From Super Bowl MVP to chicken farmer?

Feb 09, 2016

Von Miller may have his post-football career planned out

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

When all they’ve known for a good portion of their lives is training, practicing and playing, it can come as no surprise when athletes struggle to adapt to their post-playing lives.

But for Super Bowl 50’s MVP Von Miller, he may already have an idea of what lies ahead in his post-football career.

He wants to be (and currently is) a chicken farmer.

The 26-year old linebacker took poultry-related courses during his stint at Texas A&M originally because it seemed like an easy class. He credits his professor’s attitude and the course’s structure as reasons why he gained an interest in poultry farming.

“I needed two easy credits for the semester and I was like, put me in the chicken class,” he tells Tony Richardson in SI Now Special – A Day in the Life with Von Miller. “At first I used to fall asleep – I was just not into the class – but my professor, Dr. [Morgan] Farnell, he’s a huge catalyst about why I’m so passionate about it now. He was just not going to settle for me sleeping through the class. After a while, I became more and more interested.”

Miller said the course was hands on and students found themselves interacting with birds including administering vaccines and feeding.

In the video, Richardson and Miller travel to Lily’s Eggs in California to work alongside farmers.

“The top standard is to have happy birds,” Miller tells farm owner Robert Troppe.

Miller’s 3,000 square-foot-backyard, which he calls Miller Farms, currently houses about 40-50 birds.

Just how much does Miller love poultry?

Enough to have a tattoo of a rooster on his leg.

Von Miller's rooster tattoo.
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Video: How farmers are protecting the soil and our food security | DW Documentary

For a long time, soil was all but ignored. But for years, the valuable humus layer has been thinning. Farmers in Brandenburg are clearly feeling the effects of this on their sandy fields. Many are now taking steps to prepare their farms for the future.

Years of drought, record rainfall and failed harvests: we are becoming increasingly aware of how sensitively our environment reacts to extreme weather conditions. Farmers' livelihoods are at stake. So is the ability of consumers to afford food.

For a few years now, agriculture that focuses solely on maximum yields has been regarded with increasing skepticism. It is becoming more and more clear just how dependent we are on healthy soils.

Brandenburg is the federal state with the worst soil quality in Germany. The already thin, fertile humus layer has been shrinking for decades. Researchers and farmers who are keen to experiment are combating these developments and looking for solutions. Priority is being given to building up the humus layer, which consists of microorganisms and fungi, as well as springtails, small worms and centipedes.

For Lena and Philipp Adler, two young vegetable farmers, the tiny soil creatures are invaluable helpers. On their three-hectare organic farm, they rely on simple, mechanical weed control, fallow areas where the soil can recover, and diversity. Conventional farmer Mark Dümichen also does everything he can to protect soil life on his land. For years, he has not tilled the soil after the harvest and sows directly into the field. His yields have stabilized since he began to work this way.

Isabella Krause from Regionalwert AG Berlin-Brandenburg is convinced after the experiences of the last hot summers that new crops will thrive on Brandenburg's fields in the long term. She has founded a network of farmers who are promoting the cultivation of chickpeas with support from the scientific community.