Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nelsons Picked As Top Farm Family In Nevada County For '98

Nevada County's Farm Family of the Year for 1998 is the James and Kay Nelson family of Bluff City.

The Nelsons were shocked to learn they had been tabbed for this honor. They have two sons, Vince, 32, who lives in Alexander, and Andy, 28, of Fort Smith.

This year's farm family doesn't operate a cow-calf operation as have such families in the past. Instead, they raise chickens on their 88 acre spread. They also have 58 acres of woodlands and 30 of pastureland which is leased out to other ranchers.

James Nelson got his start in the agriculture business on a small livestock and truck farm in the Gooseankle community as a boy.

Farming is his first love, and one he never strayed far from.

Kay was born and raised in Prescott. She and James have been married 33 years, first exchanging vows May 29, 1965.

The first home for the Nelsons was in Camden, where they lived for four years. While there, James worked as a pipe fitter for International Paper Co. The family's first child, Vince, was born in Camden.

During his time with IP, James never lost sight of his ultimate goal of returning to the land and farming. He wanted to return to the Bluff City region of Nevada County and work on some type of farm.

The family moved to James's grandfather's house near Bluff City in 1969, close to where they currently live. They remodeled the house and began their new lifestyle.

Everyone shared the work on the farm, while James continued to hold down a regular job as well, working with IP.

In the meantime, Andy was born as the final addition to the family.

"I felt in my heart we made the right decision in moving to a farm," Kay said, "but I also felt far away from `all forms of life', or at least those I had grown accustomed to since our marriage."

Kay soon realized how wrong she was. As happens on farms, animals gravitate there and the Nelsons soon became keepers of an assortment of dogs, cats, chickens, goats and hogs.

"Our farm was teeming with life," she said, "and a lifestyle we all become fond of. With the farm in full swing, I began to settle into my new role as a country wife and mom, and witnessed daily the great love James had for the new country life we had made for ourselves here in Bluff City.

"I watched James' great pleasure in our new lifestyle as his dream unfolded around him."

The idea of getting married and raising children on a farm appealed to Kay as a child, though she never expected her life to follow so closely to a childhood dream.

"Together, James and I realized out dreams with our sons on our small farm," she said.

The original house was located on two acres of land given to them by James' parents. As time and money allowed, the Nelsons began buying adjoining land.

But tragedy loomed around the corner for the family. In 1975, fire destroyed their home and all their possessions. Fortunately, though, no one was injured.

Undaunted, the Nelsons began working to rebuild the life they so loved.

In 1977, James left IP and began working as a pipe welder contractor on construction. This work kept him away from home and on the road. Sometimes he was gone for days and weeks at a stretch, leaving his wife and two sons to watch the farm and keep things going there.

"We worked together," Kay said, "to keep the farm going throughout this period. From 1980 to 1993, James was superintendent and project manager at various companies.

Also during this period, Vince and Andy were growing up. The boys showed a strong interest in cattle and each was given registered Brangus heifers to raise. They soon began showing their cattle on the local and state levels, winning numerous awards for their efforts.

James and Kay, meanwhile, continued buying registered and cross-bred cattle until the boys were too old to show in the junior divisions any longer.

Being away from the farm and family was too much for James, and in 1993, the Nelson family decided to build chicken houses so he could retire and stay home to work the land he so loved.

They entered an agreement with Koen Farms for a breeder hen operation. They sold the 10-year-old cow-calf operation, around 1996, and began a stocker calf operation.

The stocker calf operation has been going for two years now, and enables the Nelsons to operate more calves per acre.

The breeder hen operation stocks 25,000 birds. A flock's normal production is four million hatching eggs in a 38-week span. These eggs are then shipped to Koen's customers in Mexico, Canada and the west coast.

The poultry houses are completely cleaned every 46 to 48 weeks with a disinfectant wash to control insects and diseases. During egg production, though, beneficial insects are used for fly control.

Chicken house litter is applied to the pastures at a rate of three tons per acre. This amount is recommended by experts.

The stocker operation, on the other hand, began with F&F Cattle Co. of Hope purchasing 65 head of 400 pound heifers, putting them on the Nelson farm for cool-season grasses.

The intent of the operation is to put 300 to 350 pounds on the calves before selling them to a feed lot as feeder calves.

The Nelson's split their pastures up for optimum grazing performance. Pasture one has eight acres, with the second pasture totaling 14 acres. The third spot is also eight acres.

"We've been working towards grass farming," James said. "We give the soil what it needs to produce high quality forage and harvest the grass with stocker calves."

Pasture one is treated with Round-Up to kill the Bermuda grass and is then seeded using Red River Crab Grass. "I've been impressed with this grass," he said. with the way it re-seeds itself and its production. The calves love this pasture."

On October 1, he overseeds using Elbon rye, Marshall ryegrass and Arrowleaf clover for early spring grazing.

A single strand electric wire fence was installed inside the existing barbed wire fence. The pasture was then divided into four separate paddocks.

To make sure all the calves in stock get plenty of fresh water, well water is piped to each paddock.

In the spring of 1998, pasture 2 was fenced with four strand 12.5 gauge electric fencing. It was then divided into six paddocks and subdivided into one acre cells with water piped to each cell.

This pasture was established with Alicia Bermuda grass. On Oct. 1, it, too, is overseeded with ryegrass, clover with vetch thrown in.

Pasture three is a backup pasture. It was established with common bermuda grass and bahia grass.

All three pastures, however, are kept fertilized with three to four tons of chicken litter annually and ammonia being applied three times each year. The ammonia is applied at the rate of 100 pounds per acre.

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