Farm Credit Bank Blog

DJ Bird

7/12/2011 4:48:03 PM

In the space of about an hour one morning, I watched a pair of mockingbirds take on a squirrel, a roadrunner and our Border collie, Domino. Then I went out in the yard myself and the two of them had a go at me, taking turns dive-bombing my head and loudly voicing their displeasure, reminiscent of a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 movie, “The Birds.” Like the squirrel, the roadrunner and the dog before me, I beat a hasty retreat away from the territory they were guarding so forcefully. Not only are mockers notoriously protective of their turf, but also — according to a study published in the January-February issue of Discover Magazine entitled, “Mockingbirds Know Who You Are…And They Hold a Grudge” — they remember their “intruders” and will take special pains to keep those so identified at bay. A pair of nesting mockingbirds who’ve ID’d me is not something I intend to mess with. There is no way I’m going close to that area again until their young’uns have finished flight school.

Despite having a well-deserved reputation for being testy (males are even known for repeatedly and tenaciously attacking their own reflections), mockingbirds are truly marvelous creatures. Their scientific name, Mimus polyglottos, is Greek, and means “to mimic” and “many-tongued.” Instead of having a particular song of their own, mockingbirds are the DJs of the bird world, creating a playlist of the calls of other birds, crickets, frogs, doorbells, chainsaws, squeaky hinges, cell phones and whatever else catches their ears. A single individual might have as many as 200 different songs in its repertoire and can change its call as many as 87 times over the span of a minute. As Harper Lee famously said in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.”

And sing they do, even at night, especially when the moon is full. If you’ve ever tried to sleep during a mockingbird’s nocturnal performance, you know that the “American nightingale” always has its volume turned up as well. My father was a world-class whistler, and he used to delight in having whistling competitions with mockingbirds. He would start off softly, but the mockers would always crank it up a notch. I guess it’s one of those don’t-hide-your-talent-under-a-bushel type deals. They’re loud and proud.

The Northern mockingbird is a permanent, year-round resident in all the states served by the Farm Credit Bank of Texas and it is even the state bird of two of them: Mississippi and Texas. Typically associated with the South, the “Northern” in their name refers to the fact that the 16 other species in the mockingbird family are native to the tropics.

Although not the flashiest of birds color-wise, mockingbirds have a neat, elegant appearance. Males and females look alike, and are predominately gray with bold white wing patches that flash when they fly. Their sleek and slender bodies measure about 10 inches, they have a wingspan of about 14 inches, and their tails are long and expressive. Mockers are monogamous, and both parents build the nest and feed their babies. A brood generally has between three to six eggs, and a pair can raise between two and three families per year.

Their diet consists of insects, fruit, berries and snakes. They will run around on the ground or hop about when searching for food, but they like a high perch when singing. Mockingbirds are not afraid of people and seem to prefer living close to humans. They like it when you mow your lawn, and will usually follow in the mower’s path, picking up insects that have been disturbed in the grass.

As long as they’re not trying to attack you, mockingbirds are fun to watch. One of the unusual things they do while they’re standing on the ground is stretch their wings slowly up in the air in jerky movements, almost as though they’re doing a robot imitation while reaching for the sky. Scientists call this behavior a “wing flash” but they don’t know why mockingbirds do it. Maybe it’s just because they can.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library has both audio recordings and video recordings of Northern Mockingbirds online. Or better yet, just go outside and watch them in your yard. If you whistle a tune, they might just whistle it back to you.

Food Festivals

7/1/2011 9:50:41 AM

In our urbanized society, finding something to eat is as simple as going to the grocery store or a restaurant. Even in states where agriculture plays a major role in the economy, such as the ones served by the Farm Credit Bank of Texas, it is possible to find school children who have no idea that fruits and vegetables are grown in the ground, breads and pastries come from grains, dairy products come from cows and goats, meats come from animals, and fish were actually alive and swimming before being harvested and placed in shrink-wrapped packages.

That’s why growers, farmers, ranchers and fishermen are glad to work with their local communities in promoting their various products through food festivals. Not only do these celebrations raise the profile of agricultural commodities, thereby helping producers, they also bring much-needed revenue to the towns and cities that host the events. From late spring through fall, and even into winter, it is possible to literally eat your way across Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas and have a really good time doing it.

Strawberries usually kick off the food festival season in April, with several communities in Alabama, Louisiana and Texas all hosting events. May ushers in crawfish and catfish festivals all along the Gulf Coast. June sees celebrations for blueberries, peaches and tomatoes, while July fetes dairy foods, watermelons and cantaloupes. August features okra, shrimp and duck; September plays up butterbeans, peanuts, sweet potatoes, apples and grapes; October focuses on sorghum and ribbon cane, rice, and mushrooms. November highlights chilies and other peppers, mirlitons (as chayote squash are called in Louisiana), pecans, pork and — in the community of Rayne, Louisiana — frog legs. Citrus fruits get their day in late winter. The growing wine industry throughout the South and Southwest means that wine trails, vineyard tours and tastings, and wine festivals occur almost every month in the various states.

In an effort to make these events as appealing as possible to consumers and attendees, organizers gild the lily (to misquote Shakespeare) by adding all manner of other activities, such as live music, parades, carnivals, eating contests, watermelon seed-spitting competitions, cooking demonstrations, arts and crafts, food-related exhibits, motorcycle and antique shows, gospel singing, tractor and mule pulls, dances, horseshoe and washer pitching tournaments, ugliest tomato contests, cook-offs, fireworks, cake decorating and recipe competitions, demolition derbies, hayrides, athletic events such as runs/walks and bike rides, domino tournaments and children’s activities. Vendors of all stripes are often part of the festivities, frequently selling items themed around the product being celebrated.

Another side aspect that often accompanies food festivals is the beauty or “scholarship” contest. While the festival queen (drawn from local teenaged contestants) is the norm, pageants often target all age groups and both sexes. Creativity swings into funny bone–tickling high gear when it comes to names for contest winners: Mr. and Miss Tadpole! Little Miss Cantaloupe! Miss Butterbean, and for older contestants, Mr. and Mrs. Dry Butterbean! Queen Tuneap and King Reboog (Peanut and Goober, respectively, spelled backwards), just to name a few.

So if you’re looking for something fun to do, why not check your state’s tourism website for a list of food festivals? Or you could always go to www.foodreference.com, which bills itself as “an eccentric world of unique and fascinating food information,” and click on the festivals and shows link. You might be surprised and intrigued by the creative ways that agricultural communities, possibly including one near you, promote their products.

Harlequins

5/25/2011 2:06:22 PM

When you hear the word harlequin, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Depending on your location and interest, it might be a clown character costumed in a repeating pattern of diamonds; a rugby team; or a publisher of romance novels, all of which might have pleasant associations. If you’re a gardener, however, harlequin might as well be a four-letter word.

Harlequin bugs on cabbage leaves. Photo by Alex Labry.

The harlequin bug (Murgantia histrionica) is a beautiful little thing. About three-eighths of an inch long, it is shaped like a shield, and its markings are bright red, orange and black. Imagine a ladybug, but more shapely and sophisticated looking—that’s a harlequin bug. Even their eggs are attractive. The female harlequin will lay as many as 150 eggs in two-row clusters on the undersides of leaves. As the eggs mature, they look like little black and white barrels designed by Coco Chanel. (One time I found a cluster of these little beauties and couldn’t bring myself to destroy something so perfect-looking, a decision that I lived to regret.)

When it comes to harlequin bugs, don’t be taken in by a pretty face, so to speak. As your momma always said, “pretty is as pretty does.” And the harlequin bug does some really un-pretty things.

Paul Cezanne, Harlequin, 1888-1890. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Harlequins are members of the stinkbug family, and if you’ve read some of my other posts, you know how I feel about that bunch. Native to Central America, the harlequin bug has a sharp, needle-shaped mouth, which is ideally suited to sucking the life out of your cabbages, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collards and kale. It also likes anything in the mustard family, arugula, beans and corn. If none of that is available, the harlequin will go after your tomatoes, okra and squash.

The harlequin’s strength is in numbers. Remember those old westerns where a couple of good guys are overrun by endless hordes of bad guys streaming over the horizon? That’s what it’s like dealing with these little marauders. One day your cabbage will be looking great and then the next day, seemingly out of nowhere, harlequins will be literally all over it. Faster than you can say, “Circle the wagons!” your veggies will be history.

The first time that happened to me, I thought, “Right! I’ll take care of this. I’ll bring in the chickens!” Thinking that the girls would go after the harlequins like teenagers at a buffet line, I turned them loose. They ate everything BUT the harlequins. Turns out, according to the Journal of Chemical Ecology, harlequin bugs have the ability to make themselves taste bad to bird predators.

Short of nuking them, there aren’t many completely effective controls for harlequin bugs. They overwinter in mulch, and mulch is something you don’t want to get rid of in most cases. Most organic experts suggest handpicking them off the plant they’re eating and drowning them in water mixed with insecticidal soap. Having tried this method myself, I can tell you that it is even less fun than it sounds. It’s not that easy either, because adult harlequins can fly and once they realize you’re after them, they will become airborne. I’ve also employed my DustBuster cordless vacuum, which works pretty well on the leaf-footed bug (see Vacuuming Tomatoes), but it turned out to be useless with harlequins. They seem to be able to hunker down and hang on better to avoid being sucked up by the vacuum.

So what’s a gardener to do? My advice is to take a deep breath, go get a glass of iced tea and relax. Bugs are an integral part of gardening, and sometimes you’ve got to take the bad with the good. If the harlequins have landed in your space, mix up some insecticidal soap and spend some time reducing their numbers. You’ll never get rid of them all, but if you keep at it, you’ll reduce their impact and save your vegetables from total annihilation.

Stinkin' to High Heaven

4/19/2011 1:23:24 PM

Where I live, they start showing up in mid-February, increasing in number as the month progresses into March, their distinctive black-and-white markings contrasting against the grey of the pavement on which they’ve given their all. If you were to judge by the remarkable number of skunk carcasses on the highway at this time of year, you might assume the high body count means: 1) that we’re experiencing a skunk epidemic, or 2) that skunks might soon be an endangered species. In fact, neither is the case. So what’s to blame and why did the skunk (attempt to) cross the road anyhow?

In a word: Love. Late winter is mating season for skunks, and that causes the little guys (those who have the unenviable job of studying skunk road kill will tell you that the dead are almost always males) to overcome their customary shyness and go looking for a girlfriend.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, however, romance isn’t the only thing that’s in the air. Mercaptan is what that awful stink is called.

The reason so many skunks never make it to the first date is because they are slow movers. Coming equipped with such a potent natural defense system means that they are not afraid of much, so they aren’t used to running. Problem is, an 18-wheeler isn’t afraid of much either, not even mercaptan.

Two species of skunks are commonly found in the states that comprise the Texas Farm Credit District: Striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) and Eastern spotted skunks (Spilogale putorius). Texas has an additional three species: Western spotted skunks (Spilogale gracilis), hooded skunks (Mephitis macroura) and hog-nosed skunks — also known as rooters — (Conepatus mesoleucus), the latter two occasionally showing up in New Mexico, as well.

Despite the ability to smell really bad at will and being one of the main carriers of rabies (though not always), skunks have good qualities, too. For one thing, they are shy and will not go out of their way to bother you unless you bother them first. They eat a lot of insects, being especially fond of grasshoppers. They enjoy rats and mice and are quite effective at getting rid of both. They also will eat grubs, reptiles, spiders, snakes, scorpions and actually just about anything else they come across. (Sadly, this latter category includes hen eggs and the heads of young chickens.) People even breed de-scented skunks for pets (don’t try this with a wild skunk, kids), and they are said to be smart and affectionate.

While acknowledging their good side, however, you definitely do not want to get crossways with a skunk. Depending upon the species, when startled a skunk might make a little purring noise, rise up on its hind legs, arch its back, fluff its fur, lurch forward, stamp both front feet, and/or click its teeth. Should you see any of these behaviors, do your best to get out of the way. If you don’t, what’s coming next will be a highly targeted spray of smelliness — accurate up to 10 feet — from scent glands located at the base of its tail that is capable of temporarily blinding you if you’re close enough to take a direct hit in the eye. It will also make your loved ones not want to be near you for some time.

If you’re looking for talking points for your next social event, feel free to use any of the following:

An annoyed spotted skunk will face its target, do a handstand, and fire off musk directly over its head.
Great Horned Owl (see What a Hoot! ) is the skunk’s main predator, perhaps because owls don’t have a good sense of smell.
A baby skunk is called a kit, and a group of skunks is called a surfeit.
Skunks are blind at birth and will stay in the nest until their eyes open at about three weeks. The number of young in a litter may range from two to nine, but the average is four or five kits.
Skunks can range in size from 2 to 5 pounds, depending upon the species, but males are always larger than females.
All skunks are great diggers and some species can climb.
Except when annoyed, skunks rarely make vocalizations.
Coats made out of skunk fur were apparently popular in the 1940s

The Dirty Truth

3/21/2011 10:56:04 AM

It’s probably safe to say that if you were to be asked what your state’s flag looked like, you would know, and you’d probably also be familiar with the state bird, the state flower and the state song. You might even know some of the lower profile symbols, such as the state nut, the state fruit or the state tree. Then there are the more obscure ones: New Mexico has a state tie (bolo), Texas has a state cooking implement (Dutch oven), Louisiana has a state doughnut (beignet), Mississippi has a state toy (teddy bear) and Alabama has a state amphibian (Red Hills salamander). The sheer number and variety of state icons would seem to indicate that legislators enjoy designating them. (And who can blame them? Deciding on, say, the state folk dance is probably a bunch more fun than tackling the budget.)

Alex Labry

I’d be willing to bet, however, that your state has one symbol not too many of you could name. That would be the one for dirt.

That’s right. Your state has its own special dirt, the one that in most cases has been legislatively deemed to stand head and shoulders above all the other soil types vying for that designation. (Yes, I do realize that it is pretty silly to talk about dirt standing head and shoulders above anything. It is, after all, dirt—no legs, no head, no shoulders. Being dirt, it probably doesn’t vie for anything either, I know.) But still, it’s good to know that dirt is getting some positive recognition, as opposed to, you know, the other kind, which is what it usually has to put up with. And really, it’s interesting to read about how these signature soils define their respective areas, thereby contributing to the unique characteristics that distinguish states from one another.

In 1997, the Alabama State Legislature named the Bama Soil Series as its state dirt. According to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), “Bama soils occur in 26 counties in Alabama on more than 360,000 acres in the state, mainly in the western and central part of the state, paralleling major river systems. Bama soils are well drained, have desirable physical properties, and are located on high positions of the landscape. These characteristics make them well suited to most agricultural and urban uses.”

Louisiana has yet to officially adopt its state soil, but the Louisiana Soils Staff has recommended that when the legislature gets around to doing so, Ruston should get the nod. Ruston soils exist on 733,714 acres in “the Pelican State.” Ruston is good for growing pine trees, which is a good thing because there are a lot of pine trees in Louisiana.

Mississippi picked Natchez as its representative soil type in 2003. Natchez soils can be found all along the Mississippi Delta and throughout the entire length of the state. Natchez soils lay in deep deposits of loess, which is a material formed by sediment left by ancient flooded rivers and redistributed by winds. Natchez soils are naturally fertile and are good for both pasture and row crops.

New Mexico’s state soil is called Penistaja, which means “forced to sit” in Navajo. According to NCRS, “Penistaja soils are extensive in New Mexico, where they have an extent of more than one million acres. They are very productive rangeland soils and are excellent for livestock grazing, wildlife habitat, and recreation. Penistaja soils occur in a beautiful Southwest setting of sandstone mesas, snow-capped mountains, and desert grasslands.”

You’d think a state that has an official symbol for everything from a flying mammal (Mexican free-tailed bat) to a molecule (Buckyball) would have gotten around to something as basic as its soil type. But alas, Texas has yet to designate one of its 1,300 soil types, although the Professional Soil Scientists Association of Texas is throwing its weight behind Houston Black. Houston Black soils are great for agricultural crops and they occur throughout the Blackland Prairie region of the state, from Dallas to San Antonio. What’s more, they’re not found anyplace else, giving them that “only in Texas” cachet.

Next time you’re out walking around in your state, look down at the dirt beneath your feet. It just could be telling you something you didn’t know about the place you call home.

Stock Show Bling

3/8/2011 10:09:14 AM

It’s junior livestock show season once again. In fair barns and show arenas all across the country, 4-H and FFA kids are grooming their steers and heifers, sheep and goats, pigs, poultry, and rabbits to compete for awards, cash prizes and status (see Show Time!). It’s hard work, requiring time, money, effort and dedication. Along the way, the kids learn a lot not only about the responsibility involved in raising animals, but also about what it takes to be a good winner as well as a good loser.

One thing that becomes quickly apparent about raising livestock is that you get dirty doing it. Anyone who has ever stepped into a cow pasture, a pigpen or a chicken run knows that it can get awfully messy in there. Animals could care less whether they are filthy or muddy, whether they smell good or look pretty. Truth be told, most of them probably prefer a coating of dust at the very least, and they have absolutely no problem sharing that with whoever is close to them.

Alex Labry

Another reality of taking care of show animals is that part of the time it is done in the dark. Livestock needs to be fed and watered, doctored and medicated (if necessary), before and after school or regardless of whatever other activities the kids have going on in their lives. Often that means getting up well before sunrise or going out in the evening after dark to make sure those chores are done.

In short, raising show stock has its dark and dirty side, so to speak. And maybe counteracting that particular reality might help explain what has become, in recent years at least, another characteristic of the livestock show experience: bling.

Yes, folks, I’m talking rhinestones, Swarovski crystals, chunky beads and sparkly metallic studs here. When the kids — particularly the girls — step into the show ring, they want to shine, both literally and figuratively. Glittery belts, bracelets, earrings, necklaces, hatbands, jewel-encrusted shirts and jeans, and the like are the standard uniform these days, and when the show ring lights reflect off all that twinkly stuff, it creates some serious visual wattage.

Casey Blair, owner of Blair’s Western Wear in Marble Falls, Texas, says that “The bling trend has been popular for the past five or six years, and it’s still going strong: The gaudier, the glitzier, the flashier, the better. A few years ago you would hear people say, ‘I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing that outrageous stuff.’ And then the next thing you know, they’re saying, ‘I HAVE to have a belt with Swarovski crystals!’”

“The only difference I see is that bling is not just for girls anymore — it’s crossing over into menswear, and the fashion is expanding from Western to even preppy,” Blair continued. “Everybody likes to get all dolled up. It’s fun!”

She’s right when she says “everybody.” At the premium sale following a recent stock show I attended, a winning rabbit was wearing a bejeweled collar as its pint-sized owner held it up to vie for the bidders’ attention. The overhead lights caught a rhinestone as the bunny moved. It was all dolled up — and it was fun.

To Bee or Not to Bee

2/25/2011 3:10:55 PM

I have a lot of rosemary growing at my place and I love it for lots of reasons: It’s evergreen; deer and rabbits don’t bother it; it smells good; it can stand both cold and heat; it’s drought-tolerant; it’s great to cook with; and it has lovely little blue blossoms pretty much all year round. After a rain not long ago, those flowers were literally blanketed with bees going about their business gathering nectar or pollen.

I was especially glad to see that, because bees all over the world are having a tough time lately. In fact, they are dying in large numbers and that is bad news for farmers (and everyone else). For several years, both honeybees and bumblebees have been disappearing in Europe, Asia and the Americas and the die-off is continuing.

No one seems to know for sure why, and scientists throughout the globe are trying to figure out the cause of what is being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). A variety of factors, alone or in combination, is being blamed for the steep decline in bee numbers around the globe. These include habitat loss, monoculture, mites, fungus, disease, toxic chemicals, environmental changes and pesticides.

Although a determination of the exact cause remains elusive, one thing is not in doubt: Agriculture is going to be in serious trouble unless a solution can be found for the problem. The British-based Soil Association states, “bees are our most important pollinators and play a vital role in the food chain — it is estimated that one-third of human food supplies (1 in 3 mouthfuls) depends on bee pollination.” Other sources state that the crops and plants dependent on bee pollination, which include flowers, fruit, vegetables (and their seed crop), nuts, oil-producing plants, cotton and livestock feed (such as alfalfa and clover) — in short, just about everything — have an estimated $40 billion annual value.

Wikipedia, quoting a United Nations study, reports, “In North America, during the winter and spring of 2006–2007, there was a considerable decline in commercially managed honeybee colonies, with losses of about one-third of honeybees’ population. Colony Collapse Disorder has appeared in 35 states in the USA, reporting losses in honeybee colonies as high as 80 to 100 percent for some beekeepers.”

According to an ABC News Technology story, “the relative abundance of four species [of bumblebees] has declined by up to 96 percent and their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23 percent to 87 percent.”

Despite these alarming statistics, there are things that we as individuals can do to help our little bee buddies:
• Try not to use pesticides — particularly neonicotinoid pesticides, which act on the central nervous system of bees. Several European countries have banned the use of neonicotinoid pesticides for this very reason.

• If you must use pesticides, apply them sparingly and only at times when bees are not active. Bees are most active at midday.

• Plant things that provide a diverse supply of good nectar and pollen sources for bees. Think about nectar as bee carbs and pollen as bee protein. They need both. Here are some specific tips on what and how to plant:

• Rely on natives. Studies have shown that local native plants are four times more attractive to native bees than exotic plants. Your Extension agent can provide pollinator plant lists for your particular area.

• Plant different-colored flowers. Bees like variety and are especially attracted to blue, purple, white and yellow.

• Plant things with different shapes and sizes of flowers. There are 4,000 different species of bees in North America, and they vary in size. They don’t all have the same tongue size either, so not every flower can be accessed by every kind of bee.

• Plant flowering plants in clumps. Make it easy on the little guys.

• Make sure you have something blooming in every season. Bees will feed on a range of plants during their life cycle.

• Location, location, location. Bees prefer to dine in sunny locations where there is protection from strong winds.

Wabbit Twouble

2/16/2011 11:20:51 AM

Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor, by Beatrix Potter

Lately I’ve been feeling so much like Elmer Fudd that any minute now I expect to start replacing my “Rs” with “Ws” and saying things like, “Be vewy, vewy, quiet, I’m hunting wabbits!”

It seems that a cottontail has discovered my garden. Entire rows of my carefully planted and lovingly tended beets, sugar snap peas, kale, lettuce, spinach and — yes — carrots, have fallen victim to this chewing machine disguised by a cute outfit.

Since deer can’t get inside my garden fence and armadillos prefer grubs, I knew from the extent and nature of the damage that a rabbit was the culprit. At first I wasn’t sure if it was a Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) or an Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) since we have both here in Texas, but then one morning I was outside early and I saw the little critter. It froze in its tracks when it saw me, and didn’t dart away (through an impossibly narrow space by the garden gate) until I was quite close to it. From its small size and relatively short ears I could see it was a cottontail, and the little nipped-off shoots where my beet seedlings used to be revealed that it had a full tummy. It moved so quickly that I didn’t have time to shout, “Come back here, you wascally wabbit!” before it disappeared into the brush.

When I was little, I must have read The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter a gazillion times. I always fancied myself in the role of one of Peter’s sisters — Flopsie, to be precise, because I thought it was a cool name — and so it came as a bit of a shock to me to now find myself playing Farmer McGregor instead. Wikipedia describes McGregor as “an elderly, serio-comic villain of Scots background intent upon keeping hungry rabbits out of his vegetable garden.” Yikes. Image readjustment: back to Elmer Fudd.

Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. Copyright owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.

I had to get that picture of Peter escaping home to his mother for some chamomile tea and blackberries out of my mind and get my McGregor/Fudd on, or I wasn’t going to have any garden left. I got out the live trap and baited it with a carrot.

The next morning (and I’ll admit, to my utter surprise), there was the cottontail inside the trap! I loaded it into the pickup, drove to some ranchland about five miles away, and let it go. It didn’t tap me on the shoulder and ask, “What’s up, Doc?” a la Bugs Bunny and it didn’t leave behind any little shoes or coat a la Peter Rabbit. It just took off running and didn’t look back. I came home and replanted my garden.

So far, the rabbit hasn’t returned and none of its relatives have either. What a welief!

The Eastern Cottontail is common in all states served by the Farm Credit Bank of Texas.

The Eagle Has Landed

1/31/2011 8:30:45 AM

In 1967, the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency added the bald eagle to its endangered species list. Despite its special status as our nation’s symbol, the bald eagle had succumbed to habitat destruction, DDT, and extermination by livestock owners fearing the huge birds of prey would decimate their flocks and herds. The bald eagle’s plight put a face of sorts on the DDT issue especially, and public opinion rallied to the bird’s side. After 40 years of intense conservation efforts to bring them back from near extinction, bald eagles had increased their population to the point that they were officially removed from the endangered list in 2007.

Alex Labry

Although bald eagles are found in every state except Hawaii, they are primarily concentrated in the Northwest, because that’s where the salmon are, and, like the rest of us, eagles like to live where they can get their favorite food. They will happily eat other things as well, including garbage; however, they prefer fish and tend to end up in areas where the fishing is good. Luckily for me, I live in just such a place.

Beginning in about October, it is possible to catch sight of a bald eagle hoping to sink a hook, so to speak, into dinner. The first tip-off that an eagle is in the area is when every other bird in the vicinity, either on the lake or in the air, suddenly shuts up and disappears. That happens so quickly, it’s like watching a cartoon — you almost expect to see little puffs of smoke where the birds used to be.

The first time I saw a bald eagle at the lake’s edge, I thought it was our border collie, Domino — it was such a big bird that my mind played a trick on me. A bald eagle’s body length can be anywhere from 28 to 40 inches, and its wingspan can range from 5 to 8 feet. Females are larger than males: The females weigh around 14 pounds and males average 9 pounds. Experts estimate that eagles can live 30 years or more in the wild.

Alex Labry

Bald eagles mate for life, and both males and females take on nesting and parenting tasks. Eagle nests are the largest in the bird world, measuring up to 10 feet across and weighing as much as 2,000 pounds. Breeding couples will return to the same nest year after year, repairing damage and making additions. In the states served by the Farm Credit Bank of Texas, nests are usually built in large trees and are made of sticks. Near where I live, the same pair of eagles has come back for the past several years to the nest they’ve constructed uncharacteristically close to a state highway. Because it can be seen from the road and provides such a rare opportunity to watch these magnificent birds raise a family, the Texas Department of Transportation has had to put up dedicated road signs and construct a special viewing area with interpretive signage in order to handle all the traffic.

According to the website, American Bald Eagle Information “the eagle was used as a national emblem because, at one of the first battles of the Revolution (which occurred early in the morning), the noise of the struggle awoke the sleeping eagles on the heights and they flew from their nests and circled about over the heads of the fighting men, all the while giving vent to their raucous cries. ‘They are shrieking for freedom,’ said the patriots.” Thus, as the website explains, the eagle became the national emblem in 1782, when the great seal of the United States was adopted.

In New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, bald eagles are usually winter residents, and they are most commonly found near large bodies of water. By May, they’re gone, having migrated back north before the heat really sets in. Perhaps because the bald eagle is such a temporary visitor in these parts, getting to see one takes on a magical aspect. If you’re lucky enough to spot one where you live, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. I hope you get that chance.

The Latest Craze

1/19/2011 2:31:20 PM

A recent article in Parade Magazine about the rising popularity of raising chickens prompted a small flurry of emails from friends and family telling me that not only was I part of a fast-growing movement, but that I had gotten there ahead of the curve. This took me somewhat aback for a couple of reasons:

1. The closest I have ever been to a trend was many moons ago when I got a pair of go-go boots about a year after they were out of style.
2. Backyard poultry is pretty much not the sexiest trend with which to be associated. Wouldn’t something in fashion be more applicable? Oh, wait! See #1 above….

So what message should I take from the fact that my loved ones think about me whenever chickens are mentioned? After considering this question at length, I’ve decided that some things are better left unknown.

Really, though, I should be proud, because there are certainly worse things to be identified with than chickens. And despite the current fad of keeping a few cluckers behind the house, the relationship between humans and chickens is definitely nothing new. We’ve been hand-in-glove for ten thousand years, since chickens were first domesticated from the Red Jungle Fowl in Southeast Asia.

So intertwined have the two species become that it is hard to imagine one without the other. While always kept by humans primarily for their meat and eggs, chickens at various times in history have played important roles in such things as behavioral and biomedical research, immunology, entertainment, and religious ceremonies, not to mention companionship. Chickens serve as national symbols, state birds, and as mascots for teams, clubs, political parties, businesses, or other organizations.

The Romans used chickens for oracles, taking great store in whether the birds ate a certain way or flew in a particular direction. Still today throughout the world, such religions as Orthodox Judaism, Cuban Santeria, Haitian Vodun, Brazilian Candomblé, Hmong Ua Dab, and Hinduism, among others, use chickens in ritual sacrifice.

Where would comedy and cartoons be without chickens? Let’s face it: Chickens are funny. The rubber chicken is a staple prop for slapstick comedians and comic strips have long made use of chickens for laughs. Those of us who have reached a certain age will remember Foghorn Leghorn, the blustery rooster and a Warner Brothers staple in its Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, with his trademark catchphrase, "That's a joke... I say, that's a joke, son."

The peculiar movements of chickens have inspired all sorts of imitations by humans. The Chicken Dance, a group dance frequently performed at weddings and other gatherings, encourages otherwise normal-acting people to adopt a mob mentality of silliness and do things they would avoid at all costs in most situations. Then there was The Chicken, a rhythm-and-blues dance step that was often performed along with The Twist (and featured in The Blues Brothers movie), in which dancers flapped their “wings” and kicked back their feet a la our feathered friends.

The human-chicken association got further validation from science recently, when the chicken was the first bird to have its genome sequenced. It turns out that humans and chickens have genes that are related. And according to Medical News.net, “a new study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine finds that a comparable region in the brains of chickens concerned with analyzing auditory inputs is constructed similarly to that of humans.” Another study tested chickens to see how they react to human faces and discovered that chickens, like humans, prefer beautiful people.

I’m really glad it has become popular again to keep a backyard flock of chickens. It’s definitely one of those what’s-old-is-new-again situations, however. This latest craze is as old as the hills.

Coffee (on the) Grounds

1/6/2011 10:32:49 AM

Every now and again I’ll read something that lists all the negative health aspects of drinking coffee. When that happens—probably while I’m enjoying my third cup or so—I think about that 1973 Woody Allen movie, Sleepers, in which Woody’s character is cryogenically frozen. When he is thawed out a couple of hundred years later, he learns that all the stuff that was believed to be unhealthy in the 1970s is actually good for you.

Hoping that future science will eventually prove my bad habits to be wholesome seems as good a way as any to rationalize my behavior. Interestingly, some recent studies have stated that coffee might not be so bad for the health after all. The thing is, these researchers always refer to coffee intake “in limited quantity,” which still leaves me out.

There is one side effect of coffee drinking, however, that is undeniably beneficial: coffee grounds. Coffee grounds can do all sorts of good stuff for your soil. Adding coffee grounds to the soil attracts beneficial microbes and earthworms, which help improve soil texture. (I like to imagine all those wiggly things waking up, smelling the coffee, and singing “Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Off to Work We Go!”) Furthermore, coffee grounds are said to have somewhat of a repellant effect on slugs and snails—they prefer beer (party animals that they are).

Perhaps one of the best things that coffee grounds do is improve soil structure and composition. They loosen up heavy clay soils and increase moisture retention in sandy soils. The majority of plants, especially food crops, prefer a soil with a neutral pH or one that is slightly acidic. Coffee grounds are said to have a neutral pH, but some gardeners believe them to marginally increase soil acidity over time. Either way, they help ensure a healthier environment in which to grow things.

In what has to be one of the happiest examples of synergy between a large company and its customers, the Starbucks folks have discovered that gardeners are delighted to cart off used coffee grounds by the bagful. Talk about a win-win situation! Starbucks gets rid of its waste product and gardeners get a readymade soil amendment.

This arrangement has become so popular that Sunset Magazine even commissioned a soil lab to do a benefit analysis just to see what the hubbub was about. The study showed that in addition to adding nitrogen to the soil, coffee grounds increase the levels of other essential nutrients such as phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and copper. Gardeners, although perhaps not knowing the specific chemical analysis, have been aware of this all along.

Although some sources recommend composting the grounds before adding them to the soil, I take the lazy way out and skip that part, with no ill effects. It’s easy to just dump them out and dig them directly into the soil, preferably to a depth of six to eight inches. It is also okay to spread them around the base of established plants and gently scratch them in—the trick here is to make sure that the grounds aren’t clumped in too thick a layer, which might impede water from getting down to the roots. You can also pour any leftover liquid coffee directly onto your plants.

The next time you brew up a pot of coffee, why not share a “cup of ambition” with the soil, the things that live in it, and the plants that grow out of it? It will, um, perk them up…(it is also easier to stifle a groan when you have a mouthful of coffee).

Southern Recipes

12/23/2010 12:15:36 PM

At holiday time, our thoughts turn to food. And in the South, food is a big part of family traditions.

Favorite family recipes are passed down from one generation to the next, such as in the custom of mothers and grandmothers passing tried and true recipes on to new brides in the family. However, those newlyweds who don't already know how to cook probably serve up some “burnt offerings” before learning the importance of timing!

Most cooks have a special pot or pan for each dish, from the biscuit bowl to the old pan that serves enough cornbread dressing for the whole county. The ingredients are basically the same for these time-honored delights, but have some variations. Sage, for example, is used by some families in their dressing, while it is not in others. We are creatures of habit and tend to follow in the steps of what we know, and recipes are no exception.

Most cooks would not think of adding or leaving out a single ingredient to “Aunt Grace’s famous chicken and spaghetti.” Certain recipes are passed around so much they become known as “the recipe” in some families, and at least one or more of these popular dishes appears at every family gathering.

It is the same with desserts; you learn to expect that good cherry pie, chocolate cake or peach cobbler from the same relatives. And when they fix something other than what they are famous for, everyone's disappointment is evident.

These dishes extend to other functions such as funerals, where food has always been used to comfort those in mourning. Some cooks have their recipes cataloged by use, such as family reunions, “dinner on the grounds” at church and, of course, funeral food. Food at funerals can’t help Uncle Joe who passed on, but it certainly helps to provide solace and nourishment for the bereaved family and friends.

A lot of clubs and churches have cashed in on the popularity of these family favorites by compiling and selling cookbooks. Cookbooks first appeared in the South after being brought in from England by the early colonists and were filled with English recipes. The regional influences that affected cooking practices were used in later cookbooks and introduced such ingredients as maize, sweet potatoes, fruits and nuts. These cookbooks became guides to the “Southern way” of eating and reinforced the belief that food and the manner in which it was eaten had social importance, especially since food was at the center of every occasion.

Before cookbooks, most recipes were not even written down, and when they were, it was simply a list of ingredients, with no directions, quantities or measurements. It was understood that any good cook could figure that out for herself!

Most Southern kitchens today have a library of cookbooks, as well as some of the old and tattered handwritten recipes handed down from our favorite cook — mom. These pieces of family history are as precious as the people who passed them on. The recipes hold special memories of delectable dishes that were filled with love in every spoonful.

In today’s microwavable world, with “fast food” and “food to go,” we hunger for flavorful home cooking. A lack of time means we often don't cook from scratch anymore.

Nothing brings back memories like the aroma of something good cooking on the stove or in the oven, so pull out the recipe boxes and the old books and “sift” through them to pass on some of your favorites. It’s tradition, you know!

What a Hoot!

12/16/2010 2:38:26 PM

The other evening, Alex and I were sitting on our back deck watching the sun go down. Our neighbors to the west have a Purple Martin house on a tall pole in a wide, open area that provides lots of entertainment when the Martins are in residence, but this time of year they have abandoned their summer home and migrated elsewhere. The vacant house provides a convenient spot for birds of prey to perch and survey the surrounding cafeteria line, however.

Alex Labry

On this particular twilight, we sat until the sunset colors were nearly gone. Just as we were preparing to go inside, a large bird glided onto the roof of the Martin house and took up its vantage point. We thought at first it was a Red-tailed Hawk, but then it turned its head and we could see its “horns” clearly silhouetted against the remaining reddish-orange tint of the sky. Turns out, it was a Great Horned Owl, and it was ready for dinner.

It didn’t have to wait long. As noiselessly as it had arrived, the owl took off again, swooping swiftly and gracefully down to disappear behind a hillock covered in tall grass. A few seconds later, it flew back into view and perched on a gnarled stump, clutching a rodent of some sort in its talons. Chow time!

Great Horned Owls are common and resident year round in all the states served by the Farm Credit Bank of Texas. In fact, these birds (Bubo virginianus) can be found all over the North American continent and in parts of Central and South America too. They provide a most useful service to those of us living in rural areas: they help control the populations of mice, rats, rabbits, and other small animals that can quickly become nuisances if left unchecked. Skunks and possums are also favorite prey (owls’ sense of smell is not good) and other birds make up a large part of their diet as well.

According to a wonderful website called The Owl Pages, where you can find out all sorts of interesting things about different kinds of owls and even listen to their calls, the Great Horned’s name is “derived from tufts of feathers that appear to be ‘horns’ which are sometimes referred to as ‘ear tufts’ but have nothing to do with hearing at all.”

Alex Labry

Hearing is something owls do extremely well, however. An owl’s ears are not located in symmetrically on either side of its head. The right ear is positioned above the line of sight and the left is positioned below it and at a different angle, which means that when the owl moves its head, it can hone in on both the horizontal and vertical direction of sounds made by its prey.

Their eyesight is just as remarkable. An owl’s eyeballs can’t move within its eye sockets, but it is capable of turning its neck in a 270-degree radius without moving the rest of its body in order to see.

The talons of the Great Horned Owl are incredibly powerful, having as much as 500 pounds per square inch of crushing power (by comparison, an adult human male can crush about 60 pounds with his hands). When it eats, it eats everything—fur, feathers, bones and all. Then it spits out all the stuff that won’t digest, much like a cat regurgitating a hairball. A common way to locate an owl’s nest is to look for these telltale balls of leftovers.

Female Great Horned Owls are larger than males. Individuals average about 22 inches in length, may weigh over three pounds, and have a wingspan of between 40 and 60 inches. They don’t build nests, preferring to take over a nest that has been constructed by other birds or even squirrels.

One of the coolest things I learned about Great Horned Owls is that they are ventriloquists. They can throw their voices to disguise their location and thus confuse their prey. When an owl chooses a mate, the two will sing duets to one another, with one calling the iconic, five-syllable “hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo-hoo” and the other answering in kind.

The evening we saw the Great Horned Owl catch its dinner, the weather was cool enough that we slept with the doors open and the air conditioner turned off. Sometime during the night I was awakened by an owl duet. I felt so lucky to hear it that I didn’t even mind losing sleep.

Fantasy Farming

11/18/2010 4:07:43 PM

Perhaps because my family tree is pretty much branched out with people who actually farmed for a living, and because there have been relatively few times in my entire life that I’ve been totally disengaged from farming/gardening in one way or another, I find it curious that online simulation games about farming have become all the rage. One in particular, FarmVille™, is the most popular game on the social networking phenomenon Facebook (with apps for Twitter, the iPhone and smartphones as well), and it has been called the most popular online game of all time. With (are you ready?) over 63 million players each month, people of all ages from all over the world have become avid fantasy farmers.

Photo courtesy of Zynga

Started in June of 2009 by Zynga, a social-network game development company headquartered in San Francisco, FarmVille may have the most “friends”—to use Facebook terminology—but it is neither the first nor the only online farm game out there. Harvest Moon, released by the Japanese developer Natsume in 1996 (and still going strong today), was the first one to receive much attention, but some of the others include Farm Town, Farm Life, John Deere - Harvest in the Heartland, Farmerama, Fantasy Kingdoms and Lovely Farm. The iPhone has its own crop of farm applications, including Farm Frenzy, We Farm, Tap Farm and Papaya Farm. Surprisingly to me, the list of farm-related games for various electronic communication devices could go on and on.

The central theme of all these games is the creation and maintenance of a virtual farm, which appears graphically on your computer or handheld device. You can then plant and harvest crops, build barns, raise livestock and so on. There are some quirky oddities in some of the games—for example, one allows your farm to be attacked by monsters—and the games have varying degrees of sophistication and complexity, but for the most part it’s all about plowing the back forty, so to speak. The better farmer you are, the more XP (experience points) you’ll gain, which allows you to “level up” (that is, move to a more challenging level of play). As far as I could determine, FarmVille currently has 90 levels, and if you get that high, it means that you are just pretty darned special, fantasy farmer-wise.

Apparently, people get completely addicted to playing these farm simulation games. The question this raises in my mind is, simply: Why? What is it that is so appealing to so many? I decided to try to find out.

Here’s a sampling of what I found:

Bill Mooney, FarmVille vice president and general manager, is quoted as having said that farming was a genre that attracted all ages. “This genre has been around for some years. It’s happy. It’s healthy. Everybody likes it and everybody gets it.”
According to a blogger called Smartfitness, “The urban populace based in the cities who form the majority of the game's supporters subconsciously yearn for a farm life. The drudgery of city life, stressful deadlines, the constant traffic congestion and time pressure does build up a dislike within each of us and makes us long for freedom from all these negatives and makes us reminisce about the peaceful life that the countryside or ranch provides. It’s not always about farming, but the peace and tranquility that such a life presents that is endearing to us.”
A player who goes by the name of Ai-Ai, says, “I cannot afford to buy a real farm. I have no time to manage a real farm. In FarmVille, I feel my dream has come true. It really feels good that you plow your field yourself or use your vehicles (plowing, planting & harvesting), plant crops, harvest and decorate your farm. And the money you will earn (if you take care of your plants and harvest them in the given time) will be invested again to plant crops, buy a bigger area, animals, trees, decorations, homes, etc. You're still like farming in real life.“

So there you have it. There are a lot of farmer-wannabes out there. Those of us who are “like farming in real life” are the envy of millions, apparently. I wonder what the fantasy farmers would make of the fact that real grasshoppers have destroyed my non-virtual bean crop? They’d probably tell me that I need more XP in order to level up. They’d probably be right.

Celebrating Eggs

11/1/2010 3:35:58 PM

As anyone who has read even a couple of these posts knows, I like chickens. They make me laugh, I think they’re weirdly beautiful, they help me compost, they get rid of pesky garden insects and grubs, and their eggs are all sorts of wonderful. Of course, you don’t have to be a chickenista to recognize that last point, and it has recently come to my attention that there are special holidays (and entire weeks and months!) dedicated especially to honoring the egg in all its glory.

Alex Labry

World Egg Day is celebrated on the second Friday of October each year and is sponsored by the International Egg Commission (IEC), which has members in more than 55 countries around the world. According to the IEC website (www.thinkegg.com), “From its beginnings in 1996, World Egg Day has grown in stature and spread around the globe. It is now celebrated with special events in an ever-increasing number of countries from the Americas to Mongolia, Australia to China, and all over Europe.”

And I’ll bet not too many of you realized that National Deviled Egg Day occurs on Nov. 2 annually. Although my attempts to find a sponsoring organization, congressional record, or presidential proclamation related to it turned up nothing, the Internet is full of references to the holiday. Its apparent raison d’être is pretty simple and straightforward: to make and consume deviled eggs.

The same lack of official sanction goes for April 16, which is National Eggs Benedict Day. Nobody gets a day off work for this one, banks are still open, and the postal service continues to deliver mail. However, presumably all those activities would occur more happily if the ones doing them had first eaten poached eggs with Canadian bacon on an English muffin smothered in Hollandaise sauce. A New York Times story about the origin of Eggs Benedict, while saying nothing about how the holiday began, does pinpoint Eggs Benedict’s creation to New York City in the 1800s, and to wealthy people suffering from hangovers.

National Egg Salad Week is always (who knew?) the full week right after Easter Sunday of every year. Surely dreamed up by some mom faced with baskets full of hardboiled eggs and needing some reason to encourage her family to eat them all week long, this celebration is nothing if not practical.

The month of May is National Egg Month. According to the sponsoring American Egg Board, “Why does the egg industry hold National Egg Month in May, so soon after Easter? Because sales tend to slow at that time. So, May is the time the egg industry reminds everyone about the many benefits of ‘The incredible edible egg™.’”

June 3 is National Egg Day, and if you can believe Answers.com, surely one of the oldest “official” egg celebrations, having been declared so by Emperor Claudius Nero somewhere around 50 A.D. Claudius did this after nobles agreed to eat eggs again following a severe poultry plague, thus proving to the peasant population that it was safe to do so and keeping the hungry hordes from getting too resentful. None other than Napoleon himself kept the party going when, in 1805, he re-declared June 3 as "Oeuf Journée Nationale,"not wanting to be upstaged by any Roman emperors. Somewhere along the line, the date was unofficially adopted in the United States.

December is National Eggnog Month and Dec. 24 is National Eggnog Day. Again, I could find no governing body that sanctioned these dates, but no group has risen up to protest them either. It just seems as though everyone agrees that the holiday season is a great excuse to drink some eggnog.

Of course you really don’t need a holiday to enjoy eggs. Scrambled, poached, hardboiled, fried or used as an indispensible ingredient in many recipes, eggs are hard to, ahem, beat.

Bless Your Little Pea Pickin’ Heart

10/15/2010 3:48:57 PM

A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from a lifelong BFF (Best Friend Forever) of mine telling me about shelling BEPs (black-eyed peas) with her daughter while the grandkids slept. Reminiscing while they worked, the daughter recalled being a child and playing under the shade tree in the back yard while her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother shelled peas. “We come from a long line of pea shellers,” my friend said.

I do, too. My Uncle Owen would set aside a couple of rows in the cotton field to plant peas. When the time was right on those hot summer days when the pods were full, we’d all go out early in the morning and pick peas. Then in the afternoon, we’d sit around the television set with bowls on our laps, shelling peas while watching a baseball game (consequently, if I were given a word association test having a prompt of “major league baseball,” my automatic response would be “black-eyed peas”). For dinner we’d eat fresh black-eyed peas and cornbread and wouldn’t have traded it for the finest fare in a fancy restaurant.

Black-eyed peas are part of the family of legumes known variously as cowpeas, field peas or Southern peas, and they aren’t really peas at all, but beans. Lore has it that they were originally planted as food for livestock in the South and were deemed unfit for human consumption. As a result, during the Civil War when Sherman made his March to the Sea burning all food crops in his wake, black-eyed peas were ignored. When hungry Southerners found black-eyed peas still growing in the fields, they discovered a nutritious food source and quickly developed a taste for them. Another take on this story has Southerners being in-the-know all along, but Sherman, being from the North, didn’t realize that black-eyed peas could be eaten by people.

Whichever version of the story is true, we North Americans came to the party late when it comes to black-eyed peas, because people have been eating them for centuries all over the world. Although many sources say they originated in Africa, others maintain that black-eyed peas were cultivated in prehistoric China and India and later enjoyed by Greeks and Romans. All seem to agree, however, that slaves brought them to the West Indies, and later to America, from Africa.

Today, black-eyed peas are a staple of Southern cooking and are an excellent source of calcium, vitamin A and folate. Although they are consumed all year long and prepared in a variety of ways, New Year’s Day finds most Southerners eating them, perhaps along with collard greens, for good luck and prosperity (peas representing coins and collards representing cash). Apparently, Sephardic (Spanish/Middle Eastern) Jews, who settled in Georgia in the 1700s, brought this tradition to the South.

Like all legumes, black-eyed peas are able to enrich the soil by “fixing” nitrogen, which means nitrogen from the air is taken in by the plant and then bacteria in the roots convert it into a form that is useable. This is a handy trait to have, since although nitrogen is one of the major nutrients (along with phosphorus and potassium) required for healthy plant growth, it doesn’t stay around very long in the soil. Most plants are not able to grab nitrogen from the air. Black-eyed peas are also heat tolerant and drought resistant, which makes them a relatively low-maintenance crop to grow.

So grab a BFF and shell some BEPs. Or if that sounds too labor intensive, go to the store and buy a can so you can make this recipe, adapted from allrecipes.com:

Texas Caviar• 2 (15.8 ounce) cans black-eyed peas, drained
• 1 (15.8 ounce) can corn, drained
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 fresh medium jalapenos, stemmed, seeded and minced
• 1 small onion, cut into small dice
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and cut into small dice
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl; cover and refrigerate 2 hours or up to 2 days. Before serving, adjust seasonings to taste, adding extra vinegar, salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Patience, Grasshopper

10/7/2010 3:11:33 PM

All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest. --Leviticus Chapter 11, Verses 20-23

So in these Old Testament verses from the Bible, God is telling Moses what things are, and are not, okay to eat. (I’m guessing that “walk on all fours” just refers to the general ability to walk rather than the specific number of legs, and in any case it sounds more poetic than “walk on all sixes”…) He says it’s okay to eat grasshoppers. I am stuck on the “detestable” part rather than the okay-to- eat part, however, because right now grasshoppers are giving me fits. I wish more people would eat them, since maybe that would mean fewer of them in the garden for me to detest.

Sue Kersey

I did eat one once. Back around the fourth grade, my class went on a field trip to a nearby U.S. Air Force base where I’m sure we were taught all sorts of good lessons but the only thing I remember was when we were told about survival skills and were each given a fried grasshopper to eat. It was crunchy and tasted like chicken. Then we followed that up with chocolate-covered ants, which sort of confused the survival training aspect in my mind (There’s chocolate out there in the wilderness when your plane goes down? And when you get out of the wreckage you’re motivated to catch large ants and dip them in it?). Anyhow, after the ants, one of my classmates threw up. It was quite a day.

But I digress.

Grasshoppers are chewing on just about everything I’ve got growing, in spite of the fact that the chickens are devouring as many hoppers as they can capture. There are green ones, yellow ones, brown ones and black ones, and they range in size from tiny to scary big. Every farmer or gardener I know around here has the same complaint and the County Extension Agent says that the majority of his calls these days are about grasshoppers.

There seems to be some disagreement on exactly how many species of grasshoppers exist, but apparently there are at least 10,000 different varieties and they thrive in all parts of the world except the North and South Poles. Grasshoppers don’t have a nose. Instead, they breathe through holes all along the sides of their bodies. They have a lot of eyes — five of them — that allow them to see not only long distances, but also forwards, backwards and sideways. Grasshoppers’ “ears” are located on the first pair of legs and only the males sing. A grasshopper can hop, walk, fly and jump 20 times the length of its own body. The largest ones can reach a length of 4½ inches.

According to John Pohly, an agent with the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension service, “grasshoppers consume green forage roughly eight times as fast in proportion to their weight as beef animals on good range. They cut binder twine, eat holes in clothing hanging out to dry, invade homes and pollute water from springs or wells. Trains have been delayed because they could not run at regular speed on tracks made slippery by crushed grasshoppers.”

Thank goodness, lots of things besides fourth-graders on field trips and chickens eat grasshoppers. Coyotes, many other birds, fish, skunks, cats, snakes, toads and even other insects all find them tasty. I read that a large grasshopper can have 20.6 grams of protein and a small one can have around 14.3 grams, which is more nutritious than a lot of fast food. Maybe instead of moaning about the damage they’re doing, I should fry up a mess of them. And perhaps melt some chocolate for dessert — I’ve got a big harvester ant mound out by the fence.

A Narrow Fellow in the Grass

10/1/2010 9:52:29 AM

I had an experience the other morning that reminded me of a poem by Emily Dickinson about a snake, entitled A Narrow Fellow in the Grass, the last stanza of which goes:

But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.

I had walked out to get the newspaper, and when I went to close the gate, which is made of hollow metal, a small, slick head poked out the top end of the gate and then quickly disappeared. I peered into the hole to see a little snake, its tongue darting in and out as it tried to get a reading on what sort of giant creature was checking out its hidey hole. Even though I could tell by its head shape and coloring that this little guy was not poisonous and could do me no harm, I still felt that “tighter breathing” and chill down to the bone that Emily Dickinson described so beautifully. Fear of snakes is a common thing.

I’ve known tough-as-nails ranchers who will go out of their way to run over a non-venomous snake in the road, and dedicated graduates of the Master Naturalist Program who nevertheless shiver at the thought of even a garter snake. While I can’t say that I like snakes, I do admire them and understand that they are a necessary part of the ecosystem. Without them around in our rural environment, we’d all have a lot more rodents and bad insects to cope with. So why should that harmless baby snake produce the knee-jerk reaction of anxiety I felt?

According to LiveScience, “Fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias, yet many people have never seen a snake in person. So how is this fear generated? New research suggests humans have evolved an innate tendency to sense snakes — and spiders, too — and to learn to fear them. Psychologists found that both adults and children could detect images of snakes among a variety of non-threatening objects more quickly than they could pinpoint frogs, flowers or caterpillars. The researchers think that this ability helped humans survive in the wild. Previously, anthropologists have suggested the need to notice snakes in the wild may have led early primates to develop better vision and larger brains.”

Looks like the fear factor goes way back, perhaps to a time long ago when snakes were bigger than people and we looked more like dinner to them. These days at least, the majority of snakes, even poisonous ones, are not aggressive and they won’t bother you unless you bother them. Most prefer to stay hidden unless they are searching for food or a mate, and when the weather gets hot, many become nocturnal. The truth is, venomous snakes are unable to strike a distance more than their body length, still less for large rattlesnakes. And a person can easily outrun even fast snakes such as racers and coachwhips. So while you might not want to get all warm and fuzzy with a snake, it isn’t necessary to back over them two or three times with your pickup either. Give them some warning, and they’ll go out of their way to avoid you.

If you want to learn more about the snakes in your area, check out the following websites:

Alabama has 49 native varieties of snakes, six of which are poisonous.

Louisiana has 48 species of snakes, including the water moccasin (also known as cottonmouth), which is both aggressive and poisonous.

Mississippi is home to 40 species of snakes, six of which are venomous.

New Mexico has 46 snake species, only eight of which are poisonous and potentially dangerous, including seven species of rattlesnakes and a coral snake.

Texas can boast 76 species of snakes, including several venomous varieties: coral snakes, copperheads, water moccasins and rattlesnakes.

High Rollers

9/21/2010 4:43:47 PM

I wish insects didn’t creep me out so much, because they truly are fascinating. Particularly interesting are dung beetles, which are also called tumblebugs in polite company. For some reason, perhaps because we are no longer in the awful grip of a drought where I live, there seem to be many more dung beetles this year than usual and I’ve been enjoying watching them go about their business.

Photo courtesy of The Age

Dung beetles happen to be everywhere (they live on every continent except Antarctica), whether you are aware of them or not. And those of us in agricultural areas should all be especially grateful for that, since without them we’d literally be stepping in, ahem, dung. According to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, in parts of Texas, dung beetles remove 80 percent of the cattle droppings. They don’t just eat cow patties either — they rid us of other animal manures as well.

Dung beetles are aptly named, because dung is pretty much their whole world. They are especially equipped to locate it, they eat it, they fight over it, they lay their eggs in it and it nurtures their young. In the areas served by the Farm Credit Bank of Texas, the most common kind of dung beetles are the ones known as “rollers” because they form fresh manure into balls. Then they roll the poop balls around with their hind legs while walking backwards on their front legs until they’re ready to start a family, at which point they dig a hole up to 18 inches deep and bury their treasure. Eggs are laid in the ball, and when the larvae hatch, the ball provides them with both food and shelter. The whole process aerates the soil and enriches it with nitrogen. Their tunnels can significantly increase water infiltration in the soil.

Back in the 1950s in Australia, where cattle are foreigners and the native species of dung beetles were adapted to eating kangaroo poop instead of cow patties, cattle dung became a major polluter. Since nothing removed it, the manure stayed on the ground, making it unsuitable for grazing to such an extent that the area of land available for pasturing cattle was reduced by 500,000 acres per year. A single cow can produce up to 12 patties a day, which provided a massive breeding ground for flies and parasitic worms. The Aussies had themselves a serious problem until they initiated the Australian Dung Beetle Project, a 20-year effort to introduce foreign species of dung beetle into the country in order to control the cow poop.

As if being so beneficial weren’t enough, dung beetles have some other impressive credentials. A group of scientists recently named the dung beetle as the world’s strongest insect after male beetles showed that they could pull over a thousand times their own body weight. They can roll up to 50 times their weight, and once they get rolling, dung beetles will pilot their dung balls in a straight line, regardless of what might be in the way. (This can be an extremely entertaining thing to watch.) Scientists have discovered that one species of dung beetle uses electromagnetic light waves from the moon to navigate.

According to the Texas Bug Book by Malcolm Beck and John Howard Garrett, dung beetles represent “the only known case among insects where the male aids in providing for the young.” Both male and female dung beetles will roll the ball and they work together to dig the underground tunnels in which the ball is placed for laying eggs.

In China, dung beetles are used in medicine and are essential ingredients in cures for 10 different diseases. In ancient Egypt, dung beetles (scarabs) were worshipped, as they were believed to have been associated with transformation, renewal and resurrection.

Both male and female dung beetles have horns, but whereas the males use their horns for warding off predators, defending territory or impressing the ladies, females use their horns to fight each other over the best poop. Apparently it is a common practice to steal one another’s balls of dung. I guess the theory is, why bother to do your own housework when somebody else has already done it for you?

If you have outside animals, chances are pretty good that you also have dung beetles. If you happen to see a dung beetle rolling along, I recommend that you take a minute or two to watch the action. You’ll get to see some amazing things. And remember that these little guys make the ground a cleaner, healthier place for the rest of us to walk around on.

Her Clock is Ticking

9/10/2010 3:54:34 PM

I have known many women who, having delayed motherhood for any number of reasons, suddenly realize that their biological timeframe for having a baby is passing its peak point and they begin taking actions to remedy the situation. I now have a chicken like that.

This came as a surprise to me, because the hen is a Golden Comet (see A Comet Tale) and I was under the impression that this sex-link hybrid had been bred not to brood. Brooding refers to a hen’s need/desire to sit on and hatch out some eggs and then care for the baby chicks. Not even every purebred hen wants to do it, but apparently this hybrid—we’ll call her Halley—just really wants to be a mom.

Alex Labry

The nest gets crowded as another hen joins Halley in "the nursery."

When a hen goes broody, she will stay on the nest 24-7. She will only come off the eggs for a brief period everyday to eat, drink, and poop and then she gets back to the serious business of sitting. Every hen has something called a brood patch, which is a featherless area of skin under her belly, and when a hen is sitting on eggs, she will put the brood patch right over the eggs to keep them warm. A normal clutch of eggs usually contains anywhere from six to 15 eggs and the would-be mama will turn them several times a day to make sure they are evenly incubated.

Halley’s change of attitude all started a couple of weeks ago. Even though I have a four-hole nesting box, for some reason known only to the hens, the upper left box is the preferred spot for laying eggs. With few exceptions, that’s where the egg production happens around here and up until recently, the girls were pretty good about taking turns using the choice location. It didn’t really matter to me; in fact, it made gathering the eggs easier. That is, until Halley decided she wanted to start a family. She parked herself in the sweet spot and just stayed there.

The other hens didn’t know what do to at first. I found a couple of eggs on the ground and then I stopped seeing any eggs at all. Thinking maybe the girls were starting to molt (that’s when they slough off their old feathers in order to grow new ones, a process during which egg production stops altogether) I didn’t give it much thought until one day I saw one of the other hens enter “the nursery” and plop down right on top of Halley. It was only then that I realized the rest of the girls had apparently decided they were going to use that nesting box whether it was occupied or not.

One afternoon I happened to be in the chicken run when Halley decided to go on break and I took a peek inside the nesting box. The poor thing had been sitting on an ever-increasing mound of eggs—at least a couple of dozen. No matter how much she flattened out that brood pouch there was no way she was going to be able to hatch all those eggs! I managed to remove six of them and get out of harm’s way before she came running back to the nest with a dangerous look in her eye. A broody hen is not something to be messed with!

We should know in a few days whether Halley is going to be successful in her quest to become a mother (it takes about 21 days, all things being equal, for a hen to hatch her clutch). In the meantime, I’ve put plastic Easter eggs and a golf ball in the other nesting boxes in hopes of increasing their allure to the other chickens. Halley already has enough on—or is that under?—her plate.

The Great Pumpkin

8/27/2010 4:20:30 PM

In the 1986 movie (based on the musical based on the original 1960 film) Little Shop of Horrors, actor Steve Martin plays a sadistic dentist who is devoured by an enormous plant named Audrey. Audrey, voiced by Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops, has a wonderfully deep voice and “her” constant refrain is, “Feed me!” Audrey starts out as a cute little sprout but grows to gargantuan size by the end of the movie.

I think Audrey may have come back to life in my garden. Levi Stubbs hasn’t started talking to me yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he did. My own version of Audrey happens to be a pumpkin plant that came up as a volunteer in some of the compost I put down before I planted tomatoes. I didn’t notice it for quite a while because it was hidden behind a tomato plant, but then, seemingly all of a sudden, it started taking over the garden. Now it has surrounded Speedy’s chicken tractor, spilled out over the grapes and artichokes and has broken through the garden enclosure. It shows no signs of stopping and I’m considering warning the neighbors. The leaves are so large and the vines so thick and sprawling that I haven’t been able to see if there are actually any pumpkins growing yet, but I’m hoping so.

Pumpkins originated in the Americas and all species are native to the Western Hemisphere. Scientists believe that they may have been cultivated since around 3,500 B.C. — pumpkin seeds have been found in cliff dweller ruins in the southwestern United States. A pumpkin’s taproot can be five feet deep and both male and female flowers occur on the same plant, although bees are required for pollination. The pumpkin is a member of the cucurbitaceae family, which includes squash, cantaloupes, cucumbers, watermelons and gourds. The fruit shape, color and appearance (ribbed or smooth) can vary widely, and size can range from miniature (less than one pound) to small (less than five pounds) to large (40-60 pounds), with some real giants weighing more than 1,000 pounds. Although most pumpkins grown commercially are intended for jack-o-lanterns and other decorative uses, pie pumpkins are also commonly cultivated.

Alex Labry

Commercial pumpkin production is big business in Texas and New Mexico; they are among the top ten states in pumpkin acreage. While Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are not major pumpkin producers, the plants can be successfully grown there.

I have no idea what variety of pumpkin my Audrey is, but if it turns out to be an edible one, I may consider whipping up a batch of these yummy cookies, adapted from Allrecipes.com:

Pumpkin Cookies
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups dark brown sugar
1 cup solid pack pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 ounces white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter until smooth. Beat in eggs until well mixed. Blend in pumpkin puree and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Stir to blend. Fold in white chocolate chips and pecans. Drop by teaspoons onto lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake for about 20 minutes. Yields three dozen cookies.

String Balls

8/5/2010 5:02:54 PM

As if collecting figures made out of old bottle caps, keeping all my child’s baby teeth, being proud that I know the name of Rocky and Bullwinkle’s hometown, and having a passion for hardboiled detective novels weren’t enough to make me a shoo-in for a future of weird-little-old-lady-hood, certainly another characteristic is: I have an active string ball. By “active” I mean that I add pieces of string to it all the time. It sits there in the whatzit drawer in the kitchen and every time the stitched string closure on a new bag of chicken feed gets pulled loose, my string ball grows. That gives me a tiny zing of pleasure and proves beyond a doubt that I am far too easily entertained.

Keeping a string ball is one of those “country” things I grew up with—the women in my family always had one in the works, sometimes with the ball sitting in a funnel attached to a wall and the loose end of string hanging down in the funnel spout for easy access. When I was a kid, most country folk were graduates of the “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” school of reusing and recycling. Throwing away something potentially useful was considered bad form. Feed sacks are still customarily machine stitched along the top and therefore anyone with livestock has a lot of leftover string that might be used for another purpose.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that these days the requirement for string is definitely not what it used to be. Many bags come with their own “zip locks” or twist ties, packing tape pretty well eliminates the need to wrap packages in brown paper and tie them up with string, flashier materials can be used to play Cat’s Cradle, and so on. My string ball serves little real purpose other than to give my family reason to roll their eyes and wonder whether I need a hobby or large doses of medication.

They can perhaps take some small solace in knowing that I am not alone in my string habit, although the real string ball masters use string’s heavier cousin, twine. Take, for example, Mr. Francis Johnson, a Minnesota farmer who started rolling his twine ball in 1950 and didn’t stop until 1979, reportedly spending four hours a day on his masterpiece and eventually dying from emphysema caused by inhaling too much twine dust. Before he died, Farmer Johnson had rolled a 12-foot wide twine ball weighing almost nine tons. He even built the twine ball its own shed and today it is the major tourist attraction in his hometown of Darwin, which celebrates Twine Ball Days the second Saturday of every August. Cawker City, Kansas boasts its own massive ball of twine, as does Branson, Missouri, which features a ball made by J.C. Payne of Valley View, Texas. A man in Wisconsin claims to have made the world’s heaviest ball of twine (weighing in at over 19,000 pounds and counting) and he has made a little buddy for his twine ball out of string that he calls “Junior.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go work on my string ball. I’m thinking of naming it and I may even make it a little shed out of Popsicle sticks. Who knows? Maybe one day it might grow up to be a tourist attraction.

Farmers Market Season

7/16/2010 3:14:43 PM

Summer is upon us once again—a time when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of market stalls overflowing with locally grown, fresh-picked produce. Okay, so maybe that’s not the first thing a young man’s fancy turns to, but still, in communities large and small throughout the country, the opening of the local farmers market is an anticipated event. Those first vine-ripened tomatoes are like a siren’s call to shoppers weary of pale, tasteless, hothouse offerings from the grocery store.

Photo by Lavona Fry

According to a website on the history of markets in New Orleans, “public markets are as old as commerce itself. Six thousand years ago, they played a prominent role in the development of the economies of Mesopotamia. Farmers would cart the fruits of their labor into the population centers. There they would market their produce, engaging in commerce and in the building of relationships.”

Many of our larger, older cities have a thoroughfare called “Market Street.” This is because that street once served as the location where early farmers markets were held. Markets were a tradition in Europe that colonists brought with them to the New World. Supposedly the first market to be held in what is now the United States was in 1634 in Boston.

These days, farmers markets can be found just about anywhere—there are thousands of them operating in the U.S. today. Most of the time, vendors have grown all the produce they sell—many markets do not allow non-grower sellers. The offerings at farmers markets usually fall under the definition of “locally grown,” which means they travelled no farther than 100 miles from the market location. Although some farmers might not have an organic certification, the majority of those selling fruits and vegetables at farmers markets are small operators using organic methods free of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Increasingly, markets are offering such things as cage-free eggs, grass-fed beef and other meats, and free-range chicken to shoppers as well.

In addition to the freshness and quality of the items for sale, farmers markets have other benefits, perhaps the most important of which is the support they provide for local farmers. There is also an important social component, since markets bring people together and reconnect those who eat food with those who grow it—something that has become all too rare in our prepackaged, shrink-wrapped society. Some markets provide demonstrations, sampling tables, and even entertainment such as musical acts or activities for kids, making them a true community attraction.

So why not get to know the growers in your area? There are numerous farmers markets in all of the states that the Farm Credit Bank of Texas serves. Click on any of the following links to find the one nearest you.

Alabama: Farmers Market Authority

Louisiana: Farmer’s Market Online

Mississippi: Mississippi Farmers Market

New Mexico: New Mexico Farmers’ Markets

Texas: Pick Texas or Texas Farmers Markets Association

Why Did the Chicken Cross… Dress?

7/6/2010 9:37:54 AM

Ginger is a beautiful Americauna hen, one of the group I call the Soda Pop Girls. She has always laid a large, oblong, beige-pink egg and she has been a shy, timid little lady. When we integrated the Golden Comet hens into the large pen with the Americaunas some months ago, the transition was not as smooth as I’d hoped. As the pecking order rearranged itself, Ginger lost some feathers and suffered some minor surface wounds in the process. We isolated her and another less dominant Americauna, Pepper, in what I call Chicken ICU — an old chicken tractor — so that they could heal up.

Pepper’s wounds were even more minimal than Ginger’s and we were able to put her back in the big enclosure in relatively short order with no ill effects. Ginger continued to recuperate by herself, apparently content, and she kept on laying an egg pretty much every day, as was her custom.

And then something strange happened: Ginger started to crow.

At first I didn’t quite believe what I was hearing. But then, as it happened more frequently, it became unmistakable. Our rooster, Big Red, would sound his regular morning call, loud and full, only to be echoed across the yard by Ginger, not so loud and definitely not so full, sounding a bit like she was gargling sulfuric acid. Despite its poor quality, it was nevertheless a crow rather than a cluck.

Now Ginger has stopped laying. What’s more, she’s not as timid as she used to be. I think maybe her comb is starting to get bigger. Whoa, Nellie!

I’ve read of the old wives’ tale that holds if you hear a hen crow it means that you’re going to die, but being disgustingly healthy and not a superstitious sort, I don’t give that any credence. And there’s an old saying, “Whistling girls and crowing hens always come to some bad ends,” but I’ve always thought it was just one of those aphorisms designed to keep tomboys in line. I never knew that a hen would, or even could, crow like a rooster. By this time though, I’ve even seen Ginger do it. She’ll flap her wings, throw back her head, stick out her neck, and let loose with her version of “I gotta be me!”

Apparently, although it certainly is not customary for a hen to crow, it is more common than you might think. Sometimes, when there is no rooster in a flock, a dominant hen might assume that role, but we are not rooster-less and Ginger is not a dominant hen. Another explanation maintains that if some of the hen’s egg-laying apparatus is damaged, it can cause such a change. I don’t think that applies in Ginger’s case since she has been regularly laying until very recently and she has been alone and out of harm’s way for quite a while now.

According to ehow.com, “Hens that strut like a rooster not only act out like the aggressive male chicken, but also begin to take on all the flashy physical characteristics of the rooster. The hen will stop laying eggs. The characteristics of the cock's comb —the spiky red headdress of the rooster — often begin to show up in the smaller hen's comb on top of the would-be rooster.” The website goes on to say that “Although the true hen-to-rooster transformation is an atypical occurrence, it does happen and has been calculated as a 1-in-10,000 probability.”

So those are the odds. At this point, though, there’s only one sure bet: we’re confused around here.

The Eyes Have It

7/6/2010 9:17:25 AM

“The Border Collie controls its herd by maintaining vigorous eye contact and ‘clapping.’ When a Border Collie is ‘clapping,’ it stretches its front paws out and lowers its chest to the ground while maintaining a fixed stare at the sheep in what is similar to a predatory position.”
--http://www.gopetsamerica.com/border-collie/border-collie.aspx
“Border Collies tend not to use force (initially) to drive the livestock where they want to but rather, use what is known as ‘eye,’ a sort of threatening stare-down that intimidates the stock into moving in the desired direction.”
--http://www.bcrescue.org/bcwarning.html

Have you ever seen a trained Border Collie work a herd of sheep? It’s a remarkable thing to watch, as instinct and education combine to get the job done in a manner that looks as much like choreography as it does herding. As the blurbs above point out, in addition to speed and natural athletic abilities, the Border Collie depends a lot on eye contact to control its herd. The intense stare of a Border Collie at work is hypnotic.

That is, unless you’re a chicken.

As I’ve mentioned before (see Domino and Speedy), our Border Collie, Domino, does not have any sheep to herd, so he has to make do with our yellow Lab-mix named Shiner, the UPS truck and, for a brief-but-thrilling interlude, our chickens.

Domino’s ability to herd the cluckers has nothing to do with Border Collie ‘eye’, however, and everything to do with the ability to wear the girls down with agility and persistence. The intimidating fixed-stare that is so effective with sheep and everything else just doesn’t work on hens, which may have something to do with the fact that chickens have eyes that are similar to a reptile’s. Chickens have three eyelids: an upper, a lower and a transparent thing called a “nictating membrane” that moves from the front to the rear of the eye. The loser in the staring game is the one who blinks first, and chickens just don’t blink all that much.

Now that we have moved all the chickens except Speedy out of the chicken tractor and into a stationary enclosure, Domino can’t herd them anymore, either by eye or by physical prowess. He has to content himself with attempting to make them run around the pen at his approach. The Soda Pop Girls (Big Red and the Americaunas) all take off when they see Domino coming, which must be mildly satisfying for him, but that small sense of achievement is soured by the Golden Comets. A feisty bunch to say the least, the Comets stand their ground, and as Domino tries “clapping” and giving them the eye, they give him the eye right back. With that clear nictating membrane, they do not blink, and what’s more, they have the nerve to peck at Domino’s nose when he is in clapping position.

Poor Domino. Following these rather humiliating encounters, he turns his attention — and his frustration — toward Shiner, the Lab. The Border Collie eye works extremely well on Shiner, who moves around the yard at Domino’s bidding like a puppet on a string. My impression is that a lethargic Lab and a flock of hens is a woefully inadequate substitute, however, for a true herd.

I wonder what the neighbors would think if we got a flock of sheep?

We Came. We Saw. We Learned in D.C.

7/6/2010 8:47:31 AM

This year's Association Leadership Program comes to a close as our group poses for a final photo before leaving Washington D.C. and returning home.

What a great class! Professional, knowledgeable, well-spoken — wonderful ambassadors for their respective associations and the entire Farm Credit System. It has been an honor to work with such a high-caliber group of people this week. Each of them is a credit to their stockholders and the local communities in which they live and serve.

Back Row left to right: Rusty Jenkins, Louisiana Land Bank; Seth Wharton, Heritage Land Bank; Matt Klostermann, Ag Credit of South Texas; Brandon Beavers, Ag New Mexico; Jake Aragon, AgriLand; Chris Levine, Farm Credit Bank of Texas; Alan Benedict, Central Texas Farm Credit; David Loftin, Mississippi Land Bank; Amanda Simpson, Alabama Farm Credit

Front Row left to right: Jolene Curtis, TX AgFinance; Debra Wilfong, Great Plains Ag Credit; Jerry Spruill, Ag Texas; Blain Eubank, Panhandle Plains Land Bank; Camron Ward, Capital Farm Credit; Keith Finstad, Texas Land Bank; Sam Cooper, Louisiana Ag Credit; Amanda Necaise, Southern Ag Credit; Ed Boyd, Alabama Ag Credit; Joseph Crouch, Legacy Ag Credit

Telling the Success Story of Agriculture

6/17/2010 10:09:33 PM

One American farmer feeds 150 people;
One out of every 12 jobs in the U.S. is created by agriculture;
Consumers spend only 7-10% of their paycheck on food;

By all standards, the American farmer is a great success story -- the most productive and innovative in the world; yet, on average, only 9% of a farmer's income comes from the farming operation. The other 91% has to come from off-farm income, which partly explains why only 1% of the population is engaged in farming today.

This is the story Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack shared with our group over breakfast this morning as he highlighted the overall value proposition of the industry; and talked about the need to educate an increasingly urban population about the significant economic contribution agriculture makes to the U.S. economy.

Later in the morning, our group met with the head of the Farm Credit Council, which is the legislative and political trade association for the Farm Credit System. He briefed our group on the issues of the day and helped prepare us for an afternoon of meetings with our members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

First stop, the Senate Agriculture Committee, where we met with key staff and talked about financial reform legislation and general agriculture policy before splitting into smaller groups and going our separate ways -- meeting with multiple congressional representatives about the valuable role Farm Credit plays in rural America.

This evening, we joined the National Council for Farmer Cooperatives at a Capitol Hill reception honoring agricultural cooperatives and the people they serve. A number of distinguished guests and dignitaries from the Washington political scene attended, including my former boss and true friend of the Farm Credit System, Charlie Stenholm. It was great to see him again and know that he is still at the top of his game and making a positive difference for agriculture.

The Leadership Group is Briefed by the FCA

6/16/2010 1:22:52 PM

After arriving in Washington, D.C. via train today, we met with the board and senior staff of the Farm Credit Administration in McLean, Virginia (just outside of D.C.). Board members briefed our group on their role as the Farm Credit System's federal regulator, emphasizing their responsibility to ensure the safety and soundness of System institutions as they develop rules and regulations that reflect the public policy mission established by the U.S. Congress. In addition, they talked about the System's insurance fund and the important role it plays as a line of defense in the event of severe losses in the System. Staff provided economic and System updates that highlighted the fact that Farm Credit, as a whole, is doing well despite signs of stress in certain sectors. They encouraged associations to continue their focus on credit quality and risk management.

In turn, each association representative was asked to talk about conditions in their respective territory and share their perspective on the issues facing the Farm Credit System. It was a great round table discussion and opportunity to exchange ideas and share information.

We ended the day with a visit to the home of George Washington who, in addition to being our nation's first president, was a very successful farmer. Following a tour of his operation, we shared a traditional colonial meal on the banks of the Potomac River and prepared for a full day tomorrow on Capitol Hill.

In the morning, our group is having breakfast with the Secretary of Agriculture, receiving briefings and training at the Farm Credit Council headquarters and then meeting with congressional representatives to promote the important role Farm Credit plays throughout rural America.

Discovering Farm Credit's Great Reputation on Wall Street

6/15/2010 10:33:40 AM

Like sardines, we packed into a New York subway train during rush-hour, along with a few million of our closest friends, and found our way to the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation without losing a single member of our group.

Funding Corporation CEO Jamie Stewart shared his perspective on the economy and the challenges facing the Farm Credit System as he talked about the role his organization plays in the System and the important role the System plays in the overall economy.He also talked about the financial crisis of 2008 and the impact it has had on the economy -- and the unpredictability and challenges that remain for the foreseeable future. He concluded that, in the end, they can tell Farm Credit's positive story to investors, but they can't make it up; associations have to be well-managed and have strong credit quality in a strong agriculture economy.He reminded our group that the day-to-day performance of Farm Credit associations throughout rural America is critical to his ability to get funding for them... and at what cost.

After a few hot dogs from a local street vendor, we toured the trading floor of the Bank of New York Mellon and received a briefing from the head of their Agency trading desk.He talked about what a great reputation Farm Credit has in the marketplace as he shared with our group how they broker Farm Credit securities to the investment community throughout the world.

I know New York is the city that never sleeps, but we're calling it a night.Tomorrow, the group hops an early train to Washington, D.C. to meet with the board and senior staff of the System's federal regulatory agency, the Farm Credit Administration.

Farm Credit Leadership Group Hits the Big Apple

6/14/2010 11:12:56 AM

Although road weary, Farm Credit representatives from across the district arrived safely in New York City Sunday. For some, it's been a challenge to make arrangements at home and work to be here this week, but it's going to be a wonderful and valuable experience for them and I know they'll be glad they were here.

This year's Association Leadership Program kicked off with an orientation and briefing at an historic hotel in downtown Manhattan. It was a great opportunity for everyone to get acquainted and to make sure the group is coordinated before hitting the ground Monday morning. The group will start the day at Grand Central Station, where we'll join millions of other people on the New York subway. Getting our group (most of whom have never been to New York City) on the subway at the same time will be tricky; and, if we lose someone, we may never see them again. Oh well.

We'll be heading to New Jersey to meet with the CEO of the Farm Credit System Funding Corporation, Jamie Stewart, and his staff. Monday afternoon, the group will tour Wall Street and receive a briefing at the Bank of New York, which trades Farm Credit securities. Before the day ends, everyone will have had a behind-the-scenes look at how the Farm Credit System gets money from Wall Street to rural America. And, if things go according to plan, we won't lose anyone along the way.