Why Kenyans Dominate the Big Marathons

I ran the 2004 Chicago marathon.  My training was less than recommended and I had only worked up to a long run of 15 miles, so the last 11 miles were a challenge.  But I finished, and in the top half, so I was happy.

In 2005 I went back to watch the race and cheer on my cousin.  Watching the race unfold helped me formulate a theory why the Kenyans dominate all the big marathons.

October 9, 2005.  Chicago marathon, 13.1 mile mark, halfway.

We stood in the 2^nd level of a parking ramp across the street from the Sears tower.  We waited to see the lead runners.

As the mob of people along the race course thickened, anticipation grew.  It was an early morning-party atmosphere.  My kind of party.

Suddenly, a cheer!  Whistles, bells, shouts, “Here they come!”

“They” came rolling by.  The lead wheelchair racers finish in about an hour and a half.  They also get a head start.  So we waited some more and cheered on the slower wheelchair racers.

The lead pack of runners went by so quickly, I barely had time to study them.  There were ten in the pack.  They looked very comfortable running together, even at a speed of over twelve miles per hour.

I thought I saw two-time defending champion Evans Rutto in the middle of the pack.  I assumed the pack was all Kenyans.  I was right.

Fifty yards behind the lead pack a solitary runner struggled.  A few more yards back, another runner, then another, then two, then three.  They all seemed to be struggling to maintain the pace they had run in the first half of the race.  None of them looked like they could mount a challenge to the Kenyans.  I was right.

The runners behind the Kenyans seemed to be so alone.  Even if a few runners were grouped together, I could tell they were running alone.

In contrast, the Kenyans seemed to be running as one unit with interchangeable parts.  And in a sense they were.  And I think the Kenyans, with great humility, realize that. 

The Kenyans finished 1^st through 10^th, with only 5 minutes between them.  Evans Rutto, the two-time defending champion, finished 4^th, 26 seconds behind his countryman, Felix Limo.

How humble is Rutto to win Chicago twice, and then finish a few seconds behind his fellow countryman?  Is it coincidence the Kenyans train and race as a group and dominate the way they do?

Wild Food Foraging/ Sam Thayer’s New Book, “Nature’s Garden”

Stinging Nettle, a delicious, wild edible, WHEN COOKED, profiled in “The Forager’s Harvest”, Sam Thayer’s first book on wild food foraging.

I’m excited!  I just received a mailing from Sam Thayer announcing the printing of his new book, “Nature’s Garden.”  This book is the second in his series on wild edibles. 

Sam is the leader on wild food foraging for our generation.  I met him a couple of years ago when I attended one of his weekend seminars.  This guy lives what he preaches.

One of my goals for 2010 is to make foraging a bigger part of my life.  I need to figure out a way to phrase this goal.  I recently found Leo Babutka’s blogs and plan on using his techniques for accomplishing change.

Heating with Wood/ Blizzard, Dec. 09

Our monument to winter, before and after the blizzard of December 8-9 2009.  Why do I live here?

When my parents moved to their current farm in March of 1975, there was only a huge wood furnace in the basement which heated the house.  The winter had been so bad the previous farmer was unable to cut wood and had to buy coal to burn in the furnace.  Yes, in 1975 coal could be purchased.

The smoke and dust from the coal left a black soot on the walls of the house.  I wonder how many brain cells were lost by my sisters and I as we breathed in the soot.

My parents put in a furnace that burned propane that summer.  But they also burned wood that next winter because it was available and affordable on the farm.  They fell in love with the warm heat generated by wood and have burned it every winter since.

So Monday found my Dad, Uncle, and I pulling dead trees out of the forest to be cut up later as we need the wood or find time.  We always say we are going to cut all our wood for the winter in November.  But we never seem to get around to it, and frankly, harvest and taking care of the animals takes priority.

Two days later you can see why autumn is a hurried time as harvest is over and survival mode is in effect.  I’ve been gorging on carbs like a black bear getting ready to hibernate.  Somebody send me a ticket to someplace warm.

Autumn on the Farm: Heartbreak

Autumn on the farm is a time of hurried harvest.  The plants are dying and returning to the soil.  Once all the food for the animals is safely stored, and the animals are at their winter housing, we enjoy winter and the time of reflection that comes.

Autumn for me has been personal turmoil.  My romantic relationship with Citygirlfriend is over and there is no harvest.  We have an intense relationship that is no good to continue.

My heart aches for the family-time I shared with Cgf and her boys.  We are trying to work out something where I continue to see them.  I hope we can.

Mycotoxins in Corn

“There’s always something!”  common quote by farmers usually said with a shrug and tired smile. 

This farming game is tough.  The something right now is mycotoxins in the 2009 corn crop. 

Mycotoxins are by-products of mold growth.  Animals exhibit poor health when fed grains contaminated with mycotoxins.

Our feed salesman took a sample of our corn expecting to find high levels of the three mycotoxins being found in this year’s corn crop.  He said that much of the corn crop in Ohio was contaminated and he had already found high levels of mycotoxins in some of his customers’ corn in Wisconsin.

He knew of a farmer who still had much of the 2008 corn crop on hand and counseled us that we should try to sell our 2009 corn and buy his old corn.  This would be a logistical headache for us.  Thankfully, we didn’t have to consider this.

We sent a sample of our corn to Holmes Laboratory Inc. in Ohio.  The test came back with acceptably low levels of Vomitoxin, Zearalenone, and Fumosin.  Two months ago I had never heard of these three mycotoxins.  Aflatoxin was the only mycotoxin I had ever heard of.

If your corn does have high levels of mycotoxins, you can blend with good corn to reduce the level of mycotoxin in the feed.  You can also put additives in the feed that absorb and bind the toxin or deactivate it.  JBS United  conducts research on the effectiveness of additives.

I have no idea why our corn has low levels of mycotoxins while others find high levels.  Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Pregnancy-Checking Cows

 

Sixty-seven cows waiting in the corral.

We pregnancy checked our cows last Tuesday and Wednesday.  The vet. checked 129 cows.  10 cows were not bred, which is “open” in farm-speak.  That makes 8% open or 92% bred in a 60 day breeding season.  I was hoping for less than 10%, so I’m happy.

Five cows were not checked because we are taking them to market because of old age.  All 134 cows were in one herd with five bulls.  This is the 2nd year of mob-grazing and the results are better than last year.

Salvage: A Junk Run to Belmont

 

Loaded for a junk run to 1st Capitol Salvage in Belmont.

As we accumulate trash on the farm, we sort.  Recyclables, trash, and metal.  We take the recyclables and trash to our township pickup point in Calamine, open two days a week.   This is a service paid for by our property taxes. 

The metal is thrown into an old wagon and when the wagon is full we make a junk run.  This happens a few time per year.  The fun part about this is that scrap metal is actually worth something.  So as we get rid of what we consider trash, we have a payday.

1st Capitol Salvage was paying $100 per ton, yesterday.  I don’t know if this is a good or bad price.  I do know that a few years ago there was a huge demand for scrap metal and prices were at least double.  I saw junk moving out of fields and fencelines that hadn’t moved in my lifetime.  People made part-time jobs out of cleaning up other people’s junk.

We never let our farm get to the point where a junk-man would salivate.   It’s a constant struggle to keep a farm looking decent.  I’m glad we have a system in place to help us.

Our small load only weighed 580 lbs.  We drove away with a check for $29 dollars.  Another successful junk run!

Michael Pollan Speaks in Madison Wisconsin

“What is all the fuss about?  Why are farmers protesting?”  I thought as I sat and listened to Michael Pollan speak at the Dane County Farmer’s Market.   After reviewing my notes I started to understand why he upsets some farmers.

Michael Pollan is an excellent writer and speaker who can convincingly make a case for probably anything he feels strongly about.  I thank him for caring about food and for pointing out a flawed system.  I won’t be signing a petition to appoint him Ag Secretary though.  Because, as even he admitted, policy is not his area of expertise, and I fear the wheels would come off if he were allowed to drive.

I feel strongly about this because I see parallels between the American farm and food system and my own.  My farm is transitioning from commodity-based livestock production to direct-market livestock production with minimal purchased inputs.  We are not relying on an off-farm salary while we make this transition, so changes are made cautiously and evaluated every step of the way.  Whatever the flaws of the American farmer and food system, we do feed a lot of people.  And that is worth something.

I’m intrigued by organic production, but fear I don’t have the time or patience to learn.  I would love to help a young couple start an organic CSA on part of my farm.  Then my curiosity would be filled as I reported on what they did.  And they would have access to land to realize their dream to farm and feed people. 

 

But enough about me, let me tell you what Michael Pollan had to say.

There is a movement rising to change the American food system.  Nearly 8,000 people turned out for his speech on the UW campus.  And there was evidence of pushback as protesters also were in attendance.

Mr. Pollan said the goal of the American food system should be: “To provide fresh, high-quality food to everyone in USA and a decent return to American farmers and contribute to the solution of environmental problems.”

Hard to argue with that.  But then he connects the dots between the environmental crisis on one side and the health crisis on the other.  Guess what he place in the middle as causative:  Agriculture.

Mr. Pollan said modern industrial agriculture drinks oil and spews greenhouse gas.  He said agriculture used to use one calorie of fossil fuel to produce two calories of food.  Modern agriculture uses ten calories of fossil fuel to produce one calorie of food.  He said it takes 28 ounces of oil to produce one double quarter pounder at McDonald’s.  I don’t know if that was with cheese.

I have seen figures like this before and I question them.  I will be writing a post this winter detailing how much oil my farm uses and how much food we produce because I’ve been curious about this.

Mr. Pollan then says that energy comes from the sun and Photosynthesis is the only free lunch.  He would like to wean the food system off of fossil fuels and put it back on sunshine.  Food can be resolarized.

The health care crisis is code for ‘cost of industrial food production.’  Since 1960, spending on health care has risen from 5% of GDP to 18% of GDP as the amount spent on food has decreased from 18% to 9.5% of discretionary income.  I don’t buy into this simplified argument.

Mr. Pollan says we still need to support farmers.  We just need to change the subsidies to reward quality and diversity and environmental solutions instead of rewarding for quantity. 

I agree that government programs become ‘monsters’ that seek to sustain themselves rather than accomplish whatever it was designed to accomplish in the first place.  I think we need results-based government programs.

Mr. Pollan spoke about our food culture.  “We need to reregionalize food.  People need to learn to eat from a shorter food chain.  He says the USDA is starting to get this and used the example of the new, ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ program.

“We need to teach our children how to eat lunch.  This is a controversial statement until you consider that we are teaching them how to eat lunch by giving them chicken nuggets and tater tots and ten minutes.”

Michelle Obama was applauded for her organic garden and for speaking out about the importance of growing and cooking real food.  Claire Strader introduced Mr. Pollan, which was fitting because she is a Wisconsin grower that has become the White House gardener.

Mr. Pollan doesn’t feel there is a lack of farmland.  But there is a lack of farmers.  We have been demeaning farmers for the last 100 years and that has resulted in a brain drain on the farm.  That is something we both agree on.  It is going to take major brainpower to continue to feed people in a sustainable way.

2009 Hay and Forage Summary

 Cattle grazing my best hay field, September 24, 2009.

In my post, “2009 New Hay Seeding,” I promised summer yield statistics.  When the cattle finish grazing the hay field pictured, every hay field will have been harvested or grazed three times.  Here are the statistics.

All the hay was baled in 1500 lb. round bales.  Estimated moisture content is 15%. 

1st cutting: 120.4 acres, 341 bales, 511,500 lbs., 4,248 lbs./acre.

2nd cutting: 82.1 acres, 127 bales, 190,500 lbs., 2,320 lbs./acre.

3rd cutting: 61.3 acres, 68 bales, 102,000 lbs., 1,664 lbs./acre.

Total: 88 average acres, 536 bales, 804,000 lbs., 9,136 lbs./acre.

The reason the number of acres declines from one cutting to the next is because I start grazing selected hay fields with the cattle instead of harvesting them by machine.  I do this to help mitigate the summer slump in pasture growth and keep my cattle gaining well.

I graze fields which are self-contained, (no corn strips as cattle are hard to keep out of corn fields).  And prefer fields which are difficult to access with manure.  Without manure, fields decline in fertility.  Grazing, instead of machine harvesting and feeding elsewhere, keeps more of the soil’s fertility in place.

Hay fields were grazed with the mob of 134 cows and 134 calves and 5 herd bulls.  Here are the grazing statistics:

 1st grazing: 38.3 acres, 10 days, 3.83 acres/day.

2nd grazing: 59.1 acres, 15 days, 3.94 acres/day.

1st grazing corresponds to 2nd cutting and 2nd grazing corresponds to 3rd cutting.  So if I take the average yield for 2nd and 3rd cutting and multiply by the number of acres grazed/day, I find the equivalent amount of forage the mob was eating.

1st grazing: 3.83 acres x 2,320 lbs. = 8,885 lbs./day.

2nd grazing: 3.94 acres x 1,664 lbs. =6,556 lbs./day.

I’ll have to do more “cipherin” to figure if it’s more economical to hay or graze.  I do most of my heavy thinkin’ in the winter and will have an updated post for you then.  I’ll tell you one thing.  I prefer to graze 2nd and 3rd cutting and oftentimes that is how farmers make decisions.

Below is a close-up picture of the field pictured above.  It is 1st year hay with what I consider  the ideal mix of grass to hay.  My recipe was 10 lbs. alfalfa, 2lbs. Climax Timothy, and 4 lbs. Baraula Orchardgrass from Barenbrug Seeds.  Baraula is the latest maturing Orchardgrass I have ever used and I will be planting more of it next year.   This field yielded tremendously and makes me think about the potential for my farm.  Here are the statistics:

1st cutting: 12.1 acres, 61 bales, 91,500 lbs., 7,500 lbs./acre, 77% better than the average.

2nd cutting: 12.1 acres, 29 bales, 43,500 lbs., 3,595 lbs./acre, 55% better than the average.

As shown, it is being grazed now.  I was late getting the mob to this field so it will not be grazed anymore this year.  Most of the other hay fields will be grazed by the cattle in October/November after a killing frost but before the snow flies.

Farming Fun With Friends

 

Posed photo:  manure spreader and rented “bobcat” loader in hoop building after cleaning out and adding two loads of lime.

My father and farming partner had surgery for colon cancer two weeks ago.  He is home and recovering but will not be able to lift anything for a few more weeks.   

It’s been a challenging couple of weeks working without him.  Thank God I have friends and family willing to pitch in and help me out.  Thank you.  Some jobs are almost impossible alone.

I finished baling the 3^rd cutting of hay.  We were blessed with dry weather which was necessary to make dry hay this time of year. 

After that I needed to clean out a hoop building and spread the manure on the designated hay strips which will be corn next year.  Two friends each ran a tractor with manure spreader for me.  I loaded the manure with the rented “bobcat.”

The “bobcat” probably costs more than $30,000 new.  But we can rent it for $150-200 dollars and get a hoop building clean.  It has tracks like a bulldozer so it works great on the dirt floor of the hoop building.  In 3-4 hours I can have 20+ loads of manure spread on my fields and a clean hoop building.

After that I put 1-2 loads of lime, (crushed limestone), on the floor of the hoop building to reestablish a base.  Lime is considered a fertilizer for crops and works great in this capacity because it packs kind of like wet sand.

I’ll let the hoop building set empty until I’m ready to put pigs into it and then I will unroll straw or cornstalk bedding and I’m ready to go.  We won’t clean the hoop building out again until the next batch of pigs goes to market.

It’s fun to complete a task with friends.  And it’s fun to run a “bobcat”.  This is farming fun with friends!