Again one of the biggest things that stood out to me was yet another way for beginner farmers can get into the industry. I find this to be a common theme among many of these groups trying to introduce farming to a whole new generation. The program that the Practical Farmers of Iowa had set up sounded like a recipe for success in my mind. Within this program, there seemed to be 3 different areas to help the farmers. The first was to encourage saving throughout the year, so PFI will match the amount you save after 2 years of saving. One of the other programs they offer is one where the new farmer is matched up with a farmer who has been around for a long time and grows the same crop as this new farmer. The final of its three efforts to get farmers in is they try to give the new farmers the opportunity to gain farm experience on another farm before they go out on their own and start their own. All three of these projects sound like they would be very helpful as well as need in the coming years, with the current farming population over the age of 60. Utilizing these programs, new farmers will get the experience they need to be successful as well as learning other valuable skills like saving.
Another thing that stood out to me was a graph that Bayer Crop Science showed during our tour of their facility. This chart depicted the change in bills written for GMO and Pesticides. The number of GMO bills have seen a major decrease in the last 3 years. I think this is due to the changing view of GMOs. More and more people are on board with the science behind them and the fact that they do not have a negative impact on humans. However, the thing that has seen a rise in bills has been pesticides, which really began right around the time of the decrease in the GMO bills. I believe the rise of pesticide bills and decrease of GMO bills because the science behind the GMO’s show they are safe and the focus shifted to pesticides.

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.

With the farming business becoming much harder to get into as an outsider, today was very refreshing to see two different people who shook up the stereotype and found their niche. The first was at Kevin Dietzel’s farm, Lost Lake Farm, where Kevin is a dairy farmer who uses the milk from his cows to produce his cheese. The other farmer was Brian Wosepka who is following in the footsteps of Joel Salatin and raising livestock employing mob and rotational grazing methods. After talking to both these farmers there were a few similarities in their operations. They both faced the same issue of not having the ideal amount of land to have a typical farm in Iowa growing soybeans or corn. This results in both of them relying on livestock to make a living. Another similarity was they both found something that was uncommon in the area such as homemade cheese or grass finished cattle. There is enough demand for the product and the margins are higher compared to farming corn or soybeans so that it works out for them. The final similarity was their passion for what they did. They both talked about their operations with so much conviction that it was obvious they loved what they did and were not going to listen to people who said it could not be done. The takeaway I got from today was even though it might be a scary task getting into the farming business, there are possibilities.  You just have to find what fits.

Today is the first full day here in Iowa and it was a crazy one. The morning started off with a safety lesson from Professor Kevin Butt. We learned the dos and donts of a farm and how to be as safe as possible. One of the coolest things while with Professor Butt was working with the combine simulator, which a couple students were able to try. Ellsworth College was one of the beneficiaries of a grant from the John Deere Corporation to place these combine simulator in agriculture classrooms.  It was a great way to get a life-like experience in a half a million dollar machine with out worrying about it being damaged. For lunch, we made our way to lunch where we had Chinese food. After lunch we were invited back to Professor Butt’s farm, where we got a little hands-on experience with tractor safety as well as learning how a drone could help farmers now and in the future. After some shopping for some needed materials, the group divided:  Four students attended a composting session, while the remaining four,  including myself, went to the Wallace House for a Farm-to-Table dinner. This dinner was excellent and featured fresh vegetables and meat and cheeses that were sourced locally. The day wrapped up with a group discussion of the day. Looking forward to the next couple weeks!