Today’s Farm
Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com
Farming runs in the family at Windsweep Farm, just ask 3-year-old Colin Koster, who’s already lending a hand on the operation located between Dixon and Sterling. With future generations already putting down roots on the family farm, it looks like Windsweep will keep on growing for years to come.
Farming legacy: Family follows in farm founder’s self-sustaining footsteps – Page 2 Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018
A supplement to Sauk Valley Media
Sauk Valley Media • November 13, 2018
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Business comes naturally at Windsweep Farm Cows graze at Windsweep Farm. The farm’s animals are raised in a self-sustaining environment. Their diet is vegetarian and their feed is homegrown and harvested onsite and the livestock is raised humanely in a pasture.
Family follows in farm founder’s footsteps BY PHILLIP HARTMAN phartman@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5525 @phartman19
DIXON – Generations of Sheaffers have walked the green, rolling hills and deep hollows of Windsweep Farm. They’ve lived off the milkfat of the land with their cattle. Specialty meats have been their livestock in trade. They’ve turned produce into profit. And they’ve done it naturally. The family farm located between Dixon and Sterling produces and sells specialty meats and other products, including milk-fed pork and chicken, lamb, eggs, seasonal produce, and unpasteurized milk. The farm’s animals are raised in a self-sustaining environment. Their diet is vegetarian and their feed is homegrown and harvested onsite, supplemented only by the vitamins, minerals, and protein they need for a balanced diet. You’d be hard-pressed to find a hormone on the farm, and the only time antibiotics are used is when one of the animals is recovering from illness
or injury. The livestock is raised humanely in a pasture. Leonard Sheaffer, 67, and his daughter, Renee Sheaffer-Koster, 31, work together on marketing Windsweep Farm. The fourth-generation family farm started with dairy cattle. Leonard’s grandfather, John Sheaffer, moved from Pennsylvania to the Sauk Valley in the early 1900s. Leonard’s father, Harold, started milking in 1946, and Leonard joined him in 1972. Renee has also followed in her father’s footsteps. She started milking Holstein cattle when she was 14, and later moved into brown Swiss. Leonard sold his herd in the 1990s, and Renee moved into specialty products, partnering with her father. The family now has about 100 head of brown Swiss and other cattle, including calves. “I have more cows than I need,” Renee said as one of the cows ambled toward her and her children – Colin Koster, 3, Landon Koster, 2, and Evelyn Koster, 3 months. WINDSWEEP continued on 34
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Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com
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Photos by Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com
Pigs peek out of a building on Windsweep Farm. “We deliver twice a year to Grayslake. One person from California stopped and bought milk. I also sell at the Dixon Summer Farmers Market. People will buy quarters or halves. They can leave bottles of milk in the fridge and we’ll fill it up, or make appointments,”
Renee said. Leonard’s wife, Anne, 68, and their other daughter, Emily Sheaffer, 36, also help with the business. “Renee was back out here a month after having Evelyn. It’s like it’s a passion,” Emily said. WINDSWEEP continued on 44
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Milk and eggs wait in a fridge for pickup at Windsweep Farm on Palmyra Road in rural Dixon. Some of the extra milk is left unpasteurized because some people with dairy allergies can drink unpasteurized milk, she said.
When Renee was in college, she saw a documentary on milk-fed chicken, which inspired her to try the same idea with Berkshire hogs; she started feeding them extra milk from the farm and started selling the meat about 15 years ago. “We don’t do butchering. We have our meat done at the Carroll County Locker in Lanark. I do have some pork done at Lena because people want nitrate-free pork,” Renee said. Some of the extra milk is left unpasteurized for customers with dairy allergies who can drink unpasteurized milk, she said. Brown Swiss cattle are easy to keep, and produce milk high in butter fat and protein. Renee said the cream can be skimmed off of the milk. “My boys like to make butter with it,” she said. Windsweep products can be bought at the farm or online. Renee said she’s sold items to That Place on Palmyra, and has customers in the Quad Cities and Rockford.
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Leonard also has another passion, one that he’s turned into a side business. With money from selling cattle, he started buying compact tractors and parts from throughout the U.S. and overseas. “Some people in the South can buy a piece of ground for $1,000 and have a small tractor. I got into the parts end of it. I can find parts nobody else can,” Leonard said. Leonard’s traveled as far as New York and Norway to hunt down parts, and has built up business relationships with after-market dealers and salvage yards. The most he sold in one month was $18,000. “I’ve had parts made overseas. I had a guy in Hawaii who wanted to get a part, and I found it in Australia. There was one part missing from a tractor in Manchuria that I found in South Africa,” Leonard said. As for the farm’s future, it looks like it’s in good hands. Renee said Colin likes to pitch in with a pitchfork, and Landon even lends a little hand feeding the cattle. With future generations already putting down roots on the family farm, it looks like Windsweep Farm will keep on growing for years to come.
How to shop
Windsweep Farm is at 320 Palmyra Road, Dixon. Go to facebook.com/windsweeprawmilkdairy or windsweepfarm.com for more information on prices, products, and the farm’s history, or call 815-973-3224. Call 815-284-3226 for more information on Leonard Sheaffer’s tractor repair business.
Photos by Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com
Cows graze at Windsweep Farm.
The family behind the family farm: Renee Koster, holding Evelyn Koster, Colin Koster, Leonard Sheaffer and Landon Koster.
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the coming year as some farmers in that area increased acres while other farmers, who hadn’t grown wheat in recent seasons, planted some this fall.
• November 13, 2018
A boost in wheat acres appears to have worked out well for many Illinois farmers this year, particularly those who followed it with double-crop soybeans. Illinois farmers produced an average wheat yield of 66 bushels per acre this year with reports of double-crop beans yielding in the mid-to-upper 50s. That success, along with some planting windows in the past month, could add up to even more wheat seedings for 2019. John Ernst, a farmer from Alhambra in Madison County and president of the Illinois Wheat Association, reports wheat plantings on his farm this fall nearly double last year’s acres. “Wheat is a pretty big priority for us. We planted close to one-third of our farm in wheat,” Ernst told FarmWeek. “That’s pretty close to double the amount of wheat we planted last year.” All the wheat acres on the Ernst farm went in between Oct. 1-7. The Ernsts sowed more winter
wheat to take advantage of better pricing opportunities and in hopes of more outstanding yield results. “We had a nice, dry window in early October, and we just went for it,” he said. “It all came up and looks good.” Statewide, farmers planted 74 percent of the wheat crop as of the first of last week, slightly behind the average pace of 76 percent as of Oct. 29. But emergence reached 50 percent last week, 1 percent ahead of the average growth pace, with the majority (66 percent) in good to excellent shape (up 7 percent from last year). “One of our goals is to get more fall tillering,” Ernst said. The Ernsts applied about 50 pounds of fertilizer per acre to get the wheat crop started in the past month and will wait to see how much growth the crop achieves to determine if another shot of nitrogen goes down prior to spring. Elsewhere, Dave DeVore of Siemer Milling in Teutopolis (Effingham County) said he bought a fair amount of new crop wheat for
Illinois farmers planted 600,000 acres of wheat in the fall of 2018 and harvested 560,000 acres last summer, up 19 percent from the previous year. All signs currently point to similar totals, or more wheat acres this fall, for 2019 production. “We’ve had good quality, good yields and an increase in prices,” Steve Stallman, Illinois Farm Bureau District 16 director from Randolph County, said prior to planting. “So, I anticipate there could be a few more acres of wheat this fall.” Go to illinoiswheat.org for more information on wheat in Illinois.
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TODAY’S FARM | Sauk Valley Media
More farmers double down on winter wheat
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Machines may contribute to farmers’ back pain MICHAELA RAMM Tribune News Service
When a farmer complains of lower back pain – especially during the peak of harvest season – it’s no joke. A new study from the University of Iowa has found that vibrations from farm machinery may lead to increasing back pain for farmers and other agricultural workers. After examining vibration levels in several types of agricultural machinery, the research team from the University of Iowa College of Public Health found that farmers’ exposure to these levels for a long period of time can lead to negative musculoskeletal health outcomes, such as lower back pain. “Something like back pain, it’s not just a nuisance,” said Nathan Fethke, lead investigator on the study and associate professor at the College of Public Health “It affects a lot of people. “We want it to not be just part of the job. We want (back pain) to be something farmers are thinking about early in their careers so they do what they can to protect themselves.” BACK PAIN continued on 74
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Farmers’ back pain could be linked to the vibrations from the machines they use, according to a new study.
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Nathan Fethke
Lead investigator for the study tion levels of the machines themselves, and how effective the seats were in reducing vibration levels to the operator. What they found was that 63 machines, or more than half measured, had sufficient vibration levels to reach the European Union’s action level within 8 hours of continuous use. Researchers found all-terrain vehicles, heavy utility vehicles and tractors “were more likely to reach the action value within 8 hours than those from combines and miscellaneous vehicles,” the study stated. Combines, however, brought different results. Among the 18 combines measured in the study, “not one would reach the action level in 8 hours” – most likely due to their mass, Fethke said. Tractors in particular did not fare well, as the seat-based suspension systems did not reduce wholebody vibrations, according to the study summary “It is possible that these suspension systems were not properly adjusted to the weight of the oper-
demands are placed upon it.” The study was conducted under the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health, a center founded in 1990 within the University of Iowa College of Public Health. According to its website, the center assesses the health and safety needs of agricultural workers in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota.
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• November 13, 2018
According to the study, wholebody vibrations is common for agricultural workers. Farmers can be riding a tractor, for example, for long hours at a time – including during the harvest season, when they’re using equipment from sunrise to sundown. Researchers said spending many hours on these machines at a certain rate of whole-body vibrations can increase the frequency of back pain episodes. But little is known about the “characteristics of exposure experienced during actual production practices,” the study stated. UI researchers attempted to measure that. The study, released in the research journal “Annals of Work Exposure and Health,” examined whole-body vibration levels – defined as mechanical vibrations transmitted to the human body through a contact surface, such as a seat – in 112 machines, including combines, tractors, skid loaders, forklifts and all-terrain vehicles, “as more than 50 Midwestern farmers went about their daily routines,” according to a study summary. Fethke said vibration levels were compared to the European Union’s whole-body vibration exposure limits, a regulation that limits vibration exposures based on “action levels,” or the maximum amount a vibration a worker can be exposed to in a day without risk. Researchers measured the vibra-
ator, or had degraded over time from mechanical wear and tear,” Fethke said. Of the 112 machines observed, about 35 percent were manufactured after 2000. The majority, roughly 65 percent, were manufactured before 2000 – and about 15 percent of those were built before 1969. The amount of time farmers spent on these machines “is also a key factor,” Fethke said. “Ultimately, a person’s ‘daily dose’ of vibration is a function of both the magnitude of the vibration and the overall exposure time,” he said. “This can be tricky to sort out, particularly since farmers often use multiple machines in any given day. Each machine, and the time it’s operated, will contribute to the daily dose.” Fethke and the other researchers on the study recommend farmers check seat suspension systems during the low seasons to make sure they are working properly. The seat should be adjusted to the operator’s body weight and should not “bottom out.” If this is the case, owners should consider a replacement. A seat cushion will not help reduce vibration levels, Fethke cautioned. “Long hours on vibrating machinery can be fatiguing for the back,” Fethke said. “One potentially useful prevention technique is to avoid physically demanding activities (such as lifting heavy objects) for a short time after exiting the machine. “This may allow the back to recover a bit before additional
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“Long hours on vibrating machinery can be fatiguing for the back. One potentially useful prevention technique is to avoid physically demanding activities (such as lifting heavy objects) for a short time after exiting the machine.”
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Study disputes criticism of livestock farms Ag, trade groups say Illinois operations are economic engines that keep young people in state MATT BUEDEL Tribune News Service
BLOOMINGTON – Livestock operations in Illinois are environmentally sustainable economic engines that keep young people from fleeing the state. Those broad pronouncements represent the main findings of what agriculture and trade group officials call the first-ever comprehensive review of livestock farms in Illinois and how they operate within the state’s regulatory framework. Lauren Lurkins, director of natural and environmental resources at the Illinois Farm Bureau, co-authored the Illinois Livestock Farms 2018 report in response to “undue criticism by a vocal minority.” “We need to keep people in Illinois, that’s our main goal,” Lurkins said. “We want people to know we have a robust regulatory environment and it’s effective.” Environmental and conservation groups, as well as indi-
viduals who have opposed specific livestock operations, have claimed that current regulations allow hazardous conditions that threaten the environment and neighbors of some livestock farms. The Farm Bureau and a consortium of industry trade group representatives examined data
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about the environmental and economic impact of livestock farms. Among those facts are: The farms and ancillary businesses such as meat and dairy processing plants contribute $14.1 billion in annual economic activity and host 52,124 jobs, with an outsize effect on rural communities. Environmental violation notices have steadily declined over the last two decades, with the five in 2017 representing the lowest annual figure in 20 years. Most livestock operations are family farms, and those operations are voluntarily investing in mechanisms to improve their environmental impact, with $10 million spent in 2017. “There are mechanisms in place in the current legal structure and regulatory structure that deal with a lot of those [environmental] issues,” Lurkins said. “It’s a very effective program. It’s robust. There’s no need to add additional regulations.”
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