Soil Sampling

 One of my favorite fall activities is soil sampling.  Soil sampling is the process of collecting samples of soil from a field. The soil is then sent to a lab where the soil is tested for such things as nutrient levels, soil ph, cation exchange capacities.  The results are sent back to us and we determine if we need to add any soil amendments such as lime or possibly fertilizer. 

My soil probe. 

Pulling soil cores while Joe watches.

Pulling the soil cores is a simple process.  What I like about soil sampling is the fact that I get to do a post harvest survey of the fields.  I look at the corn stalks left after the combine has gone through.  I look to see is the stalks are small and spindly or thick, if the stalks are firm or if the stalks have been cannibalized by the plant during the growing.  It's an agronomy nerds heaven.  We also look to see if  there was a good late season plant stand.  Once corn gets above shoulder high in the summer it's tough to get across a field to do a thorough inspection.  But, in a Mule after harvest we can still check to see what was there and start making plans for next year. 

Self portrait

On our farm we do grid soil sampling.  We grid our farms on 2 acre grids - so that means we take a soil sample every two acres.  An acre is about the size of a football field.  We use GPS equipment to record where we take the samples so we can replicate the sampling process in 4 to 5 years.  My parents started grid soil sampling in 1993 so some of our farms have been grid sampled 4 times.  With the sampling history along with our combine yield monitor maps we can take care of different parts of fields independently of each other.

When I first started out as an agronomist many, many years ago, we did composit soil sampling.  We would take several soil probes from a field and mix it all together for a sample.  We usually divided a field into 20 acre increments but it was tough replicating this sampling process because of the variability of the soils in such a large area.  Today, with grid sampling we take one core from the center of the grid point and then 10 more cores about 10 paces out from the center.  This gives us a representative sample of that point. 

I'm not poohooing composit soil sampling - we still use it in certain situations on our farm.  However, GPS equipment is a great tool to use for gathering information on our land. 

Soil cores taken out of the probe.

 

Joe playing  plotting sampling points with our
Mesa - GPS equipment.

The soil phosphorus levels on a farm from 2007 and then 2011

On the maps above the yellow areas show where the phosphorus levels were low in 2007.  Our agronomy inputs suppliers have fertilizer spreaders that take the soil prescriptions written for a field and apply the specific fertilizer only where it is needed.   On the map from 2007 you can see that the phos levels have come up in the previous low areas and are stable in the rest of field.  This makes economic as well environmental sense.

Friday's Favorite Farm Recipe

Iowa had it's 15 minutes of fame in December and January leading up to the Caucus.  Some of the media attention was good while some left a lot to be desired.  I'm here today to set the record straight - Iowans do not eat Jello at every meal.  I will admit that I slip a Jello salad into the lunch boxes every so often in the fall and my boys do know how to slurp jigglers with the best of them.  However, it is not considered another food group!  So, I'm starting what will hopefully be a weekly blog entry of favorite recipes from the farm.  Some of the best cooks I know are farm wives or farmers. 

The first recipe I'm highlighting is from my mom, Judy.  Some of my earliest memories are of riding on the floor of the combine coloring and taking naps while Mom combined.  Mom always said that combining was the easiest job in the fall.  It beat having to hook up and unhook grain wagons and take them to the bin site to unload. 

After Joe and I moved back to Iowa, Mom retired from the combine and Dad moved into the combine.  Now Mom is the chief cook and runner.  Mom knows where most John Deere and Case IH parts depots are from Minneapolis to Moline.  In the spring and the fall Mom is pretty much on call at all hours to get parts and necessities.  One spring she took off to get a part for our Hagie sprayer 9:30 at night and got back home at 2:00 am and the repair man had the sprayer running by 5:30am.  Judy had one very thankful son-in-law.  Another spring she did a 10 hour road trip for me to get more product to keep our soybean seed treater running over a weekend.  I consider Mom of the oil that keeps everything running smoothly in our family farming operation.  It may not be the most glamorous job but it is one of the most important.

Babushka and Grandpa with their grandsons

This recipe is one of Mom's fall comfort foods.  She takes this casserole to the field as it travels well over the corn stalks and the guys like it.

Chicken Rice Casserole
    5 cups cubed cooked chicken
    2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup
    2 cans sliced Water Chestnuts
    2 cups cooked rice
    3 cups diced Celery
    1/2 cup Mayonnaise
    Dash of Lemon Juice
    1/4 cup melted Butter
    1 can sliced Mushrooms
    1 4 oz jar Pimento
    Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients and put in a greased 9 X 13 inch pan and sprinkle with crushed buttered corn flakes.  Bake 1 hour at 325F or until heated through.

Wednesday Wonderings

Our farm year ends January 31st.  January is definately not my favorite month.  I'm an agronomist by training not an accountant so my mind wonders off task quite easily.  So, while I continue to work on year end book work here are some of my passing thoughts.

Last week #1 son brought in this egg from the hen house.

It may not look big in #1's hand but check it out in the carton with other Extra Large eggs.

It was a double yoker.

All of our chickens are laying quite large eggs right now.  Usually in the winter the eggs get a little smaller but not this year.   We aren't sure why this is but the hens have been spending more time outside than they typically do in the winter and the hen house has been warmer that usual as well. 

All I know is that I feel really sorry for one of these hens because laying that egg had to hurt!

Merry Christmas!

To my Russian, Romanian, and Ukrainian Eastern Orthodox readers -

Merry Christmas!



Christmas for the Eastern Orthodox Christians started when the first star appeared last night.  The Russian Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar, with Christmas falling on January 7.  The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C.  It was later replaced by the Gregorian calendar in 1582. 

Christmas is preceded by forty days of Lent when people do not eat meat or dairy products.  The Christmas Lent finishes on Christmas Eve as the first star appears in the sky.  The star symbolizes the one seen above Bethlehem when Christ was born. 

The first meal on Christmas Eve is traditionally a 12 course meal filled with symbolism.  Some day I would like to try to do the whole meal but until then we will enjoy the mushroom soup and maybe one other course and talk about the fact that in Russia Christmas is being celebrated today. 



Happy New Years!

     “Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way.”  Dr. Seuss

Merry Christmas!

Luke 2:1-14(15-20)

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

[When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. ]

May the love of our Savior fill your hearts this holiday season!

From our family to yours - Merry Christmas!

My Thursday Thoughts

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

An Ode to Fall

With the first day of winter just around the corner here is John Keats' Ode To Autumn with a Northeast Iowa farm twist.

Ode to Autumn
by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Sny Magill

#1 and friend trying to make it across the pond.

#2 Fall soccer league

Halloween

#3 dressed up like his favorite book character - Nate The Great.

#1 placed 7th in Intermediate showmanship!  Here he is
with Paisley (the heifer) and his coaches Anna & Amos.

#3 and Rollie posing with the no-till ripper.

My self portrait in the auger cart tractor.

#2 celebrating his birthday with his Grandpa & Baboushka Burrack

Wordless Wednesday

I'm still holding out for a white Christmas!!

Chocolate Fest!

Last Saturday, our Friends of the Elkader Public Library group held our 4th annual chocolate festival.  This year it was at the Elkader Jail House Inn.   From 1870 to 2006 this building was the Clayton County Sheriffs Department and Jail.  Then, in 2007, Tim and Julie started renovating the building and after a lot of hard work the Elkader Jail House opened in 2008.  Their website http://elkaderjailhouseinn.com has lots of before and after pictures as well as some history of the building. 

The Inn is amazing.  Julie has it decorated for holiday season - just stepping into the foyer put me in the Christmas spirit.  My pictures do not do justice to the Jail House but you will get the idea.  I have sprinkled a few of my chocolate recipes in here as well.  Enjoy!

This is the second year for making this recipe.  It is back by popular demand.  It is so easy even Son #1 likes to make it.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Swirl Candy

      2 Bars Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate

      2 Bars Ghirardelli White Chocolate

      1/2 tsp Coarse Sea Salt

      1 cup Pecans chopped

       Preheat oven to 225F.   Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper.  Break the chocolate bars into squares and lay on parchment paper in a checker board pattern.  Put pan into oven just long enough to melt the chocolate.  It takes about 7 minutes.  The white chocolate scorches very easily to watch carefully.  Use a table knife to swirl the chocolate together.  Sprinkle the sea salt across the chocolate.  Then sprinkle with nuts.  Put in refrigerator to cool and harden for at least 1 hour.  Break into pieces and enjoy.  

Dave played piano during the entire Chocolate Fest
 and even as the Friends cleaned up!

We had a great turn out of public support for this event.  This is one of the biggest fund raisers the Friends do during the year.  Many of the Friends went above and beyond the call for chocolate this year. 

Peggy & Diane filling up the trays for the crowd of
chocolholics.

Truffles

This recipe has become an old standby for me at Christmas as well as Valentine's Day.  It's easy and very flexible so you can take some creative license with it.

      12 oz package Chocolate Chips melted

      1 can Sweetened & Condensed Milk

      Dash of Salt

      1 Tblsp Instant Coffee

      2 Tblsp Kahlua

Mix all ingredients together well.  Refrigerate.  Spray hand lightly with Pam.  Shape into balls and roll in a mixture of equal parts baking cocoa and powdered sugar. 

To switch it up sometimes I use dark chocolate chips and cocoa powder.  Rolling the balls in chopped nuts is also yummy.

If those two recipes don't put you in chocolate overload here is one more.

Coffee & Cinnamon Fudge

3 cups Semi -sweet Chocolate Chips

1 can Sweetened & Condensed Milk

Dash of Salt

1 Tblsp Instant Coffee

1 tsp Hot Water

1 tsp Vanilla

1 Tblsp Cinnamon

Line a 9X9 inch square pan with parchment paper.  Melt chips with sweetened condensed milk and salt in a heavy saucepan over low heat.  Remove from heat.  Dissolve coffee in hot water.  Add coffee, vanilla and cinnamon to chocolate mixture, stirring til smooth.  Spread evenly into prepared pan.

Chill 2 hours or until firm.  Lift fudge out of pan.  Peel off paper and cut into squares. 

A big Thank You to Tim and Julie for graciously allowing The Friends to use their Inn for our fund raiser.  And, another big thank you to all of the chocolate lovers who made their way to the Chocolate Fest on such a cold, rainy day.  The money raised is going towards the purchase of more resources for the library. 

Have a Great Weekend!