Rural Life

From Bethlehem to Rural America: Biblical Relics Find a Rare Home in Western Ohio

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 16:46:42 GMT

Each Christmas season, thousands of people from around the world travel to Bethlehem in the Holy Land, drawn by the desire to stand where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born. They come seeking a deeper connection to the story of a baby laid in a manger.

But for many believers, you don’t have to travel halfway around the world to encounter that history.

Tucked into the rolling farmland of western Ohio, the farming community of Maria Stein is home to a church that safeguards pieces of biblical history — relics that span from Christ’s birth to His crucifixion, preserved quietly among fields, livestock and rural life.

Beyond the Tannenbaum, the bows and wrapping paper, the gift exchanges, parties and baked treats lies what Christians call the reason for the season. A baby born in a stable surrounded by animals and placed in a manger.

Pieces of that manger — carried across centuries and thousands of miles — have found their way here.

How do such important artifacts end up in the middle of farm country? That’s a good question and one that draws quite the story.

A Journey Rooted in Faith and Farming

The story begins not in Ohio, but in Rome.

In the early 1800s, the Catholic Bishop of Cincinnati petitioned the Vatican to send German-speaking clergy to the American Midwest. Immigration was rising, and German-speaking Catholics were settling across Ohio farmland, looking for spiritual leadership and community.

In 1843, Father Francis De Sales Brunner arrived in Ohio. Soon after, three Sisters of the Precious Blood followed. By 1846, a convent was built in Maria Stein, and their ministry began to take hold.

“It was a self-sustaining property,” explains Caleb Gaier, ministry coordinator. “They were out in the fields. They were taking care of farm animals. Besides sustaining the needs for themselves, they were looking to assist the community too. There was a lot of teaching.”

At the same time, Europe was being torn apart by unrest and war. Churches were being closed, ransacked — or worse. Sacred objects that had been venerated for centuries were suddenly at risk.

In order to protect their precious treasures, or relics, as they’re called, many were sent to the U.S.

“They wanted to protect them, to keep their purpose of helping people grow in their prayer,” Gaier says. “They’d send them away with those whom they could trust and help them to serve their purpose — like Father Brunner.”

Relics With Rules — and Purpose

Official relics don’t travel lightly. Each one comes with documentation and strict rules, vouching for authenticity and outlining how to care for the relic.

“These relics are a connection to these past men and women who’ve lived throughout history and have given their life to the Lord, Gaier says.

Inside the small chapel in Maria Stein are more than 1,200 relics, carefully displayed and preserved. Among them are ornately decorated reliquaries containing what believers hold as fragments of Jesus’ manger.

“If we look above, on the left-hand side of the main altar, at the top window in that center panel on the stand — kind of with the crystals going down from it — that reliquary holds a piece of the manger,” Gaier says.

Nearby are ashes believed to be from the bones of the Three Wise Men.

“Those would have come from the cathedral in Cologne, Germany,” he notes.

The collection also includes relics associated with the massacre of innocent children ordered by King Herod.

“He had all the children, I believe, two and under killed,” Gaier says. “What’s more precious than a child? And believing they are also in heaven.”

At the center of the shrine, splinters believed to be from the old rugged cross are flanked by angels — connecting Christ’s birth in the manger to His death on the cross.

A Place to Pause

For generations, pilgrims traveled to Maria Stein, filling the chapel with long lines and quiet prayer. While the crowds are smaller today, the mission remains unchanged.

“Sometimes it’s easy to get distracted by other tasks throughout the day,” Gaier says. “But when you go back and have a moment of silence — just sitting in the presence of some of the Lord’s relics and the relics of the saints — the shock of it comes back.”

In the busyness of the Christmas season, Maria Stein offers something rare: stillness. A place where pieces of the Christmas story stand quietly, telling their tale not from marble halls or distant lands — but from frozen fields and farm country in western Ohio.

A "Disneyesque" Christmas: A Charming Small Town in Rural Arkansas Comes to Life in December

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 15:25:09 GMT

Driving through the Arkansas Delta this time of year, the view feels timeless. Cotton fields that once resembled freshly fallen snow now sit compressed into bright white bales, stacked neatly along quiet two-lane roads. It’s the same harvest scene farmers and families in this region have known for generations — one rooted in the land and shaped by the Mississippi River.

But just 45 miles north of Memphis, the road will take you on an unexpected turn. That’s where you’ll stumble upon Wilson, Ark. Home to about 800 people, its aesthetics look like a European village, and its roots date back to a family who founded the town in 1886.

“It’s a fascinating story of how Wilson was founded,” says Jeff Kmiec, CEO of Wilson. “The Wilson family literally started by timbering the area. Once they drained all the water and cleared the timber, Mr. Wilson decided there may be an opportunity to start farming. The soil is incredibly rich from the Mississippi River, and that’s what launched the city that still survives today.”

That agricultural foundation continues to define Wilson today. Fields of cotton, corn and soybeans stretch beyond the town limits, and farming remains the backbone of the surrounding economy. While the population remains small, the connection to the land remains strong, and it’s now a destination for those around the country, as it’s charm is a draw for many.

An Unexpected Look in the Delta

While Wilson’s roots are firmly planted in agriculture, its appearance often surprises first-time visitors. The town’s architecture feels out of place in the Delta — and that’s entirely by design.

“As it relates to the architecture, we’re blessed in that one of the Wilson children got married and was sent to England for their honeymoon,” Kmiec explains. “They became enamored and fell in love with English Tudor architecture. When they returned, they promptly remade the town in that style. It’s surprising to hear visitors say, ‘How is this here? I feel like I’m in a different country.’ But that’s what happened, and the Wilson family helped create a legacy we still enjoy today.”

The Tudor-style buildings, along with the town square, don’t exist as a novelty. They remain part of everyday life in a rural community that continues to evolve while honoring its past.

A Town Changes Hands — and Holds On

After more than 125 years under the Wilson family, the town entered a new chapter in 2010. That’s when the Wilson family decided to sell not just the buildings they owned in town, but their farmland as well.

“The farmland was the prize,” says Becton Bell, a local farmer and the mayor of Wilson. “It’s about 30,000 acres of fertile farmland that surrounds this town.”

When the town went up for sale, it brought uncertainty for the residents. The land might be valuable, but the unique town held memories, history and identity for those who called Wilson home.

“I think the first thought everybody had was, ‘Well, there goes the town,’” Bell says. “Everybody wanted the farm, but nobody’s going to want to keep the town up like the Wilson family. It actually turned into the opposite.”

Galen Lawrence and his family purchased the surrounding farmland, along with the town itself. A farmer and businessman, he first saw the value in the farmland. But it’s his wife who fell in love with the town.

A Farming Mindset Still Guides Wilson

Rather than fading, Wilson began to take on renewed purpose — guided by an owner who understands agriculture and the long view that comes with it.

“When they first purchased [the town], they decided they had to do something special here. Mr. Lawrence is a world traveler, and he decided to do something hospitality-wise.” Kmiec says.

From reopening the local restaurant and making it farm-to-table experience to creating a museum, it’s the little touches that make a big difference. One of the biggest attractions making Wilson a destination is the unique hotel that boasts hospitality.

The Lawrence family built The Louis, a boutique hotel that allows visitors to escape the hustle of everyday life in a memorable way. The rich history of the Arkansas Delta is sprinkled throughout the hotel and rooms. But what makes it so memorable is the fact this unique hotel offers charm and hospitality that rivals any major resort, with comfortable rooms and complimentary snacks and drinks, which might be why the hotel boasts exceptionally high guest ratings, especially for such a small town.

Lawrence might be a successful businessman and investor today whose vision is what you see within the hotel and many other areas of the town, but he understands the value of a rural area as he remains rooted in farming.

“He’s a farmer first and foremost,” Kmiec says. “He has a lot of other business interests, but he likes to set people up for success. When he’s farming, it’s always about planting seeds in fertile soil. That mindset continues today, where he wants to put people in positions where they can excel and be successful.”

That philosophy shows up today in restored buildings, local jobs and a downtown that feels cared for rather than commercialized, which pairs nicely with the architecture.

Wilson Lights Up Bringing the Magic of Christmas to Life

Those values become especially visible during the holiday season when the town of Wilson transforms into a gathering place for families. That’s when Wilson lights up, truly bringing the magic of Christmas to life.

“It’s important for me to do something that’s a legacy event for families,” Kmiec says. “My favorite time growing up was Christmas, spending it with my parents. With the Lawrence family’s blessing, we invest pretty substantially in a light show that’s almost Disneyesque. It’s choreographed to music, just under a million lights and snow-making machines, and every Friday and Saturday from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive to greet children.”

The lights draw visitors, but the heart of the event remains community. From the beginning, the decision was made to keep the Christmas celebration free and accessible. There aren’t any entrance fees, it’s a display open for all to see.

For families who farm nearby or live in neighboring towns, the event offers something simple but meaningful: time together, shared tradition and memories that last long after the lights fade.

Why Wilson Is Magical Year-Round

For Kmiec, the draw of Wilson is something that can’t be manufactured. It’s unique to this rural Arkansas community, and one that’s only becoming more charming each year.

“If you’ve seen any Hallmark Christmas movie, or if you’re a fan of Americana and what makes this country great, that essence still lives here,” he says. “It’s special for us to be able to showcase that and tell people this is what makes the country great and why Wilson is as special as it is.”

Wilson calls itself “America’s Village.” In this Delta farm town, agriculture, community and tradition continue to define everyday life — shining especially bright during the Christmas season.

Santa Will Drink More than 5 Million Gallons of Milk This Christmas Eve

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 19:49:26 GMT

With all his hard work delivering toys to an estimated 300 million kids this Christmas, Santa is sure to work up a hefty appetite. To quench his thirst, Kriss Kringle is relying on America’s dairy farmers to help produce his drink of choice – real milk!

According to the Dairy Alliance, approximately 86 million homes celebrate Christmas. If each household leaves one 8 oz. glass of milk out for St. Nick to enjoy, he will consume an estimated 688 million ounces of nature’s most perfect beverage.

This equates to:

46,225,000 lbs. of milk
5,375,000 million gallons of milk
Roughly 716 tanker-trailers full of milk
Enough milk to make more than 4 million lbs. of cheese or ice cream
Enough milk to fill eight Olympic-sized swimming pools
A day’s worth of milk from approximately 827,000 cows

Whether it’s whole milk, 2%, eggnog or chocolate, Santa sure loves to drink the good stuff – real milk from real, hardworking dairy farm families!

For more Holiday stories, read:

Feeling the Price Pinch: Young Adults are Eating Out Less

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 21:39:53 GMT

Rising costs are making life feel tighter for many Americans. Inflation, higher food prices and growing debt burdens have all eaten into budgets, and young adults especially are feeling the squeeze. To stretch their dollars, many in this age group are cutting back on dining out.

A recent report from Ever.Ag, published by the International Dairy Foods Association, shows that when young adults do spend money at restaurants, they are looking for ways to save. They split appetizers, order from kids menus, choose lower cost items, skip premium add-ons or avoid the meal entirely. And major restaurant chains like McDonald’s and Chipotle are seeing the effects.

Customers aged 25 to 35 once made up roughly a quarter of Chipotle’s sales, but traffic from this group has fallen for three straight quarters, including a 0.8% decline in the third quarter, according to Scott Boatwright, CEO of Chipotle.

“We believe that this trend is not unique to Chipotle and is occurring across all restaurants as well as many discretionary categories,” Boatwright says. “We’re losing them to grocery [store] and food at home. They feel the pinch, and we feel the pullback from them as well.”

Is McDonalds too Expensive?
Many consumers are also wondering if McDonald’s has priced itself out of the affordable category. The Times reports that a Big Mac sold for $2.24 in 2000 now averages $6. Adjusted for inflation, it should cost about $4.22, which means today’s price is roughly 40% higher than its inflation adjusted equivalent.

Other menu staples have climbed just as sharply. FinanceBuzz found that the price of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal more than doubled between 2014 and 2024. And a 10-piece McNuggets meal rose from $7.19 in 2019 to $9.19 in 2024.

The Times notes McDonald’s is not the only offender. The same FinanceBuzz study found that Popeyes prices have climbed an average of 86% and Taco Bell’s about 81% over the past decade, with Chipotle close behind, up about 75%. Wendy’s briefly held the title of most expensive major fast-food chain in 2022, with the average menu item at $6.63 after a 35% jump in just over a year.

Job Market Pressures
Labor market challenges in this age category are adding to the strain.

A recent PYMNTS Intelligence report shows an increase in joblessness among young adults and notes wage gains for workers ages 25 to 29 are currently among the weakest since 2011. Bloomberg reports recent college graduates are struggling to find entry level work in what executives describe as a low hire labor market.

This financial pressure is showing up in spending patterns. PYMNTS Intelligence notes the share of Gen Z consumers living paycheck to paycheck jumped from 57% in January 2023 to 69% in January 2025, a higher share than the general population. Another PYMNTS analysis found that purchases by 18-to-24-year-olds dropped 13% year over year as student loan repayments resumed and credit card delinquencies increased.

Eating Out No Longer ‘Worth It’
For many young adults, eating out has become a luxury rather than a routine. Rising menu prices, coupled with stagnant wages and a tougher job market, are forcing this group to rethink small everyday purchases. What used to be an easy stop for a quick meal now feels like a splurge, and at-home meals often come out ahead.

These financial pressures are reshaping spending habits in a big way. Younger consumers are not choosing new restaurants; they are choosing to skip eating out altogether, and until their budgets have more breathing room, home-cooked meals are set to rise as the more affordable option.

Building the Future: Partnerships Bring Essential Infrastructure to Rural Areas

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 19:14:00 GMT

There’s a $6 billion funding gap in essential infrastructure needed in rural communities. That’s according to Jase Wagner, CEO of Compeer Financial. Since 2006, the farm credit cooperative has been working on pilot projects to show how new partnerships and funding bridge what’s needed.

One of its latest example projects is at Lafayette Hospital + Clinics in Lafayette County Wisconsin (and the only county-owned hospital in the state) where a 84,000 square foot facility was built to double the size of its previous hospital.

“At Compeer Financial, we are a part of the farm credit system, which has consistently supported rural communities and agriculture,” Wagner says. “As we’ve looked at the trends and environment around rural communities recently, they need an extra boost of support.”

Its pilot projects have included critical access care hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

To enable the project in Wisconsin, Compeer Financial partnered with the regional Clare Bank and USDA to secure a $50.87 million financing package.

“We are ecstatic to introduce our region’s residents to our new Lafayette Hospital + Clinics, formerly known as Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County,” said Marie Wamsley, CEO of LHC in a press release. “The facility upgrades the technologies and services we’re able to offer our patients and the region’s healthcare providers, and the new location gives us room to grow. We’re grateful for the partnership with Compeer Financial in helping secure funding so we can continue to provide our rural community with the comprehensive, around-the-clock medical care it has relied on for more than 70 years.”

Citing a pattern of success with its pilot projects, Compeer is supporting legislation called The Investing in Rural America Act, which could be part of a “Skinny Farm Bill” in the near-future.

“We need to provide more permanent financing and long-term support for this market. Agriculture needs rural communities as much or more than rural communities need agriculture,” Wagner says. “The Investing in Rural America Act is a targeted bill to allow us to invest in a subset of essential community facilities. It’s primarily focused on health care, but also includes libraries, community centers, and other gathering places for communities.”

Another project currently underway is in Galena, Ill., as Compeer led a $25.75 million financing packing to expand and renovate Midwest Medical Center. This project will bring new medical providers and services, a new fitness center and new infusion clinic.
Wagner explains the nationwide $6 billion gap is the result of decades of underinvestment to keep essential facilities up-to-date across rural America.

“When we see these turn over and get new facilities in town, it’s just amazing,” he says. “It’s a rebirth kind of energy. The ability to hire people goes way up, and the ability to have good care in these areas goes up, which creates its own rural prosperity.”
Wagner is optimistic in a fly-wheel effect with cooperation across a coalition of institutions.

“As we prove this out, we can get a broader set of investors investing in rural America, which then really helps everyone. Rural America is such an essential part of the overall operation of the United States, and I think people understand that more and more, but you need to invest in it in order to make it stay that way.”

Pennsylvania Farmer Beefs Up Backpacks

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 14:40:19 GMT

When Amanda Butterfield first heard about a program turning donated beef into snack sticks for hungry kids, she didn’t just file it away as a good idea. She launched her own version — right in the middle of Pennsylvania cattle country.

The initiative, called Beefing Up Backpacks , takes scrap beef cuts donated by local producers, processes them into shelf-stable sticks and distributes them through weekend backpack programs run by schools and nonprofits. In its first production run in May, the team distributed 12,000 sticks. Their year-one goal: 72,000.

“We saw two broken parts of the food system — rural hunger and limited markets for beef — and realized we could strengthen both,” Butterfield says.

Making It Work in Pennsylvania

The project began in mid-2024 as an idea. By fall, Butterfield had helped launch the Pennsylvania Beef Foundation — a charitable arm of the Pennsylvania Beef Council — and secured a partnership with Stoltzfus Meats in Intercourse, Pa., which agreed to process the sticks at cost.

From there, things got real: They coordinated with vendors, wrestled with packaging delays tied to international supply chain issues and navigated labeling and logistics. The first shipment reached students in Towanda Area School District in May 2025, just as the school year ended.

“Not the ideal timing,” she admits. “But food is food — and every delivery counts.”

They’re now producing additional batches for summer and fall 2025, and they’re fielding requests from organizations statewide to expand. “We’ve got more demand than we can meet,” Butterfield says. “We’re still figuring out how to scale it responsibly.”

Filling a Protein Gap

Weekend backpack programs — largely run by churches, food banks and schools — have become a lifeline for food-insecure students. But they’re often short on protein.

Before partnering with Beefing Up Backpacks, the organization CHOP Out Hunger filled bags with mostly produce and shelf-stable carbs. Protein made up just 2% of contents.

“Providing protein-packed beef sticks ensures students receive the nutrition they deserve, even on weekends,” says Dani Ruhf, CHOP’s CEO.

In Towanda, 287 students receive weekly food bags, totaling more than 10,000 bags annually. But the estimated statewide need is staggering: To serve every eligible child, Pennsylvania would need to distribute 500,000 beef sticks per week.

Beefing Up Backpacks takes scrap beef cuts donated by local producers, processes them into shelf-stable sticks and distributes them through weekend backpack programs run by schools and nonprofits.

(Amanda Butterfield)

The Value of Local Protein

Beef was an intentional choice: It’s broadly acceptable across most faiths, has a long shelf life and offers complete protein that’s critical for brain development. But halal and kosher certifications are a barrier for now.

“Our core mission is to feed food-insecure children with the highest-impact option available,” Butterfield says. “Beef trim is accessible, versatile and nutritionally dense.”

Still, sourcing donated beef is no small task. Long-term sustainability hinges on consistent corporate and processor partners. While the program received startup support via a line item in the FY24–25 Ag Excellence Budget at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, future state funding remains uncertain.

“We’re proud to have industry-led groups stepping up,” says Nichole Hockenberry, executive director of the Pennsylvania Beef Foundation. “This effort is about feeding kids — but also showcasing the strength of PA agriculture.”

Barriers to Scale

Even with momentum on their side, Butterfield and her team are navigating familiar hurdles:

Funding. Most grants are short-term and branding-focused. What’s needed is year-round operating support.
Supply Chain Limits. Processing capacity is tight. Stoltzfus Meats is donating labor but might not be able to handle statewide demand.
Lack of Infrastructure. Unlike land-grant-backed programs in Colorado and New Mexico, Pennsylvania’s effort has no student interns, university processors or administrative staff. Every cost comes out of donations or industry support.
Data. There’s no central database of backpack programs. The team is building one from scratch using SNAP household data and on-the-ground outreach — largely coordinated by Butterfield’s daughter.

“We’re building this system while we run it,” Butterfield says.

Inspiration from Other States

While Pennsylvania’s model is unique in its producer-led design, Butterfield credits several other states with blazing the trail:

Colorado. With support from Colorado State University, Five Rivers and JBS, their program now distributes 20,000 sticks per week.
Oklahoma. Led by the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, the initiative combines beef and pork sticks and distributes 35,000 annually.
Wyoming. A grassroots program supported by local producers and nonprofits distributes 20,000 sticks per year.
New Mexico. Currently launching a pilot with help from New Mexico State University and beef producers.

“We’re in touch with many of these groups, and we’re building a blueprint that others can replicate,” Butterfield says.

A Farmer-Led Call to Action

Butterfield believes public-private partnerships are one of the best tools producers have to solve big problems — and to show the real value of agriculture.

“We’re not just raising cattle — we’re feeding communities,” she says. It’s time the world saw that.”

She encourages other producers to get involved — whether by donating beef trim, coordinating with local backpack programs or even just learning how these systems work.

“So many people, including pediatricians, don’t even know these backpack programs exist,” she says. “We’ve got to change that.”

No one expects a producer to go it alone. But Butterfield’s story shows what’s possible when farmers lead—and bring others to the table.

“This isn’t about feel-good charity. This is how we build local markets, feed kids, and make agriculture matter to more people,” she said.

Butterfield’s message to other farmers is simple: Get involved, however you can.

Donate trim. Call your local processor. Talk to your school district. Ask who’s running food access programs in your county. And if no one is—start the conversation.

“No action is too small when you’re feeding hungry kids,” Butterfield said. “This is how we show the true value of local agriculture—not just in pounds of beef, but in people fed.”

A replication blueprint is in the works. But for now, she and her team are happy to connect, share what they’ve learned, and help others build similar programs across the country.

“When farmers lead, people get fed—and communities get stronger. That’s the story we need to tell.”

How the Trending #FarmGirlSummer Is Educating Viewers About Rural Living

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 20:06:11 GMT

Sporting dirty boots and a deep-rooted love for the land, a new wave of female farmers is making waves on social media under the trending hashtag #FarmGirlSummer. Step beyond the sunsets and tractor selfies, and this viral movement is offering something deeper: a window into the real day-to-day of agricultural life.

The Packer spoke with four influencers who are using their platforms to share more than just aesthetic glimpses — they’re educating followers about rural realities, farm work and what it truly means to live off the land.

Miranda Neville and her husband, Douglas, are dairy farmers in Pennsylvania on his family farm.

(Photo courtesy of Miranda Neville)

Miranda Neville, Dairy Farmer

I want others to see my content and know that even though we work long, tiring days, it’s still important to make time for the things we enjoy.

Miranda Neville and her husband, Douglas, are dairy farmers in Pennsylvania on his family farm. In addition to farming, she also works an off-farm job in agricultural conservation, while balancing family life. Neville says she enjoys sharing her life on the farm on social media and all of the joyful chaos that comes with it.

The Packer: What does #FarmGirlSummer mean to you personally?

Neville: There is rarely a slow day living on a farm, especially if you have livestock. For me, #FarmGirlSummer is about finding the peaceful moments during the busiest time of year. Some examples of that might look like unloading hay in the summer heat but then watching animals graze on the lush, green pasture. Showing dairy cattle at county fairs while making memories that will last a lifetime with friends. Working tirelessly to get crops planted but making time to deliver meals to the field and having a sunset ride in the tractor. Farming can be difficult, so #FarmGirlSummer is about romanticizing my life while doing farm chores and appreciating the land that surrounds me.

How do you think social media is shaping the way people see farm life or rural living?

Historically, there have been so many misconceptions about farmers and ‘country life.’ With social media, we are able to show firsthand what we do and why we do it. Yes, it’s a simpler life — in that we aren’t living in a busy city and bustling traffic— but we work long, hard days to improve the lives of our families, our livestock and crops. We are able to share ideas, educate and build connections with so many different people from all walks of life. It’s giving a voice to farm life and rural living in a way that has been limited in the past.

What message or feeling are you trying to share when you post with #FarmGirlSummer?

Through my social media, I show the realities and struggles of life on our dairy farm, but I also try to focus on the most beautiful parts of farm life — particularly in the summer. I want others to see my content and know that even though we work long, tiring days, it’s still important to make time for the things we enjoy.
Follow Miranda: Tiktok (Miranda.neville); Instagram (Miranda.neville1)

Erica Loesel balances a career as an oncology nurse with Michigan farming.

(Photo courtesy of Erica Loesel)

Erica Loesel, FarmHer

Even if the photos are pretty, the message is: this is real. Real effort. Real life. Real beauty in the mess and the mud and the moments between.

Erica Loesel balances a career as an oncology nurse with Michigan farming.

The Packer: What does #FarmGirlSummer mean to you personally?

Loesel: For me, #FarmGirlSummer evokes a vivid, grounded kind of freedom. It’s not just a hashtag — it feels like a celebration of hands-in-the-dirt simplicity, sun-kissed days and a deeper connection to the land and hard work.

Personally, it looks like:

Early mornings with dew on the fields and coffee steaming in a Yeti cup.
Cutoff jeans, dusty boots and tan lines from hours in the sun.
Quiet, golden sunsets after long, labor-heavy days — and a satisfaction that city summers just don’t offer.

It’s about living a little slower, working a little harder and feeling a whole lot more connected to what matters.

How do you think social media is shaping the way people see farm life or rural living?

Social media is massively reshaping how people perceive farm life and rural living.

By romanticizing the rural lifestyle, platforms like Instagram and TikTok have popularized the ‘aesthetic’ of farm life — think slow mornings, tractor rides, sunsets over fields of gold. It’s drawing people into appreciating a simpler, more grounded way of living.

Visibility and connection. Farmers, especially women and younger people, are sharing real stories and daily routines, creating communities and challenging outdated stereotypes (like the idea that farming is only for older men or men in general).

And through education and awareness, audiences get to see how food is grown, the labor involved and the realities of sustainable or ethical agriculture. It helps bridge the urban-rural disconnect.

What message or feeling are you trying to share when you post with #FarmGirlSummer?

When I post with #FarmGirlSummer, the message I’m trying to share is a blend of realness and reverence — a celebration of resilience, connection to the land and the gritty joy that comes from a life rooted in tradition.

Here’s what I hope comes across:

Grounded joy: Not everything is picture-perfect — there’s sweat, dirt and sometimes hard days — but there’s real joy in that. A joy that comes from doing something meaningful with your hands and heart.

Empowerment: #FarmGirlSummer isn’t about being delicate or curated — it’s about being strong, capable and unafraid to show up exactly as you are, whether you’re driving tractors or making homemade jam. It’s femininity without fragility.

Simplicity with soul: It’s about slow mornings, honest work and choosing presence over polish. It’s a lifestyle, not a filter.

Authenticity over aesthetic: Even if the photos are pretty, the message is: This is real. Real effort. Real life. Real beauty in the mess and the mud and the moments between.

In short, it’s not just “look at this cute farm outfit,” it’s “here’s what it means to live close to the earth, close to the truth and be dang proud of it.”

Follow Erica on TikTok (thecodebluefarmher)

Anne Sneller lives in Earlham, Iowa with her husband, John, and 11-year-old son.

(Photo courtesy of Anne Sneller)

Anne Sneller, Ag Advocate

I am passionate about advocating for agriculture and the opportunities 4-H and FFA offer youth and the skills they can learn from participating.

Anne Sneller lives in Earlham, Iowa. She works as a fraud and claims operations senior manager for Wells Fargo, leads a 4-H club of 75 members called Penn Prize Winners, and is also active supporting FFA, from mentoring members to judging contests at State FFA. Her husband, John, and she have an 11-year-old son who shows pigs and goats.

The Packer: What does #FarmGirlSummer mean to you personally?

Sneller: #FarmGirlSummer to me is helping my son with his show livestock, running on the pavement and gravel roads of Madison County, enjoying the agriculture, helping on my family’s cattle and row crop farm, and fishing and four-wheeling with my son any chance we get.

I am passionate about advocating for agriculture and the opportunities 4-H and FFA offer youth and the skills they can learn from participating.

Follow Anne on TikTok (chasingthatrunnershigh)

At home, you’ll find Topanga Dailey raising her 8-month-old son Owen while helping her husband farm wheat, soybeans and milo in McPherson, Kans.

(Photo courtesy of Topanga Dailey)

Topanga Dailey, Farmer

It’s a reminder — to myself, my family and my community — that life is bigger than your newsfeed. It’s proof that I’ve stepped away from the trap of constant scrolling and hopefully encourages others to slow down, take a breath and enjoy the moment.

Topanga Dailey is a senior digital marketing specialist. At home, you’ll find her raising her 8-month-old son Owen while helping her husband farm wheat, soybeans and milo in McPherson, Kans.

The Packer: What does #FarmGirlSummer mean to you personally?

Dailey: To me, #FarmGirlSummer is a conscious choice to be more in touch with the real world — making things from scratch, getting soil under your fingernails, embracing natural materials, wearing less makeup, stepping away from screens and reconnecting with what real work looks and feels like. Life can feel stressful, exhausting and even scary when you’re glued to a computer all day. The farm reminds you that life moves in seasons — some good, some hard — and that things take time and nothing is permanent.

How do you think social media is shaping the way people see farm life or rural living?

Social media has helped romanticize the farm. #FarmGirlSummer is one of the latest “vibes” people are chasing — a form of escapism and a search for meaning in what can feel like an overwhelming world. Now, people can see farms and rural life right from their phones and reframe what was once seen as an undesirable lifestyle into something idyllic — especially for those feeling overstimulated by city life. Rural living is naturally beautiful and social media has made it easier than ever to show just how special it is.

What message or feeling are you trying to share when you post with #FarmGirlSummer?

It’s a reminder — to myself, my family and my community — that life is bigger than your feed. It’s proof that I’ve stepped away from the trap of constant scrolling and hopefully encourages others to slow down, take a breath and enjoy the moment. Farm life offers that shift in perspective perfectly.

Follow Topanga on Instagram (reallifetopangadailey).

The Iowa Gallivant: Finding the Food and People Who Make Up the Best of Rural America

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 21:39:16 GMT

Rural American. Stand-up comedian. Chef. Travel blogger. Fan of pork tenderloins. What do any of these have in common? They all offer a glimpse into the life of JayJay Goodvin, better known as The Iowa Gallivant , who has a cult-like following after traveling through all 99 Iowa counties to find the best pork tenderloin .

His love of rural America and the importance of supporting local food places throughout the country motivate him to bring those passions to light through his blog, The Iowa Gallivant.

Goodvin grew up in the Cedar Rapids area, but his parents were from rural Iowa so visiting small towns and farms was part of his childhood.

“Growing up in the metro areas, that was my fantasy land when I would visit the farm or the small town,” Goodvin says. “It’s been a part of my travels since I was a baby. I’m still just as excited to get out to small-town Iowa and small-town America whenever I can.”

In the late 90s, Goodvin left Iowa and traveled the country to Arizona, Cape Cod, the Florida Keys, Montana, Austin, Texas, the Black Hills of South Dakota and Central Illinois. He lived in Phoenix because he wanted to be close to Las Vegas and L.A. — to try his hand at comedy. He said it didn’t pay very well while he was starting out, but he could always find a job as a cook and found himself gravitating toward the restaurant industry.

“I ended up really loving that culture,” he says. “I think it was Anthony Bourdain that said, ‘it’s like, pirate culture — we’re all a bunch of scallywags in the kitchen and things like that.’ And I just learned how to make great food under really great chefs.”

He says it was a great way to see the country, too.

“I worked with a lot of other cooks, but there was just all sorts of things that happened due to those travels, due to working in that industry that made for some very positive outcomes,” he says.

In 2010, Goodvin came back home and combined his love of food, traveling and family into his blog. What started as a family scrapbooking project on WordPress turned into a travel vlog and now has taken on a life of its own.

“It morphed into my first book, Rural Iowa Sausage , from another project that we did, which is very pork related, called Iowa’s Wurst Road Trip — Casing the State for the Best Sausage ,” Goodvin says.

This trip was a bit of a full circle moment for him as his grandfather had his own meat locker in northwest Iowa.

“As we went along with Iowa’s Wurst Road Trip, I realized just how vital that industry was and needs to be,” he explains. “I learned in the 1970s at its peak, we had over 400 lockers statewide. Now we’re just north of a hundred. COVID actually gave it a renaissance period because a lot of people realize how important it is.”

He says more people want to know where their meat comes from.

“You can literally go to one of our local lockers and shake the hand of the person that you’re helping to keep employed. And that’s huge,” he says. “The revenue mileage on buying a pack of brats at our local lockers goes a lot further, it seems. Because when you when you can actually see how that’s helping somebody put their own food on their table, it’s like, come in and eat, or we all go hungry.”

To hear more of Goodvin’s adventures, upcoming projects and why he finds it so important to share about the food and communities of rural America, watch the latest episode of The PORK Podcast here or on your favorite podcast channels.

Don’t Get Scammed: Essential Advice for Safely Buying Used Farm Machinery

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 18:22:40 GMT

If you end up on the receiving end of a questionable looking email from a Nigerian prince, who just so happens to have this can’t-miss, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you — all you have to do is go buy this used baler, sell it for thousands of dollars more than you paid for it, and then send a few thousand dollars to your new friend in Africa and you get to pocket the rest — you’re probably going to laugh, delete that email and move on with your day.

It would be nice if all used equipment scams were that easy to spot in the wild, but scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in how they put their grifts in motion.

One recent, well-publicized case appears really concerning on its face, because the fox was loose in the hen house.

Dustin Echelbarger, 43, was arrested in June on 17 felony counts of fraud and forgery in Indiana. Echelbarger, who is presumed innocent until proven otherwise, is accused of using his position as a sales rep at the local John Deere dealership, Truland Equipment, to rope a handful of farmer customers across two states into a used farm machinery buying and selling scheme. You can brush up on the sordid details here. The case is set for jury trial this fall.

Zach Bosely, founder and CEO of TractorTuesday.com, and Aaron Fintel, used equipment specialist with 21st Century Equipment, spoke with us about issues they have encountered in the used market and how buyers can protect themselves.

Here are a few common issues farmers should be aware of:

Lien Complications: Many transactions involve blanket liens, and sometimes multiple liens, which can complicate or invalidate a deal if the equipment is not cleared for transfer. Some sellers might even be unaware of existing liens on machinery.
Bankruptcy Issues: When sellers file for bankruptcy it can lead to hiccups with the sale and ownership transfer. For example, if farm equipment was sold before a seller’s bankruptcy declaration but still carries a lien, the buyer could find themselves entangled in a legal dispute with creditors.
Long Processing Times: When a lien needs to be cleared, it often involves lengthy delays in the transaction. Buyers might even find themselves unable to secure financing.

Here are some insider tips to help you stay safe in the used equipment marketplace:

UCC Diligence: Buyers should conduct UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) searches to identify existing liens, just as many of the big online auction houses will do before listing a machine for auction. To search for Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings related to farm equipment, locate the state’s UCC database and search for filings using the previous owner’s name. In Ohio, for example, you can perform online UCC searches on a database maintained by the Secretary of State office.
Research the Seller: Before making a purchase, ensure you are dealing with reputable sellers or auction houses. Do your homework by conducting online research (social media, local court records, Google searches) before you sign anything binding.
Verify Equipment History: Use the equipment’s serial number to perform online searches, looking for issues or conflicts. This includes checking for outstanding liens or claims.
Engage Local Dealers: Consult local dealerships and sales representatives that you trust. Bring the serial number with you so the dealer can verify the history of the machine and pull any service records.
Obtain a Lien Waiver: If there is a lien, the previous owner should seek a lien waiver from the lender, confirming they are authorized to sell the equipment and plan to satisfy the lien once the transaction goes through. Proper, open communication between buyer, seller and lender is key here.
Still Red Flags? Walk Away: If there are confusing terms or conditions that just don’t feel right, trust your intuition and take some time to review everything. Walk away from the transaction if your concerns aren’t satisfied.
Legal Advice for Large Purchases: You can save yourself from headaches if you have a trusted local attorney look over any large equipment purchase deal before signing on the dotted line.

“It is really important you do your due diligence as a buyer, and it could be as simple as getting the serial number and using a search engine. Start there and see if there’s any smoke,” Bosely advises. “And even if there’s not, continue down the path — talk to your local dealer and ask them to help you out, help make sure you’re not buying a lemon, because you’re going to use them for service anyways.”

“My final point to hammer home on all of this would be, there are ways to check things out when you’re buying equipment, so utilize them. Take your time and do your do your due diligence,” Fintel adds. “And keep this in mind: there is no such thing as having too many things in writing, whether it’s an email, a text message or whatever. Those are all documents that can be shown in court.”

Your Next Read: How Farmer Stories and 4WD Row Crop Tractors Push Used Equipment Values Higher

Op-Ed: Secretary Rollins Announces Policy Proposals to Enhance Support for Family Farmers

Mon, 19 May 2025 15:11:36 GMT

Small family farms are the backbone of our nation. Throughout our history, they have secured the promise of liberty made by our Founders. And they are the indispensable foundation of democratic civics and republican virtues. As Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison in 1785, “small landholders are the most precious part of a state.”

Today, with my friend Governor Jim Pillen, we kicked off the Make Agriculture Great Again Initiative at Ohnoutka Family Farm in eastern Nebraska. This new policy initiative at USDA will address a series of issues within food, agriculture, and rural America but will specifically focus on challenges faced by small family farms.

We know these challenges, such as labor costs and availability, are not easy ones to address. But we are committed to focusing on the needs of Americans who operate small farms because of their patriotism and commitment to their land.

USDA Steps Up to Address Obstacles
During my time as Secretary of Agriculture, I’ve met with family farmers who have faced too many obstacles as they work to maintain or start new operations.

For example, many small farms lack reliable access to capital. At USDA, we are reforming the Farm Service Agency loan program to streamline delivery and increase program efficiency.

The acquisition of land for new farmers has also become increasingly difficult amid high costs and real estate development. That’s why we’re using prioritization points and regulatory action to disincentivize the use of federal funding for solar panels to be used on productive farmland. And we’re expanding permitting of unused or underused federal land for long-term leases to small farms and streamlining the federal land leasing process so the program works better for farmers and adjacent landowners.

We are also aware many new farmers lack access to infrastructure such as cold storage and processing facilities. To address this disparity, we are working to provide state-level grants for infrastructure tied to the needs of new farmers. And by the end of the year, we will ensure applications for every farmer-focused program are available for electronic submission.

And finally, we are working with governors and state legislators around the country to find solutions to the challenges small farms face. We recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture to find areas of collaboration between USDA and the states, which are the laboratories of democracy.

State and Federal Governments Must Work Together
Earlier this month, we hosted a roundtable at USDA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., with small-farm operators from around the country. We had the privilege of welcoming hog farmers from Ohio, third-generation local producers from Virginia, first-generation dairy farmers from Mississippi, Amish and Mennonite farmers from Pennsylvania, and many others who have devoted much of their lives to the land and their customers.

The Founders did not chart the path of our nation so USDA bureaucrats in Washington can look over the shoulders of law-abiding American citizens.

As I was reminded by the witness of those who visited USDA, the Department of Agriculture was founded so every farming mother and father can raise their children, work their land, and spend time with their families and their God.

This is the mission of USDA, and now, under the leadership of President Trump, is the time to return to the fundamental work that will restore rural prosperity in forgotten communities across the nation.

Based on feedback from the hundreds of small family farmers I have met and talked to over the last 90 days, USDA is now making tangible changes to our policies to ensure family farmers can continue to work their land and new farmers can take on this way of life without obstruction.

While USDA has many programs to assist farmers, we know it takes government entities, non-profits, and the private sector focusing their efforts together to improve the viability and longevity of small family farms.

We were honored to announce this new policy initiative in Nebraska today. The existence and work of small farms are too central to our nation’s history, cultural heritage, and food supply to allow them to slowly disappear from our landscape. To steer clear of a problem that every American wants to avoid, it is imperative that federal and state governments provide proactive intervention so these small operations can preserve their inheritance for generations to come.

Grit, Grease, and Gears: Meet the Colorado Teen Breathing New Life into Old Tractors

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:57:13 GMT

Colorado teenager Tyson Hansen is a shining example of that old saying “If you start them young…”

That’s because Hansen, 17, has cultivated a rare passion for buying and restoring classic tractors. It is a passion passed down from his great grandfather, who started the Hansen family farm and pieced together a massive tractor fleet over the years.

“He had over 200-some tractors, mostly two-cylinder, and when he passed, they had the big auction and my dad bought one to remember him by, and well now it’s our family tractor,” Hansen remembers. “My dad still talks about the first day he let me drive it, and he always says since that first ride, I was just hooked.”

The tractor that launched his lifelong love for tractors - the 1934 John Deere GP in all its glory.

(Photo courtesy of Mecum Auctions)

That first taste of classic tractor heaven was on the hardened steel green seat of a 1934 John Deere GP, a popular two-plow row crop setup John Deere built and sold from 1928 to 1935.

The high school junior says he’s wrenched on about 16 to 17 classic tractors at this point, all while participating in his high school FFA program and wrestling for the varsity team. And it’s not a hobby he tackles alone in a dusty, dark barn – his dad, stepmom, and brother all pitch in and help out. Because everyone knows nothing brings a family closer than bonding over busted knuckles and stripped chassis bolts.

Tyson says his family is “pretty much a John Deere family” but that he has started to feel the pull from other legacy brands.

“I started out as a John Deere guy, but I don’t even actually own any John Deeres,” he says, adding that right now his personal collection consists of two classic Case IH tractors and two Farmalls.

That doesn’t mean a young man can’t dream big, though, and Tyson’s big dream restoration project is to someday fix up a John Deere Model R.

He purchased his latest tractor, a Case 400 Super Diesel Western Special Edition with a hand clutch – one of only eight ever built, he says – with the goal of fixing it up and flipping it to raise enough cash to make that dream a reality.

“Once I got that tractor I went online and looked up some Facebook groups where the guys are all about Case, and I didn’t know anything about them at the time, so I just started asking guys for help and next thing I know within an hour I had about seven or eight texts from guys asking to buy that thing off me,” he says. “That’s when I realized that 400 is a little rarer than I figured it would have been.”

His Case 400 is also going to end up helping his fellow students in the FFA program. Tyson’s FFA teacher has asked him to bring the 400 in and is going to let the young man lead his classmates through a lesson on how diesel engines work.

Work is a key word in any farming family, and the Hansen family is no different.

“I don’t know why, my dad always tells me I won’t like it when I am out of high school, but I like to work,” Hansen says. “I guess I’ve just got a working mindset – I’m not the biggest fan of sitting in the house.”

Check out Tyson Hansen’s latest Tractor Tales spotlight below, where the teen shows off his rebuilt Case 400 tractor. And subscribe to the Farm Journal YouTube channel to get all of the latest Tractor Tale videos.

Also keep an eye on U.S. Farm Report every Saturday morning for the debut of the newest Tractor Tales feature.

Your Next Read: 2001 John Deere Smashes Record With $132,500 Price Tag

Brand Name Vs. Generic: Tools By Any Other Name

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 22:29:59 GMT

There are a few tools commonly used on farms that literally aren’t made the way they used to be made, including Vise-Grips and Channellock.

Vise-Grips were invented in 1923 by blacksmith William S. Petersen in Dewitt, Neb. The tool was popular with local farmers, and by WWII it was so widely accepted the U.S. military provided Vise-Grips to its mechanics. Veterans spread the word, and Vise-Grips became a standardized tool across the U.S.

In Europe, locking pliers are called mole grips or mole pliers because they were first manufactured by the M.K. Mole and Son Tool Company — shortly after Petersen released his Vise-Grips.

Petersen’s family-owned company was eventually bought out, and the Vise-Grip-brand is now owned by Irwin Tools. Some professional mechanics believe old Vise-Grips work better than new ones. They scour auctions and pawn shops for Vise-Grips stamped with “DeWitt, Neb.” They also covet Vise-Grips with the locking lever held in place by a roll pin instead of newer versions that attach the lever with a rivet.

Vintage Vise-Grips made in the original factory in DeWitt, Neb., are identified by “Petersen Manufacturing, DeWitt, NEBR” in the logo and by a roll pin that attaches the release handle. Newer Vise-Grips are missing the hometown logo and use a rivet rather than a roll pin to affix the release handle.

(Dan Anderson)

The Tool That Defined Jaws

Just as Vise-Grip has come to mean any locking plier, Channellock now refers to any pair of pliers that have adjustable jaws. Channellock pliers have roots in a blacksmith shop run by George DeArment, which eventually became Champion-DeArment Tool Company. Chief engineer Howard Manning developed a pair of pliers with a unique tongue-and-groove, adjustable hinge point that were patented as Channellock pliers in 1935.

The popularity of the adjustable pliers spawned knockoffs until “Channellock” became a generic term, similar to Kleenex and Chapstick. To protect the brand, Champion-DeArment changed its name to Channellock in 1963.

Channellock pliers have roots in a blacksmith shop run by George DeArment, which eventually became Champion-DeArment Tool Company. Chief engineer Howard Manning developed a pair of pliers with a unique tongue-and-groove, adjustable hinge point that were patented as Channellock pliers in 1935.

(Dan Anderson)

A similar problem occurred for the Crescent Tool Company, which was founded in Jamestown, N.Y., in 1907. Adjustable wrenches were common, but the Crescent Adjustable Wrench featured a patented screw-mechanism that eventually led to them being standard issue in many military tool boxes throughout WWII. As with Vise-Grips, WWII exposed military mechanics to the value of Crescent wrenches, and after the war they found homes in many civilian toolboxes.

There are now many types of adjustable wrenches for sale. But only adjustable wrenches from the Crescent Tool Company carry the company’s trademark that guarantees they are Crescent-brand wrenches.

Your Next Read: Why Are Some Wrenches More Expensive Than Others?

Why Are Some Wrenches More Expensive Than Others?

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 21:17:30 GMT

Is a chromed wrench with a mirror finish stronger than a satin-finish wrench? Is it necessary to have both chrome and impact sockets? Is there any benefit to a dead-blow hammer?

Those are good questions that deserve answers:

Hand wrenches come with three basic finishes:

Chrome
Satin
Industrial

They all start out with an identical chunk of steel alloyed with chrome vanadium. The only difference is the type of finish they get.

Satin
A Brand X satin-finish wrench is as strong as that brand’s chrome-finish wrench.

Industrial
Wrenches with black industrial finishes are designed for use in factories. They are more economical, but corrode more easily if used outdoors.

Chrome

“Impact sockets,” the dull black sockets recommended for use with impact wrenches, are made from chrome-molybdenum steel. Chrome-moly sockets have more give than chrome vanadium sockets, allowing them to stand up to the hammering of impact wrenches.
Chrome sockets are built with thinner walls to access tighter spaces when used with hand tools. Those thin walls, combined with the slightly brittle nature of chrome vanadium, can crack if used with an impact wrench.

Jaw design can influence the strength of open-end wrenches.

“Every so often some wrench manufacturer comes out with a V-shape in the back of the jaws on their open-end wrenches,” says Tom Clark, Wright Tools engineer. “Anywhere there’s a sharp corner in steel, it can create a stress riser, and those V-shaped wrenches can have problems with cracking at the V.”

Vintage coarse-toothed socket wrenches withstood more torque than their fine-toothed counterparts because a single, thick pawl was stronger than a single, thinner pawl. But manufacturers figured out how to have multiple, smaller teeth on the pawl mechanism to give strength nearly equal to coarse-toothed pawls. Today’s quality ratchet wrenches “purr” rather than “rattle” when twisted.

Dead-blow hammers have a cavity inside their head partially filled with lead shot. When the hammer is swung, the shot shift to the rear of the cavity. On impact, inertia drives the shot toward the striking surface, adding force to the blow a split second after the initial impact. The secondary impact also reduces rebound.

As a test, allow a dead-blow and a solid-head hammer to free-fall so their heads simultaneously hit an anvil. The dead-blow hammer consistently rebounds less.

Personal experience indicates the force; i.e., pain, from dead-blow or solid-head hammers smacking a finger is pretty much the same.

Your Next Read — Getting Snippy: Tips for Smooth Cuts in Sheet Metal

Getting Snippy: Tips for Smooth Cuts in Sheet Metal

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 20:17:11 GMT

Cutting metal flashing or sheet metal with tin snips need not be a bloody job, nor leave ragged, warped metal edges. A pair of leather gloves prevents bloodshed, and a few tips about the different types of tin snips and how to use them can produce smooth, accurate cuts.

Sheet metal snips come in multiple designs, but here are four snips commonly found in farm shops.

Tin snips, aka “bulldog snips,” are the forged, straight-jawed sheet metal cutters handed down from your grandpa. They make straight cuts well and can do limited curved cuts.

Traditional tin snips, aka “bulldog snips,” cut straight, left and right, but they might leave rougher edges than aviation snips.

Aviation snips come in three designs: left, right and straight.

Left snips have red handles, are often marked with an “L” on the side of their jaws, and work well to cut curves to the left.

Right snips have green handles along with an “R” on the side of their jaws. They’re designed to cut curves to the right.

Straight snips can have black or yellow handles, are marked with an “S,” and can cut straight as well as gentle left or right curves.

There are strategies to get the best results from aviation snips:

When making cuts with left or right snips, one side of the cut is the “waste” side and will tend to curl up and away from the cut. Even with straight snips, one side of the cut will be more distorted than the other.
Avoid cutting all the way to the tips of a snip’s jaws. The tip of a snip’s jaws overlap slightly, which causes a pucker at the end of each full cut.

Cutting to the tips of the jaws leaves a pucker in the cut edge.

Aviation snips have a small ramp built into the left or right jaw just ahead of the pivot bolt. The ramp lifts the waste side away from the cut and over the pivot bolt, making it possible to cut a curve while leaving the desired edge flat and unpuckered.

Left and right aviation snips have small ramps designed into one of their jaws to curve waste metal up and away from the cut.

When possible, cut near the edge of a piece of tin so the curled waste is narrow enough to easily manipulate away from the cut.

Cutting close to the edge of a sheet allows any tin snip — left, right

or straight — to peel up a narrow, easily managed strip of waste metal.

Before attempting complex cuts with multiple curves or angles, trim away excess metal on the waste side of the cut so the waste area is narrowed and easily bends away from the cut.

Removing large areas of waste metal inside a curve before making a final allows better control of a narrow waste strip.

The jaws of snips should always be perpendicular to the surface of the metal. There is a tendency when cutting curves to lean the snip in the direction of the curve. This encourages the snip to “gnaw” the metal rather than cleanly shear it.

Your Next Read — New Year, New Gloves: Here’s How to Find the Right Glove for the Job

Iconic Holiday Road Trip Stop Returns to Its Georgia Pecan Farm Roots

Sun, 22 Dec 2024 16:31:00 GMT

Dashing through the snow in a front-wheel drive sleigh … the seasonal holiday road trip is a right of passage for many families. At one time, the roadside icon Stuckey’s was often a likely stop.

“At our peak, we had 368 stores in 40 states,” says Stephanie Stuckey, current chair of the Stuckey’s Corporation. “Stuckey’s really is synonymous with the road trip, during what I consider the era of the great American Road Trip, which would have been the 1950s to the 1970s.”

Stephanie Stuckey, current chair of the Stuckey’s Corporation.

(Stuckey’s Corporation)

The roadside oasis, and its iconic pecan candies, are woven into the fabric of highway history.

“Back then, Americans wouldn’t travel by plane. They would load up in the car, usually in a family station wagon, and drive for five days,” Stuckey says.

The company was founded during the Great Depression by pecan farmer, WS Stuckey, as a roadside pecan stand.

“He always considered himself first and foremost, a pecan farmer and a pecan broker,” adds Stuckey, his granddaughter.

Pecan farmer and Stuckey’s Corporation founder, WS Stuckey.

(Stuckey’s Corporation)

Today she’s leading a resurgence of that business, not as a highway stop, but as a pecan company with roots on Georgia farms.

“This is our big audacious goal: I want us to be the go-to pecan snack brand in the world,” she says.

Helping her on the journey is RG Lamar, a third-generation pecan farmer and company CEO.

RG Lamar, a third-generation pecan farmer and Stuckey’s Corporation CEO.

(Stuckey’s Corporation)

“I can say as a Georgia pecan grower, I may be a little bit biased, I don’t know, but I genuinely believe we grow the best pecans in the world in the state of Georgia,” Lamar smiles.

He credits ample rainfall in the southeast and higher oil content with helping grow a larger-sized nut. The result is perfect for creating candied treats at Christmas.

Today, on an in-shell basis, Stuckey’s handles about 2 million pounds of Georgia pecans a year. As a state, Georgia grows roughly 100 million pounds.

“Interestingly, roughly 10% of the pecans grown in Georgia are grown in someone’s yard,” Larmar says.

Soon, the newly refocused Stuckey’s brand will be using even more Georgia pecans as the business continues to expand.

“Why is it that when you go into the grocery store, walk down the salty snack aisle and you get to the nuts, you can find every other nut sitting in that section, but you don’t see pecans there very often,” Lamar asks.

Georgia Pecan Orchard

(Stuckey’s Corporation)

It’s a question this farmer and farmer’s granddaughter are aiming to answer.

“Of the original 368 stores there are only 12 left,” Stuckey says. “That’s OK because I saw what wasn’t on the balance sheets and that is the value of the brand.”

A brand, dumping, churning, dipping and packaging pecans, log rolls and clusters just the way the founder WS Stuckey did when he started.

“I would like to think if he were alive today, he would be really happy we’re making our comeback the way we began, as a pecan company,” Stuckey says.

Watch Christmas in the Country on Dec. 25 on AgDay TV .

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What the Next Generation Can Do to Prepare for Transition Planning

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 19:38:30 GMT

The interconnectedness of agriculture business and family relationships can make transition and estate planning feel challenging. Having the conversations and carrying out the legalities are two separate components that require great detail. Add on managing finances and what should be an exciting opportunity for the rising generation can quickly become overwhelming.

Jessica Groskopf, a Nebraska farmer and transition planning expert, talks about transition and estate planning in a different light. She spoke on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast about how the next generation can prepare themselves. She recognizes the challenges that come with the process, but also sees the hidden opportunities that can help the rising generation build for the future.

“There is a big part of the message missing when it comes to talking about estate and transition planning,” Groskopf says. “That part of the message is what we can do as the younger generation to prepare ourselves for that eventual transfer.”

Jessica and her husband know firsthand what it is like to build for the future even when there has been a lack of transparency and communication from the senior generation. Together, they turned what looked like a less-than-ideal buy out to others into a great opportunity for themselves by using emergency funds, good debt, flexible investments, and alternative revenue.

Groskopf says, “Fifty percent of land owned by an operator was purchased from a non-relative.”

That means the younger generation needs to start preparing financially because the likelihood of them purchasing property is very high.

Financial preparation can include many components. The Groskopfs knew they wanted to buy farmland at some point regardless of if it was in the family or not. So, they started early to prepare for their unknown scenario of a down payment for property.

“The key to savings and investing is time,” Groskopfs says. “The younger you start saving and investing, the better off you will be especially if you are allowing that money to grow over a significant amount of time.”

About five years after they began saving and investing, Jessica and her husband bought into the family partnership with the money they had accumulated. The amount of time, and money needed for a down payment is unique to each individual person and family.

Emergency funds are the first step to financial security.

“For most farm and ranch families, I prefer they have three to six months worth of family living expenses on hand,” says Groskopf

Emergency funds are the safety net that families can use to safeguard against bad debt and continue to move forward financially. One smart practice with emergency funds is to make sure they are in an easily accessible account that earns interest. Two account examples to explore are high-yield savings accounts or money markets.

The next step is to tackle “bad” debt.

“Not all debt is bad and debt is certainly not dumb,” Groskopf says. “Debt is a tool…I think most people understand what bad debt is, but I want to provide a clear definition. Bad debt has a relatively high interest rate, usually over seven percent. Bad debt is also purchasing items that are not necessary.”

Other considerations to make about debt include depreciation, tax advantages and if the item putting you in debt is adding value in other areas of the business. It ultimately comes down to how you manage debt because even good debt can pile up and put farmers and ranchers in less-than-ideal financial positions.

Once you have an emergency fund, and have paid off “bad debt”, it’s time to focus on other savings and investments.

“If the money will be needed within three years, it should go into the savings bucket,” Groskopf says. “High-yield savings accounts, money markets and bonds are all examples of accounts that can be used for shorter-term savings. Accounts used for savings should earn enough interest to outpace inflation, look for options with an annual percentage yield of 3% or higher.”

Groskopf says to invest money that will not be needed in the short term. Investment accounts usually have higher rates of returns but require leaving the money in the accounts for long periods of time to receive the advantages of using them.

For farmers and ranchers aiming to secure their financial future, Jessica recommends investing in flexible accounts. When picking an investment account, considerations need made to what tax and penalties may apply upon withdrawal of the funds along with any other stipulations that come along with the account. Once you have selected the account, you will then need to select the investments within the account. Producers should look for lost cost, diversified options such as Index Funds, Mutual Funds or Exchange Traded Funds, she adds.

“If your head is spinning when it comes to all this information, I’d encourage you to sit down with a financial advisor and explain your situation. Share how long you’d like to invest and how accessible you need the funds to be,” Groskopf says.

Alternative revenue streams or town jobs are a common risk management strategy for farm and ranch families. Whether they pay for living expenses or even supplement the business during the beginning years, they can be a valuable tool.

“I’m someone who says that it has to fit with the farm or the ranch,” Groskopf says. “You have to make sure the seasonality of the business doesn’t conflict with the farm or ranch and that you have the flexibility you need to get everything done.”

Financial and non-financial considerations need to be made before committing to another form of revenue for your personal life or ranch.

Building for the future takes time and experience.

“No one has taught any of us how to do this finance stuff…it is not something you should inherently know,” Groskopf explains. “If you are starting from scratch, go back to your balance sheet. Write down what you do and don’t have in place and even what you don’t understand. Connect with an expert such as your local banker or a financial planner who can help you move forward.”

If you are not comfortable investing on your own, work closely with a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) professional, Certified Public Accountant, tax preparer, and/or investment advisor.

Listen to the full conversation:

Your next read: Tax Turbulence: How Sunsetting Provisions Could Change Your Bottom Line

We Asked, You Answered: What I’d Do With A Tesla Robot

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 13:23:11 GMT

Back in October, we asked our readers to give us examples of how they would put one of Tesla’s new Optimus robots to work around the farm. The responses – at least the ones that are suitable to print – certainly did not disappoint.

Here’s a handful of quotes from AgWeb.com readers:

“I need two of them to help me out here in the maintenance building. For the past 17 years it has been a one-man shop, which is a challenge when there is no one to hold the other end, but I managed. I am getting older now and would be willing to train my replacements on how to build, operate, maintain, and repair agricultural equipment…”

“Walking Beans”

“My list would be long and sweaty. But I would need an educated “bot”. One with lots of letters behind his/her name....like PhD....for Post Hole Digger!”

No Hazmat Suit Necessary

(Illustration: Lori Hays)

“Spot spraying weeds.”

“Check grain bins, pick up rocks, clean fence lines, mow the lawn, help shovel and sweep bins out, help clean equipment up spring and fall, you name it him and me would be busy.”

New Year, New Gloves: Here's How to Find the Right Glove for the Job

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 17:35:54 GMT

Leather work gloves are often considered “consumables” on farms and ranches due to the frequency with which they wear out or go missing. Farmers and ranchers can buy fewer gloves, that last longer, if they know how to match glove design and type of leather to their job description.

According to Mike McGuire, agricultural sales manager for Wells Lamont:

Cowhide leather is the standard for durability and comfort in farm and ranch gloves. Split cowhide is slightly more durable than smooth-grain cowhide.
Calfskin gloves are softer than cowhide, more supple than cowhide, but more prone to punctures and cuts.
Deerskin gloves are the top seller in many farm stores. Deerskin is by nature softer and more flexible than cowhide, but not as resistant to punctures and rough use.
Goatskin is thinner and nearly as tough as cowhide when it comes to abrasion, but susceptible to puncture by thorns or barbed wire.
Pigskin isn’t as supple as other leathers, but is breathable and relatively puncture resistant.
Buffalo-hide gloves, made from water buffalo leather, are noted for good durability, a stretchy “feel,” and are somewhat water resistant.

Design-wise, many leather gloves are labeled “drivers gloves,” not to be confused with “driving gloves.”

According to Clark Carlile, with Bear Knuckle Gloves, the driving glove made its appearance during the 1890s when auto drivers wore gloves because cars were unheated and steering wheels were made of bare metal. Cowboys adopted that style of gloves to protect their hands during cattle drives, and driver gloves became standard in farm and ranch work.

The leather in most driver gloves is between 0.9 mm and 1.1 mm thick. Carlile says his company offers 1.4 mm thick gloves made of cowhide.

“They’re durable,” he says. “Firefighters, brick-layers and guys working with barbed wire like the protection and toughness a thicker glove offers.”

Price is a fair indicator of quality. “Gimme gloves” gifted by seed corn dealers or other farm retailers cost around $12 per pair. Standard farm store gloves retail for between $15 to $25, depending on type of leather, reinforcing of fingers/palms, and other features. Fitted leather work gloves found on the internet sell for between $35 and $45 per pair.

“Economy gloves need to be broken in to be comfortable,” Carlile says. “If you buy quality gloves and match the type of leather to the work you’ll be doing, you’ll have comfortable, durable gloves that will last a long time.”

As for “lost” gloves — ask your dog.

Strategies for 2025: Balance Family, Finances and Farming

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 13:30:00 GMT

With three busy kids, my wife and I are constantly on the go. Between practices, work and school events there are plenty of nights when dinner at home is a challenge. Three years ago, we often found ourselves frequenting a local restaurant after a basketball game or grabbing food to go in between practices. Today, it happens a lot less. Our reason is, like so many others, the rise in food costs require we be better stewards of our finances.

As farmers look out into 2025, the last data from USDA’s Economic Research Service projects input costs to remain high. For corn, that means $871 per acre, and for soybeans, it’s $625 per acre. While trending lower, both remain well above the inflation kick-start of 2021. The bottom line is that when wages, or in this case, commodity prices don’t go up or remain somewhat elevated, and costs remain high, it’s hard to make the numbers work.

A Business Decision

Which is why, when we talk about sustainability, it starts as a business decision and making sure the farm can remain financially viable. Then it’s time to look at systems, strategies and technology. In the current environment, ideas must come with neutral to lower costs or real ROI. Conservation and sustainability measures are no different nor are they immune to the financial realities of today’s markets. That said, taking the long view on soil health, water and protecting the farm’s most essential resources is also vital to longevity.

Balancing Both

As you wrap up 2024 and take on the unknowns of 2025, I hope your operation finds a pathway toward sustainable success. The road might look different this year as you traverse the challenges ahead. This might be the year to do something different. Explore new ways to buy, hire or work. Evaluate the product mix, brand loyalties or selling points. If ever there was a year to look at the status quo with fresh eyes, 2025 could be the opportunity. As you embrace family and friends this holiday season, may the gift of farming continue to bless your home for generations to come.

No one knows better than you that the future of your farm depends on balancing practices and profits that sustain your land, resources and family . The stakes are evolving based on weather patterns, technology, market demand and more. What actions are you taking to remain resilient?

A Symbol of Civilization: How the Iconic Windmill Helped Farmers Settle the West

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 18:48:00 GMT

More than 100 years ago they represented life itself on a farm. Dotting the landscape of the Plains, the windmill carried water from deep underground to the surface.

Today, it’s serenity in rhythm as fan blades spin in the wind. The sounds of yesterday’s progress echo across the acreage at the Mid-America Windmill Museum in Kendallville, Ind. Each of the roughly 50 windmills dotting the grounds, tells a story from generations past.

“The design hasn’t changed much,” says Mike Fitzgibbon, the museum’s president of the board of directors. “You have your fan blade, and you have the gearbox that transforms the wind into mechanical power or force and that pumps the water.”

Before windmills, families had to hand pump water for both people and livestock.

(Solomon D. Butcher via Library of Congress)

This part of the country in northeast Indiana was once a hotbed for mill manufacturers.

“At the turn of the century, in this tri-state area (Indiana, Ohio and Michigan), there were more than 100 different windmill manufacturers,” adds Todd Skinner, a board member with the Mid-America Windmill Museum.

Pam Younce, who runs publicity, says the location was the key to the industry.

“This was the hub of windmill companies because of the wood that was available — the poplar, the oak and the hickory,” Younce says.

Poultry with windmill from the Nebraska Prairie Settlement era of 1886 to early 1900s.

(Solomon D. Butcher via Library of Congress)

While the region was well suited for manufacturing the parts and pieces, it was points west that provided the backdrop for the windmill’s rise as an agricultural icon.

First patented in 1854, Daniel Halladay created a windmill that could automatically turn to face changing wind directions and mechanically self-regulate its speed.

“There’s a lot of people who understand the mechanics of things if you work on the farm,” Fitzgibbon says. “He probably had to be involved with agriculture of some sort back in those days.”

In the early days, all of the windmill construction was done by hand.

“The towers were built from the ground up,” Skinner explains. “They would start putting the tower together on the ground and work their way up to the top. Then they would use a gin pole and a winch to winch the windmill up and set it in place.”

As the west expanded and surface water in America’s vast arid regions became harder to find, the windmill stood in the gap. It became a stoic symbol of civilization, silhouetted against the West’s painted sky.

“When you’re out on a 160,000-acre ranch they were very useful and the only way to get water to the cattle,” Younce says.

Windmills were central to farm life for early settlers.

(Vogel’s Studio, Didsbury, Alberta)

“It was their lifeblood,” Skinner adds. “If you didn’t have water, you couldn’t have your farm or take care of your livestock or your family.”

Windmills also helped drive settlers to new regions as water stations dotted the railroad every 20 to 50 miles in service of thirsty steam-powered locomotives.

Fabric-covered sails gave way to wooden blades, which turned into metal fans and towers by the late 1800s. Eventually self-oiling gearboxes helped reduce maintenance and improved longevity.

By the 1930s, $32 would get you an 8' windmill and 30' tower. Today, Skinner says that same setup costs closer to $10,000.

The windmill is a piece of history, and the Mid-American Windmill Museum is pouring back into the community thanks to tours and history lessons for local kids.

“Most kids don’t grow up on farms anymore, so it’s real enlightening to see these kids understand how this all works and where the water actually comes from,” Skinner says.

While they give a lot of tours to kids, it’s not uncommon to find a nostalgic adult sitting among the mills, transported to days gone by.

“A lot of people who grew up with windmills back in the day recognize all the sounds,” explains Skinner, who handles most of the maintenance at the museum. “All of these sounds mean that something needs attention and I need to get to work.”

“A lot of people enjoy the noises,” Fitzgibbon echoes. “You don’t hear noises like that in the cities anymore. You hear honking horns and sirens, but you can come out here and enjoy the serenity of what it might have been like in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

Back to another time, before the hustle and bustle of modern America.

“Visitors say when the windmills are making noise they’re talking or they’re singing to them,” Younce adds.

A song from the past, as these legends stand tall against time’s horizon and serves as a reminder that simple ingenuity can conquer even the harshest foe.

Your Next Read: Why These Illinois Farmers are Harvesting for the Future With Their Most Selfless Harvest Yet

She Found Her Fiancé Clinging to Life After a Major Anhydrous Leak and Then Miraculously Helped Save Him

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 16:30:08 GMT

This story originally aired on U.S. Farm Report in December 2023. One year after the accident occurred, we are once again sharing the miraculous rescue during our 2024 Harvest of Thanks Special.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

It was calm across the rolling fields of central Iowa on Nov. 19, 2023. It was a Sunday, and Kendra Vander Leest says it was prime for fall fieldwork.

“Before lunch, Joe decided it was fit to pull ammonia,” Kendra says.

Her fiancé, Joe Rempe, spent all afternoon in the field that day applying anhydrous ammonia.

“When evening rolled around, I checked on his Life360 and everything seemed fine at that point.

About 7:30 p.m., she heard the tractor crawling toward the house. She thought it meant Joe was calling it quits for the night.

“I was in the kitchen making our daughter Josie’s bedtime bottle and prepping her bottles for daycare on Monday. I went to put her bottles in our daycare bag and happened to look up, out the window, and I saw the tractor and a plume of anhydrous smoke. At that point, it was like time started moving really slowly,” Kendra says.

A Giant Plume of Smoke

Seeing that plume of smoke, and knowing what it was, her heart dropped.

“I knew it was Joe,” she recalls. “I knew instantly it was Joe. I knew what I was seeing, but it was just surreal.”

Full of fear, she rushed to grab her phone.

“As I’m running up the steps, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s gone. There’s no way.’ As bad as that is, I thought there’s no way [he’s alive].”

She decided to call him, knowing Joe might not be alive to answer.

“I knew I couldn’t run out there into the plume. Otherwise, I would wind up dead or hurt. So, I called him and he answered,” she says.

“I think she said, ‘Joe!’ All I could say was ‘help me,’” he remembers.

“I hung up and called 911, but I knew by the way he said ‘help me’ he was badly hurt,” Kendra recalls.

The 911 Call

Farm Journal was able to track down the 911 call Kendra made that day.

“Pella 911, where’s your emergency?” says the dispatcher.

“We have an anhydrous ammonia accident,” Kendra says. “I need an ambulance. I need a HazMat crew. This is bad, bad.”

The 911 call even captured the moment Kendra ran outside her house and found Joe.

“I’m on the phone with 911. You need water? Oh, God,” you can hear Kendra say. “Just lay down. I’m going to get water. Lay down. I’m going to get water.”

“All right, he inhaled?” you can hear the 911 dispatch operator ask.

“Yes, his lungs are burned. He said his lungs are burning,” Kendra says.

“The tank is completely unloading, but there’s no houses nearby for anyone to get hurt. It’s, it’s bad,” she says.

Kendra Found Joe Clinging to Life

Kendra says when she rushed outside her house, she found Joe crawling on the gravel road, which was about 200 yards from the tractor. She says he was fighting for his life.

“I could hear him coughing. He was crawling toward the house, and as soon as he heard me, he just collapsed,” she says.

Kendra says the second she saw the plume of smoke, she immediately knew it was anhydrous. That’s because her full-time job is with the Iowa Department of Agriculture in the Feed and Fertilizer Bureau. Part of her job is conducting anhydrous ammonia inspections at retailer facilities across the state. From her training and experience, she knew exactly how bad the damage could be.

“He didn’t have any burns on his skin, so the water I grabbed didn’t really do any good. There was nothing for me to dump the water on. All his burns were internal in his nasal cavities, his throat, his lungs, those were all burned,” she says.

“I was badly luck burned inside,” Joe says.

Fire and rescue responded, and a Life Flight carried Joe to Des Moines. From there, he was transferred to Iowa City.

The Anhydrous Accident

As Kendra was driving to the hospital, she still didn’t know what had just transpired in the field. All she knew is Joe was applying anhydrous, something he’s done for nearly 30 years.

“I had just got hooked up to a new set of twins [anhydrous tanks],” Joe says.

Typically, the anhydrous tanks have a hose holder, but he says that pair of tanks they had received did not.

“So, I tried to put a loop on the hoses. Well, my hose must have come loose. And when I was turning on the corner, the left front tire of the twin tank must have run over my hose and then broke the front or pulled the threads out. And the hose came apart,” he says.

He was toward the back of a nearby field when he heard a pop, and gas immediately started shooting straight toward tractor.

“Gas was blowing right at me. It was hitting the back of the cab, the vapor, and going around the tractor,” Joe says.

He tried to turn different directions to change where the smoke was shooting, but he says there was no wind that day. So, it didn’t do any good.

“The whole field was turned into fog, and I knew I had to go to Plan B. I did not know what to do,” he says.

That’s when Joe decided his only option was to head toward the house, all while he couldn’t see and was losing his ability to breathe.

“I knew where the bottom terrace would come out, so I knew I could follow the terrace,” he remembers.

But as he got to a crossing that was in a low spot of the field, he says he couldn’t see anything.

“I lost where I was. I just drove by feel,” he remembers.

Somehow, Joe made it past the crossing, and at that point, the smoke cleared enough to see a gravel road.

“I came east towards the house, and when I crested the hill I was blacking out, because I was losing air. And I really thought I was pretty close to dying,” he says.

At that point, the tractor stopped moving. Inside the cab of the tractor, Joe’s eyes were already so badly burned, he couldn’t see his phone to call 911 or Kendra.

“And I remember I was so darn scared to get out of the tractor. I only pulled 1.1 acres off that tank, so I knew that sucker had a lot of anhydrous in it, and it kept blowing at the tractor. I was so scared to get out, but I knew I had to because it was my only choice.”

At that point, Joe put on a sweatshirt he had with him, as a way to protect his skin. He also grabbed a bottle of water he knew he had on the floor. After he climbed out of the tractor cab, he tried to run toward the house, but he quickly ran out of air.

“And I went down, so I started crawling,” he says.

Diagnosis: Extensive Internal Burns

When Joe was airlifted to a Des Moines hospital, Kendra says she still didn’t know if he was going to survive.

“Two doctors came in and told us what was going on. They told us they could not intubate him because his throat was swelling shut. And so they cut in a cricothyrotomy, which is an emergency trach, to get air to him,” she says.

The doctors used saline bags with tubes to try and flush his eyes out. Once in Iowa City, Kendra learned even more.

“When I got to Iowa City, they said that he had grade one to grade two burns in his sinus cavities, throat and deep into his lungs,” says Kendra. “It basically burnt his vocal cords, his voice box, and his mouth and tongue were completely swollen.”

Kendra says the anhydrous burned the outer-most layer of his eyes, and even today, Joe can’t see enough to read, nor can he stand bright light.

“The only thing the eye doctor said he can’t fix is the dry eyes. So, he’ll just take gel eyedrops forever, but considering everything that happened, we will take that,” she says.

Kendra Nursed Joe Back to Health

Joe spent 10 days in the hospital, but the real work for Kendra started when they sent Joe home.

“I have taken about a month off work, and the nurses trained me how to take care of him, how to administer his meds, and crush medications,” she says.

It’s something Kendra does every 45 minutes. A home health nurse comes twice a week, but the best nurse, Joe says, is Kendra.

“She’s…. good,” says Joe.

“She Saved Me.”

In this Christmas miracle, Joe knows Kendra is his angel.

“She saved me, there is no doubt in my mind,” he says.

In Joe’s eyes, November 19, 2023, is filled with many miracles, including Kendra seeing that something wasn’t right.

“If she was over there, or another spot, she wouldn’t have seen me. She had to be right there, and she happened to be looking [outside]. I would say there was about 15 to 20 miracles from that tractor to the corner of the yard, to Des Moines and to Iowa City.”

Joe fought for his life that day and now shares his story of survival.

“I started yelling to myself, in my head, ‘You cannot die. You cannot leave Kendra by herself,’” he says.

Joe’s story of survival is also thanks to Kendra, who’s cherishing the fact she can celebrate this Christmas with all their family.

Oh, Deer — What A Day on the Farm!

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 18:08:39 GMT

Deer are both majestic and maddening. They make for an exciting pursuit during hunting season, but they also wreak havoc on vehicles, tires and fields.

With approximately 36 million deer in the U.S., those who call rural America home know deer-vehicle collisions are common, especially in October, November and December. Based on this November 2022 study , around 2.1 million deer-vehicle collisions occur annually, causing more than $10 billion in economic losses.

According to State Farm annual analysis , the top 10 states for animal collision, of which deer are the leading cause, are:

West Virginia
Montana
Michigan
Pennsylvania
Wisconsin
Mississippi
Iowa
South Dakota
Virginia
Rhode Island

A Farm Journal reader shared this run-in with a buck.

Deer – semi collision

(Farm Journal)

The Buck Stops Here
In addition to vehicle damage, unsuspecting tractor tires are often no match for deer sheds hiding in fields. Can you relate to these photos shared by fellow farmers?

Deer shed in tire

(Farm Journal)

Deer shed in tire

(Farm Journal)

Deer sheds in tires

(Farm Journal)

If you’ve had one of those horrible, no good, very bad days, or captured someone else’s, share it with Farm Journal. Whether you picked up a deer shed or sunk a piece of machinery in a mudhole, email images to whataday@farmjournal.com.

Shoo Deer — Not In My Field

Deer are a real pest when they graze, trample and bed down in crop fields. Depending on your crop’s stage, this can have economic consequences.

“Deer will feed on immature corn tassel tissue in the whorl during mid- to late-June and also on developing ears in early- to mid-August at the milk stage,” says Bob Nieslen, a retired Purdue University Extension corn specialist. “The decapitated plants usually survive, and ear development will continue through pollination and on to maturity, though the ears are usually less than full size.”

Thieves In Search of Antler Treasure
Awaiting the annual guarantee of antler drop in late winter or early spring, thieves hop private property lines to steal from those who manage. Lust or greed, the lure of shed treasure is a powerful pull to the public, despite purple paint, posted signs and fences.

Whitetail legend Steve Snow is on alert for shed poachers. Like a hot-nose coonhound, he zigzags through timber looking for fresh boot prints — the telltale sign someone is up to no good.

Snow is in hot pursuit of stolen sheds — a dose of frontier justice.

READ: Monster Deer Madness: Iowa Farmer Nabs Antler Thieves, Busts Multistate Shed Ring

Monster Buck Finds Its Way Back Home
Speaking of thieves, when 14-year-old Dave Richmond’s monster buck was stolen , he never gave up hope finding the spectacular rack. Following 14 years of cold-nosing dead-end trails, Richmond was stunned to receive an anonymous message: “I know where your deer is.”

Dumbfounded, Richmond was unable to accept the claim: “Impossible. Just no way. I figured it had to be someone pranking me.”

Two days later, he received a second message, along with an unmistakable photo.

“The picture told it all,” Richmond says. “I was looking at my deer.”

Welcome to a tale of deceit trumped by the enduring faith of a 14-year-old.

Dave Richmond recovers stolen deer antlers

(Photo by Whitetail Obsession Outdoors)

READ: Monster Buck Antlers Stolen from Teen Deer Hunter Recovered After 14 Years

Portable Heaters: Heat Where You Need It On the Farm

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 18:21:48 GMT

If “portable heater” brings to mind an ancient kerosene-fueled torpedo heater belching flame and acrid smoke, there’s good news. Modern portable heaters offer clean, efficient options for heating work areas on even the coldest days.

Portable heaters were previously rated only by BTUs of output, which doesn’t directly answer the question of how big of an area they can heat. Manufacturers still offer the BTU outputs of many portable heaters, but now offer more understandable rating options for laymen.

“A lot of modern portable heaters are rated by the square footage they can warm,” says Mr. Heater’s Brian Moten. “BTUs can mislead you. Square footage gives you a better idea of what the heater can heat efficiently.”

Along with more informative heat ratings, modern portable heaters offer expanded fuel and design options:

Radiant heaters heat surfaces, which then warm the surrounding air. A person immediately feels the heat from radiant heaters on their skin. Tools, workbenches and machinery within the arc of a radiant heater’s reflector warm quickly.

“The initial reach of radiant heat is about 20’ but extends as warmed objects reflect heat,” says Scott Carter with Sunfire Heaters. “Radiant heat is ideal for poorly insulated shops, pole barns or areas with high ceilings.

Radiant heaters are fueled by propane, natural gas, diesel fuel or kerosene. A 70,000 BTU Mr. Heater radiant heater with a 2.75-gal. diesel/kerosene fuel tank will heat 1,750 sq. ft. (42’x42’). A 150,000 BTU Sunfire radiant heater with a 19-gal. diesel fuel tank is rated to heat 3,600 sq. ft. (60’x60’)

(Dyna-Glo)

Forced Air Heaters

Forced air heaters similar to the old torpedo heaters use a high-velocity fan to distribute heat from a high-output burner. Modern diesel/kerosene-fueled torpedo heaters use integrated circuitry to produce clean, smoke-free heat. A hand-carried Mr. Heater torpedo heater with a 6-gal. fuel tank, rated at 80,000 BTU, will warm 2,000 sq. ft. (44’x 44’). A contractor-grade Dyna-Glo torpedo heater with a 50-gallon fuel tank, rated at 650,000 BTU will heat an area of 13,560 sq. ft. (116’x115’).

(Mr. Heater, Master)

Forced Air Radiant Heaters

Forced air radiant heaters uses a radiant heating element along with a fan that circulates
warmed air. They combine the surface-heating warmth of radiant heat with the air circulation of forced air heaters, but rarely exceed 100,000 BTU output. A hand-carried Master-brand 80,000 BTU diesel/kerosene forced air radiant heater with a 4-gallon fuel tank can warm 2,000 sq. ft. (44’x44’).

(Comfort Zone)

Electric Forced Air Heaters

Electric forced air heaters, such as the ubiquitous “milk house heater,” use an electric heating element to provide heat with a small fan to distribute the warmed air. Small, 120-volt, 1,500-watt, 5,120 BTU milk house heaters are rated to heat 125 sq. ft. (11’x11’). Portable electric forced air heaters often used on construction sites run on 240-volt circuits and are rated at up to 34,000 BTUs and heat up to 1,500 sq. ft. (38’x38’.)

Your Next Read – Farm Shop Insulation: 15 Pro Tips to Maintain a Cozy Temp

Rural Landowner Sues After State Searches Property Without Warrant or Consent

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 12:07:54 GMT

Twice accused, twice vindicated, and twice insistent on the sanctity of the Fourth Amendment. After Tim Thomas’ property was entered and searched on multiple occasions by state officials without warrant or consent in 2023, he filed a federal lawsuit challenging the power of water conservation officers to access private property.

“All other law enforcement officials at every level must have a warrant to do what a water conservation officer did around my house,” says 62-year-old Thomas. “I’m suing to get a law changed because this should never happen to anyone else. I want people to know what’s gone on at my property, and to my family, and how our rights were trampled.”

Wherever and Whenever?

On May 13, 2023, Thomas’ wife, Stephanie, was alone inside the couple’s single-story lakeside cottage at the end of a gravel road on the shoreline of 80-acre Butler Lake in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna County. Their property encompassed less than 1 acre of ground, including a dock and 300’ of shoreline.

Together, the couple owned Thomas’ Chimneys & Stoves in nearby Kingsley. “We had the business for 42 years,” Thomas says. “I’ve always respected the law and done my best to serve the community as a deacon and citizen. People are blown away when they hear what happened on our quiet property.”

Pennsylvania statue allows PFBC to enter property without consent, probable cause, or warrant—with no limits on duration, frequency, or scope.

(Photo by IJ)

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, Stephanie was non-ambulatory during a period of recovery following a round of stage 4 treatment. According to the complaint filed in Thomas’ subsequent lawsuit via representation by Institute for Justice (IJ), Stephanie heard someone loudly knocking on the front door of the cottage. The individual then went around the side of the house, past no-trespassing signs, entered the back yard, walked onto the back porch, and began “pounding” on the back door. Stephanie did not know the individual at her doorstep was Water Conservation Officer (WCO) Ty Moon of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC).

Alarmed, Stephanie used a walker to retreat to a bedroom. Per the complaint : “While pounding on the front and back doors of the cabin, WCO Moon yelled, ‘I know you’re in there,’ and ‘I’m going to call the police.’”

(Citing open litigation, PFBC declined comment related to Tim Thomas’ lawsuit.)

“She peeked through the drapes and saw a man she didn’t know in dark clothes yelling, and she managed to get into our room,” Thomas describes.

While Stephanie hid, Moon peered in the windows and then moved about the property, according to Thomas, taking pictures of the home, motor vehicle, and pontoon boat.

The ball began rolling on a steady chain of glaring constitutional violations, contends IJ attorney Kirby West : “The government cannot go wherever and whenever it wants—that’s the very reason for the Fourth Amendment in the first place. We see a lot of cases where government goes overboard, but this statute is the plainest example I’ve seen that contradicts the Fourth Amendment on its face.”

Search, Seizure, Citation

On Mother’s Day, May 14, a day after WCO Moon entered their property, the Thomas duo stopped roadside, roughly 1 mile from home. “We were on our way back from church and I pulled over to pick Stephanie her favorite flowers—lilacs,” Thomas recalls.

“In memory of my wife, and to ensure no other families are dealt with by the state like this, I’m making a stand,” says Thomas.

(Photo by IJ)

“As I was picking, a white truck pulled in front of us, and a tall man I didn’t know came angrily towards me, shouting that he’d seen me fishing the day before and claiming I had refused to talk to him. He got up close and started yelling in my face that he’d ‘get to the bottom of things,’ but I had done nothing wrong and had no idea what he was talking about. Other than the knocks on the door the day prior, this was the first time either Stephanie or myself had met or even heard of Ty Moon.”

Four days later, a PFBC citation arrived in the mail, accusing Thomas of fishing without a license and fleeing on May 13: Def. did willfully refuse to bring boat to a stop, flee after given an audible signal. Thereafter, attempted to elude a WCO.

“We were accused of trying to get away from Ty Moon while fishing. It was preposterous,” Thomas says. “My wife with stage 4 cancer fleeing from the law on the water? Supposedly Moon was onshore, and we fled by boat. We never saw him, don’t know where he was standing, and certainly didn’t run away. Bottom line, the charges were bogus, but that’s why he came knocking later at our house.”

Since age 12, Thomas had obtained Pennsylvania hunting and fishing licenses. He had never been ticketed for a wildlife violation in his life—until May 2023.

In response to the citation and a fine nearing $462, Thomas telephoned Moon’s superiors and sent a letter of complaint to Captain Tom Edwards, manager of PFBC’s northwest region. Edwards personally called Thomas; all charges were dropped.

“I considered it over,” Thomas says. “My wife didn’t. She told me, ‘Whatever is going on, I don’t think he (Moon) is through with you.’”

Several months later, Moon was back on Thomas’ property for another search, seizure, and citation.

Vendetta?

At roughly 9 a.m., on Aug. 12, 2023, Thomas piloted his pontoon boat home after fishing on Lake Butler.

As Thomas pulled to his dock, WCO Moon approached Thomas’ property on foot, walked along the driveway to the side of the cabin, entered the back yard via a gap between bushes and structure, and passed by a bathroom window—ignoring a total of four no-trespassing signs, according to the complaint.

“I’m willing to invest whatever time it takes so nobody else has to go through the loss of basic constitutional rights,” says Thomas.

(Photo by IJ)

Arriving at the dock, Moon accused Thomas of exceeding regulation by fishing with eight rods/lines. “Untrue charges,” Thomas says. “But in that moment, Ty Moon’s charges weren’t my main concern. I was worried about Stephanie.”

In accessing the back yard, Moon had walked by a window where Thomas’ wife was bathing. “The house was our sanctuary after Stephanie was diagnosed, and because of the way we set up the bushes and landscaping, the bathroom provided her with a place to soak and look out at the scenery in total privacy with the curtains open, just inside the window in a clawfoot tub—the same window where a state water officer had just come within an arm’s length.”

“I wanted him off our property and away from the window where my wife—a cancer patient—was exposed.”

Thomas informed Moon he was trespassing, and insisted on continuing the conversation on the public road. Once the men were out of the back yard and on the edge of the driveway, Moon asked for Thomas’ fishing license and boat registration. Thomas provided the license. However, the registration was inside the boat.

Thomas offered to get the registration. Moon declined, announcing his intention to reenter the back yard to obtain the paperwork and perform a safety inspection on the boat. Despite Thomas’ protests, Moon walked back to the dock and boat. Moon returned—and then announced he need to return to the dock a third time to confiscate Thomas’ fishing rods.

“Three times,” Thomas says, “with me telling him no, over and over. Three violations of our private space while my wife was dying. Officer Moon knew my wife was a cancer patient because I told him. It’s hard to describe the frustration and needless abuse of power.”

After confiscating Thomas’ rods, Moon ended the encounter with a $354 citation for fishing with eight rods/lines: Def. did fish with more than the maximum amount of devices while in Commonwealth waters.

Thomas says the charges are false. “Officer Moon said he’d been watching me with binoculars since around 8 a.m. from a boat ramp several hundred yards away and could see eight lines in the water. No way, period. I had three lines in the water and no more. And who believes he just happened to be on the shore, just passing by the area, on tiny Butler Lake? I suspect he had a vendetta against me; that’s my opinion.”

29 Hours

In November 2023, several months after the second citation, Thomas appeared in Magisterial court. The PFBC citation stated Thomas had eight lines in the water—therefore Thomas owed $354. Case closed.

“The evidence didn’t matter,” Thomas says. “I was supposed to accept the fine and shut up. No. I place the highest value on individual liberty and there are tremendous repercussion effects when the government abuses power.”

Beyond his main vocation as a chimney business owner, Thomas often drove for Lyft and Uber. After the criminal citation was filed, he automatically lost both driving jobs—banned by both companies due to the legal violation.

Thomas appealed the PFBC citation to a Commonwealth court. On June 5, 2024, Thomas’ case was heard. “The judge actually was interested to know all the evidence, and when he heard what Moon claimed to have seen and what Moon did, he knew things weren’t adding up. We won—for the second time.”

However, Thomas’ court victory was bookended by the heaviest blow of his life: 29 hours after the judge’s decision, Stephanie lost her cancer battle and passed away.

“In memory of my wife, and to ensure no other families are dealt with by the state like this, I’m making a stand,” Thomas says. “In open court, out loud, Officer Moon said he wasn’t bound by no-trespassing signs, and said he had a mandate to go anywhere. He is wrong because private property is sacred. The Fourth Amendment and its protection from search and seizure is the only thing standing between us and tyranny.”

No Monetary Gain

According to 12 words of Pennsylvania state code , PFBC officials have authority to “enter upon any land or water in the performance of their duties.” The statue provides wide latitude for PFBC to enter onto any property without consent, probable cause, or warrant—with no limits on duration, frequency, or scope.

Represented by Institute for Justice (IJ), Thomas sued PFBC in September 2024.

The PFBC statute provides water conservation officers with more latitude than all other types of law enforcement, says IJ attorney West. Even the wide-ranging Open Fields doctrine (currently under legal challenge in multiple states) denies government representatives the power to enter curtilage—the greater yard area surrounding a home. Yet, PFBC asserts power beyond Open Fields.

“The Commission believes these types of invasions, such as happened at Tim Thomas’, are within their law enforcement powers,” West adds, “but when people first hear about Tim’s case, it doesn’t make sense to them because they know it’s an obvious violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

Thomas and Institute for Justice await an answer from PFBC to the initial lawsuit filing.

“There is no monetary gain for me to fight this, I only want this statute declared unconstitutional, so the next landowner or homeowner is protected,” Thomas concludes. “Our framers would roll in their graves to see this case, and I’m willing to invest whatever time it takes so nobody else has to go through the loss of basic constitutional rights.”

For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:

Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told

Cottonmouth Farmer: The Insane Tale of a Buck-Wild Scheme to Corner the Snake Venom Market

Bagging the Tomato King: The Insane Hunt for Agriculture’s Wildest Con Man

Ghost in the House: A Forgotten American Farming Tragedy

Priceless Pistol Found After Decades Lost in Farmhouse Attic

Bizarre Mystery of Mummified Coon Dog Solved After 40 Years

American Gothic: Farm Couple Nailed In Massive $9M Crop Insurance Fraud

Evil Grain: The Wild Tale of History’s Biggest Crop Insurance Scam

Fleecing the Farm: How a Fake Crop Fueled a Bizarre $25 Million Ag Scam

The Arrowhead Whisperer: Stunning Indian Artifact Collection Found on Farmland

Skeleton In the Walls: Mysterious Arkansas Farmhouse Hides Civil War History

Monster Deer Madness: Iowa Farmer Nabs Antler Thieves, Busts Multistate Shed Ring

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 12:26:39 GMT

Lathered in sweat and eating distance like a hot-nose coonhound, Steve Snow’s blood surged as he zigzagged through timber and followed a trail of fresh boot prints outlined in mud and ice—the telltale, fresh tracks of a shed poacher.

Spilling from the tree line where the prints withered in matted grass, whitetail legend Snow checked up and stared into the expanse of a 4,000-acre Iowa farm. Cemetery silence. Zero wind. He could feel, but not see, his quarry. Through cupped hands, Snow shouted a stone-cold warning across the pasture: “Billy Switek, you’re a piece of s*** thief. I’m coming for you.”

Reap the whirlwind. When Snow collared Switek* (suspect’s name changed; no court conviction), he exposed an organized ring of out-of-state bottom feeders stealing tens of thousands of dollars in antlers from multiple landowners across at least three years of theft, guided by aerial maps and insider tips, and devoid of prosecutorial fear.

“Law enforcement warnings and tiny fines don’t stop these kinds of thieves,” Snow says. “We caught them red-handed, and they won’t be back, but more are coming in their place. More always come.”

Welcome to hot pursuit in a wooly tangle of stolen sheds—and a dose of frontier justice.

A Bare Cupboard

Whether Bass Pro Shop wall hangers or Boone and Crockett winners, some of the finest U.S. whitetail on record hail from a chain of counties in southern Iowa. The region is the realm of thick-necked bulls wearing bone crowns—magnificent antlers that drive outlaws to lust and larceny.

Every late winter, according to God’s clockwork, bucks lose their antlers in mid-January to mid-March. The fallen horns—sheds—are Easter eggs to many sportsmen who legitimately hunt farms or woods by checking trails and bedding areas for specimens.

In 2009 and 2010, Steve Snow was alarmed by the near complete absence of freshly dropped sheds. Giant, big, tweeners, small, all gone in hit-and-run raids.

(Photo by Jon Jackson Bennett)

Particularly on high-management operations, sheds are the history of a herd, and invaluable provenance of health and vitality, i.e., DNA on a rack. In southern Iowa, a given landowner might spend $20,000 on the low end for deer management—food plots, minerals, and progression of a herd to an older age class. Fostered over generations of landowner effort, the results are mature, healthy deer with magnificent antlers, and thereby, beautiful sheds.

“A shed record ties in directly to land value because it shows what’s in your herd,” Snow explains. “When someone steals sheds, they’re also erasing the biography of your operation and taking your data. Literally, the theft impacts your land value, because potential buyers may want to see a succession of sheds.”

Awaiting the annual guarantee of antler drop, thieves arrive in shed season like bees to honey, hopping private property lines to steal from those who manage. Parasites.

“It boils down to money,” Snow says. “Trespass on someone else’s land; rob their antlers; sell them online; pocket $150 to $350 per antler on the nice ones, or way, way more. A truly big or unique antler can bring some serious money. And if they get caught, they can pay the fine with eBay proceeds, and have plenty of profit left to make it worthwhile. And do it all again the next year.”

“Bank robbers want to break into vaults with lots of money,” he adds. “Shed thieves want to break into whitetail versions of Fort Knox and take everything, and they know the law will do nothing beyond a small fine. Do the math: Robbing sheds is well worth it to these sonuvabitches.”

Snow doesn’t waste words. In 2009 and 2010, across his meticulously managed deer population, he was alarmed by the near complete absence of freshly dropped sheds. Giant, big, tweeners, small—all gone in hit-and-run raids. The cupboard was picked bare.

Greed Grows

Snow’s name is synonymous with monster deer—and by extension, monster sheds. With a hunting career often spent in the spotlight of video, television, and radio, Snow is a renowned bowhunter distinguished by his outdoor prowess and whitetail knowledge.

Traumatic shoulder injuries forced him to give up the bowstring, but in 2009, the lifetime farmer (raised in the Minnesota dairy industry) managed a 4,000-acre operation specifically for whitetails and row crops, along with his 1,400-acre farm in Decatur County—both locations home to superb whitetail genetics.

“There are millions of wonderful people involved in hunting, but also a few bad apples,” says Snow.

(Photo courtesy of Steve Snow)

The 4,000-acre farm contained south-facing slopes: In winter, deer grazed and then bedded on the sun-soaked grassy hillsides. Therefore, the bulk of sheds dropped on the slopes. Yet, in 2009 and 2010, when Snow tried to collect sheds in mid-March (an effort to ease pressure on the herd and allow all antlers to fall), he found the slopes denuded of specimens. Best estimation: Poachers hit in late February or early March.

“Two years running and we found almost nothing from the finest antlers to the smallest, and those were critical to management. For example, if you see a 30”-jump between sheds from a buck, it’s clear evidence of giant potential.”

Theft was evident, but what Snow didn’t know, what he couldn’t know—the bone collectors originated 500 miles to the northeast. And their shed greed was only just beginning to grow.

How was Snow to respond? File police reports? More posted signs? No and no, he explains. “My only long-term solution was to catch them, sheds in hand.”

But on big acres with big calendar windows of opportunity, nabbing poachers is a tall task, sometimes eased by a tipoff. In January 2011, Snow’s cell screen brightened with an unrecognized area code from a nearby Midwestern state. An unfamiliar voice crackled on the line: “Mr. Snow, everything I’m about to tell you is what you don’t want to hear.”

The Hayfield Buck

Snow had tapped a leak. Over the phone, Will Rutland* (name changed to protect identity), a legitimate shed collector, poured out a buck-wild tale. Rutland claimed that while hunting antlers on public land, he met a horn hunter from Milwaukee, Wisc., who boasted of finding massive sheds of quantity in southern Iowa. The Wisconsin collector described county, land, farm, and deer associated with the claims.

Rutland’s in-person conversation led to a continued online acquaintance where the Wisconsin collector emailed shed pictures and provided further detail: I parked by a cattle pasture and crossed the blacktop to a big farm where they do video stuff.

Wildlife outlaws are repeat offenders. Seldom does a poacher repent on the Damascus Road, and almost never does a poacher pull a one-and-done.

(Photo by Chris Bennett)

Aware of Snow’s media presence, reputation in the whitetail community, and approximate location in Decatur County, Rutland connected the dots and became convinced the Wisconsin collector had stolen from Snow.

Every word from Rutland resonated with Snow. “It was a match—all of it. I had a source from out of state telling me about a thief from another state, and the source knew about sheds from a special, special deer we called the ‘Hayfield Buck.’ Nobody, and I mean nobody, could have known such detail.”

Rutland assured Snow he would stay in contact with the Wisconsin thief and keep an ear to the ground. True to his word, Rutland called back weeks later: “March. Steve, he’s going to steal from you close to Saturday, the first week in March. His name is Jim Jacoby* (suspect’s name changed; no court conviction).”

Bingo. Patience to bow hunt; patience to catch a shed thief. Snow would be ready. “It’s an upside-down world,” he says. “A guy from Wisconsin was driving seven or eight hours and 500 miles to rob us, but I knew that somebody would twist things to make me be the bad guy. But one thing for sure, I’d be waiting for him.”

No Honor Among Thieves

With roughly eight lookouts spaced along a blacktop road, per Rutland’s warning, Snow waited to trap a rat. Clear morning, first Saturday of the month, Snow and company were in position and on red alert.

In less than an hour, Snow’s cell buzzed. His crew had found a vehicle parked at the butt of a dead-end road, across the blacktop from the farm—a sedan with Wisconsin plates. The unlocked car’s contents revealed a stunning scope of theft. Sprawled across the backseat, aerial maps rested in plain view, including maps of the 4,000-acre farm, maps of Snow’s 1,400-acre farm, and maps of Lee Lakosky’s nearby highly esteemed ground. Snow’s pulse raged as reality dawned: He was dealing with a rattlesnake, not a sticky-fingered local amateur.

In 2024, the Iowa legislature passed a new law, doubling the fine for a first offense hunting trespass from $265 to $500. A second offense was bumped to $1,000.

(Photo by Jon Jackson Bennett)

On pace with the map revelation, Snow’s cell flashed with a notification from a camera positioned in the middle of the farm. He stared at a real-time photo of a backpack-toting individual, Jim Jacoby, bending over to steal a shed. The antler in Jacoby’s hand had been purposely placed by Snow several days prior as bait to capture imagery of a potential thief via the lens of perfectly hidden trail-cam.

“In that instant, I literally knew right where he was standing,” Snow recalls. “The man in the picture sure as hell wasn’t one of us, and he was roughly 1 mile into the property.”

“Things came together because this same day, the farm owner and one of his buddies were on site to hunt sheds,” Snow continues. “I called and asked him to drive near the location of that camera and rev his 4-wheeler. The rest of us waited on the road for the thief to come out.”

As expected, Jacoby sprinted across a pasture toward the dead-end road and his parked escape vehicle—where he was collared by Snow’s waiting help. To Snow’s surprise, solo was duo. Jacoby was accompanied by a partner in crime, Michael Mahoney* (suspect’s name changed; no court conviction), and both men were clad head to toe in camo.

Livid, Snow approached Jacoby: 30-something, stockily built, tattooed, and the apparent leader of the twosome.

“You wanted to meet me? Here I am,” Snow snapped.

In possession of Snow’s antlers, as well as maps depicting numerous properties, and guilty of theft across at least a three-year span, the first words from Jacoby’s mouth revealed a total lack of remorse: “F*** you.”

Coldblooded. Unrepentant.

Snow balled his fist, stepped toward Jacoby, and disincentivized a return trip in the manner of Woodrow F. Call.

In the background, Jacoby’s confederate, Mahoney, crumbled. No honor among thieves. Mahoney talked: The pair were associated with other thieves as well—a web of theft. Presumably, they were hitting farms beyond Iowa, and possibly active on the road from the start to finish of shed season.

“I saw red and wanted these guys to pay in blood,” Snow says. “It all got splashed on the internet by the social media cowards, making me out as the one in the wrong. People behind a keyboard are desperate to excuse thieves, but if you want to protect what you’ve worked for your entire life to own, you better be self-reliant. These criminals were predators, searching for private property to abuse, and they factored the risks to be worth any penalties. At least I made certain they’d never come back to our county. Then again, I never dreamed a different one of the bunch would show right back up to steal from us the following year.”

And this time the shed trail led from the farm to a motel room cache.

No Shame

Fast forward 12 months, up to the beginning of March 2012. Freakish weather. Snowfall followed by 70-plus degree days produced a near-complete melt in Decatur County, except for patches of 1” powder hiding in heavy shade and timber.

Ready for a day collecting sheds, Snow was pumped for the hunt when he spotted a car parked across the blacktop on a wet gravel road. Polk County (Des Moines) plates. Odd. Incongruent.

Curiosity building, Snow pulled in behind the vehicle and copied the license plate number. Boot prints stamped in gravel sludge led toward the blacktop. Crossing over, Snow found the tracks again in gravel, stretching 50 yards parallel to the road, jumping a ditch, and entering the farm property. No doubt. A shed thief.

“Do the math: Robbing sheds is well worth it to these sonuvabitches,” says Snow.

(Photo by Chris Bennett)

“I started moving fast, following these prints in timber. Most trespassing shed thieves wait until all snow has gone, but this guy was too greedy and got in before complete melt. I called my wife and told her to call the law, let them know we had a trespasser, and run the plates. She called back and said the car was a rental out of Des Moines, registered to Billy Switek.”

Inside the timber, Snow’s rage doubled at the site of more tracks, but outlined with less definition, crisscrossed beneath the fresh prints. No question, Switek walked the path a day before. He had already stolen sheds.

“I came out of the trees on top of a hill to a south-facing grass field that catches sun and had no snow. No boot prints. Everything was perfectly still and quiet. You could hear a pin drop. Knowing Switek would hear me, I yelled a threat as loud as I could to scare the hell out of him.”

Snow then doubled back to Switek’s car, prepared to play the waiting game. Assisted by his son, Snow wedged the rental car bumpers between two old Chevy three-quarter ton trucks. Switek was pinned.

“A sheriff’s deputy drove out to take a look and said that I had Switek’s vehicle in false containment. The deputy said if Switek walked out with antlers, he’d write him a trespass ticket. I said, ‘That’s it?’ and he came back with, ‘They’re just deer antlers.’ I had choice words for the deputy.”

“One, I knew Switek wasn’t coming down the road with antlers because he knew I was waiting. Two, even if he was crazy enough to do so, I couldn’t prove in that instant that he stole them from us. I knew Switek would stash the antlers before he got on the blacktop. He could even stash them in a road ditch right-of-way, and that’s country property, and we would have no recourse.”

Exhausted after hours of a winding cat-and-mouse game, and wet to the ears, Snow left his son on sentry duty, and zipped home in his truck for a change of clothes. Slipping on dry socks with 30 minutes of daylight left, Snow’s phone vibrated: “Dad, the guy is walking down the road from the opposite direction, approaching from the north away from the farm.”

Engine roaring back to the gravel road, Snow was face-to-face with Switek just two minutes after the call.

“You’re a trespasser and a piece of s*** thief,” Snow raged. “You and me on this gravel, right now.”

Dressed in camouflage, roughly 60 years old, Switek crumbled, begging for mercy. “I’m sorry, sorry, sorry. I’ll pay you for what we took. I’ll come and work for you for free.”

“You’re a damn liar. Just show me where the sheds are.”

“I’ll go get’em.”

“Hell no. We are going to get them together. In my truck, now.”

As Switek groveled in the cab, Snow drove a quarter mile. “He tells me to stop the truck and we got out and walked on our property about 100 yards along a creek,” Snow recalls. “On the ground, there was a backpack with a half-dozen sheds sticking out.”

Climbing back in the cab, Snow delivered an unexpected ultimatum: “Now, I want our antlers from yesterday.”

“Yesterday?” Switek feigned.

“Don’t give me that s***. I saw your other boot prints. Blink, or try anything other than telling the truth, and you’re not getting out of this truck.”

Switek’s memory instantly cleared: “They’re in my motel room.”

Indeed. Switek had flown from Milwaukee into Des Moines, rented a car, and holed up in a Clarke County motel.

Pistol on hip in case of trouble, Snow drove to the motel, and frog-marched Switek to the room, where the thief opened the door on an antler cache. Sheds blanketed the bed, but the prize was hidden.

Switek grabbed a bedside suitcase and opened the lid, revealing a carefully wrapped monster antler. “It was a 100” antler from the Hayfield Buck,” Snow says. “He had it packaged and ready to go. By itself, it might have brought $2,000 at the time. I have zero doubt he had more sheds than what were in the motel room, but I never found them.”

Recovering his stolen property, Snow gave Switek a final warning. “I made it crystal clear to him. Never, never return to our property or anywhere near it.”

Despite Switek’s pleadings, was he genuinely contrite?

A brazen answer came months later. Snow’s mailbox clinked with a letter from Switek, asking to buy the Hayfield Buck antler for $5,000.

“That shows the mindset of these thieves,” Snow says. “No shame.”

Damascus Road

Every deer season, Snow attempts to guide a youth hunt. Harvesting a deer, particularly for young teen who might not otherwise have the opportunity, can be a formative experience, Snow says. “Hunting should be about true love and respect of the outdoors. Across this country, there’s so many wonderful people involved, but the few poachers and trespassers don’t care about what’s right. If I stole sheds from them, you can rest assured they’d take action. Myself and most property owners just want to be left alone. Again, there are millions of wonderful people involved in hunting, but also a few bad apples.”

What might be an appropriate penalty for deer shed theft on private property?

In 2024, the Iowa legislature passed a new law, doubling the fine for a first offense hunting trespass from $265 to $500. A second offense was bumped to $1,000.

“Bank robbers want to break into vaults with lots of money. Shed thieves want to break into whitetail versions of Fort Knox and take everything,” says Snow.

(Photo by Utah DWR)

Snow doubts the deterrent effect. He recommends a $1,000 fine for the first offense; $2,000 and 5-year loss of hunting privileges for a second offense. And no verbal warnings.

“All the people I know with great deer and farm properties busted their asses to build what they have. Take a step back and look at the big picture. Taking sheds is theft and fundamentally wrong, end of story. If the antlers are big enough and worth enough, fines alone will not stop thieves if the math works in their favor.”

Wildlife outlaws are repeat offenders. Seldom does a poacher repent on the Damascus Road, and almost never does a poacher pull a one-and-done. With a lifetime volume of stories in his pocket, Snow has witnessed offenders of all stripes.

“Several years ago, I got a call from an out-of-town neighbor who got a cell camera notification of trespassers on his land. I crept over a hill and spotted a man strapped with a .44 pistol, with two kids—probably a 12- and 4-year-old. They packed my neighbor’s ground blind, along with a ladder sticks, antlers, and a tree stand—all they could carry.”

“I came out of hiding and hollered out, ‘Nice haul, %#%#%#.’”

Snow walked the trio off the land and to the nearest road, into an adjacent church parking lot, allowing the adult to assume the landowner (a sheriff’s deputy was in route) was on the way. Moving 50 yards away to ease the tension, Snow watched as the sheriff’s department vehicle came into view.

“The guy grabbed his pistol, gave it to the 12-year-old, and pointed for him to go hide it behind the church building,” Snow recalls. “The deputy pulls up and this guy lies that his name is ‘Jack Black,’ just like the movie actor.”

However, the deputy recognized the thief as Justin Mason—a convicted poacher—and Snow had helped nab Mason over a decade prior.

“About 15 years earlier, I heard a gunshot at 5 a.m., found his truck headlights, and followed him into town,” Snow recalls. “Long story short, the wardens raided him and found 52 racks. It became one of the biggest poaching stories of the last 50 years.”

However, on this occasion, Mason faced no charges. “Crazy, crazy,” Snow exclaims. “I caught him in action, but because all the stolen goods technically never left my neighbor’s property, he was allowed to walk.”

Paying the Price

What advice does Snow have for other landowners or land managers?

Cameras play an important security role, but are only a partial answer. “You can’t put cameras on big acres and solve anything,” Snow contends. “There’s nothing unusual about shed thieves putting on ski masks and staring right into your cameras. No, even if they work to perfection and don’t ever go down in service, they will not stop a determined thief that pulls a grab-and-go. If you have a lot of acres to protect, some other technology is needed.”

“Law enforcement warnings and tiny fines don’t stop these kinds of thieves,” Snow says. “We caught them red-handed, and they won’t be back, but more are coming in their place.”

(Photo courtesy of Steve Snow)

“I’m hoping satellite technology becomes available that can cover an entire operation. If it really worked, guys would pay a tremendous amount for that kind of security.”

In the meantime, Snow stays vigilant. “Sometimes in the public’s eye, everything gets turned around if you don’t react meekly. You become the bad guy for protecting private property, but I’m willing to pay that price. Shed poachers are the sort that’ll do anything when they think no one is looking. I’ll never hesitate to say they’re liars and thieves.”

For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:

Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told

Cottonmouth Farmer: The Insane Tale of a Buck-Wild Scheme to Corner the Snake Venom Market

Bagging the Tomato King: The Insane Hunt for Agriculture’s Wildest Con Man

Ghost in the House: A Forgotten American Farming Tragedy

Priceless Pistol Found After Decades Lost in Farmhouse Attic

Bizarre Mystery of Mummified Coon Dog Solved After 40 Years

American Gothic: Farm Couple Nailed In Massive $9M Crop Insurance Fraud

Evil Grain: The Wild Tale of History’s Biggest Crop Insurance Scam

Fleecing the Farm: How a Fake Crop Fueled a Bizarre $25 Million Ag Scam

The Arrowhead Whisperer: Stunning Indian Artifact Collection Found on Farmland

Skeleton In the Walls: Mysterious Arkansas Farmhouse Hides Civil War History

Uncrapify Your Future: What Could You Do Differently?

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 17:54:23 GMT

In times of tight margins, every purchase must have a purpose with ROI top of mind. As you optimize your equipment, crop inputs, farmland and business intellect for the year ahead, take the time to plan your work, and then you work your plan.

Feeling the weight of a down market isn’t lost on Jeff Havens. As an entrepreneur and motivational speaker, his entire business disappeared in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“I had contracts for six or nine months and financially was set to have one of my best years,” Havens recalls.

He had to reinvent himself and his business as cash flow dried up.

“One of the advantages agriculture has is that it’s a relatively slow and stable sales cycle,” Havens says. “It’s not an industry like fashion where things change every week or month. That affords you time to think about what you could do differently.”

1. Think Beyond Commodity

Havens says innovation can take many shapes and recommends looking beyond the often-miniature margins of commodity production.

“If all you’re doing is selling a commodity crop, then you’re basically just beholden to the whims of the market,” he says. “Are there other ways to take more control of your business, to set your own prices (i.e. a corn maze, pumpkin patch or U-pick) in order to get beyond straight commodity margins.”

2. Fail Small

Trying something new or testing an idea doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Havens recommends starting small rather than risking the entire operation. There’s no reason to plant an entire farm in a new crop or completely move to a different production system when it can be done slowly.

“None of us want to make a big mistake, and we certainly don’t want to make mistakes that are catastrophic,” Havens says. “Take what you consider to be an acceptable risk, and ask yourself what is the worst thing that can happen if I try this? If the worst thing that happens is you don’t have a farm, or you have to sell your farm, then that’s maybe not a risk you should take. If the worst thing that happens is you lose 10% next year, if that’s survivable, then that’s a risk you can certainly consider.”

3. Harvest Good Opinions

Not all advice is equal. Some people chirp about everything, while others take a measured approach to offering input. Havens says find a trusted voice or two and forget the rest.

“Be very intentional about whose opinions you care about,” he says. “You don’t have to take their opinions, but it’s good to have a couple of people in your corner to say, I’m with you on this journey.”

4. Embrace Openness

Above all, talk to others and be open about your situation. In this self-motivated, self-driven lifestyle, farmers tend to solve problems alone and in a stoic fashion. Havens says, it’s okay to share and be open.

“There’s not a single person on the planet who doesn’t occasionally need the help and support of the people around them,” he explains. “The person you share it with isn’t mad at you. They’re there to support you. It can be a relief compared to keeping it all bottled up inside.”

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Jump-Starting Dead Battery With Portable Jump-Pack Has Never Been Easier

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 20:09:41 GMT

Jump-starting dead batteries with portable jump-packs has never been easier, and in the case of cars and pickups, never more economical.

Portable jump-packs are essentially a high-capacity battery in a carrying case, sprouting short positive and negative battery cables with heavy-duty clamps. The big difference between a standard lead-acid battery and a jump-pack battery is the design of the battery and associated controllers.

“We use a different type of AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) battery with special lead plates, a different kind of acid paste and special internal connectors,” says Jim O’Hara, vice president of marketing, Clore Automotive. “All are designed to handle the large rapid discharge of electricity necessary for jump starting.”

Jump-packs not only have batteries designed to endure rapid discharge, but use special circuit boards in their controllers designed to stand up to brief blasts of high amperage.

“A cheap circuit board in a discount store jump-pack might work a couple times, jumping a big engine whose battery is totally discharged on a zero-degree day,” says Scott Schafer, CEO of Antigravity Batteries. “However, it’s not going to last like a commercial-duty (circuit) board designed specifically for jumping big engines under tough conditions.”

Fast-discharge batteries also require special design for re-charging. A mini-processor monitors the heat of the battery and the state of charge, and adapts the charging rate to minimize re-charge time without damaging the unit’s battery.

Jump-pack design has changed dramatically in the past decade. It’s now possible to get lithium-ion jump-packs that weigh less than 4 pounds that will start gas or diesel engines up to 8L (488 cu. in.) Small, consumer-grade jump-packs the size of a paperback book that can easily start cars and pickups have flooded the market for $100 or less.

Schumacher Electric, Clore Automotive, NOCO and other quality battery charger manufacturers now offer 12/24-volt jump-packs that can push out more than 1,200 amps to high-horsepower diesel engines on cold days. The all-in-one units weigh around 40 pounds and fit easily behind the seat of a pickup truck. Prices range from $400 to nearly $2,000, depending on amp-output and accessories.

Final tip: “A sniff test for a heavy-duty jump-pack capable of starting big engines under cold conditions is the size of the braided wire in its cables,” says O’Hara. “An industrial-quality unit will have at least #4 AWG cables, and maybe even #2 AWG cables, with rubber insulation. Plastic insulation gets stiff in cold conditions. Rubber insulation stays flexible.”

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