August 2021 by afccooperativefarmingnews

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Cooperative Farming News

IN THIS ISSUE:

Editor-in-Chief: Samantha Hendricks Editor: Jessie Shook Contributing Editor: Jade Randolph Associate Editor: Mary Delph

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pg. 41

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121 Somerville Road NE Decatur, AL 35601-2659 P.O. Box 2227 Decatur, AL 35609-2227 256-308-1618

LIFE ON THE HOMEPLACE AND IN THE COMMUNITY 36 Reeves Farm: Where the Peaches are Sweeter 41 Dusty Newton: Backyard Honey Farming YOUTH MATTERS 22 PALS: Annual Poster & Recycled Art Contest 24 FFA Sentinel: Alabama Introduces Its 2021 National FFA Officer Candidate 26 4-H Extension Corner: Investing in Tomorrow

AFC Officers Rivers Myres, President Ben Haynes, Chairman of the Board

AFC Board of Directors Rickey Cornutt, Matt Haney, Brooks Hayes, Rick Hendricks, Bill Sanders, Jeff Sims, Mike Tate, David Womack

On the Cover: Happy National Peach Month! Celebrate by picking up some of the sweetest peaches from Reeves Farm. Story on page 36. (Photo Credit: AFC Publication Staff)

Letter from the Editor................ 4

How’s Your Garden?................... 47

Ag Insight.................................... 8

Howle’s Hints.............................. 49

Business of Farming................... 11

The Magic of Gardening........... 52

Feeding Facts ............................. 14

Simple Times.............................. 54

From the State Vet’s Office......... 16

Food Safety................................. 58

What’s the Point.......................... 18

Grazing Grace............................ 61

On the Edge of Common Sense... 20

The Co-op Pantry....................... 64

Outdoor Logic with BioLogic.... 30

What’s Happening in Alabama... 66

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Subscription $15 per year For subscription inquiries or change of address: P.O. Box 2227, Decatur, AL 35609-2227 or call 256-308-1623 Subscribe online at https://www.alafarm.com/magazine

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Wendy McFarland 334-652-9080 or email McFarlandAdVantage@gmail.com Cooperative Farming News is published monthly by Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Inc. 121 Somerville Road NE, Decatur, AL 35601-2659 P.O. Box 2227, Decatur, AL 35609-2227

OUR REGULARS

Cooking with Stacy Lyn............. 34

Advertising, Editorial, Subscription and Publication Offices

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. The publisher reserves the right to refuse any advertising and will not be responsible for copy errors or misprints in advertising or editorial material, other than to publish corrections of errors in fact. Feature articles, news items and columns are published for the information of our readers from qualified, reputable sources; however, the editors and publisher make no guarantees and assume no liability for any reader’s decision to implement any procedure, recommendation or advice printed in this publication. Photos are credited to author unless otherwise noted. Advertised sale items may not be stocked by every Quality Co-op store and prices may vary.

www.alafarm.com Postmaster: Please send notice of address change (enclosing latest address label) to publication office: Cooperative Farming News P.O. Box 2227 Decatur, AL 35609-2227

August 2021

I’m not sure how it happened, but we’re over halfway through the calendar year. August is always a busy month with harvest season and hunting season right around the corner. Our Co-op stores are gearing up to provide their customers with the services and products they need to have a successful fall. Our August issue features Reeves Farms on the cover. If you’re traveling down Interstate 65 in the Hartselle area, be sure to stop by and check out their new farm store. They’ve got fresh peaches, jams, produce and other canned goods. We’re also sharing something sweet – backyard honey farming. Dusty Newton takes us through growing his colony and business “Hilltop Honey.” Our Co-op Pantry is full of peach recipes, including a fan-favorite: Peach Ice Cream. As always, our regulars have filled the pages with quality content and information on outdoors, economics and so much more. Don’t forget we’re still looking for recipes for our 85th anniversary cookbook! If you have a great recipe that you want to share, send it our way and we’ll do our best to add it to our list. Thank you for being a loyal reader, customer and part of the AFC family.

Samantha Hendricks Editor-in-Chief

Cooperative Farming News

Visit our website to subscribe to our magazine, read online and order our signature Co-op Cap!

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August 2021

Serving gardeners, farmers and everyone in between

Cooperative Farming News

DIRECTORY OF MEMBER COOPERATIVES ALTHA FARMERS COOPERATIVE James Lynn, Mgr. Phone 850-674-8194

FARMERS COOPERATIVE MARKET Doug Smith, Gen. Mgr. FRISCO CITY - William Womack, Mgr. Phone 251-267-3175 Fertilizer / Phone 251-267-3173 LEROY - Jeff Hughston, Mgr. Phone 251-246-3512

ANDALUSIA FARMERS COOPERATIVE Russell Lassiter, Gen. Mgr. Phone 334-222-1851 FLORALA - Pete Blackwell, Mgr. Phone 334-858-6142 OPP - Brandon Bledsoe, Mgr. Phone 334-493-7715

FARMERS CO-OP OF ASHFORD Timothy Tolar, Mgr. Phone 334-899-3263

ATMORE FARMERS COOPERATIVE Todd Booker, Gen. Mgr. Phone 251-368-2191 BLOUNT COUNTY FARMERS COOPERATIVE Eric Sanders, Mgr. Phone 205-274-2185 CENTRAL ALABAMA FARMERS COOPERATIVE Tim Wood, Gen. Mgr. SELMA - Thomas Reeves, Mgr. Phone 334-874-9083 FAUNSDALE - Bryan Monk, Mgr. Phone 334-628-2681 DEMOPOLIS - Tom Eunice, Mgr. Phone 334-289-0155 CHEROKEE FARMERS COOPERATIVE Andrew Dempsey, Gen. Mgr. CENTRE - Seth Eubanks, Mgr. Phone 256-927-3135 JACKSONVILLE - Tommy Thomas, Mgr. Phone 256-435-3430 PIEDMONT - Kevin Bobbitt, Mgr. Phone 256-447-6560

FARMERS COOPERATIVE, INC. Todd Lawrence, Gen. Mgr. LIVE OAK, FL - Barry Long, Ag Div. Mgr. Phone 386-362-1459 MADISON, FL - Jerry Owens, Operations Mgr. Phone 850-973-2269 GENCO FARMERS COOPERATIVE Ricky Wilks, Gen. Mgr. HARTFORD - Todd Smith, Mgr. Phone 334-588-2992 WEST GENEVA - Robert Pittman, Mgr. Phone 334-898-7932 ENTERPRISE Phone 334-347-9007 ELBA - Colin Morris, Mgr. Phone 334-897-6972 HEADLAND PEANUT WAREHOUSE CO-OP Jay Jones, Mgr. Chris Hix, Store Mgr. Phone 334-693-3313 JAY PEANUT FARMERS COOPERATIVE Ryan Williams, Mgr. Phone 850-675-4597

CLAY COUNTY EXCHANGE Jeff Kinder, Mgr. Phone 256-396-2097

LUVERNE COOPERATIVE SERVICES Perry Catrett, Mgr. Phone 334-335-5082

COLBERT FARMERS COOPERATIVE Daniel Waldrep, Gen. Mgr. LEIGHTON - Tommy Sockwell, Mgr. Phone 256-446-8328 TUSCUMBIA - Chuck Hellums, Mgr. Phone 256-383-6462

MADISON COUNTY COOPERATIVE Keith Griffin, Gen. Mgr. HAZEL GREEN - Phone 256-828-2010 MERIDIANVILLE - Matt Dunbar, Mgr. Phone 256-828-5360 NEW MARKET - Phone 256-379-2553 Ramsey Prince, Mgr. SCOTTSBORO - Phone 256-574-1688 Patricia Rorex, Mgr. STEVENSON - Phone 256-437-8829

DEKALB FARMERS COOPERATIVE Lance Ezelle, Gen. Mgr. RAINSVILLE - Andrea Crain, Mgr. Phone 256-638-2569 CROSSVILLE - David Tierce, Mgr. Phone 256-528-7188 ALBERTVILLE - Nicholas Byars, Mgr. Phone 256-878-3261

MARION COUNTY COOPERATIVE Steve Lann, Gen. Mgr. HAMILTON - Phone 205-921-2631 FAYETTE - Kellie Trull, Mgr. Phone 205-932-5901 HALEYVILLE - Jessica Steward, Mgr. Phone 205-486-3794

ELBERTA FARMERS COOPERATIVE Justin Brown, Mgr. Phone 251-986-8103

MARSHALL FARMERS COOPERATIVE Brian Keith, Gen. Mgr. HOLLY POND - Phone 256-796-5337 ARAB - Mark Upton Phone 256-586-5515 MORGAN FARMERS COOPERATIVE Bradley Hopkins, Gen. Mgr. HARTSELLE - Phone 256-773-6832 PIKE COUNTY COOPERATIVE Danny Dewrell, Gen. Mgr. GOSHEN - Phone 334-484-3441 TROY - Jeff Baron, Mgr. Phone 334-566-3882 QUALITY COOPERATIVE, INC. Daniel Salter, Mgr. Phone 334-382-6548 TALEECON FARMERS COOPERATIVE Scott Hartley, Gen. Mgr. Phone 334-257-3930 WETUMPKA - Timothy Richardson, Mgr. Phone 334-567-4321 TALLADEGA COUNTY EXCHANGE Chris Elliott, Gen. Mgr. Phone 256-362-2716 ASHVILLE - Allen Bice, Mgr. Phone 205-594-7042 PELL CITY - Joseph Taylor, Mgr. Phone 205-338-2821 COLUMBIANA - Barry Keller, Mgr. Phone 205-669-7082 RANDOLPH - Tim Brown, Mgr. Phone 256-357-4743 TENNESSEE VALLEY COOPERATIVE, LLC John Curtis, President ATHENS – Britt Christopher, Mgr. Phone 256-232-5500 LYNNVILLE, TN - Kyle Doggett, Mgr. Phone 931-527-3923 PULASKI, TN – Celena Williams, Mgr. Phone 931-363-2563 Reggie Shook, Vice Pres. FLORENCE - Robbie Neal, Mgr. Phone 256-764-8441 ELGIN - Wendell Walker, Mgr. Phone 256-247-3453 John Holley, Vice Pres. MOULTON - Greg McCannon, Mgr. Phone 256-974-9213 COURTLAND Phone 256-637-2939 TUSCALOOSA FARMERS COOPERATIVE Wayne Gilliam, Mgr. Phone 205-339-8181 WALKER FARMERS COOPERATIVE Cody King, Mgr. Phone 205-387-1142

*PLEASE CONTACT EACH STORE DIRECTLY FOR ALL OF THE SERVICES THEY OFFER* PEANUTS

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August 2021

AG INSIGHT What if? A look at ag tariffs and their global impact What’s the overall worldwide impact of tariffs on agricultural trade and what would happen if all such levies on farm products were removed? The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has created and studied a hypothetical scenario in which all global agricultural tariffs are removed and has concluded that overall trade in farm goods would increase 11% and would grow in all regions other than the European Union (EU). Additionally, removing agricultural tariffs would spark an increase in consumer well-being – essentially the equivalent impact of income changes – of $56.3 billion. In a recent report, the study’s results indicated global trade and consumer well-being would improve most with the complete removal of tariffs and that the largest export gains would occur in regions that already are large agricultural exporters. All regions other than the EU would realize an increase in agricultural exports as well as imports. The EU would potentially experience a slight decrease in exports due to the lost markets for its meat products. Under the simulation, India’s imports would incur the largest increases in values, probably because India’s agricultural tariff is the highest overall at nearly 40%. For the United States, imports would increase just under 4%, and exports would increase 13%. The global gains in welfare by removing agricultural tariffs is a calculation of consumer well-being measured by changes in consumer income. The ERS model’s $56.3 billion increase in consumer well-being is more than 2% of the global value of the agricultural sector. The regions estimated to experience the largest welfare gains are the EU ($10.8 billion) and Brazil ($8.3 billion), as well as a category of major agricultural exporters that do not appear in other groupings ($9.1 billion). Some regions would experience a loss in welfare, including China ($1.9 billion), Asia ($428 million), Africa ($150 million), and the Economic Community of West African States ($53 million). However, the model projected that all regions would experience an increase in consumer well-being for the portion of the economy attributable to the agricultural sector. 8

Cooperative Farming News

The removal of tariffs could shift resources away from producing commodities that might be inefficient toward those that could be produced more efficiently. Although these gains could represent an increase in agricultural market access, other nontariff measures – such as sanitary or technical regulations – could linger and continue to limit market access.

Additional pandemic aid announced for agriculture USDA recently announced additional aid to agricultural producers and businesses as part of the agency’s Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative.

BY J I M E R I C K S O N

Earlier this year, USDA announced plans to use available pandemic assistance funds to address a number of gaps and disparities in previous rounds of aid. As part of the Pandemic Assistance initiative announced in March, USDA pledged to continue Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) payments and to provide aid to producers and businesses left behind. Implementation of the more recently announced assistance will continue within 60 days to include support to timber harvesters, biofuels, dairy farmers and processors, livestock farmers and contract growers of poultry, assistance for organic cost share, and personal protective equipment (PPE) grants.

Two Alabama schools receive scholarship funds The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has announced an investment of more than $19 million for scholarships at 1890 land-grant institutions to stimulate interest in food and agricultural careers. The scholarships will support recruitment, engagement, retention, mentoring, and training of undergraduate students at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities that are partners in the U.S. Land-Grant University System. Among the 19 universities receiving the scholarship funds are Alabama’s A&M University and Tuskegee University. NIFA is part of USDA.

Study shows women’s role in farm operations More than half (51%) of all farming operations in the United States had at least one woman operator, according to the 2019 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). Women were the “principal operator,” meaning they are primarily responsible for the day-to-day operation of the farm, on 14% of operations. In 37% of operations, women were the “secondary operators,” involved in decisions for the operation but not the principal operators.

Farms with principal female operators contributed more than 4% of the total value of production in 2019. The share of principal operators who are women varied by commodity specializations. In 2019, the two largest shares were found on farms specializing in poultry (31%) and other livestock (30%). Operations specializing in dairy production had the largest share of operations with at least one woman secondary operator (54%). The smallest share (33%) of female operators, either principal or at least one secondary, was found on cotton farms. Among operations with at least one woman operator, 78% of the women were the principal operator’s spouse and worked on the farm. The statistics cited in the survey differ from those reported from the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Beginning in 2017, both the Census of Agriculture and

More than half (51%) of all farming operations in the United States had at least one woman operator, according to the 2019 Agricultural Resource Management Survey.

August 2021

ARMS began collecting demographic information for up to four operators per farm. However, unlike ARMS, the Census of Agriculture allows more than one operator to be identified as the principal operator and found that 29% of all principal operators were women.

New Packers and Stockyards Act rules to be proposed

USDA has begun work on three proposed rules to support enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards (P&S) Act, the 100-year old law originally designed to protect poultry and hog farmers and cattle ranchers from unfair, deceptive and anti-competitive practices in the meat markets. According to a recent announcement from the Office of Management and Budget, USDA plans to take three actions related to rule making in the months ahead. First, USDA intends to propose a new rule that will provide greater clarity to strengthen enforcement of unfair and deceptive practices, undue preferences and unjust prejudices. Second, USDA will offer a new poultry grower tournament system rule, with the current inactive proposal to be withdrawn. Third, USDA will repropose a rule to clarify that parties do not need to demonstrate harm to competition in order to bring an action under provisions of the P&S Act. “The Packers and Stockyards Act is a vital tool for protecting farmers and ranchers from excessive concentration and unfair, deceptive practices in the poultry, hog and cattle markets, but the law is 100 years old and needs to take into account modern market dynamics,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “It should not be used as a safe harbor for bad actors.” 10

Cooperative Farming News

The new rule-making effort “will seek to strengthen the fairness and resiliency of livestock markets on behalf of farmers, ranchers and growers,” Vilsack added.

“Build Back Better” program grants available USDA has announced $55.2 million in competitive grant funding available through the new Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grant (MPIRG) program. The new program is funded by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. MPIRG’s Planning for a Federal Grant of Inspection (PFGI) project is for processing facilities currently in operation and working toward federal inspection. Applicants can be located anywhere in the states and territories. Applications must be submitted electronically through www.grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. However, any grant application submitted after the due date may be considered if the applicant provides documentation of an extenuating circumstance that prevented their timely submission of the grant application. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) offers webinars for applicants to help walk them through the Request for Application. Additionally, grants management specialists are available to answer any incoming questions and emails during regular business hours.

The program is designed to help ensure the food system of the future is fair, competitive, distributed and resilient.

The announcement is part of the Build Back Better initiative, a commitment to invest more than $4 billion to strengthen the food system, support food production, improved processing, investments in distribution and aggregation, and market opportunities. The program is designed to help ensure the food system of the future is fair, competitive, distributed and resilient; supports health with access to healthy, affordable food; ensures growers and workers receive a greater share of the food dollar; and advances equity as well as climate resilience and mitigation.

BUSINESS OF FARMING

BY D E N N I S B R O T H E R S

Going Solar on the Farm Is Direct Usage Solar Right for Your Application? Many farmers out there may be thinking: “When should I consider solar power at my farm; what are the options?” The answers to these questions are not as simple as one might think. Solar power is not a new technology and certainly not new to agriculture, but it might be new to you and your farming operation. Photovoltaic solar power has been around since the 1950s and has been utilized in everything from your desktop calculator to major industrial and utility grid applications. Of all the possible renewable sources of electrical energy, solar energy is the most abundant and easily accessible. In fact, ac-

cording to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (www.nrel.gov), “More energy from the sun falls on the earth in one hour than is used by everyone in the world in one year.” Today, solar energy is the number one renewable energy source utilized worldwide. But can it be beneficial to your farming operation? Solar power can have a multitude of applications on the modern farm. But not all applications will benefit equally from solar options for power for a variety of reasons. The primary reason to consider solar is the potential ability to capture a free source of renewable energy and convert it into usable electricity at a longAugust 2021

Figure 1: Direct Usage Solar is often called “Off-grid Solar,” and consists of these basic components connected to convert solar energy on one end into AC power on the other end. This AC power can then be used to power any need on the farm.

term cost comparable to, or lower than, grid purchased power. Solar power can also make electricity available where it otherwise was not. There are two primary ways farmers can utilize solar power within their operations: 1. Direct Usage of the solar power produced (see Figure 1 for a simple visual of what direct usage solar looks like) and 2. Net-metering or selling excess electricity back to the utility grid. There are also opportunities for combinations of these two. Most small applications should look at direct usage without grid connection. These systems are often referred to as “stand-alone,” “off-grid” or “microgrid” systems. Is Direct Usage Solar a Valid Consideration for You? The source of solar energy is free, but not unlimited. The sun does not always shine, nor does it shine with the same level of intensity all the time. In the renewable energy world, this is called intermittency. Intermittency is the main problem with utilizing any renewable energy source like solar. There are ways to address intermittency including storage options. But if you are looking to produce and use electricity on-site to directly power a component of your farming operation, there are a series of questions to be answered first. They are: 1. How much power will my application require over time? 12

Cooperative Farming News

2. Is utility grid power readily available? 3. What is the FULL cost to purchase the electricity from the utility company? 4. What is the usage profile of my application? 5. What is the cost over time of a solar power system appropriate to my application? Let’s start with a simple example: powering a small greenhouse that has 50 10-watt LED lights that must burn continuously for 10 hours a day. They use 5.0 kilowatt-hour/day (5,000 watthour) or 152.5 kilowatt-hour/month, 1825 kilowatt-hour/year. At a utility rate of $0.12/kilowatt-hour, it costs $18.30/month or $219/year to burn just the bulbs at the above usage. Since utility power is constant, usage profile, or when the power will be needed, does not factor into its cost. However, there may be additional charges that apply for utility grid power, especially in the case of a remote location with a dedicated power meter. A minimum connection fee could be charged or the cost of bringing utility power to the location may be passed down to the customer. All such fees and charges must be considered as part of the total cost of utility power at any location. This FULL cost must be converted to cost per kilowatt-hour used over time. This is the best way to compare two sources of electricity. For our exam-

Chart 1: It is important to compare grid power and solar power options on equal footing. $/kWh of used power is the best measure for comparison.

ple, we will assume the FULL cost of providing utility company electricity is $35/month base charges, plus a $1000 connection fee spread over 10 years, all totaling to $520/year for 10 years. All that is assuming zero inflation or increases in base fees or utility rates. From these calculations, we can arrive at a final cost per kilowatt-hour of grid power used over time. (See Chart 1 above.) Comparing Direct Usage Solar to Utility For a valid comparison, we need to calculate the cost of solar by the same standard. When getting quotes from a solar installer, it is recommended to ask them to provide an estimated cost per kilowatt-hour of power used over a specified length of time, as we see in the comparison Chart 1. A simple price per watt of installed solar is not sufficient to make a smart business decision, nor is it sufficient to compare competing solar installers as component choices can vary and affect the final cost per kilowatt-hour of used electricity. Make sure the solar estimates include interest if borrowing capital, maintenance, battery replacement and system degradation over time. Compare that to the same length of time using utility grid power on a $/kilowatt-hour-used basis. If they do not supply an estimate in this manner, then take the total cost of the solar system, with all the additions mentioned above, and divide it by the total number of kilowatt-hours to be used over the prescribed length of time as in our example. I suggest using 10 years as a basis for small systems. The Bottom Line: Installing a direct usage solar system can help solve a lot of problems in certain situations. Places

where utility grid power is unavailable or expensive to acquire or where the application has a low usage rate are prime opportunities to utilize these “stand-alone” or “off-grid” direct usage solar systems. But as in every farming decision, it is imperative to make an economically sound business decision for the long term. Hopefully, this information will help you do so.

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August 2021

FEEDING FACTS

Preparing for Winter Supplementation As we look toward to fall and winter, it seems that feed prices will likely remain higher than we have seen in the past couple of years and we need to plan ahead and find ways to be more efficient with the dollars we spend on supplementation. Now is a good time to give this some thought because this early in the process, there are considerably more options to choose from that will save money and add to productivity. Before we get to the options, let us look at the process and why this could matter. When our cold wet winter weather does get here, our cow herd’s nutritional needs tend to change. The demand for energy to stay warm goes up, no matter what stage of production they are in. Generally, forages, unless you are lucky enough to have lush winter annuals to graze, do not meet a cow’s energy requirements when the temperature gets below a critical lev-

14 Cooperative Farming News

el. With that said, one of the easiest things you can do to help is to have them enter the winter in a good body condition and now is the best time to start planning for that. Frankly if you wait until cold weather hits, it becomes far more difficult to add fat or even maintain body condition in some cases. Fat stores help cattle maintain their body temperature without using as many calories from the food they take in. It is basically a form of insulation that is very effective. Of course, fat is also a stored form of energy that the animals can pull from if the feed they are taking in does not meet their needs at the moment. So, you benefit from fat in multiple ways. I would point out that too much fat can be detrimental, but we rarely see it taken to that extreme. Multiple studies have shown that a cow’s need for energy goes up as the temperature drops and as the

BY J I M M Y PA R K E R

skin becomes wet but some have also shown that a cow with a body condition score (BCS) of 5 needs 30% more energy just to maintain herself than a cow with a body condition score of 6. An increase of one body condition score would decrease a cow’s need for feed dramatically and as they go down that body condition score chart that trend continues and feed needs go up dramatically. When we do the math, we see that just two places in the body condition score chart can mean that a cow with a BCS 6 would use half as much energy to maintain her core temperature as a cow with a BCS of 4 if all other factors are equal. There are other things to consider as well. Cattle that enter periods of cold weather in good shape tend to perform better the following year. They will likely wean heavier calves and rebreed more efficiently. They will likely take less supplemental feed through the winter months. They have less health issues; they often have fewer calving issues and just maintain a higher level of health and efficiency.

Something as simple as adding a Stimu-lyx tub to your pastures in the fall will help.

Getting the cow herd to a good BCS is one of the cheaper and more important things you can do and the warm fall season is a good time to make that happen. Something as simple as adding a Stimu-lyx tub to your pastures in the fall will help. That will allow the cattle to use the available forages more efficiently and add those pounds of fat while the weather is warm and they can do so without burning those extra calories just to maintain their body temperature. Another good option is supplemental feeding now at a much lower rate. Those extra calories now will be used to build fat reserves and not to maintain body temperature. Adding fat after the weather gets cold is far less efficient and far more costly. We typically think about a 100-day winter feeding period and if you have thin cows and need to feed 5 to 10 pounds of feed per day that will be costly. It would be far cheaper to start with 2 to 3 pounds of feed now and feed that for 200 days. This will get your BCSs up while you can do so efficiently and will save tons of feed in the long

run. It will also allow you to do a good portion of your feeding while the weather is nice and the ground is not muddy. So, if you feed 2 pounds each day for two hundred days, that is four hundred pounds versus 5 pounds a day for one hundred days which is five hundred pounds. Which is better? Clearly less per day for a longer period ends up with less total pounds, but it should also end up with a cow in better condition and better health. It will also be far more efficient and easier on whoever is doing the feeding. Generally, feed prices are higher when the traditional winter-feeding season is here and by feeding some in the fall, you can typically buy that feed at a lower price. Entering the winter with a good BCS is critical for efficiencies, animal health and welfare and just makes sense on so many levels. Now is the time for planning and soon it will be time to implement those plans, whether that is feeding tubs in the fall or supplemental feeding at a low rate. The other option is to just hope we have a good fall and mild winter and spend more on feed when that just does not work out.

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RegisterBarns.com August 2021

FROM THE STATE VET’S OFFICE

Annual Foreign Animal Disease Training

The time has come for you, the reader, to read this article as part of your annual foreign animal disease (FAD) training. If you are a regular reader of my column, you know that over the years, I have tried to keep the idea of foreign animal disease awareness somewhere on your radar screen. With me that subject is somewhere near the center of my radar screen. But that is what I get paid for. Since your job is to be aware and report unusual animal disease findings, FAD issues should just be something that you are familiar with and that you know what to do if you suspect something. After you report it through the proper channels, we will handle it from there. Just thinking off the cuff, I think I have written articles about foot-and-mouth disease, the Nipah virus, Rift Valley fever, rabbit hemorrhagic disease, screwworms and monkeypox. Those diseases got 16

Cooperative Farming News

their own articles. There are several other diseases that do not exist in the United States that I have mentioned that I didn’t think I could squeeze out a whole article about. I don’t get up every day thinking about foreign animal disease, but I suspect that there are not many days that some foreign animal issue has not at least crossed my mind by lunch time. The reason I, along with the rest of the State Veterinarians across our country, spend so much time on this one subject is the potential that a foreign animal disease outbreak could throw our country into a tailspin that might take a while to correct. As I often say, unless you have been on a vacation to some other planet or in a coma for the last year and a half, you are aware of the issues that affected our food supply that didn’t involve an actual disease that was wiping out hundreds of thousands of cows

BY D R . T O N Y F R A Z I E R

and pigs or millions of chickens. I am not sure we are completely over the interruption in the supply chain caused by COVID-19. You know what I am talking about. You saw the scant supplies of meat at the grocery store. You have been on the receiving end of the high meat prices. I am pretty sure that what we have seen would be like a walk in the park compared to how it could be if we had to quarantine large areas of our country and stop movement of food animals to process. And to add insult to injury, many of the foreign animal diseases could possibly require the euthanization of thousands or even millions of our food animals. I have always thought that one of the primary responsibilities as State Veterinarian is to assure when you pull up to the drive-through and order two double cheeseburgers, a pork barbecue sandwich and a grilled chicken fillet sandwich, you are not told that the order cannot be completed because they cannot get the beef, pork or chicken as a result of some catastrophic disease event. That is certainly not a job I can do without your help. While I do get out and about across the state, I spend a lot of time in my office in Montgomery at the Beard Building on Federal Drive where the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries is located. We do have state and federal field veterinarians and animal health technicians that we can dispatch if the producers suspect something, but we only have of a handful of them. Most private-practicing veterinarians are federally accredited which allows them to do certain things that help with FAD recognition and response. However, with fewer food animal practitioners out there, we depend mainly on the producer to send up the flare if you have reason to suspect a foreign animal disease. In Alabama, I have always been fortunate to have a great working relationship with the private-practicing veterinarian. They are the ones who usually contact me after a client has presented them with something that might need to be looked at closer to rule it in or out as a foreign animal disease. Still, the producer has to let someone know that unusual disease events are occurring. Most of the time, it goes without saying, if a producer is losing 20 or 30% of their flock or herd, or if a large percentage of their animals become sick over a short amount of time, they are going to call somebody. I don’t expect producers to know the names or the clinical signs of Foreign Animal Diseases. In fact many of the FADs may look a lot like diseases that we already have here in our country. I just want you

to remember certain syndromes that make you realize that we need to rule out an FAD. First, if you see large die-offs (that may mean as few as three or four if you do not know the cause) or even sickness that affects a large group of animals. Second, look for hemorrhagic diseases. If that is not self-explanatory, it is a disease that causes the animal to hemorrhage from one or more orifices. Large numbers of septicemias should be a consideration. You may need help from your veterinarian to diagnose septicemias. Another syndrome to look for is neurological diseases. Those are pretty easy to recognize. Look for behavioral changes, incoordination, the appearance of paralysis or straining. Also, be aware of odd-looking maggots that seem to be feeding on fresh tissue instead of decaying tissue. And finally, look for abortion storms. That may mean only a few abortions in close proximity, timewise. After 9/11 there was a phrase that was used often to encourage people to report odd activity in the agriculture sector as well as other areas of our everyday life. The phrase was, “If you see something, say something.” I realize that this may be a little redundant, but we tend to sometimes become complacent after long periods of time when we don’t see any FADs. But if and when the next foreign animal disease is introduced into our domestic animals, the difference between a bad day and a disastrous day may be decided by how quickly we can recognize and respond. As I said earlier, we need you to play your part in reporting suspicious disease activity. That can be done through your local veterinarian or through my office.

August 2021

WHAT’S THE POINT WITH GREENPOINT AG

Working with an AG Technology Provider?

Questions You Should Be Asking Once harvest is complete, a farmer’s focus quickly changes to next year’s crop. Soil sampling is a top priority for the fall/winter season, and precision soil sampling is a great starting point for using technology to maximize returns on investment from soil inputs and amendments and field-collected data. Daniel Mullenix, Senior Manager of Ag Technologies for GreenPoint Ag, suggests asking your ag technology adviser five questions to help you get the most bang from your buck as your fields are being sampled and decisions are being made for next year’s crops.

1. How can I ensure the highest quality soil sample? The art and science of soil sampling is sometimes overlooked. However, the impact it will have on sub18

Cooperative Farming News

sequent crops and soil health is tremendous. Quality, representative soil sampling is imperative to ensure the right nutrients are being placed at the right rate in the right place. Make sure your samples are being pulled at a consistent depth, appropriate for your farming practices. University extension recommendations are 3 to 4 inches for untilled soil and 6 to 8 inches for tilled soil. Ask your ag technology partner how many core samples are being pulled per grid or zone. Are they pulling cores across the grid or zone in a manner that truly represents the area? Timing is also important. Pulling samples at the same time each year or on the same rotation will ensure that seasonal variability is minimized. Lastly, moisture conditions play a major role in sample quality. If soil is too wet or too dry when sampled, errors may show in pH readings.

PAU L H O L L I S

2. Is your trusted adviser communicating with you throughout the sampling and planning process, and do you have ready access to your data? We live in a cloud-based data world and have almost instant access to just about any information we need, so your farming data should be no different. Is your trusted adviser giving you “on-demand” access to your data and are they available to discuss plans and options when you need them? Can they answer your data-driven questions and, as a result, can they output deliverables and results that will move the needle forward for your operation next season?

3. Is your ag data private and secure? Cybersecurity attacks are becoming more common across the globe, and the agriculture industry isn’t immune. This was proven by the recent JBS cyberattack involving the world’s largest meat supplier. Your data belongs to you, and it should be kept private and secure. Ask your adviser how they are protecting this valuable resource.

4. Can your adviser provide custom solutions and plans tailored to your farming operation needs? In the world of precision agriculture, not every tool in the ag technology toolbox is a fit for your operation, but there are several that may fit the needs of your farm. These tools can be customized and tailored for your farming operation. Ask your trusted adviser if they can customize ag technology approaches to your needs. Maybe it means fitting within the constraints of your budget, working with your specific soil textures or field conditions, building fertility algorithms to match your goals, or helping you push the envelope on yield. If you are not getting a maximum return on your ag tech investment, chances are you need a custom approach tailored to your operation.

and other means, are you getting the help you need to analyze and make sense of what you’re seeing? Does your adviser have the proper resources to tie everything together, look at your operation systematically, glean insights from the interactions of multiple data layers, and help you better understand short- and long-term impacts of the decisions you are making today? “With the help of AccuField® and your Alabama Farmers Cooperative ag technology or agronomy staff as your trusted adviser, you can confidently answer these questions and be certain that you are leveraging your on-farm technology to its fullest potential,” says Mullinex. AccuField® is a full-service ag technology and information platform that offers farmers unsurpassed insights into their fields. “Through AccuField®’s robust set of analysis tools, we can assist you and your customers as you innovate, grow and sustain your business while maintaining a focus on efficiency and profitability for your operation,” he said. Visit www.greenpointag.com/ag-technology or reach out to your local participating Co-op location for the answers to any questions you may have.

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5. Can your ag tech adviser appropriately analyze your data and use trends to enhance future decisions? As you continue to collect data from your planter, sprayer or harvester through soil sampling, imagery August 2021

ON THE EDGE OF COMMON SENSE

BY B AX T E R B L A C K , D V M

RHINO LOVE Dr. Fosse, once of Pretoria, told me about Martha and Arthur, two star-crossed rare white rhinos. In a governmental gesture of goodwill, South Africa agreed to ship Arthur to Tanzania to mate with Martha. Brilliant veterinarians, competent game management officials, long-winded reproductive specialists and the press discussed at length the procedures involved and the benefits that would accrue with these international relations. They soon discovered that rhinos cycle according to the length of daylight hours. Martha, on Equatorial Daylight Time, was never quite synchronized with Arthur, on Tropic of Capricornical Time. When he was ready she had a headache and when she was cuddly he was not in the mood. However, our team of deep thinkers figgered a way around it. They’d artificially inseminate Martha! I can just see these characters squatting under an Acacia tree, breakin’ out a case of Congo Lite and drawing their plans in the dirt with pipettes. But since Martha wasn’t cooperating anyway and no sweet-smelling rhino geldings were around, they decided to collect Arthur’s semen with an electro ejaculator. Enlisting the aid of their agricultural engineers, they built a homemade ejaculator out of wire, copper electrodes, a hand crank and lots of electrical tape. Arthur was quite tame so on the big day they led him out with a loop around the horn and tied him to a thorn tree. With proper lubrication, the head mogul inserted the prod and set the cowboys to crankin’. Alas, Arthur showed no response. 20

Cooperative Farming News

“He’s probably packed with dry feces which is interfering with conduction of the current,” interjected the rhino physiologist. So they attempted to clean him out while he stood there compliantly. Then they tried again... no luck. “Being a desert beast, possibly there is a lack of internal moisture,” observed the rhino hydrologist. “How ‘bout an enema?” They hung a 20-gallon container from the tree, inserted a hose and the water disappeared like a Diet Sprite in the Sahara. “More water!” they cried. Another 20 gallons were fetched and inserted. Arthur stood unruffled. Agreeing that should have certainly lubricated Arthur, the chief acting assistant veterinary cowboy technician strode forth and inserted his plastic sleeved arm to evacuate the bowel. Arthur had had enough. He clamped his powerful aft torpedo door shut just above the hapless white-smocked invader’s elbow. They thundered off through the brush! The crew followed in the Land Rover, eating their sack lunches and videoing the chase. A hundred yards down the track the offending appendage popped out followed by 40 gallons of pent-up colored water. The invader lay like a drowned muskrat left in the furrow. Arthur raced off to the other side of the game park. “Yer right,” I told Dr. Fosse, “we couldn’t have done it better.” www.baxterblack.com

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August 2021

PALS

BY J A M I E M I T C H E L L

Annual Poster & Recycled Art Contest Traditionally, when we think of back-to-school, we think of sharpened pencils, brand-new notebooks and the nervous excitement that comes on that first day back. I hope and pray this year will have that traditional feeling with less uncertainty than we faced just one year ago. I was only able to visit one school in person at the end of the school year for 2020-2021. However, I conducted many Zoom presentations, and our new Clean Campus video was seen nearly 400 times! We were certainly thankful to still deliver the anti-litter message despite virtual learning and visitation restrictions. Even with all the challenges that came with the 2020-2021 school year, we have maintained and grown the Clean Campus Program, and we are proud to announce that our Annual Poster and Recycled Art Contests received more entries than ever! First place winners in each category were as follows: Austin Church, West Blocton Elementary, K-third Poster Category; Lara Beth Brasher, Hubbertville School, fourth-sixth Poster Category; and Nathaniel Maier, Valley Head School, seventh-12th Recycled Art Category. Each of these students will receive a $200 scholarship and plaque at our Governor’s Awards Luncheon in November. The entries this year were phenomenal, and we are so thankful for every entry we received! Congratulations to all our winners! Our Annual Clean Campus Scrapbook Contest is another way for the school to win some scholarship money. First place wins $1,000, second place wins $750, and third place wins $500. Previous winners have used the money to build outdoor classrooms or buy supplies for other campus beautification projects. Scrapbook entries are due Oct. 13. It is our most sincere hope that school will be much closer to normal this school year! If a school near you would like to learn more about the Clean Campus Program, please have them give me a call at (334) 2637737 or email at jamie@alpals.org . We would love to work with your local schools to create an even more beautiful Alabama. As always, the Clean Campus Program is available at no cost thanks to our wonderful corporate sponsors. 22

Cooperative Farming News

Recycled Art Winner

K-3 Poster Winner

4-6 Poster Winner

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August 2021

FFA SENTINEL

Alabama Introduces Its 2021 National FFA Officer Candidate Ka’Shiya along with her 2019-2020 Alabama State Officer Team.

ith the 94th National FFA Convention and Expo quickly approaching in October, Alabama FFA has chosen their National FFA Officer Candidate who will undergo a rigorous, multiple-step interview process in her journey to be named one of six National FFA Officers for 2021-2022. Ka’Shiya McKinney is a past state and district FFA officer for the Alabama FFA Association. Ka’Shiya found her passion for this organization through becoming a member of the Reeltown FFA Chapter. After being the chapter’s creed speaker and competing at the county level in the eighth grade, she decided that she wanted to dive deeper into the FFA world. She served on different committees, participated in chapter functions, and eventually became a chapter officer. Not coming 24

Cooperative Farming News

Ka’Shiya McKinney

B R I A N N A PAY N E

While visiting chapters across the state, Ka’Shiya has made many new friendships and been able to have new experiences like playing with this floppy eared friend raised by the McKenzie FFA.

Ka’Shiya, along with a few of her fellow state officers (Megan Woodall and Alyssa Glover) shared with listeners of a local radio show all about FFA Week.

from a traditional agricultural background, Ka’Shiya was able to truly see the agricultural world for the first time in her life. Just like her passion for the FFA, her passion for agriculture grew exponentially as well. Alongside this new development came a new desire to help those who have a similar background to see agriculture in a whole new light. Ka’Shiya started a blog named “ReelAg Stories,” as a part of her Supervised Agricultural Experience project, to do just that. She answered commonly-asked questions about the industry and FFA and even met with different agriculturists to discuss and write stories about these topics. Ka’Shiya was elected to serve as a state officer in June 2019. She spent the first half of her term of service traveling throughout the state meeting members and visiting chapters. However, the second half of the year would be far more challenging than anyone could have imagined when the COVID-19 Pandemic occurred. Along with the personal trials COVID-19 brought, there was also the challenge of navigating how to continue meeting the needs of Alabama FFA members. Although adjustments had to be made, Ka’Shiya’s job as a state officer did not change just because of the pandemic and neither did her “why.” Her why, which is “to serve, and not to be served,” shone even brighter

during 2020. Although she was not able to physically travel the state, she was able to still connect virtually with members and leave a lasting impact. Her job was to help members to realize their personal potential as well as the potential they have in the National FFA Organization and the agricultural industry. She recognized that members needed to be reminded of this especially because of the unprecedented times that they were experiencing. One of the highlights of her “Pandemic Term” was the “My Why Seminar.” This seminar virtually connected FFA members from four states to discuss their purpose in life and develop innovative ways to serve others during this unusual time. Ka’Shiya is currently majoring in Agricultural Communications at Auburn University. She is actively involved in campus life serving as a member on the Agriculture Cabinet and an Ambassador for the College of Agriculture. Through her education and involvement in the agriculture industry, Ka’Shiya will pursue a career dedicated to bridging the gap between agriculture producers and consumers. As Ka’Shiya prepares for interviews this October her “why” has become even more clear. She will use her platform to serve members from Alabama and across the nation. August 2021

4-H EXTENSION CORNER

Investing in Tomorrow In 2019, the Alabama 4-H Foundation Board established a scholarship program to honor 4-H students for both their exceptional accomplishments and their hard work. In 2021, the 4-H Foundation has continued its investment in tomorrow by awarding $1,000 scholarships to 36 outstanding 4-H seniors and one $1500 scholarship to Auburn University. To qualify, applicants submitted their 4-H story, resume and a recommendation letter. No scholastic GPA or standardized testing scores were considered in the selections. Instead, the selection committee chose 4-H’ers based on their 4-H involvement and previous participation. The 2021 recipients for the 4-H Foundation Scholarships are as follows: Matthew Hughes (Baldwin); Tyler Hrabovsky (Baldwin); Warren Williams (Barbour); Tanner Nolen (Blount); Douglas McWhorter III (Calhoun); Sammi Parker (Cherokee); Shalyn Merida (Clarke); Alyssa Hurst (Clay); Stella McWhorter (Cleburne); Olivia Hay (Coosa); Kloe McCurley (Etowah); Abigail Taylor (Henry); Dawson Williams (Houston); Megann Wilcoxon (Houston); Trevor Woodham (Houston); LeAnne Pace (Lawrence); Carson Alexander (Lee); Ethan Keeton (Limestone); Hannah Enskat (Limestone); Daraja Maye (Lowndes); Silas Wilson (Marengo); Taylor Kirkham (Marengo); Karlee Hardin (Marion); Samuel Sutton (Marion); Suzanna Traynor (Marshall); Gabriella Stagner (Mobile); Sophia Robinson (Mobile); Mattie Poland (Pickens); Cameron Dix (Russell); Christie Miller (Shelby); Marion Bell (Shelby); Heather Gladney (Tuscaloosa); Kenlee West (Tuscaloosa); Garrett Lomoro (Walker); Morgan Humphries (Walker); Brayden Ferguson (Washington). 26

Cooperative Farming News

Ann Barr 4-H Scholarship to Auburn University ($1500): Abigail Luster (Elmore) To showcase the variety and diversity of the 4-H experiences among these scholarship recipients, we will spotlight seven outstanding seniors:

Marian Bell: Shelby County

Marian Bell graduated from Hope Christian School and plans to attend the University of South Alabama, majoring in Marketing. She has served as the president of the 2021 Alabama 4-H Ambassadors. During Marian’s nine-year 4-H career, she has been an Alabama 4-H Ambassador, 4-H Citizenship Washington Focus delegate, 4-H Achievement Winner and a participant in a wide variety of competitive projects.

BY C A R O LY N D R I N K A R D

In her school, Marian has held a variety of Student Government offices and been involved in sports and church events and activities. Marian explained, “4-H has taught me that leading isn’t dominating, but it is listening, understanding, encouraging and respecting.”

Heather Gladney: Tuscaloosa County

Spanish Honor Societies. “Through 4-H, I have developed a passion for poultry, and I want to pursue that as a career,” Mathew declared. “4-H has also given me amazing life-long friends and life skills, like leadership and responsibility.”

Morgan Humphries: Walker County Heather Gladney graduated from Sipsey Valley High School. She plans to attend Mississippi State University and major in Agribusiness Management. Heather has been active in the Tuscaloosa County 4-H Livestock Club, where she has shown livestock nine years. She has participated in livestock judging, Quiz Bowl, Skill-A-Thon, Chick Chain and archery. Heather has represented Alabama 4-H in national competitions in Kentucky and Nebraska. At school, Heather is a member of FBLA, Mu Alpha Theta and National Honor Society. “Alabama 4-H prepared me for the real world,” Heather said. “It influenced my college and career plans and changed my life for good.”

Morgan Humphries graduated from Jasper High School and plans to attend Auburn University to major in Nursing. Morgan has been a member of the Walker County 4-H Youth Council and participated in the Alabama 4-H Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Program (WHEP) – where she has won multiple state awards – and 4-H Chick Chain. She has also attended Mid-Winter Retreat, 4-H Summer Camp and 4-H Football

Matthew Hughes: Baldwin County Matthew Hughes graduated from Fairhope High School and plans to attend Auburn University to major in Poultry Science. Matthew has been active in 4-H poultry projects, such as Chick Chain, Poultry Judging, Egg Cookery end Avian Bowl, where he was team captain for three years. He is a member of the Central Baldwin Livestock and Fairhope Community 4-H Clubs. At school, Matthew is also a member of the National Honor Society and National Art, Math and

August 2021

Day. Morgan shared, “The people, education, and skills I have gained through 4-H have helped mold me into the young woman I am today: a young woman who knows that there are no limits to what she can accomplish.”

Abigail Taylor: Henry County

Silas explained. “I will continue to practice these qualities as I advance into adulthood.”

Warren Williams: Barbour County

Abigail Taylor graduated from Headland High School and plans to attend Auburn University, majoring in Computer Science. Abigail is an Alabama 4-H State Ambassador, President of the 4-H Wiregrass Ambassadors and President of the Henry County 4-H Youth Council. Abigail has completed many 4-H activities, such as Chick Chain, Henry/Houston Poultry Quiz Bowl, $15 Challenge, Have I Got a Story and Freestyle Demonstration. “Throughout my years in 4-H, I have learned to work as a team with my 4-H peers,” Abigail mused. “Through my various experiences, I have also learned amazing leadership skills and had exposure to wonderful adult mentors.”

Silas Wilson: Marengo County Silas Wilson graduated from Grace Christian, and he plans to become an Electrical Lineman after training at the Southeast Lineman Training Center. Silas has been a member of the Marengo County 4-H Youth Council and the Marengo Ranger 4-H Club, where he has been a club officer numerous years. He attended Alabama 4-H Mid-Winter and Southern Region Teen Leadership Conferences. Silas completed numerous 4-H projects, including Blocks Rock, Cooking, Archery, Robotics, Freestyle and Christmas Ornament Challenge. A volunteer firefighter, he is very active in his local church and community theater. “The lessons and skills 4-H has taught me, the opportunities to learn the value of serving, and the connections I have made throughout the years, have helped shape my life into one of service, honor and respect,”

Cooperative Farming News

Warren Williams graduated from Eufaula High School and plans to attend Tuskegee University to major in Business Administration. Warren has been serving as an Alabama 4-H Ambassador for two years and is a member of the 4-H Adventures and 4-H Eufaula High School Clubs in Barbour County. Warren has attended multiple Alabama 4-H Mid-Winter Retreats and was a delegate to Southern Region 4-H Teen Leadership Retreat in Tennessee. Warren is also a member of his school’s marching band, where he served as a section leader this year. Warren is also a Junior Ambassador for the Eufaula/Barbour County Chamber of Commerce. Warren stated, “If you keep calm and focus on your short-term goals, then it will be easier to achieve or fulfill long-term goals.”

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August 2021

OUTDOOR LOGIC WITH BIOLOGIC

Following the Crimson Trail

Keys to Recovering Your Trophy

Think like a crime scene investigator. Remember that blood drops or splatters aren’t going to be only directly on the ground. Whitetails brush up against many objects like trees, brush, tall grass or corn stalks. (Photo Credit: Todd Amenrud)

Here he comes – flaunting a set of antlers so big it looks like a rocking chair atop his head. Your legs shake and your heart is pounding so hard you wonder if he can hear it. You can’t look at the antlers because that just makes the nervous excitement worse. Your dream buck is closing the distance fast! He’s about to cross one of your shooting windows – antlers, head, neck, shoulder … pick a spot. Release! Where did you hit? Did your arrow pass through? Now what? A good pass-through hit in the vitals is what every bowhunter wants. If you achieve it, oftentimes you can witness your quarry topple over after a short distance or at the very least you’ll have a very easy-to-follow trail. However, what happens when your hit is not immediately fatal? How you act and what you do next will have a huge influence over whether or not you recover the 30

Cooperative Farming News

animal. After a good double-lung hit, tracking a deer is usually very easy. After a less-conclusive shot, you’ll need to master the skill of “blood-trailing” and finely hone your talents of observation and deduction if you hope to recover your reward. After you “drop the string,” “follow through” with your shot and then watch and listen intently. Seeing your arrow in flight and where you hit is valuable. With the fast arrow speeds these days, it can make that difficult. Lighted arrow nocks and bright-colored fletchings tend to help. I like to fletch my own arrows and will always use two white feathers and one brightly-colored cock-feather. A white or bright yellow “arrow dip” can also help. Make several reference points to where the animal was standing when you shot and where you last saw

BY T O D D A M E N R U D it. Watch the reaction and listen carefully as your quarry bolts – if he runs off at all. Pay close attention to sounds that might reveal the direction or heading. Listen for general sounds, but also for specific noises like water splashing, dry leaves crunching, branches snap-

ping, or rocks clinking that might lead you to a unique spot. Keep listening for several minutes after the shot. Often you’ll hear the animal change direction, crash or kick as it expires. Make reference points to where you heard the last sounds. Every now and again, you’ll shoot a deer that just stands there as if nothing has happened even though they’ve been shot. With surgically sharp broadheads and if you don’t hit a bone, an arrow can slice through your target like a hot knife through butter and he may not react at all – until he topples over from blood loss. Mark the exact spot that the animal was standing when you took the shot. If you can’t find “first blood,” use it as a reference point and line it up with the last spot that you saw the animal. This can save loads of time when you’re trying to pick up the trail. Next, try to recover your arrow. If you can locate the arrow, examine it carefully. The color of the blood, hair samples, or the smell on the arrow can often tell you exactly where you hit. Dark-red blood typically means a liver hit. Pink frothy blood usually means a lung hit. Bright-red blood may be heart, arteries, or muscle — in this case, the volume of blood you see is a good indication of which it is. If you suspect a gut shot, you’ll easily detect a foul smell on the arrow. If the arrow is still in the animal this could lead to other important clues down the trail. Unless you saw the animal expire, I suggest leaving it for at least an hour. In fact, unless I’m far from my vehicle or someone else has dropped me off, I purposefully don’t bring my camera or field-dressing equipment with me so I have to return to my vehicle to get it. This helps me avoid the temptation to get on the trail immediately, which usually isn’t wise. Many other places on a whitetail’s anatomy offer lethal hits. It’s not humane to try for those shots, If you can find your arrow after the shot it can offer you many clues. The color of the blood, hair samples, or but sometimes it happens. With a the smell on the arrow can often tell you exactly where you hit. (Photo Credit: Todd Amenrud) August 2021

gut shot, back out and give the animal at least six hours. It’s a lethal hit, but if you push the animal your odds of recovery decline precipitously. A liver hit, characterized by its dark-red blood, is also lethal, but again, you need to give the animal time – I suggest at least three hours. If you give the animal that time, more than likely you’ll find it dead in its first bed, which should be less than 200 yards from the hit. The blood on a muscle hit often resembles heart or artery blood but there will be much less of it. You’ll know if you hit a major artery or vessel. The occasional drop of blood can also resemble a gut shot where fat or intestines can plug the exit hole. My theory on a muscle hit differs from some. Normally, you would want to let the animal bed down and bleed to death. With a muscle hit, if the animal beds down, chances are the wound will start to heal. With this hit, I suggest hitting the trail to pursue the animal right away. Don’t let up, be steady and ruthless. Keep pushing until you can either finish off the animal or you know it will survive. Another exception to the “give the animal time” rule is in cases of inclement weather. If rain or snow is moving in, I’ll scratch my usual wait time and take to the trail immediately. Only if I bump the animal out of a bed do I retreat and wait longer. Fresh sign is so much easier to track than that which has been diluted and wet or covered by snow. On tough trails, examine every tiny clue Use any sign available to find the valuable prize at the end of the trail. Obviously, blood is the carefully. If a track is not evident, inspect main clue we’re following, but sometimes blood can be sparse so you’ll have to rely on tracks, blood splatters for the direction of travel. broken branches, or subtle differences like no dew on a trail through a meadow of otherwise dewRemember that blood sign may not only be drenched grass. (Photo Credit: Todd Amenrud) on the ground, whitetails brush up against many objects like trees, brush, and tall grass while they immensely, too many people can have the opposite travel. Think like a CSI (Crime Scene Investigator). results. Everyone wants to be the first person down One thing I have learned after being on hundreds the trail, after all – it’s very exciting! But in that rush of wounded-deer trails in my day – they almost always of scrambling for the front of the pack you’re probahead “home” after being wounded. If an animal suffers bly destroying valuable clues. The rule we use is the a wound that’s not immediately fatal, he’ll almost al- hunter who made the shot is always first on the trail or ways head toward his primary bedding area. Scouting, gets to choose who goes first. Just like a CSI detective trail cameras and knowing the buck you’re hunting ob- that tells the rookie to get out of the area so they don’t viously helps here. destroy evidence, the same goes for a blood trail. EsWhile on the trail, make sure to scan the area in pecially on afternoon hits that you’re tracking at night, front of you with binoculars. Enlisting a tracking buddy you’re often destroying more signs than you’re seeing. is a great help. The first person on the trail should be Three, maybe four people tops is perfect for a blood trail. Go slow! If you get to the point where you’ve lost scanning the ground in front of them often. While some tracking help is great and will help the deer and you’re going to search a grid pattern, then 32

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We owe it to the animal, ourselves and every other ethical hunter in our country to pursue a wounded animal until all possibilities are exhausted. Here’s the author with a nice 4x4 with some unique white, piebald spots. (Photo Credit: Todd Amenrud)

the more people the better – the more “eyes” you have the better your odds. If you’re on a difficult-to-follow trail, carry small pieces of ribbon, toilet paper, or something else you can use to mark new signs and keep you on line. If you lose the blood trail, lining up those markers and following the same heading will usually put you back on track. It all depends on how easy the trail is to follow – if you can go at a constant walking speed, you can simply have your tracking buddy stand by the last sign. When the sign is harder to come by, marking the trail with ribbon or paper can be helpful. If you’re on an afternoon hunt and dark is approaching, you’ll have to be the judge of how good of a hit you made. Unless you’re confident in a lethal hit, it’s almost always a good idea to back out and come back at sun-

up, especially if you’re on a tough trail. I’m confident that a whitetail, especially a mature buck, knows when it’s being pursued and trailed. I’ve seen them accomplish some amazing feats that I swear were done specifically to throw me off the trail. I’ve seen them walk down a creek or through extended areas of water, backtracking down the same trail and then heading off 90 degrees, circling multiple times in a small area, or lying tight to the ground and waiting for me to pass by. When you’re on the trail of a wounded animal, remain unrelenting and open-minded. If the trail doesn’t lead you to the animal, you can always search a grid pattern in a last-ditch attempt to find it. Persistence and effort will lead you to just as many downed animals as a blood trail will. August 2021

Grilled Quail Ingredients 4 semi-boneless quail 1/4 cup melted butter Kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper 2 ripe peaches, seeded and halved 8 ripe figs, halved 2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar 1 Tablespoon fresh basil leaves, finely chopped Heat grill or grill pan. Brush melted butter on both sides of the quail. Liberally salt and pepper the quail on both sides. When the grill is smoking hot, place quail on the the grill for 3 minutes, then turn alternately for about 2 minutes more, or until golden brown. Remove to a plate to rest. Pack brown sugar into the cavity of the halved peaches and sprinkle on the flesh of the halved figs. Place the fruit skin side down on the grill for about 5 minutes. Turn fruit over and cook until the brown sugar is caramelized, about 3 to 4 minutes for the peaches 34

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with Caramelized Peaches and Figs

and 2 for the figs. Remove the fruit from the grill and top with chopped basil. Divide the quail, peaches, and figs among 4 plates. Serve with a wild rice salad.

About Stacy Lyn Harris Stacy Lyn Harris is a best-selling cookbook author, blogger, TV personality, public speaker, wife and mother of seven children. She currently lives in Pike Road, Alabama, with her husband Scott and their children. Stacy Lyn regularly appears on cable and broadcast television as a guest chef and sustainable living expert. Her critically-acclaimed “Harvest Cookbook” was published in 2017 and contains many of her family’s favorite recipes, along with stories from her life growing up in the Black Belt and tips she’s learned along the way.

coming soon! This booklet will have cattle sales right at your fingertips!

To advertise your cattle sale with us, contact Wendy McFarland 334-652-9080 mcfarlandadvantage@gmail.com August 2021

Reeves Farm: Where the peaches are sweeter BY J E S S I E S H O O K

eeves Farm has been growing peaches on the same land that was homesteaded by Thomas Reeves in 1835. “It was cotton and corn in those years,” said Mike Reeves, owner of Reeves Farm. “They started growing watermelons and selling them on the roadside in the late ‘40s and by 1959, when the first peaches were planted, our first roadside market was built.” Mike’s father, Donnie Reeves, planted peaches the year Mike was born. “While I wasn’t a part of that decision-making process, I think my dad saw an opportunity and a need because there were not many orchards in or around Morgan County,” Mike said. “It was my dad’s vision to grow peaches and my mom, Shelby, just worked as hard as she could to make sure things kept going for so many years.”

36 Cooperative Farming News

Mike is continuing the family tradition and is now working alongside his two sons, David and Jackson. While they all have different roles, they all work together to keep the farm thriving and successful. David does a lot of work in the field and oversees the laborers while Jackson manages the kitchen and oversees the restaurant side. David and Jackson both have a lot of pride in being fourth-generation farmers. “I’m very proud that my grandfather started growing peaches and if they could see this now, I think they’d be pretty proud as well,” said Jackson. “I’m sure they didn’t expect this when they started selling watermelons under that tree over there.” David said that not many people can say that they are a fourth-generation farmer nowadays. “It’s important for me to carry on, but I also really enjoy working in the field,” David added. “Watching our produce grow and make people happy gives us a lot of satisfaction and keeps us going.” Over the years, Reeves Farm has made some changes to be able to offer more to consumers. While they primarily have only grown peaches, Reeves has branched out to other crops. “We grow strawberries, plums, blueberries, blackberries, tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupes, squash, cucumbers, sweet corn, pumpkins, peas, beans, okra and sunflowers,” Mike said. Reeves Farm retails their produce in their market and uses this opportunity to their advantage. By retailing their produce on the farm, they are able to provide fresher and better produce. “While wholesalers let their peaches get ripe over the packing and shipping

(L to R) Mike, Jackson and David work together to manage the farm. Jackson and David are the fourth generation to work at the farm.

The market also sells jarred goods such as jelly, salsa, sauces and canned produce.

August 2021

Mike Reeves is the owner of Reeves Farm and said he owes the success of his farm to all of the people that have helped him over the years.

process, we let them get ripe on the tree,” Mike said. “I know that makes a difference.” The ability to let the peach get ripe on the tree allows Reeves Farm to offer a better-tasting peach. The farm has also built a bigger market to retail more of their produce. This market has been a dream of Mike’s for over 30 years. It is located in the middle of the farm and is a representation of their slogan – It’s freshest at the farm. “We want folks to come to the farm and understand the process,” Mike said. The Reeves have been in the new market for over a year now and are offering more than farm fresh

John Waddle was the brother-in-law of Mike Reeves. He was an integral part of the farm for 16 years but passed away at the age of 38.

1958

Around 1958, Reeves Farm sold watermelons under a tree on highway 36.

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1960

L.L. “Jack” Reeves and his grandson Mike Reeves in 1960. At this time there still was no fruit stand.

1962

The first peach trees in 1962.

Mike shows a lot of passion and care when talking about his crops. Sweet corn is one of the crops featured at the market.

produce. “With our new kitchen we make desserts, smoked meats and sides featuring our produce,” Mike added. “We sell jarred goods including jams, salsas, sauces, dressing and pickles.” The market has been a way for Reeves Farm to utilize their produce in different ways. “We make a lot of desserts that feature our fruit,” Mike said. “Peach is the most popular ice cream flavor, but I firmly believe there is no bad ice cream.” The market also features a restaurant to offer its smoked meats and sides grown on the farm. Orchards

must be pulled out every year and Reeves Farm repurposes the wood to smoke their meats. “We offer chicken, ribs, tenderloin and pulled pork, all smoked with peach wood,” Mikes said. “We call it peach wood smoked barbecue.” The restaurant will continue to expand its menu and add items such as steamed sandwiches and more sides that feature Reeves produce. “Our plan is to have as many sides as we can that we grow here at the farm – corn, peas, beans, squash and more,” Jackson said.

1970

1975

2020

The original Reeves Fruit Stand in 1970.

Mike’s grandmother Ethyl Reeves in the mid-70s.

Construction of the new Reeves Farm Market was completed in 2020.

August 2021

Reeves Farm is continuing to grow but Mike said that he owes the farm’s success to all the people that have helped him out over the years including friends, family and the woman by his side. “Any woman that is dedicated to supporting a farmer like my wife Lynn, is made of the right stuff,” Mike added. “I always joke that she works to support my farming habit.” Many individuals have gotten their start at Reeves Farm by working in the field picking peaches or working in the market. “We’ve had generations of help over the years, and I think a lot of them learned their work ethic here.” There is still much more to come for Reeves Farm in the future. “I think what has given us success in recent years is a great customer base that wants to buy our products and support our farm. We try to work hard, learn from our mistakes and recognize opportunities to be better farmers,” Mike said. “It’s not so much what I’ve done, it’s all the people that have helped me.” For more information on Reeves Farm you can visit their website www.reevespeaches.com or find them on social media @Reeves’ Peach Farm. Their market is located at 336 Hwy 36E, Hartselle, Alabama 35640 and they are open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday noon to 6 p.m.

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Other fresh produce such as squash and okra can be found at the market.

Dusty Newton

Backyard Honey Farming BY CAROLYN DRINKARD

Taking care of his bees is calming and rewarding for Dusty Newton. His bees recognize him as their caretaker and allow him to peer inside their amazing world.

ee farming is a rewarding experience, which dates back over centuries. Beekeepers help to keep the world alive, while becoming a part of one of life’s oldest natural processes: the making of honey! Beekeeping in Clarke County has traditionally centered on a few individuals who keep one or two hives to harvest backyard honey for their own use. Some of these honey farmers decided that the best way to increase their knowledge about beekeeping and get to know other beekeepers was to form a local beekeeper association. Under the leadership of Judge J.R. Morgan, the beekeepers adopted a Constitution and Bylaws, identified their goals, set dates to meet bimonthly and elected a slate of officers. They named their new group, “The Clarke County Bee Keepers Association,” even though the members had reached out to apiculturists in surrounding areas. The elected of-

ficers included J.R. Morgan, president; Dusty Newton, vice president; Melissa Dozier, treasurer; and Rebecca Vick, secretary. Each officer was an established beekeeper, eager to mentor anyone who wanted to learn more about bees. One of those working hard to form the local beekeeping organization was Dusty Newton, who also served as vice president. Even though Dusty Newton has a full-time job in the Engineering Department at Alabama River Cellulose, his apiculture hobby has become a passion! Dusty lives in the small community of Asbury, just outside of Grove Hill. His fascination with bees began years ago while he lived in Tuscaloosa. A friend owned 30 hives and asked Dusty to help. Dusty enjoyed working with the bees so much that his friend trained him in beekeeping. When Dusty and his family later moved to Clarke County, the friend gave Dusty two hives to August 2021

The queen (circled) is always larger than the other bees. A colony will often have 20,000 to 60,000 honey bees, but only one queen. The bees are busiest in the summer months when the queen will lay up to 2000 eggs a day.

start his own colony. “Once I got started, I just wanted to grow the hives and capture the honey,” he laughed. “It’s more like an addiction, not a hobby!” In the rural area where Dusty lives, bees find a natural buffet among new growth in clear-cut plots. Since honeybees comprise about 80% of all pollinators, Dusty’s bees help nearby farmers and gardeners. Bees will pollinate everything within a two-to-six-mile area, visiting 50 to 100 flowers in one trip. Honeybees pol-

After he helped a friend with bees, Dusty Newton found a hobby that turned into a passion. He serves as Vice President of the Clarke County Beekeepers Association. Here, he holds a honeycomb filled with honey that he extracts for his business, “Hilltop Honey.”

A teacher at Wilson Hall Middle School in Grove Hill, Clair Newton (r) often helps her husband with the bees.

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linate nearly three quarters of the plants that produce 90% of the world’s food. In the U.S., this represents an agricultural value of about $15 billion a year. A colony will often have 20,000 to 60,000 honeybees, but only one queen. The bees are busiest in the summer months when the queen will lay up to 2000 eggs a day. The other bees work together to maintain the hive. Dusty has found that keeping his bees inside their hives has been especially challenging. “If they get overpopulated, they will leave or swarm,” he explained. “I watch them closely.” Dusty is recognized as a “swarm master,” someone who can remove nuisance bees when they show up in trees or under the eaves of homes. He now has

but it has grown as he has added more bees. The first year, he took only enough honey to give his family at Christmas. The second year, however, he sold about 15 gallons. This year, he pulled his honey in late June and quickly sold all that he had. Honey has many beneficial uses. It is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals and water. Honey also contains “pinocembrin,” an antioxidant, which seems to improve brain functioning. It has been used to treat sore throats and digestive disorders, as well as a wound treatment for burns and cuts. Some, in Clarke County, believe that taking a teaspoon of local honey each day helps with allergies and hay fever. While working from home during the Pandemic, Dusty took an online course in “Beekeeping 101” from Penn State. He advises anyone interested in bee keeping to work with an experienced beekeeper. “Don’t just jump into it without knowing what you’re getting into,” he stated. “It’s hard work, but it’s very satisfying.” Providing a safe place for his honeybees to live and work is rewarding for Dusty Newton. His bees recognize him as their caretaker and allow him to peer inside their amazing world. “It’s just so interesting to watch them all work together!” he said. “Every bee has a job, and they work constantly. I feel like I’m keeping a little society alive.”

Smoke calms the bees, as Dusty has to remove some boards to get the nuisance bees, which have taken up residence inside the home.

11 hives, filled with bees that he has removed from homes in this area. In 2009, USA beekeepers asked the USDA to provide an official day to honor honeybees and beekeeping. On Saturday, Aug. 21, World Honeybee Day will officially recognize the contribution that honeybees make to everyone’s lives. This is a day to learn about honeybees, as well as the beekeepers that keep them healthy. World Honeybee Day is also a time to encourage everyone to enjoy locally grown honey. Bees are the only insects that produce food eaten by man, and they have been making honey for over 150 million years. Amazingly, honeybees must gather nectar from 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey, but the average bee will make only 1/12th of a teaspoon during her lifetime, which is approximately 40 days. “Hilltop Honey,” Dusty’s business, started small,

Dusty (r) and Clair work together to get a swarm into a hive. Dusty now has 11 hives, filled with bees that he has removed from homes in this area.

August 2021

It is never too early to get a jump start on scholarships! AFC & Auburn University & the John H. Mathews Scholarship Deadline for Scholarships: December 31, 2021

Visit our website at www.alafarm.com/scholarships for more information. 44

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August 2021

our latest listings and more!

www.selandgroup.com | 866-751-LAND SEARCH FOR OVER 800 MORE PROPERTIES ON OUR WEBSITE!

marengo County #3285

talladega County #3422

384+/- AC - This is one of those rare properties that offers quality fishing opportunities, great deer hunting, and good turkey hunting. You might even be able to catch some ducks using the flooded timber in the back of the large lake. I do not know of a hunting property in the Black Belt currently on the market with newer and nicer amenities and improvements than this place. $1,200,000

200+/- AC - This Appalachian foothill tract has all the amenities any outdoorsman could hope for. From a pond stocked with Rainbow Trout, to upland pastures for horses, this property is fit for all assets of the outdoors. Featuring two incredible homesites overlooking Cheaha Mountain and the Coosa Valley and plenty of Gobblers and Whitetail to hunt. $349,000 - UNDER CONTRACT

Tallapoosa County #2773

dallas County #3071

533 AC - This high-fenced property is an outstanding turn-key hunting operation, spanning 533 acres. Approximately 7,920 feet of the Tallapoosa River flows across the property. Deer and turkey enjoy a varying habitat, including mature timber, agricultural fields, and ample bedding areas. A cultivated field includes a faux power line offering an excellent opportunity for dove hunting. This property comes complete with a cabin, several storage buildings, equipment sheds, and a grain storage bin for feed. $2,300,000 +/-

lamar County #3032

595+/- AC - This tract is setup for hunting/recreation and has all the components to provide excellent recreational opportunities with a diversified timber investment. MUST SEE! $1,175,125

Walker County #3381

250+/- AC - York Mountain Farms is one of the most beautiful properties you will see in Walker County, AL. This property has a spread of 250 +/- Acres consisting of rolling hills, gorgeous views, and some of the most relaxing places to camp along the creek. $725,000 - UNDER CONTRACT

lownes County #3324

255+/- AC - This property has been managed to produce big deer, turkey, and ducks. There is a well established road system throughout the property making all areas easily accessible. $561,000 PRICE REDUCED! $499,000

640+/- AC - 640ac cattle farm on the Cahaba River in Dallas County, Alabama. 3 bedroom home, 18 acre lake, and over 1 mile of river front. $1,472,000

chambers County

932+/- AC - Large timber investment opportunity! The tract is comprised of different age classes of planted pine and mature hardwood stands. There is also an 8+/- acre pond and Little Chatahospee Creek flows through the property giving water access for the wildlife year-round. Scattered throughout the property are small food plots and there is a good road system that traverses the rolling topography allowing for ease of access. $1,958,040

sumter County #2836

174+/- AC - The topography on the tract is primarily flat with a gentle slope on the acreage to the south. There is also a lake site on the property that is close to an acre in size, but could be made larger. Tifallili Creek crosses the southwestern corner of the property. Timber on the tract consist of hardwoods, cedar thickets, hackberry, and some pine stands, which when all combined make great wildlife habitat. $346,260

tallapoosa County #3499

304+/- AC - Boulder Creek Plantation is a well-managed and meticulously maintained wildlife preserve situated on 300+/- acres in north-central Tallapoosa Co, Alabama. Located just 10 miles from Alexander City, AL, 47 miles from Auburn, AL, 81 miles from Birmingham, Al, and a short distance to Lake Martin. $3,700,000

MT. MORIAH 9 HOUSE BROILER FARM IN CLAY COUNTY, AL

Farm

NEW LISTING

Mt. Moriah Broiler Farm is a nine house farm located in Clay County, Alabama in the Delta Community. This farm is currently growing for Koch Foods Ashland complex on a 6lb all female bird. This farm has had a gross income over $500,000 historically for the past three years. The farm will be fully up to date for Koch Foods top pay at the time of the sale. The farm has several acres of pasture. There is a awesome home site in the middle of the farm with an unobstructed view of Cheaha Mountain (Alabama’s highest elevation). The farm is located in the Clay County School District. The farm is located 10 minutes to Lineville, AL; 15 minutes to Interstate 20; one hour 15 minutes from downtown Atlanta; and 30 minutes to Oxford, AL. Included with the farm are a Kubota 9960 with loader, 15ft Bushhog Rotary Mower, Priefert Plow, Priefert windrow blade, House washer, and a GMC Spreader Truck. Mt. Moriah Farm is a bio-secure area. All farm visitors must abide by Koch’s Foods and PoultrySouth’s bio-security procedures. All potential purchasers must be prequalified prior to making a farm visit. No visitors without a listing agent present. Please reach out to us for more information about how to qualify.

RANDALL UPCHURCH PoultrySouth Co-Founder 256-239-5379 randall@selandgroup.com

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PROCESS AT WWW.POULTRYSOUTH.COM 46

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ROBERT KING

PoultrySouth Co-Founder 844-855-0680 robert@selandgroup.com

SOUTH.COM

HOW’S YOUR GARDEN BY LOIS TRIGG CHAPLIN

A Handy Resting Spot This idea from the back room of a garden center offers a clever way to keep up with the small paraphernalia of daily work around the garden. A little rack provides a place in a tool shed to put those things that might be absent-mindedly laid down at the end of a long day – only to have to be searched for tomorrow! One in a garage, mudroom or wherever one goes in and out helps, too.

son weed, and pussytoes (Antennaria species), perennial weeds that like dry, rocky soil. The butterflies are attracted to garden flowers such as butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia species), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium species), wild ageratum (Conoclinium coelestinum), ironweed (Vernonia species) and many others. Gardeners wanting to create butterfly sanctuaries should certainly plant for this beauty; host pussytoes grows well along a sunny, dry, gravel drive or a rock garden. American lady is easily confused with the painted lady butterfly, but the American lady is distinguished by two prominent eyespots on the underside of the rear wings. The painted lady has four smaller ones.

SIMPLE TIMES

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Organizer

American Lady Butterfly

Jade Plant, A Natural Sculpture

A year-round resident of Alabama, you are likely to see the American lady butterfly sipping from a variety of garden flowers not just in the summer, but anytime the weather is warm. It is often one of the first butterflies of spring. American lady is known to breed on cudweed (Gamochaeta species), an annual cool sea-

One houseplant likely to become a family heirloom is a jade plant. It lives for decades and is not demanding. Being such a thick-leaved succulent, jade plant doesn’t need much water, only lots of bright light in a south-facing window or a patio during the summer. Its drought tolerance is perfect for pots outdoors in August 2021

the summer when watering can be so demanding for many other plants. Jade plant generally grows slowly, but a pot will fill out more quickly if planted with three small ones together to create a multitrunked plant as it grows. The plants are happy in the same pot for years, usually enjoying being root bound until they signal that it’s time to repot by no longer growing. Although there are several species of jade plants, the most common is Crassula argentea, which will eventually grow two to four feet tall, taking the shape of a miniature tree. It has a natural sculptural form, but you can help shape it with careful pruning to direct new growth and prune out old to expose the “trunk” and bring out its sculptural tendency. Start plants with a special cactus potting mix that contains lots of sand to provide excellent drainage – a sure way to kill one is soggy soil and overwatering. Like all succulents, it should dry out between each watering. Fertilize with a liquid fertilizer such as Miracle Gro Indoor Plant Food from spring and until fall, and let it rest in the winter. Jade plants are happy to be outdoors in summer, especially out of the rain, but need to be brought back indoors to a sunny window when the temperature drops to 40 degrees or below.

Redeeming the Stick Tights I was so excited last summer to find delicate, pink, pea-like blooms among the wildflowers on the church property that we are restoring. Then I was greatly dis-

Stick Tight Seeds

appointed a month later when the same plants were loaded with strings of velvety seed pods that stuck to our clothes. But after doing a little research, I have come to better appreciate those annoying stick tights (Desmodium paniculatum.) The clingy seeds serve as an important food source for bobwhite and wild turkey. Caterpillars of many butterflies such as silver spotted skipper, hoary skipper, gray hairstreak, and Southern cloudy wing depend on its leaves, flowers or seeds for food. So do many other insects, as well as deer and rabbits. So I’ve grown to look at the annoying strings of sticky seeds in a different light.

Plating a Sunflower It doesn’t last but a day or two this way, but one giant sunflower on shallow dish of water makes a big impression and it’s so easy! It can be awkward to display a single, heavy flower in a vase, but the giant blossom lends itself to displaying in this manner. Might be nice elevated on a cake plate, too. Stick Tight Flowers

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Photo credits: Johnny N. Dell, Bugwood.org; Sturgis McKeever, Georgia Southern University, Bugwood.org

HOWLE’S HINTS B Y J O H N H OW L E

THE HERB FARMER August “I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

HOW’S YOUR GARDEN - Thomas Jefferson

August is a great time to exert your food independence. Whether you are raising a few backyard chickens for meat and eggs or raising a garden or raised bed produce, you can enjoy the benefits of your labors and have food for your family for well into the winter. We learned from the Covid pandemic that food supplies and grocery store shelves can empty out quickly, and it’s a wise move to have plenty of farm-raised food on hand.

SIMPLE TIMES

Pastured Poultry

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There are many places to purchase day old chicks. You can order them through mail order, go to a local farm supply store, or contact local individuals who incubate their own eggs. Regardless of the method of buying, you can end up with some valuable food producers. Even though there are plenty of people who shy away from the idea of butchering chickens, you can still allow the birds to live out their lives and col-

Chickens love to forage for insects and grass, and this makes for healthier eggs and chickens.

August 2021

Once mature, this mix provides seed heads with high food value.

Before constructing your raised beds, first, remove all the grass sod from the area. I used a box blade with plows set shallow. After the sod and weeds had been removed, I smoothed out the area with the box blade and laid down a layer of sand for further smoothing. Next, I rolled out a quality weed barrier to prevent weeds from coming up from the soil underneath. Once you roll out the landscape fabric, you can build the raised beds directly on top of the weed barrier. I built three raised beds 6 feet by 4 feet wide. I used repurposed lumber from a deck that had become dilapidated. The five-inch boards made perfect walls for the sides and ends of the raised bed, and I used two-inch corner posts to secure the sides to the ends. Once the raised beds are complete, you can fill them with topsoil and mix in a fair amount of sand and potting soil to make the soil more porous. I used a front end loader and simply filled the beds with soil from a richer part of a large garden. If you want a low-cost perimeter around the raised beds to give an aesthetic look, pea gravel makes a good ground cover. This way, even if you have bermuda or other grasses creeping in, you can use a hand-held propane torch to burn the weeds coming in from the edges of the pea gravel. Finally, plant the vegetables you enjoy. If you are late in the season with your plantings, you can simply plant winter greens in September or October to have healthy greens for the winter.

lect their eggs. Some breeds, like golden comets, will produce an egg a day for up to two years without stopping. The best setup I’ve found for pastured chickens is housing the chickens in a dog pen with tin on top at night and letting the chickens out to graze during the day with four-foot-high dog fencing. In early spring, I plant Pennington’s Wingmaster wildlife seed. It is marketed as their game bird mix, and it is intended for game birds such as mourning dove, quail, turkey and duck. However, this mix works great for chickens, and it contains a combination of proso, browntop and Japanese millets along with sunflower and grain sorghum. For more information on Pennington’s game bird mix, visit www.pennington.com. Once the forage has reached a few inches high and the chickens are mature enough, you can turn them loose for daily foraging. When the mix matures, there will be nutritious seed heads for the chickens to pick from.

Raised Bed Gardening Even if you don’t have a lot of space for gardening, you can create a few raised beds on your property. 50

Cooperative Farming News

A thick weed barrier keeps weeds from coming up through your raised bed area.

worm on an off-set hook should set off a bass strike or two. Other popular bass lures are jointed minnow and deep running crankbaits that resemble smaller fish. Be sure to bring a large dip net with you when you fish. Nothing is more frustrating than getting the fish to the bank and watching the bass flip the hook out or break the line as you are trying to bring it up the bank. With a net you can pull rod tension with one hand and dip the fish up with the other. My daughter recently caught a four-pound bass using this technique.

The author’s wife planting raised beds for summer produce.

Farm Pond Fishing Once you’ve done all this work, remember to take some time to relax. One of the best ways to do this is by fishing. If you are after bass, sometimes the simplest lures are the best. A simple Texas-rigged black

Nothing is more frustrating than getting the fish to the bank and watching the bass flip the hook out or break the line as you are trying to bring it up the bank. This August, take steps to preserve the fruits of your labors. Any extra food produced can be shared with neighbors, canned, or frozen for long-term enjoyment. Finally, it’s always good to be independent instead of allowing others to take care of you.

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The author’s daughter, Abigail Howle, shows off a bass harvest from a farm pond.

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THE MAGIC OF GARDENING

Be Afraid

Be Very Afraid If you ever watched the 1986 remake of a cult classic movie, “The Fly,” you know you should “Be afraid. Be very afraid,” which is the most famous oft-repeated quote from that movie. However, the common house fly, Musca domestica, has been buzzing around homes pestering people since Adam built the first house – hence the name “domestica”. Maybe fear is not the correct response, but concern is appropriate. In addition to being a great nuisance they can carry disease-causing pathogens with them as they land on your potato salad. Did you see where that fly was before landing on your potato salad ... yuck. 52

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To understand control, you need to know a little about their life cycle. House flies develop through four stages: egg, larvae, pupa and adult fly. They prefer to eat and lay eggs in animal waste and other decaying organic matter. A female fly can lay up to 500 eggs, in batches of 75-100 eggs each. Eggs hatch in a day or two, depending on environmental conditions, mostly temperature. Larvae (sounds better than maggots) feed and develop on any moist organic matter. Before they mature to pupate, these larvae crawl away from their food source to a relatively cool and dry place to undergo this transformation.

BY T O N Y G L OV E R The adult fly later emerges from the pupa and flies away in search of food and suitable egg-laying sites to start the whole process over. Flies have a spongelike mouth that absorbs nutrients from moist organic matter. Our food can be contaminated by flies as they regurgitate digestive juices and drink it up. An adult fly can live for 2-4 weeks. For most effective control target the larval stage by eliminating the moist exposed organic matter (particularly animal feces and rotting food) in and around your home where they feed and develop. Garbage should be kept in sealed bags inside of covered garbage cans. Garbage cans should be located as far away from your home as possible. Place animal food away from entry points of your home and only place the amount of food needed for a short period of time into their food dishes. If only a few flies are buzzing inside your home, the old-fashioned fly swatter still works well. Mr. Miyagi’s method of using chopsticks in “The Karate Kid” movie is a little inefficient but I have to admit when I was a kid my brother and I would try to catch them in our hand. We would pretend we had caught one and then act like we were eating it to gross out our little sister. I am not sure why I am telling you that but I want to assure you I no longer do this ... very often. Well maybe a couple of times to my daughters when they were young but that’s all. Don’t forget to check for entry points. Sealing holes and cracks around windows, doors, and roof eaves is good for reducing your power bill but has an added benefit of reducing flies in the home. Some

For most effective control target the larval stage by eliminating the moist exposed organic matter (particularly animal feces and rotting food) in and around your home where they feed and develop. commercial products to consider include ultraviolet light traps and sticky fly paper strips or ribbons. Introducing toxic chemicals into your home is never a good idea. Pesticides should be used only in extreme cases to knock down a large invasion. Bait products and insecticides can be applied to outdoor surfaces where flies rest, such as the outside surfaces of barns, stables, houses and screens. Killing or reducing the numbers of house flies does require vigilance but don’t “be afraid” to try.

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August 2021

SIMPLE TIMES B Y S U Z Y M c C R AY

Gobble THE CO-OP PANTRY Gobble Again

Turkey Tom and Blue Leg

I hear it every morning before I get out of bed now, “Gobble, gobble, gobble-gobble!” and it thrills my soul! It has been three years since that joyous sound echoed across our fields, and oh how I’ve missed it! Many of you readers remember Thomas and Beautiful from my stories. How Thomas came to live here on the farm along with 10 chickens, one guinea, two rabbits and two roosters when his family no longer could keep them. 54

Cooperative Farming News

Then later how son ordered six day-old Broad-Breasted Bronze pullets and raised them on his adjacent farm, intending to have one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas dinner and sell the others. But fate stepped in and those turkeys had respiratory infections and were placed on antibiotics so couldn’t be butchered that first holiday season. As they moved happily to a bigger pen, Thomas discovered he was not just a large chicken and moved in with his turkey brethren. Soon

all six turkeys were tramping all over the farm with the free-range ducks, guineas and chickens. Shoppers to my tiny general store were often met in the afternoons by six huge, very healthy, happy turkeys doing their drumming sound, spreading their tail feathers in displays that would make any peacock jealous, and sidling up to folks just to be petted on their weird-looking rubbery blue and red heads! One family often brought their grandmother, suffering from the early stages of dementia, to visit the happy birds late in the afternoons. Her walking cane was decorated with flowers and butterflies and every afternoon Beautiful would greet her as soon as she got out of the car and do his mating dance around her brightly painted walking stick! Long after she was in assisted living and couldn’t recall exactly who her family members were, she still talked about the dancing turkeys! Many times, families would tell me they’d never seen a turkey, except one packaged for sale in the stores! (We’ve come a long way from the early years which James Tolbert reflected in last month’s article on how his dad always raised about 200 turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year, taking them to Fairfield to be processed, then icing them down in 30-gallon garbage cans and delivering them to stores, restaurants, and hospitals throughout the Birmingham area!) I know there are probably turkey farmers reading this, who grow hundreds of the big-breasted critters every year for our holiday feasts. Or just other homesteaders, who like my friend Jenny out west, who raised two turkeys every year for her family, one ap-

Turkey Tom and chicken friend

propriately named Thanksgiving and the other named Christmas! But I just enjoyed having turkeys around the homestead! I guess Mack heard enough stories during this year’s 18-mile-long Highway 132 yard sale in April. There wasn’t a yard sale last year because of Covid restrictions but this year so many folks who hadn’t been through here in a long time asked where were the turkeys and where was the big white dog? They always reacted sadly when they learned they had each one succumbed to old age. But nearly everyone had at least one turkey story! Several even pulled out their phones, hunted back through hundreds of photos and then proudly displayed photos of themselves or their grandkids proudly posing with the big, feathered clowns! So, Mack surprised me a couple of days after my birthday. He received a mysterious phone call and then left here with a large cage in the back of his truck. About 45 minutes later he drove in and the “gobble, gobble, gobble” could be clearly heard! Turkey Tom had lost his mate and was no longer happy living in a small, fenced area. So, Mack made arrangements with a friend on Straight Mountain to get the turkey for me! Turkey Tom (yes that was his name when he arrived) is still getting used to us and the other animals on this farm. Blue Leg is a large brown and white rooster who kind of has been running the place. One leg features a long blue streak, which he no doubt inherited from his Americana mama who hatched him years ago in my then-small playhouse-sized greenhouse. The second morning Turkey Tom strutted out into the barnyard, Blue Leg was waiting. Blue Leg stretched to his full height, fluffed his feathers out and ran right out in front of Turkey Tom. Turkey Tom didn’t miss a beat and just kept strutting forward as Blue Leg began to back up. While they haven’t had any really real altercations, it appears that Blue Leg has figured out Turkey Tom is at least four or five times his size and would make a better friend than foe! Now the search is on to find Turkey Tom a mate and possibly a few other friends! No, we don’t plan to raise them for meat. In E.B. White’s book, “One Man’s Meat,” a collection of his August 2021

magazine and newspaper columns from 1937-1942, he talks about his one surviving female turkey (out of an original six). He itemized her total cost to him and even with 1938 figures, it was a whopping $402.85, including everything from 30 cents for the fertilized egg, expenses for the broody hen who hatched her, growing mash, scratch feed, pens and more! (White later used his true farm experiences as background for his books, “Charlotte’s Web,” “Stuart Little,” and more so they actually more than paid for themselves!) Turkeys are not said to be very smart, but I have yet to see one stand in the rain with its head looking upward for so long that it drowns, which is a common rumor! But I have found turkeys to be extremely smart about some things! Thomas, Beautiful and those other original turkeys here knew that if someone drove into the driveway of my tiny store there MIGHT be treats involved, and, if they cooperated while photos were being made and while they were being patted on those funny heads, there was almost a CERTAINTY that a treat would follow! Those turkeys each also knew their own names when you called them! Raising turkeys is similar to raising chicks. They need heat lamps when they are small and basically until they are fully feathered; they should have the finer poult feed when they are young; and they should be kept dry and out of drafts! Turkeys basically should not be housed with chickens because of the possibility of the spread of diseases between the two species, although ours have roamed the fields with our free-range chickens with no bad side effects. I don’t know what lessons Turkey Tom may teach me, but I’m sure as he roams the now much-larger fenced pastures he will show me lots of things. I do know that Thomas especially taught me a lot about myself. While Thomas sort of became the turkey leader, we never knew for certain just how old he was or what his background had included. He always seemed a little unsure of himself. Never seeming to quite fit in with everybody. Always looking just a little different. Always seeming to be just a little different from everybody else. Most folks that REALLY know me will attest to that sounding a lot like me! I can write words read by thousands, but you put me in a roomful of strangers, and I want to do like Thomas and hide underneath the porch! But like so many other things and animals here on this farm, God used Thomas to teach me lots of lessons. 56

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While Thomas couldn’t be exactly like the other turkeys who each had their own distinct personalities and traits, there were still things about Thomas that God could still use. God dresses the lilies in the field. He knows the number of feathers on each bird, including goofy big birds like Thomas and Turkey Tom. And HE KNOWS what’s in MY heart. Jim Dooley, a man at our former church, testified of how he feels so close to God early in the mornings as he stands in the midst of his acres of bountiful Blount County tomatoes high atop Pine Mountain. So I guess the most important thing that Thomas showed us, and that Turkey Tom is beginning to illustrate, is just how thankful we all ought to be. All of us that are privileged to enjoy the country life, to even just have a scrap of land to dig in the soil and watch the seeds break through, who can gaze through the morning mist and see not one but three different mama hens clucking to small clutches of baby chicks … who hear roosters crow … who hear the goats, or cows, or horses OR TURKEYS making their early morning sounds. So today as you go about your chores, jobs and lives, don’t forget the simple things around your farm or even your small city lot. Look up at those clouds. Listen to the birds in the trees. Smell whatever flower (or weed) is currently in bloom. And think about Thomas and now Turkey Tom. We are indeed blessed! “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” Job 12:7-10 (Suzy and Mack live on a small homestead in Blount County and can be reached on Facebook or at suzy.mccray@yahoo.com.)

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FOOD SAFETY

FOOD PRESERVATION MYTHS To disperse some myths going around on the internet, from those who have canned for years, or maybe you inherited your mother’s or grandmother’s canning equipment and recipes and want to follow what they say. Here are a few Myths and Facts:

58 Cooperative Farming News

BY A N G E L A T R E A D AWAY

MYTH I put the “HOT” or “HOT, COMPLETELY COOKED” food in the jar and the lid seals, without processing it. Since it sealed, it must be safe. Foods prepared in this manner present a serious health risk – particularly low-acid foods (vegetables and meats). First, you aren’t sterilizing the headspace. Second, the temperatures obtained in open kettle canning are not high enough to destroy all spoilage and food poisoning organisms that may be in the food. Third, microorganisms can enter the food when it is transferred from the kettle to jars and cause spoilage. Fourth, you haven’t forced excess air from the jars, ensuring a good vacuum seal. To minimize the risk of food spoilage, all high-acid foods (pickles, jams and jellies, fruits, salsas and tomatoes) should be processed in a boiling water canner or pressure canner and all low-acid foods in a pressure canner.

FAC T

- - - - - - MYTH BUSTED!- - - - - -

MYTH Tomatoes are high acid and do not require additional acid to safely can in a boiling water canner. Modern tomatoes are lower in acid than older varieties. Since the acidity of tomatoes is borderline, it is now necessary to take some precautions to can them safely. To assure the safety of tomatoes they must be acidified, whether processed in a boiling water bath or pressure canner. To acidify tomatoes, add 1 tablespoon of bottled lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon citric acid per pint of tomatoes, double this amount for quarts.

FAC T

- - - - - - MYTH BUSTED!- - - - - Old timey recipes are “tested” recipes because they have been used for years, and no one has died yet.

MYTH

FAC T “Grandma’s” canning recipes could be hazardous to your health. Many illnesses (example: stomach viruses) and even deaths in the past may have been due to food poisoning and the family may have never realized it. Food poisoning can affect the very young, the very old and those with weakened immune systems differently than strong, healthy individuals. Now that we have research-based recipes for

most foods, it is wise to use those recipes to assure the food you home can is safe. Tested recipes should be from companies and organizations that use research to assure their safety. These include USDA, any State Cooperative Extension Service literature and the Ball Blue Book. Be sure to get the current edition/issue, so they will have the most up-to-date, accurate recommendations. You can always call the local Extension Office and ask for a Food Safety Agent or how to contact the one in your area to get up-to-date information and recipes. - - - - - - MYTH BUSTED!- - - - - Many of my friends and people on social media I am seeing are using their electric pressure cookers to can vegetables with and they look really good.

MYTH

FAC T USDA does not recommend using an electric pressure cooker to do any kind of low-acid foods like vegetables and meats. You can use it to do water bath canning of items like jams and jellies. To be considered a pressure canner it must be big enough to hold 4 quart-size jars. - - - - - - MYTH BUSTED!- - - - - -

MYTH Green beans are okay to can in a water bath canner if I use 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar? FAC T Only adding a few tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice will not add enough acid to make the green beans or any vegetable safe enough to can in a water bath canner. Only pickled items with a lot more vinegar, jams, jellies, fruits, relishes, tomatoes with additional acidification can be safely canned in a water bath canner. The water bath canner temperature cannot reach any higher than 212 degrees and vegetables and meats need a temperature of 240 degrees to kill any bacteria such as botulism. This temperature can only be reached in a pressure canner. - - - - - - MYTH BUSTED!- - - - - -

MYTH There is mold growing in the jars of food I have canned. Can’t I just scrape it off and eat the food? FAC T

DO NOT eat home canned food that August 2021

has mold growing on it. Throw it out!!! Mold can change the acidity of the food, making it less acidic. Bacteria are more likely to grow in low-acid foods, especially the harmful Clostridium botulinum that causes botulism. If there is any mold, or signs of spoilage, discard the entire contents of the jar or container, even jams and jellies. - - - - - - MYTH BUSTED!- - - - - -

MYTH – I can use my own recipes to can foods like salsa and soups? FAC T Not a good idea! You need to use only upto-date recipes (published in 1990 or after) that have been scientifically tested to be sure that all harmful microorganisms will be destroyed during the canning process. Microorganisms are found naturally on fresh produce. Many cause foods to spoil, but some cause foodborne illness. When you are canning, do not change any ingredients in the recipes and follow the directions carefully. You can find tested recipes in reliable sources. Any State Extension website or the National Center for Home Food Preservation are reliable sources as well as USDA where you will find the Complete Guide to Home Canning. - - - - - - MYTH BUSTED!- - - - - -

Cooperative Farming News

Here is a great Tomato Salsa Recipe that is a tested trusted recipe:

Tomato Salsa 2 0-25 lbs tomatoes peeled and chopped - Tomatoes can be purchased in a 20-25 lb box from the store or farmers market. 5 cups chopped onions 3 Tablespoons chopped commercial garlic ½ cup diced, fresh cilantro ½ cup canning salt 2 cups 5% acidity apple cider vinegar 3 Tablespoons oregano 4 cups diced assorted mild peppers (red, yellow, orange, green) 1 Tablespoon black pepper ½ cup diced jalapeno pepper (optional for hot salsa) 3 6-oz cans of tomato paste 2 Tablespoons ground cumin – optional After peeling and chopping the tomatoes place them in a big saucepan and bring to a simmer while chopping other ingredients. Mix other ingredients except for cilantro (it will turn black if cooked too long) and bring to a simmer again for about 10 minutes. Have jars and lids ready (pint size). Pour salsa into hot jars and process in a water bath canner for 20 minutes. Remove from water bath canner and let stand in a draft-free area on a towel. Label and store away in a cool, dry pantry. Will keep for 1 year.

Nine Lives Ever since my kids were toddlers, my little family named the one Tiger because he was striped similar has always had cats as pets. I was figuring it up the to a tiger, and my five-year-old son named the other other day and counted 10 cats by name that we’ve Michael after the name of his best friend at the time. owned in the past 25 years. That’s right, 10 cats – (Remember that name Michael, because he’s the starting with a little kitten we named Sheba and end- main focus of this article.) ing with a stray that came to our back door over a A few years later, my kids were playing in a field year ago that we named Ginger. Poor little Ginger was near our home and discovered a litter of three abanthe nicest cat we’ve ever owned, but she had feline doned kittens. Thus, the inclusion of Skunky, Midleukemia and we had her euthanized a few months night and Bikini to the Lane family cat farm! Bikini ago. So, this is the first time in 26 years that there (so named because of markings on her belly that hasn’t been a cat at the Lane house. It’s the first time in 26 years that we’ve not had to buy cat food, or go to the vet, or clean up cat vomit, or remove a bird carcass from the back porch, or wash paw prints off our car windshield, or listen to the hacking sound of a cat coughing up a fur ball. Oh, and I forgot to mention, it’s also the first time in 26 years that we’ve not had a kitty cuddle on the couch, or a tender brush of a cat tail against our legs, or the sound of a contented purr in our ear after feeding time. I sure do miss them! Ten cats in 25 years! You’d think I would forget a few of the names after so many years, but I remember each one distinctly. As I mentioned before, Sheba was our very first cat. She was a kitten when we first got her, and my kids immediately fell in love with her. Sheba eventually had her own litter of kittens. We kept one of the kittens and named her Nala (after the Lion King character). Nala also had a litter of kittens and we kept two of her babies – Tiger and Michael. My seven-year-old daughter Bree (pictured here) was one of five abandoned kittens adopted by the Lane family over the years. August 2021

resembled a bikini) was the shortest-lived cat that we’ve ever owned. She didn’t make it past three months. Oh, you may have wondered about the name Skunky. Well, we didn’t name her that because she stunk. She was black all over except for a white stripe on her belly ... thus the name, Skunky. In 2009, while on a morning walk, my wife discovered two more abandoned kittens and they were later included into the Lane cat family. The kids named them Bree and Pepperjack. Yes, they were named after cheeses! That makes nine cats, and then Ginger, whom I mentioned earlier, rounded it off to a nice, even total of 10 cats. I told you earlier to remember one cat in particular – Michael. Now, Michael was the most interesting cat we’ve ever owned. Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying “cats have nine lives.” Well, Michael was the poster child for this saying. Michael was the sickliest cat I’ve ever seen in my life. There were several times throughout his lifespan that we thought he was knocking on death’s door. We’d take him to the vet and they’d say, “We’re not sure what’s wrong with him.” They’d give him a dose of steroids and two days later he’d be walking around like nothing ever happened. He had a long list of ailments. The vet suggested that he might have a kind of Feline AIDS. One especially gross ailment that he had was an infection in his paw that made it bleed frequently. There were times I’d wake up in the morning to find bloody paw prints all over our kitchen floor. It looked like a crime scene!

Now, Michael was the most interesting cat we’ve ever owned. Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying “cats have nine lives.” Well, Michael was the poster child for this saying. Knowing how sickly Michael was, we all sort of held our breath every time he had to be taken to the vet, wondering if this would be his final trip. He fooled us, time and again. As if his frequent ailments weren’t enough, he was attacked by pit bulls right on our back porch one night. I heard the ruckus in the middle of the night and ran to the back door, expecting the worst. After all, in his sickly state, Michael didn’t have the strength to fight off a pack of dogs, or to even climb a tree to safety. I ran the dogs off and began to look 62

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Michael (pictured here) had a very sickly appearance throughout his lifespan. Even though he definitely wasn’t a beautiful cat, he was well-loved by the Lane children, enjoying times of snuggling and lap-sitting. He was a prime example of the old adage “Beauty is only skin deep.”

for Michael. Somehow, he was able to muster the strength to climb the lattice surrounding our back porch. He was clinging on for dear life. He’d made it through another close brush with death. One morning, my wife and I were taking a morning walk together and we saw a dead cat in the middle of the road. It looked exactly like Michael. We looked him over thoroughly. He was the same color and had the same markings as Michael. I looked at my wife and said something like, “Well, death has finally caught up with Michael.” I went to our house and got a plastic bag to carry him in. Our kids were still asleep, so we weren’t going to tell them about Michael’s demise, but my daughter woke up and saw me with the bag in my hand. I had to tell her the truth ... “Michael is dead. He got run over by a car.” My daughter boo-hooed. I scooped Michael’s lifeless body into the bag and carried him to some land we own down the road from our house. Several of our pets are buried on this property and Michael was about to join them. My daughter wanted to come along for the burial. My son was still asleep in bed, so my wife stayed home. I dug the hole for Michael’s grave, placed the body in the hole and then held my daughter tightly as we both wept over the grave. We both recounted memories of our beloved, sickly cat. We spoke words of love

and appreciation for him. It was a touching moment. I covered the grave and we returned home. By the time we got back home, my son had awakened and my wife had already told him the bad news about Michael’s death. The house was quiet for over an hour as each of us mourned in our own way. A couple of hours later, while I was working at my computer, I heard my son call out, “Dad, I thought you said you buried Michael.” I replied, “Yes, he’s buried down at the land.” To which my son replied, “Then, who is this standing at our back door?” I ran to the back door and there stood Michael, meowing and pawing at the window. That wasn’t Michael we just buried. That wasn’t Michael that we just spoke loving words over and wept over ... that was somebody else’s cat!! I suppose we rejoiced almost as much that morning as Mary and Martha did the day that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead! Yes, to us, Michael had risen from the dead. He had seemingly cheated death yet another time. The rest of the story? Michael lived to a ripe old age of 13. He outlived all of our other cats. He came close to death’s door so frequently that we had to change the saying from “cats have nine lives” to “cats have ten lives.” This reminds me of what the apostle Paul said in

2 Corinthians 4:8-9: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (New International Version). Those who put their hope and trust in God have an incredible resiliency. Their faith keeps them going strong while others, who experience similar hardship, grow weary and faint at the simplest of life’s adversities. Proverbs 24:16, in the New Living Translation, says, “The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.” As I mentioned, Michael went through more difficulties and illnesses than all of our other cats combined, but he outlived them all. Everyone has moments of adversity and tribulation in their life. No one is exempt from this fact. The question is: How do you handle life’s moments of adversity? If you take a spill and face a seeming defeat, do you sit and wallow in self-pity or do you get back up and brush yourself off so you can face another day? Cats may have “nine lives” but you and I only have one, and the length and fullness of our life will be determined by the way we handle life’s troubles. Remember, Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

August 2021

THE CO-OP PANTRY B Y M A RY D E L P H

History of Peach Month When Ronald Reagan was President of the United States of America, he proclaimed August to be “Peach Month.” He encouraged the people of the United States to incorporate this nutritious fruit into their diets and made a charge to interested groups to celebrate this month with appropriate programs and activities.

Heat oven to 350 F. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Cut crust from bread slices and cut each into 4 or 5 strips. Spread fruit into prepared pan and cover with a layer of bread strips. Beat together butter, sugar and flour; mix in egg. Pour mixture over the fruit and bread. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Peach Ice Cream

Let’s celebrate some fabulous foods and beverage for Peach Month!

Easiest Ever Peach Cobbler 6 fresh peaches, pitted, skinned and sliced 1 1/2 cups white sugar 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 egg 1/2 cup butter, melted 5 slices white bread 6 eggs, beaten 3 1/2 cups white sugar 10 fresh peaches, pitted and chopped 4 cups heavy cream 2 cups half-and-half cream 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3/4 teaspoon salt In large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar until smooth; puree peaches in blender or food processor and stir 5 cups of puree into egg mixture. Stir in cream, half-and-half, vanilla and salt and mix well. Pour mixture into freezer canister of ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. 64

Cooperative Farming News

Fresh Peach Syrup 5 peaches 1/2 cup sugar 2 Tablespoons cornstarch 3 Tablespoons water 1 Tablespoon butter 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon Dash salt

Peach Glazed Chicken 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs 1 1/2 Tablespoons canola oil, divided 1/4 cup finely chopped sweet onion 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary 1/3 cup brown sugar 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided 3 medium ripe peaches pitted and chopped 1/4 teaspoon pepper Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to the pan and swirl it around to coat. Sprinkle chicken with ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper. Add chicken to the pan and cook for about 7 minutes per side, or until cooked through and golden brown. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside on a plate. Cover with foil to keep warm. Do not clean out the skillet but add another 1 ½ teaspoons oil. Add onion and rosemary; cook for 1 minute or until lightly golden, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the skillet as you stir. Add brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, ¼ teaspoon salt, and peaches; cook 12 minutes or until peaches are softened. Return chicken to the skillet and heat just until warm, spooning sauce over the meat. Serve chicken thighs with peach sauce.

Grab 1 peach, peel it and take the pit out. Mash it thoroughly. Put 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cornstarch into a medium-sized sauce pan. Toss to combine. Add the mashed peach and 3 tablespoons cold water and stir to combine. Heat the mixture over medium high heat, stirring occasionally and bring it to a rolling boil. Allow the mixture to bubble up for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. It will thicken for you and lose the “cloudy” look it started with. Set the pan aside to cool for a few minutes. Peel the remaining 4 peaches, remove the pits and lay the peaches out along a large cutting board. Chop into small pieces and add them to the cooked mixture. Add 1 tablespoon butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and a dash of salt. Stir it to combine, making sure the butter melts and is well incorporated. Pour syrup into a blender and blend until smooth.

Aguas Frescas

(Mexican Fruit Coolers) 1/2 cup sugar 4 cups water 4 cups chopped fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, papaya, strawberries, oranges, peaches, mangoes or any combination) Ice cubes Le mon or lime wedges (optional) Stir the sugar and water together in a large pitcher until the sugar dissolves. Measure out 1 cup. Puree the fruit and the 1 cup sugar water in a blender. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer back into the pitcher with the sugar water, mashing with a whisk or wooden spoon to eliminate any pulp. Taste and add more sugar, if desired. Serve over ice, with a lemon or lime wedge, if desired. August 2021

SELECTIONS FROM MARALYN WILSON: AN ART EXHIBITION AT KENTUCK ART CENTER August 5-29, 2021 Northport - Kentuck Art Center Admission Call 205-758-1257 HIKE OF SEVEN WATERFALLS August 6, 2021 Fort Payne - True Adventure Sports Admission - 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Call 256-997-9577

WOODSTOCK 5K RRCA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP July 31- August 7, 2021 Anniston - Anniston High School Admission for participants only 7:30 a.m. Call 256-310-0830 WILD CAVE TOUR August 2, 2021 Fort Payne - True Adventure Sports Admission - 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Call 256-997-9577 BOULDERING ADVENTURE August 3, 2021 Fort Payne - True Adventure Sports Admission - 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. Call 256-997-9577

FIRST FRIDAY IN HISTORIC DOWNTOWN FLORENCE August 6, 2021 Florence - North Court Street 5:30 - 9:00 p.m. Call 877-290-8880 FIRST FRIDAY IN GADSDEN August 6, 2021 Gadsden - Downtown Call 256-547-8696 FOUNDER’S DAY- MR. BELLINGRATH’S BIRTHDAY August 6, 2021 Theodore - Bellingrath Gardens and Home - Admission 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Call 251-973-2217 SECRET STAGES August 6-7, 2021 Birmingham - Various Locations Call 205-203-4546

ART TALK: DR. JOHN EDWIN MASON August 4, 2021 Mobile - Mobile Museum of Art 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Call 251-208-5200

ANNUAL SWIM FOR MELISSA & MIRACLE BASH August 6-7, 2021 Huntsville - Various Locations Admission Call 256-265-8077

THE INVITATIONAL AT THE WHARF MARINA August 5-7, 2021 Orange Beach - The Wharf Marina Admission Call 251-224-1900

WOODSTOCK 5K RRCA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP August 7, 2021 Anniston - Anniston High School Fee for participants only - 7:30 a.m. Call 256-310-0830

WORLD'S LONGEST YARD SALE August 5-8, 2021 Fort Payne - Lookout Mountain Parkway - Various Locations Call 256-845-3957

2021 CLAY COUNTY WATERMELON FESTIVAL August 7, 2021 Ashland - Ashland City Park 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Call 256-354-2121

Cooperative Farming News

BAYOU LA BATRE KAYAK CLASSIC August 7, 2021 Bayou La Batre - City Docks Call 251-824-1043 ALABAMA WILDLIFE CENTERS CHIRPS AND CHIPS August 7, 2021 Birmingham - Birmingham Botanical Gardens - Admission 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. Call 205-663-7930 CARIBBEAN DAY August 7, 2021 Foley - 1501 South OWA Blvd. Call 251-923-2111 18TH ANNUAL AWF YOUTH FISHING RODEO August 7, 2021 Millbrook - 3050 Lanark Road 7:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Call 334-285-4550 USS ALABAMA LIVING HISTORY CREW DRILL August 7, 2021 Mobile - 2703 Battleship Parkway Admission - 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Call 251-433-2703 TRUE CRIME WALKING TOUR OF OLD CAHAWBA August 7, 2021 Orrville - Old Cahawba Archaeological Park - Admission 10:00 a.m. Call 334-872-8058 SPACE CAMP IN HUNTSVILLE August 8-13, 2021 Huntsville - U.S. Space and Rocket Center - Admission Call 256-721-7114 BOULDERING ADVENTURE August 9, 2021 Fort Payne - True Adventure Sports Admission - 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. Call 256-997-9577 LANDMARK PARK BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL August 11, 2021 Mobile - Landmark Park - Admission 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. Call 334-794-3452

EXTREME MAZE EXPLORATION August 12, 2021 Fort Payne - True Adventure Sports Admission - 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. Call 256-997-9577 EXTREME NIGHT HIKE August 12, 2021 Fort Payne - True Adventure Sports Admission - 7:30 - 10:00 p.m. Call 256-997-9577 BIRMINGHAM SUMMER RESTAURANT WEEK 2021 August 12-29, 2021 Birmingham - Pepper Place/Downtown Birmingham Call 205-967-4745 ROCK THE SOUTH August 13-14, 2021 Cullman - Admission Call 256-737-7565 WHISTLESTOP BAR-B-QUE WEEKEND August 13-14, 2021 Huntsville - 404 Madison Street Call 256-564-8100 LEXINGTON TRUCK & TRACTOR PULL August 13-14, 2021 Lexington - 123 McQuire Lane Admission Call 256-710-1087 FIELD TO FORK DINNER August 14, 2021 Centre - 7290 County Road 16 Call 256-737-7565 SHOALS SOUTHERN SOUL MUSIC FESTIVAL August 14, 2021 Florence - McFarland Park Admission Call 256-457-9663 BIRMINGHAM HAMMERFEST August 14-15, 2021 Birmingham - 2829 2nd Ave. S. Admission Call 205-967-4745 THIRD FRIDAY IN DECATUR August 20, 2021 Decatur - 2nd Ave SE 5:00 p.m. Call 256-260-4293

SOUTH ALABAMA PRO RODEO CLASSIC August 20-21, 2021 Ozark - Dale County Ag-Plex Arena Admission - Gates open at 6:00 p.m. Rodeo begins at 8:00 p.m. Call 334-774-9448 FRANKLIN COUNTY WATERMELON FESTIVAL August 20-21, 2021 Russellville - Downtown Friday: 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Call 256-332-1760 BUCKMASTERS EXPO August 20-22, 2021 Montgomery - Montgomery Convention Center - Admission Call 800-240-3337 ARDMORE CRAPE MYRTLE FESTIVAL August 21, 2021 Ardmore - John Barnes Park Call 256-427-6126 EVENING IN WHITE August 21, 2021 Atmore - 137 North Main Street 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. Call 251-368-3305 4TH ANNUAL COMMUNITY SAFETY DAY August 21, 2021 Foley - 1501 S. OWA Blvd. 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Call 251-943-1200 ROCKIN’ ON THE RIVER August 21, 2021 Rogersville - Joe Wheeler State Park 2:00 - 11:00 p.m. Call 256-247-5466 ASA ARCHERY TOURNAMENT August 26-29, 2021 Fort Mitchell - 7 Uchee Creek Road Admission - 6:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Call 334-534-2539 LIONS RIVER RUN CAR SHOW August 28, 2021 Guntersville - Marshall County Park 1 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Call 256-677-9763

COCKTAILS AT THE VIEW September 1, 2021 Huntsville - Burritt on the Mountain 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. Call 256-536-2882 FISHFRY September 2, 2021 Bon Secour - St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Call 251-949-6254 AOHA STATE CHAMPIONSHIP HORSE SHOW September 2-5, 2021 Montgomery - Crawford Arena Admission - 9:00 a.m. Call 251-949-6254

***Please note that some of these events may be postponed or canceled due to COVID-19. Please contact the event directly in order to find out more information about the event.***

“What’s Happening in Alabama” Policy The AFC Cooperative Farming News publishes event listings as space allows, giving preference to agricultural events of regional or statewide interest and those that are annual or one-time events. The magazine assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of information submitted for publication and advises calling ahead to confirm dates, locations, times and possible admission fees. To be included in the calendar, send listings to: Cooperative Farming News Calendar of Events P.O. Box 2227 Decatur, AL 35609 -oremail to Calendar of Events at subscribe@alafarm.com *Please include name of event, where it will be held (both town and physical location), a phone number for more information, and an email or website.* *Event Listings must be received at least two months in advance and will be accepted up to a year in advance.*

August 2021

YOUR CHECKOFF DOLLARS WORK FOR YOU It Begins Here

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1-cent per bushel of grain is collected for the state checkoff

The state Wheat & Feed Grain Committee allocates funds for research, marketing and education. Led by 12 farmers, the committee works to cultivate profitability for wheat & feed grain farmers statewide.

research

Wheat & Feed Grain Division

marketing

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TO CONTINUE THE CHECKOFF Polling locations available at GrainsOfTruth.net 68

Cooperative Farming News

August 2021

Articles inside

What's the Point with GreenPoint Ag: Working with an AG Technology Provider?

Grazing Grace: Nine Lives

HOWLE’S HINTS: AUGUST

Dusty Newton: Backyard Honey Farming

Following the Crimson Trail: Keys to Recovering Your Trophy

Reeves Farm: Where the Peaches are Sweeter

4-H Extension Corner

Reeves Farm

FFA Sentinel