My most popular blog posts of 2011

We're just a few days from closing the book on 2011, and oh what a year it's been! Since I'm not expecting anything too exciting to happen on the farm over this next week (boy, that's a dangerous assumption!), I figured I would go ahead and take a look at my most popular blog posts from this past year. 

Before I share the links, let me give credit to @farmnwife for the idea of an end-of-year round up. I'll also make the observation that most of my posts relate directly to what we're doing on the dairy farm, but my most popular posts of  2011 aren't about how many cows we milked or what crops we were harvesting. Might that be telling me something? 

Without further ado, I give you The Dairyman's Blog's six most popular posts of 2011:

incident map from "Occupy Farm Lane"

Dairy cows stage brief "Occupy Farm Lane" protest (Oct.17)- What started as a silly Twitter spoof on the #Occupy movement turned into my most popular post of the year. 

Looking back at 4/27/11 (May 3)- A few personal observations on the day Alabama will never forget, as well as several links to the tornadoes' effect on the state's agriculture industry.

The Dairyman versus the Family Vacation (June 21)- Spending time at the beach with my wife and kids was relaxing...until I started thinking about farm work.

My Dad: a farmer and a family man (June 19)- A short Fathers Day tribute to my dad.

How "young" should a young farmer be? (May 18)- 35? 40? Taking a look at question that pops up from time to time in agricultural organizations.

Big deer, big problems (Dec. 4)- Deer can cause plenty of problems for farmers, but sometimes the deer hunters are an even bigger issue.

Thank you all for your readership and support of The Dairyman's Blog, and have a "dairy" good new year!

Looking back at 4/27/11

the last wave passed over us at 4pm

Wednesday, April 27, 2011, is a day that I and most every other Alabamian will always remember. Multiple tornadoes ripped across the state, killing hundreds of people and destroying entire communities.  Thankfully, my farm was spared any damage as most of the severe storms bypassed Lamar County.  Other than a few wind-bent pieces of tin roof on a tractor shed, the inconvenience of a 30 hour power outage at home (we have a generator at our dairy barn) was the only direct effect we experienced.

tornado damage in Phil Campbell

Thousands of others were not as lucky, including many not too terribly far from us. Tuscaloosa (55 miles to our southeast) sustained a direct hit and suffered the loss of many lives, homes, and businesses.  Even closer than that, the small towns of Smithville, MS (25mi NW), Hackleburg (35mi NE), and Phil Campbell (45mi NE) were virtually destroyed.  I helped deliver supplies to Phil Campbell as part of a mission team from my church on Sunday evening, but the photos and news coverage I had seen didn't really prepare me for sheer scope of destruction left in the wake of these storms. There wasn't much left standing where the tornadoes touched down, just a wide swath of downed trees, demolished vehicles, and collapsed houses.

farmer Dan Smalley's chicken houses
were all destroyed or damaged

Alabama's agriculture industry was particularly hard hit. The last reports I have seen report over 3 million chickens were killed as 200 poultry houses were destroyed and over 500 others were significantly damaged.  I also received a text Wednesday afternoon stating that a dairy farm in Morgan County had taken a direct hit. Friends and acquaintances of mine lost barns, sheds, and even homes. Thankfully, I have yet to hear of anyone I know being counted among the dead or seriously injured, and I pray that remains the case.

A week has passed since the deadly storms, and relief work continues in every effected community across the state.  As I remarked after leaving Phil Campbell Sunday evening, it's hard to see destruction like that and not be awed by the power of nature. But more importantly, it's impossible to see the volunteer-ism and support given in the relief effort thus far and not be awed by the love and power of God.  We Alabamians know how to pull together and help each other out, and we will continue to do so all throughout the process of recovery and rebuilding.

We are weakened yet still strong.  We are bruised but more resilient than ever.  We are Alabama.

In closing, I'd like to thank all of you who called, texted, tweeted, etc., to check on my family during and after the storms. I appreciate your thoughts and concerns, and ask for you to continue to keep the people of Alabama in your prayers.  Below I've included a few other ways you can help, as well as links to a few related storm stories and coverage.

• Text "FOOD" to 27722 to donate $10 to the West Alabama Food Bank in Tuscaloosa
• Text "REDCROSS" to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross's relief efforts
• Use this online form to donate $ through UMCOR (as a Methodist, I highly recommend!)
• Keep up with real time supply needs and delivery information by following #wearealabama #ALhaves and #ALneeds hashtags on Twitter
• "Alabama agriculture leaders meet with USDA Secretary about storm losses" - ALFA Farmers News
• "Alabama Tornado Outbreak 2011" - from Stephanie Millier's blog, The Life of a Farmer's Wife
• "Storms Impact on Alabama Agriculture" [video] - WFSA-TV
• Governor Bentley's address to the State (5/3/11) [video] - WFSA-TV
• AlabamaWx.com - comprehensive coverage from ABC-33/40's weather team
• "Miraculous Story of Tornado Survival" [video] - Kenneth Neal, Cullman Co. Farmers Federation president
• Alabama tornadoes: Storm survey teams find a total of 28 tornadoes touched down statewide - AL.com
• Storm survivors turn to faith and feds - MSNBC

Dodged the Tornado...again.

I'm sure most of you are aware of the severe weather that rolled through the Southeast this past Saturday. The storms spawned tornadoes that claimed several fatalities and did millions of dollars worth of damage.

There were several different "waves" that came across the state, the first being the system that contained the killer tornado that struck Yazoo City and Choctaw County, Mississippi. And much like the tornado that hit Weir and Caledonia in January 2008, we were at the farm watching and listening to weather reports warning us that it was coming right for us.

The storm in 2008 did pass directly over us while we were milking. Once it got about two minutes away from us, we shut off all of our milking equipment and hunkered down in our pit-style parlor. The tornado had picked back up into the clouds, thank goodness, but the driving rain and howling wind certainly had our attention. This weekend's storm wasn't nearly as dramatic by the time it reached us. We finished our work at the dairy about fifteen minutes before it was projected to cross between Vernon and Sulligent, and as it got closer it progressively tracked further to the north. There was hardly any rain with it, allowing me to stand on my front porch and clearly see it approaching from the west. I even posted a couple of pictures of the system to Twitter and found out later that a television station in Birmingham showed them during their coverage.

We did get hit by a thunderstorm about an hour after the first system passed by, but the heavy rain and strong winds only lasted a few minutes. After that, we never saw more than an occasional gust of wind and light rain as the rest of the severe weather stayed clear of us.

We've weathered quite a few storms over the last few years, and we're lucky to have escaped them all with no injuries to us or our cattle and very minimal damage to any of our property. Our luck may run out one of these days, but for now I'm happy to say that we dodged the tornado...again.

Live from Baltimore

It's Monday, the last day of the American Farm Bureau's national Young Farmers & Ranchers Conference. I've been able to pick up on some good information and make several good contacts with people from all across the country. We have a tour day set up today and will be flying out tomorrow (I should be back on the farm by lunchtime).

Our part of Alabama wasn't hit hard by the severe weather and tornados that wreaked havoc yesterday. I just hope these last few weeks are not an indication of what we should expect weather-wise this whole year.

Dodged the Tornado

When it stays around 70 degrees for a few days in January, you can just about count on a severe thunderstorm brewing up before too long. Well, today was that day. A strong system moving through Mississippi developed into a tornado and caused lots of damage to a dairy in Weir, Mississippi, and to the school at Caledonia (just about 20 miles from here). The same tornado did some damage here in Lamar County, and was projected to track right over our farm. Luckily for us, it weakened before it got here and didn't cause any damage on our place. Nevertheless, it was a very tense few moments around 2:30pm watching the weather alerts on the barn's television while listening to the howling wind, driving rain, and small hail. The cows weren't too fond of it either.