New Family Farm

06/24/2026

Those are our eggs Prudent Produce!!

Meat, milk, and eggs are great - we got ‘em!! But don’t forget the fruits, veggies, honey, maple syrup, ice cream, yogurt… we will deliver them all to your central Iowa doorstep! Thanks Choose Iowa !

A strong desire for local connection and trust is shaping how Iowa shoppers buy meat and dairy.

05/29/2026

They do not want to go in for the night. Too many yummy bugs this time of day. That’s ok with me - dramatically cuts down on the feed cost!

05/02/2026

Chickens moved to fresh place this morning!

The air dancer is still in play - you see him on the left edge of the picture - helping keep those pesky hawks away.

02/05/2026

A sign that spring is coming!!

06/28/2025

Remember those baby chicks a few months ago? They're nearly adults, living their best lives. Eggs, anyone?

06/14/2025

06/03/2025

Chickens had a guest tonight. Small deer off in the background.

06/18/2024

Chickens are grazing alongside the triticale… seems they like it! The edge of the field is knocked over where they are eating the almost-ready-to-harvest grain. If only I could have something ready for them to eat year-round without harvesting and handling…

10/07/2023

Supporters of family farms talk a lot about the negative impacts of consolidation in the broader ag world - how 4 companies control 85% of the cattle market, etc. What we do not take much about is the consolidation of the farms themselves, or at least the farm families that do the farming. Articles (like this https://agupdate.com/iowafarmertoday/news/livestock/opportunity-pops-up-to-expand-family-operation/article_8c84234e-6389-11ee-8c38-57618747b12d.html?utm_source=agupdate.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter-templates%2Fdaily-headlines&utm_medium=PostUp&lctg=2684010&tn_email_eh1=402dd4350fb6ebfc959afbc8597a209270dfc334) promote the expansion of enterprises on a family farm to support more members of that family, but never consider how that negatively affects others' ability to farm. To be very direct: there are around 22 million cropped acres in Iowa. If every farm operation were to farm 5000 acres, there could only be 4400 farms in the state. In the entire STATE. And this is where we are headed - prices require that scale; equipment is designed for that scale; stories are celebrated at the scale.

To be fair, the 4400 number would probably be doubled to include the small "niche" farms that are under 20 (or even 40 acres). But there is less and less "ag in the middle" -- those farm operations that are farming 80 to 800.

For perspective - in 1923, there were 214,000 farm operations according to the 1923 Ag Survey. For context: Iowa's population in 1920 was 2.4 million; in 2022 it was 3.2 million.

It's something I think about a lot when I see articles celebrating "farm expansion" like this, and I hope others think about it, too.

LAKE CITY, Iowa — It's definitely a family affair for Mark Schleisman and his farming operation.

09/17/2023

Why we do what we do:

By Keith Schneider BERNE, Minn. – It was a hot afternoon in mid-July and 60-year-old Brian Bennerotte was making a pilgrimage of sorts, navigating a shotgun-straight, gravel road south of Minneapolis on a journey through a landscape stitched with crop and livestock farms as far as the eye can see....