Illinois Farm Families Blog

At the insistence of our favorite babysitter, Kathy Schnell – think a country Mary Poppins – our parents enrolled my siblings and I in 4-H. Kathy and her sisters showed polled Herefords, goats and vegetables. Their mom was the club leader and Kathy was convinced that we would benefit greatly from monthly club meetings, service projects and those dreaded (my words) talks and demonstrations.

4-H is far from a farm-kid club, and while its history is steeped in traditional production agriculture and homemaking, today the national organization pushes STEAM (science, technology, engineering, agriculture and math) projects with a service-learning, agriculture basis.  Of course, at 9-years old, I didn’t realize how the 4-H clover would shape my life.

As a Face of Farming & Ranching for the US Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, I’ve found myself in front of various groups, large and small, talking about agriculture. Ironically, as a 4-H member, the annual talks & demonstrations required of each member were the banes of my existence.  I don’t know how many “how to make rice krispies” demonstrations I’ve sat through. I know I gave my fair share of “identifying cattle breeds” speeches. We’d all stand rooted in one spot clutching our note cards, forcing those stomach butterflies down. Every speech started the same. “Hi. My name is Katie Dallam and this is my 4th year in 4-H. Tonight I will tell you how to show a cow.”

I think my parents appreciated the 4-H lessons of responsibility, accountability and follow-through more than us kids. As they were prone to point out, it wasn’t their 4-H projects being swallowed by weeds or waiting for morning chores, it was ours. My beef and dairy cattle projects taught me patience (a virtue I’m still learning), commitment to something other than me (those cattle couldn’t feed and water themselves), and the value of the almighty dollar. Those projects funded my college education.

And 4-H showed us the value of investing in our communities; showed us every spring on an early Saturday morning during ditch clean-up.  It wasn’t glamorous work, but the next time we traveled that road we knew who had walked those miles. Pride in work ethic is a powerful motivator for a young person.

So when given the opportunity as a Face to make a donation to an agriculture organization on behalf of the US Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, 4-H was first on my list.  It’s famous four-leaf clover, symbolizing head, heart, hands and health, has given me powerful life-long tools and a commitment to making the best better.

Katie Pratt, Dixon

Spring is right around the corner!  There are so many things to get excited about in the springtime.  The grass growing, flowers blooming, and a new crop of sweet little calves running around.  It won’t be very long before we we’ll be planting corn.  It will be time for meals in the fields, tractor rides, and fixing the guys supper at 10:00pm.  The kids will be daydreaming at school about being outside in the beautiful weather and enjoy being in it when they get home.  We’ve moved the clocks ahead and the longer days will begin.

To start off the busy spring season we have hogs that are ready to ship. This week we weighed the hogs to allow us to know which ones are ready to go.  We got these pigs in as 15 pounders last October.  My daughters spent a great deal of time playing with them when they were little. It’s a little more difficult to roll around with 200 pound pigs, so the girls don’t hop in with them now.  They enjoyed us having wean to finish hogs this time.  For the last 14 years we have raised feeder to finish hogs, which arrive at 50 pounds.  Although it was a little more work, it was fun to have the babies to raise.  

The most exciting part of spring on the farm from my point of view is new calves.  One group of our cows calved this fall, but our heifers should start calving around April 1st.  The heifers are the cows that are having babies for the first or second time.  Even though they are new moms, they know just what to do.  Watching those little calves run around the pasture is one of the best views.  They are so darn cute.  The warm weather and the sunny days make for a great time for calving.  Our daughters are great helpers when it comes to tagging the new calves and keeping track of their births.

We are about three weeks away from planting corn.  A load of seed corn was delivered this week and is in the shed awaiting going in the ground.  The guys are working on the planter to make sure that it is fully ready to go, that all parts and systems are set.  There are many, many decisions that go into each planting season, so we are always trying to stay educated on the latest technologies to make each crop the best it can be.

Right now it is cold, windy and snow, but hopefully in a few weeks the weather will have made a turn for the better and we’ll be hot and heavy in the spring farming season.

Stacy Schutz is is a farmer, wife, and mother of two daughters located in central Illinois. She farms with her family; raising corn, cattle and hogs. She loves her animals, food and is happy that they go hand in hand!  You can find out more about her at her blog, From Our Farm to You.

February buzzed by, literally and figuratively.   Granted it has three less days than other months and it’s usually plagued by clouds, snow or rain and chilly winds, so I suppose if it buzzes by there’s not much to miss.

But this February started buzzing for me from the beginning.  It must be all this focus on food and farming that has my senses on high alert for buzz words.  There is no shortage of them in food advertising as I mused on in my blog post “When Buzzwords Stop Buzzing”. 

The second week of February I flew to NYC and joined celebrity chef Danny Boome on a satellite media tour. We talked with television and radio morning show hosts about buzzwords, the ones we see most often on restaurant menus and on grocery shelves – organic, hormone-free, grass-fed, local and natural. Click here to watch the video.

A week later, I got an email asking me if these buzz words mean different things to a farmer than a consumer. I think that’s part of our problem in attempting to converse about food and farming. Definitions can be so ambiguous and seem to change depending on the person doing the defining.

As a farmer and a consumer I define organic, hormone-free and grass-fed as the how of raising a crop or caring for livestock. I think some people use them to define the nutritional content of food, however as Chef Danny said in our interviews the nutritional value of food depends largely on how it is prepared versus how it is grown.

Local, to me, is my community, my little niche in Northern Illinois.  It is the farms, the towns, the neighbors (who live on the other side of our square mile country block).  It is the businesses we patronize and organizations we support.  Locally grown for me is what I’ve found in my backyard garden or my mother’s garden and locally grown meat comes from farms of other family members.  But, local can also mean purchasing food that has been raised in a certain mile radius of a store or restaurant.  What’s the magic radius?  I don’t think anyone can say for sure.

Natural is probably the hardest to define.  Webster says “existing in or produced by nature” and to me that is farming.  We exist in nature; have learned how to reap its rewards, survive its challenges and how to make our lives better by caring for the environment better.  Are we perfect in this relationship? Absolutely not.  Are we improving every day?  Most certainly.

So, are the definitions of buzz words even clearer than mud now?  Yea, for me too.  I guess this is why this movement to converse, to respectfully listen to the opposite opinion, ask questions and broaden our scope of understanding is so important. 

This year’s group of Field Moms has already tackled some buzz words. I can’t wait to read more about their adventures and the buzzwords they try to define.

Katie Pratt

Grand Prairie Farms

I was debating what blog topic to write for the Illinois Farm Families website this week.  While I was out helping Chad feed the cattle on one of the unusually warm days we’ve had, I thought about how much easier it is to care for all the critters when the weather is warm.  But, then I got to thinking about the terrible heat of the past summer and decided that each season has it pros and cons.  My preferences are spring and fall!  For winter things would go a little smoother when if we didn’t have to worry about frozen waters, cold calves, heaters not working, etc.  In the summer things would go smoother if we didn’t have to haul water, worry about overheated animals, or storms that cause power outages.

Our hogs are raised in climate controlled buildings.  There are sensors that we set to control the temperature, air flow, fans, and ventilation.  We make adjustments as the hogs grow. We are raising a group of wean to finish pigs right now.  They require a little bit more TLC at the beginning.  They were started with special feed mats and heat lamps to get them growing well.  As they have matured, the mats and lamps have been removed and they are eating out of the regular feeder in each pen.  This winter we have not had to worry about frozen pigs, bedding them down, slopping through the mud to feed them or trying to keep them cool in the summer.  Hogs can’t sweat and can get overheated easily. It has been 15 years since we switched to feeding out all our hogs inside.  It was an excellent choice for us and the hogs are all the more comfortable for it.

Our cattle are pretty easy to care for, but there are challenges in the winter and the summer.  In the winter we deal with frozen automatic waters and hydrants, the cattle require extra bedding in their shelters and extra feed to keep them warm and full.  Newborn calves can have a harder time keeping warm and when the weather yo-yo’s it is harder to keep everyone healthy – cattle and people included.  We are still hauling water to the wells in the winter and we have to keep our water trucks unfrozen to do that.  The summer months we need to keep the cattle cool.  The bulls don’t always breed as well when it is hot – just too hot to do their business.  The summer drought kept the grass from growing much.  We started feeding hay a lot earlier, feed prices went up, and we hauled water to the wells.

We love what we do, even with all the challenges that are faced.  Raising livestock is rewarding.  There is nothing like seeing a newborn spring calf running and bucking through the pasture, or sitting in pen with little piglets chewing on your boots.  The pros definitely outweigh the cons in raising livestock.

Stacy Schutz is a farmer, wife, and mother of two daughters located in central Illinois. She farms with her family; raising corn, cattle and hogs. She loves her animals, food and is happy that they go hand in hand!  You can find out more about her at her blog, From Our Farm to You.

Your cat gets a scratching post.  Your dog probably loves getting scratched behind the ears.  Why not the cows?  

This is the equivalent of the cow's scratching post.  It has big brushes on the top & side (when this picture was taken, the side brush was needing replaced), and the top brush is mounted on a big spring, so as to allow it to fit a variety of different shaped cows.  The cows can walk under it or alongside it, and get a good scratch in.  The seem to enjoy getting their tails scratched, or scratching around their ears on their head.  

There are even fancy circular ones that actually operate on a motor that turns on when the cow touches it.  

Carrie Pollard Po-Cop Dairy Rockford, Ill. 

This blog was reposted with permission from the author. The original blog can be found at http://www.mycowsandpigs.blogspot.com. 

IT finally happened this year. Our daughter, Jenna, became old enough for 4-H. Old enough to show cattle. Considering my husband and I have talked about showing cattle with children who didn’t yet exist since pretty much the day we met, it’s a fair understatement to say we were excited.

 And yet, so little in life goes as planned.

The cattle had been led and groomed, the boots bought, the bling chosen. And you know how you read those glowing stories with sun-kissed photos and reports of perseverance and hard work paying off?  Well, this isn’t one of them.

The day started off well. Seven-year-old Nathan showed his little bottle calf, Buddy. It was as adorable as you might expect a ring full of little kids and little calves to be. Judge Dick Burns told them, “You all are some of the very few kids in the entire world who get to have this kind of an experience.” Amen.

Then Jenna showed her heifer, Granite. Granite is a reasonably laid-back Simmental-Angus cross. We’ve worked with her endlessly. But for some reason that day, the Angus in her (and I say that as a die-hard Shorthorn girl who did not get her way in the heifer selection department) became fully apparent. She wasn’t exactly easy to show. Burns even said as much and complimented Jenna on doing a good job with her.

On to the steer show. Jenna took Gus into the ring. Somewhere on the first lap, he stepped square on her right boot. She wanted to cry, but didn’t.  I had my eye on the steer next to her.  He was acting ornery and was being shown by another first-timer.

Sure enough, as they pulled up after being placed, that steer tried to mount Gus. In the cluster that ensued, the steer kicked Jenna in the side as he mounted Gus, and for a fleeting but ever-lastingly long second, I thought the two steers were going to tumble on top of her. There’s a fair chance my nephew still has finger marks on his arm because he had the unfortunate luck of standing next to me during all of this.

Jenna was crying but OK, and I wound up being that mom who escorts her poor injured child out of the ring. We iced her foot and checked out the hoof-sized bruise that was already forming on her side. But through her tears, she insisted, “I still (sob) want (sob) to do (sob) showmanship!”

I’ve hardly been so proud.

And so she did. And then the heifer stepped on the same foot as the steer did. She couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. She was done. And so were we. The show was over. Done.

County fair-bound
Fast-forward two more shows — to the county fair. Jenna showed like a champ. She took home a plaque for champion Simmental heifer. Her animals behaved. She was thrilled. Best of all: She won the Sunrise Showmanship contest for first-year showmen. It’s a big deal in our county; even her dad competed in it. 

Now, I’ve hardly been so proud.

Jenna worked hard. She had tough competition, and as judge Adam Dryer pointed out, these kids will be fighting it out in showmanship for the rest of their showing careers. She knew everything there was to know about her calf, and told Dryer most of it — until he finally cut her off, laughing. Most of all, she had the look of a kid who wanted to win. She had an animal to show off, and she wanted the judge to take a look. That’s what it takes to win.

There’s a certain walk to a kid who’s done well and knows it. She has a jaunty step. She holds her head up. She smiles. Big. She says “thank you” a lot, as people who’ve never spoken to her stop and offer congratulations.

She left the ring with her head held high. No tears. No disappointments, no regrets, no bruises. This was our Jenna at the county fair.

This is why we do this. 

Holly Spangler
Marietta, Illinois

Used with permission from Prairie Farmer. This story first appeared in September 2012, page 16.    To see this story, go to:     http://magissues.farmprogress.com/PRA/PF09Sep12/pra016.pdf

I drove like Rodney Atkins and took the back road to Grandma and Grandpa’s farm. The narrow gravel road seems only a step above a dirt path with a weedy center line. I love that invigorating, countryside drive. I see some of the most picturesque cattle pastures there.

But an unnatural sight hardened the view and stifled its energy. Black cows stood around a water hauling tank on wheels. “The pasture creek must have stopped flowing,” I told the kids. I drove farther and crossed the bridge. Yep. The cattle’s flowing water source rather resembled puddles.

In the same weekend, my husband and I drove to a movie for our quarterly date night. We discussed crops as we passed fields of ill corn plants. He turned bitter. “I just want harvest to be over. I’m tired of looking at this crop.”

This fall we remove the crop and attempt to make this droughty season history.

The general crop outlook across the Midwest proves disheartening. Corn is a grass. Anyone with a yard knows how well that grew this year. Yet, livestock may fare even worse. Imagine an animal trying to graze on your yard. Pasture conditions became poor enough that Grandpa fed his cattle their winter hay in July. Meanwhile, the drought deteriorated field conditions, which produces less hay to restock the winter inventory.

Even after the crop harvest, my relatives and friends who own cattle will witness the drought’s physical impact until it weakens. Short supply of hay. Limited water in creeks and ponds. Poor pasture quality. Drivers through livestock country can expect to see more round bales in harvested corn fields this fall. Cattle will need the baled stalks. The government even released parts of conservation lands to bale for roughage.

Meanwhile, pork farmers face struggles, too. Feed carries an expensive price tag, whether high-protein soybean meal or distiller’s grains from the ethanol plant. In fact, a farmer with pigs told me he struggles to make money, and he grows some of his own feed. An economist says some livestock farms will not make it through the financial losses.

At most, some farmers will get out of the livestock business. At minimum, farmers may sell pigs and cattle at lighter weights or reduce their herd size. But I know farmers prove resilient. This may be the worst drought in a generation. Still, the eldest generations strapped onto similar roller coasters before.

The age-old challenge of weather impacts most anyone’s life, from farms to town parades. And like parade tradition, we march on again next year. We will faithfully plant in the spring with hopes that favorable conditions return. The livestock farmers who weather the struggles will expand. I look forward to when that invigorating scene returns to farm country.

Joanie Stiers
Farm woman
Freelance writer from west-central Illinois

For the first time in my history on Schutz Farms (over 18 years) we are considering chopping silage to feed our cattle this winter. During non-drought conditions we utilize wet DDG’s as a part of our cattle feed.  It is a by-product of the ethanol making process, it is a nutritional feed and it mixes well with straw.  We have purchased the wet DDG’s for as low as $15 a ton with is usually running around $50 a ton.  Yesterday we purchased two loads for $120 a ton and it is getting harder to get any loads at all.  The dried version, which we use in our hog feed, prices are rising as well.

This summer, before the rain stopped, we baled a few hundred round straw bales to use with our DDG’s as feed for the winter.  The cattle won’t really eat the straw without a wet feed to mix it with.  That brings me back to the point about silage.  We haven’t used any silage, only because we didn’t need to.  Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will be chopping and bagging some to have a good quality wet feed for the winter.

This year has been unlike any in the recent past.  There are a many farmers and ranchers that are selling large parts of their cattle herds because they just don’t have any feed.  Their fields won’t have any crops produced, their pastures have no grass, and it is too expensive to purchase enough to feed through the winter.  We are lucky that we have corn that is able to be used as wet feed as well as shell corn this fall.  Many farmers don’t have that luxury this year.  We are trying out different feeding methods to feed our cattle.

In January I wrote a post about too much rain… http://schutzfarms.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/rain-a-blessing-and-a-curse/.  I had no idea that we would be so short on rain this summer.

Please keep farmers and ranchers in your prayers.  We are trying our best to feed our families and yours.  The prices of groceries will go up slightly over the next year, but remember even with the drought affecting our food supply, the prices will only go up 3-4%.  In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that much.  It’s also really important to remember that even with the drought we have enough corn in the US to produce food and fuel.  We can feed everyone and make ethanol.  The by-products from the ethanol are a great feed source!  In time the rains will return and a new crop year will begin.  Everything will even back out and we will continue to produce the most economical and healthy food supply any country has!

Stacy Schutz
Farmer
White Hall, IL

I think most of the moms out there will agree with me.                                                                                                            Grocery shopping with your kids is challenging.  I have three kids:  Bella, 6 years; Mae, 4 years; and Nolan, 3 years.  Walking through the aisles is a coordinated dance to avoid other carts, continuously apologize for the kids being in the middle of the aisle, and grabbing teeny-tiny hands away from the shelves of endless goodies.  Whew, I’m exhausted just writing that. 

Here’s what I am absolutely grateful for at the grocery store:  knowing that I can walk up to the butchers counter and order meat that is 100% safe for my family.  I am confident in purchasing chicken, pork, and beef for my family.  Farmers today are very concerned with providing your families (and their own families) with a very healthy and safe product.  I don’t have to look for those labels touting “Antibiotic Free”.  Farmers today do not routinely use antibiotics in their animals.  Plus, the FDA has strict guidelines to review and approve all antibiotics used in meat.  The US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) monitors and tests meat to ensure there are no harmful residues, as laid out by the FDA, entering the food supply.

I can speak mainly on the pork side of the story, since we raise hogs.  We only use antibiotics to protect our animals’ health and welfare.  Those antibiotics are used under strict guidance from our veterinary team.  Pig farmers are also taking our commitment to the next level through programs like We Care® and Pork Quality Assurance (PQA) Plus certifications.  The We Care® initiative shows our commitment to practices that protect human health, which includes careful management of antibiotic use.  The PQA Plus certification is designed to help farmers develop good production practices, especially in relation to responsible antibiotic use and animal well-being.  Today, over 55,000 farmers have achieved PQA Plus certification, including my husband and myself.

Remember US and Illinois farmers support responsible use of antibiotics (in both humans and animals), and seek out specific, professional guidance from veterinarians before using any antibiotics.  We are continuously updating our research to ensure that we are only getting better at growing a healthy, well-balanced, and safe diet for our families and yours.  So, to my fellow mommies, don’t stress about the labels on meat in the grocery store.  Worry only about whether or not your kid is running over other shoppers with your cart. 

Kate Hagenbuch
Hagenbuch Farms
Utica, IL

It's days like today that make me dread the rain.  It is about 33 degrees rainy, misty and windy.  Days like these make it hard on our outdoor livestock.  It is easy to get wet and chilled and like humans, that makes your immune system work harder.  It is muddy and sloppy, one degree colder and at least things would be frozen.  Now on the other hand, our wells are really low from lack of rain throughout the summer and fall.  That means any moisture we get is a blessing, so I shouldn’t complain!  Easier said than done.

The hoop!

Today I am thankful that a few years back we built a large hoop building to feed cattle in.

 We have cows and calve them in one pasture and then when the babies are weaned they get moved into the hoop. They have the hoop and the pasture next to it, but today they are penned up in the hoop with fresh bedding, fresh water, and plenty of feed.

The cattle playing with their straw bedding.

If we would open the gate, they wouldn’t go out.  They like the hoop!

The calves are dry and content, just the way we like them.  If they were out in the pasture with no shelter, there’s a pretty good chance that some of them would not feed good in a few days and that is never fun.

Our hogs are pretty well off, too!  They live in a temperature controlled environment with the same amenities the cattle have; they are dry, fed, watered, and safe from predators.

Happy pigs.

I forgot to mention predators with the cattle.  We have a lot of coyotes around here and they are hungry. We lost two baby calves this fall to coyotes, but I digress.  The hogs also have fans and sprinklers for the really hot days during the summer.

The horses tend to be out in the weather the most, but this seems to be by choice.  They have a couple of barns they can go in and there is hay inside for them, but they stand outside and eat anyway.  I’m sure they know what they need to be comfortable, smart critters.  At least all of our animals have the shelter they need to stay safe and healthy, so there is another blessing!

Chad and Lana draining a field.

Farmers deal with precipitation and lack of all year long.  That is nothing new, but it doesn’t mean it can’t be frustrating at times.  Growing our crops is extremely dependent on the weather.  Too much rain and you can’t plant because of the mud and too little and the corn won’t grow.   We have had times when we have to dig drenches to help drain the fields.

The past few weeks we are having some field tile put in to help with the wet spots.  There is always work to be done!

In need of tile!

Getting the tile!

So, back to work for me on this rainy nasty, blessing of a day!  There are always jobs to do inside.  I hope you and your animals stay warm and dry.

Stacy Schutz
White Hall, Illinois

 Stacy's blog, From Our Farm To You,  gives a little insight into farm life in Central Illinois.