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2. Farm Foundation’s Meet Your Farmer Podcast with Amanda Butterfield
24 Plays30 days ago
Farm Foundation’s Meet Your Farmer podcast featured Amanda Butterfield and her daughter, Evelyn, in season 1, Episode 2.
Amanda Butterfield is director of corporate partnerships at The Meat Institute, and she also owns and operates a farm in Pennsylvania. With her husband and daughter, they raise beef cattle at Maple Valley Cattle Company, a 180-acre cow-calf operation. The farm was recently selected as a finalist for the 2024 Pennsylvania Leopold Conservation Award, which honors farmers and forestland owners who go above and beyond in their management of soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat on working land.
At her farm, Amanda uses strategies like rotational grazing, cover crops, integrated pest management strategies, and has preserved the farm's woodlands and wetlands and native grasslands to improve soil health and support biodiversity.
The conversation covered some of the logistics of rotational grazing and land restoration on the farm, Amanda’s path to farming as a first-generation farmer, and what the future holds for young people on the farm today.
Find Maple Valley Cattle Company on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amcbutterfield2/
See the farm on this video by the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQhbW3MRfeo
Music: "Country Roads" by Sergii Pavkin from Pixabay
Reach us at communication@farmfoundation.org.
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Transcript
Introduction to Meet Your Farmer Podcast
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Meet Your Farmer, a podcast by Farm Foundation. I'm your host, Naomit Mijen. If you don't know Farm Foundation, we're a nonprofit located in the Chicago area, working to promote understanding at the intersections of agriculture and society. We've been accelerating solutions for agriculture since the 1930s, and we're excited to have you join us for this episode of our new podcast.
Meet Amanda Butterfield and Her Farm
00:00:36
Speaker
The goal of this podcast is to help you get to know just a little bit more about the American farmers who are producing the food, fuel and fiber we all use every day. I'm excited to welcome Amanda Butterfield to the show. Amanda is director of corporate partnerships at the Meat Institute, and she also owns and operates a farm in Pennsylvania. With her husband and daughter, they raise beef cattle at Maple Valley Cattle Company.
00:01:02
Speaker
which is a 180-acre cow-calf operation. The farm was recently selected as a finalist for the 2024 Pennsylvania Leopold Conservation Award, which honors farmers and forestland owners who go above and beyond in their management of soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat on working land.
00:01:22
Speaker
At her farm, Amanda uses strategies like rotational grazing, cover crops, integrated pest management strategies, and has preserved the farm's woodlands and wetlands and native grasslands to improve soil health and support biodiversity.
Highlighting Maple Valley Cattle Company's Achievements
00:01:38
Speaker
There's a nice video on YouTube by the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation where Amanda walks you through the details of her farm. I'll link it in the show notes and recommend giving it a watch. And she let me know that her daughter Evelyn is also joining us on the podcast. So it will be great to have her perspective in the conversation as well. Welcome to you both. Thank you for having us. Appreciate it.
00:02:02
Speaker
um So this is going to be kind of a a loose ah conversation, but to begin with, um so I gave a little bit about your operation just from what I saw online, but could you tell us a little bit more about your operation today, you know, what you what you raise and other aspects of the operation that I didn't highlight?
00:02:20
Speaker
You stole most of my thunder. but Yes. So we are a cow-calf operation in southwestern Pennsylvania located in the rural the Laurel Mountains. So we do live in a mountainous area. we Our main goal is to again raise cow-calf. So for those of you unfamiliar with that terminology, we have mother cows that we work with and they have calves and they raise their calves for about six months until they get to about five to 600 pounds or greater. And then we wean those calves and sell those calves to a private through private treaty or to a private person who feeds those out on feedlot and then enters the the supply chain and the form of beef. A majority of those calves will then get processed and harvested and near Philadelphia.
00:03:12
Speaker
in which we'll enter again the supply chain through your grocery stores or through restaurants and retail situations. So again, located in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Exploring Farm Management and Practices
00:03:24
Speaker
We're very mountainous. We're located near the highest point in Pennsylvania. And most of our herd has mixed breeds. We've decided to go that route simply because of the hybrid vigor that we see from those different breedings. and We do a majority of our breeding with through artificial insemination.
00:03:42
Speaker
And we do utilize some bulls as well. One of the things and characteristics that I'd say that is unique to us is that my husband and I, particularly my husband, um manage large dairy farms across the Midwest. And so we bring a very intensive management system into place because dairy farming is extremely intensive management. So we we do that through the artificial insemination, checking our cows, constantly very acutely aware of characteristics going on with them on terms of animal welfare and cow care.
00:04:18
Speaker
And that is something that we're very, very proud about within our herd. And so we get a lot of longevity from those cows by our intensive management. And we're able to sell a lot more heifers and other calves for more economic value us than some other farms do because of our intensive practices. So that's a very big sweeping overview of the farm, but there's some other aspects. I love the highlights. um Evelyn, did I miss anything on this general overview of the farm itself?
00:04:47
Speaker
For the general, I would say no. um I think it's important to highlight the rotational grazing that we do, which rotational grazing is when we have a big field, but we divide it up into smaller areas and move them intensively. So maybe once a day or even twice a day throughout these small areas.
00:05:06
Speaker
so that they eat the grass better. And so when they move off the grass, it gives the grass more time to grow back up before they come back to it, instead of just letting them you know pick and choose what they want or over-grace certain areas. um I think that really makes this different than a lot of farms in our area. um we we That's a really big thing that we do is intensively gray, so I think that's important to remember.
00:05:31
Speaker
so I have a bunch of questions around that, but I don't want to derail you if you have others. So I don't know. I'll come back to it. But yeah, I just wanted to highlight one other thing. So we did purchase our farm seven years ago and it was always farmed.
00:05:48
Speaker
And in the 1970s, it was ah strip grounds so ah for coal mining. So ah strip grinding, for those who are not familiar with a lot of it, there's different forms of it. But in the form that was happened to this farm is they basically take off an entire top of the land.
00:06:04
Speaker
move it into a big pile and and take the coal under underneath of it and then put it all back. So the farm that we inherited was okay on soil quality, loss of room for improvement simply because the the good topsoil was was taken away which grows things that has all those microbiomes in there, the worms and everything that makes the whole entire organisms work a little bit better.
00:06:28
Speaker
So we decided when we moved here to obviously do a cow calf operation. So we seeded it within, as you, per the introduction, a lot of native plants, a biodiversity with legumes into it, cool seasons, grasses, because again, we live in colder climates.
00:06:44
Speaker
And really want to and really focused on building that slow back again and rehabilitating it from from the strip mining. So we do that with practices within and NCRS and USDA that offers a lot of cost share programs to do that.
00:07:00
Speaker
as well as some climate smart grants that we're going to be implementing in 2025 with passive sustainable agriculture. So just wanted to to guess to give a shout out to some of the the soil things that we're working on and we're not alone. There's a lot of farms across the United States.
00:07:16
Speaker
that do these things and have been implementing plans like this for years. And, listeners, just a quick correction here. We should have been saying NRCS. It stands for Natural Resources Conservation Service. I'll let Amanda explain more. um It is a a department within the USDA that covers the conservation practices and resources.
00:07:43
Speaker
So their main mission and goal is to talk about such examples would be like not putting cattle into water systems to keep waterways clean and safe, um to maximize the the wildlife and biodiversity of plants to keep a sustainable um future ahead of us within the globe. So they they do and um help with, again, cost share programs in terms of like Fencing off waterways, they help with fencing and putting pipeline down to um in the ground so that you don't have to run your cattle across the farm to for them to get water so that you can always be moving that water resource with them. So that does not degrade the land as much. They have a lot of programs that to keep to encourage farmers to do the intensive grazing.
00:08:35
Speaker
to plant monarch butterfly patches, to put food plants or food plots into some of the woodland areas such as crab apple trees to help wildlife um rehabilitate or stay within the area too so that we can have a very rich habitat for for everyone here, all the creatures living on our planet.
00:08:55
Speaker
Excellent. um So one thing that, um so i'm I'm in Chicago and i I'm trying to imagine what it's like. I'm like a mountain. What is that
Understanding Farm's Environmental Adaptations
00:09:08
Speaker
like? It's very flat where we are. um So can you, I guess one question that I have is 180 acres to me sounds enormous, um but what is, is that like the average size of a farm in your area? Is that small? Is that big?
00:09:25
Speaker
So yes, great question. So um because the United States, obviously, for your point about being Chicago, being like flat and not mountainous, all aspects of agriculture and farms are different from Oregon to California to Nebraska to Pennsylvania. So um there's lots of farms in the Midwest that farm 10,000 acres and then in the the West and Wyoming and Montana.
00:09:49
Speaker
Some farms might be three to 400,000 acres in which they run cattle. So our operation, ah because of our climate in the mountainous region, we grow grass very, very well. So looking at stocking density and how many animals we can carry on per acre, we can run one cow calf pair per two acres of grounds.
00:10:10
Speaker
So um that acreage that we have, we can maximize. Although we're smaller in and terms of that size, we could do a lot more on that small farm compared to like New Mexico, which they might take 5,000 acres per cow calf pair to to run. And so that's looking at the, again, the climate. It's not that they do a worse job than us. It's just the climate where they don't get as much rain and cannot grow the grasses as efficiently as that we can.
00:10:36
Speaker
But there's other positive attributes that like New Mexico might have, not trying to pick on anybody from New Mexico, but just trying to show the differences between the landscapes of some of the farms and and farm sizes. So that's a great point. In Pennsylvania alone and into the region, we do have smaller operations because of the climates, although some farmers do do farm thousands of acres as well too.
00:10:58
Speaker
um but we can just grow more within the concentration and on our landscape compared to some other places. So, and then a visualization of a mountain, we're not the Rockies, so we're not a big rock. Essentially, we are a nice ah rolling mountain, so. ice green A nice green, you know, rolling mountain with trees and and grass and everything, not not a big, sharp mountain, definitely not. Yes, so it's ah so there's lots of grasses and opportunities to farm within those those tree lines.
00:11:28
Speaker
So that sounds that sounds really lovely. So um when you're you're saying that you're rotating your animals every day or or even twice a day, um ah some questions that come into my mind around that is how big is the paddock that they're, you know, ah how have you, so how big is each paddock that they move into? And how are you doing that? Do you have to like go out there like yourselves every day, twice a day to, I don't know, how does that work?
00:11:56
Speaker
Yes, the visualization I think of beef farmers. I mean, obviously, beef it's what's for dinner and they show a rancher if the cowboy had and on a horse, that is not us. And that is not usually the northeast and probably even some of the southeast in some capacities. So we tend to walk and use four wheelers. So this is a great question. So we might have a 50 acre field, for example, that is just wide open. And we use ah We use a a big reel, which is basically to think of a fishing line, you know or when you reel in with a crank. And it's just ah it's just a thin wire that is not the same kind of wire that you'd use for um you know' something like a wooden post on the perimeter. That's like a more heavy duty kind of wire. But this wire is a little bit more flexible.
00:12:46
Speaker
It doesn't carry quite as much of the electric current as the other wire would and it just goes on this reel or this crank kind of thing and has a handle at the end of it. And we just divide up this field and we use this reel to make the divisions. and then Since they're real, it's really light, it's not heavy, so we just crank it and we use posts. They're not wooden posts. They're often called pigtail posts. If you imagine what a pig's tail looks like, it's a little curl. It can be made from various different materials. And it just sticks right in the ground and you hook this thin poly, it's called polywire, you hook this in polywire in the post and you just build it and tear it down every day. And it really doesn't take that long at all. No, and that gives us the flexibility to divide that 50 acre pasture into like quarter acre. So we might put about 45 cows and their babies on a quarter acre.
00:13:45
Speaker
And it depends on the season too. So in the springtime, you have a lot of flush green grass, just like you have to mow your lawn every single day, like or like twice a week sometimes. So we move our cows more intensively during that time, where towards the end of the season, like now we are in November, we're still grazing, but the grass isn't growing as robust as it does in the springtime. So we'll give them bigger areas of land or move them quicker because the grass isn't as tall. so um I personally love moving cows. it's It's probably the best part of our day, not only just to be a part of a family, but the cows are fun to move. ah They hear that noise, a clicking of that reel, and they just run and moo and just buck and just carry on, especially the baby. So it's just an enjoyable part of your day to be outside. Even if it's raining and nasty, it's just ah just fun to be with the cows and to be with the animals and and be able to to use these resources and work with your your family and friends.
00:14:40
Speaker
while doing it because it just having a bad day at Cal always makes you feel better. she I hadn't realized that it was such a flexible system that you kind of make those decisions on the spot as to like how big the paddock is going to be. So that's really interesting. it's ah It's all very scientific. It's pretty much an art even though it bothers me that it's not a scientific and we've had a lot of agronomists out here and people have been grazing for 50 years and It's basically just an art because it depends on the ah the soil type. So the soil type in this field might be a little bit different and grow heavier concentration of legumes compared to like a grass. And so it's it's basically making these decisions about how quickly to move them upon a lot of different variables. And there's literally no right or wrong answer so's to a lot of these things. And it depends on
00:15:30
Speaker
seasonality, we're in a drought right now so that's dictating a lot of our decision makings right now and making sure to preserve our plants for next year since we're at the end of grazing season to make sure not to hurt them because they've been stressed all all summer long within our droughts. You're bringing up the soil brings up a question that I had about I hear farmers talk about marginal marginal land and and prime land like how would you characterize your farm?
00:16:00
Speaker
marginal to almost poor quality, again, because of the strip mining in which which they they did do that. But there are parts of our fields that are are phenomenal um and um ah that work very well. And that's ah what we're trying to build up by the grazing. So we don't graze always down to the bottom of the ground. We usually leave six inches of coverage. And we actually right now or being even more conservative grazing and leaving almost 12 to 14 inches so that foliage can die.
00:16:29
Speaker
in the winter and basically create soil and protect the soil from erosion as well during the winter months when we get large storms coming in. And by hauling manure from our barns and applying more organic matter. And obviously when cows poop, I always say it's brown gold. It's the best thing that you can ever do. So the more that they they they poop on the ground and it's a wholesome biolic relationship with dung beetles and worms and all the other things that we don't know about the soil yet.
00:17:00
Speaker
this creating all this these better soils out there. So some of the best dirt in the world is Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which is on the other side of the States. And by comparison, if you took a shovel and started digging into the ground there, you might have three feet of topsoil, where I might have at this point, two inches of topsoil. So that is what we would like to create and and replicate that model because on Lancaster soil, they can grow so much more food and concentration compared to where we're at. And they have a better climate. They have a longer growing season because they're closer to the ocean and lower elevation.
00:17:38
Speaker
One, where we live too with Pennsylvania is that a lot of the soil has a lot of clay in it, like this kind of reddish brown, like sticky clay. So you really have to work on the land to, you know, what she said to build that topsoil. I know topsoil, it's a slow process, right? and don't i I don't remember what the rate is, but I know it's slow.
00:18:00
Speaker
Yes, I actually asked, I was like, in 10 years, what's my top snow going to look like? They're like, you might like do all the right things, correct? You might gain maybe a quarter to a half inch of top snow. Yeah. So with just doing the practices that we're doing there. So it is a very slow, arduous, arduous endeavor to take. But I'm very excited about watching and growing and tracking all the metrics within it. And that's part of the the program that we're working with, Passo Sustainable Ag.
00:18:31
Speaker
They have us collect soil samples, us and a lot of other farmers in the region. And it's like a 20 to 50 year old project to see and ask us what practices that we're utilizing and then getting the soil samples. And so they could track and monitor all these different activities and decide what's the best for soil or in regionality and ah put some more scientific measures to it. um it's It's not something that you could do a study in one year and and have all this data. it's It's unfortunately a very long slow process. Yeah. but but worthwhile.
Amanda's Personal Journey and Aspirations
00:19:02
Speaker
yeah So you mentioned that you ah you purchased the farm seven years ago. Did I catch that right? So have you always been on farms? Did you grow up on a farm? What's what's that story?
00:19:16
Speaker
Great question. My story is a little different than my husband's. My husband grew up on a swine and row crop operation growing at at corn and soybeans in the state of Indiana. ah He always knew he wanted to be a farmer, it was particularly a dairy farmer. So he he knew his his career path right away.
00:19:33
Speaker
I grew up in suburbia Pittsburgh, just south of Pittsburgh in a town called Monongahela. And I just liked animals. And that was essentially my career path. I like animals. Did not know what that meant. Because when you say that, the only thing that you could think of career wise would be a veterinarian or a farmer. And I still feel that there's some connotations or just farmers. And until you start recognizing how much intricate detail is into farming, that you respect is a little bit more.
00:20:03
Speaker
But I went to Penn State. I majored in animal bioscience and microbiology and started working in the beef barns at Penn State. And that is literally where I fell in love with agriculture, particularly cattle and raising cattle. So I endeavored my career working within the industry for over the last 23 years.
00:20:21
Speaker
in the supply chain we and meeting my husband and starting to farm on our own. And anytime I could ever talk about agriculture to anybody and Evelyn could attest to this that I tell people that they should go into agriculture yeah because it's a very fulfilling career and the pathways it has taken me and my career outside of farming has been insurmountable and just some amazing experience that I've had that is unparalleled to even my um my former classmates at Penn State.
00:20:51
Speaker
So that that is a little bit my story, but Evelyn, did you always want to be a farmer? Well, I didn't really have a choice. I was born into it because like she they they had a dairy farm. So I i grew up on a dairy farm um for until seven years ago. And at that time, well my my mom worked a full-time job and my dad worked a full-time job being a dairy farmer. And especially at a young age, you don't really like realize what's really going on around you. So I didn't realize how monumental it was that I was living on a farm. And then I was like,
00:21:25
Speaker
a farmer and then when we we moved and we started to do beef farming and I was able to be more and involved um as Well, from number one, I was getting older, but number two, I couldn't really be as involved with the dairy farm. like i I didn't really know how to milk or do those kind of things. so um I didn't always want to be a farmer, but I've definitely grown into it more and understood what it means more to be a farmer. I also have a little bit of a different perspective of it than my parents. I love cows like so much, but I also do horseback riding and I have my own horses.
00:22:00
Speaker
so i kind of um hey they They're not really interested in horses, I am, so I kind of um do it a little differently than they do as well. So, Evelyn, at this point in your life, what do you want to do when you grow up?
00:22:14
Speaker
Well, that was so I don't always want to be a farmer. i love Like I said, I love farming, but I want to go into government, but I want to keep agriculture with me and I really want to, um you know, use my perspective coming from agriculture where it's really, it's two percent of the population is our farmers in the United States. Now I want to take that with me and go into government and really make some changes and help people realize how important farming is.
00:22:42
Speaker
Now, I didn't call out your age in the intro. do you Do you mind giving the audience that context where you are in your education path? Yeah, so I'm a sophomore. I'm 15. I'll turn 16 here in about a month and a half. um But yeah, i'm just I'm really interested in and politics and government. um i'm Right now, I'm applying to be a Senate page. So hopefully that pans out here in the next year. But yeah, I'm 15 right now.
00:23:10
Speaker
Very cool. So you're you're the same exact age as my son. He'll also be 16 and about a month and a half. But I don't think he has his career plans quite as clearly thought through as as your potential career paths. So that's pretty cool. Thank you.
00:23:29
Speaker
um So one question that, I'm curious to see how you two would answer this. So farmers, as you know, they always tell me what generation farmer they are. And you seem to be in kind of a hybrid situation. So especially Evelyn, what what generation farmer would you say you are?
00:23:47
Speaker
I would say I'm second generation farmer. um like my My dad came from a farm, so i you know I'm the second generation of this kind of farming that that we're doing. That's what I would say. On this land. That's a good distinction. On this land, I'm a second generation farmer. um i mean On his side of the family, it you know it goes back further. But for what we're doing right now on this farm that we own, I i would say I'm a second generation farmer.
00:24:15
Speaker
and Honestly, my husband would tell you he's a first-generation farmer too because when he was growing up he didn't have decision-making capabilities on the farm and it's a completely different farming from that aspect from what what he's doing from there. So we we talk about this all the time and we both say that we're first-generation farmers. Okay, excellent. that's and that um That question just ah fascinates me because it's the only ah profession that people even like, you know, like, for example, the only the closest corollary I can think of in my right now is like teachers, like I've known teachers whose parents were teachers who might be great.
00:24:56
Speaker
but they never call themselves like third generation teacher. um So that kind of that groundedness of the identity um in this multi-generational aspect of farming is is really intriguing to me, which is ah one reason I'm so delighted to have the both of you and in this conversation.
00:25:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's an interesting point that now you're I'm thinking about that a little bit. and And I think that the distinction there is that it's the tide to the land and and the actual that physicality of it compared to like a teacher or a lawyer. And the other other other profession I can think about too is is the monarchy, you know, king's princess. Anyway, um but we we bringing it back to that tide to the land, the barrier of entry to start farming is so insurmountable.
00:25:46
Speaker
that there's not gonna be a lot more first-generation farmers. So looking at the purchase of my farm, we purchased our farm, again, seven years ago. The the price of our farm, if we were to sell it today, is is pretty much doubled within seven years. And the cost of machinery, the cost of just inputs, even bare minimal, like you know like I'm gonna buy used, I'm gonna buy all this other stuff, is is the amounts of capital that you need to start farming.
00:26:15
Speaker
is so massive that it's it's literally impossible for a first generation to start farming unless they have cash on hand from other resources. um So that is why I think a lot of other people tie it to that multi-generational aspect of it is that usually you inherit the farm and we're always, as farmers, they're very passionate about making sure that that the legacy of the farm continues And because it's 365 days a year, it's it's a lot of hard work and arborist work that you want to see that that work continues. And again, that kind of tied to that legacy continue as well.
00:26:50
Speaker
Well, I think also because you're your farm is, it's your family. it's your family It sounds dumb, but like I love the cows. They're, you know, they're a part of our, you know, our Butterfield family. And so I just think that that really makes a distinction as well is that you're not just, that's not just your profession. You are a farmer. I think that makes a distinction as well.
00:27:13
Speaker
Definitely. i'm I'm just thinking back on so something you said, Amanda, about kind of there's not going to be that many first generation farmers because of those hurdles to entry um for the profession. But then i I also understand that so many farmers that are currently the you know the owners of the farm that their you know retirement age and their children may or may not have, you know they may have jobs outside the farm. and there's not as robust a pipeline. So what how does that all come together
Future of Farming and Conservation Efforts
00:27:45
Speaker
for you? Like for in your area, especially like what are you seeing in the next 10, 20 years as far as?
00:27:52
Speaker
oh What's going on on these farms? Who's who's farming? who's Who are the landowners of that? Yeah, excellent question. So just broad sweeping the United States, you are correct about a lot of farmers are retirement age. A lot of kids got off the farm went and got an education, have great paying jobs, right? They have four weeks vacation and health care. So they they're not willing to necessarily come back to the farm to to work 365 days a year.
00:28:22
Speaker
But within that said, the margins on farms are so tight and so small. that the only thing that makes sense is consolidation and just growing what you have. So as those farmers age out, retire, they can either lease rents or sell farms outright to other neighboring family farms that do want to grow. And they have that that capital base that they could make those giant purchases because the barrier of entry, this is the early explained first generation farms is hard to do. So the the
00:28:54
Speaker
Land is going to stay in farming for the most part unless you live near a city where there you know what might become the housing plans. but um Those farms are just going to get bigger, um not necessarily like corporate or factory. it just that's Again, since the margins are so tight, you need to spread your investments out a little bit more on on bigger bigger enterprises within that.
00:29:17
Speaker
Where I particularly live at is that we are seeing some of that occur as well. We do have um a lot of religious entities, though, that are wanting to move from Lancaster areas. um the The cost of land in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, for example, is probably 100 times more than where it's at here.
00:29:36
Speaker
So some of the younger generations might get some some cash from their parents, or they're selling their farms for higher dollar amounts in Lancaster and moving out here. And when I say some of the conservative groups, that would be Amish, ah German Baptists, and some of the Mennonites that are that are moving into our area as well, too. Well, it's interesting. OK. OK.
00:29:59
Speaker
um I want to make sure that I don't run out of time and and I want to give you space to talk about some of the things that you're doing on your farm um to kind of dig into more of those practices and talk about what you're proud of doing. It seems like you've done a lot in ah and a little bit of time. um So what are what are some of the things that you're especially proud of that you've been able to do on your farm? The conservation work is first and foremost, when you walk outside or look out your window, just seeing beauty of nature and it's surrounding you.
00:30:29
Speaker
um and seeing all the the random, sometimes unwanted guests of wildlife show up, like bears and foxes that like to eat your chickens. But just having those be present and having children and other people know that there's these creatures, these amazing creatures that have been around before us are that we've came to see the North Americas is amazing. But some of the things that I do outside the farm too that that works best for me is advocacy. ah We just ah we've invited Pitts University of Pennsylvania at Pittsburgh as well as Chatham University out of Pittsburgh.
00:31:04
Speaker
Offering their are master degrees or sustainability master degrees or people advancing like food agro systems to the farm to get them onto a farm and talk about what we do in a farm. These conversations like we're having.
00:31:18
Speaker
because they're going to go out and work in industry and put a lot of thought process and policy into place that are going to affect us on our daily lives. We also host quite a bit of educational meetings for BQA, which is big quality assurance to train other producers. We have a really nice farm. I have a party pavilion. So we're we're able to host meetings all the time for other farmers.
00:31:40
Speaker
so that we can learn and learn from each other and from some experts in there. um I'll let you talk a little bit about some of the advocacy that we work in and what we do with our our garden and stuff like that. Yeah. So since we're on a farm, ah you know, a large farm, we have this unique opportunity to grow food, not just for our animals or for, you know, like for profit necessarily, but for our community. Because especially in rural America, um so many people are food insecure. um The rate of food insecure people in rural America is just it's insane how many people um unfortunately suffer.
00:32:19
Speaker
food insecurity. So we use our vantage point of being on a farm to um grow produce and we donate it to our local food bank. um We do, we mostly do red beets because they're, they're root vegetables, they store better. um And so we just, so we, yeah, we just, we use that and we, we donate to our food bank. We're we're always at the food bank.
00:32:43
Speaker
Um, and that is, like I said, I mean, I want to do government and that is one of the things with an act that I'm i'm really passionate about is food insecurity. Um, because especially it impacts, it's, it's all to think about food insecurity impacts farmers too. And it's really worth to think about because they're the ones making the food, but it really impacts farmers as well. So.
00:33:03
Speaker
Um, yeah, we like to use our, not only the physical things that we can grow, but the fact that we are farmers in a rural, in rural America, we use that to help spread awareness about food and security. That's a great point. So, um, last year, again, during this year, we're drought year. Um, so we were able to, uh, provide 600 pounds of red beets, uh, to our food bank through their distribution. So we're hoping to almost triple that in a good non-drought year.
00:33:30
Speaker
within that and encourage other farmers to do so. ah Farmers like to feed people. and um so So that's something that that we're very passionate about working within our community to to give these resources there. Another initiative that I'm starting with the Pennsylvania Beef Council, um and it's it's a model that's been done in a couple other states, but we're bringing it to Pennsylvania, is an initiative called Beefing Up for Backpacks, in which we will be providing a beef stick, like beef jerky, like a one-ounce beef jerky stick, into the backpack programs that go home for food ander food insecure children going to school.
00:34:05
Speaker
So less than 2% of food donations are animal protein related because of the issues with shelf stability, cost and distribution mechanisms. So that's why that beef jerky stick essentially is is the most ideal things to impact children.
00:34:23
Speaker
so um The state of Colorado was the first state to kick it off. um They're distributing about 20,000 beef sticks per week. Our estimated need in Pennsylvania is going to be a half million to six to seven hundred thousand a week because of the population density. So um the the folks at the Pennsylvania Beef Council and I are working together to implement this program just one tiny step at a time.
Community Impact and Educational Outreach
00:34:48
Speaker
But that is something that's very impactful for us to be able to provide nutrient dense food to to children. And ah hopefully we can get them addicted to beef too before you know they're they're out in the world and and buying their own food.
00:35:02
Speaker
ah getting addicted to beef. I mean, I've had some really good beef sticks, so I could definitely see that ah being being a path. When you were talking about the groups that are coming into the farm, ah it sounded like like university groups and kind of other outside, like maybe you they're coming but from a greater distance. I'm wondering, what is the impact of your farm and your operation on your immediate neighbors and your immediate community? I know farmers are very,
00:35:34
Speaker
they're scientific and they're cautious in their operations as to when how they're going to change things and they like to be able to see things before maybe they try things. Have you seen in the short time that you've been there that you're influencing your neighbors? or I believe so cause because ah um some of the things that we implement and talk about. um I think sometimes farmers need permission to do things from other farmers because you read a lot of lofty things and and they are very scientific and a little bit cautious because there's so many things that we can do, but we always have to tie it back to economics. And and and by doing some of the things and programs that we implement, they see the results. um Some of the funny comments we get is that when you come down the one hillside, you can see that ah be big through a car driving through, sorry. You can see our giant hillside and ah someone would be like, why you have your cows trained? They like stay in this little tiny in space all the time. And so it's like, no, we're intensively grazing. And they're like, well, why do you do that? And then you talk about how you're managing your grass better and I can wean more pounds of beef per acre.
00:36:42
Speaker
than someone just putting all their cows out there and letting them stay there for months without any kind of management systems. So I do believe so, that we are, but there's also a lot of neighbors that we learn from as well too that that are doing the same kind of work and we feed feed off each other's ideas to be as efficient as possible and and learn as much as possible too, because there's so many resources out there. How do you how do you encapsulate all those and what you're doing in a daily basis?
00:37:09
Speaker
Have you ever had anyone, because I know that intensive grazing and that rotational practice is um not ah that standard, is the wrong word, ah common? I don't know. um Have you ever had anyone like tell you, like why why would you do that? Or that's not how you do it? or Oh, all the time. So so because a lot of people get afraid when they say you move your cows once or twice a day. So they're assuming it's going to take a very labor intensive, a lot of work, a lot of frustration, but it's not for that reason. And then we basically and my husband summarizes the best is that we're not cattle farmers, we're actually grass farmers. So we we are farming our grass.
00:37:50
Speaker
to get the maximum resources. And it just so happens that our cows are harvesting our grass. And so so to that point, talking through that and the mechanism of how grass grows and how it reacts to maximize it is some of those biggest things that that we tried to to talk about. But i I think that everybody should be this kind of farmer, but you have to come back to the the size of the operations per the earlier point in the conversation.
00:38:15
Speaker
that a lot of people have off-farm incomes, so they have a full-time job, that they might have inherited a sexy acre farm. And so it's easier for them just to maybe put three paddocks in and just move those animals there. So the nature of the farmer itself, the farms that they're working on are a little bit different too. So they might not have the resources and labor intensity to be able to do that as how we do that. um Although I wish I could sell them on that, you know, lifestyles. And again, having a farm income is is actually vital on smaller operations.
00:38:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And you know, I think I forgot to ask you, I i kind of just assumed, I made an assumption that um I should clarify, how did you come to this way of of operating? Since it is not the the vast majority of of um beef cow-calf operations being operated this way, how did you come to make that decision to to operate this way?
00:39:12
Speaker
So my husband's a nerd and read about it while we were exiting the dairy industry, and we surround ourselves with people who are smarter than us. And those people, when you surround yourself with people smarter than you, they and you have an open mind to something, then then you're more apt to go to those philosophies. But we do have some great resources here in Somerset County where we're located, and one of the NCRS agents himself has been doing this for years. and he basically told us exactly what we needed to do and we looked at him funny and we started doing it through trial and error and and and came to the conclusion he's 100% right. And so utilizing some of those resources and basically putting a pencil to the economics as well too. um And it just makes sense, again, we can run a substantial amount of more animals on our land by doing these resources than by doing it the, I guess, old fashioned way if you wanna call it or it's not as labor intensive.
00:40:06
Speaker
here I do wanna squeeze in another question and and undoubtedly follow up questions. um So i I wanted to ask you about you know the the future and um what you would want, yeah i so I frame it as great grandchildren, but I don't wanna put any pressure on you Evelyn. So and in the far future, you know what would you want people to think about you um as a farmer and what you did on your farm?
00:40:33
Speaker
Yeah, thanks. and And I mean, the future is very, very uncertain, and I don't want to put that pressure on her either. So ah we we know that there's a lot of uncertainty in the world with politics and with climate change and some other things that we're not even sure yet. and But I just want to know, and my husband as well, Mike, once i basically leave the Earth a little bit better than when we got this this piece of Earth that we have.
00:40:55
Speaker
And want to know that I made some kind of impacts by helping and again, making the people, planet, animal, that portion of it better. So working with the food bank and just knowing that on our farm alone, we feed to over 1200 people a year is something that I feel that is very impactful, that I want the proverbial great grandchildren to know about farming and is that we care about our community, our planet, the animals that we take care of every single day.
00:41:21
Speaker
as well, but um I want to turn this over to Evelyn for her to answer to address what she thinks her generation ah should know about this industry um and what what you would like to see from a future of ag. um What I kind of said before, for my generation, I just think I want everyone to know about agriculture and thinking of the future really, I i love living on a farm and being able to look out my window and all I see is fields and cows I love being able to see that. And I just really, you know, if I, you know, have kids or, you know, in the future, or whoever's on this farm in the future, I just, I want people to have that same feeling. I want the earth to still be, to be as healthy as possible for whoever is here, um to be able to look out like I do and, you know, see those hills and see cows and just be, be happy about it and know that, you know, farming is just so important.
00:42:19
Speaker
So if I have a question for you, you she attends a school a private school about 45 minutes away and all the kids there are in the city-ish kids. So when you tell them at your farm, what are their first reactions?
00:42:33
Speaker
Well, when i yeah, thathood iss a good that is a good point to bring out. People just don't understand what farming is, definitely not. I also, over the summer, I attended a political American Politics Academy in Georgetown, which is in DC. And especially then, because those kids are really from the city, as you know, say, a farmer, and they're like,
00:42:53
Speaker
like what do you like they They picture you know like overalls in a straw hat, and that is that is certainly not what farming is. so um I just want people to know that farming is um it's a way of life, it's a job, it's it's the future, and it's it's it's really it's everything.
00:43:12
Speaker
Um, and just, it's so, it's so much hard work and farming, certainly there are, you know, maybe some old fashioned aspects of it, but farming is just like so insane for how smart these people are, how much technology and how much thought goes into farming. It's not just, you know, giving the cow some hay and, you know, getting eggs from a chicken coop. It's, it's looking at data and it's, you know, being very meticulous about what you do.
00:43:39
Speaker
and Using satellite cell, GPS, tracking, i mean virtual fencing, you can move your cows on your smartphone instead of using reels in the future. Cost investments within those are neighbor milks with robot cows and they don't have to milk cows anymore. so i think that I think people are blown away by the technology as well in implementing again that the American Gothic photo of the pitchfork and overalls is what their initial thoughts are. And they get blown away by seeing some of the farmers and what we do. Excellent. Well, I look forward to following the ever greater success of your operation. And I'll find you guys on social and add you to my feeds. So that'll be great. Awesome. Thank you very much for this opportunity. Thank you for having us. Thank you for joining us.
00:44:30
Speaker
And thanks to you for listening to this episode of the Meet Your Farmer podcast from Farm Foundation. Be sure to check out our other episodes in this season. If you have recommendations for farmers we should have on the show or have any other feedback, please let us know. We'd love to hear from you. If you liked what you heard, be sure to subscribe and share the podcast with your network. Farm Foundation is all about creating trust and understanding at the intersections of agriculture and society. You can learn more about our work at farmfoundation dot.org. Until next time.