In farming and faith, you gotta kill the weeds for the crop to thrive

 A note of readers: I didn't expect to break a ten-month blogging absence by writing about denominational issues, but here we are. You've been warned!

After what seemed like 73 different rain storms kept our farm super-saturated throughout the course of last week, the ground has finally dried up enough to get back into the fields. So, I spent most of my morning preparing spraying equipment and my afternoon applying herbicide to kill the weeds where I'll plant sorghum-sudangrass in a few days. Usually on days such as today I'll pop my earbuds in and switch back and forth between podcast episodes and 90s music, but today was different. The choice du jour: the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting.

Why in the world would I voluntarily listen to a denominational business meeting while I'm working? And why would I continue listening for nearly two hours after I came home?

One thing you should know about me is that I'm a bit of an "organizational nerd." Nope, strike that, I'm a BIG organizational nerd. Discussion of bylaws and resolutions and policy proposals bore many people to tears, but I weirdly enjoy the sausage being made. Granted, some of what I heard today induced a fair amount of eye-rolling, but I appreciate the process. But there was more at stake today for my denominational affiliation than just the process in and of itself.  I'm not going to get into specific issues because there are many others who can explain them far better than I. I'll just say there were a number of questions that needed to be asked and issues that need to be raised, and quite frankly it turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag from my perspective. Some decisions I agreed with, some I disagreed with, and some issues were kicked down the road to be dealt with at a later date. Such is the nature of business at any large membership meeting. But I'm grateful I had the opportunity to listen in real-time as some 14,000 "messengers" discerned how best to advance the gospel in cooperation together without it devolving into a circus. You wouldn't have thought that was possible by reading "Baptist Twitter" over the past couple of months! 

(A quick side note: some of you pastors are awesome follows on social media, but a few of you need to take off the eyepatch...err, blinders...and realize you come across like you don't have an ounce of grace about you. Stand firm in your convictions but be more kind to others because your public witness impacts both our collective witness and that of the flock you've been entrusted to shepherd.)

Revisiting the original question of why I would spend so much of my day listening to all this, it goes beyond my stated nerdery and enjoyment of the process. 

I'm the most junior deacon in a small, rural church. My pastor and several deacons ahead of me would have to pass on the opportunity before I would find myself voting at an SBC meeting on behalf of our church. Even as I studied up on the issues over the past few months I knew I would neither have a vote nor be in a position to influence anyone who would. And whatever decisions were or were not made at the meeting likely would have a negligible effect on how our church goes about our daily ministry. But I firmly believe it's important to know what's going on in the organizations you belong to, especially faith organizations, so you can make informed decisions when/if you are called upon. I might never be asked to speak on behalf of my church family in matters of denominational policy or in the public sphere, but I need to be ready just in case. 

my family and I are members of Fellowship Baptist Church outside Vernon,
where I serve as a deacon and Sunday School director

And let me close with this. I heard two outstanding messages in between the motions and debates and votes. Outgoing SBC president JD Greear gave what I thought was a phenomenal address warning us to get our house in order and not allow the leaven of the Pharisees to thwart the spread of the Gospel...same principle as spraying weeds so the crop will produce a greater harvest. Also, Ronnie Floyd's presentation of the Vision 2025 initiative had me stopping my tractor long enough to sign up for the prayer team.

Yes, the annual meeting has its share of both serious discussion and petty squabbles, but more than anything it highlights how much we accomplish for the Kingdom by working together and just how much work there is yet to do. And now it's my job to pray, to give, and to serve within my local church until everyone from Vernon to Veracruz to Vung Tau have heard the Gospel. It's time to kill the weeds so the crop can thrive.

Tomorrow I'll be back in the field spraying weeds, and sooner or later I'll be back with a standard "here's what's happening on the farm" blog post. 

Thanks for reading, and God bless!

Farm & Life Update (5/16/19)

originally posted Thursday morning at 6am

Good morning from the parlor where Dad and I have now milked 170 of our 193 cows and the sky’s changing hues herald the sun’s impending arrival. Fans have been circulating cooler fresh air through the barn to keep both us and the cows comfortable, a task that will be increasing difficult as we approach and soon enter the summer.

Despite two flat tires slowing progress yesterday and one of our farmhands needing off at least part of today, I think we are still on track to get our “hill ground” corn planted by the end of the week. If so and we stay relatively dry heading into next week, we could be looking at a run of days that are extremely busy even by dairy farm standards. There are hay fields to clip, bottomland fields to plant, corn to sidedress and spray, calves to vaccinate, and of course the cows still have to be milked twice daily.

On top of the farm work, I have a family to spend time with, Wednesday night Bible study lessons to prepare for June, cross-state meetings to attend, phone calls to make, and I’m sure a number of other responsibilities that aren’t immediately coming to mind. It can be overwhelming if I try to look too far beyond the horizon, so I just try to make the best of today and put myself in a good starting position for tomorrow. There is such a thing as being too busy, but Luke 12:48b says, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be expected." The Lord’s given me opportunities to be useful in different ways to different people and He’ll sustain me as long as I'm faithful to stick to the path He’s laid out for me.

So let’s all work diligently today but remember that our worth isn’t solely defined by our work. Take time to smell the roses, extend kindness to your neighbor, and have a dairy good day.

From the milk house to the courthouse?

"So, are you running?"

It's a question I've been asked with increasing regularity over the past few weeks in regard to the soon-to-be open position of Probate Judge in Lamar County. For those of you unfamiliar with my county's politics and interested enough to continue reading, our probate judge essentially serves as our county's CEO with duties that include overseeing all matters of probate (obviously), issuance of car tags, and serving as the chairman of the County Commission. Our current judge recently announced he would retire at the end of this month rather than serve out the final year of his six-year term. This leaves Gov. Ivey with the responsibility to appoint someone to fill the position until a candidate is elected in November.

I've playfully teased the idea of running for public office on social media before, from posting faux campaign images like the one above to sarcastically tweeting about my willingness to fill Jeff Session's former Senate seat if asked. If there's one political job I've ever been genuinely interested in, though, it's the one I'm now being asked about.

Rocking into July

Move over fidget spinners, there's a new fad in town: rock hunting.

According to a Facebook Group called "205 Rocks!," people are painting rocks and hiding them in parks, near businesses, around churches, and in other public areas in our local communities. Once these rocks are found, they can be kept as souvenirs or re-hidden for someone else to find. These rocks come in all shapes and sizes and the artwork on them is just as varied.

my kids hid five special "prize" rocks in Lamar County

Activities like this offer golden opportunities for business promotion, and a few local businesses have hidden "prize" rocks that can be redeemed for anything from trinkets to t-shirts. My daughter decided we should get in on that act, so Saturday night she and her brother hid five black and white "Gilmer Dairy Farm" rocks between Vernon and Sulligent. My wife posted a photo of them on the 205 Rocks! group page with the instructions that anyone who found one could stop by our milking barn one afternoon and swap the rock for a prize package.

Two kids stopped by while we were milking on Sunday afternoon to claim their prize. Two more of the rocks have been found according to photos posted on the Facebook page, and the status of the fifth is still a mystery. I'm not sure how long the interest in rock hunting will last (or how many prize packages we will give away), but it is a neat little activity to help keep kids active this summer.

Happy hunting, and have a "dairy" good day!

my daughter holds the first rock redeemed for a dairy-themed prize package

Happy Earth Day, y'all!

People from all over the place are celebrating Earth Day today, which I tend to refer to as "Monday".  In fact, I know today is Earth Day only because it was printed on a calendar I have hanging in the milking barn. When you practice what Earth Day preaches on a daily basis, I guess you can forget that there is a specific day set aside to celebrate and embrace "being green".

Taking good care of our land and natural resources is very important to us. We utilize farming practices that minimize erosion and preserve topsoil, maximize the nutrient potential of our cows' manure to fertilize their feed crops, and maintain high air and water quality. And these practices aren't just good for business, they ensure that our farm's environment is well-suited to raising healthy cows and...more importantly...healthy families.

So Happy Earth Day today, tomorrow, and every other day of the year! I'll leave you with a couple of photos and a video of our milking herd strip-grazing, a practice we use to take care of both our land and our cows.

A big ol' "Thank You!"

Today is the last day of online voting in the USFRA's "Faces of Farming & Ranching" contest, and I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to register and participate over the past month. I especially appreciate those of you who voted for the dairy farmer from Alabama, and please know that your words of encouragement and expressions of support have meant a lot to me.

The contest winners will be announced next month, and I am convinced that America's farmers and ranchers will be extremely well-represented regardless of whether or not my name is included in that list. The other eight finalists are all outstanding agriculturalists, wonderful advocates, and just flat-out good folks. To tell you the truth, I haven't been too keen on my chances since meeting and interacting with them in New York City last month, but I've been totally comfortable with it. That's how good these folks are at what they do!

The one big thing I've learned through this process is that the way I go about sharing my story apparently does have an impact. I don't know if "validation" is the right word, but advancing to the finals of this contest and seeing how many people have supported me along the way tells me that I'm helping people understand life on a dairy farm and how the milk they enjoy is produced. And that's something I really take pride in.

"Thank your for your support!"

I've been fortunate enough in the past to hold positions and receive honors that have given me a platform to reach more people than I would have otherwise, and perhaps I will have similar opportunities in the future. At the end of the day though, I'm just a guy that loves being a farmer and enjoys giving you a glimpse of what goes on around here. Whether "my story" reaches 50 people or 50 million, it has reached you and that's what's important to me. I hope I've been able to help you understand a little something about dairy farming and modern agriculture along the way, and maybe that I've even made you smile or chuckle a time or two.

Now get out there, buy some milk, and enjoy it and other safe, delicious, nutritious dairy products three times every day!

And from the bottom of my heart...thank you, and have a "dairy" good day!

Is rural America less relevant?

US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made a statement last week that rural America is becoming "less and less relevant". After reading the article in which his comments were published, I have to assume he was referring to rural America's diminishing political clout and not making a sweeping statement that we simply don't matter any more. But let's explore both possibilities.

US Sec. of Ag Tom Vilsack (photo:AP)

I first became aware of the Secretary's statements when Tim Lennox, a Montgomery television news anchor, asked me via Twitter Sunday morning to add a comment about it on his blog. I skimmed through the linked article and in my comment agreed that the failure (thus far) to get a new Farm Bill passed does show that agricultural and rural development programs aren't given the legislative priority they were once afforded. I also mentioned that we in agriculture need to continue building relationships with consumers to the point that hopefully they would advocate with us for workable farm policy. 

Fast forward to Monday. About halfway through the afternoon milking I received a call from a reporter in Washington, DC, asking if I would be willing to chat for 5-10 minutes about the Secretary's comments. I stepped outside, reiterated my thoughts about rural America's political influence, and shared a little bit of my own farming story. That reporter's article was published online today by...of all things...a Russian news agency. You can read it here if you so desire.

This evening, I went back and re-read the original article. There are a couple of things Vilsack said that I strongly disagree with. One is that we shouldn't be spending our time fighting to keep the EPA from regulating farm dust or the Department of Labor from telling us what our kids can and can't do on our farms. Maybe the Administration never intended for either of those things to happen, but I won't apologize for not trusting regulations that give wiggle-room to overzealous bureaucrats.

The other statement that I take issue with is that we rural Americans have to change our mindset in order to attract more young people into farming. What am I, chopped liver? I know plenty of folks my age and younger that are excited to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities American agriculture will offer over the next half-century. Could we stand to have more folks involved in food production? Absolutely! But don't discount the ability of those of us already and soon-to-be involved in farming to get the job done.

As I take a deep breath and wrap this post up, I'll go back to the question of whether or not Vilsack's comments were specific to rural America's political influence or relevancy in general. I think it was the former and not the latter, because to say rural America no longer matters would be completely absurd! Yeah, people continue to move out of the country and into the cities, and maybe we don't have the clout in DC that we once had. But rural Americans...farmers, community bankers, small business owners, truck drivers, etc...are still critical to the strength of our great country. In fact, I would say we are more relevant than ever.

This week's farm photos

I'll never be mistaken for a photographer, but I enjoy snapping a few farm photos with my phone's camera every now and then. I've been playing around with the Instagram app on my phone lately and have posted some of those photos below. There's no rhyme or reason to why I used the filters I did, I just thought they looked good on my screen at the time. And since I'm a farmer and not a photographer, the accompanying descriptions are about the photo subjects instead of the photos themselves.

We bred (via artificial insemination) a group of 35 heifers over the course of the first two days of December. This was our first foray into the world of sexed semen, which we used on 80% of the group. The heifers that did not conceive after breeding should be coming back into estrus this coming week, so we'll have a second chance to AI them before pasturing them with a bull after the first of the year. 

They, like all of our heifers, are getting a steady diet of bermudagrass hay and mineral blocks to supplement the pelleted feed we're giving them each day.

When I published this photo of two dry cows over my Twitter account, I captioned it "Hanging out in the maternity pasture". I got a couple of responses from people who told me they didn't realize there was such a thing. Many farmers have barns for their cows to calve in, but we have enough pasture space (and suitable weather) to allow our cows to comfortably and safely give birth outdoors.

We currently have seven dry cows and pregnant heifers in the maternity pasture and will be adding more from another pasture on Monday.

A long overdue farm update

A person might interpret my month-long hiatus from blogging as evidence that we've run out of things to do on the dairy farm. Well, I can assure you that is not the case. The days may be getting shorter, but we're cramming as much work into the daylight (and pre-dawn) hours as we possibly can. I'll try to catch you up on a few of the things that have been happening over the last couple of weeks.

heifers standing at their hayring

With summer pasture grasses now dormant and unavailable for grazing, our heifers and dry cows are receiving hay bales and mineral blocks in their pastures to supplement their pelleted feed.  Competition for forage is much higher around a hay ring than it is in an open pasture, so we've made sure all our heifers are grouped with others their own size. This will help prevent bigger heifers from "hogging" all the hay at the smaller heifers' expense.

Our milking herd climbed as high as 194 cows last week, but we've since dried off ten pregnant milkers and sent four low producing cows to the cattle sale. We still have several cows to dry off before the end of the month, and we won't be calving in more than we're drying off until mid-December. As it stands, I expect we'll climb to and surpass 200 cows in milk by the second week of January.

In addition to milking and herd management chores, we've had plenty to keep us busy out in the fields. I spent several days the week before last applying both slurry and N-sol fertilizer to fescue pastures. I've recently planted 50 ares of oats and ryegrass into the milking herd's spring grazing paddocks, and I hope to have an additional 90 acres of cropland planted in ryegrass by the end of next week.

I'll try to do a better job of keeping this blog updated through the winter, but remember to follow my Twitter account (@gilmerdairy) or "like" our farm's facebook page to keep up with the daily happenings on our family farm. As always, thanks for your time and have a "dairy" good day!

Happy Earth Day

Today is Earth Day, the day when presumably more people give thought to what they can do to improve the natural splendor and conserve the precious resources of our planet.  Do farmers and ranchers celebrate Earth Day? For me and probably lots of others, it' s just another day. After all, our way of life demands that we take our stewardship responsibilities very seriously EVERY day, not just when the calendar says April 22.

Yes, farmers and ranchers are working hard to save the planet every day of the year.  We are doing our part to sustain our planet's resources while producing the crops and livestock needed to achieve and sustain a healthy, happy human existence.  A combination of new technology, old fashioned work ethic, and a strong sense of duty allow us to do so more effectively and efficiently year after year.

Do we all agree on the technologies and methods that are needed to best protect our planet while producing for its population?  Nope...we all have our own opinions, viewpoints, and strongly-held convictions.  We are all human, and none of us are perfect (that's why "Good Friday" happened).  But our humanity compels each of us to do the best we can with what we have and strive to improve our operations at every opportunity. Why? Because we live here too, and clean air, clean water, fertile soil, and abundant resources are just as important to us and our families as they are to you and yours.

So as you marvel at the beautiful, complex, magnificent, fragile, unpredictable planet we call home, please remember the positive contributions farmers and ranchers are making to ensure that future generations will enjoy the same beauty and bounty we enjoy today!

I'll leave you with a video message I made on Earth Day 2010.  It may be a year old, but the message is still (and always will be) the same...WE CARE!

The Baler Rolls - a song about baling hay

Yesterday afternoon we baled what will probably be the last of our bermudagrass hay of the summer. With that in mind, I decided I should try to get a few minutes of video before the baler finished it's duty for the season. As I filmed my father harvesting the last few acres, I was trying to decide whether or not to piece the clips together and make another "MooTube Minute", a "Vocowbulary" video, or just store it away as archived footage.

Then, out of nowhere, the old Garth Brooks song "The Thunder Rolls" popped into my head. By now you can probably see where this is going. It didn't take very long for the song title to morph into something else, and by the time I shut off the camera I pretty much knew what I wanted to do with the video clips.

By the end of the evening I had thought up and recorded a full set of lyrics and pieced them together with video clips and still photos related to growing and harvesting bermudagrass hay. The end result is an off-key, amateurishly edited music video called "The Baler Rolls: a song about baling hay."

I've posted a few songs on our YouTube account before. Some are more educational than others, some are sillier than others, but they're all done in an attempt to entertain you. You may not learn much from this or any of my farm songs, but I hope you get a chuckle and will keep coming back to watch all of our farm videos.

Lyrics:

Three thirty in the evening, the sun is shining bright. The hayfield’s ready for a baling, the windrows are raked up tight. Veil of dust on the windshield from the hay that’s going in. The tractor runs across the field then turns and comes again.

And the baler rolls. And the baler rolls.

It was only three days ago we mowed the Bermuda down. It dried out just perfectly as the sunlight beat down. It’d probably be a miracle if the equipment keeps working right. But if we can keep it running we’ll be done before tonight.

And the baler rolls. And the baler rolls.

The baler rolls the hay up tight. There won’t be no mold, ‘cause we cured it right. As the year goes on and the days turn cold, our cows’ll eat the hay the baler rolls.

We raise hybrid bermudas: Russell & Tifton 44, two varieties that grow well on our well-drained Southern soil. When they get enough sun and rain through the summer they’ll really grow. We can usually harvest three times and if we’re lucky maybe four.

And the baler rolls. And the baler rolls.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!

The baler rolls the hay up tight. There won’t be no mold, ‘cause we cured it right. As the year goes on and the days turn cold, our cows’ll eat the hay the baler rolls. Our cows’ll eat the hay the baler rolls.

The Hayfield Follies

Harvesting our "second cutting" of hay isn't exactly working out as planned.

Over the weekend, the local extended weather forecast was calling for hot, dry weather, with only about a 20% chance of a passing shower Monday and Tuesday. With that in mind, we figured we could mow, rake, and bale all of the 60 acres that was ready to harvest by the time the week was over.

Mowing went by without incident. We finished cutting the bermudagrass on Tuesday, and planned to begin raking and baling mid-morning the next day as soon as the dew dried off.

Then the rain clouds came. A little better than a quarter-inch fell Tuesday evening, and I was not feeling too great about our plan.

Thankfully though, there wasn't a cloud in the sky Wednesday morning. I started running the hay tedder through the first field we had cut around 11am, and by 1pm the hay had dried out enough to rake and bale. We were 2-3 hours behind due to the previous day's rain, but no big deal. Everything was working great...I had moved into another field with the tedder while one of our employees raked and another quickly rolled up 25 bales.

Then our luck started to turn sour.

As I finished tedding the second hay field, I noticed that one of the implement's tires was on the verge of blowing out. I called my dad at the milk barn to tell him I could ease it into the next field, but it couldn't make the trip back "home" until the tire was changed. That's when he told me we had bigger issues; namely, a belt had broken on the baler.

Dad headed to Columbus to get it repaired, and about three hours later he and I were back in the hayfield. Everything ran smoothly for a while until the dew started falling around sunset. The ground was still a little moist underneath the windrows, and the dew dampened the hay just enough to make us shut down for the evening.

This morning we got an early jump on it, sending the rake out at 10am with the baler following a half-hour behind. Once again the job started off good, but an hour into baling we had a minor problem with a sprocket. I took over the baling duties once that problem was fixed, but twenty minutes later a chain jumped off and caused another chain to break. After an hour spent at the shop, the baler was once again ready for action. One bale later, a small chain on the other side of the baler slipped off it's idler sprocket. That would have been easy enough to correct in the field if not for the fact that the idler came apart while getting the chain back in place. Back to the shop!

Dad and one of our employees repaired the problem while I went to help our milk hand finish milking duties. The baler was back in the field by the time I finished milking duties, and luckily there have been no mechanical problems since then. We shut down for a while to rest and eat supper, then I raked for a while until dad returned to bale just about sunset. With the ground now dry, the dew shouldn't be much of an issue until later tonight.

I'm back home now, and as far as I know dad must not be having much trouble with the baler. We should have 15-20 acres remaining tomorrow if he can bale tonight all of the hay that's already been raked. Barring any major breakdowns or rain (there's a chance tomorrow afternoon), we SHOULD be finished with our "second cutting" by this time tomorrow evening.

I'm not going to count my hay bales before they're rolled, though!

Edopt-a-Cow and YouTube

In case you missed it, our Edopt-a-Cow Program is now online! This free program allows you to select one of five cows to "edopt", then download and print a certificate and a photo of the cow. Each of the cows have a profile page on our website that is updated monthly so you can keep up with her milk production and other information. We hope you'll give it a try!

Speaking of Edopt-a-Cow, two of the five available for edoption are featured on our new YouTube Channel. Make sure you check that page periodically as we add short videos to it. Some are serious, some are silly, but they're all there to help you learn more about dairy farming and agriculture.

My Farming Forefathers, p. II

Last Sunday afternoon (Father's Day) I posted about some of the men in my family who have preceded me in agriculture. By the time I finished writing about my memories of my grandfathers I was too worn out to continue on to write about my father. I'm still gonna get to him, but first I'm going to back-track in time to briefly mention another ancestor...

Clinton Leroy Kennedy, or "Daddy Kennedy" as he was known by his grand kids, was my father's mother's father. He learned to farm very early in life, as the responsibilities for managing the family farm fell to him at the young age of 10 when his father unexpected passed away. Once married and in his twenties, he sold the family farm to escape the poverty of early 20th century agriculture and moved his family to Birmingham for the chance at a better life. He soon moved back to Lamar County and bought a grist-mill near the locally-famous Iron Bridge that spans Yellow Creek. Sometime around 1920 he once again moved the family back to Birmingham to form "Kennedy & Hankins Produce Company" with his young brother and a brother-in-law. After a few years he grew weary of city life and moved the family back home. He bought a cotton gin, saw mill, and a team of logging mules in addition to the farm he purchased near Reed Creek. He would spend the rest of his life here, until he suffered a heart attack in 1955 while tending his fields. He died a few days later at the age of 69.

My great-uncle Hunter Kennedy, Clinton's son, now owns the family's farming property and rents it to us. The 50 acres of good creek-bottom soil is our most dependable cropland and the most critical to our ability to grow enough forage for our milking herd. We've actually been in those fields the last two days planting sorghum, and I'll be returning there to do more field work within the hour. And as an aside, Hunter still works with us (and often out-works us) every weekday morning even though he's now over 80 years old. He's a real tribute to the work ethic valued by his family and his generation.

Coming soon, My Farming Forefathers, p. III...my dad.

ABC's of Agriculture: Agriculture

Seems like a logical place to start, doesn't it?

Very simply defined, agriculture is science/art/business of producing food, fiber, and fuel through the cultivation of the soil, harvesting of crops, and management of livestock.

I could fill this page up with words and statistics about agriculture in this post, but my intention is to let this whole "ABC's" series give you a broad overview over the next few months. Hopefully you will become aware of how critical agriculture is to basic human existence and how it plays an integral role in our national wealth and security.

On the radio

I'll be in Birmingham this morning participating in the National Farm-City Council's "Combating Hunger in America" Symposium. I'll be part of a four-member panel discussing the issue, which will be carried live on Agri-Talk Radio from 10:00-11:00 CST.