Farm Update
Editor’s Note: Joey Neuhauser, Communications and Operations Officer at Liberia Mission, gives an update on St. Isidore’s farm.
The farm at Liberia Mission has gone through significant changes recently. This year, I was placed as full-time manager of the farm. We have been making the adjustments needed to continue helping the kids and the Mission in general. We have cut costs by weeding out inefficiencies to make our farm more cost-effective and self-sustainable.
Liberia Misison’s farm team
About 8 months ago, we received iron bars from the church remodel that allowed us to build new gates for the piggery. This was a dire necessity, as we were running out of rooms and some of our pigs were breaking out every single morning. I’m not sure how many of you have ever chased a pig around a building at 7am, but it’s not the way I’d recommend starting your day. We also rebuilt the cow fence and expanded the platform on which the cows sleep to provide a more comfortable and spacious place for our bovine buddies.
In personnel, we have moved Emmanuel Pokai, a former beneficiary and long-time member of the farm team, to full-time, and he has been leading 2 projects. He’s in charge of planting, and he’s in charge, along with farm staff Wilhelmina, of teaching our students during their work times.
Pokai has led the charge for us adding potato greens and yams to our growing list of plants we feed to our animals. We also have planted over 2 acres of cassava which has a dual purpose. We feed the cassava leaves and potato greens to the cows, and the tubers we feed to the pigs. These plants have not only made the farm look great and well organized, but they also have been the principal cause for the reduction of wheat bran, which saves the Mission money.
Lastly, we are trying to tame the landscape of the Mission. It’s a grueling, never-ending battle, but we’ve made progress. The idea for this project came to me as I was grazing the cows one day. I was running around, unable to see the cows anywhere as they ducked behind trees or ran behind overgrown bushes. So, we started to tame the beast that is the Liberian bush. We’ve cut down bamboo forests, trees, bushes, and more weeds than I can count.
The improvement is astonishing, but the battle never ends. Hopefully, by the Mission’s anniversary in November, we will be where we want to be in our beautification project. But as of right now, I’m proud of our efforts as a farm team!
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