The Way Things Used To Be…

Archie frequently tells me stories of farming from the past, but until Saturday I had never had the opportunity to see farming as it was several generations ago…The Smithsonian, in conjunction with volunteers from our town, put together a “Journey Story Family Farm Day” near our town of Cozad.

One of the only mule/horse drawn corn harvesting teams that still is operational in the United States…

Watching the old horse drawn farming equipment was an epiphanic experience.  Because I grew up in the city, I am only familiar with agriculture beginning in the mid-1990′s.  To hear stories of the way things used to be is very different from actually watching it happen.  I have to admit that I was both fascinated and awed.  It gave me a reverence for the past and an appreciation for the technology of the present and future…

It was a thing of beauty to watch, but at the same time brought a tremendous appreciation for the farming equipment that we have now…

I want to take quick break from the feed yard and my tales of weaning, and share pictures from Saturday with you all.  Hopefully these pictures will give you a brief glimpse into the way things used to be…

An old fashioned sickle bar mower that was pulled by horses to cut alfalfa hay…

A draft horse team raking the alfalfa after it has been cut…

Another draft team prepares to gather the raked alfalfa…

Gathering the alfalfa…

Moving the gathered alfalfa to the stacker…

The stacker team awaits the gathered alfalfa…

The stacker team of draft horses pulls the boom of the stacker with a pulley rope system…

The alfalfa is catapulted into the stacker…

In addition to watching the alfalfa harvesting equipment, my favorite equine loving 10 year old managed some up close and personal time with the beautiful work horse and mule teams.  She just couldn’t seem to help herself…

She tried her hand at driving one of the draft teams..

At 18 plus hands they make our quarter horses look pretty small…

This big guy became her friend when she…

“mouth” fed him a stem of grass hay that she picked up along the way!

Our family had a wonderful day learning about the way things used to be—giving us a new perspective on the way that things are now…

A special thanks to Bobbi Jo Messersmith and all of the other local volunteers for their hard work in bringing this incredible experience to our special town!

Striving For Sustainability…

Matt’s grandparents moved from Northwestern Ohio to Cozad Nebraska in 1945.  Originally, they were Mennonite alfalfa farmers in the Archbold, Ohio area.  Converted to the Methodist religion, and desiring to travel west, they loaded their family of four (Grandmother Grace, Grandpa Burky, and sons: Dave and Erv) on the Union Pacific Railroad in 1945 to journey to Nebraska.

Grandmother Grace, Grandpa Burky, Dave and Ann with children Matt and Lara, and Dave’s brother, Erv and his wife Chris and daughter Zoe circa 1976…

The original family farm in Nebraska was a “custom” farm where Matt’s grandpa purchased alfalfa “standing in the field” from neighboring farmers, and then dehydrated the plants into alfalfa dehy pellets.  Over the years, Grandpa Burky and Dave (Matt’s dad) were able to purchase some land as well as lease land to farm.  The farm continued to shift in this direction as Matt and I came home to work, and today our farm is based primarily on family owned and leased land.

Today, Matt and I are raising the 4th generation…

The crop farm expanded to include a cattle feed yard in the late 1960’s.  Surrounded by animal feed and successfully established as an alfalfa farmer, Grandpa Burky and his friend, Ray Bates, dreamed of diversifying the farm.  Matt’s dad, Dave, had just arrived home from Stanford Business school and was a major contributor to the expansion along with my favorite 79 year old (Archie Curtice).

Dave and Archie have made a lifetime of memories together…

What began as a few pens now is home to several thousand animals that are fed locally grown crops, and prepared to become the beef that nourishes your family!  Archie’s son, Doug, and I now manage the cattle portion of our farm and work hard to carry on the family tradition.

Today, we have the ability to trace our animals from birth to harvest: an important component in my plan to raise the highest quality beef using the fewest natural resources…Here I am weighing an animal to track his gain performance at the feed yard.

It has been 67 years since Matt’s family got on the train and moved west.  When I look at what our family has built during that time, I am filled with a tremendous amount of pride.  While I have only been lucky enough to spend the last 15 years contributing, I think that what Matt and I do each day is a testimony to what his grandfather began so many years ago.

So what makes up our farm in 2012?

• 1481 acres of organic alfalfa
• 1579 acres of traditional alfalfa
• 617 acres of organic corn
• 966 acres of traditional corn
• 120 acres of traditional soybeans
• 184 acres of traditional wheat
• Approximately 600 acres of cool season grass pasture
• A cattle feed yard that has between 2300-2900 cattle (depending on the time of year)
• 4 horses, 3 dogs, and 7 cats

Much of the traditionally grown corn and alfalfa are fed to our animals in the cattle feed yard.  In addition, the wheat stubble and a good portion of the corn stalks (what is left after harvest) is baled to feed to the cattle.  We blend these home grown feed ingredients with wet distillers grains to grow our cattle and make beef.  We do also purchase some corn from neighbors to augment our personally grown supply.  In a twelve month period, our cattle farm will prepare approximately 5500-6000 animals for harvest.

Traced from birth to harvest, I am proud to feed the beef from this animal to both my family and yours…

In 2006, with the increasing availability of wet distillers grains for our cattle and the growing demand for organically grown crops, Matt decided to diversify our crop farm by including organically certified alfalfa and corn.  The organic animal feed is sold to organic animal farmers across the country.  While this places a limit on the amount of feed that we grow for our own traditionally raised cattle, it opens up a more diverse marketing plan for our farm.

Matt’s alfalfa dehydration plant…

This diversity is a key player in the search for long term sustainability on our farm…I am pretty sure that Grandpa Burky would have never thought that his grandson would raise a blend of crops that included organic feed, or that his granddaughter-in-law would be the Boss Lady at the cattle feed yard.  But, the combination of team work and outside sales of a variety of products allows our farm to better weather the challenges that both Mother Nature and the economy bring…

Pictures From The Farm…

I laugh that if you do not like the weather in Nebraska, just wait five minutes and it will change…We are still dry, but patches of rain are beginning to crop up in our area.  Apparently Mother Nature still remembers how!

How could my heart not be filled with hope as I see this beautiful sight?

God’s paintbrush is incredible. It brings me a sense of peace as well as hope…

In spite of the dry and hot summer, Matt and his crew have been busy growing wheat, alfalfa, corn and soybeans…

The morning sun shines on “wheat straw bales” in the field. Wheat is able to grow with relatively small amounts of moisture, so we do not irrigate our wheat fields…After harvest, we bale the left over plant stalk to feed to our cattle…

This is the field of alfalfa behind my house. It is almost time to cut it again (this will be the fourth cutting)—I can tell because it is starting to get small purple flowers amongst the green leaves. The leaves are a bit smaller than normal due to lack of rain—we do not actively irrigate most of our alfalfa ground…

Today our corn is tasseled and looks pretty good—we have been irrigating the crop since late May so that it has enough water to grow. Some years we irrigate very little, some years (like this one) we are forced to irrigate regularly because Mother Nature does not provide rainfall…

We grow a few (irrigated)  soybeans on our farm as well, but it is a very small percentage relative to our other crops…

We are blessed in the Platte River Valley to have access to irrigation water when it fails to rain.  As long as we are diligent in our care, our crops are able to grow despite the dry weather.  The terrible heat in late June and July was tough on everything, but we are hopeful that harvest will bring the resources that we need to make it through another year.

Thursday’s post will bring an explanation of how all of the different components of our farm (pasture ground, alfalfa, irrigated crops and cattle) all work together to ensure that our farm remains viable despite Mother Nature’s challenges.

The 21st Century Family Farm…

We are simply two determined people who love the life that we are building…

When I received a phone call from a Bloomberg reporter from Washington DC about two months ago asking for my opinion of the Farm Bill that was circulating throughout Capitol Hill, I had no idea that he would decide to pitch the idea of a article about our farm to his editor and catch a plane to visit our farm near Cozad, Nebraska…

What followed were a volley of phone calls, a long day on our farm in May, a second visit again in June from the photographer, and quite a few more phone calls as the press deadline quickly approached.  I have to admit, I experienced a myriad of emotions during this entire process.

• I was excited that someone thought that our life was interesting enough to write about.
• I was nervous about my ability to share the extent of the love and the personal commitment that Matt and I have toward our farm.
• I was just plain scared of what the end product would look like since I had no control over it.
  

  The next generation of determined Burkholders…

Those of you that follow me on Facebook are aware by now that the article about Matt and I and our farm appeared in the July 2-July 8^th issue of Business Week magazine.

For those of you that have not seen it, here is the link to the story: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-28/the-21st-century-family-farm.  In addition to the story, if you click on the left hand side of the page at the first picture (the one of the Will Feed, Inc. sign) adjacent to the printed story, then you can see the slide show of photos that the magazine chose to use along with the print story.

My farm is both my livelihood and my passion—When you care about something that much it is a very personal thing to share…

Thursday’s post will have my thoughts on the article, the pictures, and what I learned from the experience.  Matt and I shared so much with the magazine’s team while they were with us, and I find it incredibly interesting to see what things resonated with them and ended up in the article.  I would love to hear feed back from you all as well so feel free to comment!

Blending Dreams With Reality Leads To Harmony…

For every little girl that dreams of a life in rural America being a cowgirl, there are many others whose dreams take them to beaches, cities, and a diversity of other places.   What each little girl holds close to her heart is unique and personal—changing over time to meet her maturing perspective.

I now have three girls with big dreams of their own!

When I had grandiose visions of being a cowgirl as a child, I thought of tall grass and beautiful wild flowers with cattle munching as they moved from one mountain meadow to another.   The scene was peaceful and picturesque with a rider on horseback guiding and caring for the cattle.

She’s found the grass and the wild flowers, now she heads off in search of the cattle!

My childhood dreams came back to me last week as Megan and I moved our grazing cattle.  The grass was a lush vibrant green, the cattle moved peacefully from one pasture to another, and I had the company of my daughter as we experienced the beauty together.

Found them!

The cattle ranching component of our farm is the only one that resembles my childhood dreams, however, there are many other parts to our farm that help to make it more viable and sustainable.  For us, a diverse farm is what happens when dreams are blended with reality. 

Our land and our cattle blend together in harmony to make our farm sustainable…

This week marks our 15^thanniversary on the farm.  As I look back, I can see how our dreams and ideas have blended with reality to create innovation and harmony.   Our farm evolves and changes daily as Matt and I become better and more experienced caregivers for our land and our cattle.  I am confident that 15 years from now, our farm will be even better than it is today.

What are the biggest changes that we have made on our farm over the past 15 years?

Our cattle…

1. The purchasing and selling of our cattle has become vertically collaborative as I realize my dream of tracing cattle from birth to harvest in order to improve the health and care of our animals and the quality and safety of the beef that they produce.
2. With each day that passes, I place an ever increasing importance on animal psychology and holistic care that has a basis in Beef Quality Assurance and low stress cattle handling.
3. The ethanol industry brings the feed product of wet distillers grains to our cattle farm which has improved the nutritional care that I offer to my animals.  Wet distillers grains is what is left after the ethanol has been extracted from the corn kernel, and it makes a fabulously rumen friendly feed for my cattle.  We blend the wet distillers grains with alfalfa and corn stalks / wheat stubble to create a blended feed of grains and forages.
   

   Our crops and alfalfa dehydration plant…

1. The capitol purchase of a saw dust burner allows the alfalfa dehydration plant to be fueled by recycled materials instead of natural gas.  This reduces the environmental footprint of Matt’s alfalfa business.
2. The capitol purchase of a Claas Jaguer chopper (pictured above) allows Matt to harvest more alfalfa using fewer pieces of equipment, fewer man-hours, and fewer amounts of diesel fuel—this makes his crop farm more efficient.
3.  The production of a blend of traditional crops and organically certified crops gives our farm diversity in sales and products which helps to keep our farm economically viable despite the current volatile markets.

I am very proud of what Matt and I have built over the last 15 years.  Our hard work and innovative ideas have allowed the farm to prosper.   We have also been blessed to add three new dreamers to the family with the birth of our girls–it’s been a busy 15 years–I wonder what the next 15 will look like?

 

My Haymaker…

My Haymaker and his trusty side-kick…

Cozad, Nebraska is rumored to be the “alfalfa capitol of the world”.  Our school mascot is “the Haymakers”.  As our name demonstrates, we are a rural farming community.

The home field…

My husband is a Haymaker through and through.  Not only did he play football on this field and set records on this track, but he is a “professional haymaker” on our farm.

Matt’s school record in the 200 meters held for 21 years until a new dynamo runner broke it last year…

So, outside of being Cozad’s team mascot, what exactly is a Haymaker?

In farming language, hay can mean many things…In my husband’s vocabulary, hay means alfalfa and a haymaker is an alfalfa farmer.  Alfalfa is a perennial legume plant that can be harvested for 5-8 years after planting.  It is a high protein forage (17-19%), and has an excellent amino acid profile.  In other words, alfalfa provides the essential amino acids that animals require, but can not synthesize on their own.  It also has a high level of soluble fiber which is important for animal digestive health.

The leaves provide the protein and the amino acids—the stem provides the fiber…

Because it is a legume, alfalfa takes the nitrogen out of the air and makes it available to the plant so that no nitrogen fertilizer is necessary for its growth.  When the alfalfa dies, it also leaves residual nitrogen in the soil which helps to fertilize the next crop.  My husband starts harvesting mature alfalfa about the 1st of May and hopes to get four cuttings (harvests) of the plant during the growing season which ends in October.

This is a swather–which is the machine that cuts the alfalfa. It is like a big lawn mower and places the cut alfalfa in windrows (strips) down the field.

After the cut alfalfa has laid in rows on the field for several days (which allows the sun to dry it), the chopper picks up the alfalfa, cuts it into small pieces, and deposits it into a truck.

The chopper is really big which allows it to pick up and chop up to 50 feet of cut alfalfa…

The trucks transport the cut up alfalfa from the field to the alfalfa dehydration plant where it is further dried and compressed into animal feed pellets.

The alfalfa dehy pellets are both easy to store and easy to ship…

While I feed some of Matt’s alfalfa (in the form of big bales instead of pellets) at the feed yard, much of what he grows and dehydrates is shipped to feed animals all over the world.  From cattle to chickens to horses to gerbils to zoo animals—alfalfa is a great animal feed.My haymaker has traded his football and track shoes for work boots, and has become a true alfalfa farmer…

A hurdler and two distance runners…The legacy continues!

Our girls are loyal Cozad Haymakers and have their eyes locked on one day holding their own track records—Matt and I hope that one of them will also set their sights on transitioning from a Cozad Haymaker to an alfalfa farmer to continue our family tradition…

New Beginnings…

Perhaps it is because I grew up in South Florida where there was only a very subtle change of seasons each year…

Amphibious South Florida children! Can you guess which one is me?

Perhaps it is because I have witnessed first-hand the miracle of life with the birth of my three daughters…

My angels are not this little anymore...

Perhaps it is because after learning to balance three children, 3000 animals, and a recovery from a chronic illness, I take nothing for granted and revel in the beauty that each day brings…

My brave crocuses are first sign of spring, but the tulips and grass follow quickly behind...

Perhaps it is because I spend 365 days out of the year outside working in the weather that the changing seasons bring…

Summer, Fall, Winter, or Spring---they rely on me every day to offer good care...

Perhaps it is because we celebrated the Easter holiday last weekend…

With every season that passes, their ever-growing maturity and compassion makes me feel renewed...

Perhaps all of the above reasons play a role in my belief that spring is a time of new beginnings.

Dandy enjoys a sunny spring afternoon (as well as the new green grass to eat!)...

Since I relocated to central Nebraska, it has always seemed to me that the new-year really begins as the spring winds bring warmer temperatures and the grass greens up.  Although the calendar states that we start a new year January 1^st, Mother Nature brings in the true new-year about the 1^stof April.  Each year, I never realize how much I missed the sound of the birds singing until the silence of winter gives way to the life of spring. One morning the silent air is filled with the joyous calls of birds.  It is like an epiphany for me as I realize how much I missed the chatter of those beautiful little creatures over the course of the cold winter months.

Mr. Robin Redbreast sings in our newly blossomed apple tree...

Just as the grass begins to turn green and the birds begin to sing, my husband gets the itch to start farming.  The rural Nebraska countryside is filled with tractors preparing the land for spring planting.  We started planting new alfalfa this week and corn planting is just around the corner.

Preparing a field to be planted...

In fact, it will not be long before Matt begins harvesting the older fields of alfalfa.  Alfalfa is a perennial plant which comes back out of dormancy year after year as the temperatures warm and the birds sing.  Almost 2/3rds of our crop ground is planted to alfalfa, and Matt hopes to get 4 cuttings during the growing cycle of April to the end of October.  A good alfalfa field will prosper for 6-8 years before it gets tired and must be rotated to another crop.  My favorite color is green, and I truly love the beauty of a vibrantly growing alfalfa field.

This gorgeous plant brings the color of life to the countryside as it grows, and will also ensure life to animals as it makes a wonderful source of feed...What a wonderful new beginning!

As you read this post, I am in Washington DC spreading the good word about agriculture and beef…Look for future posts on the topic of “Feed Yard Foodie Visits Capitol Hill!”

A Little Bit of History…

Matt’s grandparents moved from Northwestern Ohio to Cozad Nebraska in 1945.  Originally, they were Mennonite alfalfa farmers in the Archbold Ohio area.  Converted to the Methodist religion, and desiring to travel west, they loaded their family of four

What type of building is this that bears Cozad's name?

(Grandmother Grace, Grandpa Burky, and sons: Dave and Erv) on the Union Pacific Railroad in 1945 to journey west to Cozad.  Matt’s dad, Dave, has vague memories of riding the train and arriving in a new town to live.

Grandpa Burky went to work farming alfalfa and was involved in the construction of several alfalfa dehydration plants that were built along the Platte River Valley during that time frame.  The Platte River Valley is well suited for growing alfalfa because of both the soil type and the close proximity of the Ogallala Aquifer.  In fact, Cozad is rumored to be the “Alfalfa Capitol of the World”.  Alfalfa is a perennial legume crop that makes high protein animal feed that is also a good source of both Vitamin A and D.  Our growing season is about 6 months long (yes, winter takes up half of the year in Cozad…), and Matt will get 3-4 cuttings of alfalfa during each growing season.  Alfalfa will grow back well for 6-8 years after it is planted.  Once the alfalfa gets “tired”, Matt will rotate in a corn crop for one year before replanting the alfalfa.  This allows him to replace nutrients in the soil in between alfalfa life cycles.

Alfalfa growing in a field right behind my house.

In the late 1960’s Matt’s dad, Dave, graduated from Stanford Business School and decided to go home to Nebraska to farm.  He was interested in raising cattle, in addition to alfalfa and corn, and went to work building the cattle feedyard.  Archie Curtice, the alfalfa dehydration plant manager at the time, went to work with Dave to build the feedyard.  If you watch the video about our feedyard on the home page, Archie is the older gentleman that is featured.  Our feedyard was one of the original cattle feedyards built in Dawson County, Nebraska.

Archie and Dave ran the feedyard together with the help of Archie’s son, Doug (my current Foreman at the feedyard) and our cowboy, Rich.  I began working at the feedyard in June of 1997 and have learned a tremendous amount from all four of these gentlemen.  My father-in-law took a tremendous leap of faith when he hired a city girl psychology major, and Archie welcomed me into both the feedyard and his family.  I hired another one of Archie’s sons, Steve, almost ten years ago when Archie started to retire.  To this day, Archie is like a grandfather to me, and our crew at the feedyard is more of a family than a work crew.

Matt's Alfalfa Dehydration Plant

So, everyone always asks, why doesn’t your husband run the feedyard?  My husband is an engineer by trade and a farmer by heart.  He loves farming and operating the alfalfa dehydration plant, but was never really interested in animals.  When my father-in-law announced that he was going to sell the feedyard, I asked him if he would keep the feedyard and give me a chance to learn to run it.  When he finished laughing and choking on his glass of milk; and realized that I was serious, he took me at my word and put me to work.  Fourteen years later, I am the “boss lady” and believe that my guys and I run one of the best cattle feedyards in Nebraska.