Rain

 Our farm had 10.6 inches of rain in the 18 days beginning June 11th.  As is usual in these very wet times, we lost about ten acres of pasture and another ten to twenty acres of growing crops as one of our main drainage systems ran backwards, letting in to our farm the water that had been dumped into the drainage upstream. 

The timing of the rain was tough as well coming just in time to stop cultivating, the most critical weed control activity for our organic cropping system.  Rain grows grass, of course, which usually means the pastures shine in a wet time.  But the amount of rain in this short time made even the pasture soils soft and susceptible to compaction damage.  We will suffer the results of this overload of moisture for some years to come, in reduced productivity and weedy conditions in both the cropping and pasture parts of the farm.

Fast growing grass in a rainy time also tends to short out the electric fence and as a result we had cattle out three times, twice on and once off of our farm.  We found out about this first with a call from a neighbor and immediately after a call from the cops.  Any farmer hates hearing this kind of message, but it is the very best kind of neighbor that calls us anyway.  And the cop is just doing his job.  We got them back but the impact remains.  We are checking all the animals at dark every night trying to find trouble before it starts.  Sleep is interrupted and my arms ache from swinging the machete trying to clear the big weeds back from the fence.

So does all this mean we will give up pasturing?  No, it does not.  Pasturing simply works better than crop farming.  What it does mean is that we will be even more insistent in our conversations with anyone who hears us about the reality of climate change and its impacts.  We cannot afford the luxury of being wishy washy about a problem that is staring us in the face.

And we don't have time to monkey with politicians who will not act on it, will even take us backward because they think they personally have a way out figured and can make much money on the ride down into whatever is coming. 

FarmAid

This summer, in the midst of the clatter and surplus of work, more work than can be done timely, we were contacted by FarmAid.  They wanted us to be part of a podcast they were putting together about where farmers and farms are going from here.  Their preferred subject was the idea of joining marketing of farm products to their production, all to the benefit of the farm family and community.

    We were happy to be part of it, of course, as we are happy anytime the ongoing bustle of urban America admits that we and the food we produce are critical to everyone's health and survival.  LeeAnn, I and grandson Andrew were first interviewed about the origins of Pastures farm, the start of grazing and straw based hog production, as well as the forming up of the marketing and the learning process taken on especially by LeeAnn and Josh and Cindy and the work and twists and turns it has taken to get it this far.  

        Then Josh and Cindy took the story to the next level talking about their work revitalizing rural processing businesses, the facilitating of the transfer of business to the next generation and the start that has been made here in Minnesota to train and educate the next generation of processing workers and more than a few, it is hoped, future owner operators.  Much Covid spending in our state went to this rural effort.  It is appreciated and we hope it bears fruit long term.

        A bit later the new food coop started up in New London was the subject. Started on a shoestring and operated by true believers in a new approach to food growing and provision, it promises to be a real blessing to our farm and business. New London lost its local grocery store some years ago and the new food effort may well benefit because of the hole left in the community by the departure.  Our marketing arm has been busy facilitating and helping with the start up.

       And, of course, our reward, besides the satisfaction of talking food and farming with someone who certainly seems to care how it all comes out, is that we could buy at a reduced price, FarmAid concert tickets for later this summer. For LeeAnn and I this will be our first big concert since Peter Paul and Mary at the auditorium on campus at the University of Minnesota in 1970.  

 

Smoke

 Smoke from the fires in Saskatchewan and Manitoba sent thick smoke south to us again this weekend. This is not normal weather.  Air quality index claims danger in exposure for older people and folks with heart and lung problems.  

The earth is on fire and we are the cause of it.  We will figure out how to live with it of course. We always do.  But the other question, the one about longer term results and tipping points and if the earth coming toward us in the near future is at all like the one we are adjusted to remains.

What we try for here at Pastures A Plenty in view of all this is to keep our production of crops and animals as close as possible to what might be happening here if we were not here.  We do not know what is coming.  But we can look back and see that the earth has produced growing green things and animals have reproduced as far back as we know.  This we need to take to heart and to learn.

We think it is a pretty good bet that all the certified smart people and all the corporate money will not be able to figure out a solution.  We only hope they don't make it too much worse than they already have.  And we hope they may give up their age old habit of thinking they know better and begin occasionally to listen to the people doing the work of the world.

We put our faith in the capacity of earth, given kindly use and care, to figure out how to heal itself.  We need to figure out how to feed ourselves and others without doing huge damage.  To do this, we must learn an attitude of listening, of careful attention to what the earth is telling us.

Humility is required.  Listening to the earth and the animals on it and in it does not come naturally to us humans.  But we will have to learn.  The earth will teach us.  So we carry on our work with the plants and animals and try to do so in a way that makes things better and not worse.

twin cities liberal

 But isn't he a Twin Cities liberal? This question from a newspaper reporter who went on to mention her time in a bar hearing liberals painted with every abomination and ill known to man.  This prompted me to reply that indeed he is but that didn't make him a bad person.

This response gained me a certain notoriety, I guess, but to me it was merely a reflection of my lived reality.  The occasion was a meeting in western Minnesota featuring Attorney General Keith Ellison about efforts he is making to hold machinery companies to account for their efforts to withhold vital technical information from independent repair shops.

This is "liberal" I suppose, in that it reflects the typically liberal desire for a level playing field for all.  But it also speaks to the need for openness in the marketplace which is, or certainly should be, essential to a conservative view. 

Increasingly, we allow our political hatreds to drive our commonsense underground and this is very detrimental to our lives together.  Grandson Andrew, who farms, was there to tell about the difficulties we were having with a tractor, trying to get it repaired and keep it running.  This is something nearly every farmer has experience with and it matters not at all who he voted for in the election.  We should be able to say that and act accordingly.

And indeed, this is detrimental.  If we must ask who our neighbors voted for before we will agree to stand together on a matter that impacts all of us, then we have truly left behind the rural life that I came back to in the late seventies.  That rural life meant that if my barn was burning neighbors would show up offering what help they could without ever considering who I voted for.  

If we have already left, or ever will leave that attitude behind in favor of making sure my political bunch drives out your political bunch, we will have given up most of what was good and right about our lives together.

That would be a tragedy!

vaccinate

 Did I miss something?  My seventy plus years spent mostly on this farm dealing with livestock has resulted for me in a healthy respect for vaccines.  It has gotten to the point with our overproduction of pigs in the upper Midwest, that I do not know if it is possible to produce pigs at any scale here without vaccines.

So why do we have our Secretary in charge of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration, a known vaccine opponent who also is a Kennedy, now say, after a lifetime of denial of vaccine usefulness, that he will make measles vaccines available in view of the situation in Texas, but will do nothing to require them.  Why?  This runs contrary to virtually everything I have been taught, in large measure by veterinarians

Vaccine effectiveness relies mostly upon uptake.  The more casual the use of vaccines in a situation, the less well they will work.  I think I am right here.  Anyone who wishes to argue against that belief can start discussion by making a comment below.

I think the real controversy about vaccines is due to the ascendancy of libertarian thought and action.  Due to the success of this philosophy over the last half century, we have difficulty doing anything that helps the neighborhood or community, even if it would benefit us as well.  Our minds just no longer work that way.  We think that for us to succeed others must fail, as Gore Vidal said.