Ten questions for farmers in ’09: The results are in

One of the most interesting parts of this job is helping develop and report on the AgPoll feature for Agriculture.com. The surveys this year show, I think, that farmers are as diversely opinionated as ever, and mostly have a deep-rooted optimism about their lives on the land.

Here’s a selection of some of the year’s highlights. The poll's are all still "live," so please feel free to chime in.

1. What do you most like about farming?

More than half of farmers said “independence.” Next highest response was “growing things.” Farmer comment on this poll showed the deep feelings people have for their profession. “To farm the same land that my father and grandfather have since 1890 is a privilege and honor,” said a Minnesota farmer. Another had these words: “My favorite time of year is the planting season. A few days after I plant I like to get on my hands and knees and look for the seeds. It is the satisfaction in watching that little seed grow.”

2. What word best describes your fiscal policy?

It’s not “liberal.” And, no, it’s not “cheap” or “frugal”, but rather “responsible," the choice of more than half of respondents to this poll. Some folks are quite emphatic about fiscal responsibility: “When it comes to maintenance, I spend whatever it takes to make things run without breakdowns,” said one farmer. “Sometimes I go overkill. When it comes to purchases, if it doesn't contribute to the balance sheet, I don't buy it.”

3. What most impresses you when you drive by a farm?

One farmer insisted this is a silly question, but the poll had a good response. It’s not the shiny, new stuff that gets the nod here. Two thirds of farmers opted for “neat, well-maintained buildings and fences.” One farmer says he tries to keep up a “park-like” appearance on his place. Another compares a farmstead to a “storefront,” saying we should take as much pride in appearances as any other business.

4. If your marketing was a corn field, what would it look like this year?

This whimsical poll was taken in September, just as the long and winding road of ’09 harvest was beginning. “A bit weedy and average yield” was the option with the most votes: 39%. “Clean of weeds and a bumper crop,” was next at 21%. Taking the metaphor to extremes, a farmer from New York State commented: “My corn field would look like a hurricane had hit, followed by floods, a fire, two tornadoes, and a herd of buffalo had simultaneously parked themselves on the field. But it wouldn't have made any difference, because no one remembered to put seed in the planter.”

5. What is the wettest corn you’ve combined this year?

This popular poll may have unearthed some numbers for the record books. Forty-two percent of farmers said they combined corn with more than 30% moisture this fall. Harvesting with 32% moisture looks like you’re “slinging water out the back of the combine,” commented one farmer.

6. Where are you in your farming career?

Nearly two thirds of farmers say they are starting farming (25%) or still building their operations(39%), compared with those who say they are slowing down a little (19%) or winding down (13%). Optimism is reflected in one farmer’s comment, a fellow beginning in agriculture after a Navy career: “Everyone says prices are too high and one should not be buying right now. I have a different perspective. I think you should buy when you can afford it and when it is in the right place. Family says I am crazy for buying, but I say in 10 years they will think it was a good deal!

7. Which new machinery feature is of most value to you?

Autosteer was the big winner of the items on this survey list, which included variable rate application, data recording and mapping, and sprayer boom controls. “GPS was good but IMHO autosteer is the best.....what a neck saver," said a North Dakota farmer. "It sure saves cash with no overlaps or skips on any operation whether its cultivating, spraying, seeding, or anything!”

8. In what part of your farm business do you think you can save the most money in the next year?

Nearly half (46%) said fertilizer. Machinery was a distant second. Of course, most of fertilizer cost savings fell from the sky this year. “For my farm the biggest expense is fertilizer so when the price drops in half that’s a lot of savings,” said one respondent.

9. Do you have an ag-related business besides your farm?

According to this poll, only one in five farmers does not have another business. These sidelines are all across the board. Seed sales/production (14%) leads the way, followed by custom farming (13%). But 27% said “other.” What are these other businesses? The discussion gives a few examples: direct marketing meat, crop adjusting, parting out combines, and my favorite, operating a mini-donut trailer.

10. What farm shop improvement will make next?

Most folks say they will be organizing and cleaning their shops, but one in five farmers taking this survey said they will erect a new farm shop next. It’s a top priority for some. “I have decided that a shop built right and built big enough for the future has to be a priority,” said one farmer. “I don't want to be 50 and building a shop for my kids to enjoy!”

Give Papa this Christmas

I just received a signed copy of Brent Olson's new book, Papa: Figuring Out What Matters. Christmas has come early, because Brent is one of my favorite writers. He's a Minnesota farm boy who indeed has figured out a lot about what matters.

Although “Papa” Brent Olson compares himself to “Papa” Hemingway with tongue in cheek (having the beards in common), Olson is a man’s man in modern way.

Like Hemingway, Olson writes in direct sentences, but with the force that only a former farmer could summon up--when he unearths truths about small-town matters, big-city issues, and most of all daily life on the land in Minnesota.

Olson is a writer who’s not afraid to show his banged-up knuckles, his self-deprecating humor, and his soft heart for all the little live things in the world. He writes as strongly about farm cats as Hemingway did wild lions, as decisively about the futility of trying to be a tough guy as Hemingway did of its glory.

If you're looking for a last-minute Christmas present for a farmer, or other reader who cares about what matters, you could hardly find a better deal.

Buy the book direct from Brent: www.independentlyspeaking.com

It's also available from Amazon: Papa: Figuring out what matters

Seven lessons from a late harvest

The late corn harvest has taught farmers, or at least reminded them, of a number of lessons, according to a recent Agriculture Online poll. As harvest has dragged into December for many, growers are citing a number of points in the poll discussion:

Patience. In the online survey, 39% of farmers agreed that good old patience was the biggest lesson learned this year. “In the last 10 days, corn has dropped from 28-30% to 21-23%. Best corn ever!” a Minnesota grower reported in mid-November.

You can’t wait ‘til it’s perfect. Patience can only take you so far, some said. “The only problem with patience is in the north country, we could have already been done for the winter,” said a poll respondent. “We've been lucky this month but Mother Nature can change fast.” Thirty-five percent of growers responding to the poll said their biggest lesson is that you can’t wait forever for optimal conditions.

New hybrids stand up. From the combine seat, the corn looked mighty resilient to one farmer: “I have learned that these new hybrids are surprisingly strong,” he said. “I have had some corn in the ground and still standing for well over 220 days, with very little wind damage.”

Grain drying is a big bottleneck. “We need a better grain drying system,” said a Nebraska grower. “Now I remember why I hate stirators and in-bin drying. We haven't needed to use them in about 12 years. Suppose if I upgrade we won't need it for another 12 years!”

Said another: “Need to get my Shivvers drying unit back in working order. Letting the corn dry down in the field has not worked well this year.”

Watch your marketing. “Be patient when deciding to sell your crop. I sold my crop in September, early October, and the price was 3.05 - 3.47,” said a North Carolinian. “That is without dockage. Corn is now is now near or better than four dollars a bushel. I wish I had it to do over again.”

Another added, “I've learned that selling for a good price is all well and good until it costs you $0.50 per bushel to dry it. The profit goes away quickly.”

Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. A Kansan chimed in with this old expression; it worked on a number of fronts this year—yields, marketing, and next year’s plans, farmers said.

Mother Nature rules. Few respondents to the poll cited forces they could control--like drainage or equipment. “Every year is unique is the lesson here,” an Ontario farmer said. “We have been fortunate in the northeastern Corn Belt--soys excellent, corn excellent, same for wheat...doesn't happen often here.”

Bob Nielsen, Purdue University agronomist, agrees that this has been one of those years that teaches patience. "This season simply reminded us that a cool growing season results in late crop maturity and slow grain drydown," he said. "Nothing new, we simply have been spoiled the past couple of growing seasons."

Lessons learned? "It may be that some growers need improved grain drying capacities and other growers need to become more attentive to selecting hybrids with better disease resistance," he said.

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

And not a drop more

Monitoring sump at demo farm gives view of drainage

If ever there were a place in need of drainage, it was the flat cropland on a southeast Iowa research farm last week. After about six inches of rain in 36 hours, you could get a sense of why Midwest farmers see drainage as an essential, high payback production practice.

All the moving water was also a reminder of why ag is in the spotlight for its contribution of “nutrient-enhanced” flows into streams, rivers and the Gulf of Mexico.

You had to jump over a ditch and wade through mud and ankle deep water in field borders to get a look at the experimental drainage structures presented at the demonstration.

Lifting the steel cap off a monitoring sump, Iowa State University ag engineer Matt Helmers explained how the new drainage technology can be used to reduce nitrate flows into waterways, manage cropland water tables, and potentially raise crop yields.

So far the conservation benefits are fairly clear in the Iowa work. If you retrofitted your fields with this equipment, you could be pretty sure to cut nitrate flows leaving your farm—by as much as 50 percent.

Managed properly, the control structures would enable you to drain the root zone for field work and planting in the spring and to conserve soil moisture for crop use in the summer.

The yield impacts are less vivid. In Illinois last year, one 160-acre field in a project produced a 20% increase in corn yield. Long-term studies in North Carolina show a 5% increase in a corn-wheat-soybean rotation, 9% in corn alone. But that’s North Carolina, not the Midwest, where the Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition is attempting to change drainage practices. “That doesn’t happen every time [in the Midwest],” said Leonard Binstock, the coalition’s executive director. “But we think the potential is there.”

Binstock presented a calculation, assuming a 5% yield boost, that showed a net payback of $21.95 per acre for installing a full conservation drainage system with new tile lines and control structures. Cost-sharing and low-interest loans are available for the practices, too, he pointed out.

The golden rule of drainage, Binstock says, is to drain only what’s necessary to get your equipment in the field and to produce a crop—and to drain "not a drop more.”

That “not a drop more” is a big drop--one that could have a major impact on how agriculture manages one its most fundamental practices.

View video: Matt Helmers discusses conservation drainage benefits

See slideshow: Testing out conservation drainage

A fair thing to do before you die

The Iowa State Fair has been put on one of those lists of places you’re supposed to visit before you die. Having just returned from my umpteenth visit to the fair, I guess I can now pass away a happy man.

It was a fine time to be at the fair today, given the nice weather and a stroll with good friends. A few things of note:

* The biggest boar and world record big bull attracted a lot of attention. (But is this a good way to promote livestock production to the general public?)
* The sight of of kids sleeping among their livestock is always touching.
* You wonder who pays to visit the snake house exhibit.
* A mule can be the choice of ride by a livestock control agent. A real nice mule.
* The antique farm machinery doesn’t look as old anymore.
* Minor breeds of dairy cattle are prettier than Holsteins.
* The fair puts up with a fair number of vices: You can drink beer in the morning, people smoke, and you can eat just about anything without getting a lecture from anyone.
* There is a tasty treat to be had at the Iowa Cattlemen's restaurant, a hot beef sundae: beef and gravy over mashed potatoes with a cherry tomato on top.

Long live the Iowa State Fair. If you haven’t seen it, or been to a big fair like it, you ought to put it on your list.

Here's a little photo/video tour: A day at the fair

Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders look different than other people

Cowboys cheerleaders strike a pose with Texas friends

I just returned from the Agricultural Media Summit in Fort Worth, Texas, which this year was combined with an international congress of ag journalists. Communicators from around the world took tours of Texas agriculture and attended professional improvement sessions, a trade show, and social events.

Here are a few random firings from my Texas-branded brain, which may give some little flavor of the event:

Agricultural journalism is still going strong

A number of attendees talked of their hardships brought about by the global recession. There was only one journalist from the Far East this year, a region that is usually well represented at the Congress. A friend from Ukraine said he could attend only because his trip was subsidized by an agribusiness; that nation’s currency has been severely devalued this year, and the business world there is plagued by corruption at all levels, he said. Despite the current economic crisis, the industry remains strong. The Congress attracted journalists from 28 countries. Revenue and membership for the organizing groups is still growing. And, because agriculture is more complex and specialized, “there are more opportunities than ever in agricultural communications,” said Dr. Jim Evans, at an event to announce an endowed chair in ag communications at the University of Illinois in his name.

Ag technology marches on

Whatever problems exist in the general economy, agriculture continues to evolve in terms of commercial innovation. The trade show attracted a record number of exhibitors, many of which showcased new products. The precision ag companies showed off some compelling innovations—video monitoring and wireless Internet in tractor cab displays, for example. A couple other tidbits: Vermeer has sold all its inventory of corn cob collectors. An Australian company is entering the U.S. market with a system for growing hydroponic livestock feed.

Finnish farmers are good foresters

It’s a great pleasure and learning experience to interact with ag journalists from around the world. Some of my best new friends are from Finland. (When I mentioned to an American acquaintance that I would like to visit there, he commented that, well, it just looks like northern Minnesota. Would that be a bad thing?)

Anyway, one farm writer from Finland was trying to explain to me in rough English (much better than my non-existent Finnish) how most farmers in his country have forests in their operations and that they have developed good practices for managing these lands in a cropping system. I bet we could learn something from the Finns about forestry. It’s my goal to write that story.

Ag needs to tell its story better

Several distinguished speakers at the closing ceremony spoke of the need for agriculture to communicate better with the public about how food is produced. Temple Grandin, the renowned livestock handling expert, said, “we have got to communicate out of our own sphere.” Max Rothschild, a swine geneticist who received a top honor at the event, talked of our “failure to explain science to the world.” Barry Nelson, a John Deere representative, told us: “If you don’t get our story right, who will?”

Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders look different than other people

Two of them were wandering the trade show floor and posing for photos with attendees. Our foreign visitors, as well as many Americans, seemed to enjoy the experience, along with other features of Texas tradition—rodeo, cattle ranching, country-western music and honky-tonks. If you think these American icons are devalued around the world, you would have gotten a different impression from our international visitors.

Our fate is still with the soil

For me, the most dramatic presentation was given by Jim Richardson, a photographer for National Geographic magazine who lives in Lindsborg, Kansas. Richardson’s sharp eye revealed the hidden life of the soil. (Did you know there are 200 billion bacteria in a cup of soil?) In one series of images, he photographed farmers from around the world posing with cut-away soil profiles on their farms. What a world of difference between the black soils and deep rooted crops of a well-managed Iowa farm compared with the rocky, eroded topography of subsistence farming in Syria.

“We can lose soils, soils can die,” Richardson said. “But soil is a living thing, and can be reborn,” he added.

In Richardson’s photography we see a farmer’s final measure of success—how well they have taken care of the land.

What is a hog coulter?

Dave Kurns, inventor of the hog coulter

If you ever get any value from Agriculture Online, or farm Web sites like it, you owe a little something to Dave Kurns, who led the launch of the site nearly 15 years ago. Agriculture.com was our parent company’s first Web site, and it was the first site created by an ag media company.

From the outset, Dave, who worked for Meredith New Media, saw that this emerging medium was all about interactivity and community. He steered us in the direction of creating tools like discussion groups, online classified ads, and a feature called Homestead, where you could build your own home page on the Web before that was possible with other tools.

Despite having graduated from Iowa State University, the land grant college up the road, Dave was a city boy with a computer science degree. But he showed a great affinity for farmers, and enjoyed working in agriculture.

In the midst of all the excitement of building Agriculture Online, Dave also invented the hog coulter. One day, while explaining the Internet to a group of aggies he started to demonstrate keyword searches. Reaching for an example, he summoned up the term "hog coulter." I about fell on the floor laughing.

Every time that combination of words comes to mind, I chuckle to myself. And I have taken the occasion from time to time to kid Dave about his invention.

But, the joke’s on me, it turns out. There really is such a thing as a hog coulter.

However, as you can see in a new video that Dave presented me on my recent birthday, there are quite a number of definitions of "hog coulter." Editors, executives, meteorologists, marketing managers, Web designers, and farmers all have a different design in mind for the tool.

I invite you to check out Dave’s video, What is a hog coulter? and see if they've got it about right. Or maybe you've seen your own hog coulter?

Compete with your "cutthroat neighbors"

There was plenty of competition for this field on our place

A hot discussion on our site, “Cut throat neighbors,” delves into a young farmer’s problem in fending off aggressive competition for land he’s renting: “Every year neighboring farmers contact my landlords and offer astronomical prices…to rent their land,” he says.

This must be common occurrence, given the big response this farmer gets. And some folks are not very sympathetic.

"You are naive to think you are entitled, deserve privilege, or for some reason think the market is closed because you rented a farm,” says one respondent.

Another says: “Farming, especially renting, is dog eat dog, always has been, always will be.”

About five years ago, the long-time operator of our Nebraska farm went bankrupt. Very soon after I got the news, the phone started ringing. A couple neighbors to our farm, as well as one of the area’s big operators, checked in with me about the availability of the land.

One of the farmers that contacted me was a younger fellow who had just lost some rented ground. He and his wife both worked off the farm, but he had a small parcel of his own and was hoping to stay in the game with a little more land. We set up a meeting to get acquainted. He brought his dad to the meeting, talked about people we both knew, and showed me pictures of his kids. We wound up signing some papers.

He’s kept up his end of the bargain, tending to the all the details—pushing paperwork, keeping up the fences, maintaining the irrigation equipment and CRP, and generally keeping an eye on things. He keeps in touch on a regular basis.

When commodity prices went through the roof a couple years ago, it was tempting to raise the rent. I decided against it, because the guy had gone beyond the call of duty a couple times, and we seemed to be about even.

I guess what I’m saying is that we could be getting more money for that farm, but when is enough enough? And aren't there other important pieces in a land-rent relationship?

According to the farmers participating in the “cut throat neighbors” discussion, here are some things you should consider as you rent land and deal with neighborhood land sharks:

• Out-hustle the competition. “We all have to prove ourselves, and even without other farmers calling your landowners, you are still in a silent competition with area farmers,” said one.

• Go on the offensive. One farmer says he recently threw a big barn party for his landlords and other neighbors, some of whom might be retiring soon.

• Take care of business. Says one landlord: “All my ground is irrigated so taking care of equipment is at the top of my list.” Others mention things like shoveling driveways and mowing ditches.

• Be a good communicator. Landowners like to hear about how the crops are doing and what you’re doing to improve the farm. One fellow takes his landowners on tours of the cropland, showing what improvements he’s made and how the crops are faring. A farm manager says he rents land to a smaller producer over a big shooter, because the little guy answers his phone calls and e-mails promptly.

• Build a good reputation. ”Dog eat dog to make a buck has ruined more young farmers than anything as they bid the profit away to be a BTO,” said one farmer. Says a landowner: “I value honesty and integrity far more than getting a few extra dollars.”

• Try for multi-year leases. One farmer has had good luck working with landlords to bargain extra years for additional improvements to the land. Another fellow, however, recommends one-year leases so that the owner thinks of you as hungry and hustling. “Humility, hard work, and honesty are all you need,” he says.

• Work with what you have. “I can make a very good living off my acres because sometimes intensifying is better than more and more acres,” says one farmer.

• Buy your own land. "My advice is save your money and invest in buying your own land, says a farmer. "Buy a little here and there, nothing more than you can afford."

A hike on the land before the plow

Last week, on a lark, I drove over to the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, a native prairie restoration project on some 5,000 acres in central Iowa. The refuge claims to be is the largest re-creation of tallgrass prairie in the U.S., with more than 200 types of prairie plants

The well-designed learning center has some interesting displays, but the real drama is out on the land. You can take a couple trails through the prairie preserve, and on this day in early July nature stole the show. The prairie flowers were blooming, the birds were singing, and the bees were buzzing.

I spotted at least two birds I’d never seen before, a bobolink and another that looked to be some kind of grouse. I photographed a colorful plant or two, including this spectacular butterfly attractor (photo above).

I had never seen such a rich array of plant species in a prairie restoration and learned later that volunteers have been collecting native seeds from roadsides, cemeteries and railroad beds around the state to plant at the refuge.

Hiking though the prairie there and later driving through the bordering cropland made me think once again how much agriculture has changed the natural world. It seems worth remembering that from time to time.

We have a CRP field of prairie grass on our farm in Nebraska, an excellent stand that includes some native forbs, along with a mix of indiangrass, big bluestem and switchgrass. A walk though the place gives you a little feel for what the country looked like before the plow that broke the plains.

And that wasn’t so long ago. There’s a place down the road where you can still see the remnants of the sod house where my great grandparents lived for a time, and on a hill above there, buffalo wallows from the great herds that once roamed what is now Buffalo County, Nebraska.

The irrigated corn and beans across the road pay the taxes and insurance for the place, but there’s something healthy about being able to take a prairie hike, perhaps to remind one from whence we came.

Knee high by the Fourth of July--Not!

Knee-high corn hard to find here

You’d have to look pretty hard in central Iowa to find some knee-high corn on the Fourth this year. This morning, though, I found some in sandy end rows of a field along the Des Moines River. The rest of the field was head high.

That tough little patch may symbolize the nation’s corn crop this year in a couple ways: There’s a lot of variability out there, and farmers had to work pretty hard to get a lot of this crop in the ground.

In early returns to an Agriculture Online poll, farmers say they’re finding corn measuring from their ankles to over their heads. There’s knee-high, waist-high, shoulder- and head-high corn in about equal parts, according to poll respondents.

“I will have to go with all the above,” commented one farmer who took the poll. “I have corn planted 4-23 that started to tassel on 6-30. And corn planted on 6-1 that is knee high and everything in between.”

Whatever the height of your corn, we do know there’s a lot of it. On Tuesday, USDA predicted the second largest corn acreage (next to ’07) planted since 1946.

And, as in many years, there was plenty of adversity to overcome this spring for farmers around the country to get the crop planted. So, while we’re checking the corn, the Fourth is a good time to recognize the perennial successes of the American farmer.

In a press release this week, the U.S Grains Council pointed out that corn and soybean growers “worked steadfastly” to plant a total of 164.5 million acres, an increase of nearly 3 percent over ’08.

That’s a good word for it: “steadfastly.”

“Time and time again, U.S. farmers are faced with adversity, but their commitment to providing an adequate supply of U.S. feed ingredients as well as their dedication to curbing global hunger perseveres," said USGC President and CEO Ken Hobbie.

Have a great holiday weekend, corn growers. Hope the fireworks are flying over some tall corn in your fields.

Celebrating Successful Farming

Farmer and son are featured on four-story mural

Thinking such a day would never come, it did and has gone—my 25th service anniversary at Successful Farming. Well, the actual day isn’t until sometime in July, but I received a watch at a staff meeting yesterday and some very kind words from my boss, Loren Kruse, editor-in-chief.

I was surprised enough that I didn’t get all emotional about the deal, but today I do feel a need to reflect a bit. What first came to mind when Loren invited me to the front of the room last night was how everything I’ve been able to do in 25 years here has been because of the good name of Successful Farming. I thought how that brand has opened so many doors over the years, and how that's been possible because of the people who've worked here with me, and before me.

I can hear still hear a voice from a long time ago, a woman over the phone calling out across the farmyard to her husband, “there’s a fella from Successful Farming who wants to talk with you.” The farmer drops everything, rushes to the phone, and cheerfully welcomes me to visit their place. That kind of thing has happened a whole bunch of times in 25 years.

Coincidentally, last Friday, a new four-story mural celebrating Succcessful Farming was installed on the side of our headquarters building here in downtown Des Moines.

Successful Farming was the founding magazine of Meredith Corporation 107 years ago. The name has long been engraved in stone on the original headquarters building, and now across the street a new image of a farmer and his son, with our new logo, will mark our century and seven in the business of farm publishing.

I like to think that the mural, which will remain in place for three months, is a tribute to the American farmers who are our readers. Obviously, without their loyalty and subscriptions, there would be no Successful Farming at 1716 Locust Street.

So here’s to you, my predecessors, my colleages, and all our readers. Thanks for keeping Successful Farming viable into its second century. And thanks for the 25 years.

Here's a little slideshow of the mural, and of the Successful Farming staff who gathered this morning for a photograph: Celebrating Successful Farming.

[Watch a video of the installation]

Thinking of the people downstream

Last week, I attended a demonstration of a new conservation practice and learned a new word—bioreactor.

On the drive over to the event, watching the young corn rows flicker past in bright green, I thought once again how the productivity of these deep, rich Midwestern soils is based on the ability to drain them. And it’s this water leaving the land, often laden with nitrates, that is increasingly the focus of conservation programs in farm states like Iowa.

A tile line bioreactor consists of a trench filled with a carbon source, in this case wood chips. As tile line water flows through the bioreactor, microorganisms break down the nitrate and expel the substance as a gas.

The project sponsors, which included the Iowa Soybean Association, Sand County Foundation, and Agriculture’s Alliance for Clean Water, were enthusiastic about the early results for the technology. The first bioreactor in the state, installed in Greene County last August has cut nitrate concentrations by 60% to 70%, said Keegan Kult, an environmental specialist for the soybean growers group.

What’s the future for bioreactors? There are issues in designing and managing the structures. USDA is studying the funding eligibility for the practice.

The 12x100-foot bioreactor we watched being built will cost about $7,000 -- for the control structures, wood chips, fabric, and contracting work. It will treat water from a 40-acre tile pattern.

A bioreactor is a field-level practice, which can be relatively expensive compared to watershed-wide practice. A small wetlands restoration, for example, can receive drainage from a couple thousand acres, filter the water, and provide other conservation benefits.

The farmer hosting the demo project I saw is clearly conservation-minded. He’s been willing to pay for practices that are proven to benefit soil and water. His strip-till beans were covered in protective corn residue. The creek taking the water from the bioreactor demo was flanked by a 130-foot wide buffer strip.

Conservation practices can provide direct benefits, even if long term, to a farmer. But a bioreactor?

"This is a pretty progressive step for a farmer to take," Kult told me. “The bioreactor is helping the people downstream."

Driving home I followed the creek from the demo farm down to the Boone River, which shortly drains into the Des Moines River--the water supply for the city of Des Moines. Soon that demo farm’s 40 acres of drainage becomes just a drop in the bucket of an agriculturally intense watershed. There are about 9.5 million acres in the Des Moines River basin.

Bioreactors are just beginning to be put to the test, but you hope that farmers and the people downstream will find in them a new conservation tool.

Video: Bioreactor tour

Gone fishin'

Beautiful June days, with a full strawberry moon on the rise, makes me think that we should go fishing. I think of my brother-in-law, Art, this time of year. He died five years ago from brain cancer, on a night with a full moon rising, the same time of year we had always met somewhere to go fishing. My sister, Pam, and nieces, Cori and Lindsey, gathered this week in his memory and sent me some pictures from their trip to the ocean, including the funny sign here.

Think I'll post a little piece I wrote on the first anniversary of Art's passing, as a way to celebrate his life, and also as a little reminder that it's about time to pick up a pole and head to some water.... How about you? Are you going fishin' this summer?

A part of this tale Art and I came to call "The Last Cast." We never realized how it was truly the final chapter. This was two years ago, under the first full moon in June. We were canoeing the Flambeau River in northern Wisconsin on the last day of what would be our last fishing trip together.

We had two vehicles and had spaced them out for about a half day's trip from one to the other. It's a beautiful stretch of river, and the thought was to catch a few smallmouth bass. But mainly, as always, the idea was just to be on the water.

Art was always very focused in these deals--juggling gear and tackle, piloting the canoe, and figuring out how to catch a fish in a new stretch of water--all in a fast-moving channel. After a couple hours, Artie got the knack for how to catch a fish in these waters. Had to do with a certain lure lobbed almost on to the shore. The smallies were right up against the bank, and you had time for one quick cast in each promising pool. I think I was stubborn and stuck mostly to my own unsuccessful techniques, until a couple of football-sized bass of Art's won me over.

Now let me stop time and roll us back up the river. It was a place where we had stopped to have lunch. We had come to a section where the rapid flow widened into an area braided with sandbars and islands, and then divided in to two main channels. A long rocky sandbar above the fork presented itself as an easy spot to beach the boat. We stopped for lunch, to stretch, and cast a little.

I remember that after awhile we started picking up rocks and telling little stories about the life forms that were ensconced in that river. The narratives took us back a couple of ice ages ago. I don't remember the stories, and I'm not sure we brought home any of those rocks. (I'm going out to check my tackle box this evening.) But I know that for a few minutes we transcended time and felt in touch with something eternal.

Stories told, we pushed the boat back in the river and continued downstream, with the same pattern in place. Art catching fish. Me not. A couple hours later, we came around a bend and saw a few hundred yards away the towel that we'd tied around a tree to identify where we'd parked my truck. It would a matter of careful timing to get the canoe back across the river. We had to hurry. I still hadn't caught a fish, so I joked that I wanted to make one last cast. Art stuck an oar in the water and battled the current to give me time. Yes, indeed, I really did catch a beautiful football of a fish on The Last Cast. We laughed and laughed, high-fiving, then doggedly paddled across the river to shore.

Today, I think of that fork in the river, where we had lunch. How a year later, Art went one way and I went the other. I've learned that the water flows in both channels. It's just that I can't see him over there on the other side now. But I know that the river comes together again.

6,000 slices of farm life

Members of the Farmers for the Future social network have uploaded some 6,000 images through the Web site’s photo sharing tool, and it’s been a pleasant surprise to see how well this feature has resonated with people.

Surfing through the pictures gives you a good feel for what most interests the nation’s young and beginning farmers. If you look at a very large selection of the photos, you’ll see what subjects are most on their minds—primarily family and the animals and crops they tend. Machinery is also a popular subject—no wonder, inasmuch as they live so much of their lives in tractor, combine and pickup cabs.

Jennifer Dammann, who farms with her husband in southwest Iowa, is one of the photographers featured in a new slideshow highlighting a few of the latest images from the network.

What motivates her photography is that "it’s a way to capture what we do in ag,” Jennifer says.

“I feel that we need to show what we do. Many people do not know what a planter looks like, what a beef cow looks like, etc., so I feel that if I can take some pictures it will help educate the non-farm community," she says.

One of the things that strikes me about this big collection of pictures is how everyone has their own approach to photography--and how every farm is so very different. Jennifer brings her farm to life by including her husband and daughter in many of the images.

“For example, the "Heading to the planter" photo shows something that happens almost every night that we are planting. It is our farm life and we are proud to be farmers and we just want to share that with others," she says.

Sometimes the photographs bring revelations. Shane Newbrough, a Missouri farmer, reflects on a photo of his dad out in the field. "My father tells me stories about working ground with a team of horses," Shane writes. "And to see him standing next to a 185-hp tractor and a 31-row planter....just in his lifetime. It makes me wonder what I will be standing next to one day when my son takes a picture of me."

Take a quick tour to see just a few of these outstanding pictures of spring field work, family life, and farmstead action.

The 'lone ranger' of ridge tillage

Craig Fleishman

This week, I visited a couple farmers who are participating in Iowa Learning Farm, a conservation demonstration project sponsored by Iowa State University Extension and other agencies.

Craig Fleishman, one of the program's farmer-spokespersons, is a rare ridge tiller in central Iowa. The tillage system has long been known for its soil and water conservation benefits, so it was a pleasure to see Fleishman in the field with his 15-year-old, 12-row planter.

“I’m the lone ranger,” he said. "Ridge tillage has fallen out of favor."

You couldn't ask for a more enthusiastic representative for conservation, even if his tillage system appears to be disappearing from the landscape.

On Monday, Fleishman's planter was smoothly shaving off the top of corn ridges and planting soybeans into a perfect seedbed.

"With ridge till, I always wind up planting in a moist, mellow, firm seed bed," he said. "With the controlled traffic, you never plant in wheel tracks or anhydrous tracks. The seed bed is always the same. And you're always pushing the weed seed off the row."

And, all that crop residue left behind by the system is great for the soil and water.

Reduced chemical use is another well-known benefit of ridging, of course. This year, Fleishman sprayed corn herbicide on ten-inch bands at one third the broadcast rate. He’ll spot spray with glyphosate, then come with the cultivator, sidedressing nitrogen the first time, building ridges the second go-round.

Other conservation practices on the Fleishman farm include buffer strips, strip cropping, contouring, and grass waterways.

Clearly, Fleishman, a fifth-generation farmer, is trying to care of the land--a value you think would put him in the mainstream. So you wonder how he has become a "lone ranger" in the neighborhood when it comes to tillage.

"Sometimes we get caught up in the efficiency of our equipment, and we do more what's convenient for us, rather than what's good for the soil," he said. Modern machinery is moving faster, and is moving more soil, he says. Chisel plowing is nearly like moldboard plowing these days.

He fears that the trending interest in strip tillage will meet the same fate as ridging one day, relegated to minor status by big iron and ever-larger farms.

"With some of this big equipment, how can you take care of the waterways?" he asks.

Fleishman hopes that new programs like The Learning Farm eventually will help "create a new culture," and make conservation "the right thing to do," he said.

"Conservation should be the normal thing to do. We need to make it more mainstream."

Video: Fleishman's ridge-till planter & system

Getting stuck on "dry ground"

Kelley Kokemiller takes a break to talk planting progress

Sunday afternoon, as USDA would be wrapping up its weekly Crop Progress report, I took a windshield tour of my own backyard—about a 50-mile stretch of country roads north of Des Moines. I’ve always thought this area to be a good example of Iowa’s best cropland--mostly gently rolling, well-drained, black soils. Syngenta, Pioneer, and Monsanto produce seed in the area; the farmers here usually have a good jump on planting, it seems.

Last time I drove this route was early June ‘08, when farmers were still waiting to get back in the field and finish up planting after a long rain delay, just as the watershed was about ready to send the full force of its waters down river to flood Des Moines.

This year so far, a different story is emerging. While it’s been cool and wet, there's been enough of a window for farmers to plant corn in a timely fashion.

In half an hour of driving on Sunday, though, I didn't see a wheel turning, other than guys riding their lawnmowers.

Finally, I stopped at a farm to check in with a grower I’d visited before. The family was getting ready to spray beans in a river bottom area nearby.

I drove over to a field where Kelley Kokemiller was about to make his last round with the sprayer, ahead of the first soybeans to be planted. The bottomland field’s sandy soils had dried out enough to plant, but most ground in the area was still too wet to go, even though it looked dry on top

“This field is dry but everything else around here is too wet to plant. My brother was just in another field and said he nearly got the pickup stuck,” Kelley said.

“We had four inches of rain recently,” he said. “It looks good from the road, but when you get out in the field you’ll find a lot of wet spots out there.”

Kelley said the family has planted all its corn (“for the first time anyway.”) Most farmers in the area have most, if not all, of their corn planted, and a few beans are in the ground, too, he said.

But, as planting season continues, with rain in the forecast and wet soils below the surface, the “game is still on the table” in central Iowa.

Hope planting's progressing well in your part of the country.

Calling all farmers: Your smart phone is ringing

Last summer, an enthusiastic fellow from the East Coast was trying to show me some of the new features on his iPhone. Problem was he couldn’t get a signal from the carrier, AT&T--right here in the middle of Des Moines, Iowa.

It was pretty plain that your phone is only as smart as its connectivity. Issues like pricing and customer service are key, too, but meaningless if you’re sitting it a dead spot.

Farmers and ranchers know about dead spots in broadband coverage. There has been a long-standing digital divide between urban and rural America.

The recent good news is that companies like Apple and Verizon are moving to boost coverage and features that will make smart phones more available and useful in the country.

In early April, Verizon Wireless announced it will launch a new 4G wireless broadband network that eventually will extend across rural America.

And, this week Verizon Wireless and Apple were reported to be in discussions about a partnership to sell a new iPhone, one that would work on the Verizon network, and thus offer expanded connectivity out in the country.

If the deal is realized and the network pans out, it could be a big step for agriculture, says Michael Lewis, a central Iowa farmer and computer systems operator.

Lewis sees smart phones as the wave of the future for farm communications, with potential for housing a wide range of ag applications, including GPS, real time soil sampling and mapping, instant fertilizer analysis, chemical and seed quick conversions, weed identification, a farmer knowledge base, and more.

Currently, he uses his phone to access weather, news, sports, maps, weather, stock reports and special farm-related applications.

For the time being, if Verizon is your best carrier, a Blackberry is your best choice of smart phone, he says. He points out, too, that Windows embedded has "a huge presence in agriculture equipment and devices, so a Windows Mobile phone might seem like a logical choice because of familiarity."

But a Verizon-iPhone deal could be a game changer.

“For sure the iPhone is the best smart phone out there,” he says. “If you have AT&T service in your area then it would be the one for you [now].”

Lewis prefers the the iPhone for its user interface, ease of application development, and application delivery through the Apple store. Apple claims that more than 25,000 apps now exist for the iPhone 3G.

"As more applications are developed for the the iphone, I see an increase in the amount of accessories and interfaces between Windows embedded devices and smart phones like the iPhone," he says.

Beyond the connectivity questions, the biggest issue with smart phones is their durability for farm use, Lewis says. He recommends a product called Invisible Shield.

“It really protects the device well and is very affordable. The material is the same that is used on helicopter blades.”

Giving the troops a hand

Beef stick donations hitch a ride to Middle East on KC-135 tanker.

It’s a common sight in air travel these days to see U.S. military personnel traveling on commercial planes. In a trip I made from Atlanta to Milwaukee last week, there were about a half dozen young soldiers on the flight. Dressed in their battle uniforms, they were conspicuously mixed in with another group—college students returning from a conference in Atlanta. The college kids were having fun. The soldiers were quiet.

As the plane touched down in Milwaukee, the flight attendant invited a round of applause for the soldiers. There was a loud, long response from the civilians—an unrehearsed patriotic moment.

I recalled that in the same week two aggie acquaintances had talked with me about projects they were involved with to support the troops.

Den Gardner, director of the American Agricultural Editors Association, has helped spearhead a program called Project EverGreen, which provides free lawn and landscape service to military families with members serving overseas. The effort has helped 7,700 military families through a national network of 2,100 volunteers, Den says.

A new phase of the program will fund scholarships for military family members. Gardner's group is making a push to raise contributions from now until Armed Forces Day on May 16. If you’re interested in donating to the program, check out this link for more info:

http://www.projectevergreen.com/gcft/buckitup.html

In another effort, a farm couple from western Iowa, Ted and Dee Ann Paulsrud, have been managing a program to send beef sticks to the troops serving in the Middle East. The Iowa Beef Sticks for the Troops has gathered enough donations to send some 60,000 of the treats overseas.

About half of the cost of the effort is in transportation, Ted says. But, that cost is being defrayed through cooperation of a statewide grocery chain and the 185th Air Refueling Wing of the Iowa Air National Guard in Sioux City, Iowa. Once the Paulsruds collect enough money to buy a pickup load of beef sticks, they have them hauled by the grocery to the Air Guard unit to be loaded on a tanker headed to the Middle East.

If you’re interesting in contributing to the beef stick campaign, contact: Ted and Dee Ann Paulsrud, 4980 320th St., Danbury, Iowa 51019, or phone (712) 883-2249.

Both of these programs have gotten a good response from their beneficiaries, their organizers say. The Paulsruds recently received a U.S. flag and note of thanks from the Air Force officers attached to the 185th.

Lawn care, scholarships, and beef sticks may not win a battle or bring peace to the Middle East, but these are heart-felt efforts to support the troops and families at a grassroots level.

Contributing a little something to them seems like another way to give our soldiers a rousing round of applause.

In your face: What ag ads do you like?

This week, I’m attending the annual conference of the National Agricultural Marketing Association (NAMA) in Atlanta, Georgia. This is the premier meeting of the professionals who buy and create advertising for your farm and ranch communications.

NAMA features panel discussions, a trade show, and a college student marketing competition. An awards program tonight will recognize the most creative, effective advertising campaigns for all media--print, television, direct mail, the Web, etc.

One of the new challenges for marketers is creating messages that work well in new media—websites, e-mail newsletters, and mobile devices. Social media—Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and our own Farmers for the Future social network—present another kind of challenge to advertisers: how to compete for your attention amid all the new user-generated content.

One way advertisers are using to get their messages across is to push them into the editorial space. “Expandable” units intrude into the editorial when you roll over them with your computer mouse. Some others simply pop up over your content when the page loads. You have to close the ad to view your editorial material.

I hope advertisers continue to rely on their creativity, rather than intrusiveness, in new media. It will be interesting to see what trends are showcased at this year’s NAMA awards program.

For me, the most effective campaigns use compelling visuals and language to invite your attention, as demonstrated in some recent Successful Farming magazine ads:

• Product comparisons--fuel efficiency test results from the Nebraska Tractor Test Lab. (John Deere)
• A useful bit of new research on the efficacy of soybean seed treatment. (Acceleron Seed Treatment System)
• Clear statement of value—durability, safety, warranty, etc. (Featherlite trailers)
• Words that work: “Measuring this harvest in bushels is like measuring a swimming pool in tablespoons.” (Syngenta Quilt)
• Dynamic visuals--closeup photo of work boot and soil. (AGCO Challenger)

On the Web, here are a few examples of ads currently on Agriculture Online that I think that provide compelling and useful information for farmers--without getting in your face.

Cruiser Maxx Beans
Cargill “fitter fry”
Case Magnum
Dow Powerflex

What kinds of agricultural advertisements do you like best? Least?

Taos snapshots: art and agriculture

(Photograph used with permission from Chuck Henningsen)

While taking a brief family vacation in Taos, New Mexico, this week, I couldn’t help but think about agriculture, even though the economy there is clearly centered on tourism—outdoor sports, fine art, and Native American culture.

But agriculture certainly exists in Taos, if you look around a little. Some of my first impressions of it:

• A guy selling pinion nuts out of the back of his pickup.
• A small herd of scraggly cows grazing bone-dry range.
• A pickup load of red chili peppers parked in front of a grocery store.
• A truck pulling a flatbed of big square bales on Route 68 along the Rio Grande.

The agrarian roots of Taos are found at the Pueblo, the longest continuously inhabited community in the United States, and presumably birthplace to our oldest agriculture. The adobe homes we visited there were built between 1000 and 1450 A.D.

No obvious signs of extensive farming exist today. On the road through the reservation, I saw a few ranchettes that kept some horses. Like Taos itself, the industry at the Pueblo is in selling art to tourists. But, the tribe still celebrates a harvest festival every September. And local farmers bring their produce to a weekly farmers market in town.

We stayed in an old adobe cottage near the center of Taos, a place that turned out to make us neighbors to an artist from Iowa. Chuck Henningsen’s gallery was a short walk along an ancient irrigation ditch, up a lane flanking his aquatic gardens.

Henningsen graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in industrial engineering. He took his first job with Hewlett-Packard in the Bay Area and later started his own own company in Silicon Valley. Success in that business paved his way to the Southwest and to a long, successful career as a fine art photographer.

While touring his gallery, I discovered Henningsen's Midwest roots in a photograph of a corn crib he took in northeast Iowa.

On Monday, we sat in the middle of his gallery and talked about art and agriculture, in which time he told me about the recent hard times in Taos. Taos has had as many as 2,200 working artists, but the art world has shrunk to a fraction of what it was a year ago, he said.

The number of galleries likely will decline from about a hundred to less than half that this year. Art is "ethereal," he said. And, as such the arts have been the first to suffer in this depressed economy.

Seeing the connection of the old traditions of the Taos Pueblo, which gives the region its soul and authenticity, to the town's modern art and culture, one thinks of the Daniel Webster quote:

"When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization."

One hopes that the "other arts" of Taos will continue to flourish--along with the time-tested Pueblos.

Japanese make precision ag pitch

Noriko Yamagata unveils HitachiSoft's ag software

On Monday in Los Angles, the Japanese baseball team capped its run in the World Baseball Classic, edging South Korea in extra innings to win the championship. On Sunday, they had thumped the U.S. pros 9-4 in the semi-finals.

On Tuesday, another Japanese team, a group of engineers and marketers from Hitachi Software Engineering Co, Ltd. landed in the U.S. to begin a tour of American agriculture, in hopes of making their own mark on American soil.

Their stop at our office in Des Moines was the first on a tour in which they hope to learn more about American agriculture and possibly develop U.S. partners for development of their products.

HitachiSoft owns 90% of the precision ag software market in Japan, according to Marc Vanacht, a U.S. consultant traveling with the company representatives.

Noriko Yamagata, whom Vanacht described as HitachiSoft’s “genius software programmer,” gave Successful Farming Editor Rich Fee and me a tour of the company’s ag applications.

HitachiSoft, based in Tokyo, has about 5,000 employees, 4,000 of them software engineers. Twenty of them are devoted to ag.

Their applications are being used by 35 cooperatives in Japan, each of which is composed of 200 to 10,000 farmers. The biggest of these use HitachiSoft’s GeoMation Farm software to track up to 100,000 fields at a time.

In the demonstration we saw, the crops included soybeans, sugar beets, wheat, rice, vegetables, and forages. Yamagata showed us how farmers were able to quickly track basic data like soil types, fertilizer applications, tillage systems, rotations, and chemical use.

A harvest GPS system shows you the real-time location of equipment on a field map. Satellite imagery is used to show the growth stage and lodging of wheat, the protein content of rice, and the quality of forage crops. A cool-looking 3D display of a field lets you better visualize slopes and highlight erodible areas.

HitachiSoft has a different approach to ag, one it has borrowed from its service to other industries. Its program for the Japanese national electrical system, for example, includes 100 million “objects” in a GIS.

According to Vanacht the company’s “big engine” of a GIS is one of its main points of difference with other systems for ag.

HitachiSoft starts with a big picture that includes a ton of data and then works down to the field level, rather than starting at the field level and working up. This will make it easer for farmers to create maps that are easy to understand and use, Vanacht says.

"We believe our GIS is more powerful than existing U.S. [systems], said Osamu Nishiguchi, Agriculture Project Manager. "We also believe we have some existing agricultural applications that will interest U.S. farmers."

Rich and I came away impressed with HitachiSoft's people and products. You can’t help but wonder if the Japanese won’t do as well in farm fields as they have on the baseball diamond lately.

'This is stupid stuff'

There’s an old poem I was made to study in college, “Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff,” by A.E. Housman. The title refers to a man’s opinion about the value of poetry (he'd rather drink beer), with the poet arguing that there is actually practical value to verse—to prepare one for the rough and tumble of life.

I've just finished reading the last poems of John Updike, my favorite writer, and I can only echo Housman, and say, this is not stupid stuff.

Updike died in January at age 76 after having written hundreds of literary works. He achieved the rare feat of producing best sellers that also garnered all the great literary awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for two of his “Rabbit” novels.

In 1986, I wrote Updike a letter inviting him to speak at our company about an idea he had written about—how to achieve a “sense of useful work.” (This is something more of a concern for artists and writers than for farmers.)

He declined the offer, but in a warm, personal note conveyed that he was pleased to correspond with me. I have liked to think that it was in part because he viewed agricultural journalism as “useful work.”

Updike’s last poems, which were published this week in The New Yorker are the “stupid stuff” that Housman talked about—they prepare you for what’s in store for all of us.

The poems are written during a brief period between when he was diagnosed with lung cancer and the last stages of treatment for his illness. They look back on life without remorse and ahead to his last days with a brave face.

One of the poems pays tribute to his "dear friends of childhood, classmates" for providing him material for his life-long profession. Everything he needed for a life of writing was right there in his home town of Shillington, Pennsylvania, he wrote--with its “little factories, cornfields and trees, leaf fires, snowflakes, pumpkins, valentines.”

This appreciation of the details of daily life is something that all of us work for, I suspect. It's just that John Updike got it all down on paper.

Farm until I'm 80

A farmer friend of mine, who just turned 65, told me recently that he was going to farm until he was 80. In fact, he had just decided to buy a new planter, a used 8-row machine, and was in the market for a combine, an item he hadn't owned for a while.

I was getting a tour of his farm shop where he was overhauling the planter--replacing fertilizer coulters, roller chains, disk openers, and seed tube protectors, while adding new spiked closing wheels. Whew, it looked like a job for a man half his age. Next to the planter was a chore tractor that he was getting ready to drop a new engine into.

The man is in good health, it would seem, and he's still supporting at least one of his daughters. Still, the news surprised me. He has a couple part-time jobs, knows how to entertain himself off the farm, and otherwise seems pretty well set to cruise comfortably into his twilight years, at least as much as anyone can these days.

It strikes me that there are three intriguing demographic trends in agriculture right now: the full-blown emergence of young and beginning farmers, the rise in the number of female farmers since the last ag census, and now this growing set of retirement age farmers--who appear ready to bop until they drop.

A recent discussion on senior farmers in Agriculture Online's Farm Business Talk, garnered a huge response--some 140 postings.

The idea of farming forever is not without controversy. The topic elicted an outpouring of emotion, including a fair amount of grumpy argument. How do I get to farm if dad (or mom) keeps going? How do we change with the times if the old folks stay on the place? Is it safe for old-timers to be running that equipment? Is it fair to the spouse to stay trapped on the farm for another decade?

One of the enablers of old-age farming, of course, is modern technology.

One respondent makes the point that the "continued advance of technology in farm equipment has been a principal driver in allowing farmers to continue their chosen profession well into their advanced age." He believes machinery manufacturers and others serving ag will have to look at elderly farmers as a new trend.

'Soybeangate’ gets polite treatment at Classic

The long-standing rift in the soybean industry between the American Soybean Association (ASA) and the United Soybean Board (USB) widened to a canyon in December, when ASA charged USB with misconduct in managing the National Soybean Checkoff. ASA requested a USDA investigation of eight different allegations.

Given the seriousness of the charges, you had to wonder if there wouldn’t be some fireworks at the Commodity Classic last week in Grapevine, Texas.

ASA and USB held press conferences, both of which were well attended by the media, though clearly this was not the kind of press corps that hounded Richard Nixon into a corner. Questions from the press were polite.

Leaders from both groups stuck to a script in which the “soybeangate” topic was kept in the background. Johnny Dodson, ASA president, talked about the group’s successes with the farm bill, biotech development, and exports promotions, among other things. He touted the groups 16% growth in new members this year.

Dodson eventually was questioned about the new American Soybean Federation created by a break-away groups in Minnesota and Missouri. “The federation will just flutter away,” he said. (In a January news release, he was more blunt, calling the action "radical and ill-conceived.”)

Next, John Hoffman, ASA chairman, responding to a question, defended ASA’s actions, saying that “at the end of the day it will be a good thing to restore accountability and transparency” to the checkoff."

At their press conference the next day, USB representatives put the spotlight on their support for new research and other checkoff initiatives. Chuck Myers, USB president and a Nebraska farmer, addressed the controversy indirectly, pointing out that a new producer survey shows 87% support for the checkoff among ASA members.

In a video interview, Myers told me that farmers attending the classic had given him “a lot of feedback, all very supportive."

Asked by another reporter about any tensions felt at the Classic, Myers said, “Everything I have observed has been very cordial.” He described ASA as a host of the annual conference, and USB as a guest at the event.

Soybeangate has been a divisive issue among growers, but for this time and place, people were determined to be polite in public, and maybe that's a start to bridging the big chasm between the two organizations.

What do farm women want?

Tiffany Nichols knows what she wants in life

The famous question, “What does a woman want?” was asked and left unanswered by Sigmund Freud, and it’s one I can’t pretend to solve either.

But the question matters more than ever to ag journalists, agri-marketers and farmer advisers—all of us who need to communicate with female farmers.

One of the big surprises in the 2007 Census of Agriculture was the growth in the number of farm women. Women classified as "principal operators" increased by almost one third since the ’02 census. There were 306,209 female principal operators counted in 2007, up from 237,819 in 2002. And we know that beyond these primary operators, farm women have significant roles in the management of most of the nation’s farms and ranches.

When it comes to what they want in ag information, farm women appear to be all business, according to a recent Successful Farming magazine survey.

In the survey, farm women ranked 66 topics in the order of their interest. The five most popular topics were:

* Farm tax strategies and estate planning.
* Government farm programs and policy
* Home-based business for farm families
* Farm business management
* Making farms safer for kids/adults.

At face value, this list seems to suggest that women are hungry for information that will make their farms more secure, safe, and prosperous.

A female colleague of mine, a young woman who grew up on a farm, tells me she suspects that these women might be telling us what they think they ought to be reading, that is, that it’s their role to focus on financial security and safety. She points out that the women surveyed say their favorite Successful Farming feature is All Around the Farm, a collection of practical tips from farmers--the same page that is top-rated by all readers.

In the social media space, such as Agriculture Online’s Women in Agriculture forum, you get a little different picture. If you look at the list of discussion group topics there, you’ll see that business issues aren’t entirely ignored. But, recent hot topics include household management tips, food recipes, and personal and family issues.

Looking at the new social network for young and beginning farmers, Farmers for the Future, young women have staked out a lot digital turf on the site, and many of their interests parallel those of the men.

Today, in the network, for example, I found female farmers and ranchers commenting on topics like calving ease, finding land, and shopping for machinery online. Not much on things like recipes and housekeeping.

One young farm woman, Tiffany Nichols, writes in her profile page:

“I am in the process of taking over parts of the farm from my father. My younger brother and I plan to fully take over and grow the operation.”

What do farm women want? For Tiffany, it's the same thing her brother wants: to farm.

'Liquoring up the goat' in Chicago

Dave Lehman, CME Group research and new product director, talks with farmers at CBOT

A group of about 30 farmers held a get-together in Chicago this week, the third such gathering of Agriculture Online Marketing Talk discussion group members. The farmers called their first social media meet-up two years ago in Des Moines, and held another one there last fall. This was the first trip to Chicago, and featured a visit to the Chicago Board of Trade.

Mike McGinnis, Ag Online’s Chicago bureau chief, organized a floor tour, speakers, and a round table discussion at the commodity exchange.

Most of the farmers had never been to the CBOT, and had been eagerly looking forward to the floor tour in particular. Some brought their spouses, and made the trip a mini-vacation.

Despite the monumental presence of the famous trading floor--the largest financial room in the world--some 80 or 90 percent of futures trading is done electronically these days. You can trade at home, at your office, or even while on vacation. A big question then is whether there will continue to be a bricks-and-mortar exchange where trading is conducted with the traditional open outcry method. The short answer is “yes.” For now.

Some of the farmers commented that the floor wasn’t as noisy as they expected. While a fair number of traders were using small computers in the pits, many were still scratching numbers on cards with a pencil. Parts of the floor did seem relatively quiet, with people staring into computer screens around the edges, rather than shouting orders across a pit. Action in some areas, like the S&P and soybean options pits, seems loud and intense, however.

If there is sometimes a fair amount distrust among farmers toward commodity traders, it wasn’t much in evidence on Monday.

“I even got a new perspective on traders, they have a job to do, and that is important to us farmers,” said an Indiana farmer.

And, basically we were treated like royalty. The CME Group, which now owns the CBOT, allowed us to tour the floor right after the opening bell. They gave us enough time to poke around in groups of ten and get a feel for how trading is done these days. We were afforded use of their boardroom, cafeteria, and afterwards a trader’s club nearby.

While I don’t think farmers and traders will ever quite live on the same planet, it was interesting to see commonalities between the two professions.

Farmers and traders both work in high-pressure, risk-taking environments. They both appear to love their work. Traders seem to have a deep respect for the farming life, and many of them in fact come from the farm, and maintain farming interests.

Finally, there’s the mutual love of earthy language. One farmer wrote in the discussion group about the floor tour: "I heard one trader yelling to his buddy across the pit 'call home and tell them to liquor up the goat.' I think that is slang for 'I just made a bad trade.' "

Farmers know what it’s like to make a bad trade.