Merry Christmas!

The Real Farmwives of Colorado

The Farmwife Project is beginning to take shape and it may very well be one of the coolest projects around.

In the upcoming weeks, a group of agvocates are coming together right here on this site. They raise hogs, cattle, potatoes, bees, and children. They are farmwives, daughters, sisters, and mothers. And they are one of the most interesting collective voices of Colorado agriculture.

We are the Real Farmwives of Colorado and we will each be writing periodic blog entries that will appear on the Vermillion Farms blog. We will be agvocating and telling the stories that we would share with our sisters or our girlfriends at the kitchen table.

We will also have the opportunity to get together soon and the day will include chocolate, a photo shoot, a discussion about the issues we wish to address and…well, more chocolate.

You’ll be hearing more soon from The Real Farmwives of Colorado! If you’re interested in being a part of the Farmwife Project, please email me at rachel@lincolncountyfb.com for more information.

Rental Pigs

As an agriculture teacher, I get a number of requests throughout the course of the day. Last night, I answered a phone call and heard the sweet and slightly desperate voice of Patty.

Patty, a middle school teacher in Colorado Springs, organized a food drive at her school and the main attraction at the all-school assembly was a Kiss a Pig contest. She told me she had no idea it would be so difficult to locate a pig for said contest and someone had given her our phone number after a string of odd and unproductive phone calls.
She was desperate and I tried not to chuckle when she offered to “pay the pig for his or her time”.

Annual Meeting Pumpkin

CFB Communications Director Shawn Martini spent some time yesterday livening up the home office by carving the 2010 Annual Meeting logo into a pumpkin!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

CDA Hosts “AgriCultural” Photo Contest

From an eastern plains cornfield under a stormy sky to a line of bikes parked in a western slope vineyard, Colorado agriculture is easily captured in pictures. The 13th annual “Colorado…it’s AgriCultural” photography contest is seeking entries as a way to celebrate Colorado agriculture.

“Since the contest began in 1998, we’ve received hundreds of photographs representing every aspect of agriculture in the state, and it is always exciting to see the diversity of Colorado agriculture depicted in contest entries,” said Commissioner of Agriculture John Stulp. “This annual photo contest not only celebrates the splendor of Colorado agriculture, but also its importance to the state’s economy.”

Entries must be submitted to the Colorado Department of Agriculture with an official entry form by December 31, 2010. All photographs must be taken in the 2010 calendar year and must relate to Colorado agriculture in some way. Prizes will be awarded in four subject areas: agritourism, crops, livestock and people.

Judging will be based on theme, creativity and technical quality. The photographer whose picture best depicts the “spirit” of Colorado agriculture will receive a $150 gift card, and category winners will receive a “Colorado…it’s AgriCultural” prize pack. All winning photographs will be displayed in the Beede-Hamil Agriculture Building at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colo.

(image:ssh)

#78 Farm American Chevrolet Makes Debut Run at IMS

#78 waiting for inspections

Inspection and mock-qualifying day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway found the #78 Farm American Chevrolet on the track for the very first time. The car was a little loose in the rear but still finished 20th in pre-qualification. The design was a hit with the crews and definitely stood out against the other cars on the track.

“We just want to help reconnect rural and urban America,” said driver Regan Smith in an interview with SPEED TV.

These soy-based degreasers are used all over in the Furniture Row shop and hauler.

The car will be on the track tomorrow for its qualifying laps. It currently sits 35th in the lineup to qualify.

All Aboard Wheat Harvest

A member of one of the All Aboard Wheat Harvest crews cuts wheat near Limon.

The Colorado wheat harvest is in full swing. If you need proof, just ask one of the many custom harvesters that are cutting across the eastern slope, gobbling up ripe wheat at breakneck speed. The High Plains Journal has a great blog, All Aboard 2010 Wheat Harvest. The blog follows the adventures of three custom cutting crews as they make their way from Texas to North Dakota this summer.

Two of the crews just made it to Colorado. Last night found the Zeorian crew in Limon, and the Sammons crew in Kanorado.

Take a look at All Aboard Wheat Harvest and follow the crews as they continue the harvest season from Colorado north.

FFA Convention is Under Way

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The second day of the 82nd Annual Colorado State FFA Convention is under way in Craig Colorado. With over 1300 members in attendance, the convention is celebrating the contributions that FFA members across the state are making to Colorado agriculture.

CFB’s Troy Bredenkamp was in attendance to give the opening remarks to the third general session of the convention, and also delivered awards to the winners of the Heifer Wrangle competition. This year CFB is a Silver Star Partner of the FFA Foundation and is the principle partner for many events, awards and competitions. The CFB YF&R is providing students with leadership workshops based around the hit TV show, Minute to Win It.

Again this year, the BARN Radio Network is on site to provide live streaming of the General Sessions, award ceremonies, and live interviews with FFA members, FFA teachers and sponsors. To watch the live stream of session activities click here. For a live stream of interviews, follow-ups and conversations with those in the world of Colorado FFA, click here.

NJC Collegiate Farm Bureau Hosts Ag Olympics- REDUX

***Update***

Here is come additional coverage of the 2010 NJC Ag Olympics. Make sure to watch the end. Click here if the video will not load.

NJC Edited

►

Last week the NJC Collegiate Farm Bureau was busy hosting the NJC Ag Olympics competition at the Sterling campus. The event, a tradition at the school, pits teams of students against each other in various Ag related challenges such as building fence, setting irrigation tubes, drinking from large calf bottles, stacking hay and just for fun, a panty hose potato push race.

This year was one of the biggest contests ever with well over 10 teams signing up to compete for prize money, first place being $60, second $40 and third $20.

In the end, the teams that won the money were composed of ag students. However, in at least one contest, a group of greenhorns gave some of their aggie counterparts a run for the money.

A team composed of  students from Denver had the fastest time in the irrigation tube setting contest.

After a quick lesson from veteran tube setter Ryan Wagner, an NJC sophomore from Iliff, the students showed what they had learned by beating everyone else out in this one event.

Williams said that his grandfather had grown up on a farm and he’d heard him talk about having to use tubes to irrigate, but he didn’t really know what that meant until this contest.

Besides being a great campus event that brings a lot of students together, the Ag Olympics is, as more and more students begin participating, also becoming a great exchange of culture between the rural and metro students at NJC.

RFID Dairy Cattle Learn to Tweet

A herd of dairy cows from the University of Waterloo might be the first of the bovine species to use Twitter. The cows brag about milk production, RFID transponder glitches, eating habits, technical issues with the “Mr. Terminator” milking machines and the specific nuances of which teats perform best.

The tweets are actually a project from the University’s Critical Media Lab. Members Ron Broglio, Marcel O’Gorman and Pouya Emami have teamed up with dairy farmer Chris Vandenberg and a dozen of his favorite milk cows on Buttermine Farms in Brant, Ontario.

Photo of the Day

Troy Bredenkamp's daughter Karsyn at the Roberts Ranch in New Castle.

Earth Day News Roundup

One can always count on a holiday like Earth Day to drudge up some interesting commentary. We trolled the internet and compiled a few news items and opinion columns we thought might get your dander up.

Environmentalism as Religion

Paul Rubin – Wall Street Journal
While people have worshipped many things, we may be the first to build shrines to garbage.

For the First Time This Earth Day

Vice President Joe Biden – Huffington Post
We’ve been celebrating Earth Day for 40 years and we’re now poised to make significantly greater strides than ever before because of the unprecedented investment contained in the Recovery Act and the leadership of the President and the Secretary of Energy.

Warm, and Getting Warmer

J. Bradford DeLong – LA Times
New NASA data show just how quickly the climate is changing. What can we do now? It is about time to panic.

What’s the Beef with Climate Change?

David Martosko – The Daily Caller
It’s Earth Day again, which means that it’s another time to unite environmental activists to rally around the green flag and blame seemingly everything technological and productive—from efficient farming to genetically modified crops—for allegedly causing ecological devastation.

Budget Debate Closes Capitol

The 2010-11 State Budget was debated in the House of Representatives this week.  Due to the severe economic downturn and significantly decreased state revenues, the conversation was bleak.  After just a couple of hours of debate, the House voted cut their losses and instead of attempting to approve a balanced budget, they voted to close the doors to the Capitol for the rest of the year. The small amount of budget revenue that has come in will be diverted to a vacation fund for House members to use at will.  The Senate is not expected to oppose the move, as they are already on vacation. April Fools!!!!

USDA Positions Available to Students

Sarah Belt, Human Resources Specialist with the USDA recently sat down with Brian Allmer to discuss opportunities for students to join the USDA.  Both high school and college students are encouraged to apply for volunteer and paid positions with the organization.

Check out the interview with Sarah for more information on program requirements and application steps.

EAT – Like a Caveman

The Wall Street Journal outlines yet another odd amateur dietitian, a la Michael Pollan.

If the video does not load, please click on the link above.

Meet a Farmer: Marc Arnusch

This interview from the Meet a Farmer Campaign from the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) is being reproduced with permission from the Federation. Visit the website to learn more about this campaign and other initiatives.

Onion producer Marc Arnusch of Prospect Valley

Name: Marc Arnusch

Farm: Marc Arnusch Farms, LLC

Town: Prospect Valley, CO., located 35 miles northeast of Denver.

Years in Business: 15 as Marc Arnusch Farms.  Our family has been farming in the United States Since 1952.

Family Involved: Myself, my wife Jill, son Brett and my Father Hans Arnusch

Our Operation

We own and operate a 1,800 acre diversified row crop farming operation located in Prospect Valley, CO.  We produce a number of crops including sugar beets, corn for grain and silage, wheat, sunflowers, alfalfa and dry onions.  In addition to our farming operation, we process and ship our onion crop, along with onions grown by several other area producers.  Currently we package and ship onions to 19 different States.

In conjunction with our farm and onion operations, we represent Pioneer Hi-Bred International as the local Pioneer Salesman.  Recently we started a consulting firm dealing with water and land management issues.  Currently we employ six full time employees and up to seventy seasonal workers within our businesses.

With Eyes Opened, Agriculture Changes a Life

Howdy there.  I was asked contribute as a guest here on The Pulse, and I’d like to introduce myself as Caleb Schultz – the suburbanite city boy extraordinaire who wants to be a rancher. Yep, you heard me right, a suburban city boy who rather calve out a 2-year-old heifer at 2 am than sit at my desk all day watching the time pass on a computer screen. We’ll get back to that later though.

In my post today, I’d like to comment on what a profound impact agriculture and its stories have had on my outlook as an impressionable young man. I’d also like to paint a picture of why what you and your family do in agriculture is such a worthwhile pursuit. I grew up in Loveland, CO where I passed the days as most kids did, sheltered from the life of agriculture, even while my yard backed up to a wheat field. Then I went to Ft. Collins to attend CSU and boy did my outlook change…for good.

Imagine freshman year rooming with my close friend, whom I’d known since kindergarten, when out of nowhere some small town farm kid appeared in the door to say hello and introduce himself. My roommate nor I had ever known someone with this background and it seemed as though we hit it off from the get-go, two kids with one common goal: enjoying college life. Needless to say, our friendship grew steadily and we became very close friends. Then came Thanksgiving break freshman year; a couple days down on the farm that would change my life forever.

FFA Heifer Wrangle

FFA Heifer Wrangle winner Garrett Keenan from Limon.

Standing with (from left) FFA advisor Cody Weber, father Fritz Gilbert and Chad Vorthmann of CFB. Look for Garrett’s updates as he puchases and raises his heifer.

Rodeo at the NWSS

Behind the chutes for the FFA Heifer Wrangle

Corn Farmer Harvests in the Snow

Photo courtesy of JournalStar.com

Alan Rippe of Syracuse Nebraska was able to get most of the corn out of a snowy field west of Tecumseh with his four-wheel drive combine. He said that it’s been an unusual harvest season delayed by weather and he’s seen bald eagles, pheasants, quail, deer, bobcat, coyotes and a badger while in the fields. He said: “It’s the first corn season I’ve combined in snow.”

Top Five Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2009 Announced

Voters Give Top ‘Honor’ to lawsuit brought by illegal immigrants who sued rancher for turning them over to U.S. Border Patrol.

Nominees were drawn from the monthly Most Ridiculous Lawsuit poll winners, chosen by visitors to FacesofLawsuitAbuse.org, a public awareness campaign Web site that aims to show how abusive lawsuits affect small businesses and average families in very real ways.

The Facebook Guidebook

Facebook is the world’s leading social network, with over 300 million users and more than 900 employees. But how do you get the most out of it?

Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What’s the Difference?

How Do I Find Friends?

What is a News Feed?

To answer these questions and more, Mashable has created The Facebook Guide Book, a complete collection of resources to help you master Facebook.

Olympic Gold, Er…. Red?

Richmond is Canada’s largest producer of cranberries with more than 60 family-owned farms

Thirteen million cranberries will be used to make a “colossal depiction of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s logo” and it will be floated in the Fraser River running in front of the Richmond Olympic Oval throughout the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Annual Meeting Preperations Continue

Staff is busily working on final preparations for CFB Annual Meeting at the end of this week.

Something on that computer must be interesting!

Ag Education Auction Will be ‘One for the Record Books’

The upcoming Ag Education Auction at the CFB Annual Meeting will be “one for the record books” according to Troy Bredenkamp, CFB Executive Vice President. The Auction will take place on Friday evening, (20th) at 7:30 p.m. in the Grand Mesa room.

Members should prepare their bids. In addition to our Executive Workhorse, CFB will be auctioning off a John Elway signed throwback Broncos helmet, donated by CFBMIC. Get ready!

Douglas County Annual Meeting

Adams County Farm Bureau Annual Meeting

Lincoln County Annual Meeting

Lincoln County Farm Bureau recently held their annual meeting despite a nasty winter (fall) storm. The roads iced up quickly but members were able to receive their awards and have a hot meal before heading back out into the weather.

Charles Hoffman called the meeting to order and introduced Young Farmer & Rancher Representative Jason Vermillion to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

Susan Leach accepted a token of the Lincoln County Farm Bureau Board’s appreciation in honor of her husband, John, a retiring board member. John is the “Grill Master” at the Lincoln County Fair Farm Bureau concession booth every year and the board thought it appropriate to present him with a brand new BBQ set.

Regional Manager Jayde VanCleave spoke to Lincoln County members during the annual meeting. He brought them up to date on the new Don’t CAP Our Future Program and gave a preview of CFB Annual Meeting.

Executive Workhorse for Sale!

For those of you planning on attending the CFB Annual Meeting, make sure you have plans to attend the Ag Education Auction on Friday November 20th at 7:30 p.m. The Executive Workhorse will again be for sale!

It irrigates, it vaccinates, it drives a combine, and much, much more!

Dont miss your chance to own an Executive Workhorse for a day!

Huerfano County Annual Meeting