The Official Farming Thread...

[jblnut]

Hauling bales !! Did 5 trips yesterday and have one left to do.

 

[Bill G]

 

[jblnut]

This was last night. We live near the “Y” in Albany. It got a bit rough here last night with a tornado touching down just West of town.


I did what any normal person does right after the nastiest parts passed and went to see how things faired. There is an 18” culvert that takes the water away from the chicken barn gravel area and it couldn’t keep up. We got 1-1/2” of rain in 20 minutes. Good grief !!


The trampoline lifted up just a bit once but stayed put. Once it blows away is when I go hide in the concrete bunker inside the house with the rest of the family. It never did but it was wicked windy for a good while. No major crop damage and no hail which was great. Others around us didn’t fare so well unfortunately.

 

[jblnut]

Got the plot signs up today in the show plot. Tomorrow I’ll get around 6’ of corn mowed off and till it in so it looks nice and even with no weeds. There are about a half dozen varieties behind me as well as another 14 soybean varieties. It got a little large this year !!

 

[jblnut]

Making the littles earn their keep !!


They’re all looking so proud to have hauled this mess of corn to the van !! I’d say this is 5%ish of what will get picked this year. There is an insane amount of corn. A lot of stalks have two fully grown ears which is bonkers. Tomorrow we’ll process this batch to make sure we’re ready for the bulk of it the next two weekends.

 

[Bill G]

Test plots are a ton of work!
In the mid 1990's through early 2000's I was teaching Agriculture in a district where the FFA chapter had been blessed with the donation of 240 acres. It was donated about 5 years prior to my start there. There was a 40 acre tract of good Mississippi bluff and the farmstead, a 80 acre tract of good Mississippi bottom land, and a 80 acre adjoining tract that was lighter soil. When it was donated in the man's will he was very specific. He did not want it going to the school as I believe he felt they would squander it. He placed it in a 25 year trust separate from the school for the benefit of the FFA chapter. The school was to have nothing to do with it. There were three trustees, a local banker, a local farm operator, and the FFA advisor. We met at the bank for trustee meetings. It was a 25 year trust and at the end it was to be sold with 1/3 to the FFA chapter, 1/3 to the city park, and 1/3 to Iowa State University Agriculture. He was very specific in that during the 25 years the farm was to be operated as a research farm for educational purposes. Prior to my arrival for whatever reason the court was petitioned with an objection. A judge forced the sale of the 40 acres that had the home and buildings but the FFA chapter kept the 160 acres. It was decided that 160 acres was too large to run as a research facility being it was 7 miles from the school. The rear 80 acres of lighter soil was farmed on a traditional basis with a 50/50 corn bean rotation. The front 80 acres that was the better soil was divided into (4) 20 acre plots. Of course with the roads and exhibition areas they were closer to 16 acres or so. Two of the plots were traditional seed variety plots with one beans and one corn. We had space for 26 varieties 6 rows wide with a 6 row check strip between each two. That was 40 times we had to empty boxes on an old JD 7000 planter for each plot and 40 dumps in the weigh wagon with moisture and test weight tests. This was all done by high school FFA members. I just oversaw it. That was the point of education. The other two "20 acre" plots varied from nitrogen rate tests, population tests, tillage tests, herbicide tests, and others.

I know the work a test plot takes

 

[Wilhelm]

A lot of stalks have two fully grown ears which is bonkers.

Most corn fields in my area are seeded with stalks growing 2 full sized cobs, sometimes 3 with the third usually being underdeveloped.
The stalks are as high as 2,5+ meters (8.2+ ft).

 

[jblnut]

Test plots are a ton of work!
In the mid 1990's through early 2000's I was teaching Agriculture in a district where the FFA chapter had been blessed with the donation of 240 acres. It was donated about 5 years prior to my start there. There was a 40 acre tract of good Mississippi bluff and the farmstead, a 80 acre tract of good Mississippi bottom land, and a 80 acre adjoining tract that was lighter soil. When it was donated in the man's will he was very specific. He did not want it going to the school as I believe he felt they would squander it. He placed it in a 25 year trust separate from the school for the benefit of the FFA chapter. The school was to have nothing to do with it. There were three trustees, a local banker, a local farm operator, and the FFA advisor. We met at the bank for trustee meetings. It was a 25 year trust and at the end it was to be sold with 1/3 to the FFA chapter, 1/3 to the city park, and 1/3 to Iowa State University Agriculture. He was very specific in that during the 25 years the farm was to be operated as a research farm for educational purposes. Prior to my arrival for whatever reason the court was petitioned with an objection. A judge forced the sale of the 40 acres that had the home and buildings but the FFA chapter kept the 160 acres. It was decided that 160 acres was too large to run as a research facility being it was 7 miles from the school. The rear 80 acres of lighter soil was farmed on a traditional basis with a 50/50 corn bean rotation. The front 80 acres that was the better soil was divided into (4) 20 acre plots. Of course with the roads and exhibition areas they were closer to 16 acres or so. Two of the plots were traditional seed variety plots with one beans and one corn. We had space for 26 varieties 6 rows wide with a 6 row check strip between each two. That was 40 times we had to empty boxes on an old JD 7000 planter for each plot and 40 dumps in the weigh wagon with moisture and test weight tests. This was all done by high school FFA members. I just oversaw it. That was the point of education. The other two "20 acre" plots varied from nitrogen rate tests, population tests, tillage tests, herbicide tests, and others.

I know the work a test plot takes

Test plots are a ton of work but are a great way to show our customers what every variety looks like. We have a few competitor products that our costumers plant in the plot every year to show how our comparable stuff looks against theirs. We enjoy it but yes it takes a loooooot of time to make it look nice and turn out.

Most corn fields in my area are seeded with stalks growing 2 full sized cobs, sometimes 3 with the third usually being underdeveloped.
The stalks are as high as 2,5+ meters (8.2+ ft).

This stuff is sweet corn and we don’t often get stalks with more than one viable ear. In the grain corn fields we usually have two cobs on a stalk with a third sometimes. Some of the silage varieties will get over 14’ tall !! The ears are eyeball height on me and I’m 6’2”.

 

[Bill G]

Test plots are a ton of work but are a great way to show our customers what every variety looks like. We have a few competitor products that our costumers plant in the plot every year to show how our comparable stuff looks against theirs. We enjoy it but yes it takes a loooooot of time to make it look nice and turn out.

What is your normal row length?

 

[jblnut]

What is your normal row length?

6 x 30” rows 1320’ long for each variety in both corn and beans.

 

[JimBear]

The corn has kept well

 

[Bill G]

Anyone going to the Farm Progress Show in a couple weeks?

 

[jblnut]

I found my way to the sales barn today.


$36,000ish later I am the proud owner of 30 new little steak bites.

 

[Bill G]

Them look kinda "milkish"

 

[jblnut]

Them look kinda "milkish"

The way I feed doesn’t really lend me to making use of the added efficiency of colored cattle. I’ll see 61.5-62% yield outta these Holsteins and I can’t complain about that !!

 

[JimBear]

Anyone going to the Farm Progress Show in a couple weeks?

My son lives in Boone & works right by the show grounds. He has been b*tching about it since the last one ended…

Secretly, I think he likes it, he chauffeurs folks around in UTV’s & golf carts. He gets to do a lot of conversating.

 

[jakethesnake]

Lotta raking ain’t much out here stacking 4 rows together

 

[greystone mountain man]

View attachment 429849Lotta raking ain’t much out here stacking 4 rows together

Same way here

 

[jakethesnake]

Merica!

 

[Bill G]

My son lives in Boone & works right by the show grounds. He has been b*tching about it since the last one ended…

Secretly, I think he likes it, he chauffeurs folks around in UTV’s & golf carts. He gets to do a lot of conversating.

I have some real funny experiences with the Farm Progress Show. Many years ago when I was in high school our FFA chapter would get a charter bus to attend the show. We took kids, parents, and community members. I think it cost about $10-$15 a person back then and we generally filled a bus. In college I just drove myself. My first year of teaching in Illinois the show was still on the Iowa-Illinois-Indiana rotation. That year it was near Terre Haute IN. I was young and dumb and I thought what the heck we will take a school bus. Yeah that was a hell of a trip. It was about a 5 hour ride each way. I was a complete idiot for doing it. The problem was I did not learn. The next year I was teaching in Mediapolis Iowa and the show had rotated back to Iowa. I believe it was in the Amana Colonies so not too far away. I again took a school bus of about 25-30 kids. By the time the next year came around I had learned my lesson of taking too many kids. The school had an old Suburban so I took 6 or 7 kids. It would have held more but at the time Iowa law limited vehicles transporting school kids to only 7 passengers plus the driver. The show was down around Bloomington IL I believe. We went on the last day (Thursday) because if we went on Wednesday we would have to be back by 5PM for church. It was nice to only have a few good kids. I also bought a White pedal tractor there from the White display. I honestly am not sure where it is. My sons say they have never seen it. I have a feeling I hid it away in the chase-way of the attic with a slug of NOS vintage Tonka toys. The rest of the time I was teaching Ag/FFA I just took a few kids. When I switched to teaching Industrial Arts I thought it would kill my ability to go to the show. Thankfully I was wrong. My first year of teaching shop the Ag/FFA instructor asked if I wanted to help chaperone a bus of kids to the show. I thought back to my past experiences and said "yeah what the hell let's try again" I know folks think teachers get a chit-ton of time off and I understand why they think that. In reality we get two personal days during the school year. Those are for anything you want. All districts allow you "professional" days to attend school related conferences and such. Some limit you and some do not. I was not sure our Principal would allow me to call this a professional day. Well he approved it and it turned out there were several other teachers that put in for professional days and went along. It was a very nice close-knit staff. I later came back to teaching shop in my home district. I was only supposed to teach one year until the current Ag/FFA instructor retired. When the time came to make the decision to switch I had three sons ages 4, 7, and 10. I thought naw why deal with all the late nights, weekends, and summer work of FFA and I stayed put. Well the new guy had zero interest in taking kids to the show. He was a good guy but he was a show pig jockey, not interested in equipment. I had great administration there and they allowed me to take the students to the show. I just took a van though. One year that bit me in the tail end. It had rained and the parking area was muddy. We got stuck coming up a slight incline going in. The boys jumped out and pushed but I believe they might have gotten peppered with some mud. The funny thing is by that time two of my sons were in high school and they were part of the group. The next time I decided I would go back to using a school bus. We went all the way to Boone one year with 8 kids in a 65 passenger bus. I have not been back to the show in quite a few years. I would like to again but I doubt it will happen.