Rural Heritage October/November 2025

HAYMAKING EQUIPMENT•TILLAGE IMPLEMENTS•PRODUCE TOOLS•TRAINING DUKE TO DRIVE

Oct/Nov 2025

HORSE PROGRESS DAYS 2025 SEMINARS

BORROWING FROM YESTERDAY TO DO THE WORK OF TODAY SINCE 1976.

Shop anytime at Lehmans.com • 800-438-5346 Stay Cozy and Warm this Winter Prepare your home from the inside out. Shop Lehman’s for practical and pretty products that will keep you and your family warm during those dark winter months.

On the Square in Kidron, OH • Open every day except Sunday

VOLUME 50

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2025

NUMBER 5

Editor/Publisher Joe Mischka editor@ruralheritage.com Advertising ad@ruralheritage.com Editing Susan Blocker Subscriber Services subscribe@ruralheritage.com Regular Contributors

Departments

5 Publisher's Post 82 Calendar of Events 85 Associations

90 My Card 96 Breeder's Directory 97 RH on RFD-TV

Rob Collins Ralph J. Rice Anne & Eric Nordell Donn Hewes Jerry Hicks Dick Courteau

3 Cover Photo: Cameron Genter trains a young working steer at Lightroot Farm in Boulder, Colo. Above: Cameron spreads a load of manure with his team of horses. Features 6 A View From Holmes County.......................... Mary Ann Sherman 11 Understanding Soil Tests................................. Mary Ann Sherman 12 Pastured Egg Production................................. Mary Ann Sherman 14 Grazing Cattle................................................. Mary Ann Sherman 16 Greenhouse Tour............................................... Mary Ann Sherman 18 Raising Meat Goats ......................................... Mary Ann Sherman 20 Pesticide-Free Home Orchards........................ Mary Ann Sherman 21 Soil Health.......................................................... Mary Ann Sherman 22 HPD 2025 International Meeting................... Mary Ann Sherman i Four Bonus Pages (Millroad Threshermen)*...........Rural Heritage 26 HPD 2025 Field Equipment ..................................... Rural Heritage 60 HPD 2025 Equipment Manufacturers..................... Rural Heritage 62 A Two-Acre Demo Field................................................. Rob Collins v Four Bonus Pages (NSFWA Conference)*...............Rural Heritage 66 Training Duke to Drive................................................ Donn Hewes 74 Combining a Community............................................ Ralph J. Rice ix Four Bonus Pages (2025 WMSTR)*........................Rural Heritage *Bonus Pages are available on our Digital Edition.

RURAL HERITAGE ™ (ISSN 0889-2970) is published bimonthly. Periodical postage is paid at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and additional mailing offices. ©2025 Mischka Press. All rights reserved; reproduction of any material in this publication without written permission is prohibited. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $34.95 for one year in the USA and possessions; US$58.00 for one year in Canada, US$83.00 overseas. POSTMASTER send PS Form 3579 to: RURAL HERITAGE PO Box 2067 Cedar Rapids IA 52406-2067 CONTRIBUTORS: We welcome manuscripts, photographs, and drawings for possible publication. Email submissions are preferred. Guidelines are available on our website. Rural Heritage 3421 Mount Vernon Road Cedar Rapids IA 52403-3736 (319) 362-3027 www.ruralheritage.com

October/November 2025

The next issue will be the Dec 2025/Jan 2026 edition which goes to press early November. Contributor and Advertiser Deaadlines for the next issue are October 20, 2025. Your Subscription We want you to enjoy uninterrupted service to your favorite magazine, Rural Heritage . If you have any questions you may contact us by: email:subscribe@ruralheritage.com; Cedar Rapids IA 52406 Remember, magazines are not automatically forwarded after an address change. The US Postal Service not only destroys your magazine but charges us for the notification. An issue lost because of failure to report an address change will not be replaced for free. We publish 6 issues per year: Jan 15 (Feb/Mar) Mar 15 (Apr/May) May 15 (Jun/Jul) Jul 15 (Aug/Sep) Sep 15 (Oct/Nov) Nov 15 (Dec/Jan) The US Postal System takes as long as 18 days to deliver to some areas, so please be patient. To Canada can take as long as 4 weeks and to overseas as long as 6 weeks. The expiration date above your name on your mailing label represents the abbreviated month and last two digits of the year: JAN26, for example, represents January 2024. If you renew within 25 days of the next issue date (July 5 for the Aug/Sep issue, for instance) you will get the next issue in the mail. If you miss that deadline you will need pay extra postage to get the missed issue. phone: (319) 362-3027 or mail: Rural Heritage PO Box 2067

Rural Heritage

4

Publisher's Post A nother year, another Horse Progress Days, and another HPD issue. We featured a few of the newly developed products in the last issue, and we'll report on the forecarts, powercarts and a few odds and ends in the next issue. This issue covers the plows, harrows, weeders, planters, fertilizer and manure spreaders, cultivators, mowers and much more that were demonstrated at Clare, Mich., last July. • • • • I t has been a busy late summer/early autumn with trips to Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, Michigan and a few other locations I can't recall at the moment. One of the constants I've noticed at all these locations is that more young people are becoming involved in using draft horses, mules, oxen or donkeys. Of course,

as I get older, the definition of “younger” continues to include more people. That said, however, it sure a is treat to see grandsons and granddaughters learning from their grandparents and other mentors how to use their draft animals and care for them. I was reminded of this fact when I attended the annual Sodbuster Days in Fort Ransom, N.D., last month. I hadn't been there since 2017 when I got a shot I used on the cover in January 2018. People remembered that cover and remarked the same group of people in that photo would be doing the same thing at the 2025 event. Rodney Lugert drives his Belgian team on a full hayrack with Brody Nordick and John Kaline. • • • • W e are now shipping our new 2026 Rural Heritage Calendars. We've been publishing wall calendars

Above and Right: Rodney Lugert with Brody Nordick, and John Kaline.

…continued on page 78

October/November 2025

5

Horse Progress Days 2025

A View From Holmes County

tent was, all you had to do was follow the sound of the John Deere Hit and Miss Engine that churned this frozen treat. For folks who wanted to get a head start on HPD, the Thursday Bus Tour was ideal. Some 53 people filled the bus, with a van carrying six more people following. If you wanted to see a successful organic dairy farm, look no farther than the Paul Miller Farm, the first stop on the HPD tour. This family farm is 100 acres plus 100 rented acres. It uses horses and has a herd of 52 cows, mostly Holsteins. Last year, Paul’s son David started the process of taking over the dairy, ensuring that their sustainable practices will continue for yet another generation. The Miller family also has a greenhouse business. Started in 2014, it has grown from one small greenhouse into three huge ones. They offer a wide selection of popular shrubs and colorful flowers. This stop is a testament to what a dedicated family

by Mary Ann Sherman T he 2025 Horse Progress Days (HPD) took place at Alvin and Rosa Yoder’s Farm in Clare, Mich. This was their third time hosting the event, having done so in 2012 and 2018. There were 6,700 paid admissions. But with the number of children under the age of 12 who got in for free, plus the people working at HPD, the final number was probably double that. Just inside the gate, each person picked up a refillable plastic water bottle that they could refill at any of the three tanks of ice cold water that were located throughout the grounds. These tanks did a land-office business. This may have diminished drink sales at the food tents, but they, too, were busy throughout the day. Especially popular on these hot, muggy July days was the stand that served homemade soft serve ice cream — with or without Hershey’s syrup. And if you wondered where this

A barrel train pulled by miniature horses gave rides to kids at HPD 2025.

Rural Heritage

6

result is that their minerals are more bio-available than synthetic minerals. They do use sea salt plus minimal amounts of synthetic minerals to achieve balanced products. The company also offers liquid products like Knock Out that can deal with livestock and pet problems. The results are products that harmonize with nature, the Natural Way, to the benefit of their customers. Whether you’re looking for a potential racehorse among his Standardbred yearlings or a traffic safe and sound buggy horse, the man to see is Harvey Byler. His farm specializes in high quality, dependable horses at both ends of the equine spectrum. He was instrumental in the founding of the Great Lakes Horse Auction. He is also the Michigan representative for Elite Nutrition Minerals which promotes the best possible horse health. It’s no wonder that Harvey is a well-respected member of the community. John Hershberger owns Quality Structures and took over the company in 2022. With two locations, the business handles treated wood structures out of Evart, Mich., and elite structures out of its Clare location. In addition to managing 15 employees who build portable buildings, John is known for his Standardbred brood mares. He raises high quality foals that he sells at the Mid Ohio Yearling Sale. Steven and Elsie Miller operate a 40-acre produce farm that grows vine and cole crops. They also operate a tomato greenhouse. Their operation relies on part-time help in May through November. They sell their crops through the Clare County Produce Auction. Visitors can enjoy the field crops and the greenhouse at this small but efficient business. No tour would be complete without the noonday Amish meal, and Country Side Dinners aims to please. Though Bill and Mary Yutzy bought the business in October 2020 and opened in January 2021, Country Side Dinners has been satisfying hearty appetites since the 1980s. It’s a family run business, with four daughters helping out and extra help hired for the tour buses. They offer chicken, ham or meatloaf, delicious side dishes and, of course, pie. Country Side Dinners says that you won’t be disappointed.

can do with plenty of hard work and imaginative innovation. North County Metals, owned by Victor Garber, started in 2012 and focused on metal roofing. Since then, it has grown into a one-stop operation for just about anything metal that’s involved in building. Serving local businesses and farms, in 2017 it expanded to offer roll forming, the continuous bending of a long strip of sheet metal into a desired cross section to fit the exact needs of a customer. Visitors got to see this innovative process firsthand. North County Metals shows how high-quality workmanship and striving to meet the needs of its customers can help grow a company. In 2009, David Schlabach Jr. founded Natural Way Minerals. This family-owned company specializes in livestock nutrition and animal health. They offer a full line of products for a wide variety of livestock — horses, cows, sheep and goats, hogs, poultry, deer and camels, as well as pets like dogs and cats. They use minerals from many different mines throughout the Unites States, Canada and Mexico that are not subject to high temperatures or treated with acid like so many synthetic or manipulated minerals. The The Children’s Area was a popular location for many families throughout the event.

October/November 2025

7

One of the many teams put to large people-movers transported visitors from the parking area to the event

In the Round Pen, there were clinics on Colt Starting, Equine Nutrition and Mare Care and Horse Conformation. The Produce Area offered field demonstrations on soil preparation and planting, a seminar on Understanding Soil and Tissue Tests and the ever popular Greenhouse Tomato Tour. The Logging Program featured Felling Demonstrations with the sharing of safety tips on how to handle these dangerous situations. There was advice on Tree Topping and proper trimming to keep your trees healthy as well as demonstrations with Logging Carts, Sawmills and other Related Equipment. The Homestead tent offered diversified seminars: Your Cow’s Health and Production From the Soil Up, a Dairy Herd Roundtable Discussion, Do’s and Don’ts Learned from 20-plus Years Grazing Cattle, a Pork Processing Demonstration, Managing A Home Orchard Without Pesticides, Egg Production, Raising Meat Goats and Honey Bees in the Winter. For the ladies in the Homemaker’s Tent, the Cheesemaking Seminar was very popular. Also

After years in business, in 2023 Daniel Hostetler sold the Colonville Country Store to longtime employee Lee Yoder. The business has continued to expand, adding a propane filling station, propane appliances and lawn furniture. That’s in addition to the wide variety of products that the store stocks. Colonville Country Store offers a chance to browse, the opportunity to buy and the possibility of finding a unique treasure that you just have to have. Once again this year, HPD offered “Something for Everyone.” For farmers there was the latest in draft powered equipment. In the morning, there were demonstrations of manure spreaders, large and small. Plows, disks and other harrows showed how to prepare the soil. In the afternoon, there were hay mowers of all types, tedders, rakes and balers, both small square and round. After the balers came bale movers and wrappers. The Michigan Horseshoer Association Tent featured presentations on Horse Hoof Care and Harness and Collar Fitting and, as befits the name, Effective Shoeing Demonstrations.

Rural Heritage

8

Wound Care, His Saving Grains, the Salve Making and the Candle Making Demonstrations. At the International Meeting, Dale Stoltzfus greeted visitors from Belgium, Burkina Faso, Canada, France, Germany and Switzerland. They spoke about their experience with horses in their native countries. The audience got to talk with them at the end of the meeting and afterwards. The Children’s Area was filled with fun and exciting things for the little ones to enjoy: a huge sandbox perfect for digging, a swing set and a petting zoo with miniature horses, a mama pig with her eight suckling piglets, a goat with her kids and a foal. For the children who wanted to travel, there were two barrel trains pulled by miniature horses. If you wanted something, you could probably find it at this year’s HPD where 178 vendors operated 257 booths, some vendors having more than one booth. Many dealers offered discounts on their equipment so they didn’t have to truck it back home. Each day began with the Pony Express that started right here in Clare. For the 2012 HPD, the planners wanted to do something with the children that would involve horses or ponies. After all, these children are the teamsters of tomorrow. They came up with the idea of a Pony Express — the children would drive their pony carts around the arena to demonstrate their horsemanship. And if the carts were filled with siblings, so much the better. The event was a big hit and became so popular that it’s been on the “Don’t Miss” list every year since 2012. Andrew Raber of Hastings, Mich., owned most of the animals in the petting zoo. When I asked what breed the ponies were that pulled the barrel train, he told me they were miniature horses and that they were registered. Sure enough, the American Miniature Horse Registry, created by the American Shetland Pony Club in the 1970s, registers as many as 10,000 horses each year and hosts an annual national show. Add another breed to the growing list that you can see at HPD. George and Luci Gawinowski, who came from France and now live in Kentucky, traveled to HPD to demonstrate the Kassine. This is an implement developed by a nonprofit organization in France to help transition poor farmers from handwork to animal traction. The implement can be drawn by any draft animal — horse, donkey, mule or oxen, though horses are rarely used in agriculture in developing

countries. By adding various pieces suitable for your farm’s particular needs, the Kassine can be used for all types of tillage and cultivation. As their logo says: “ The Kassine, one man, one animal.” Ingrid and Richard Fountaine came from Oak Ridge,NJ.They have two Percherons,two Haflingers, a Welsh Pony and a Pony of the Americas. He is a farrier, and, when he was a teenager, he used to drive a carriage around Central Park in New York City. Now, in addition to his farrier work, he trailers Central Park carriage horses to the Mennonites in Lancaster, Penn. Ingrid said that each horse gets five weeks off. It’s gratifying to hear that these horses get “vacations.” A tour of the parking lot revealed license plates from 26 states. They came from as far away as California, Texas, Florida, New York and Maine. And there were many, many plates from Ontario. At our motel in Mt. Pleasant, about 30 miles south of Clare, there was a bus from Milverton, Ontario, with 43 passengers, all from the same family. For a Christmas present, Grandma and Grandpa gave the family two days admission to HPD, the motel rooms, the bus trip and the driver. What a gift! I noticed one of the crowd control riders on an unusual horse. When I asked what breed it was, he said it was a Leopard Appaloosa. Add another type of horse to the growing list that you can see at HPD. At the Parade of Breeds, all 43 of the Pony Express participants drove around the arena, followed by Luci and Georges Gawinowski brought their Kassine implement to the event with all its attachments.

October/November 2025

9

47 crowd control/parking lot attendants who had camped in the woods the night(s) before. Both groups elicited thunderous applause. Then came the horses: Belgians, Percherons, Haflingers, Norwegian Fjords, Clydesdales and more. There were no ribbons in the manes or tails twisted into buns. These horses had worked in the fields all day or shuttled passengers to and from the parking lots. The announcer told the audience a little about each breed as the horses circled the arena, all to much applause. Finally, the Barnyard Horse Pull on Friday night. The tension built as they started out with a few thousand pounds and built up to 6,900 pounds. The winner was Joe Stutzman. Then the announcer asked for volunteers to get on one end of the rope with the winning Belgians on the other end. Some 25 men moved the sled 14 feet. A new group of 25 men did the same and then Horse Progress Days 2025 was over. Preparations are already underway for Horse Progress Days, July 3 and 4, 2026, in Arcola, Ill. Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we’ll see you there.

Rural Heritage

10

Understanding Soil Tests HPD 2025 Seminar

Tomatoes come from the Peruvian mountains. They’re sensitive to ammonia. If your leaves look like bubble wrap, that means you have abnormal growth and a problem. As a rule of thumb, two-thirds of your nitrates should come from nitrogen fertilizer. Keep track of nitrogen in tissue samples. The plant pulls up nitrogen like a pump. Some 80% of blossom end rot is caused by moisture management. Inside the greenhouse, you need effective fertilizer and shade. Keep your fruit under the leaves. Outside the greenhouse, you need enough water. You need two pieces of drip tape per plant. The more evenly you water, the more even your fruit development. Red Deuce tomatoes send out suckers that you need to prune. Challenge environmental stresses before they become plant problems. Most of all, Pat said to look for trend lines.

by Mary Ann Sherman P at Owens said that you should take a soil test every year. You need multiple years of testing to determine trends. When you take a soil test, kick off the top layer of the soil with your heel. This layer has higher organic matter than the rest of the soil that you are testing. Soil testing is more of an art than a science, but it’s still a science. The pH inside the high tunnel greenhouse was 7.2. When potassium is two times greater than the magnesium, you likely have a magnesium deficiency, especially for Red Deuce tomatoes. If potassium is less than 2%, you need to add potassium. Use dolomitic lime, which contains both calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate. There used to be a great concern about acid rain, but not so much anymore. The sulfur in acid rain is important for flavor and color. Don’t go crazy with micronutrients. Don’t apply them in large amounts. You want to spoon feed micronutrients. Look for trend lines. You want to take a water sample at least once a year. If your aquifer gets low, the minerals in your water will become more concentrated and test higher. Test your pH without fertilizer and then again with fertilizer. Try to be consistent. If you test on a Monday, the next time you test should also be a Monday. If it’s 65 degrees today and 90 degrees the next time you want to test, be aware that the results may vary a lot. Perhaps wait until the next Monday when the temperature is closer to 65 degrees. If something tests very high or very low, don’t freak out. Make small incremental changes. Soil and water testing facilities hold their results for a time. If your soil or water test comes back really out of range, it may pay to submit another soil or water test to see if you get the same outlandish results. The darkest green is at the end of tomato leaves. It’s a bad sign if your dark green leaf matches the stem.

October/November 2025

11

Pastured Egg Production HPD 2025 Seminar

When a chicken eats feed, it goes into the craw where the gizzard “chews” it. Use the appropriate size grit made from granite, not oyster shells. A chicken will eat and water and then lay her egg a couple of hours later. Chickens love to graze, especially scratching through animal manure. In that, they’re like dung beetles. When you put chickens in a pasture, you want to hit it and then move on. They’ll denude a pasture if they’re left there too long. Comfort is a very important consideration for pastured poultry. Chickens don’t do well in heat or direct sunlight. In cold weather these hoop houses are dry and out of the wind. Below 20 degrees, the chickens will stop laying, so add heat at that temperature. The metal reinforced “roof” protects the birds from hawks. He moves the hoop buildings every Monday and Thursday. Electrified feather netting that’s 48 inches high protects the birds from ground predators when they’re in the fields, forests or orchards. He doesn’t use dogs for protection because they might eat the chickens. He keeps one to two roosters in with every 100 chickens. Every 1 pound of feed that a chicken eats results in 2 pounds of manure. Grady has been farming with draft horses since 1990. He uses a moldboard plow and no synthetic fertilizers. He also keeps a small milk cow herd. He wants the birds to lay their eggs in community boxes, so he uses roll-out nest boxes where the eggs roll toward the back. They collect the eggs in baskets. When it comes to cleaning and packaging the eggs, use warm soapy water to clean them. The shells are semi-permeable, meaning that air goes through the shell. When stored under 45 degrees, with the blunt Grady has what he calls his “Egg Mobiles,” hoop buildings with opaque inner walls. If the temperature is 95 degrees or more, a misting system turns on.

by Mary Ann Sherman G rady Phelan traveled from Texas with his wife and seven homeschooled children to present a seminar on Pastured Egg Production. In addition to chickens, they have cattle and sheep. He got a BA in zoology and philosophy, worked for Joel Salatin and has been raising chickens for 17 years. He sells all his products to one restaurant and to families through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Grady is on the board of the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association. For

this seminar, he focused on layers. He runs his chickens on fields, in forests and orchards and moves them around frequently. This makes for a healthier chickens and more nutritious eggs. There are three important things to keep in mind when you’re raising chickens: fresh flowing water, nutrition and comfort. He uses nipple drinkers for baby chicks and bell drinkers out in the field. There is pressurized water throughout the farm.

The feed is not vegetarian. He feeds meat, alfalfa, fish meal, vitamins and minerals, including calcium, and tries to match the life cycle of the bird. Fresh feed makes all the difference. He tries to feed layer mash that is 14 days old or less. Feed that is 30 days old loses a lot of its vitamins. Red Star chickens are a hybrid breed that is known for their tremendous egg-laying capabilities. They produce around 300 to 430 brown eggs a year and adapt well to free range environments. Hy-Line Brown is the world’s most balanced egg layer and produces more than 480 brown eggs in 100 weeks. These chickens begin laying with optimum egg size and show unrivaled feed efficiency. These two types of bird eat ¼ pound of feed a day. Ideally, feed half in the morning and half at night. Heritage birds consume 1/3 pound of feed a day and can get fat if you don’t watch them.

Grady Phelan

Rural Heritage

12

side — the air sac — up, the eggs will last two to three months. Strive for biosecurity. In April 0f 2024, 6.5 million birds were destroyed in Michigan due to the avian flu.

Look for signs of illness. Where do you start to find out about laws regarding egg sales? Grady recommended the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.

October/November 2025

13

Grazing Cattle HPD 2025 Seminar

New Energy and New Thoughts go together. Stagnation. The first three years of rotational grazing are good, but you plateau after eight years and start going downhill. Buying inputs will not fix grazing problems. Observation is important. Sometimes we don’t realize what we’re seeing. No one size fits all. Flash grazing. This is fast and throws one or two hayfields off schedule. It must be dry. You put the cows in to eat the first cutting when it’s still softer feed. This takes the toughness out of first cutting. Don’t park them in there. Eat it and leave. In 2019, we got 11 inches of rain in one night. We continued grazing even though it was wet. Lost a lot of soil structure. Gave it a long rest. We repaired some of these soils with tillage. You can actually build organic matter when plowing. Our best gains were in fields that were tilled. Feed has a tremendous amount to do with success. Went from daily moves that were trampling too much organic matter to weekly moves. In the same day, we got three companies’ soil tests on the same fields, and they were all different. In the grazing world, the environment changes every year. Don’t get stuck in one system. It used to be that the week of June 20th was the week to make first cutting. That’s now moved back to the week of May 10th. If I put dry hay to cattle, they won’t eat grass. If you buy dry hay, your winter woes will go away. You get better rumen function with a mixture of dry and wet hay, High energy feed is not a good feed. Take it out and put a bale of straw with it and you’ll be better off. Graze shorter and harder some of the time. Knock down your fears and try something new. Shorty has run into a brick wall innumerable times, but he picks himself up and tries something else. Ag universities present farmers as dummies who farm because they cannot do anything else. This is not true. What is a farmer? • A geneticist to know what to breed with what. • An agronomist to know about crop production and soil management.

by Mary Ann Sherman S horty Hochstetler, farmer, mentor, advisor and speaker, discussed the do’s and don’ts from 20-plus years of grazing cattle. He started out by saying that being 50 miles from home makes him an expert. When you go wrong, you also become an expert. Being an expert gives him a huge opportunity to learn. Then he asked, what do you want from life? During the last 18 months, he has seen a lot of older fellows going to the grave. When you think about it, we want the next generation to take over from us. First off, make a farm name that means something. He chose the name Schwarzerde which means Black Earth. Agriculture is the most exciting industry to be in. Why? Because we experience God’s power every day. Watch for “out of the box thinkers.” They are the innovators. Don’t worry about what the neighbors will think. Involve yourself with people who are better than you and learn from them. He mentioned Allen Williams, a sixth generation farmer and leading expert in regenerative grazing and soil health. Gabe Brown owns a 5,000 acre North Dakota ranch that practices Holistic Management and no-till farming. David Kline offers more common-sense advice than anybody else Shorty knows. Louis Bromfield said that the health and goodwill of the family, herd and soil should be our aim. You farm because of the pleasure and satisfaction of it. Profit follows. If somebody says there’s no money in farming, that person’s experience shows that the saying is true. Fortunately, that saying is dwindling. Two successful models show that low-cost production and purposeful differentiation both work. Read a lot of articles about 300 acres or more. Successful farming takes a burning desire to achieve. Good luck equals good management. If you have an idea for something new or different, try it. Don’t be afraid.

Rural Heritage

14

• A forage specialist to know what to feed to your livestock. • A meteorologist to know what the weather will be. • A nutritionist to know how to feed your livestock for maximum growth. • A veterinarian to deal with livestock medical problems. • A detective to find out what’s happening on your farm. • A business analyst to take your farm to profitability. • An insurance agent to manage risk. • A banker to finance any changes on your farm. • A mechanic to fix equipment that breaks.

• An engineer to figure out how to do or build something. • A contractor to build your buildings. • A lumber jack to harvest the trees on your land. • A conservationist to take proper care of your land. • A butcher to handle your down cows. • A marketer to promote your products. • A counselor to advise your family and your employees. • A flight specialist not to fly off the handle when something goes wrong. This list, while funny, is also true and it comes from a man with 20-plus years experience grazing cattle, Shorty Hochstetler.

October/November 2025

15

2025 Greenhouse Tour HPD 2025 Seminar

The peppers in the greenhouse didn’t make it. They were pulled out and replaced by some lettuce plants that Gary happened to have with him. That brings us to the second big problem. A valve got stuck and nobody noticed it, so the watering system stayed on all night long. This set them back because peppers and tomatoes do not like wet feet. The greenhouse used two types of trellising systems. The first, Florida Weave or Basket Weave, sandwiches the plants between lengths of twine that run horizontal, that is, parallel to the ground. In the second, what Leon called String and Clip, a clip gently grasps the stem while, at the same time, the clip also grabs the string which reaches up to the ceiling of the greenhouse. Leon gave a weekly formula they used for raising flavorful tomatoes on the 153 plants that were in the greenhouse. • 8 pounds of 4-18-48 for plants low in Potassium • 5 pounds of 10-20-20 the backbone of flavor • 5 cups of Bio Terra Green liquid fish imported from Chile • Dormant Ecovam to activate microbial activity in the soil • Gypsum composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate for low calcium • Foliar fed calcium • 2 ounces of SiMag 58 for sulfur and magnesium • 8 ounces of raw Epsom Salt for magnesium and sulfur • 1 ounce Siman 911 for manganese • 2 ounces of MetaboliK HV1 for phosphorous • 2 ounces of Phyto-Gro Extra for phosphorous Leon wanted to try Mountain Man tomatoes. They’re a little smaller and don’t load up so high with fruit as Gary’s favorite, Red Deuce. The record for Red Deuce was 68 pounds of tomatoes per plant. Leon said that next time they would have two rows of grape and cherry tomatoes. These tiny tomatoes, when mixed in a clamshell, bring good money at the produce auctions. They are an excellent crop if you have the labor to pick the fruit. The family taking care of the greenhouse would keep the money from fruit sales the rest of the season.

by Mary Ann Sherman L eon Hershberger of Cushman Creek Supply (CCS), along with Gary Shafer of ISP Technologies, conducted the Greenhouse Tour. First, Leon showed us the CCS Mixing Unit. This model was the 35-gallon tank version, but the 85-gallon tank model is more popular because of its bigger tank. That allows you to dump a 50-pound bag of fertilizer into it and have it dissolve quickly when you turn on the agitator for the required time. The valve system lets you hook up to a header hose and inject the solution into your system. Once you’ve injected all the solution, the mixing unit stops. The unit can be put on running gears and taken virtually anywhere. The cost is $2,500 but Leon said he’s considering putting into their catalog a hand-drawn version which can be made for “peanuts.” This was the third time that Horse Progress Days had its Greenhouse on this site: 2012, 2018 and 2025, The family taking care of the greenhouse had never run a greenhouse before. In the past Leon and Gary had used people like this but there was usually an expert of theirs who could check the greenhouse every week for signs of trouble. This time, that didn’t happen and there were a couple of serious problems. First, they became heavily infested with aphids. They were so bad that if you turned over a leaf, there was no room for one more aphid on the leaf. The aphids were caused by nitrogen being too high. Leon said this was his fault. He wanted to use pelletized chicken manure. The directions called for 3 pounds per 100-foot row, but he used 5 pounds per row in the greenhouse and those rows were nowhere near 100 feet long. That provided too much nitrogen, and the flavor was only so-so. Leon and Gary expected to pull down the nitrogen level, get rid of the aphids and move on, but nothing that they tried worked, not even NEEM. They actually considered pulling out all their plants and starting over, but finally decided to use more drastic measures, namely non-organic insecticides. That is why, when you entered the greenhouse, there was no sign saying that only organic insecticides had been used here.

Rural Heritage

16

Tomatoes grow in a demonstration greenhouse.

In the String and Clip System of trellising, suckers in the upper plant would have to go. With too much nitrogen plants will stretch. Tomato size is determined at pollination. When pruning the plants, keep foliage over the tomatoes. Make sure that the fruit is covered. When it’s growing, the plant determines that it can make X number of tomatoes. But if it doesn’t receive enough nutrients, it can abort a tomato. The bottom leaves should be trimmed out to let the air get underneath the leaves and fruit. The improved air flow is important. If you reach under the leaves and fruit at midday and it’s damp, this presents an ideal condition for disease. A magnesium deficiency can cause tomato blight and eventually lead to the death of the plant. When the plant runs out of magnesium, it pulls this mineral from the oldest leaves, usually at the bottom of the plant, and uses it elsewhere. Robbed of magnesium, these bottom leaves are where blight lands, so trim them off. A sign of manganese deficiency is light and dark patches on the same leaf. Outside the greenhouse both sweet and storage onions were growing. Onions start bulbing based on the length of day. Every leaf is a ring on the onion. Onions require 140 to 150 units of nitrogen. Planting time is the second week of April in Grand Haven, Michigan. In Ohio and Indiana, planting is in late March.

Onions can take freezing down to 27 to 28 degrees, but not night after night. If you eat an onion and then you can taste it for hours afterward, this is caused by pyruvic acid, a result of adding nitrogen and sulfur too late in the season. More minerals like potassium and calcium lower the percentage of nitrogen. Yellow tips on the leaves in May indicate a nitrogen deficiency. You need another 15 to 20 pounds of nitrogen through the drip line. When 50% of the tops dry down and fall over, you’re close to harvest. Push down the rest of the leaves with your shoe and let the onions dry for a couple of days. Beware that rain is the enemy of harvested onions. Lay the onions down in a row with the leaves covering the bulb of the previously pulled onion. Clip them to 1 inch when you take them inside to dry. The same harvesting advice goes for garlic when 25% of the tops dry down and fall over. Nearby, there was a small field of corn about 4 feet tall, in tassel with the silk showing on the ears. This wasn’t HPD corn. Gary said that more and more sweet corn is being grown that’s short, with the ears close to the ground. This facilitates mechanical harvesting and reduces the amount of corn plant that’s left behind after harvest. Your eyes will tell you a lot if you know what to look for. Many in the audience were bi-lingual Amish. Both Leon and Gary agreed that it’s to your benefit if you also learn to understand “Plant.”

October/November 2025

17

Raising Meat Goats HPD 2025 Seminar

Once you start kidding, cut the paddocks in half and put the goats into a new paddock in three days. Keep them in the old and new paddocks until the kids are a couple of weeks old. The does kid out when they’re 2 years old. Keep the billies in with the does until July 1, before the does start cycling again. If you flip an eyelid and it’s pink, that’s okay. If it’s white, you probably have parasites. Safe-Guard is okay to use. The stress of weaning can be fatal. Move the feeders with the little goats, and a couple of weeks before weaning, start giving them some feed pellets. After corn harvest, put the does in the field for a month. They’ll eat most of the corn stalks. By putting netting around the corn stalk field, you’ll get a month of free food. Titus figures on about 15% replacements. Sell the wethers November through January when they’re 60 to 70 pounds. You can sell them to ethnic groups. Keep in mind that if you move them 50 miles, you lose 10 to 12% of their body weight. At the time of Horse Progress Days, July 4 to 5, wethers were selling for $4 a pound. Take time to discover the markets. Find out when the holidays are that feature goat meat. Titus uses 250-pound totes for water. He uses ¼ cup of copper sulfate dissolved in hot water to harden the goats’ hooves. Watch for listeria. The sign is the head turned to one side. It affects the nervous system then goes into the brain. When you start with goats, begin with 25 to 30 does and one buck. You should get about 50 kids. Goats can get pneumonia, so avoid tight barns and keep the barn doors open. Unlike cow pies, goats scatter their manure. If you’re short on pasture, feed them hay. Clean up after your cows graze in the fall. If coccidiosis is a problem, use Corid for five to seven days in the water. Titus said there are two times when goats bring you happiness: when you buy them and when you sell them.

by Mary Ann Sherman T itus Schlabach is a certified organic farmer from Ohio who lives on 100 acres and has 30 cows that he milks seasonally. He also has goats — Boers. They’re white goats with reddish-brown heads that originated in South Africa. Savannas are white, also originated in South Africa and have bigger frames. Titus said that a goat wakes up and tries to find a way to die, so if you see something wrong with a goat, do something right away to save it. In 1922, he bought 20 does that he kids out once a year. December 20, he turns his bucks in and the does kid in May and June. They are on grass for the summer. At the beginning of November, he feeds them 1 pound of shelled corn. He takes them up slowly on grain over a period of four weeks. In spring, he takes them down slowly on grain over a period of three weeks. He feeds them in a 16-foot culvert that’s been cut in half. He unrolls a big round bale in the pasture, and it lasts two to three days. They stay in a 10-by-12-foot shed that is 4 feet tall in the back and 9 feet tall in the front. He uses electrified woven wire fence netting. There’s a single prong where the netting is attached. The goats hate getting juiced by the electric fence. As for parasites, he either uses total confinement or rotates their pasture every six days. Look out for parasites that can wash into the waterways if it rains and you’re on a hill. Goats are browsers so keep them away from your blueberries or apple trees. On the other hand, they love thistles. His goats are grazing by the end of May. They’re kidding mid to the end of May. Check your does frequently while they are kidding. Their colostrum is very rich. Titus admits that tame bottle babies go right through the netting. Kidding is harder when it’s cold, wet and rainy. The does don’t attach to the kids as well. But it’s still better to kid outside. Don’t come back to this paddock for 60 days. You can put cows in after 30 days.

Rural Heritage

18

Small Farmer’s Journal Championing Human Scale Farming Since 1976

Full Color • 100 pages $47 per year or $15 each Published 4 times per Year Check for Special Offers!

Small Farmer’s Journal • PO Box 1627 • Sisters, OR 97759 • 800-876-2893

Ten Acres Enough A Farm for Free

Allis-Chalmers “60” All Crop Harvester $30.00 • order #M-161 De Laval “Sterling Series” Cream Separators $10.00 • order #M-145 Frick Steel Thresher $10.00 • order #M-174 John Deere Model “A” Tractor $10.00 • order #M-158 John Deere Model “HH” Spreader $10.00 • order #M-171 John Deere No. 4 Big Enclosed Gear Mower (High Lift) $10.00 • order #M-127 John Deere No. 999H Corn Planter $10.00 • order #M-114 Massey-Harris No. 5 Binder $10.00 • order #M-142 McCormick-Deering Farmall-M Tractor $20.00 • order #M-175 McCormick-Deering No. 7 & Big 7 Mowers $10.00 • order #M-108 McCormick-Deering No. 9 Enclosed Steel Gear Mower $10.00 • order #M-101 New Idea No. 10A Manure Spreaders $10.00 • order #M-162 P&O No. 2 Diamond Gang Plow $10.00 • order #M-138 Van Brunt Plain High Wheel Drills $10.00 • order #M-137 SFJ Equipment Manual Reprints Over 175 Manuals Available! Call or write for the full list, or see it in the Journal.

$25.95 + $7 s&h U.S. • Hardcover • 222 pages ISBN: 978-1-885210-38-8 The 1864 classic, Ten Acres Enough , by Edmund Morris, details his family’s move from the city to the farm and how they made it work. It is accompanied by Lynn R. Miller’s strategies for becoming a small farmer in today’s reality, A Farm for Free . Together they create an informative and entertaining manual for attaining a farming life.

Small Farmer’s Journal • PO Box 1627 • Sisters, OR 97759 • 800-876-2893

October/November 2025

19

Pesticide-Free Home Orchards HPD 2025 Seminar

living plants build soil health better than mulch. Grasses should be less than 10% of the population under the trees. John Kempf spoke about Helen Atthowe, an Ecological Farmer and Orchardist in Oregon. Her organic farm was surrounded by conventional farms that used chemicals. She had 40 acres of peaches and other fruit that she grew organically, without herbicides or pesticides. Helen said that fruit trees don’t need mowed grass. She planted forbs or blooming plants under her fruit trees. Over time, this proved to be the solution to insects and diseases. All season long, the blooming plants produced nectar that attracted birds and spiders, major predators of insects. A University of California study found 800 (!) species of spiders under Helen’s fruit trees. Legumes are not good under fruit trees because they produce too much nitrogen. Nodules on legumes are a favorite food for voles. But if you do plant clover, graze it heavily because it will outgrow your other crops. The majority of fruiting is done in orchards. The single greatest cost of a home orchard is labor. You don’t want trees that you have to harvest with a ladder. Forget about pruning to get a nice tree. Prune for convenience at harvest. Summer pruning is best, from June 20 to July 10. When a tree breaks dormancy, there is new growth. Energy stored in the tree in the form of sugars then goes from the roots upward. After June 20, most of the sugars go back to the roots, though until leaf drop in October, there are some sugars stored in the tree canopy. With summer pruning, a 3-foot shoot is pruned back to 1 foot. That way, it’s not such a shock to the tree. Semi and dwarfing rootstocks do not absorb nutrition and water so well as full size trees. You’re better off planting a regular tree that’s kept small by summer pruning rather than relying on root stock. Besides, rootstock has a greater effect on disease resistance than the tree itself. Four minerals that are generally deficient in our soils are magnesium, boron, selenium and iodine. John had to stop here because of the clock, but further discussion on these deficient minerals continued with his seminar on soil health.

by Mary Ann Sherman T en years ago, the consensus was that you couldn’t grow fruit without pesticides. Only sweet and tart cherries were resistant to disease and insects. A lot has changed since then with fruit other than cherries. Some 40 years ago, it took 18 weeks to grow a 6-pound chicken. For a smaller bird, it now takes six weeks. This is because today’s birds are fed optimal nutrition. After the Revolutionary War, 1775-1783, George Washington ordered the military to go into upstate New York to punish the Oneida and Cayahoga Indian Tribes for siding with the British. The military destroyed their food supplies, including hundreds of acres of peach, apple and cherry trees that had fed the tribes for generations. By today’s standards, these were no ordinary peaches. They were 4 inches across and 12 inches in circumference. In another military action out west, Kit Carson was ordered to destroy the food sources that had fed the Navajo families for years. A part of that action was that peach trees that were 100 years old were cut down in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. Conquistador and explorer Hernando de Soto brought two invasive species to America: wild hogs and peach trees. It’s easy to understand why wild hogs would be considered an invasive species, but peach trees? Indeed, in the 1950s peach trees grew in thickets like plum trees and were actually used as fences for livestock. When we use tillage and expose the soil to 30 inches of rain, many minerals like molybdenum, selenium and iron are stripped from the soil. A fruit tree should not be planted in a lawn. A good orchard should look like a meadow, with lots of flowering plants growing underneath the trees. In other words, forbs, that is, herbaceous plants that are not grasses. When you plant forbs like dandelions, onions, garlic and chives, day lilies and milkweed underneath fruit trees you basically eliminate flea beetles and powdery mildew. Under fruit trees, you need to plant eight or more different species, like rye, oats and wheat. For mulch, use hay or straw. Be aware that the root systems of

Rural Heritage

20

Soil Health HPD 2025 Seminar

Most plants would benefit from gypsum application which increases the efficiency of the immune system. John likes Logan Labs in Lakeview, Ohio. It performs basic soil tests but also checks selenium, nickel, cobalt, molybdenum and boron. When you have adequate levels of iodine in the soil, you won’t have pinkeye in your herd. This negatively charged mineral is universally deficient. What holds the iodine in the soil is the fungal population. Iodine topically shuts down bacterial expression. That’s why it’s used for minor skin infections. Bacterium live inside the vascular system. Making sure that your plants have an adequate level of iodine will benefit animals’ reproduction and fertility. Spray 3 to 5 pounds of potassium iodide as a foliar spray or spray it on the soil. If iodine is at two to three parts per million in the soil, you need 2 pounds per acre to increase that by one part per million. John said that as farmers we can do a lot to keep folks well. Because we produce food that others eat, we are our brother’s keeper.

by Mary Ann Sherman J ohn Kempf said that magnesium, selenium, boron and iodine are deficient in many soils around the world. Here in the Unites States, we tend to buy minerals rather than finding them in the soil because, for the most part, they are not there in the soil. He told of an Australian rancher who developed esophageal cancer. He read every paper he could find about this disease and found more than 400 papers that described selenium as a cancer treatment. In other words, if you have adequate selenium, you won’t get cancer. In 1969, Indian researchers published a paper saying that high enough selenium levels in the soil keep viruses from expressing themselves. Australia’s soil is very low in selenium. So, the rancher drenched himself with selenium and 60 days later was cancer free! With seed potatoes, you have to test the parent and the offspring. Both must be virus free. With sufficient selenium in the soil, potatoes can be virus free. In March to April of 2020, a paper was published that said we understand generous levels of heavy metals shut down viral expression. Overlaying a map of China with a map of adequate selenium soils showed only a 10% COVID rate for areas with selenium rich soils. Some 75 to 90% of the world’s soils are deficient in selenium. More than 25 to 30 inches of rain can leach out selenium from the soil. When you have optimal levels of selenium in the soil, you get a 30% increase of meat and milk production per acre. Selenium builds up in the bloodstream in livestock. When we apply selenium to the soil, we can see the results in plants within two to three months. It takes six to nine months to see results in milk, hair and liver. Fescue produces endophytes to protect itself. A 1948 study showed that adequate selenium made plants immune to endophytes. Most soil levels are at 10 to 20% of adequate selenium. Add sodium selenite. That’s the cheapest way to add selenium to your soil. But don’t put it on tall forage that will be harvested soon, or you might cause selenium toxicity. Cows will choose forages that are getting mature, like overripe, first cutting hay, instead of going to pasture. These forages deliver iodine, boron and selenium.

Draft Farming Implements since 1974

A New, Streamlined Version of the 1978 White Horse Model #712

NEW 208 Sulky Plow

Request Your White Horse Plow & Tillage Catalog! Plows • Forecarts • Tillage Parts • Evener Parts • Hitching Parts

PH: 717-768-8313 FAX: 717-750-3657

122 White Horse Rd. Gap, PA 17527

633

October/November 2025

21