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Grant displays his electric G conversion at a PFI Field Day, fall 2012

**Note: The date for this event was changed after the original blog post. August 23, 24, 25 are the correct dates**

Grant Schultz is a beginning farmer in Practical Farmers’ Savings Incentive Program. Find out more about him and his farming efforts at his website Versaland.com

Despite years of successful commercial garlic growing and having an active role in the new food and farm movement Grant Schultz had a problem all too common to beginning farmers: land access. He was on a constant search for land both to produce the next year’s crop and to buy and finally put-down roots. Grant is not the type to sit idly by as seen by his previous projects including an electric tractor conversion, a home-made garlic separator, and more. Permanent access to land that would enable him to establish his big-picture ideas, however, remained elusive.

Some contacts at the 2013 Practical Farmers Annual Conference led to a permanent home for Grant’s farm. (The rest of that story is coming in a future blog.) Versaland Farm was established near Iowa City this spring and Grant hit the ground running. He set to work establishing a healthy managed ecosystem starting with crop-to-pasture conversion, perennial crop establishment, and keyline design, among others.

As a package the concepts are variously referred to as permaculture, restoration agriculture, regenerative farming, and whole systems design. Practices include multi-species grazing, alley cropping, and agro-forestry. Key terms are sustainability, resiliency, and on-farm integration.

Grant demonstrates his home-built garlic clove separator, fall 2012

Grant will host a workshop Aug 23, 24, and 25 called “Restoration Ag 101: Keyline Farm Design – Perennial Food and Forage.” Restoration agriculture guru and author Mark Shepard will bring his 20yrs of workshop experience to the event. Learn from an expert, see the systems hands-on at Grant’s Versaland Farm, and hear a beginning farmer success story.

Gail Hickenbottom, one of PFI's valuable supporters

Curious About Practical Farmers of Iowa’s Finances? Here’s what you should know:

We are financially strong. Our programming – and budget — has grown from just over $600,000 in Fiscal Year 2008 to just under $1.5 million this year.

Individual donations are the most important. Last fiscal year, about 8 percent of our funding came from individual contributions and another 8 percent from event fees and sponsorships. The more support we have from individuals, the more quickly we can respond to our members’ programming priorities.

Our funding is heavily from grants. Last year 84 percent of our operating budget came from grant sources. This grant funding is from a variety of sources (we are now managing 28 different grants!), so our funding is more stable than that of organizations that rely on just a few grants.

Practical Farmers will thrive in lean times. Practical Farmers is building reserves in order to help us through any big financial hits that might be coming. Unrestricted reserves as of September 30, 2012, were $351,000. We have two endowments with the Community Foundation for Greater Des Moines that totaled about $170,000 at the end of our last fiscal year.

We are committed to supporting our members. We pay stipends to members who conduct on-farm research and demonstration, lead field days, speak at workshops, and more. Last fiscal year, we paid out about $84,000 in these stipends. This level of financial support for members is unusual in the nonprofit world. PFI staff know that most of you who are members would be delighted to volunteer your expertise; our financial “nod” is another way to show that you are valued.

We will help the next generation of farmers succeed. We now have about $271,000 being held in Lincoln Savings Bank for our Savings Incentive Program, which matches beginning farmers’ savings, helps them hone a business plan and learn from experienced farmers and other beginners.

Do you have more financial questions? Contact me at Teresa@practicalfarmers.org. Or contact our dynamite Finance and Benefits Manager, Suzi Howk, at suzi@practicalfarmers.org

Working on a farm this summer? Don’t leave home without some tips from farmers.

It is mid-May and many farms are working full steam ahead right now. Undoubtedly that means new laborers are getting those first few experiences that advance them along their beginning farmer path!

PFI members Julia Slocum of Ames, Iowa (Lacewing Acres) and Jill Beebout of Chariton, Iowa (Blue Gate Farm) delivered an incredible address earlier this spring during a Practical Farmers of Iowa online farm seminar (a.k.a. farminar) entitled “Network with other PFI Beginning Farmer Trainees and Trainers“. This farminar covered what beginning farmers need to know to get the most out of an on-the-job training farm experience. Julia shared the lessons learned during a couple years of working for other farmers as a trainee, while Jill shared more than a decade of farmer employer/trainer experience.

Watch this entire farminar recorded and available online at: https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p5ntjnzo9n1/

More than 60 other farminars are available online so you can hear the word from farmers on a variety of production, marketing, regulations, and other topics of interest.

Here is to a safe and rewarding growing season! Enjoy!

Another Gilbert generation on the farm: John C. and Sarah

Members of Practical Farmers have all kinds of farming systems. People frequently try to “pidgeon hole” us as just ridge tillers, or just organic producers (or whatever), but it is just not accurate to do so. If you need proof, check out our Field Day guide (which will arrive in the mail soon) for the wide range of enterprises we support.

So what holds this diverse group together? Some core values:
• We value ingenuity, exploration, experience and sharing of knowledge for solving on-farm challenges.
• We value diverse and independent farm operations that are integrated with and enhance the earth’s ecosystems.
• We value an agriculture that is economically and ecologically sustainable and built on a fair market system.
• We value widespread ownership of land and resources.
• We value commitment to family, community and the celebration of wholesome food.

I see these values practiced daily by all kinds of PFI members, but I am going to just pick on one farm family: The Gilberts.

John and Bev Gilbert, John’s brother Greg and his wife Barb, and John and Bev’s son and daughter-in-law John C. and Sarah, all farm together on 800 deeded acres between Iowa Falls and Hubbard. (John and Greg’s father William, who farmed with them, died recently; a portion of his obituary was featured in a recent PFI newsletter.)

A couple examples of the shared Gilbert-PFI values. Their farm is diverse. The centerpiece of their farm is a 90-head Brown Swiss herd (milk sold to Swiss Valley Farms) and 250-300 pigs sold to Niman Ranch and through a local locker. Their 650 tillable acres include corn, food-grade soybeans, alfalfa hay, oats and a variety of annuals. Their tilled acres mainly feed livestock.

The Gilberts are constantly working to explore answers to on-farm challenges, and John is a frequent PFI Cooperator. He reports that “Diversity in seeds and breeds are a priority for our family, which is why I participate with Practical Farmers of Iowa in a trial to test and increase the varieties of corn seed available. That option is no longer available because genetic modification of seed has led to rapid corporate consolidation in the seed industry and specialty seed varieties are no longer important to the corporations.”

The Gilberts also value widespread ownership of resources and make it a priority to own their own livestock. Says John: “Farmer-owned livestock is much more likely to be a positive for local economies and environments. Livestock makes more limited acreages economically viable, creates a need for soil-conserving forages, provides income and work for a family on the farm, builds stronger local communities and is the time-honored way for new generations to enter farming.”

With John C. and Sarah’s return to the farm a few years ago, the older John reports: “Adding another generation is a major step toward sustaining the farm. The challenges involved are a small price to pay for what adding a son and daughter-in-law means long term. The Gilbert family has farmed in Hardin County since coming from Delaware County in the 1870s.”

Talk about commitment to family and community!

Comments from Tom and Irene Frantzen
on their generational transfer plans

2013 Practical Farmers of Iowa Annual Conference
Noon Lunch Program Jan. 12, 2013

Tom:
Progress has little to do with speed but a lot to do with direction. I would say that the first years we farmed may had had speed but the way our farm was operated had little direction.
That would change in October of 1979 when Pope John Paul the Second made his historic visit to Iowa. My elderly mother was very excited about this visit, and she made careful arrangements to be a part of this gathering.
I certainly knew about the commotion, but I had more important things to do. One of those activities was to get our barn painted. It was a brisk October day, and although I seldom listen to the radio, as I proceeded to brush the red paint on, I listened to the address from a radio broadcast. I heard the words “the land is yours to be preserved for generation upon generation.”

I was dumbstruck. I could not continue to paint. I actually felt as if the Pontiff was on the ladder with me! I slowly crawled to the ground, set aside my brush and pail, and went for a long walk. Tears fell, and I was overcome with emotion.
In the years that followed on the farm, I would say we walked by faith and not by sight. We had a direction of stewardship, but each step brought uncertainty. These steps became easier when the Land Stewardship and Practical Farmers of Iowa came into existence. We were not alone in this journey of stewardship.

Allan Savory brought the concept of holistic management to the United States soon afterwards. Irene and I took this course, where we learned the value of a goal-oriented decision-making process supported by our personal values. We wrote a three-part goal for our farm, and we have used these principles to guide our decision-making ever since.

We began the discussion of generational transfer the year that I turned 57. I will be 61 this spring, and that transfer plan is in place. Our experience with Holistic Management gave us a valuable decision-making guide as we thought about what we wanted for this farm long-term. After some though we wrote this as our generational goal:
…long term protection for a true Iowa family farm that has significant conservation features blended into a working landscape

Now we could propose actions and see if those proposals supported this goal. We involved a consultant and had several meetings with that person. He visited the farm. Together we wrote a plan for the generational transfer of our land.
Then we set this proposal aside and thought about it—for about a year. We then rejected all of the consultant’s recommendations in regards to the farm. They failed to meet our defined goal.
Last winter we wrote a different plan for the farm. It is as Teresa has described.

There are two things in life that get us into trouble. One is compliments and the other is criticisms. If we think we deserve the compliments, we get a proud heart and pride always proceeds the fall. When we think we do not deserve the criticisms, we get a bitter heart and a bitter heart cannot be a heart filled with the Holy Spirit. The solution to this dilemma is to give those comments back to a Supreme Being when we receive them and not to get too involved with what others have to say about our actions.

This does not mean that other people’s input is without value, but that any comments or suggestions must be measured against our goals.

Irene:
We truly appreciate the love and support of our family, who are with us today. They have all been a part of the discussion and process toward our decision. I’d like to share a phrase that was in fact the inspiration for our action.  The love in your heart was not put there to stay. It is not really love until you give it away.

We have full confidence in PFI to be good stewards in protecting and preserving the Frantzen Farm long after we are gone. We care about the land and the community all around. We want the Frantzen Farm to be a continuance of a healthy Iowa family farm in Chickasaw County. What better way to do this but through the hands and love, and the trust of PFI. PFI is more than just growing crops and putting food on the table. PFI has been a big part of our lives for many years. You are our family, our extended family. We believe in you,  PFI’s values, and in our hearts we know we have done the right thing.