Chair:

Ed Schultz

3172 Browns Bay Road
Hayes, VA 23072
757-565-8436

 

 

 

 

Purpose

The members of the FARM PIG share an interest in agriculture: i.e., the husbandry of domestic animals and plants for the production of food and/ or fiber. The skills necessary for historical agriculture, especially in the pre-petroleum based era, represent a knowledge base that took thousands of years to develop. However, these skills are rapidly being lost. The preservation and perpetuation of these skills is the primary purpose of the FARM PIG.

 

Activities

• The FARM PIG meets yearly at the ALFHAM Annual Meeting. At both annual and regional meetings, members present workshops and sessions that contribute to the concepts, theory and practice of historical agriculture.
  
• Members are also in touch throughout the year by email, phone and site visits to exchange ideas, techniques and methods.
  
• Individual members pursue the primary goal of the FARM PIG at their various sites and through contact with other institutions outside of ALHFAM.
• Farmers' School Workshops

 

If you are a member of ALHFAM and wish to be part of the FARM PIG, please contact one of the chairs listed above.

 

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FARM PIG report for the ALHFAM Board Meeting

Fall 2012
Submitted by Ed Schultz

Membership
Dick Lahey

• Dick will compile a list of FARM PIG members this winter. The names will come from the sign- up sheets accumulated at the conference PIG meetings over the last three years. We can use this list in various ways to contact specific or all of the members.

Webpage Enhancements
Barb Corson

• Via the e-newsletter and the ALHFAM-L---Barb is soliciting pictures of agricultural activities at Living History Farms that could be posted on the FARM webpage. This would give sites an opportunity to profile what they are doing at their sites with a connection “for more information” to their website. This feature can then act as a conduit for anyone who accesses the webpage to get more information directly from the source.
• To begin the momentum of building an archive of agriculture knowledge, Barb is also seeking recommendations on agriculturally-related papers from the membership to post on the FARM webpage.

Communications- ALHFAM-L
Wayne Randolph

• Wayne reports that there has been much activity on the ALHFAM-L related to agriculture. The range of backgrounds from people commenting reflects a broad interest in agriculture amongst the membership. He encourages all to monitor and contribute to the List. The e-newsletter is a good method of communication, but needs to be utilized more.

• Note: Perhaps the membership list generated by Dick Lahey will benefit intra-FARM PIG correspondence.

Agricultural Skills
Pete Watson and Ed Schultz

• A new idea for the annual conference is a two or three day “clinic”. A one-day workshop is good for “exposure”, but a clinic would move the learning towards “experience”.

International and Academic relationships
Deb Reid and Bob Powell

• Work is being done to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with the Agricultural History Society in the U.S. and AIMA (International Association of Agricultural Museums) in Europe.

Agricultural Interpretation
Ed Schultz

• Ed is currently working on workshop and session ideas for the next three years of ALHFAM conferences. I will shortly be contacting others to facilitate or encourage them to present on various subjects for the 2013 conference.

Machinery Committee Alliance
Cliff Jones and Franz Klingender

• The first of the Ag 101 sessions, on haying at the 2012 conference, was well-attended and well-received. The ultimate goal is a series of presentations, targeted at a general audience, explaining the various processes of agriculture and how the tools and machines involved in those processes were used. The presentations will be included in the Proceedings and then posted on the FARM PIG webpage to build an archive of current agricultural knowledge for the novice.

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Ed Schulz talks about Historic Farming at Colonial Williamsburg in a podcast for Colonial Williamsburg's "Past and Present" Podcast series.

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FARM PIG Info sheet #1 - The Walking Plow

Originally published in the Winter 2009 ALHFAM Bulletin.

FARM PIG Info Sheet#2 - Livestock Care in Museums

A “guidance” outline document intended for individual site’s resource and risk assessment when developing livestock programs and management plans/policies.

 

Originally Prepared by: FARM: The ALHFAM Professional Interest Group focusing on agricultural issues in a museum setting. Revised and re-formatted: June 12, 2006. Re-formateted asFARM PIG Info Sheet #2, Jan. 2009

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The photos below are from the last two years of Farmers' School Workshps, including the  Dairy School in 2009 and the Plowing School in 2008.