The 10th Day of Planting



Rain drops on a planter tire.

Well, the forecast for two days of good weather was wrong.  We have been planting this morning but we keeping getting small showers of rain.  It's not enough rain to make soil stick to the tires of the tractors or planters so Dad and Joe are still going.  If this was May 4th instead of June 4th, we would stop and wait for better weather and soil conditions but circumstances dictate otherwise. 


Soil is not sticking to the
press wheels of the
planters - yet.

The heavy rain is hanging just west of us so we will keep on pushing forward.  You will need to stay tuned and find out if we are able to finish up planting today or if we need to wait for the next break in this rainy weather or go Preventive Planting.

Dad trying to figure out why a seed drop
sensor is not communicating with the
 computer in the tractor. 

I have no idea what time Joe headed out to start planting but I had a very early morning phone call from him.  I thought maybe he was calling to wish me a great day in the weed warehouse or whisper sweet endearments in my ear.  But, I was mistaken - Dad was broken down and needed pieces and parts - NOW!.

Oh well, life of a farm wife.

The 9th Day of Planting

I never thought I would be writing that the ninth day of planting our crop would be on June 3rd.  But it is what it is.  According to the weather forecasts we have a narrow two day window to do field work - today and tomorrow.  So, everyone is making the best of these days. 

I delivered soybeans this afternoon and in a 24 miles round trip I saw farmers planting corn, soybeans, and sorghum, chopping rye and alfalfa, and sidedressing corn with nitrogen fertilizer. 

Everyone stay safe!



Number One helping me in the seed warehouse with
deliveries.  He stays about as clean as his father does.

What I dream about most of the time -
empty pallets.  :-)
 



Yours truly loading soybeans to deliver.
 

Blue Skies?

After two weeks of some amount of rain every day it's great to see the sun.  But, those clouds are starting to gather and heavy rains and storms are predicted for tonight once again. 

We're not sure whether we are coming or going with seed.  We still have corn and soybeans to plant but with the wet weather and the late date we are trying to decide if we still plant corn, if we switch fields yet to be planted over to soybeans, or if we throw in the towel and go preventive planting?  It's a stressful time across the wet areas of the Midwest.  We have stayed busy returning late season corn to the seed plants and bringing in shorter season corn hybrids and soybeans to meet our seed customers needs. 

The 8th Day of Planting

I'm not sure if this is the proper title for today's entry since we won't be planting very long as there is rain coming in from the west.  It has been raining off and on enough since Sunday night to keep us out of the field all week.  Late yesterday afternoon the sun finally showed it's face and we had a slight breeze.  Today, again we had the sun and a breeze but it remains cold and that does not help dry out a field when you want it to. 

After a lot of discussion, dirt kicking and etc, Joe and Dad made the decision to go plant soybeans about 3:30 this afternoon.  It has been a tough day for farmers in the area.  Do we or don't we plant?  Is the ground fit?  Sort of but not really - it's definitely not ideal conditions.  But, the calendar reads May 24th.  The weather forecast is for rain the next seven days.  It is a tough decision to make and it can be emotional.

We have corn and soybeans left to plant just like every other farmer in the Midwest.  Why not just set and wait for a better day?  Well, take a look at this table by Iowa State University.

Corn Yield Response to Planting Date

        Date                                  Relative yield Potential
April 20 - May 5                             100%
May 13 - May 19                             99%
May 26 - June 1                              90%
June 10 - June 16                           68%
June 24 - June 28                           52%


Basically the clock is ticking.  Even if every variable is ideal from here on out until we harvest the corn, we are looking at only about 90% of our average yield because of late planting.  That makes for narrow margins when trying to make a profit and raise a family.  I sound pretty negative today and I am.  But, this is reality on the farm. 

One thing I was taught along the way is that we don't farm for just one year.  We farm for the average.  What I mean is that we have good years and we have bad years.  We have really good years and really tough years.  So we don't go wild spending and partying during the good years because we know there is going to be a tough year in some not too distant future.  This is farming.  This is what we signed up for.  We will control what variables we can, stay calm, and carry on. 



When I took this picture I thought is was kind
of neat.  Now, it just reminds me of how wet
everything is.
 

 

 

 We brought in more soybean seed in Proboxes, bags and bulk preparing for the possibility that area farmers may have to switch corn acres to soybeans IF we can't get in the field again for another week.  Preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

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 6th Day of Planting

#3 was bound and determined that he was going to stage this order all by himself.

 

If there is a will there is a way!

The 4th Day of Planting

Pit Stop!

Stan & Chuck filling the tractor with fuel and the planter with seed.

 

 

Derk is in the Hagie and ready to head back out to the field with another batch of herbicide (A herbicide is a crop protection product that kills the weeds so corn can grow and flourish without competition for water, sunlight, and nutrients).






Tonight #3 was just out of sorts.  I think everyone is a little edgy from trying to push as hard as we can.  So, I took him out to the field to ride with his dad for a few rounds.  He hasn't really seen or talked to his dad for about 4 days. 

 

 

All is better.

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.



 

 



 

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.

Seed Treatment Training

Thursday, I completed my continuing education hours for my Commercial Seed Treatment license.  My Joe and I have a Pioneer HiBred Seed dealership and to go along with this we started a soybean seed treating business six years ago. What I mean by seed treating is to apply certain crop protection products to the soybean seed after it arrives at our seed warehouse from Pioneer's seed conditioning plant and before our seed customers pick up the seed to plant it.

So why do we plant treated soybeans?  Research from Iowa State University (the agricultural land grant university in Iowa) shows that the earlier soybeans are planted in the spring the greater the yields are in the fall.  Twentyfive years ago, soybeans in northeast Iowa were planted around Memorial Day.  Typically by Memorial Day soils are starting to warm up and soybean seed will germinate relatively quickly.  Today, we are planting soybeans by the end of April beginning of May - as soon as the soil conditions are fit.  However, at this earlier planting date the soils are cooler and wetter than late May and the potential for disease and insect infestations is much higher as it will take longer for the soybeans to germinate.  So the products we apply help protect the seeds and early seedlings from several diseases and insects.  I compare this to giving children a whooping cough vacination.

Is seed treatment cost effective?  It costs about $13.50 to treat 50 pounds of soybean seed.  An average seeding rate is about 50 pounds of seed per acre. Iowa State Research shows a 1.5 to 4.4 bushel per acre yield increase when using treated soybeans.  There is more yield increase potential the earlier the seeds are planted and the more disease potential a soil has. 

The market for soybeans for fall delivery is about $12.75 per bushel.    Let's say we realize an increase in yield from 58 bushels per acre to 61 bushels per acre.  That is a 3 bushel per acre increase.

                                                      3 bu/acre Increase X $12.75/Acre = $38.25 Increase per Acre

                                                      $38.25 Gross Increase
                                                   - $13.50  Investment Cost
                                                      $24.75  Net Increase per Acre

So there is definately potential for a soybean farmer to harvest increased margins with seed treatments.

Are seed treatments safe?   Seed treatments have come a long ways from Roman times when heavy metals were used and could render soils sterile for years or the arsenic used in the mid 1800's.  Todays seed treatments are safe.  We are basically applying less that 5 ounces of product per acre of land.  An acre is 43,560 square feet or about the size of a football field.  Todays products begin to biologically degrade as soon as the seed is planted and last between 15 and 21 days in soil.
 
The Department of Agriculture regulates of the use of agricultural pesticides.  Every time I treat any amount of seed I make a record of the date, time, amount of seed treated, what products were applied to the seed, as well as the weather conditions at the time of treatment and who received the treated seed.  I must also keep these records for several years.  Below is a picture of treated soybeans.  You will notice that the beans are bright green.  Soybeans are tan, however, by law if a seed is treated with any type of crop protection product it must be colored to signal to a handler that the seed has been treated.  Treated seed can never be used for animal feed or human consumption.  By law treated seed must be planted or destroyed.  There are major fines and penalties if treated seed would ever show up in a feed situation.

Treated soybean seeds

In our operation we treat soybean seed when the customer is ready to plant that way there isn't any extra treated seed.  The customer buys only what he needs.  This makes economic, agronomic, and environmental sense to any farmer. 

I hope this gives you a little insight into the thought process a farmer goes through when planning for the coming growing season.  Once I get started treating soybeans this spring I hope to put up pictures of the seed treating process.