The Liberator

"We are feeding and raising our animals well so our neighbors can be fed well."

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10 Percent, My New 100 Percent

By Del Ficke

My garden is a mirror of my mind and a canvas for my soul.

I encourage everyone to try and grow a garden, or at least grow something they enjoy, even in a pot on the deck or inside.

My garden is a beautiful sanctuary. It didn’t start that way though. Five years ago, I couldn’t grow anything. But, I afforded myself the time to learn how to garden and now I thoroughly enjoy it. I simply can’t get enough of the garden and I am sure some of the neighbors, while appreciative, have reached their fill of the produce I bring over to them.

If I can change from non-gardener to gardener, I have absolutely no doubt others can change too. So, I’ve been thinking, 10 percent is my new 100 percent. If everyone just tried to change 10 percent of what they are doing everyday for the better, we would make significant headway. I am certain the 10 percent goal is attainable for everyone.

Why wouldn’t you want to change some things so you can have time to do things you enjoy or to figure out some things you might enjoy? My 10 percent theory comes down to this: realistically I know we cannot change it all; but, we can change one step and one percent at a time. Here’s a list to ponder to begin getting us someplace.

1. You are only as smart as the smartest people you talk to.

2. Ignorance is damaging. Here’s an example: farmers are often proud of how family-oriented they are. This may sound harsh; but, if some of them treated their families like some of them treat their soil, their family would perish. We tend to destroy what we do not understand.

3. Complacency is a silent killer. It’s like a disease. If you do nothing and know better, your doing nothing will lead to the end.

4. There’s a whole lot of unlearning to do, a de-programming of sorts. People have not always been told the correct information even when they have paid money for it or received a free meal to hear it.

5. You are never too old for a mentor. Seek out mentors. I absolutely thrive when I get the chance to be a mentor and when I find quality mentors who know more than I do. It’s very rewarding to solve problems – together.

6. Finally, ask questions, ask more questions or ask a question. Here’s one: How do we take back the reins of an industry that has seemingly "plateaued" on free meals and seed corn apparel?

Next you will read a story about Scott Gonnerman. Scott began asking questions. I admire Scott. Don’t be afraid to try – one step, one percent at a time.

How can we farm forever?
By Kerry Hoffschneider

Scott Gonnerman (far right) visits with soil health event attendees from left; Paul Ackley from Iowa and Brandon Kaufman from Kansas.

The group making its way to a field where a mat of rye and other crops provide soil protection. The field is now planted to non-GMO corn.

WACO, Neb. – It has been 100 years since Jacob and Alma Gonnerman purchased their farm in York County, Neb. on August 2, 1918. Raymond and Evelyn Gonnerman bought the same farm on February 4, 1947. Since 2004, Raymond’s grandson Scott and his wife Barb have been owners and stewards of the Gonnerman homestead.

Recently, more than 40 farmers and ranchers from across the Midwest – Iowa, Indiana to Kansas, traveled to this century farm to learn about the regenerative practices Scott and Barb have implemented to ensure their farm carries on for the next 100 years and more. They also journeyed there to listen to two presenters – Christine Jones, PhD, who is an internationally-renowned soil ecologist from Australia and founder of Amazing Carbon, www.amazingcarbon.com and Jay Fuhrer – a Soil Health Specialist from Bismarck, ND who represented the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Menoken Farm, a demonstration farm implementing cover crops and other regenerative practices located outside Menoken, ND.

The event opened with Scott and Barb welcoming the group. Scott did not place himself as one of the headlining speakers – in many ways, his farm spoke for itself. This was indicative in one of Scott’s no-till fields the group visited where a gold mat of rye, triticale, winter barley, hairy vetch and winter lentils had been pushed down by a roller crimper to provide a rich layer of soil armor that is helping with weed suppression and protection for the non-GMO (genetically modified) corn that was coming up there in neat rows. A water infiltration test conducted on this field by Fuhrer showed the healthy soil web beneath the ground was able to soak in the first inch of water in just 25 seconds. This is compared to other fields in the area that are still highly-tilled and that may not be able to soak in an inch of water in an hour, leading to a lot of run-off and soil erosion issues.

While Scott does not claim that he has maximized every acre, he is certainly an anomaly in the irrigated farm country of York County where many farmers are still tilling heavily and planting monocultures such as corn on corn or a simple corn and soybean rotation. Scott has broken the “conventional” paradigm and is planting a variety of crops such as chick peas, malt barley and triticale seed for Green Cover Seed. He has also incorporated cattle grazing back on the land and is going around the commodity system to find many of his crop markets direct. He has also taken away the crutch of synthetic inputs, keeps his machinery needs at a minimum and has dramatically reduced his irrigation use too – even stating that he is raising as much without irrigation as he used to under irrigation.

Jay Fuhrer

“They care about the resource,” Fuhrer said, motioning to Scott and Barb in his introduction. “That’s the difference . . . Our goal should be to farm forever . . . If you have more carbon entering the soil than leaving, your children will likely farm your land. If you have more carbon leaving than entering, they likely won’t.”

Fuhrer understood some of the cultural issues when it comes to making changes – the self-proclaimed son of a strict, German father, said they only began to change on the farm he grew up on when his dad saw the severe erosion impact of heavy tillage. But, it wasn’t until years later, when Fuhrer became totally enthralled with cover crops and the potential of regenerative farming. He admitted, at first, “When the topic of cover crops would come up, I always thought to myself, ‘That’s nice to read about; but, cover crops are for someone else.’”

Today, Fuhrer has flipped his view entirely and travels all over the nation sharing five NRCS Soil Health Principles and the components therein – soil armor (or cover); minimizing soil disturbance (such as over-grazing, chemicals and tillage); adding plant diversity (diverse crop rotations that mimic original plant diversity landscapes) and ensuring continual/live plant/roots (continual live plant feeding carbon exudates to the soil food web during the entire growing season). The final principle he shared was returning livestock to the landscape through activities such as winter and fall grazing cover crops and annual crop residues; summer grazing a full-season cover crop, allowing adequate plant recovery, followed by a second grazing during the fall or winter; winter feeding on hayland fields by rolling out bales or bale grazing and graze and manage seed rotational perennials as part of the crop rotation.

“When I see cattle being taken to a field of cover crops to graze, that excites me,” Fuhrer said. “If I see hay being delivered to the feedlot, we are exporting carbon and nutrients off our soils, I don’t like that.”

“Rebuilding and maintaining life in the soil is directly linked to the longevity and reliability of our future agriculture; recognizing plants, animals and soils evolved together over geological time,” Fuhrer said.

“Healthy soils with good soil aggregates have rapid infiltration, usually under 10 minutes,” Fuhrer added, hearkening back to the infiltration test he conducted on Scott’s field. “Degraded soils with poor soil aggregates have slow infiltration.”

Fuhrer welcomed everyone present out to the Menoken farm where last year, using regenerative practices, they had their most productive year at the farm while much of North Dakota was in a D3 (extreme drought) level.

Christine Jones

Jones expounded on Fuhrer’s presentation and focused on the soil benefits and profitability of what she calls, “Light Farming.” In her paper, “Light Farming: Restoring carbon, organic nitrogen and biodiversity to agricultural soils,” Jones outlines this topic extensively, “In the miracle of photosynthesis, a process that takes place in the chloroplasts of green leaves, carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and water (H2O) from the soil, are combined to capture light energy and transform it to biochemical energy in the form of simple sugars. These simple sugars – commonly referred to as ‘photosynthate’ – are the building blocks for life in and on the earth. Plants transform sugar to a great diversity of other carbon compounds, including starches, proteins, organic acids, cellulose, lignin, waxes and oils."

“Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains are ‘packaged sunlight’ derived from photosynthesis. The oxygen our cells and the cells of other living things utilize during aerobic respiration is also derived from photosynthesis. We have a lot to thank green plants for! Significantly, many of the carbon compounds derived from the simple sugars formed during photosynthesis are also essential to the creation of well-structured topsoil from the lifeless mineral soil produced by the weathering of rocks,” Jones points out. “It comes as a surprise to many to learn that over 95 percent of life on land resides in soil – and that most of the energy for this amazing world beneath our feet is derived from plant carbon.”

“Exudates from living roots are the most energy-rich of these carbon sources. In exchange for ‘liquid carbon,’ microbes in the vicinity of plant roots – and microbes linked to plants via networks of beneficial fungi – increase the availability of the minerals and trace elements required to maintain the health and vitality of their hosts. Microbial activity also drives the process of aggregation, enhancing soil structural stability, aeration, infiltration and water-holding capacity. All living things, above and below ground, benefit when the plant-microbe bridge is functioning effectively,” she said.

“Sadly, many of today’s farming methods have severely compromised soil microbial communities, significantly reducing the amount of liquid carbon transferred to and stabilized in soil,” Jones noted. “This creates negative feedbacks all along the line . . . Over the last 150 years, many of the world’s prime agricultural soils have lost between 30 and 75 percent of their carbon, adding billions of tons of CO2 to the atmosphere. Losses of soil carbon significantly reduce the productive potential of the land and the profitability of farming. Soil degradation has intensified in recent decades, with around 30 percent of the world’s cropland abandoned in the last 40 years due to soil decline. With the global population predicted to peak close to 10 billion by 2050, the need for soil restoration has never been more pressing."

“European settlement worldwide has simplified the landscape and reduced the amount of green and diversity of plants . . . Any (agricultural practice) that removes green starts to reduce carbon production and this creates a very arid environment . . . Most top soils are now 50 to 80 percent less than their original level,” she said.

Jones gave one example of challenges in Australia where she said it has become too expensive to grow wheat now, “We doubled wheat yield across the continent and farmers’ profits are now in the red.” During discussion, many of the Midwest farmers in the room equated her Australian wheat example to the high cost of corn production in the U.S.

Jones said she knows it is difficult for farmers to change; however, she believes globally we are approaching a tipping point where many people are looking to change their agricultural practices and simply have to, “I have seen these (regenerative) practices working all over the world, first-hand . . . The local (agricultural) sales rep will tell you (farmers) that you cannot take the risk of doing this sort of farming. . . . But, if we do not change the way we are farming, we are not going to be here in 30,000 years as a human species.”

Scott and Barb could not agree more, “It is our goal, when the farm is passed down to the next generation, to have our soils functioning like they did when my grandfather purchased the farm in 1918.”

Learn more at:
Christine Jones, PhD – www.amazingcarbon.com
Jay Fuhrer – www.menokenfarm.com

Graze Master Beef, Graze Master Pork and introducing Wild Tree Products!

This is delicious, fire-roasted tomatoes with peppers, onion and garlic prepared by Brenda Ficke. She used Wildtree Tuscan Grape Seed Dipping Oil for this recipe. These tomatoes were frozen to be used in chilly, goulash and other warm, family favorites this fall and winter.

Brenda Ficke also added just a dash of Wildtree Rodeo Rub to Graze Master Burgers.

Wildtree seasonings, workshops and sauces are something we are adding to the Graze Master offerings. We are excited to work with Kerry Hoffschneider and her family to introduce Wildtree products and recipes with all of you.

You can learn more about Wildtree by calling Kerry at (402) 363-8963 and you also may order at: https://www.mywildtree.com/pws/kerry831413/tabs/home.aspx

For Graze Master Beef Orders, contact Del Ficke at (402) 499-0329 or Emely Hendl at (402) 613-5483.

We also have Graze Master Pork products available. Please contact Emely Hendl at (402) 613-5483 to place your order today.

Graze Master Bacon

Graze Master Pork Chops

Remember, we deliver. Ask us for information!

More inspiration on its way . . .

In the September newsletter, we will be featuring an in-depth look at what Clay Govier and his family are doing by Broken Bow. Clay recently held a field day to share what he is learning with his neighbors. We think this quote that Clay has on his business card by Franklin D. Roosevelt is so fitting, "A nation that destroys its soils, destroys itself."

We especially applaud Clay for teaching others . . . That's what it's all about.

Clay speaking to a portion of the group.

Clay in front of some corn he is growing in a conservation-minded fashion.

Clay is a close friend of Nate Belcher. Please contact Nate regarding his ventures: Green Acres Cover Crops www.greenacrescovercrops.com and Cover Crop Exchange www.covercropexchange.com to find out how you can benefit from making a few changes on your farms and ranches for the better.

Nate can be reached at: (402)-580-0015

It is good to have extra time to do what we enjoy, like make sauerkraut with my mom, Beverly. You can make some simple changes on your farms and ranches to have more time too. I am always happy to share ideas.

Give me a call at (402) 499-0329. Thank you! Have a safe harvest everyone.

No electronic or mechanical reproduction of The Liberator is permitted without direct consent of the author, Ficke Cattle Company. Contact (402) 499-0329 or fickecattle@outlook.com Thank you so much for reading!

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Ficke Cattle Company - Graze Master Genetics · Ficke Cattle Company · 873 182nd Road · Pleasant Dale, NE 68423 · USA