Saturday Video

Once again the Texas  A&M student advocacy group Farmers Fight have a great video to share.

Enjoy!

Farmers Fight - Stand Up

Please take time to watch this video.  Talk about showing passion!

This video comes from the blog TAMU Farmers Fight - http://tamufarmersfight.blogspot.com/

There are several good essays on the blog written by TAMU students.  Each essay is from an individual's unique view and experience in agricultre. 

Food For Thought

Thank you to Monsanto for this great video!

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!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day!  Joe is out spraying, Dad is planting, Stan is soil finishing and Amos and I are in the seed warehouse. Yesterday, a friend jokingly asked where Joe was going to take me for brunch this morning.   My Mothers Day brunch consisted of a granola bar, a chocolate Easter egg and some iced tea in the Pioneer office.  As long as we can plant it's a great day.  We can do brunch next winter. 

Cesear on patrol.

It's relatively quiet this morning so I want to introduce you to three unassuming individuals that are important to our farming operation.  This is Ceasar.  He is 12 pounds of claws, teeth, and fluff.  Before we had Ceasar we would have a mouse nest in a pallet or two of seed each year.  We can't sell bags of seed that have been chewed on by rodents. A bag of seed corn can cost up to $310.  We have had Ceasear for eight years and since Cesear has come along we have not had a rodent problem in our seed warehouse.  He is definately worth his weight in gold.

Cesear is pretty much all business but he does like to
cuddle up once in awhile.

Next we have Cheese Cake. (I don't name the animals - I just buy their food.).  He was born a year ago.  Here is a picture of him with his mom, Lucky Bob, and his litter mates. 


Cheese Cake and litter mates at three weeks old.


Lucky Bob was a good mouser and her off-spring have always been as well.  Lucky Bob passed away last fall after being a very prolific cat for several years.  We have always had neighbors and friends who have wanted our cats for mousing so we only have the two cats on our farm.
Lucky Bob always had her litters in the rag box in the farm shop and that is still Cheese Cake's favorite place to sleep

Cheese Cake may need to improve on his work ethic.

 Our newest addition to the farm is Ugly George.  He is a guinea.  I heard that guineas are suppose to get rid of rodents and reptiles.  Since I hate snakes I thought we would give it a shot.  I bought George from a 4Her at the end of our county fair last August.  George makes the most unique and/or annoying sound we have ever heard.  He has pretty gray and white dotted feathers and he poops a lot.  We will see what kind of job he does for us this spring as all of the Lord's creatures start coming out of hibernation.

Ugly George

Have a great day and enjoy the great weather with your Mom!

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.

Do Not Be Afraid!

I repeat - Do Not Be Afraid!  After researching into historical weather records I have discovered that the yellowish white orb in the sky is in fact the sun.

It's my dad's birthday today.  Happy 71st Birthday Dad!  The only thing my dad ever wants for his birthday is to be able to plant corn.  Unfortunately, this will be one of those rare birthdays where he will not be planting.  Two weeks ago the soil temps were running right around 47F - 48F.  Then after one or two snow/slush storms the soil temps fell to 37F.  Today, the 4 inch soil temp is 42F.  To top it all off it rained and sleeted all day yesterday so it will be a while before corn planting gets started in Northeast Iowa. 

Soil thermometer at the 4 inch depth.

The soil temperature is a very important piece of information that crop farmers in the northern part of the midwest follow closely in early spring.  Corn germinates at 50F.  We like to start planting corn when the soil temps are below 50F but are definately rising and the weather is in the warming mode.  If seed sets in cold and/or wet soils for too long, the seed looses it's vigor and may not germinate or emerge healthy due to the onset of diseases.



Since he can't plant today, Dad is driving around the yard rechecking and double rechecking monitors
and electronics to make sure all is ready for when the weather does break.

Seed customers have been calling and stopping in today to pick up seed and discuss the late start to planting.  Everyone is trying to remain calm but I can tell everyone is nervous.   Let's hope the weather straightens out soon.

Joe loading a customer's seed. 
He likes to load seed once in awhile so
his forklift skills don't get rusty. :-)

Our employee "D" helping me in the warehouse since he can't be in the field.

Inadequate Parents

Tonight Joe was reading #3 a bedtime story about bunnies and he made a comment about doing the Bunny Hop.  Of course #3 had no idea what that was so Joe and I proceeded to do the Bunny Hop for the boys.  After a couple of times around the bedroom I started to improvise by saying "boing, boing, boing" when we would get to the three hops forward.  I know, pretty crazy of me.  At that point #3 announces, "that is an onomatopoeia!" 

Immediately I thought this can't be good.  I looked at #1 and asked him what his brother was talking about.  Instead of answering me #1 took off for his room obviously not wanting to have one of "those family discussions about good choices".  I asked #3 where he learned this word and he said at school.  Then, I looked at #2 - he just smiled and went back to reading The Three Muskateers.  My #3 then informed us that Ms. M, his Kindergarten teacher, told him what an onomatopoeia is.  This was a great relief knowing that I would not be getting a call or email from the school informing me that my kindergartener was using a bad word in school.   #3 then explained to his college educated parents that an onomatopoeia is a word that is a sound "kinda like achoo or Mom's boing". 

Of course this made no sense to Joe nor I so I bunny hopped down to the computer and Googled onomatopoeia.  I still retain some of my old phonics skills from first grade so Google was able to decipher what I was looking for.  Thank goodness there is Google otherwise I would be looking through my dictionary for the next three days.  Here is the official definition from Webster's Dictionary:
Onomatopoeia - The formation of a word by imitating the natural sound associated with the object or action involved; echoism.

I am so glad #3 learned something today.  I'm sure the Bunny Hop will take him far in life!

                                                        



Anhydrous Ammonia Application

Today is a cold, damp, yucky day.  So, I'm going to take you back to about 10 days ago when it was warmer, drier and we were applying anhydrous ammonia (NH3). 

Anhydrous ammonia (NH3 for short hand) is the form of nitrogen we use in our farming operation.  There are several different forms of nitrogen fertilizer - liquid 28% and 32%, urea, ammonium sulfate - but in our operation NH3 is the best form to use.  Corn being a grass plant requires nitrogen to grow. The soybean is a legume and manufactures it's own nitrogen.

Tractor, NH3 Tool Bar and NH3 Tank

The NH3 applicator is the first tool we take across our fields in the spring.   Behind the tractor is what is called the NH3 tool bar.  It is 47 feet wide.

A view of a coulter.

View of the front of tool bar.

On the front of the tool bar is a row of large, sharp, round blades called coulters.  The coulters cut through the plant residue. 







Next, there is a row of knives.  There are 17 knives on this bar.  Each knife is curved and has a plastic hose running down the side of it.  This tube carries the nitrogen from the tank into the soil.  The knives go about 8 to 10 inches deep and this is where the nitrogen is placed.  The closing disks then seal the nitrogen  

View of a knife and closing disks.

into the soil right behind the knives.  There are two disks behind each knife that form a V to get the soil over the knife opening.

Behind the tool bar we pull the anhydrous tank.  There is enough nitrogen in this size tank to apply about 17 to 20 acres at the rates we use.  Anhydrous ammonia has an extremely low boiling point so the tanks are pressurized.  The NH3 is a liquid in the tank but when it hits the soil it turns to the gas form.  That is why it is important to have good closing devises behind the knives. 

A large hose runs from the NH3 tank to the cooling tower on the tool bar.  From the cooling tower smaller hoses take the NH3 to each knife.  Joe will probably cringe when he reads this since I have skipped a lot of the details but that is the gist of this implement. 

It takes us about seven days of running to get our nitrogen applied.  Joe usually starts in the morning about 5:00 am.  My dad replaces him about 7:30 am.  Joe then replaces Dad again about 8:00 pm and runs until midnight.  We have a retired gentleman who hauls NH3 tanks all day long back and forth from our supplier's facility and our fields.  

 I should make one comment about these pictures.  When we were putting on NH3 it was very dry.  We had not had any precipitation for a few weeks so it was very dusty out in the field.  So that is dust not NH3 behind the tractor.

CommonGround

Dawn Caldwell, a fellow CommonGround volunteer from Nebraska, did an interview with Consumer Ag Connection Radio.  Below is a link to a part of this interview.  Dawn does a great job explaining why we are involved with the CommonGround initiative.

http://www.agweb.com/multimedia/sharing-commonground-with-consumers-part-4/

Great job Dawn!

Weekend on The Farm

This is what we woke up to Saturday morning.  It's a far cry from the 70F weather we had last weekend.

It's not the April 15th Blizzard of '72, '73, '74 or whatever year it was but it was definately Mother Nature's way of saying that it's a little early to be planting corn.

Last weekend we had
temperatures in the 70's with sunny conditions which was great for NH3, seeding alfalfa, and pulling fence lines.  It definately spoiled us.



Today, the sun came out and finished melting the snow but it definately is not warm out.  But, it is warm enough to clean out the calf pens.  Once planting breaks loose there will not be a lot of time get the corners of the pens clean so today it is serious, deep cleaning get all the nitty-gritty cleaned up.

 This is one of the chores that the boys hate to do.  I remember hating it when I was growing up but it is one of those character building jobs on the farm. 
It's also a great way to work off some of that extra energy that boys always seem to accumulate in the spring.

Miss America

I'm not a big fan of beauty pagents or the likes of but I need to give Miss America 2011, Teresa Scanlan, from Nebraska, credit.  Please take time to read her brief but well written essay about US agriculture.  I found it on Fox News.com.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/04/15/miss-america-teresa-scanlon-americans-stake-success-farmers-ranchers/

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!  

Wordless Wednesday

Oh, crap (literally) the grackles are back.

More Babies!

The mailman delivered more babies to our farm yesterday.  When we order baby poultry from a hatchery the chicks are delivered through the US Postal Service.  Ours left the hatchery on Wednesday and arrived yesterday. 

We will keep the chicks in a little wading pool in the loft of our farm shop for the next two weeks.  We keep a heat lamp on the chicks.  It's easy to tell if they are too cold because they will all huddle under the heat lamp.  This morning they were just about right.  The chicks were not all huddled together - they were spread throughout the pool.   We keep fresh water and a little feed avialable to the chicks at all times.
The wire mesh keeps the chicks in the pool.  The first week they aren't jumping but by next Friday they will be jumping and we would hate to have one jump to it's death or become Cesear's, the seed warehouse cat, midday snack.

CUTENESS ALERT

Ok, I have to tell one way too cute story.  When the chicks arrive the instructions say to dip each chick's beak into water.  It gets thier systems going - I think.  Well, son #3 was helping me do this.  He would get the chick out of the delivery box and I would dip the chicks beak and put it in the pool.  We had just finished up when #1 and #2 came back from doing their chores and #3 informed them that he and Mom had just gotten done baptising all of the chicks!  Then he wondered if maybe we shouldn't go baptise Patty and Repeat, the new baby calves.

Oh, the joys of living on a farm!

 So that should be enough cuteness for you to make it through the day.  Have a good one!