Agricultural Reclamation Act Online

If small family farmers were truly thriving and had adequate support we would be seeing a revival in rural towns, positive economic changes in the State of Oregon, and better job and economic growth Nationally. This is what I call "trickle-up economics".

To address issues of small family farmers, the Friends of Family Farmers helped put together the Agricultural Reclamation Act. This is an important document that small farmers across Oregon are using as a rallying point for changes needed in agriculture at the local, state, and nation-wide level. When you goto the Friends of Family Farmers site, you can

Please sign-on and endorse the Agricultural Reclamation Act.

Simple chicken tractor design

We first saw this chicken tractor design from Andy Walton at Lakeview farm. It is a 10x10 tractor using 3/4" electrical metal tubing, some connectors from Creative Awnings, and chicken wire. We've gone through a few iterations in this design and have arrived at the latest prototype which is very rugged, and lightweight. The basic dimensions are 10x10x2 with two criss-crossing poles on the top. 1" chicken wire goes around the outside with a chicken wire covering half of the top (the tarp covers the other half).

Here is the list of required parts:

(12) 10' long 3/4" Electrical Metal Tubing (available at hardware stores)
(1) 8' x 12' heavy duty tarp (get the type that resists UV light)
(4) F4-A, 4 way 3/4" from Creative Awnings
(8) F3-A, 3 way 3/4" from Creative Awnings
(4) FT-A, T's 3/4" from Creative Awnings
40' of 2' high by 1" hole chicken wire
10' of 5' wide 1" hole chicken wire
A few bungie cords to tie the lid down with
a pool of 16 gauge smooth wire to cinch the chicken wire to the frame with.

You can cut the electrical metal tubing with a hack-saw, sawz-all, or rotating metal cutting tool. Be sure to put the 4-way pieces on the top of the tractor and you will have two of the metal rods crossing over the top. The "T's" go on the bottom supports, while the 3-way pieces go on all of the corners.

The whole project will cost about $120.