It is said that 'knowledge is the bedrock of existence'. As such, this blog serves to freely inform the general public about the importance of agriculture. The blog also serves to educate people on the different products that could be used on plants and animals to boost their growth and minimise loss and mortality.
Showing posts with label SUCCESS STORIES. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SUCCESS STORIES. Show all posts
SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Brazil could harvest 113.3 million tons of soybeans in the 2016/2017 season. According to the Rally da Safra, the main expedition to monitor the grain harvest in Brazil, this estimate is a result of favorable weather and an investment in technology.
According to the survey, soybean production will grow 18% compared with the previous crop, which was 96.3 million tons. The estimate indicates an increase in acreage from 82.28 million acres to 83.76 million acres.
YIELD RECORD
The outstanding result of the Safra Rally was the record yield of 49.78 bushels per acre, compared with 43 bushels per acre in the past season. “This is a spectacular soybean harvest,” said André Pessôa, coordinator of the Rally da Safra, in a statement released on March 30.
During the expedition, technicians observed favorable weather in most producing regions, a low incidence of pests and diseases, and an increased investment in seeds. “This year, rains occurred earlier and were constant throughout the season, and farmers took advantage of early planting,” says Pessôa.
The earlier soybean harvest allowed the good implementation of the second-corn crop until the second fortnight of February in the states of Mato Grosso and Goiás. It offers a positive outlook for the second crop, increasing the chance of higher productivity of corn, too.
SOYBEAN HARVEST REACHED 68%
According to the consultancy AgRural, the soybean harvest reached 68% of the planted area. In a statement released March 24, AgRural said that productivity is surpassing estimates. The consultancy also stated that its production estimate will be revised upward.
Chi Farms Limited has successfully concluded training and certification of a pilot group of women fish farmers in Ogun state.
The Aquaculture Client Focus Team of the organisation had trained a group of 22 women in areas such as pond preparation, water management, record keeping and fish farming as a business.
The pilot group are the first 22 farmers out of 500 farmers in the South and 500 farmers in the North of Nigeria that Chi Farms will partner with under a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported technical assistance program.
The objective of the programme is to contribute to food security in Nigeria by increasing the local production of affordable food. The pilot group will cooperate with the agriculture team of Diamond Bank that provides working capital finance for the farmers.
Chi Farms also signed partnership agreements with all fish farmers to assure supply of high quality catfish juveniles, quality fish feed, and continuous technical support.
According to the Manager Chi Farms Limited, Dr. Johannes Flosbach, “We have visited hundreds of fish farmers in the last months and observed that most of them have pond infrastructure available. Yet, most of the ponds are not in use because farmers are short of working capital, or possibly do not have the professional knowledge to manage catfish farming in a profitable matter.”
The Executive Director at Chi Farms Ltd, Martin Middernacht, however noted that as part of the program, Chi Farms will also buy back table size catfish from associated farmers and make it available in major markets.
“The quantities of catfish we produce and supply to local markets under this program will measurably increase availability and affordability of food” he stated.
This past Sunday when I picked my oldest son up from his preschool-age class after church, the teacher pulled me aside.
“Your son made me so proud today,” she said.
These are words every mother loves to hear. I was curious about what he’d done in class to make her proud.
She went on to explain. The class had gone out to the playground, but instead of jumping on a swing or climbing up to slide, my son went over to a bare patch of dirt.
“Don’t you want to play on the playground?” his teacher asked.
“I have to finish my work first. I need to plow the field,” was his reply.
She told me he proceeded to visit every bare patch of dirt on the playground to “plow the field.” When he was done, he joined the other kids on the playground.
His teacher wasn’t the only person proud of him that Sunday. He may be only 4 years old, but he’s learning great life lessons growing up on a farm.
Note: The photo above is one I took of his sandbox at home. He had to finish “planting his field” before coming in for dinner.
Institute for Agricultural Research at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria has released three new varieties of maize, one of enriched with Vitamin A.
The new varieties have potential for high yield and they were tagged SAMMAZ 49, SAMMAZ 50 and SAMMAZ 51.
“SAMMAZ 49 and 50 are hybrids with orange colours respectively,” said Ibrahim Abubakar, executive director of the institute, at its review and planning meeting.
“SAMMAZ 49 is pro-vitamin ‘A’ hybrid and yields up to 7.8 tonnes per hectare.
“SAMMAZ 50 is drought and striga tolerant with yields of 9.3 tonnes per hectare, while the third variety SAMMAZ 51 is open pollinated.
Chi Farms Ltd has successfully concluded the training and certification of a pilot group of smallholder fish farmers. A group of 22 women was trained in ‘Best Practices in Professional Fish Farming’ at one of Chi Farm’s catfish hatchery sites in Sagamu, Ogun State.
The Aquaculture Client Focus Team of Chi Farms trained the women in areas such as pond preparation, water management, record keeping and fish farming as a business.
Chi Farms also signed Partnership Agreements with all fish farmers to assure supply of high quality catfish juveniles, quality fish feed, and continous technical support. Furthermore, the pilot group will cooperate with the agriculture team of Diamond Bank Plc. that provides working capital finance for the farmers.
The pilot group are the first 22 farmers out of 500 farmers in the South and 500 farmers in the North of Nigeria that Chi Farms will partner with under a USAID supported technical assistance program. The objective of the program is to contribute to food security in Nigeria by increasing the local production of affordable food.
Dr. Johannes Flosbach from Chi Farms states: “We have visited hundreds of fish farmers in the last months and observed that most of them have pond infrastructure available. Yet, most of the ponds are not in use because farmers are short of working capital, or possibly do not have the professional knowledge to manage catfish farming in a profitable matter.”
As part of the program, Chi Farms will also buy back table size catfish from associated farmers and make it available in major markets. “The quantities of catfish we produce and supply to local markets under this program will measurably increase availability and affordability of food” says Martin Middernacht, Executive Director at Chi Farms Ltd.
The project is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In return Chi Farms has committed to conducting significant investments into the expansion of its feed milling and catfish hatchery capacities.
United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington has endorsed Abakaliki rice as one of the best brands in the world.
The Ambassador who paid a visit to Abakaliki Rice mills in Ebonyi state had commended the efforts of the state government on the level and quality of production while also encouraging the good work.
”Your rice is the best anywhere in the world and we commend the governor for putting his government to work in Ebonyi state”, he said.
Symington however called for sustained developmental efforts in the state to promote greater Agricultural and mining activities.
“The first critical step involves upgrading economic fortune of the state and also setting up opportunities in the area that would welcome investors to the place thereby making it possible for investment” he noted.
He also advised the government to sustain the current peace and security in the state as no meaningful development can flourish in a rancour environment.
The Governor of Ebonyi state, David Umahi commended the Ambassador for his visit and also solicited his assistance in attracting investors to the state,
Umahi assured the investors of a very healthy environment.
A team of Nigerian scientists from the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), Ibadan, Oyo State, said they have discovered a remedy that will reduce the plague of tuta absoluta, a disease that ravaged tomato in 2015.
Leader of the team, Dr. Abiola Oke, while speaking with journalists in Kaduna on the team’s sustainable management of the pest, commonly referred to as tomato ebola, explained that the technology had proved to be effective in handling the challenge.
She said they were on ground to sensitize the farmers on methods they could use in overcoming the challenge which led to loss of billions of Naira by tomato farmers in the country in 2015.
Dr. Oke, who is an Entomologist/Researcher, said the technology was developed after careful research and has proven to tackle the challenges for which it was conceptualized.
She said that all they did was to study the tuta absoluta and they found out that it is a pest that is active at night and is also attracted to light, hence, the development of the technology which involves using a tray and rechargeable lamp.
She added,” The technology is the use of tray and rechargeable lamps, the tray is filled with water, sprinkled with a little detergent and a stone is placed inside. A rechargeable lamp is placed on the stone and once the tuta which lays the eggs that damage the tomatoes come to the light, they will fall into the tray and are trapped, hence drown and die in the water.”
When asked how affordable the technology is to farmers who are mostly in the rural areas, she said that each set costs less than N1,000, which is used for purchasing the major tools; a plastic tray and a lamp, adding that the research and the tools for the setup of the technology and the funding is being sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
On how the scientists aim to reach out to all the farmers in the tomato area, she said their team on a first phase, would be touring tomato producing states in some states, where they would donate trays, lamps and detergents to the farmers.
“As a sustainable scheme, we would organize meetings and workshops for leaders of farmers groups within the catchment areas from where there would be a multiplying effect as they go back and train others,” she assured.
A farmer in one of the locations visited in Samaru-Zaria, Kaduna State, Malam Isa Ibrahim, expressed optimism over the technology and promised to reach out to other colleague in order to end the scourge.
Fires have devastated parts of Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Thousands of livestock have been killed. Human lives have been lost, with at least four of those deaths a direct result of people trying to save livestock from the flames. Fences are destroyed, pastures are scorched, homes and barns have been reduced to ashes.
During and after the fires, my social media news feed has been filled with images of the destruction and loss. Stories about the people who lost their lives. Stories from farmers who found surviving livestock, only to have to put them down because the animals were too badly injured to survive. Stories of cows looking for their calves who perished. Stories of calves that are now orphans. Stories of the firefighters, many of them volunteers and some who are farmers, who fought the flames that also threatened their own homes.
I didn’t see any of this on my local news. It wasn’t on the national news. The news spread from farmer to farmer, from community to community, from agriculture network to network.
Agriculture takes care of its own.
It wasn’t long before my news feed was filled with photos of hay on the way to the devastated areas. Truckers are offering to haul hay or to move surviving livestock. People are opening their barns and pastures to house surviving animals. 4-H groups and veterinarians are housing and feeding orphaned calves. Companies are offering free medicine to treat burned animals. Churches are putting together lists of people affected by the fire and their needs.
One thread even focused on trucking laws so that those driving hay and other supplies to the areas hit would not be stopped and ticketed for their efforts.
Agriculture takes care of its own.
I didn’t grow up in agriculture. Four months after I started working as an agriculture Extension agent in 1999, Hurricane Floyd hit North Carolina. While I wasn’t in an area hit hard, I did have two cattle farmers with pastures bordering the river, and they were flooded. Days after the storm, donated hay was on the way to those farms.
Agriculture takes care of its own.
We see it again and again. Response to a blizzard, hurricane, tornado, or other natural disaster. Neighbors helping harvest the fields after a farmer’s death or so a farm family could mourn the loss of their child. Raising money to cover the funeral costs of young people who rode into the fire to try and save the lives of livestock.
Agriculture takes care of its own.
We are doing it without front-page coverage of this tragedy. Without being the lead item – or any item – on the evening news. Without a telethon with phones manned by celebrities. Without any aid from groups claiming to care about the welfare of animals. Without government assistance.
Nigerian farmers have new reasons to leap for joy as GEMS4 has embarked on a pilot test of using Returnable Plastic Crates (RPCs) for transporting tomatoes.
The pilot test which involves a train fully loaded with 585 Returnable Plastic Crates of tomatoes is being undertaken by ConnectRail services but at the instance of the GEMS4 DFID project. The train has left Kano state and is expected to arrive at Iddo train Lagos state by 5pm.
According to the Group Intervention Manager, Agri-business GEMS4 Project, Mr. Richard Ogundele, the project seeks to infuse Good Handling Practices (GHP) into the tomato value chain with a view to stemming the high incidence of losses and also to guarantee the income of farmers and marketers of tomato while generating employment.
“Notice greenish yellowish more that the red ones, that’s the application of colour code chart to ensure tomato is still in ripening process and can stand rigors of handling and journey to final market. At least they need about five to seven days to be fully ripe”, he said.
Ogundele expressed that the design of the crates will help retain the freshness of the produce, hence the retailer has more time to preserve the produce which will also increase the bargaining power of both the farmer and the retailer.
Speaking further, he noted that the adoption of this technology will provide jobs at collection centres for as people will be needed to sort the tomatoes upon harvest and pack into crates.
Also speaking with AgroNigeria, Mr. Kabir Lawal, who is supervising the transportation from the north, stated that formerly, raffia baskets which were woven in such a way that limited aeration, were used.
“The baskets were covered with paper and stacked on one another sitting directly on the produce and this increases the risk of spoilage. However, the use of this plastic crates prevents squashing as the crates though placed on each other do not seat directly on the produce. They also allow for more ventilation and retain the fresh state of the produce” he explained.
History was made on Wednesday, 15th March 2017 when fresh tomatoes from Kano arrived Lagos by rail after 58 years.
Emmanuel Itoya Ijewere, one of Nigeria’s eminent businessmen with extensive experience and interests across the banking, finance and agricultural spectrums disclosed this at the FirstBank’s maiden Agric Expo 2017, held at Eko Hotel and Suites, on Tuesday.
Ijewere said: “the train left Kano at about 10am yesterday. As at 11am today, it has arrived Osun and by 10pm this evening, it will be in Lagos. That is happening for the first time in 58 years.”
“I want to thank those who have made it possible including the minister of Agriculture. After this, it will now be weekly affairs. We will move a lot of these things conveniently,” he added.
Ijewere whose previous national assignments included Chairmanships of the Agriculture and Food Security Commission said that the country lost 2.8 million tonnes of Tomatoes in 2016.
According to him, “at N200,000 per tonne, the country lost tomatoes worth N5.6 billion” due to poor storage facility.
The Federal Government has revealed plans to revive the cassava bread initiative to encourage the use of cassava in food production and processing.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, made this known in Abuja during an interaction with journalists.
Ogbeh lamented that although Nigeria was the largest producer of cassava in the world, the economic and industrial potential of the crop had yet to be fully explored and utilised.
The minister expressed confidence that the restoration of the cassava bread initiative would curb importation of wheat, as flours used for baking bread will be produced from both wheat and cassava.
He added that this initiative would save a lot of foreign exchange, being used in importing wheat, for Nigeria, as well as encourage cassava farmers to increase their productivity.
According to him “The use to which we have put cassava has been very low. We haven’t produced industrial starch even though we are trying to revive textiles, we haven’t done ethanol, we are importing ethanol”.
“We haven’t exported cassava chips because of the cost of transportation from the hinterland to the ports.The bread one is still coming up. There is something you must add to bread if you use the cassava flour called bake shop.
“There is a Nigerian who wants to come and set up the factory here. You add that so that the bread can rise; that is what we are waiting for, it will be done.’’ he said
Ogbeh said that the Federal Government was also working to get flour millers to add 15 per cent cassava in the wheat they milled.
AgroNigeria recalls the cassava bread initiative was launched by former president Goodluck Jonathan in 2012, which was made from composite flour containing 40 per cent cassava and 60 per cent wheat.
Cynthia Mosunmola Umoru, is the CEO of Honeysuckle PTL Ventures and she is a farmer , one of the most successful ones in Nigeria. As a young girl her passion was to study Medicine but was forced to attend another university due to political violence in the north. It was while studying zoology in the university that her interest in agriculture grew. Refusing to limit herself, she took courses in fisheries, and multi-level marketing.
In her final year in the university, armed with the zeal to chart a new course, be her own boss she launched Honeysuckles PTL Ventures with the main aim of selling processed food produce. Honeysuckle focuses on high quality food products using modern packaging and fast delivery, and has its own farms and ponds.
Today we present to you a passionate Nigerian who sees herself as an agrovangelist. She is the technical adviser to the minister of Agriculture on Youth and Women
What prompted you to be a farmer?
My journey started straight out of college about 13 years ago. I decided to venture into agribusiness. I did a vertical integration in agricultural production. So we produce Chicken, Snails, Catfish. Now we are looking into vegetables and some cash crops.
Can you take us on a journey into the food business?
We have gone through some exciting time, a phenomenal learning curve where a green horn out of the university ventures into enterprise, tried getting clients, getting markets, raising finance, going bankrupt, starting all over again, acquiring land and so many other things but I must say it’s been a very exciting journey. Every experience is a significant learning curve for me. One that has transitioned into being a young lady who has found her calling in the agribusiness space, I have become extremely passionate about food, farming and the community at large. there’s a greater burden to actually impact the food space in Nigeria with focus on primary production, value addition and now we have discussing a lot about export and import substitution.
As the Technical adviser to the Honorable Minister of Agriculture on Youth and Women, can you tell us about the steps currently undertaken to engage the youths in Agribusiness?
From the government’s perspective, it is a continuous process. We are in a society where we want the magic wand to be raised and things just happen overnight. The Federal Government has put some policies in place to actually build the capacity of young men and women especially around areas of mechanisation, skills development for productivity in the agric sector. So you are going to go across varying value chains though the requirements vary.
One of the biggest agenda on the table is how we invest in extension service proviso, within the sector. there is the Npower project running from the office of the Vice President that will recruit and train, about 30, 000 extension service providers in the first phase, though the phase has been approved to scale to a 100,000 hopefully in the next 3 to 5 years.
There is a huge skills gap that is deficit in the agricultural sector, where young people who go to the university acquire certain skills that may not be relevant in the agric sector space so one of the things the government is looking into doing is how they create in partnership with the state government to create training programmes that will actually get the young people into the agribusiness space. Skills like mechanization, tractor operation, farm management, farm business, book-record keeping, and other of those skills will be given and some other programs will be across varying value chain to help young people actually begin to leverage the opportunities and potentials in the agricultural sector. So there are a lot of plans but they will be phased, they all can’t be rolled out in one sweep.
What is your advice to the youths?
Like I will say to anyone who wants to venture into any enterprise at all, life is in stages, and you must enjoy every phase on the way to where you are going. There is need for resilience. We are naturally tenacious people but I will recommend that we seek information, knowledge is power, knowledge is key. Gain requisite knowledge the enterprise you are going into, do not go into that journey blinding, there are mentors, there are people who towed that line before, it is important that you get all the support you need, to leverage people’s experience, read, you know, go online, go for short course, programs, improve on your skill set then your staying power in the business will be elongated.
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), has moved in to tackle the outbreak of Avian Influenza virus known to affect the poultry industry, which currently has been identified as a health threat to humans.
NCDC has reportedly visited health facilities around affected farms and live bird markets, to review patients health as regards the current outbreak of the Virus.
Samples have been collected from patients in five hotspot zones in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, Plateau, with Influenza like illnesses or Severe Acute Respiratory Illnesses to be tested.
Outbreaks of some avian influenza A viruses in poultry have been associated with illness and death in people in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and the near East.
More updates on the outbreak will be communicated as soon as NCDC reveal their findings from samples collected.
Beck’s is excited to release the latest Why I Farm video featuring the story of Long Vue Farms in Allensville, Ky. For Mandy Bryant, the decision to take over the family farm was an easy one. Developing a passion and love for farming at an early age, Mandy views her responsibilities at Long Vue not just as a job, but a way life. A life she knew she could never walk away from.
Mandy and her father, Larry Thompson, operate Long Vue Farms with their farm operations partner, Jason Head. Check out the latest Why I Farm video to learn more about their operation and how they are handling the farm’s transition to the next generation.
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At Beck’s, we know being a farmer isn’t a job. It’s a way of life. A life filled with honor, courage and duty; both in and out of the field. A life empowered by dreams, inspired by God’s wisdom. And a life not only devoted to a community, but the world.
Change happens. We can dig our heels in and fight as hard as we can, but the world around us changes. As women in agriculture, part of our responsibility is to adapt to that change. On the dairy farm, it seems like we are always adapting to changes in recommendations, changes in the needs of our cattle, and changes in things like weather. As a nutritionist, I find myself needing to adapt at a faster pace because my clients are adapting for their changes, and it forces change on me for many of the same reasons.
This new year has been full of changes on the farm. Some of those changes we implemented based on results of our management practices. For example, we were getting less than stellar reproductive results in a group of heifers. So, based on recommendations from our vet, breeder, and some of my own research, we changed the age at first breeding and the way we breed off shots and also regrouped our heifers to give them more space. While theses sound like such simple measures, it meant that I had to adapt my record management: There were new lists to run, different days of the week to do those lists, and different methods are sharing that information. For my father-in-law and husband, it meant a more pronounced focus on heat detection for heifers given shots vs. blindly breeding because they should have been in heat. It also means that they are more dependent on my records and need to sort cattle on more a set schedule than we were all used to doing.
As a nutritionist, I have found myself adapting to new technology in the past few months. A need to rely on my computer and phone to assist a farm in implementing new feeding management took some getting used to on my part while the use of cameras, infrared thermometers, and refractometers took some explaining to help my clients adapt. My business has had to adapt to changes within, and I found myself taking time to restructure, rebrand, and reboot. It takes a lot of time to make these adaptations, but if we take steps in a process and with a plan we can successfully navigate the storm and move forward.
Often, I find myself preaching to myself and my clients that we need to be proactive and not reactive when it comes to changes in what we do. The art of predicting those changes that can influence our bottom line, family life, and management is not an easy one. On the farms I work with, we monitor things like the market pricing of milk, cattle, and feed ingredients so that we can try to stay ahead of the curve and proactively make the choices that protect us from possible negative change. In terms of management on our farm, we try to be proactive by monitoring herd performance, calf health, our time management, and the weather. All those things give us indications as to what could be coming down the line, and we can preemptively adapt and hopefully reduce or prevent the impact of those things.
One quick example of being proactive on all farms I am engaged with including my own is that we can sample the TMR for the cows. And, through the efforts of Rock River Laboratory, Inc., we can check that feed for molds, yeasts, c. perfringens, enterococcus, or salmonella bugs as well as the mycotoxin vomitoxin. If we proactively run this type of feed sample, we can predict when we might encounter some problems with the cows. On our farm, we are using that information to prevent loss of dry matter intake and digestive upsets because we know that our TMR in the cold temperatures had a moderate yeast count and a level of enterococcus that warranted watching it. As the temperatures looked to begin increasing earlier in the month, I could utilize a couple of feed additives that helped keep those two potential problem areas in check and maintain the cruise control that our herd was on for milk production.
Adapting to change and being able to proactively work to prevent possible negative effects is all part of what we must do as producers in agriculture. Those steps help us to be more successful in the way we run our farms, give us more time to spend with our family minus the stress, and enable our animals and crops to meet their potential for the benefit of our farms.
THESE NEWCOMERS TO U.S. AGRICULTURE BREAK THROUGH BOUNDARIES TO FARM OR MANAGE FARMS.
Remember when farming was a place where hard work and persistence paid off? You could build a business from scratch?
Well, don’t tell these four immigrants that anything’s changed. Saul Pineda, Nancy Alcala, Nacho Escamilla, and Segundo Gonzalez would beg to differ.
All are Hispanics (from Spanish-speaking countries) or Latinos (from Latin America) who came here to work, and have built thriving careers in agriculture, some even running their own farms. Some came to the U.S. without ag experience, but all chose agriculture as the place to build a better life for their families.
They aren’t alone. There are 1 million hired farmworkers in the U.S. and 42% are born outside our borders, according to the USDA Economic Research Service. An additional 100,000 farm operators are of Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino origin, according to the 2012 USDA census data.
From picking strawberries in California to managing dairy operations in Wisconsin, these farmworkers, managers, and owners work to ensure that crops are harvested and livestock are tended to across the country.
SEGUNDO GONZALEZ: DAIRY FARMER IN WAUPACA, WISCONSIN
Segundo Gonzalez with his wife, Maria, and their kids
The journey from Ecuador, a mountainous country on the northwestern corner of South America, to Waukapa, Wisconsin, is nearly 4,000 miles. But Segundo Gonzalez, four of his brothers, and a sister have made it, and surpassed obstacles far greater than the miles. Today, they’ve fulfilled a dream of owning their own dairy farm of 200 Holsteins.
Gonzalez’s father was a veterinarian and a farmer in Ecuador, he says, and his mother a nurse in their native village. “We are indigenous people to that area, and she was the first indigenous person to become a nurse,” he says proudly.
He followed his father’s footsteps and became a veterinarian in Ecuador. “But even as a veterinarian, we barely had enough to live on,” says Gonzalez.
A U.S. couple, Jim and Linda Belote, came to Ecuador in the Peace Corps and befriended the Gonzalez family, admiring the value they placed on education. The Belotes offered to sponsor Gonzalez in the U.S. at the University of Minnesota in a master’s degree program in animal science.
It took Gonzalez three tries to pass the English test, but he did it and got an assistantship working in the artificial insemination lab on the Minnesota campus. There, he learned the dairy A.I. business.
At graduation, he took a job on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, Jon-De Farm at Baldwin, working for the Dean Dornink family. “They were skeptical at first, but eventually they gave me a try,” says Gonzalez.
He started at Jon-De at the bottom – cow pusher. “I was moving cows up to be milked, cleaning, sweeping, and flushing manure out,” he says. “Looking back now, I’m really grateful for that beginning. It was a tremendous opportunity to learn how to find sick cows, or cows in heat, or spot mastitis. That’s where I learned all the practical things of a modern dairy farm. It was a lot more than just cleaning pens.
“And, I’m a quick learner!”
When his visa expired, Gonzalez and his family returned to Ecuador where he worked with small dairy farmers, teaching them what he had learned in the U.S. But the Dorninks wanted him back in Wisconsin, and helped work out the visa issues. Gonzalez returned to Wisconsin to manage an expanding dairy that was now hiring mostly Hispanic workers.
“Many of them had language problems, which I knew about from my own experience, so I could help them. Most were from Mexico and had a strong work ethic. Rather than call in sick, they would show up for work a half hour early.”
He also helped several of his siblings immigrate from Ecuador and join the farm. The first to come were brothers Marco and Lauro, but eventually a third brother, Jaime, and sister Silvia, came, too.
And, they soon started looking for a farm to buy to enter the diary business themselves. “We had acquired so much knowledge of and expertise in the dairy industry – milking, feeding, breeding, and housing. We kept thinking we needed to use it for ourselves. But we had no money to speak of,” says Gonzalez.
After a long search, they found the farm at Waupaca. The owner, Leroy Niemuth, wanted to retire and had no one to take it over. He was willing to make the Gonzalez family a land contract, limiting the cash they needed up front. The five siblings made the deal in 2011.
The Niemuth farm had 147 milking cows at the time of purchase. “They were pretty good cows then, averaging about 60 pounds of milk per day” Gonzalez says. “We have been breeding up ever since. We switched to 3X milking within a couple months, then we hired our first employee, Francisco, to help milk. He is still with us. My wife, Maria, takes care of calves.”
Now with 190 cows on 3X milking, the farm averages near 100 pounds of milk per cow per day.
There are 24 acres on the farm, so they have to buy most of the feed. “We’d like to change that someday; it’s a challenge buying feed,” says Gonzalez. “At first, nobody knew us and didn’t fully trust us, but now we have people calling us to sell us feed. Mostly, it’s alfalfa haylage and corn silage.”
Silvia, the Gonzalez sister, has a business management background, and she does all of the bookkeeping and other office chores for the farm. “We work as a team,” she says. “Marco is in charge of the nutrition and machinery, Lauro handles cow health and reproduction, and Jaime manages parlor and milk production.
“The purpose of having the farm is to keep the family together and maintain our traditions while we teach our kids the value of work,” she says.
NANCY ALCALA: SOW FARM MANAGER IN BEARDSTOWN, ILLINOIS
Nancy Alcala
Growing up in a small village south of Mexico City, nothing was further from Nancy Alcala’s mind than pigs. Now 33 years old, she’s a sow farm manager for Hi Power near Beardstown, Illinois. All day, she’s surrounded by 6,800 sows and 37 people – and they all report to her!
Fourteen years ago, she and her husband, Jorge, made the 36-hour car trip to Illinois, where two sisters were already living. “I wasn’t legal, I had no visa. We already had one child, 6-month-old Hugo. I had finished high school, got married, had a baby, and there was no opportunity for us in Mexico. We came here for our family’s future,” she says.
Her sisters worked for Excel meat packing in Beardstown, so she and Jorge got jobs there, too, stripping hog fat with an electric knife. “I did it for about six years and had three more babies,” says Nancy. “It was a hard life, but worth it being here. If I was in Mexico, and got a good job, I might make $100 a week. Here, I make about $800 a week.”
One day Nancy went to get a driver’s license, got led to the immigration office, and ended up in immigration detention in Chicago, with intent to deport her back to Mexico. “I was there for two months, in limbo, with Jorge taking care of my babies. I had no criminal record, and I had a job. So after those two months, they could have deported me. But they said they would work with me to get to legal status, and I was released.”
Even that release was a harrowing experience. She was alone in Chicago with no friends, and not even a phone. Eventually, a kind restaurant owner gave her something to eat, loaned her a phone, and Jorge was able to come get her.
Over the next few years, Alcala got her immigration issues resolved to permanent status. “Toward the end of that five-year process, the attorney told me we either get this resolved now, or I could still be deported. I cried over that, and told Jorge if they send me back, you and the kids are not going with me. There’s nothing there for us. We would have split our family up before I took the kids back. But that year, I got permanent status. I called Jorge and said, ‘We did it!’ ”
During this time, Alcala started working for High Power Pork. “I knew someone who worked there, and that got me in the door,” she says. “The first job was a pig processor. We get over 50 litters a day, so there’s a lot of processing.
“After a year, I was promoted to a farrowing supervisor, and got to help in other parts of the farm, like the breeding barn. I’m always looking to learn something new.”
The pig company had adopted a new computer system that involved a new way of entering sows into the program. There were five books in the farm office that were about this new system, and Alcala started taking them home at night, one at a time, until she’d read them all. “In the evenings, after I’d dealt with the kids and family things, I studied those books.”
One day, Alcala said to her boss, “Let me tag and enter a new group of sows. If I do it wrong, well, I’ll un-do it all myself, on my own time.” The boss agreed, and when Alcala got done tagging that day, he asked her, ‘How did you learn this?’ ”
That kind of initiative eventually got Alcala promoted to assistant manager of the farm. Then when the boss took a new job, Alcala was the easy choice to replace him as farm manager. “Since then, I’ve been in charge of 6,800 sows and 37 employees.” The employees are about 50-50 men and women, and 50-50 Hispanic and non-Hispanic. “We’re all equal here,” she says.
“I like the people at work; everything starts with them,” she says. “My favorite thing is communicating with people and learning about them. I use that knowledge to encourage them and get good work from them.”
Alcala coaxes some impressive production numbers from her staff, and her sows: 11.2 pigs weaned per litter and 96% conception rates.
She is salaried, and gets bonuses for good production. And recently, she was asked to step into a new role at High Power Pork, helping to start up a brand-new sow farm.
She and Jorge and their family live in the little town of Beardstown, Illinois. “We want the kids [Hugo, Charlie, George, and Kimberly] to go to college, that’s what I’m working for. They get good grades, and they know what we expect of them.
“Jorge and I don’t have everything we want, but we’re working for it. We try to teach that same lesson to the kids.”
SAUL PINEDA: ARONIA BERRY FARMER IN OLATHE, KANSAS
Saul Pineda (right) and his son, Jesse
Saul Pineda is the last guy you’d have guessed would be running his own farm. The 39-year-old fledgling aronia berry farmer, who grew up a couple hours south of Mexico City, had no farm connections when he came to the U.S. “My grandfather worked on a farm at one time, but that’s the only farming connection I had,” he says.
At age 18 and newly married, he moved to Chicago, where he had sisters and brothers already living. “There was nothing in Mexico for us – no jobs, no future,” he says. Eventually, he, Victoria, and their two children landed in the Omaha area, and he worked construction. Later, he added a second full-time night job in floor maintenance.
The construction job opened the door to farming. “The owner of that company asked me to help out on a piece of property he owned where he was planting aronia berry bushes [also called chokeberries].” The sour berries are used in many food products, including jams, wines, ice cream, and beer, and are said to have health benefits.
“I liked working with the plants and the soil, and a dream started to form in my head to have my own farm,” says Pineda. “It would be a business of our own, and to support our family down the road.”
Land near Omaha was expensive, so he went online and cast a broader search net about five years ago. “It took me seven months before I spotted 5 acres near Olathe, Kansas, for $3,000 an acre. I did the budgets, and bought it in 2013. The next year, I bought another 5 acres next to it.”
Then he went to work developing his new property for the aronia bushes. The little farm is south of Kansas City, and 3.5 hours south of Omaha, where Pineda still lives with his family and works the floor maintenance job.
His schedule since 2013 has been something like this: Monday through Friday, work two jobs, both full-time, in Omaha; get off work Friday night and sleep a few hours before heading to Kansas with his son, Jesse, arriving about sunrise; plant, water, mow, and tend the berry bushes all day Saturday and most of Sunday; drive back to Omaha Sunday evening to start the same schedule over.
Such a schedule may sound grueling, but it never seemed that way to Pineda. “I worked two full-time jobs for about 10 years,” he says, “and could make about $50,000 a year. Victoria works at a hotel. We saved enough to pay for the land outright, and to plant the farm.
“Victoria is a really good saver. We wouldn’t be where we are without her.”
Someday, when they can afford it, they hope to buy more land on the Kansas site, build a house, and live there. “When the aronia fruit gets closer to first harvest and producing income, I’ll get more serious about that,” he says.
For now, they have planted about 6.5 acres of the aronia plants, mostly using a 2-inch auger he rigged up on an electric drill hooked to a portable generator they pulled around the field. The first 5,000 plants are now four years old; 3,000 are three years old. They’ll start producing harvestable berries in a couple years.
“We’re building a future for our family,” Pineda says. “We’re not going back to Mexico.”
Jesse, now 20 years old, also works at the floor maintenance business in Omaha with his dad. Daughter Kimberly, 19, is a college student at Iowa Western Community College.
“It seems odd, even to me, that I’ve become a farmer,” Pineda says. “But I really like it. When I’m working here on the farm, I don’t even feel the hours.
“I hope I can encourage others. Work hard, and you can do good.”
IGNACIO ESCAMILLA: DAIRY FARMWORKER NEAR ALMA CENTER, WISCONSIN
From left to right: Ignacio Escamilla and his co-worker Jose Castillo
Ignacio Escamilla, called Nacho by his friends, is 39 years old and came to the U.S. in the early 1990s when he was just 16 years old from a town 10 hours south of the Texas border. Because he was underage, it was hard to get work, so he moved from Pennsylvania to Florida to Indiana working on horse and dairy farms, even though he had little experience in farming.
Eventually, the dairy work led him to the Heller Family Farm near Alma Center, Wisconsin.
“I started at the bottom, as a milker, and I had no experience with machine milking,” says Escamilla. “I did that for several years, then I moved to the crop part of the farm, mostly driving tractors and trucks. When an opening came up for me to move back to working with the cows, as the manager of the milking parlor, I took it. Now, I manage the cow barn, treating cows, and managing fresh cows.”
As such, Escamilla does all the hiring, and firing if needed, for the cow barn, and has full authority over the milking operation. That’s 1,500 cows and 12 employees he directly is in charge of. Through his journey, he has become a U.S. citizen, through help from Blake Heller.
Escamilla is married with two children, both now college age. One of them, Omar, age 18, is at Wisconsin-River Falls and wants to be a veterinarian, or a farmer, or maybe both.
“It’s in our long-range plans to have our own farm,” says Escamilla. “We have a few horses already. Now that the kids are where they are, things may change. Maybe there will be enough money to save for a farm.”
Escamilla’s first dream is that the kids will finish college. “I don’t want them to have to start on the bottom, like I did. I want a better life for them.”
Escamilla has developed a side business of helping other dairy farmers in Wisconsin find farm workers. He and a coworker at Hellers, Jose Castillo, teach new Hispanic dairy workers the skills they will need to work on farms. “We have a reputation for training them well,” says Escamilla.
He and Castillo also get called to other farms to help with employee issues such as language skills. “Sometimes they just need a translator,” Escamilla says. “On some farms, hardly anyone speaks English, and we can help. Or they may need to learn a new milking system. It’s a nice sideline job for us.”
Escamilla laughs when asked about his own English language skills. Much of it, he says, came from watching U.S. television. “I can read English decently, but my problem is in writing it,” he says. “When I went for my citizenship test, I had to write something, and that was the hardest part. But I passed, and I couldn’t be happier with my life here!”
