Small-Scale Livestock Farming will help you:
SNEAK PREVIEW: CHAPTER 1
The Roots of Grass-Based Farming
One aggressive family farm in the plains grew rapidly by investing in irrigation in the 1960s and 1970s. It grew so fast that it soon had over eight thousand irrigated acres, a cattle-feeding operation, and a farm-supply business. To acquire more working capital, the family farmer incorporated and merged his operation with an alfalfa processor whose stock was sold over one of the national stock exchanges. In a few years, the family farmer had lost so much money in the cattle feeding and futures market transactions that he had to accept a minority position in the company. Subsequently, the company was acquired by a conglomerate that held it a short time and then sold it to Texas oil interests. At the beginning of this high-speed transformation, no one would have quarreled with the claim that the farm was a family farm. At the conclusion, no one would have suggested it was anything but an industrial agribusiness. At many points along the path, however, you could have ignited a spirited debate by suggesting it was either.
The commercial family farm is disappearing from the United States. Our farming system is being split into two camps: megafarms, which are corporate in nature if not in deed, and small-scale farms, often thought of as hobby farms. The middle is being squeezed out.
These changes had their beginnings around the time of World War II. The changes brought on by the war are well illustrated by the story of my husband Ken’s grandfather, Clarence Woodard. During the Great Depression, Clarence ran a small farm on the outskirts of LaJunta, Colorado. He managed to support his family and a hired man with the milk from a small herd of dairy cows.
During Clarence’s era, farmers had a more direct link with the consumer. In fact, 40 percent of the consumer’s food dollar went directly to the farmer. In Clarence’s case, the percentage was even higher; twice each day he hand-milked his fifteen to twenty cows, cooled and bottled the milk, and delivered it door to door in LaJunta. Clarence’s customers were neighbors, friends, and relatives, and if things were going well, he’d take a few minutes to visit along his route.
From the beginning of the century until 1940, farm numbers hovered right around 6.4 million; these numbers began a quick descent, however, with the coming of the war. This phenomenon was driven by many factors, but in Clarence’s case, it was the abundance of good-paying construction jobs on military installations around Pueblo and Colorado Springs that led him to quit farming. As more and more farmers left for jobs in town or were sent to war, those who remained had to produce more. The land in production stayed fairly constant, around a billion acres, but fewer farmers were working that land. Farming more land left less time for direct-marketing of crops, so the remaining farmers began counting on bulk sales of raw commodities.
After the war, industry, which had geared up for large-scale production of weapons, military transport, and other war-related goods, suddenly turned to agriculture as an open market. Chemical inputs to feed plants and fight the farmer’s enemies--weeds and insects--became readily available. Initially, they produced miracles. Tractor and implement production cranked into full swing. The message to American producers was clear: Grow all you can grow, America will feed a hungry world, and you, her farmers, will reap the benefit. Some, of course, did benefit. But many were left by the wayside. Farm numbers continued to decline, as they still do today. And the farmers who are left, despite getting bigger, are continuing to struggle for their existence.
As farm sizes increased, farmers began specializing. The idea of egg money or a few pigs to pay the mortgage disappeared. Monocropping and farming fenceline to fenceline were substituted for diversity. Animal agriculture, like crop farming, moved into an industrial model, with living creatures being treated as little more than production units.
These changes have resulted not only in reduced farm numbers but also in the loss of soil productivity, reductions in wildlife, and increases in water and air pollution. They have also caused a fundamental breakdown in many rural communities: Schools consolidate, hospitals close, and small businesses disappear. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that a new class of small-scale farmers are showing that things don’t have to continue in this vein...
Read the rest of chapter 1: PDF of Chapter 1