Brownfield

Traveling with CSIF

I've been quite busy with the Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers "Doing it Right Farm Tour."  Instead of blogging here, I've been focusing my energies on that project.  Check it out! 

Best Radio in the Ozarks

Mike Cady, Brownfield Affiliate Relations Manager, visited KKOZ-AM/FM Ava, Missouri last week.   Mike said they call themselves the "Best Radio in the Ozarks."

Ava is home to the Missouri Fox Trotters Horse Breed Association. Needless to say Hoofbeat is a big hit every Saturday on KKOZ.

Pork videos

Pork producers are utilizing YouTube to tell the story of modern pork production. 

My favorite is "Caring from Day One."  This video shows why many producers use gestation crates.  The sows and pigs are all very happy and Jackie, the producer, obviously loves being a pork producer.

Farm Bill cheat sheet

Whew. Who has time to read AND comprehend more than 1700 pages of information included in the Food and Energy Security Act of 2008?  So I asked Pete Shinn to put together a "cheat sheet" for me, featuring highlights and talking points.  It is too good not to share with you.  Still, Pete wants to make sure everyone understands this is a brief overview:

"It's a measure of the new farm bill's complexity that the above discussion represents "highlights," and is very, very far from being a comprehensive run-down of the spending, programs and legislative changes that are actually contained within the document, which runs more than 1,700 pages."

High and dry in Cedar Rapids

The sun is shining and there are just a few puffy white clouds in the sky as I write this at my computer on Thursday morning. The birds are chirping and the dogs are running around the lush green back yard. It is hard to imagine that just a little over mile away there is devastation due to the flood of 2008.

It is now a week since the flood waters started rushing into a vast area of Cedar Rapids along the Cedar River. There are those that still talk about the flood of 93, but that is in the history books now as the flood of 2008 is being called a 500 year flood. Until last week Cedar Rapids was a bright and shiny city, but that is no more as mud and trash cover a wide area of downtown and into the low lying neighborhoods. Family owned businesses that had been there for years are filled with icky stuff and the mold is starting to grow on the floors and walls. Many will clean it up or rebuild others say they will close up shop.

Reporting on the floods

From Wisconsin to Iowa, Indiana to Illinois, Missouri to Nebraska and beyond, weather and flooding have been front and center in agricultural news, markets and weather programming on Brownfield Ag News for weeks now.  Having grown up near the Illinois River where my family has farmed for generations, so much of this year is reminiscent for me, personally, of 1993. 

Each morning and throughout the day, the Brownfield Ag News Team works together to cover all aspects of the "Fighting the Floods of 2008." 

Julie Harker and Tom Steever are in either Missouri or Illinois today, covering the fight on both sides of the Mississippi River.  Julie sent back some pictures of efforts underway in Adams County, Illinois and across the river in Hannibal, Missouri.  They arrived in Quincy, Illinois yesterday and will spend the rest of the week with farmers and community members working hard to hold back the mighty Mississippi River from Quincy, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri.

We all know someone who has been personally impacted by these floods.  So many farm kids from the Midwest went off to college and took jobs in other places, but the ties they have to the soil of the home farm remains strong. 

Courtney Yuskis grew up on a farm near Warsaw, Illinois.  She is now Director of the Country Living Association.  Upon learning about the levee break in that area, I emailed her, letting her know she and her family are in my thoughts.  I was saddened to receive her reply:

Unfortunately, about 95% of my family's land will be underwater by tonight. I have been here since Saturday, fighting what was eventually a losing battle. We just took a final drive through the bottoms (about 30,000 acres will be flooded by this break); it's surreal to think that all of those crops will be lost.

This is a personal message and one I would not typically share, but I know there are many others of us who have experienced the same thing - either in 1993 or today.  The amazing thing about farmers and agricultural communities is their ability to pick themselves up and put the pieces back together again. 

Julie Harker sent back some pictures taken Wednesday on the levee in Adams County, Illinois.  In addition to telling their stories through Brownfield Ag News, Julie took shovel in hand to assist in filling sandbags. 

This is what Julie had to say about that experience:

I asked if I could shovel a few bags of sand because I did not do that during the 1993 & ‘95 floods in my home state of Missouri. At that time, I worked behind the scenes at Missourinet, Brownfield’s sister network in Jefferson City. I conducted interviews by telephone, attended Corps briefings, and produced newscasts as those historic floods unfolded.  But I did not get away to help sandbag then.   Not by any stretch did the folks at the Quincy, IL command center NEED me to help shovel last week. They LET me shovel because I asked.  I thank them for letting me help in that small way – three or four bags I believe it was. The sandbagging effort in Quincy (and Pleasant Hill) was amazing - so many, working so hard. I applaud their efforts. 

Lunching and learning

Katie Allen and Julie Harker attended an event at Echlemire Dairy Farm near Fulton, Missouri today.  This was the second in a series of "Lunch and Learn" sessions that will be held across the state this summer to give policymakers and community members the opportunity to learn about production agriculture.

Agriculture lost a good one this week

Back in 2002 I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with Lynn Cornwell on his Montana ranch. first met Lynn as he was coming though the leadership ranks of the NCBA. It was during Lynn’s term as President that I traveled to his Montana ranch to shoot a video. Being around Lynn in “his environment” personified to me his dedication to the cattle industry. From eating some of the best beef stew I’ve ever eaten with the ranch hands to sitting down with Lynn just talking about cattle is something I’ll never forget. I have photos from my time on the Cornwell Ranch, the video too, they have become just a little more special. Oh, and the morning we left for home, Lynn was flying out of Glasgow on his way to a cattle meeting somewhere. I’ll never forget seeing Lynn walk into the airport that morning, with his bag, cowboy hat and wearing “red” cowboy boots. Yeah, they were red and Lynn Cornwell was as genuine as the leather in those boots. 

-Dave Russell, Brownfield Indiana

We lost Lynn this week.  He will be missed.

The Big Pig Gig

Years ago, a group of us covering World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa dubbed it "The Big Pig Gig," so that is how I fondly refer to the largest pork-related event held in the U.S.A.

Tom Steever and Pete Shinn are reporting from WPX  on line at a special events page on our website, in addition to reporting for the Brownfield Ag News radio network. 

One of our good affiliates, KGRN in Grinnell, Iowa is represented at the event by Ed Clayton.  Tom caught up with Ed in the media room at Expo where both were editing audio from interviews they had conducted earlier. 

Wisconsin Farm Technology Days around the corner

Marshfield, Wisconsin-based Brownfield Ag News team member Bob Meyer was among a group of Badger-state media to attend Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Media Day Tuesday.  Here's what he had to say about it:

Wisconsin media got a little preview of the 2008 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days on Tuesday.  It was media day at Country Aire Farms just outside Greenleaf in southern Brown County.  One of the nicest aspects of WFTD is that the shwo moves around each year giving us a chance to see agriculture in different parts of the state.

Bud and Ione Gerrits and their family are hosts this year.  Bud's grandfather purchased the original farm just west of Greenleaf in the 1930's and milked 18 cows.  Bud and Ione purchased it in the late 1960's and pushed the herd to 70 cows, then expanded to 200 in the early 1970s.  Eldest son Tom returned from college in the early 80's and joined the farm, expanding to 400 milk cows.  Son Mike is also in on the operation today that milks nearly 2,000 head and runs 3,600 acres.  What is really impressive is that this is kind of an "average" farm in the area.  Within a 5 to 6 mile radius there are more than 15,000 dairy cows.  All state-of-the-art, well-kept operations.

What really makes this unique is this is an area where population growth and urban sprawl are prominent, just south of Green Bay and just east of Appleton.  Yet it seems the urban areas have realized the importance of agriculture.  Both the Brown County Executive and the Mayor of Green Bay were at today's event, voicing their support for Country Aire Farms, their farmer neighbors and Wisconsin Farm Technology Days.  The show runs Jully 15, 16 and 17 and if today is any indication, it is going to be a good one.