Market Farming

["Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>]

This is a shameless take-off on what some of you may remember was from TMEN
many years ago. Heck, maybe they still do it for all I know:) But may be a
good way to let others know how things are going on your farm and future
directions, etc. And by using that heading, if this is boring to some, they
will know it and can skip over it:)

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Today was a "cold one" here in Wisconsin.  39 F at early morning and some
wind and no sun at all. I did stick it out until noon at the Farmer's
Market. Judy had to attend the Farm Bureau Regional Women's Committee Rally
since she was the coordinator for the event which was held in our area. So
she was "forced" to be inside for much of the morning.

We had a drastic drop in attendance. I estimate barely 1/3 the normal crowd.
In fact, we only sold $14.25 in produce. You could say that this was a bit
lower than normal:) About all that is left after a solid frost last week are
some squash and peppers. We sold out all our pumpkins.

We actually would never have gone to the market if it was not for the Misty
Ridge Farm Jersey Beef that we bring to market. Sales were down and we only
moved $83.44, but the value is making those contacts with the consumer that
may not happen any other way. In fact, several folks who bought some beef
this morning are planning to cooperatively get together and buy one head.
Now that really changes our processing situation here:) I told them that we
would still give them the regular half price if they wanted to only buy
split halves between each of the three families since

Our first full year of beef marketing did meet our goal of at least 5 head.
(Prior to that we did several years of test marketing). And this CY, we will
reach our goal of at least 8 head or more. I think it will be more like 10.

And we know more about what sells (and doesn't sell) at our market. We
expect to concentrate more on strawberries and raspberries. Our 20+  fruit
trees are not yet producing enough to sell but we did get a half bushel of
excellent macintosh and yellow varieties. Next year may be pretty good since
some of the trees we planted five years ago are reaching production
maturity. We are adding a few more trees next spring and will have about 30
fruit trees total.

It is interesting to see that our insulated cool storage room in the
basement is now at 62 F and dropping. We use one of those wireless
thermometers to monitor the temps in the living room.

Most of the cattle kept on the farm for the summer, either contract or
stockers, have been shipped or will be shipped in a matter of days. This is
due to the need to keep the numbers down during our winters, which can be
severe.  After our above ground lines freeze to the point of no longer being
useable, we only have water in a tank in the cow yard with an immersion
heater. By having the above ground lines during the summer, we are able to
water livestock all the way to the back of the farm (3/4 mile) with a line
running just over 1/2 mile. We have a small shallow farm pond, but it is
only 100 feet in diameter and we are primarily using it for wildlife habitat
improvement. In fact, we had a team of specialists come to our farm in just
the past few weeks and do an assessment of wildlife habitat and other
sustainable agriculture issues. This group is from the Valley Stewardship
Network which supports the improvement of the Kickapoo River Watershed which
is the next watershed away from the Mississippi River. We are in the Bad Axe
Watershed and being on the ridge top, everything starts here and goes down.
We are only 14 miles from the Mississippi River.

We have been building a fire every few days to keep the basement reasonably
warm. When it goes below 66 F we generally heat it back up and then coast
down with the modest thermal storage of the house. We heat about 90% with
wood heat. The rest is either low cost electricity through our electric coop
or for emergency backup with an LP space heater that they require. We have
not had the small LP tank filled for a couple of years now and it holds
about 100 gallons or less. Almost all of that has gone for cooking.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Dairy heifers and dairy beef graziers
Viroqua, WI

www.mistyridgefarm.com