Life on the Farm

[Aaron1726]

Always good to see sugar beets going in...makes me miss home.  Do you have a processing plant nearby?  Sugar factory stick is the smell of Worland, Wyoming, my original hometown.  Absolutely awful, but the farmers always called it the smell of money.   

The smell of money, lol.  I'm from north carolina and thats what we always said about the smell of chicken manure.  And now that's what's paying my bills 

[bjrogg]

Thomas we have 4 factories spread across our growing area. They are well over 100 years old. We are a grower owned company. We bought our factories when Imperial sugar was going to close the doors. A few years later Big Chief Sugar closed its doors and we bought it combining Big Chief and Michigan Sugar. It’s been a learning process for us. We have been working on improving the operations and modernization of the factories. In all honesty we have struggled for the past decade and have fallen behind being able to dependably process all of our sugar beets. Then we have a big problem. We not only don’t get sugar from the unprocessed beets. They are a perishable commodity and when they start to go bad we have to pay to dispose of them. Mostly they are spread out back on farm land and it’s monitored how many tons per acre can be applied.

This is definitely not a situation that anyone wants.

We have replaced our CEO about 3 years ago and he is much more knowledgeable in factory operations than our former manager.

He has done a very good job of evaluating our operations and identifying issues that need to be addressed. He is very preventive maintenance and scheduled maintenance throughout our campaign to prevent down time.

He has also been very good at educating us farmer owners about how our factories work. Things we can do to help our beets keep better and process better. Explaining where we need to invest resources and how to train our employees.

We are slowly turning the corner. I’m afraid that our previous management did none of this and our old factories were showing a lot of wear.

Covid made us a lot of trouble to. We had a lot of very experienced workers retire who were at the time impossible to replace. These employees are still hard to replace but we have been working hard at recruiting and training.

I’m cautiously optimistic that we can get this turned around. It’s going to take a few years but I’m hopeful that we can see some progress this coming harvest season.

Time will tell

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Always good to see sugar beets going in...makes me miss home.  Do you have a processing plant nearby?  Sugar factory stick is the smell of Worland, Wyoming, my original hometown.  Absolutely awful, but the farmers always called it the smell of money.   

The smell of money, lol.  I'm from north carolina and thats what we always said about the smell of chicken manure.  And now that's what's paying my bills 

Aaron I haven’t used chicken litter but I know people who do and the smell. It’s funny how plants are kinda like dogs. The stinkier it is the more they like it.

My brother in law used it and said that the feathers were flying when he was spreading it.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Our sugar beets are up or coming up really nice. I think we will have a very nice stand.

The beets are really tiny yet. It will take a few weeks before you will be able to see them from the road.

Our field probably looks like a disaster to many people driving by. It looks like a field of worked up sod. In fact some of the old timers tease me about planting in the grass.

What they don’t see is the healthy soil from decades of cover crops.

The worms under every clood of rye. The invisible to the naked eye organisms that live in the soil.

I have some work to do yet, but in a couple weeks I’m hoping they see beautiful rows of sugar beets thriving in high organic environment.

While I’m trying to make that happen the crew has continued working on the 6 axle trailer frame and hood for truck.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The six axle trailer is finally going back together again. Took a lot to get to that point but stuff is going together nicely.

New brake part on all six axles. New air lines and wiring.

Hopefully this is a safe dependable trail for another 25 years

It’s a lot of work and money but to replace it is very expensive.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The body work on the truck continued to.

The fiberglass hood had a fender bender before we bought it and it was very poorly repaired. It took more time than I care to admit, but we got it looking good and it is fixed properly now.

First coat of primer and a little more bodywork.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Second coat of primer.

I think it looks great. A little sanding and it’s ready for paint.

Bjrogg

[Pappy]

Looking good BJ, if farming get boring you could always go into body work and trailer repair, yall are a jack of all trades.
 Pappy

[Pat B]

Ditto what Pappy said. 

[bjrogg]

Looking good BJ, if farming get boring you could always go into body work and trailer repair, yall are a jack of all trades.
 Pappy

Thank you pappy but I don’t think I will ever get bored farming. I seem to appreciate it and look forward to it more every year.

Besides it’s a team effort. I have a really good pit crew. We all have our strengths and talents. We blend together and make a pretty good team.

Believe me we get in a few screaming matches occasionally but that’s communication lol

It happens when you work closely with a group of strong minded people.

We have actually talked about the possibility of giving up the farm and doing shop work. Maybe they even will after I’m gone, but the farming is what makes me happy.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

It seems like the weather forecast has been for rain every few days but we haven’t been getting much.

Actually have been getting a lot done hurrying to beat the rain and then doing more work when it doesn’t.

Here’s a little of what I have been doing

This rye has been growing for six months. It’s been a great environment for worms, soil microbes, deer, rabbits, turkeys, pheasant etc.

It has protected our ground from blowing and save our small sugar beet seedlings.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The sugar beets I plant right into the living rye and then after they emerge I spray the rye to terminate it. This works really well and provides really good protection for the sugar beets seedlings from the wind.

The edible beans I have to terminate the rye before I plant the seed.

Either way the rye is all ready to terminate. I sprayed it all.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

We also split apply our fertilizer for our wheat. It is used more efficiently by the wheat this way and if we get a big spring rain half of it isn’t out there getting washed away.

I put the second application of fertilizer on the wheat.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Different crops need there fertilizer at different times. Corn uses most of its during mid to later in the summer.

Sugar beets use it early to make tons and then you want it mostly used up by late season so they concentrate on making sugar.

I also put the rest of the fertilizer on the sugar beets.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

I also planted my son’s corn and our soybeans

Bjrogg