Categories
Farm Management

How to Build a Great Small Farm Website

Try your hand at making a website for your farm using these tipsA good sales website presents your message to the world, 24 hours a day, 365 days (and nights) a week.

A website costs little to establish and maintain, in know-how, time and money. With a few nights of computer classes at your public school or library under your belt or a good book or two about Web development at hand, you can build a farm business website to be proud of.

Here are some things to consider.

Decide What Your Website Is About
Websites exist for one or more of three purposes:

  • To sell something
  • To inform, or
  • To increase name recognition.

Good farm websites incorporate all three.

It’s especially important to include educational content on a farm-related website—and to update it frequently—so visitors look forward to coming back again.

Example: For a good example of what we mean, visit Jack and Anita Mauldin’s Boar Goat website.

Write Good Sales Copy
To learn how, invest in a rural enterprise marketing book or two like Ellie Winslow’s Marketing Farm Products: And How to Thrive Beyond the Sidewalk and Growing Your Rural Business from the Inside Out.

Or, download a free copy of Jennifer-Clair V. Klotz’s full-length U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service publication, How to Direct-Market Farm Products on the Internet (it’s a huge file but worth the wait).

Choose a Worthy Hosting Service
Don’t submit to the temptation to use freebie hosting!

Visitors despise the advertising banners and annoying pop-ups that are part and parcel of free Web hosting and the pages they generate sometimes freeze older computers.

Furthermore, freebie sites equate with cumbersome Web addresses. Which will your customer remember: “freewebs/~freesites/WorldsBestBison.html” or “WorldsBestBison.com.”

Select a Great Domain
Providing you don’t use freebie hosting service, your domain name is your Internet address.

Make it short, catchy, and memorable.

Let’s say you raise Babydoll Southdown sheep. TeddybearFaces, CutestSheep, and SouthdownSweeties are all still available as .com domains at the time this article was written.

“SweetSheep.com,” however, is already taken—but you could still register “SweetSheep.net,” “SweetSheep.info,” “SweetSheep.biz,” or “SweetSheep.us,” if you like.

Or, personalize an already-taken address with dashes (Sweet-Sheep.com), underscores (Sweet_Sheep.com), numbers (SweetSheep1.com), or additional words (MySweetSheep.com).

Lose the Bells and Whistles
Farm marketing guru, Ellie Winslow, says, “If the website is for business, don’t distract your visitor and don’t wear him or her out with moving icons, streaming banners and other technically advanced stuff that doesn’t actually promote your marketing goals.”

According to How to Direct-Market Farm Products on the Internet: 75% of website visitors expect high-quality content, while 66% value ease of use; 58 % won’t revisit slow-loading websites and 54% avoid dated sites; and only 12% visit to view cutting-edge technology.

Watch Those Loading Times
Savvy Web designers recommend single page downloads no greater than 180 Kb.

This precludes large numbers of images, high-resolution photos, and techie frou-frou.

Instead, use 72 pixels per inch thumbnail photos linked to large, glorious versions, each on a stand-alone page (and always choose good photos if you use them).

Avoid Highly Patterned Backgrounds
They tire visitors’ eyes and copy gets lost in the morass.

Include Contrast
Strive for clear contrast between font and background colors.
Again, don’t give your visitors eyestrain.

Nix Frames
Sites that use frames are frequently cluttered, confusing, and they rarely print out well.

A basic definition of frames: They are a way to display more than one page in a single web browser window. Each page can have its own scroll bar; with frames, a browser window can include both static and changing content. For example, a static frame can be used as a table of contents while another frame presents the different areas of a web site.

They load poorly in some browsers and on many computers, overfilling the screen and sometimes blocking access to a site’s best features.

Choose Fonts With Care
If in doubt, use everybody-has-‘em fonts like Arial or Times New Roman.

Include the Basics on Every Page
Because search engine users don’t necessarily enter at the beginning, place contact information and your business logo on every page, along with a link to your site map or home page.

Triple-check for Typos and Misspellings
Don’t make visitors grit their teeth.

Categories
Farm Management

Cash in on Agritourism

U-pick farms are the oldest form of agritourism“Wow! What a great first season.” Chris Pinto, owner of Blue Harvest Farms, put those words on the website of his new 7-acre, agritourism, u-pick blueberry farm in Covington, La.

He hadn’t initially planned to pursue any form of agritourism; he was going to sell his berries commercially once they hit full production.

But before the plants reached maturity, Pinto found they already produced many luscious berries and realized he had to do something with them.

Pinto contacted his friends and family members and invited them to harvest the fruit. They picked about 4,000 pounds at $10 per gallon from the young field. The kids and adults, alike, had so much fun, they convinced him to reform the commercial blueberry field into a u-pick farm.

U-pick farms are one of the oldest forms of agritourism, but this industry comes in other forms as well, such as farm tours and property rental for weddings.

And public demand for agritourism continues to grow.

According to Purdue University, agritourism is the fastest-growing tourism-industry segment in the United States.

The thought of ongoing crowds can be unnerving, however, to the farmer who purposely chose the peaceful rural life. It’s one thing to chase the goats out of the strawberry patch, but explaining to people why they can’t park on the hayfield is something else entirely.

You don’t have to permanently open the floodgates to visitors right away. Instead, you can start small and gain experience to see if agritourism is a good fit for your farm–while adding a little income.

First invite small groups to the farm on a one-time basis. Even if you already know you like the idea of working with people, you’ll gain enormous insight and confidence by starting out this way. Once you’re broken in, you’ll have a better understanding of itor how you’ll want to expand and can move forward with experience under your belt.

Think out of the box when choosing agritourism activities, especially at this critical but flexible test stage.

There’s nothing wrong with the usual corn mazes and hay rides.

But do you, as a farmer, grow or feed corn? How about hay? If those are your farm’s crops or something actually used on your farm, they would be authentic expansions that reflect your farm. If not, they can become overdone stereotypes that don’t reflect what you really produce or the breadth of what sustainable small farms have to offer.

The lavender farmer might be better off offering walking field tours, and the heirloom vegetable grower might score better hosting a food-preserving workshop.

Greenbank Farm, a CSA and vineyard in the Pacific Northwest, hosts an annual poetry festival on the farm. A poetry society arranges the event with readings, workshops and, of course, opportunities to purchase the farm’s products.

If you, as a farmer, are also a poetry fan, antique addict or experienced quilter, you may want to rent out the farm porch for a summer-afternoon poetry-writing workshop, hold a single three-hour quilting demonstration in the living room, or convert part of the barn to an antique museum and try a once-a-year, fee-based open house.

So go ahead and start small, start slow, and start unique. The following three ways to gently break into agritourism  can help you see choices for building your agritourism muscle, and eventually generate revenue in a fashion that reflects what your farm is all about.

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Categories
News

Wool for Home Insulation

Sheep wool for insulation consideredVersatile wool makes some of the finest clothing from suits to sweaters.

Could it also become a key ingredient in home insulation?

A number of companies that manufacture home insulation are doing just that, according to a report from the Christian Science Monitor.

After washing, carding and spraying with borax to deter pests and mold, the wool can be turned into precut batts (define) of home insulation.

One company, GreenSpec–a company in Britain the collects information about green building products–says sheep’s wool insulations has several attributes that make it an ecologoically sound choice, reports the Monitor.

GreenSpec says wool is:

  • Recyclable
  • Renewable
  • Nonhazardous to install
  • Biodegradable in landfills
  • Manufactured using little energy

Even the U.S. Energy Department says it’s has a good insulation rating. It gives it an R-value (define) of 3.5 — about 10 percent higher than fiberglass.

The department says “wool can absorb up to 40 percent of its weight in moisture without becoming wet, drawing moisture away from wood framing in walls and helping to prevent condensation. It’s also naturally flame-retardant.”

The biggest problems facing wool as home insulation are:

  • The cost–it’s more expensive than fiberglass by about three times.
  • The lack of infrastructure (lack of machinery) to process the wool.

Kimberly Hagen, vice president of the Vermont Sheep and Goat Association,says, “When the price of wool bottomed out in 2000, most of the machinery in the United States for processing wool was snapped up by the Chinese and Europeans.”

Hagen says France has been making wool insulation for 15 years–and while starting small the industry is doing well there, according to Christian Science Monitor

Other advocates find hope in the green marketing aspect and potential for growth, describing wool as meshing well with the growing interest in natural products.

Categories
Animals

Martok Talks about Names

Uzzi gets his name from the Bible
Sometimes people ask Uzzi and me how we got our names.
 
Mom gave them to us. There aren’t any Spots or Nannys at our farm, Mom likes really unusual names.
 
Some of us have Star Trek names. That was my mom’s favorite TV show.
 
She especially likes Klingon names for us noble-looking, Roman nosed Boer and Nubian goats; I’m General Martok’s namesake and K’ehleyr is named for a Klingon lady named K’ehleyr.
Salem a big, pushy Boer goat has a Bible name
Bible Names
Uzzi’s name comes from the Bible; that’s a good place to find unusual names. (Uzzi means “My valor, my courage, my strength.”)
 
Mom finds us Bible names in the online version of an old book called Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary.
 
Morgan the Goat is named after the character in a movie

Aiah the ox has a Bible name too.

 
So do the big, pushy Boer packgoats, Salem (which mean “complete or perfect peace”) and Shiloh (which is the name of a city which mean “peace; abundance”). (Though, Dad sometimes calls them Sodom and Gomorrah).
 
Movie Characters
Some of our names are from movies, like Morgan the Goat’s (an inkeeper from the “The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain”), and Meegosh and

Rumbler's name comes from a book character

Kiaya’s from a movie called “Willow.”

 
Book Characters
Or books! Like our black ram Rumbler and his half-sister, Wren, whose names are from People of the Masks.
 
 

And Fayre our Portuguese Water Dog is named for Fayre, the ghost child, in Sharyn McCrumb’s The Rosewood Casket.

 

Wren's name is shared by a book character

Baa-rely Baa-rable 

Most of sheep have names that start or end with –baa, like Baasha, Rebaa, Shebaa, Baarley, and Baamadeus.
 
She used to use ewe- names too (Ewelanda, Ewephemia, Ewedora, Ewenice, and Ewegenie).
 
Baamadeus' name is typical of the sheep that live with Martok

Mom likes to make people groan.

The Web Helps, Too
But the best place of all, she says, for finding names is a website called Names by Chinaroad.
 
There are millions of great names linked from that website. Try it, you’ll see!
 
Mom participates at a place called the Hobby Farms Forums where lots of folks discuss their animals’ names.
 
Check it out and join in! Then your animals can have cool names too.
Categories
Crops & Gardening

Italian Red Poppies

Rick's Italian red poppies

Late May is when the red poppies are blooming all over Italy, and I’m very happy to report that my garden is now participating in this colorful extravaganza. 

Perhaps I should say finally participating. 

I’ve been trying for several years to get these wildflowers to establish in the garden, and progress was slow or nonexistent for the first few years. 

My wife and I collected seed pods during our summer hikes, but various problems, most notably my own incompetence, slowed down the project. One year I lost all the seed we had collected, and another year I made the mistake of sealing the seeds in a jar that also had a few other wildflower seeds that weren’t completely dry, and the result was a mouldy mess.

This plant, Papaver rhoeas, is a southern Mediterranean native plant that has spread north. 

Here in Italy, Tuscany seems to be where they grow most freely, but all over Italy these flowers are common. Riding on the trains in May, one can see miles of train tracks covered with the red flowers, and many wheat plantings are so infested that huge fields are almost completely covered in red. 

All this color draws artists like flies, and paintings of red poppy covered meadows are almost a cliché tourist product.

Don’t Forget About the Seeds
The seeds of this poppy are tasty, and are often collected for culinary use, but they are much smaller than the poppy seeds one sees on muffins at Starbucks.

Most of the poppy seeds used in cooking around the world are not from this species, but from Papaver somniferum (the heroin poppy) and other types. This red poppy has spread north over much of Europe and is the poppy mentioned in the famous Flanders Fields poem. These red poppies are still connected with many World War I remembrance ceremonies.

Propagating Poppies
I had two little poppy plants in the garden last year, and I saved those plants after they dried up in summer, pulling off the seed pods when they were brown and dry. I planted the seeds in the fall; or rather I stood at the top of the garden and threw the mixture of crushed seed pods down over the terraces below. 

The result this spring was an amazing quantity of little poppy plants all over the garden. In early May the plants started flowering, and by this weekend, the garden was ablaze with the bright red flowers.

Amusingly, I also had to cut huge quantities of the poppies down to make way for spring planting. This same plant that I had been so hopefully nurturing has now become a pesky weed in the garden and I had to remove a whole bunch of mature blooming plants along with all the other weeds when I was ready to start planting.

I imagine that next year I’ll have even more poppies, and the hillside garden will be completely covered with red flowers.

It wouldn’t surprise me if a few artists show up with their easels next May.

<> 

Categories
Crops & Gardening

Pumpkins, Peppers, Basil and Beans

Finding room for all the vegetables

Yellow squash (this is a photo of last year’s bumpy yellow version) is a staple in Jessica’s garden. This year, she’s planning to find room for pumpkins, too.

The peppers, tomatoes, basil, beans and cukes are all settled into the garden at long last.

I’ve really been enjoying this year’s lettuce and radish crops and can’t wait for the broccoli and peas to arrive. 

I have not grown pumpkins in many years but decided to give them a try again this year so my son can have a hand in growing his own Jack o’ Lantern.  I have no idea how they will do, but I’m going to give it a try.

I only planted 3 pumpkin seeds since I know how quickly they can gobble up the entire garden. They’ll have to fight it out with the cucumbers for space and sun, but my guess is that, if the squash bugs don’t get ‘em, the pumpkins will win the battle. 

We shall see.

I had such trouble with squash bugs last year on the zucchini that I almost didn’t plant any this year. 

They do take up a lot of room and there always seems to be a plethora of them available at our farmer’s market. 

I mostly use them for casseroles and zucchini bread so I don’t use a ton, but I do like to have them around. I only planted four seeds which should be more than enough for my needs.

I may plant some scalloped ones in the next week or two just because they’re so good on the grill with some good olive oil and herbs from the garden.   

« More Dirt on Gardening »

Categories
Equipment

13 Tractor Terms to Help You Buy with Confidence

13 Tractor Terms to Help You Buy with Confidence
Courtesy Lesley Ward
Before buying a tractor, understand the terminology necessary to let the dealer know what characteristics you’re looking for.

Just like buying a car, a tractor is a huge farm purchase that has the potential cause you a lot of anxiety during the selection process. As a hobby farmer, buying a tractor might be your first major purchase outside of the land itself, and you want the experience to be a positive one.

Because you and your tractor will be spending a lot of time together accomplishing many a farm chore, it’s important that the machine you choose has all the features that you need and desire. Before heading to the tractor dealership make a list what these qualities are. While it’s true that the tractor hunt can be intimidating, this step will go a long way in ensuring you find the workhorse you’re after. Then, if you’re still lacking fluency on tractor speak, brush up on these tractor terms to ensure you can walk into the dealership with confidence.

1. Two-wheel Drive (2WD)
These tractors allow two wheels to receive power from the engine simultaneously. Many tractors allow users to switch between 2WD and 4WD via a mechanism on the control panel.

2. Four-wheel Drive (4WD)
Vehicles with four-wheel drive allow all four wheels to receive power from the engine simultaneously.

3. Ballast
Usually found in the rear of the  tractor, this added weight serves as a counter balance for a heavy load, such as one carried in a front-end loader.

4. Forward/Reverse (F/R)
This is seen on tractors with standard gear transmissions. It’s a measurement of how many forward and reverse speeds are available to the model.

5. Front-end Loader (FEL)
A large bucket-like implement attached to the tractor’s front, a front-end loader is used to lift materials, such as rocks and dirt.

6. Gallons Per Minute (gpm)
This unit is a measurement of a tractor’s total hydraulic power, which is used in steering and in the operation of additional implements

7. Horsepower (hp)
This is a measurement of a tractor’s overall power.

8. Hydrostatic transmission (HST)
These tractors use a hydraulic-drive-propulsion system instead of a standard clutch-and-gear transmission. Hydrostatic transmissions tend to be easier to operate because they function like the automatic transmission in a car, though they are usually more expensive.

9. Mechanical Front-wheel Drive (MFWD)
This can be found in tractors with differently sized front and rear wheels, allowing them 4WD capabilities despite the wheel size difference.

10. Power Take-off (PTO)
This spinning drive shaft allows implements, such as a mower, loader or backhoe, to pull energy from the engine to run. Most tractors come with a standard rear-mounted PTO, but midpoint PTOs are also available on some models.

11. Roll-over protective structure (ROPS)
A frame on open station (non-cab) tractors provides a safe environment for the tractor operator in the event of a rollover.

12. Revolutions Per Minute (RPM)
This is a measurement of power for the power takeoff.

13. Three-point Hitch
A standard method of attaching implements to a tractor that uses two lower points and one upper point.

 

Categories
News

More Questions Than Answers

 

How the NAIS affect small farmers

Will NAIS become mandatory?

USDA’s National Animal Identification System has been plagued by controversy since its initial implementation as a voluntary program in 2004.

More Chances to Be Heard
Also during the listening session in Louisville, USDA representatives announced six additional listening sessions across the country. Remaining listening sessions are:

  • Jefferson City, Mo.: June 9
  • Rapid City, S.D.: June 11
  • Albuquerque, N.M.: June 16
  • Riverside, Calif.: June 18
  • Raleigh, N.C.: June 25
  • Jasper, Fl.: June 27

With secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack’s call for a mandatory-participation program earlier this year, farmers and consumers became more vocal about their wishes and concerns with NAIS.

Listening sessions arranged around the country by USDA this spring are designed to collect feedback, brainstorm solutions and draw on the agriculture community’s collective ideas to put a national ID program in place.

Participants at the listening session
Photos by Lisa Munniksma

More than 100 people attended the NAIS Listening session in Louisville, Ky.

Approximately 100 people were in attendance at the Louisville, Ky., listening session on May 22. In the morning meeting, six people who spoke were representing groups that were in favor of a national ID program and approximately 30 were opposed to a new tracking system.

More questions were raised than solutions proposed by either side. One area that appeared to be frustrating to those in attendance was that while USDA representatives were present, no spokesperson was there to clear up misconceptions and answer questions directly.

Debate and Discussion
Attendees were given three minutes to speak during the morning meeting. In the afternoon, the attendees were broken into three groups and permitted to speak for as long as they wished, which encouraged dialog and better understanding from both sides of the issue.

All comments were recorded and will be analyzed by the NAIS staff.

More Comments Welcome
In addition to the taped feedback from these listening sessions, USDA is welcoming written comments, which can be submitted online or here.

Send comments by mail to:

ATTN NAIS
Surveillance and Identification Programs
National Center for Animal Health Programs
VS, APHIS
4700 River Rd., Unit 200
Riverdale, MD 20737

A group from the Community Farm Alliance spoke and protested during the NAIS listening
A group from the Community Farm Alliance spoke and protested during the NAIS listening session in Louisville.

“I personally assure you that every written comment will be read and considered before we move forward,” said Dr. Ulysses Lane of USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. “At the end of the [listening session], we want to learn what program options you will support so we can pass that on to secretary Vilsack.”

Speaking Up in Louisville
Those speaking against NAIS were largely from the small-farm community surrounding Louisville.

“The extra burden of NAIS at this point in time would destroy many family farms,” said Dawn Oaks, who was in attendance for her husband, a farmer who couldn’t attend because he was taking advantage of the much-needed dry weather for planting.

“You need to go where the [animal health] problem is, which is not on small, family farms,” said Ben Secaur, a pastor and start-up farmer.

Those in favor of NAIS pointed to the need for a tracking system in the event of an animal-disease outbreak.

Wendell Berry spoke at the USDA NAIS Listening Session in May 2009
Kentucky farmer and noted author Wendell Berry said it’s important to beat the initiative in order to “maintain some kind of basis of small farmers in this country.”

“We think the small farms will lose just as much as the big farms with an outbreak of animal disease. This is different than food safety,” said Dennis Liptrap, a hog farmer who was representing the Kentucky Pork Producers Association at the meeting.

Even pro-NAIS attendees stated concerns with the program as it stands, however.

Speakers on both sides of the issue commented on NAIS’s questionable role in food safety, although the USDA representatives in attendance stated that an animal-tracking system isn’t designed to be a food-safety measure, rather one designed to minimize damage to the nation’s livestock in the event of a disease outbreak.

The need for a more streamlined system was pointed out time and again, as well. As NAIS stands currently, confinement-operation-housed hogs and poultry, for example, aren’t required to be individually identified, rather they can receive one number for the group as long as they are raised and transported in that same group; whereas hogs and chickens housed in pasture-based systems must each have their own ID number—a discrepancy that appears unfair to farmers.

Community Farm Alliance Media Event
During the lunch break, the Community Farm Alliance, a 2,000-member small-farm coalition based in central Kentucky, held a press conference in the parking lot of the meeting site to draw attention to their concerns with NAIS.

Noted author Wendell Berry, a Henry County, Ky., native, spoke adamantly regarding his feelings on NAIS: “It’s really important that we beat this initiative with NAIS because … it’s really important that we maintain some kind of basis of small farmers in this country.”

Approximately 60 people attended in support of an NAIS protest, and speakers included Berry, CFA president Adam Barr and Liberty Ark Coalition co-founder Karin Bergener. This was the first press conference of the sort to be held at a USDA listening session, and police were on hand but weren’t needed.

Transcripts of the NAIS listening sessions will be posted online.

Categories
News

Sign the Food Independence Day Petition

help declare July 4 Food Independence DayYou know it’s not as hard as you think to eat local! (Check out Lisa Kivirist’s ideas in “The Community Table.”)

This July 4, you can even declare your food independence.

Kitchen Gardeners International is running a campaign to help people declare their food independence by eating meals made from local ingredients.

They’re calling July 4: Food Independence Day.

Everyone’s invited to sign the petition available through the Kitchen Gardeners International’s website–and on the Food Independence Day Facebook page.

First-family Local-food Leadership
Kitchen Gardeners International is trying, in particular to spur on America’s 50 governors and first families to show leadership by demonstrating their commitment to local food and local ingredients by “sourcing the ingredients of their holiday meals as locally, deliciously and sustainably as possible.”

As part of Food Independence Day, Kitchen Gardeners International is asking the first families (and anyone else who wants to join in) to:

  • Share a planned menu in advance of the holiday.
  • Share recipes and the names of the local farmers, fisherfolk, and food producers whose ingredients you’ll be using.
  • Compete to see who can serve the meal that inspires the most while traveling the least.

To help, Kitchen Gardeners International has made the campaign “social.” The organization has widgets you can add to your blog or social network or e-mail to your e-mail contacts (hotmail, gmail, yahoo, aol, etc.) 

Will you help rally the cause by eating healthy and delicious foods from our own local farms, gardens, and communities?

Kitchen Gardeners International is a nonprofit organization that empowers individuals, families, and communities to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance through the promotion of kitchen gardening, home-cooking, and sustainable local food systems.