Southeast Minnesota Forage Field Day and Dairy Tour

Aug 04, 2023

By Katie Drewitz

Forage, beef and dairy farmers are invited to the Southeast Minnesota Forage Field Day & Dairy Tour on Tuesday, Aug. 8 in Spring Valley. With two great farm hosts, Valley Angus Farm and Heusinkveld Farms, the tours will look at grazing fields, fencing, water types, and alfalfa’s role in organic systems, as well as a heifer barn and tunnel-vented dairy barn.

The event begins at 9:45 a.m. at Valley Angus Farm. Prior to a field tour led by Dan Miller, participants will learn about the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s (MDA) resources for livestock producers and hear from farmers who have benefited from MDA’s cost-share programs. They will also learn about the pros and cons of different fencing and watering options and hear from Tom Cotter on methods to optimize the conservation and economic benefits of grazing cover crops.

After the field tour at Valley Angus Farm, participants will move to Heusinkveld Farms for lunch served at noon. Prior to the tour of the farm’s dairy facilities led by Nate Heusinkveld, participants will hear about farmer resources offered by the event’s co-organizers Midwest Forage Association, Minnesota Diary Initiative, and University of Minnesota Extension, as well as a talk on carbon credits.

Source : umn.edu

Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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