Happy National Ag Day! #DayinIAag

Today is National Ag Day, so I thought what better to do, then share what we are doing today on the farm:

Joe from Brokaw Precision checking seed meters

We have been busy getting ready for spring planting.  Today is a busy day in the shop, as we are hosting a Planter Clinic.  This is where local farmers come in and get their planter meters checked.  We offer this service to our seed business customers.

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 are checked for their efficiency by checking how many skips or double plants the meter has 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.

Doesn't that giant picture of pork ribs
I'm standing in front of look good!

Now, while the guys are busy in the shop, I am actually busy in Des Moines for a social media training at the National Pork Board.  This is a great opportunity to meet other pork farmers from across the country and to discuss #realpigfarming.

Speaking of pigs, our barns are getting ready to go to market.  Soon My Farmer will be turning on the auto-sort feature of our barns to start sorting hogs that are in the ideal weight range into a select pen.  This element not only helps reduce labor, but also reduces stress on both My Farmer and Father-in-Law, and on the pigs.

So there is a little look into our day in Iowa agriculture.  What would you like to know more about?  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!