DOCUMENT RESUME CE 038 962 ED 244 125 People on the Farm: Corn and HogFarming. T:TLE Washington, DC. Office of INSTITUTION Department of Agriculture, Governmental and Public Affairs. PUB DATE Aug 77 29p.; For related documents, seeCE 038_960-969. NOTE Governmental and Public AVAILABLE FROM Special Programs, Office of Affairs, USDA, Room 536-A,Washington, DC 20250. A slide/cassette presentation developedto accompany this unit is available throughthe Photography Division, GPA, USDA, Washington,DC 20250 ($29.50). Materials (For Learner) PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Use (051) MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE_ Occupations; DESCRIPTORS Agricultural Education; Agricultural Agricultural Skills; AnimalHusbandry; *Career Choice; Career Development;Career Education; Family Environment; Family Income;_*Farmers; *Farm Management; Field Crops;*Job Skills; Profiles;Rural Youth; Secondary Education;Values IDENTIFIERS *Corn; *Hogs; Iowa ABSTRACT This booklet providesinformation on corn and hog According farming on a small farm through aprofile of a farm family. their three children are a to the profile, Johnand Mary Miller and comfortable family operating a cornand hog farm in Iowa.John, the principal farmer, uses avariety of skills in management,veterinary agriculture, computers,business, and science science, soil science, raising hogs and raising as he goes abouthiS tasks of breeding and corn for their feed.Mary, his wife, leads atypical suburban life, driving the children toschool functions,-teachingpiano lessons, being available for farmerrands, preparing meals,and doing engaged in School activitiesand planning housework. The children are description of the to further theireducation. The booklet uses a this family to provideinformation on the typical daily activities of who are work skillS, lifestyle,income, and valueS needed by persons successful in such a career.The booklet is illustratedwith photographs of the Millers atwork and recreation ontheir farm. (KC) *********************************************************************** the best that can bemade * * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are * * from the originaldocument. *********************************************************************** tM4'4 1 401 L , L- IId _ ) , F c 4.y i0,404m.7 cf. L of family this year and_next, and will the Millers belong to a church PEOPLE ON alSO remain productive for and other organizations in which THE FARM: limitless years and unknown few of the members are farmers. "owners" into the future. Mary, also 38, belongs to a study CORN AND Like most farmers, John Miller club in which she is the only is busy changing caps; and like member whb lives on a farm. HOG FARMING most farmers, he feelS he is in Quiet; gracefui, quick to smile danger of being stereotyped: and intelligent, Mary is -an John would like to dispel at articulate and charming least one possible misconception spokeswoman for the abbUt fartners, in the beginning agricultural way of life. She -and He's the manager of a of this, his story. All farmers are John address community groups substantial and successful farm not automatically early risers, on the needs and trends of business, but Jcihrift Miller of John insists. Hog and corn modern agricultOre. Theirfarm Cedar Falls, Iowa was shoveling farmersunlike dairy farmers-- was the location for taping of manure when histeenage just don't have to get up early television's Today Show when every morning, he'll tell you. daughter stopped the hog the show visited Iowa in October farrowing building. She needed "I'd rather work into the night- 1975. more feed for her riding horse, say until 10 o'clocklhan get up Their children; Julie, 15, Brad; Val. and asked Dad to order early in the morning," he says: 13; and Brian; 12, are active in But he isn't as convincing as he some. schoolJulie in a jazz band and might be. other musical outlets; the boys in John smiled; wrote a reminder_ Many mornings you'll find the in his ever-present notebook, and music and sports. returned to cleaning the 38-year-old farmer in his kitchen Mary sees herself as a farrowing housea kind of by 6:15, eating breakfast hag suburban housewife: Yesterday; delivery room and nursery for prepared hiniSelf, and listening to an ordinary day, she and Jbhh farm market prices on the radio. made three trips into the nearby newborn pigs. "I wouldn't want to be in bed if In a few moments this community of Hudson because manager- father laborer took on someone comes by," he said, of the children's activities. the additional role of almost apologetically. Their wide circle of friends businessman, phoning into town Even when the familytbbk_O includes people in work other for the latest prices on mixed week's vacation, his wife Mary than agriculture. Today,_aS She_ feed (which he would be buying) said, John woke up every pre_pared a breakfast of sausage; and on corn (which he would be morning at 5:30. YeS, thiS modern eggs; and toast in her modern selling). farmer and hiS family are able to kitchen, Mary explained:_ But he is more than a manager; get away on vacations from time "Really, we have the best of a father, a laborer and a to time; leaving affairS in the two worlds. We can live in tne businessman. hands of capable part-time countryside and still be elbSe to Some days he injects medicine helpers. cultural events. We live within a into his hogsas_a veterinarian 2-hour drive of the University of wouldto fight disease. lowa,_which is well known fbt its On otterdays he is repairing a excellence in the arts. We're not gate or widening the entrance to far from Iowa State University in a machinery shed_(_for his bigger, Ames; where the New Ybrk new farm implements), or MILLERS ENJOY Philharmonic performed performing_his own carpentry. FARM LIFE recently: We often travel 10 miles So John Miller is not only a to the University of Northern manag_er, a father, a laborer; and Farming, to John and Mary, is a Iowa to attend concerts, plays a businessman: but he is; among bUsiness which enables them to and so on:" other things, also apa.a- maintain a good standard of The Millers alWayS hbld season veterinarian (if there is such a living. tickets to the Waterloo-Cedar word), a carpenter and a They live in a century-old, Falls Symphony series. repairmannearly all because he modernized; and air-conditioned Mary_ teaches piaho to 21 is a farmer growing hogs and home nestled among big old ash studentS in her home. She corn on the gently rolling lands trees and pines in wide open doesn't get involved in any of the of Iowa. countryside: It is iust 12 miles field work on the farm, though AbOVO all, perhaps, John Miller from the center of a metropolitan she is always on call to make is a conservationist who area containing 133,000 persons; runs into town for equipment conscientiously_ works with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls; Iowa. repairsand parts. The children soil so that it will provide for his Like many of today's farmers, help a lot with the farm work; but 1 gi I ia i :: \,4 High schooler Julie Miller stops at entrance to the farrowing house to tell her dad that her riding horse needs more feed from town. Left: Like a running back cradling a pigskin, John Miller steps out of the finishing barn with a hog that seems reluetant to have his blood tested so that John might learn whether he's feeding his animals correctly. Just a dozen miles from the center of the Waterloo, Iowa metropolitan area, John and Mary Miller nonetheless live in the country. If they aren't attending a concert or delivering_children to activities in town, they might take time for a_chat on the porch of their modernized century-old farm house. = _ an, t ir; 41, f s ';' C., ."7 s -"- -As;ON*is - 41.,., A N. -4 The nerve center of John and Mary and where_the many machines of faeming (Smaller home at center, top of farmsite): Miller's farm is like an island in a sea of are protected from weather (lower right Miller children walk down lane at right to grain. This is where hogs are bred, bern and center buildings): It's also where the meet school bus. Wagons at edge of corn (left center of the farmsite) and fed for family liVeS (in htithe almost hidden by (left center) will be filled with gfain from market (in big barn_ at left), It's where pipes that handle flow of grain hetweeh harvester and driven to dryer and storage thOusands of bushels of corn are dried_ bins' and where John and Mary lived in binS. and stored (cylindrical grain bins at right) when they first moved back to the farm 1=1.1==11111. theirparents would take on a Farming is definitely_ a Corn Belt. And where corn grows chore for them rather than keep business. Later, when he well, so do hogs. the youngsters from panic patine checked his books in an office Corn and hogs g_o together like in some rewarding event in town; near the_kitchen, John reported hand and glove, since corn We are interested in our that the farming operation netted makes up the main feed for hogs. children having a broad, them about $15;000 cash in 1975; The price relationship of hogs to balanced education," Mary from aJotal gross income of corn, called the hog-corn price explained: "Shoveling manure at $170,496._ ratio, has a seesaw effect and the expense of an educational He considers it a 11/2-man determines how much money experience doesn't really operation. In 1975, he hired a John Miller makes at any broaden one's background or c011ege student to work particular time.