America's Heartland is made possible by....

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 Hi there, I'm Rob Stewart.

Coming up, we'll take you to New England where a very special group of people is preserving part of America's rural heritage by refurnishing and re purposing these century-old barns.

I'm Akiba Howard.

You know, success in any business depends on energy and innovation.

We're here in Nebraska to visit a young farm family whose efforts impact the kind of crops that make their way to your supermarket.

Hi, I'm Sarah Gardner.

Americans are eating more chicken than ever before.

So how are producers keeping up with demand?

We'll take you inside an Arkansas poultry operation that is pioneering new methods to bring the best birds to market.

That's all coming up 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.

♪ John: You know all too often, city dwellers know very little about what takes place on a farm or ranch.

There's just little opportunity.

Well, one family here in Utah is making that connection with a unique combination of ranching and recreation.

John: The stunning views across Park City, Utah speak for themselves: the mountains, the blue skies, the red rock cliffs.... Steve: How you doing?

John: But rancher Steve Osguthorpe is changing the dialogue about working the land in this outdoor paradise.

Steve: We saw what was happening in the Park City area.

We were going to have to either get out of agriculture or sell our property and leave.

But there was not other place we wanted to go, and we didn't want to be driven out.... John:....driven out by tourism.

By the early 1990's, this old mining town was becoming a playground for the rich and famous.

The Osguthorpe's didn't know much about outdoor recreation.

But they did own tens of thousands of acres here.

Horseback riding seemed like a natural pursuit.

And word spread.

Actors Jim Carey and Jenny McCarthy came as did pro-basketball star Karl Malone, and TV news anchors Matt Lauer and Katie Couric during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Mike: Left leg in the stirrup there, grab that horn, up and over!

John: The Genco family came west from Baltimore.

Patty: I was perfectly content to stay on the east coast until I took a trip out here.

And it was just... ...it's breath taking.

I had to get my family out here and see it.

John: But Park City is one of those rare places that offers something year-round.

Mike: Everybody's first time?

No, you've all been before?

♪ John: It doesn't hurt to be surrounded by two world class ski resorts either, resorts that also lease their land.

Steve: We decided we better get in the recreation mode a little and determine our destiny.

I tell people instead of milking cows now, we milk the public.

John: The humor is a cover of sorts, for the serious work this former dairyman is doing on the environment.

John: It looks like you've done some work up there on that hillside?

Steve: Yes, this is one of the areas that was in our forestry management plan.

John: Osguthorpe and his six sons are thinning the trees to make way for others: re seeding hillsides and trails and improving the quality of the runoff that trickles down to his crops every spring.

Steve: When we bought this property, it had been over-grazed.

The streams that run out of here in the spring were running dirty.

And we knew there were problems, and we wanted to correct those problems.

Because we knew if we took care of it, it would take care of us.

John: And it does.

Each fall the Osguthorpes bring in sheep to graze the nearby slopes before ski season.

Their flocks get fed, and the family makes another buck off the land.

Twenty eight year old Mike does it all.

But his primary job is sheep, four thousand head on various pieces of land throughout Utah.

Wool prices are up and down, but lamb consistently fetches top dollar.

Mike: It's kind of been a way of life.

We've been born into it, and some say brain washed into it.

So it kind of gives us all, all the boys and the parents, a chance to keep it going, keep the family legacy alive.

John: It's a legacy more could emulate.

The family also grows barley, alfalfa, corn and wheat.

But they understand enough to leave behind an occasional dead tree.

It's habitat restoration for birds.

Steve Osguthorpe and his family love the land.

And more than ever, they want to make sure it's something future generations will be able to manage, monetize, and enjoy.

Steve: Our whole goal is to leave this land better than we found it.

Ancient species of horses once roamed the Americas including Utah thousands of years ago.

Some scientists claim that climate change was the cause of their ultimate extinction.

Spanish explorers reintroduced the horse to the Americas in the 16th century.

Akiba: You know there are any number of success stories in America's Heartland .

And a lot of them impact the kinds of choices we make when we head to the grocery store.

Well for one farm family, success depends on energy, innovation, and a look to the future.

Akiba: Scott Moore knows that it takes much more than just seed and rain to create the basic ingredient for that loaf of bread on your dinner table.

Raising wheat is a year-round effort.

His farm makes up just a fraction of the one and three quarter million acres planted in Nebraska.

Working alongside his father Stan, Scott counts on everyone's help to get the crop to market.

Scott: Hard work's great.

It's been a struggle in certain points, and I'd like the kids to not be able to have to struggle as much as Carla and I have.

But I don't want complacency to set in either.

Then it's easy.

It's too easy.

Scott: You want to check the flow meter?

Akiba: Scott, a third generation farmer, is helping his kids, 9-year-old Katie and 12-year-old Zack, learn the farming business on land where his grandfather started back in the 1920's.

Over the years, he and his father have amassed a seven thousand acre spread that includes corn, soybeans, winter wheat, and 350 head of cattle.

Stanley: There is no greater compliment to a farmer than to have his son come back on the farm and work with him.

We work together, with each other, ultimately about 365 days a year.

Scott: That all we got?

Zack: Yeah, but I didn't look very hard.

There may be some over there.

Akiba: Running a farming operation these days demands attention to not only crop markets but energy costs, environmental concerns, sustainable farming practices, and machinery issues.

As Scott works the land.... Carla:....hey Riley, you got a minute.... Akiba:....his wife Carla works full-time 30 miles away as an agent for a farm insurance company.

And when that work-day is done, she's back home with another set of obligations and challenges for the farm.... Carla:....lunch is ready.

Let's go guys.... Akiba: ....and her family.

Scott: She get parts picked up in town, runs after us all the time, helps me irrigate, helps us work cattle, and does about everything possible that she can do.

Couldn't handle it without her.

Akiba: Carla says helping her husband has become second nature.

Carla: We can drive down the interstate from here to Lincoln, and he can tell me what was planted in every field along the way for the past two to three years.

Just the agriculture stuff that he has, it's in his brain.

It's how he's wired.

Scott: That one pretty crunchy?

Akiba: Yeah.

Scott: Okay.

So this head is ready to go.

This would be ready to harvest.

Akiba: To improve his soil and forestall erosion, Scott has implemented a no-till approach: planting as he plows under the remains of last year's crop.

Scott: And if you still look in the ground here, you can still see this is last year's wheat stubble.

And then this is the corn stalk from the year before that.

And what we're building, and if we dig a little farther, all this is humus.

And everything that's on the soil and that turns into fertilizer.

And also if it rains, there's no erosion.

No soil is gonna move.

It's gonna hit that, bounce off, and settle back in.

Akiba: Recognition from your peers is important in confirming that your efforts have made a difference.

That recognition came recently as Scott and Carla were picked as the best of Nebraska's Young Farmers and Ranchers, a nod to their efforts in the past and to their plans for their family farm in the future.

Carla: To put your operation up against other people in the state, and for that panel of judges to say, "Yeah, I think you're the number one this year," it's a great ego boost.

But it's just an amazing honor to be recognized.

Nebraska is one of the top agricultural states in the nation.

But the state's expansive farmland was not always viewed as productive.

Some early European explorers mistakenly considered those wide open spaces as The Great American Desert.

I'm Sarah Gardner.

Still ahead, we'll take you to an Arkansas poultry operation where producers have designed some new approaches to meet the growing demand.

I'm Rob Stewart.

Still ahead, saving America's rural heritage by saving century-old barns one at a time.

♪ Hi, I'm Paul Robins.

And here's something you may not have known about agriculture.

When it comes to beneficial livestock, you can't do much better than cows.

The cud chewing bovines provide everything from food to fertilizer.

Are you up for ice cream, cheese or yogurt?

Thank a farmer and a cow.

But when did this partnership all begin.

Well, let's head across the Atlantic.

All modern domesticated breeds of cattle descended from wild ox-like animals called aurochs that once roamed over large areas in Asia, Europe, and North Africa.

We're talking thirty thousand years ago.

The aurochs were a favorite animal for hunters since they provided food and hides for clothing and shoes.

Fast forward to six thousand B.C., and early man started luring wild cattle into communities and domesticating them.

Scientists say the herding instincts of cattle made that easier along with the natural curiosity of the big bovines.

The fertile crescent of the Middle East was one of the first regions to benefit from domesticated animals both for food and as beasts of burden.

From there the good news ...or should that be good moos , thank you ...spread across Asia, Europe and Africa.

Africa is still home to a large number of cattle, about 230 million animals.

The U.S. has about a hundred million cattle.

But it's India that leads the cattle count worldwide with about 280 million head.

That's a lot of methane.

Sarah: Americans are eating more chicken today than ever before.

Increased chicken choices at fast food restaurants is part of the reason.

But chicken has always been a popular choice for those looking for a low fat, high protein meal.

And as the demand for chicken grows, so does the need to produce more birds for market.

Sarah: When it comes to poultry, these birds are big business!

Chicken is the most popular main dish meal in the world.

Poultry production in the U.S. has more than doubled in the past 40 years, generating more than 20 billion dollars annually.

The Cobb-Vantress company is one of the world's oldest poultry breeding operations.

Their farms here in Fayetteville, Arkansas have been breeding birds since 1961.

Scott: First, the eggs come into the egg holding room, and they come in farm racks.

That's where we transfer them to incubator racks.

And they sit in the incubators for approximately 18 days.

Sarah: After these eggs hatch, the chicks are separated by sex: the males for breeding and the females for broilers, chickens that end up in the meat department of your supermarket.

John: We want a bird that has good feather cover, high yielding birds, birds that are growing fast, birds that walk very well, that walk very easily, animals that have a high degree of fertility and hatchability.

So we need birds to be good breeders and also good broilers.

Sarah: Changing consumer tastes, foods with less fat, and increasing choices in ready-to-eat meals have generated a big jump in chicken consumption.

The focus here is selecting and developing traits that answer the demands of poultry producers and consumers.

John: This could be efficiency health of the bird.

We try to improve by finding the very best families and the very best individuals each year.

Sarah: Feed accounts for a large portion of the cost in raising chickens.

Advances in feeding methods and new grain options are some of the considerations.

John: In 1980, it would take about 2.4 pounds of feed for every pound of chicken that we want to grow.

But if you look at the efficiency of a bird today, we're looking at birds that consume only about 1.8 pounds of feed per pound.

Sarah: In addition to consumer concerns about cost and quality, poultry producers here and elsewhere also deal with food safety issues in the health of their birds.

Merrill: Bio-security is important, because we have guaranteed our customers that we are going to provide them with a hundred-percent clean bird.

And bio-security is the key to reaching that ultimate goal.

Scott: No one is allowed to enter the hatchery without a shower.

We can't enter any kind of clothes from the outside.

We have complete wardrobe on the inside: shoes, shirt, pants, everything.

Sarah: Encounters with production animals require control methods to keep bacteria and pathogens from coming in contact with the birds.

Sarah: And it's obviously serious business since not only do we have these suits, but we've got booties covering our shoes.

We've got hairnets on, right down to the gloves.

Scott: We also have foot pans at each door and hand sanitizers.

So if you go outside the hatchery and you come back in, you have to disinfect your shoes and disinfect your hands.

Merrill: It's a known fact, that it is in bi-products, that it is in corn, it comes out of fields, salmonella can come from so many different places.

So we know that it is coming in.

We test for it, and we find it.

Sarah: The testers let their feet do much of the work.

Their booties pick up bits and pieces of waste and debris from the hatchery.

The gathered material is then analyzed.

John: I think through modern technology, I think probably one of the biggest changes is that we can measure the presence of pathogens probably better than we could many, many years ago.

The laboratories, both the state laboratories in the poultry states and also the in-house laboratories with Cobb, are better equipped to detect pathogens early earlier, faster.

And therefore, we can re mediate the situation and keep our flocks healthy.

Sarah: Changes in breeding, along with scientific developments have dramatically increased the amount of poultry produced for sale in the United States and overseas.

As producers here like to say, making a better bird.

Scott: We try to hatch the best and do the best and be the best.

We try to put the customer #1 and try to be the best.

In some early societies, the chicken was considered a sacred animal symbolizing the sun.

And certain breeds were developed to provide plumage for ceremonial costumes.

My name in Patrick Weddle.

And an entomologist is a person who studies insects.

My particular specialty is crop protection entomology with an emphasis in biological control using natural systems to assist in the control of insects in agricultural crops, particularly orchard crops.

What I have done in the course of my career as an entomologist is work with farmers to determine what the most appropriate way of managing the pest populations in their orchards would be.

So with this, I can look at the shoots at the top of the tree.

You're engaged in trench warfare when you're working in this kind of environment of managing pests on a daily basis.

But it's very rewarding.

We get to see the results of our work.

There are a lot of things entomologists can be proud of.

So we're using pheromones to monitor the insect.

And we're using pheromones to disrupt their mating.

And the result has been a further reduction in pesticides use, to the extent that many orchards aren't spraying anymore on an annual basis for coddling moth.

Those of us who are crop protection entomologists, this is kind of what we do.

We're resource managers.

We're applied environmentalists.

We're working with growers in order to help them be more efficient.

Because if they're more efficient, they're more economically competitive.

Insects have been around for hundreds of millions of years.

They were here long before our species was.

And they'll probably be here long after our species has gone.

So yeah, we have to learn to live with them.

And indeed, in many respects we have.

To the extent that we can learn to be compatible with them, ultimately it enhances our ability to succeed as a species.

Rob: There are just some things that are iconic when it comes to America's history.

And that includes these beautiful century-old barns that used to cover the rural landscape.

Well, many of these barns are gone now because of the ravages of time.

But thanks to a very special group of people, some of these barns are taking on a new life.

Rob: They are rugged symbols of the nation's agricultural roots, essential pieces of architecture around which rural daily life was centered.

Ken: The barn is a masterpiece sitting out there.

Rob: Ken Epworth is known best as The Barn Man .

He scours New England for century-old structures that have outlived their usefulness.

Unrestored, they would eventually crumble to the ground.

But Ken and his crew dismantle them beam by beam.

At his shop in Windsor, Vermont he then reconditions them for a new use in a new location .

Ken: They're backyard offices.

They're art studios, They're stores.

They're bars.

And there are restaurants.

There's swimming pools in them.

Rob: Two hundred fifty years ago there were thousands of dairy farms and their requisite barns all across Vermont.

Most of those post-and-beam barns, some dating back to the 18th century, are obsolete on today's modern farms.

And the sheer cost of maintenance is often prohibitive.

So rather than lose these pieces of history, Ken and his crew restore them.

Ken: Most of this wood is anywhere from 2 to 500 years.

Rob: Wow!

Ken: It really depends on when the barn was built.

Rob: What a preservation of history!

Ken: But wood just doesn't come like this anymore.

You can't, you can't duplicate it.

One of the real nice things about working with old barn timbers is that they're done drying.

And they're done twisting and warping.

Rob: Ken's company has renovated more than 600 barns in his 35 years in business.

Some still see duty as agricultural structures.

But more and more of them have become homes.

Ken: One of the dead giveaways on barns versus homes is windows fenestration.

A barn typically doesn't have but one or two windows up high that are just letting light in because it's a storehouse for grain, and they couldn't afford glass when they built these things initially.

Rob: Barns like these can awaken a community's spirit.

This land in California's Napa Valley was settled as a farmstead in the 1880's.

The current owners at the Nickel and Nickel Winery went looking for other buildings to compliment the property's historic home.

One of Ken's barns was a perfect fit.

Dirk: It was a barn that was starting to rot away.

It was in danger of being burned down by the owners.

In fact, it was built before the 1770's, before the Declaration of Independence.

And now it has a new life being the headquarters for the offices for making new wine.

Rob: But history has its price.

Restoring a barn can run about 75 dollars a square foot!

And that's before shipping and reassembly.

The winery structure took four weeks to construct once it reached the site.

Dirk: Every single piece was numbered.

They do it with little tags, paper tags, and I actually left one or two of the tags on in the building just sort of to remind us.

And then it just goes together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Rob: For many people, barns like these mean more than simply space and storage.

It's a chance to step back in time and sense the history of a different age.

Dirk: There are certain things you have to experience.

And walking into the barn, and the hand-hewn nature of it, the warmth of it, the proportions of it, that's what seduces everybody who goes into these places.

Rob: But relocation has its critics.

There are some who say the renovation and re-siting of these barns steal something from the original landscape.

Dirk: As we go inside, you can see we did everything we could in order to preserve the feel while at the same time in the world of preservation, what you want is a new and vibrant use for a structure so that it can continue to survive.

Rob: Ken Epworth sees more barns for renovation on the horizon often racing the elements of wind, water and weather before they fall to the ground.

Ken: I'm Barn Man .

That's what I do.

I get up in the morning, my feet hit the floor, and I'm ready to go take it on.

I eat it, I sleep it, and that's it.

And I've always loved my work.

I couldn't have picked a better career.

Rob: And that's going to do it for us this time.

Thank you for traveling the country with us on this edition of America's Heartland .

Akiba: We're always pleased that you can join us.

And remember, there's a lot more on America's Heartland at our website including videos from the stories on today's show.

Just log onto americasheartland.org.

And we'll see you next time right here in 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 American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture dedicated to building greater awareness and understanding of agriculture through education and engagement.

More information at agfoundation.org ♪♪♪