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(right) Brian Martin raises a variety of exotic pheasants, peafowl, and trumpeter swans at his farm near Winona. He sells birds all over the U.S.
(far right) Several peacocks roost at Martin Game Farm near Winona. Brian Martin has modified existing buildings and built new buildings on his farm to create pens for his different birds.
ht) Brian Martin raises ety ear everal ed d built new on his cr nt s.
BY AMY KYLLO | STAFF WRITER
WINONA – Little did Brian Martin know as a ten-year-old raising ring neck pheasants, that one day his pastime would grow into a largescale, exotic, 250bird hobby.
Martin owns Martin Game Farm, where he currently raises 32 breeds of exotic birds. He raises 14 breeds of pheasants, 17 breeds of peafowl, peacocks are the male peafowl, and trumpeter swans. His game farm includes one of the largest collections of Satyr Tragopan pheasants in the country.
Martin raises around 100 peafowl chicks and 20 to 25 tragopan chicks each year to sell. If he doesn’t buy or barter the birds in person, he will ship them in boxes via the United States Postal Service. Martin has supplied zoos as far away as New York and even sold a private party pheasants that they kept on top of the building they live in on Staten Island.
Martin has an established market and has not advertised a bird for sale in five years. He said that he has a twoyear waiting list for birds. And, his birds are valuable, a pair can sell for $800 to $1,000. The high price of exotic birds is the result of the high costs of raising them Martin said.
All of the birds Martin breeds are native to Asia. Their origins include places such as China, Nepal, India, Afganistan, Southern Tibet, Malaysia and the Himalayan mountains. Because of their climate origins, raising the birds in the temperature extremes of Minnesota is challenging.
Martin said many of his birds are used to cool, temperate mountains but not considered hardy.
“The pheasants I’m raising, you can’t raise in Florida because of the temperature difference in the humidity,” Martin said. “And there’s pheasants they raised in Florida I can’t raise up here because they don’t take the cold.”
Martin uses fans all summer long to keep the birds cool. Some of his birds spend the winter under heat lamps to escape the bitter cold. He said that in the
winter his heat bill alone can hit $700. Even given the cost of his large collection, Martin enjoys it.
“It’s not a business by any means,” Martin said. “It’s just a hobby that tries to pay for itself.”
As a hobby, Martin has shared the birds with others. He recalls how once a young boy from his area was hoping to buy birds and only had a few dollars to spend so he told the child that’s exactly what they cost.
“I ended up sending then home with a couple hundred dollars of pheasants for like $5,” Martin said.
The birds mate in spring and early summer and most eggs are laid in April and May. He collects the eggs each day, and every three to four days he will place eggs in the incubator to be hatched. He also will sell some fertilized eggs. He raises the chicks until October or November when he sends them to their new homes. The bird-lover only overwinters his breeding pairs.
Martin works full time for UPS in addition to caring for his exotic birds. Each fall he takes the majority of his vacation time to do a building project for his birds.
He has converted the buildings on his farm site and built new buildings for the birds. Most of the breeding pairs each have their own personal pen, but this depends on the type of bird and their age.
Martin page 2
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Many of the birds are aggressive at breeding time and would kill each other if housed with more than their mate, he said.
Martin works to give every bird 100-square-feet or more of space. His pens are usually 8-feet wide and 28-or-32 feet long for a pair of birds. Each pen is enclosed by chicken wire to keep out predators on the ground and from the sky. The financial risk of not having predator proof pens ranges in the thousands. Martin has had $4,000 of birds die in one night from a predator.
Different birds require different habitats in their pens. Martin puts in lots of places to roost because many of the birds are used to spending the majority of their time in trees. The Tragopan pheasants are grass eaters, and enjoy having plants in their pens to feed on. Impeyan pheasants, on the other hand, love to dig in their pens.
“They’re just constantly like little garden tillers,” Martin said. “And in their native habitat, they’re just digging for bugs and worms all the time.”
ST RMartin designed the Impeyan’s pens without plants because the birds will destroy them. The ground is sand with a
drainage system beneath it so they can dig to their hearts content. Sand is Martin’s preferred digging medium for the Impeyans because they can get gapeworms from digging in mud which can cause obstruction to the trachea.
In the fall, West Nile virus, carried by late season mosquitos, is also a threat to the birds.
Martin’s birds have similar diets. They receive cracked corn, gamebird pellets, sunfl er seeds and wild finch food that he blends together in a small cement mixer. Protein levels are the main way their diets differ. Pheasants require 20% protein and peafowl only need 11%. The birds receive slightly richer diets during breeding season.
Martin page 4
“The cows are out!”
Nothing in the world makes this non-athlete move faster than these words. In our household, that meant drop and run in a very real sense. Growing up on a dairy farm where 100% of our animals three months of age and older were contained (at least in part) with non-permanent electric fence meant that I heard these words more than once.
The cow escape that stands in my mind as the most epic was on my 14th birthday. Somehow, three of our six-monthold calves had gotten themselves about a mile away from our farm. We lived on a busy road, and for no reason that I can really put my finger on, the police had been called and there were two squads and three officers at the scene. I’m sure my parents were dying with embarrassment, but I was having a birthday I would never forget. We had a police escort the entire mile walk home and then an officer waiting at the farm when we put them back in.
We had scoops of ice cream that evening instead of birthday cake because Mom didn’t have time to bake with the glorious spectacle that was our afternoon. I think Mom felt bad, but for me, the cool factor of having a real police escort drowned out any sadness of missing out on birthday cake. After all, you can have birthday cake every year, but having a police escort to help you walk calves home happens none too often.
There are less cheery memories of cows escaping too. The mornings I woke up to a stentorian call up the stairs from Dad saying “Girls, we’ve got cows out” is high on the list of least favorite moments. Starting your morning on an angry, grumpy adrenaline high
as you tear around outside in the morning dew clothed half in pajamas and half in your chore clothes. As you run you wonder ‘why today?’ as you count just how many precious hours and minutes of sleep you’re missing as you make a mad gallop to head off the cows before they reach the road. The worst part was, you never could get back to sleep and you always just ended up starting your day a little early.
Herding cattle in general is a ripe place for emotions to run a little high. I still remember being a tiny girl who wasn’t big enough to herd cattle, being high and dry from the action on the outside of the gate as my family tried to get a new heifer through the doorway into the milking barn. As I relaxed comfortably like a Roman citizen watching gladiators fight wild beasts, I remember secretly cheering the cow on to dash past one of my older sisters yet one more time so that my personal show wouldn’t be over yet.
The memory makes me grin, but I also realize just what a little brat I was. Of course, it wasn’t
long before I was big enough to help herd cattle. As overdramatic as this sounds, I still count the worst day of my life to date as occurring one spring day when I was about 10. We were moving heifers and dry cows onto spring pasture. That day, there wasn’t a fence on our farm that could hold those cows. Any place they could get out, they did, and it turned into a wild circus of chasing and fixing.
My mom had a genius idea that she used to keep up morale amongst my sisters and I on the farm on particularly arduous days, often when cows were out. She would say “It’s the Kyllo spa!” and remind us just how toned and fit we were going to be because of the forced exercise.
These comments often came at moments when you had been running or lifting or had chased cows through waist-high soybeans or had been walking through corn over your head trying to not get cuts on your face. In moments like these being a little chubbier and out of shape sounded like a good option compared to Mom’s alternative.
In spite of the hard days, I wouldn’t trade the tremendous way I grew up for anything. If I’m ever out on your farm and the cows are out, just remember that you’ve got a friend in me, because this ain’t my first rodeo.
Grade: 12
Parents: Jon and Lara Larson
FFA Chapter: Lake City FFA
Tell us about your FFA program and your involvement in it: We have meetings every second Monday of the month. We talk about what is going on that month and plan for the next month. I am the sentinel of the chapter and this is my first year being an officer. I have helped with the pancake breakfast, donkey basketball, corn shredding days, planting flowers at the funeral home, bringing animals to the funeral home and to the elementary so the kids can learn how to hold the animal and learn more about the animal.
What new skills have you learned in the last year in FFA? I have learned leadership skills and career development events.
Overall, what is the greatest benefit you have received from being involved in FFA? I do believe that FFA is a great thing for students, it gets them out of their comfort zone and learning communication skills. What other hobbies and interests do you have outside of FFA? I enjoy hanging out with friends and family, playing with my animals, hunting and fishing, shooting clay pigeons and ranger riding. What are your plans for the future? I’m planning to do an apprenticeship for being an electrician.
Tell us about your FFA program and your involvement in it: We are the Randolph FFA reporters this year, we take part in social media operations, communicating with newspapers, organizing weekly radio interviews and much more.
What new skills have you learned in the last year in FFA? FFA has taught us many life lessons, communication and leadership skills. A big part of communication is being able to network and talk to members of our community.
Overall, what is the greatest benefit you have received from being involved in FFA?
We value the team working skills that have developed throughout our years. Meeting new people has been very valuable and will definitely have a big impact on my future.
Grade: 12
Parents: Micheal Hoover, Joseph Amy, Michelle Amy FFA Chapter: Randolph FFA
What other hobbies and interests do you have outside of FFA? Grace enjoys showing her limousine cattle as well as competing in FFA events. Sophia’s maininterest is working at her family’s restaurant and helping out on the farm.
What are your plans for the future? Sophia plans to complete her general college classes and then move on to university education in the medical field. Grace will be attending a college to work on a career in agriculture.
Martin also feeds his birds lettuce and strawberries. The birds love them. He works to feed them some produce in the winter and in the fall, Martin will buy the birds pumpkins, muskmelon and watermelon which they also enjoy.
Chicks receive 28% protein medicated feed.
Monitoring protein intake for chicks is important because certain birds will develop abnormalities if they get too much, he said. Tragopan pheasants will develop bad legs and trumpeter swans will have abnormal wings.
Martin has developed a network of friends across the U.S. who also raise game birds. Recently, he drove to Iowa to meet a friend from Pennsylvania and a friend from Nebraska to do a bird swap.
“I’m pretty good friends with probably 12 to 15 other people that are about as busy as I am with this,” Martin said. “We all kind of work together for differ-
ent bloodlines and who needs what.”
Swapping and bartering is key for keeping genetics as strong as possible. Martin said that only about five pairs of some of the breeds of birds he owns were ever imported to the US. This means that most birds of this breed in the U.S. are related. Importing new bloodlines is very difficult due to the extreme challenge to get birds and the prohibitive costs. A pair of birds can cost $1,800 in quarantine fees alone, plus the cost of the birds themselves and international shipping. The mortality rate of birds traveling such a distance can also be a problem, he said.
Martin has been raising birds since childhood. At one point he was raising 3,000 ring neck pheasants per year.
Martin plans to continue his game farm into the future.
“I’ve been building this for so long I mean, you really can’t quit,” Martin said.
CALEDONIA – A round, navy blue Harvestore silo adorned with a brick red front door and white trim serves as a farm store and a new Airbnb rental in Caledonia.
The silo, damaged when the adjoining barn burned to the ground in 2001, has been standing for decades unused at Gerdes Dairy Farm, home of the raw milk business, Gerdes Fresh Farm.
“A small project turned into a really big project,” Jonathan Gerdes said.
Jonathan and his wife, Liz, along with Jonathan’s parents, William and Carol, who are co-owners of the farm,
began making improvements to the silo two years ago. They spent the first year transforming the lower level into a farm store to serve the farm’s raw milk customers. This year, they completed the upper level which has been completely renovated into a guest house and includes a full-size bed in a lofted area accessed by a ladder, as well as a main floor pull out couch, bathroom/ shower and kitchenette.
The silo windows provide a tree-top view of the sunrise and sunset and the 8-foot glass door opens to an upper-level deck where guests can sit and enjoy the sights and the sounds of the woods and farm.
The space will not
only be a haven for the Gerdes family. When they make it available for rental beginning in April on the Airbnb website, they plan to offer farm tours as an add-on to the bookings.
“I’d love to give people a farm experience,” Jonathan said.
Liz said it is a way to share their farm story.
“People are so disconnected from any kind of agriculture,” she said. “The chance to not only stay on a farm but in a silo and get a tour from the farmer is like nothing most people would ever be able to do. That’s what we want to share with people.”
Gerdes page 7
They envision offering guests the opportunity to milk cows by hand and attach the milking machine. They will also be able to feed the cows and spend time with the calves, bottle-feeding them and playing with them.
If the season is right, Liz said a guest could perhaps drive a tractor.
“For a lot of people who come to the farm, it’s so new and different,” she said. The customers who come to the farm to purchase raw milk often ask questions about the animals and are interested in seeing aspects of farm life.
The Gerdes family milks 100 cows in a swing-10 parlor they retrofitted in a tiestall barn.
They also farm 200 acres to produce feed for their herd.
They have five part-time em-
ployees who help with milking and they run the farm as the fourth generation.
Jonathan and Liz are the fourth generation to farm and are in the process of taking over the farm.
The raw milk at Gerdes Fresh Farm is processed separately from the farm’s other milk. The farm sells the bulk of its milk to Associated Milk Producers Inc. and then has a bulk tank on the farm for the raw milk business. They milk specific cows for the raw milk business using a different set of equipment.
“We win quality awards on all the milk we produce,” Liz said. “But when we sell it raw, we go above and beyond. We know we’re giving families the best of the best every time.” They test components every month to ensure the raw milk cows are producing product with a high milk fat content and low somatic cell count.
“I need to know with 100
percent certainty that it’s a quality cow and quality milk and that it’s going to be quality every single time,” Liz said.
The Gerdes family built the farm store and the silo’s guest house while running the farm, and they did nearly everything themselves.
When they replaced the roof of the silo, which was damaged from the 2001 fire and developed rust holes after sitting unused, they hired a company with a crane and relied on family and friends to help them get the new roof in place.
To research the project, Jonathan said the couple watched YouTube videos and had help from family, friends and his father, who built his own house.
a great place
simple
(left) The barnwood that adorns the ceiling and floor inside this silo Airbnb rental comes from a neighbor who was tearing down a barn. The window and door trim was pulled from a second downed barn, bits of red and white from the original barns still show through on the aged wood.
We win quality awards on all the milk we produce, but when we sell it raw, we go above and beyond. We know we’re giving families the best of the best every time.
- Liz GerdesPHOTOS SUBMITTED (above) The kitchenette inside this silo Airbnb serves as to fix a snack or a meal. A ladder leads to an upper loft finished with sleeping quarters. Gerdes page 8
Gerdes from page 7
“We’re dairy farmers so we’re used to doing a bit of everything and figuring it out as we go along,” Jonathan said.
Liz said they learned quickly why the majority of homes in the country are made square.
“We learned how to do everything round,” she said. … “We learned
a lot and the learning was not easy.”
They followed You-
Tube instructions to learn how to apply water to sheetrock with a rag in order to bend it into the circular frame. They learned how to cut plywood thin enough to create shiplap on the rounded walls.
The ceiling of the
guest house was created from old barn wood given to them by a neighbor who was tearing down a barn. The guest house flooring is from the hay barn floor of the same property. Using barn wood from a second neighbor, they created trim around the windows.
While most of the paint has faded from the barn wood, there is still evidence of the original red and white barns.
The Gerdes family said they hope the end result has a sense of nostalgia and provides a place where people can learn.
“The idea is to represent agriculture and farming in a positive light,” Liz said. “To come here and have a good experience and be able to ask a farmer your questions instead of going to TikTok, there’s nothing quite like that.”
er to help the
family affix a new roof to the old silo on their farm. The silo was originally damaged by a fire in the adjoining barn and sat empty for years before the Gerdes’ decided to renovate it into something new.
from page 9
Once the lye mixture and oils are melted and ready, they use an immersion blender to mix them together and the soap undergoes saponification. Once the soap has traced and is at the ‘gravy stage’ the recipe diverts to whatever type they are making and they add scents, colors and other add ins.
The Wolfs use essential oils for their lavender and lemongrass scented soaps. The other scented soaps use a blend of fragrance oils and essential oils. For coloring they use mica powder. Jenni said the soap will color bath water but will not color skin or the bathtub itself.
Most of their soaps just have colors and scents, but two of their soaps including their oat-
meal honey soap, add in other locally-produced products. Recently, they have been experimenting with adding coffee grounds to one of their soaps as well.
Once all ingredients have been added, the soap is poured into silicone molds fitted in small wooden boxes. The soap sits for one day before the molds are removed from the box. On day four, the soap is cut using their soap cutter which they playfully named Tallulah. The soap then cures for 30 days before it is ready to be used.
A batch of soap will fill two molds and yield 26 bars. The Wolfs will make three or four batches on soap making days.
Beyond soap, the Wolf family also have beef cows, chickens and 84 meat goats that are set to kid this spring. The Wolf family transitioned their milking herd to meat goats because of labor concerns. The current herd is the crossbred descendants of their milking goats.
When it comes to their soap, Jenni loves to hear comments from customers.
“I just love getting the feedback about how they enjoy the soap,” Jenni said. “How they love the smell, how long it lasts. … It’s very humbling to me, because I’m like, I’m doing something
I enjoy and I’m glad that it’s making other people happy too.”
The Wolfs said that a unique challenge in soap making is how different scents will affect how quickly the soap sets up.
Citrus scents will thin the soap while floral scents will thicken it.
The Wolfs have a network of friends and family who have the enviable job of testing out new soap creations. Sometimes, even mistakes can even become popular items. Jenni said that their soap “Cavalier,” which is their most popular soap among men, was originally intended to be a blend of blue and brown colors in a nod to local law enforcement. The soap instead turned gray, but due to its popularity they could not change it.
As the Wolfs craft their business Morgan has also been crafting a business which compliments the Howling Goat Soap brand.
Morgan (from left), Brady, Dave and
Wolf stand in their goat
20 on their
Wolfs used to own a milking goat herd and now have meat goats.
(Right) A meat goat stands March 20 in the barn on the Wolf farm near Theilman. The Wolfs plan to contract milk from their dairy herd buyer if they need milk for soap, or possibly milk some of their meat goats.
Under the name Crafty Goat, Morgan creates and sells knitted face scrubbies and crocheted soap saver bags. She also cro-
chets baby blankets, ear warmers, cowl scarves, key chains and stuffed animals. Morgan learned to crochet as a child from her grandma.
Howling Goat
Soap, with its tagline: ‘So natural you want to release your inner beasts and howl at the
moon,’ can be purchased at several businesses in Plainview. The Wolfs wanted to connect their brand to their name, so they incorporated the wolf image and “Howling” into their branding as an allusion to their surname. The Wolfs have also been selling their soap at the seasonal Plainview Farmer’s Market and Old-Fashioned Christmas and on their website.
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