Life on the Farm

[bjrogg]

I did manage to get something done yesterday.

We ended up getting biosolids and I finished spreading the wheat at grandmas. It went pretty good and it’s supposed to rain today so that should be good timing. I finished about 11:00 last night so I’m a little slow this morning. It felt good to get something done though.

Hopefully the big rain misses us. And we get some nice weather after.

Bjrogg

[BrianS]

Very nice work on the lance and the arrow. I especially appreciate the look of your hand cresting. Enjoying this series of posts. Thank you.

[bjrogg]

Thanks Brian. I appreciate that. I always enjoy your videos to.

The crest is pretty much what I started with from my second arrow. I’ve tried a couple different color combinations. Kinda liked John Deere green and yellow but dang they were hard to find. Not that these are really easy either. They have been my colors and crest for quite a while now.

We had one wheat field that didn’t get biosolids. It needed to get its first application of fertilizer. We always split our nitrogen applications. We put about 2/3rds on now and the second third in a few weeks. That makes the nitrogen available when the crop needs it and lowers the risk of losing any from a large rain event.

Normally we would have to apply fertilizer to all of our wheat now, but because of the biosolids we will put the rest of our fertilizer on when we would normally do our second application.

We did try out our new sprayer though and everything worked. I’m sure we will learn lots of little tricks before the season is over, but we are getting started.

Bjrogg

PS really strange having the spray boom out front. Going to be interesting

[Buckskinner]

Never was a fan of spraying, I'd rather pick rocks.  Herbicides and me don't get along.  I remember when I had to spray crops as a kid my glands under my chin would swell up and I'd get a funny feeling in my throat.  I finally told my dad I was done spraying and that was that.   My dad died from a very aggressive Alzheimer's a few years ago and I'm guessing being around all of those chemicals did not help although hid dad died with Parkinson's as well (also a farmer) so I realize my odds aren't great.  I remember my dad taking apart nozzles and blowing through them to clean them out, never using gloves or even washing up after getting herbicide, pesticides, fungicides or you name it on him.

To this day when I use Roundup around the yard (which is very sparingly) I still feel my glands swell up even though I use gloves and am very careful mixing and use the wind when I apply.. 

So hopefully you guys are using your PPE!

[bjrogg]

Yes we use PPE.

We actually do all of our mixing in our chemical building. It has ventilation and spill containment. It is designed specifically for storing and mixing. We followed suggestions from NRCS.

I went home early today and some friends came over. They really liked the longhorn and the tables to. Rained all afternoon so be a few days at least.

also the sprayer cab is positive pressure to keep unfiltered air out.

Alzheimer’s runs really hard in my dad’s family. On or off the farm. My dad is nearing the end of his journey I think.

Bjrogg

[Buckskinner]

Sounds like you guys are as safe as possible and glad to hear it.  It's a far cry from what we used to do, no PPE and either pouring chemical by hand or a hand pump out of a drum and then our tractor we used for spraying was an International 806 which didn't have a cab. Even when the 856 was available which had a cab, both doors and rear window was usually taken off because no A/C back then in our tractors.   Was a different world back then I don't think we even had pair of safety glasses in the shop....

[Parnell]

An interesting conversation.  My mom is nearing the end of MSA…multiple systems atrophy.  It’s rough business.  She is essentially trapped inside of her own body unable to swallow well, speak, move well.  But, her mind is 100%.  They call is “The Beast”.  I have read that there may be an association with strong herbicides…which she handled for years and years doing environmental restoration work…no clear answer, though.

[bjrogg]

Yes I agree buckskinner.

Not only has the equipment gotten more comfortable and efficient. It has become so much more accurate and gps has made swath control the normal.

Most farmers I know have gotten smarter about using them to. We have lots of meetings in the winter that we attend. They provide lots of very valuable information about how diseases, insects and weeds are best attacked. Thresholds to determine what and if something needs to be done and  timing of applications that are best. Some are determined by life cycles and stages of it. Some are determined by size of weeds. Some are determined by weather conditions and if there’s a friendly environment for the pest. Some are determined by insect traps set up by our state organizations.

I still don’t like spraying but we try to do it as responsibly as possible. We follow best management practices set up by NRCS.


Bjrogg

[BowEd]

Seems like this extended cool weather goes on and on around here.Along with it being too wet.Does'nt bother most I guess.Just the people who have to grow things.Lots of farmers sitting on their hands waiting on this weather.
This is the latest I've ever seen and I'm almost 70 years old that the trees do not to have at least leaves beginning to show on them.
Ground temperature is slow to rise this year.

It's a double edged sword in this world raising food for the country and the world,but if you want to see a real crisis be without food.

[Buckskinner]

All the people up in arms about global warming, what would really be devastating is global cooling. 

[bjrogg]

All the people up in arms about global warming, what would really be devastating is global cooling.

And we know that’s happened several times in the not so distant past. At least in geological time.

Bjrogg

[WhistlingBadger]

The Badgerling went a little nuts with the garden seeds.  They're taking up most of the kitchen table now.  But most of them are sprouted and hopefully we'll get them into the garden in the next week or two.  Hard to post pictures because I can't post from my chromebook at home--something about the forum's security settings being out of date--but I'll try to get some one of these days.  Enjoying the journey with you, BJ.

[M2A]

Figured the cool spring was just a local thing but sounds more wide spread. I have noticed the trend for delayed warm weather in the spring for a number of years now. Without looking into my records I'd say 2 weeks from the weather patterns in the 90's. This year being the latest I can recall.  That said the warm weather lasts longer in the fall.

Had one good dry day this week, spent all day in the orchards yesterday. Raining now and suppost to continue till Sunday. Bloom is almost over, Sent word to the bee keeper to get his ladies out this weekend. Looks like the cold weather threat is over here, Should have a good set of fruit this year. Long way to go yet but real happy with things so far. Have not had time to check on the corn but hear its up and doing fine. The rest of the crew showed up this week from down south, all been here before, good group of guys. Should be picking strawberries in 1 month.   
Mike       

[bjrogg]

Hopefully you can post pictures when things are greening up WB.

Mike glad to hear things are looking good so far. I know that whole long way to go bit to. It’s always nice to get off to a good start though. Always hate getting behind and trying to catch up.

It’s still cool, cloudy and damp here yet. It isn’t raining though and sounds like we should be able to put a long enough string of dry days together to start planting in a few days.

I’m confident enough now that we mixed up fertilizer and loaded it in our truck.

Also opened beet seed boxes and mixed talcum powder. Our planter uses vacuum to hold the seed against the seed plate. It turns the plate to a spot that doesn’t have vacuum and the seed drops. It’s actually a lot more complicated than that, but that’s the jest of it. The vacuum causes static electricity and sometimes prevents the small seed from dropping so we use talcum powder mixed in our seed to keep the static from holding the seed. I’m going to mix it all today and it will save me a lot of time when I’m actually planting.

This is what the seed I plant looks like. It’s processed and they coat it with a ground up paper product to make it more plantable. Each company has its own color. This one’s is blue.

It comes in boxes and each box holds 4 units. Each unit is 100,000 seed so 400,000 seeds in a box.

The raw seed without the coating. In the old days each seed would grow several plants. They had to be “blocked” or thinned. Mono germ seed saved a lot of labor.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Also because I still have individual hoppers for each row. I figure out how many lbs. of each variety I have and divide that by 18 for the number of hoppers. Then when I’m filling the planter I weigh how much I put in each hopper. That takes a little extra time but saves me a lot of time and hassle trying to scratch seed from hoppers that still have seed and putting it in ones that ran out.

Planting time can be really hard to come by so when I get it I want to spend as much of it actually planting as I can and the least amount filling the planter and scratching seed.

Bjrogg