Dekalb-County-AG-Mag-Winter-2015

agmag

DeKalb County

Winter 2015

Local beverage-makers depend on local farms for raw materials See Page 5

A Publication of

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2 | DeKalb County AG Mag | Winter 2015

DeKalb County

Table of Contents

5 Booze Boom

Local beverage-makers

depend on local farms for raw materials, recycling

6 Women put in work on, off the farm 8 The beef chechoff program: Why is it important?

18 USDA partners with EPA; offers new resources to support water

quality trading

20 Soil Solutions 21 Tractor rollovers 22 Food hub hopes to fill void

10 Farming with a job on the side 15 Grain Glut Farmers hold out on selling as they wait

for price rebound

agmag

DeKalb County

Published by Shaw Media Publisher: Karen Pletsch Project Manager: Lisa Angel Design & Layout: Allison LaPorta Articles and advertisements are property of Shaw Media. No portion of DeKalb County Ag Mag may be produced without written consent of the publisher.

Photos taken by: Danielle Guerra • dguerra@ shawmedia.com

Winter 2015| DeKalb County AG Mag | 3

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Winter 2015| DeKalb County AG Mag | 5

Booze boom Local beverage-makers depend on local farms for raw materials, recycling

By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com

DeKALB – The owners of DeKalb’s Whiskey Acres Distilling Co. admittedly have more experience farming than making bourbon – that’s why the grain that goes unused is recycled by going directly to local livestock, co-owner Nick Naegle said.

In fact, DeKalb County’s abundant supply of locally grown produce is making it more attractive for local businesses in the brewing, winemaking and even distilling industry to craft alcoholic beverages with local flavor. Many of those now involved in making beer, wine and spirits have a farm background themselves, providing not only ample access to needed resources but also a place for them to recycle the spent grains and other byproducts of their operations.

The growth in local brewers, wineries and distilleries is also making it easier for local drinkers to get their hands on their favorite beverage made with locally-grown ingredients.

Companies like Prairie State Winery in Genoa, Whiskey Acres Distilling Co. in DeKalb, Cademon Brewing Co. in Genoa and Forge Brewhouse in Sycamore each use ingredients from their own family farms or local farmer’s markets to make their product. But unlike companies closer to or within the city, the leftovers and remains aren’t thrown in the trash.

“They actually take it and dump it down the drain,” Naegle said.

“We’re very mindful of the environment. We like to say we use the whole buffalo.”

For brewers, malted grain – typically barley – is the key source of starch needed to provide sugar for fermentation, and spent grains – those that have already been used to in beer-making – can be one of the biggest byproducts of a brewing operation. Those grains might

6 | DeKalb County AG Mag | Winter 2015

have no further use for brewers, but they’re still plenty appetizing to livestock.

Meanwhile, corn is the key component in making whiskey.

At Whiskey Acres, DeKalb County’s first local distillery, their grain source is their 1,800-acre farm outside of DeKalb. The grain is also fed to local cows, Naegle said.

“We grow the seed and we turn it into whiskey and eventually it turns into beef,” he said.

Prairie State Winery has found itself practicing a similar recycling model, by taking Jonamac apple remains used to make apple wine, and composting them as fertilizer on the family farm, co-owner and winemaker Rick Mamoser said.

“Getting materials locally saves on transportation and fuel costs and everything like that, so as far as efficiency is concerned the more locally you can get your raw product the better,” Mamoser said.

“We process the fruits and then the remaining material that’s not squeezed ends up as compost out on our farm, so it kind of goes right back into nature.”

It’s only appropriate for craft beverage-makers to recycle their resources back into the community however possible, Andrew Nordman, owner of Cademon Brewing, said.

“Even when we were starting small, we were giving it to a goat herd in Kingston,” Nordman said. “So we weren’t throwing anything away. I know that it’s a pretty common trend within the microbrewery world to try to donate grain whenever possible.”

The prevalence of local farms makes it easy, too, Nordman said.

“I think that it’s a lot easier and more of an obligation for breweries down in a farming community to help give back to the communities that help support its existence in the first place,” he said.

Whiskey Acres uses only about five to seven percent of the total grain that’s grown on their farm to operate the distillery, Naegle said.

“It truly never leaves the farm and even more so it becomes the life blood for the next crop and the next whiskey,” he said.

Winter 2015| DeKalb County AG Mag | 7 Farmer Lynn Martz at her family’s Larson Farm in Maple Park Wednesday October 21, 2015.

Mary Beth Nolan mnolan@shawmedia.com

Women put in work on, off the farm

By RHONDA GILLESPIE - rgillespie@shawmedia.com DeKALB — The Wessels family had income selling bushels of corn, soybeans and other crops raised on the family farm, but that didn’t offer them medical or other benefits.

So the family matriarch, Teri Wessels, put in double duty. She pitches in with the farm work by driving a tractor or running combines and doing whatever other duties the season may demand. But she also works as a nurse in an Aurora surgical center part-time. Formerly, she was full-time nurse.

“It’s a balancing act,” said Wessels, whose family owns a farm in Waterman.

Wessels said her work outside the home was a sign of the economic times for farmers decades ago. They didn’t make much from the business, she said.

“Farming was very poorly paid for a while,” she said. “And I was the main salary.”

In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service reports that, although the median income for farm households grew every year from 2009 to 2013, the income came mostly from work off the farm.

The Wesselss hire workers to assist with most of the farm work, but Teri still finds herself doing things like picking fall pumpkins and working at the stand in DeKalb where they sell them. At Christmas time, she knows she’ll be chipping in to help sell Christmas trees and to decorate wreaths the family sells during that season.

She and Lynn Martz are among an estimated 251 women working on 233 DeKalb County farms. They all work

collectively on 116,676 acres here, according to a 2012 USDA agriculture census. http://www.agcensus.usda. gov/Publications/2012/Full_Report/ Volume_1,_Chapter_2_County_Level/ Illinois/st17_2_047_047.pdf Martz, now 57, planned early on to be a farmer. She got her undergraduate degree in agribusiness and took to farming in 1979 — the year she, her father and two brothers started the Larson Farm Partnerships -- then moved into it full time by 1988.

“By the time I went to college, I kind of knew I wanted to be in agriculture and I wanted to do something really close to the farm,” she said. “I ended up here, truly doing what I love to do.”

Her days, from sunup to nightfall, include not only driving loads of crops from the fields into storehouses, but also managing the grain side of the family’s business.

Larson Farm raises feed cattle, and grows corn, soybeans and wheat.

“I kind of oversee the grain side of the business,” said Martz. “I do the logistics of it.”

For both women -- and women, in general -- farming has changed over the years.

More strenuous and tedious manual labor that usually was left for men to handle has been replaced by machines.

“You will see today that there’s more women involved in agriculture,” Martz said. “And that’s just because, with the ability of not only technology and equipment today, it doesn’t take the overall strength that it used to take to operate a farm.”

Mary Beth Nolan - mnolan@shawmedia.com Photo Above: Farmer Lynn Martz helps a driver unload corn at Larson Farm in Maple Park Wednesday October 21, 2015.

Photo Below: Farmer Lynn Martz droves a truckload of corn to a bin for storage at her family’s Larson Farm in Maple Park Wednesday October 21, 2015.

8 | DeKalb County AG Mag | Winter 2015

The Beef C h e c ko f f

program:

I became interested in the Beef Checkoff program because my mom was recently chosen as a member of the Illinois “Team Beef” advocacy group. Each time they run a race, they wear T-shirts promoting the positive aspects of beef in a runnerís diet.

“Team Beef” is sponsored by our state beef association because of the localized funding made available through the Beef Checkoff program. My mom’s participation in “Team Beef” and her focus on being a better beef advocate caused me to research the Beef Checkoff program in greater detail.

When doing my research, I felt it was important to first understand how it was started. The United States Congress created the Beef Promotion and Research Act, also known as the Beef Checkoff program, with passage of the 1985 Farm Bill. Producers approved the initiative making it mandatory in 1988 with 79 percent voting in favor of it. After the bill passed, all producers must pay the equivalent of $1 per head each and every time a beef animal is sold throughout its lifetime.

Now that you know a little more about the background of the Beef Checkoff program, let’s talk more specifically about where the dollars are invested. The Beef Act specifically defines six areas where checkoff dollars can be invested.

The first area I’d like to discuss is promotion. Promotion includes advertising, new-product development and promotional partnerships with restaurants and supermarkets. The goal is to stimulate sales of beef and beef products. One of the newest promotions funded by the Beef Checkoff program is called the “30 Day Protein Challenge.” It is a fun, step-by-step 30-day plan that helps consumers get a balanced amount of protein at each meal, including delicious, protein-rich beef.

The second area of investment is research. Investing in research provides the foundation for checkoff-funded activities. Projects are developed and researched based on the nutritional value of beef, food safety, productenhancement research and overall market research.

Why is it

important?

By Lauren McMillan For NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag

The third category for investment is consumer information. This area focuses on enhancing beef’s image through nutritional data and other positive messages.

Target audiences not only include consumers but also news media, dietitians, teachers and physicians. The newest initiative in this area uses online gaming to attract consumers. For example, the recently launched “Grocery Grab” game is designed to give people a realistic experience of selecting beef cuts to build a nutritious meal.

Next is industry information. When putting checkoff dollars to work in this area, the goal is to promote a greater understanding of the beef industry and to maintain a positive view of beef. They do so by providing

Winter 2015| DeKalb County AG Mag | 9

factual information to people in the food industry about food safety, environmental issues and animal-welfare.

The fifth category for investment is foreign marketing. By investing in foreign marketing, the checkoff program works to help identify and develop international markets for U.S. beef. One of the more recent success stories happened last year in Sri Lanka. The beef checkoff program’s focus to educate local chefs and retailers led to Sri Lanka ending its ban on imports of U.S. beef.

The sixth and final category is producer communications. By focusing efforts in this area, the checkoff program educates and informs cattle producers about practices they can implement in their operation. The goal is to help them increase the value of their end product, as well as improve quality control to ensure a safe and wholesome product for the consumer.

In all six of these categories for checkoff fund investment, the dollars help act as a catalyst for change. In the end, the Beef Checkoff program increases profit opportunities for producers by keeping beef in the minds of consumers and by working to ensure a wholesome, quality beef-eating experience every time.

I hope that you now have a greater appreciation for the importance that the checkoff program plays in the overall U.S. beef industry, I know I do.

Lauren McMillan is a freshman at Princeton High School and lives in rural Tiskilwa with her family.

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Farming

with a job on the side

By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com

Danielle Guerra - dguerra@shawmedia.com Farmer Bryan Flower, of Red Home Farm in Lee, opens the door to the hayloft of his barn that was originally purchased in the 1930’s from a Sears catalog, during a tour of the farm he was giving his Northern Illinois University quanity food production class during a field trip on Friday, May 1, 2015. In addition to farming the 12 acre farmette with his wife, Flower is a chef and the food systems lab coordinator at NIU. The proposed DeKalb food hub interests him both from a seller and buyer standpoint.

DeKALB – Bryan Flower wants to know where his food comes from, so he grows it himself.

“It’s tough,” Flower said. “We also have a four-year-old, so there is that to balance between doing the chores and working full-time. It’s difficult but it’s a passion and we enjoy doing it.”

While running his 12-acre farm, located outside of Lee, is a lot of work, it doesn’t quite pay out a full-time salary. So both he and his wife work full-time between managing their animals, hay crops and greenhouse.

“As a chef, I get to affect influence on what I cook as well as affecting output,” he said. “This chicken that I am about to smoke, I know what it ate, so I know how it should taste. … It’s important to be able to manage both sides.”

Flower works at Northern Illinois University as a Food Systems Lab Coordinator in the college of Health and Human Sciences. His wife works as a second-grade teacher.

For Flower, a typical day involves waking up at 4:30 a.m. to start the farm chores before heading to NIU, Flower said. More chores await after the workday.

“There is feeding the animals, tending the greenhouse – watering, weeding and harvesting,” he said. “We have eight acres of hay crops, so we have to tend the hay crop and make sure it’s in good standing. Overseeing the facility itself, making sure we take care of repairs like fixing a fence or repairing a tractor. On top of all that, we have to maintain our house.”

The end goal is to farm full-time, while either himself or his wife keeps working, he said, but it is a challenge to make enough to get by.

“We’re in that precarious situation where we don’t quite make enough to have one salary,” Flower said. “It’s very hard to generate a large amount of revenue on small acreage. … We’ve been farming for three years and have that five year goal we are working toward. Hopefully by year five we will be closer to being able to do that.”

Winter 2015| DeKalb County AG Mag | 11

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Wayne Adams is a fifth-generation farmer who mostly makes his living off The Farmer’s Garden, his 10-acre farm in DeKalb, but he still holds on to a side job.

For more than 40 years, he worked on cars and motorcycles before deciding to start farming.

“Something clicked in me and I decided I had to go back to my roots,” Adams said. ‘To me, it’s very empowering knowing that you change people’s lives.”

Adams says that in the winter, when the daily chores are little less intense, he returns to his car and motorcycle business – painting and repairing – but his mind remains on his real passion.

“My mind is always wrapped around next season,” Adams said.

“Painting cars and motorcycles doesn’t take much focus. I go out, I do it and I do it well because I did it for so long and it allows me to plan for the next season.”

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Winter 2015| DeKalb County AG Mag | 15

Grain glut Farmers hold out on selling as they wait for price rebound

DeKALB – Inconsistent is the word Rob Wessels would use to describe this year’s crop yield.

Grain stocks are up significantly from a year ago, with corn up 15 percent and soybeans up 54 percent from June 1, 2014. Illinois specifically has seen 49 percent and 65 percent increases, respectively. But despite a USDA forecast that indicated a bin-buster harvest this fall, Wessels’ farm and others in the DeKalb area have suffered from the wet summer, he said.

“Typically in a normal year you have hills, lighter soils that don’t produce anything. and typically the lower ground does pretty good. This year it’s just the opposite,” he said. “The lower ground is getting too much water and it won’t drain, and your higher grounds are maybe doing a little better because they didn’t get hit as much.”

The 10.1 million acres of soybeans planted is up from with 9.8 million last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, while corn acreage is 11.8 million, down from 11.9 million.

Nationwide, a record 85.1 million acres of soybeans had been planted by June 30, up 2 percent from last year. Planted corn acres are the lowest since 2010 at 88.9 million acres.

Illinois farmers have planted more soybeans and less

corn this year, according to a June federal report, yet they’ve been menaced by the wettest June on record.

The statewide rainfall average as of June 30 was 9.37 inches, the most of any June according to records dating to 1895, Illinois state climatologist Jim Angel has said.

Local soybean yields were consistently better than average, while corn was inconsistent, said Dan Hueber, general manager of the Hueber Report, a market and economy publication that reports on grain market.

Illinois farmers holding out Farmers are holding on to their 2014 crops longer than usual because of low prices, according to two elevator managers in LaSalle County.

Drew Partain, manager of Co-operative Grain and Supply Co. in Troy Grove, and Jesse Ruff, manager and owner of Ruff Brothers Grain, with 12 locations in several counties in Illinois, both say farmers are holding on to their 2014 crops waiting for prices to rise to $4-$4.50 a bushel.

“Farmers are putting off the decision to sell as long as they can due to low prices,” Ruff said.

16 | DeKalb County AG Mag | Winter 2015 Partain reported there was about 15 percent of last year’s crop that was still being stored once harvest began. Storage levels are usually about 5 percent of the previous year’s crop once the next year’s harvest begins. Lower exports is the main reason why there is a larger percentage of the 2014 crop being stored on farms or in elevators.

Lower exports is the main reason why there is a larger percentage of the 2014 crop being stored on farms or in elevators.

China, which is the main player in the export market, hasn’t bought as much as usual, while ethanol usage has been even keeled, added Partain. The export market has also been affected by the strong U.S. dollar, which makes it is more expensive for countries wanting to import this American products to do so.

Partain said farmers are betting the USDA is overstating the size of this year’s crop so that prices will rise to profitable levels. The current price for corn is below the cost of production for farmers, who are hoping the prices go up once the crop comes in from the fields, said Partain.

Ruff said there were a lot of questions about this year’s crop in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio prior to harvest beginning. The actual yields won’t be known until the the combines hit the fields.

“If the yields are lower than projected, prices will go up, which is what farmers are hoping will happen,” stated Ruff.

Farmers would probably be more likely to sell corn once the price reaches $4 to $4.50 a bushel. The market rallied to that price briefly earlier this year in July when there was a lot of rain.

“This level didn’t last long and hasn’t come back,” said Ruff.

Rebound will take time Even the most optimistic farmers shouldn’t expect to see higher prices for their product for about another year, Hueber said.

“We’ll see the prices improve in the next eight to 12 months because of some weather problem somewhere else,” he said. “... Every year you have to very cautiously lay a game plan out as far as what your risk-taking capability is. Prices, we’ve actually been in a down pattern certainly for the last six months. We’ve pushed down to a level we haven’t seen since 2008, which we haven’t seen since the economic recession.”

It’s local farmers who are paying the price, Wessels said.

Farmers are paying six-year-old production costs, and struggling to profit from newer, lower grain prices.

“That’s what we’re suffering from right now in farming, is four or five years ago prices came up where they were good,” Wessels said. “It was profitable to farm,

Monica Synett - msynett@shawmedia.com Photo Above: Rob Wessels, Bob Ansteth, Charlie Martinez and Brandon Wessels take a break from harvesting corn to pose for a photo in Waterman on Monday, October 19, 2015.

Photo on right: Bob Ansteth operates a combine to harvest corn for Wessels’ Family Farm in Waterman on Monday, October 19, 2015.

Winter 2015| DeKalb County AG Mag | 17 but when we started making a little more money, then the cost of seed, the cost of fertilizer . . . everything went up. So now all your production is based on say $6 corn, where six years ago it was based on $2.50 corn.”

Although Wessels believes it’s a farmer’s obligation to remain optimistic, hope won’t guarantee a better 2016 season, he said.

“When I’m looking at all these input costs for 2016, part of doing a cash flow or part of figuring what I can do for next year is knowing what I can get today for next year’s crop. And that’s what I base my decisions on,” Wessels said. “At the same time yes, hoping that, yeah, it gets better but I don’t take that to the bank. You can’t . . . You can’t take what you think to the bank.”

“There’s certain things you can control, certain things you can’t. You just have to edge your thinking. It takes a lot of planning. It takes a lot of strategy. It just takes a lot, you know – it takes a lot.”

• Lyle Ganther contributed to this report.

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USDA partners with EPA; offers new resources to support water quality trading

By: DeKALB COUNTY AG MAG Following the recent announcement of $2 million in Conservation Innovation Grants in September to support water quality trading markets, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hosted a joint workshop to expand markets for water quality benefits generated on farms, ranches and forest lands.

Water quality trading is an innovative approach to reduce pollution and efficiently achieve water quality goals. Trading is based on the fact that sources in a watershed can face very different costs to control the same pollutant. Trading programs allow facilities facing higher pollution control costs to meet their regulatory obligations by purchasing environmentally equivalent (or superior) pollution reductions from another source at lower cost, thus achieving the same water quality improvement at lower overall cost.

USDA and EPA signed a partnership agreement in 2013 to advance water quality trading and other market-based approaches that provide benefits to the environment and economy. The workshop attracted more than 200 participants involved in water quality trading from across the nation. “Conservation practices that improve soil health and conserve nutrients also produce real water quality benefits. With support from USDA and our Federal partners, water quality markets can create incentives to increase these environmental benefits and boost investment in rural America. The actions we are announcing today will help us get there,� said Ann Mills, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment.

Among the new water quality trading resources announced: EPA-USDA Water Quality Trading Roadmap The Water Quality Trading Roadmap is a decision support tool for those designing and participating in water quality trading programs. The roadmap is a searchable database that consolidates policy guidance from EPA, information from State programs, and examples and supporting materials from across the U.S.

EPA-USDA partnership on EnviroAtlas to support environmental markets USDA and EPA will incorporate environmental markets data layers into the Federal ecosystem service decision support tool, EnviroAtlas. The data layers will show where markets for water, carbon, wetlands, and habitats occur on the U.S. landscape, provide information about these markets, and allow this information to be displayed in the context of existing environmental data from Federal agencies.

Winter 2015| DeKalb County AG Mag | 19 Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT) USDA will release this fall the next version of NTT, ready for use in the Pacific Northwest and Ohio River Basin. The new version of NTT is a USDA hosted, user-friendly, web-based tool that calculates edge of field nutrient and sediment loads for use in conservation planning and environmental market credit calculation. NTT will be made available in additional regions in 2016.

USDA Environmental Markets Website USDA released the Department-level environmental markets website.

The site integrates information, tools and resources on environmental markets from across the Department, allowing users to easily gain a snapshot of environmental market activities at USDA. These new resources were announced days after the Natural Resources Conservation Service awarded over $2 million in Conservation Innovation Grants to support water quality trading markets. The 2015 Water Quality Trading Conservation Innovation Grant Awardees are: Conservation Marketplace Midwest ($243,933): Proposes to develop and pilot a Field Stewards program, an innovative conservation credit system designed to allow companies in the food industry to buy “offsets” for water quality and agricultural conservation. Through the purchase of certification credits, food companies can demonstrate sustainability to their customers without having to create a new chainof-custody supply chain for agricultural commodities, keeping costs low for retailers and the consumer.

water quality and greenhouse gas emissions reduction credits. EPRI administers the Ohio River Basin nutrient trading program, the only multi-state trading program in the country.

Great Lakes Commission ($400,000): Substantial water quality issues plague the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB), leading to harmful algal blooms each summer in Lake Erie. The Great Lakes Commission proposes to develop a framework for water quality trading in the WLEB. Iowa League of Cities ($700,000): Proposes to develop a framework for water quality trading in Iowa to support the State’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy.

National Association of Conservation Districts ($116,725): Proposes to develop guidance materials and engage in outreach and training to increase participation of soil and water conservation districts in nutrient trading programs. In many water quality trading programs, district employees are the conservation experts interacting with agricultural producers generating credits from the installation of conservation practices.

Virginia Tech University ($285,729): Proposes to develop the information and tools required to incorporate agroforestry into Virginia’s nutrient trading program, which currently largely depends on the retirement of marginal agricultural lands for credit generation. In December 2014, USDA, EPA and the state of Virginia celebrated a first-of-itskind transaction when the Virginia Dept. of Transportation purchased phosphorous credits generated by a Virginia farmer.

Electric Power Research Institute ($300,000): Proposes to develop and execute, for the first time, trades of “stacked” ecosystem services-both

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20 | DeKalb County AG Mag | Winter Spring 2015

Soil solutions

By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com

Monica Synett - msynett@shawmedia.com Farmer Kate Whitacre is certified all-natural to grow organic produce for her Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscribers at Beets and Beats Farm in Sycamore on Tuesday, October 13, 2015.

DeKALB – Kate Whitacre has farmed in a few different places and knows one thing is true no matter where you go: farmers are proud of their soil.

Whitacre owns Beets and Beats farm in Sycamore. She grows tomatoes, squash, peas, carrots, beans, bell peppers, kale and a variety of other vegetables and sells her produce through famers markets, community-supported agriculture shares and restaurants.

“I know people especially have a lot of pride in DeKalb soil, because DeKalb corn was founded here,” Whitacre said. “But to tell you the truth, this is the worst land I have ever experienced.”

Whitacre has farmed in different places throughout Illinois and Michigan and says one of her main goals as an organic farmer is to work on longterm solutions to build up degraded soil.

“I seek to feed the soil, not the plant,” Whitacre said. “There is a holistic management of creating a healthy ecosystem in the soil.”

Many know the Midwest contains some of the most fertile farmland in the U.S. – making it the agricultural powerhouse of the nation. But what is it about this soil that provides an optimal growing region for producers?

Erika Turner, a district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Bureau County, says it all comes down to the way this soil was formed. Much of the area was produced in deep loess, which is a mixture of silt, clay and some sand. It formed under tall prairie grass conditions with fine roots, that grew just as deep into the ground.

“Those fine roots and the deepness helped decomposing matter at the top and distributed that matter down in however deep those roots went,” she said. “It’s that high organic matter level that creates this fertile ground.”

Turner said there are several preservation practices and policies farmers are using today to help maintain the quality of this soil. Some include grass waterways, filter strips, strip-till, notill or vertical-till, which is used to break-up corn stalks to allow better decomposition over

Winter 2015| DeKalb County AG Mag | 21 the winter months.

The techniques used vary from farmer to farmer, and also the soil conditions a producer is working with. Turner said many producers are also discovering minimal disturbance of their soil, and the use of cover crops are key factors in maintaining soil health.

“Disturb the soil as little as possible, but then keep it covered as much as possible,” she said, adding that having something growing in the soil allows a live root to distribute organic matter into the soil profile.

Cover crops also can help prevent compaction in the field.

“Using a cover crop helps break up compaction without even having to work the soil. The species break up compaction, and then decompose into the soil,” she said.

Whitacre is also concerned with preserving the soil.

“If you plant the same crop again and again, it takes the same nutrients out of the soil every year and puts the same nutrients back,” Whitacre said. “Over time, soil gets degraded. The soil can only give so much. Putting pesticides on the soil and killing the microbes can be really degrading to the soil, too.”

More farmers are also focusing on nutrient management. Turner said many are having their soils tested and applying fertilizers based on rates and needs.

“There are many farmers who are watching that. They don’t want to see their money wash out of their field and down into the creek any more than the average person wants to see it drain into the creek,” she said. “They don’t want to spend more than what’s necessary to get to that optimal threshold.”

Tim Slepicka, or “Sam the Sweet Corn Man”, runs a 460-acre farm in Maple Park. About 30 acres are dedicated to vegetables and sweet corn, and the rest is for growing grain and feed corn.

He said one of the big challenges he faces is soil erosion from heavy rain.

“The main thing is to have grass waterways, areas where the water will run,” he said. “For maintaining quality, crop rotation can be beneficial, which is one reason I’m interested in expanding the vegetable portion of my business.”

Slepicka also uses cover crops to improve soil structure, he said.

“The main thing is that you want to give the soil a chance to rebuild itself,” he said. “You’re anxious to get out on the field and do the work, but when the soil is very wet, it’s compact.

It’s best to let the soil dry out before you drive over it with any machinery.”

Tractor rollovers cause more than one-third of all farm-related fatalities Collisions are the second leading cause DeKALB COUNTY AG MAG Despite continuous safety improvements to farm machinery by manufacturers, more than a third of all farm-related fatalities each year involve a tractor rollover, according to analysis by Country Financial of farm-related deaths in Illinois throughout the past 10 years.

Collisions involving farm equipment caused the second-highest number of fatalities in the same time period.

From 2005 to 2015, 36 percent of all farm-related deaths in Illinois occurred as a result of tractor or other farm machinery rollover or run over. In the one-year period between July 2014 to June 2015, seven Illinois farmers were killed as a result of a tractor rollover.

“The sad reality is while manufacturers continue to build safer farm machinery, many farmers are holding on to older tractors that lack the essential safety features of new machinery,” said Eric Vanasdale, senior loss control representative at Country. “While new farm equipment may have roll over protective structures (ROPS) installed at the factory, many farmers are using older tractors that have not been retrofitted with ROPS.” To prevent rollovers, Vanaasdale recommends farmers avoid mowing on steep grades, hills, ditches, or pond banks, utilize tractors that have ROPS installed and always wear a seatbelt.

Some studies have shown using a seatbelt and ROPS prevent 99-percent of rollover deaths and serious injuries.

“Your grandfather’s tractor has served your family well,” Vanasdale said. “Reward it by retrofitting it with modern safety equipment like ROPS or by turning it into a parade tractor, out of harm’s way.”

Majority of collisions involving farm equipment caused by speed Fifty-three people were killed in collisions involving farm equipment between 2005 and 2015. This represents 21 percent of all farm-related deaths in that time period in Illinois.

“In most cases, drivers come upon a very slow-moving tractor or combine and think they can wait to slow down,” Vanasdale said. “They don’t realize most farm equipment only travels 15 to 20 mph.”

Vanasdale recommends drivers slow down as soon as they see farm equipment on the roadway and to be cautious of farm equipment making wide turns or sudden left turns into fields or driveways. Also, only pass farm equipment when it is safe to do so.

“We all need to work together to keep the roadway safe,” Vanasdale said. “Rural motorists need to understand farm equipment is there and to share the road and farmers need to be good stewards of the roads, too.”

Farmers should only move equipment during slow traffic times and are encouraged to always remove the corn head for transport.

“Corn heads get wider as equipment grows larger,” Vanasdale said. “Roadway accidents can be made worse by a combine with the corn head attached.”

COUNTRY Financial tracks farm-related deaths each year and reports the finding in conjunction with National Farm Safety and Health Week and the Illinois Press Association.

This year’s National Farm Safety and Health Week was Sept. 20-26 and focused on the theme, “Ag safety is not just a slogan, it’s a lifestyle.”

COUNTRY Financial also works with Illinois Farm Bureau to promote farm safety awareness and sponsor county Farm Bureau safety grants.

22 | DeKalb County AG Mag | Winter 2015

Food hub hopes to fill void

By RHONDA GILLESPIE rgillespie@shawmedia.com DeKALB -- A regional food hub could help hundreds of area farmers fill an estimated $28 milllion demand gap for locally-grown produce, a DeKalb County community activist says.

In fact, nearly a quarter of all the U.S. hubs are located in the central part of the country that includes Illinois.

However, Kenney said the one in the Quad Cities area serves mostly Iowa and is more of a retail hub.

Dan Kenney says restaurant owners, wholesalers and other volume buyers want to purchase local produce, but lacking infrastructure and logistics often keep farmers either from growing enough crops, getting them to the buyers or a combination of the two.

What overall impact a wholesale hub would have here has yet to be determined. Various studies indicate, though, that they often infuse cash into local economies and help create jobs. Kenney expects a DeKalb hub to put at least 100 people to work.

But a centralized facility -- especially one located in DeKalb -- could sovle those problems.

“We’re looking at creating a regional food hub, so we bring in produce from farms as far west as the Mississippi River, up to southern Wisconsin and down to I-80,” said Kenney.

The DeKalb County Community Gardens, a nonprofit organizagtion headed by Kenney, is leading the move to bring a warehouse to DeKalb where growers would be able to drop off crops that would then be sold wholesale. Farmers from DeKalb, Boone, Ogle, and Winnebago counties would likely be among the hub contributors.

“Food hubs gross nearly $1 million in annual sales on average,” according to the USDA’s 2012 Regional Food Hub Resource Guide. “A food hub operation running at full capacity could create 400 jobs and inject an additional $60 million into the local economy.”

Kenney is looking forward to getting the DeKalb hub up some time next year, using an existing buidling another corporation vacated.

“They would bring [the produce] to the food hub, the food hub would take care of separating it and preparing it for the market,” Kenney said.

“It would also help with the marketing so that the buyers, the wholesalers and the restaurants, could come to one central location to get the produce. Or it could be shipped from one location to them, instead of multiple farmers driving into the city.

“If [farmers are] not driving into the city to deliver their produce, they have more time to spend on their own farms. That increases their ability to meet the demand.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that food hubs help small and mid-size farmers access large markets.

“By offering a combination of aggregation, distribution, and marketing services at an affordable price, food hubs make it possible for many producers to gain entry into new largervolume markets that boost their income and provide them with opportunities for scaling up production,” Kenney said.

Regional food hubs are springing up nationwide.

Photo cutline: The DeKalb County Community Gardens received a grant from the DeKalb County Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture. Pictured are Dan Kenney, DCCG executive director, Allan Aves, member of the DeKalb County Farm Bureau, Gene Heinsohn, Walnut Grove Farm owner, and Scottie Heinsohn.

Winter 2015| DeKalb County AG Mag | 23

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