Our family’s roots run deep in Iowa soil. Emmetsburg is where my grandfather, Emmet Harland Soper Sr., and my grandmother, Virginia Tunnicliff Soper reared their children; Harland Jr. (my father), Hunter, Robert & Virginia. Grandfathers heart was in Iowa farmland when he left law for farm management. Grandfather died at 86 in 1960. His last words to the parson who helped tend his garden were “plant four more rows of peas this year”. 974 acres and four generations later Soper Farms continues.
On December 11, 2009 I had the privilege to tour Wallace Farms and meet with Steve Wallace and his son Nick. They are into a multi-year program to produce grass fed livestock with their primary focus on cattle. Meet Steve (R) and Nick (L):
Their sustainable livestock operation has been under way for about 5 years on 160 acres and as Steve says … “it is a work in progress”. In addition to cattle, Steve and Nick have also raised chickens and turkeys. They also do conventional farming.
Cold Weather on Cattle
Two days before I arrived in Iowa they had received a record blizzard with temperatures dropping below 0o F. As Steve explained, the cattle did fine only given wind shelter from the south side of their high wall hoop building with additional bedding on the ground.
Calving Season
Their calving season is May/June though their first groups of pregnant heifers were spread out from May through July. Steve has since narrowed that window to May/June and expects to narrow the window more.
The finishing cattle (above) and yearling steers, were being finished on bailage this winter and separated from the yearling heifers to be bred and the cow/calves. Wallace has their own bull. The cattle seen above are around 1,200 pounds and about ready for market after about 18 months.
Meat Processors
Nick commented that in some parts of Iowa, it was becoming a problem getting a kill schedule from lockers as they are in decline because a good local work force is becoming more difficult to find. Wallace however hasn’t been affected because of their ongoing relationship with plants in southern Minnesota including a USDA slaughterhouse about an hour from their farms that does lamb, pigs and cattle. Nick mentioned that Sioux City might be an exception. There is an outfit in/near Sioux City that does a lot of processing for Whole Foods. The small lockers are not federally inspected so Wallace can’t do business with them.
Regulations state that a non-regulated locker can only do “custom” work where the customer takes back the entire carcass for their own consumption. Iowa State inspected processors can sell their meat to the pubic within the state of Iowa. Wallace uses Federal USDA meat processors that allow them to sell their meat across state lines. They work with Lorenz Meat Processing in Canon Falls, Minnesota described as cutting-edge and is doing well as a USDA processer. Nick processes about 10 cattle a month there.
Sales & Marketing
Nick does the selling and Steve does the raising. Nick’s business includes working with other small grass fed producers whose cattle are sold under the Wallace Farms label. Nick indicated he could sell more if he could find the grass fed cattle. Lorenz processes and hangs the carcasses for 7 to 12 days and does the cutting to Nick’s specifications to meet the preferences of his customers. The meat is put on pallets and shipped to Des Moines Cold Storage where it is frozen and stored. Nick uses Des Moines as his hub but is thinking about building his own locker on-site using a Morton building where half of it would include a 20’ x 30’ walk-in freezer.
In addition to selling meat, Nick also sells fresh wild fish he gets from Alaska. This gives him a broader offering for his customers. Wallace Farms can be found at (www.wallacefarms.com/). Nick has been successful by establishing his own “buying clubs” with three in Des Moines, one in each of Ames, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids and four in Chicago. He meets his customers in each buying club once a month and in Chicago every six weeks. His buying club members get an email the week before with a list of what Nick has to sell and then he meets them the next week at a designated spot from 4 to 6 pm where the buyers come to pick up their order.
Nick’s first buying club started with five buyers and grew from there. Growth has occurred through word of mouth and after registering with www.eatwild.com where customers could find Nick and Wallace Farms. On Nick’s last trip to Chicago he met with 107 buyers … it was a good day selling. Nick uses a pull-behind freezer trailer he bought last year and now it is already looking too small. Great marketing Nick!
Not All Grass Fed Beef Are the Same
Some larger companies Nick competes with compromise for expediency and will take grass fed cattle that are finished on DDGs (dried distiller grains) which is a high protein mash that is a by-product coming out of ethanol plants. There are many food brands whose marketing is less than honest when labeling their products. The more strict standards for “organic” and “grass fed” are being corrupted with marketing labels such as “natural”, “humanely raised”. The consumer has to be careful not to be confused. A trend that Nick is part of is selling “local” where customers can know their farmers and know their farming practices. Constant Evaluation
Steve and Nick are continually working on the best formula to cost effectively raise cattle in the winter. They don’t use grain or DDGs, just high quality pasture. They have grown sorghum and Italian Rhys grass. It is critical to their efforts to extend the grazing season from October into December. They do that with oats, rape and turnips, that are planted twice, the second planting in July is then ready for grazing in November and December.
Annual vs. Perennial Pasture
I asked about their thinking between planting annuals or perennials. Steve explained that when he plants perennials he gets about half a crop the first year because he can’t graze until the pasture gets established. The following year he gets a big crop and then thereafter it gets a little lower. They are deciding on whether it is better to do annuals or perennials, perhaps a combination but not necessarily in the same pasture.
Steve’s expertise on forage comes both from his having his own herd and his off-farm job as Territory Manager for Barenbrug USA. Barenbrug is a plant breeding, seed production and seed trade company (www.barusa.com). Steve is a great contact for grass farmers in his territory.
Steve’s observation is that sandy (light) soil like Walnut 22 is easier to establish pasture in than the heavier soils. Sandy soil has a rating of 5 or 6 while heavier soil has a rating of 20 (I’m not sure what the scale is). Steve is a grass farmer. What he then grows from his grass are livestock. All agreed that it is ALL about the soil … poor soil, poor quality livestock, great soil, high quality livestock.
Bailage
The day I visited they were feeding their cattle bailage. Steve believes that this is the best forage you can feed a ruminant animal to finish. His bailage is mostly hay (tall fescue) that is cut green to get high moisture. We discussed the logistics of bailing. One thought is you cut late in the day when the sugar content in the grass is highest. The sugar levels in grasses depend on the type of grass, the time of year and when you cut it. That said, logistics and weather rule most timing decisions.
To make his bailage for winter he cuts in October using round bails that are covered with plastic to keep moisture in to retain moisture and promote fermentation. One differentiator between bailage and silage is that bailage isn’t chopped.
They graze as long as possible until winter weather makes it difficult and then use bailage to offset lower winter forages. Steve’s belief is that cows were designed to eat foliage rather than corn and that is the best way to get good results and great tasting product. We discussed that our plan for livestock on Walnut 22 included an irrigator, Steve pointed out that irrigation changes everything. With water, we have a broader choice of forages to choose from.
About Poultry
Both Nick and Steve had great things to say about including poultry in the livestock rotation. In their experience chickens are good but turkeys are even better because they take care of themselves. Turkeys eat grass and chickens don’t. Steve estimates as much as 70% of a turkey’s diet could be grass. Steve and Nick think poultry is a key part of a pasture program. By their observation, three weeks after the poultry leave the paddock, the grass grows “like hell!” It is labor intensive but makes money and is great for the soil.
Wallace and Organic
They first started out on an organic path but became frustrated at not having enough nitrogen in the system and the pasture was poorer. So they decided to put ammonium sulfate on for nitrogen but that eliminated the “organic” program. As a result they market their beef successfully as grass fed, no artificial hormones or antibiotics. Having their beef being local and sustainably grown is what their customers want. Steve went on to explain that modern farming techniques over the last 50+ years has fundamentally changed the soil between the use of anhydrous ammonia, high tillage and oil-based inputs used as part of GMO crops.
The Grass Fed Beef Market
Steve explained that grass fed beef is $2.00+ a pound (hanging weight) compared to organic beef at $2.25 maybe $2.40 a pound hanging weight. Organic equates to about an extra $150 difference per animal. In their program Wallace Farms makes more money selling grass fed beef versus organic beef. Nick pointed out that Organic Valley (a large organic distributor) only want to take cattle like theirs that have been grass fed, then finish them on grain to get, in their view, a more consistent product. Funny how the term “grass fed” seems to get more “flexible”.
The Land and Long Term Commitment
For Steve and Nick, restoring our soil to sustainability is a long term effort but well worth the effort.
Their view is that land, sustainable land, will soon become the most important thing. They don’t buy gold, they buy land.
Without the hand of man getting in the way, nature very effectively creates, balances and evolves. It does so with all life forms interacting together. As farmers we have a choice between manipulating nature and managing nature in our pursuit to feed ourselves.
Our current farming model has evolved over many years onto a path of manipulation using GMO seeds and oil-based fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides as substitutes to nature’s abundant ability to nourish. As we’ve learned, this path, however well intentioned, has had a debilitating impact on our environment, our soil and the water upon which our farms depend. The plan that we are buildiing today follows the restovative path to manage nature as a partner so we too may create, balance and evolve.
Our Goal
Our goal is to identify the components necessary to launch a livestock and vegetable operation starting from scratch. We seek to establish a schedule and sequence of events … from first spade in the ground to production and delivery. The final outcome of this effort will be a business plan with all the rational, data and associated costs with which to make a “go forward” decision. Key to this plan is the market conditions and opportunities that will guide our commitment of resources.
The ground we are focused on is named Walnut 22 (160 acres) and Emmetsburg 1 (100 acres). If the business plan resulting from our work is accepted, the clock for this project starts in September 2010.
The Sites
Walnut 22 is near the West Fork of the Des Moines River about 6 miles north and west of Emmetsburg, Iowa. This 160-acre quarter section is accessible from a maintained county gravel road and a private dirt road. The sandy nature of this ground requires irrigation for corn & beans. It seems well suited for pasture and, because of its sandy soil, good also for growing vegetables.
Farm
Current Operator
Acres
CSR
Est. Market Value
Est. Value
Walnut 22
Herke
160
44.8
$3,000/Gross Acre
$480,000
Emmetsburg 1 has the tenant’s own irrigation gear on this sandy ground. It is about 3 miles northwest of Emmetsburg, Iowa. Access is from a county maintained gravel road. The ground is split in two parts by a diagonal RR track.
Farm
Current Operator
Acres
CSR
Est. Market Value
Est. Value.
Emmetsburg 1
Herke
100
38.5
$2,160/Gross Acre
$216,000
Soil Development
In all cases we are creating a soil farm upon which all things in this plan depend. This is a high priority. The plan needs to describe strategies and their cost for N-P-K balance and growth in the soil and the development of micronutrients that will result in the highest quality of our food products. Questions to answer:
Q. What are the best legumes to encourage growth?
Q. What are the weed abatement strategies?
Q. How might the irrigator accelerate pasture development?
Q. When can livestock be put into this new pasture?
Farming Practices
While targeting organic certification, we are to look “beyond organics” into farming practices such as biodynamics to support both livestock and vegetable farming. Permaculture design of the farm is another process to consider. These choices may not be an either/or choice but a hybrid of the two as they apply to this ground. With a farming practice model in mind, it will guide us towards understanding the equipment, staff and facilities needed on site and our time scales to get into production.
Infrastructure
The only infrastructure on Walnut 22 is a center pivot irrigator. The intention is to use this for delivering water and other potential uses such as pulling animal shelters. Using the water to accelerate pasture development is the primary goal.
This diagram is a proposed layout of Walnut 22. The blue areas labeled A1, B1, are the grazing paddocks under the irrigator. The numbers from 1 to 16 in the A and B paddocks determines the rotation order. Eight water tanks are needed to support all paddocks. The farm infrastructure is laid out on the periphery of the irrigator. Movable electric fencing is suggested.
Questions to be addressed include:
Q. Is this proposed grazing cycle practical?
Q. What are the best rotation intervals?
Q. Assuming livestock go into the plan first and vegetables second, what kind of structures are necessary?
Q. How should these be laid out?
Q. How do all the buildings integrate together?
Q. What about human waste management?
Q. Access to clean water at all buildings?
Q. Internal roads?
Q. What about power (grid, solar, wind)?
Q. Movable electric fencing?
Q. Plumbing from center pivot wellhead to 8 tanks?
Emmetsburg 1 has a center pivot irrigator on the east half of the ground. The current tenant owns the irrigator. There appears to be a well head on the west half of the ground but there is no irrigator on it at this time.
Markets
Walnut 22 & Emmetsburg 1 are within 6 miles of Emmetsburg located in Northwest Iowa (A). Looking to markets within a four-hour footprint of Emmetsburg are urban centers including Sioux City, Omaha, Des Moines, Iowa City, and Minneapolis.
Closer local markets are much smaller and include Spencer (pop. 10,500) and a major tourist area, Lake Okoboji with a large summer vacation population.
Cattle Processing Facilities
Livestock processing facilities will be necessary. In some cases that could include custom plants, mobile on-site and FDA approved processing facilities. These need to be identified and the economics of each studied. In addition to selling meat, other specialty meat products like sausages should be considered.
Cattle Genetics and Herd Development
In all cases, the target is to produce Prime or Choice quality beef only. There are a number of approaches to the cattle plan to be considered. Alone or in combination, these include finishing grass-fed animals brought in from outside and/or developing our own herd. As herd development implies a longer-term strategy, the two may be used in combination at the beginning. For herd development and growing a cow/calf operation, genetics are a key to success. There may also be an opportunity to sell premier breeding livestock to other beef operations. All forms of breeding should be considered.
Livestock Rotation and Herd Size
Open for study is a livestock rotation that would include cattle for meat production and could also include sheep or goats followed by chickens. The size of these herds compared to the pasture ground available is important.
Sales, Marketing & Branding
This business plan will include the details of selling and marketing Soper Farms products within the distribution footprint of four hours shown previously. Options include CSAs, wholesale to grocery stores and restaurants, Soper Farms storefront, farmer’s markets, etc.
Renewable Energy
Wind and solar power can provide this farm with cash flow benefits and long-term income, reduce on-site energy costs, while mitigating global climate-change. This farm will have a renewable energy plan to farm the wind and sun as well as livestock and vegetables. In addition, opportunities to pursue the creation and use of bio fuels are to be considered.
An example to study is Wyn Evans from Pembrokeshire West Wales who runs a mixed farm of 170 acres, has been trying to reduce his dependency on fossil fuels since 1977. He has installed an anaerobic digester, a wind turbine, solar panels and a ground-sourced heat pump. He has sought wherever possible to replace diesel with his own electricity. Instead of using his tractor to spread slurry, he pumps it from the digester onto nearby fields. He’s replaced his tractor-driven irrigation system with an electric one, and set up a new system for drying hay indoors, which means he has to turn it in the field only once. Whatever else he does is likely to produce smaller savings. But these innovations have reduced his use of diesel by only around 25%.
Vegetables
We have an opportunity to create an integrated farm that leverages the natural interdependence between animals and vegetation. Having both vegetables and meat to sell leverages our brand and can attracts customers by offering more choice.
To be studied is both field vegetable crops and hoop house vegetable crops for an extended season of growing and selling. The business plan will determine the size of the opportunity and the scale necessary to meet the opportunity. From this, facilities, staffing and rollout plans can be proposed.
Added Value
One key element to the success of many organic/local/sustainable farms has been adding value to their crops and selling as directly to the consumer as possible. Hermannsdorffer Farms in Germany are a prime example of this. In addition to the hog meat and vegetables they also add value by making sausages, beer, bread and go so far as to serve prepared meals to diners visiting their farm. They also have their own retail store that features their products as well as other organic products.
Building a restaurant and/or a commercial kitchen in which to prepare added value products will be studied.
Legal & Insurance
As this plan studies selling food direct to the consumer it raises the need for legal structures and insurance that typically go beyond what is normal for our current practice of raising commodity crops and then selling them to brokers and manufacturers. Examples include:
Livestock – Because of food safety laws and the litigious environment we live in today, it will be necessary to shelter SFI assets from potential law suits. Having separate incorporated legal entities should be considered. An example of one structure is Soper Farms Inc. (who owns the farm and operational assets) and raises livestock under contract to Soper Farms Marketing, Inc. who owns the livestock and sells the meat products on to the public. To fund Soper Farms Marketing, Inc. Soper Farms Inc. could make a loan SFMI and be in control of the revenue and profits.
Farmer’s Markets Insurance – Most farmer’s markets require the seller to have liability insurance. Sometimes these policies are hard to get and can be expensive for a small farmer. The few claims that do occur usually are tied to accidents like a tent blowing over and causing damage and not food safety.
Challenges in Planning
The choices we may follow will be numerous offering multiple opportunities in each area. This is a big subject to cover. Just imagine the complexity of the industrial food enterprise beginning at the farm to wholesalers, to manufacturers to distributors to outlets from grocery stores to restaurants and institutions. What we are planning is a microcosm of this. Every effort will be made to keep this plan within a reasonable scope, leaving future opportunities to unfold over time.
Could soil hold the most promise to combat climate change?
On Friday, October 30th 2009 a group of about 40 gathered in the equipment shed at Toto Ranch located in the hills overlooking the beaches of Northern California near San Gregorio, California. These pictures only begin to capture the beauty of this place.
Toto Ranch’s 952 acres of rolling hills is a grass-fed livestock operation and just this year was put under the protection of the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST). That easement limits the property’s development potential so as to protect natural resources including critical wildlife habitat, important watershed land and panoramic views of the San Gregorio and Tunitas Creek valleys.
Hosted by the non-profit group, Conexions, we gathered for this workshop to learn from Darren Doherty about “Carbon Farming”. It included pasture soil development, Keyline farming principles and the use of a Yeoman’s Plow as part of a field demonstration.
Darren is a permaculturalist who has practiced, preached and consulted carbon farming for over 15 years having designed and developed over 1,100 properties worldwide. To his question, “Could soil hold the most promise to combat climate change?” the answer is a resounding YES … and farmers hold the keys because soil represents the largest carbon sink in the world over which we have control.
“How much carbon is in soil?” Darren explained “soil with 5% organic matter to one foot of depth and a bulk density of 1.2 g/cm3 has about a ¼ inch of pure carbon in it … 35 times the amount causing global warming”. Imagine if grain farmers practiced cover cropping and livestock producers used rotational grazing, how improved our climate would be. To reverse global warming a significant portion of carbon has to remain in the soil in a stable form.
Darren’s focus in this workshop was on grazing with some examples as to grazing practices to work towards.
1: Grazing “tall” yields a more developed root system as shown in these examples:
2: Afternoon Grazing increases forage sugar. Afternoon grass has 37% more sugar than morning grass. This peaks about 6:00pm. As pointed out by a dairy farmer, “We jumped five pounds of milk per cow per day when we began restricting morning grazing and strip grazing from mid-day onward.” Does this suggest the best time of day to move your mob.
3: Spring grazing - Lewellyn Manske, Dickinson Center, University of North Dakota was quoted saying that spring grazing begins in the fall. Light defoliation (25% to 33%) allows translocation of above ground sugar to root systems to be exuded immediately after the bite. This stimulates root-zone microorganisms, including AMF which then solubolize N, P and other nutrients for re-growth. The effect apparently lasts the entire season and overall biomass production increases 40 to 70%. The take home lesson: Don’t graze a chunk of pasture this fall, let it go into winter with full standing cover. In the spring, graze it lightly after 3 ½ leaf and see what happens. You won’t go back!
Keypoints and Keylines
Prior to our field demonstration of a Yeoman’s Plow we learned about Keyline farming practices to which the use of a Yeoman’s Plow (similar to zone tillage). The Keyline is a permaculture farming technique used for water management. According to permaculture literature, Keyline integrates terraces, ponds and cultivation techniques with the natural landscape to infiltrate water into the soil efficiently and hold it on the land as long as possible. In order to truly work with nature, implementing a Keyline system requires careful observation and assessment of a site. Carbon sequestration is also an important by-product of using a Yeoman’s Keyline Plow.
To have a Keyline you need two key points. A key point on a field is the point where a ridge stops going up and begins to slope down. At that intersection between up and down is a key point. On the other side of this depression in the landscape where the valley stops going up is another key point. Drawing a line between these two key points creates your Keyline. I apologize for this poor description and perhaps this graphic will better explain.
Here is another graphic explaining Keyline cultivation.
As you can see, Keyline cultivation is not the “standard” practice most often used of ridgeline cultivation. This graphic compares ridgeline cultivation versus Keyline cultivation.
When using a Yeoman’s Plow for pasture subsoil development permaculture practices recommend following the Keyline. It isn’t my goal to teach Keyline Farming but to plant the seed for the reader to explore. Here are some resources.
The goal in subsoiling is to repeatedly create ideal conditions for plant growth and aerobic soil organisms to convert subsoil to topsoil. By using a tool such as the Yeoman’s Plow or similar implement, the soil is mechanically loosened to increase water absorption capacity, aeration and allow the rhizosphere (root zone) to successively penetrate deeper. As a result, subsoil is converted to topsoil as plant rhizosperes extend further into it, bringing attendant biology and metabolic by-products with it. Roots exudate and sloughed-off roots serve as carbon sources.
This picture shows the mechanics of a subsoiler.
In action the plow first cuts the grass with a disc followed by the shank that can be set at variable depths.
The distance between shanks can be adjusted. After the first pass over the field it is advised that the soil be given a chance to benefit for a while before a second pass is made going down the middle of the previous path. Because this tool is used less frequently for subsoiling purposes (this needn’t be done regularly) it makes a good implement to share with neighboring farms.
It was an excellent workshop on a gorgeous ranch, both leaving me inspired. Let me leave you with these parting thoughts:
“If we don’t take care of soil which is only the first 5 centimeters on this earth’s surface, our lives are condemned” - Dirt the Movie
A handful of soil holds tens of billions of microorganisms … that is unless farmers have dumped herbicides and insecticides on it while tilling these critical carbon sequesters to death.
A third of our topsoil has been lost in the past 100 years due to industrial farming practices.
Rapidly increasing Soil Organic Matter is the most important job in the world, and only farmers can do it … and should be paid to do it.
Humans have relocated 50 – 80 % of the organic carbon once in topsoil to the atmosphere in the last 150 years … no wonder we have a climate problem today.
“The nation that destroys its topsoil destroys itself.” - Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
Raised on both coasts of Iowa I spent my early summer years living with my grandmother in Emmetsburg Iowa and working on the family farms … you can take the boy off the farm but you can’t chase the dreams out of his head. Colorado College is where I met my wife. Six years later she finally succumbed and we married. After an unusually late spring snow we left Iowa for California and had two boys who now live in Los Angeles and make movies. For fifteen years I used my music degree writing scores, commercials, building a commercial music library as well as recording studios in Northern California. I then left the music business and began working in broadcast technology for Basys, Avid, Pinnacle, Harris with consulting clients in Asia and Europe. The common experience that has threaded its way through my life and multiple careers has been the family farms and the annual meetings where we all gathered together to celebrate and learn how the farms were doing. There is no question that life, seasons, everything really, flows in a circle. So I’m not surprised that many years later I find myself circling back to our family farms at every possible opportunity.
