The common theme of the past two days has been raining. It has changed a lot of our plans, but I was able to still learn so much. Day four began with an early wake-up and sorting cattle at my host family’s house. We helped separate the calves from the cows. After a bunch of close calls falling in the dirt, we finished the sorting. After changing out of our dirty clothes, we met up with the rest of the group and went and learned all about crop insurance. While talking to these people, it became clear how important insurance was. It allows farmers to continue to farm and never lose money due to the weather destroying crops. As we talked to other farmers these past two days like Heath Stolee, we learned that even though they might be non-conventional farming their are still crop insurance products to protect their crops like chestnuts. These insurances are subsidized by the government so there is less risk for the issuance. Heath Stolee’s operation was extremely interesting because he was growing a crop that is not common in this area and is including other ways to make money from his land. In between his trees, he has CRP land, a conservation program of the US government that pays to keep lands out of production to protect soil health. This allows him to make some money while his chestnut trees are still growing and protecting the wildlife around.
Another very interesting conversation we had was with Danny Neubauer. He showed us around his farm and displayed his extensive tractor collection, which he is very proud of. He described the role each tractor plays on the farm. One of the most interesting thing he said however had to do with the pig barn on his farm, not the crops or the tractors. We had already talked to a couple different farmers who were just getting into the farming business like with chestnut trees or with rotational grazing, but Danny thought the best way to make it with little land is to establish a CAFO and raise pigs. The reason behind this is because the financing is set up in a way you will own it outright in 10 years and during the ten years you can still make a little money.