Jacksonville Journal-Courier Modern Farmer October 2019

MODERN FARMER

Blending old-time grocery feel with farm-to-table trend ... page 2 A special section of the Journal-Courier | Sunday, October 27, 2019 | $1

2 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Farm fresh

Cooperatives blending old-time grocery feel with farm-to-table trend

By David Blanchette For the Journal-Courier

A visit to the Great Scott Market in downtown Winchester seems like a step back to a simpler time — because in many ways, it is.

“Ideally, you want it to be what you picture when you think of an old-time country grocery store,” said John Paul Coonrod, one of the planners and organizers of the cooperative grocery store.

“It has taken some time to get there, but we are pretty close now. We have local eggs, lots of local produce, local honey, pumpkins and gourds, local meats, we make salsa and other deli items out of locally grown products.”

The Great Scott Market is the middleman in a Scott County farm-to-table

phenomenon that offers fresh, areagrown and -raised produce and meats for purchase. You don’t have to be a cooperative member to shop there, although membership has its perks, and everyone seems to benefit from the arrangement.

“When you put it all together, the things that people buy most in this store tend to be locally produced,” Coonrod said. “There’s a good reason to prefer that, and it’s that they tend to taste fresher because they haven’t ridden across the country before they reach our store. The produce shows up greener and crisper, the farm eggs are firmer.”

The Great Scott Market came about in response to the closing of Winchester’s previous grocery store

David Blanchette | Journal-Courier

Great Scott Market co-manager Sarah Lashmett packages salsa made from fresh produce. The salsa is one of the store’s most popular items.

about three years ago. The city soon realized what many small towns have experienced – its population wasn’t large enough to be profitable for grocery store chains. So, if Winchester residents wanted a grocery store, they would have to do it themselves.

A 2017 community meeting indicated there was enough interest in having a grocery store. A seven-member steering committee was composed, a business plan drawn up, and market analysis was performed that determined a cooperative grocery store offering fresh, locally sourced foods could succeed in Winchester.

The Illinois Cooperative Development Center helped organizers in designing and organizing the new enterprise, including the basics of a cooperative, the process for forming one, and the business component of a grocery store. Investments came from selling common and preferred stock in the operation, plus the sale of memberships at a one-time cost of $100.

The Great Scott Market opened in August 2018.

“It was a big undertaking for a lot of people, it was a collaborative effort,” said Sarah Lashmett, the market co-manager. “This wouldn’t have happened without numerous people coming in and offering free labor to paint and to do lighting. The employees of Marshall Chevrolet stopped work for a day and hauled all of our equipment in. It took the community to do it.”

Lashmett and her husband opened Lashmett’s Meat Market adjacent to the grocery store, where they sell locally raised cuts of beef, pork and chicken that are frozen as soon as they are butchered. The two operations are connected by an interior door so shoppers can get their meats, produce and other grocery items in one stop.

“We’ve got everything you need to make a meal, plus Grafton wines and micro-brewed beer from the Alton area,” Lashmett said. “For our non-perishable grocery items, we work with County Market in Pittsfield. We send them an order twice a week and go over there to pick it up.”

People who buy memberships regularly receive special coupons and buy-one-get-one-free offers, Lashmett said. Because so much of the business is driven by fresh food products, the store uses social media and a sidewalk

MODERN FARMER October 27, 2019

On the cover: Great Scott Market co-managers Sue Coonrod (left) and Sarah Lashmett.

David Blanchette | Journal-Courier

5 Wartime’s call to action 6 Family finds agri-tourism niche 10 Leaning on hemp 12 Farmers explore options 14 Leader in implement production 15 Empowering ‘farmHers’ 18 Education blends old with new 20 No guarantee for dairy farms 21 Water quality sensor 22 Monarchs in crisis 25 Put leaves to work 26 Concerns over sewage 28 Hard work and perserverance 29 5G cow collars 30 Halt on pork processing 31 Protect winter lanscape

Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 3

Mueller Family Farms of Bluffs supplies much of the fresh produce for the Great Scott Market. Here, co-owner Linda Mueller sells fresh produce at a Jacksonville farmers’ market.

easel outside the store to let shoppers know when certain types of foods will be arriving straight from the field.

The field produce comes primarily from Mueller Family Farms in nearby Bluffs, where seven acres of land are dedicated to vegetables and greens that are sold at area farmers’ markets and the Great Scott Market. The Muellers had been participating in the evening farmers’ markets on the Winchester square when the grocery store steering committee asked if they could supply fresh food for the store.

“We appreciate the opportunity to supply good, fresh produce. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us,” said Linda Mueller,

who operates Mueller Family Farms with her grandson, Michael Meyer. “It’s close, it gives us extra income. We’ve expanded the garden and we are happy to have another outlet.”

Mueller provides Great Scott Market with spring mix and greens, cherry and regular tomatoes, arugula, kale, spinach, radishes, carrots, turnips and other freshly picked products. They stopped providing sweet corn, however, because “the deer and raccoons like that too much” and that made it too time-consuming to produce, Mueller said. In addition, weather has an impact on what can be provided to the store – for instance, “green beans this year were not much of

a success because it was too dry to plant when we were ready,” Mueller said.

“We keep the ground pretty busy and restore it with compost and natural stuff as much as we can. We try not to spray any more than we have to,” Mueller said.

“We use some row covers to keep the bugs out. We are not organic and don’t claim to be, but we are as cautious as we can be and still be productive.”

Sue Coonrod is co-manager of the Great Scott Market and is pleased that the store seems to be leading a downtown Winchester resurgence.

“The market brings more people downtown. We have a new coffee shop across the street that opened a little after

David Blanchette | Journal-Courier

we did, there’s a new boutique on the west side, there’s a florist and a square trade business,” Sue Coonrod said. “We all work together, because anything that brings people down here helps all of us.”

Fresh food also helps those who eat it, according to Karen Sibert, community nutrition educator at Passavant Area Hospital in Jacksonville.

“Shopping local is a win-win for everyone. The consumer gets the freshest food, with most produce being picked within one to three days,” Sibert said.

“Nutrients are at their highest just after picking. The food tastes better when it

See GREAT SCOTT | Page 4

4 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Great Scott From page 3

is at its freshest. Farmers grow a variety of produce so the consumer can try new foods and learn how to prepare them.”

“People who do not live near a grocery tend not to eat as much fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and vegetables, part of a healthy diet, are excellent sources of vitamins and fiber,” Sibert said. “A healthy diet decreases risk of many diseases, like heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer.”

The Great Scott Market is the first cooperative, fresh-products-driven grocery store in the area but it won’t be the last.

Organizers in Logan County plan to open Market on the Hill in Mount Pulaski in April 2020, and they’ve met with Winchester organizers to learn how it should be done. Mount Pulaski also lost their grocery store about three years ago and decided to try the locally supplied fresh food approach when planning to bring a grocery store back to the community.

Much of Market on the Hill’s playbook is similar to that used for the Great Scott Market.

Shares and memberships are being sold to fund the opera-

tion, locally sourced produce and frozen meats will be offered, and people don’t have to be members to shop there.

But Market on the Hill plans to take the concept to the next level.

“Our goal is not only to provide food here but supply a big producer network in the central Illinois region,” said Market on the Hill President Tom Martin. “If we could keep 15 to 25 percent of those food dollars in the region it would be a huge economic driver for us.”

“There are some wonderful people who grow produce in this area but there’s no organization. They all go to farmers’ markets or they do their own individual stuff,” Martin said.

“Some of them are going to want to remain that way, but we see the potential of establishing a network of producers who all work together to become suppliers. They still remain independent, but we establish a distribution network where maybe we can help support them and help them develop their markets.”

Market on the Hill will be one of its own suppliers, with a three-acre vegetable and herb plot located on city-owned land and a “hoop house” on private land south of Mount Pulaski where seedlings can be raised

over the winter and things like tomatoes can be grown in a more controlled environment.

Kyl Reed is the manager of the Hilltop Community Garden.

“We see the farm that we are creating as being able to provide most of the produce that the store would need,” Reed said. “Some things are very labor-intensive on the very small scale that we are doing, so I will be reaching out to other producers who might have a little more capital and equipment to produce that more efficiently and cheaply.”

Market on the Hill is establishing healthy eating partnerships with local hospitals and institutions, plans to host cooking classes in the store when it opens, and is working on agreements with area restaurants to supply them with fresh produce, Reed said.

It’s nice to know that Winchester’s success has helped to influence others in central Illinois, according to Great Scott Market organizer John Paul Coonrod, because grocery stores are vital to community life.

“It’s pretty essential to the existence of a small town like ours. Every small town needs a grocery store, and once a town loses its grocery store you start looking at a downward slide where you start to lose other things,” Coonrod said. “The existence of this store serves as a bulwark against that downward slide, and in fact we have seen business pick up.”

David Blanchette | Journal-Courier

Market on the Hill Hilltop Community Garden manager Kyl Reed at a city-owned vegetable and herb garden that will supply the Mount Pulaski cooperative grocery store.

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Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 5

Farmers answered war’s call to action

By Tom Emery

For the Journal-Courier

During mobilization for World War I, a popular slogan was “food will win the war.”

Illinois farmers took it to heart.

In both years of American participation in the war, Illinois agriculture broke records for yield and crop value. The success was part of a comprehensive organization of statewide resources, and farming was near the top of the list.

The U.S. declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, and five months later, a statewide plan for Illinois food production and conservation was implemented.

The plan was under the State Council of Defense, a 15-member collection of state leaders that served as a “clearinghouse” for public and private agencies.

The council members were appointed by Gov. Frank Lowden and chaired by Samuel Insull, the energetic president of Commonwealth Edison in northern Illinois.

Each county in Illinois had its own committee for food production and conservation. With a wave of patriotism sweeping the nation, everyone seemed to pitch in, including farmers.

Farm labor was seen as a key problem, as rural workers were being lost to service, and demands for Illinois crops were expected to increase. As a result, the council supported the United States Boys’ Working Reserve, which helped enroll males between 16-21 for farm work, and give them basic instruction.

The council also oversaw a lesson plan on farm work that became part of the curriculum of all Illinois high schools. The plan was so effective that it was copied by other states, and produced some 20,000 boys across

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Soldiers enjoy an afternoon treat.

Illinois for farm work. Middle-aged and older men with farm training were also encouraged to return to agriculture.

Existing labor was shifted to areas of greater need. When drought conditions in southern Illinois caused a surplus of corn huskers, some were shipped to northern and central Illinois, where help was needed.

Provisions were also made to secure 300 men from Camp Grant near Rockford for husking. These men were hampered by slight physical disabilities, and were not mustered for overseas service.

In the end, the expected farm labor shortage never materialized, and wages were higher than ever, running $35 to $45 per month with board.

The huskers received six cents a bushel with board, or seven cents “when the husker boarded himself.”

Weather threatened other aspects of production, including early frosts in the fall of 1917 that posed problems for seed

corn the next season. To ease the problem, a massive Seed Corn Campaign, financed by sixteen Chicago banks, provided results that the council labeled “most gratifying.”

While farmers carried the load downstate, residents of Chicago and other urban areas were encouraged to plant War Gardens, and a sweeping publicity campaign promoted their worth. Eventually, some 2,989 acres of War Gardens were created in Chicago, tended by 238,422 gardeners to produce a crop value of over $3.5 million.

The gardens, however, paled

in comparison to the farms, which smashed many records.

Illinois wheat in 1917 was double the production of the previous year, and that total soared another 70% in 1918.

The final yield of nearly 61 million bushels led the nation, and gave farmers a profit of $1.43 a bushel in 1918.

Acreage for wheat increased 10% between 1917-18, and amounted to one-seventh of all increased wheat acreage in the nation. The yield was aided by a “Kill the Smut” campaign to knock out smut, a fungal disease that threatens wheat.

The early frosts of 1917 sliced the corn yield to 351.4 million bushels in 1918, but the corn was of good quality. Illinois corn in 1918 had one and a half times the feeding value of 1917.

Barley production jumped to 4.75 million bushels in 1918, twice the previous year, and the yield of 3.8 million bushels of rye was a staggering five times higher than in 1917. State farmers produced 244 million bushels of oats in 1918, which was 45 million short of 1917 because the government had requested other crops than oats.

Overall, the Illinois crop of 1917 was the largest in the history of the state. Though the volume in 1918 dropped to third, the money value was considerably higher. That year, Illinois produced the most valuable crop in American history to date, a total of $879 million.

That figure easily topped Iowa, which was second at just under $822 million. Texas was a distant third, some $175 million behind Illinois.

In 1919, the council proudly declared that “its efforts in behalf of increased food production and its seed corn campaign were among its best contributions to the war work of the state,” adding that the production “gave an illuminating illustration of the fine war spirit of the agricultural industry.”

Certainly, Illinois farmers had answered the call once again.

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6 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Family finds its niche in agri-tourism

By Marco Cartolano

marco.cartolano@myjournalcourier.com

BARRY — Andy Sprague has farming in his blood — he’s a sixth generation farmer — but he knows the importance of diversifying.

That’s what he did to his family’s farm in the early 2000s, creating Sprague’s Kinderhook Lodge and turning it into a valued agri-tour-

ism site.

Farmers often diversify to develop new streams of profit. Some farmers decide to try planting new crops while others take their farms into agri-tourism, such as Sprague.

Sprague started the lodge business in 2001, when he decided he wanted to head back home after working for the University of Illinois

Marco Cartolano | Journal-Courier

Kathy Woolsey sews during a quilting retreat at Sprague’s Kinderhook Lodge. Guests like Woolsey book rooms at the lodge for events and retreats. Sprague’s Kinderhook Lodge is owner Andy Sprague’s effort to diversify his family farm’s business.

Foundation in Urbana. His family’s farm grew Midwestern staples of corn, soybeans and some wheat, but a specialty unique to Pike County helped Sprague transform the business.

White-tailed deer hunting had taken off in Pike County in the late ’90s and the demand for housing for hunters rose along with it.

Sprague decided to meet that demand by building a

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lodging facility that with a full-service kitchen and event space.

Sprague remodeled and expanded the first lodge in 2001, built an 11-bedroom facility in 2006, and built a five-bedroom cabin in 2008.

To get into agri-tourism, Sprague said that a business owner should identify an audience that would want to come to the area and then expand on services that are

popular.

“I was blessed to already have an audience — specifically the deer hunters — to start with and was able to identify and nurture other aspects of the business,” he said. Word-of-mouth, particularly social media, has been helpful.

Getting the lodging business off the ground involved a lot of work for Sprague personally. He did all of the cooking with his mother for the first nine years.

Sprague now has a staffed kitchen. The lodge also lets Sprague partake in some of his favorite hobbies — such as cooking and landscaping.

Sprague said he enjoys witnessing how restorative a trip to the lodge can be to guests — many of whom are frequent visitors.

One of Sprague’s guests,

Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 7

Deborah Goldberg, explained what kept her coming to the lodge for quilting retreats: “The fabulous service and food along with Andy’s great personality make it special.”

Other farms diversify their crops to offer something different to clients and even to try new experiences.

Christie Joehl of Greene Fields Farm in Greenfield said her farm is in the process of adding apple trees and increasing chrysanthemum production along with the pumpkins and strawberries the farm usually grows.

“Not everybody likes pumpkins,” Joehl said, “We’re also realizing that in order to reach more customers and provide more of a one-stop farm experience, we had to start providing the apples.”

The apples will not be ready for a few more years, but Greene Fields Farms will add an additional acre for apples next year.

Joehl said adding crops increases financial risk and requires time investment that could go to their pumpkin patch or to her husband Regan’s primary job of helping on his father’s farm. However, she said that specialty crop production allows farmers to make more money per-acre with fewer acres.

Greene Fields Farms offers customers a hands-on experience of picking their own produce and Joehl said the apple trees will be a good addition in cultivating that experience for farmers.

“The benefits would be we’ve already got a customer base, we’ve found a kind of apple that you don’t need a lot of land for,” Joehl said, “That people can pick on their own.”

Joehl also hosts elementary school students on the farm for field trips. A former high school agriculture teacher, Joehl offers See TOURISM | Page 8

Marco Cartolano | Journal-Courier

Sprague’s Kinderhook Lodge head cook Wendy McCartney looks at a pie that has been prepared for the lodge’s guest. The lodge has a cook staff that serve guests meals.

Marco Cartolano | Journal-Courier

Linda Focareto of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, works on a quilt during a retreat at Sprague’s Kinderhook Lodge. Sprague’s Kinderhook Lodge is owner Andy Sprague’s effort to diversify his family farm’s business.

8 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Tourism From page 7

Bill Camphouse conducts Anna Borrowman of the Pike Pipers in a cabin at Sprague Kindherhook Lodge.

The cabin is the newest addition to the lodge.

Marco Cartolano | Journal-Courier

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lessons to children and hands-on demonstrations for $4 a student.

Six Farms LLC in Chapin grew chrysanthemums and pumpkins this winter in addition to the usual crops of corn and soybeans along with raising hogs and cattle.

Genny Six — whose family runs Six Farms — said the farm primarily added the crops as a form of safe hands-on education in farming and responsibility for her four children.

“If the kids don’t water their plants then they’re not going to have plants,” Six said, “It’s been a good responsibility-type learning opportunity for our kids.”

Six said she has friends

that have grown chrysanthemums who helped them grow the plants. Six’s family had to learn how to lower the pH of water to get the chrysanthemums to grow into the color they desired and find out how to keep pests out of planted pumpkins. While the chrysanthemums were a success, the wet harvest season brought insects and weeds that made the pumpkins suffer.

Six said their community was supportive when the chrysanthemums were put on sale and lined up to buy them. Improved water conditions and the support of friends who lived in the Triopia School District were crucial for the success of the chrysanthemums, Six said.

The family plans to grow chrysanthemums and pumpkins again next year and take the lessons they learned this year into improving the crops.

Like Six, Sprague said that his community has been helpful in supporting his business. The Pike County Chamber Economic and the Pike-Scott Farm Bureau helped champion his business. Lodging businesses in Pike County have also referred potential customers to other nearby small lodging businesses whenever they were full.

For any business looking to diversify, Sprague said they should expect to invest most of their earnings back into the business.

“Anybody starting out business or a diversification needs to be prepared to take very little out of the business for the first five plus years to allow all of those resources that come in to go right back into the business,” he said.

Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 9

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10 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Amid trade war, farmers lean on hemp

By Amelia Nierenberg New York Times

Surrounded by waist-high hemp plants, Andy Huston, a sixth-generation farmer in Illinois, stopped to admire one of the ridged green leaves.

“I could just spend all day in my hemp field pulling weeds,” Huston said.

Huston planted corn and soybeans this year, about 1,100 acres of each, just as he has for decades. But he is depending on a far smaller 17-acre plot of hemp, newly legalized for cultivation in Illinois, to spare his struggling bottom line.

The alternative crop, he says, may be especially important this harvest. Flooding in the Midwest kept some fields wet late into the planting season. And farmers are

struggling with the effects of a trade fight with China, which has crippled exports of U.S. agricultural commodities like soybeans.

“Every time I put corn and soybeans in the ground, it’s a risk,” Huston said. He hopes the rising popularity of hemp-based cannabidiol, or CBD, will help him turn a profit.

In December 2018, the federal farm bill removed a ban that classified hemp as a controlled substance equivalent to heroin. The shift coincided with the sudden popularity of CBD, which some claim can soothe ailments from depression to menstrual cramps.

Some states had already allowed farmers to grow hemp, interpreting earlier federal provisions to allow commercial production. Other states responded with legislation allowing hemp.

The farm bill expanded cultivation: Illinois is one of 13 states planting hemp for the first time this year, according to Vote Hemp, an advocacy group. An estimated 285,000 acres of hemp were planted nationwide compared with about 78,000 acres in 2018, according to the Brightfield Group, a Chicago-based market research firm for the cannabis industry. About 87% of hemp grown this year will be used for CBD, according to Brightfield.

“It went from a trickle to a flood,” said Tyler Mark, an agricultural economist at the University of Kentucky who studies hemp.

Hemp and marijuana are varieties of cannabis sativa that differ in how much psychoactive chemical they produce. Marijuana is rich in THC, the psychoactive compo-

nent, and hemp is richer in CBD. That can confuse lawmakers and law enforcement officials, in part because hemp looks (and smells) like marijuana.

“People just don’t understand what hemp is,” said Jeffrey Cox, the head of Illinois’s bureau of medicinal plants, who oversaw a small hemp field at this summer’s state fair to introduce the new crop. “I had to explain that it’s not marijuana to hundreds and hundreds of people.”

Hemp was grown in U.S. fields until the 1930s, when it was included in federal legislation restricting marijuana. Even then, it was not eradicated: Wild hemp is often called “ditch weed.”

This year, about 1,000 farmers in Illinois applied to grow fewer than 23,000 acres of hemp, according to John Sullivan, the director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture. That is minuscule compared with the acres of corn (11 million) and soybeans (10.8 million) planted last year. But some see it as a necessary alternative.

“Our corn and soybean farmers have lost customers,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois said. “And when you have a large customer

and you lose them in a given year, h it’s very hard to get them back.” “ Huston, who voted for Presi- t dent Donald Trump and intends f to do so again, said he believed i that the president had good intentions in his trade standoff, h although like other farmers, Hus- i D ton said he was frustrated and l had suffered from its effects.

“It’s a bad way to do business,” he said. “If we end up with better h markets at the end of this, it will fl have been worth it. But I don’t M p know if that’s likely.”

Among farmers, Huston is seen o as a cheerleader and expert on d hemp. Last year, he was the only t person in Illinois to grow hemp as part of a research project with s $ Western Illinois University.

Growing hemp for CBD can be tricky. The federal government has not approved any pesticides for hemp, so labor costs are high because fields need to be tended by hand. Male plants have to be culled because a pollinated female will stop producing CBD. (Hermaphrodite plants, which develop both male and female flowers, self-pollinate and also need to be removed.)

Ann Knowles and Will Terrill, who own Prairie Smoke Herb, a hemp farm in Colchester, Illinois, said they were struggling with their first crop.

“It’s frustrating,” Terrill said as

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A sign for farmer Andy Huston’s new business, American Hemp Research, sits on a table in his office. Huston was the only person in Illinois to grow hemp as part of a research project with Western Illinois University in 2018.

Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 11 he ripped out a pollinating male.

“I’d love for hemp to become what tobacco used to be, enough for folks to just pay their taxes, even if it’s just a couple grand a year.”

Knowles and Terrill bought hemp seeds that were cheaper but included both male and female DNA. Roughly half came up useless.

Andrew Smith, another farmer, had the same problem. Yellow flags dotted his two-acre field in Monmouth, Illinois, marking male plants that needed to be ripped out. The flags ended halfway down a row. He had used so many the day before that he ran out.

“Hemp is a wild card,” he said. “If you were going to spend $20,000, you had to be willing to

s

lose $20,000.”

Some farmers are growing hemp for grain and fiber, which many consider a better long-term investment. But the vast majority of Illinois’s hemp will be used for CBD, which can be sold for more but requires more involved processing. That comes with its own challenges: In Illinois, hemp must be destroyed if it “tests hot,” meaning it contains more than 0.3% THC. As scientific officials study the safety and effectiveness of CBD products, industry experts expressed uncertainty about its future popularity.

“Anyone should be skeptical of a single crop that is marketed as the future saving grace of the American agricultural sector,”

Photos by Whitney Curtis | The New York Times

Hemp plants on Andy Huston’s farm in Roseville.

a a Hemp grows in a greenhouse next to a field of soybeans.

said John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of “Marijuana: A Short History.”

Once farmers make it to harvest, there can be more complications: Processing can require outside machinery and expertise to dry, trim and grind the raw hemp.

Huston has his own processor, but he is one of the lucky ones.

Experts described the race to find a processor as “the Wild West” and “utter chaos.” Some questioned the profits a farmer actually stands to make.

Huston has predicted that he could sell his hemp, which he is growing for CBD, for as much as $65,000 an acre. But closer to harvest he said, “It’s all still tentative.” Experts, academics and industry officials predict a range of far lower returns — from $14,000 to $40,000 an acre to as low as $6,000 an acre.

“We’re in a bit of a green rush here,” said Kevin Pilarski, the

chief commercial officer of Revolution Enterprises, a cannabis company. “There’s over enthusiasm and I don’t think it’s sustainable.”

Still, farmers like Huston are hopeful.

“You don’t want to be the one that lost your family’s farm,” he said, driving past the house built by his great-great-grandfather that now stands across the street from his hemp field. “I guess that’s my incentive.”

Andy Huston, a sixth-generation corn and soybean farmer, waters hemp plants in his greenhouse, in Roseville. With the rising popularity of CBD products, some farmers see growing hemp as a way to ride out President Trump’s fight over trade.

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12 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Farmers explore options for their livelihoods’ future

Ryan Boston unloads soybeans at his family’s farm.

By Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree

smcdaniel@myjournalcourier.com

Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree | Journal-Courier

Growing up on the farm with his grandfather, dad and uncle, Ryan Boston always knew he wanted to join the family business, stepping in as the older generations prepared for retirement.

“My dad and uncle got started with my grandpa and now they are trying to get me started,” Boston said.

For Boston, the concern wasn’t what he wanted to do in the family business, but if the farm would have the ability to sustain another generation.

Boston said he was able to continue the tradition after being leased a Passavant Area Hospital farm and stepping in as his grandfather prepared for retirement.

“It kind of worked out because as he was getting ready to step out, I was ready to start stepping in,” he said.

“My help was needed. They were just worried if I could make a good living and stay on the farm.”

While the Bostons had someone ready to step in, other’s aren’t as fortunate.

For those families with children that do not want to continue the farm, or those that don’t have a next generation, the options are limited.

Allan Worrell, the founder of Worrell Land Services, a Jacksonville-based company that help in farm management, said as the farming population gets older, there are more and more concerns about what will happen once a farmer retires or passes away.

“The most common situation is a family member takes over the farm,” Worrell said, ” but, there have been a few that didn’t have someone to pass it on to.”

For those that do not have

Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 13

e

a family member that want to take over the operation, they may work with someone that has been a part of the operation for a long time to buy out the operation “We’ve worked with a few farmers who retired and had a hired man or someone who has worked for them that they’ll transition into the operation,” Worrell said. “They would sale them the machinery, get them started.”

Others rent out their land to other farming operations, or may eventually sell their land.

For some, the only option is to sell of their land.

According to a the 2019 Illinois Society of Professional Farm Manager and Rural Appraisers Mid-Year survey, sales of farmland largely came from estate sales —roughly 63%.

About 14% of farmland sales were made by farmers, 8% by local investors, 8% by non-local investors and 5% by institutions.

For those sales, roughly 64% of purchasers were other farmers, 17% were made by local individual investors, 10% by institutional investors, 8% by non-local individual investors and 1% by other groups.

Worrell said sometimes a farmer will sell pieces of his land to a nearby farmer that is looking to expand their operation.

“These farms are sometimes being absorbed by other farmers, so we are getting fewer but larger operations,” Worrell said.

“Land is in short supply so for

r

Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree | Journal-Courier

Ryan Boston drives a tractor and waits to collect the harvested soybeans.

some of these farmers, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Jim Oliver, a farm manager for the Farmer’s State Band and Trust, said there are cases where the bank will oversee the farm while it is in a trust for a future generation.

“We deal with trusts where the original owner had farmed

and didn’t have someone to take it over, but they wanted to hang on to it for a future generation,” Oliver said. “They’ll put it into a trust and we would manage it on their behalf until someone wanted to take over or sell it.”

For Boston, he said he is hopeful that he’ll be able to

keep the tradition alive and be able to pass down the operation to his own children one day.

“I’d love to take over the

operation one day and then one day for my kids to take over,” Boston said. “That’s what many farmers want.”

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14 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

State a leader in implement production

By Tom Emery

For the Journal-Courier

One of the keys to successful farming is having the right implements.

Many of those have been produced in Illinois.

John Deere, McCormick and Case IH are just a few of the conglomerates which have operated in the state, building some of the world’s best farm machinery while pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the Illinois economy.

Starting in 1890, Illinois was the national leader in implement production, and the state’s farmers were among the best customers. From 1890-1910, the value of implements on Illinois farms doubled, from nearly $34.5 million to over $73.7 million, even though prices of individual pieces of machinery continued to fall. The state ranked third in the nation in the value of farm implements in 1890.

Deere was a Vermont blacksmith who moved to Grand Detour, in Ogle County, in 1837 and observed the struggles of farmers with old methods.

Inspired, he created a steel plow from a large, broken circular sawblade.

There is debate whether Deere’s invention was the first of its kind, but it was certainly the most successful. He tried his new product on a field across the Rock River from Grand Detour and, as one historian wrote in 1972, “the plow cut cleanly, scoured brightly, and required less animal power.” The new plow boosted yields, and made it possible to cultivate more land.

Deere produced three steel plows in 1838 and ten in 1839, a number that spiked to two a week in 1842. With business booming, he moved to Moline in 1848 to be near the Mississippi River, a power and water source,

Scott Olson | Getty Images

Dan Meyer prepares his planter before planting corn on his family’s farm near Hampshire.

and have better access to steel.

The following year, his 16-man workforce rolled out 2,136 plows, and the mighty John Deere Company was on its way.

As Deere was gaining momentum, Virginia-born Cyrus McCormick was marketing a mechanical grain reaper, continuing a dream of his father, who had tried for 28 years to perfect such a product, without success. McCormick himself had developed a horse-drawn reaper that cut grain to one side of the team, but the product was not reliable in various conditions.

He sold one reaper in 1840, and none the following year.

But McCormick persevered and enhanced the design well enough to sell seven reapers in 1842. That number jumped to fifty two years later. He received his second patent in 1845 and, two years later, moved west to Chicago, to take advantage of water transportation, raw materials, and rail connections.

There, he founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in a four-story, red brick factory that was one of the city’s first large-scale manufacturing centers.

McCormick weathered several

challenges to his patent, including a fierce lawsuit from John Manny of Rockford, who had his own reaper design. Legal counsel for the trial included such luminaries as Abraham Lincoln and Edwin Stanton.

Another ongoing rival of McCormick was Obed Hussey, a top Chicago-based implement manufacturer. But by 1856, McCormick was producing over 4,000 reapers a year.

That technology required a mere hour and a half to cut an acre of wheat. Though the McCormck reaper cost $120, a hefty sum in that era, the product paid for itself in more ways than one. From 1849-57, the eleven top wheat-producing counties in Illinois bought 25 percent of McCormick’s reapers.

Illinois was the nation’s leader in grain production in 1860, largely due to the McCormick reaper.

In 1870, two-thirds of all corn planters in the nation were manufactured in Illinois, along with one-fifth of all plows. Though the McCormick Reaper Works were wiped out in the Chicago Fire of 1871, the company rebounded quickly as the city swiftly resumed its worldwide leadership in agribusiness.

By the end of the century, Chicago led the nation in implement production, and manufactured just under half of all output in Illinois. That year, McCormick sold 150,000 reapers worldwide.

Across the state, Moline, bolstered by John Deere, ranked a strong second. Along with adjacent Rock Island, Moline was an agricultural powerhouse of its own, with smaller implement companies springing up while the Deere Company continued to rake in cash.

There were plenty of other implement producers statewide, including the Parlin and Orendorff plow factory in Canton, which was incorporated in 1880.

Co-founder William Parlin is recognized for developments in stalk cutters, disc plows, and double plows.

In 1902, the McCormick company was merged with another Chicago implement manufacturer, Deering Harvester, and three smaller equipment companies to create International Harvester.

In 1919, IH purchased Parlin and Orendorff and renamed it the Canton Works, a local mainstay for decades.

Back in Rock Island, IH opened a new plant in 1926 for the sole purpose of producing Farmall tractors. In nearby East Moline, IH began production of combines in 1929.

In 1930, the 100,000th Farmall was produced. IH remained a leader in tractor sales for much of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1974, the five millionth IH tractor rolled off the line but by then, the company was in decline.

Case Equipment bought out IH in 1985, closing the Rock Island plant as part of the deal that May. The company merged with New Holland in 1999 and closed the East Moline plant in August 2004.

Prior to that, Moline had also been the home of the Moline

Plow Company, which, at one time, was the fifth-largest producer of implements in the world. Moline Plow dated to the early 1850s, and added tractors to its line in the 1910s. The company eventually built a facility in Rock Island that was the largest tractor factory in the world.

In 1929, Moline Plow merged with Minneapolis Steel & Machinery to become Minneapolis-Moline, and continued operating a factory in the Quad Cities. Known for its familiar gold-colored tractors, the company was bought out by White Motor Company in 1963. The Minneapolis-Moline name was discontinued in 1974.

Elsewhere in town, the Moline Wagon Company was the largest company on the globe exclusively devoted to wagon production. The firm was started by James Smith, a former blacksmith for John Deere, in the 1850s. By 1908, the company was cranking out 30,000 wagons a year. Deere purchased the firm in 1911 and renamed it the John Deere Wagon Company.

Nearby, there was the Rock Island Plow Company, whose co-founder, Robert Tate, had been Deere’s business partner until 1852. The company was one of the few nationwide to manufacture a full line of implements besides plows, with as many as 50 products in their line.

It, too, was one of the biggest farm machinery firms of the day, and the largest manufacturer of disc harrows in the world. The company was purchased by Case in 1937.

On a lesser scale, Peoria was also known for farm machinery production, and top companies were found in Rockford, Galesburg, Belleville, Alton, Peru and others in the 1880s and beyond.

Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 15

Project aims to empower ‘farmHers’

By Rochelle Eiselt - rochelle.eiselt@myjournalcourier.com

-

A program called Annie’s Project is helping teach women about farming to strengthening their role in modern farm and ranch enterprises.

The nonprofit organization offers classes in 33 states to help sharpen problem-solving, record keeping and decision-making skills.

Linda Mueller heard about Annie’s Project last year. She went to a class in Winchester to learn more.

“It was very helpful,” Mueller said.

“There’s a lot of educational opportunities.”

Women of all ages were in the class Mueller attended, she said.

She said she learned a lot of things about how farming has changed and there were several things Mueller said she wished she had learned earlier — such as how to plan and manage a farm.

Mueller was born on a farm. She grew up helping her dad with farming. They raised grain, corn, soybeans, cows and pigs. She worked a small family farm for awhile and eventually got into farmers’ markets in the early 1990s.

More women are involved in farming today.

The U.S. Census Bureau said women were the principal operators of 29.13% of farms in the United States in 2017. That number was up

significantly from 13.6% in 2012, according to the Census Bureau.

“There’s not a barrier like there used to be,” Mueller said.

Jennifer Bell became involved with farming through her family. Her family worked in the agriculture industry for many years and after her parents died, Bell and her sister decided to take over the farming aspect.

She said she hasn’t regretted the decision.

“There are so many different levels of farming from marking your crops to looking at different seed variations to conservation techniques,” she said.

Bell attended two classes by Annie’s Project.

“It really provides a solid foundation for women that are going into farming,” Bell said. “It’s a great resource of material and information.”

Each class offers speakers who can answer questions in different areas.

The program lasts about six weeks.

“It provides a lot for women and the

program brings women together to talk about their farm, ask questions, and know where to find the answers,” Bell said. “You can come out with more answers with the terminology, concepts of farming and information women could go back and share with their husbands and sons.”

It’s a program for any farmer and you get a broad view of everything in farming.

“It’s nice that it’s focused on women because women can come together as a group and ask questions and talk about issues they have on the farm,” Bell said. “It seems like we have a lot of the similar issues and things that we’re all dealing with in a different capacity.”

What stood out to Bell were the products and services that are available.

“Until you get involved with farming, you don’t understand and realize all the aspects and things you have to worry about and continually have to improve upon,” Bell said.

16 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

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18 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Ag education blends old with the new

By Marco Cartolano

marco.cartolano@myjournalcourier.com

Marco Cartolano | Journal-Courier

Lincoln Land Community College agriculture professor Rich Teeter pilots a drone to take pictures of solar panels as student John Sudduth of Sherman watches.

Colleges that service westcentral Illinois have made efforts to modernize agriculture education.

Illinois College’s new agribusiness program entered its second year this fall.

In its first year, Michael Woods, agribusiness management program coordinator, said he had a goal of having 12 students. Now there are more than 60 students in the program and the number goes higher when counting stu-

dents taking classes who are majoring in other fields.

Lincoln Land Community College’s agriculture program was named the best college agriculture program in the Midwest by the National Association of Agricultural Educators.

Officials at LLCC’s Springfield campus also broke ground on the Kreher Agriculture Center, which will give the agriculture program a permanent location on campus when it opens by 2021.

Bill Harmon, the agriculture program’s coordinator, said

the new building will have state-of-the-art agriculture technology, labs, and classrooms that allow for flexibility in what activities a professor can plan.

An LLCC student in a twoyear applied science degree program will take classes in the basics of agriculture like soil and crop science and sales. After the introductory classes, students can choose classes in subjects such as animal science and precision agronomy.

As a teacher at a liberal arts college, Woods believes it is

critical to teach students about how agriculture interacts with society. For Woods, an agribusiness program is keeping in the tradition of early Illinois College professor Jonathan Baldwin Turner, a leader in the land grant movement for public universities and an advocate for agricultural education.

“It’s nice that 180 years later we’re establishing something that really is achieving (Turner’s) desire and mission that he sought for the entire nation,” Woods said.

The Illinois College agribusiness program includes courses that teach analysis on how agriculture impacts the world, an introduction to agribusiness, a marketing class where students get to market a product they themselves conceive, a finance course, as well as elective courses that teach agricultural economics, farm management, and a commodities course.

To prepare students to enter the rapidly changing agriculture industry, Woods emphasized three concepts.

First, Woods teaches his students about the importance of technology to precision agriculture. Second, inspired by Turner’s call for both a liberal and a scientific approach to agriculture, Woods said he tries to instill the importance of how agriculture impacts society along with lessons about the more scientific elements of applying agriculture.

Finally, Woods said students must consider that while agriculture is starting to be overlooked by politicians, it is a critical industry for the nation’s economy and meeting a society’s demand for products.

Like Illinois College’s program, teaching students how to adapt to new technology has become increasingly necessary at LLCC. “Just like society’s become more technologically advanced with hand held technology, agriculture has gone along with it,” Harmon said.

Harmon said that his students are also looking to learn the technical knowledge of modern agriculture production and the skills necessary to successfully get employment, A generation ago, Harmon said the agriculture program taught students skills to go back to their farms and be

Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 19

Marco Cartolano | Journal-Courier

Lincoln Land Community College students Cade Vanausdall (from left) of Virden, Colton Westen of Latham, agriculture professor Rich Teeter, John Sudduth of Sherman and Kaleb Millburg of Raymond take part in a demonstration of a drone at Lincoln Land Community College’s Jacksonville location. The drone took pictures of solar panels. Agriculture programs at colleges have adapted to address new technology that has changed the industry.

farmers. Now, a majority of the program’s students are not from farms and Harmon said that the education has shifted to prepare students to work in a support or sales role. The Illinois College program is also mostly made up of students who did not grow up on family farms.

One such student is Illinois College senior Caroline Casler of Jacksonville.

Casler is majoring in business with a concentration in agribusiness management. Casler — who had no farm background before she started college — was interested in how diverse the industry is.

This spring, Casler got to take part in Illinois College’s first team to compete in the National Agri-Marketing Association’s marketing competition and had participated in two internships in the agriculture industry. She is considering a career in digital agriculture or data analytics.

Casler appreciates the opportunities the program has given her to consider what skills employers want in new hires and the connections within the industry that have been facilitated, “I’ve only been in the program for a short amount of time but the amount of opportunity I’ve been given is something that I will forever hold onto.”

While Woods is currently the sole faculty member for the program, he is hoping to add another faculty member to the agribusiness program by this January. Illinois College has also added a faculty member who can start an agricultural education program by next fall.

To teach the material, Woods said he uses discussions to encourage critical thinking, and demonstrations.

Woods started a blue roots garden where students can get experience in small-scale production. Hands-on

education and demonstrations are also key for Harmon — including simulations to give students practice with marketing.

Casler said that Woods’ commitment to his students and the oneon-one time he gives to them has been essential for her education and landing her internships. Woods said that the smaller size of Illinois College allows him to develop a closer connection with his students than he would at a larger institution.

According to Harmon, the need for more people to work in the industry is a bright spot for agriculture education, but schools need to step up their recruitment efforts to meet the demand.

“We’ve got a great product that we can put out for potential students and say that we can get you to a really great job when you’re done with school.”

20 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Ag secretary: No guarantee small dairy farms will survive

By Todd Richmond Associated Press

President Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary said during a stop this month in Wisconsin that he doesn’t know if the family dairy farm can survive as the industry moves toward a factory farm model.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters following an appearance at the World Dairy Expo in Madison that it’s getting harder for farmers to get by on milking smaller herds.

“In America, the big get bigger and the small go out,” Perdue said. “I don’t think in America we, for any small business, we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability.”

Perdue’s visit comes as Wisconsin dairy farmers are wrestling with a host of problems, including declining milk

prices, rising suicide rates, the transition to larger farms with hundreds or thousands of animals and Trump’s international trade wars.

Wisconsin, which touts itself as America’s Dairyland on its license plates, has lost 551 dairy farms in 2019 after losing 638 in 2018 and 465 in 2017, according to data from the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. The Legislature’s finance committee voted unanimously last month to spend an additional $200,000 to help struggling farmers deal with depression and mental health problems.

Jerry Volenec, a fifth generation Wisconsin dairy farmer with 330 cows, left the Perdue event feeling discouraged about his future.

“What I heard today from the secretary of agriculture is there’s no place for me,” Volenec told reporters. “Can I get

some support from my state and federal government? I feel like we’re a benefit to society.”

Getting bigger at the expense of smaller operations like his is “not a good way to go,” said Darin Von Ruden, president of Wisconsin Farmers Union and a third-generation dairy farmer who runs a 50-cow organic farm.

“Do we want one corporation owning all the food in our country?” he said to reporters.

Perdue said he believes the 2018 farm bill should help farmers stay afloat. The bill reauthorizes agriculture and conservation programs at a rough cost of $400 billion over five years or $867 billion over 10 years. But he warned that small farms will still struggle to compete.

“It’s very difficult on an economy of scale with the capital needs and all the environmental regulations and everything else today to survive milking

40, 50, or 60 or even 100 cows,” he said.

Perdue held a town hall meeting with farmers and agricultural groups to kick off the expo. The former Georgia governor seemed to charm the crowd with his southern accent and jokes about getting swiped in the face by a cow’s tail.

Jeff Lyon, general manager for FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative in Madison, asked Perdue for his thoughts on Trump’s trade war with China.

Trump’s administration has long accused China of unfair trade practices and has imposed escalating rounds of tariffs on Chinese imports to press for concessions. The administration alleges that Beijing steals and forces foreign companies to hand over trade secrets, unfairly subsidizes Chinese companies and engages in cyber-theft of intellectual property. China’s countermoves have been especially hard on American farmers because they target U.S. agricultural exports.

According to a September

analysis by the U.S. Dairy Export Council, American dairy solids exports to China fell by 43% overall in the 11 months starting in July 2018, when China enacted the first round of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. dairy products. About 3.7 billion pounds of U.S. farmers’ milk had to find other markets during that span, the analysis found.

Chinese leaders have said they’re ready to talk but will take whatever steps are necessary to protect their rights.

Perdue responded to Lyon’s question by calling the Chinese “cheaters.”

“They toyed us into being more dependent on their markets than them on us. That’s what the problem has been,” he said. “They can’t expect to come into our country freely and fairly without opening up their markets.”

The secretary said the Trump administration is working to expand other international markets, including targeting India, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia.

John Hart | Wisconsin State Journal (AP)

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue listens to a question from a farmer during a town hall meeting at the World Dairy Expo.

Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 21

Water quality sensor hitching ride on boat

By Adrian Sainz and Janet McConnaughey Associated Press

A data-gathering sensor attached to the American Queen steamboat will give scientists and cities a better understanding of water quality along the entire length of the Mississippi River.

U.S. Geological Survey and Army Corps of Engineers officials, a group of Mississippi River city mayors and the operators of the American Queen gathered this month to show off the new equipment on the steam-driven vessel in Memphis. The stately steamboat is the first private vessel to carry a sensor that gathers data to help preserve and restore ecosystems, and to buoy economies of cities and towns up and down the heavily traveled commercial waterway.

Good water quality is vital for cities that get their drinking water from the river. Mississippi River water is also used for industrial purposes such as farm irrigation and beverage manufacturing, and by tourists who enjoy fishing, kayaking and other recreational activities.

Although 3,700 sensors are already in fixed locations along the river, officials say the American Queen’s mobile device will help build a larger picture of water quality as the vessel travels from Minnesota to Louisiana. It will help identify areas where nitrogen from farms, lawns and even sewage systems affect water quality, even in the Gulf of Mexico. It also will help municipalities use the data to target specific ecosystem renewal and other types of projects, and ask the federal government for funding for them, officials said.

“No one wants to hunt, fish, paddle or cruise in or near water full of algae due to nutrient surge,” said Marco McClendon, mayor of West Memphis, Arkansas. “We need to know what’s in our water to keep it clean.”

The steamboat sensor will gather water temperatures, levels of turbidity, oxygen and nitrates, and other data every five minutes, said Jim Reilly, director of the U.S. Geological Survey. Data is then sent to government offices, municipalities and other stakeholders for their analysis and use, Reilly said.

Mississippi River sensors also gather information on nitrogen and phosphorus that flows down the river from farms and other sources.

Those chemicals wind up in the Gulf Mexico, creating a large oxygen-starved “dead zone” south of Louisiana every summer.

Meanwhile, a kiosk installed on the American Queen will let travelers learn about the project and how the data will help create a better understanding of the importance of good water quality on the Mississippi River.

That’s a great way to inform tourists from across the country, said Louisiana State University and University of Michigan scientists who have separately been using nutrient data for nearly two decades to forecast the dead zone’s likely size.

“My guess is very few people on the boat know about the connection between the river and the dead zone. I think that’s going to be helpful,” said Don Scavia, professor emeritus of environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan.

Scientists can learn from it, too.

The steamboat “would pass by junctions of two distributaries, which might tell us a little about the mixing of two water masses,” said R. Eugene Turner, of LSU’s Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences.

The boat’s equipment might show agriculture, industry or sewage “hot spots,” he said, adding: “They might look at it as a detective going up and down” the river.

Scavia said dead zone forecasts probably will continue to use stationary monitors “since the models

are calibrated to that.”

But the steamboat sensor could be useful as it gathers data all along the river, not just at individual points on the waterway, Scavia said.

“It should be helpful in building river models,” he said.

The American Queen steamboat docked on the Mississippi River. A U.S. Geological Survey nutrient sensor was installed to measure nutrient levels and water quality along the Mississippi River. The data-gathering sensor attached to the steamboat will give scientists and cities a better understanding of water quality along the entire span of the river.

Adrian Sainz | AP

22 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Monarch symbol of species in crisis as protections shrink

By Ellen Knickmeyer Associated Press

Hand-raising monarch butterflies in the midst of a global extinction crisis, Laura Moore and her neighbors gather round in her yard to launch a butterfly newly emerged from its chrysalis.

Eager to play his part, 3-yearold Thomas Powell flaps his arms and exclaims, “I’m flying! I’m flying!”

Moore moves to release the hours-old monarch onto the boy’s outstretched finger, but the butterfly, its wings a vivid orange and black, has another idea. It banks away, beginning its new life up in the green shelter of a nearby tree.

Monarchs are in trouble, despite efforts by Moore and countless other volunteers and organizations across the United States to nurture the beloved

butterfly. The Trump administration’s new order weakening the Endangered Species Act could well make things worse for the monarch, one of more than 1 million species that are struggling around the globe.

Rapid development and climate change are escalating the rates of species loss, according to a May United Nations report. For monarchs, farming and other human development have eradicated state-size swaths of native milkweed habitat, cutting the butterfly’s numbers by 90% over the past two decades.

With its count falling 99% to the low tens of thousands in the western United States last year, the monarch is now under government consideration for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. But if the Trump administration’s latest action sur-

vives threatened legal challenges, there will be sweeping changes to how the government provides protections, and which creatures receive them.

Administration officials say the changes will reduce regulation while still protecting animals and plants. But conservation advocates and Democratic lawmakers say the overhaul will force more to extinction, delaying and denying protections.

The administration will for the first time reserve the option to estimate and publicize the financial cost of saving a species in advance of any decision on whether to do so. Monarchs compete for habitat with soybean and corn farmers, whose crops are valued in the low tens of billions of dollars annually. For mountain caribou, sage grouse, the Humboldt marten in California’s old-growth

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Another coming change will end across-the-board protections for creatures newly listed as threatened. Conservation groups say that will leave them unprotected for months or years, as officials, conservationists and industries and landowners hash out each species’ survival plan, case by case.

The rule also will limit consideration of threats facing a species to the “foreseeable” future, which conservation groups say allows the administration to ignore the growing harm of global warming. Along with farming, climate change is one of the main drivers of the monarch’s threatened extinction, disrupting an annual 3,000-mile migration synched to springtime and the blossoming of wildflowers. In 2002, a single wet storm followed by a freeze killed an estimated 450 million monarchs in their winter home in Mexico, piling wings inches deep on a forest floor.

A decision on whether the monarch will be listed as threatened is expected by December 2020.

E g M o In the meantime, volunteers like Moore grow plants to feed h and host the monarchs, nurture o c caterpillars, and tag and count monarchs on the insects’ annual s migrations up and down America. T While wildlife experts encourage b the growing of milkweed, some o are doubtful about the common e practice of raising monarchs from their chrysalis out of concern it s allows less healthy butterflies to c p survive. s For Moore, a tutor who has i turned her 20-by-20-foot yard over to milkweed, fleabane and s other butterfly nectar and host plants, the hope is that grass-rootsc efforts of thousands of volunteers o loosely connected in wildlife orga- t nizations, schools, and Facebook h groups will save the monarch, at c a least.

“People having an interest in d it might reverse it. It’s encouraging,” said Moore, who also raises n extra milkweed to give away. If c the monarch can’t be saved, she a said, “it would be kind of sad.

W What it would say about what s we’re able to do.” m Some animals — like a shy mountain caribou species that went extinct from the wild in the lower 48 states last winter, despite protection under the

Carolyn Kaster | AP

Laura Moore displays a newly emerged monarch butterfly on her finger in her yard. Despite efforts by Moore and countless other volunteers and organizations across the United States to grow milkweed, nurture caterpillars and tag and count monarchs on the insects’ annual migrations up and down America, the butterfly is in trouble.

Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 23 Endangered Species Act — struggle and disappear out of sight.

Monarchs can serve as reminders of the others, says Karen Oberhauser, director of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, and a conservation biologist who has studied monarchs since 1984.

That was before a boom in soybeans, corn and herbicide wiped out milkweed in pastures converted to row crops.

“One of the reasons I think it’s so important to focus on monarch conservation is monarchs connect people to nature,” Oberhauser said. “They’re beautiful, they’re impressive, people have seen them since we were children.”

“If the changes that humans are causing are leading to the decline of species that are as common as the monarchs, it’s scary,” Oberhauser said. “The environment is changing such a lot that monarchs are declining. And I think that doesn’t bode well for humans.”

The Interior Department did not provide comment for this article about the plight of the monarch despite repeated requests.

For corn and soybean farmer Wayne Fredericks, the monarch’s seemingly vulnerable life cycle is a mystery.

“Who would design a little creature that depends on one weed?

Overwinters in one little spot?”

Fredericks asks.

He takes part in federal government programs that pay farmers to seed islands of native wildflowers and grasses on their land. Coming through the corn rows on his 750 acres this spring, Fredericks is thrilled to see the full result: Orange and black wings fluttering among seeded prairie flowers.

“This year, it is just awesome,” He says.

As farmers, however, “we’ve evolved to have clean fields,” and have used tractors, potent weed killers, and weedkiller resistant crops to make them that way, Fredericks said. “And unfortunately it killed the milkweed.”

Butterflies are pretty, he said, but persuading farmers to work around aggressively spreading milkweed will take money. “When it’s made economical sense to do so, it happened right away,” he said.

For farmer Nancy Kavazanjian, who includes solar panels and patches of pollinator-friendly wildflowers amid her corn, soybean and wheat, “If we’re going to be sustainable, we have to pay the

bills.”

Should supporters win federal protections for monarchs and their milkweed habitat, “the devil is in the details, isn’t it?” Kavazanjian said. “The wording and the enforcement and you know, I mean, again, if invasive species meets endangered species, then what happens?”

“We’re trying to do what we can,” said Richard Wilkins, a grower who shuns the federal farm habitat programs, but hopes that leaving what weeds and wildflowers survive in hard-to-mow areas helps the wildlife. “I think you’ll find there’s lots of farmers” who feel that way.

For Oberhauser, the biologist, “it’s really important here we not blame farmers.”

“What we need instead of pointing fingers is, we need to make up for that,” as with the programs that pull unproductive lands out of farming and into set-aside patches for wildlife, she said.

In the U.S. West, where monarchs spend the winter rather than migrate to Mexico, their numbers have plummeted from 4.5 million in the 1980s to fewer than 30,000 last winter.

Tierra Curry, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity conservation advocacy group, said because the monarch

was once so common, most peopl her age — early 40s — believe “there’s no way monarchs can be endangered.”

But for her 14-year-old son, it’s already almost a post-monarch world. Despite the more than a dozen milkweed plants that the family plants in their yard, “we haven’t seen one yet,” she said.

Carolyn Kaster | AP

Milkweed flowers begin to open on a mature plant in a field at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

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24 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

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Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 25

Put fall leaves to work in landscape

By Melinda Myers

down. compost and sprinkle with Bag shredded leaves you a low nitrogen, slow release want to save for next season. fertilizer.

Raking fall leaves can seem Tuck them out of sight for Repeat the layers until the like a chore and a never-endwinter under trees or around pile is the desired height. ing one, at that. Reduce time the foundation of your house Then moisten until it’s the and effort spent managing fall for added insulation. consistency of a damp sponge. leaves by putting this valuable Dig extra shredded leaves Turn the pile occasionally, resource to work in your landinto vacant annual flower and moving the material in the scape. vegetable gardens or incorpocenter to the outer edge and Use your mower to recycle rate them into the soil as you the less decomposed trimleaves right where they fall. prepare new planting beds. mings to the hotter center. It’s As you mow the grass, you’ll They will break down over a great workout and speeds shred the leaves into smaller winter, improving the draindecomposition. Or pile the pieces. If they are the size age in heavy clay soils and materials in a heap and let of a quarter or smaller, your the water-holding ability in nature do the work; it just lawn will be fine. As these leaf fast-draining soils. takes longer. pieces decompose, they add Create compost with shredOak and large maple leaves organic matter and nutrients ded leaves and other landscape both make great mulches and to the soil. trimmings. Do not use meat, additions to the compost pile Another option is to attach bones or dairy that can attract but are slow to break down. a bagger to shred and collect rodents. Avoid diseased, Shred them with your mower the leaves with every pass of insect-infested trimmings or leaf shredder first for better the mower. Only use grass and weeds that can survive in results. Avoid black walnut clippings collected from lawns compost piles that don’t proleaves that contain juglone, a that have not been treated duce enough heat to kill these compound which is toxic to with a weed killer this fall. unwanted pests. many plants. Once the leaves Or burn a few extra calories Start with a compost pile are fully decomposed the comand rake the leaves into a pile. that’s at least three feet high post is safe to use.

Shred with a leaf shredder and wide for efficient decomAs you begin putting fall or mower and spread them position. Place a mixture of leaves to work in your landover the soil surface around shredded fall leaves, grass scape, you’ll start considering perennials. Leaf mulch helps clippings free of herbicides, them a gift versus a curse from insulate plant roots, conserve vegetable scraps and other nature especially as you see moisture, suppress weeds and landscape trimmings in an the results of your efforts – a improve the soil as it breaks 8to 10-inch layer.

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26 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Concerns grow over tainted sewage sludge on croplands

By John Flesher and Michael Casey Associated Press

For more than 20 years, the eastern Michigan town of Lapeer sent leftover sludge from its sewage treatment plant to area farms, supplying them with high-quality, free fertilizer while avoiding the expense of disposal elsewhere.

But state inspectors ordered a halt to the practice in 2017 after learning the material was laced with one of the potentially harmful chemicals known collectively as PFAS, which are turning up in drinking water and some foods across the U.S. Now, the city of 8,800 expects to pay about $3 million to have the waste treated at another facility and the leftover solids

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shipped to a landfill. Testing has found elevated PFAS levels in just one field where the sludge was spread, but farmers have lost an economical fertilizer source and hope more contamination doesn’t turn up.

“I feel bad for them,” said Michael Wurts, superintendent of the waste treatment plant, who ruefully recalls promoting sludge as an agricultural soil additive to growers in the community. “The city didn’t do anything malicious. We had no clue this was going on.”

Lapeer isn’t alone. For

decades, sewage sludge from thousands of wastewater treatment plants has been used nationwide as cropland fertilizer. It’s also applied to sports fields, golf courses and backyard gardens.

About half of the 7 million tons generated annually in the U.S. is applied to farm fields and other lands, the Environmental Protection Agency says. While the sludge offers farmers a cheap source of fertilizer, there long have been concerns about contaminants in the material — and attention of late has turned

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Dairy farmers Fred and Laura Stone work on their dairy farm. The couple’s dairy farm has been forced to shut down after sludge spread on the land was linked to high levels of PFAS in the milk.

t d c t

to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. P The city of Marinette, Wis- — consin, has stopped distributing e sewage waste, also called “bio- t solids,” to farms after getting A high PFAS readings. In Maine, r a dairy farm was forced to shut c down after sludge spread on the h land was linked to high levels of i PFAS in the milk.

“It’s been devastating. We t kind of get treated like we are c criminals,” said Stoneridge e Farm’s Fred Stone, whose blood f has also tested high for PFAS d from what he believes was T drinking contaminated water a and milk over the years. t The concern is that certain b PFAS chemicals, which studies have associated with increased a risk of cancer and damage to t organs such as the liver and b thyroid, could be absorbed by s crops grown in soils treated t with polluted sludge and wind M up in foods. The Food and w Drug Administration this year c reported finding substantial lev- e els of the chemicals in random p samples of grocery store meats, t dairy products, seafood and even off-the-shelf chocolate cake,d although the study did not men- p tion any connection to sewage w waste. t “The FDA continues to work s with other federal agencies to f identify sources and reduce h or eliminate pathways for P dietary PFAS exposure includ- s ing through use of biosolids,” “ spokeswoman Lindsay Haake t said. a The extent of any threat to i the food supply is unknown a because so little testing has f been done, scientists say. a “We don’t have a lot of data but the data we have suggests P it’s a problem,” Linda Birnbaum,e director of the National InstituteE of Environmental Health Scienc- s es, said at a recent conference t in Boston. “We are finding h

that there are elevated levels of different PFAS in biosolids. We clearly need more research in this area.”

Studies have documented PFAS absorption by some crops — lettuce, tomatoes and radishes among them — from soils fertilized with sewage byproducts.

And the EPA’s inspector general reported last year that the agency was falling short in tracking hundreds of pollutants in sludge, including PFAS. Yet despite growing evidence that at least some sludge is contaminated, the federal government hasn’t limited PFAS in fertilizer or developed a standard for determining safe levels.

That leaves fertilizer companies and farmers wondering what to do and fearful of consumer backlash.

“If you want to destroy agriculture in Michigan, start talking about, ‘Hey, it could be contaminated with PFAS,” said Laura Campbell, agricultural ecology manager for the Michigan Farm Bureau. “People will see that and say, ‘Oh, we can’t trust them, we’ll buy from elsewhere,’ even though the problem is no worse in Michigan than it is anywhere else.”

Studies going back almost two decades found PFAS in sludge, primarily from industrial wastewater that flows to municipal treatment facilities. Residential sewage is another source — from carpets, clothes and other household items containing PFAS. The grease- and water-resistant compounds, known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t degrade naturally and are believed capable of lingering indefinitely in the environment, also are found in firefighting foam used at military bases and airports.

Evidence of a link between PFAS-laced sludge and food emerged in 2008, when the EPA found elevated levels of several compounds in sludge that a Decatur, Alabama utility had spread on 5,000 acres of

Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 27 farmland. They were detected in nearby waters and vegetation from the fields. The chemicals were traced to several companies that manufactured and used PFAS. “I’m very concerned about replicating that in other states,” EPA’s Andrew Lindstrom, whose lab ran tests there, said at the Boston conference. Milk from one dairy contained 270 parts per trillion of PFAS — almost four times the agency’s nonbinding health risk level of 70 ppt for PFOA and PFOS, the two best-known chemicals in the class.

An EPA “action plan” in February acknowledged “information gaps” about tainted sludge.

It said the agency was developing better detection methods and assessing risks posed by PFOA and PFOS, which no longer are manufactured in the U.S. but remain widespread in the environment.

“We are studying the potential pathways by which PFAS are getting into biosolids and we are researching alternative methods for removing or destroying PFAS in biosolids if analysis indicates that detected levels are of risk and need reduction,” the agency told The Associated Press in a statement.

Advocacy groups say EPA also should look at chemicals developed as replacements for PFOA and PFOS, which studies found accumulate in edible parts of plants.

“At least EPA should require that sludge be tested for PFAS before being applied to farm fields,” said Colin O’Neil, legislative director with the Environmental Working Group.

Its inspector general reported last year that the EPA had identified 352 pollutants, including PFAS, in biosolids. But the report concluded the agency had too little data and other tools to assess their safety. Regulations require testing for only nine pollutants in sludge, all heavy metals.

Several states are examining sewage sludge for PFAS contamination and assessing potential dangers. Maine has enacted a nonbinding advisory level for PFAS in sludge and New Hampshire is working with the U.S. Geological Survey on a soil study whose results will help them set a standard.

Maine also found most biosolids from more than 30 wastewater treatment plants were above the state’s advisory level while neighboring New Hampshire detected PFAS in tests of sludge from two dozen permit holders.

Neither state found traceable levels of PFAS in the milk tested.

Based on sludge tests at 41 plants, Michigan ordered several to stop distributing it to farms.

After the state’s environmental department ordered some plants to trace PFAS sent to them, several installed treatment systems that sharply reduced their pollution output, spokesman Scott Dean said.

Among them was Lapeer Plating & Plastics, the automotive chrome manufacturer that caused the Lapeer contamination.

But City Manager Dale Kerbyson said the company has reneged on a promise to help cover Lapeer’s costs of dealing with the pollution and a lawsuit may be coming. “I don’t think the citizens of our city should have to pay for this,” Kerbyson said.

Lapeer Plating & Plastics did not respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.

Although they complain about a lack of government standards, some cities and towns fear strict rules that could force costly infrastructure upgrades or sending sludge to out-of-state landfills. And companies worry they will be put out of business.

“This is the biggest issue that has hit the biosolids recycling profession in North America ever, because of regulatory overreaction,” said Ned Beecher,

executive director of the North East Biosolids and Residuals Association.

Companies that manufacture compost — some from sewage sludge — contend tough standards are premature until scientists determine acceptable PFAS levels.

“We don’t want people jumping to conclusions,” said Frank Franciosi, executive director of the U.S. Composting Council.

If EPA cracks down on anyone, he said, it should be those who manufacture and use PFAS chemicals that enter the waste stream.

Dairy cows stand in the milking chamber at Stoneridge Farm, which has been forced to shut down. Robert F. Bukaty | AP

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28 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

F

Hard work, perseverance keep family farm going

By Rochelle Eiselt

rochelle.eiselt@myjournalcourier.com

RUSHVILLE — The Acheson family farm has been around for more than 154 years.

The sesquicentennial farm is owned now by Alan and Holly Acheson. The farm began when Alan Acheson’s great-great-grandfather, William Acheson, emigrated to the country from Ireland in 1856 and bought the farm in 1865.

He first bought 45 acres of

land and over time kept buying parcels next to what he owned.

The farm now has 171 acres and is about two miles from the Acheson home.

William Acheson passed the farm down to his son and it has been passed to each generation since.

The farm was the first in Schuyler county that was designated a sesquicentennial farm.

It has withstood the years, even when a tornado hit on the back end of the farm. Alan Acheson remembers the storm did some

Photos by Rochelle Eiselt | Journal-Courier

The sesquicentennial Acheson farm is owned now by Alan and Holly Acheson, the fifth generation of the family to operate it.

B

A

t

a c g a f

A barn on the Acheson family farm.

damage to the fences, although he was quite young when it happened.

To this day, you can see where trees were uprooted and are still lying flat.

The family has grown corn and beans on the farm.

There’s one section that used to be covered in trees and Alan Acheson’s father removed all the trees with a bulldozer. The field is used for farming alfalfa.

There are 93 acres of soybeans and 20 acres of alfalfa on the farm now.

“Even though we don’t live on the farm, it’s one of the things we’re most attached to because it’s been in the family for so long,” Alan Acheson said.

There has been no shortage of wildlife around the farm — mostly deer, wild turkeys and bobcats.

There is also a machine shed and windmill, which the family

has restored.

Farming runs in the family and Alan Acheson has farmed his whole life and is the fifth in the generation to carry the farm legacy.

Both of his daughters, Keely and Katie, have a strong attachment to the farm. They have raised animals and been in 4-H. The legacy of the farm will

w t r continue — the family plans to e pass it down to the sixth generation of the family when his daughters are ready.

“It means a lot to carry on the tradition,” Alan Acheson said. “There are not many businesses that are in operation for 150 years — and basically a farm is a business to be able to keep it going.”

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Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 29

Farm moo-ves into tech with 5G cow collars

By James Brooks

Associated Press

On the dairy farm of the future, the cows are going wireless.

The bovine residents of an agricultural technology research center are helping to test next generation mobile technology aimed at helping make dairy farming more efficient.

The herd’s 180 cows are fitted with wireless monitoring collars that work like fitness trackers, recording their movements and eating habits, and sending data

to the cloud using fifth generation, or 5G, mobile network signals.

From there, an algorithm analyzes the information, notifying farmers and veterinarians through a smartphone app if there are any fluctuations that could indicate an illness or other health condition that needs more attention.

The goal is to boost productivity and save manpower by allowing farmers to keep an eye on their herds remotely.

“Having the data available to

your phones, to mobile devices, just makes it that much more accessible, much quicker,” explains Mark Gough, a herdsman at the experimental farm.

“You can be at one end of the building, you get an alert, it’s telling you exactly which cow it is, what the problem potentially is, and it’s an instant assessment,” said Gough, pulling out his iPhone to check on cow No. 866.

The app showed a spike in activity that indicated the cow went into labor and calved overnight, without any complications,

he said.

Farms are no stranger to technology, with robotic milking systems and self-steering tractors now in common use. The next wave of innovation could come from 5G technology, which telecom experts say will bring ultrafast download speeds and reduced signal lag that promise to transform industries.

New 5G networks will let many more devices connect to the internet, making them better suited than existing 4G networks for handling lots of users or sensors and heavy data traffic.

Wireless carriers have just begun launching 5G service this year in a global rollout expected to take up to a decade, and comes amid a geopolitical battle between the U.S. and China over concerns about the security of data on the new networks.

The center’s experimental farm has built a 5G network to send data from the collar sensors to the cloud, bypassing the farm’s slow broadband connection — a common problem for rural internet users.

By sending the cows’ data to the cloud, farmers can use an app to monitor each cow, saving the time and effort of checking on

them individually. The data can also be sent to other people such as veterinarians, who can monitor the state of the herd’s health in real time, said Duncan Forbes, project manager at the experimental farm.

Sensors and big data sets are also being used to monitor pigs, sheep, beef cattle, poultry and even fish. In a separate Agri-EPI project dubbed Tail Tech, data algorithms can interpret the mood of pigs by the angle of their tails using a camera over the pen.

For the milk cows, the connected collars are just one of a number of technologies increasing productivity.

When the cows decide they’re ready to be milked, a collar transponder identifies them when they enter the robotic milking pen and keeps a digital tally of their milk contribution.

At feeding time, an automated feeder glides overhead on ceiling-mounted rails, dropping precise amounts of grass into a feeding trough.

Forbes says the new technology has boosted performance at the farm, which produces as much as 1,320 gallons of milk daily that’s sold to a nearby cheesemaker.

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Project manager Duncan Forbes holds a smartphone showing biometric data on his cows at Agri-EPI Centre. The bovine residents of the agricultural technology research center are wearing next generation mobile technology aimed at helping make dairy farming more efficient. James Brooks | AP

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30 • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • Modern Farmer

Unions seek to halt pork processing rule

By David Pitt Associated Press

You Can Count O

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Pig carcasses are divided and processed.

You YouCan CanCount Count On Us!

The union representing workers at pork processing plants has sued the federal government to challenge a new rule that allows companies to set line speeds and turn over more food safety tasks to company employees.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and local unions in Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas joined with nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen to file the lawsuit in federal court in Minneapolis.

The lawsuit alleges that the

new rule announced in September by the U.S. Department of Agriculture violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it isn’t backed by reasoned decision-making and should be set aside.

A spokeswoman for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

UFCW International President Marc Perrone said there is no evidence that line speed increases can be done in a manner that ensures food and worker safety.

“Increasing pork plant line speeds not only is a reckless giveaway to giant corporations, it will put thousands of workers in harm’s way,” he said.

Swine slaughter workers regularly have reported extreme pressure to work as quickly as possible, which increases the risk of knife injuries, knee, back, shoulder and neck traumas, and repetitive motion injuries including carpal tunnel syndrome, the union said in a statement.

In June, the USDA’s Office of Inspector General launched an investigation into its rulemaking procedure at the request of 17 members of Congress. Public Citizen and UFCW are asking the court to block implementation of the rule and to set it aside.

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Modern Farmer • Sunday, October 27, 2019 • 31

Protect winter landscape from wildlife

By Melinda Myers

Special to the Journal-Courier

There’s no doubt that managing critters in the landscape can be a challenge especially as food supplies start to dwindle.

If you are battling with rabbits, deer, groundhogs or other wildlife, don’t let down your guard as the growing season winds down.

Be proactive.

Start before they get into the habit of dining on your landscape.

It is easier to keep them away than break the dining habit.

Fence them out.

Fencing is the best defense against most wildlife. A four feet tall fence around a small garden will keep out rabbits. Secure the bottom tight to the ground or bury it several inches to prevent rabbits and voles from crawling underneath. Or fold the bottom of the fence outward, making sure it’s tight to the ground. Animals tend not to crawl under when the bottom skirt faces away from the garden.

Go deeper, at least 12 to 18 inches, if you are trying to discourage woodchucks.

And make sure the gate is secure. Many hungry animals have found their way into the garden through openings around and under the gate.

A 5-foot fence around small garden areas can help safeguard your plantings against hungry deer.

Some gardeners report success surrounding their garden with fishing line mounted on posts at 1- and 3-foot heights.

Break out the repellents.

Homemade and commercial repellents can be used. Apply before the animals start feeding and reapply as directed. Consider using a natural repellent that’s safe for people and wildlife.

Scare ‘em away.

Blow-up owls, clanging pans, rubber snakes, slivers of deodor-

ant soap, handfuls of human hair and noise makers are scare tactics that have been used by gardeners for years. Consider your environment when selecting a tactic.

Urban animals are used to the sound and smell of people. Alternate scare tactics for more effective control. The animals won’t be afraid of a snake that hasn’t moved in weeks.

Combine tactics.

Use a mix of fencing, scare tactics and repellents. Keep monitoring for damage. If there are enough animals and they are hungry, they will eat just about anything.

Don’t forget about nature.

Welcome hawks and fox into your landscape. Using less pesticides and tolerating some critters, their food source, will encourage them to visit your yard. These natural pest controllers help keep the garden-munching critters under control.

And most importantly, don’t give up.

A bit of persistence, variety and

adaptability is the key to success.

Investing some time now will not

only deter existing critters from dining in your landscape but will

also reduce the risk of animals moving in next season.

Fencing, when installed properly, can be an effective tool in protecting gardens against animal damage.

Melinda Myers LLC

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