BCR Ag Matters_032324

Ag Matters

INSIDE

•Farm Rescue: The true spirit of agriculture

•A united effort for farm family mental health

•‘Four corners’ of agriculture support crop insurance

•and more...

A publication of

By JEANNINE OTTO jotto@shawmedia.com

PEORIA, Ill. — Early spells of warm weather mean that truckers who use rural roads in Illinois had an added challenge.

“We’re used to these road postings for some towns and counties to not happen until late February. Now we’re starting to see them earlier,” said Rodney Knittel, associate director of transportation and infrastructure for Illinois Farm Bureau.

Knittel said the truckers and farmers who are particularly affected by the early road postings tend to be working in the livestock sector.

“It will make an impact, especially on our livestock haulers and feed haulers. It’s a big challenge, especially

when we have to get animals into and out of farms,” said Knittel, who spoke while attending the 2024 Midwest Truck and Trailer Show, sponsored by the Mid-West Truckers Association.

Knittel said that transporting feed to farms and barns is vital and drivers oftentimes have to travel on roads that have posted seasonal weight limits.

“Animal welfare is the most important thing and feed and water are the two most important items for them. We have to get those to the farms, so working around those road postings can be very challenging,” he said.

Knittel had just heard a statewide road and bridge update from Omer Osman, the Illinois secretary of transportation.

Osman highlighted ongoing work

on transportation infrastructure throughout the state as part of the Rebuild Illinois Capital Plan.

“He talked a lot about bridges and infrastructure and that is a vital component for Illinois agriculture. He talked about bridge improvements and putting focus on the bridges that have a weight limit restriction,” Knittel said.

“Obviously, when we have weight restrictions in rural Illinois, it has the impact of a lot of extra miles added onto our travel. That is a key thing we keep an eye on at Illinois Farm Bureau.”

Knittel said IFB has been presenting a series of ongoing Rules for the Road seminars throughout the state.

“We’re here to learn about trucking regulations. Our ag exemptions are

challenging and are sometimes hard for our members to understand. We have our Rules for the Road seminars in March,” he said.

“We are excited about getting out to our members with that information and working with the Illinois State Police and the Illinois Department of Transportation.”

The schedule for the seminars is available at https://tinyurl.com/ yc55urj3.

Knittel said that, so far, 2024 hasn’t thrown up any roadblocks in terms of new regulations.

“Knock on wood, so far it’s been a quiet year. We’re always keeping our eye out for anything new in terms of regulations, especially dealing with agriculture and hauling ag commodities,” he said.

Farm Rescue: The true spirit of agriculture

By BERNT NELSON

“We take care of our own.” This phrase is often used to share empathy and love freely, and it was recently freely shared with my farming family.

Farming is a special business. It’s a virtuous way of life and a wonderful way to raise a family. But it’s also hard.

The ups and downs of running and living on a farm are challenging to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it firsthand. Hard times can break you, but they can also bring growth.

My story is about an organization that shows up during the darkest times on the farm, and through grace, turns the darkest of hours into times of unity.

First, some background. I am the oldest of three brothers and we could not be more different or better friends.

I spend my days in Washington, D.C., serving the farmers I care about as an economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

My middle brother operates the family farm in North Dakota with his

wife alongside my father and mother. My other brother is a project manager in Boston.

It had been five years since our farm in rural Fullerton, North Dakota, was struck by the word “cancer.” My father, Ben, is a miracle, saved from pancreatic cancer by the

caring hands of doctors and nurses at the Mayo Clinic.

Since his diagnosis, Ben has experienced five birthdays, five anniversaries, three weddings and welcomed his first grandchild, my daughter, into the world. Then about a year ago, cancer came back.

First, the chemo that had saved my father’s life now threatened it in the form of leukemia. A week later, what was thought to be a hip injury to my youngest brother in Boston turned out to be an 8-inch lymphoma tumor.

As treatment plans were assembled for both of my family members,

Nelson

NELSON FAMILY FARMS PHOTO

Farm Rescue is one-of-a-kind nonpro t organization that plants and harvests crops free of charge for family farmers who have su ered a major illness, injury or natural disaster.

the reality sank in that we were approaching crop planting season with limited access to the key farm decision-makers.

It turns out that my father’s biggest threat to survival was an infection and the most dangerous place he could be was in the field. The doctors told him, a lifetime farmer, that he had to stay out of the soil that gives life to the crops grown on our farm.

Fortunately, I was able to team up with my brother and his wife, who showed incredible leadership and resilience, to get the crop planted. It was a full family effort including my daughter and wife day after day, night after night, but we got the job done.

Then came fall harvest. Family and neighbors helped, providing equipment and labor anywhere they could, but with harvesting to do and jobs of their own, we were still short on labor.

Not knowing where to turn, family and friends suggested Farm Rescue. Farm Rescue is a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 that assists farmers in times of crisis that threaten the continuity of their farms.

The Farm Rescue mission is the very definition of grace — providing necessary equipment and manpower free of charge.

Its mission encompasses the core values that underpin the lives of families and people who are involved with farming at any level. The organization has shared this grace with over 1,000

farms in crisis since its inception.

Farm Rescue sent two people to help us wherever they could. They ate and worked with us day after day, harvesting corn and soybeans for nearly a month. Then neighbors jumped in and brought extra combines and trucks.

My brother and his wife spent most days keeping us all going as my mother and father were quarantined in Rochester, Minnesota, for his life-saving stem cell transplant. Everyone had a job and worked together like a well-oiled machine toward the common goal.

This not only got the crop off the field, but allowed my father to undergo his treatment without having to worry about what would happen to the farm in his absence.

Thanks to Farm Rescue, some of the darkest days of our lives turned into unity. Grace poured out from our community, families and friends during this time of need.

This is just one of a thousand stories, but is a testimony to the blessings this wonderful organization gives freely with no expectation of return.

Farm Rescue encompasses the very image of God’s grace through community. From my perspective, this is the true spirit of agriculture.

Bernt Nelson is an economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Raising the roof New barn to house livestock

By TOM C. DORAN

tdoran@shawmedia.com

ELWOOD, Ill. — A group raised the roof in rural Will County in northeastern Illinois, but it wasn’t from celebrating the winning goal or rambunctious behavior.

A team from FBi Buildings was raising the roof of a 60-by-200-foot barn for Everett Hauert.

The roof was built at ground level.

The wall posts — each comprised of three 2-by 6-inch boards — are hinged to the roof frame, and as the roof was raised by eight hydraulic lifts connected to steel beams, the wall posts moved inward and slid into slots on the posts that are secured to the ground.

“Out of the 10 or 12 pole building manufacturers, FBi Buildings is the only one that builds the roof on the ground,” Hauert said.

“Eventually, it’s going to be 120-foot by 200-foot. We’re going to put a 30foot lean-to on each side. So, it will total 24,000 square feet and it’s 16 feet high at the peak.”

Materials from buildings that were once part of the former Joliet Arsenal will be used for lean-to construction.

“One of the buildings we removed from the former arsenal property was a very historical building used for locomotive engine repair. It was a 50-foot square building that will be constructed west of the house,” Hauert said.

mouth. We also have a signs on the highway promoting our grass-fed beef. Most of our business comes from the signs on the highway, repeat customers, and word of mouth.

“We don’t use corn for feed. The reason for that is marbled fat is no longer omega-6 fat, which is the fat in the beef when you feed them grain. When you feed them no grain and hay only, the marbled fat is now omega-3. Omega-3, which fish oil also contains, cleanses our veins and lowers our cholesterol.”

Development

Another 50-by-150 foot building will be constructed north of the barn with arsenal material.

The move to build the pole barn was necessitated by nearby development.

The new barn will be used for livestock, as well as hay and machinery storage.

GRASS-FED BEEF

Hauert raises grass-fed An-gus beef and also pork.

“We currently have 10 head of Angus. We normally have 15 to 25 head on hand. We buy feeder calves at different ages and weight levels, so that we constantly have two to three head a month available for processing,” he said.

“Our beef is sold locally by word of

Hauert said his current pasture where the livestock is located two miles from the new barn was purchased by NorthPoint Development as part of a planned warehouse complex. The livestock will be moved to the new barn location.

“NorthPoint has purchased property in all directions of us here. They are going to put up 35 warehouses that are going to be 500 feet by 2,000 feet, and they are going to be on all four sides of us here on this 20-acre piece of land. They bought a total of 3,500 acres that’s going to be developed for warehousing,” Hauert said.

AGRINEWS PHOTO/TOM C. DORAN

Everett Hauert explains the unique construction process for his 60-by-200-foot pole barn in the early phrase of lifting the roof to its 16-foot peak height.

AGRINEWS PHOTO/TOM C. DORAN FBi Buildings worker adjusts the wall beams to the bottom base once the roof was raised. The wall beams were then secured to the base.

Checko partnership introduces hot chocolate milk program in schools

ROSEMONT, Ill. — A dairy checkoff partnership is putting hot chocolate milk into the hands of students during a pilot with a leading school foodservice company.

National Dairy Council and Chartwells K12, which serves more than 2 million meals daily at 700 U.S. school districts, have launched the Hot Chocolate Milk program in 58 schools.

The pilot, which will run through the end of the school year, features chocolate milk — with toppings such as cinnamon and peppermint — served hot during breakfast and lunch.

NDC began working with Chartwells K12 last year on a dairy-based smoothie program, which is available to all Chartwells schools following a successful pilot.

Lisa Hatch, vice president of business development for NDC’s school channel, said the smoothie program’s success led to a “what’s the next big thing?” discussion between the partners.

They focused on hot chocolate, which had a global market size valued at $3.8 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to $5.77 billion by 2030.

Additionally, chocolate is the second most popular beverage flavor on TikTok with more than 10.1 million views related to #ChocolateDrink.

Hatch said some state and regional checkoff teams already have success-

ful hot chocolate strategies in place. She said those programs on average experienced 14% increases of milk sales and an 11% jump in breakfast participation.

“We’re always investigating opportunities to enhance the school milk experience, which is where the smoothie pilot came from,” she said. “That led us to looking at trends and hot chocolate surfaced the same way smoothies did. And looking at the state and regional hot chocolate programs, the results were very impressive.”

Chartwells K12 is optimistic hot chocolate milk will be popular among students and can help increase overall meal participation in schools.

“The popularity of specialty beverages is on the rise, and we’re bringing a healthy option to meet that demand in school cafeterias,” said Lindsey Palmer, a registered dietitian who serves as vice president of nutrition and industry relations for Chartwells K12.

“With our new Hot Chocolate Milk concept, students can enjoy a fun, warm beverage that is packed with essential nutrients, making it a delicious and healthy treat to help kids power through their day.”

Katie Bambacht, vice president of nutrition affairs for NDC, said research shows chocolate milk is the most popular milk choice in schools and leads

to higher total milk consumption and better overall diet quality.

Flavored milk offers the same 13 essential nutrients as white milk and she feels this partnership will provide a much-needed boost to schools, which struggle to get students to eat breakfast.

“School feeding programs are faced with numerous

gram received a Hot Chocolate Milk kit provided by NDC through Hubert, a foodservice equipment manufacturer. The kit includes a transport cart with branded panels, an insulated beverage dispenser, a digital thermometer and more.

LOCAL BUILDING EXPERTISE

A united e ort for farm family mental health

By ZIPPY DUVALL

When a storm comes rolling through or tragedy strikes, farmers and ranchers are always willing to pitch in to help our family, friends or community. It’s how we are wired.

We are built for community and ready to help, no matter the challenge. But what about the storms and issues brewing within our own minds?

Too often, because of our quiet strength or other pressures, farmers try to take on our internal battles alone, despite there being countless folks out there eager to support us.

At our annual convention in Salt Lake City, we announced our partnership with the Farm Family Wellness Alliance and launched access to Togetherall, a resource that provides a safe, anonymous online peer-to-peer community moderated 24/7 by licensed mental health professionals.

The Farm Family Wellness Alliance is made up of Farm Foundation, American Farm Bureau Federation, Farm Credit, CoBank, Iowa Farm Bureau, CHS, Land O’Lakes, National Farmers Union, 4-H, FFA, Agriculture Future of America, Togetherall and Personal Assistance Services.

This coalition of agriculture organizations understands the far-reaching impacts of mental health and well-being across rural America and know that working together will have a greater impact.

Many times, folks are hesitant to reach out for

help or simply don’t know where to start. And that’s where Togetherall comes in.

Thanks to this work with the Farm Family Wellness Alliance, mental health and well-being solutions are now available to our nation’s farmers and their family members who are aged 16 or older. Together, we can deepen the impact of our greatest resource — community.

Rural mental health has long been a priority for AFBF and we are excited to continue to expand our toolbox of resources and help make community and support more available to our farm family members.

So, how can you access this resource or share it with a friend or family member? It’s easy to set up an anonymous profile, and from there, you can access the network of peers through community discussions and one-on-one chats, receive confidential and on-demand support from mental health professionals and explore a library of resources filled with self-assessments and self-help courses.

And get this — through the Alliance’s partnership with PAS, if additional well-being or counseling services are needed, they will be made available to farm families free of charge.

In addition to Togetherall’s global network of groups to join and topics to explore, farmers and their families will also have access to an agricultural-specific group to share or read others’ stories in a safe, judgment-free zone.

Farming is a tough and sometimes lonely profession, but when we can share and hear the experiences of those going through similar situations, we are reminded that we are never truly alone.

There are so many great things happening with Togetherall and I hope you will visit our Farm State of Mind site — at www.fb.org/initiative/farmstate-of-mind — to learn more about all the services now available to farm families.

Zippy Duvall is the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Duvall

Rotational grazing benefits land, cows, milk, people

Used for everything from cereal to pancakes, protein shakes and lattes, many people enjoy milk. However, not all milk is created equal. Kilgus Farmstead near Fairbury, Illinois, has redefined everything you thought you knew about milk — and more importantly the cows that produce it.

Paul Kilgus manages the Farmstead’s 170-head rotationally grazed Jersey cow herd, while his nephew, Matt, and sons, Justin, Trent, and their families work together to make their business successful.

The first 30 cows on Kilgus ground were Holsteins, purchased by Paul’s father Duane in 1950. Holsteins produce a lot of milk, and this worked for the family for 50 years. But as we all know, things change.

Paul came back to the farm in 1987, and shortly thereafter, Multiple Component Pricing as a milk pricing policy began in January 2000. Under the new rules, farmers were paid producers based on pounds of butterfat, protein, and solids in cows’ milk,

instead of sheer milk volume. Anticipating this new policy, the family sold their Holsteins and bought a Jersey cow herd. But why Jersey?

“Holsteins produce more milk, but Jersey feed efficiency is better,” Paul says. “The fat and protein content in Jersey milk is substantially higher, which, due to the component pricing, was beneficial for us. After the Jersey herd purchase, we never looked back.”

In the mid 2000s, Paul and other family partners visited some regional farms practicing something called rotational grazing — and were inspired by what they saw.

“It just felt right; getting the animals onto the land, eating grass.” Fifty acres of Kilgus ground were soon planted into a six-way permanent pasture mix. In 2008, their rotational grazing journey began.

Rotational grazing optimizes for maximum health and productivity of grass and livestock. Larger pastures are divided into many smaller paddocks. Cows are rotated to a new paddock as soon as forages are 40% to 50% grazed — allowing pastures ample regrowth before being grazed again, while preventing erosion and compaction. Paul noted a steep learning curve — but the benefits became

evident quickly.

“Our herd health, reproductive health, and even longevity improved noticeably. Healthier cows meant less vet bills, less antibiotics, and more milk! In spring and fall when the pastures are lush for weeks, it’s a nobrainer.”

65% to 85% of the cows’ diets comes from pastures during the grazing season, which runs from April 1 through Nov. 15. “It’s not 100% grass, by any means, but a far cry from where we once were.”

Jersey cow milk has the highest protein and fat content of the top five common dairy breeds in the U.S. While most agree that a high-protein diet is healthy, some shy away from the higher fat content. But not all fats are created equal, as many are finding out.

Minnesota Extension Organic Dairy Scientist Brad Heins notes in “Grass-fed cows produce healthier milk” that cows eating majority-grass diets have significantly higher levels of Omega-3 fatty acids in their milk than dairy cows raised in confinement. Omega-3s are known to reduce risks of cardiovascular disease, increase brain health, and reduce inflammation. It turns out, healthy pasture grasses contain

healthy fats, and cows can pass them on through milk.

In 2009, Kilgus Farmstead decided to start bottling their own milk onfarm. “We wanted to be able to sell milk to people from this farm, from these cows, that ate this pasture grass,” Paul says. “That glass of milk means a whole lot more to customers if they got to meet some of the cows it came from.”

I shared with Paul that Illinois Extension exists to serve stakeholders all across Illinois and is taxpayer-funded to do so. How might we help producers like Kilgus? “We need more research into soil health of pastures specifically. We’ve figured out a rejuvenation process for our permanent pastures that works for us, but we don’t know why it works. We would welcome collaboration with researchers out here to conduct soil health research that focuses on forage and pasture health innovation.

Asked what the most important thing is that is happening in the world of farming right now, Paul said: “Local products are in demand. Local products speak.” Indeed, they do.

Nick Frillman is a University of Illinois Extension local food systems and small farms educator.

Nick Frillman

Extension Notebook

‘Four corners’ of agriculture support crop

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Leadership from the Senate and House agriculture committees delivered a clear message to the Crop Insurance Industry Annual Convention: Crop insurance has bicameral and bipartisan support from the “four corners” of agriculture.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Ranking Member John Boozman, R-Ark., and House Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., and Ranking Member David Scott, D-Ga., will be the chief architects of the next farm bill.

Speaking to the convention virtually, Stabenow emphasized the importance of crop insurance as a risk management tool.

“We are going to get this (farm bill) done by being creative and thoughtful and bipartisan. We need to make sure that our cornerstone is focused on our best risk management tool, and that’s called crop insurance,” she said.

The other members provided recorded remarks.

Boozman emphasized his commitment to a farm bill that addresses the “unique and unprecedented challenges” that America’s farmers and ranchers are currently facing.

“We must give producers the risk management tools they need to succeed — tools that reflect the nature of the challenges under which they operate,” he said. “Maintaining and improving crop insurance is at the top of my list of priorities (for the farm bill).”

Thompson spoke to the certainty of crop insurance and called attacks on crop insurance in the farm bill a “terrible idea.”

“Crop insurance is the most reliable form of risk management for producers,” he said, criticizing the Government Accountability Office. “Protecting crop insurance from attacks from terrible ideas, like those recently proposed by GAO, also remains a priority for the committee.”

Crop insurance is the cornerstone of the farm safety net, Scott said.

“A strong farm bill means maintaining a very strong crop insurance program,” Scott said.

“Crop insurance helps our farmers … continue the hard work they do to feed our country and the world. And at its core, that is what the farm bill is all about: Keeping farmers farming, and keeping families in our nation fed,” he said.

This overwhelming support for crop

insurance should come as no surprise.

Recent polling from National Crop Insurance Services found that 87% of voters believe it’s important that Congress support multi-generational

family farmers by passing a farm bill that includes risk management tools like crop insurance that allow farmers to stay in business following disasters.

95% of farms in U.S.

By TOM C. DORAN tdoran@shawmedia.com

WASHINGTON — Results of the 2022 Census of Agriculture indicated a continued decline in the number of farms, a rise in the number of new and beginning farmers and young producers in the nation, and family-operated farms continue to dominate the landscape.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service released the nationwide and state-by-state results Feb. 13.

The survey, conducted every five years, includes more than 6 million data points about America’s farms and ranches and the people who operate them down to the county level.

The full Census of Agriculture report as well as publication dates for additional ag census data products can be found at nass.usda.gov/AgCensus. Ag census data can also be found in NASS’s searchable online database, Quick Stats.

Ag census data provide valuable insights into demographics, economics, land use and activities on U.S. farms and ranches.

Here are some highlights of the U.S. findings.

• There were 1.9 million farms and ranches, down 7% from 2017, with an average size of 463 acres, up 5%, on 880 million acres of farmland, down 2%. That is 39% of all U.S. land.

• Family-owned and operated farms accounted for 95% of all U.S. farms and operated 84% of land in farms.

• U.S. farms and ranches produced $543 billion in agricultural products, up from $389 billion in 2017. With farm production expenses of $424 billion, U.S. farms had net cash income of $152 billion.

• Average farm income rose to $79,790. A total of 43% of farms had positive net cash farm income in 2022.

• Farms with internet access continued to rise from 75% in 2017 to 79% in 2022.

• A total of 153,101 farms and ranches used renewable energy producing systems compared to 133,176 farms in 2017, a 15% increase. The majority of farms, at 76%, with renewable energy systems reported using solar panels.

• In 2022, 116,617 farms sold directly to consumers, with sales of $3.3 billion. Value of sales increased 16% from 2017.

• The 105,384 farms with sales of $1 million or more were 6% of U.S. farms and 31% of farmland; they sold more than three-fourths of all agricultural products. The 1.4 million farms with sales of $50,000 or less accounted for 74% of farms, 25% of farmland and 2% of sales.

• Nearly three-fourths of farmland was used by farms specializing in two commodity categories: oilseed and grain production, at 32%, and beef

cattle production, at 40%.

• The average age of all producers was 58.1, up 0.6 years from 2017. This is a smaller increase than average age increases between prior censuses.

• There were just over 1 million farmers with 10 or fewer years of experience, an increase in the number of beginning farmers from 2017 of 11%. Beginning farmers are younger than all farmers, with an average age of 47.1.

• The number of producers under age 35 was 296,480, comprising 9% of all producers. The 221,233 farms with young producers making decisions tend to be larger than average in both acres and sales.

• In 2022, 1.2 million female producers accounted for 36% of all producers. Fifty-eight percent of all farms had at least one female decision maker.

• The response rate for the 2022 Census of Agriculture was 61%; more than 40% of responses were submitted online.

First conducted in 1840 in conjunction with the decennial census and conducted since 1997 by NASS — the federal statistical agency responsible for producing official data about U.S. agriculture — the Census of Agriculture remains the most comprehensive agricultural data for every state and county in the nation.

“We are pleased to provide updated Census of Agriculture data to all those who serve U.S. agriculture, especially the producers who gave their time to complete the questionnaire. Census of Agriculture data tell a story. This comprehensive snapshot every five years helps data users to see trends and shifts in the industry over time and helps producers do business,” said

previous ag census. Data

will

NASS Administrator Hubert Hamer. “Overall, though there are always changes across U.S. agriculture, the data remain largely consistent with

the

users

also notice some new data on the topics of hemp, precision agriculture and internet access.”

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