By ‘kids’, I mean our son who will be 4 in August and the little girl I have taken in for daycare for the last two years.  She just turned three.

Above: John and Shea feeding bottle lambs

Two toddlers combined with my opinions about mixing parenting and farming was not a recipe for getting work done.  In times gone by the ‘tie the kid to the fence while you drive the tractor’ parenting theory was quite prevalent.  We’re not into that here.

Despite John’s frustration that I’ve been unavailable to help him for the past three and a half years, I firmly stuck to what I consider common sense.

Forcing two-yearolds in snow suits to walk up and down a huge hill back and forth to the barn with no help mom’s carrying buckets of grain, for example.  Or leaving them screaming while you feed hay because the kiddies – 25  lbs – are scared of the sheep – 150 lbs – when mom’s not carrying them.  These things don’t take a lot of deliberation to figure out.

Now that they’re bigger, though, and more comfortable in the barn, I’m going to take advantage of my new ability to get things done – and to let the kids get things done.

There is nothing small people like better than to feel they’re getting to contribute and be a part of what you’re doing.  It applies in the barn just as well as in the kitchen.

So, with that said, here are a few tricks I’ve figured out and picked up from other farm moms for helping kids enjoy chore time:

• Hay is always fun.  If you think you don’t have a need to have loose hay around, think again.  A safe spot – like that empty pen – is a great place for a climbing, burying roll in the hay, kid style.
• If you have an extra pen, why not put a slide or some sand in with some sand toys?  Or wood shavings.  The extra pen is a blessing.
• Trampoline with enclosure a.k.a. huge playpen.  I met a sheep farmer whose children – 3 years and 18 months – would spend all chore time playing on the trampoline with special ‘barn’ stuffed animals and soft balls.
• Give them their own, kid sized tools.  Our son has a pitchfork with a 36 inch long handle.  We taught him how to use it without injuring anyone and he loves it.  Visiting children get excited to take a turn really feeding the sheep.
• Make sure they can get up high.  Kids are eye level with sheep and a good head shorter than even a young calf.  Let them get out of range of licking, nibbling and loud baaaa-ing when they need to.

And, finally:

• Don’t wear out your welcome.  Be prepared to pack it in within a few minutes if the kids get tired.  I don’t mean jump the second someone make a peep.  Make a judgment call.  Have you been focusing on your work to the exclusion of the kids for too long?  A little independent time is important, but once they’re done, you need to be done too.

Growing up on a farm is something I always knew I wanted for my kids.  I don’t want to farm first, parent second, though.  But I also don’t want to parent first and farm not at all.  That would be cheating them of all the great things kids can learn and do on the farm.

So, as ‘my’ kids get more independent and confident, I will let them see me – and help me – work more.  With a little forethought, it can be good for all involved.

If you have any tricks to share when it comes to combining farm and kids, please tell.  Even if you have the most incredible ‘tie them to the fence’ farm parenting story.  I’m up for a good laugh.  (Funny, mostly because it’s a thing of the past, for the most part.  Thankfully!)

Think it’s not possible?  I mean, Foie Gras.  Come on.  It’s the most inhumane foodstuff available, right? Well, it can be. Most times it is.

Take the time to watch this video and you’ll get your dose of sustainable agriculture inspiration, that’s for sure.

Almost makes me want to get some geese.

That’s right, we signed up for the WWOOFing program for the first time this year and are about to pick up our third WWOOFer at the bus stop.  Wondering WWHAT the heck I’m referring to when I say WWOOFer?

WWELL, let me tell you.  (Me thinks, I could keep this up for a long time.    But I won’t.  Just for you.)

WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.  It’s a program that matches up farms with travelers who want to volunteer on farms.  Yes, people travel around working on farms in trade for room and board. Sounds like a fantasy, doesn’t it?  (Anyone who has ever worked with volunteers knows that the fantasy rarely matches the reality, though, don’t we?)

Having said that, we had our first two WWOOFers, as they are known, a couple of weeks ago and, boy, did they set the bar high.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have fantasized a better WWOOFing experience.  When we dropped Rok, super intelligent, personable and driven Korean-Canadian in his mid twenties, off at the bus, John and I lamented that our next visitors would have awfully big shoes to fill.

I hope no potential WWOOFers get scared off by the Legacy of Rok. 

In any case, for our customers, you can look forward to a sea of changing faces here at the farm this year.

For any farmers who could use some help, enjoy visitors and have $45 to spare (that’s the program registration fee) and extra room at the inn, I heartily suggest checking out the WWOOF Canada site.  Or Google WWOOF to see the branches of this organization around the world.

Travelers, check out the abundance of crazy ag-tourism experiences you could have!  Man!

And, please, come here so I can virtually go where you’ve come from.  So far, I’ve been to Korea and I’ve experienced the Korean area of Toronto instead of simply passing through without knowing where to go for delicious Walnut Cakes.  Next, I’m heading to Vermont and Japan.

Yeah, virtual travel and a truly helpful ag-tourism program!

(Picks to follow, though the landscape where I’ve traveled so far all looks suspiciously like our sugar bush. )

I write my experiences and thoughts about the realities of starting a farm, no holds barred, no rose coloured glasses, and people find me.  In startling numbers.  These days, one of my ‘How to Start a Farm’ series can usually be found on page one or two of Google.  (You can buy a $90 e-book on how to get yourself on the first pages of a Google search!)

I’m so encouraged that such numbers of you want to start farms!  I can’t tell you what that would do for our communities, our health and our economies if you all actually did it!

(Come on! You can do it!)

So, give me a moment of your time, and tell me what it is about farming that interests you.  I’m including some questions to get you started.  But don’t feel you need to answer them.  Just take a minute to tell me where you’re at with your farm dream and where you want to be.

If you’re not among the ‘dreaming about farming’ group but have already reached your farm dream, in whole or in part, put your two cents in!  I’m looking to get some serious farm-start-up momentum going over the next little while!

I’ve gone through the family farm situation while growing up and I’m deeply embroiled in creating and re-creating a farm now.  Creating a farm has so many facets.  It can get beyond overwhelming.  Tell me where your overwhelm is.  I’ve been to enough of the valleys and peaks that small farm start up can take you to.

There is a reason things get repeated enough times to become cliche.  Usually, they get said a lot because they’re true.

So here’s mine:  If I can help just one person succeed at a new farm, I’ll be happy.

I’m fascinated to know what draws different people to farming.  And, I love writing about the process we’re going though on our farm.  Give some good thoughts and I’ll have writing fodder for the upcoming winter writing season!

Here are those questions (should you want them):

1. If you’re looking into what it takes to start a farm (or turn your farm into your job), do you truly think you might do it some day?
2. If you already have started your own farm, is it working out the way you imagined it would?
3. What part of starting your farm (or expanding from hobby farm to income farm) has got you stumped?
4. In your wildest dreams, what does your farm look like?

A month or so ago, I signed up to be a part of the second annual Blog Action Day.  I can’t even remember where I first read about it.  But, having clicked on a badge somewhere, it was clear that this was something I’d like to do.

How could I not.  There were so many benefits to joining in.

For one, I would be forced to sit down and write something new on this sadly neglected blog.  (Yes, I will, eventually, finish my ‘How to Start a Farm’ series.  And, I will follow that up with an e-book.  Tease.)

Secondly, if writing one blog post about poverty on a specific day could have some impact; could add my energy to a larger energy, why not?

Well, I never realized just how difficult it would be.  Poverty.  This is a huge issue.  It’s a lot of issues.  It’s hunger in third world countries.  It’s disease from poor quality water.  It’s lack of social resources here in North America.  It’s homelessness, mental illness, obesity.  On a less drastic but extremely widespread level, it’s not being able to afford quality food.

Having realized how little I really know about poverty around the world, I thought I’d do some research and share with you glimpses of what I found.  I invite you to look into any of the statistics or facts that you find here in an effort to raise your awareness about some aspect of poverty.  Let’s all put some good energy to this!

First tidbit:  Terminator Seed Technology and how it is threatening livelyhoods

Let’s start with this beautiful picture of a woman who seems to be cleaning seed.  This is only slightly less technologically advanced than our homemade seed cleaner that uses a drill, some screening and a bucket to sort out the chaff and weed seed.  Small tech-y difference.  HUGE quality of life difference.

This picture comes from an article about Terminator technology in seeds.  Be on the look out for a rant about this in the near future.  Gives me the warm fuzzies thinking of how big agribusiness has figured out how to get more of this woman’s money.

The Lambi Fund of Haiti

Below is an excerpt from The Lambi Fund of Haiti‘s website talking about one of the projects this organization undertook to improve the lives of Haitian women.

“The task of milling grains, such as corn and millet, falls to women. Once milled, the grain can be fed to

their families or sold in the marketplace to raise money for household expenses. Women in rural areas of central and

northwestern Haiti faced daunting challenges in accomplishing this task. Because there were no mills in their small villages, they had to transport the grain, on foot or by pack animal, to mills that were often many hours’ journey away. Once they arrived, they were often pushed aside, and merchants with larger amounts of grain were served ahead of them. The women developed proposals for motorized mills or multiple small manual mills which their organizations would operate. With Lambi’s assistance, the women now collectively own and run the mills; they have access to the service they need close to home, and no longer have to endure the rudeness of the male mill owners.”

Kudos to organizations with humanity!

Another organization with humanity: Kiva.org.

• This is Abduzoir Shokulov.  He is a small farmer in Tajikistan wishing to become a viable farm business.  Sounds familiar.  (Yet so different.  I think my gratitude journal will be well used tonight!)

He is one of the people looking for micro loans through Kiva.org.  People (like you and I) can donate as little as $25 to these entrepreneurs.

What we consider a micro loan, these folks can start a business on.  Hmm… sounds like the people at Kiva.org are putting a lot of good energy towards poverty in the world.

So, no, I didn’t look deeply into any aspect of poverty.  I simply couldn’t wrap my head around just one.  And coming up with something that related to what we do here at the farm?  Well, I didn’t want this to turn into a rant.  (That will be for another day!)

What I chose to do, instead, was touch on three different topics for interested readers to look into.  That’s what Blog Action Day is all about, right?  Bringing awareness.

Please look into something poverty related whether it be something I mentioned or not.  And, do tell me about it.  I’m interested.

Yes, there are a few acorns in there for good measure!

Now, the walkway to the house is guarded by tons of big butternut and acorn squash, and there are still more to be picked so that we can make them lunch before the bugs do.  Apple peeling was interesting as well, as I don’t generally peel apples , so it took a little while before I figured out that going around the apples and getting one long peel, instead of going up and down and getting a dozen, was preferable. After much apple peeling, coring and slicing, we had a nice large pot of apple sauce to be canned.
It would seem the chickens are feeling particularly frisky these days,  as a few of them decided to go for a run when I opened their enclosure to give them some food, luckily they quickly realized that they would much rather be in with the other chickens and let themselves be easily caught and deposited back with their friends. I guess they aren’t quite born to be wild. All the other animals seem to be doing well. The pigs are still oinking, the sheep are still baaing and the steers are still doing whatever it is that baby bulls do. Prince, the lovely backyard horse, is still fulfilling his duties, and conversing with visitors who pull up in their cars. I’m sure his demeanour has nothing to do with the apple scraps and ears of corn he’s been getting over the fence in the morning. Don’t forget to pet him  if you come by for a visit! I’m definitely looking forward to spending the next week with the Nyman’s and their crazy critters!

- Kenley

So, even if you’re not farming vegetables, one of the best things about being on the farm day in and day out is the ability to work a garden into your reality.

Our garden doesn’t look as pretty as that of our friends who run a 5 acre market garden and veggie CSA.  We definitely have more weeds and more random plantings as a result of trying to balance my limited knowledge of biodyanmics with the weather and how much time I have to plant before a toddler needs something.  I will include some current pictures of the garden in the coming days.  Anyone who is feeling bad about not weeding enough is welcome to post my garden pics on their fridge to help them feel better. 

I did apply a great heap of mulch in the spring, though, so the vegetables won out over the weeds and have produced a bumper crop of everything except peppers.  (My first foray into pepper growing was not terribly successful.)  Todays picture of a pail of our delicious yellow heirloom tomatoes will be the first of a handful to come this week.

We are eating really well here these days.  That in itself is a good enough reason to farm.

- Sustainable Agriculture as defined by Wikipedia

Today, John and I were interviewed for a short video profile about our farm.  Hopefully, it will introduce us to more people who are looking for animal friendly, sustainable meat.

While Jennifer, our interviewer, was setting up her camera, we got to talking about sustainability.  We were trying to decide if our farm could truly be considered sustainable.

Pasture Buffet - Hard to see, I know, but on that wagon is freshly cut clover and grass. Everyday, we bring it to the sheep and pigs so they can eat fresh without being eaten themselves.

Obviously, there is a point where a farm can clearly not be considered sustainable.  Genetically modified plants, chemical application with wild abandon, confinement housing for animals.  These are all pretty much unsustainable.  But there is a middle ground that is hard to pin down.

For example, there are farms that are widely celebrated for their sustainable farming practices where the farmers feed conventionally grown grain (in small quantities).

So, the farms feeding the grain are considered sustainable due to their animal welfare practices among other things but the farms growing the grain – spraying pesticides, herbicides etc… – are clearly not.

Where does that leave a farm like us?  We grow our own grain in a not completely organic fashion and feed it to our nature-imitating animals.

Speaking of nature-imitating, animal welfare issues surrounding housing are another a part of sustainability (or not).

Here at J. & C. Nyman Farms, we endeavour to raise pastured animals.  Our chickens are definitely pastured and we have yet (knock on wood) to have any threatened by wild life.  The sheep are another matter.

While we would love to have our sheep roaming the range in a truly pastured, nature-imitating way, it simply isn’t realistic considering the predator pressure in our area.  This spring, we even had to start closing the sheep in the barn at night, not just keeping them in the barnyard.  We lost 4 ewes, including our best mother hands down, right at the backdoor of the barn.

One could argue that being a coyote’s lunch is what would happen in nature and they’d be right.  This is where the grey area in sustainability can be clarified a little.

When thinking about whether we’re sustainable-enough (my neurosis about ‘not enough’, I know!), I often forget the second part of the definition.  We, as the people running the farm, have to be able to sustain ourselves so we can keep running the farm.  Otherwise, it won’t be sustainable, will it?  So, if the animals that we raise to sell are coyote food instead or if we choose to buy feed that is too expensive to recover the cost when selling the meat, we’re going to go out of business.  Not sustainable.  There needs to be a balance.

So, Jennifer, while standing next to our wagonload of green chop (read: pasture on a buffet), came up with a great equation.

Ideals + Reality = Sustainability

That made perfect sense to me at the time.  Since having pondered and writen about it here, I’d have to add something.

Ideals + Current Reality = Sustainability

I added the word ‘current’ because, as an example, we may not always have the predator pressure we do now.  We will also, one day, finish building superior sheep pasture fencing, best the steep learning curve regarding growing organic but not budget breaking crops and be done with the many capital expenditures that have kept John working off the farm to fund the farm.

Reality is always changing but if you strive for the ideal within the confines of the current reality, you’re likely to come out with something like sustainability.

So, are we a sustainable farm?  Absolutely.  More and more everyday, in fact.

There are people who lead and people who follow.  Someone famous said that, I’m sure.  I don’t know who it was, but I do know that they were right. 

Each roll is appropriate to certain situations.  Leaders initiate action and make changes.  Good leaders make positive changes and improve something about the world around them.  But they don’t do it alone.  In fact, leaders couldn’t change much without followers.

Followers are perfect for getting jobs done and for keeping things going long after the initial action to get them started.  I’m sure we all can figure out which one of these characteristics we embody more, leader or follower.

(Even among these laying hens there are the leaders who jump out every time I open the door initiating the search for the greener grass outside their ‘condo’.)

How does this apply to starting a farm?  Well, the clue is in the word ‘starting’.  Like I said above, it’s the leaders that initiate action.  And you’re trying to initiate some serious action in the shape of changes to every area of your life if you’re trying to start a farm.

I’m sure this applies with all start up small businesses.  If you can’t summon and inflate the leadership qualities that you have, you’re going to struggle during the start-up phase of your farm.

Why?  Because initiating action requires certain leadership characteristics such as:

• Finding being in charge exhilarating, not stressful
• Being driven and having the desire to create

Being in Charge:  Exhilarating or Exhausting?

There are those who feel on top of the world when they’re the ones who get to call the shots, motivate the team and carry the lions share of the responsibility.  These people feel more alive when they’re coordinating a project or focusing on a goal.

This is not something that I have that much experience with.  While I don’t mind being in charge and do find it mildly exhilarating, I also find it mildly stressful.  Call me a fence sitter when it comes to being the boss.

There are those, however, who cringe at the thought of having to make decisions and be responsible for the outcome of a project.  These people will have a hard time starting a farm.  Starting a farm is a project and you, along with any partners you have, are completely responsible for making it run.  There are opportunities to be farm employees, but there is no space for someone starting a small farm to have an employee mentality.  Someone has got to be in charge.

Being Creatively Driven

I spent a few years working on setting up a Teen Room in our public library while I worked there.  Everything about the creation of this new space, the fine tuning of the guidelines for it’s use, the rearranging of attitudes around the need for it was exciting to me.

I was inspired and driven to make the new Teen Room a success.  And it was.  The only problem was, when the room was established and things were running on autopilot, I started to get board.  The challenge to create was gone.  The creation phase was over and someone more suited to maintenance needed to step in.

Granted, there are projects that inspire me enough to keep me interested even in the maintenance phase but this wasn’t one of them.

Farming needs to be one of these dual inspiration projects if you’re going to make it successful.  You need to be the leader in order to get the ball rolling and, even while you’re doing that, you need to be of a follower or maintenance mindset.

Both at once, you ask?  Yes.  Farming has to be done every day.  You need to maintain your animals even while you’re driving the marketing aspect of the business from your office.

A couple of quality follower or maintenance characteristics that will help in your farm business are:

• Enjoying routines
• Thriving on seeing physical results of your labour

Routines-R-Us

This one is mandatory:  In order to not go crazy farming, you need to be able to stomach the same routine seven days a week for months at a time.  I’m not meaning that you’ll do the exact same things from sun up until sundown.  But you will have certain tasks – chores – that remain pretty much unchanged everyday for a whole season sometimes.  And they might take you a few hours a day.

If you’re interested in a dairy farm, you’re looking at many hours a day, no changes but the normal farming surprises that come with animals and weather, 365 days a year.

If you don’t have a routine bone in your body, you don’t have a farming bone in your body.

A Result You Can See

For me, this is what makes chores do-able repeatedly.  While I don’t do our daily chores these days, I have been an everyday chore-er in the past and know that this is what makes it rewarding for me.  Standing back and seeing the turkey curtains on the barn all cleaned out, looking back at the row of cows that are milked and seeing that it is longer than the row yet to be milked.

Daily chores are much easier and more rewarding if you can take joy in the small details and if you feel accomplished when you see the results of your labour.

These are only a couple examples of how the leader and follower in us all need to be tapped into when starting – and running – a farm.  Now I’m turning the challenge over to you:

Post a comment below with your thoughts on what characteristics you have that will help you towards your farming goal.  And, by all means, share your thoughts on the things you have to work on.

Maybe we can help each other get a balance that will start a farm!

]]> http://jcnymanfarms.com/2008/08/20/how-to-start-a-farm-5-farmers-need-to-be-leaders-and-followers/feed/ 2 JNyman http://jcnymanfarms.com/2008/07/28/how-to-start-a-farm-4-farming-is-more-than-half-marketing/ http://jcnymanfarms.com/2008/07/28/how-to-start-a-farm-4-farming-is-more-than-half-marketing/#comments Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:18:33 +0000 J Nyman http://jcnymanfarms.wordpress.com/?p=104 ]]> This is Part Four of a series called: How to Start a Farm: 6 Things All Would-Be Farmers Should Know Before Getting Knee Deep in Sheep (or any other farm venture). See Part Three here.

There is some confusing language used around farming.  Even the word farming doesn’t really convey what the job entails.  (A lot of jobs have this problem, though.  When we say police officer, we don’t think paperwork, but I understand that they do a lot of it.)

I think the business of farming suffers more acutely from this confusion, though, because of the romanticism that it stirs up in people.  When people – even farmers – think of farming, they’re imagining sunny afternoons planting crops, late night barn checks watching and listening to their peaceful animals and all of the outdoor, in-touch with nature tasks that farmers do.  Even the less desirable tasks that come to mind are of the outdoor, hands on variety.

How many people picture paperwork, computer time and a long list of phone calls when they think of farming?  Not many.

And what on earth could farmers need to spend that much office time for, you ask?  Why, marketing of course.  Let me elaborate.

Marketing wasn’t always a task that the small family farm had to engage in, for sure.  In fact, at least since the Barley Days (1860 to 1890) here in Prince Edward County, marketing has been done by out side bodies.  Export to other countries and continents has been going on for generations.

My own Great Grandfather was a grain buyer for Pioneer Seed in Alberta around 1900.  He would travel from farm to farm buying up all the grain to export and ship to cities.  Similarly, nowadays, farmers can simply haul all their grain to the elevator or all their animals to the auction hall and wait for a cheque to arrive in their mailbox.

So why, you ask, do farmers need to do marketing if the systems for it are already so well established?  Why, if you can simply transport it to the right place and wait for a cheque, should farmers do anything else?  The long answer to that could be another post altogether to discuss the ethics of certain production models, start-up costs and more.

The short answer is this ‘Mailbox’ business model sees the farmer getting about 9¢ per retail dollar.  So bread, for example, you’d make about 14¢ for the wheat it took to make one loaf.  The ‘Do your Marketing’ model of small farm businesses can see you making 60, 70, 80, 90 cents on the dollar.

Hmm… a lot less work to get the same money.  Or a lot more money for the same work. Marketing looks pretty good, all of a sudden.

For those who have read the previous posts in this series, you already know that keeping your pencil sharp is essential.  The difference is that, on John’s Opa’s farm, the main use of the pencil was the math required to spend less than you make.  Your pencil will have more varied work.  It still has to do those expense calculations, but it also has to plan how best to market what your farm is producing.

For anyone seriously looking at farming for a living, I give you yet another set of questions to ask yourself:  Do you like dealing with people?  Are you a planner?  Are you self motivated?  Basically, do you want to do the marketing?

Because, farming really is more than half marketing.  Said another way, the success of your farm is based at least 50% on the quality – and possibly the quantity – of the marketing you do.

You might want to get a second pencil.  It’s going to be busy.