Saturday Video

It doesn't seem to matter where they are in the world or what language they speak - farmers talk about the same things the world over!

No Planting Today

Last night we had heavy rains so we were not able to plant today.  However, there was plenty to do to get ready for the next opportunity to get back into the field.

Chuck loading and unloading seed for customers.  With the
delay in planting some customers are switching corn hybrids
to shorter season hybrids.
 

We were fortunate last night.  Areas to the north and west, Howard and Floyd counties specifically,received 6 to 8 inches of rain, while in central Iowa there were tornadoes and damaging straight line winds.


It looks as though the Midwest is in for another

tough night of storms so be vigilant and

stay safe.

Amos, the intern, washed up equipment after
7 days of hard running.

Travis and Dad hauled corn to the river barge terminal.

It was a good day to visit with the neighbors and see
how every one is doing.  Congratulations Ben!
Glad to see that the diploma was signed ;-).

Tonight we did something that we haven't been able to do in over a week.  It seems longer than that maybe because it's so important to our family.  We actually sat done at the dinner table and had supper together.  To celebrate I made the family favorite Puffy Pancakes.

I added this recipe to the Family Favorites tab at the top.

The 7th Day of Planting

It rained very early this morning so Joe and Dad did not get back into the corn planters until about 2:00 pm today.  But, that was ok.  There was time for church and laundry.  They already quit tonight do to the storms that will be rolling in shortly but there was still plenty of time today for Joe to get his "working look" on.

Really, he does clean up pretty well.

 



The Second Day of Planting

 

Getting all of the different hybrids sorted and arranged in order
for the plot.

Planting plot.  Plot work takes time and a lot of walking.

 



Emptying and refilling seed boxes at one end of plot.

A BIG thank you to Chris, Kendra, Super Intern, and Jr. Super Intern for getting this plot done!  It's a big plot and takes a lot of time and energy especially on the hottest day of the year.

Travis trying to finish this farm of soybeans before
the rain starts.

The First Day of Planting

Needed one more bag to finish up the field.

Working on planter plumbing.

Done with this field.

No Progress

A year ago we had all of our anhydrous ammonia applied to our corn ground and we had been planting corn for four days straight already. 

Planting corn spring 2012

Well, this isn't the case this year. 

 

What a difference a year can make!  Here is the same field as of this morning.  We have not been able to start our anhydrous application yet so needless to say we haven't started planting yet. 

 

We like to plant corn when the soil conditions are ideal and the soil temperature is pushing 50 F.  But the ground is so saturated that I haven't made an attempt to even slop my way out into the field to take a temp reading.  But considering we have skiffs of snow on the ground yesterday morning I don't think the soil temps are much above 40F. 

 

This is an intake pipe that

we use to help remove excess water from one of our fields.  This intake pipe is attached to a tile line about six feet under ground.  Tile used in conjunction with terraces is a great soil conservation practice as this tool helps hold and slowing release water from a slope.  Otherwise gravity will wash soil away with fast moving water.  But this week this intake pipe is working as a pressure release valve as the tile lines are full of water.  So, we now have a Roman water fountain!



 

There is always a silver lining to situations like this.  The soils in much of Iowa had been depleted last year due to the drought so the subsoils are being recharged for the 2013 growing season.  We have been able to calibrated and real calibrate monitors and computers used in the anhydrous applicator tractor, the corn planter tractors, the soil finisher tractor, the Hagie sprayer and a few other monitors that I'm not sure we will even be using this spring.  Plus, we have been able to do inventory checks on pretty much all of the seed in the warehouse.  I have also been keeping up on laundry and book work because once spring does break there will only be time for spring planting responsibilities.

 

 

Things are a little more tolerable considering that this delayed spring is effecting the entire Midwest.  Misery loves company you could say.  But knowing that we aren't the only ones dealing with this weather does make the situation easier to handle. 

 

So, what are you doing with your rainy, cold, wet days? 



Yesterday, Sunday, was the best day of the year so far.  The sun shined most of the day and everyone was outside with only a light jacket.  It made me think that maybe spring will come this year.  A year ago we were done applying anhydrous ammonia (our nitrogen source for our corn crop) and preparing to start planting corn.

Today we are in our shirt sleeves.  We started delivering soybean seed treatment products to other Pioneer seed dealers in the area, making sure the seed tenders are ready for the spring hauling season, and going over the seed treater.  We use seed treatments on our soybean seed to protect the soybean seedlings from diseases and insects in the spring.

Todd from Independent Inputs working on our
seed treater computer programs making sure all is up to snuff
before "the season" gets started.   By calibrating our seed
treater we don't over apply or under apply the protection
products to the soybean seed.  This is good for the
pocket book and great for the environment.

Travis working on a seed tender.

Chuck helping the snow melt away a little faster.
 

Joe helping me with inventory in the seed warehouse.
 

Travis and Derk still working on the seed

tender.  Looks like Gary and Judy will be make a parts run today.



 

 



 

The Saturday Afternoon Pit Crew

Corn and soybean planting continue on.  It was a good week once the soil dried.  Dad stopped at home to refill the corn planter and fuel up the tractor.  We were caught up in the seed warehouse so everyone pitched in to get the planter filled and greased up.  

Friday's Favorite Farm Recipe

We are now into Day 5 of the planting season.  It has been a good week so far.  The seed warehouse and office have been my domain this entire time so I have not had the opportunity to highlight any great recipes for this week.  Any one who knows Joe and Suzanne knows that in the spring just about everything other than planting is put on hold. 
 

If you have a recipe you think is worthy of the Farm Favorite title please send it to me in the comment section of this blog entry and I will put it up on this site tonight.

Thanks for your understanding!

Suzanne

Aaaand They're Off . .

. . . like a herd of turtles.  Yesterday we started planting corn and soybeans.  Joe and the guys had been testing and checking all of the monitors and computers in all of tractors the past few weeks so when the soil dried,

Joe setting up one of the planter's monitors

the rain stopped and soil condition were good we could get planting.  Well, Monday was the day to start.  The guys got the planter loaded with seed and were getting ready to pull away from the shed when the GPS system on the planter tractor started wavering. 

Loading planter with seed corn.

So, the Joe, Dad and Derk sat in the tractor for the next two hours working over the phones with equipment suppliers trying to figure what was wrong.  Making a very long story short, eventually the GPS equipment started working and Dad was off to plant corn.

Yes, three grown men can fit in a tractor cab.

The GPS/auto steer was not working in the soil finisher tractor either.  That does not make Rollie happy but at least Rollie could still run the soil finisher. 

We use GPS equipment to run the shut offs on our planter.  You have to remember because of our rolling land we farm on the contour - meaning we farm around a hill not up and over.  This helps with soil preservation.  Anyway, our planter is 16 rows (40 feet) wide and when we plant on the contour Dad needs to be able to shut off rows quickly to avoid double and triple planting parts of a field and save money on very expensive seed.  With GPS, the computers on the equipment shut off and turn on the rows as need be.  We also do some variable rate planting.  This means we vary the seeding rate of the seed corn across a field based on yield potential and soil fertility.  This is also controlled by computers and the GPS equipment is necessary.

Trying to figure out why the GPS equipment won't work!

At one precision ag forum I was reading this morning there were farmers commenting on our same problem from Texas to northwest Minnesota and Kansas to Illinois.  At least we were in good company.  Our problem was geomagnetic activity.  Yep, it went right over my head as well.  What it amounts to is that the sun is messing with our planting season!  I am now signed up for Geomagnetic A-Index of 100 or greater, Geomagnetic K-index of 6, 7, 8, and 9 Alerts and Warnings through NOAA and the Space Weather Prediction Center.  Really.  I am not making this up. 

I have heard the phrase "A slave to technology" mentioned before.  I think we might be at that point. 

Pit Crews

It is little a too sticky to plant this morning so the pit crews are busy.  Dad, Derk and Eric are switching the eight row planter soybeans.   We go from eight rows of corn to 15 rows of soybeans. 

Our seed treater has been giving us fits since last Friday.  This morning we have people from Omaha, Minneapolis, and South Africa (Believe it or not) working on it.  We are back up and running now but yesterday was a little nerve racking. 



The inside of the control panel for the seed treater  - one of the
scariest things I have ever seen.



The black box holds 2500 pound of soybeans seed. There is a slide opening on the bottom of the box.  The seed then goes up a belt and into the treater drum where fungicide and insecticide is sprayed on the beans.  The tannish/brown thing is a drum and turns and gets the protection products evenly dispersed onto the seed.  The seed then comes out of the drum and goes up another belt and into a seed tender that we use to deliver the seed to our customers or our own planter.



Tanks that hold the crop protection products.





Seed tender being loaded with treated soybean seed.



The techs think that a lightening strike in early April is the culprit to all our problems.  But all should be better now with a new control panel.

The pit crew was also getting the field cultivator checked over and ready to go. 

Greasing the crumbler on the field cultivator

Checking to make sure all the shovels are tight.

And finally I went out to the field behind the warehouse to see how wet the field was and I saw two orioles in one of our cherry trees.  I did attempt to snap a pick before scaring them away.



I'm a slow typer so by now all the equipment is back out in the fields, soybeans are being treated and I need to hop back on the forklift!

A Great Day for Planting Corn (and Soybeans)!

The rainbow ended right over the
Pioneer seed boxes!

What a great day for planting!  Last night about 8:00 we had a rain shower and then the sun came out, the wind stopped blowing and we had a double rainbow.

This morning started out with the sun
and just a breeze.  It was a "full crew" day.  Besides our two fulltime employees we have three spring and fall parttime helpers.  Rollie is our neighbor, landlord and ace soil finisher operator.  Chuck retired from the co-op a couple of years

Or maybe it ended in the corn field.

ago and now helps haul NH3 tanks early in the spring and then helps get seed delivered to customers and our planters.  Stan, works in town and helps us in the evenings and weekends.  He has been helping Mom and Dad for about 20 years.  Stan runs the NH3 applicator and the planters.  Then we have our intern.  Amos is an agronomy major at U of W, Plattville, we keep him busy in the Pioneer Hi-Bred department.  Without our great part-time help we would never accomplish what we do everyday. 
I snuck out of the seed warehouse today and made a seed delivery.  I hadn't been off the farm since Monday and wanted to see what was happening in the country.   Wow!  There is a lot of corn in the ground especially considering that no one really got started planting around here until Monday.  Tonight Joe and I were going through inventories and looking at customers needs and we came to the conclusion that our area is at least 40% planted. 

This is our soybean planter.  In a typical year (a phrase I use very lightly)
 we have one planter on corn and one on soybeans.  Because of the late
start to planting we are using both planters to get the corn planted.

That is amazing - in five days we can be so far along in planting completion.  I listen to the Big Show on WMT Radio at noon on the weekdays and it sounds like this is state wide.  I would like to know how acres there are per planter row in Iowa.  In other words - how many acres does each planter row plant in Iowa.  Equipment has come a long ways.  Rollie always laughs at how we can plant more corn in one day than he used to plant in an entire spring.  One of these days I'm going to sneak out of the warehouse again and hopefully take a few pictures of Dad planting and show you what the inside of a tractor during planting season looks like.

This is a seed tender.  We deliver bulk corn and soybean seed to
our customers with these.  By using bulk seed, customers eliminate LOTS
of paper bags.  Bulk seed is great for handling and for the environoment.

One of My Hats

Like all women, I wear many hats through my life and days.  This last week I put my Pioneer Hi-Bred seed hat back on for the planting season.

I spend most of my days in the seed warehouse loading out seed to customers, unloading semis, reloading semis, treating soybean seed, and filling planters.

There are a few farmers who planted corn yesterday.  The soil temps are running right around 47/48 F.  You want to plant corn when the soil conditions are right and soil temps are heading towards 50F.  Corn germinates at 50F.  The only problem is that wet and cold conditions are predicted for the next few days in fact snow is predicted for our part of Iowa.

Here is a tour of my seed warehouse for the next 30 days or however long it takes to get the crop in the ground I will be here.

This is my forklift.  It's a Cat.  I like telling people that I drive a Caterpillar.  

This is my view while driving my forklift most of the day.

Here are some pictures of my scenery.  When I get tired of it I just rearrange the pallets and ProBoxes.  :-)  That makes Joe mad as he says there is a reason he has varieties and hybrids where he does.  I just tell him it's makes life more interesting and it's like an Easter egg hunt.

I unloaded this semi this morning. 

My feet.  I bumped the camera and got a really good picture of my feet.





This is our college intern.  He helps out on the weekends getting seed delivered and organized.  Once he is done with the semester he will be full time for the summer.  He is a hard worker and knows how to think ahead.  Those are two great assets to any employee.




If Joe lets me out of the warehouse today I will get some pictures of some field work going on in the area.   I hope you enjoyed the tour.  When I start treating soybeans I'll put up some pictures of the process.  Stop back again when you have time!