Our savior has risen and spring has sprung! It was great to be surrounded by our family to celebrate Easter on such a beautiful weekend. Things are beginning to green up here at the farm, and activities are starting to pick back up. Clark’s sheep are beginning to shed their winter coats and looking to lamb sometime in May. We are expecting 6+ lambs this spring. Daphne and Velma, the Anatolian Shepard x Great Pyrenees guard dog pups that came to call the farm home this fall, have grown a ton.
In other news, Thane’s chickens are laying for the first time! If you are interested in buying eggs in the Franklin area reach out! He raised these hens from chicks he got last year. We have also been preparing equipment and resting up for the upcoming planting season. 

We hope you had as great a weekend celebrating Easter with your friends and family  as we did!

Luke and Thad both made the news this week! Thad authored an article for Farm Week ahead of National FFA Week and Luke was featured in an article on graduate student research for NREC.  Illinois NREC is farmer funded and supports research on water quality and conservation practices across the state.  The project Luke is involved with focuses on tile water quality monitoring on-farm.  Luke is also wrapping up the second year of his master’s program at the University of Illinois, where he works in Dr. Andrew Margenot’s Soils Lab. Luke’s research focuses on nutrient use efficiency and soil nutrient stocks at on-farm sites mentioned earlier.  After graduating in May he plans to continue working with the university and be around to help on the farm in the busy season.


Article links:
https://www.farmweeknow.com/opinion/perspectives/its-ffa-week-let-the-fun-begin/article_3574fdd2-cb38-11ee-822a-1fa7f16b0922.html

https://www.farmweeknow.com/general/student-research-takes-the-main-stage/article_ed7eeb18-cc3c-11ee-98e0-eb0b381a94af.html

Earlier this month we hosted Luke's advisor, Dr. Margenot, and lab members from the University of Illinois on the farm for a tour.  For many of them it was their first time seeing an Illinois grain and livestock farm up close and it was great to to help them learn and contextualize parts of their research projects. It was also awesome to learn about their diverse backgrounds and research experience in agriculture, plus we  got a mini-soils lecture from Dr. Margenot! If you want to learn more about the lab and research  projects go to https://margenot.cropsciences.illinois.edu/.

Hello everyone! We are planning to post something about agriculture or farming on here every couple of weeks in 2022.  To start off the new year, check out Luke's thoughts on sustainable agriculture  for of one his classes at WIU.  See you in a couple weeks!

Welcome to the JP Bergschneider Farms website! We're glad to have you! If you have any questions or want to reach out, just fill out the form at the "Contact Us" page on the website.