Delta Farm Tour shows full circle of agriculture

Russ Pinkelman poses with Big Joe at his farm on July 15.

Anyone who thinks no one cares about Alaska agriculture didn’t see the curiosity and interest of the participants in the Delta Farm Tour. All fifty-two guests taking the July 15 tour got the picture of the “full circle” of Alaska agriculture.

Starting out in relentless drizzle, tour guide Michael Paschall, publisher of the Alaska Farm and Ranch News and representative of the Farm Bureau, Delta Junction chapter, apologized for the weather, then quipped, “A farmer never says no to rain.”

The tour’s first stop was at Northwest Land and Livestock’s hog barns where there were many echoes of ooh’s and ah’s at the adorable, tiny pink piglets and their big intimidating mothers. Farmer Russ Pinkelmann welcomed the crew with these sage words: “With pigs something is always going to stink.”

Pinkelman’s specialty is Galloway cattle but the focus of his stop on the tour was the “pig show,” as he called it. “We are a ‘dirt to the plate’ operation,” he explained. Pinkelman came to Alaska to work construction and got into farming because of a “love of good quality meat.” When the family got into the pig business they purchased the animals that had been part of a UAF research project. His 25 sows produce 400 piglets a year. Pinkelman’s pigs are sold to individuals and there is usually a waiting list.

“These pigs make the best sausage in the world,” he said. The work is never done in farming and there’s always more to do, he said. “I don’t know how long we’ll survive but it’s in our blood.”

Back on the bus, Paschall explained that raising animals is different in Alaska. “Worldwide the producers do one aspect of it; it’s compartmentalized. Here the producer must take it from inception to packing.” In this state, a farmer will most likely have to raise his own feed for the livestock, birth the animals, raise them up, slaughter them, then ship them.

The bus rolled on to the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Delta Research Site, researchers gave the highlights of their work on fertilizer, weeds, and grain variety trials.

Meghan Lene of the Soil and Water Conservation District told about her research on phosphorus and potassium. “They are essential for plants to photosynthesize, for respiration, energy transfer, crop yield, and quality of crops,” Lene said. They also provide natural disease resistance. Her plots at the research site compare how plants grow when lime is administered to the soil. “I am hoping to see trends, publish the results, and provide recommendations for phosphorus and potassium,” Lene said. “Fertilizer is not cheap and we want to make sure people are applying the right amount.” UAF Professor Steve Sparrow added that researchers are also studying fishmeal and fish bonemeal as possible fertilizers. “They could be a good organic source of nutrients,” he said.

USDA Agricultural Research Service research agronomist Steve Seefeldt outlined his work with weeds. “Thirty years ago this was forest,” he said. “When it was cleared there were no weeds but shortly after the weeds came in.”

Seefeldt is conducting 17 control treatments in barley fields. Upon completion of the study he will provide recommendations to Cooperative Extension Service agents so farmers can get the results of his research. He is also studying what happens to herbicides in the soil.

UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences Research Technician Bob VanVeldhuizen gave details on the agronomic crops: barley, oats, wheat, rye, canola, smooth bromegrass, and timothy. It was explained that recently UAF released a new type of hulless barley, Sunshine, that has netted nationwide attention and demand.

Lunch at the Snowhook Club was delightfully tailored to an Alaska-grown theme. Local buffalo, potatoes, greens, and rhubarb were on the menu. The crowning jewel was Alaska-made gourmet chocolates from the candy shop next door.

Dustin Peterson ponders life on the farm at Insanity Acres.

Then it was on to Insanity Acres, where the Peterson family wowed the crowd with tales of operating their grain operation, the Natural Resources Conservation Service programs they implement and the “no-till” practices they employ to preserve the land and protect wildlife. Randy Peterson explained how the family farm got its name. “We were farming in Missouri and decided to move up here; people said ‘you’ve got to be insane,’ and it stuck.” The thinking was the Petersons would take life easy in Alaska and do some hunting and fishing. “We went right back into farming even deeper,” Peterson said. “It’s turned into a big nightmare,” he joked.

While he had been practicing no-till farming methods in Missouri for years, he is one of the first to get it started in Alaska, with 500 acres in no-till.

Kasey Peterson showed off her brand new hoop house, where she is endeavoring to grow berries and vegetables. Adding to the excitement, just prior to the bus’s arrival the family had observed a grizzly bear near one of the barns.

In just two and a half years Scott Plagerman has taken a former elk farm and built up a huge hay production operation and horse stable. Even though the rain still poured, Plagerman demonstrated his state-of-the-art irrigation system, one of the few in the area. His unusually-sized 3 x 3 x 8 hay bales and his construction of a hay dryer were of great interest to the tour-goers.

June Siegrist, left, meets Douglas, the four-month old yak. Mary Kaspari is at right.

Extension Agent Phil Kaspari welcomed the group to his farm where people cuddled up to young yaks. Kaspari told about the importance of “imprinting” the babies so they are used to being around humans and act more gently.

The last stop, completing the circle, was Delta Meat and Sausage where everyone (who could take it) walked through the kill floor and peeked into the meat locker to see massive hanging cattle carcasses. After hitting the gift shop it was back to Fairbanks.

USDA Farm Service Agency Alaska Executive Director Daniel Consenstein, among the tour-goers, said about the tour: “I have learned a lot about Alaska agriculture and the potential we have here in Alaska. There are so many opportunities for people who want to grow food and fiber.”

One of the contented tour-takers, Samantha Castle-Kirstein, executive director of the Fairbanks Community Food Bank, thought the tour was well organized with great dialog and speakers. “There was a touch of politics as well as the technical parts,” she said. It’s always good for her to meet food producers and personally she is a hobbyist and locavore too. “It’s good to focus on that,” she said.