Carie Marshall-Moore
Forest High School : Morgan Harrison
In a nutshell:
Winter-workshops, school visits, equipment fixing, shop work, homeschooling
Spring-field work, maintenance on equipment, fertilizing, seeding
Summer-checking fields for pests and diseases, spraying crops if needed, seeding cover crops, baling hay
Fall-this is what I am focusing on with your farmer! Last week we did a lot before we got snow so I tried to take some pictures beforehand without him and then added him with the equipment after and put them together. It was a busy week here!
● Field work-cultivating~In the fall we do some minimal tillage that just helps break up some of the crop residue so it starts to decompose throughout the winter and spring and put nutrients back into the soil.
● Spreading manure~We take manure and spread on areas that need extra fertilizer. Many times these are hilltops or sandy areas that don’t hold Nitrogen well so the fertilizer sits over winter and in the spring when snow starts to melt it goes down into the soil so when we seed it’s there to help the plant grow.
● Bringing new air seeder home from auction~We purchased a new air seeder at an auction so we had to go and get it with our semi and bring it home.
● Communicating with schools-ZOOM
● Moving straw bales
● Soil sampling~Each fall after the crop comes off we soil sample so we know where we are at with essential minerals that help plants grow. This tells us what we need to put on in the spring when we fertilize. We don’t want to put more than we need on so those numbers from the test help to tell us what and how much to apply for the specific crop we are going to grow on that field.
● Distance learning~One of my boys likes to be home on the farm. He also does better with one-on-one learning so we are taking advantage of the open distance learning program they have right now in place with COVID-19. He joins class through the ipad and it’s like he’s there in school, but I am able to work with him on problems that he wouldn’t get help on in the classroom.
● Conventions for AAW and ND Farm Bureau~I had a National Convention for AAW that was a few days long but done virtually, so a few friends and I met in Iowa to spend some time together and do the conference together.
● Cleaning and fixing combine~Cleaning off the chaff and dust from the combine we do a lot during harvest so we don’t start a fire in the combine. At the end of harvest we do a thorough cleaning with an air compressor and big wand that can reach in tight spaces. It’s a very dirty and itchy job but we want to make sure and get it all off while it’s dry before snow and rain comes. It takes me about an hour and a half and I probably could have gone another hour. It gets very dirty inside.
● Putting away equipment for the winter~When we are done for the year we take all the implements up to the yard and we bring all the tractors and semis and things to the shop so they are there to work on over the winter. That way we are ready to go when spring comes.
● Working in the shop on things~We have a lot of projects we work on in the shop. Lately we have been trying to get snowmobiles ready for winter in case we get a lot of snow!
● Burning off cattails and other grasses that plug up waterways and other areas (picture) ○ We burn off all the dead grass and cattails in certain places to help with a good growth in the spring. If there is a lot of “litter” or matted grass it makes it hard for the good, new grass to come in the spring and you tend to get a lot more weeds. We do leave some areas that are protected so the wildlife have a place to bed down and stay warm and get out of the wind.
● New promotion with KEY apparel and NY Farm Girls for #FaceOfAFemaleFarmer ~A few of us at AAW have been working on a new campaign to promote women in ag. It’s been a lot of fun.
● Took a coffee break~My dog Duke and I were just taking a break thinking about what we needed to do to sit down and write up for you!
● Checking cover crops!I check on the cover crops I planted in the fall as well to make sure they had some good growth.
My main jobs are:
~Ag Communications
*Edit and design newsletters for American Agriwomen, put out national press releases, social media sharing, in-organizational communications to members, manage website b. Ag education
*Go into schools or zoom online presentations on anything ag related and how it applies to you and I, read and donate ag books, share on my social media pages. You can check below at all my #HayYou videos on Facebook and Twitter. Some of them I took while doing some of the tasks I did with the flat farmer!!!
~ Farmer
*All the duties listed above with your farmer and so much more!!!
~Ag Consulting – conservation education for ag
*Help other farmers and ranchers decide on good practices that will help their farms and our natural resources like cover crops, trees, conservation tillage options, and water management.
What is the land around me used for? Primarily the land around me is crop land. There is a mix of pasture and CRP (conservation reserve program – USDA) land as well for cattle and wildlife. We have quite a bit of water that runs through and we are very close to Canada so spring seeding is always up in the air based on weather, snow, fall rains on when we can get into the fields and not get stuck! We have whitetail deer, turkey, geese, ducks, swans, cranes, moose, elk, coyotes, fox, skunks, raccoons and eagles where we live for wildlife.
Do you help other farmers around you? Since I am home on the farm full time and our kids are in elementary and junior high, I am able to help people around us. We have a great relationship with a rancher and so I bale hay for him all summer and then in the fall he bales the straw from our barley fields for bedding for his cattle. I help stack the bales and then we also use his manure for our fields as a natural fertilizer. So it’s a great form of regeneration and sustainability for both our farms and the land.
How did you get started in your career? I started in High School being involved in FFA and it grew from there. I have worked as a zoo keeper, with wildlife, on a large dairy farm in Wisconsin, many large swine facilities, in natural resources, and many other ag/livestock jobs randomly. I like animals and being outside and doing physical labor. It’s hard during the winter to sit behind the desk most of the time and do paperwork and other computer work for my jobs. I met my husband and eventually when his grandma died we moved out to the farm into her house and the year after that began farming. We are up to 650 acres of cropland and then some random additional acres of pasture and CRP land we manage. You can see all about us at the pages below that I attached.
If you are interested in ag and electronics there is a whole field out there with Precision Ag that needs people with those interests. We use autosteer in our tractors, many of the bins that store grain are all computerized, our planting, chemical/fertilizer application, and harvesting uses computers in the cabs. If none of that works, we really can’t do anything until it gets fixed and that usually requires a technician to come out to the farm. Livestock ranchers have computers that run the fans, heat, cameras, and many other technologies.
Attached is some information also that may be helpful:
https://www.facebook.com/crocusviewmoorefarms
https://www.keyapparel.com/partners/faceofafemalefarmer/
Tractor Rounds + Coffee Grounds 