Farm Friday - Harvest Happenings

Harvest is a busy time of the year on our farm.  The days start early and the nights end late.  We work as hard as mother nature allows us to bring in both our corn and soybean crop.  When I find myself at home I play "catch up" with all of the house work and try to cross off a couple things (or at least one) from my to-do list.  And since today is Friday, I thought it'd be a fun excuse to ignore my messy living room and breakfast dishes in the sink and write a Harvest Happenings blog post.

My tractor riding buddy Miss L and I

Harvest this year has been going a little slow and to tell you the truth, has been full of the unexpected.  We normally like to start harvesting our soybeans and then switch to corn.  But this year, due to flooding in September, I think we've switched back and forth between soybeans and corn four times because we're simply just going to fields that are dry enough to be worked in.  And you might not think switching back and forth isn't that big of a deal, but it takes time and slows down harvest.  We have to completely clean out the combine, catch cart, wagons, auger, etc. and switch the combine's head between corn and soybeans.  We store and sell our corn and soybeans separately so you don't want corn mixed in with your soybeans and vice versa.

Here is a picture of me dumping corn from my catch cart
to a set of wagons.  Every piece of equipment used for harvest
has to be cleaned out when we switch between corn and soybeans.

And talking about that September flooding, that is causing concern for a couple different reasons.  First, is that the ground is still not completely dry and very soft.  While taking out the crop, we have to be careful while driving in the field so we don't get stuck.  We also are waiting to do any fall tillage work because things are so wet that we'd end up just compacting the soil more, rather than breaking it up which is the benefit in the first place.  The second reason for concern is the crop health and stand.  Many, if not actually all, of our corn and soybeans were in standing water at some point.  This has caused our stalks to deteriorate and the chance of fungus growing on our plants to increase.

Can you see that line along the bottom of the corn stalks?
That is a water line from the flooding we had in September.

But this fall hasn't been all gloomy.  Part of the unexpected of this year is that our crops are yielding average to above average.  That makes the increase stress of harvesting in these non-ideal conditions a little better to handle.  Also, my favorite part of harvest is always the time spent making memories with our family.  Sometimes it gets a little crazy having our kids out in the field and so involved during harvest, but it is so much fun too.  How lucky are our kids that they get to be with their parents and grandparents everyday?!

Miss R taking the customary
"First Fall" steering wheel photo in the tractor

So this is a little bit of everything I've been thinking about, stressing about, and enjoying lately.  I also did my first "Farm Friday Facebook Live" from the tractor last week and I hope to find time to do it again today.  What questions do you have about corn and soybean harvest?  I'll try to answer those questions in my next Facebook Live and on here through my next Harvest Happenings.  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Farm Friday - Harvest Recap + New Additions

As the first fall snow fell today, I was thankful that we finished our corn and soybean harvest last Monday and 95% of our field work at the beginning of the week before we got rain for three days and snow today.  What we didn't get done, will and can wait til Spring and I think we are all okay with that.

Combining our soybeans

This fall's harvest went pretty well.  We had average to above average yields for both corn and soybeans, and we were able to work almost daily to get the job done since it was so dry this fall.

A fun thing that the kids and I did this fall was host Flat Aggie during harvest.  Flat Aggie is similar to the Flat Stanley project (which I personally loved doing Flat Stanley as a first grader 25 years ago...) based on the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown.  Students send a flat cutout to friends and family to then go on adventures and return after a certain period of time with a story of their travels.  Flat Aggie travels to farms and ranches and this year is being shared with classrooms in Illinois, Kansas, California and Arkansas.

A new addition to this year's harvest for us was that we started bagging corn.  The current market price for corn and soybeans is low, so we wanted to store as much of our grain as possible in order to get a better price for it at a later date.  All of our soybeans and most of our corn is being stored in grain bins that we both own and rent.  But as we ran out of bin space we started bagging the corn.  Think of it as "on farm storage."  These 250' long bags are made of a thick plastic.  From the catch cart, we filled the grain bagger, which inches along as the bag gets filled.  We will have to unload these bags before spring, so we can plant in those areas.  But at least for this winter, the bags have given us some much needed storage space.

Our "on farm storage" - grain bags

And speaking of new additions, we are excited to announce that our family will be growing in May!  We are expecting Baby #4 on May 20th and are very happy and full of love.  The kids are excited and have given the baby the nickname of "Tinker".  Our son LP came up with the name and we asked him where he got the name from and he responded nonchalantly, "My brain."  Oh, of course.  But anyways, the name has stuck, and we are all very excited to welcome Baby Tinker this spring.

Do you have any questions about Fall Harvest or our new "Spring Arrival"?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Farm Friday

As you might have been able to tell, I haven't been blogging as much as I typically like too here lately.  We finished planting our corn and soybean crops the last week in May.  Since then we've been busy with field work such as spraying and side-dressing our corn.  I thought on this beautiful, and hopefully not scary, Friday the 13th, I would give an update on everything we raise on our farm:

Corn:
Like I mentioned, we have been busy spraying our corn and also side-dressing it.  Side-dressing is a special machine that spoon-feeds nutrients to the corn crop during this key vegetative growth stage of its life.  As you can see our corn is growing quite nicely.

Spraying our corn
(I'm afraid all of my side-dressing photos didn't turn out too well)

'Beans:

Almost all of our soybeans were planted the last week of May and have also grown very nicely so far.  On our farm we rotate our corn and soybeans so we have about 2/3 of our acres in corn and 1/3 of our acres in soybeans.  Rotating our crops helps with disease and insect control, as well as spreading out our work load in the spring and fall.  Plus rotating crops can help with higher yields.

Pigs:

On our farm we usually have a couple different age groups of pigs at all times that way we can spread out the work load throughout the year.  We recently just got in a group feeder pigs, who all weigh about 40 pounds, and we will finish them to about 270 pounds, hence our pig farm is called a feeder to finish hog farm.  We received around 1,200 feeder hogs a week ago today.

and Kids;

Just like our corn, soybeans and pigs, our kids are busy growing too and keeping us busy!  LP is Mr. Independent and loves being outside.  If I would let him, he'd stay outside all day long.  MP is busy working on walking.  She hasn't let go yet or tried walking alone, but I imagine she'll be taking her first steps soon.  Here are a couple photos of the kids from this past week's Iowa Ice Cream Trip to Hansen's Dairy Farm outside of Hudson.  I'll be posting about our trip soon so stay tuned!

LP petting a baby calf at Hansen's Dairy Farm

MP getting kissed by a kangaroo at Hansen's Dairy Farm

I hope you enjoyed today's Farm Friday update!  Do you have any questions about our farm where we raise Corn, 'Beans, Pigs and Kids?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Farm Picture Friday

My friend Laurie from Country LINKed always shares a Farm Picture Friday on her blog and I thought I'd do the same thing on my blog today.

Yesterday we had a blanket of fog during the morning hours, including during sunrise.  During the hustle and bustle of the morning I stopped to look both ways at the end of my driveway and saw just how peaceful and beautiful the morning was.  I quickly took out my camera and shot a couple photos of my in-laws farm, which sits just a mile away from our farm.  I hope you all have a peaceful and beautiful day!

Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Farm Friday - Getting Ready for Spring

It is hard to think that we could, and hopefully will be, in the field planting corn in a month or less when our fields have a mixture of snow, ice, and puddles of water in them from melting and look like this:

But once you go inside our shop you know that planting is just around the corner.  We have seed tender boxes (these large boxes hold an average of 2,500 pounds of grain and are used instead of the traditional 50-pound bags) stacked three high along our back wall and we have our planter inside getting its spring-time inspection, maintenance and adjustment done.

You can kind of see the black bulk seed tender boxes along the wall on the left of the photo
and the planter is set up in the front of the photo

Just like your car or truck, farm equipment have many parts that wear down and this is one of the times in the year that we take some time, and be proactive, and get replacements for those parts, so hopefully we won't have any breakdowns when we do get into the fields this spring.  As the "parts procurement specialist" (aka head gopher) for the farm, I have gotten several new chains and lubricants for the planter in the last couple of weeks.

Getting our planter meters checked

Another thing we did this week to make sure our planter is ready to go, is that we had our planter meters checked.  We also offered this service to our seed business customers by having Joe from Brokaw Precision come to our shop for a day to run meters.

Seed meters are part of our precision planting system that controls the seeding rate and population of individual rows on our planter.  Each row has its own meter.  This systems allows us to stop seeding where we don't want to plant, all on the go.  Our seed meters were checked for their efficiency this week by checking how many skips or double plants the meter gave through a test on the meter machine.  Making sure our meters are working properly is one way for us to make sure that our planter is putting seed into the ground accurately, and in the end increasing our yields.

So it may not fully feel like spring yet outside, but inside our shop, things are definitely looking like spring.  What are you doing to get ready for spring?

Remember to Comment for a Cause!  And check-out the Country Fair Blog Party!

Farm Friday

Time for a farm update with photos: 

 

Corn and soybean harvest continues on the farm this week.  We are about 85% done with soybeans and about 20% done with corn.  Our soybeans have been doing really well, which makes us really happy that we planted the most soybeans than we have in probably the last 10 years or more.  Our corn has been doing okay; we're hoping that things get better as we harvest more fields.  (By the way, farmers are eternal optimists!)  With the snow that came earlier this week, I do have to say, this is the only year since My Farmer and I started farming ourselves that both spring planting and fall harvest were delayed due to snow!  What are the chances?  Beside harvest, we've also been keeping busy with our hogs and got in some new pigs a couple days ago.

Combining Soybeans

Combining Soybeans at Dusk

Combining Corn

Combining Corn and Catching On-The-Go
(When I'm out in the field helping I drive the tractor and wagon -
aka the catch cart.  The catch cart then brings the grain over to
another set of wagons or semi-truck to be hauled into town or the grain bins.)

LP and MP sitting in the tractor waiting for the combine

Hope you all have a great weekend and stay safe!

A Look Inside Our Pig Barns

Yesterday morning this guy:

and 1,144 of his closest family and friends arrived on our farm!

My farmer and I have two feeder to finish pig barns where we bring in pigs around 40 pounds and feed them to a finishing weight of around 270 pounds.  Each barn can hold up to 1,250 hogs, so in the case of this group it will hold 1,145 pigs.  We buy our hogs on the open market, as we do not raise pigs for any specific pork company.  This group of hogs came from a sow operation in Atlantic, Iowa (around 170 miles away) that our family is part owners of.  Our other barn has pigs in it from Minnesota.  We also commonly get pigs from Canada to fill our barns.

Usually just My Farmer takes care of the hogs but yesterday LP, MP and I got to participate in the unloading of the new hogs.

My Farmer and LP counting the pigs as they come off the truck

LP really enjoyed helping his Dad count the pigs as they came off the truck (good thing My Farmer was there to help him though since LP can only count to three...), checking the waters and the feeders, and in general just checking out all of the pigs.

LP making sure the first truck of pigs (first half)
were all settled and comfortable before the second truck arrived

The second semi-truck is here with a little more than 550 feeder pigs on it

Three Generations checking pigs as they come off the truck

The barn is full!

If you are interested in learning more about our hogs on our farm check out these other posts:

• Auto-Sort Finishing System
• The Perfect Environment

What is a Corn Tassel?

What does it mean when corn is tasseling?  Corn has started to tassel in our area over the last couple of weeks, which is a few weeks behind a "normal" year.  Tasseling is an important milestone in corn plant's growth.  Corn's growth scale is divided between two different sets - vegetative (designated as V-stages) and reproductive (designated as R-stages).  The transitional stage between the V and R stages is VT - also known as tasseling.  This stage is also important for another reason, because corn plants have reached their final height, or close to it, by the time tasseling begins.  Tasseling is a very vulnerable stage for both drought (which we have been pretty dry the last couple of weeks) and hail (which we had earlier this week...)

What is a tassel?
Simply put, the tassel is the top most part of a corn plant.  Here is a picture that shows a corn plant with the tassel fully opened or out.

The corn tassel is the part of the plant where the pollen comes from.  The pollen pollinates the ear of corn, which causes the ear of corn to grow.  Pollination occurs when pollen falls off the tassel and then blows through the wind and eventually comes in contact with the silk on the top of the ear of corn.  Ears of corn start growing silk at the beginning of the R stages.  When the silks dry and turn brown, the pollination process is done and the ear of corn will continue to grow.

What is detasseling?
You may have heard of high schoolers having the summer job of detasseling - so what exactly is it?  Seed companies hire detasselers to help them create specific cross pollination of corn plants.  The work done by detasselers will eventually result in new corn hybrids that farmers will want to plant.  To produce this specific cross pollination, seed companies designate male and female rows of corn.  All female rows have their tassels pulled by hand.  Male rows are left alone so their pollen in their tassels will cross pollinate in the neighboring female rows.  Cross pollinating is when you have pollen from one variety of corn fertilize or pollinate the silk of another and different variety of corn.

So now when somebody is talking about corn tasseling or you see those "yellow tops" on the corn, you'll know what tassels are and the importance of this corn growth stage!

Farm Friday

I haven't done many Farm Friday posts this spring because frankly - this spring hasn't been the greatest on the farm (and I guess I didn't want to think about it - or write about it - anymore than I needed to...).  The spring started off late due to a late snow, along with general wet and cold conditions (not the best environment for corn and soybeans to flourish...).  Then after we started planting, we were kept out of the field several times due to the fields being too wet.  This spring has been the latest My Farmer and I have ever planted our corn and soybeans.

My Farmer planting one of our last fields

Now this past week has been a great week to get field work done.  (Too bad it didn't happen a month ago but anyways...)  In the last week we've finished planting our crops and have also been replanting flooded out spots in fields, as well as spraying corn fields.  The start of the week brought us a lot of sunshine and warm temperatures that really helped with plant growth, but we're are still behind "average".

I took this picture this morning of the corn field around our house.
It was planted April 29th, 7 1/2 weeks ago.
This field has seen snow and flooding since it was planted.
This field was sprayed this week and well as had wet spots replanted.

Compare it to last year...

And you can see how far behind we are.  The old saying is "knee high by the 4th of July" but in reality we strive to be at least chest high and tasseling by the 4th of July.  This year - we'll be aiming for knee or waist high!

The only nice thing about still doing spring field work I guess is the MP got her first tractor ride last week!  I'm not sure I should be happy or sad that she was able to get a tractor ride at such an early age.  If it would have been a normal year she would have had to wait till this fall.

Have you been having a wet spring this year like we have?

Farm Friday

Welcome to the first Farm Friday of the year!  Throughout the growing season I'll be giving a couple Farm Friday updates a month.

Tis the season for spring planting of our corn and soybean crops.  Planting has been a little late this year due to cool and wet conditions, and delayed even because of a late snow storm.  But the weather window finally flew open this week and we were able to get a lot of corn planted, along with tillage work and herbicide application, before a rain storm popped up last night.

My Farmer planting corn

This week was just what we were looking for to get a lot of ground covered.  Sunny skies and windy conditions allowed for quick drying and a warm up of the soil.  The rain we got last night will probably keep us out of the field for a day, but hey - that means the lawn can get mowed right!

My Farmer and LP hopping into the tractor to plant some corn

Do you have questions about corn and soybean planting?

Also, wanted to share some posts from last year for all the farmer's wives and farmers out there:

• Rules of a Farm Wife (Spring Edition)  (This is my list of a few simple rules to make life easier during busy times of the year in the field.)
• Rules of a Farmer (How to Have a Happy Farm Wife) (This is My Farmer's response to the above post.)

Farm Friday

This week we've been busy harvesting corn.  Since we started harvest a little over four weeks ago we really haven't had a break, meaning we haven't had any measurable rain that has really slowed us down.  There has been maybe 1 1/2 days total that we've been out of the field due to rain.  I know I'd love a day of rain to not only settle all the dust and soil in the field, but also to give everyone a day of rest!

I love helping out in the fall!  Now sometimes that means I have to run for parts to fix our equipment and sometimes that means I get to work in the field, usually driving the tractor with the catch cart.

LP and I riding in the tractor with the catch cart.
LP likes helping out with harvest too!

Having someone in the field running catch cart allows the combine to "dump on the go" so it never has to stop.  I follow along the combine when it is full of grain and then it empties out the grain into the grain wagon that I'm pulling in the tractor while still harvesting.

Combine "dumping on the go" on the tractor with catch cart

The corn harvest this past week has been going pretty well.  Yields are slightly better than we expected this summer before fall work started.  We can't complain about that - especially with this summer's drought!

Lastly I wanted to share a photo of our farm team.  Rarely are we all in one field but earlier this week, one evening before calling it a day, everyone was in one field discussing the plan for the next day.

L to R:  Rusty, Merlin, LP, My Father-in-law and My Farmer

Farm Friday

The corn fields are ready (or as good as they are going to get...) and

The moisture in the field looks good.

So ready...

Set...

Go!

I'm happy and excited to report that we started combining corn yesterday.  It felt good to get behind the wheel of a tractor once again!  The corn field we harvested yesterday had good moisture levels and weight but it took a long time to harvest due to the amount of down corn from a wind storm earlier this summer.

Do you have any questions about harvest?  If you farm, I wish you a safe harvest.

Farm Friday

This week on the farm we have continued to get things ready for harvest.  The corn keeps on drying and the soybeans are starting to change colors.  Here are a few photos I took on top of one of our grain bins so you can see the changes in the crops.

You can see we have the combine, corn head and tractor with disc-ripper
sitting out and ready to go

You can see both the corn in the foreground and
soybeans in background maturing and changing colors

If you look real close in the shop you can see my father-in-law, My Farmer, LP and
one of our hired hands talking and probably wondering what I'm doing on the top of the grain bin!

My "backyard's" corn continues to mature.

The corn ears and kernels continue to dry, so we may be starting harvest at the end of next week.  This field will probably yield about 30%-40% less than we'd "normally" see but we'll be very happy with that type of result during this year's harvest!

My hog's "backyard" of soybeans have changed the most in the last week.  See how the field is changing colors and drying.

I'm looking forward to seeing what our soybeans yield this year.  They look really good in my opinion.

The soybeans are also starting to dry.  You can see how the pod and beans are drying.

It'll be interesting to see how things progress in the next week!  Like I said earlier, we might be harvesting by the end of next week.  Do you have any questions about harvesting corn or soybeans?  Feel free to leave comments and questions - I love hearing from my readers.