How Birchland Acres Built a Farming Legacy in New York

Host Suzanne Rajczi visits Birchland Acres, a 15-acre Dutchess County family farm dating to the 1800s, and speaks with Michelle and Jeff Hicks about their diversified operation raising Black Angus and crossbred cattle, pigs, and poultry. Jeff shares the farm’s evolution from a larger property with pigs, a slaughterhouse, dairy cows, and horses to today’s beef focus, while Michelle explains breed origins, associations, EPDs, frame scores, box beef standards, crossbreeding, calving, and breeding methods including AI and sexed semen. They discuss daily and seasonal farm work, pasture and winter management, costs and land needs, and their commitment to raising the meat they eat. The conversation also highlights their roles supporting 4-H/FFA youth and the Dutchess County Fair livestock sale, including how auctions work and how proceeds support kids and scholarships.


TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Podcast Welcome
01:27 Birchland Origins
02:21 Pigs and Slaughterhouse Days
04:46 Horses to Cattle Shift
05:43 4H Selection Day
07:43 Steers and Fair Sales
09:41 Angus Breed Basics
11:37 EPDs and Standards
14:38 Crossbreeding for Beef
15:44 Calving and Weaning
18:17 Breed Colors and Longevity
21:53 Pigs and Chickens
25:19 Raising Farm Kids
28:18 Daily Chores and Seasons
33:36 Breeding and AI Explained
35:07 Sourcing Bull Semen
35:45 Sexed Semen Explained
37:31 Embryos and Bloodlines
38:13 Real Costs of Cattle
41:09 Land and Acreage Math
43:10 Hay Feeding Economics
44:31 Organic vs All Natural
46:13 Seasonal Herd Cycle
49:01 4-H and Fair Leadership
51:25 Training Show Animals
57:02 Livestock Auction Basics
01:02:17 Advice and Wrap Up

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to A Legacy of Agriculture and Community, the podcast celebrating the people, farms, and traditions that make agriculture such an essential part of our region's history and future. I'm your host, Suzanne Roidsey, a 25-year member of the Dutchess County Agricultural Society, a food service industry leader, community advocate, and passionate supporter of local agriculture. Today we are in beautiful Dutchess County at Birchland Acres, a 15-acre working farm that has been in the family since the 1800s. This is a farm rooted in heritage, purpose, and a deep commitment to preserving agriculture for future generations. Here, Michelle and Jeff Hicks raised black Angus cattle, crossbreed cattle, pigs, and poultry, demonstrating a diversified approach to farming that balances tradition with sustainability. Today we'll talk about cattle genetics, herd development, land stewardship, life on a working farm, and why farms like this remain so important to our communities. Welcome, Michelle and Jeff, and thank you for being part of the Duchess County Fair Legacy of Agriculture and Community Podcast. I'm just thrilled that I have an opportunity to meet with two extraordinary individuals who really emulate what agriculture and farming is all about here in Duchess County and beyond. But let's just start right here with Birchland Acres. Tell me a little bit about the farm. I mean, when we spoke, you said it was a family farm starting in the 1800s. Big piece of property, and uh over the years it's changed and and evolved into something else. But let's talk a little bit about Birchland Acres and your family and how it all began. And is this a Jeff question? Okay. This one's on you, Jeff.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Okay, uh let's see. My great grandparents bought it as far as I've been told.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 2:00

Um, and they ran it as a farm. Um, it was about 150 acres. Um and I don't know a lot about my great-grandparents, uh-huh. But my grandparents uh ran this. That used to be a slaughterhouse. They used to have pigs. Um they used to go down to FDRs and get all the scraps from uh the troops down there. And as soon as the truck hit the bottom of the hill, you could hear the pigs knew it.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

And when when you mean FDR, you mean the uh Franklin Delano Roosevelt uh estate, library, family, home down there in Hyde Park.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Well, there was troops stationed there.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

You know, I didn't even know that either.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

So um my grandfather used to pick up the garbage down there and they threw everything away.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Yep. Um so you brought it up here to the farm?

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Yep, and they fed the pigs with it.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Um my uh Did they raise um Angus cattle at that time or what kind of?

SPEAKER_03 3:10

No, they had a dairy cow dairy cattle? Just a couple cows. Um and then well my aunt had a steer. Um she won Duchess County Fair. I don't remember what what year. Uh I got the trophy at home, but I don't remember what year she won it. Uh and uh my grandfather, uh, he built houses. So this whole yard out here, he'd take down old houses and he'd build new houses.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Um like oh you gotta explain that to me, Jeff.

SPEAKER_03 3:55

He'd would take down old houses, reassemble them here and and well they'd pull all the like Hobson's uh all the Hobson's boys used to come down here and work for him and they'd pull nails out of all the old lumber so he could use it to build something new. Um the house right around the corner up there. Well, the first house this way, um the third house this way, the fifth house this way, he built all those. He built the house that way.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

So construction and home building was like a foundational part of this farm.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Cut pieces of land off, you know, with the houses uh to sell them.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Um to generate revenue to support and reinvest in the farm.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

So um when you had when did you transition the farm transition into beef cattle and well uh my my mother had horses here.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

Uh we used to have twenty to twenty-five horses.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

You were um owned them or you like let them.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Oh no, my mother they was equestrian. Yeah, we uh we owned them. Uh-huh. Um my mother used to show pretty extensively. My sister used to show extensively. And I got stuck doing a lot of the chores, so I figured I'd get cattle.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Uh-huh. Because you didn't want to you didn't want to mess with those horses. Yeah, when you said they showed those horses, was it like equestrian, side saddle, country? I mean, I well uh dancing, barrel racing.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

No, they had uh quarter horses. Okay. Uh mostly western. Mostly wet western in the beginning, and then then uh they turned to English after a while.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Um but they did raining with them.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Um barrel racing.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Yeah, my sister. My sister was the rodeo queen of New York State one year.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Wow. Um and does she still have horses today, or we're done with that? Yeah, I don't think so. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

I haven't talked to her lately.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Okay. Well, those things happen in families, I get it. Um, so today here at Birchland Acres, tell me about what you raise and the type of animal and livestock and how long you've been doing it.

SPEAKER_03 6:31

Uh well, I uh the cattle came here when I was 13, I think.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

I got the first one, and they had selection day in Dutchess County at the time. So the new members got to pick last. But that went back and bit them because Jimmy Glass and I were both new members that year, and that was champion in reserve at the fair, and he was also champion at Eastern States.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Mm-hmm. So selection day for 4-H back in the day was the leaders would pick out however any many animals they needed for all of the people.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

Who wanted crossbreds, who wanted Hurfords, who wanted Angus. So they put so many of them.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

They buy them or they pull them from like they buy them from people.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

Right. And then the kids got to pick, but they went by the the kids that were in the uh club for the longest, they went first. So it was first year members got last picked.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

So kind of kind of explain that to me because this happens during the fair when you say selection day, or this is like an event that occurred.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

Right. This was in September. The leader the 4-H leaders would go would ask you what kind of animal you wanted, and then they'd go out and find that many of those type of animals.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

And you've been 4-H leaders, right? So you've kind of been part of that process.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

You've no selection day ended a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Okay. Yeah. They the kids like to pick out their own animals now. I don't think you could get away with trying to do selection day anymore in 4-H, but yeah, back in the day that's how they did it.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Okay, so that's how you came how this is how your um cattle came about through Selection Day, is how you built your herd or no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 8:19

Uh that that's how I first started. That was my first year in 4-H having cattle.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Uh-huh. And uh those were seers, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Right, they were steers.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Um and do we want to share with our audience what a steer is?

SPEAKER_03 8:34

It's a neutered male. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Thank you. So they don't breed. Right. Your their purpose is to get big and healthy and and wide and marbled so we can slaughter them and have a good yield. Is is that their general purpose? Okay. So that's what you did is you raised steers in order to process or well, they were to show.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Um and to sell in the sale. Yeah. Um back in the day, then they did we didn't have a sale here at Dutchess County. Um, so the big ghee out in Springfield Mass, most of the kids went out there and sold them out there or on their own. You know, if you raised a couple steers, they found people that are interested in buying them.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

That that steer brought a dollar fifty-five a pound at Eastern States.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

What's a steer like that bring today? What does a steer bring today? An average pound. At the fair.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

It depends on what today.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yeah. At the fair. At the fair? What uh the average last year for the steers at the fair last year were six, probably six dollars a pound. Mm-hmm. And I think Grand Champion went for like fifteen dollars a pound. But like in a regular market, you know, um, if you went and bought one somewhere, they're at what, three dollars a pound? Mm-hmm. Per finished animal.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

Mm-hmm. So depends.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Okay. So that's a I mean, you as a young person raising cattle and being part of 4-H, I mean, the aspiration of raising an animal that would become a grand champion is pretty lucrative, right? Yep. I mean, yeah, you want to do that. I mean, if that's kind of your thing, is your goal. And you know, uh let's kind of go right into understanding cattle and genetics and her development because I learned so much from talking to Michelle and six. She's a lot better to explain than that. The 60 seconds. So, you know, I really want to understand about what Angus is and the crossbreeds and the seminal and how they evolved into being kind of a standard of Angus. And uh, you know, I'd like to I'd like you to explain about, you know, the beef industry and the Angus industry and the value this provides in the agriculture ecosystem, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

So uh the oldest breed association in the United States is the Shorthorn Association. Um the Angus is probably the most popular. They have done the most promoting of their breed and their industry. Um, you know, and I think the biggest thing, which sounds kind of crazy with the Angus cattle, is they have the black hide um and the black hair, which is popular. You'll see mostly black. Um now um they just do better. The flies don't seem to bother them as much, and um, and a lot of it is just the the angus industry developing, and you know, back in the day when angus were popular, that was when all the rich people had cattle and it made a big difference.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

There was big tax advantages to owning cattle.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Sure. Uh isn't there back in the isn't there still today?

SPEAKER_03 11:46

No, not like it was.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

I mean, where did the cattle come from? Where did they originate from? Europe? Scotland. Scott was Angus, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

I didn't know that, right? Predominantly Scotland. Yeah, I mean it depends on the breed. Yeah, England. Um, sematols came from Switzerland. Um, so different breeds came from different um places parts of the world. But a lot most of them, most of the breeds that are in the United States came from Europe.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Uh-huh. And you mentioned the breeds are all all part of an association. So talk to me a little bit about that, of of the value of the association and what it does as far as like record keeping and setting standards and the kind of the what did you refer to, the progeny of processes?

SPEAKER_01 12:32

So um just like everything else, uh the beef industry has uh developed, and uh a lot of what the the breeders do now is they look at what the ex the expected progeny, it's called EPDs. So as you have a cow or a bull that produces more babies, everybody records the information through the breed association. Each breed association has their own database. Um you know, and at birth weights, um you want a smaller birth weight because you want to, you know, you don't want a real big birth weight because you want the mother to be able to have it. Right. Um, how fast they grow, what their weaning weights are, you know, what their um weights are at a year old. Um look at their mothering instincts, and um, you know, one of the things is their frame scores, which is how big their their muscle or their structure is, their skeleton. Yes. Skeleton. Um so that's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Is there a standard in that? And then when you say the frame score, do you want it to have a certain chest size or length or width or height or it depends on the breed.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Each breed is a little different, like the Angus and the Herford, um, they're a smaller frame um than the semitals or the Charlets. Um so you know, a moderate frame I think is like probably a four or five. Um but uh you don't want them too too big, but you want them big enough to grow.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Uh-huh. Um because you don't want them too too big because they don't live as long, or they're harder to rails in the slaughterhouse.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Oh, well that was uh a frank, honest reply. Well, uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

You want them to be a certain size so you can so within the industry where you get like the major industry and the major beef industry, they look at what the box beef is, which is what you know, you want everything standardized, so you want most of your rib streaks the same size, you want your carcasses about the same size, you know, um like 800 pounds is the average carcass. The semitals, they're a larger breed. If you have a full-blood semitals, you could be a thousand-pound carcass, which is big, and it's it's hard for the you know the facilities to handle that and it doesn't fit right, you know.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

You go to a restaurant, you can't put so many stakes in a box that way.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Right. I'm familiar with box beef and selling out of that product. I get it. Heavyweight centerized, uh, marbling, all all of those things. But you know, it's interesting because you know how that progeny and the genetics and the temperament. I mean, you spoke to me about just their maternal instincts and their ability to breed and why that's all so relevant and kind of sustaining the breed, right? Right. And um when you talk about the hide and the color, and you also shared with me kind of the crossbreeding aspect of how that's evolved. Can you speak to that? And you have some crossbred cattle out here, yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Um so I mean, one of the things that comes to mind for analogy is the doodle breeds. Yeah, you're cross-breeding to to get the best.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

The doodle of a dog. Yeah. But now we have the golden doodle and uh every doodle, everybody's so they're looking for the best cross, and that you know what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Um, you know, with the cattle, when you crossbreed, you're looking, like I said, the semitol are a larger frame, they're a much bigger animal. They don't meet the box beef, so you crossbreed them with an Angus and you make them smaller. Um, you know, um the maternal instincts that the beef cattle are different than the dairy. The dairy cattle, they have their babies and they don't take care of them. You know, we take them away because we take the milk. But with the beef cattle, they need to take care of that calf and uh keep an eye on it and mother it and um protect it from predators.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Talk to me about the you know, the gestation period and how long it takes to grow and grow inside and give birth and um how long they stay with their mother and you wean them away. Um so normally um the gestation is nine months.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Um so long. Yeah, they uh pregnant like ha more than half their half a year. Yep. Um their cycle is they come into heat every 21 days, so when you're trying to breed them, that's when you try and breed them is every 21 days. Um normally you breed them so they have their first baby at about two years old.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Okay. That's generally you don't want to start them too young.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

No, they need to grow and mature. Um it takes them about till they're two years old to be big enough and developed enough to be able to carry that calf and to be able to raise it. Um if you do it smaller, you know, younger than that, they might not produce as much milk and it's harder on them.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Well, they're still growing.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah. They're still growing. How big? So nine months and what comes out, how big?

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Again, it depends on the breed. Um, you know, the smaller ones you're talking 50-60 pound calves, um, the semitols you're talking 70, 80. Um, like I said, EPDs, you're looking for those smaller calves that calves. I mean, would you repeat what that is? Uh expected expected prodigy differences. Um, so yeah, um you want them to be able to have their babies on their own and not have to help out.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Is that normal, natural birth, or is complications? I watch that show, Dr. Pole, all the time, veterinary medicine, and he's always out on a farm pulling a calf out. He's the vet. So that's always the bad calls that you see out there. Yeah, you don't see all the good calls. So how many uh how many births do you have a year as far as your herd here?

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Uh the boys have about 15 a year. Um, you know, and you hope you don't have to help any of them. Um sometimes the younger ones, when they're like their first, so their first calf, we call them a first calf heifer. Right. Um, and uh they just don't know what they're doing, and you know, they get nervous and they might just not lay down and have the calf the way that they were supposed to. Um, and from the time that you first see that water bag, the placenta coming out, you want to get that calf out in two or three hours at at the most. So like we try to keep an eye on them, and if they're not progressing, we'll help them out, but we try not to.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

We usually do it on their own. It usually the cow has contractions, yes. Uh-huh. And you said lay down or stand up, is there a preference or usually they lay down. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Um, sometimes they'll lay down and they'll start having them and then they'll stand up and they'll come out.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah, helps get them out.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Slide them out. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

I I think it's been, you know, just so inspiring when I see the birthing center at the Duchess County Fair. I I mean, I don't think the public or people realize what that life cycle looks like and a natural cowbirth or an animal birth in general.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

So because it doesn't take very long, people don't yeah, uh stay there and and see it happening for the lot of the city.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

As far as like the registry on on cattle uh and the associations, how many different breeds are there? We do you know, or is there There's a lot of different breeds?

SPEAKER_03 19:36

There's there's registries for crosses. Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

So there's so that's seminal seminal sementol. That is not a cross breed, that it comes from Switzerland, Switzerland, as you mentioned. Right. That's just a bigger angus.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

A bigger no, it's its own breed.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

It's its own breed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

So each of them are their own breed. This the shorthhorns are a breed, the semitals are a breed. Um Main and Jou is another one that's really popular.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Main and June? Main and Jou. Main in Jou. That sounds like it's from Canada or France or someplace like this. They are France. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Are they typically all black? They didn't used to be. Um, they all used to be their own colors, but like I said, the Angus industry did such a great job promoting and um the black cattle, you know, the people just like them. Um so they've crossbred and and got a little bit of Angus into most of the breeds, so there are a lot of them are black. Um the full blood semitals, which are semitals that are traceable back to Switzerland or Germany, those are red or brown. You won't they there's no black in or blonde, yeah. Or blonde. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

I don't think I've ever seen a blonde Angus. Oh, well, you have to come see the no?

SPEAKER_03 20:46

No, no, no, not a blonde angus, a blonde semathal.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

A blonde semitol.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

So angus are either black, all of so part of the thing with the semitole or with the sorry, the angus industry is they have to be black. Uh-huh. Um, and then uh genetic mutation, there are red angus. So they did their own brain dissociation. Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Yep, red angus. And is red angus on the rise? Is that a popular I I hear more about them. Yep. And I see I feel like I see more of them around. Yep. So that is like a growing, growing breed, so to speak. Um, so how long can cattle uh you know, Angus remain productive and valued on your farm?

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Um, so I would say on an average farm, like if you're doing a production farm or a bigger farm, usually eight years is a max. It's kind of a life cycle. Yeah. Um, ours, 10, 12. I mean, we've had some that were 16 that, you know, as long as they have a calf every year, their feet and their legs are really good so they can move around, their udders are really good, they have good milk production, and the calves can nurse really well.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

We just people don't like keeping them longer than eight or nine years because there's it becomes more likely. You're gonna have problems.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

Complications.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

You have to call the vet for something.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Uh-huh. It eats into your into the uh crop profitability because vet bills can be expensive. Very, very expensive. Yeah. I bet though, with your experience, you could probably manage some of these circumstances. Yes or no? You've tried everything, right? Yeah, that's great. Um, so let me just keep kind of keep going. So, aside from cattle, I know you have a little bit of a diversified stock livestock here. Um, you have pigs, and sometimes you have chicken. Yep. Um, and talk a little bit of how that kind of fits into your overall operation and why do you do it and the value of the diversification of the farm? And is it because of joy or you know, some of it's for joy, and some of it's because I want to know what I eat. Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

So every all the meat that we eat, we raise. You know, that was how we started with the pigs. We wanted to raise them. Um, it's a lot to do um mother pigs and babies. So we um buy them in the spring and then raise them through the summer and then process them in the fall. Um, you know, we kind of figured out how big our pen was, and we raise five pigs every year, one for us, and then we sell the other ones to cover the cost of raising ours. Um I don't know, you guys have had pigs here for a long time, right? Do you have a specific species of pig?

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Duro durock?

SPEAKER_01 23:29

No, we don't. So um we uh have bought pigs around here before, and sometimes you can find somebody to buy them from, sometimes you can't, depends on the market, depends on who's doing what. Um so we found Del Valley University is where we get our pigs from. Um there's three families that we go down and um usually pick up 12 to 15 piglets uh end of March, beginning of April. Um and bring them back for your friends or yep, we keep uh five and then the rest of them. So um my friend Gretchen Brunette, um, her family at one point lived down there, and that's how we started going there. But um her and I go down and it's our girls' day out. Oh baby piglet shopping, yep, piglet buying. So yeah, sounds like fun. So we talk about our annual girls' day out, and they're like, What are you doing? We're going to get our baby pigs. That is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Sounds like a fun girls' day out.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

We've uh we've been doing that for um probably 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Uh-huh. So aside from pigs, poultry, or no?

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Yep. Chickens, we do um uh chickens for eggs. Um, I sell them a little bit. Um back when the kids were younger, we sold more eggs. Um and then the meat animal, the meat birds we just grow for ourselves. I don't really sell them. Um, but we do, you know, depending on the year, 15, 25 a year. Uh-huh. Chickens, no turkeys. No, no turkeys. We did um a couple years in a row, we did turkeys um for Thanksgiving. Um, but then you're processing them the week of Thanksgiving, and there's so much going on. Um, the first year, the first year we raised turkeys, we didn't know.

SPEAKER_03 25:03

I thought we'd get to jump on it and buy them early.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

So we didn't know, like for turkeys for Thanksgiving, you're supposed to buy them in July. Yeah. Well, Jeff found them in this in um March or April. Yeah, March or April, and we kept them and then processed them for Thanksgiving, and our turkeys were 50 pounds ready to go into the oven. So um Big Andy and Parati helped us out the first couple years processing them.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

You had to cut them in half just to fit them into the oven.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Just to lay them flat to get them in the oven.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

So you grew big turkey.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Yeah. So then we learned to buy them in July so they would be more average. Um but when the kids were little, um, we didn't really give them an allowance. You know, they were taking care of their animals, they take care of our animals, we had the chickens, um, we grew a lot of vegetables, um, we grew potatoes, so the kids would help us with all of that and sell it. We had a self-serve stand and that was their money.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

You know, they worked and you should talk about your children. You have two boys supporting you in the farm, or not necessarily, or yep.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

So the the two boys, um uh Christopher and James. Uh Christopher works with a farmer with us on the farm at Creed Ankeny Farm. Um, and James is an engineer, um, so he works someplace else, but they both, you know, take care of all the animals here. When they were younger, we were down here twice a day, every day, you know, taking care of the animals, and as they got older and learned how to drive and stuff, they started to do it, and basically now they take care of everything unless they're away or need a hand. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

I mean, share what it's like to grow up on a farm and how it created the young men that they've become.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Uh well, it teaches them responsibility, you know. Um, from the time they were old enough to walk and talk, they started helping with the animals, and um it it's not always easy, you know, you learn life and you learn death, and we didn't protect them from that. And you know, we they started raising steers when they were eight years old and old enough, and they learned that you know, you have a steer and they take care of it for a year and you do the best that you can do and take care of it, but the purpose is the meat, and you know, that's what they did um through 4-H, um, and they were both Boy Scouts too. You know, they learned leadership, um, public speaking, marketing. You know, those kids had their own animals, they had to sell them, so they learned how to speak with an adult at a young age. And I think, you know, I think all of the kids that are involved with the sale, um, but just responsibility and you know, and the other thing too with that is community, you know, they all like to help out and jump in and they all help each other out. Um, it's amazing watching the kids as they show their animals, they're all competing and they all want to win, but they're all friends at the end of the day and they're all willing to help each other out. So it's it's neat to see that.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Yeah, you don't learn that it's kind of hands-on uh hands-on learning, you know, the engagement, the atmosphere, the experience. You don't read it to learn it. You live life and you experience it. Yeah, okay. Would you say, you know, growing up in a farm is a great life?

SPEAKER_01 28:16

For the most part, you know, there's times that are a little rough, but yes, you know, and you know, you talked about the birthing center and stuff, and I've been doing this since I was a little kid, and it still amazes me every time I see a baby being born, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

And it's just you know, um and I think that teaches a lot of value and you know, taking care of that animal and helping it grow and develop and I think they learn a lot of respect, you know, respect for each other, respect for the animal, you know, for the farm, the the land, the legacy of what you have here. I mean, it's really incredible. Um, so tell me a little bit about a day in life here on a farm. If if somebody said, geez, I want to grow, I want to be a farmer. Talk about, you know, you said you work on a farm. What is a day in a what is a typical day in a life? What time do you get up in the morning? And what are those types of chores that you have to do and what are kind of your first priorities of the day?

SPEAKER_01 29:16

So I'm gonna start with we're not dairy farmers. Okay. And for for the reason that we don't like getting up real real early. So we're up at 6 30 or 7. And uh, you know, the first thing we do is just go check on all the cattle, make sure everything is good. Um, the younger cattle that we're feeding that are growing need to get fed twice a day. So the first thing you do is you start out, you feed them, you check on everybody, make sure that everybody's doing good. Um, the cows and the cows and the calves, we feed them every day, um, just to bring them up, you know.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

There's so they don't just have milk, you feed them in addition to the milk that they're getting?

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Uh so the calves are with the cows, so they'll learn how to come up and eat some silage or some grain, but for the most part, um, they nurse from their mother.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Okay. Um so you but you have to feed those mothers so they can produce the milk.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Yep. And part of that, so part of that is they do need some to to help them um, you know, produce the milk, but part of that is if they get out, you want them to come back again. Uh-huh. So if you feed them every day and you shake a bucket and you yell for them, they will come to you. So when they get out, you shake a bucket and shake that bucket, they're coming.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

You bribe them, yeah, with the noise and the food. Yeah. Yeah. How great is that? Yep. So, um, all right. So you fed them now what's on your d what's on the on the plate for the rest of the day. It depends.

SPEAKER_03 30:37

I mean it depends on what time of year it is.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Yeah. Um so there's some seasonality involved.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Well, yeah, we raise crops, uh. And that can take up, you know, spring, summer, and fall.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

So you when you say crops, what what do you raise? Grow?

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Uh hay, oats, rye, uh barley.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

It's all in the field, like that type of crop. Yep. I'm worried there's a wasp behind you. Behind me. Yeah. Like hanging out in your chair. It's like I want to swat it. Okay. It like went in the pipe, but I'm I don't want to it's done. I'm sorry. Oh, that was gone. Okay, good. Okay. Um, so what time of year you're out in the field at a certain time growing, and and well, usually somebody takes care of chores and then chores is feeding.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Feeding and cleaning. There's probably a big part of cleaning that goes involved, especially if they're in a a barn or an area you want to make.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Yep, we don't we don't keep a lot of them in barns where you have to do a lot of work. Uh we have like a a chopper that'll chop round bales up and we make bedding packs for them to lay on. So that way uh it's not a lot of they have barns to get in out of the out of the wind wind and stuff, but actually for the most part they'd rather lay out in the field.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Uh-huh. Do they don't mind the rain or snow or cold?

SPEAKER_03 32:12

So long as they have a uh pretty well, you know, mostly dry place to lay.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Yep. So when it snows and we get 12 inches of snow, that doesn't bother them. Then it they'll lay in the snow or wow.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

So usually, like Jeff said, we have really um we use that chopper and chop up and the bedding slowly builds up, and then the heat from that helps keep it warm so it melts, and then you know, as soon as the snow is done, we'll bed them again and they'll have a nice, clean, dry place to lay.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

So they're okay in the winter, out in the cold, hanging out, eating? Do you have to change their diet or do anything different during that winter to pres you know keep them healthy? Do they get colds, sniffles, anything like that? Once in a while.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

Yeah, animals do get sick. Yeah. And you have to treat them sometimes. Sometimes they'll just they'll get over it themselves. But um actually the cold is the worst. The wind is the worst thing for 'em.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Wind?

SPEAKER_03 33:11

Yeah. Cattle can't stand the wind. Because it goes through the window. It draws the heat out of them.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Right.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

You know, when it snows, it actually lays on their coat and it insulates them. But if it's really windy out, they'll get frostbite and they have to get out of the wind. They'll find like a uh a hollow to lay in where the the wind will blow above them.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 33:37

Or the they're pretty smart at finding places that uh are comfortable. Well, that are good for them. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Their habitat thing. Yep. That's interesting. So, okay, during the that's winter, and you're planting crops in the spring, and then what happens during the summer and the fall? When do you do like breeding and things like that?

SPEAKER_02 33:58

What God.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

So we breed uh at the farm where we were at Creed Ankeny Farm, we breed for twice a year. Um, so we have the calves from February to April, right? Um, you know, and that's kind of early for some people.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Like calving sea season.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Yep, calving season. Um it's cold, but that's actually cold with no mud is good for the calves. The calves when they're first born don't do good in the in the mud, and we have a barn that we can get them in when they're firstborn, so they're warm and they're dry, and usually within a couple days, as long as they've got a shed or something, you can kick them out. So calving season for the spring is February to April, which means we turn the bulls out at Creed Ankany. Our cows are on pasture, so we don't do much AIing. We use bulls for breeding, so we turn the bulls out usually the first of May, and they'll stay until the first of July. Um Michelle, I have to go back. What is AI? Artificial insemination. So you different AR than what most people are used to. Right. Ask a farmer what AI is.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

And and that's a that artificial insemination. So you're actually the the it's you're doing it, you're breeding it. Are you doing it, or do you bring somebody in to do it?

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Um I haven't done it in a very long time. And it's kind of an art. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Um, so the boys, um, you know, I took a class and Jeff did a long time ago. Um, Christopher did too, but we have some friends of ours that do it a lot more. Um, and you know, back in the day in some places where there are a lot more dairies that are closer, there's actually people that that's all they do is breed the cattle. Right. Um, but yeah. So how do you buy seen the semen? Yes. Uh so the semen is frozen, it's frozen in liquid nitrogen. Um, and you know, the they have with small tanks that they put liquid nitrogen in, and you can put the semen in there and ship it all over the country. Um, the boys buy their semen usually um from Ohio and Iowa. There's a couple places. Um, a lot of the farmers out west or even here that have sales will uh sell the semen from in an auction, you know, um, from their bowls, and you can buy it that way. Um, there's different companies or different, you know, you can buy them direct from the the farmer too.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Is it a guarantee that it's gonna hit? Is it gonna work? So it's a little risky buying semen. Yep, right? Yep.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Well, they also have sex semen. Okay. If you only want heifers or if you only want bulls.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Oh, so you can actually buy semen, they determine through the genetics or the DNA. They spin it.

SPEAKER_03 36:34

They spin it in a centrifuge.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

And that separates the boy sperm from the girl sperm?

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Wow, I'm going to spend so you can I didn't realize that. So you can actually determine if you're getting girls or boys just based on the semen that you buy. Yep. Are okay, what costs more?

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Well, sex semen costs you more. Yeah. Does it matter?

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Who gets more money, the girls or the boys? What usually the girls. The girls. That's the that they're more that semen's more valuable than the boy semen.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

Yeah, and you usually usually semen comes in half cc strus.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 37:12

But in sex semen you only get a quarter and you're paying more.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Okay. So it's you gotta be really exact when you actually do that insemination because it's kind of risky, right? Yeah, you gotta have the timing, right? Yeah. And do you I mean, do you buy sex semen?

SPEAKER_01 37:29

The boys do some. Uh huh. Um, you know, the like Jeff said, there's less of it in the container and it's harder to time it, so it's harder to get them bred to the sex semen. So I think the um the older the cow is, the harder it is to get them to breed with the sex semen. Some people do really good. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

So that's a little niche within the industry. Uh, you have people that inseminate cattle. If you don't do it yourself, you can hire somebody. When do you search Google? I need to impregnate my my livestock, and there's people that say I'm or you call the vet. Yeah, the vet can do it too. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:08

And you can also you can put embryos in if you want. If you want a specific bloodline or something, then you have to have an embryologist put it in.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

But uh-huh. Well, that probably preserves the lineage and the genetics, and if you're trying to scientifically breed like the most desirable, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:30

Well, if you have uh uh an animal that you bought for a hundred thousand dollars, you're not gonna get enough calves out of her to pay for that. Uh-huh. So they flush embryos out of her different bulls or whatever, and they sell the embryos.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

What's the value? I mean, I uh I what's the value of an Angus cattle today?

SPEAKER_03 38:55

I mean Well Angus is only a specific breed.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

Okay, your cattle.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Your cattle.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Uh I mean, it it is all over the place. If you're gonna go high-end, like Jeff said, $100,000, you know, most of the auctions when you're selling a purebred um animal, usually between three and three thousand and eight thousand, twelve thousand is so you've got a big investment out here.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

This is between the investment of the animal, the growing of the animal, the the feeding of the animal, the lifestyle maintenance. This is you you have some coin involved here, right? That's a huge investment. It is a huge investment times the number of cattle that you have, times 20 or 30 or 100 or 200.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

I mean, it only grows from there because you need housing.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

Right.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

You need tractors to feed them.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Right.

SPEAKER_03 39:54

Uh if you're gonna make the hay, you need a disc vine, a baler, a tether, uh, rake.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

All those all those ancillary costs to kind of complement the business and complement the farm life. Otherwise, you have to go buy it and uh so say I wanted to buy ten acres and um say I want to I want to grow cattle, and I don't want to call them cango beef cattle. Yeah, beef call. Is that a better word? Beef beef cattle. A beef cattle, and I want to have ten of them. Tell me how what kind of investment that looks like. Don't not the land, but just what I need to get started. Or is it better to buy someone else's property with why do you want to do it?

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Because they're funny.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:41

Um, you know, I think I mean my kids grew up with it, so it's like ingrained, but yeah, to for somebody just to decide that they're gonna go raise beef cattle, yeah, that's it's a big investment.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Oh, it's a big investment. But how do we sustain this industry? How do we sustain the beef cattle industry if we don't have you know, I don't want to say the infrastructure, but the succession planning and the desire and you know, because this is really important to the food ecosystem.

SPEAKER_03 41:11

Well, the biggest problem is the taxes. The biggest problem is the property taxes.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

So it's I mean, you get agricultural uh breaks, but to buy the land to start with.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

Well, it depends on what state you're in. Isn't there a huge variable there? Oh yeah, well the price.

SPEAKER_03 41:28

But the price of of land is a big factor. It's good land that can, you know, you can raise cattle on less than 15 or 20 acres per per head, uh-huh, you know, uh it's gonna cost you some money to buy that land.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

How many acres of land per beef cattle? I mean, is there a ratio?

SPEAKER_03 41:51

Depend on how good the land is.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

You would you have all these in?

SPEAKER_03 41:54

I mean, when you say how can I tell you that if if uh, you know, are you comparing uh a piece of property right here or a piece of property? I'm in Rhinebeck in Nevada or Rhinebeck, New York.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

Okay, that's where I am. Uh this is all about Duchess County and continuing the legacy of agriculture and community. And I am coming into Rhinebeck and I want to buy a farm. How many acres do I need because I want to raise beef cattle?

SPEAKER_03 42:22

And how many cattle?

SPEAKER_00 42:24

I don't know. Ten head. Okay. Ten head, ten head.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

Okay. And are you gonna have the equipment to do all this?

SPEAKER_00 42:34

I I don't you're ready to own am I gonna need equipment to do this?

SPEAKER_03 42:39

Well, do you want to buy your hay? Do you want to buy your crops?

SPEAKER_00 42:42

Do you want to buy my hay? I want to buy my feed and hay, and I want to be able to have, you know. Yeah, I want to yeah, I want to buy feed and hay. I don't want a hay field. I want to just grow animals. I want to take care of them and grow the best beef cattle I can raise. What's what is that? Ten of them. What's what's that investment gonna look like?

SPEAKER_03 43:03

You're gonna need 40 to 50 acres.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

40 to 50 acres? Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

I mean, in Rhinebeck, New York, I'm not doing it for those that tax reason, right?

SPEAKER_03 43:15

Well, that's what I just said. You want to run. You want to really run.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Yeah, run for the hill, so to speak. So, you know, it's it's I think it's really important that you know people understand. You know, they drive by and they think, oh, isn't this nice? Don't they have an easy life here, you know, growing, they have beautiful land, they have crops. There is a huge investment here that people uh have no idea. Just the concept of all of the things that you ask me questions about equipment, roll or grain, or I don't even know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

A round bale is sixty to seventy dollars a piece.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Or a round bale. A round bale to buy them.

SPEAKER_03 43:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

So uh you can make it cheaper, but to make it you have to have the infrastructure.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Tractors, the disc vine, the tetter, and the baler.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

Do you have all that here?

SPEAKER_03 44:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 44:07

Well the boys are just starting to do hay. Okay. Because they were buying it, but with the 15 cows, it's getting really expensive. So they just they're starting to get the stuff done.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

How many of those rolls of hay do you use a day or a week or one a day or one every other day?

SPEAKER_03 44:23

Or you're not gonna like this answer, but it depends on the weather.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

Yeah. So it's it does because the colder it is, the more heavy they eat. Just like you said, what is it?

SPEAKER_00 44:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

Because they're cold, they need to eat to stay warm. Right. They need the body heat. The body heat. Yeah. Do they get fatter in the winter if they eat more, or is it just they need that energy to live through the winter?

SPEAKER_01 44:46

Unless the hay is really, really good quality, they're not gonna get super, super fat on it to maintain themselves. But you gotta have really high quality hay, which to get them to do that.

SPEAKER_03 44:56

Which is gonna cost you extra in the planting of the fields, the fertilizer, the lime, uh, you know, spraying them, everything else is gonna add up to that.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

So you treat the fields in order to get the best hay? Yeah. Is that organic or is that natural or is that a bad word? Are you gonna shoot me for saying the organic word?

SPEAKER_01 45:14

I think we talked about that. Yeah, see, we uh be nice, Michelle. So the one thing, like everybody's got their niche in farming, right? And if you're doing organic, that's great. It is really hard to do organic, and the standards for organic are not all the same, and it's hard to know what you're getting when you get organic. So I think the majority of the people um try to raise an all-natural product.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

I like that word.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Um, if the animal's sick, you're gonna give it antibiotics. You know, we're gonna treat it and take care of it. Um, in the modern day, there is nobody feeding antibiotics to animals anymore every single day. Right. Across the board. When one of the chicken people say no antibiotics, there's no antibiotics in any of them anymore. You can't get antibiotics unless you get it from your vet. But you try to do all natural, you know, um, give them the best life they can. You know, they have the hay, they have their pastures, um, best quality feed that you can get. A lot of people do the local, you know, the local feed. Um and you just take care of them the best you can and keep it as natural as you can. And I think the most of the farmers, I think, you know, that's what you're not gonna get a good quality unless you take really good care of them. Right. So and you know, most of them most of them eat it. So we're not gonna put chemicals in there goes a branch, a big branch.

SPEAKER_03 46:37

Not on our property. No favors.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

All right, so yeah, I mean, you know, most of the farmers eat what they grow. So they're not gonna put stuff in it they don't want to eat.

SPEAKER_00 46:48

So that makes sense. Yep. So back to the like the seasons and we're in spring and now you're calving. Yep. And then you're cultivating your herd, or you're you're supporting your herd growth. Is that maybe a good through the spring and summer?

SPEAKER_01 47:05

Yep. So most of the cattle go out on pasture in summer and they eat grass, that's the idea, and then you don't have to feed them hay. Right. Um, that's one of the things, you know, the quality of your pasture, how fast they eat it, you know, how much rain you get, how much nutrients you put into the soil, there's a lot of variables.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

If they're out on pasture, do you need to do anything to that pasture to treat it?

SPEAKER_03 47:23

Or I mean you've got to fertilize it, you have to lime it every do you shoot the woodchucks that are out there or they eat them too?

SPEAKER_00 47:31

No, they're not.

SPEAKER_03 47:32

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Woodchucks are not good.

SPEAKER_00 47:34

That's broken leg type. Woodchucks are not good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

Um, but usually, like when they're out on pasture, you don't do anything. It's once you try to rotate the pastures to give the pastures a break to grow. Sure. So once the cattle come out, you mow it off to mow the weeds off, and then you might fertilize it or lime it. Lime you usually do in the fall, right?

SPEAKER_00 47:52

So spring and fall. Okay, and now we're back in the fall, approaching winter. So fall is when you typically would say, Okay, now I'm gonna sell or harvest.

SPEAKER_03 48:05

Well, you harvest your crops. Uh-huh. Uh like oats are usually around July. Um soybeans and corn are in the fall, you know, later in the fall. Um the corn, whether you're gonna take it for whether you're gonna combine it or whether you're gonna cut it for silage, right? And put it in a egg bag or a silo. Um that cuts down on the amount of hay that you have to feed during the winter if you're feeding silage.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

Um so when would you decide you're gonna like call your herd and start processing?

SPEAKER_01 48:43

So the calves are with the mothers usually for six to eight months. Okay. Uh so normally September, October, um, we'll bring them in and separate the calves um and decide if we're gonna sell some or you know, what we're gonna do. Um the kids sell them to other people that show other kids. Um, so you know, they'll buy them then. Most of the kids that have 4-H projects, if they're doing a steer, they'll buy them in September or August at six to eight months old, and then they'll raise them until the following August or September. So it's a year-long project with their animal.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

That's a big undertaking. And I I can see, you know, your child coming home and saying, Yeah, I want a steer. Um, yeah, that's uh that's a big undertaking. You need the infrastructure in order to support it, right? Yep. I couldn't in my house bring home a steer, right? And my property. Let's um kind of shift the conversation because you you kind of walk right into it about you know the Duchess County Fair and Youth Development, and you've been very, very instrumental, both of you as 4-H leaders and uh chairs, you're part of the supervisor of the livestock sale, but I get the sense that you have supported youth development and youth youth education um throughout your whole life. And that being said, you know, tell me a little bit about your role here today. I know that you're part of the Duchess County Agricultural Society, and I also know that you're on their board of directors, uh, and you have had a tremendous impact in kind of the sustain the sustaining of agriculture and agriculture education at the fair. So just speak to me about what you do and the responsibilities you have and um the value you provide.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Uh so we're both on the livestock sale committee. Um, you know, and the livestock sale committee facilitates um the kids being able to sell in the sale. Um, like I said, the steers, that's a year-long project. Um, those kids are involved with 4-H or FFA. Um, their FFA is future farmers of America.

SPEAKER_00 50:51

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

There's not many of those chapters around here, but they're growing. Um, you know, the kids are involved with the organizations. Uh, we were both 4-H leaders for many, many years. We both grew up in 4-H. Um there's just so many aspects to what the kids learn and grow, and you know, um through through their organizations, um they work together, they learn about their animals, um, they learn about community, you know, they always do uh community projects. Um, they learn public presentation, um, they learn record keeping because they have to know how much that animal cost them, how much they add into it, and then how much they sell.

SPEAKER_03 51:35

They know if they're losing money or making money.

SPEAKER_01 51:37

Yep. Um you know, the livestock sale, there's a lot of people that help out that get involved. Um, you know, and the buyers and the community that support it um and support the kids is just phenomenal in our area. Uh, we have a really good base that helps out and you know gets involved. And uh like I said, there's just so many aspects of it.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

Um so say you have a young person that's bringing an animal to show and is struggling. How do you support that young person is struggling with his animal, not cooperating or you know, just falling apart, doesn't have the wherewithal, is just very nervous, and maybe the animal maybe is giving him a little bit of uh well the animal sense that yeah and the animals become more unmanageable by that person because they're not the animal isn't gonna trust that person if if they're unsure, they make the animal unsure. So you they need to work with those animals, they have to be near them, halter them, yeah, lead them. Yeah how long does it take to kind of create that connection with that with an animal that you're bringing?

SPEAKER_01 52:51

And it takes a long time. So, like whatever, months? Uh so well, it depends on the species. So, like I said, sort of most of the kids that are showing steers, they get them in September or October, and at that point that at that point the animals are probably five to seven hundred pounds. So they're small enough at that point that you can handle them.

SPEAKER_00 53:12

But 700 pounds uh is a lot to handle for a young person. I mean I think you know, most of the parents.

SPEAKER_03 53:19

Usually the parents will help them un until uh the kids get used to the animal and the animal gets used to the kids.

SPEAKER_00 53:25

And when you when you say um work with them, they halter them and lead them or yep.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

So you start out with just putting the halter on and on them and getting them used to the halter and getting no bit, right? No, no bit. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 53:39

Um like a horse, right? They're different. These halters are just over their head, over around their muzzle.

SPEAKER_01 53:45

Under their chin. Uh-huh. The pressure under their chin is what usually helps control them. Um but the biggest thing is the trust. The trust between the kid and the trust between the animal, and that starts from the beginning. You know, when the animal is young and the kid gets used to it, and then as the animals grow, whether it be a pig or a lamb or a steer, you know, the animal trusts the kid and the kid trusts the animal and they get to know each other.

SPEAKER_00 54:10

Building that connection. Yep. And it's interesting you said that because on a previous podcast they talked about the halter and the reins and how that kind of is that that connection. So if they're nervous or if they're, you know, they can drive the relationship just by the tension on the halter or the tension on the rein or the lead or whatever. I think it's just I mean, that comes with time and trust and relationship building, that connection between the animal.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 54:39

Can you tell if uh obviously uh if a if a young 4HR hasn't put the work in?

SPEAKER_01 54:47

The animal doesn't can doesn't behave the way it's supposed to, they don't lead the way they should. Um they're not as easy to handle or to be around and they're more nervous.

SPEAKER_00 54:58

So if I walked in and said, hey, can I take a go at this, I got no shot in being able to lead here in a show like a show animal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:09

Uh we've put people on them that that don't have any idea and they've won showmanship classes. Right.

SPEAKER_00 55:15

Really? I mean, okay.

SPEAKER_03 55:17

You know, but that goes to you have to have confidence in yourself and not be scared of the animal. If you're scared of the animal, they sense it. Forget it. You're not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 55:28

And an animal like that goes to the fact that they've been worked with own it, work with it.

SPEAKER_03 55:33

Right, you know, and they put other people on it.

SPEAKER_01 55:36

Yeah, I mean, the more situations that you put the animal in and the more that they're around other things, the better they are. You know, um, it's funny that because like cattle, for one thing, if they're not around little kids, are nervous because they don't predators. They're little and they flit and you know, they move around fast, and yeah, they think they're predators from the size. Um, animals that are around little kids and are around more, you know, families and they don't even pick their head up at all.

SPEAKER_00 56:07

Do you um bring like other animals next to them or do you not do that? Like when you say smaller animals, like a dog, or you keep them separate, or I'm I'm just Well, dogs are predators for cattle.

SPEAKER_01 56:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 56:19

They are?

SPEAKER_03 56:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:20

Because of the coyotes and the wolves and the bears. Mm-hmm. The coyotes and the wolves mostly.

SPEAKER_03 56:25

So if if your dog goes with you every day when you go down to work with the animal, that that animal is gonna understand that dog isn't necessarily a threat.

SPEAKER_00 56:36

Right. But if it's the first time they see it, yeah, because I think I see I've seen like sheep with those big white pyrenees.

SPEAKER_01 56:46

Pyrenees, yeah, they're guard dogs. They're guard dogs. Uh they're born and raised. Like those guard dogs were born and raised with those herds and they stay with them. Or flocks, rather. Flocks. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:56

But you don't do that with cattle.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

No, our cows will kill anything that tries to get their calves. Um, so like a coyote, yeah. They're very they they will kill a dog or a coyote that tries to get their calves. Um very protective. Oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:11

So what did they and they'll actually put the calves in the middle and the cows will be around the outside. You're not getting out of these calves, no how.

SPEAKER_00 57:18

They'll just squish them a bit. That's just instinctual, right? Yeah. That's just a protective instinct. Mothering. Mothering.

SPEAKER_01 57:24

Yep, mothering. That's one of the things we talk about, mothering is protecting that baby. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 57:28

Yep. So they're it's just in their DNA, they're instinctually protecting protectors and protecting the baby.

unknown 57:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 57:37

Wow. That's pretty cool. Um, so again, uh, you know, the livestock show and the auction, you shared with me how we have a great support and community and people within the community that support that livestock sale. Why is that so important to a young person who may win? And if they sell that win or sell that animal, what where does that money go? I mean, you shared too with me your story about your kids and what they did with some of their proceeds that they so most of the kids um you know reinvest it back into their project for next year.

SPEAKER_01 58:14

Um they reinvest in equipment, um, you know, uh things to use for their animals. Um, some of them will save and use it to buy a vehicle or something. Um, but you know, almost all of them, a percentage of it goes into their college fund or their schooling fund or you know, their fund for something really big as they get older. Um, but yeah, most of them What is that? A herring? Yep. Wow.

unknown 58:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 58:42

Stabbing our fish in the pond. Oh. Uh-huh. So yeah. Um, you know, and the kids, the kids go and speak with um potential buyers, and that's part of their learning experience. Um, they're required to go um speak with somebody who bought last year just to invite them back again.

SPEAKER_00 59:04

Um how do you become a buyer? Do you like you have to sign up or at the fair?

SPEAKER_01 59:09

Um, so we use William Kent Um auction company, and they have an online platform. Uh-huh. So you can actually um see uh the week before the fair. You can go online during COVID when everything we couldn't sell show or anything, we started using them and you know, put the videos of the kids there and the pictures of the animals and the bios, the little bit about each kid, and so the buyers can go to the website and look um at the animals and the kids and everything, and then um is it an actual live auction?

SPEAKER_00 59:39

So the potential buyer would bid on it. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 59:42

So then well if they go during the week and they talk to the kids, uh they'll tell them when the o you know, the auction's on Saturday afternoon. But if they're they're interested in buying something, the best thing is to go talk to the kids.

SPEAKER_01 59:57

To get a sense of the animal and most of the kids, you know, I think most of the species in the kids have little areas set up or signs that say I'm for sale, and the kids are really good about speaking to new people or other people that have bought before and exp you know, talking to them about it. Um but Saturday of the fair at four o'clock, it's a live auction that we do.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:19

Um we do a reception at two and and when that live auction occurs and the animal is sold, what happens? Goes back with the kid or it goes to a also you can buy it online.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:30

Right. The the auction is online as well at the same time. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

So where does all that livestock go? It's processed. Okay. Yep. So it doesn't go with the kid back home? No. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:41

No, once that animal's sold, it belongs to the person that bought it in the auction. Um, and the majority of them are bought for meat for production uh for processing.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:51

Um they can take it home with them if they'd like, but they have to have the infrastructure in the trailer and do they uh do buyers ever like donate the animal back to the so a lot of the times w if somebody um goats and rabbits team to be the ones that are donated back more often um because they want to support the kids, but then they don't know what to do with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:12

Right. Um so it's donated back, and some of the people when they donate it back, the money would go to the kid, but the majority um there's you know our Duchess County Fair scholarship, um some St. Jude's Jude's um excellent uh Mike Leary Scholarship, which is um, you know, that's for animals and for stuff for the kids. Um you know, so they donate it back. Um we've had some families donate it to the uh the children's home in Poughkeepsie. So that's great.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:45

Some of them are just donated right back to the kid again.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:47

Yep. And do you ever are you ever surprised during this auction? Oh, all the time. And what surprises you?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:57

Um it's funny to watch like people get involved and get caught up in it and start bidding, and people that you wouldn't think were gonna bid did, and they really get into it and start bidding, and then you know, sometimes you're surprised who buys. Right. Um, these kids are really good at going and finding new people to buy and talking with them, and and sometimes you know, we have buyers show up that haven't bought before that we're you know impressed to see them there.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:22

Um so an average fair grower who's walking around on Saturday, they could potentially buy or bid on an animal.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

Yep, we've had a lot of times people come in and just buy you know an animal.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:35

But they should get there before the auction and find out the procedure. I mean we've had people just walk in and raise their hand and they don't know if they're buying it by the pound or if they're buying it by the head or what. They're just bidding.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:49

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:50

And sometimes we have to stop and explain that to them.

unknown 1:02:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:54

So let's just kind of look and move forward. Um, what do you hope people remember here about Birchland Acres?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:06

Our kids are still into it, you know. We hope we always have animals here, and that, you know, um I think the biggest thing is supporting ourselves and helping other, you know, we do sell to a few other people, not a lot, but um keeping this open.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:24

And what advice would you give to young people considering agriculture? You gave me some interesting advice, but you know, are there things that you know what advice would you give younger generation of people about farming and agriculture?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:40

So I think in our area, the majority of the people there are some farms, there are, you know, more farms than we think that actually are full-time farms and that's all they do. Um but realistically in our area trying to get in and just full-time farm between the cost of the land and the taxes and the input is really hard. I think a lot of people, you know, should do it for their own their own purpose, you know, and just watching the cycle and you know it's just amazing to watch that.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:14

And yeah, it's really incredible.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:17

Find out about it before you jump in. Um do your research and just see what it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:24

It depends on, you know, the livestock that you're raising. I'm sure there's a lot of variables. I've had the privilege of speaking to other farmers and learning their stories and their challenges, but you know, I always come away with the feeling of pride and it's a good life. It's a in fact, some of them have said this is a great life. You find out, you know, the principles and core values and really what matters most and the integrity it builds in your family and your generations, and I mean it means a lot. The legacy really means a lot, and I find that to be incredibly inspiring.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:01

There's other ways to be involved in agriculture too, besides being a farmer. Right. I mean, there's all this uh you know, there's Teravale, uh fertilizer companies, the grain companies, you know, so many things pharmaceutical companies, yeah, fertilizer companies. Being a vet.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:19

Right. Yeah. I mean it's really there's you're right.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:22

Stores, yeah. A lot of nutritionists, um, people that go to school to become a nutritionist and talk with, you know, um dairy and beef guys about their rations. Rations is the food that they feed them, what you feed and what you know, how much the minerals to feed.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:38

Yeah, minerals. It's yeah, there's so many things. So why does farming still matter today?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:46

Well, unless you want to blindly accept the food that you buy in the store and not know what's in it or what's been done to it. I guess you're okay with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:00

And keeping the land open. You know. I think it's really important that we keep open space and and keep the balance.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:08

Everything from being cluster housing.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:10

Right. The balance. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Okay. Um, some fun questions. You can just blurt out an answer. Um what's your favorite season on the farm?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:25

All of them? I guess, yeah. No, I I do you have a favorite season? Everything's different each time of year.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:32

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, every season there's certain things I like about it. Probably springtime, because the babies are being born and everything's growing and it's new, and like you're tilling the soil and the smell of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:42

Right. Kind of the birth and the growing. Yep. Um, so what's a favorite animal uh personality trait? What's your favorite?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:54

The ones that are friendly and walk up to you and want to be scratched, and you know, um the meaningableness of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:01

Yeah. And that's is that a genetic thing? Is that bred into them or their disposition? Some of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:07

Yeah. Some of it is, yeah. Some of them you'll find, and it's funny because it it is genetics. You'll find like if a mother is really calm and uh likes to come up to you and be pet and stuff, then the baby will be. If the mother's more nervous and standoffish, they will the more you work with them, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:21

Mrs. Rockefeller, when she used to go to a sale, right? And one would come up to her and lick her or something. She owned it. Yep. Yep. That's the one that's going home with me.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:30

Yeah, for sure. I know. Um, so sunrise or sunset chores, which one are your favorite?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:37

Chores are chores.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:38

No, no favorite, it's all work.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:41

Yeah. I like sunset, uh-huh. Especially we uh where we are at Creed Ankeny, you know, we the river's right there and it's set to the west, and uh great.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:50

Um so one word that describes agriculture.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:59

Resilience. Resilience. I mean, you just keep getting up and doing it over and over again. You might have a really good day, or you might have a really good morning, or a couple hours, and then you turn around and you know, you got something dying or stuck or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:14

I think they call that insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:19

Yeah. I heard that as the definition of insanity. Yeah. And what is one thing everyone should know about being a pharma?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:30

It's hard work, but it's really rewarding.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:33

Um about you, Jeff.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:39

I don't know. Um I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:46

What's your favorite part about being a pharma?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:50

For the most part, doing what I want to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:52

But so you know, some people grow up and they want to work in an office environment and you know have that structure and be in a cubicle. You're not in a cubicle here, are you? No. No. No. And and the only thing constant is change and the variables that occur to your point, the unknown of what's gonna happen in your day.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:12

We go back to the insanity, but yeah, the insanity thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:15

Well, great.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:16

Yeah, it's the variety in being outside.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:18

I uh I don't like being inside a lot. All right. So, in closing, is there anything you want to share about beef cattle and making sure our viewers, our audience understands beef cattle, and we haven't necessarily touched on this is your the one thing that I would say is if anybody is thinking about getting beef cattle, do your research.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:42

You know, there are so many people who say, Oh, yeah, you can get a Scottish Highlander or an Angus and throw them in a field and they'll be fine. That's but that's not it. You know, just like everything else, it you need to take care of it, you need to have the proper um facilities to handle it. Um, it's fun, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:59

The infrastructure.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:01

And I'm sure animals like to have friends, they don't want to be alone.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:04

Yeah, you can't have just one.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:07

Because they don't will be they're gonna go look it for a friend. Okay. Yeah, that's right. It is a herd instinct. That's great. Awesome. Walt, thank you so much for hosting today and um being here. As we wrap up this episode, what stands out most about Birchland Acres isn't just the history of the land or the quality of the livestock, it's the intentional commitment to genetics, stewardship, and legacy. Raising black Angus and crossbreed cattle with a level of care reflects a deep understanding of herd development where every breeding decision shapes the future. It's about producing consistency, quality, and sustainability, not just for today, but for generations to come. On a 15-acre farm with roots dating back to the 1800s, Michelle and Jeff demonstrate that agriculture isn't defined by size, it's defined by purpose, discipline, and dedication. Their work, both on the farm and through leadership roles in the agriculture community, ensures that traditions are preserved while the future of farming continues to evolve. To our listeners, thank you for joining us for another episode of A Legacy in Agriculture and Community. Please like, share, and subscribe and help us continue telling the stories that sustain us all. And don't forget to visit the Duchess County Fair August 25th through the 30th as we celebrate 180 years of agriculture legacy and community. Until next time, I'm Suzanne Roitze.