Ryan Wanted Me to Write

"Some shit about some shit." Apparently, he is furious that I haven't blogged since February.

Here it is.

A quick rundown of what has happened since February - it rained, it rained some more, it snowed, started planting May 5th, finished planting June 3rd (had to replant some beans), it quit raining, it got hot, we started irrigating, we're still irrigating.

I have a lot of pictures on my phone, so maybe I'll share some tomorrow. I probably should blog again. It's good stress relief.

What's Been Going On

Been busy, that's what.

Hauled high amylose corn. Just in time, as we have new windows in the house to pay for.

The calvies were curious:

Tore a couple of Row Stalkers apart:

To build a big-ass one (of which I have no finished pictures. Whoops.):

Helped Dad get set up to haul corn:

Went to visit the in-laws last Thursday, got back Monday. A good time was had by all. Our dog, Hannah, had puppies last night. We're getting new siding on the house and garage starting tomorrow. Supposedly. Going to look at a planter tomorrow. I have a couple of auctions to go to in the next few days, where I will most likely not even bid on anything because guys with a net worth many zeros more than me will inevitably want the exact stabilizer disk I need for the new 40' wide male row planter they're building. Or that 6" tee that I need for the discharge on my well at home. But, hey, I like Polish dogs, and there's an endless supply at every auction I go to, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

After Much Contemplation

I've decide to switch 40 acres here at home from soybean to corn production this year. I've done all kinds of math, and I can make quite a bit more raising corn this next year. You know, provided we don't get hailed out or have greensnap or we don't raise 160bu/acre corn on 99 million acres this year. But, at worst, I'll make the same amount as beans would've, and corn is just a lot more fun to harvest.

I convinced myself today while sitting on my arse waiting for the window guys to leave. I believe they are finishing up the last window now, so I got that going for me, which is nice. No more banging on the house when I'm trying to look at tractors I can't afford or while I try to take that afternoon nap I desperately need after my caffeine high from the morning goes away.

Every year I'm ready for winter, and every year at this time I go stir crazy. I'm not ready to start the year, but I'm ready to start the year, you know what I'm saying?

Yes, I do believe I know what you are saying. <--------------------------- For the South Park fans.

Sometimes...

Once in awhile, I get down about farming. Not so much about the work itself, but the idea of staying in business. It's been difficult to find land to rent. If it weren't for my Grandpa and Dad, I would  probably be a clerk at the nearest gas station. I rented my first ground 50/50 with Grandpa and Dad and I currently rent a farm 50/50. There was another place that Dad and I rented. For a year. That was a learning experience. It was so sandy Sam (my brother) and I had to put socks on every gate that we opened. A sock is, well, a sock. It's a piece of canvas probably 3' long that clips onto the irrigation pipe. The water flows into it, so you don't create a gargantuan hole in the ground right in front of your pipe.

Anyway, I ramble. 

So I was doing my quarterly freak out about how I'm going to get left in the dust by all the megafarmers around here, when all I really want to do is farm enough that I'm busier than crap, but I don't have a hired man. And I don't see how this is possible. I want to own 800-1,000 acres by the time I'm 60, and I want a lot of it to be within 5-6 miles of home. And I don't see how this is possible, either. 

At the same time, I'm freaking out because Grandpa and I are taking cattle into town today, and I am nervous about how much they weigh, because I need to buy a grain trailer and I need to pay for the windows that were installed in the house and we just ordered siding for the house and garage and I need to put a grain bin up by harvest. And I need these cattle to do well and I don't know where I'm going to find a trailer and why is everything such a pain in my ass sometimes?

Then I see an ad on Craigslist for a 32' DMF grain trailer, which is a little shorter than I want, but is priced right. So I call the guy and he tells me how clean it is and it has almost new brakes and a good tarp and that it's always been shedded and has no rust. To which I reply:

"How much do you have to have out of it?"

"You just need to come look at it. It's a real nice trailer."

Right. 

So, I go look at it. And you wouldn't know it's a 17 year old trailer. It really has good brakes, a good tarp, and no rust. And I pay $1,500 less than he was asking for it. 

Also, the new door for the corn stove showed up today, which was ideal, because it's 6 degrees right now. So I installed said new door (I broke the glass out of the old one and the handle was jacked up), started it up, and headed to Grandpa's to load cattle.

We got our second load in around 6 tonight, maybe a little later. We unloaded and Grandpa headed to the scale house while I waited in the pickup. And waited. And waited some more. And waited so long I had to water the parking lot. Right when I was getting to the good part of my solitaire game, Grandpa opened the door, scared the piss out of me, and handed me the ticket.

Our heifers weighed 1,395 pounds. They are the heaviest cattle I have ever sold. 

See what I'm getting at? Life is good. Things happen, plans come together or fall apart, and I'm still above ground. 

Matthew 6:34 - Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

Had a Little Watermergency

I had a vine that I needed to cut off of the corner of the barn, so Friday was the day. When I got there, I noticed water coming out of the milk house door...

"Huh," I says to myself.

Upon further inspection, I found this:

Whoops. A pipe had frozen and burst. We only have one well on the place, so I had to shut the pump off, meaning we had no water in the house. Luckily, Hansen's were out about an hour after I called. They would've had to break the concrete in the milk room up to fix where the pipe was broken. Since I don't need water in the barn anymore, I had them find the line and put in a hydrant. They found the line the first place they dug, so it wasn't too big of a deal to get it fixed.

There's an old cistern right by the water line, as you can see in the pictures. I should probably fill that in this spring before it caves and someone falls into it. Someone being me.

Anti GMO Dude Changes Mind

I read about this fella, Mark Lynas, in the High Plains Journal last night, and have since read a few more articles about him. Apparently, he has decided that scientific research, and not opinion or belief in an ideology, is pretty important when it comes to our worldwide food supply.

This is the High Plains Journal editorial, written by Holly Martin:
http://www.hpj.com/archives/2013/jan13/jan21/0115EditMR21_hmsr.cfm

These are a few more articles, including Lynas addressing his change in opinion at the Oxford Farming Conference:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/01/03/mark_lynas_environmentalist_who_opposed_gmos_admits_he_was_wrong.html
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/20/169847199/former-anti-gmo-activist-says-science-changed-his-mind?ft=1&f=1001
http://www.newser.com/story/161321/anti-gmo-crusader-i-was-wrong.html


The most interesting thing to me is reading the comments posted after these articles. It seems that a lot of consumers have more of a problem with Monsanto and their business practices instead of the actual things that they produce. That's interesting to me, because I always assumed people thought that GMO crops were horrible and would cause us all to die cruel and unusual deaths.

Look, not all farmers like Monsanto's business practices, either. I, for one, am doing all I can to distance myself from that company. The reason we continue to buy from them? It's easy. I have never, ever, ever heard one person say that they really like Wal-Mart and love shopping there, but it's easy. It's kind of the same thing for us. We can go to one place and get all of the crop technology we need, and it's cheaper and easier to produce food. Isn't that the point, anyway? Protect our bottom line and produce as much food as we can?

If people want to buy organic food, more power to them. I am not producing organically, so you are not my market, and I won't waste time trying to convince you to change your mind. But what Americans need to remember, or to learn in the first place, is that American farmers aren't just feeding you - we export to the world. It's not all about you, American consumer. There are others in need, and I can only guess here, but I am betting that they don't care whether or not their food is genetically altered. They just want to eat.

I Was Going to Piss and Moan, But...

I'll spare you. Hell, the three of you that read this don't want to hear that crap, anyway. Basically, I liked farming better when corn was $4 and cash rent was $135/acre, but those days are gone, at least until we plant 99 million acres of corn and have a national average of 160bu/acre next year. Maybe then land prices will come down and I can actually buy some more and keep heading towards my goal of 1,000 acres. Or maybe I'll win the lottery that I don't play. I feel like my chances are the same either way.

I digress.

I helped Dad pile trees today, which really isn't difficult, but I'm beat. The old bi-sexual (Dad's Ford 9030, otherwise known as a "bi-directional", otherwise known as the "bi-sexual") isn't a very comfortable tractor to be in all day, and there were lots of holes scattered over hell, and of course I drove into every one. Twice. Maybe even three times on some of those sons-of-bitches. I'm watching Nebraska play basketball, so I'll very likely fall asleep 7 minutes after posting this.

My view most of the day:

The bi-sexual:

It's called a bi-directional because you can turn the operators station around in the cab and drive the tractor either way, so where the loader is can be the front of the tractor, or where the weight bracket is can be the front of the tractor. It goes either way. You know, a bi-sexual. If that offends you, I don't really give a shit.