Category Archives: Day in Farm Life

Winter Farm Chores: Not always time off for farmers


If we're not careful, winter storms can make a big mess for farmers trying to work in all types of weather,

If we’re not careful, winter storms can make a big mess for farmers trying to work in all types of weather,

Winter does not necessarily mean time off for farmers and ranchers across the country. Although, I do take advantage of the longer hours of dark to catch up on some of my favorite reading.

The hay may be in the barn and the crops may be out of the fields, but there are still plenty of chores to be done after harvest and in preparation for the 2013 growing season. For livestock farmers, the winter may even mean a busier time of work as animals never take a day off and newborns may be arriving any day.

Here is a collection of blog posts from farmers, ranchers, and members of the agriculture community from across the country describing their winter month activities.

Winter Chores for Farmers

  • Debbie Blythe, Kansas – This Kansas Flint Hills Cattlewoman does a great job of sharing her regular tasks and new events from the ranch. Be sure to check out her great images of Calving, and how she puts her kids to work on a Snow Day home from school.
  • Matthew Boucher, Illinois – Matthew shares with readers more about how farmers are working to repair and maintain their equipment during the winter months.
  • Marie Bowers, Oregon – Marie is a grass farmer in Oregon and the winter months are busy for this farm gal. Her family is busy making repairs to equipment, adding new features to a tractor, and checking fields for needed attention.
  • Trent Bown, Utah – Trent Bown provides a regular Farm Report on the activities around his family dairy farm, including the arrival of newborns, cleaning up after the cows, making sure everyone is fed, and showing us more about the steps of delivering a safe milk supply.
  • Ryan Bright, Tennessee – His kids are excited to see snow, but this dairy farmer realizes the extra work that comes along with it. Ryan even has a video included of feeding hay.
  • Anne Burkholder, Nebraska – Anne, her family, and employees are busy every day making sure the cattle in her feedlot are comfortable, healthy, and eating well.
  • Bill and Judi Graff, Illinois - Judi and her family spend the winter months feeding and caring for their Simmental cattle.
  • Patricia Grotenhuis, Ontario – This wife of a Canadian dairy farmer shares a look at the work to care for their cows and prepare for Spring planting.
  • David and Jennifer Heim, Kansas – The work doesn’t stop for this young couple on their dairy farm. In all types of weather, the Heim’s work hard to take care of the needs of their cows.
  • Jan Hoadley, Alabama – Jan is busy as always taking care of her animals, protecting them from the weather elements, and working to cater to her direct market customers.
  • Erika Holm, Wisconsin – Cows really do get stuck in the snow. A few years back, Erika caught a quick video of these dairy cows as the farmer was trying to dig them a path to the barn.
  • Carrie Mess, Wisconsin – Actually made time to get away on vacation, but that doesn’t mean she left the dairy with someone to take care of and milk the cows.
  • Greg, Nathan, and Kendall Peterson, Kansas – The Peterson Brothers take every opportunity to help the family on the farm when they are home from school. This year they have started documenting what life is like on the farm with a monthly video update.
  • Nicole Small, Kansas – Nicole’s family is busy catching up from the harvest season, hunting for food, and getting more involved in the community.
  • Val Wagner, North Dakota – A few years ago, Val described what it’s like to endure a blizzard in the middle of calving season. They are being hit by another large storm again this season. Val included a video of checking cows in the blizzard.
  • Suzie Wilde, Texas – Suzie’s husband is busy on the cotton farm repairing fields from heavy autumn rains and making preparations to harvest Spring rainfall.
  • Tim and Emily Zweber, Minnesota – Emily is looking for her husband Tim. He is busy during the winter months and keeps a full schedule on their Organic Dairy farm.

Winter Agriculture Industry Meetings

Many in the agriculture community attend educational and industry-wide meetings. Some of these are in warmer parts of the country, while others are just down the road in the same state. Here’s a list of blogs that feature winter-season Agriculture meetings. If you are close to one of the meetings coming up, try to attend and meet hundreds of farmers.

Guest Post: Custom Wheat Harvesting


Wheat harvest has completed here on the farm in Middle Tennessee. The wheat seeds are harvested and the straw has been baled for winter bedding in the bull barns (More on this tomorrow). But how was it harvested and where did all of the equipment go?

Across much of the country, row crops like wheat are harvested by custom harvest crews. Some operate regionally while others spend most of the year, trekking across the country, following the crop as it become ready for harvest.

One of these families is the Zeorian Harvesting & Trucking crew. Tracy, the mom (found on Twitter as @NEWheatie) blogs about her families adventures on the road as a custom harvesting crew. It’s always fascinated me how these crews start harvesting in Texas and make their way to Montana and even Canada.

Today I have invited Tracy (who regularly blogs at NebraskaWheatie.com) to share a little about what a custom harvest crew is, and how the business has strong roots in her family. Hope you enjoy!

Zeorian Custom Wheat Harvesting as told by Tracy

Wikipedia defines the custom harvester:

“In agriculture, custom harvesting or custom combining is the business of harvesting crops for others. Custom harvesters usually own their own combines and work for the same farms every harvest season. Custom harvesting relieves farmers from having to invest capital in expensive equipment while at the same time maximizing the machinery’s use.”

From the eyes of a third generation custom harvester, I will give you my definition.

My grandparents chose to make custom harvesting their lifestyle in the early 1950’s. That is what it is – a lifestyle. The typical custom harvester will leave their home and everything that produces security and comfort about mid May and will get back as late as December. Grandpa and Grandma would have been in their late 30’s when they chose the lifestyle. Grandpa was 80+ years old when he decided he should stay home.

Harvesting is all I have known for most of my life. My husband was a hired man for my grandparents and we did not intend to follow the harvest after we got married. God had other plans. We have raised our four daughters on the road. The two older ones (Jamie, 26 (married) and Jenna, 24) wish they could still come while the two younger ones (Taylor, 17 and Callie, 14) still do.

It is usually the first of April when the equipment starts coming out of its winter quarters. It’s at this time Jim will give the combine, the header and the trucks a “goin over” to make sure it’s road ready. The more maintenance he can do before hitting the road means less he will have to do while on the road.

When May 1st rolls around, the trailer house is packed and Jim gets a little more serious about finishing his work. We usually leave home mid to late May for our first stop in Texas. The combine is loaded on a combine trailer and hitched behind the semi. The grain trailer will be hooked to the combine trailer to complete the train. My truck, the wheat header, the service pickup, an extra pickup and our trailer house will complete the list of equipment heading south. It takes us two trips each time we move.

When we leave home, it will be the last time we see green wheat. Once we get to Texas and begin harvesting, we will chase the ripening wheat to our last job in Central Montana. Custom harvesters own one to thirty (or more) combines and the necessary support equipment it takes to replace the farmer in the fields. For the farmer, the custom harvester eliminates the expense of owning costly equipment and finding additional labor during harvest. The custom harvester can harvest the grain in a timely and efficient manner, which is crucial when the storm clouds are threatening on the horizon. When the job is done, we will load up, pack up, move to the next town north, and start all over again.

I have often said the custom harvesting lifestyle is an addiction, one that is loved by those who do it and intriguing to those who do not.

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If you’re a farmer, do you use a custom harvesting crew? What other crops are harvested by a custom crew?

Have you ever encountered a convoy of custom harvesters on the road?

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Why I Occupy My Food Supply


When was the last time you walked down the grocery aisle and looked at food labels. I bet you probably look at the Nutritional Facts and maybe a few flashy labels for the latest trending buzz word. But have you looked at the manufacturer information on the label? Or even the country of origin label? There’s a reason that information is on there.

I come from an Arkansas ranching family. As a kid I had the responsibility of caring for animals around the house while my parents were busy working on a ranch they managed away from home. During the course of my childhood we had chickens, hogs, rabbits, cattle, donkeys, horses, dogs, cats, and even an orphan deer. I’d get up every morning and feed the calves and gather the show cattle into the barns for the day. I remember well carrying up to 4 bottles full of warm milk to the barn on very cold winter mornings and watching the sun rise while cleaning water tanks. During the summer I was sweating before 5:30 and boy was that ice thick in the winter. When I got home from school, I’d fire up the 4-wheeler and haul a few square bales and check for newborn calves in the pasture. There were several times when I had to assist a cow who had trouble calving. I didn’t know how good I had it.

The calves that I fed at the house, along with the thousands my family cared for at work all went to commercial feedyards in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. My vacations as a kid were spent on a trip to those arid regions to look at our cattle in the yards. We paid the feed bill and the people there would take care of our cattle for 120-150 days while on their finishing ration. After attending college for a few years I had the opportunity to work in these feedyards.

It was different changing from a family farm to one of the largest cattle feeding operations in the world. I worked in every single position in the feedyards. Each employee had a different story. Each had a strong passion for doing their job well. From the guy feeding hay every day, to the feed mill operators, I was amazed at their pride in doing a good job. The pen riders were a different breed, solemn cowboys who could tell you the attitude and history of every single pen of cattle. They rode every pen, every day, and saw every head of cattle on the yard. That takes dedication, yet they still had a passion for doing their job to the best of their ability. Every one of the employees had a vested financial interest in making sure the cattle were cared for and fed correctly. The managers tolerated my constant strain of questions, about health care and well-being of my cattle on the yard. It was pretty cool to see cattle from home after they had been on the yard for 90 or more days through the times they were finished and ready for harvest.

One day, the cattle buyer took me to the Tyson harvest plant in Amarillo. That place was so big! Every where you look, everyone was busy. I remember talking to the USDA inspectors. Their sole job was to make sure every animal that came into the facility was handled in a calm manner, was unconscious when bled out, and that all protocols were used to prevent contamination of our food product. From the harvest floor to the final boxing, everyone knew their job and how to do it well. I talked to many employees and they knew so much about the transition from live animal to the steak that ends up on my plate. It was truly a unique process to witness.

Well since I finished college in Oklahoma, I went back to work in the feedyards for a bit. Worked for the largest cattle feeding company in the world, and even learned that it is owned by a family. The family’s passion carried all the way down the chain, to the newest of employees. A pretty neat team to be a part of.

So what is my point to telling this story?

From my first-hand experience corporate food production doesn’t make up the entire agriculture chain. It may be the end-point for most food production, but MOST ALL FOOD has origins with family farmers and ranchers. People like my family who raise cattle for a living, work hard at it, and passionately care for the quality of food that ends up on our plates. That passion carries all the way from start to finish, from gate to plate. Less than 2% of Americans have the opportunity to experience raising food. I wish more had the opportunity.

The system we have works. Is there room for improvement? Sure, there always is. At least we still have a choice where we get our food. Some countries in this world don’t. Before you criticize those working hard to produce the food on our plates, take a moment to get to know them, and learn why they do their jobs. Agriculture, It’s more than part of life. It’s a passion, a lifestyle, a resilient community that works hard to feed the world!

Before we start fighting about 'Corporate Food' let's think about the faces of agriculture behind that food.

Before we start fighting about ‘Corporate Food’ let’s think about the faces of agriculture behind that food.

Here’s some links to thoughts from others

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