Cash Crop - Dirty Jeans

I often see notices for workshops on alternative crops. A few times a month, the Sunday business section of the regional newspaper has short blurbs advertising a nearby learning opportunity for specialty crops. The farm publications that fill our mailbox also offer educational options for things other than the customary wheat, alfalfa, corn and cattle income.

But I think I've found the Mother Lode. So I am about to propose a new business plan to my farm partner. We should become a supplier for Nordstrom's. Yes, Nordstrom's department store could be the answer to a lagging farm economy.

Earlier this week, Nordstrom's got a lot of publicity for a pair of new men's jeans. Here's what they said about their fashion offering:

Heavily distressed medium-blue denim jeans in a comfortable straight-leg fit embody rugged, Americana workwear that's seen some hard-working action with a crackled, caked-on muddy coating that shows you're not afraid to get down and dirty.

And they're only $425 a pair. What???!!!! $425 a pair for dirty-looking jeans? Yep. It's not a misprint.

Randy's jeans - and this was after he'd used a stick and grass to remove some of the grime.

I must confess that I've suggested my farmer change clothes on occasion before going to town in the morning. I am not always the world's best laundress. In fact, I am probably not going to win any awards for washing Randy's work clothes. I could spend a lot more time with stain remover and a scrub brush before running them through the "heavy" cycle on the washing machine. Nevertheless, they are, after all, work clothes.

 

But I admit to cringing a bit if a heavily-stained t-shirt is what Randy pulls from the closet to wear to breakfast at Joan's. Though I doubt there are many critics among the guys having their hash browns and eggs over easy at the local cafe, I'm still reluctant to show my incompetence as a farm wife.

Who knew those stained jeans and t-shirts were actually evidence of "some hard-working action" ... and not my ineptitude in the laundry department?

For that $425 hit to your wallet, the jeans are described as

• True to size.
• Comfortable through the seat and thigh.
• Classic straight cut from knee to ankle.

As I reported last week, commodity prices for wheat are currently lower than they were back in 1975 when I graduated from high school. Let's do a little price comparison. I did some online research about the price of jeans in 1975 - the same year I used for the wheat price comparison.

With a sharp intake of denim and breath, blue jeans in the ’70s tightened their hold on ’60s hippiedom to become the second skin of disco-dancing, high-living swingles of the Me Decade. Retooling the boxy Levi’s look into form-fitting pants with fancy stitching and big labels, designer-jeans makers pocketed nearly half a billion dollars in 1979. And on June 25 that year, the once-humble trousers received the cultural counterpart of being knighted: The New York Times proclaimed them a full-fledged phenomenon with the feature ”Status Jeans: Lucrative Craze.” Promising to make their wearers chic and sexy, designer jeans cost about $35, roughly twice the price of down-to-earth Levi’s. 

From Entertainment Weekly

1977-era ads found at the Target website.

I realize Target isn't Nordstrom's, but the pricing is still eye-opening!

OK, so back in 1975 or so, designer jeans were $35 (though you could get regular old Levi's for half that price and even less at discount stores.) Today, Nordstrom's is selling dirty-looking jeans for $425. Wouldn't it be nice if the price of wheat reflected even a portion of that response to inflation?

 

Nordstrom's is also selling other styles at a similar price, but I'm looking at the piles of organic matter we have here on the County Line, thinking they don't need to import dirty jeans from Portugal. We farmers are always looking for domestic trade!

If that's not enough grunge, Nordstrom's can hook you up with a mud-look jean jacket, too.

 Deep caked-on, baked-in muddy smears give you permission to get down and dirty from rodeo to grungy rock show in this cotton denim jacket that embodies rugged Americana, from its classic pockets to every crinkled and bleached accent.

"Dirty Jobs" host Mike Rowe posted about the fashion trend on his website, saying the Nordstrom's jeans were proof of "our country's war on work."

"They're a costume for wealthy people who see work as ironic — not iconic," Rowe wrote on Monday in a post titled, "Jeans made to look like you work hard so you don't have to."

If they are interested in women's jeans with a similar "rugged" look, we can do that, too. Here are the bottoms of my jeans and tennis shoe after our cattle moving on Tuesday.

So Nordstrom's: Are you ready for a shipment of some fine, Kansas organic matter? We are ready to deliver! Or if you want us to take some of your jeans and apply some "caked on, baked in, muddy smears," we can also oblige. We can even offer a small farm discount as a trade incentive.

And if you need a fragrance to go along with those designer duds, just say the word. We've got that covered, too!

Spreading a Little "Love" Around

Today I'd like to talk about ... Hmmm. How shall I delicately put this? Today, I'd like to talk about ... organic fertilizer. How's that?

If you raise livestock, then "poop" is a natural byproduct. You can't get more organic than that. Just like with humans, what goes in one end comes out another. When that natural byproduct has been collecting in the same spot for more than 20 years, it can create quite a pile.

In January, we hired the 4 Bar S Co. based in Arlington to move manure from five different locations where we feed cattle in the winter. They brought two big trucks and a payloader to do the job.

The payload driver had to move circular bunks out of the way to get to the "goods." Curious cattle in the pasture south of the lot came to watch the action.

To begin, the payloader operator pushed the manure into a big pile. Then, he scooped bucketfuls of the manure into the trucks.

The drivers tag-teamed and took trucks to nearby alfalfa fields and spread the "organic fertilizer." Each 1 ton load of manure was spread over about 1 acre and then the trucks went back for another load. They averaged a load of manure spread every 12 minutes. (Only Randy would time it.)

By the time they were done with the job, they had trucked 158 loads of manure to our alfalfa fields. It cost $43 per load if the manure was spread on a field within 1 mile of the collection site. Randy had it planned logistically so that the trucks didn't have to travel more than a mile to deliver the goods.

 

Randy chose to put the manure on alfalfa fields because manure is higher in phosphates than many commercial fertilizers. Alfalfa can use more phosphate than other crops, so it was a "natural" match, so to speak.

Because we used the manure on the fields, we won't need to do an application of commercial fertilizer on the alfalfa ground this year. Comparable commercial fertilizer would cost about $35 an acre.

So, why did we (Randy) choose to spend the $43 per acre rather than the $35 for commercial fertilizer? (Yes, of course, I asked, with my eye firmly on the checkbook.) Cleaning up the manure has some side benefits. It makes it less sloppy for feeding, reducing wear and tear on equipment. It also can help in disease control for the cattle.

Right now, the manure is still lying on top of the soil in the alfalfa fields. As the ground warms up and the moisture from our snow and rains soaks in, he or Jake will lightly disc and pack the alfalfa fields to incorporate the manure into the soil.

So, there you have it - the scoop on poop.