SVM-SS4_03102015

Ditches enrich

If not for good drainage, many farms wouldn’t exist – Page 6

Cattle census up

First growth seen in nation’s herd since 2007 – Page 9

Getting goats

Farmers respond to demand for milk, cheese – Page 10

typed in Cosmos extra bold

Dave Fox/Special to Today’s Farm

Cover story: Walnut haymaker leads Illinois Forage and Grassland Council – Page 2 Tuesday, March 10, 2015

A supplement to Sauk Valley Media

Today’s Farm

PAGE 2

Sauk Valley Media • March 10, 2015

AGRICULTURAL PROFILE | KENDALL GUITHER

Making hay is this farmer’s passion Walnut man leads Forage and Grassland Council

BY DAVE FOX Special to Today’s Farm

Hay – it’s what’s for dinner. And breakfast and lunch. For your livestock, of course.

And if you buy hay from Kendall Guither, of rural Walnut, the hay is straight alfalfa, with a lot of attention paid to its growth, cutting, and harvest to ensure maximum nutritional value. It would probably qualify as gourmet quality, in terms of human food.

Guither, who was actually born a mile north of Red Oak (a “suburb” of Walnut), has lived and farmed here all his life and is in the second year of a 2-year term as president of the Illinois Forage and Grassland Council.

During a recent interview at Red Oak United Methodist Church, Guither spoke easily and in detail about hay as a crop, and harvesting it at just the right time, how to fertilize it, shooting for the maximum possible amount of crude protein, and other such things.

“I do a lot of hay,” he said. “The last 3 or 4 years, I’ve had between 385 and 460 acres of alfalfa. Most years we get six cuttings, and a couple of years we’ve gotten seven.”

The hay is mainly baled, 3-foot-by-6-foot bales for dry hay, shorter bales if the hay is wet. Up to 95 percent of what he produces is baled, and the rest is sold loose for silage and the like.

Acreage-wise, that’s a lot of hay – but how many bales to the acre?

“That depends on the size of the bales and also on how much rain we get,” Guither said.

“The rule of thumb is about 20 bales per acre each cutting,” he said.

“In a cool year, there

could be more, and during a drought, there will be less. There are a lot of variables involved.”

Bales are done by machine in the field and transported, wrapped, and stacked by machine as well.

FORAGE CONTINUED ON 3

Dave Fox/Special to Today’s Farm

Kendall Guither of rural Walnut makes a telephone call to check on membership numbers in the Illinois Forage and Grassland Council as he stands next to a truckload of hay waiting to be shipped out.

Today’s Farm

March 10, 2015 • Sauk Valley Media

PAGE 3

For alfalfa hay, weather Providing insurance coverage plays an important role for local homes and farms FORAGE

Haymaker

CONTINUED FROM 2

That’s in contrast to the smaller rectangular bales of years ago when they would be stacked, unwrapped, on a hayrack by workers as the bales came out of the baler.

Many farmers will get two to three cuttings per year, compared to the larger number made by Guither.

“I cut a little sooner so I’ll have less yield per cutting,” he said, “but mine will be better quality” as far as nutritional content.

Last year, he produced an estimated 7,000 bales.

At a weight of 900 to 1,000 pounds per bale, that adds up to a lot of alfalfa.

Dealing in quality hay for a living, Guither does not raise grain crops or livestock, “and since I have no animals to feed, my hay is strictly a cash crop.”

Weather is a factor in any kind of crop farming, he said, but it’s “definitely more of a factor with hay.”

“With corn and beans, you wait for the grain to mature and then have a 4- to 8-week harvest win-

Kendall Guither Purveyor of quality alfalfa hay 17935 2900 North Ave. Walnut, IL 61376 Phone: 815-379-2498 Email: kguither@cin. net President, Illinois Forage and Grassland Council www.illinoisforage.org “The mission of the Council is to provide the framework that unites industry, producers, educational and government institutions for the production, marketing and wise use of forages and grasslands.”

Email: info@illinoisforage.org Office located at 216 E. Main St., Williamsville, IL 62693 dow where you can get out and do the harvest.

“With alfalfa, when the crop reaches maximum feed value, you’ve actually got about a 3-day harvest window. You can get longer cuttings and more time, but then the feed value starts dropping off

really fast,” he said.

For example, on the first cutting, once the crop has reached maximum feed value, it can lose up to a half-percent of crude protein per day that it just lies in the field, “so you have to move fast.”

Readily sharing a wealth of scientific knowledge about plant maturity, fertilizers, plant content and the like, Guither went on to explain that the “preferred harvest window” could actually go between 4 and 10 days, depending on the cutting.

“The first cut is a lot more critical than the August cuts,” he said, “and we don’t do the cuttings at plant maturity but instead when the plant reaches a specific feed value, because that is what matters most to the livestock it’s being fed to.”

So with no livestock of his own, where does the hay go?

With a cash crop, Guither said he has customers all over the Midwest, including as far away as Baraboo, Wisconsin, and central Ohio.

HAY CONTINUED ON 4

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Today’s Farm

PAGE 4

Sauk Valley Media • March 10, 2015

Forage group offers networking, information HAY

CONTINUED FROM 3

Now in the second year of his 2-year term as president of the 118-member Illinois Forage and Grassland Council, Guither not only keeps busy farming but overseeing a group of like-minded farmers who are equally con-

cerned about quality and doing things right.

A member for “maybe 33 years, we try to keep it running well, and we’re always planning,” he said.

The group functions mainly as a network and support system for hay and other forage farmers, and its membership includes not only individual members

(100 statewide) but government and industry workers, such as seed and fertilizer producers and equipment dealers, which brings an additional 18 members.

An annual Forage Expo, quality hay contest, seminars, and educational programs are among the many things done statewide to promote the product and

help forage farmers to do their best at what they do.

“Last year, our focus was on doing herd or pasture rotations,” Guither said, “and we have also done seminars based on horses, sheep, goats and beef and their feed needs.”

One advantage to moving around the state with the various

programs “is that you can address the different issues and needs of all the various types of hay and feeding operations that we have statewide,” he said.

“We’re looking at possibly southern Illinois for next year’s Expo to try [to] accommodate travel issues, as well as the different aspects of forage and livestock

industries they deal with down there.

“For example, the Jacksonville region is very heavy in the beef production trades, so down there, we tend to focus on the needs of beef producers.”

Variety of farming around the state has always been of interest to him.

VARIETY CONTINUED ON 5

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Today’s Farm

March 10, 2015 • Sauk Valley Media

PAGE 5

‘Always loved raising forage’

Kendall Guither of rural Walnut takes a call about an incoming shipment of plastic wrap for his hay bales.

VARIETY

CONTINUED FROM 4

“There is a lot of diversity in farming in Illinois, so we try, as a group, to anticipate and meet the needs of both livestock and forage producers,” he said.

“We try to get them all together for seminars and other activities where production and use of forages is concerned.”

Why does Guither do what he does?

“I’ve always loved raising forage,” he said.

“It’s a true supply-and-

demand market based on quality.

“It’s challenging to do a good job, particularly if you strive for high quality, because there’s a demand out there that almost exceeds supply,” he said.

“For example, when I’m dealing with dairy farm-

ers, it’s exciting when the cows really like the hay, and they benefit from it with higher, better quality milk products.

“If I do things right on my end, everybody else involved benefits, and it’s great being able to work with them and help make it all happen,” he said.

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Today’s Farm

PAGE 6

Sauk Valley Media • March 10, 2015

AGRICULTURAL PROFILE | JOHN COERS

‘If not for ditches, we wouldn’t be farming’ Keeping up drainage system a big part of Deer Grove man’s life

BY DAVE FOX Special to Today’s Farm

When most people look at a drainage ditch, they just see a ditch full of water.

John Coers of Deer Grove sees that, but he also sees a lot of rich history and understands how much of rural Illinois may have never developed without the ditches being dug first.

Prior to being settled, much of Whiteside County and the surrounding area was swampland, covered in water and uninhabitable.

“If it wasn’t for these [drainage] ditches, we wouldn’t be farming here because we’d all be underwater,” Coers said during a recent interview.

“North of here, which is all higher ground, was settled a little while before this area was,” he said.

“Then when we got ditches dug and drained the land, people moved into this area, too.”

Coers, who has been a drainage district commissioner for more than 33 years, cited a historical and rather large ditch just east of his home.

“The ditch was dug in 1870,” he said.

“They put a dredge in near Amboy, ran a crane on a barge, and dug it over a period of time,” he said.

The ditch ends at, and drains into, the Green River some distance south of here.

“It drains over 54,000 acres, so that covers quite

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I’ve seen water rise right to the top of the deck.”

Coers explained what happened after the ditch was completed and the land made habitable, He said the post office at Deer Grove was the first one in the newly drained area, “but it was originally just north of its current location where there’s a stand of trees now.” During that era,

a stage coach line traversed the route that is now state Route 40.

As with much of the rest of the developing nation, railroad traffic would eventually play a part in the life of the people in this area, but the railroads could not plot their courses through swampland, either.

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Today’s Farm

March 10, 2015 • Sauk Valley Media

PAGE 7

Everything relies on proper drainage of land

Dave Fox/Special to Today’s Farm

John Coers of rural Deer Grove reviews plat books showing the locations and routes of drainage ditches in northern Illinois. Coers is vice president of the Illinois Association of Drainage Districts.

DRAINAGE

CONTINUED FROM 6

“The C.B. and Q. [Chicago, Burlington and Quincy] rail company sued in 1859 to be able to get their rail line through

here,” Coers said, “and they got rail rights in 1860, but they couldn’t run the rail lines through here until the ditch was dug in 1870 and the land was drained.”

Despite best-laid plans, everything relied on

proper drainage of the land, he said.

“Much of this area used to be swamp,” he said, “but it’s good ground.

We used to have what was known as the Erie Bottoms many, many years ago, and a guy bought a lot of land there in a rowboat for a dollar an acre.

“Even a lot of low land up near Rock Falls used to be swamp at one point,” he said.

Coers is a lifelong farmer in the area, and drainage is obviously an important part of his work.

Besides being a local commissioner for more than three decades, he has also been active with the Illinois Association of Drainage Districts (IADD) since its inception in 1995, and currently is vice president of that organization.

The IADD is made up of local drainage district commissioners from around the state who share the same concerns, and are responsible for overseeing and maintaining the ditches in their districts.

Additionally, he is the commissioner for Dis-

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“My theory is, If the water doesn’t flow, the crops won’t grow,” he said with a smile.

“If it weren’t for the

drainage ditches, we wouldn’t be farming any of this ground.”

Statistically, there are 27 active drainage ditches in Whiteside County alone, “and that covers 8,300 acres of land just here in

our district,” he said.

“And it’s not just an issue here in this area,” he said. “There are ditches and drainage issues all over the place.”

DITCH CONTINUED ON 8

Today’s Farm

PAGE 8

Sauk Valley Media • March 10, 2015

‘Lot of hard work and time to maintain them’ DITCH

CONTINUED FROM 7

The 86-year-old farmed this area his entire life until he retired and began working full time on ditch work.

“When I retired from farming, I bought a bulldozer in my 70s,” he said, smiling. He added that he’d been a heavy equipment operator in the Army during the Korean War. As such, he does much of the maintenance work on ditches in his own district.

One of the challenges in proper ditch maintenance is dealing with environmental groups and the issues they represent.

“When we clean the ditches, for example,” he said, “we’re supposed to have a permit, if the ditch is over a mile long, to bring the dirt up, because of environmental issues – even though that’s where the dirt came from in the first place. We can’t put the dirt certain places, so we try to use it to just make the banks steeper.”

Other environmental concerns are also paid attention to in ditch maintenance, he said.

“They complained that the water we dredged up out of the ditches was polluting the water, when that’s where it came from in the first place,” he said.

“How do you deal with something like that?

“The drainage ditches are vital because without them, this would likely still be swampland,” he said. “It’s a lot of hard work and time to maintain them, but we do it, and we try to do it the right way.”

One of the many advantages to being a member

of the IADD group is that it gives commissioners the chance to network and to work with all involved to ensure the ditches are maintained the right way, and in ways that impact the environment the least.

“We work as a group to impact issues that can have an impact on drainage both ways,” he said.

“We’re not afraid to go to Springfield and work with senators and representatives and let them know of the problems we’re having, let them know what’s needed and not needed.

“We give them an awareness of issues, and try to give them input into how those issues can be best dealt with,” he said.

“If we maintain the ditches the way they’re supposed to be, then agriculture can continue to operate and everything else can be done the way it’s supposed to be done.

Everybody benefits in the end.”

Dave Fox/Special to Today’s Farm

The Mississippi drainage ditch near Deer Grove was dug in 1870. “They put a dredge in near Amboy, then ran a crane on a barge to dig the ditch,” said drainage commissioner John Coers. Draining more 54,000 acres, the Mississippi ditch drains into the Green River.

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Today’s Farm

March 10, 2015 • Sauk Valley Media

PAGE 9

LIVESTOCK TRENDS

First growth in U.S. cattle herd since 2007 Beef cow numbers are up 2 percent from year-ago levels

BY DEBRA LEVEY LARSON U of I Extension

URBANA – The nation’s cattle producers are expanding the herd at a somewhat faster rate than had been anticipated.

In the semiannual update of cattle numbers, USDA said that the total number of cattle and calves had increased by somewhat more than 1 percent.

According to a Purdue University Extension economist, this is the first increase in the cattle inventory since 2007.

The declining cattle

numbers from 2007 to 2014 were caused by poor brood cow margins as a result of high feed prices and a lack of pasture and forages in the Southern Plains from extended drought.

“There were multiple incentives to expand in 2014,” according to Purdue’s Chris Hurt.

“These were led by record-high cattle prices, with finished cattle averaging near $155 per live hundredweight and Oklahoma 500-to-550-pound steer calves averaging $250 per hundred,” he said.

“The other part of the incentive was more abundant feed due to a retreating drought in the Central and Southern Plains that restored range conditions and to favorable feed crop production in 2013 and 2014, which lowered corn and protein feed costs.”

Hurt said the most significant expansion is underway in the beef herd, where beef cow numbers are up 2 percent from year-ago levels.

“The number of beef heifers being held back to enter the breeding herd is up 4 percent,” Hurt said.

“Significantly, the number of those retained heifers that will calve this

year is up 7 percent. This means that 61 percent of the beef heifers that have been retained to enter the breeding herd were already bred at the start of this year,” he said.

Producers in all areas of the country are expanding beef cows except in the northeastern region and the western region, where the drought and forage supplies remain a concern.

In all, 610,000 new beef cows were added across the country in 2014.

The Southern Plains had lost the most cows since 2007 and are now the strongest region to rebuild. The Southern Plains expanded cow numbers by 375,000 head in 2014, represent-

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Texas cow numbers were up 270,000 head (7 percent), and Oklahoma cow numbers were up 105,000 head (6 percent).

The western Corn Belt added 96,000 cows, led

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The Central Plains were led by Kansas with 63,000 new cows and by Colorado with 35,000 new cows.

Eastern Corn Belt beef cow numbers expanded by 3 percent (40,000 cows), and the southeastern United States added 32,000 head.

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Sauk Valley Media • March 10, 2015

AGRICULTURAL TREND

Farmers trying hard to get consumers goats Producers respond to increased demand for goat dairy products MADRID, Iowa (AP) – Buying two goats in August 2008 was little more than an experiment for farmer Paula Olson and some entertainment for her daughters.

Six and a half years, 14 milking goats and roughly $300,000 later, she’s in the midst of constructing a small-scale creamery in Madrid, Iowa, that’s set to feature goat milk, cheese, ice cream and more.

And though her creamery isn’t yet open, Olson said local businesses have begun inquiring about her products, prompting her to already consider expanding.

Americans’ growing taste for more unusual fare has contributed to a steady increase in demand for goat products in recent years, and pro-

ducers across the country are trying to determine how to secure enough milk to give consumers what they want while continuing to develop their merchandise.

The nation’s dairy goat herd climbed 2 percent in the past year to 365,000 animals, but producers said their annual sales are rising even faster – up by 15 percent or more. In Iowa, the number of goat farms has climbed from less than 20 a decade ago to about 200, behind only Wisconsin and California.

Sheep and goat milk accrued $92.2 million in sales in 2012, according to the most recent figures available from the U.S. Agriculture Department’s census, with combined sales about a

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Goat dairies remain a relatively new market, however, so those in the industry are trying out new techniques largely by trial and error.

“It’s not like the cow world,” said Larry Hedrich, owner of LaClare Family Farm in Chilton, Wisconsin. “There aren’t reams and reams of research available.”

Shelby Cornelius, president of the Iowa Dairy Goat Association, said membership has doubled since he took over in 2013 as farmers search for guidance in how to get the most from their Charlie Neibergall/AP goats.

Paula Olson prepares a goat for milking on her farm near Madrid, Iowa, in a photo taken last month. Higher demand in the United States for goat milk, cheese and GOATS CONTINUED ON 11 other products has farmers scrambling to satisfy consumers.

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Today’s Farm

March 10, 2015 • Sauk Valley Media

PAGE 11

Artisan cheeses popular GOATS

CONTINUED FROM 10

The association has provided information on topics ranging from cheesemaking to artificial insemination, he said.

Much of the new demand appears to be due to increased interest in artisan cheeses and populations that are more accustomed to goat milk, such as Hispanic and Jewish communities, Cornelius said. In much of the world, goat milk is more common than cow milk.

“As time goes on, goats won’t surpass dairy cattle, but I think they’re going to become more competitive,” Cornelius said.

Some believe goat milk has significantly greater health benefits than cow milk, but Leo Timms, a professor in Iowa State University’s Department of Animal Science, said the two are quite similar.

The most notable difference, he said, is that goat

milk is naturally homogenized, meaning the fat globules in the liquid have already been broken up so they’re digestible, whereas cow milk homogenization must be simulated. Proteins in the milks also differ, so someone who is allergic to cow milk might be able to drink goat milk, though lactose is still present in goat’s milk.

Another distinguishing factor is in milk production – dairy cows produce about 20,000 more pounds of milk annually than goats.

Cow milk accounted for nearly 95 percent of milk consumption in 2014, compared to 0.02 percent

for goat milk, according to a statement from Dairy Management Inc., which collects money from the nation’s approximately 47,000 cattle dairy farmers for product promotion.

Still, goat products serve a niche in the dairy market. Jennifer Bice, founder of Redwood Farms in Sebastopol, California, has been in the dairy goat business for 45 years and witnessed the changing industry.

Besides an interest in traditional dairy alternatives, many people favor Charlie Neibergall/AP goat milk because they Paula Olson dumps milk into a container after milking goats on her farm near think it has a lower environmental impact, Bice Madrid, Iowa, in a photo taken last month. Demand for goat milk, cheese and other products has steadily increased in recent years. said.

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Today’s Farm

Sauk Valley Media • March 10, 2015