By Don Niles, president
Greetings once again!
It seems like we just started Peninsula Pride Farms, but the reality is we are wrapping up our fourth year. If we take a moment to reflect, we have come a very long way as an organization, and as individual active members. Our accomplishments are real.
Cost sharing has allowed our members to try and adopt new conservation practices.
Working together, farmers have significantly sped up improvements in our collective results.
We have established relationships with outside entities such as NRCS and The Nature Conservancy that were looking for progressive farmers as partners.
By speaking to those outside of agriculture with a collective voice, we have improved the perception of farms on the Door County Peninsula.
While all this is true and significant, it is easy to sometimes feel like we are not making progress or perhaps are even sliding in the wrong direction on our farms. In the conditions we have experienced in the last two years, where we have struggled with implementing many of our conservation practices due to weather, it is easy to get discouraged.
The fact is that we are more and more frequently up against a whole new foe…weather! The changes in weather patterns have been real and relentless. It used to be dump wagons were the exception for silage harvest, combining was done on a predictable schedule and manure applications were manageable.
This year the PPF board of directors decided to take weather issues and challenges on as our main topic at our annual meeting on Feb. 13. This year’s meeting will once again be held at the county fairgrounds in Luxemburg. Our keynote presentation will be delivered by Timm Uhlmann from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Forecast office in Green Bay. His talk will focus on several areas of great interest to our members.
- Recent weather/precipitation trends in northeastern Wisconsin
- Short- and long-term weather outlook for 2020
- New tools and resources available for farmers in our area
There will be an opportunity for questions at the end of the presentation and during lunch that will follow. See page 4 for more details on the annual meeting.
I would like to finish up with a request for input from our members. You should have received an email asking for feedback about what’s working and areas for improvement in PPF as an organization. We are very proud of our organization, yet, like our farms, we strive for continuous improvement. The survey results will be discussed at the members-only annual meeting following lunch on Feb. 13. Please feel free to share your thoughts either on the survey link previously sent or with a board member. Your ideas are important in continuing our progress.
I hope to see you all on the 13th! Until then, take care.
