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May/Jun 2002: 10,000 for the 10th Show
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16th National Small Farm
Trade Show & Conference™
November 6-8, 2008
• Schedule of Events
• Audio tapes from past seminars & short courses
about Small Farm Today
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Clark MO 65243-9525
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Rebecca DeCourley
ChaosDesignArt
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10,000 for the 10th Show
Editorial from the May/June 2002 issue of Small Farm Today® magazine.
A few days ago, it was a warm spring day as I headed for the farm after concluding some business in Columbia. As I drove, I started humming to myself and really feeling good. I kind of surprised myself, since just before this I had been thinking about the wonderful Postal service and their price increase in June, and other problems: workmen’s comp insurance has increased, health insurance has gone up 20-35%, and insurance groups think you should pay more as you get older. So my sudden high surprised me—I’m a farmer and it’s spring time.
The workload between the farm and the magazine, our new SAFI project, and my wife’s swim school has increased six-fold this time of year. We have already hatched about 600 Dominique chicks. I sold a nice batch of 45 pullets and 21 roosters down at Silex, Missouri, where they have a great chicken swap and farmers’ market. This Saturday, I will deliver 100 young roosters to another fellow and then leave for Mansfield, Missouri, to the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Spring Festival. My young friend there, Jeremiath Gettle, has a great quote in his 2002 catalogue from Abraham Lincoln, in 1859: “No other human occupation opens so wide a field for profitable and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought, as agriculture. I know of nothing so pleasant to the mind, as the discovery of anything which is at once new and valuable—nothing which so lightens and sweetens taste as the hopeful pursuit of such discovery.”
Abe was right, this was the spiritual high I experienced driving home and thinking about new varieties of my OP corn and the 52 multicolored lambs out of my 31 Katahdin hair sheep. As David Shafer, a Trade Show speaker and author of It’s Just the Greatest Life said, it is just the best way to live. I agree with David and Abe—it surely is the best way to live.
Speaking of the best way to live, we have many outstanding inspirational and practical hands-on, how-to speakers for our 10th National Small Farm Trade Show & Conference™. In November 2002, it will be just five months until my 60th birthday. I want all of you guys and gals to bring me a birthday present, in the form of friends or guests at our Show. Since this is our 10th year, we have a goal of 10,000 small farmers in one place at one time. Spread the word; help us make it happen. Numbers definitely impress our sponsors, which in turn helps the show to get more high-quality speakers and do more of everything. This year we will have a meat goat show, a Level II alpaca show, draft horse demonstrations with an area outside to actually work the horses, and various small machineries like the two-wheel tractor baler. Sawmills will be outside as usual.
Jo Robinson (Washington), a New York Times bestselling author, will tell you why grass fed is best. John Ikerd, “Sustaining People Through Agriculture” columnist, provides food for thought with “How Big Should a Small Farm Be?”, Fred Kirshenmann, director of the Leopold Sustainable Ag Center in Iowa, talks about the state of agriculture and more importantly, what it could be and why we should work toward this goal. Cappy Tosetti (Oregon) has two great marketing talks on “Marketing Your Farm on a Shoestring Budget” and “New Ideas for Value-Added Products and Direct Marketing”. Lynn Byczynski (Kansas) will impress you with the most valuable crop you can grow—flowers. Lynn Purvis takes a look at beefalo. Jerry Hayes (Illinois) from Dadant & Sons talks about why you should keep honey bees. Kelly Klober, “Small Acreage Management” columnist, covers small farm hog production, breeding poultry, and diversification. Patrick Byers will tell you how to market your small fruits and berries, while Andy Lee (Virginia), author of Backyard Market Gardening, Chicken Tractor, and Day-Range Poultry, covers tiny house construction. Keith Cavelier covers your farm's foundation—the soil. There is increasing interest in specialty crops, so Rob Meyer from the Jefferson Institute will tell you how to add value to specialty and oilseed crops. Richard Moore will explain the importance of risk management on your small farm, and in a later talk will discuss the heifer project and sustainable ag in Ecuador.
The short courses this year are packed with information. Michael Phillips (New Hampshire), farm author and speaker, has great stuff on raising organic apples and herbs from a grower’s standpoint. Dr. Louis Jett will fill you in on the latest hoop research with lots of practical how to build it and what it costs. Jim Willingham (Texas), from 8-Mile Ranch, will tell you how to raise meat goats the right way. Andy Lee goes into great detail on a day-range pastured poultry system, and Elizabeth Henderson rounds out the short courses with “CSAs: Community Supported Agriculture and Small Farms”.
If you do not get a bushel basket of practical hard-core small farm info at this conference, you must have been asleep. This year, the Show opens at 8:30 a.m. and talks start at 10 a.m., Thursday (October 31) and Friday, and 8:45 a.m. on Saturday. This change was suggested by exhibitors and attendees, and we do pay attention.
Spread the word, bring a friend, tell a friend, and let’s get 10,000 for this year’s show.
Happy and Profitable Farming,
Ron Macher
Publisher/Farmer