Nothing Too Exciting

I've been irrigating, and that's about it. I'm glad we can do that, though, as most farmers can't. I'm too lazy to confirm it, but I read somewhere this spring that only 14% of America's crops are irrigated. So, I won't complain too much. It will be two months Thursday since we've had a rain, which is unheard of for this area. But, pastor's sermon kind of addressed the lack of rain last Sunday. He was talking about how we only focus on what we aren't getting instead of what we are, which made me think about how our wells have not missed a beat. We've been watering nonstop for almost 6 weeks, and our irrigation wells have not dropped off at all. Usually, they would've. It occurred to me that maybe instead of wishing it would rain, I should be thankful that we are still pumping water full steam ahead. If it wasn't for that, this year would be a disaster.

I'll try to take some pictures of the crops over the next few days. I want to walk some fields and looks at ears and soybean plants, so I'll try to show how the stuff is looking. Pretty good for what it's been through this spring with wind and heat early, then heat and drought during pollination and pod set.

That's about it for this guy. I'm going to head to bed and fall asleep while watching SportsCenter.

Well...

After a long hiatus, I think I'll start blogging again, if that's alright with you all.

I had to take time off for a few reasons:

1) It hasn't rained since May 26th, so I haven't had much free time on my hands, and when I do, I mostly sit in my chair and try not to fall asleep.

2) I was burned out. I took a million pictures this spring, but I could never convince myself to actually share them with you. I don't know if I was being lazy, or didn't care, or what the deal was. Just couldn't do it anymore.

D) I was angry. I'm working on it, but those that know me well can attest to the speed with which my disposition can turn from chilled out to foaming at the mouth. This was kind of a self-imposed ban, also, because I can only take so much bitching and moaning about farming from people that don't know how to do it before my head explodes. I've always been a big believer in cutting out the things in my life that are causing me grief or stress, so I went away from the "GMO" and "food vs. fuel" argument. I didn't feel like beating my head against a brick wall anymore.

Time away has helped. Another thing that is motivating me to blog is the misinformation about farming that I hear or read every day, either on the news, in the paper, on Facebook, or in comments on other blogs, articles, etc. It never occurred to me that people actually think that Monsanto tells me what to do on my farm. I have also read comments from some people that think this drought is just a ploy from Monsanto and farmers to drive the cost of food up. Really? This has been confirmed as the worst drought since 1936, but it's all just a get rich quick scheme? Anyway...

Readers (if I have any left), I encourage you to ask me any and all questions you might have about agriculture. You have a right as consumers to know the facts, not what you hear or read or regurgitate from any number of different sources. I probably won't know a lot of the answers right away, but I'm really good at research, and I can take a lot of pictures. I know a lot of people that know a lot more about farming and ranching than I do, so I'll ask them to help me help you. There are some great resources out there, known as land grant universities that can tell you all you need to know and more. Lastly, don't be afraid to ask a farmer questions. Be respectful, and he or she will tell you most anything you want to know. Heck, come out here. I'll show you what we do and why we do it.

Some Pictures

Thought I'd share pictures of Shay's chicken coop. It used to be a hog nursery back in they day, but there haven't been pigs around here for about 15 years, so Dad and I drug it out and revamped it. Much thanks to Dad for getting this thing done. We found a bunch of old plywood in the barn, so I didn't have to spend too much in material. Shay and the chickens are happy, so I am too.

This is my first attempt at no-tilling, which is exactly what it sounds like. You don't till up any of the soil - you plant right into it. I decided to plant some bean on bean acres because I think bean prices will be pretty high at harvest. It's kind of a leap of faith. This field was really ugly right after I planted it, but I'm really happy with the way it looks now. I'm planning on spraying it tomorrow.

5/28

Remember the time I said it was really dry out here? Well, we've gotten about 4" of rain in the last 10 days. Prairie Creek has a lot of water in it and some fields have standing water in them. We had a pretty big rain last night and are supposed to get some more Wednesday night. It is what it is. The major downside to this is that when I can get back in the field, it will be to finish cultivating and then start hilling corn, so I don't think I'll have time to spray my beans, which means I won't be able to use my sprayer. I don't know. I guess we'll see what happens.

Yesterday Dad and I finally finished the chicken house and Shay moved the chicks into it. I kind of like them better now that they aren't stinking up my garage. Shay's happy, so that's the main thing.

I've got some beans that I need to go look at. They got hailed pretty badly last week. Dad and I are hoping that we won't have to replant. They were looking rough, but beans are weird and recover from weather pretty well. Some guys intentionally damage their beans to make them bush out more. Kind of a weird plant.

Hope everyone's Memorial Day is going well. I should probably go mow the lawn.

So...

It's been so long since I've blogged that Blogger has changed my dashboard. I never saw it coming. I don't really like it, but hey, it's free.

A lot has happened. I got don planting a week ago, the corn is growing, the beans are out of the ground and the rain has gone around us. Grandpa told me today that he doesn't remember a spring this dry. We had a half inch of rain right after I got done planting corn, which was almost 3 weeks ago, and before that it hadn't rained for a little over 2 weeks. I understand for others that this isn't a big deal, but in this area, we aren't used to this little rain in the spring. There's a chance this weekend, but I see the National Weather Service has decreased the chances since this morning.

I'm hoping to be cultivating by Monday. I might start this weekend, but we've got a lot of other stuff to do first: haul corn, put up hay, get the cultivator ready. Plus, I don't know if I want to open the ground up with the way the wind is blowing. It's blown 20-30 mph most of the week. Supposed to gust to 40 mph tomorrow. If I cultivated, it would dry the ground out even more. I don't really know what to think on that deal.

I am really pleased with the population of my corn, and it looks like I got a pretty good stand. I have done some stand counts and so did Ag Service, and they are right around what I was shooting for. I'm always nervous until I find out how well my crops emerge. Now, I can concentrate on raising a crop. The beans are coming along, too. I've found the best thing to do with beans is plant them, make sure they are sprouting, and then don't look at them for a week or two. I always freak out about my bean stand, then I wait 3 or 4 days, go back and check, and am surprised by what I find. I'll try to take some pictures in the next couple of days.

Grandpa and I also got our cattle to pasture. I didn't step on a nail this year, but I did step off of the 4 wheeler into a hole and rolled my ankle pretty badly. Contrary to popular belief, I don't hurt myself to get out of fixing fence. We had our first jailbreak today. All of the cattle in one pasture were out. Luckily, they drove back in pretty easily. For some reason, there was a big hole in the fence that goes across the creek, and they walked right under it. Grandpa fixed it today, so hopefully they'll stay in for awhile.

That's about it for now. There are other things happening, but I don't remember them all. Hopefully now that planting is over and things have calmed down, I can blog a little more regularly.

Started Planting

Sorry it's been so long since I posted last. It's been a busy last couple of weeks getting the planters ready to go. Had to spend some time working on Grandpa's stuff, then Dad's, then mine. It just seems to take forever to get tanks on and all that jazz. I had to put all new chains on my planter and a few gauge wheel bearings. Technically, I started planting Friday, but I only did 2 rounds in about 2 hours, trying to get everything adjusted. I really got going yesterday morning, but I ran out of seed about 11:15, and I was going to Mom and Dad's for dinner anyway, so I headed over there. After we ate, I helped Dad get going. He bought a new (to him) planter, and it has hydraulic drive, so I helped him get used to that a little bit, since I have hydraulic drive on my planter. After a call to a service tech and a lot of messing around, I think he got it all figured out and has about 70 acres planted. I, on the other hand, only have about 55 acres done. It was about 3:30 before I got going again yesterday afternoon, and then I had a bearing go out this afternoon and had to quit early for Bible study, so it's not going too fast for me. It's ok, though. It'll all get done.

Yesterday, my brother Sam came out and rode with me for awhile, then I turned him loose for a little bit. The planter was getting empty, so I stayed out and shuffled seed around while he planted, as I didn't want to open another bag. I got a few pictures:

And I'm using the '87 as a seed runner:

Sometimes I Space Off

When you drive 5-10 mph all day as much as I do, you have plenty of time to space off. Lately I've been spacing off about equipment, but not the new and shiny stuff. No, I sometimes wish I would've done it differently, and gone old(er) school with my equipment.

This has all been at the forefront of my mind since about 5 o'clock this afternoon. The 8320 is split in half, a lot of it is in pieces, and they still can't figure out what's wrong with it. We are hoping the bill doesn't end up being more than $5,000, but at this point, who knows? There was a pretty much brand new John Deere tractor in the shop today that had some hydraulic gremlins that they couldn't sort out.

I sometimes wonder if these newer, fancier tractors are better than the mostly mechanical beasts they're replacing. I think if I was to start over, I would buy older stuff. I love the twin row, and I think if I converted it to mechanical drive and used a piston pump to put on my fertilizer, I could use an older tractor to run the vacuum and the markers. I'd probably have to put lift assist wheels on, too, but that's not a big deal. I'd go with a 4850 2 wheel drive if I could afford it, but I'd probably go with a 4840 for the sake of saving about $10,000. I'd also use it to shred stalks in the fall, hill corn and possibly put on fertilizer with:

For my big tractor, I'd buy a 4850 MFWD. I'd use it to disk, run the field cultivator, chop stalks, cultivate, and run an auger wagon. Grandpa had one, and I spent a lot of time in it. I was sad to see it go, but the 8300 that replaced it is a nice tractor. Anywho, here's a nice 4850:

If I had any money left, I'd buy a nice 4630, get some saddle tanks and a spray boom for it, and use it as a sprayer tractor. Maybe shred weeds with it. Use it on the blade, box scraper, etc. It'd make a nice chore tractor. Grandpa also had one of these, but I don't remember much about it. I just know I would like to have one around:

I could buy all three of these tractors for about 1/3 of what a Deere 8335r would cost. I'm probably wrong, but I think it would cost less to maintain these. They don't have computer problems. I don't remember having hydraulic problems with them. You start them, slam them in gear and go.

If you ever wonder what I think about day in and day out, now you know.