Salt of the Earth: Ag Day 2023

 

Salt of the earth. 

 

 

When I started thinking about what I wanted to write to observe National Agriculture Day today - March 21 - I remembered some photos I took during a drive through the mama cows and babies. On a couple of trips, I'd asked Randy to park the pickup near a tub containing salt blocks. My goal? To capture that lip-smacking reaction as the calves sampled the tasty treat. 

Do you know how hard it is to catch that split second of the tongue escaping the confines of the mouth for a quick slurp? Let's just say I had a lot of near misses on my camera roll.  

Case in point? This one:

 

Persistence is key in agriculture. In photography, too. And I don't think it's much of a stretch to call agricultural producers "the salt of the earth."

The phrase is from a portion of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5: 13: "You are the salt of the earth." I'd just heard the verses again a few weeks ago at church as part of the Bible reading,. It's always been one of my favorites.

 

Jesus meant that the common people he was addressing – fishermen, shepherds, laborers – were worthy and virtuous. He was alluding, not to the tang of salt, but to its value.

 

Two for one on this shot - both calves had their tongues out! 

 

 

In other parts of the Bible,  salt is used metaphorically to signify permanence, loyalty, durability, fidelity, usefulness, value, and purification.

 

That sounds like America's agricultural producers to me. 

 

I learned more at World Wide Words:

Salt has always been one of the most prized commodities, essential both for life and for preserving food. Roman soldiers were paid an allowance to buy salt, the origin of our salary. A man worth his salt is efficient or capable. To eat salt with someone was to accept his hospitality and a person who did so was bound to look after his host’s interests. The Bible also speaks of a covenant of salt, one of holy and perpetual obligation. ...To Jesus, therefore, salt of the earth was a great compliment.

I've been writing these Ag Day blog posts since I began Kim's County Line in 2010, but this was the first time we aren't actively farming. I wasn't going to be working calves or riding a 4-wheeler to move cattle or performing some other task on our farm. 

 

But I kept thinking about the cattle and their attraction to the salt.  Just like we humans, the bovines seem to want to flavor their diets with a bit of salt. As a child, I remember going with my dad on salt block deliveries. A little residue from the salt cube was left behind on my fingertips, and I couldn't resist a secret taste. The cows also seem to crave the mineral in the cattle lots. I certainly prefer my food with a sprinkling of salt, too, even though my doctor would recommend I limit my sodium intake.

 

 

Being the "salt of the earth" is a worthy goal. This Ag Day 2023 is a good time to celebrate the American farmer. America's farmers are the world's most productive. Today, each U.S. farmer produces food and fiber for 168 people annually in the U.S. and abroad. This number was 19 people in 1940, 46 people in 1960, and 115 people in 1980. I can't think of many industries in which productivity has increased that much! 

 

And even though consumers often complain about the price of food, U.S. shoppers still pay much less of our disposable income on food each year, about 10 percent.

Information from Kansas Farm Bureau. Click on the link for a complete fact sheet about farmers and agriculture.

That's definitely not a reason to stick out your tongue - unless you're savoring a tasty slice of wheat bread made with Kansas wheat and slathered with butter made from Kansas dairy cattle ... or you're enjoying a perfectly-grilled Kansas steak ... or you're scrambling up eggs from a Kansas poultry house (with a sprinkle of salt)... the list goes on and on! 

 

Farmers receive just under 19¢ of every consumer dollar that is spent on food. The other 81¢ is spent on processing, packaging, marketing, transportation, distribution and retail costs of the food supply. 

 

There is something that might cause my tongue to stick out in aggravation: It seems consumers would much rather get their information about how their food is produced from someone who has never set foot on a farm or a ranch. They let restaurant public relations gurus define what is safe to eat. Yet it is America's farmers and ranchers who devote their daily lives to it.  

 

Farmers and ranchers are the original "environmentalists." The National Ag Day theme is "Growing a Climate for Tomorrow." Agricultural producers intentionally prevent soil erosion, preserve and restore wetlands, clean the air and water and enhance wildlife. Since 1982, the erosion rate on U.S. croplands has been reduced by more than 40 percent.

 

 

Farmers and ranchers truly are the salt of the earth. 

 

 

Kansas Farm Bureau has a fact sheet about farmers and agriculture. To see more facts about U.S. farmers, click HERE.

 

Farmers: The First Environmentalists

For 45 years, environmentalists have celebrated Earth Day. It's today - April 22 - by the way. Here on the County Line, we will celebrate Earth Day just like we do pretty much every other day on this wonderful planet. We'll be caring for the earth and the creatures it shelters.

Cow-calf pairs arrive at the Ninnescah Pasture

Farmers are the world's first environmentalists. They've been the caretakers from the time God gave man authority over the plants and animals of the earth. However, some of the loudest voices from the environmental community will tell you that modern agriculture is killing the planet. They denounce herbicides and pesticides and fungicides. They think meat production is creating too big a carbon footprint. They want a return to overall-clad farmers hitching up their teams of horses or oxen to work the ground to produce solely organic products. (By the way, I have nothing against farmers in overalls. Overalls were the "uniform" of choice for my Grandpa Neelly who lived to be 100 and would have taken his cow herd to the rest home, if they would have let him. I also have nothing against organic foods or farmers. There is a place for every kind of farmer - from conventional to organic.)

This morning, Randy is taking maps to the Kanza Co-op so our wheat fields can be sprayed with fungicide. While this week's rain gave our ailing 2016 wheat crop a much-needed boost, it also prompted disease formation.

Let me tell you: It's not an inexpensive venture to treat a wheat crop with fungicide. When we consider the cost of all the inputs compared to the price we'll get at the elevator, there's a thin margin. And we also have to go on faith that the crop will make it to harvest with enough well-timed rain, avoiding any accompanying hailstorms or other of the myriad of scenarios that could impact it negatively. We definitely aren't doing it "just because" there is such a product available today. We are doing it to be good managers of our crop.

At a wheat profitability conference back in 2010, I heard Dr. Jay Lehr of the Heartland Institute speak. (Click here for the entire blog post.) He said, in part:

"Set aside time in your life to promote agriculture to those who don't understand it. The greatest problem with agriculture today isn't the volatility of the price of inputs. It's not the volatility of prices. It's the negative attitude toward farming. Environmental zealots want to convince the public that you are spoiling the land.

"You need to become an agriculture activist. ... We need to let people know that if we don't use herbicides and insecticides, people across the globe will starve.

"Let people know that despite "news" to the contrary, the family farm is not dead. There are 2 million farms in the U.S. Only 1 percent are owned by absentee organizations.

"We need to tell people that we are the best land conservationists. We produce three times more food than we did 40 years ago with greater yields on less land.

"We need to let people know that every day is Earth Day on the farm, not just April 22."

Who better to appreciate the earth and its resources than the nation's farmers and ranchers? We recently took some pairs to the Ninnescah Pasture for an early start to their summer "vacation" there. It was a beautiful, overcast day. The wild mustard made a pretty backdrop for some "family photos."

We first hauled the babies to the pasture, then we went back for their mamas. Each time we drove through the gate under the branches of a towering old cottonwood, I was struck by the beauty of the landscape at this pasture, a place that Randy has been renting to use for cow-calf pairs for nearly 40 years.

It's a great privilege to run cattle at this beautiful place. It's in the best interest of our family, our farming operation, the land owners and the creatures we care for to appreciate the earth and everything in it.

It's our job.

 

It's our calling and passion.

We don't take it for granted. From sunrise to sunset and beyond, we celebrate the small moments that can too easily be overlooked. That's what it means to be a farmer on Earth Day and the other 364 days of the year.

***

I was honored this week to be included on In the Furrow's "Big List of Farmer Blogs." Click on the link to check out the other farm bloggers on the list, which were chosen for doing "a great job of spreading positive messages about all the wonderful things farmers are doing to feed the world." Thanks for making my day, In the Furrow!

Farmers: The Ultimate Recyclers

Environmentalists would like to believe they invented recycling. But the nation's farmers have been finding ways to effectively use resources for centuries.

Straw isn't the "cash crop" when you're harvesting wheat. The goal is to separate the grain from the straw and the chaff, leaving only the kernels which are transported to the elevator for sale.

Usually, the straw is scattered behind the combine with the combine's straw spreader, which distributes the residue (and creates a cloud of dust and straw that experienced harvest helpers avoid by standing upwind)!

Since our combine is still in the shop and I don't have a photo of the straw spreader when it's not in action, here's an illustration that shows some of the parts:

Illustration credit:  http://www.thisland.illinois.edu/60ways/60ways_1.html

On one wheat field, Randy took off the straw spreader so that the straw would be laid down in windrows. He then baled the straw into 20 big round bales.

 

We'll use the straw as bedding next winter for cattle. Before a snow storm, the guys spread some of the bales near a windbreak (like the trees in the photo below). It helps give a place for mama cows and babies to have a drier place to congregate.

We always hope that the mamas who deliver during a snowstorm will be smart enough to give birth on the straw for a little protection from the elements.

 

Sometimes, they do just that.

The straw itself doesn't have much nutritional value, though it can be used for roughage. Since we grow alfalfa, we use the alfalfa hay as cattle feed, and the straw bales are used only for bedding.

We weren't the only ones baling straw during and after harvest this year. With stacks and stacks of straw bales in the area, Randy assumes that some people are planning to add anhydrous liquid ammonia to the forage. Ammoniation is a method of treating low-quality roughages to improve their nutritional value for ruminant animals, like cattle. It involves sealing the straw in a gas-tight, enclosed container and adding anhydrous liquid ammonia. At about 21 days, the chemical action is complete, and the product can be used for feed. Randy assumes that some of the people who have put up straw bales are planning to use it in that way.

Others may add a molasses-based, protein rich formula to the straw bales in order to create a feed for cattle.

Many of the people putting up straw put it into large square bales (probably more accurately called rectangular bales!) rather than round bales.

  

They look like a Lego building project sitting at the edge of stubble fields.

Even if the straw doesn't end up in bales (like the majority of our wheat fields), the chopped up straw is residue on wheat fields. The residue helps put nutrients back in the soil and increases organic matter. The straw residue also helps control wind and water erosion.

Recycling at its best - all on Kansas wheat farms!