Upgrading In The Farm World

Well the busy season is here!

Winter went by quickly and I don't know if I was mentally or physically ready for spring, yet. I got a bit lazy this winter!

A few key notes of some things that have happened over the last several months:

-We had a dry, warm winter. We only got one significant snow and it came in March.
-We made a few new purchases and additions to the farm
-We are so thankful to still be able to do this life and our prayers go out to all the farmer's and ranchers that were affected by wildfires. We only had smoke come through and no fires close to us. It is amazing how many farmers and ranchers (and others) came together to help those in need. It is so tough to hear/see those losses.

Now back to planting time, we recently upgraded our tractor and purchased a much larger planter. It has 24 rows!! That is 24 rows being planted at one time. It is also central fill for the seed! My mind is blown! I am so use to the 12 rows and filling boxes! I am still wrapping my mind around this new equipment!

Times have changed so much from when I was kid and definitely from how my grandpa grew  up! My brothers new tractor is so fancy, you can call from your phone via Bluetooth from the cab of the tractor! Mind blown. I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I, personally, feel as though we (a society) rely too much on technology these days and have lost some of our very basic foundations. But that is another feeling for another day. I understand how important this new technology is that we utilize for many reasons.

-GPS and autosteer help us to use the whole field to the best we can. The more we can get planted and grown in a field the more crop that is produce. This means more food for you- the people. If it isn't a food products, it is something to help us. We have to feed millions of people just here in the United States. Without it we don't use every bit to produce the most we can for YOU. It's not for us or a profit, sure we need that to keep farming but really it is for YOU! People are so far from the farm these days they wouldn't even be able to produce the food they need to survive, that's why you have hard working farmers trying to produce the most for YOU. Some individuals need to realize that just a bit more.

-It doesn't matter if you are a GMO farmer, non-GMO farmer or an organic farmer. We all have the same goal. To help feed the world. We have to find new ways to keep feeding the ever growing world. Thankfully technology has evolved to help us do that. That is larger equipment producing more efficient time management and a greater amount of acres we can produce for... You guessed it... YOU!

-I guess what I am trying to tell you, even if you don't quite understand or even know what exactly a farmer does/is go find one, ask questions and do me a favor. Don't bash one over the other. Respect. Everyone. All farmers. You may have opinions about why I should be an organic farmer, but I have studies and research to show you why we plant GMOs and back them up. To each their own.

We got a much needed rain this past weekend. A blessing for our wheat and corn. That is my update for this month. 

Cheers! 

The Milkmaid 

Soybean Planting

I am writing from the fields again. It seems this is my only free time to write sometimes and sometimes the only time I get into the writing mood when I am in the action of the farm life.

This week we have a chance of rain! Hallelujah! We are in a pretty rough drought right now and are praying some of the storms bring rain to our fields. Some storms get so close and we watch them go by. It gets rough but we keep our faith and keep praying that we will get some rain too. My brother even got to do an interview with some of our fields about the drought on the local news.

The wheat crop is looking pretty rough this year. Last year we had 60-70 bushel crop where this year we are hoping for 30-35 bushel an acre. Remember we are an all dry land crop farm so we do not irrigate our crops since we don't have any water sources to do so. We wish we had some though!

Since we do have a good chance of rain, we have been trying to get all of our soybean fields planted and the fields sprayed. The other day my dad and I had to unload a semi with seed. The fertilizer truck came and at the same time the tractor needed fuel and was in the way when the feed truck came all while we were trying to clear the driveway so the milk truck could come. To say we were busy on the farm is almost an understatement. Oh and we were filling the sprayer to get back out in the field. We managed as always and I always think this is one of the most fun times because it is almost a thrill running around trying to get everything done.

Here are some pictures from this morning getting ready to start a field. Josh is filling the planter with soybean seed that has been treated. AJ is running the seed tender and adding talc to the soybeans as they exit the tender. I got to drive the truck with the nurse tank full of liquid fertilizer. We had quite the little parade this morning traveling to one of our far fields. Josh was in the tractor with the planter, I was behind him with the fertilizer and AJ last with the seed. Also, this isn't the same corn field but one planted close to the same time and how much the corn has grown since my last blog.

Have a great Memorial Weekend!

The Milkmaid

The Little Corn That Could

I am jumping ahead a post or two to write about what I am doing presently. I promise to go back and show you more of what happened in March (all the field prepping). Right now, I am writing this post from my phone so it may be a little different but I wanted to share this experience with you today.

I have time to write as I am waiting for Josh to finish 7 passes of a field he is planting to corn and then we are on to another field.

I just helped him refill with seed and fertilizer, so he is set to finish the field. I get to wait in the truck on this nice sunny, but terribly windy day so I can follow him to the next field to fill with seed and fertilizer again. We only have two fields left after this one to plant to corn. Now some folks may be thinking we are getting done early as they are just now starting to plant or won't until next week or so. But really for us, we should be finished right now like in past years. This year, however, we unfortunately have not had much rain and the fields were very dry causing the planter some issues trying to get through the tough ground. Yesterday, we were lucky enough to get a quarter of an inch of rain and that softened the ground enough to hopefully finish these fields. In our fields we did manage to get planted before it got cold, froze again, snowed and then no rain, have precious little corn plants starting to come up and see the world. Here are some pictures of Josh putting the fertilizer and seed into the planter and then the cute little corn plants coming up.

Happy Planting,

The Milkmaid

March-- The Month of Prepping

Hello dear reader friends—sorry it has been a while, seems life has gotten in the way. Between being sick, busy at work, taking some me time from the Facebook, blogging, social media stuff and writer’s block, I am happy to say I am back and it is more than time to get back in the game.

It seems today’s lovely high of 65 and the beautiful sun shining all day has brighten up my day. Minus that time change this morning, which the cows and I agreed was not cool. But while I didn’t like losing an hour of sleep I am done milking and sitting here watching the sunset and enjoying the beautiful weather instead of coming home to a dark house and it being too dark to see anything. I love it and it reminded me of being thankful for everything this year.

Hello Beautiful Sun!

Now, as March has so graciously came from the middle of nowhere… hello spring! Spring is one of the two busiest seasons for us. I like to call March the prepping month because we aren’t the busiest but we are getting ready for it. We have two big things to prep for: Planting and Working Cattle.

Ah, my brother’s favorite time of the year, he is one of those who can get in the tractor at 6 (sometimes even earlier) in the morning and stay in there until 10 or later at night lost in thought and enjoying every minute. He is even crazy to skip meals, but no worries I am around for that job! J I am the go to lady—Pick them up, bring lunch (and I know to make a lunch that is a snack and dinner too… I may go a bit overboard when I feed them but they are working hard and so skinny!), drop off seed, fill the planter boxes, help unload stuff, follow them to fields, pretty much ready to jump to whatever they need when my phone rings… I am there!

So what will the next few weeks consist of?

Planting- Prepping the planter and tractors, getting seed ready and picked up, making sure we know all the fields that will need planted, checking the fields, getting fertilizer and strip tilling done before planting or after depending on the situation and many more smaller tasks. Also, my brother does plots for a company and so we have to have the field worked and ready for the plot and flagged off. Plots take a while to plant and harvest but it is worth every minute to see the data and find out the statistics of that particular variety/seed for the company, us and other farmers. (Another thing my brother loves to do!)

Cattle- one of my favorite times, the moment you really know that spring is here. As you see the cute little calves off with their mommas to pasture, it is just a precious scene! Anyway, we will be ordering vaccines, tags and various small things to prep for the upcoming transition from pens to pasture for our beef cattle. We will have to prep the horn cutters (unfortunately not all of our cattle are polled) and the branding iron is prepped and ready for the day. Along with working all the cattle to get them their yearly vaccinations and prepping to keep them healthy for pastures we will be picking up a new Angus bull that we purchased and getting him adjusted to our farm and ladies. This day is a long working day but worth every minute too. While I am more a dairy girl, I love helping work the beef cattle and seeing all the babies. Look forward to many pictures of the little cuties when the day comes. Also, we will be working our dairy heifers here in the next week or two giving them their vaccinations, tagging and dehorning.

Of course, during these weeks we will still have all of our other work to do. I will still have to milk twice a day, clean the barn and pens, feed all the cattle, grind feed, help deliver babies and take a few naps when I can sneak away. J

Happy almost spring—I sure can’t wait for the warm weather to stay!

The Milkmaid

A.J. spoiling Annabel and Little Pineapple