Tag: farming

Can’t Take the Farm Out of the Girl

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If you would have told me my senior year of high school I would be farming with my dad six years later, I would have laughed at you and told you not a chance.  At that time, I thought I wanted to be some big wig executive in the Chicago area.

I went for that dream and upon graduating the University of Illinois with a degree in Finance and a concentration in Real estate moved to Arlington Heights to become a Commercial Real Estate Credit Analyst for a bank up there.  Let’s just say you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl and I moved back to Central Illinois in a year.

It was a very difficult year for me and it didn’t take me long to realize it was the farm I was missing and nothing else.  I was blessed to obtain a position at a bank in Bloomington, Ill. after returning home.

At that point I realized farming was in my blood and I was right where I wanted to be. Dad and I have been working together ever since.  Weekends are spent side by side with my father and typically you will find me under a piece of machinery covered in dirt, oil and/or grease.  Both he and I, the 5th and 6th generations of our family farm, work full time jobs in addition to our grain farm operation.

Some say farming isn’t a girl’s world, but for me it is and I know several other farm girls ready to prove those words wrong.  I wouldn’t trade my life for anything and I am beyond blessed to be a farm girl from Central Illinois.

Check out photos from Harvest 2015 on the Huffman Farm.

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Farm Fresh Podcast: Immersed in Ag for a Day

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15_LMCAgDay

A group of about 33 area business leaders spent a day immersed in agriculture Friday, October 16 as part of the Leadership McLean County program.

Hear what participants  Ryan Thomas & Pete McCann thought about the experience on WJBC’s Farm to Table segment Episode 10.21.15.

Tune in every Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. for the “Farm to Table” segment onWJBC Radio.

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Traditions & Technology

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Combine, Farmers, Corn

My dad,  my brothers & I with our 400-horse power combine in 2006. Technology changed a lot during my father’s farming career, but the traditions he passed down to us continue. Traditions like taking care of the land so it can take care of you – a legacy I plan to pass on to the next generation.

We wrapped up harvest this week and as I watched the equipment make its final rounds through our fields, I could still see  my father sitting in the cab, even though it’s been 10 years since his last tour of duty running the combine. This September marked the sixth anniversary of my father’s passing as well as the sixth birthday of my  oldest grandchild.

My father never took much, if anything, for granted. He loved good food, a “good read”, the Chicago Bulls (Jordan Era) and he loved people. He also loved to farm and appreciated the technology that went with it.

Pulled out of school at 13 (during The Great Depression), his farming life began holding the reins behind a few horses (the four-legged kind) and ended 75 years later in an air conditioned cab, on top of four hundred horses (diesel) that used satellites orbiting the earth  to guide it through the field. I could elaborate at length on how much he appreciated the advances in technology in his farming career, but just suffice it to say, “a bunch”!

He suffered through allergies (ragweed was the worst), long hours (never heard him complain much), and some daunting curve balls that “Mother Nature” threw his way.  Embracing changes and advances in technology, helped alleviate his allergies, shorten his hours and  helped him get a few hits off of some of the nasty pitches thrown his way. Thanks to the inventiveness of others (and some of his own), he provided for his family, made time to spend with his family, and left us a farm that was in better shape than when he acquired it.

As I mentioned, my father didn’t take much for granted, including leaving the world a better place than when he entered it. I believe he truly was and is representative of the American farmer today. The conservation practices and farming traditions that farm families carry on today are because of the legacy of those who came before us  and continue to touch us today!

I miss him!

Olson, horse cart, circa 1950

My dad started his farming career behind two horses (the four-legged kind). Here he is with the reins and my two older siblings circa 1950.

The Friday Five: Bacon & Eggs & Breakfast

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soybean field, landscape

Bacon lovers rejoice! The object of your meat affection could be about to get even better. If you want a side of eggs with your bacon, however; it might cost you a little bit more – at least for the time being.

Here’s look at those stories plus a few other breakfast related tidbits fresh picked for this week’s Friday Five:

  1. What’s shakin’ bacon? Researchers at Kansas State University are looking at ways to improve the bacon flavor we love to savor and improve the shelf life of this marvelous meat treat, as reported by Feedstuffs newspaper. By the way, tomorrow is International Bacon Day. So fry up a few strips to celebrate!
  2. Are you scrambling to adjust your breakfast menu since eggs are more expensive? It’s the lingering effects of a deadly flu virus that devastated a large number of chickens (don’t worry it’s not a virus that humans can get). But you may be dishing out more per dozen for awhile, especially after the big breakfast announcement that hit the news this week, as CBS News reports.
  3. Like cheddar cheese on your eggs? Find out what makes cheddar cheese orange in this post from a Michigan dairy farmer on the Food Dialogues website.
  4. How about some fruit salad on the side? Be sure to thank plant breeders for your selection, as today’s fruit varieties are thanks to their efforts over hundreds of years. Check out this fun quiz to test your skills at matching modern fruits (and a few vegetables) with their plant ancestors.
  5. Like milk on your cereal? Share the love. For every share of this ‘Strength in Numbers’ image on with #milkdrive during the month of September the Great American Milk Drive will donate one gallon of milk to Feeding America food banks. Click here to share on Facebook or Twitter.

What’s your favorite breakfast food?

No, I don’t raise Hot Dogs….

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Sometimes words we use on the farm can be confusing….and create funny conversations.

I’m a pig farmer and the other day I was talking to an interested mom who asked me “Do you eat the pork you raise?”

“No,” I replied, “I only raise weaners.” (which she heard as ‘wieners’)

“What!?!” she asked, a little bit shocked. “You only have wieners?”

After some nervous laughter and a bit of embarrassment, we sorted out the confusion. I wasn’t talking about hot dogs, and it wasn’t a euphemism!

Allow me to explain.  On my farm we have mother pigs (called sows) they give birth (called farrowing) to piglets. At 20 days the baby pigs (weighing 12-15 lbs.) are weaned, which means moved from their mother and transitioned to solid feed.

I don’t think it is actually a word in the dictionary but on the farm, we refer to each group of piglets moved from their mothers as “weaners” or pigs that have been weaned.

My farm is a specialized farrow to wean operation, so the piglets go to a different farm to grow to market weight (280 lbs.)  Because we don’t have pigs  ready for market, I don’t have pork (meat) straight from my farm

So if you ask me why I don’t eat my own pork it because I only have weaners, is NOT wieners!! Get it?

And if you ask me for a wiener (hot dog), be sure to be clear or you may get a piglet that is no longer with it’s mother, also called a weaner!

Enjoy pork!

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