Wrens Nest: Winter brings much work on farms

At a recent Carlton County Board of Commissioners meeting, one member asked the audience, “What do farmers actually do in the winter?” While I was initially a taken aback by the question — being married to a farmer I see firsthand the amount of work that goes into running an operation — I decided that I should treat the query as curiosity rather than dismiss it as woeful ignorance.

In our household, my husband cuts back to about 50 or 60 hours a week versus the 80 he spends during the growing season. This is the time of year for planning, ordering, fixing, bookkeeping and, as always, daily chores.

Since our main job is growing vegetables, we have only 100 laying hens compared to larger animal operations in our area. There is still twice-daily feeding, watering, and egg collecting that is made harder in cold conditions, as eggs can freeze if they are not continually gathered every couple of hours. With seven tractors, a skid-steer and about two dozen other implements that need to be running smoothly in the summer months, this is the time of year for fixing things. A farmer does almost all mechanical maintenance themselves, and about a quarter of those machines need repair or modifications in the coming months for Janaki to feel ready for summer.

It’s also the time of year for paperwork and planning. The stacks of files on the office desk include seed order spreadsheets, year-end accounting, and customer management software reports. There are seasonal employees to line up and wholesale relationships to maintain — we are still delivering an average of more than 5,000 pounds of vegetables every week. Our root cellar is able to hold produce through the spring, so cleaning, packing and delivering food is an almost year-round routine.

Vegetables don’t need to eat or drink in the winter, but most farming in our area is done by those raising dairy, meat and eggs. I spoke to Peter Laveau who runs the Laveau Dairy farm just down the road from us.

A day off for him is about 10 hours.

“I stay busy,” he said with a smile. Cows need twice-daily milking and food and water, a fact that is often made difficult in frigid temperatures. “Nothing works at 20 below. I had a fan running to blow warm air to the cooler part of the barn, and it stopped running, so I was up in the middle of the night with burst pipes.”

There is crop insurance and Farm Service Agency paperwork to handle and equipment to prepare for the countless hours of tractor work that will be there when the soil thaws.

Joshua Stamper is the new owner of Yker Acres, with pigs and cattle. “Our first priority is to meet the needs of the critters,” he said. “We need 500 gallons of water melted and available at all times. Food, shelter, water is the bottom line.”

Stamper and his wife, Ali, also plan how to rotate boars with different sows to make sure litters are arriving at the right time.

There are deskwork woes for a pig farmer as well. There is a website to update, customers to cultivate and marketing ideas to implement.

Despite the demands of the job in the winter, there is some hope for farmers in the season. The time that doesn’t have to be spent on a tractor can be put toward scheming up new infrastructure and operations. There are conferences to attend and networking opportunities.

Stamper put it this way: “I’m learning how to make sure we aren’t doing certain things again next winter.”

Annie Dugan writes about life in the Wrenshall area. If you have a tip or story to share, contact her via [email protected].