Action Alert:

National Organic Program’s New Organic Standards Exempt Beef Cattle from Pasture

Support New Alternative Three-Tiered Label System

Comments due April 19th, 2010

Should organic ruminants such as a dairy cows and beef cattle — which have evolved to eat grass — be permitted to be kept in feedlots or should they be required by USDA organic regulations to obtain at least a portion of their feed directly from pasture?

According to the USDA’s new organic pasture rule, released in February 2010, pasture grazing is required in organic dairy production, but organic beef cattle may be exempt from obtaining any of their feed from pasture during the last four months of their lives.

The New Pasture Rule’s Exemption for Beef Cattle

The rule states that organic producers must “maintain all ruminant animals on pasture,” but, in an apparent contradiction, may simultaneously also utilize “dry lots, yards or feedlots” for grain finishing of slaughter stock, such as beef cattle, during the last 120 days or one-fifth of the animal’s life, whichever is shorter. During these 120 days, these organic animals are exempt from the requirement to obtain at least 30% dry matter intake (DMI) from pasture.

The USDA is seeking comments as to whether or not the current language should be strengthened or weakened. The final determination on this language will more clearly define how organic beef is produced.

A comprehensive analysis of this issue can be found at: http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/04/position-paper-organic-feedlotgrass-based-beef/

Current Practices in the Organic Beef Industry

To gain a deeper understanding of current practices in the organic beef industry, Cornucopia surveyed organic beef producers from across the nation. Results of the survey revealed that 80% of organic beef producers graze their beef cattle on pasture until slaughter, never confining them to a feedlot. In fact, 60% of organic beef producers never feed any grain to their cattle (100% grass-fed), while 20% maintain their cattle on pasture but provide small amounts of grain. The new rule’s exemption for ruminant slaughter stock from obtaining feed from pasture is therefore not needed by the vast majority of organic beef producers.

Yet, the remaining one-fifth of the nation’s organic beef producers are currently using feedlots for finishing, The Cornucopia Institute understands that there is support from some stakeholders for an exemption from obtaining 30% DMI from pasture for ruminant slaughter stock. These farmers, ranchers and feedlot operators currently likely produce a majority of the nation’s organic meat supply.

Cornucopia’s Proposal for Three-Tiered Labeling System

Given the well-documented benefits of pasture grazing, for environmental protection, animal welfare, food safety and consumer health, Cornucopia proposes a three-tiered labeling system for organic meat from ruminants.

Under the proposed system, three labels would be used for organic meat from ruminants:

1. “Organic – Grain Finished” – For meat from animals that needed the exemption from pasture during the last 120 days (might include finishing in feedlots).

2. “Organic – Pasture/Grain Finished” – For meat from animals that were maintained on pasture until slaughter, obtained at least 30% of their feed intake from pasture during the grazing season but received small amounts of grain supplementation at some point.

3. “Organic – 100% Grass Fed” – For meat from animals that were 100% grass-fed, never receiving any grain in their diet.

Rationale for Three-Tiered Labeling System

Since organic farmers are making arguments on behalf of the three production systems (all currently in use), it would be beneficial for organic producers and consumers to be able to easily differentiate them in the marketplace, with a clear label for each one.

Consumers are increasingly interested in grass-fed meats, and some might be surprised to find out that “organic” and “grass-fed” are not synonymous. The environmental advantages of grass-based livestock agriculture, its nutritional superiority as well as animal welfare benefits, are reported not only in scientific articles, but are also covered extensively in the popular media, ranging from Mother Earth News to Time Magazine, Forbes and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

On the other hand, promoters of organic grain-fed beef strongly believe that consumer preference and the marketplace dictate their production practices. American consumers are accustomed to the texture and flavor of meat from corn-fed feedlot cattle, and the USDA’s grading system for meat rewards high levels of intramuscular fat in beef—which is more easily achieved through finishing cattle on grain instead of grass.

A three-tiered labeling system will allow the marketplace to determine the viability of each production system, as well as creating economic opportunity for farmers who want to raise organic beef matching the demands and desires of organic consumers.

There are arguments in favor of each production system, which are outlined in greater detail in The Cornucopia Institute’s full-length position paper, available at:

http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/04/position-paper-organic-feedlotgrass-based-beef/

Send Your Comments to the USDA

While the exemption, allowing organic beef producers to use feedlots for grain finishing, has been published in the final rule, the NOP is accepting comments until April 19th from organic beef and other ruminant producers and the general public.

We urge both organic producers and consumers to share their thoughts with the USDA before the April 19th deadline, including expressing their support for a three-tiered labeling system.

Send your comments to the USDA before the April 19th deadline.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SENDING COMMENTS

To send comments electronically:

1. Visit www.regulations.gov.
2. Select “Submit a comment”
3. Enter “AMS-TM-06-0198” in the search bar
4. Click “Submit a Comment” (to the right of the first search result)

To send comments by USPS mail:

Address mailed comments to:

Toni Strother, Agricultural Marketing Specialist
National Organic Program, USDA–AMS–TMP–NOP
Room 2646–So., Ag Stop 0268
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20250–0268

Clearly identify your comment with the docket number: AMS–TM–06–0198; TM–05–14FR.

MORE: USDA’S request for comments:

The USDA asks that comments “clearly indicate whether you support §205.239(d) as published in this final rule, in full or in part, and the reason(s) for your position. Please include only relevant information and data to support your position.”

The new rule’s exemption, §205.239(d), reads as follows:

(d) Ruminant slaughter stock, typically grain finished, shall be maintained on pasture for each day that the finishing period corresponds with the grazing season for the geographical location: Except, That, yards, feeding pads, or feedlots may be used to provide finish feeding rations. During the finishing period, ruminant slaughter stock shall be exempt from the minimum 30 percent DMI requirement from grazing. Yards, feeding pads, or feedlots used to provide finish feeding rations shall be large enough to allow all ruminant slaughter stock occupying the yard, feeding pad, or feed lot to feed simultaneously without crowding and without competition for food. The finishing period shall not exceed one fifth (1/5) of the animal’s total life or 120 days, whichever is shorter.

USDA definitions added in new rule:

Dry lot: A fenced area that may be covered with concrete, but that has little or no vegetative cover.
Feedlot: A dry lot for the controlled feeding of livestock.
Graze: (1) The consumption of standing or residual forage by livestock. (2) To put livestock to feed on standing or residual forage.
Yard: An area for feeding, exercising, and outdoor access for livestock during the non-grazing season and a high traffic area where animals may receive supplemental feeding during the grazing season.

USDA existing definitions of interest:

Pasture: Land used for livestock grazing that is managed to provide feed value and maintain or improve soil, water, and vegetative resources.

The full action alert on the organic beef cattle exemption can be viewed at: http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/04/national-organic-program%E2%80%99s-new-organic-standards-exempt-beef-cattle-from-pasture/

The Cornucopia Institute P.O. Box 126 Cornucopia, WI 54827 www.cornucopia.org

Action Alert:

Rescue Local/Organic Farming in the Food Safety Bill!

Urgent—Call your Senator Today

Next week, as early as Tuesday, April 13, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a sweeping overhaul of federal food safety law – S. 510. The House food safety bill passed last year (HR 2749) included several measures that threaten small-scale organic producers, including a registration fee of $500 and blanket application of complicated monitoring and traceability standards — regardless of one’s farm size.

There’s no doubt that industrial agriculture needs better oversight. But, family-scale local and organic farms are probably the safest in the nation — they are part of the solution, not part of the problem — and need to be protected!

Now is your chance, as a supporter of sustainable family farming, to help fix these problems! Senator Tester (D-MT), a certified organic farmer himself, is proposing an amendment to S. 510 that would exempt small-scale farmers and food processors from the most burdensome regulations.

We need your help TODAY, please call your U.S. Senators in support of these proposals.

The vast majority of recent food safety scandals in the U.S. — E. coli on fresh spinach, melamine in dairy products, Salmonella in peanut butter — were all linked to industrial agribusiness practices, and these large-scale operations clearly warrant more federal food safety oversight and strict enforcement action. What is NOT needed is a “one-size-fits-all” approach that poses unfair costs and onerous reporting on local and organic farmers.

Safer, healthier food options provided by local, organic, and sustainable farmers should not be punished for their responsible work with expensive and complicated new rules. These rules may make industrialized food production safer, but offer no real food safety gains to consumers of local and organic foods. Small-scale operations are already subject to adequate regulation by local and state agencies. Smaller farm size inherently poses less risk (they are almost always owner-operated), and direct marketing also offers consumers better quality food with more transparency and accountability — and easy traceability.

Taking Action is Easy:

Call your Senators today, and tell them that you support Senator Tester’s amendment to S. 510.

To reach your state’s Senators,

1. Search his/her phone number online: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

2. Or call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Sample Talking Points:

Specific talking points you can share with your Senators from Tester’s proposed amendment to S. 510 include:

1) With respect to the hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls, add the following new section to Section 103:

 (l) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN FACILITIES – This section shall not apply to a facility for a year if the average annual adjusted gross income of such facility for the previous three-year period was less than $500,000.

 2) With respect to traceability, add the following new section to Section 204:

(f) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN FACILITIES – The traceback and recordkeeping requirements under this section shall not apply to a facility for a year if the adjusted gross income of such facility for the previous year was less than $500,000.

With respect to the produce standards, add the following new section to Section 105:

 (g) EXCEPTION FOR DIRECT MARKET FARMS – This section shall not apply to farms whose annual value of sales of food products directly to consumers, hotels, restaurants, or institutions exceeds the annual value of sales of food products to all other buyers.

Thanks for your support of organic, local and sustainable farmers!

The full action alert can be viewed at: http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/04/action-alert-rescue-localorganic-farming-in-the-food-safety-bill/#more-2770

The Cornucopia Institute P.O. Box 126 Cornucopia, WI 54827 www.cornucopia.org

By Dan Bates
Herald Photographer

Emily takes Maleah (left) and Madeleine out to the far pasture to see Miss Moo and her newborn baby calf on Aug. 20.

There may have been a time in history when families like the Klesicks were more common.

In today’s world, however, they capture our attention because they live true to their values. They are not part of today’s television culture. They talk. They read. They make music and sing. They work — boy, do they work!

They play. And they pray.

Farm Dreams, the photo-story, may appear to come to an end here, with these last images. However, the real farm dreams will continue forever in the lives of these wonderful kids and their parents, Joelle and Tristan.

And there may be a few new farm dreams born from the Klesicks’ unselfish sharing of their stories.

It may be just as Tristan once said: “There are a lot of people out there who don’t know, yet, that they’re farmers.”

Read the article on heraldnet.com by clicking here.

By Dan Bates
Herald Photographer

Riding on the seed drill, Andrew peers around one side as his dad, Tristan Klesick, turns the big draft horses upfield.

Pulling the farmer and his son on a seed drill, the big draft horses turn directly into my 400 millimeter lens, filling the frame top to bottom with hooves and horsehair.

The Canon EOS Mark III catches Tristan Klesick’s face in the narrow gap between the horses as they kick up dust and small clods in the deep, tilled soil.

A smaller, younger face peers out from one side of the horses. It is Andrew, 10. He sees the telephoto lens and his face lights up with excitement and perhaps the pang of divided interests.

The boy loves working with his dad behind the horses, but he wouldn’t mind being behind that big camera.

From the beginning of the Farm Dreams series, Andrew has been interested in the photography. He uses my backup camera, an older EOS 1D, to practice during days I’m at the farm. He follows me around and asks a gazillion questions, including some I can’t answer in a short version.

An experienced home-school mom, Joelle Klesick recognizes that her son could take an interest in any number of attractions. If not photography, it could be chain saws, she says. Still, she adds, it is great for a kid to learn whenever he gets the chance.

“The truth is, he’s something of an opportunist,” Joelle says.

What she may not realize is that that’s almost a perfect description of a photojournalist.

BEST OF SHOW

In late May, Andrew focuses on a dandelion puffball through a 35 mm lens set at F11. In the background, a farm field stretches across the horizon. As his dad, Tristan, makes a pass on a tractor, Andrew trips the shutter.

Near the chicken coop in June, Andrew makes a nice photo of his sister, Emily, holding his baby brother, Stephen, while she visits Miss Moo. It’s one of those moody Northwest photos marked by a charcoal sky and rich, earthy tones beneath. It’s good in color, but it would be great in black and white.

In July, Andrew goes through his photographs on the family computer, deciding what to enter in the Silvana and Stanwood fairs. His mom takes a CD of his favorite ones to town and has them printed.

When the Silvana Fair judging is finished, Andrew takes home four blue ribbons and one for “Best of Show.” A week later, when the Stanwood Fair judging is complete, he collects two more blue ribbons and one “Special Award.”

The two top awards are for the dandelion photo.

Andrew told me last spring that his favorite thing to do was drive a tractor.

So I ask him, again, following his successful summer of photography and all his awards, what his favorite thing is now.

Without hesitation, he answers, “Drive a tractor.”

Life is as it should be for one 10-year-old farm boy.

Read the article on heraldnet.com by clicking here.

Story and photos by Dan Bates, Herald Photographer

In the small warehouse on the Klesick Farm, Grace Johansson prepares organic produce boxes for customer delivery. The food includes locally grown produce and imported items.

THE HEART

Tristan Klesick may not be able to feed 5,000 people with a couple of fish and five loaves of bread, but he does possess strong Christian faith, unusually good food-growing skills and some great ideas for helping people bless other people.

“I know others have the heart to bless people with food,” Tristan says. “And with our farm staff and products, and our delivery vans, we have the means to help them do it.”

Tristan started a program called Neighbor Helping Neighbor about 10 years ago, but it isn’t advertised. He is low key about it and he won’t pressure others to use it. He merely would like to provide a conduit that people can use, by their own choice, to bless others with food.

It’s a not-for-profit function of the farm, something Tristan and his family believe in. They would do it themselves, anyway, but providing a way for others to use them increases the bounty for everyone. So far this year, about 340 family boxes and 100 holiday boxes have been donated.

People can purchase a box of food and have it delivered to someone they know who needs it. Or, what is more often the case, people ask the Klesick Farm to donate it to the food bank. The Klesick Family Farm matches every fourth box that customers donate.

THE SOUL

She is all too young, and alone, holding a baby in a carrier. She avoids drawing attention to herself as she nervously looks over the food at the Snohomish Food Bank.

It’s clear she can’t carry groceries and hold the 2-week-old baby at the same time.

Ed Stocker, 82, kindly invites her to set the baby down next to him. He’ll gladly watch the child.

She is reluctant to separate from that baby, even for a minute. Yet, she finally leaves the child, quickly gathers some food and carries it to her car.

The next time she arrives, she takes the baby right to Stocker and sets the carrier down next to him. Each time she returns, the women volunteering fawn over the baby while she gathers food. Her guard lowered now, the young mother chats happily with the women, and the old man.

The young woman hadn’t been afraid in the beginning, Stocker explained. She was embarrassed.

It’s not easy to seek help. It can be an art to give it.

THE BLESSING

Gail Brenchley of Snohomish donates Klesick boxes because she feeds her five kids produce grown by the Klesicks and sees the difference in how they eat.

“If people are getting fresh vegetables, they’ll eat them,” she said. “Their kids will eat them because they taste better.

“I like to give others the same thing I feed my own family.”

Eva Burns donates the Klesick Farm boxes because, she said, it’s the way she would like to be treated if she were in need.

The delivery is key, she said. Somebody else doing the lifting is what makes it possible for the 82-year-old Everett woman to bless others in this way.

Michele Payton said the Klesick Farm’s pre-order holiday box is a bargain at $30.

“You can donate a second holiday box to some family you know, or to the food bank for $25,” she said. “And you should see it!”

Still, the Camano Island woman cancelled her own Klesick Farm deliveries.

“Because of economics, I e-mailed the Klesick Farm saying I needed to suspend deliveries for a while, until things get better,” Payton said. “Tristan not only called and lowered the cost of my food box, but he counseled me on the economic situation; he’s very knowledgeable.

“It touched me. I was personally surprised by the generosity.”

“It isn’t ‘business as usual,’” Payton said. “It’s not just another good value, food-wise. What other place would call somebody?

“I’m not going to get a call from some CEO at Costco to say, ‘Hey, let me help you out for a while.’ “

Vicki Grende, whose husband, Don, was on strike at Boeing for eight weeks with the Machinists union, recently e-mailed the Klesick Farm to thank them for charging them half-price throughout the strike and to let them know they would like to pay full price now.

The majority of the donated Klesick Farm boxes go to the Stanwood Camano Food Bank. Ed Stocker will pick up about 60 holiday boxes for the Snohomish Community Food Bank this week.

The food banks are accustomed to stocking fruits and vegetables from the big stores, product that is near the end of its shelf life, yet still good if consumed right away.

The Klesick boxes are different.

“The thing about the Klesick boxes is they’re fresh vegetables,” Stocker said. “They’re not culls. They’re strictly the best — the same food they deliver to their customers is what they send with me.”

“I will go any distance to pick up produce,” Stocker said. “With Tristan, that’s my trip because his kids and I like to talk duck hunting and goose hunting. Those kids, they’re just like my own.”

He thinks Tristan is OK, too. He notes that Tristan began farming as an adult, rather than growing up on a farm like everyone in the Stocker family.

“He has a different slant on agriculture than someone who grew up on the dirt,” Stocker said. “And that’s good!”

Read the article on heraldnet.com by clicking here.

By Dan Bates
Herald Photographer

Despite the risk of shock on the electric fence wire, center, the cattle stretch their necks to glimpse Miss Moo’s newborn calf in the Klesick Farm pasture.

On this cloudy morning in August, the small herd of beef cattle is witnessing commotion at the electric fence, leaning over one another and the hot wire to get a glimpse of something very new.

Emily Klesick’s Jersey milk cow, Miss Moo, who has been on maternity watch for a few days, has given birth to a little brown calf, a bull.

With Miss Moo standing protectively over him, he lay in the thick green grass just beyond the electric fence. Like aunts and uncles gathered at a maternity ward window, the admiring relatives strain ever nearer, risking electric shock or even admonishment from Miss Moo to get a nose on the newborn.

The first one to notice the commotion is Tristan. He mentions to Emily, Miss Moo’s human, that there is something small and brown out in the north pasture.

Farm lessons

Emily, 15, says you learn, growing up on a farm, that not all experiences with farm animals have happy endings.

Her first Jersey cow, Peaches, died of milk fever only three days after Emily got her, earlier this year. Emily says she didn’t allow herself to get emotionally attached to Peaches because she knew from the beginning the cow might die.

“She wasn’t a pet, at that point, because I didn’t know her,” Emily says.

Two weeks later, Emily acquired Miss Moo. As it turned out, the new Jersey cow, which was pregnant, likes to hug, stretching her neck to rest her head on Emily’s shoulder.

“Miss Moo is very affectionate, for a cow,” Emily admits.

“She’s a lubber-dubber,” Madeleine says.

Emily leads her younger sisters Madeleine and Maleah across the pasture to see the calf. Alaina runs to catch up.

The tiny brown calf looks up at the girls with huge, shiny eyes fit for a Disney classic. It lurches slightly, stands up on its wobbly legs, and takes a couple of awkward steps.

Friend and farm hand Nathan Lama comes out to the pasture and scoops the calf up in his arms. Emily walks Miss Moo as they all head back to a safe pen, close to the house.

In all the excitement, nobody realizes Miss Moo is in the first stage of milk fever.

“When a cow gets milk fever, it’s obvious,” Emily says. “They just lay there. You can’t get them up.”

The trick with milk fever is catching it soon enough. The dairy farmer down the street comes over to give Miss Moo a shot of calcium, and she recovers.

The little brown calf is nicknamed Bullet by Maleah because he is a bull, not because he streaks around the pasture at only a week old, running under the electric fences where Miss Moo can’t follow, to be with the beef cattle when they call.

Read the article on heraldnet.com by clicking here.

By Dan Bates, Herald Photographer

The younger children’s faces reveal apprehension when Tristan Klesick tells them they will have a tug of war with some big farmhands during Harvest Jubilee at the Klesick farm in Stanwood.

A dozen children, mostly under 4 feet tall, line up and wrap their little hands around one end of the thick rope. Faces are shiny and smiles are bright. Never mind the rain.

Eyes turn huge when the biggest kid of all, Tristan Klesick, lifts his bullhorn and tells them they will have a tug of war against the big farm boys.

Miraculously, the little gang of rope-pullers wins.

In another part of the Klesicks’ farm field, rows of lettuce, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers and green beans are dotted with people, some beneath colorful umbrellas, picking the freshest veggies they’ll ever eat.

After parking in a pasture mowed short just for this day, visitors walk down a grassy road past a long row of tractors to a makeshift village of white canopies providing covered entertainment, food and exhibits for kids and oldsters alike.

A few little boys and a girl have climbed onto high tractor seats and positioned themselves behind steering wheels. Levers, knobs and shifters hold the youngsters spellbound by a farm dream that never really goes away in some.

Others, too little to climb onto a big tractor, are plowing a patch of earth nearby on toy tractors and antique cultivators. Tristan says there are a lot of children out there who don’t know, yet, that they’re farmers.

“Coming here tends to plant a seed in their heart,” he says.

The Klesicks and a lot of volunteers, good friends who’ve been preparing for this Harvest Jubilee for weeks, are scattered over several acres, helping the visitors.

The older Klesick boys are helping with demonstrations at a century-old threshing machine and gristmill. Andrew is helping friends John and Peter Lama with an old-time blacksmith demonstration.

Alaina helps kids make things with play dough in a pioneer kitchen, then runs them through a hay maze, where they try to find the hidden white mice.

Always on the lookout for kids who might be left out, Alaina helps one little girl find a spot on the rope for the tug of war.

“Alaina has good vision,” Tristan says. “She sees a need and goes to it.”

It is easy to see that the little ones like Alaina. They head straight to her when they want a hug.

Watching and listening to Tristan on his bullhorn as people gather around to see the century-old threshing machine in action, you realize that he does all this farm stuff for them.

It’s that way with his beautiful organic produce, too. The farmer is selling food, but he is serving something far greater. Most of the people who’ve come to this farm seem to know that.

Read the article on heraldnet.com by clicking here.

By Dan Bates
Herald Photographer

Micah Klesick tosses bales of hay to his coworker and friend, Nathan Lama, who stacks them on one of the farm’s trucks.

Despite suffering from hay fever, Micah Klesick dons a surgical mask and starts bucking hay that his brother Aaron baled earlier. In recent days he estimates he has tossed more than 1,000 bales onto the family farm’s trucks. The tightly packed bales can weigh 80 pounds each, so it is no minor chore for a 16-year-old, or anyone else.

Hay bucking is the stuff of farm lore. A big, strong worker may be outdone by a smaller person who has mastered the technique. Micah said it isn’t so hard to do once you learn the right moves. But that may be the teenager in him talking.

Between hay fields, Micah works alongside his friend, Nathan Lama, 18, weeding row after row of crops by hoe and by hand. Weeding alone, he said, takes 30 to 40 hours each week. But he doesn’t mind. The tedious work is “a lot more fun,” he said, “with a friend.”

Whether weeding rows that, end-to-end, stretch into miles, or bucking hay, Micah and Nathan talk a lot about hydrogen experimentation. “It’s my summer science class,” Micah said. “I’m interested in developing hydrogen-powered engines.”

The great conversation, Micah said, makes the long days under the hot sun much more bearable.

Madeleine, Alaina, Emily Klesick and some of the young people who work in the family produce business, take a midafternoon romp in the hayfield, racing from bale to bale, turning them over so the bottom side can dry in the sun.

“We always run when we turn bales,” Emily said. “It’s just more fun that way.”

Andrew may be a little small yet to toss hay bales, but he can drive one of the farm trucks while his brother and the others load it with hay.

Andrew clearly likes driving the truck, but said the most fun job on the farm is driving a tractor.

He said he learned on the old red Farmall, using the clutch and shifting gears.

“When I was young, I’d sit on my dad’s lap and learn to drive it,” the 10-year-old said.

Read the article on heraldnet.com by clicking here.

Story and photos by Dan Bates, The Herald

Dan Bates / The Herald

Tristan Klesick helps his son, Aaron, who is repairing a 100-year-old cultivator in a workshop at the family’s farm in Stanwood in March.

PART 2

It’s a cold, damp March day and the workshop, with its concrete floor and dim light is not designed for much comfort. But the young boy inside isn’t thinking about the hard floor or the chill.

He’s caught up in the joy of hammering and wrenching on a rusty iron machine that, 100 years ago, was a proud John Deere riding cultivator. The 13-year-old confidently ignites his cutting torch and proceeds to make the machine work again. His father, Tristan Klesick, watches closely over his shoulder. If the rain ever stops, the John Deere will till fields behind the family’s draft horses, Karen and Susie.

Nobody can remember the first mechanical or electrical item that Aaron Klesick disassembled. They know he was 3, maybe 4, when it all began.

Emily thinks it was her wristwatch. Aaron can’t remember, of course, but the 13-year-old smiles at the thought of taking apart his big sister’s watch.

None of his siblings or parents would be surprised if he actually did that. Nor would they be surprised if the watch worked when the kid was finished with it. It might never tell time again, but it would be or do something.

Since then, carcasses of broken appliances or electronics could always be traced to Aaron, who not only autopsied the discarded items, but explored every part to see how it worked.

“He was the take-apart-everything kid,” says his mom, Joelle Klesick. “He always wanted to know how things work. Anything electronic or mechanical.”

When the Klesicks hired an electrician to rewire their old farmhouse four years ago, Aaron asked permission to watch the man work. Afterward, the 9-year-old was able to wire outlets and switches.

BIG WHEELS

“Truth be known, Aaron will do any job if it involves driving the tractor,” Joelle says. “He baled hay on his birthday just to drive the tractor.”

This year, Aaron invested in his own hay-baling equipment. In a drier year, he might already have been out in the fields with it, but this year has been too wet. Hay is ruined by mold and mildew if baled wet.

He also acquired the arc welder and cutting torch he used to restore the 100-year-old cultivator that his dad found and bought at a Lynden auction.

A few months ago, Tristan was using the tractor to prepare a field and had a small window in the weather to finish. A power take-off shaft on the tractor broke. Aaron had been sick that day, and it was too late to get another shaft, so he had to give it up.

“I went in the house,” Tristan says. “Aaron said he would look at it. I told him not to bother. I’d wait. He was sick. But Aaron went out, saying he would just take a look to see what was wrong with it.

“When he came back into the house, he said ‘It’s fixed.’ And I was able to finish the job.”

” Without Aaron,” Tristan said, “we’d be at the mercy of every mechanic from here to Lynden.”

Aaron says they need to take the big tractor to Barnett Implements, the John Deere dealer in Mount Vernon for some specialized work. He pauses, and his eyes widen in thought.

“They’re professional,” he said. “They have real mechanics there. I’m hoping — just hoping — they’ll let me watch!”