Zero Hay Farming at Miles Smith Farm

The Northeast Organic
Farming Association
of New Hampshire
March-April 2013
Newsletter
“CELEBRATING THE MOVEABLE BEAST!”
The Voice for
Organic Agriculture
in New Hampshire
The PASTURE ISSUE
ZERO-HAY FARMING
at Miles Smith Farm
by Carole Soule, Beef Farmer
Your Resource for Local,
Organic Farming & Food
Member Benefits Include:
Quarterly Newsletter,
e-News Flashes,
The Natural Farmer
Quarterly Newspaper
Discounts: Workshops
Conferences & Much More!
Email [email protected]
IN THIS ISSUE:
2
Board President Message
3
From the Executive Director
4 Who’s Your Farmer Q&A
5
Editor’s Pasture Notes
6
Zero-Hay Farming (cont)
7
Events Calendar
8
Pleasing Pig Pasturing!
10 Poultry Pasturing Confessions
12 Living With Lyme Disease
14 Food & Farm Policy Update
14 Agriculture Mediation: Free!
15 The Treasurer Counts Beans
www.nofanh.org
In 2012, Miles Smith Farm sold our haying
equipment to start the journey to become a
zero-hay farm. Conventional beef farming in
New Hampshire typically includes, at most, five
or six months of grazing combined with three
or four weeks of cutting and baling hay to
provide winter feed. Hay is an exacting master
that needs to be harvested in the hottest,
driest weather possible—the best plans to
harvest are at the mercy of weather. Weather
too wet means good growth, but if it rains after
the hay is cut, the crop can be ruined. Weather
too dry means bad growth and low yields.
There is an alternative: Rather than using
mechanical tractors, with carbon footprints,
use livestock to harvest the grass. Don’t even
bother mowing. Instead, stockpile the grass
and let the animals do the work. Miles Smith
Farm is on a pasturing journey!
Stockpiling grass is the path to freedom from
haying. Stockpiling means leaving some grass
“standing” at the end of the growing season
to be harvested by the cattle during the cold,
dormant winter. Stockpiled grass will lose some
nutrition as the growing season ends, but not
much. Good quality forage will retain feed value
even after the first frost.
What about the snow, you might ask? How do
the cattle get to the stockpiled grass through
a heavy cover of snow? They do it the same
way their ancestors did—they use their hoofs
to paw the snow to get to the grass, the
same way cattle for centuries, harvested their
winter food before the age of the tractor.
Unfortunately “modern” cattle have unlearned this behavior. Most of today’s cattle are
dependent on man bringing them three meals
a day.
Article Continued on Page 6...
The Voice of Organic Agriculture in New Hampshire
From the Board President...
Let’s Roll!
NOFA-NH Newsletter
Published by the Northeast Organic Farming
Association of New Hampshire (NOFA-NH)
Scott Morrison, President, NOFA-NH Board of Directors
Executive Director
N
OFA-NH continues its transformation to provide
more programming and education to all of our
constituent groups, with an increased focus
on supporting our current and future member organic
farmers.
To position us for this change and growth, at the January
2013 meeting, the Board of Directors approved the 2013
Strategic Plan, which now rests in the capable hands of
Janet Wilkinson, our Executive Director, and her staff.
Janet’s letter will explain the plan and break it down
into the specific projects and tasks we’ll do this year to
accomplish our major goals.
We passed the 2013 budget, giving ourselves the flexibility to capitalize on
opportunities for increasing revenue through a comprehensive fundraising effort.
Several future newsletters will reveal more details. Headed by our Treasurer, Jared
Yeaton, we revived the Finance Committee. Jared will be our “budget hawk” keeping
an eye on expenses and ensuring they are aligned with income. Jared also launched a
conscious effort to build a reserve (“rainy day”) fund.
Besides Jared and me, the slate of officers for 2013 is completed by Amy Manzelli as
Vice President, and Alexis Simpson as Secretary. I want to recognize and heartily thank
Joan O’Connor for her several years serving as Vice President. Joan… your spirit and
enthusiasm for all topics NOFA-NH is second to none. Thank you!
Next on the docket will be re-organizing our Board Committee structure. There are
many constituent groups within NOFA-NH leading to committee chairs competing
for the same staff resources. To counter this, we’re streamlining down to the essential
committees to run and oversee NOFA-NH.
Finally, there are four board director slots open. If you have any interest in learning
more about the work of the board, please send me an e-mail. (scott@s-morrison.
com)
So much done, but so much more to do…let’s roll!
Join, Renew, Sponsor, Register!
Learn more at www.nofanh.org
Janet Wilkinson
[email protected]
Editor
KC Wright
[email protected]
Copy Editor
Judith Pietroniro
All submissions for publication herein shall be sent
to the editor ([email protected]). Editors reserve
the right to alter materials submitted due to space,
topic, or legal constraints. If photos are included,
please send a SASE for their return to you.
Advertising & Classified Rates
Newsletter Ads:
Full Page: $250 (8.5” x 11” vertical)
Half Page: $150 (8.5” x 4”)
Quarter Page: $100 (3.75” x 5”)
Business Card: $75 (3.5” x 2”)
•
10% discount for a series of at least 6 ads.
•
NOFA-NH Member Discounts:
10% off for Family/Farm & Business/
Organization members.
Classified Ads:
$5 for 30 words and $0.20 for each word
over 30. NOFA-NH Member Discounts:
Free for Family/Farm, Business/Organization,
Level Members., Non-Profit Members
Deadline:
Ad/classified copy is due one month prior to
the issue date:
May 1 for Summer (June/July/Aug)
August 1 for Autumn (Sep/Oct/Nov)
November 1 for Winter (Dec/Jan/Feb)
February 1 for Spring (Mar/Apr/May)
We’ll try to accommodate last-minute ads.
Advertising Contact:
Find Local, Organic Meats,
Poultry, Milk, Eggs, & More
under Farmers’ Markets list
on Calendar page 7.
Page 2
[email protected] to place ad and send copy.
Contents copyright © 2013 by the Northeast
Organic Farming Association of New
Hampshire. All rights reserved.
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
www.nofanh.org
From the Executive Director...
Mission Statement
NOFA-NH actively promotes
regenerative, ecologically sound
gardening, farming, and land care
practices for healthy communities.
We help people build local,
sustainable, healthy food systems
in our communities.
N
OFA-NH continues its
NOFA-NHtransformation
Office to provide
more
programming and
4 Park Street, Suite
208
education
to all of our constituent
Concord,
NH 03301
groups, with an increased focus on
Tel 603-224-5022
supporting our current and future
Fax 603-228-6492
member organic farmers.
[email protected]
www.nofanh.org
To position us for this change and
at the January 2013 meeting,
Boardgrowth,
of Directors
the BoardPresident
of Directors approved
Scott Morrison,
the 2013
Strategic
Plan, which now
Amy Manzelli,
Vice
President
Jared Yeaton, Treasurer
Alexis Simpson, Secretary
Lauren Chase-Rowell
Ron Christie
Leon-C. Malan
Jack Mastrianni
Joan O’Connor
Andy Pressman
Tim Wightman
Essie Hull, Board Member Emerita
NOFA-NH Staff
Janet Wilkinson, Executive Director
Eleanor Luna, Operations Manager &
Spring Herb Garden Day Coordinator
Janet Munson, Business Manager
Ray Conner, Beginner Organic Farmer
Program Coordinator
Christine Pressman, Specialty Crop
Program Coordinator
Jo Russavage, Winter Conference Coordinator
Jennifer Oldham-Quinlivan,
Bulk Order Coordinator
Focus on Farmers
Janet Wilkinson, NOFA-NH Executive Director
J
eff and Renee Cantara have been farming on New Hampshire’s seacoast for the past
12 years. In an interview for this newsletter (see page 4), Jeff described how fortunate
they felt to have purchased an affordable farm just as their community launched into a
‘ local food frenzy’. They developed the farm gradually and in a way that was ideal for the
location, their skillsets, and their local market.
Despite such a perfect-seeming setting, Jeff, who describes himself as fiercely libertarian,
frugal, and hardworking, says that he and other local farmers continue to struggle to make
ends meet.
“I am proud of all we have all done,” said Jeff, “but people have to be able to make a living.
Somewhere there remains a small disconnect in the system and a lot of us are spending a
lot of time trying to figure out where that is and how to address it.”
One of NOFA-NH’s strategic goals for 2013 is to Focus on Farmers. We’ll be traveling the state to get to know farmers like Jeff. We’ll continue learning what is happening
with other farmers in other states and with the agriculture sector as a whole. We’ll strive
to fill the gaps and build the capacity of organic farmers so they can, among other things,
make a real living.
NOFA-NH’s 2013 Strategic Goals include:
1. Building financial sustainability: NOFA-NH will focus on building financial sustainability
through fundraising and the establishment of a reserve operating fund.
2. Focus on Farmers: Farmers are the core of NOFA-NH mission. NOFA-NH will focus
on their specific needs in program offerings, evaluation practices and network building.
When farmers are served, consumers and the environment will benefit as well.
3. Get a Place at the Table: NOFA-NH will build capacity for public policy and advocacy
efforts, conduct outreach to know our base and grow our base, and participate in state
and regional initiatives that align with our mission.
4. Documentation: NOFA-NH will focus on
improvement and documentation of organizationwide policies and procedures and information
management systems, and conduct a complete
historical retrospective.
Please join us in helping making these goals a reality!
Warmly,
The Northeast Organic Farming Association of
New Hampshire (NOFA-NH) is a nonprofit
educational
organization
supported
by
membership dues and contributions. NOFA-NH
is tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the
Internal Revenue Code. Charitable contributions
are welcome and tax-deductible.
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
Photo by Anne Skidmore
www.nofanh.org
Page 3
NOFA-NH MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
New Roots Farm
Farmer Q&A
by Janet Wilkinson, Executive Director, NOFA-NH
F
armer Jeff Cantara walks the perimeter of his snowpatched fields under warm spring sunshine, making minor
repairs to the fence line. His wife, Renee, is busy stoking
the woodstoves in six vegetable greenhouses. March is a time
of transition at New Roots Farm. The farm’s natural division
of labor has Renee in charge of the veggies and Jeff working
the livestock, which includes 100% grass-fed meats (cows and
lambs) and pasture-raised meats (pigs and chickens). The New
Hampshire Seacoast is in a ‘golden age’ of local agriculture,
and New Roots Farm, in Newmarket, is in the midst of it. We
stopped by to meet Jeff and learn a bit more about their pastured meat operation.
NOFA-NH: Your website describes “innovative and synergistic
grazing techniques”, please tell us a bit more about that?
Cantara: We are really into intensive rotational grazing. Think of
our perimeter fence as the edge of a checkerboard, and temporary
fencing defines the inner squares. There’s always three squares
defined: where they were the day before, where they are on a
given day, and where they are going to be the next day. There’s
no formula, it’s really very alchemistic: We are considering the
fundamental biology of grass and animals, how much the animal
requires, how the grass is responding, the weather conditions, the
forecast, the time of the year. We’re always sizing the paddocks, and
planning resting time for the paddocks in a dynamic manner.
We are essentially trying to increase the productivity of the grass on
the farm, and with the increase in productivity we can raise more
animals healthily in the same area. So if you have a 50-acre farm
and you increase that productivity by 20%, that’s like buying 10
acres for free.
We’ve observed huge increases in the density and number of
species of grasses present in our hayfields and pastures, and the
moisture retention and permeability of the soil is greatly improved.
We rotate the vegetable fields into pasture space as well, so it all
functions in a big cycle.
Maybe it is intensive compared to throwing cows out loose into a
pasture and watching everything get grazed down and destroyed,
but really it’s pretty low intensity. I don’t know if I want this published, but, I can do my animal work in the morning and go surfing
and come back and everything is going pretty well.
Page 4
Farmer Jeff Cantara at the Seacoast Eat Local Farmers; Market
Photo by Barry Wright
NOFA-NH: What’s unique about your farm location compared
to other parts of the state?
Cantara: We are really fortunate that through forward thinking
action of the town and conservation groups, farms on the Seacoast
are being passed on at a livable rate. Plus we are proximate to a
large concentration of people that can afford the value of well-grown
food. Several local advocacy groups have ushered in this golden age
of local food here, almost a local food frenzy. But what I tell people
is that the ‘Seacoast advantage’ some speak of is the result of a lot
of people working their butts off! We (the farmers) go to endless
meetings, fundraisers, educational and outreach events. We’ve done
very well here at convincing people to know their farmer, and it can
be overwhelming at times but that’s what you have to do. That can
be done in other parts of the state, and there are many of us who
will be willing to come and help continue to vitalize other parts of
the state.
Article Continued on next page...
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
www.nofanh.org
Editor’s Note
Good Food = Health
Local, Organic Animal Foods
Continued from previous page—
New Roots Farm
Farmer Q&A
NOFA-NH: The theme of our most recent Winter Conference
was resilience. So thinking along that theme, how does your
farming contribute to building a resilient community?
Cantara: First, at our farmers markets, we literally know the names
of hundreds of customers. It gives me a sense of vitality to interact
with these wonderful people each week and I think for the customers, interacting with local farmers gives them a real sense of
interconnectedness. I’m hearing about random customers investing
in farmers, and farmers helping customers through difficult times
in their lives, food-wise, work-wise, and financially. I think anytime
people feel connected to something, we walk away with a little bit
more of a spring in our step. And when you do that I think your battery gets charged up and you’re able to go and face the challenges,
both positive and negative, that each day brings you. Being able to
face the exciting adventures that life gives you every day and do
that with some grace is really what resilience is.
NOFA-NH: What are your concerns about your future as a
farmer and/or the future of your farm, and how are you taking
that into consideration in your day-to-day work and planning?
Cantara: That’s the big question. Here we are 12 years into it, we
bought a farm in a prime location for an affordable rate, and we
have a huge inventory of meat that sells well all winter. We are in
this explosion of local food, but a lot of us (local farmers) are rubbing nickels together. We live pretty frugally, but we live in a super
high tax community, buy our own health insurance, we have a mortgage, and just running the freezers costs several thousand dollars.
We are up at the limit of prices that are honorable to customers
so the solution isn’t to raise prices. We feel we have been very good
business people and very good farmers so we are proud of what
we’ve accomplished. But I do wish I could have made a little bit
more of a cushion. So we are kind of in the beginning stages of a
reassessment of our long-term goals. There remains a small disconnect in the system somewhere, and a lot of us are spending a lot of
time trying to figure out where that is and how to address it.
by KC Wright, NOFA-NH Newsletter Editor & Registered Dietitian
uying local, organic food goes far beyond salad greens
and root vegetables. Across New Hampshire, farmers are
offering healthy and delicious beef, pork, lamb, poultry, and
more from animals that have consumed a natural and nutritious
diet of grass and other forage.
B
Because American diets are meat-centric, consuming on average
67 pounds per person per year, we’ve all heard nutrition experts
recommend limiting red meat. But most of their research is
based on commodity meat that’s been fattened on corn diets,
resulting in higher levels of artery-clogging saturated fat.
Pastured animals are raised without prophylactic antibiotics
while a 2009 FDA report showed that the majority distribution
of antibiotic use in the U.S. was in confined animal production
to promote rapid growth and prevent diseases prevalent in
crowded feedlots. Antibiotic use in animal production leads to
the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria, transmittable to
humans which can result in resistant infections.
Cattle are herbivores, or ruminant animals (having a stomach
with four chambers), designed to eat grasses and plants, not
corn. Research has shown that the meat from grass-fed beef is
significantly higher in Omega-3 fats (essential fats lacking in the
American diet) that are associated with lower risks for both
heart disease and certain cancers.
The majority of milk and other dairy products consumed in
this country originate from feedlots. Grass-fed cow’s milk is a
primary source of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), another fatty
acid with antioxidant properties, linked to lower rates of heart
disease and certain cancers. Recent research conducted by the
Harvard School of Public Health suggest that CLA in grass-fed
milk may offer heart-healthy benefits that could offset the harms
of saturated fat in milk.
NOFA-NH: Advice for aspiring farmers?
Contrary to popular belief, chickens are not vegetarians,
despite the “All Vegetable Diet” claims on supermarket poultry
packaging—marketing efforts intended for us to believe that
their chicken is a superior product. Poultry do feast on grass, but
they also like to peck around pastures for other natural menu
items, including worms, crickets, and grasshoppers. Meat from
pastured poultry is too, higher in Omega-3 fats than poultry
raised on grain. Eggs from pastured hens are higher in B vitamins
and carotenoid antioxidant, evidenced from neon orange yolks.
Cantara: Well, I would say dive in and go for it but make your overhead as minimal as it can be. I think the classic notion of the New
England farm is evolving. It’s no longer the big red barn with the silo
and 70 acres. As picturesque as that was, in a lot of cases it didn’t
really work. Everything now is about high speed, lightweight, low drag.
Being able to adapt and expand and contract your operation as
needed and as circumstances dictate. Position yourself so that you
are not locked into one particular thing.
Finally, to the farmers who contributed their time and energy
for articles within these pages—Thank You! And thanks to all
our local and organic farmers who work endlessly to continue
to fill our tables with good, real food. Let us know if you’d like
copies of this newsletter for your customers who, may not be
quite sold that your meat, milk, poultry, and eggs are worth the
price. One bite or sip is all it takes. Farmers, please remind your
customers to cook your lean beef low and slow!
New Roots Farm 603-770-4125 www.newrootsfarm.com
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
To Good Eating & Good Health, KC
www.nofanh.org
Page 5
The Pasture Issue
Pasturing Beef
ZERO-HAY FARMING
at Miles Smith Farm
by Carole Soule, Beef Farmer, Loudon, New Hampshire
Continued from Page 1...
C
attle do have to be trained to
harvest hay through a snow
cover. Yet, I have watched my
cattle nibble at the remnants of grass
in my pastures even when there is hay
in the hay feeder. They want to graze,
even in winter! Their natural instinct is
to graze, and with a little training they
can learn to search for forage even
under snow cover.
Lets assume that stockpiled grass is
plentiful and the cattle have learned
how to paw through the snow to
graze. There is still a small road block
to winter grazing: frozen water. While
some pasture advocates claim cattle
do fine eating snow, I still believe
that they need water in the winter.
On the Miles Smith home farm of
36 acres, we have buried water lines
and created frost free water delivery
systems to all of our pastures. Yet our
remote pastures are a different story; they are leased land. While
we have designed effective water delivery systems at our remote
pastures for summer, winter water is a challenge. We could bury
water tanks or use “constant flow” water delivery systems at our
remote locations, but implementation will take time and ingenuity
to design, fund, and install. Furthermore, we would lose most of
that infrastructure when the lease expires.
Even with the best winter water delivery system there is one
other obstacle. My husband and I get cold in the winter! It’s far
easier to run out to the feed bunker twice a day, throw hay to
the animals or deliver a round bale to a feeder, and scurry back
inside to our warm wood stove. It’s more challenging to drive to
a remote pasture to inspect the cattle, assess the forage stand,
check the water, and if necessary load the cattle to move them to
a new pasture. Humans are a lot more sensitive to the cold than
cattle. And while cattle might thrive in the cold harvesting their
feed, winter grazing management practices can be hard for mere
mortals.
This year we were able to keep our cattle on pasture until the
middle of November on a 20-acre former hay field we leased
from St. Pauls’ School in Concord, NH. This field is adjacent to the
Audubon Society and within sight of I-89.
Page 6
The cattle rotationally grazed through four acres
of turnips and mixed grasses and gained an
average of 2½ pounds a day—a wonderful weight
gain when the average grass fed animal might gain
only 1–1½ pounds a day. Each day we moved
the animals to a new paddock of either turnips
or grass. We could have left them in the pasture
longer if the1000 gallon water tank in the field had
not started to freeze.
A weight gain of 2½ lbs a day on pasture is
remarkable, but it required many hours of setting
up temporary fencing and the daily task of moving
the cattle into a new paddock. Let’s face it, grazing
is better for the animal and the environment than
say, factory farming where tens of thousands of
animals share a small paddock and are managed as
a commodity and not as individual animals. Factory
farms take the “inconvenience” out of raising
cattle. Factory farms also take the humanity out of
farming. At a factory farm, cattle are commodities,
not partners.
At Miles Smith Farm we consider all of our cattle to be our
partners in helping us repair the environment and keep
pastureland open, without the heavy footprint of fossil-fueled
tractors. In the end, our cattle partners provide healthy and
delicious protein for our dinner plates. Because of our individual
care for each animal and intensive pasturing practices, we can’t
compete with the prices offered for commodity beef, that’s both
mass and cheaply produced (and not nearly as tasty nor nutritious).
So I propose that you do eat less beef with wellness in mind—
Wellness of the animal, the environment, the farmer, and mostly for
you.
In the early 1800s, Miles Smith first farmed some 80 acres in Loudon,
NH. Current owners, Carole Soule and Bruce Dawson, carry on Miles’
farming tradition by raising beef cattle on 36 acres of the original farm.
They are committed to humane treatment of cattle and sustainable
living, a mission shared by their employees, farm friends, and customers
alike. Beef and other local products are available at the on-farm retail
store.
Miles Smith Farm 603-783-5159 www.milessmithfarm.com
Photo: Bruce Dawson & Carole Soule at their Miles Smith Farm
By Geoff Forester
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
www.nofanh.org
Learn, Share, Grow!
NOFA-NH Calendar
Workshops & Events
NOFA-NH
11th Annual WINTER CONFERENCE
Growing A Resilient Community
Friday & Saturday, March 1 & 2
Laconia Middle School, Laconia, NH
Details & Regstration www.nofanh.org
AG DAY CELEBRATION!
Fun with New Hampshire Farmers
Tuesday, March 19, 11am-1pm
Concord Statehouse Plaza
25 Capitol Street, Concord, NH
Details www.nofanh.org
NEW ENGLAND MEAT
CONFERENCE & MEAT BALL!
APPLE PRUNING & GRAFTING
WORKSHOP:
with Michael Phillips, Organic Orchardist
Saturday, April 6, 10am-3pm
At St. Paul’s School, 325 Pleasant St, Concord, NH
This workshop is for current and aspiring apple growers with
renowned organic orchardist, Michael Phillips, 2012 author of “The
Holistic Orchard,” named one of the best books by the American
Horticultural Society. From 10am-noon, Michael will guide participants in bench grafting, using the whip-and-tongue union, as well as
outside topwork to an existing tree, using the bark inlay graft.
From 1pm-3pm, Michael will discuss specific horticultural goals
when deciding which limbs and shoots to prune. The cost is $35
for one workshop or $50 for both workshops. NOFA-NH members will receive a 20% discount. Scholarships available for NOFANH Beginner Farmers. Workshop limited to 50 participants:
Register early! Call 224.5022. or www.nofanh.org.
Friday & Saturday March 22 & 23
At Grappone Conference Center, Concord, NH
Featuring:
• More than 25 Educational Sessions & Hands-On Workshops
• Networking Activities
• Live Demonstrations
• Meat Industry Trade Show
* MEAT BALL CELEBRATION! * March 22
Celebrating Local Meat, Live Music, dancing, and awards!
FMI: www.NewEnglandMeatConference.org 603-573-3306
ROTATIONAL GRAZING:
SARE Research Results–
Planting & Harvesting With Cows
Saturday, March 30, 9am-Noon
At Audubon Center, 84 Silk Farm Rd, Concord, NH
At this presentation, Carole Soule and Bruce Dawson of Miles
Smith Farm in Loudon, NH will provide a detailed review of the
plowing, harrowing, planting and grazing used in this project, as well
as weight gains, and other pros and cons that were discovered over
the season. Free and open to all. FMI: Dot Perkins, UNH Co-op Ext
Livestock Specialist, 603-796-2151
Farmers’ Markets
Frequent and ongoing markets near you:
NH & Local, Organic Food Resources
www.agriculture.nh.gov
www.localharvest.org
www.nofanh.org/farm-and-food/farmers-markets
NH Farm & Food Map
www.nofanh.org/farm-and-food/farm-food-map
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
Meeting & Greeting...
NOFA-NH Herbal Network
March10, 5-7pm Herbal Cocktails & Juliette of the Herbs Movie
Host Eleanor Luna. Free and open to all. Email [email protected]
to RSVP. 31Church St, Apt 2, Goffstown, NH. Street parking available,
entrance in back up stairs, door on right.
June 8 Annual Herb & Garden Day ~ Save The Date!
Audubon Center, Concord, NH
NOFA-NH Herbal Network: Join at [email protected]
NOFA-NH Organic Landcare Meeting
Safe Parks & Playing Fields: Intro to Reducing
Turf Care Chemicals in Your Town
Thursday, March 21, 8:30am-2:15pm
Holiday Inn, 2280 Brown Ave, Manchester, NH
$75.00/$65.00 AOLCP Credit
Details and registration: www.nofanh.org 603-224-5022
NOFA-NH Board
Second Tuesday of the Month, 6-9 pm
March 12, May 14
At 4 Park Street in Concord
RSVP & Directions: [email protected] or 603-224-5022.
NOFA-NH Permaculture Committee
FMI: Lauren Chase-Rowell 603-463-7538
[email protected]
www.nofanh.org
Page 7
The Pasture Issue
Pasturing Pork
The Benefits & Pleasures of Pigs!
by Kate Kerman and Ada Kerman
Phoenix Farm, Marlbourough, NH
W
e began our work with American Guinea Hogs
because we wanted assistance in clearing out some
brush and bramble around the edges of our barnyards
and pastures, and because we were able to get a breeding pair as
pass-on animals. We are delighted with the hogs’ ability to clear
land, with their manageable size, and
with the taste of their meat. We’re
also pleased to be helping this
endangered farm animal survive. We
have researched the value of this
kind of pork—raised on forage, hay,
past-date veggies and dairy products
from a local grocery store, as well
as small amounts of grain. And, we
have come to a deeper appreciation
of the benefits of this manner of
raising pigs, and of its benefits to
human health, animal health, and to
the environment.
Human Health Benefits
Pasture-raised meat has higher
levels of vitamin E, beta carotene (a
precursor to vitamin A), conjugated
linoleic acid (CLA), and a healthier
balance of omega-3 and omega-6
fats. All of these nutrients promote
heart health. Specifically, vitamin E
and beta carotene are antioxidants
that block the damaging effects
of reactive substances which can
increase risk for heart disease
and certain cancers. High levels of
vitamin E also keeps meat from
spoiling as fast. A Finnish study of CLA in women with and without
breast cancer found that women with higher CLA concentrations
had lower risk of breast cancer.
Pigs raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs),
common for large-scale commercial enterprises, are fed antibiotics
routinely, breeding antibiotic-resistant diseases that can infect
people. Grain-fed animals have a higher concentration of acidresistant than of non-acid-resistant E. coli because undigested
starch in their intestines causes a high acid environment. Acidresistant E. coli can survive more easily in the high acid human
stomach and therefore is more likely to cause human disease than
the non-acid-resistant E. coli, more commonly found in pastureraised animals.
Photo: The farmer’s daughter and grand daughter with a
two-week old piglet at Phoenix Farm, Marlborough, NH
Page 8
Pig Health and Happiness Benefits
A pasture-raised pig is able to live more in tune with its natural
environment. It can forage, sun itself, access clean air and water, and
create a wallow—living a less stressful, happier life than a CAFO
pig. Pastured sows are less likely to
be in extreme confinement during
farrowing, and piglets are more likely to
have access to sow’s milk for a longer
period of time. With more space, pigs
can spread their own manure away
from their bedding and eating areas.
Farmers raising animals on pasture
report pleasure in watching their
animals live according to their nature.
Environment
CAFO operations produce large
quantities of manure, which is stored
in cesspools, allowing pollutants to
leach into the groundwater, and
causing unpleasant odors for the
neighborhood. Workers at large pig
farms also have a high incidence of
certain diseases, especially respiratory
illnesses.
In contrast, pasture-raised pigs are
housed in less crowded conditions.
Instead of causing problems, their
manure enriches their local pasture.
Grasslands sequester carbon dioxide,
reducing greenhouse gases, in
comparison with the effects of keeping
an area tilled, as is needed to grow grain for CAFO pigs. The
numbers of earthworms present in a permanent pasture are much
higher than in an area that is rotated between field crops and
pasture, indicating a more robust environment.
Although pigs cannot meet all their nutritional requirements solely
on grasses, a pasture diet of sprouted grains, alfalfa, and discarded
food intended for humans, do not need as much grain. They are
also often being put to work to help create more usable land.
From a broader perspective, CAFO farming is intensive in the use
of fossil fuel to cultivate and grow the grain, transport grain to the
pigs, and manage the manure. Human food given to pasture-raised
pigs, from stores, manufacturing plants, and restaurants helps to
reduce the amount of food putting a strain on landfills.
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
www.nofanh.org
American Guiinea Hog,
Phoenix Farm, Marlborough, NH
Conclusion
These days, many of us weigh our food purchasing choices on a
scale, balancing cost, environmental ethics, and our own health.
Pasture-raised animals are often more expensive due to the farm’s
small-scale and the animals being less bred for rapid weight gain.
Factors of animal health, human health, and environmental health
have all led our family to seek the majority of our meat from our
own, and others’ pasture-based operations.
Kate Kerman is the Leader of Small and Beginner Farmers of New
Hampshire, and is in the Holistic Management International Certified
Educator training program. She and her two adult daughters, Hannah
and Ada, and her husband Ed, are growing a small pasture-raised
meat business at Phoenix Farm in Marlborough, NH. Her co-author
Ada, describes herself as a swineherd and computer geek, and is in the
Beginning Women Farmers Whole Farm Planning class this winter. She
lives at Phoenix Farm with two children, a large black dog and a cat.
Find Local, Organic Meats,
Poultry, Milk, Eggs, & More
under Farmers’ Markets list
on Calendar page 7.
Phoenix Farm 603-876-4562 www.phoenixfarm.org
References
Clancy, Kate. 2006. Greener eggs and ham: The Benefits of Pasture-Raised Swine,
Poultry, and Egg Production, Union of Concerned Scientists.
www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/greener-eggs-and-ham.pdf
Muriel, E, Ruiz, J, Ventanas, J, Antequera, T. 2002. Free-range rearing increases (n-3)
polyunsaturated fatty acids of neutral and polar lipids in swine muscles. Food
Chemistry 78:219–225.
Schivera, D. 2001. The Benefits of raising animals on pasture, The Maine Organic
Farmer & Gardener Dec 2001-Feb 2002.
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
Local, Organic Seedlings
for Home Gardeners & Farmers:
200+ Varieties of Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers
available. All seedlings are grown in a compost-based
potting soil. Please see our website,
www.goodearthfarmnh.com for a complete list of
plants and directions to our farm.
Open Memorial Day Weekend (May 24-27).
Growing Organic Seedlings for over 20 years.
Good Earth Farm 603-529-2170
52 Poor Farm Road, Weare, NH
www.nofanh.org
Page 9
The Pasture Issue
Pasturing Poultry
Confessions From The Pasture
by Peter Allen, Poultry Farmer, Temple, New Hampshire
I
first thought about farming as a middle-aged corporate salesman,
perhaps not unique in my ambition. Who can resist, I surmised,
the call of the domesticated, when the bulk of your earning life
consists of dollars and no sense, and the only window you have
onto the world is Microsoft?
Unhappy with capitalism’s tyrannical imperatives to profit, I lost my
job. For me, the height of righteousness was to profit instead from
my love of organic food. Thus begins the tale of one man who, in
his attempt to find piety and goodness from vegetable crops and
animal husbandry, doubted caution and consumed himself with
local food.
“Just wack off its ‘ead,” said the first person I came across who
had any meaningful contact with the guts of small family-farm
agriculture. I stood there stupid and stupefied, turned my head
from the bird, closed my eyes, and severed the chicken’s head from
its warm body. No doubt, as the blood trickled down my wrist, I
had thought perhaps what many of you might have: “What in God’s
name am I doing here?”
Next, after de-feathering the bird, I had the oh, so stimulating
pleasure of inserting my hand and fingers into its warm belly in
an attempt to hold gloriously aloft the vital operatives of this now
deceased fowl.The bird was ready to eat.
I describe all this because in a lot of ways, this chicken-processing
revelation is a signature for much, if not all, of what we alternative,
grass-based, organic farmers face: high lofty, even sublime ambition,
tempered by the harsh viscera of getting it done, making a living,
and doing it all over again.
Pastured Chicken: A Day In The Life
If we have any pretentions of doing this right, we must pasture our
animals. As I sat out in the field on the edge of one of 17 “Salatin”like pens, each holding their quota of gleaming birds, I thought, not
without a feather of contempt, that it should be inconceivable to
raise our food without grass, without sun, without the vitality of
engaging a surging earth, without the unbelievably efficient fertility
that animals drop.
My eyes spanned across the acre where the birds had been the
month before, from where I had moved them each day until
now; from where they had defoliated with abandon and manured
obliviously, shredded the earth for the brief 24-hours of play until
moved on. There I saw lush, blue green clover, timothy, and orchard
grass in clustered densities. I could see no bare dirt and almost no
weeds.
Pasturing poultry certainly revitalizes soil nutrition, so it’s
discouraging to contemplate that CAFO’s “feed the world” with
little respect for the lives of animals, nutritious food, healthy
ecosystems, and honest prices.
The chicks come in the mail with almost no mortality–brooded
on thick beds of wood shavings, kept appropriately toasty in their
crates. When they are about three weeks old I move them out to
the field. While the chicks settle into their pens, I sleep many nights
with my dog in a tent, on guard against predators–coyotes and
foxes who know the little peepers are all too vulnerable. With just
a little digging, a pen can be drained before my first snore, or my
pooch’s first yelp.
When the chickens are eight to ten weeks old, we harvest them.
Page 10
We do this only in the morning, processing them under a canopy
of fresh air. The birds are wrapped and weighed before placed to
rest in our CoolBot walk-in refrigerator.
Making A Living
This is where sky-high ideals compost with reality. If we (and we
need to try to) use organic feed and feed our birds daily, we are
looking at a mountain of debt before our first dollar whets our
appetite for more. Specifically, here is the cost break down of this
last year’s production.
Birds
Feed
PROCESSING
Help
Cost of
$1,710.00
$11,816.42
$4,905.25
$18,431.67
$14.18
Description
1300
13 tons
Sub Total cost
Per bird cost
$417.00
Per bird costs
$1.32
$9.09
$3.77
$0.32
$417.00
Sub total
$18,848.67
$14.50
Grand total
Per bird cost
$14.50
Note well that this past year, there was no land cost. Also note the
unit cost per bird of feed. Although all the textbooks (including our
prophet’s, Salatin) calculate 12 pounds of feed per bird at harvest,
I have found 18 pounds per bird to be far more accurate. That’s
$9.09/bird for feed alone. The gross cost of each bird is $14.50
which does not account for transaction costs of marketing and
selling. Thus, unless you sold all your birds by harvest time, solvency
will be a long time coming.
When one calculates the cost of on-farm harvesting, supposing a
wage of $20/hour, that cost approximates $3.50/bird. And, we must
be ruthless with ourselves, and make sure our calculations include
the bird loss due to in-field mortality and predation. Last year I had
an issue with excess heat over a two-day period, even though my
pens are designed to promote superb ventilation. It is impossible
to get a good estimate of how much feed went to each deceased
bird. Nevertheless, we operate under the worse case scenario that
each bird died near harvest time. Although we bought 1400 birds,
only 1300 were weighed and stored, which is the divisor for all
cost calculations.
It is particularly difficult to mitigate the minimal economy of scale
in raising chickens. Only at the beginning, in the brooder, where 500
birds are as easy to feed and care for as 1000, and at the end, you
are lucky enough to sell 100 birds in one transaction, do you have
the potential to raise your economies. However, in between, where
the vast bulk of effort and time resides, moving them in the field,
carrying then to slaughter, eviscerating, packaging, weighing, and
storing, there are no economies of scale at all. Each bird needs to
be touched at every stage, not unlike your cord of firewood: by the
time you burn it, you have probably handled each stick 5 times.
Do not kid yourself–do as the wise one says (Salatin again), and
start slowly. Because nothing will depress you more than an excess
of fowl and a minimal market. The prophet knows his profit! It will
take, as Alan Nation (editor of Stockman Grass Farmer) has so
fruitfully shown, at least five years to be genuinely profitable. Farm
raised, organic-fed chickens at any price will be a hard sell when
the nearby chain supermarket offers those CAFO, water- soaked,
arsenic-rich broilers for 59 cents a pound.
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
www.nofanh.org
Confessions From The Pasture
...continued from previous page
Unfortunately, your market troubles are nicely exacerbated
when the U.S. population has lost $16.3 trillion in net worth and
unemployment is at 7.8%. This during a time when wages have
been stagnant for two decades and loans are harder to find than
hen’s teeth.
But it can be done. My first year was unprofitable, but for the past
six years, I have made a profit. However, no matter how many
birds I do (3300 one year) and how diversified with layers and
vegetables, farmers markets and CSA’s, retail sales, and restaurant
sales, the profit has never been enough to live on.
Just about every farmer I know,
newbie or otherwise, who
has farmed for a number of
years, has some kind of outside
beneficiary. Few have made it
solely on their own profits. They
either have exceptional leases,
use land owned by others, or
they have financiers. Or like I,
they came to the manure pile
with corporate-lived savings.
Even Salatin inherited his 500
acres mortgage free.
Market Value of Pastured
Poultry
I walked into a highly respected
organic and trendy food co-op
recently and asked the manager
if he would sell my organic
fed, grass-raised, and USDA
processed birds. As I held out
one of my gloriously deep yellow-red, beta carotene-enriched
birds, he turned his back to me in obvious impatience and smartly
exclaimed, “No one would ever consider buying a bird for that
price.”
Yet, I have been able to find a market for my birds, to some degree,
but it is only with those who truly know the merit and value of
the inherent worth of pastured animals, to individual health and
restoration of the land. These folks are not all necessarily wealthy,
other than in conscience.
Buying these birds is a choice. Cheap chicken is everywhere,
as are so-called farm-raised poultry. Our marketing must be
especially pointed and specific to those who drool at the thought
of sipping soup made from chicken feet, or who comprehend the
stupendously-outstanding, almost incomparable nutritional value of
pastured, deep purple, sweet chicken liver. This is our market.
Still, all of the above can become stressed to the limit when
escalating grain prices wreak havoc on earnest attempts to lower
prices and feed as many as possible with this outstanding food.
Three years ago we sold our birds for $3.75/lb. Today, we cannot
imagine selling them for less than $5.50/lb if we are to have any
chance at solvency.
All the blather one hears from every sustainable outfit trying to
increase food security and land management, coordinate farmer to
land, etc–well-intentioned as it is–is in essence, meaningless if the
market will not pay the appropriate price, and do so voluntarily.
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
The Moveable Beast
I wake up at 5:50 in the morning, 7 days a week from April through
early November. Loading my BCS-pulled wagon with crumbled
grain, I putter out to the pens, moving each one, and slowly fill
their troughs. Rain or shine, some 700 birds must be moved and
fed. I check the water lines, check for predation and inexplicable
mortality, and then begin the rest of my day to master many a
farm chore: weeding, composting, marketing, and the enticing
so-satisfying distraction of showing the interested what this is all
about.
I have lived this nine-month routine for the past seven years.
Those of us who have read and studied the intricacies of pasturing
animals, realize the ecological wonder of the “mob stocking”
imperative to husbandry. Whether fowl or beast, both need
confinement and movement in order to intensify first defoliation
and then fertility, to make perfect the rejuvenation of the land. The
moveable beast when done so daily is also the key to great health
and better protection.
The call to this domesticated
husbandry is of course
irresistible. And so year after
year, we expect the costs and
purchases of the previous year
to sustain greater profits the
following year. The portable
grain bin costing $2,000 should
last me 10 years; the 17 to
20 pens I made, each costing
about $100, have lasted 5
years with minimal upkeep
and modification. The CoolBot
continues to work like a charm,
as does the air conditioner it
controls.
But every year brings its own
unique costs, in losses, in
personnel, in rising grain prices,
and in weather catastrophes.
When 2½ feet of snow buried my field pens holding 250 mature
birds during the Halloween trick of 2011, I thought it was the end.
Yet, not a day passes that one does not hope that this will be
the year that works. The possibilities to expand and find markets
where others have failed, always inspires. Aside from CSA’s, farmers
markets, restaurant and retail, there are other forms of cooperative
engagement. There’s the rich demand from ethic communities–how
the Chinese love chicken feet! And, there’s the masterful potential
of farmer cooperatives.
Above all, there is an autocatalytic cycle of virtuous improvement
as one good practice leads, however unintended, to the revelation
of future possibilities: conventional grain leads to organic grain, and
organic grain leads to soy free grain; cumbersome pens become
lightweight and easy.
Over 10,000 chickens have passed my scrutiny from evisceration
to the dinner table. Fun is never the question I ask myself, and
is almost irrelevant when one considers the broad value organic
production provides. That very first “oh my God,” is exactly why I
am doing, what I am doing here.”
Peter W. Allen has spent the past seven years raising organic
vegetables, chickens, (both meat and layers), and turkeys. He
specializes in organizing, directing, and managing CSA’s and other
related farming ventures. [email protected]
Photo by Barry Wright
www.nofanh.org
Page 11
NOFA-NH Herbal Network
Living With Lyme Disease
From Testing To Treatment
by Sara M. Woods Kender, Clinical Herbalist
N
ew Hampshire has one of the highest recorded rates
of Lyme disease in the nation. Most people become
exposed to the spirochetal organism through contact
with the deer tick, although other species of ticks carry these
organisms. This article will concentrate on the deer tick and preventative steps to reduce exposure.
When a host (i.e. person) comes into contact with a deer tick, the
tick may take a few hours to latch on and begin feeding. Once this
happens, it is not understood how long it takes for the spirochete,
which live inside the tick, to transfer out of the body of the tick
and into the host. In my experience, it takes just a short time, not
necessarily the 24-hours previously believed. Deer ticks can look
for a blood meal and transfer infection in at least two stages of
it’s life cycle–the nymph (size of a pin head) and adult stages. The
host body is alerted of the foreign invader and begins the immune
response.
A ‘bull’s-eye’ type of rash known as erythema migrans (EM) may
appear on the skin at the site of the tick bite, or all over the
body a few days to two weeks after transmission to a host. The
host typically experiences flu-like symptoms, such as a high fever
(104°F), body pain, headache, and fatigue. Extended symptoms can
include joint pain, heart palpitations, brain fog, and eye issues, such
as twitching, watery eyes, and light sensitivity. Chronic Lyme symptoms may involve lowered immunity, insomnia, hand tremors, and
endocrine imbalances.
Lyme disease Facts:
• Only about 30% of people infected with the spirochete that
causes Lyme disease ever experience the EM rash.
• The most common blood analysis for Lyme disease is the ELISA
(Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) test, but it is only accurate 65% of the time; the Western-Blot test is one of the most
accurate.
• Approximately 20-30% of those with chronic Lyme who have
tested positive in the past, have been tested again only to have a
negative result using the Western-Blot test. Antibody titers also are
known to decline over time making it harder to diagnose chronic
Lyme in those that have never been tested.
• Antibiotics kill the spirochete in the body. The sooner antibiotic
therapy begins, the more effective it is. There’s a 40% relapse
rate of Lyme in infected individuals who have undergone a short
course of antibiotics, especially if therapy is delayed. Long term
antibiotic therapy is considered the only way to combat this disease. Many doctors believe that the adverse affects of the Lyme
disease outweighs the side-effects of antibiotic therapy.
Page 12
• Lyme disease is considered the great imitator and is frequently
misdiagnosed for rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, celiac sprue, and adrenal fatigue.
People with Lyme disease may be vulnerable to co-infections.
Some bacterial and protozoan microorganisms, stimulating coinfections (such as bartonella and babesiosis), may also live within
the ticks that carry the Lyme spirochete are other. Other co-infections of Lyme disease may include several strains of the herpes
virus.
When working or recreating in a tick-infested area, it’s very important to cover all exposed skin, wear light clothing (to spot ticks),
and use a pest repellent made from natural ingredients. Young children in particular are more vulnerable to chemicals such as DEET;
many brands made from natural ingredients are just as effective.
Spraying your yard with pesticides will certainly help to kill ticks,
but it will also kill beneficial bugs that may help to keep ticks under
control. If you’re inclined, keeping chickens helps to manage ticks as
the birds love to eat them.
Many herbalists find Teasel Root, an anti-inflammatory plant, useful
in treating Lyme disease and its co-infections. It also has the unique
ability to drive spirochete out of the body. There are many other
herbs that may help to alleviate Lyme symptoms and/or help to
strengthen immunity, including Cat’s Claw, Eleuthero, Red Root,
Nettles, St. Johnswort, Cinnamon, Thyme, Oregano, Sweet Annie,
White Willow, Gotu Kola, Bacopa, Rosemary, Ginko, Wood Betony,
Andographis, Japanese Knotweed, Ginseng, Milky Oats, Neem,
Smilax, Pau d’arco, and Astragalus.
A knowledgeable practitioner, experienced in treating Lyme disease can be integral in maintaining resiliency and overall health.
Certainly, taking steps to reduce risk of deer tick exposure is
critical for prevention. Fortunately, Lyme disease itself is not fatal; it
is possible to maintain health while living with Lyme.
Sara M. Woods Kender is a Certified
Herbalist, Reiki II Practitioner, and a
member of the American Herbalist
Guild. She incorporates dietary and
lifestyle changes along with herbs and
supplemnets to help people form a
path to health and welnness.
www.sarasherbs.com
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
www.nofanh.org
100%
Employee owned
Committed to
Organic Growers
Since 1973
U CTS S
O
Johnny’s
Selected Seeds
40
IO N S
IDE AS
OD
T
LU
PR
YEARS
SIN
CE 1973
Jasper
Over 350 Varieties of Organic Products
Ask for Christina Hillier, your Maine-Based Sales Representative
1-877-564-6697 • Johnnyseeds.com
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
www.nofanh.org
Page 13
Messages From NOFA-NH Board Directors
Public Policy Updates: Food & Farm Legislation
Alexis Simpson, Secretary, NOFA-NH Board of Directors
ood Safety, Food safety, Food Safety—you’ve probably been hearing these words often over the last
couple of years. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) aims to ensure that the U.S. food supply
is safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to contamination to preventing it.
The FSMA has come to life in the form of 1,200 pages of rules. Steve Gilman, of NOFA’s Interstate Policy
Staff, is working hard as part of the Food Safety Task Force of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
(NSAC) to distill the rules for you.
F
There will be a 120-day comment period, and soon we will be passing along information to you for
submitting comments. Here’s a link to a two-page fact sheet to get you started! www.nofanh.org/family-farms-regulations. We will also
post information as it comes in on the NOFA-NH website. We’ll provide insight as to how the rules will affect small- to medium-size
organic and sustainable farms so that you can be prepared to comment on the rules. Note that the rules have not gone into effect. Check
the NOFA-NH website for updates and pay attention for action alerts. Fundamentally, the FSMA will have an impact on all of us.
Ariane Lotti, Assistant Policy Director for NSAC, summarizes our focus on the FSMA by saying, “Ultimately, we want to ensure a safe food
supply, strong on-farm conservation of natural resources, and thriving family farms, and small value-added farm and food businesses. With
scale-appropriate regulations, we can achieve these objectives. We will analyze and comment on the proposed rules with these goals in
mind.”
The Farm Bill—It’s hard to know what to say. Thanks to so many of you who called, wrote, and visited your congress people, asking them
to a pass a timely farm bill that embraced programs related to conservation, nutrition assistance, and organic, sustainable, and beginner
farmers, as well as specialty crops. It was disappointing to see the work of so many well-intentioned folks get thrown to the wind when a
farm bill extension was passed as part of the fiscal cliff legislation.
We hope through mazes of new congressional action that some funding will be rescued this spring for legislation important to NOFANH farmers. We will let you know when you can help make this happen with calls to your representatives. Finally, keep in mind that
the current Farm Bill extension only lasts through September 30, 2013, so we will be looking to you again this year to take action to
encourage funding for organic research, land conservation, nutrition assistance, organic cost-share, and beginner farming, and much more.
We will send email action alerts, but you can also check out the NSAC website (www.sustainableagriculture.net) for up-to-the-minute
details on the Farm Bill.
NH Agriculture Resource: Free Mediation Services
Amy Manzelli, Esq, and Vice President, NOFA-NH Board of Directors
free service is available to New Hampshire’s agricultural community that can help you resolve disputes and solve problems.
Although we don’t want them to, disagreements inevitably do arise. The New Hampshire Agricultural Mediation Program
(NHAMP) can help to resolve conflict.
A
The NHAMP is an official program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, coordinated in New Hampshire by the Environmental
Mediation Center, a non-profit organization with expertise in agricultural issues and mediation, with a commitment to solving problems.
The mediation program is open to all New Hampshire residents who are involved in agriculture. Neither party in
a dispute needs to be a farmer or agricultural producer. The mediation program can help farmers who are having
conflicts or disputes with their lenders, suppliers, neighbors, customers, or Federal, State or local regulators.
There is no limit to the types of disputes that can be addressed. A few examples include:
• Loan, loan restructuring, and repayment problems;
• Environmental issues, such as wetlands, pesticides, run-off;
• Boundary or right of way issues with abutters;
• Crop Insurance;
• Farm management and transition issues.
If both parties of the dispute or problem are willing to try a free, non-binding approach to resolving their issues,
the NHAMP can provide an expert, neutral, and free mediator. The mediator will meet with the parties both
separately and together to explore resolution without the expense (and delay) of legal fees.
Lawyers and litigation will definitely resolve your dispute, but it can be expensive, both financially and emotionally. Mediation can be
effective, is much quicker, and in the case of this mediation program, is absolutely free. The mediator will try to find out whether the two
sides can reach a mutual agreement. Only you decide when to agree to a solution. The mediator cannot ever impose one upon you.
If the mediation program does not resolve the dispute, private (for pay) mediation, hiring a lawyer, further discussions between parties,
or any combination of these measures are still available. Again, better to avoid the disagreement in the first place. But, when trouble is
unavoidable, the free resource of the New Hampshire Agricultural Mediation Program should be a go-to source for help.
For more information: www.nhamp.emcenter.org
Page 14
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
www.nofanh.org
Update from NOFA-NH Treasurer
Counting Beans
Year End December 2012
by Jared R.Yeaton, CPA, JD, MBA, NOFA-NH Board Treasurer
F
iscal 2012 saw the organization make steady
progress in financial areas. The
organization closely monitored
revenue and expenses in comparison
to the budget and worked very
carefully to avoid unnecessary
expenditures and minimize other
expenses where possible. Also, due
to the dedicated work of our staff,
the organization had great success
in obtaining grant revenue, which
significantly exceeded what we
originally budgeted for 2012. And
even though we did not meet our program service revenue
goal, we still exceeded what we achieved in 2011. Best
of all was our bottom line. We achieved a net increase in
our net assets in the amount of $14,874 for the year. The
organization ended 2012 with $34,115 of unrestricted
net assets. On the down side, our membership revenue
dropped which has made us turn a critical eye inward
leading us to ask what we can do better to attract and
retain members.
We invested heavily in our human capital this year, culminating
with the hiring of our first executive director ever. The financials
already prove our investment was a wise. Not only do we expect
to offer more exciting and beneficial programs for our members
and friends, but we also expect to see even more increases to
our net assets. We put much needed investment into our website,
continuing the process of making it more informative and more
user-friendly. When we are finished, we are sure it will be the
go-to site for all things New Hampshire organic.
Going forward we have many important goals. We will continue
to fine tune our budget. The 2013 budget has passed and the
2014 budget is being developed. The website is still being refined
and populated with more and better information. We are ramping
up our fundraising efforts to a level not seen before. We are
also continually developing exciting new educational programs
designed specifically in response to feedback from our members.
The board is excited about the changes and the progress made,
and to be made.
NOFA-NH ~ March/April 2013
www.nofanh.org
Page 15
FROM THE 11TH ANNUAL
NOFA-NH Winter Conference
Notes From Two Keynote Presentations
K
by KC Wright, NOFA-NH Newsletter Editor
ristin Kimball provided a stimulating presentation on
Saturday morning, March 2nd with captivating photographs
and her poignant prose about life on her Essex Farm
near the Adirondack Mountains in Northern, New York. Thirteen
years ago, she and her husband Mark established their farm, a
unique operation that services 260 members with a full-diet, allyou-can-eat CSA, by implementing on-farm processing of member
owned livestock, and harnessing draft horses for much of the work
on their 16-acres of vegetables.
Kristin told how she and Mark hailed from practically opposite
world— she, a hip, Harvard educated writer, living in a tiny studio
apartment in New York City, while Mark (who Kristin described
as a bit of a “wingnut”) toiled as an organic farmer from his trailer
home in Western, Pennsylvania. After reading Eric Schlosser’s Fast
Food Nation, that Kristen credits for the start of the local food
movement, she thought it would be interesting to learn more
about sustainable food. So she drove
out to Pennsylvania to interview
Mark, finding him full of energy that
she quicly surmised, would make
great fodder for her writing. The rest
as they say, is history.
Through Kristen’s research and
practical experience as a farmer,
she outlined her perspective on
the conference’s theme: resiliency,
on Essex Farm. They grow grains—
wheat, corn, oats, and some rye.
Occasionally they do use tractors,
but rely heavily on single, four- and
six-abreast real horsepower. The
farm is a licensed raw milk dairy from the 16 mostly grass fed
Jersey cows, who receive a bit of grain when they come in to be
milked. Firewood is harvested from thinning out their sugarbush.
They employ a staff of ten and through a combination of grants,
have added solar power that offsets the electricity used on the
farm. As Kristen summarized, “All [this] in service of this hedonistic
thing we all love to do—eat food.”
Kristen and Mark recognize the challenges of climate change and
the need to expand the diversity of what they produce on the
farm. “Farmers are the liaison between the sun and the consumer,”
claimed Kristen.
She went on to say that the farm grosses about $500,000 per
year, which nets out to zero after the largest expense: payroll and
health insurance. Yet, Kristen expressed, the benefits of working to
be resilient are worthy, on the farm, in the community, and among
individuals and families. The farm has a hockey pond open to
anyone. Young, educated adults are attracted to the farm to both
learn the trade and perform meaningful work. Next year, Essex
Farm will also open a school to teach diversified, horse-drawn
farming.
Kristen closed her talk by reading a piece she had written, that
vividly described an intensely tedious Sunday morning of winter
milking, when she, her toddler, and infant, who were all sick, should
have been sleeping in. Despite the ordeal of trying to milk and
occupy her two cold and cranky children, she was able to find
some peace in the activity. Kristen’s advice for resiliency was to
“expect the end of the world, laugh, and be joyful that you have
considered all the facts,” of farming, including weather and death.
At the conference bookstore, she signed copies of her book, The
Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food and Love, an inspiring and
heartening read.
Building Resilience in Organic Systems
On Friday, March 1st, Jerry DeWitt, PhD, former Director of
the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State
University, outlined the challenges of organic farming including
water quality, extreme climate temperatures, decline in community
infrastructure, seed landrace, and fragile soils.
Jerry then detailed steps toward resiliency along with books and
resources to help with processes. He stressed the importance
of initiating and conducting annual on-farm field trials of plant
varieties and farm practices. Drought protection was highlighted
for its importance in maintaining the organic matter of the soil.
Jerry referenced the NOFA Crop Rotation and Cover Crop
books as resources for alternative nutrient sources and enhancing
soil health. He also suggested developing insectaries and riparian
zones for pollinators and beneficial insects.
He encouraged creating networks of like-minded farms and
regional sharing of equipment. He recommended keeping detailed
records of the farming enterprise including production and climate.
Jerry discussed extending the market season, after assessing your
niche. There is opportunity to develop alternative funding for
infrastructure such as SARE grants and through efforts such as
Kickstarter. Finally, Jerry recommended branding your organic
profits by associations with NOFA, ATTRA, SARE, the Leopold
Center, and OFRF.
December 2, 2012
NOFA-NH Annual Meeting
Board & Staff Retreat ~ Member Mixer & Pot Luck
2012 NOFA-NH Board & Staff Retreat
From Left to Right: Janet Wilkinson (First Executive Director) and Board Members: Alexis Simpson (Secretary), Amy Manzelli (Vice President), Leon-C Malan, Jack Mastrianni, Ron Christie, Joan O’Connor,Tim Wightman,
Andy Pressman, Scott Morrison (President), missing Jared Yeaton (Treasurer)
NOFA-NH Annual Meeting & Pot Luck
Coffin Cellars generously sampled their delicious New Hampshire made varetal wines. Here Jamie Austin and his mother greet members with wines made from
berries and more at their country winery in Webster, N.H. www.coffincellars.com