulled towards the stuffer fingers. I remember thinking so this is how I am going to die...."

Note the phrase, "in a split second." That's how it always seems to be in these stories, things go bad in an instant.

Here's another one to show you how it goes:

"I left [the big round baler] running when I got out of the tractor to check the strings on the previously made bale. As I was walking back, I noticed that there was a small wad of hay clinging to the frame, and I sort of unconsciously/reflexively swatted at it with my hand, to knock it off. Next thing I knew, my hand was sucked into the belt...."

Again, all in the blink of an eye.

Here's some of what's dangerous on the farm, according to gleanings from the Machinery Talk discussion:

* Getting high off the ground.

* Putting your hands around unprotected moving parts.

* Any piece of equipment that isn't working right.

* Servicing/fixing grain storage facilities--beware dryers and silos.

* Livestock behaving badly.

* Trying to do stuff with brute force.

It seems that one thing we need to learn to do before performing just about any chore on the farm is to pause, take a deep breath, and just spend a moment considering what we're about to do.

Harvest season is one of the most dangerous times of the year, safety experts say. Vow not to let that "split second" get you.

Windshield tour: No bin buster here

Soybeans in central Iowa, 8/14

Back in June, there was concern that the world would face food shortages because of flood damage to Midwest crops. But, this week, USDA reported that farmers now are on track to harvest the second largest corn crop and fourth largest soybean crop in history. What a turn-around--from food shortages to bin buster in less than two months. Yes, weather has been ideal, crop experts and meteorologists say. But is there more to the story than the USDA numbers?

USDA's reporting system, routinely criticized by some farmers, seems about as scientific as such a process can be--it's based primarily on phone interviews of 29,500 producers. In June, USDA agents even went back to 8,910 tracts in the Midwest to document the impacts of flooding on planted acreage and harvest intentions.

Windshield tours are a kind of sport for farmers. You really can't tell all that much from the road. But what does it mean when a whole bunch of farmers are starting to see the same thing?
My picture here was taken of a field I've been watching since the heavy rains inundated the ground last spring. It's about a mile east of the Des Moines River, and a mile north of I-80, pretty much smack dab in the middle of Iowa and the Corn Belt. It shows an area of late soybeans that were planted in a drowned-out corner of a corn field. As you can see, the planting got doused a second time. In central Iowa, you can find a lot of areas that look like this--late planted crops racing to get under the frost finish line. (Here are some other views from my tour this morning; it ain't pretty: August 14 tour.)

According to farmers in Marketing Talk, windshield tours from around the country are revealing a host of problems for Midwest corn and soybeans: spotty stands, heavy weed and insect pressure, disease, and so on. Others are reporting a crop that has shown great resiliency: "Cool wet start, and this crop sure looks like it's trying to finish out like normal," said one farmer in the discussion.

We all know these road tours are just a kind of talk show before the big game involving combines this fall. Maybe, though, the discussion helps us better understand the drama we've seen this year. And one thing seems sure: "Rough ride when combines start rolling no matter who is right," as one farmer put it.

Twice you're good

Sarah Lacy

Last weekend, Sarah Lacy, author of the new book Once You're lucky, Twice You're Good (The rebirth of Silicon Valley and the rise of Web 2.0), came to Des Moines to talk about her book and the lastest goings-on in Silicon Valley. Her book focuses on the entrepreneurs who built the Web (1.0) and those who are now creating Web 2.0, the technologies that are spawning all the new tools of social networking--products like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn.


I haven't read the book yet, but Sarah offered a number of thoughts that have stuck in my mind:

* The big wheels in Silicon Valley are mostly from the Midwest, have hard-core work ethics, and are still on the move. For example, Marc Andreessen, born in Iowa and raised in Wisconsin, co-developed the first big Web browser, and recently co-founded Ning, a platform for social networking.


* Many of the new entrepreneurs are not computer language coders, like the guys who built Microsoft and Netscape. They are creative people with a big idea.


* Web 2.0 is spawning a new work culture in which many more people are self-employed, using tools like Facebook and Twitter to make contacts and drive business.


* Social networking gives us the capability to stay in touch with everyone we know, or at least want to stay in touch with, starting for kids in kindergarten.


* Venture capitalists, who funded so much of Web 1.0, are often getting cut out of the 2.0 action.


* Web 2.0 means as much to people in places like Des Moines and Omaha as it does to San Franciscans. There's no reason that the next big thing can't be invented right down the street here, Sarah says.


* The smart guys in Silicon Valley still draw out ideas on napkins.

* Web 3.0 is still totally unimaginable. Will it have something to do with new ways of connecting people? Mobile maybe? (Mobile still has fundamental software problems, Sarah believes.)


What does Web 2.0 have to do with agriculture? This year, with all the new bubbling up of social media, reminds me a lot of 1995, when many of us took to the Web on Marc Andreessen's first Mosaic browser. How much did the Web change farming? As much as paved roads and the telephone? The next couple years, I believe, will bring similar, dramatic changes in how we communicate, conduct business, and enjoy life.

Stealing the show

Bob Schnell, Farm Equipment Manufacturing Association, announces new farm show

The announcement of the new Ag Connect Expo stole the show at the Ag Media Summit this week in Tampa, Florida. A big banner touting its sponsoring organization, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), hung over the entrance to the Summit's InfoExpo, a trade show for the annual meeting of the nation's agricultural journalists.

Ag Connect had the prime booth space and attracted journalists from all the top farm media organizations. From all appearances, the Expo folks hit it out of the park with their big announcement. A long line of interviewers heard about the show's features: a goal of attracting 20,000 producers and 700 plus exhibitors covering 250,000 square feet of space "displaying the latest in equipment, technology and services." The show will debut in Orlando in January 2010.
But why another big farm show? We already have Louisville, Tulare, the Sun Belt, Farm Progress and others.

The U.S. needs a show with an international focus, and farmers can be better served with new farm show technology, including a card system that will enable data and info exchanges between farmer and manufacturer, organizers said. Orlando no doubt would double as a family vacation for both U.S. and international visitors. And, what else? Will AEM be a better organizer of a farm show than its competitors? Will they provide better services to manufacturers and the show goers? Their success in the construction industry says this group is well equipped to run equipment shows.

A new poll on Agriculture Online, however, suggests some early ambivalence about the need for a new show. "January is pretty full on the show schedule right now up north," said one comment to the poll. "Then there is the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville every February, which seems to get bigger each year. Who is the target market for this new show?"

Based on the impressive media performance, there is going to be a lot of firepower behind this show. It will be interesting to see how big it gets to be come January 2010.

Give us our cheaper bread

December corn futures fall off the table

In his new Agriculture Online column this week, Market Analyst Ray Grabanski points out that corn prices have fallen by more than $2 in recent weeks, before hitting bottom this week.

Even the crude oil market now appears that it finally formed its high, having dropped from $145 to $124/barrel, Grabanski says. "It's possible we have formed not only our yearly highs, but perhaps even decade highs in crude oil, wheat, and corn in the past few months," he writes.

Wow, think about that--decade highs. And now if commodity prices are coming back to earth, where is the point where prices break for a loaf of bread or a tank of gas?

Farmers, who have been battered by consumers, the media, environmentalists and other activists for participating in these prices, are skeptical. In a Marketing Talk discussion, Great for the country," one farmer comments: " And you can just feel the relief all across America now that corn has fallen 25% and stores everywhere will be marking down the price on nearly all items. As corn was going up, it was rising corn prices that were the root evil cause of nearly every rising cost in the news. Even popcorn at the theatres can come back down now. Woohoo!"

Country rockers & city salsa

Remember that ad a while back for some kind of salsa? A Texas cowboy jumps up in horror to find out that his jar came from New York City. "NEW YORK CITY!" all the cowboys around the camp fire shout in alarm.

Hey, we're kind of feeling like those cowboys that the Farm Aid benefit concert this fall is going to be held out East again, this time in a Boston suburb. Last year the event was held in NEW YORK CITY, and the year before in Camden, New Jersey.

Yeah, the good people of NYC and Boston should be enlisted to support family farms. But, jeepers, most farmers left the poor rocky soils of New England a couple hundred years ago and headed west to homestead.

If Farm Aid wants to keep in touch with most of the nation's mainstream farmers, how about getting back out west of the Hudson River again sometime soon? And the foodie rhetoric is starting to seem like city salsa to me. Tone it down a little at least--we can have a safe, healthy food supply without every portion being organic and boutiquey, can't we?

In announcing the date yesterday, co-founder John Mellancamp said, "New England was built on the strength of independent family farmers. We can honor that independent spirit by joining Farm Aid to grow the movement that is changing the way all of America eats." Changing the way all of America eats? So again, a hot dog will be hard to find at Farm Aid. Corporate sponsors are Silk Soymilk and Horizon Organics.

Mellencamp, Neil, Willie and the boys: When you're done in Boston, come out west and get some mud on your boots again.

Help us figure out the farm bill

This week a group of agricultural economists met in Kansas City to discuss how they were going to explain the farm bill. Does that sound a little ominous?

In his news story about the meeting, Agriculture Online Business Editor Dan Looker referred to the new bill as one that "may be the most complicated farm program yet."

It has some familiar features, he says, including the old safety net of loan deficiency payments, counter-cyclical payments and direct payments.

But there are some new acronyms in the thing, including ACRE, (average crop revenue election) which you can sign up for next year. There is also SURE (supplemental revenue assistance payments) which becomes the new permanent disaster program for farmers. And there is EQIP, and CSP, and so on.

This week USDA said it will allow producers who would otherwise be ineligible for the new disaster assistance programs to become eligible by paying a fee, so that's another new wrinkle. Earlier, we learned that some deadlines are out of synch with SURE, so that a special signup will be necessary.

Head starting to hurt? There's lots of talkage to process through the grinder of clear understanding.

A new poll and discussion gives you the chance to tell us what you most want to know about the new farm bill. Chip in with your vote and comments here: What part of the farm bill would you most like to learn more about?

'Can't get adjusted to these prices'

Smaller equipment getting closer look?

There's a good story in the Agriculture Online Farm Business forum this week:

"Many, many years ago a good friend of mine bought some ear corn from an old farmer. After loading it we went to a local mill to weigh it and pay the old farmer. After getting it weighed the mill employee told the old farmer 'That will be $0.50 for weighing the truck.' The old farmer stood there a minute and grudgingly dug down in his pocket for the money. While doing this and shaking his head he said the words I will never forget: 'I just can't get adjusted to these prices.' My friend and I have laughed about this for many years. Sad to say I now know how the old farmer felt. Prices have changed so much for what we sell and buy that it is almost impossible to feel confident in the decisions you make. "

Funny, sad story, but true, eh? Crop producers are taking it on the chin with input prices, and livestock farmers with feed costs. And, everyone is getting hammered by high fuel prices.

In another discussion group thread, farmers list ways they're cutting back on fuel and other energy costs. The thing that struck me the most about this conversation is how much farmers are changing vehicles--using smaller cars and pickups, motor scooters, and even golf carts to replace bigger rigs for chores and local transportation.

Check out the whole list of tips: Farm Business Talk.

Old tractors as fine art

When I see a well-restored antique tractor it makes me think of a work of art. The farmers and other folks who tend to this avocation of tractor restoration are like artists in many ways--dedicated, visionary, and talented in an almost unearthly way. It boggles my mind to see a before picture of a rusty old hulk of iron drug out of a windbreak somewhere, then restored to a shining beauty of a machine that looks like it just rolled out of the factory.

For example, check out this one, a sweet John Deere A, which I spotted on the Larry Zimbelmann farm, near Milford, Nebraska last month.

Paintings of antique tractors, though, well, I wasn't so sure.... until Linda Welsch, a Nebraska artist, e-mailed me a photo of a piece she's been working on for a friend. That's it above, an Allis-Chalmers, 1940s vintage.

Linda worked from photos provided by the owner, a Nebraska AGCO dealer. "I drew it freehand from the photo in oil paint, let it dry and each night brought it in the house for Rog [that would be Roger, her famous husband] to look at and tell me if all the parts were in the right place, since I didn't know a carburetor from a gas tank. I was only drawing the shapes I saw."

I think you got the shapes right, Linda. Indeed. Thanks for sharing.

Oh, and what does Ol' Rog think? "Tractors aren't so much art, having been manufactured after all, but they ARE artifacts. Linda's painting has turned this one into art."

Some of Linda's earlier works can be seen here: Linda Welsch's art page.

Also, I'm enjoying one of her recent pieces: Loup River.

Open up CRP?

CRP land on my family farm in Nebraska

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley recently proposed opening up the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) as a way to replace some of the cropland capacity lost from flooding in Iowa and elsewhere in the Midwest. A good idea? Not, say the majority of farmers taking an Agriculture Online poll.

In comments to the poll, you'll find a diverse set of opinions. Said one farmer: "There will be little benefit to crop production this year by opening it up so it wouldn't serve much purpose." Others are opposed for another reason: "All that land is HEL [highly erodible land] and probably needs to stay in CRP."

In a news story this week, Agriculture Online reported that Ag Secretary Ed Schafer is mulling over a decision on what to do with CRP land in the 2009 crop year. One hopes that he will carefully consider the long-term impacts of such a decision, and realize that people out on the land may see this differently than Washington politicians, including Grassley. The CRP certainly is not the answer to all of our soil and water conservation problems, and it is not the answer to what ails us now on cropland.

Answer is blowin' in the wind

Grain bins, and former grain bins, Buffalo County, NE

We had just spent a week on the road, starting from Des Moines, Iowa, zig-zagging across western Iowa, northwest Missouri, half of Nebraska, northern Kansas and back home again--a route like a lariat trying to catch the wind. The Crop Tech Tour is a free-wheeling, season-long look at how newer production technologies are performing in-season, and in real time, so to speak.

We saw farmers using an array of practices--plant genetics, precision ag, energy and labor savings inventions, and so on. The inventiveness of the American farmer is a boundless topic, one that deserves a year-round tour bus, with a tag-team of journalists. On this trip, it was just my brother and me, wielding video and photo equipment, hoping to capture some bits of what it's like to be farming in this challenging year.

The weather trumped the technology last week. At just about every farm where we stopped, somebody had a story about the tough conditions this spring--hail, high winds, heavy rains, flooding, you name it. Despite all the planning, equipment, and skill used by farmers, it is the weather that has the last word. We all know that. But, every spring is a reminder.

By Kearney, Nebraska, we had endured several big storms and seen pivot irrigation units and grain bins twisted up and pitched across fields like discarded farm toys. Our rental car was pock-marked by hail.

But the worst was yet to come.

On Thursday, we stopped at a Kansas farm that had just been destroyed by a tornado. There, Maureen Pfizenmaier described to us in a video interview how she felt seeing her farm in shambles. All of a sudden, through her amazing composure, it was as if we were seeing through to some larger truth. Some days, we can simply only witness the larger forces at work on the land.

A few hours later, in Manhattan, Kansas, the tour about finished, I walked into a public facility and heard the old Bob Dylan song playing over the PA system--"The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind...."

Indeed that's the theme for the Crop Tech Tour so far this year, at least from my worm's eye view of it. Blowin' in the wind.

Ethanol disinformation and dirty tricks

An article in the The New Yorker magazine, The Dirty Trickster, portrays the life of Roger Stone, a political operative who takes credit for roles in Watergate, the Florida recount, and the fall of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. And that's not even the half of it. If Stone's story can be believed, there's certainly a lesson about how you get ahead in Washington: play dirty.

A few folks from the farmer side of the ethanol debate are finding political life to be rough and tumble these days. A recent story in Agriculture Online reported Iowa Senator Charles Grassley's claim that a lobbying group funded by the Grocery Manufacturers Association engineered a "smear campaign" against the ethanol industry.

The anti-ethanol forces have blamed the alternative fuel for everything from high gas prices and global food shortages to global warming and deforestation. A beltway public relations firm hired by the Grocery Manufacturers Association was responsible for the campaign, Grassley (R-IA) said on the Senate floor last week.

Industry defenders, like Charlie Martin, an ethanol plant grain buyer, point out that a "dollar rise in the cost of a gallon of gasoline has up to three times the impact on food prices as a dollar rise in the price of a bushel of corn." Higher commodity prices are to blame for only about 20% of the cost of a rise in food prices, corn growers say.

Looking in from press row here, it appears that the "disinformation campaign" has made a big impact on the public perception of ethanol. What a switch from the time not so long ago when corn was viewed as green for its contribution to renewable energy.

One of Roger Stone's rules is "Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack." Don't be surprised if the war of words continues....

Weather folklore 'simply dangerous'

A new discussion thread in Agriculture Online centers on the question of whether farmers pay any attention to the phase of the moon anymore. Some farmers do apparently, or at least they remember that their fathers and grandfathers had their eye on the zodiac when they performed chores like planting crops or handling livestock.

The discussion made me think too about the weather proverbs that you hear from time to time. Things like, "Red sky at morning: Sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight."

Digging around on Agriculture Online, I found a story from a few years back, Weather folklore 'simply dangerous. ' The story debunks a number of myths about tornados, one being that you can outrun a twister with your vehicle. Oh, and you better not believe the old saw that lightning never strikes the same place twice, Kansas State University experts tell us.

I'm getting ready to head through the tornado alleys of Nebraska and Kansas in the next couple weeks, so guess I'll take this warning to heart.

Why many farmers would veto farm bill

Would farmers really veto the farm bill? You wouldn't think so, given how all the critics believe the thing is a big fat handout for everybody. John McCain is the latest to condemn the plan. A wire story outlining his dissent, which appeared in the Washington Post today, included mention of the Agriculture Online poll that shows farmers in favor of a presidental veto.
Dan Looker, Successful Farming business editor who covers the farm bill for Agriculture Online, gives these reasons for farmer disfavor for the legislation:
* They agree with President Bush and Senator Grassley that more reform is needed by lowering the adjusted gross income to $200,000.
* They might believe it spends too much on food stamps (a sure bet before the current food price inflation but I’m not so sure now).
* The safety net of marketing loans and countercyclical payments in the farm bill is irrelevant in today’s market.
* Continued direct payments are irrelevant in today’s market.
* Continuing the conservation reserve program makes no sense in today’s market.
What's your theory? Take the poll and add your own comments.

Farmers would veto farm bill?

The farm bill has been called a lot of things by a lot of people--mostly by people whose business it is to make policy and talk policy, and mostly by people inside the Beltway. Out in the country there is not near as much talk about the thing, it seems. One wonders what the working farmer thinks of the much-debated, much-maligned legislation, now that it seems destined for passage.

Is it a little bit of a shock to look at the early returns from the new Agriculture Online poll: Would you veto the farm bill?

In one comment on the poll, a North Carolina farmer worries about the public perception that farmers are ripping off the public: "All we can hope for is a national consciousness that realizes that feeding ourselves is a genuine national security issue. Maybe then they'll be willing to keep us around on the payroll for a while longer."

Take the poll, add your own comments....

Planting proverbs

John Pfaffinger

Hang around farmers long enough and you hear these kinds of expressions:

"Rain makes grain."

"Plant in the dust, bins bust."

"Plant in the dust, crop's a bust."

One of these old saws kicks off an Agriculture Online blog entry by Minnesota farmer John Pfaffinger:

"Plant in the mud, your crop is a dud. Well, the farmers here are going to test out the theory. Saw many going today in terrible soil conditions. I saw 2 stuck planters and 1 stuck digger. Several leaving mud holes as well. So it is late going in cold wet soils and today it was 25 degrees below normal....48 degrees when I was working outside late this afternoon."

Farmers across the nation are concerned about the status of planting, and of crop emergence. And a big majority wonder if the markets are adequately reflecting the impact of the weather, according to a new Agriculture Online poll. Take the poll and add your own comments.

A SURE thing in the farm bill

One of the new provisions in the farm bill, if the thing ever gets passed, is an add-on to the disaster payment program, called SURE (SUpplemental REvenue Assistance Payments).

"This is the permanent disaster program that generated a lot of debate during the writing of the Farm Bill," Agriculture Online Business Editor wrote in a new story on the topic.

"At times it pitted Corn Belt members of the agriculture committees against those from the Great Plains, where crop insurance and other safety net programs haven’t always worked well for wheat farmers facing multiple years of drought," Looker wrote.

One change with this approach to disaster assistance is that it would be directed only to producers who can actually show a loss, rather than just live in a county or an adjacent county that has suffered a loss."

And you must buy at least low-value, catastrophic coverage to get disaster payments.

Dan's story details how the program works and what the numbers look like in different situations.

Facts we can stomach

An opinion piece in the Sunday New York Times, titled Change we can stomach, contends that chefs and consumers can change how farmers farm by buying "delicious" food. The author, Dan Barber, is the chef and co-owner of a New York restaurant and apparently is regarded in some circles as a leading food writer. In Barber's mind, delicious means only locally produced, organic food.

There is much to be said for this movement in agriculture, including the opportunities it provides for young and beginning farmers. Barber, though, sounds false notes on several fronts. This line rings flat, for example: "Until now, food production has been controlled by Big Agriculture, with its macho fixation on 'average tonnage' and 'record harvests.'"

Until now? You mean ever since we were hunting and gathering, we've been Big Agriculture? If we're not helping serve $100 meals in NYC, are we then, all the rest of us, big bad Big Agriculture? And,by the way, has anyone in ag journalism ever used the phrase "average tonnage"?

Later in his piece Barber claims that "organic fruits and vegetables contain 40 percent more nutrients than their chemical-fed counterparts." What?

Here's what the Organic Farming Research Foundation says on the topic of the nutrient superiority of organics versus conventional: "The definitive study has not been done, mainly because of the multitude of variables involved in making a fair comparison between organically grown and conventionally grown food."

On Barber's Web site, he talks about working with the Kellogg Foundation and other organizations to "minimize the political and intellectual rhetoric around agricultural issues…." Dude.

Farm bill plan pleases Pelosi at least

One farm state politician recently compared the farm bill funding process to passing a kidney stone. The bill's main critics seem to put it in the same league as the articles establishing the Soviet Union, and farmers themselves, I think, are mostly uninterested at this point, given the marathon pace the whole thing has taken.

And when it's finally done you'll likely hear faint praise all around, with a bit of nose-holding, as is the case with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In a statement Friday, she cited the bill's potential to "ease the strain of rising food prices," and for its conservation provisions, and "commitment" to nutrition, fruits and veggies.

In the nose-holding part she says she "would have preferred more commodity reform," and she she notes the reduction in the tax credit for corn-based ethanol.

But, any back slapping in the halls of Congress may be premature, according to a new story by Agriculture Online Business Editor Dan Looker.

Ag Secretary Ed Schafer told reporters Thursday that President Bush will veto the farm bill. In response, Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin said the plan isn't perfect but that deserves the President's signature.

"Inexplicably, the White House seems intent on destroying the harvest just as the seeds are being planted," Harkin said.

Bashing biofuels

With the growing public concern about the impact of biofuels on global food supplies, farm groups and farm state politicians are stepping up their case in the debate. New stories on Agriculture Online make the case that ethanol and other biofuels are a relatively small contributor to higher food prices and actually are helping temper skyrocketing fuel prices.

Yesterday, Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) defended the ethanol industry by urging EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson not to roll back the Renewable Fuel Standard, which was part of last year's federal energy bill.

"At a time when a barrel of crude oil costs nearly $120 and gasoline prices are approaching $4 a gallon, the fuel produced by the U.S. ethanol industry is helping to extend our fuel supply and keep prices lower," the senators said.