What a beautiful day 75 degrees supposed to hit 80. We really need it to be warm, Ohio is 2% planted Iowa, Indiana as is Illinois may be under that, Minnesota still has snow on the ground, we are wet. It is not late yet for us, seems people think it is but I feel they have been conditioned by Universities and companies that way.
No matter what technology , science of equipment manufactures come up with it still takes common sense and the good Lord to make a crop.
Through skill and instinct I will say a farmer still needs his senses and experience to know what to do.
The smell of the soil, the air and taste, yes I said taste.You know when it is right you also know when it isn't.
Sometimes you just do it even though you know it is not, you might push that planting window a little just because. You can tell and animal that isn't feeling well sometimes by the way they hold their head , ears or the brightness in the eyes.
Anyway some will say thats nuts. I don't care.
There comes a time when things start making sense and you look at yourself and others  differently. Not that you judge them just laugh inside a little bit.Your elders made sense after all.
Don't worry about the nations crops they will get done. You will have Bacon.
Thanks for reading .

Bacon Farmer

March weather is still a lion, meaning still fierce I guess we will skip the lamb part or gentile. 

The farm has been busy Bacon Barn # 1 is full now so I get to slack off a little. Time change sure messed with my head. We will suck it up and go on, however it would be nice for a warn stretch.

Farm size. doesn't mean a lot, as far as still being a family farm. remember it is said 98% of farms are family owned.

We can argue all day about size and all.But Seems a 1000 acres is a good amount for a person with some decent equipment to manage. 

I am not even going to talk income or revenue, lets just assume they are good enough manager to pay debt and have income to live on.

A person has children that want to join the operation you got to add acres or enterprises to produce more income.

We have a right to make a profit, we should never apologize for that. Never.

Now add 4 children then add 16 grandchildren. 

That's 21 partners not counting the spouses which may or may not be part of the operation. To potentially operate 21,000 acres supposing each has !,000 acres but working together still a family farm.

Granted this is an example that may not be duplicated a lot but I am sure it is a good example. 

Just another view on why size doesn't make it not a family farm.

Dynamics can vary this as well there may be a mix of family and non family employees also.

A family operation we work with has over 40 employees probably more by now.

Anyway I hope I have done my part to tell our story about size of farms.

This week is National Agriculture week also.

If you are reading this, I assume you care where you food comes from.

Thanks for being one of my 155 customers.

Neil

Bacon Farmer.

Family weekend.
Traveled to Michigan visited families in Northern Ohio and last stop my Children in college.
Saw an awesome play "Alice in Wonder".
Yeah it was different. yet well done,
My son amazes me each time I see him preform. I won't go into detail. He was great as King of hearts,
But His sister and him together were equally cool as Tweedledee  and Tweedledum, I see a resemblance between the play and real life shenanigans at home! They both played multiple characters.
My daughter had her first part since 6 th grad very good.
But her main job was to manage the building and operation of the set.
I hope I am accurate on this.You know Dad's
Anyway what does this have to do with food?
EVERYTHING!
The girl was asked how she got the squares to look so good, she said well I remember Dad having a chalk-line "a tool used to make straight line to build and cut materials.in construction."
Well Dad ain't no carpenter but on the farm we have to build things and fix stuff and kids play on the farm and it looks like they pay attention!
So Food and Farm is all about family so this weekend was a Family weekend.
That's  who grows your food . We are just like you big and small Farmers we do things together even though maybe sometimes not enough together time.
The interests of the next generation don't always follow the previous generation, but they gain a lot of knowledge growing up on the Farm.!
I am sure my son's and daughters  acting / teaching  careers will use some more skills I don't even know about yet.
Our best products we grow on our Farms are our Kids.

Next Time I will write about Family Farms and size.

Until Then Happy Family!
Neil
Bacon Farmer

March, "coming in like a lion" as they say; Is a statement about weather, meaning if it is mild it is like a lamb and a lion it is like fierce.If it comes in one way it will leave in the other manner. So we can look fwd to better endings! Another is " It will snow on the forsythia bush twice while it blooms" I can say I have seen it happen many times.

March is busy with new babies pigs arriving. Three times a week now.The snow had me up and clearing snow by 5am Monday so when Madonna brings the babies she can turn her trailer around and  back up to the barn. wet heavy snow drifts and soft driveways, man did I make a mess.

A lot of volunteering this month in Farm Bureau. calling and visiting people letting them know about Farm Bureau. We need to make sure members are happy and sell new members on why Farm Bureau is important to people who eat.

A new spokesperson training named EASE- Engage- Acknowledge- Share- Earn trust .

It is designed to help us have meaningful conversations about  Food and Agriculture. 

I try to do what I can because if we each do a little we can accomplish a better good for all. 

Anyway I feel it is important to open these conversions about food production and be authentic  representatives of food production. 

Such a disconnect today due to most people are many generations removed from a farm background..

Internet and Media can spread good news fast as well as bad. 

TRUTH can be hard to disseminate/ interpret.

So we all need to relate what we do and bring authenticity to the front.  

Not having  a college education I sometimes feel inadequate to convey a message. 

I am not apologizing just putting it our there doing my part.

I am often told people like me are authentic and believable.

I hope I can earn your trust.

I am one of those that live farming everyday it is part of me as I am of it.

Please trust me and others like me to produce food in the best way we know.

Neil 

Bacon Farmer

 

 

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Thanks for the views I am sorry for not updating it sooner , since people are reading this I will do better.
I celebrate my 52nd Birthday today. I am calling it 26th.
No big deal really.
Just another day, however I have reflected somewhat.
Minor ice storm hit so we held off new baby pigs arriving. Madonna had a 4 hour delay, so it was safer that way. Good choice as roads cleared by 10 am.
This was our second group for this new turn. Still cleaning up two rooms. 500 head rooms.
They will be cleaner than a lot of peoples homes when the pigs arrive.

All on order to keep pigs healthy and promote food safety.
Keeping the crews goals on track of doing  an  expert job at cleanliness.
It can be hard setting a good example and making sure it is followed.
Training a new manager to take my place so I can do some traveling and not worry about things and keep them running smooth.
Is the biggest challenge so far.

I am continually amazed at the chatter about limiting our choices of production of food and doing things to make food production more expensive.
I will ponder this and write later.

I plan to celebrate with dinner tonight and have surf and turf at a near by lodge very good grilled steak and grilled shrimp.
Our own beef arrives soon from the processor. Many times we have a meal completely raised on our farm.
A matter of pride mainly you must realize that most people either couldn't or would be able to do that.
So it is unimaginable that some would limit our choice to bring wholesome safe , abundant food to your table.
While many are still hungry even in the US and your county.
More later.

Thanks for reading .

Neil
Bacon Farmer

Back to colder weather, stuck working in the farm office. Being a Farmer of any kind requires that you do many chores and many skills sometimes we need to hire professionals to do a better job. Bookkeeping is one of those skills we need to hire. We must still do a lot ourselves. A smaller producer cant afford some of these, so we do what we can and leave the rest to the pros.
Bookkeeping and paying bills and keeping order of the expenses so you know where you lost money and made money and also who earned their pay.
Today we have a lot of so called pros that we hire like to advise us about allot of issues.
Some want us to relate to you like growing food is just another job as far as consumers are concerned . So we are not special and it s no big deal. Then others claim Ag to be a high tech analytical profession. Which it can be. We have two sides of a coin here.Am I a Bacon Farmer or a Pork Entrepreneur!
 I like Land and Commodity Investor specializing in Protein Production.
Anyway all you need to know we are all different and we must care for our animals to help them produce so we can pay our bills and raise our families.It is basic.But we have outside influences that see fit to complicate matters.
Hungry people don't  care how it is done they only want, and need our products. As demand grows for our food as populations grow they will buy it,which will make it cost more to you.
I hope I am getting my point across to you.
No college here, friend just doing my best.
On my own. I cant hire everything done like having a  PR firm.  LOL as they say.
A Bacon Farmer Today

Lot of weather challenges with cold , snow and now a warm up. We need the rain still our pond is down over half , this is  important because I use the water for the pigs to drink.It is chlorinated, on site and tested by an EPA certified lab and is safe to drink for human consumption, it is also very soft We shower in it as well. Shower you say? Yes it is part of our bio-security program to keep out herd healthy.Part of the bio-security is due to the fact we are a production nucleus multiplier herd. Which means we grow our female pigs to be new mother pigs in other herds all over the country and now world. It is important because our females will be the foundation of the herd of our customers.We are part of a family owned and operated farm where we and other farmers raise pigs for  another family's farm, we get paid for doing so. Therefore we don't own the pigs.But in every way we treat them as if they were our own.
We take pride in raising them and sending them to their new homes. As well as if they aren't needed for replacements females we take pride in the wholesome food products they produce, for your table.
That makes being a Bacon Farmer Fun to be!

Busy couple of weeks, Bringing in new babies pigs ,sending future new mamma's to new homes and sending market hogs to market. Busy life of a Bacon Farmer. (That what we call ourselves now instead of Pork Producers) Anyway my son and daughter have been home since before Christmas from college so I have had them help some. Even though they wont be involved in the bacon business it fun to work together for a short time. Soon we will be back to our routines , but it is enjoyable  for now. Cold weather brings challenges we have forgotten about over the last two years , it could be colder too. Fixing heaters and ventilation and little things that can happen, these you learn as you go no one writes a manual for this stuff.So training a new person to be able to handle things like this is a new challenge, letting go so you can get away is a challenge as well,after all you think you are irreplaceable but mostly you are,in matters of business and such.
My wife is retiring and I owe her some time. so I am training a young man to do more of my daily chores. So I can be away some. Also there is that bucket list of my own.
The next weeks will bring business and office work yuck! Power washing is more fun! (washing the barns out between groups)
RhonFarm LLC will be up and running and some changes will be made but mostly the same stuff will go on, maybe that new barn roof my wife keeps on me about...more to come on that one.......history and the future.. should be interesting , as well as how we provide expert animal care and provide you with food and Bacon!!!!!!!
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.
Neil