One Among Many

This is probably not the first story like this you have read; it won’t be the last.

Global warming is not an abstraction on the farm, nor is it something likely to have an impact only in the indeterminate future. It is having an impact right now and is forcing us to make at least one immediate decision about planting schedules that will be costly no matter which way we go.

We planted alfalfa, a key crop when raising grass-fed beef, at what seemed to be the appropriate time a few weeks ago. Then we had a few days of 75-degree weather, followed by a hard freeze. Keep in mind, this is what global warming means “on the ground” – the warming of the atmosphere will destabilize the climactic balance, creating a more volatile and extreme weather pattern everywhere. Here in Central Illinois, that meant that the alfalfa jumped up in the warm weather and then got wiped out by the freeze. So now comes decision time: do we replant the alfalfa – it is almost too late – or do we let the field “rest” and rejuvenate it’s variety of grasses. Replanting costs us cash for seed; lying fallow costs us feed for our livestock.

Americans will be facing decisions like this a lot in the coming years, and really dealing with the problem will require reexamining of our place in this world. Global warming effects everything, from big things like foreign policy and the success of political parties to small things like which light bulb do you put in the hallway. Part of what we are trying to do is to look at our farm as a huge solar-driven machine. The grass, the tractor and other motorized vehicles, the cows and livestock are all “operational centers” of our solar machine. Like any other factory, we try to run the machine in an optimal manner, which we find involves constant adjustments and reconsiderations. I think we are all – all Americans – going to be doing this for the rest of our lives.

The Business Process
Spending a bunch of time trying to work out a viable configuration for our “handling facility.” It’s a place where the cows can be safely handled on a one-at-a-time basis, for weighing, checking for pregnancy, etc. Until now we have been using temporary, improvised arrangements when we needed to work our cows. But a permanent facility designed around this application is a much better and safer way to go for cows and workers alike.

The Human Process
Finished putting the vegetable garden in. We did this mostly for ideological reasons: this is a large, beautiful organic farm and we should be eating homegrown tomatoes. It was a bunch of work, but it looks good and will, with a little farmer’s luck, look a whole lot better in about a month. Visitors this summer should expect to eat their veggies!