New Farmer Profile: Margaret and Mark Nelson
Margaret grew up on a conventional dairy farm in northern Illinois and always wanted to farm, but thought it was too unrealistic. She and her husband Mark, a city kid, got a few cattle as soon as they moved onto their six acres. They wanted to make sure that their daughters were brought up around livestock. So the girls both helped to raise a few beef cattle and show them through 4H and at the county fair each year.
When asked about Mark as a farm laborer, Margaret drew back and laughed. She said that when they first got the cattle Mark would feed them, and upon returning she would ask, “Did you call them?” Mark would say, “What for? They come when they see the feed.” Margaret would tell him again and again, “You have to call those cattle.” So, reluctantly…he would call them and dole out the feed.
One day when Mark was driving home from work he thought he caught sight of the back end of a calf heading into the corn field. Sure enough, when he got home the cattle were no where to be found. He grabbed his bucket of feed and went back down the road to where he thought he saw the calf and starting calling. Next thing you know, Mark is leading the group of cattle down the road, calling them, and luring them along with the feed bucket. Margaret laughs, “I never had to ask him to call the cattle again.”
It wasn’t until they put together a couple of the Joel Salatin moveable chicken pens that they began to think more seriously about farming as a business. Once some of their friends tried some of their pasture-raised poultry, Margie’s Grass Kickin’ Chicken was born. They enrolled in the 2005-06 Stateline Farm Beginnings® class. They have added laying hens to go along with the meat birds and a couple pigs. Mark is the builder of the animal housing and as Margaret puts it, “A real good chicken catcher….he’s fast.” The Salatin pens worked well for their mobility, but Margaret found them a bit heavy and Mark found them a bit low to the ground for his ‘chicken catching’ leading up to harvest. Mark recently built some cattle panel hoop style houses for the meat birds and a moveable wagon house for the laying hens.
Margaret’s favorite parts of Farm Beginnings® were doing a cash flow statement for the business and meeting all the farmers and hearing their stories. She also remarked that the classes made them think about what their goals were for the farm and what direction they wanted to take their business. Margaret just went through some decisions concerning the chickens feed, which brought back memories of farmer Dave Varney’s talk during Farm Beginnings® that emphasized being flexible and open to the fact that your business plan is going to change as unpredictable circumstances arrive.
Margaret was recently able to give up her part-time job so that she can focus full time on the farm. When asked how she liked not working off the farm, and in typical farmer speak she replied, “it’s alright, but I’m pretty busy… a lot to do around here.” So what is her biggest challenge? Time. Time for those grass kickin’ chickens.