The after-hours hobby of Robb Barnes, owner of King’s Pumping Service in Dallas, Ore., really starts before hours. Two hours prior to hitting the road to his first septic pumping job each day, he’s taking care of two-dozen chickens and a small herd of beef cattle. When the last tank is serviced, he’s back checking fences, moving cattle around and making sure every critter has enough to eat and drink.
Barnes says his hobby fits in well with his business, because both concerns benefit the environment and human health, and both allow him to pursue his first love — teaching.
“I see my job as educating people, and owning a pump truck gives me access,” he says. “I can visit with customers and educate them. My healthy food project dovetails in nicely with the entire concept of septic maintenance. It protects the environment, reduces the use of nonrenewable fossil fuel resources and improves the quality of not only the food we eat but of the lives of the animals.”
FROM TEACHER TO PUMPER
Barnes, whose wife, Renay, teaches eighth-grade earth science, also trained to be a teacher in the areas of biology and health. After teaching for a couple years, however, Barnes became disillusioned with the educational system and wanted to try something else. He entered the business world and advanced to the position of national customer service manager for a manufacturer. He grew tired of constant travel and being away from his wife and three young children, so he decided to buy his own business.
“We bought a septic pumping business 12 years ago,” he says. “It was started in 1965 and had both a good reputation and good equipment.’’
The company’s current equipment includes a 1996 Freightliner FL106 truck built out by Pioneer Truckweld in Salem, Ore. It has a 3,100-gallon aluminum tank from Beall Industries and a Masport HXL20 pump.
“We’ve kept it a one-person, one-truck business intentionally,” Barnes says. “A lot of people want to grow, but our goal has been to provide good service to customers and a decent living for our family and be able to go to every one of the kids’ games and school events.”
Barnes doesn’t have a secretary. His wife answers the phone in the summer and his mom handles it the rest of the year. He does the paperwork himself in the evenings. Barnes says he pumps 600 or 700 septic tanks a year, but now that the kids are grown, he’s got more time to concentrate on his farming interests.
DOWN ON THE FARM
While not officially certified organic, Barnes produces what he calls “healthy” beef and free-range eggs, without the use of chemical sprays, antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides or chemical wormers. The animals graze on his own two acres, and eight more that he rents from a neighbor.
“We will be getting the pasture itself certified organic this winter,” Barnes says. “This will let us sell organic hay as well.”
He says his main emphasis is on raising animals in an environment where they have unlimited access to grass, clean water and shade.
“What many people do not understand is I can raise certified organic animals that never leave a barn or pen and never even get to see natural light,” Barnes says. “Unfortunately, the definitions of organic, free-range, cage-free and all-natural are like financial figures. They can be manipulated to a producer’s best advantage.”
He says he likes to invite customers to come visit the farm, see how the animals are raised and cared for and actually feed the livestock themselves and gather their own eggs.
HOT MARKET FOR BEEF
“Many of our beef and egg customers are also our pumping customers,” Barnes says. “I have a cooler in the cab of the truck so I can deliver eggs while I’m out.”
The beef cattle are entirely grass fed through management-intensive grazing, which means every 24 hours the electric wires that contain them are moved to a new patch of grass.
“What you end up with is naturally concentrated fertilizer,” Barnes says. “They walk around and their hoofs work the manure into the ground and break up old grass, which generates new growth. Another benefit is that if you keep the cattle in a small concentrated area, they eat both the grass and the weeds. This increases the grass volume dramatically without chemical fertilizers.”
Barnes buys young steers in April and says by May their meat is all spoken for. He feeds them until they are big enough to be butchered in fall.
“People want to know where their food comes from,” Barnes says. “We raised seven animals this year, which is not a lot, but depending on if people buy halves or quarters of beef we can feed up to 28 families.”
Barnes does not limit himself to one type of cattle. He likes Limousins, a French breed known for producing lean cuts of meat. And last year he raised a Scotch Highlander. This is a slower growing breed, so he kept it through the winter along with a Shorthorn.
CHICKEN NOODLES
In addition to the cattle, Barnes keeps about 25 chickens in a pen covering 30,000 square feet of grass.
“They’re not in little cages, they run around,” he says.
The chickens peck around on the ground foraging for seeds and bugs, but are also fed a commercial laying pellet feed along with crushed oyster shells for calcium, which is critical for egg shell strength, Barnes says.
“They also love any apples or pears that fall off our fruit trees, and they totally devour all grass clippings from the lawn and any extra garden produce such as blueberries, corn, strawberries or tomatoes,” he says. “The funniest thing to watch them eat is pasta. They get a noodle started and just vacuum it in, and the end of the noodle is whipping back and forth like a miniature bull whip until suddenly it is gone. I just crack up watching them; it is one of the craziest things you’ll ever see.”
When he’s not pumping septic tanks or watching the chickens eat noodles, Barnes is volunteering in the community. He teaches hunter safety and helps out at the school where his wife teaches. He also gives presentations on small business to high school students.
“There’s not a dozen days in the year when I don’t have pump jobs,” he says. “But the farm work slows down in the winter.”
