Trautman Family Farm

This document was created back in early 2007 as we considered dairy seriously and searched for assistance to make this happen. Some of the timelines are now way off, but most are still in line, and the ideas have now been proven with a year of milking cows. We will indeed modify some ideas to better suit "reality" and the situation, but by and large, everything mentioned here works. One of the larger changes is the seasonality: From spring freshening, to fall freshening, that due to considerations that everyone, especially organically, wants to freshen in springtime, and so there is a glut of milk. Fall freshening actually comes out working to our favor in many ways that I'll discuss at a future time. -- Scott

Trautman Family Farm Artisanal Dairy Initiative

Project mission:

For Trautman Family Farm to add the last critical peice of our farm sustainability puzzle (100% farm produced income) through artisanal dairy: reap the rewards of our hard work to date: in remineralizing our soils, becoming certified organic and very capable farmers with a strong direct market following and marketing appeal.

Ours is by design a family farm, and it is our strongest desire to keep it that way, and to involve our children for now and the future in our operations, through strategic partnerships, such as cheesemakers, buttermakers and other dairy artisans, who appreciate excellent quality milk, from a farm with a great story. We will do our part: make excellent grassfed organic milk, along with learn from and interact with diary artisans to come up with excellent products -- both for the high end market, and with an eye for our local market, in an effort to revitalize our local farming community and make excellent food a reality for all people and not just the affluent.

History:

Scott’s grandparents farmed in North Dakota, and he spent quality time there as a child, and not surprisingly has had a lifelong love of farming. In highschool, in very suburban Bettendorf Iowa, he ran an ad in the paper to work on a farm, found that job, and even rented ground and raised pigs with the farmer’s equipment & facilities, one of his first entrepenurial ventures.

With the realities of "getting into" farming, starting to farm at that time (mid 80’s!) would have been near impossible, so off to college and eventually a business degree, with then work with computers in a business setting. This work culminated in 10 years, from 1994 to 2004 as owner of Global Dialog Internet, a small company serving south central Wisconsin with Internet services; known for superior customer service and innovation. During this time the now Trautman family moved in 2002 to a farm outside of Stoughton, 40 acres square, with later additions of 30 acres (now in transition to organic) plus another 40 acres in rented land. Through “dangerous reading”, and frustration with the Internet work, the family moved the direction of farming, and in 2003 started towards organic certification, planted the whole farm to pastures, and started grazing steers, raised a few laying hens and broilers. The Internet business was sold in 2004, and has allowed us the ongoing capital to proceed with our farm plans.

Fortunately at that time, too, we embarked on an agressive soil reminerilization & fertility program, and through extensive effort and education, that effort today reaps fantastic rewords in quality and quantity forages. Those investments will continue to pay for many many years.

Each year since 2003, we have added new dimensions to our operation, testing the waters and starting small to minimize our expenditures in ill concieved directions. We know from the past four year's works - that our strengths are in grazing and marketing, and in the diversity of animal related products, such as chicken, eggs, pork & beef -- all with grass as a focus. Grassfed-Organic is "the place to be", and we are there. From our "toe in the water" start in 2003 -- with only 4 steers, 200 broilers & 30 hens -- to in 2006 finishing 44 steers, 600 broilers and 20 hogs, all of which sold off the farm, not at farmer's markets or wholesale. We always run out of product before our next harvest. New customers average 1-2 per week. Our ability to meet demand - not finding customers is our limitation. Especially with Scott's background in technology, we utilize the Internet extensively for marketing and efficiency. As we are in the "place to be" with our products, we capitalize on new technologies such as YouTube videos, blogging to spread the word.

Our limitation to sustainability at this time is either enough land (we estimate between 2-300 acres as a certified organic direct market farm), or with less (more is NOT available currently) with maximizing our production (working well) and income -- which is where dairy fits in, along with our other direct market farming efforts. It is also important for us to have both product and customer diversity; this provide us the most resilience in a quickly changing market and conditions.

We are adaptive, learn and adjust very quickly. Our biggest asset: Julie and Scott are one great team - working together on the farm. We make friends easily, through our sincere love of farming and people and social networking. Small companies -- and farms -- that are successful -- can adapt to changing conditions more easily than large companies/farms. Rather than smallness being a liability, smallness = nimbleness, adaptability. In fact we have strategically chosen our practices and markets that do not "scale up" to large farms well -- and organic grassfed dairy is one that large companies will not be able to effectively "be big" at -- it requires the skills and reactiveness of -- you guessed it -- a family farmer that really knows their animals and can't be put off on low skill employees or in technology.

Having a family focus -- changes the nature of our decisions, as we plan for a future including our children, instead of just on this year's crop & how many houselots would have to be sold to retire someday. The whole package together - the products, and the "green-ness" - is one that people are actively rooting for -- for our success, in contrast to the conventional wisdom that family farms are in decline and cannot succeed in today's market. We show that does not have to be the case - with our success.

Dairy Initiative Plan ===============

"Make great milk and they will come"

First and most importantly -- make a great product for a willing market. And grassfed organic is that market, and the quality forages and management brings the quality product. It is our desire to be excellent dairymen -- but also know the world of the dairy artisan to better serve them. We are very quick and deep learners; it is not usual for the dairyman to get together with the artisan, but our desire is to break that detachment between the production of the milk and the product.

We anticipate partnering with one or more cheesemakers -- we bring the excellent milk. A possibility is to create an on-farm cheesemaking facility; with proximity to Madison & cheese facilities & bring in even "guest" cheesemakers, I'm confident we can find the right situation.

We would absolutely entertain a partnership where a cheesemaker puts a facility on our farm and makes the cheese. Surely there are budding cheesemakers looking for just this situation.

We anticipate that cheese made from our milk would be in the $10-20+ per pound retail range - high end. It would also be relatively scarce -- there will only be so much. Also some innovative marketing possibilities that I could discuss at another time to expand the market -- for example a cheese auction online on Ebay.

We anticipate -- with the whole package including milk, our farm, us in marketing support -- that we conservatively should earn $35 per 100wt fluid milk. I think it will be higher, but this is a reasonable starting point for discussion.

"Surround ourselves with excellence and success"

With the great products -- we will be of interest to those that can judge what is excellent, and do special things with that excellence. Artisanal cheesemakers such as the Willi Lehners of Bleu Mont Cheese, Uplands Cheese, Bob Wills -- and many more -- that know what excellence is and can help guide us, and we can take the responsibility and have the interest in their world -- and shape our work to best meet the artisan's needs -- all of them -- product and logistics and marketing as examples. As opposed to current situation with most dairy farms, which is "Will you please take my milk?". We can and will go far beyond that with initiative, enthusiasm and ideas.

"Quality is your best marketing: Customer service is right behind that"

We "get it" with customer service -- all too often those "artists" that are excellent, have a certain despise for the customer. We love people, we treat others as we wish to be treated. We know our customers beyond their interest in our products --- they truly become our friends --- and we work very hard to make it easy to work with us, which has meant great customer loyalty and a willingness for our customers to come to the farm rather than us having to spend valuable time at farmer's markets et al marketing our products.

"Our family farm is a marketing asset"

We would preserve our name -- Trautman Family Farm -- in the end product, because it would be to the artisanal dairy professional's interest to do so. We "clean up good" so to speak -- and are excellent ambassadors. A true family farm -- as we like to say -- we ARE that farm pictured on the side of the milk carton or on the cheese label. A happy family farm with happy animals.

Our newest marketing catchphrase says it, too --

"With every taste an invitation -- to see how very special our products are from Trautman Family Farm".

Come see us -- really -- and you will see content, clean animals, well thought out ideas throughout the farm. But -- you will see too -- that we are not an antiseptic planned "show farm" -- it is obvious that real work is done here by a real family, but certainly with a mind to visitors. That is a powerful marketing tool -- especially in the face of competition by large companies. No invitations to the farms there.

MARKET

I won't spend much time discussing the general market for organic or grassfed: They are growing very quickly, and certain events (E Coli for example) even in the past year have only focused more interest. But it is important to note that organic and grassfed is a grassroots movement -- there is no marketing board supporting this, this grows from the people on up. I believe very strongly that we are at the cusp of a wave of change -- very similar to the Internet revolution we participated in starting in 1994.

We have found that our customer base includes a wide range of people, but the most exciting and fastest growing segment is the young educated families -- that have not had health crises that bring them to more natural foods, but by desire to start their families right with healthful food, but also in support of their beliefs about farming, the environment & social justice. These are families that could be customers for 40 plus years!

PRODUCTS

Some flexibility here as of yet. With a high fat & protein milk, fat up to 7% -- we are thinking towards

- Grassfed organic butter (very little in the market right now)
- Grassfed organic raw milk cheeses that preserves as much of the original milk qualities as possible
- generally, products that accent the unique and healthful qualities of grassfed milk
PRACTICES OVERVIEW

We are a very adaptive farm; and much of this comes from absorbing information from trade resources, other farmers and media. In so doing, we have identified practices that satisfy many areas -- marketing, family life & sustainability. Dairy is no different, and it is intended, but with option to adapt to the situation -- to implement the following practices in dairy, based on success of individuals in this area, New Zealand, and in general from those that question everything about what they do -- as we do.

OAD (Once A Day) milking: First reaction by most dairyman: you're crazy. All the more reason to question it. It is being practiced very successfully in Wisconsin, and has the very important quality family life component to it; not "chained to milking" as much. Milk components are very high over 7% butterfat. NOT 50% less milk; 30% less milk, but put the whole equation together and result is a 10% decrease in net profit.

Calf on Cow: Works on so many levels, with the right situation, a Johne's free herd being very important, and a clean, grass environment another. Result is hugely healthier calves, larger and more productive; often they are starting to eat grass at 2 weeks old. Great for heifers and what will be beef steers: that will perform to their peak on grass, without need of grain and the associated health side-effects of feeding grain. This too is being done very effectively by "crazy people" throughout the state, and most dairyman -- for their own convenience needs -- and not the best interests of their animals -- will not even think any further about this. Another advantage to the small farm - it will not scale up to a 400 cow dairy.

100% Grassfed: We have found that customers desire 100% grassfed. They are open to being educated about using "small amounts of grain", but we find it a distracting conversation to have. With our superior quality forages -- and an understanding of the design of the cow -- quality forages are what produce the greatest quality of milk, and best health and longevity. Less milk? Yes. But more than made up in quality. CLA levels at their absolute highest. I am confident in the next few years research will find yet more reasons why grassfed is superior to any other feed system -- except for quantity of milk.

Seasonal: Which goes with 100% grassfed. The best health and milk quality situations are created in growing grass seasons. This too combines with our family focus and ability to "take a break" from milking in winter.

100% cow needs focused dairying: We believe strongly in the management philosophy that these cows are not here to do our bidding, but ours theirs. As a good manager does: How do we as managers provide the best impediment free environment to do their job? Vs. the arrogance of man and our need to bend things to fit our convenience. There truly is a difference in how you think of things if you take this attitude. For example:

Cows don't belong on concrete. Their hooves are not meant for it.
Cows don't want to be (covered) in their own manure; it causes stress
Cows digestive systems were not meant to process grain, and grain causes a great many health issues and definitely affects milk.
Cows want to eat fresh grass; there is no stored feed that can match it; it also happens to be the cheapest way to feed a cow.
A Family sized Dairy

That would end up being at most 50-60 cows; with our other products, we anticipate a number between 30-40, which would be a great number for us to know our animals very well, create a reasonable income & volume of milk to work with in a small-batch environment.

Our first year we anticipate starting with 10-20 cows; building to 30-40 within 2 years, with the likelihood of some aggressive culling to better meet our situation's best cow traits.

Jersey/Jersey cross are the best choice. Within Jersey, NOT the highest producers. The Amish in general seem to have the right goals: Easy Keepers. Surely there will be discovery and focusing on traits as time goes on. Focus on quality and adaptability to our situation.

TIMELINE:

Overall:

2007: Learning, planning, product determination, milking facility building & staging. What a crazy busy year, but fun, too!
2008: Start to milk, work out the bugs, continue building the network; build excitement 2009: Start making value added product
2010: Start winning some awards & with our other mature business aspects, be cashflow positive
2011: Look out, here we come!

Immediate Timeline:
2007-January into February: Discovery & Business Plan, starting training such as "Production of Safe Dairy Foods" Feb 16,17. Mid February: Discovery session with DBIC with preliminary business plan. February into March: Continued immersion and networking. Find grants, consultants et al for business plan. Complete financial projections. Mid-March: Trip to New Zealand on a Babcock scholarship to research above dairy innovations, very popular already in New Zealand April: Finalizing business and implementation plan. May-July: Mostly farming, but chipping away at milking facilities & equipment plans August: Complete financing Finalize milking facilities & equipment plans, sign vendor contracts, look to November build (I suspect this could slip) Have found and purchased our cows Sept-Feb 2008: Being prepared for a whole lot of work and catchup; finish milking facility, loafing/bedding pack area Attend Beginning dairy farmer short course (late October start) Other training/seminars/continued education Mar-April 2008: Let's start milking cows
CHALLENGES:
- where to ship milk year 1; quantity not huge
- assuring our cows are inline with our programs & we don't need major culling & purchase to adjust
- managing all the technical requirements
- staying financially disciplined
- balancing life and work
- all the things that will come up that we haven't even thought of yet

OVERALL:
- A balancing of farm ventures in cattle both beef and dairy, hogs and chickens provides a resiliency, a balanced "ecosystem" and stimulating environment and a nice product mix. - A balance in dairy of give and take: Less milk, better quality, higher price, superior calves, excellent longevity & superior marketability. We will definitely discover the balance point. - We are not concerned about our ability to market our products; we already are to great success.
- We desire to stay "family" -- which is not to say we won't be a part of strategic partnerships; hopefully we will with other family farms in the area for the future. This unit necessarily will remain and flourish as a family farm, and not grow to a ....not family farm, which would erode the credibility of what we're doing. "don't get greedy"; think within the family, think to the future.
- The "best of the best" focus has both costs and rewards. We believe the rewards far outweigh the costs, especially in the social and market conditions of 2007
- By doing "all the right things" -- we are aiming to win awards and spread our message beyond our farm. We can only legitimately do that with success of our own farm
- There surely will be trials, and it will take work and discipline for it to be successful, but with our skills, situation, and the tremendous amount of help available to us, an excellent shot at success
- Our current financial situation is reasonable (this said by someone who tends to the conservative and dislikes debt), we will surely have some tight times for at least 2007 and 2008, if not longer, but we are best motivated by adversity. We will need loans to fully implement our vision, but again we have a great team working with us to clearly evaluate the business proposition.
- We have a realistic expectation of the time and energy and sacrifice this will take. As our whole family will necessary be involved -- we get our "quality time" in work time.
- We embrace that activity is not accomplishment; that we will have the discipline, and create the situations to think our actions through, and not back ourselves into corners.
- For all the confidence we show here -- we know humility -- and are open to change, and not afraid to say "I'm sorry" and "I was wrong". We are committed to being open minded and flexible.
- We understand that for all the great planning one does -- that things will come up, things will change, there will be unexpected changes. And we would say that this sure makes life interesting, and indeed that we are at our best when we have to make the best of things. Stuff happens; we deal with it.
- We are optimistic people, and we waste no time or energy being critical of others, we focus ourselves on "what can we do in our own small way to change the world for the positive?"

Indeed the most radical and revolutionary thing we can do is to succeed.

Strengths:
- a strong entrepreneurial and business background
- problem solving and technical background that allows quick adoption of new ideas; a hunger for learning
- excellent communication abilities with strong networking for a solid marketing focus
- passionate love of farming and to share our enthusiasm and knowledge with others
- a relatively short time farming: no bad habits or preconceived limitations to overcome
- a super family team that works together efficiently and effectively and in respect of each other’s strengths
- the incredible resources at hand in Wisconsin to help people like us succeed
- proximity to Madison: for customers, resources & artisans
- excellent reputation and momentum through our current product offerings; excellent customer service focus
- ability to sell all our products without leaving the farm through strategic marketing and excellent quality products that make it worthwhile for people to come here for them.
- reasonable capitalization and access to funds for expansion.
- the hard work of organic certification and soil fertility at the home farm are done; quality simply will not be an issue.
- lots of help from the many many friends we’ve made along the way.
- access to some of the finest minds anywhere in soils and forage and dairy nutrition (my Midwestern BioAg network)
- the discipline of the organic way: solving farm problems instead of masking symptoms & taking the long view
- understand the hard work ahead and what we're getting into. We love our work!

Weaknesses:
- inexperience in dairy, but have quickly learned and adapted and will be using this year before we start strategically to gain experience and expertise.
- ability to expand land-wise; countered by “heavy thinking” to maximize income per acre, with available expansion, “icing on the cake”. Long term lobbying efforts for new lands have been made.

Concerns:
- (short term) shipping milk 1st year somewhere as we work through the kinks
- managing the myriad of details in
logistics issues of getting milk to a processing facility from a single farm or
assembling a processing facility here and finding the right dairy artisan partner and
complying with health and safety regulations
- managing our time to add this venture to an already fairly full schedule
- even with a year off start date, so very much to do and learn
- managing our cash-flow in 2007,8 until we come fully "online" with dairy income in 2009
- managing innovative dairy practices with a limited support network with those new practices
- a maddening amount of administrivia in support of farm dairy production?

I'd like to take the time today to introduce you to my friend Richard.

Richard is one of the last of the old time dairymen. He is 70 years old, and has been a bachelor all his life; he has never traveled beyond Madison, and hasn't spent a whole lot of time off his farm. I am so very grateful that I have come to know him and for him to be my friend.

I met Richard in about March of 2007. I don't know why I was looking in the dairy cattle for sale section of Agri-View; I can't say I was serious about dairy at all at the time. It was of interest, but for the future. The ad said "10 cows, grazing herd, never pushed, Jersey crosses", which if I was to dairy, was just the kind of starter herd I was looking for.

So I called him, and arranged to come see the herd. I remember telling Julie just that we were "going to see some animals", as she was surely not too hep on dairy, and she does indeed "know how I get" and would not want me too encouraged in this direction. But we loaded up the whole family and went north of DeForest to Richard's farm. We arrived in the middle of milking time, and he asked if we could come back in an hour. So we went and had dinner in DeForest and then came back. He was very concerned that the cows would be disturbed by other people being around. This is a fellow that doesn't have too many visitors, and the main visitor to the cows was the vet- not usually a happy thing, so understandable about the cows being not so used to people.

Richard was so proud of his herd, and he had every right to be, at least to a fellow like me. The first cow I saw, on the end, was GJ. GJ stood for "Guernsey Jersey". She was a big girl and had a white triangle on her forehead, like Guernsey's are known to have. And where the other cows were wary, GJ was very friendly indeed, and her and I immediately warmed to each other. I instinctively performed a well received intensive tailhead scratch.

Richard had decided to quit milking cows after some 50 years due to problems with his hands: carpal tunnel syndrome, that made all farm chores difficult. But Richard wanted something that most farmers don't think about, and don't have the luxury of being able to ask for. Richard wanted a good home for his cows, and he wanted, secondly, a home close enough where he could visit them, which upon a visit to our farm and confirmation that ours was the place for his cows, 32 miles was indeed close enough. He knew he wanted someone that would love his cows the way he loved them, and that would provide them pasture and care like his.

Richard told me many times after that that he told his mother, who lived with him on the farm at the time, that upon that first meeting, he knew he wanted his girls to come to our farm. Julie was impressed with the cows, and we discussed further the implications of dairy on our future. We decided to purchase the herd, for the first group of dry cows to come in June. GJ was in that group, as was Maidengirl, GJ's sister, and Baby GJ, whom we just call Baby, GJ's daughter.

All along I talked quite a bit to Richard, and he got to know me and what I was trying to do, and I got to know Richard better, and his deep love of his cows and committment to always doing what's right for them. Our ideas differered, his reflecting more conventional views in some cases, old fashioned views in others, and I would say the best of Organic ideals as well. If Richard was 20 years younger, he'd surely be an organic farmer now.

The summer of 2007 was yet another drought; a bad one; it just did not rain from May until end of July. We struggled with fly control and had an outbreak of pinkeye. And most importantly, we felt we were moving too fast into dairy, and that we would put too much money into ideas that we didn't know enough about. Richard would check in every few days to see what progress we were making towards building our dairy facility; at the time we were milking one cow, in the field, with a bucket milker & portable vacuum. No facilities necessary there. With milking 10, however, need for a full blown milking facility, yet, not enough size to achieve any kind of income over expenses. The worst of both worlds. We explored, we talked, we worked, we came to the conclusion this was crazy for us to spend all this money on a facility we hadn't thought enough about. In the meantime three additional heifers had been brought to our farm from Richards, Jersey, Baby ChickaJay & Baby Blackie.

I knew I had to go to Richards farm and tell him in person that we couldn't buy the rest of his herd. It took me two weeks to work up the courage. How badly I felt about it, what it meant to Richard that he would be burdened to find another home for his cows. He pulled out his calendar, and went through day by day our contacts, and plans we had made, that I now had to reneg on. I told him I sure wish he would yell at me with as badly as I felt. But he knew it was true, too, that it made no sense for us to get in this deep with everything going on, even while we were still committed to dairy in our future, it would have to be on a smaller scale now if there was to be a future. We look back now and know had we gone ahead then, we would probably hate milking cows and would probably not be doing it at all.

So Richard did find another buyer over the next couple months for the rest of his herd, not too altogether much farther away, but definitely not much of a pastured farm, and as became evident over time, not to Richard's high standards, either. He would stop in our farm, and see our serene animals, his cows, too, with calves with them, in pasture all the time, and tell me about conditions at the other farm. I told him to quit going there -- just stop here. Richard worries a lot; that is in his nature to become consumed by worry of a thing, and keep him up at night and preoccupied during the day.

To this day, Richard comes by about once a week, he knows to pop in around 9am we will be milking, and he'll pick up the broom and sweep, and lend a hand in any way he can. I am so grateful to hear his advice: as I know it is completely from love of the cows, and not from convenience to him, or profit. I value his perspective, experience and ideas. I appreciate that he "keeps us on track"; Julie and I know that Richard will be coming, and he will ask about how we are doing on shelter for the animals, how care for them is going, are they getting bred, all the things we need to do as competent dairymen. Richard has been so very generous to us in so many ways. That he could forgive me for not being able to take his whole herd, that he cares enough to come by, I consider Richard a true friend and I am the better person for knowing him.

I enjoy hearing stories about his cows, his farming experiences, and I love to tell Richard of my experiences, especially with his cows, knowing how much they tickle him, and still the pride he feels in his girls. We share those silly little things that only two people that love cows bother with; how Baby had this cute little kick, just to tell you "hey, what'r you doing under there", and GJ's easygoing personality, how Baby ChikaJay is just like her mother.

Richard is the last of his generation that feels so deeply about his cows; today it's all business. I hope that some of Richard's spirit is in me and that I can pass that on to my children, and perhaps others. I know he nor I are the only ones to love our cows, and there are still those out there that do, and it's not just a business of numbers, facts & figures. We ought all celebrate the likes of Richard for the true love beyond himself he has shown over his long career.

So how's this economy treating ya then there Scotty my boy?

Well, not so very great; it's a tough time to be something other than the "Walmart" of food, especially when you've focused your energy on getting your food to real people, and not just people of means.

Great food costs more to produce. I'm always amazed at how cheap a pound of ground beef is, when you consider

- it has typically been driven around 1500 miles
- the trucking company got what they needed out of the deal
- the wholesaler got what they wanted
- the grocery store got their markup
- the farmer that raised it? Hmmm. Not so sure whether he got his. Maybe he had to cheapen up the product quite a bit to have it all make sense.

Then you have our farm: Raised here, processed 35 miles away, the 35 miles back to our farm, 70 miles total. No trucking company, no wholesaler, no grocery store markup. The farmer? Us? Still arguable as to whether we're getting ours!!! And that with our very lean ground beef sold at $5.25/lb, and being grassfed & from an organic farm. Ask yourself not why ours is so "expensive" but why theirs is so cheap!

Some more differences -- think of the carbon footprint of all the items above on your "cheap" beef. Your grandkids will pay for your cheap beef today, right? At least you get a deal today. Well our beef, you're paying for a better world and better health for you; the whole cost.

 So back to the economy----

We have always focused our energy on feeding real people. It's that important that real people are healthy, full of energy, and making good decisions in their lives from health and energy rather than sickness, fatigue and frustration. But that maybe was a bad bet on our part, because we've seen altogether too many that slink back to the grocery store for the cheap beef and leave us out to dry. In a trying/stressful time like this, one would hope that the very best of health and energy and decisions are made, and an excellent diet is sure a good place to be with that.

But maybe this is a good thing for us, too, in that we have to sharpen our pencils, put our minds to work, get creative and find new ways to get the word out. What we aren't going to do is give up, or cheapen our products, or now all of a sudden stick our noses up the butt of the rich and tell them how great it smells. Our food is for all people, regardless of income, it's for people that want to be healthy, but also help change the world for the better.

And who is doing their darndest to change the world for the better? Why, Scott Trautman & Trautman Family Farm is, that's who. How then? The very first and most important way: Being a radical revolutionary and daring to be a successful small family farm. Not giving into the "conventional wisdom" and laziness of thought and action that the family farm is dead. The idea that you can farm and do any damn stupid thing you want and someone will give you a living from it: That is Dead. That creative, hardworking people can still farm and keep the humanity out on the farm: Alive and well in a new breed of farmer that doesn't make excuses for themselves, and challenges each and every idea of what it is to be a farmer.

It would make some people feel a whole lot better about purchasing from the farm if the farmers lived in a doublewide, were unkempt and had bad teeth. That way you could be sure they weren't TOO profitable; it's okay for everyone else to make money, but not farmers, we have to keep them close to the bone. That's the conventional wisdom, and I've now said it. You cringe in hearing it, but isn't it the truth? You don't want to see us succeed and have a nice house out here, if you think somehow that might be at your expense. Yet Kraft, ADM, Cargill, Monsanto, the grocery store, it IS okay for all of them to report record earnings year in and year out. You say you want farmers to succeed, yet bitch about food prices. Words/action disconnect. Words easy to say: real convictions take money and action.

How again are we changing the world for the better?

Other farmers drive by this farm every day. And they all know we're one weird breed here. Organic? Everyone knows you have nothing but weeds and poor yields. Yet, that doesn't seem to be the case driving by here. How is that? As the years go by, 6 seasons now, the excuses they give THEMSELVES as to how we can be doing it -- have to drop away. And one day, they finally give in to themselves and pull in the driveway and ask just what is it we are doing here. And I am there to help, to make real farmers out of the chem-miners.

What's that about changing the world for the better?

I instigated, I lead, I teach the Introduction to Organic Farming course at MATC in Madison. I put in significant hours -- for free -- promoting it and getting the word out to farmers about how NOW is the time to be thinking about organic farming, and to be successful, they need to change how they think, and they need to fill their heads with knowledge, and not just the Coop's phone number to call in the chem bomb when they screw up.

With as screwed up as our farmlands are, our farmer's heads are far more screwed up. They question very little, and they are convinced of ideas that are just not true. If we all went organic we'd starve. That has always been bullshit. That organic farmers see nothing but low yields and weeds. Nope, bad organic farmers see low yields and weeds. All ideas propogated by those with everything to lose if farmers said NO to all that chemical and genetic crap. Those scum have mastered siphoning money from farmers to themselves; they have a captive audience as long as they continue to buy their bullshit ideas. A lie repeated often enough becomes accepted as the truth. And there are a whole lot of lies in conventional farming, friends.

So, back to this economy of ours....

The bigboys in foods over the last few years have all jumped on the organic bandwagon. Good for them. They've brought their ideas of success to organic, too -- domination good, competition bad. Suck up all the competitors, you get to do what you want. We've seen that. Mine the good out of a good word like organic. Fine. They are watching now, and I can tell you they are grinning ear to ear -- they would be happy to shut down the organic lines and fill you back full with their processed, high margin crap once again. If all it takes is a jag in the economy to put real people off the good food.

So NOW is the time for you to show them they are WRONG. When you're looking around at a smaller pot of money -- give up the damn cable, give up the extra recreation, you don't need the extra plasma TV, you don't need to eat out as much as you do, you need to eat right and spend more time with your family; not just in proximity to them but WITH them. And a family meal of great food is but one great idea on how to do it. Maybe this economy is your queue to re-assess just what's important. Stuff? Or people, family, values.

We have put our heart and soul into this farm. We currently work for NEGATIVE dollars per hour in the here and now. If we spread our labors and investment out over 20 years -- well, still less of a return than most of you would work for, but we love what we do, and know it is important work and we are willing to make the sacrifice.

It means so much more for us to feed regular people, that have made hard choices, and this food isn't out of the luxury pot, but the how are we going to make this all work pot, yet they choose us. That means something to us and we are humbled and grateful to those people.

We are suffering along with this economy. We are disappointed to see some customers make choices that lack courage, but we'll be okay; we'll work harder still, be more creative, and never ever become cynical.

We continue to lead by example, and to speak out for what's right. Please join us in that, fuel our engine of change, fuel your engines of change, support our farm, support your bodies, buy our great food, feed the gift that is your body.

How's the economy treating us? Let me be able to say it's treating us GREAT because real people are stepping up everywhere to let us know what counts.

 I now step down from my soapbox, and get back to some real work. That checkbook won't reconcile itself you know---

Really piss 'em off: Be happy, be healthy

 Scott Trautman
Trautman Family Farm
2049 Skaalen Road
Stoughton, WI 53589
family@trautman.net
http://www.trautmanfarm.com

Mr. Bull, "Shim", and our clearly emaciated half dead 100% grass dairy girls. Wait -- they look happy and healthy, how could that be? Could it be that 99.9% of dairymen are wrong? Nah, they must be getting grain somehow.....

Hello!

 This is Scott Trautman, here, to write some words about what life is like out here on Trautman Family Farm. Me, my wife Julie, our kids: Ian, 10, Quinn 8, and Lilly 5....and....

22 Jersey Cross Organic 100% Grass Milk Cows
20 Young calves from aforementioned Milk Cows
1 Shim the Wonder Bull (Jersey)
43 4-12 month old Steers
4 Yearling Heifers
===
90 Bovines on our 70 acre farm

And 120 Hens,
27 Pigs (Porkers, Piggle Diggles, Oinkers)

Quite a bit of animal action going on out here. And grass action; our entire farm is in grass. We also run an additional 50 acres off the farm, which sooner or later ends up in hay.

We are a grass farm; we are a certified organic farm, and we have farmed only since 2003. But since that time we have invested in knowledge for our heads, and minerals for our soils to make the startings of...a grassy paradise.

We Love Cows! Okay, Scott REALLY loves cows, and the rest are pretty darn fond of the big brutes. Brutes? Nah, big SWEETIES they are.

That sure is a lot of animals for one farm, aint it? Yes it is. Thing is, we are organic by design, and we have invested heavily in our future, our soil fertility, and we get very nice yields indeed; above the county average. We are "overachievers" but need to be, as we are landlocked with what we have now.

It has been one heck of a stretch of beautiful fall weather; sunny, 70, wow. Great to be one of the rich people, able to be outside and enjoy the weather, the grass, but mostly those beautiful cows and baby cows. All the poor people stuck in buildings. So sad.

Today, rain. Still pretty warm, but soon to be gone. We wouldn't appreciate the spring summer and fall if we didn't have winter with which to compare it. And winter can be fun, too. For us as farmers, it's finally time to rest! The rest of the year? 14 hour days, 7 days a week, no weekends, no holidays. But that's okay; we don't need a vacation from paradise.

Please consider coming to see us, and see what I'm talking about. Our beautiful farm, our wonderful pastures, our excellent animals and superb foods.

Grassfed beef should be on your DAILY menu. It's good for you, it's good for the planet. See http://www.eatwild.com for the whole story on Grass goodness.

Our 100% grass dairy? Well the day will come that you can buy great products like cheese or butter, also with the fantastic healthful benefits of 100% grass. In the meantime, we carry great grass butter & cheese from Pastureland. 100% grass, organic. See http://www.pastureland.coop for details, then come on out to our farm store.

This new blogging feature is pretty darn cool, and with just a little encouragement (mention it when you stop out to the farm store, for example....), I'd love to share the stories of our farm and our animals and maybe even our family.

Live long and prosper.

No, wait, that was Spock.

Live free or Die. Eh, kinda harsh for a grass farm.

Really piss'em off: Be happy, Be Healthy

There. That's the right tone to take for me, Scott Trautman, Reporting from Trautman Family Farm, Looking out my window Right Now at:

All the very best

Scott Trautman & Family

http://www.trautmanfarm.com