registration information, call Deb Schmidt (515-294-5961). New ISU Video on Integrated Crop Management Available A new 18-minute video on Integrated Crop Management (ICM) is available from Iowa State University. The video provides an overview of ICM and is aimed at producers, crop consultants, and agribusiness retailers. Although the video is free, there is a shipping charge of $2.19 for in-state orders and $2.85 for out-of-state orders. Send a check with orders to ISU Extension Distribution Center, 119 Printing and Publication Building, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, 50011-3171. Two-Day ICM Conference Set for Ames An Integrated Crop Management (ICM) conference is set for Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 in the Scheman Building at the Iowa State Center in Ames. The general session will focus on site specific management. Workshops will cover results of innovative research and provide hands-on laboratory sessions. Audiences are agribusiness personnel, crop consultants, soil conservationists, farm managers, agronomists, and persons interested in crop production and protection. Sponsors are Iowa State University Extension and the departments of Agronomy, Entomology, Plant Pathology, and Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering. Fees, which include refreshments and lunch for both days, are $100 if postmarked by November 18 and $110 thereafter. For information call Elaine Hall (515-294-6329). Ponds, Prairies, and PFI Summer Camp a Success Twenty-four youth and six parents attended the three-day Ponds, Prairies and PFI camp at the Iowa 4-H Education and Natural Resources Center in August. Comments from boththe parents and the youth were positive. For example, one adult noted, Even as a farmer, I learned things I never learned in school about agriculture and how things are interrelated. Most of the young people simply noted, It was fun. Special thanks to Shelly Gradwell, Molly Havlik, Mike Abbas, and Dan Brouse for making the camp a success. | VISION 2020 Ann M. Schultz and Bill Silag (Editors note: Ann Schultz is Project Coordinator and Bill Silag is Associate Coordinator of VISION 2020, which is part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation s Food Systems Professions Education Initiative.) VISION 2020 started over a year ago when Kellogg challenged all universities with Colleges of Agricultures to accept their request for proposals for creating a new vision for Food Systems Professions Education (FSPE). Each proposal had to include a design for the visioning process and a partner institution. Iowa State University established a partnership with the Iowa Community Colleges and their partnership was ultimately selected to receive the grant, as well as eleven other land-grant institutions. Practical Farmers of Iowa was asked to become involved with the project as an external member. Maria Vakulskas Rosmann, as a representative of PFI, attended a symposium in Bloomington, MN, where all twelve institutions met to discuss the project. A Steering Committee made up of twenty members, including Mark Tjelmeland of PFI, will act as an advisory board and a link to their representative groups. Mark farms near McCallsburg in central Iowa. (See the PFI Profile that follows.) VISION 2020 is designing a visioning process and encourages all interested entities to participate in this process. In order to be a valid vision, we need your help and support. Opportunities to help include forums at each of Iowa s fifteen community colleges from 7:00 to 9:30 pm on Monday, January 9, 1995, as well as a focus group interview of PFI members that will occur sometime next February. We will be working with the PFI leadership to facilitate your involvement in these forums and the focus group interview. Also, you can contact Ann Schultz or Bill Silag directly for more information by writing to VISION 2020 at 1126 Agronomy Hall, ISU, Ames, IA, 50011, or by calling 515-294-2092. | PFI PROFILES: MARK, CONNIE AND JOHNNY TJELMELAND Gary Huber The first thing that comes to mind is Johnny, Mark Tjelmeland said, glancing to the bright, happy toddler playing on the kitchen floor. I wonder what the future will hold for him and other kids. Mark s thoughts of children were in response to a question about why he is involved with VISION 2020, a project aimed at planning an education system to prepare people for the food systems of the next century. (See the previous article.) Mark and Connie Tjelmeland clearly feel that family is an important part of the farming life they have chosen. A whole lot of life s lessons can be learned by working alongside mom and dad on the farm, Connie noted. For example, our chickens are a good teaching tool, she continued. They re safe for children to be around, and when Johnny is with me when I take care of them, there are so many things he learns about. Johnny s fondness for the chickens was obvious as we walked around yard. Mine, he noted with the innocence of a two-year-old as he pointed to the hens near the fenceline. Connie continued, For example, he is learning to count. As I pick eggs I count them out loud, and he repeats after me, six, two, four . The chickens are also a nice way to teach a child about working together as a family, as well as about appreciating animals. Mark and Connie farm 600 acres of row crops near McCallsburg, which is about 20 miles northeast of Ames. They have been PFI members since the group started ten years ago, though Mark noted, We re not nearly as far along as a lot of the PFI farmers. Our biggest success, Mark continued, and the thing we are most proud of is our efforts at nitrogen management. We ve been using the late spring nitrate test ever since it came out. We put on half about 70 pounds pre-plant with the herbicide, and we use the test to see if we need to sidedress. In the seven years they ve used the test, twice no additional nitrogen was needed and twice the nitrogen they applied pre-plant was essentially gone, meaning they needed to sidedress at a full rate. It works both ways, Mark noted. In wet years it tells you if you need to up your sidedress rates, and in dry years it tells you if you don t need any additional nitrogen. As a check, the Tjelmeland s have put on additional nitrogen even though the test said none was needed, and they were unable to find any yield differences. I have a major degree if confidence in the test, Mark continued, and it has lots of potential, but it is way underutilized. Other row crop practices are fairly typical of Iowa farmers. Tillage involves chisel plowing or disking depending on the field, using a pre-plant herbicide for grass control, and banding or broadcasting for broadleaf weeds depending on the situation. Mark and Connie also have 20 acres in CRP, and their long-term plans for this land are not as typical. A small area near their buildings was bid into CRP under the wetlands provisions, and here they want to restore a wetland. One tile through the pothole has already been plugged. They have since identified another, which they plan to replace with solid tile. The hoped-for result would be a nice, easily observable wildlife area. An additional hope of Connie s, which probably is an outgrowth of her work in environmental education, is to see the wetland used for educational purposes for local young people. An appreciation for the environment and the importance of creating wildlife habitat should be encouraged in young people she noted, as well as an understanding of why it is important not to use every square inch of land for production. The Tjelmelands other CRP land is in switchgrass, and for this Mark and Connie are thinking about grazing options. They ve bought some holstein steers to get some experience with cattle, and their goal is to maintain these CRP acres in forage through grazing. As Mark noted, With all the enjoyment we ve had out of these CRP acres, we d like to try to maintain some of that diversity. The Tjelmelands have added diversity to their operation this year with 100 laying hens. They are selling eggs to local customers, and they are giving some thought to marketing eggs on a wider basis, taking advantage of the fact that their chickens are free-range and are not fed antibiotics. They ve done some investigating of USDA requirements for marketing through area retail outlets. However, Connie noted, We need to see if there is a market that would --- * Origin: [via Psychotronic BBS = Durham, NC = 919-286-4542]sustag- (1:3641/1) @PATH: 3641/1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (76) Fri 2 Dec 94 3:04 By: Rick Exner To: All Re: 07:Practical Farmers of Iowa newsletter, fall 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- @MSGID: 1:3641/223 0006aade @PID GIGO+ sn 175 at psybbs vsn 0.99 pl1 @SPLIT: 04 Dec 94 14:31:40 @3641/223 6952 07/11 ++++++++++ From: dnexner@iastate.edu (Rick Exner) @Subject: Practical Farmers of Iowa newsletter, fall 1994 Date: 2 Dec 1994 03:04:21 -0000 @Sender: daemon@bigblue.oit.unc.edu @Message-Id: <9412011822.AA03635@iastate.edu> support the extra work required. Connie and Mark, like a lot of Iowa farmers, are uncertain about the future of raising hogs. They typically buy feeder pigs twice a year in early March and again in July or August and finish them out. For the group they have now, they figured they needed $36 per hundredweight to get a $7 return to labor and management per head. Right now it doesn t look like they ll recover their costs. They aren t sure what they ll do next spring, though Mark notes that the facilities they have can be used fo something else if buying feeder pigs doesn t pencil out. Mark and Connie both pointed to the key role their parents have played in helping them get established in farming, as well as the continuing role they play. They noted that there were five adults involved in the harvest this fall Mark and Connie, Mark s mom and dad, and Connie s mom. There is something about having all those people involved that is pleasing, Connie explained. Mark continued by noting, Intergenerational farming is a real valuable asset, but it s often lost because of difficulties in working out relationships. Mark noted how he and his dad had gone to a seminar on intergenerational farming where the speaker told how time and again former students would come to talk, sometimes nearly in tears, about how they had gone home to farm, but things didn t work out. The speaker went on to note the importance of realistic expectations involving matters such as shared management and meshing the new knowledge of the sons or daughters into the practices of the operation. Careful listening was also stressed as a key need for successful intergenerational farming. We and our parents have taken what he said to heart, Mark noted, and it has really been a help. The Tjelmeland s recognize this is a time of transition for farming, but they find many pleasures in their chosen way of life. Farming will probably never be real profitable, Mark noted, but benefits like the enjoyment of nature and the environment make up for some of what it lacks in terms of money. Mark and Connie also feel strongly about being engaged in