America's Heartland

America's Heartland is made possible by The United Soybean Board whose "Common Ground" program creates conversations to help consumers get the facts about farming and food.

There's more at: findourcommonground.com.

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.

Dedicated to building greater awareness and understanding of agriculture through education and engagement.

More information at: agfoundation.org.

Farm Credit - financing agriculture and rural America since 1916.

Farm Credit is cooperatively owned by America's farmers and ranchers.

Learn more at farmcredit.com The Fund for Agriculture Education - A fund created by KVIE to support America's Heartland programming.

Contributors include the following - Hi, I'm Kristen Simoes.

Come on along as we take you on a livestock roundup.

We'll travel the wide open spaces of Montana with a rancher who is moving thousands of sheep from summer pasture to their winter grazing lands.

Hi I'm Jason Shoultz, When your farming operation is directly tied to the housing market or retail sales, a bumpy economy can put you out of business.

Coming up I'll introduce you to an Alabama farmer who is working to keep his business alive and defying the odds.

I'm Sarah Gardner.

We're off to New England this time for a sweet story on juicy, red apples.

We'll meet a New Hampshire farming family whose orchards date back more than a century.

I'm Rob Stewart and we're taking you to Arkansas for a soybean harvest story.

You're going to meet a family whose investment in technology is helping to keep food costs down for you.

It's all coming up next right here on America's Heartland.

You can see it in the eyes of every woman and man in America's Heartland living close to the land.

There's a love for the country and a pride in the brand in America's Heartland living close, close to the land If you're a livestock rancher, tending the stock can be a 24 hour a day job.

And here in Montana, for one raching family it also means they have to do a little traveling in caring for their flock.

It's a beautiful place to spend your summer.

John Helle knows this part of the country very well.

I can remember as a kid coming in here with my grandfather and then with my father and now to bring my family.

John is a third generation sheep rancher.

Each year, John and his family will spend a week, both at the beginning and the end of the summer, herding thousands of lambs and ewes.

This part of the sheep drive will take the animals across 40 miles of rugged terrain in Montana's Gravelly Mountain Range.

The five day journey has John and other family members, on horseback, moving the sheep from summer pasture to fall and winter grazing.

Well, It's just a form of camping out in a wilderness situation.

It's the quiet and the solitude just being able to enjoy being away from the rat race of the cities and towns.

But managing the family's livestock involves more than just the roundup.

Cayo is one of the Peruvian herders hired to oversee the grazing animals.

He calls this tin roofed caravan home during his time in the mountains.

It's quite a nomadic type job.

And it takes; it takes a special person to do it.

And, ah, we just really love our Peruvian herders that we have and how valuable they are to our operation.

This is a pretty good opertion.

How many sheep do you have and what does that entail.

Describe to me how you get them all from point A to point B?

They're in four separate bands and there are four separate allotments up here.

And there's no fences.

They're herded by a sheep herder And he'll have dogs and guard dogs and working dogs and two horses at camp.

He'll have an allotment, which is an area that is specific for that band of sheep.

Predators are a big challenge too.

There are bears in all of these little groves of trees up here.

And then the sheep go in them during the day to shade and the bears are in there.

But the guard dogs do real well against the bears.

Evan Helle's summer has been focused on helping his dad with the sheep.

He's taught me a lot about how you got to get the job done.

And what's you get the job done you can finish.

And there's a lot of people don't understand that's it's up as soon as the light is up and then we're done as soon as it's dark.

And on this drive school had just begun again for Evan.

It was days on horseback and evenings doing homework.

The Helle's herd will be sold for both meat and wool.

The wool goes to markets in Italy, India, Mexico, and China.

Some of the fabric is fashioned into uniforms for American service men and women.

They're a big consumer of American wool.

We've worked with them in providing specific combat uniform products.

Like the t-shirt I'm wearing today.

It's 100 percent wool.

We really take a lot of pride in our livestock that we raise.

And want to make sure that people know that we raise them in a very sustainable and a healthy way.

And we want the image and that very wholesome product brought back to the consumer.

What better way to raise lamb than up here in these mountains and on fresh natural feed.

And We love our product too.

But it's not all work on their yearly drives.

The Helles view their wilderness trek as a "Family reunion".

The burritos will be a treat I hope.

Spending their evenings enjoying some of grandma's home cooking.

They're really hungry, so they enjoy good cooking.

They enjoy whatever you prepare really Do you guys always eat this well when you're out here?

Yeah well, when we have a cook!

It's great when grandma can come up and cook.

I remember cooking for crews when we were doing different things ever since I was little.

And she would always be in the camp area cooking up a big meal for us.

She always said it's like herding cats it's when we try to help cook.

Little has changed in the decades that the Helles have been raising sheep- keeping alive a tradition that binds the generations together.

Like any family business it's real rewarding to be able to work with your family.

I'm planning on coming back and running the ranch.

This is the one thing I love to do and I can't see myself doing anything else.

On average, ranchers will get about 8 pounds of wool from each sheep during shearing season.

And call it: "Wool goes to Washington."

President Woodrow Wilson grazed sheep on the White House lawn during World War One.

They not only trimmed the grass, their wool was auctioned off with the proceeds going to the American Red Cross.

Whether it's a farmers market or the produce section of your favorite grocery store, apples are one of the most popular fruits in the world.

After all, who doesn't love applesauce, apple fritters, apple pie or apple cider?

Well, here in New Hampshire, apples are also a major part of an historic harvest.

From Gravenstein to Golden Delicious MacIntosh to Macoun with forty different varieties, this may well be New England's epicenter of apples.

Welcome to Applecrest Farms in New Hampshire.

On this brilliant fall weekend, thousands of apple lovers are gathering to enjoy some guitar and banjo pickin' then heading to the orchards to do a little pickin' of their own.

Go slow.

Pick the good ones.

It's become a tradition for hundreds of families throughout New England.

I've been doing it for years, it's a blast.

Been coming here since I was a kid so it's always fun, just a good time.

This is actually my third time here.

And this is my first time for riding a pony!

From pony rides to pumpkins to pie-eating contests.

To stuffing your face with roasted corn-on-the-cob or stuffing a scarecrow.

It's all part of the yearly Applecrest Fall Festival, an event dating back nearly four decades.

This is just such a typical New England event, to go apple picking.

I love it!

This land that you see has been farmed for hundreds of years.

Todd Wagner grew up on Applecrest farms.

It was purchased by Todd's grandfather back in the 1950's.

But its roots go back to 1913 when a New Englander named Walter Farmer planted the very first apple trees.

Farmer raised chickens in these coops while he waited seven years for the trees to mature and bear fruit.

The trees that you see here are part of the original planting back in 1913.

So 100 years, and still as you can see an pretty incredible crop.

That's a nice crop in here look at the size of those apples Though Todd and his dad Peter grew up here, both spent years away from the farm - Peter in business, Todd as a filmmaker.

But something drew them back to a lifestyle they missed more than they knew.

My wife and I thought about it, and said that's not a bad way to bring up a family, it's not a bad way to live a life.

Being outdoors and doing what you want to do and feeding the world with apples.

I live in the house that my grandparents lived in and I like that connection to the history and it gives you a sense of place, and it's pretty cool.

Continuing the agricultural tradition of Applecrest farms means adopting new strategies, and finding ways to profit beyond simply growing apples.

The Wagners still produce thousands of bushels for retail sale, but actually reduced the size of the orchards - replanting many acres with two dozen different kinds of fruits and vegetables.

In addition, it meant "growing" their "agritourism" business.

Things like their fall festival which provides a steady source of revenue unaffected by uncertain commodity prices.

I can't imagine my grandfather or grandmother could have ever imagined back then that those festivals are really that keep us afloat.

Like most pick-it-yourself farms, Applecrest has some food favorites that draw folks back every year.

Cider donuts made fresh daily.

Home-made ice cream.

Fresh apple cider.

And, oh, those apple pies!

I think it's like a second home for me.

I've been here forever.

Meet Evelyn Tuttle and Gertrude Eaton.

The two sisters haven't really been here forever just 60 years for Evelyn and 45 for Gertrude!

Talk about roots!

Their dad was Walter Farmer, the original owner who planted the farm's first apple tree.

Every fall for the last quarter-century, Gert and Evelyn have baked close to 500 pies each weekend.

Close to 200-thousand in all!

So what's it like working with your sister day in and day out all these years?

Oh, fine, I mean we don't fight.

Once in a while we do, but not very often!

So do you eat pie at home?

No probably we should say yes!

Gert and Evelyn It's incredible what they do.

They're intricately entwined into the fabric of this farm and this land, and they give their heart and soul to this place.

Such loyalty and longevity aren't hard to find here on the farm.

Yeah Chris has been here, what six?

Yeah six years here.

As the Wagners celebrate their farm's centennial, they cherish their own family bonds and celebrate the traditions they help other families create.

We have a couple of people who have been engaged, they were married here.

And now they bring their kids here.

We've got grandmothers with their kids and their kids.

We've had four generations before.

And they all, they say thank you for still being here, thank you so much.

And that's our intention, that's what we want to be here.

We want to be here forever and that's a hard thing to say.

Forever is a long time.

We want this farm to keep on going.

Want to learn a new word?

The science of growing apples is called "pomology" The bright red fruit is fat free, sodium free and cholesterol free with a medium apple weighing in at only 80 calories.

And did you know that apples are a member of the rose family?

Hi I'm Jason Shoultz.

Still ahead I'll introduce you to an Alabama farmer who's diversifying his business to stay alive when times are tough.

I'm Rob Stewart and still ahead on America's Heartland, We'll take you to Arkansas where one farm family is racing the clock to bring in their crop of soybeans.

Do you know your beans?

Pinto, black, refried, green beans, kidney beans.

You'll find them canned, dried or even frozen in your grocery aisle But what are the differences, where are they grown and how do they stack up nutritionally?

There are tens of thousands of varieties of beans but you won't find all of them in your local store.

But depending on your dish, there is likely a bean to suit your needs!

Mexican food?

Try black, pinto or refried beans.

Most refried beans that you'll find in cans come from pinto beans.

And the "re" doesn't mean they are fried twice!

It comes from the Spanish prefix "re" meaning well or well fried.

Green beans are mainly grown in Wisconsin, western New York, and Oregon and can be canned, frozen or fresh.

And they are rich in fiber and vitamin A.

And some bad news for all of you coffee aficionados who try to impress your friends by grinding your own beans.

They aren't really beans.

These are actually the pits, or seeds inside the fruit on the coffee plant.

They're called beans because well, they look like beans!

Autumn means harvest time for the majority of American farmers.

It is a huge process that can involve the entire family even the entire community of people making their living off of the land.

Well we found a family in Arkansas, bringing in thousands of acres of soybeans, it's non-stop action until the crop is in.

Look in any direction on this central Arkansas farm and it's soybeans as far as the eye can see.

From sun up to sundown, huge combines comb these fields, cutting the beans from the ground.

Let's give you a view that you may never have seen before: inside the giant equipment hauling in this harvest of one of the most versatile crops in the world.

Quarterbacking this soybean harvest team is Dow Brantley.

Dow and his dad are partners at Brantley Farms.

It's a big operation: growing more than nine thousand acres of crops each year.

Dow we really came at the perfect time, harvest in full swing and here you see the soybean in the process of drying.

These are almost there and these are ready to go.

What did it take to get this plant to this level?

You, you know, it's a lot of hard work, and this year because of the situation, the drought, a lot of irrigation to make this crop, to make these beans.

Uh, on, on top of that we're working very hard to keep the weeds out of it and insects as well, We're around 7 days a week to harvest.

So it's not just plant and pick?

No, no, no.

I wish it were that easy, but no there is a lot to see about these crops to get the high yields that we want to achieve.

Once harvested, the Brantley's beans are crushed and turned into oil or meal.

More than half of the soybeans produced in Arkansas are shipped down the Mississippi River and exported worldwide through the Port of New Orleans Dow's career path took him off the farm for a time, acquiring technology skills he was able to apply to the family business on his return.

Today, those computer programs, equipment enhancements and crop monitoring systems have improved yields.

Dow brought skills that we've really needed.

Uh, we had opportunity, we had, uh, land we could produce, we've been doing it.

Could we take it and move it forward.

Yeah we could with technology, with knowledge.

"Moving forward" meant more than doubling the four thousand acres his dad was then planting.

Today, the Brantleys raise soybeans, rice, corn and cotton on land that stretches their farm more than 20 miles.

The Brantleys crop duster took us high in the sky to overlook their expansive operation.

Technology plays a key role here even to managing the aerial spraying on the Brantley's cotton crop.

Computerized applications target specific rows- reducing the amount of chemicals needed.

Dow says it's all a matter of being efficient and effective.

Anywhere from a guidance on your tractor or combine to computer programs in our office to help us keep up with input costs.

Who sprayed what field?

Things of that nature.

Juggling harvest time on this September day means going from one crop to another.

Their cotton is picked and rolled into these modules and sent straight to the mill.

Their grains - stored in a state of the art silo system.

Dow and his dad can oversee all their harvesting from the fields - or from their home office with computers and GPS monitoring.

Dow says technology like this is expensive, but pays off in lower costs for consumers.

It allows us to keep an affordable, food and fiber supply here in the U.S.. Ah, keep those prices low.

Ah, our job is to produce at the lowest cost that we can and we do.

But make no mistake, what really holds this farm together - is family.

A bond between father and son - rooted in the land they love.

Well it's a noble.

I've been in the farming thing and the family farm, that's very precious to me.

I enjoy every minute of it.

Working with family members and I hope he continues to be here for a long time.

So, we're both having fun together.

Um, we truly are.

We're blessed to have some good land.

We're blessed to some very good employees and without them we wouldn't be where we are today.

You'll understand why soybeans are called the "miracle bean" when I tell you that soybeans are used in animal feed, hundreds of food and household products, ink, plastics, wood adhesives and candles.

More soybeans are grown in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world.

And one more fun fact.

One acre of soybeans can produce 82 thousand crayons.

Hang in there!

That's what we say to folks when they're going though times.

But if you're in business and you're facing a downturn, hanging in there requires perseverance and ingenuity.

And that's a truism one Alabama farmer knows all too well.

It's a gardenia and what it is is a dwarf gardenia and gets about two feet tall and spreads out about four feet.

Steve Thomas is the answer guy today at Greene Hill Nursery in Auburn, Alabama.

Outside with the plants.

And inside on the telephone.

That's the Black Knight.

You want any of the white profusion or other buddleia?

But Steve admits, running a garden center was not his life's dream.

He set out to become a doctor like his grandfather.

I just uh, didn't put the time in the books like I should've.

So as a result I wasn't accepted to any medical or dental schools that I applied to.

And uh, my girlfriend at the time said Why don't you try horticulture?

And I looked at her and I said, well that's plants isn't it?

And she said, well, yeah that's plants.

I said so what would you do with plants?

She said, well, you could open a garden center.

How much you got?

Looks like about a 100 here.

Yeah.

All Right I'll help you move them.

When I went to ornamental horticulture school at Auburn University and got my Master's, that's when I started actually enjoying plants and really started diving into my own landscapes.

Today Steve has 10 acres of heirloom and ornamental plants for landscapes.

During the housing boom in the early two-thousands sales really took off.

But when the housing boom collapsed, his business took a direct hit.

The housing market's down, the economy is down.

So with the housing market down people aren't putting landscape plants necessarily around even new houses.

But after 25 years in business, quitting is not an option.

So Steve is trying something new again!

Just like these, you can do just a light sheering in the fall.

Diversifying the business into landscape contracting.

With a slight twist we do almost no new landscapes.

What we do is we clean up old landscapes.

And we are in the process right now of trying to set up a division of this company that we're going to call Restoring Eden.

Because we think a lot of people love their landscapes when it first comes in, then things happen.

They don't get it kept up, you know, they need help.

Besides reducing the number of plants that he grows, to deal with a downturn in business he has cut also back on employees and not invested in new equipment.

He's down to one part time employee who you will find filling pots by hand today.

I should've mechanized years ago.

In '06 we were to the point where we were about ready to start more mechanization because life was good then.

Sales were good then.

We were building and that was definitely the direction we were headed next.

And then everything fell off in '07.

So we've got to get back to that point.

Those who make their living in agriculture recognize that constantly changing markets and conditions are a reality of life.

Steve believes that a positive attitude is critical to helping find success in the future.

Being in the business 25 years, hopefully most people in the southeast know me, but that still requires that I'm on the phone constantly.

I email every week to all my regular customers and I'm always trying to find new people to email to.

And I'm not ready to let go of it yet.

And if I'm not ready to let go of it yet, I can't give up.

That's going to do it for us this time.

Thanks for traveling the country with us as we introduce you to such interesting people and places in America's Heartland.

And don't forget you can stay in touch with us 24/7.

We make it easy for you.

You can find us on some of your favorite sites you can also find all of our stories and video on our website: AmericasHeartland.org.

We'll see you next time right here on America's Heartland.

You can see it in the eyes of every woman and man in America's Heartland living close to the land.

There's a love for the country and a pride in the brand in America's Heartland living close, close to the land "America's Heartland is made possible by..." The United Soybean Board whose "Common Ground" program creates conversations to help consumers get the facts about farming and food.

There's more at: findourcommonground.com.

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.

Dedicated to building greater awareness and understanding of agriculture through education and engagement.

More information at: agfoundation.org.

Farm Credit - financing agriculture and rural America since 1916.

Farm Credit is cooperatively owned by America's farmers and ranchers.

Learn more at farmcredit.com.

The Fund for Agriculture Education - A fund created by KVIE to support America's Heartland programming.

Contributors include the following -