Acreage Planning 2012

Many move to the country thinking that rural life will not be as fast-paced and stressful as city life.  That may be true in some ways, but the one thing that our family has found from living in the country is that rural life requires more planning than city life. When we live in the country, even if on a small farm, we decide what happens and when it happens.  Most of the time, things go better when they happen according to a well-thought out plan. When we live out in the country, we are usually away from many sources of help, and we need to be able to deal with situations that arise on our own as much as possible. One thing that makes our lives easier is planning for the future.

Making Plans for the 2012 Growing Season

Any rural home and garden- no matter how small- requires planning ahead for things to work out for the best. For instance, vegetable garden planning is crucial.   Review the past year and determine what grew and produced well this year, as well as what crops didn’t do so well.  Examine new crops you’d like to try and what grew, but couldn’t get anyone to eat.  Good garden planning can save lots of money in seed and plant purchasing, and can also result in more efficient food consumption. Why should you plant more eggplant next year, even though it grew abundantly, if no one wanted to eat it?

A very helpful tool for garden planning for 2012 is your computer.  Several seed companies offer online garden planning sites, and a couple of good ones come from Territorial Seed Company- Vegetable Garden Planner- gardenplanner.territorialseed.com and Gardener’s Supply Company- www.gardeners.com.  These sites allow you to plug in our specific locations and select crops to grow.  The planners give row length and bed layout selections.  Besides the benefits of harvesting and eating our garden crops in the summer, planning a garden is the next best way to spend the long, cold nights of winter.

Even more important than good planning for the vegetable garden is planning for fruit and nut trees.  Think about it - if you plan wrong on our tomatoes, you only have a single year’s loss- that’s no big deal.  However, if you plan wrong with fruit and nut trees and berry bushes, you’ve lost a decade or more of potential growth and production. 

I’ve found that we can’t just order a bunch of blueberry bushes and pop them into holes in the ground and assume they will grow.  Successful berry culture takes some pre-planting thought. We can plan for a blueberry planting by looking at soil conditions, irrigation needs and supplies, and possible winter protection for bushes. If we plan right and take the needed steps to prepare and amend the soil if necessary and arrange for irrigation and other needed steps, we’ll probably meet with success. Ineffective planning probably means these bushes will not produce well.

With fruit trees, we need to plan very carefully.  If we choose the wrong variety of apples in our area, we will lose years of production.  I have found from bad planning in the past that just because a certain variety of apple will grow in our area, that doesn’t mean it willproduce usable fruit. Good fruit tree planning requires research and communication with expert sources.  Local university extension services are very good starting points.

Livestock

We can’t overlook the need for good plans for our animal components of the farm. On our home place, several of our hens are getting up in years and we need some new “spring chickens” to bring egg production back to a high level.  I have to either hatch more chicks on my own or order a totally new strain from a commercial hatchery.

We also have to think ahead about raising hogs for next year. I have to plan on new hog pens and better handling facilities.  I have to decide how many hogs I want to raise, and I have to examine local sources of feed to find the best prices and see if I can save money by ordering ahead in bulk.

 I’m considering locating a new source of bees to start some new beehives, so I need to plan on forage crops for the bees to work for maximum production.  All these possibilities on our farm can be answered through careful and well-considered planning for next year.

A Little Stroll Around the Farm

All of us who live in the country need to determine the state of the physical parts of our rural homes.  We need to walk the fences and check the state of the wire.  Will replacement fencing or repairs be needed? If we determine that fence repair or improvement is needed, we can sometimes find good buys on materials or even labor in off-season deals that can save a lot of money and work. I’ve found that after the cows have broken down a fence and been loose is the worst time to make fence repair planning.

Do barns or other outbuildings need new roofing? Again, planning repairs to storage buildings ahead of time can keep expensive losses from occurring later. A rural homeowner needs to be honest when making building repair plans. When I plan on repairing a barn, I need to realize that I’m not able to climb up on high ladders now as I did when I was 25, so I need to plan on hiring a construction crew instead of planning on doing everything myself. 

Another area where most acreages can profit from some good planning is in energy use and efficiency of electrical appliances and tools.  Most rural electrical co-ops will help homeowners do an energy audit of the farm and home, and this can lead to substantial energy cost savings, sometimes with only small improvements.  Perhaps a bit of insulation or weather stripping around doors and windows can improve energy costs.

A final thought for rural homeowners is to either re-join or sign up initially with the local rural fire protection agency.  Volunteer fire departments can make all the difference between a minor scare and a major loss when a fire happens on a rural home place.  Volunteer fire departments will usually respond to non-member fires, but the cost of dealing with a house fire can be quite high if the fire occurs on a non- member farm.  Also, insurance costs can be lowered through membership in the rural fire protection co-op. A little bit of planning can make fire protection on a rural home place much more secure.

Money Makes the World Go Round

There are so many facets of financial planning for any family, and rural families are no different. Everything from employment off the home place to savings accounts to retirement accounts must all be figured into any plan.  However, there are some government tax considerations that are specific to rural households that might be worth the time to look at when making financial plans for 2012.

Joelle Terry of the Department of Energy says, “Homeowners ready to take advantage of the energy savings that energy efficiency upgrades deliver should check out the energy efficiency tax credit (http://www.rnrtgysavers.gov/financial/70010.html) offered through the IRS and promoted by the Department of Energy.  The incentive credits homeowners up to $500 toward income taxes for purchasing and installing eligible energy-efficient products. Homeowners still have time to select the money-saving consumer energy products that make the most sense for them, but need to act soon because the $500 home efficiency credits are set to expire at the end of the year.”

Another tax benefit for rural homeowners to examine for 2012 is a tax credit for certain energy systems.  Terry says, “There is a tax credit for 30% of the cost of qualifying renewable energy systems.  The products eligible for these credits include solar and wind energy systems, geothermal heat pump and fuel cells.  This incentive lets homeowners credit 30% of the cost of the renewable systems against their tax liability and has no upper limit.  It also doesn’t expire until the end of 2016.”

Emergency Plans

Nobody wants to anticipate trouble, but if we live in the country, chances are that sooner or later we will be forced to deal with some sort of unfortunate situation.  Bad things happen from time to time.  It’s in our own best interest to try and do everything possible to help in the prevention of disasters and then what actions to take when the big storms, floods, ice storms or earthquakes do come through our territory.

John Merrell operates Gateway Farm Alpacas in Scio, Oregon, and he offers all rural homeowners some very good advice when it comes to emergency planning.  “An emergency and disaster planning checklist is a good way to insure that all the bases have been covered in emergency planning,” he says.

A big part of any rural home emergency planning has to do with documents.  Merrell suggests that homeowners have responsibility assignments written down in case of emergency.  Things such as who will be responsible for what actions in the case of an emergency are needed.  Also, a list of farm assets which includes basic farm information, a site plan of the property, an inventory of assets, business records, personal papers such as identification, banking, wills and so on, and emergency contact information will make disaster recovery much easier.

Planning for emergency communications is part of Merrrell’s suggested activities. He suggests an emergency contact list, alternate communication devices, and pre-arranged emergency family meeting place assignments are good steps.

For better conditions at home after a disaster, emergency food supplies, emergency home water supplies, first aid kits, camping supplies and tools for emergency use, standby power systems for the home, minimum power equipment for the home and backup standby power arrangements are all needed. Remember, emergency gasoline powered generators are not much good if gasoline is not available.  A plan to locate, store and re-supply gasoline is important.

Finally, every home’s emergency planning should include emergency food and water supplies for livestock, an updated list of livestock- especially in the case of larger, more expensive animals such as cattle or horses - a livestock evacuation plan, and livestock priority list for evacuation needs to be made. No one wants to plan on a disaster but not planning and trying to live through and recover from a disaster can be devastating.

How to Begin

Most of the time, planning is best done as a family project.  Even the kids can have some good suggestions for what should happen during the new year.  By the way, I’ve found that it’s easier to get kid-labor in the garden when they have helped plan what vegetables will be planted and grown. The whole family can also help in the discussion when it comes to planning needed home improvements and appliance purchases. 

A calendar for the new year will be needed to help construct a schedule of improvements, projects, and other work to be done.  A yearlong planned schedule helps the whole family see when certain work assignments will happen. As the various planned projects are completed over the course of 2012, it will create a satisfaction that only comes from jobs well planned and well done.